McClay Todd: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcClay Todd: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 17 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1606. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TODD McCLAY (Minister of Revenue): The beginning of the year is always used to get something off your chest so congratulations Mr Hipkins; we hope we do not have to hear that again. There is the challenge that we have with the Labour Party. After 6 long years in Opposition it is still out of touch. Mr Hipkins said that the Labour Party is on its way back. Well if you look at the last election there is not much further back you can go—there is not much further back you can go. New Zealanders pronounced on that. But Mr Hipkins tells a good story.Let us unpack that a little bit. You see when Helen Clark and her Government did a deal with Skycity to build a convention centre in exchange for some pokie machines Mr Hipkins voted for it. That was OK. He voted not as a member of the House—he was over the age of 18 at the time—but as a member of the public. But when John Key does a deal to deliver a $402 million international convention centre for New Zealand at no cost to the taxpayer somehow that is different from what Mr Hipkins voted for previously under Helen Clark. And here is the thing: it is a hypocritical position. It cannot be OK for them back then and different here today.The economy is growing. Employment is increasing. Wages are rising. We have had a good summer. New Zealanders are feeling good. We are a Government that is united behind John Key. We are back in business. We are focused on the things that matter. This will be the sixth time in 7 years that as a member of Parliament I have been able to stand up and say that. The economy is growing employment is increasing wages are rising and the Government is focused on what matters for New Zealand. That is not the rhetoric we heard from the last speaker. Those are not all the things he may wish for on “Planet Labour”; they are the things that matter to New Zealanders and we have a record of working hard and delivering for those New Zealanders. They recognised it at the last two elections. Now we are focusing on moving on and getting on with the job.National has the country back on track and we are growing this country and focusing on things that New Zealanders want whilst the Opposition remains in the wilderness and caught up in sideshows. I will repeat it again: National has a Prime Minister who has the support of his caucus the support of the party the support of the electorate and the support of New Zealanders. The little tweets that have been sent from the Opposition benches about us today are fanciful. They are confusing themselves and they are making things up. Never has this party been as united behind the leader as we are today and as focused on the things that matter.Here are 10 ways our economic plan is helping Kiwis to get ahead. I will go through these quickly because there is so much that the Government has on its agenda that I want to pay tribute to more than just these 10 things. The economy grew by 3.1 percent in the year to September 2014 which is one of the highest rates of growth in the developed world. We hear from Mr Hipkins about all the things we are not doing and about what is going on in these other countries. Well in Australia the picture is so very much worse than here. Indeed when one looks at political management there it reminds me of the Labour Party. That is the challenge that they have. We have got growth rates of 3.2 percent and forecast to be 3 percent as we go forward.As for average wages Mr Hipkins said that there has been no growth at all but actually average wages have increased by 15 percent over the last 5 years. I remind Mr Hipkins that when one looks at the lowest interest rates that we have had sustainably for a long period of time our inflation rate is around about 1 percent. So costs are not going up under this Government by anywhere near the degree that they were under Labour 6 years ago and we have had 15 percent wage growth over the last 5 years.Employment is growing. There are 80000 more people employed than a year ago and 217000 more people employed than 5 years ago. When Bill English stood up in this House and made a commitment with our Prime Minister around job growth the Opposition members screamed and yelled and asked where those jobs were. Well the Opposition members have gone very quiet on that front now just as they have gone very quiet on the number of New Zealanders leaving and going to Australia. Do you remember the football field stadiums full of New Zealanders leaving under their watch? Well that has turned around now and we have New Zealanders not only coming home but coming home into jobs because our economy is stronger than Australia’s.As for cost of living increases inflation was at just 0.8 percent in 2014 well below weekly wage increases of 2.5 percent in the last year. Unemployment remains low at 5.7 percent compared with many countries. It is 6.1 percent in Australia and that 6.1 percent is even with so many New Zealanders leaving and coming back to New Zealand. Our balance of payments deficit—the difference between what New Zealand earns and what we spend around the world—narrowed to just 2.6 percent of GDP in 2014. This is about a third of the deficit of 6 years ago when we came to Government. The Government is working towards achieving a Budget surplus this year and is on track to post increasing surpluses in subsequent years which gives us choices about what we invest in on behalf of New Zealanders.We have heard a lot about debt. Mr Hipkins is one of those who subscribe to the economic policy that says: “Spend more collect less and everything will be OK.” Net Crown debt will fall to 20 percent of GDP by 2020 if we stick to the Government’s plan of economic growth in the country and to being cautious about what we spend money on. New Zealanders are being very cautious about what they are spending their money on. National is a party that believes New Zealanders deserve to keep more of their money than the Government gets. That is not something you will hear often from Opposition members but New Zealanders are being cautious about what they are spending their hard-earned money on. We too must be cautious about what we spend the funding that we get from taxes on.Mortgage interest rates are expected to remain low for longer and there are thousands of New Zealanders renegotiating their mortgages at this very time. They are renegotiating mortgages at under 6 percent. That was not the case when we came to Government. The cost of getting a mortgage was 11 percent towards the end of the Helen Clark legacy—11 percent.Dr Shane Reti: That’s a big number.Hon TODD McCLAY: It is a big number and not one that we hear from them. I guess they are not proud of it. Again Kiwis are voting with their feet. They are coming home and when they come home they are voting with their hands for John Key.I want to touch on a couple of things that I think are very important in the way forward for our economy. In respect of revenue we have a very good system that is treating New Zealanders well and is fit for purpose. It is broad-based and it is low rate. What that means is that we are keeping rates of taxation as low as we can and as broad as possible. Everybody pays their fair share. We know this works because the vast majority of New Zealanders pay their taxes voluntarily without our having to have too much compliance around that. That allows the Inland Revenue Department to focus on those who are not meeting their obligations and rather than the scattergun effect that we hear about from—not Opposition spokespeople but from the odd new member of Parliament who has won one of a few seats for Labour at the last election and who is making a late deputy leadership bid over the holidays; all of the rest of the Labour Party went on holiday and Mr Nash was churning out press release after press release on everybody else’s portfolio in Labour. He has gone quiet since he has come back; I guess they have reeled him back in. But as opposed to what he said we are focusing resources of the taxpayer on those who do not pay their tax. Last year we collected an extra $4 billion over and above what would have been the case without that Government investment. That is using taxpayers’ money well.Finally the bit I want to touch upon is the great work that Tim Groser our Minister of Trade is doing around the world. We have one of the best records of trade agreements anywhere. Some few years ago New Zealand signed an agreement with China.Hon Annette King: 2008 actually.Hon TODD McCLAY: Yes there it goes—the Opposition members say that they signed it. Well here is the thing Mrs King—you should not start something you cannot finish. We put it in place and we are making it work. There was $2 billion worth of trade when we started. Today it is $20 billion worth of trade and that is the work of hard-working New Zealanders. Let us look at a new trade agreement with South Korea that Mr Groser has negotiated and that is ready for signing. The thing about the agreement with South Korea is that it is good for everyday New Zealanders. In the part of the Bay of Plenty where National holds every single seat and you cannot find a list MP anywhere we have a lot of kiwifruit growers. Every kiwifruit grower in the Bay of Plenty on average will get $8500 a year extra in their hand because of the trade agreement that Tim Groser negotiated. There is a tariff rate of 45 percent against New Zealand kiwifruit going into South Korea which will now reduce over a period of time to zero. That is $8500 in the pockets of kiwifruit growers to spend in the shops and to spend in the local economy. That is a win for everyday New Zealanders it is a win for every person in the Bay of Plenty and it is a win for Tim Groser for the great work that he has done.This is a hard-working Government united behind a hard-working Prime Minister. This has the feel of a brand new Government. It feels just like it did 6 years ago. We are focused on the things that matter. When I look across the other side they are focused on things from 20 years ago. It looks like the Labour Party of 20 years ago. As Mr Hipkins said let us bring this year on.