Whaitiri Meka: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWhaitiri Meka: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2941. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti):Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Tēnā tātou katoa. I am pleased to take part in this debate on the Government’s economic performance for the 2013-14 year. As I listened to the debates in the Committee today I was thinking there were going to be some sparkles or some great trumpets playing from that side of the Chamber to celebrate what a rock star economy this is. But alas I heard nothing. In fact I wonder whether members on that side of the Chamber are actually doing our job for us by underselling their own economic performance.For two elections now National has promised a surplus in its financial year. National has made it a centrepiece of its bid for re-election and it is set to break that promise yet again. It is not good enough for the Prime Minister John Key to claim that a surplus is an artificial target. Today in this Chamber I heard the Hon Bill English in response to a question from our finance spokesperson create a new way of saying that we cannot predict and that figures are just artificial targets and are not something that we should actually achieve. It is interesting to note that the Government was predicting a half-billion dollar surplus which is now a half-billion dollar deficit. The current projections for 2015-16 are also for a half-billion dollar surplus. The question I pose is whether we can believe that that will actually be reached.The numbers around National’s debt are extraordinary. It has borrowed a million dollars an hour in gross terms since coming into office. The debt has grown so much that this year the Government is spending over $10 million a day on interest payments. Remember that when we tried to pass the “Feed the Kids Bill” the Government’s response was that it was unaffordable. This Government has run up more gross debt as a percentage of the economy than any other New Zealand Government since the Forbes Government in the 1930s.Much of the debt that National took on was unavoidable. We do not begrudge it having to pay for the recession and the Canterbury earthquakes but the Government has wasted billions—it has wasted billions. The tax cuts to the top 10 percent have cost about $5 billion. The asset sales cost which increases with every dividend is nearing $1 billion. The corporate bailouts and handouts to South Canterbury Finance AMI Rio Tinto Skycity Oracle etc. run into billions of dollars. But what has National achieved with all this borrowing? There has been 1 year of decent growth—we will give it that—which is quickly coming off the boil. Unemployment is still hovering near 6 percent. Wages are stagnant. Regions are going backwards and I will touch on that shortly. Families are in poverty and there is a shortage of decent housing for families in need. There are not enough houses for families to buy at a price that ordinary people can afford. National has borrowed more than any Government in 80 years. It has imposed a huge interest burden on future Governments and has nothing to show for it except a trail of broken promises.National’s economic plan is quite a basic plan. It is to make more milk it is to export logs and it is to find oil. That plan is seriously under threat.The Government is not delivering the economic benefits out to the regions. I come from a region of the East Coast. I travelled around the East Coast like many do during the adjournment. I had some colleagues of mine in Gisborne and we met with the Gisborne District Council. One of the biggest issues for it is roading. There is a huge gap in investment from this Government into roading in the regions. The council for instance is having to bridge that gap. If the economy is doing as well as we hear it is from that side of the Chamber then why are we not investing in infrastructure.