Tremain Chris: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Tremain Chris: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2429] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 I rise to take a call on the 2007-08 financial review. I will refer to a few comments from Mr Mallard and Mr Cunliffe who stood and made disparaging remarks about the Government. Mr Cunliffe said that Mr English said New Zealanders should look to the Government to show a pathway through and that is exactly what this Government is doing. It is showing a clear and decisive pathway through this recession. We are here to blunt the edges of this recession and to provide a platform from which this country can grow as world trade conditions improve and as we come out of the economic downturn. 
I want to follow up on a few of the comments made by Mr Cunliffe today. He talked about New Zealand inheriting a strong position. He said that the National Government had inherited high growth. I do not know what dreamland Mr Cunliffe lives in but to say that we came into a position of high growth is absolutely ridiculous. We all know that from 1 January to 31 March 2008 the first quarter of that year New Zealand was in a position of negative growth. I do not know how that translates into a position of high growth. The fact of the matter was that we were already in recession brought on by Labour’s structural expenses. We were already in a position—[ 
Interruption 
] That member knows we were already in recession. We did not inherit high growth; we were already in a position of negative growth. Mr Cunliffe then went on to say we were in a position of low debt. Yes I acknowledge that in New Zealand we did have low debt as a percentage of GDP. 
But let us have a look at the facts. The reality is that over the last 20 years debt to GDP in this country has dropped like a stone. The biggest drop in debt to GDP was through the 1990s where it plummeted; it absolutely plummeted. It is absolute rubbish for Labour members to get up on their high horse and say they paid back debt. What happened is that as the economy grew the debt to GDP ratio dropped. That is what happened. The previous Government did not pay back any debt; the debt to GDP ratio dropped as the economy grew. This country had some of the best economic growth in a generation created by companies in New Zealand and world trade. It had nothing to do with the previous Labour Government except perhaps the one exception of company tax rate drops which occurred late in Labour’s last term in office. Can members name another policy that really improved economic growth across this country in Labour’s 9 years in office? It was limited. 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: You had 24 percent unemployment at the same time. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: The member said that we inherited a period of low unemployment and I acknowledge that. We did inherit low unemployment. But once again that was a result of the hard-working companies in New Zealand. I ask Mr Horomia to name a piece of legislation that the Labour Government introduced over the 9 years that it was in office that helped to drop unemployment in this country. 
Hon Member 
: No he can’t. 
CHRIS TREMAIN 
: It was companies that did that on the back of high growth. There was no legislation. 
I want to acknowledge through this review where National is now taking the country. We are positioning it on a strong growth path going forward and we have introduced a range of initiatives. I refer in particular to the tax cuts. As soon as we came into office in the first 100 days we introduced those tax cuts on the back of the October tax cuts that were introduced by the Labour Government. We put those in together with those from the Budget 2008. We had one of the strongest fiscal stimulus packages in the Western World—one of the top five nations. Yet we hear from members on the other side that this Government is bleating that we should be spending more and that we should be going out there and borrowing more money to provide a stronger fiscal stimulus package to put more money into our mokopuna and our tamariki to be reclaimed in years to come. We are being practical about the package that we are putting in place; absolutely practical. We are doing it in a way that New Zealanders can afford. Labour members are recommending that we go out and borrow even more money than we have to do so that we can put that cost on our tamariki going forward. 
 I ask Mr Horomia to go out and tell that to his constituency. He should tell his people that we are being practical; we are taking a conservative pathway forward and we know that we still have one of the strongest fiscal stimulus packages in the Western World. I tell the member that that is a good position to go forward with. But not only have we done that with tax cuts; we have been bringing forward our infrastructure spend. I know that in Hawke’s Bay the extension of the southern expressway—a great project—is going on there and there is work on the Matahorua Gorge which is up in Ms Mackey’s area. We are doing great things. Thank you. 
Report noted.