McKelvie Ian: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcKelvie Ian: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9793. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei) to the Minister for Economic Development: What is the Government doing to encourage economic growth?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development): The Government’s comprehensive Business Growth Agenda includes more than 350 initiatives and is assisting businesses with the six things they need to be internationally competitive: access to innovation to capital to skilled workers and to the necessary resources the supporting public infrastructure and of course markets in which to sell their products. It is things like rolling out ultra-fast and rural broadband to connect our cities and regions to the world it is equipping our kids with the skills they need to succeed lifting research and development with things like the Primary Growth Partnership and it is signing free-trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to give New Zealand businesses the best shot at competing on the world stage. These things coupled with stable and sensible macroeconomic and fiscal settings and keeping interest rates lower are providing businesses the opportunity and confidence to invest and grow and to employ more Kiwis.Ian McKelvie: How has the New Zealand economy performed with these settings and initiatives in place?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: That is a very good question. Despite the twin challenges of the Canterbury earthquake and the global financial crisis along with the more recent slump in dairy prices the New Zealand economy is showing its resilience and strength. Even with dairy exports down $3 billion last year our total exports were up by nearly $2 billion or $69.3 billion and that is a $4.9 billion increase in non-dairy exports. Our meat sector is growing beer exports are up around 10 percent wine seafood fruit and wool are all growing the ICT sector ICT services exports and also tourism where the numbers of visitors are up by around 11 percent. So we are seeing growth across the country. The average growth rate that the Reserve Bank is predicting for the next 2 years is 3 percent a year and unemployment has fallen to its lowest level in 7 years.David Seymour: What contribution did the Government’s 2010 tax cuts make to this growth?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The Government believes that is an important contribution because the tax changes in 2010 did the exercise of rewarding hard work and actually taxing consumption a little bit more which shifted the balance in favour of work and investment. Those are good outcomes and along with all the other initiatives that the Government is doing we think the record is strong that New Zealand is growing at one of the fastest rates in the OECD right now.David Seymour: In light of that has the Minister made any representations to his ministerial colleagues that the Government should cut taxes again?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The member raises a fair question and of course if we had the fiscal room we have been clear that we would like to reduce the tax burden on New Zealanders over time because that does provide the incentives for people to work hard and get ahead. But of course the Government has a range of needs to address and of course the Budget comes up every year and that is the opportunity we get to assess those things.Ian McKelvie: Has the Government rejected any alternative approaches to running the New Zealand economy?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Yes we have rejected a number of potential alternative approaches often short-term fixes made-on-the-hoof suggestions that would have no regard to the wider impacts of the economy. For example policies like a single-buyer model for the power industry—that was one we rejected. Regulating food prices by dictating what is healthy and what is not we rejected. Hitting farmers with a punitive emissions trading scheme and a capital gains tax we rejected that one. Just yesterday we saw a proposal for the Government to set interest rates removing banks’ ability to compete with one another and presumably meaning compulsory interest rate hikes. Those are the sorts of knee-jerk reactions we reject.