McClay Todd: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
McClay Todd: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
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TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to rise today and speak on the Prime Minister’s statement which was delivered such a short time ago. What a wonderful speech that was—9500 words of action 9500 words of direction and 9500 words of inspiration that New Zealanders have overwhelmingly welcomed and supported. What was his speech about? It was about aspiration. It was about looking to the future. It was about meeting challenges head on and focusing on economic development. At the end of the Prime Minister’s speech others got up to speak as well and I thought for a moment as I was thinking of what to put in my notes today of what some of those speeches were about. The Leader of the Opposition Phil Goff stood up and it was a little bit like the stories that my wife reads to my children. I nicknamed him “fairytale Phil”. There was everything in there except for a happy ending— 
H V Ross Robertson 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member has been here for some time and his father has been a member of the House so he has some idea about Standing Orders and Speakers’ rulings. He well knows that when he refers to a member he must do so by using the member’s full name or using the member’s honorific. In this case he referred to the Leader of the Opposition by his first name only. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: The member is correct. I just say to members that when they are raising points of order we do not need a lot of prefacing of them. The member will refer to other members of the House respectfully in the address that is agreed to. 
TODD McCLAY 
: After I heard the speech made by the Hon Philip Goff whom others have nicknamed “fairytale Phil” it was clear to me that members opposite were looking glum. I jotted down the names of a few of those members when we looked at the TV later on and I jotted down what I thought they were thinking. I ask why members of the Opposition would be feeling glum when their big strong able leader who sits on a motorbike and rides around the country in his time off is talking about his vision for New Zealand. Well they would be concerned because there was not a lot of vision in his speech. I had a look at this and asked who they were. Were they only members on the backbenches or were they members on the front bench? It was interesting that Chris Hipkins was looking quite concerned and I looked at what happened at the last election. The reason for that was I think that Mr Hipkins is not at all sure that with leadership like the leadership that has been shown by the Hon Phil Goff whom others have nicknamed “fairytale Phil” he can get back into this House in 2011. I am sure that he is thinking that he will have to work extra hard now in Opposition just because of those members’ leadership. 
Clayton Cosgrove was looking quite disappointed too. This is the Hon Clayton Cosgrove who is not to be confused with the Hon Philip Goff whom others have nicknamed “fairytale Phil”. Why would he be looking concerned? His nickname— 
Sue Moroney 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I know that the member is a new member but he has failed to recognise your previous ruling. He has just committed the offence of using nicknames for a member another two times. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: The member is trifling with the ruling in that members should be referred to respectfully. The member was referring to how others may or may not refer to the member. I just say to the member that all members in this Chamber are honourable members. Yes we should accept a little bit of jousting and once or twice is OK but I ask that we get on to the substance of the speech. I look forward to the member continuing. 
TODD McCLAY 
: I do have great respect for the Leader of the Opposition the Hon Phil Goff and I think he will find great respect in the community when he is no longer leader and he goes out and starts looking for other employment. 
I will just go back to where I was because it is the crux of what the Prime Minister’s speech was all about. Clayton Cosgrove is worried about his majority which is thinner than what is under his hat. Labour list MPs are looking glum. Some of them thought that they would be in Government at the moment. Some of them are in Parliament only because they were on the list and they are a little bit worried that they might have to get back out into the real world. Only two people were not looking glum. One of them was Shane Jones. He seems to think that the Leader of the Opposition’s speech was part of his plan to lead the Labour Party. The other person is Parekura Horomia and I heard it mentioned earlier that he is looking to be Shane Jones’ No. 2 when Shane Jones is the leader. I think it is because Parekura Horomia did not think he would get back in 2008 so he does not have very high hopes for 2011. 
Let me tell members a bit about the area of New Zealand that I am a member of Parliament for—the central North Island area. Every single seat in that area is now a blue seat. Every seat is National. Do members know why that is? It is because our Prime Minister has vision and his speech showed us where that vision was. A few MPs from that area who have limped back into Parliament on the Labour list will be concerned about the Prime Minister’s speech. In a moment I will go through some of the things he set up for this year. 
We do not see Labour in Taupo any more. Labour has moved its office from Rotorua to Tauranga which is a seat that it has not held for 12 years. The people of Rotorua are really glad they can phone an 0800 number! I want to recognise the Hon Stephanie Chadwick who announced a short while ago that for the good of the people of Rotorua—because she misses being a Minister—she will stand again in Rotorua in the 2011 election. By golly I am looking forward to that. People have said they will be coming to see her in her office in Tauranga. We do not see Labour in Hamilton and it gave up on Tauranga a long time ago. 
The Prime Minister made a very gifted directed speech that touched on many of the problems left to this Government when we came in. Let us think about the economy for a moment. Members opposite have spoken at great length about how strong the economy was in the 9 years they were in Government. Let us dig down a little deeper than that. I accept what the member says. Absolutely unemployment was lower. But the size of the Public Service was growing and growing. The Labour Government did not work out that it is not a Government that should be employing people it is businesses. What we have to do in this country is back businesses so that they can get on and create employment. Governments create direction and the Prime Minister has created a great deal of direction in this area. 
Let us go back to the productive economy to those people who produce things and sell them or export them they go out and invest and after they invest they employ other people. The productive economy in New Zealand has been in recession since the year 2005. The members opposite who are smiling must be proud of that statistic. Since the year 2005 our productive base has been dwindling. Here we are in the year 2010 and do members know what level it is at? It is at the same level that it was back in 2000. So after 9 years of a Labour Government and the wonderful surpluses it tells us about the wonderful things it was doing and the excellent things it was fixing in this country where are we now? The New Zealand productive sector which should be employing investing and exporting is at the same level as it was when Labour limped into Government. Of course it did not limp out of Government; it was chucked out. Some changes are coming. 
Why is the New Zealand productive sector struggling? I went out in my electorate a little while ago and asked people in the productive sector. I asked those in the kiwifruit sector where some of the blockages have been for them. It is pretty clear that for them getting their produce to the port and exported has taken too long has been too difficult and has cost far too much money. Here is a little bit of good news for Mrs Chadwick who I notice likes to wag a finger around. The people of Rotorua liked that finger a few years ago. Here is some great news: our Minister of Transport has fronted up and there will be a new road from the middle of my electorate that will go all the way across to the port—a Te Puke bypass. Do members know what the farmers there the foresters and those who drive trucks are telling me? They say: “Our Minister of Transport is a great great Minister of Transport and that’s a very good road.” 
Let us think about another road in my electorate in Rotorua. Forty years ago somebody said that Rotorua might grow or it might not but we need a new road that will bring us from our airport into town and it is a bypass. For 40 years people have been talking about that. Last year the people of Rotorua realised that although a few weak limp promises had been thrown around about the possibility of roads it was only if they let their petrol be taxed locally which would mean they would be less productive. The Minister of Transport has fronted up and the good news is that Rotorua got $1.5 million of funding to move to the next stage of the road that Labour members and others have been talking about for more than 40 years. It is a great road; bring it on. If we had not got the money last year it would be many many more years until the project could get even close to getting under way. 
I want to come back to the productive economy because it is something that New Zealanders are concerned about but members opposite conveniently forget about it because they know the great damage they did in that area during their 9 years in Government. Why is it that we have not had good investment in the productive economy in New Zealand? It is because a number of the things the Labour Government did pushed New Zealanders in the wrong direction. It was too hard to invest. It was too difficult for businesses to get on and everywhere they went there were regulatory roadblocks. During the campaign and since that time I have not had a single person except the friends of Mrs Chadwick in Rotorua say: “Todd leave the Resource Management Act alone; it’s working really well.” We get overwhelming support for good changes whereby people can get out and get good projects moving forward and can look clearly at what we need to do there. 
Trade is another example. A lot of trade work has been done by our new Minister of Trade. He is a very active Minister and he is in and out of countries talking about trade and freer trade. We had a wealth of trade agreements last year. On the agenda this year is a trade agreement with the United States with India and with Korea. The forestry community of Rotorua the kiwifruit community of Rotorua and the other groups of farmers who produce in this country and who have been held back tell me that they are glad of this. Do members know that for kiwifruit Korea has a tariff of 45 percent against New Zealand produce? In Chile where we have a trade agreement it has been reduced to 25 percent. Tariffs make us less productive and less competitive and it means that the farmers in my electorate who are having a great kiwifruit year this year would find it more difficult to compete. I think that our Minister Tim Groser is doing wonderful things. I am glad that he is the Minister because he is a Minister of action. All of our Ministers seem to be Ministers of action. 
My time is almost up and there is so much that I could talk about in relation to the Prime Minister’s speech because there was so much in it so much depth and so much detail. I want to touch upon national standards and here is a little lesson for the Opposition: they should stop talking just to union officials and the odd teacher and instead get out on the streets and talk to parents. Parents want us to back their kids and national standards will do that. I will conclude by saying I have been reading a few blogs lately. Some of them are hugely humorous and some of them are very serious. I want to touch on one blog I read a little while ago. The suggestion was— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: I regret to advise the member that his time has expired.