Bayly Andrew: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBayly Andrew: General Debate[Sitting date: 06 April 2016. Volume:712;Page:10253. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): It has been a fascinating debate and gee I have got to say there have been some weird and wonderful things said but what I thought I might just concentrate on for a moment is talking about some of the good stuff. I thought I would just do a quick little whip-through—Dr David Clark: And that’s the end of your speech then?ANDREW BAYLY: —just for you Mr Clark. First of all 3 years ago we had an $18.4 billion deficit. Through the good work of the Minister of Finance we turned that into a half-billion-dollar surplus last year and of course we are hoping for a surplus this year knowing we have recorded a $900 million surplus at the end of January this year. Secondly we had a growth rate of 2.3 percent last year and we are forecasting—well actually Treasury is forecasting—a growth rate over the next 3 years of about 2.7 percent. Most economies around the world would love to have growth rates like that.Running surpluses means that we will be able to increase spending in those crucial areas like health like education and like security and of course it does mean that we can repay debt. Of course many people do not do the work on debt. They think New Zealand has a relatively high rate of debt which is of course totally incorrect. At the moment our debt to GDP ratio is 25.2 percent which is a very modest figure even compared with Australia and certainly miles below what the rates are in America and in England and Europe. Anyway we are aiming to get it to 20 percent by 2020.What I like is that we continue to invest this extra money we are generating into health care. Last year we put in another $400 million to take it to $15.9 billion the biggest vote item in our Budget. Then we put another $300 million into education taking that to $10.8 billion—lots more money into the important things that count. We are seeing also how this is flowing through into the economy—how businesses and how people working in jobs are benefiting. We are seeing manufacturing recording its 41st monthly increase in confidence and growth and we are also seeing the services sector which unfortunately this Opposition never seems to focus on and which by the way accounts for just under 70 percent of our economy growing at its strongest rate in the last 7 years. What it is also meaning coming down to the people working like all of us—the wage growth rate last year went up by 3.1 percent.Paul Foster-Bell: How much?ANDREW BAYLY: By 3.1 percent—wages increased by 3.1 percent even though we had inflation of only 0.1 percent. So wage earners are benefiting and that is the way it should be—that is the way it should be—because they are the hard-working people of New Zealand.One of the things I would like to just remind us of is how we continue to grow the economy. I would say that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement is an important ingredient. Of course we have got an Opposition that is vehemently opposed to it even though those members know in their heart of hearts that it is a great thing for New Zealand. What it does is it creates an immediate gain to all our businesses—our hard-working businesses—by accessing 42 percent of all the markets and people of the world and by reducing tariffs. So it does not mean any additional costs to export to somewhere like America if we are successful in getting the TPP agreement. What it means is that those companies that choose to redirect their exports to those markets will immediately benefit from it.I think these are the types of critical things that will help move New Zealand even faster forward than it currently is. I have got to say it has been a pretty good row to hoe up to today. Thank you very much.