Hutchison Paul: General Debate 
Hutchison Paul: General Debate 
[Volume:662;Page:10763] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 It is highly relevant that the Leader of the Opposition and the deputy leader of the Labour Party have presided over two of New Zealand’s worst economic disasters. Those leaders have been around for many decades. I can think of the years between 1984 and 1989 when their Government left New Zealand technically bankrupt. But the other highly relevant point is that when Labour’s new blood its new finance spokesperson the Hon David Cunliffe—man of the people; member for New Lynn but resident of St Marys Bay—went on study leave in Tokyo the other day Labour’s polling suddenly went up. When he came back 2 to 3 weeks later Labour’s polling went down again and did so from a very low base I must say. This just absolutely points out what a bad situation Labour is in—what a shocking situation it is in. First Labour has a leader and deputy leader who have presided over New Zealand’s worst economic disasters. Secondly when the brand new blood went out of the country Labour made a bit of a recovery in the polls. But that has not lasted. No Labour has gone straight back down into the depths of despair which is its true place. 
However it is important to remember back to those absolutely disastrous years of 1984 to 1989 when Phil Goff and the Hon Annette King were there. New Zealand was technically bankrupt at the end of that time. Interest rates were up to a massive whopping 22 percent. Farmers had to leave their farms at the end of Labour’s legacy. Inflation was up to 6 or 7 percent and unemployment was generally at 11 percent but for Maori it was 22 percent and for Pacific Islanders it was 33 percent. 
Stuart Nash 
: You’ve got it wrong. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: I can hear Mr Nash saying that that is wrong. He has forgotten just how bad Labour’s legacy was back then in the 1980s. 
But let us have a look at what happened between 2008 and 2009 because in many respects that time was just about as bad. That was a possible golden era for New Zealand but the Labour Government blew it—it absolutely blew it. In fact Labour had the gall in its very last Budget to spend up $10 billion in the hope that it could win back a few votes. Labour left the cupboard bare. Labour had the gall in the knowledge that an economic recession was on its way to leave New Zealand’s cupboard absolutely bare. 
Let us have a look at some of the figures. There was falling economic growth: minus 0.2 percent annual GDP growth in the December quarter of 2008-09 down from 3.2 percent. But it is worse than that. When Labour came into power in 1999 economic growth in the last quarter of the National Government was 4.6 percent. But growth rocketed the wrong way down to minus 2 percent at the end of 9 long years of Labour. There was rising unemployment at 4.6 percent in the December quarter of 2008-09 which was up from 3.4 percent in 2007-08. It was reminiscent of that decade before when Labour let New Zealand down so badly. There was high inflation 3.4 percent annual CPI growth a $16.1 billion current account deficit and annual productivity growth that was only 1.1 percent between 2000 and 2008. 
I can think of just how bad it was in the health field. A Treasury report pointed out that there was no productivity growth in the health sector over those years when Labour invested or spent—misspent—an extra $6 billion a year. Labour invested $6 billion a year but for no extra elective surgery. Yet in the last year National has been proud to announce that 11800 new elective procedures are being done per year. It has been a magnificent time for this National Government.