Parker David: Regulatory Reform (Repeals) Bill — First Reading 
Parker David: Regulatory Reform (Repeals) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:670;Page:16912] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 Of course the member who has just taken his seat Tim Macindoe has not done anything to answer the criticisms that were made by the Hon Lianne Dalziel. The reality is that this separate bill the Regulatory Reform (Repeals) Bill has one operative clause clause 3 which is seven words long. It states: “The Acts specified in the Schedule are repealed.” That is all this bill does. It states: “The Acts specified in the Schedule are repealed.” Lianne Dalziel was quite right to point out that we passed a regulatory reform bill earlier this week that could have included that phrase and repealed this list of old statutes which do need to be repealed in that regulatory reform bill. The fact that it was not included in that bill is a nonsense. It is a colossal waste of money. We know that the cost of each separate Act of Parliament that is passed in this Parliament runs to many hundreds of thousands of dollars. We are unnecessarily adding to that cost to taxpayers. So although Labour agrees that there are old Acts on the books that ought not to live there any longer and ought to be killed off and that can simply be done by a phrase that long we do not agree that it should be a separate Act of Parliament. 
I also want to talk a little further about why that is given that it is so patently unnecessary for this to be done in a separate Act of Parliament and so patently wastes the time not just of Cabinet but of this Parliament and of select committees. Why is the Government organising its programme in this way? It is patently clear: it has no economic programme to bring before the House. It is not busying itself with the things it needs to do as a Government to take New Zealand from its double-dip recession and to improve our economy. 
In this country over 100000 people are unemployed now and we are entering into a second recession—a double-dip recession. We are one of the few countries in the Western World that is experiencing a double-dip recession. It plainly is National’s recession. It cannot duck responsibility for this one. It cannot blame it on Australia. It cannot blame it on China. It cannot blame it on the rest of the world. It cannot blame it even on the previous Labour Government which it has tried to do. It is National’s recession and National’s responsibility. Why is this Government playing around with parliamentary processes wasting taxpayers’ money and the time of Parliament and the executive with a bill like this one when there are serious things that need to be addressed in this country? 
The reality is that we know from those who are regular followers of Parliament on radio or from those who sit on the Opposition benches that it is patently clear now that the Government does not have an adequate plan to deal with the challenges that the country faces. It has given up on some of the promises that it was elected on. One of National’s core promises at the last election was that it was going to close the wage gap between New Zealand and Australia. Having promised that the Minister for Economic Development Gerry Brownlee halfway through last year made a fool of himself by saying that the Government was achieving that. The Prime Minister dug a hole for himself by saying that yes he agreed. But we unpicked that in Parliament. All of the analysts and journalists agreed that the Opposition was right that rather than that gap narrowing it was broadening and it continues to broaden. 
Chris Hipkins 
: They’ve caught up with unemployment though. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Oh yes that is true. The only thing we have caught up with Australia on and in fact surpassed it is the unemployment rate. But in terms of the growing wage gap between Australia and New Zealand the Government has not caused it to narrow. It has not even caused it to stabilise. It is growing. 
On the back of that we have tried to pin the Government to some milestones whereby the Government would be judged as to whether by its own measure it was succeeding or failing and it has dodged that. The Government has said that that is a target for 2025 by which time its members will all be retired or will have been retired by the electors. Such a meaningless target that is so far out is something that the Government tries not be judged upon. 
Let us look at what other things the Government promised which it should be focusing on instead of focusing on this completely unnecessary bill that could have been included in another bill that we considered just 2 days ago. The Government was promising a step change in the New Zealand economy. It said that a step change in the New Zealand economy was necessary in order to amongst other things bridge the ever-growing wage gap under this Government between wages and salaries earned in Australia and in New Zealand. Well that phrase has dropped from its vocabulary. If we were to look at the election material provided for the last election campaign we would find that National had promised a step change in the New Zealand economy. The National Government even kept up with that language until the middle of last year. It was on its publications and on its website. The Government said it was seeking a step change in the New Zealand economy. Well now that the Government has taken us back into another recession that phrase also has dropped out of its vocabulary. It is no longer talking— 
Chris Hipkins 
: We’re stepping in one direction but it’s not the direction they promised. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Well certainly we are taking a step backwards. It is a step change in the New Zealand economy but in the wrong direction. It certainly is not a step change in the direction of the New Zealand economy that will cause more people to get jobs and incomes to rise. 
If we reflect on what is left in the Government’s armoury when it comes to economic policy other than this meaningless regulatory reform bill which repeals Acts that are already irrelevant anyway we find that the cupboard is just about bare. There is no significant policy. The Government has always been a single-focus party which is tax cuts. That is all it understands. It thinks that tax cuts are an economic policy. Tax policy is an important part of economic policy but it is just a part. The Government does not yet seem to understand that reality. So that is why rather than dealing with all of the other things outside of tax policy that are so important and need to be done this Parliament instead is considering this largely irrelevant legislation. 
We know that the Government’s tax policy has increased inequalities in New Zealand. We know that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have both said in the last month that one of the problems in the world that threatens both civil order in a lot of countries and economic progress is the growing gap between the rich and the poor. When the gap becomes as large as it is in New Zealand and in a lot of other Western countries the economy does not grow as fast. This Government in respect of just about its only economic plank which is tax cuts has made that worse in New Zealand by so unfairly weighting the income tax cuts to those who are already best off. In fact over 40 percent of the income tax cuts made by this Government have gone to the top 10 percent of income earners. 
This Government is bereft of ideas to get New Zealand moving again. It is not doing much. It says it has spent a bit on infrastructure and that is true; it is also true that it is not really spending much more on infrastructure than was spent by the outgoing Labour Government. 
Hon John Carter 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have been listening to the address from this member and I have to say that the bill is about regulatory reform yet most of his speech has been about economics and the Government’s economic policy. As a point of relevance I suggest to you Mr Assistant Speaker Barker that we bring him back to the bill. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: To be fair the member has referred to the bill on regular occasions has referred to regulatory reform and has referred to matters that the Government could have been doing in addition to this. So the member has not been entirely off the topic. But the point is well made. We are discussing the Regulatory Reform (Repeals) Bill. Members are entitled to draw on other things but not to rely on them entirely. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: As I have said previously the Government has often said that one of the important things to get this economy moving is regulatory reform. It has rattled on about how if we change the Resource Management Act the economy will go faster and how if we improved regulation it would somehow significantly improve our economy. That was one part of its plan. The other part of its plan was tax cuts. 
I know that Mr Carter does not like to hear the message I have been giving to the House. He tries to stop me repeating it because it resonates with a lot of people who have become unemployed and people whose incomes are languishing compared with Australia. The message is that the plan that National says it stands for which is regulatory reform and lower taxes does not cut the mustard. It does not do it especially when we know that most people overall are worse off after the so-called tax switch and only a very small percentage at the top are significantly better off as a consequence of the tax changes. The vast majority of people also know that as a consequence of the failure to get this economy running properly and as a consequence of borrowing for tax cuts the Government’s finances are not in as good shape as they would otherwise be. 
New Zealand is not yet in a parlous state in terms of the Government accounts because of course the incoming National Government inherited very low Government debt by world standards. In fact net Government debt was at virtually zero—one of the lowest rates in the Western World. But it means that the economy is performing less well than it ought to and it means that now over 100000 people are unemployed. A very significant proportion of our young people once they leave school are going into unemployment. They are not going into training; they are going into unemployment living off a benefit and becoming disenchanted. Sadly they are becoming unmotivated which will present future social problems for New Zealand. It is one of the reasons New Zealanders are leaving in almost unprecedented numbers every week to go to Australia—so much so that Julia Gillard on her visit to New Zealand this week said that she views New Zealand as a worthy place of well-trained well-educated people who go and make Australia wealthy. This bill is a smokescreen for the lack of progress made by the Government.