Goodhew Jo: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goodhew Jo: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3147. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon JO GOODHEW (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector) 
: 
 This afternoon we have heard about seeds of doubt. We have heard about kernels of confusion. I am going to talk about firm resolve and it is the firm resolve of this Government. We need to build a more competitive and productive economy based on savings and investment and to move away from the debt borrowed from foreign lenders. It seems really really strange to me that there are members in this House who still do not get that. We see on television most nights a whole new set of disasters around the world based on the economies in particular in Europe and elsewhere. When we see those disasters there is just a bit of an inkling amongst some New Zealanders that maybe we should feel quite proud of ourselves and quite insulated from that. But no New Zealand should not feel insulated from that and one way of protecting ourselves and of increasing the insulation is to protect ourselves from more debt. 
Our mixed-ownership policy is part of a wider economic programme to reduce debt to increase savings and to get our country through what has been one of the worst economic crises in 100 years. It is also very much an integral part of our 120-point post-election plan. Again I want to repeat the most important factor in there: the National Government does not want to increase debt. 
Our plan to introduce the mixed-ownership model was a fulsome one. We are not going to be accused of treachery which saw Labour dumped out of office—and we have heard Mr Mallard talk about it today—after selling too many assets. As Trevor Mallard reminded the House this afternoon MPs lost their seats and the public of New Zealand were appalled. The main reason they were appalled was that they were not consulted. That is very very different from what has happened in this case. 
Our fulsome plan involved 10 long months of campaigning on what we were going to do. We spelt it out time and time again. We said we would go and seek a mandate. What more can you do than to say that that is what you plan to do? And what better result can you get than 47.5 percent of the population saying: “Well we might be a bit uncomfortable about it but the National Party has got the right plan for New Zealand. We like it more than anyone else’s.”? Anyone who doubts that should go and look at the election day results of the other parties and see whether any of them came anywhere close. There was 10 long months of campaigning 10 long months of asking for a mandate and what did we get? We got 47.5 percent. 
Unfortunately there are still people out there in New Zealand who believe the title of “asset sales”. You will never see or hear Opposition members describing it as a mixed-ownership model because that does not suit them. You see members on that side of the House actually quite like mixed-ownership models. They introduced them. Let me give as an example the Rt Hon Winston Peters who just happened to sign the prospectus for the shares in Auckland International Airport. He is now calling mixed-ownership models “treacherous” but he seems to have quite a short-term memory given that he signed as Deputy Prime Minister that prospectus for a mixed-ownership model. 
There are other really good examples of mixed-ownership models that probably have been supported by the Opposition including the Port of Tauranga. Air New Zealand was another one. In fact it probably pays right now to again look at what we will gain by going down this track: avoiding debt. I come back to my principal point: this is about avoiding more debt. There will be a broader pool of investments for New Zealand savers; deeper capital markets; money for 21st century schools hospitals and priority infrastructure; and less exposure to debt and volatile markets—I will say it again. It is more of a successful mixed-ownership model as evidenced by the success of Air New Zealand of Auckland International Airport and of the Port of Tauranga. 
There will be—and this is a personal favourite of mine—up to $400 million as equity investment in irrigation projects. That is a very personal favourite for someone coming from Canterbury.