Gilmore Aaron: New Zealand Productivity Commission Bill — First Reading 
Gilmore Aaron: New Zealand Productivity Commission Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:665;Page:12648] 
AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 It behoves me as the last speaker on the first reading of the New Zealand Productivity Commission Bill to talk a bit about some of the comments from the Opposition members and in particular to touch on some of the comments from the last speaker Grant Robertson. There seems to be some sort of fear and loathing from the Opposition members probably from not properly reading the bill. 
The first aspect of the bill that Labour is looking at is the Productivity Commission’s function to “hold inquiries into and report to the referring Ministers about productivity-related matters that are referred to it;”. That function is far broader than what Australia has—far broader. It means that Ministers can refer anything they want to the Productivity Commission to understand anything they want. Sure a whole lot of other regulatory worries and concerns flow from it. 
Equally there has been some paranoia from the Greens about the ability of Ministers to control the commission. The bill allows freedom for Ministers to refer to the commission to undertake independent analysis. I think that is a good thing. When we look at it in relation to the Australian rules we see that ours will allow a lot more freedom for the independent commission to do things. 
There is also a fear about whether the commission will be resourced properly. This commission gets about $5 million a year. There are 29 people; that is nearly $200000 a person. I think anyone out there who is paying taxes such as the butchers and the plumbers in my part of New Zealand in Christchurch would be thinking that is a lot of money to give to somebody to answer questions. That is $200000 a year to 30-odd people to undertake some good analysis on what are the big questions and issues for New Zealand. I think that is probably more than enough resources to ask for from the hard-working taxpayers of New Zealand. 
Earlier on we talked a bit about what this bill is all about. This is not about New Zealand working harder—we are the hardest-working country in the world; we work more hours than anywhere else—it is about New Zealanders working smarter and getting more out of less in terms of getting more capital and particularly more brainpower. We heard some fear from David Parker who talked about the reasons we made some changes to the tax system. It was to give more flexibility to employers to invest in things they see fit—not necessarily machines but minds. We cannot depreciate a mind but through the lowering of the tax rate there is a greater incentive to invest in human resources rather than capital resources. We think it is a good thing to give the choices to employers to do things that are right. 
The Productivity Commission in Australia has done some great work. I have read a number of its reports particularly on the work it has done on energy and on population and I think they are good pieces of analysis. I think if we can get the same level of analysis out of the work that might come out of this commission in New Zealand then that will be a neat thing for New Zealand. We would be able to have some highly useful bits of analysis particularly on social policy. 
I will segue a bit. I had the fortune to study at the University of Canterbury. It has just set up a new economics lab which specialises in exactly this issue. It is very much looking forward to working with this Productivity Commission to answer some of the big social policy questions that exist in New Zealand. I think that what we have set up is a good step in the right direction towards working with all those entities and agencies that do this sort of work in New Zealand. They can be disparate but this commission will bring them together to a position where they can undertake more detailed in-depth analysis of those big issues that New Zealand is facing over the next 20 years or more. 
Unlike Mr Parker and my colleague Mr John Carter I actually look forward to being here in 2025. I am young enough to be able to say that whereas we have heard from the Opposition members that they do not even want to be here in 2025. If we can get this commission up and running to answer those big questions it would be a great thing. I look forward to sitting here on the Government benches in 2025 looking at some of the great analysis the commission has done and putting it in place for a John Key - led Government for another 15 years. Thank you very much.