King Annette: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2926. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour):As members opposite know this bill is called the Appropriation (2013/14 Confirmation and Validation) Bill. I have to say to the Minister of Finance who has just returned to his seat after trying to do a valiant job of defending the Government’s record by splashing as much animal manure around as possible that the only thing this bill does is to confirm and validate that the National Government is arrogant that it is out of touch and that it has lost its way. It has lost its way by doing one of the most fundamental things that you should not do in politics—that is break its promises the solemn promises National members made to New Zealand about the economy of this country.We have also had the Prime Minister who has said that he was going to set these high standards. Of course with high standards come telling the truth and not breaking your promise. But unfortunately for New Zealand over the last fortnight we have become the laughing stock of the world. We have the international media not commenting on our rock star economy or how great our exports are. No what they are commenting on—Hon Bill English: Like they were doing the other week.Hon ANNETTE KING: —Acting Prime Minister is the Prime Minister’s weird behaviour. If you just go and look at the Guardian it has put up a whole article on the 10 weird behaviours of the Prime Minister. They go from pulling the hair of a young person working as a waitress right through to joking about a paedophile. So rather than it concentrating on the good things that New Zealand is doing we have this problem—a credibility problem—out there in the international community and we are a country that must value its international reputation. It is very very important to this country.You know a small exporting country like ours needs to retain its reputation. We have been seen for many years as the honest broker in the international community. If you think about it we have got ourselves on the United Nations Security Council because we said we would be the honest broker particularly to small communities. But rather than being the honest broker we are the joker of the international community. What does it do to those who are working hard trying to get ahead when the leader of our country is seen to be a joke? Well I think the Government is taking us backwards. It is taking us backwards. I think that John Armstrong got it right when he wrote this week in the New Zealand Herald. He said that our rock star economy is on the rocks and that the Government uses smoke and mirrors to cover up the real position in New Zealand—the creative use of figures. It is very interesting to listen to answers from Ministers. They are in favour of some of the figures when they are in their favour and they are opposed to them when they are not. So you cannot tell whether they support Treasury figures or Statistics New Zealand figures because they change their views depending on what their narrative is. So there is the creative use of figures. We have got the selective use of data. We are given some information but not all information. We have got the downright technological inexactitudes about how New Zealand is faring.Let us take just one measure of our economy which the Minister talked a bit about—our trade us as a trading nation. Let us talk about our trade deficit. I agree with Rod Oram who wrote in the Sunday Star-Times this week that we are suffering from two trade deficits—two trade deficits. One of them is a physical trade deficit and the other is a political trade deficit. He said that the physical trade deficit has widened to $2.2 billion in the year ended February and that our exports have weakened mainly reflecting lower dairy prices while our imports have risen. Our trade deficit has grown and the more it grows the more the Government ramps up its rhetoric. There is a political deficit between trade talk and performance and the Prime Minister who is a very casual chap and who is a very friendly chap has a tendency to over-egg most things that he does. In fact he spoke to the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research in March saying our service exports were one of the most exciting areas of trade growth.But the truth is the opposite. Have a look at the data from 2009 to 2014. Our exports fell from research development architectural engineering technical legal and accounting services. Service exports is the area that the Prime Minister said was the most exciting part of our export growth. Then we had the trade Minister Tim Groser. He spoke at the Primary Industry Summit last year and he said that New Zealand was on track to meet the goal of lifting exports from 30 percent to 40 percent of GDP by 2025. But what does Statistics New Zealand—you know that organisation that is independent of any Government whose job is to collect statistics and report them fairly and honestly—say? What does it say? What does the Treasury forecast say? They say we are falling well short of the between 5.5 and 7.5 percent a year needed to double exports and reach the Government’s targets.But so desperate is the Government to cover up its poor performance in trade it has even decided to change the method of measurement and this is where we get to the smoke and mirrors of this Government. It has changed the method of measurement. How deceitful is that? It was not publicised and in fact nobody knew it had changed its method of reporting until it turned up as a footnote in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade annual report 2013-14. It is that sort of approach to the economy that means that New Zealanders cannot trust what Government members are saying. As Rod Oram said we can build exports if reality overcomes rhetoric. And what we are faced with from this Government is a daily dose of rhetoric over-egging the situation and not facing up to some of the real difficulties we have in this country.Another example I have to say of rhetoric replacing reality is the promise to return a surplus in this Budget. Mr English I do not care what you say in answers to this House I have sat here long enough and listened to you as the Minister of Finance telling us how important it is to get the Government back into surplus and how it would be achieved—how it would be achieved—by this Budget. This Government said to the country in a solemn promise to New Zealanders that it would return this country to surplus. It is not about what we want to cut Mr English; it is about the solemn promises you took to the country and about you asking New Zealanders to vote for National. You asked them to vote for National because you were the best at balancing and managing the books. Well I remember Mr English what you said in December 2008 even if this member does not remember what he said.Hon Bill English: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. The experienced member will know that she should not be referring to you quite as often as she is. She should address the member correctly.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Well I was listening carefully and she did say: “you Mr English” or “you Bill English” so I think she did make herself pretty clear. And I think a member breaking up a member’s speech like that is not desirable.Hon ANNETTE KING: Thank you Mr Chairman. I can say that this speech is getting to the Minister of Finance because the Minister of Finance knows that he made those promises to New Zealand. He made those promises to get votes before the election. It is not about what Labour wants to cut; it is about being honest to the people of New Zealand. We are not the Government. When we get to the election of 2017 you will know what our Budget will be and we will do what we did when in Government and that is to keep the promises we made before the election. That is something that National has not done. It promised that the Budget surplus would be the centrepiece of this Government’s measure of success. Well I have to say it has failed. It has failed because this mantra about getting a surplus has just turned into a 7-year exercise. It is not going to be achieved. Now watch the Government members as they wriggle and squirm. They are full of blatherskite and animal manure about what is going on.Let us have some honesty from this Government about the real state of the financial situation in this country because we are not getting it. We had the Prime Minister saying: “No no it was just an artificial target. We did not really care about the surplus.” He said it is like landing a Boeing 747 on the head of a pin. Well that was not said before the election. We were told that there was going to be something like a half a billion in surplus by the time we got to this election. I remember the Minister of Finance saying in December 2008 that the previous Labour Government had set aside enough for the rainy day. So when he talks about the Labour Party’s record I remind him of that.