Groser Tim: General Debate 
Groser Tim: General Debate 
[Volume:667;Page:14646] 
Hon TIM GROSER (Minister of Trade) 
: 
 What a difference 2 years can make when a party is in Opposition! One of the differences it can make is a catastrophic catatonic loss of collective memory on the part of the Opposition. It is almost as if Y2K having missed its original date with destiny on 1 January 2000 found its way into Fraser House the Labour Party headquarters in Willis Street Wellington and wiped clean the entire C drive of the Labour Party. 
On the issue of rents price increases and real wages we have heard a tsunami of twaddle in the last 2 weeks as Labour members reel from their collective memory loss. It is not as if 2008 is ancient history. Dan Carter in 2008 was the world’s best first five-eighth. He is still the world’s best first five-eighth today. Babies born in 2008 are still learning to walk and talk. I have two mokopuna to prove it. This is not ancient history. 
Let us just try to recall where we were in 2008. First of all in an utterly perverse way New Zealand under Labour was and I quote “leading the world”. I call it the first-mover disadvantage because under Labour this country had achieved the remarkable feat of being the only developed country in recession before the Lehman Brothers crisis sparked the global financial crisis. But that is not enough—no no. On the issue of prices which is what the debate has been about in the last few weeks I note that Labour had inflation running at 5.1 percent. But no all of this has been utterly forgotten even though we now have 1.5 percent inflation which is less than one-third the level of inflation in the last year under Labour’s watch. 
In the last couple of weeks we have seen associated with that tsunami of twaddle a lurch to the left. 
Hon Annette King 
: Oh no! 
Hon TIM GROSER 
: Well is it a lurch to the left? It is a lurch to the left rhetorically but is it a lurch substantively? Nobody knows. As we watch those members opposite butcher their way through various media interviews as they try to explain where they now stand as opposed to their record in Government we have to ask what this is about. I think it is very clear what this is about. 
There is a very simple fact and that is that we have a by-election coming up in Mana and the one thing that the Labour Party cannot afford is a meltdown in its core party vote in Mana. This rhetorical lurch to the left although I am sure it makes its core party faithful feel happy makes it very difficult for the rest of New Zealand to work out what is rubbish and where the future thinking of the Labour Party is moving. 
In all this there are four central realities. They are what is happening to real wages; what is happening to taxes and therefore after-tax real wages; what is happening to prices; and what the Government is doing to compensate those at the bottom of the income levels. Let us look at this in terms of real wages. 
We heard the reality from the Prime Minister earlier during question time. There has been a 7 percent increase in real wages compared with minus 1 percent in the last 2 years—7 percent compared with minus 1 percent in the last 2 years. As for taxes there has been a complex package of tax cuts compared with no tax cuts under Labour. There has been a cut in the company tax rate—it is now 28 percent—and that is designed to create opportunities for New Zealand businesses 96 percent of which are small to medium sized enterprises to employ more New Zealanders create jobs and create wealth for the future. Plus there has been a serious reduction in the taxes applied to middle-income New Zealanders. I am extremely proud to be a member of this Government.