Gilmore Aaron: Westpac New Zealand Bill — Third Reading 
Gilmore Aaron: Westpac New Zealand Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:673;Page:19406] 
AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 I start off by pointing out some of the economic voodoo we always hear from the previous speaker Mr Nash. He is a good man on the footy field but he sometimes gets his facts a bit mixed up. I think he pointed out that there is only one bank that is Kiwi-owned in New Zealand and that is Kiwibank. But there are a number. There is TSB bank which some of the people I know pretty well bank with. There is the Southland Building Society down in the South Island. It is a fine institution registered in New Zealand. There are a number of other banks such as the Heartland bank which we saw in the paper today is forming itself as another New Zealand - owned bank. So there are actually a number of choices of Kiwi-owned banks out there for the people of New Zealand to invest in put their money in or borrow from. That has to be a good thing. We also heard that there is a shortage of people wanting to lend to businesses. Well I was walking down Lambton Quay at lunchtime to buy my sushi as I do every Wednesday and outside the Westpac branch on Lambton Quay I read: “If you are a business and you want to borrow money come in and talk to your local bank manager.” Just down Lambton Quay the Westpac bank—which this Westpac New Zealand Bill is all about—is willing to lend money to new businesses. I ask Mr Nash to go and talk to them learn a bit and find out what is actually happening in the real world. 
Westpac has been a wonderful bank and it has done some great things in my community in Christchurch. I will talk about one thing in particular which shows us what a great corporate citizen Westpac really is. Westpac has established something called the Westpac Business Hub which is a place for people to operate businesses whose premises were destroyed in the tragic earthquakes we have had in Christchurch. Businesses can operate from a conjoint area where people can share ideas. Westpac has done that almost free of charge. That just shows us what a wonderful corporate citizen Westpac has been following the earthquakes. It is not the only bank to do so; many other banks have done other similar very good things. But Westpac has gone out of its way to provide some extra resources. 
I will touch on the earlier speech by Rahui Katene and some of the issues she pointed out that her people and my people have encountered down in Christchurch. She pointed out some of the issues that have been encountered and she is right: many people have many issues at the moment down in Canterbury. Westpac itself has encountered many issues as well. Many people may not know but the Westpac Building down in Christchurch is one of the buildings that has been condemned and has to come down. It is one of the largest buildings in Christchurch and it is of architectural note. It has a very well-known long history in Canterbury. It used to be the headquarters for what was called Trust Bank Canterbury which was taken over by Westpac a number of years ago. It ended up moving its headquarters into what became the Westpac Building. It was a miracle that nobody was badly hurt in that building in the February earthquake. 
We heard from the Greens about the idea that we have to control and regulate banks to death. I think really the issue is that if we turn round and try to control monetary policy to the extent that the Greens want to undertake and put in place a regime they seem to talk about for a bank such as Westpac no one would be able to borrow because no one would be willing to lend. I just do not think that makes a lot of sense. We heard from Mr Parker earlier on about the great perils of monetary policy issues in relation to the dollar the monetary issues of banks and how evil banks are in this part of the world. I do not think that that is really appropriate because this bill is actually about something positive that we all support across this House. 
We heard from Mr Nash earlier about the idea that National will borrow large amounts of money. We are borrowing money. We are borrowing money there is no doubt to be able to keep people OK to take the sharpest edge off the recession and to be able to pay for what we are doing in Christchurch. This year we face a record deficit there is no doubt about it because we have had a series of disasters. Next year the deficit will be halved. The year after that the deficit will be halved again and the year after that we will be in surplus. That is due to good strong economic policy undertaken under this Government. The banking sector and banks like Westpac have a big part to play in that process in what they are lending. But Labour would borrow billions and billions more. We heard that Miss Moroney wants to spend another $500 million on early childhood education. That is fine. People over here want to spend more money on foreign missions. That is fine but there is no big money tree. We need to save more money. Westpac is one of the good banks that people can invest their money in. 
I will touch on one final point. One of the issues we seem to hear ad infinitum from the Opposition is in relation to investing more money into the productive sector. I sit in this House and hear Labour say that the rural sector in particular is not a productive part of New Zealand. Those members should go and tell that to the dairy farmers who work 70-hour weeks so that they can produce real foreign exchange to put into their bank accounts. They pay taxes to give benefits to the people of New Zealand. I say to members that that is a productive use of New Zealand savers’ capital. It is a productive business enterprise. We are lucky in New Zealand. We are Saudi Arabia in terms of milk. We produce more milk than any other place in the world. [ 
Interruption 
] It is white gold. We produce more milk than the rest of the world and it is a wonderful thing for us to be able to sell and make money—foreign exchange—to pay for the things we need to have. Many of those banking put their money in Westpac accounts which will not be touched or harmed by this bill. That has to be a good thing. I commend this bill to the House.