Joyce Steven: General Debate 
Joyce Steven: General Debate 
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Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 Aside from the dubious maths that we hear from members on the other side of the House can we just have a look at what they have been spending their time on over the last several weeks in the House. They have spent a lot of time on who attends select committees which is a very important topic of discussion. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Why don’t you look us in the eyes Mr Joyce? That’s right; we’re the Opposition. Here we are. We’re just here. Look at us. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I know the members over there are trying to make themselves relevant but it involves more than Mr Cunliffe waving his arms around. They have been twittering away and focusing on who attends select committees making mountains out of molehills about Government procedures and most of all mourning the loss of their own poorly performing programmes. Opposition members spend a lot of time mourning the loss of their own programmes. We get a lot of that in question time. They ask: “How could you possibly change this programme?”. They do that all the time. But what do we hear about the big issues? What do we hear about getting ourselves out of the decade of deficits they left us with? The answer is absolutely nothing. What do we hear about improving productivity? What do we hear about that? We hear absolutely nothing. What do we hear about improving our foreign exchange deficit? We hear absolutely nothing. All we get is a list of programmes that they may or may not support. 
Opposition members have also made statements on the tax package—either: “It is not enough.” “Why are you borrowing to cut taxes?” “I personally support it.” “The tax cuts should be cancelled.” “We need more fiscal stimulus.” or it is: “You need to show more responsibility.” Which statement on reducing taxes so that people can work hard and get ahead is the one Opposition members believe? They do not have a position. 
Do they have a position on the 9-day working fortnight? Yes they oppose that I think. Do they have a position on the tourism initiative—the cycleway? They are not sure; they are still thinking about that. Sometimes it is OK; sometimes it is not so good. What about the ReStart package? They oppose it. What about short-term infrastructure funding? They are not really sure about that; they have not been able to count it yet but they mostly oppose it. What about personal tax rates? We have been there. They are opposed to them; maybe they are in favour of them; they are not really sure. They ask for more fiscal stimulus or maybe not. 
What about helping small businesses with the small to medium sized enterprise package? There may be a little bit of support for that. They are not really sure about that one. They think they might have done something along those lines themselves but they cannot really remember. What about transport infrastructure? They oppose it I think. What about broadband infrastructure? They say it is not enough or it is too much. I think David Cunliffe said it was too much and Clare Curran said it was not enough. What about reforming the Resource Management Act? Labour members supported the introduction of the bill to reform that Act. It will be interesting to see whether they will actually get us to the end. What about moving public resources into front-line services? They definitely oppose it. 
These are all things that will help to improve New Zealand’s productivity. My question for Opposition members is that if they oppose most of those things what are they actually proposing to solve their own decade of deficits that they left the Government with when they left power? Or will they be obsessed with trivia over the next 6 months? Will they spend their time dealing with a whole lot of stuff that is not relevant and talking all the time about who attends select committees and who does not which the public of New Zealand do not care about? The public of New Zealand want to know how the New Zealand economy is going to grow stronger and how it will grow more quickly out of the global recession we are in. In order for that to happen they will want to know how we will improve the country’s productivity. That is what members of the public need to know but we hear absolutely nothing at all from Opposition members on those topics. 
My challenge for the next speaker who might be the Hon David Cunliffe is to tell us which of the initiatives that I have just listed they are prepared to support and if there are not any then where the initiatives are that they are prepared to support. Where are Labour’s solutions on productivity? Where are Labour’s solutions on improving our balance of payments deficit? Where are Labour’s solutions on encouraging growth? We need to know and the country needs to know and until Labour members come up with some solutions instead of twittering away on a whole bunch of irrelevant trivial stuff then the country will continue to ignore them. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.