Joyce Steven: General Debate 
Joyce Steven: General Debate 
[Volume:662;Page:10757] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 The effects of the global economic recession have been felt around the world but not so much in this end of the world. In fact this end of the world has actually been pretty lucky in the overall context of the world economic recession. It will come as a surprise to the members opposite to know that in fact New Zealand grew at a faster rate than Australia in the second half of 2009 on a per capita basis. That will come as a surprise to the Opposition but it just goes to show that New Zealand is not doing too bad but there is heaps more to do. 
Here is another piece of news for the Opposition: Governments do not hold up the sky on their own; they can do things in the short-term—and this Government is—but ultimately it takes businesses in viable industries where New Zealand has a competitive advantage to create ongoing jobs. We do not magic them out of thin air I say to Mr Cunliffe. That means having a tax system that firstly encourages people to work hard and get ahead. Budget 2010 will deliver that tax system for New Zealand. 
It also means a regulatory environment that encourages industries to grow and add jobs and to do that we have to have changes and we have to look at things that we can do to encourage industries. I talk of things like unlocking responsible mining opportunities for jobs things like unlocking irrigation opportunities for jobs things like unlocking opportunities for more aquaculture space and things like allowing more productive heavy vehicles to transport our goods to market; all of which this Government is doing and most of which the Opposition opposes. Labour members say we do not do enough about jobs but they have no solutions and all the time they hate the things that we are doing. They bleat on and on about job creation and growth but what did the previous Labour Government do to tackle any of these challenging things when it had the chance? It did nothing and members opposite offer nothing now. They offer nothing to encourage industries to create growth. 
In fact their only solution is to saddle a struggling Crown company with a political decision to try to start a new industry when that company knows that commercially it does not make sense and has no comparative advantage. In fact members opposite know that as well because the previous Government had the opportunity to build trains in New Zealand but did not go ahead with it. But that is their only token suggestion. 
This Government does assist; it is working hard and helps job creation by investing in infrastructure. We are doing that like nobody else. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Where is the broadband? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: We are making massive investments. For example we have invested massively in Transpower for electricity transmission in roading with $11 billion for new State highway infrastructure in the next 10 years and yes I say to Mr Cunliffe in ultra-fast broadband. If Mr Cunliffe had left the sector in better shape then we would not have to take the reasonable period of time we are to achieve that. Also we are making massive investment in education and skills. Labour members do not talk about this but we have the largest number of places ever in New Zealand tertiary institutions this year. 
But the biggest impact the Government can have on real growth is to control its own expenditure. Controlling Government expenditure keeps debt down it keeps interest rates lower than they otherwise would be and it keeps exchange rates under control. Labour members do not understand that; they actually want something done about exchange rates—they have been talking about it for a year now but they have no ideas. 
One of the most important things that a Government can do to influence these things is through its Budgets and showing control of expenditure. That is what Budget 2010 will do. It will control expenditure and it will give the opportunity for the private sector to grow because it will lower interest rates. The Opposition needs to learn to understand that because frankly Mr Cunliffe does not. He claims there is no debt problem in New Zealand. He says that somehow we could just magic our way to success by borrowing more money. Well that is a recipe for disaster as the Minister of Finance pointed out yesterday. We already have large private sector debt. If we add large public sector debt on top of that we will create a debt problem for New Zealand. Frankly the Opposition does not understand that and until it learns about that then the public of New Zealand will not trust Labour with the Treasury accounts again because its only solution is to spend more money. 
Labour members criticise every expenditure change made by this Government and have said they would keep all the expenditure. They would keep spending away and growing the Government’s side of the economy and shrinking the real side of the economy. We know what the outcome of that is; we know it is low growth rates and we saw it between 2006 and 2008. Before the economic recession even began in the rest of the world we saw low per capita growth—in fact negative per capita growth in this country. So Budget 2010 will create many more jobs in New Zealand by controlling expenditure and investing in infrastructure.