Bishop Chris: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBishop Chris: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2954. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS BISHOP (National):I want to focus my remarks on two particular aspects of the debate so far—that is firstly on science and innovation and secondly on internationalisation. It relates to the foreign affairs component of the debate we are having today and the Government’s financial statements. The story of the New Zealand economy and of successive New Zealand Governments really over the last 30 years is of the internationalisation of the New Zealand economy which is an increasing recognition firstly—to be fair to Labour—by the fourth Labour Government and then by Governments from that point that New Zealand cannot sit down at the bottom of the world and insulate itself from global economic trends and from a market economy and cannot put up barriers behind which the New Zealand economy should stand. The future of the New Zealand economy is one that is globally competitive and that is based on price competition where we try to produce goods and services that the rest of the world wants and where we try to be open and accessible to the rest of the world not only in terms of people moving to New Zealand but also in terms of capital that they bring with them.This Government has been very focused on continuing along that path that successive New Zealand Governments have gone on because the future for New Zealand is one where we are increasingly internationalised. That is why this Government is so focused on things like free-trade agreements. We have signed a closer economic partnership with Taiwan. It is why we are so focused—including in the Budget statements that we are talking about and no doubt in the Budget coming up—on concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. It is a real shame in some ways that really the only party that has a wholehearted and fully fledged commitment to free trade in this Parliament these days is the National Party and the National-led Government. A Trans-Pacific Partnership deal where we can sell more of our goods and services to some of those countries on the Pacific Rim with us like the United States and like some of the countries in Asia would absolutely be in our national interest and I believe that we need to continue down that path. We need to continue to open up markets overseas like where the Prime Minister is at the moment with the Gulf Cooperation Council.Another important thing that the Budget in 2013-14 gave effect to was an increased drive by this Government for international education so we are bringing more international students to New Zealand but also having New Zealand universities do more offshore to earn revenue for New Zealand. For me it is not so much about the revenue that international education brings into our universities although no doubt that is important and we do have a drive as a Government to get that revenue up and to double it by 2025. Actually it is more important than that. It is about the people-to-people links that New Zealand students create when they go offshore. It is about sending New Zealand students into China into Viet Nam and into those ASEAN countries to learn more about those countries and it is about bringing those students from Saudi Arabia and from Vietnam and from—Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Members the House is in Committee on the Appropriations (2013/14 Confirmation and Validation) Bill and the question before us is that the reports of the Committee relevant to services for business—accident compensation commerce and consumer affairs customs economic development foreign affairs and trade immigration labour science and innovation and tourism—be noted. Before the dinner break Chris Bishop was speaking and he has 1 minute and 53 seconds remaining.CHRIS BISHOP: I am delighted to take this 1 minute and 53 seconds. When I was speaking before the dinner break I was talking about the importance to New Zealand of international education and making the point that it is not just about the revenue that New Zealand universities and the New Zealand economy gets from international students coming to New Zealand but it is about the building of those people-to-people links that New Zealand gets. Ultimately I think in the longer term that will be the best effect of this Government’s very focused drive to increase international education. It is a good thing that we have Indian students coming to New Zealand it is a good thing that we have Chinese students coming and it is a good thing that we have students from Chile—which Minister Joyce just announced the other day—coming to study in New Zealand secondary schools and universities because ultimately New Zealand’s future is one that is internationally connected in a globally connected economy.I also flagged at the start that I wanted to talk about science and innovation. That is something that I as a resident of the Hutt Valley and a list MP based in that area feel very strongly about because the Hutt Valley is really making a name for itself as a place and a destination built on science innovation maths engineering and manufacturing. In fact in just a couple of months we have the very first inaugural Hutt Valley STEMM Festival—science technology engineering maths and manufacturing. I am really looking forward to that and the first inaugural Technology Valley Awards. This Government has placed a real emphasis on science and innovation. We have Callaghan Innovation based right in the Hutt Valley.We have also placed an emphasis on things like information and communications graduate schools. We heard talk earlier from a Green Party member about how the Government is not investing in things like information and communications technology in fast-growing sectors of the New Zealand economy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Government’s $28.6 million investment in Budget 2013 and Budget 2014 in information and communications technology graduate schools is a testament to that commitment that we have to growing the high-tech sector of the New Zealand economy. I could go on. I could talk about things like our proposal to allow start-up firms to cash out their tax losses.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): I am going to call Sue Moroney.