Goldsmith Paul: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoldsmith Paul: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19052. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL GOLDSMITH (Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee):Well we have certainly seen a vision of the proposed new Government. First we had David Parker saying that there is no problem in the world that cannot be solved by a capital gains tax. Then we had Russel Norman who wants higher wages but who has no solution other than higher taxes and somehow that that is going to lead to higher wages. And then we had Mr Williams who gave us a lecture on economics and said that we should be borrowing more in order to invest in the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. So why do you not just go out and borrow $100 billion and put it all in the New Zealand Superannuation Fund if that is such a sensible idea? I do not think many households go out borrowing money to put it on to the stock exchange. It is not very sensible. I only wonder what Hone Harawira and Kim Dotcom would add to this mix in a proposed new Government.This has been a successful Budget that has seen the finances of the country restored. It has seen 3.8 percent growth in the year to March which is the third-highest among the OECD countries. It has seen average wages rising faster than inflation. It has seen 84000 new jobs being created and this is a result of 6 years of working for New Zealand. The question that New Zealanders will ask is: “Well what is next? Who do you trust best to carry on the good work?”. I expect from National—if we are fortunate enough to get more time in Government—an extension of the strong stable predictable Government that has generated confidence in this economy over the past few years. It is confidence that leads to investment it is investment that leads to jobs and it is jobs that lead to higher living standards for all New Zealand families. That is what we want to see.So what we will continue to see is more disciplined spending such as we have seen over the last few years and in this Budget. We will see a continued effort to build a stronger and more competitive economy that underscores the living standards that we all hope to enjoy—and the Business Growth Agenda is the core source of direction in that area—investment in infrastructure such as in regional roads which is opposed all the time by the Greens; and investment in skills. There is no better way to solve worries about inequality than by ensuring that everybody has access to a quality education system and that involves good quality teachers and investment in good quality teachers. It involves trade access and it amazes me that the Greens are opposed to free-trade agreements all the time. New Zealand has benefited enormously from the free-trade agreement with China and I was glad that Labour stood for that back then. Nobody is quite sure where it stands now.Capital markets—increasing the depth and variety of capital markets in New Zealand and that has been greatly assisted through the share programme that we have had in the past 3 years. Natural resources—it was amazing to see that all the Opposition parties were opposed even to collecting the dead trees from the forests that had been blown over in the wind. That seems to epitomise their attitude towards making use of natural resources in this country. Finally the sixth area of the Business Growth Agenda is innovation where this Government has been pouring huge resources into ensuring that New Zealand companies have access to skilled and innovative people and that we support them in their work in research and development to grow their businesses to employ more New Zealanders and to create more wealthy New Zealand families.The other thing that we have been focusing on and that I expect we will continue to work on is getting better results from the investment that the Government makes in public services. We have seen that through much higher immunisation rates. We have seen a massive reduction in teen pregnancy which will see much reduced costs over the length of time in the area of welfare and it will also see many New Zealand families avoiding the problems that have been created through unwanted teen pregnancies. In the welfare area through the investment approach when we see what the expectations were around the cost of welfare back in 2008 we have lowered that by more than $1 billion and that has led to more New Zealand families seeing the benefit of work and being encouraged into work.Another area which I have heard about for as long as I can remember is the need to ensure that prisoners who are suffering from drug or alcohol addictions are getting access to programmes to improve that situation. This Government again has massively increased the number of programmes available for prisoners.So it is about doing the job of Government well working out what the key drivers—