McClay Todd: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McClay Todd: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 22 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4634. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 As a backbencher one could be forgiven for being a bit apprehensive at having to stand and speak so soon after the Leader of the Opposition. Then I realised I have been here longer than him; I am in my second term. All I can say is that that was a desperate speech from an invisible man who has disappointed almost everybody in this country except for Goliath and the other Davids in the Labour Party. I saw a glint in David Cunliffe’s eye. He is ready for another shave so soon tomorrow morning. You see the Leader of the Opposition and his party are out of touch. 
On this side of the House we are focusing on what matters for New Zealanders and on the big picture: building a more competitive and productive economy—one of the four main priorities we have set in this term of the Government. What are we going to do in this area? It is so important that we focus on the things that will help New Zealanders do more for themselves. We have said that over the next 4 years as you have heard today in this House from our Deputy Prime Minister there will be $8 billion dollars of spending on infrastructure in New Zealand—$8 billion of infrastructure spending that will help us become more competitive help us become more productive and help our businesses do more for an exporting country. We have said we want to focus on and spend more on research and development and science and innovation. The Budget delivered this year will give us $385 million of extra spending on science and innovation over the next 4 years. By 2015-16 $1.3 billion every year will be spent by this Government on research and development and science and innovation. We are focusing to double the business spend on research and development to 1 percent of GDP over that period of time as well. 
What will that do for us in this country? This will be focused spending on research and development and infrastructure not money thrown around willy-nilly as we saw over 9 years of a Labour Government but focused on the important parts of our economy where New Zealanders can expect a return and where New Zealanders can expect bang for their taxpayer bucks. This is going to be important to a number of areas in my electorate and other electorates around the country in forestry in dairy in agriculture and in geothermal. 
Forestry is very important to our economy. We produce more trees than many other parts of the world. These trees that are grown produce jobs and are the backbone of many of our provincial areas and their economy. In my electorate we have an organisation called Scion. It is at the cutting edge of some of the work that is done around this research and development. It is doing a fantastic job on our behalf and as a member of the Government I am proud that we are backing them to do so much more in forestry in dairy in agriculture and in geothermal. I want to repeat that—$1.3 billion of taxpayers’ spend that the Government will put in place by the year 2015-16. 
If we focus on infrastructure—we are talking about roads and we are talking about building productivity and competitiveness which returns more for our exporters—what will this do? It will mean jobs investment and growth. In the Bay of Plenty where we grow more trees than in many other parts of New Zealand where we have hard-working farmers dairy farmers and we have others who produce things to export—and we have excellent MPs every single one of them that is right; every single one of them is a hard-working elected constituent MP—we have a road of national significance. I call it the Te Puke bypass; others call it the Tauranga direct road. What it does is it links the provinces to a port. It is a 23-kilometre four-lane highway from Paengaroa in my electorate to the electorate of Tony Ryall and to Te Maunga in the electorate of the hard-working Minister Simon Bridges. The $567 million for that road in 2015 costs will produce a return— 
Sue Moroney 
: What a waste. 
TODD McCLAY 
: The member opposite says what a waste. “What a waste.” she said. The return journey will be reduced by 24 minutes. The road was started in 2011. It will be finished by 2016. What that means—to the member opposite who occasionally shows up in the Bay of Plenty and who says what a waste of money—is that all of the things that we produce all of those trees all of those other things will be delivered to our port more quickly so that those businesses can be more productive so that they can sell them overseas and be more competitive. They will reinvest that money in jobs. I say to that member opposite who lives somewhere near Hamilton who has no idea about this important road in the Bay of Plenty and backing the people of the Bay of Plenty that this is a Government focused on the big picture.