English Bill: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeEnglish Bill: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1464. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister):I am pleased to resume the debate on the Prime Minister’s statement as part of an energetic Government with a wide-ranging reform programme. You would think we had just got in there is so much going on with this Government—for instance the most comprehensive reforms of the Resource Management Act; the regulation of water quality and the necessary changes in farming practice that will unfold over the next few years at the core of our productive economy; changes in housing which will lead to greater supply for more low and middle income families; and continued efforts to implement the changes in workplace safety flowing back to the original Pike River tragedy.On 1 April despite the fact that the Government is running the tightest control on expenditure we have seen in several decades there will be more paid parental leave. On 1 April there will be further significant reductions in ACC levies. And what does that mean? Well it means that for all those people on lower incomes who register their car and license it they will get that done for about $100 a year less. Many of them have had an increase in benefits or national superannuation. Just one small change and a raft of improvements are coming on 1 April including free doctors visits for children under the age of 13. These are issues we campaigned on successfully and I am proud that we will have the opportunity now to implement those changes.Can I welcome back Opposition members. I thought they would make a coherent start to the year but the Prime Minister summed it up in a sentence yesterday when he said that after we have done Rātana and Waitangi Labour’s position now is that Māori can make their own laws but they are not allowed to buy a State house. They can write their own constitution but they are not allowed to own homes. How did Labour end up with such a confusing position over its core constituency? Well I will tell you how because I have been listening at Rātana and Waitangi. It is that Māori who always voted for Labour are saying: “Don’t undo National’s policies. We’re getting our settlements done and our grievances settled. More of our kids are getting educated. We’re going to get the opportunity to have more homeownership individually or through our iwi. There is less crime. We have fewer victims of crime and fewer of our young people are in the courts. Thousands of them eat less each year. So don’t talk about changing National’s policies.”That left Labour with only Māori sovereignty. I thought Labour leaders have been well out of touch with most people about most things for most of their leaders—of whom there seem to have been several over recent years—but sovereignty is 1970s Mr Little. In the 1970s there were Māori angry about that and protesting on it and you would think that the Labour Party which pretends to represent that bloc of voters—more so now than it did at any time in the last 20 years if you look at its MPs—is so out of touch with their aspirations. It would not matter so much I suppose if it was just that small group of voters but actually the Labour Party is out of touch with most voters—with most voters. It still does not understand that the steady sustainable growth of this economy is awakening a degree of aspiration and confidence in New Zealanders that only this Government seems to understand and foster and grow.And what is a piece of information that shows that? Well we have the highest workforce participation rate ever—ever. What does that mean? That means there is a bigger than ever proportion of the working-age population available for work. So while the Labour Party is trying to find out again what work is mainly because it has not done any for 6 years while the rest of the country has been busy more people who are older more women and more people who were on benefits are putting up their hands and saying: “We have confidence that if we get into the workforce we can get a job.” And that is what the higher participation rate is—the highest ever and as I might just comment about 5 percent higher than it is in Australia.There are a couple of features of the economic situation at the moment that are promising—and I would not say more than promising—such as the prospect of sustainable growth. One is that both the Reserve Bank and Treasury have lifted their estimates of the speed limits of this economy—that is the rate at which it can grow without causing excessive inflation. It was only a bit over 2 percent; now in fact it is close to 3 percent. In fact economic forecasts show that we are likely to grow at just under 3 percent for the next 5 years on average. Just imagine the impact of that. In the last year there were 80000 new jobs and if we have 5 more years of anything like that rate of job creation with the rising real incomes we will have a community in pretty good shape.Another aspect of this recovery that is starting to work well is business investment. There has been a lot of focus on the upsurge of residential investment. That is really important because we need a lot more houses but business investment is steady and growing year after year. We have now had about 4 years of growing business investment contribution to growth and it is forecast to continue. That capital deepening that investment in better plant and equipment better gear better marketing offshore—that is what underpins the growth in our incomes. The other is the stadium full of people who were lining up at the airport with their tickets booked to Australia who have decided to stay here and not catch the plane.Everyone I think is surprised but should be pleased at the way that our net migration has held up—our positive net migration. Twelve months ago they would have thought: “Yep there is a bit of a surge here a few more people coming in a lot of Kiwis coming home New Zealanders staying home.” but actually it has kept on going. It is one of the reasons we have for instance lower cost escalation in Christchurch than we expected because the supply side of the economy is showing it can deliver the labour and the skills that we need.The rate of job creation and growth in real incomes is the product of a programme this Government executed in its first two terms and will continue to execute in its next two terms—that is ongoing microeconomic reform that underpins business confidence. There is no growth until someone invests another dollar and employs another person and that is what is happening.Finally can I just indicate that we will certainly be continuing our focus on cracking long-term dependency through welfare through the justice system and through our changes in housing because that is what drives Government expenditure. What drives Government expenditure is social dysfunction that we have not been able to fix yet. I want to compliment the Public Service on the results it has achieved: less crime more educational achievement digging out the problems around rheumatic fever and child violence and bringing them into the daylight so we can solve them.This Government will be focused on results and will measure itself by results not just on the books but in the community because we figured out that what works for the community works for the Government’s books and we look forward to working with the Public Service to achieve even more over the next 3 years. We have done some of the easy stuff and now we are starting to get to the real complexity: the 500 families in Rotorua who have a parent with a custodial sentence and have been subject to a Child Youth and Family notification and have spent at least three-quarters of their life on a benefit. We need effective action with those families if we are going to have them participating in the workforce like many others have put up their hand to do and if we want to have a better community. So we certainly approach this confidence motion with some real confidence.