Smith Nick: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Smith Nick: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 13 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7795. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister of Conservation) 
: 
 I am proud to be part of a Government that is focused on the real issues affecting New Zealanders and the real progress that we are making as a country under Prime Minister John Key’s leadership. I am sure every member in the House remembers that quote from President Bill Clinton: “It’s the economy stupid.” and so it is for New Zealand in 2013. After reflecting on the Prime Minister’s excellent speech I was interested to see the latest copy—the February copy—of  
The Economist 
. I think we would all accept in this House that it is one of the world’s most respected magazines in terms of challenging us in Government about providing good governance. In that regular magazine is an article on the best-governed countries in the world. It proceeds to list those countries that are top of the class. I felt incredibly proud to be part of a country that is listed as the top of the class in terms of economic management. I want to point out that that report ranked New Zealand ahead of Australia ahead of the UK ahead of Canada and ahead of the United States. For Mr Peters’ benefit New Zealand ranked ahead of Singapore. 
In fact it rates New Zealand as amongst the five top countries in terms of quality of governance and in terms of supporting economic growth. In terms of ease of doing business it ranked New Zealand third-best in the world. I say to the members in this House that if we are genuinely concerned about jobs and about giving New Zealand the opportunities to go forward we should be proud of being a country that is the third-best in the world to be able to set up new businesses because it is only those new businesses that will enable us to create jobs. I think we would all welcome as well the latest employment figures that show not only that New Zealand’s unemployment rate is better than so many developed countries around the world that are struggling but also that those figures have come down. I also say that we should welcome the whole range of initiatives that the Prime Minister mentioned in his statement that are going to make a contribution. 
Let me just reflect on my own Nelson constituency and what it means in my own area. Let us look at ultra-fast broadband—4500 additional homes and businesses as a consequence of this Government’s programme will have access to ultra-fast broadband. Only last Saturday in my caravan at the market I met with a young business person a mechanical engineer who currently does not have access to broadband and who is looking forward to that roll-out to create jobs and opportunities in our area. I look further at one of the biggest investments in science and research facilities in my home community. The Cawthron Institute an institute that we are very proud of is embarking this year on the biggest investment in labs and expansion in that organisation’s 90-year history and that is because of the sorts of partnerships the Cawthron Institute has with this Government and its investment in research which is part of that jobs machine. 
I also want to note this month that the King Salmon aquaculture company is due to get a decision on the final result for its new aquaculture farms in Marlborough Sounds. Members opposite have vigorously opposed those new farms. They will provide an extra 130 jobs in the top of the South Island. I say do not give me crocodile tears about unemployment when you oppose initiatives like those from King Salmon that will provide jobs for New Zealanders. I particularly challenge the Green Party which made a submission to the board of inquiry opposing any expansion of aquaculture in my part of the world. I say that that is one of the most job-rich opportunities that exist in the top of the South Island. 
I also want to actually congratulate my colleagues both Hekia Parata and Paula Bennett for what they are doing in education and social welfare. 
Hon Members 
: Ha ha! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Members opposite may laugh but let me tell them what it means for real people— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Oh yeah? We’ll deliver some real people and they can tell you. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: In February—this month Mr Cosgrove—a teen parent unit opened up in my electorate. What do members opposite say about those teenage parents who have for years been ignored by Ministers of education and welfare? Members on this side of the House know that teenage parents and their children are some of the most at-risk groups of New Zealanders and I am proud to be part of a Government that is actually investing in the facilities that will enable those teenage parents and their children to be able to get an education. 
On the subject of jobs I read the scoffing criticism from Labour members of the Prime Minister’s initiative around the new cycleways. Let me say this to members opposite— 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Yeah that’s right—how many jobs promised? How many delivered? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Phil Goff let me tell you how many. I challenge Mr Goff to do this: come on a bike ride— 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Just answer the question. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Just take a breath—just take a breath Mr Goff. I challenge Phil Goff to come with me to Brightwater. Come with me to Brightwater because right opposite the post office that Phil Goff and his Government closed is a new restaurant and caff. I went down the cycleway the weekend before last to check out the new cycleway. You know I had to wait an hour and a half for a coffee because there were more than a hundred people who had done the cycleway. Let me give you another example Mr Goff on the cycleway: a new business has opened up between my electorate and Damien O’Connor’s. A new cycleway barge now operates between Rabbit Island and Mapua. And do you know what my experience was again? I went to catch the ferry—the new cycle ferry the new little business that has started up as a consequence of John Key’s initiative. It is a ferry that will take 50 bikes and I could not get on it because there were that many people who were enjoying it. Damien O’Connor is celebrating its success while his colleague Phil Goff criticises the cycleway initiative. It is a positive initiative and every New Zealander knows it. 
Then let us look at where the Opposition has gone in my area of new responsibility in respect of housing. First of all we got this dream from Mr Shearer last year that Labour is going to build 100000 homes at $300000 each and those members specifically said and put the little brochure out that they were three-bedroom houses. How long did that policy commitment last? How long did it last? It was not a matter of a few days and Mr Shearer was backtracking on that promise. But I have to at least give the Greens credit for saying how their unaffordable housing policies would actually be funded. The Greens said that they are going to rob the National Land Transport Fund to put up the billions of dollars for the new houses. My question for Labour members: 100000 houses $300000 each—and there is not a member of this House who truly believes that can be delivered but even so—where is the $30 billion coming from? Can you please tell us? Are you going to rake the debt up by another $30 billion? Are you going to join the printing press as the Greens have promised? There is absolutely no credibility to that policy until Labour is prepared to say where the 30 billion bucks is coming from. 
We on this side of the House are focused on housing affordability but on the real issues. There was a very substantive report produced by the Productivity Commission. The Productivity Commission was actually an initiative created by this Government and the foundations for improving housing affordability lie in that report’s recommendations around what we need to do with land supply and what we need to do in terms of improving productivity with the sort of work that my colleague Steven Joyce is doing in the area of skills training and apprenticeships. It is the sort of work that we need to do in terms of improving competition and building materials and the sort of work we need to do like Maurice Williamson’s work in the compliance costs. If New Zealanders are concerned about housing affordability the substantive agenda that this Government has set out gives New Zealanders the sort of hope and ambition that we all want and stand for in this Government.