Goldsmith Paul: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoldsmith Paul: General Debate[Sitting date: 26 August 2015. Volume:708;Page:6170. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs): It is my pleasure to be speaking today. I have been watching developments over in the UK Labour Party with interest. Having failed with the union darling Ed Miliband at the last election and having veered to the left it now looks likely to choose as its new leader Jeremy Corbyn who is an unreconstructed lefty who believes in massive taxes on entrepreneurs in nationalising industry and that no problem can be solved except by spending more money. So it will be very interesting to see the chaos that unfolds over in the UK when that happens.Actually the same sort of thing is happening at the momentin the US Democratic Party where we have got an elderly gentleman from Vermont Bernie Sanders who is a representative of the far left of the Democratic Party and who is looking like he may cause some trouble for Hillary Clinton. I see the recipe for disaster that lies ahead because a majority of voters in those places recognise that the world is connected that the world is a competitive place and that countries cannot expect to prosper to generate the sorts of incomes that people want and to create jobs if they refuse to face reality or if they build walls and expect to tax and spend.So when we come to the New Zealand situation we see that the New Zealand Labour Party has been ahead of the international trend. Originally it started off with Phil Goff who shared his centre-right credentials as leader roared from the left and came a cropper in 2011. Then we had Mr Shearer another good centre-right sort of person originally who shifted massively to the left as leader and came a cropper. He was replaced by Mr Cunliffe who also came a cropper from the left. And now the unions have installed their selected candidate in the form of Andrew Little. The funny thing though and the difference in what we hear in the rhetoric coming from the Labour Party in New Zealand is that it has not really promised anything actually in terms of what it would do or what it would not do in terms of where it is coming from. Whether it is going to be a reformer or whether it is going to be veering to the left or to the right we are not actually clear. All that Labour members actually do is pick a few complaints. But people can see their intent and they know that their intent is likely to be one that veers off in a different direction.It is not surprising that we are already seeing speculation rising about new options in that party and we look down the front bench and we sort of see who has been making an impact and who has not. One of the preparations presumably for being the Leader of the Opposition is to be effective in holding the Government to account. You will run down the front bench and you will struggle to find anybody in that category but we look forward to the opportunity to continue to engage.What New Zealanders know is that this Government has been working to a sensible plan in a challenging world and it is a plan that is working. It does not make us immune to the ups and downs and the hurly-burly of the global markets. We do have to deal with what we have got in international terms but it does put this country in a stronger position than so many around us and it puts us in a strong position to respond to whatever comes our way. The fact that we are still growing at around 2 percent and have good growth in this economy the fact that we are still creating jobs the fact that we are on track to surplus—we may well be in surplus; we will find out in the next few months—give us fiscal headroom if we need it. We also have room on interest rates. We are not down at 0 percent interest rates. We have not been printing money. This economy has got through a very difficult period. We have been disciplined in our spending—very disciplined about new money in every Budget for the last six Budgets. We are back on track and we now have the capability to respond if and when and as the situation arises.In my area I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that next week will be Money Week. The Commission for Financial Capability is going to be holding a nationwide awareness-raising week aimed at changing behaviour around personal finance. That is a very important issue for all of us in New Zealand. There is no part of New Zealand that could not benefit from thinking and talking about its money skills and looking to improve them and from having a national conversation about getting our money fighting fit which is the tag line or theme for the year. We will kick off with an event at Britomart in Auckland this Monday where I will be and we will be talking about whether it is trimming debt building savings or just getting money matters in order and on the table and discussing them that is very important for New Zealand. It is part of a wider effort by this Government to encourage New Zealanders to think about improving their money skills and to strengthen financial markets generally.