Parker David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParker David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 17 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17439. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.Hon DAVID PARKER (Deputy Leader—Labour) to theMinister of Finance: Does he stand by all his statements?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Associate Minister of Finance)on behalf of theMinister of Finance: Yes in the context in which they were made. However I do need to note that there needs to be some form of statute of limitations if the member wants to discuss economic policy from the 1970s. That is a long time ago and I may not be able to recall every statement I made when I was still at school.Hon David Parker: Does he stand by his statement that the export manufacturing sector is in good heart given that manufactured exports outside of the primary sector have declined 21.3 percent in real terms since he took office?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I think that the member is once again trying to take the manufacturing statistics—he needs to tell us what sort of primary sector manufacturing which is after all weirdly a fair bit of New Zealand’s manufacturing he is removing. He pulls that statistic out and then he tries to discuss about it in real terms despite the global financial crisis. So I have no idea how he has managed to concoct this particular question but the reality is manufacturing in this country is in expansion and has been for the last 19 months.Hon David Parker: Are manufactured exports in the non-primary sector down 21.3 percent in real dollars from December 2008 to December 2013—the latest dates for which we have statistics?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well asking the same question by reading it off theBlackBerry does not change the question and it does not change the answer. I know that the member wants to talk New Zealand manufacturing down but he cannot. It is growing strongly in this country.Hon David Parker: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That was a very specific question and it has not been addressed.Mr SPEAKER: The difficulty I have is that it was effectively a repeat of the earlier question and there was no doubt in my mind that that was addressed by the Minister in quite a lengthy fashion in the previous answer. The second supplementary question in my mind effectively asked the same question again.Hon David Parker: Speaking to the point of order.Mr SPEAKER: I would be grateful for the assistance.Hon David Parker: You have told members on this side of the House Mr Speaker that if a question is not properly addressed to the satisfaction of the Opposition we have to remedy that by effectively asking it again. I have done that and the question still has not been answered.Mr SPEAKER: No my difficulty is that the question in my mind was quite adequately answered in the answer to the first supplementary question. I accept that it was not to the member’s satisfaction but the Minister went through quite a detailed explanation of it—[Interruption] I am on my feet and I am saying that to me he did anyway. I will accept that he might not have done that to the satisfaction of the member but he went through quite a detailed explanation about how New Zealand is a primary exporter and therefore a lot of our manufacturing is associated with the primary sector etc. and he gave justification for that. The member then rose and repeated a second question which was effectively the same one and I ruled that it had been addressed in answer to the first question.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Every member of the House is entitled to ask the questions they want as long as they are within the Standing Orders. My colleague David Parker did that. The second question he asked was actually more specific and included up-to-date statistics. The Minister could get up and repeat the answer that he had given. Instead he gave another answer that attacked various people and did not address the question. I believe that the Minister has a responsibility to answer the question that the Hon David Parker asked. Perhaps he could ask it again and we could actually get an answer to it.Mr SPEAKER: I think the way forward—I will hear from the Hon Steven Joyce.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The difficulty that I was trying to point out to the member is that it is very difficult because he often tries to come up with different statistics that are in a different—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! This is a point of order and it will be heard in silence.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —area from the manufacturing sector. I am happy to repeat it again. It is difficult to know what he means by “primary sector”. Does he include for example forestry processing services—those sorts of things? If he wants to put it down as a written question I would be happy to answer it.Mr SPEAKER: Order! Well I accepted that it was a point of order. It was helping me with making further—I think the way forward is that I will allow the member to ask an additional supplementary question. I certainly hope we get a new supplementary question but I cannot instruct the member the Hon David Parker that it must be one.Hon David Parker: Are non-primary manufactured exports as measured by Statistics New Zealand down 21.3 percent in real dollars between December 2008 and December 2013?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: It depends on what the member means by “non -primary-sector manufactured exports”. [Interruption] For example if you include the construction sector which of course includes timber processing that would be one. That has actually gone down but is now coming up again.Hon Phil Goff: Just say “Yes.”Hon STEVEN JOYCE: No I will not just say “Yes” because the Opposition members think so. They need to go and have a little weekend off.Hon David Parker: Why will he not support the manufacturing export sector and the jobs therein by introducing accelerated depreciation for capital investment given that under current settings investment jobs and exports in that sector are all down?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: That is where the member is incorrect. They are not down; they are up and they are growing. Employment is growing. The performance of the BNZ-Business New Zealand Performance of Manufacturing Index has been in positive growth territory now for 19 months. If the member thinks that placing a capital gains tax and a higher-cost emissions trading scheme on productive businesses on the one hand and then trying to mitigate it a little bit by giving them accelerated depreciation would actually grow the manufacturing sector then he is sadly wrong.Hon David Parker: Why did the Minister of Finance criticise Steven Joyce and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment when he said regarding Chorus and broadband last week: “You’d think Government would have enough regulatory experience to understand the implications of that sort of provision and I don’t think they did”?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well I am confident that he did not criticise the other Minister. Actually the other Minister is a very good friend of mine and I think that he does a pretty good job on behalf of the Minister of Finance.Clare Curran: Why did he as Minister of Finance think that Steven Joyce as the former Minister for Communications and Information Technology got it wrong regarding Chorus on copper network pricing when he said: “If you think the result … was unpredictable then that’s poor policy process when the provisions went in the legislation”?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: This is a good day to be answering questions on the Minister’s behalf and I disagree with the member’s interpretation. Actually it is a challenging policy area but it is important to point out that the ultra-fast broadband is 25 percent built now and if that member had had her way we would not have even started.