Jones Dail: General Debate 
Jones Dail: General Debate 
[Volume:624;Page:19484] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 The previous Labour speaker said how sad he was about things but from a New Zealand First point of view the people who are really sad in New Zealand today are the exporters and those people who are suffering as a result of Labour Party policies that are making it almost impossible for New Zealand to export. They are the really sad people. I have heard nothing from this Labour Party this afternoon or this evening that offers them any help whatsoever. There is no point in slagging off at the National Party all the time. Let us have some policies. 
The member who preceded me in this debate who represents the Northland area will surely be concerned about the closure of Tanner Group sawmills which means the loss of about 160 jobs in Northland Waikato and the Coromandel. What has the Northland member said about that? He has not uttered a word or a whisper. He has been sad but I am sure he is not as sad as those people in Northland who have lost their jobs many of whom are Maori and that Maori member who represents Northland Maori does not show any sign of caring for them at all. The company blamed the high New Zealand dollar and increased infrastructure costs for the losses in recent years. The Tanner Group’s problems represent the tip of the iceberg and major exporters will be facing serious problems by the end of this year. 
New Zealand is an exporting nation and an export-dependent economy. We simply cannot function properly with high interest rates and an overvalued currency. It makes it too hard for exporters to compete on world markets and at the same time makes it easy for importers say The Warehouse to flood local markets. The Labour member for Northland has not said a word about the problems of the Tanner Group. New Zealand First has policies to remedy our exporters’ problems. 
Of course despite the fact that New Zealand has been doing so well in exporting and getting a lot of money into New Zealand for our exports we still have this incredibly high current account deficit which is blowing out of all proportions. Our current account deficit has gone up by almost $4 billion in the space of 12 months. This is despite record returns from exports. In the space of 12 months it has gone up to $9.3 billion—and that is just another warning about the real state of our economy. I ask the Labour Party how big a deficit does it have to be before the Labour Party starts to worry about it. It was $5 billion; 12 months later it is $9 billion. What if it is $15 billion in another 12 months and $20 billion in another 2 years? Will the Labour Party ever start to worry about it and the debt that it is giving to future New Zealanders? There is not a single sign of it whatsoever. 
Our exporters’ international competitiveness is seriously diminishing. The adverse effects of foreign ownership in New Zealand are increasing while the Government can only offer excuses. Alongside the worst-ever current account deficit we have an appalling net debtor position. 
Government Members 
: Ha ha! 
DAIL JONES 
: Labour Party members can laugh. They do not care about what is happening in New Zealand. Dover Samuels can laugh along with the best of them in this House tonight. He does not care about the Tanner Group. The measurement of our net international debt and net overseas equity is now up $5 billion to a staggering $123 billion and members of the Labour Party can only laugh. 
Of course some good news for New Zealanders is that the Labour Party has stolen yet another New Zealand First policy. I refer to the Government’s belated recognition of the need to make better use of its superannuation fund currently valued at $5.7 billion. At its annual conference last year New Zealand First said that we should be investing the New Zealand Superannuation Fund in New Zealand. The Labour Party laughed at us when we said that last year—as it always does at our good ideas. But now what is it doing? It is carrying out our good ideas. We are getting a double flip-flop flip-flop in this House—flip-flops from the National Party supporting our policy and now the Labour Party is supporting our policy as well. 
If one ever wanted an example of an Opposition party leading from the Opposition it is New Zealand First. New Zealand First has supported the New Zealand Superannuation Fund from day one not from just the other day as in the case of another party. We have always said that it should be used for strategic asset allocations increasing the weighting to alternative assets such as infrastructure roading private equity commodities forestry property and reducing the funds weighting to global listed equities. Thanks to us not Labour it is happening now.