Carter John: Industry New Zealand and Trade New Zealand Integration Bill — First Reading 
Carter John: Industry New Zealand and Trade New Zealand Integration Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4355] 
JOHN CARTER (NZ National—Northland) 
: 
 It is always disappointing when the senior Government Whip takes a call then does not make a contribution. I must say it is rather sad. I am not quite sure where he got the precedent from but it is a pity that— 
David Benson-Pope 
: You have a meeting too. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Mr Brownlee will be going to that. What worries me with this bill—and it has worried a number of previous speakers—is that here we are fiddling while Rome burns and although we might want to discuss the issue of the integration of Industry New Zealand and Trade New Zealand I would have thought that the Government would want to spend more time on issues of the economy and what is happening to New Zealand. This bill will not help the New Zealand economy which is now in a slow-down. This bill which is bringing two Government departments together will not change the confidence of New Zealand and New Zealand businesses and that is a real worry to us. We should all be concerned about that. 
I wish that the Minister when he made his address had told us how this bill will change the latest Colmar Brunton poll which showed that 18 percent of respondents believe that the economy will deteriorate in 12 months. I wonder why the Minister when he was making his introductory remarks on this bill did not bother to tell the House how the bill will make a difference to the confidence of New Zealand. I wonder why he did not tell us why the Westpac McDermott Miller Consumer Confidence Index is showing that a net 6 percent of respondents are now pessimistic and expect New Zealand to get into bad economic times. I wonder why the Minister did not bother to address that aspect and tell us how this bill will make a difference to the New Zealand economy. 
I wonder why the Minister when he was telling us about the Industry New Zealand and Trade New Zealand Integration Bill did not talk about the dairy industry and the fact that prices in New Zealand are down— 
Brian Connell 
: Through the floor. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Through the floor—worse than in Australia. We have gone from I think $5.30 a kilo last season to less than $3.60. In fact it is still going down. How come the Minister did not bother to tell us about that? What will this Government do about those economic indicators I wonder. He did not mention anything about how this bill will help the economy and nobody in this House certainly on this side believes that it actually will. Not one of the speeches I have heard including those from United Future has actually said that this bill will make the economy better. 
We would have thought that the Government would want to concentrate on the economy but no not this Minister. He is more worried about playing with the bureaucracy. I wonder why he did not mention the droughts and the impacts they will have? What about the energy crisis? Surely the Minister would have wanted to address that when he was telling us how this bill will make the country go better. Not on your nelly! There was not one word about the energy crisis. I would have thought that the Minister given that he is a long-serving member of this House would tell us how this bill will fix the energy crisis. But no there was not a sausage not one word on it. That is the problem with this Government. So many bad things are happening around the country and the whole issue of the economy is an example. Everybody in this House knows that the economy is on its way down. We all know that during the last 3 years when we had a real cakewalk the Government has been lucky. We know that the economy is going down the tubes and what does this Minister do? He brings in a bill that amalgamates a couple of departments. 
Well that sure as heck is not going to fix anything and it is a real problem that we have. This bill will not address the problem with the economy. What is more I have to wonder what the bill actually will do. The Minister has talked about his work with regard to regional development. Indeed in his speech he has told us that things are going well as far as regional development is concerned. Actually it is an abject failure. I would love the Minister to stand here and rattle off the names of the people and the businesses that have actually benefited from his policies with regard to regional development because boy are they hard to find! They are hard to find because he has got the whole policy set wrong. 
What happens is that people come to him and say: “Got a great idea. Need some support. Need your help Jim.” Then Mr Anderton says: “Yep that sounds all right.” He puts their names in a hat gives it a shake around and draws one out or a couple or two or three by whatever criteria and gives them a few dollars to get started. Those people get on their way. When they have been going for 12 months and things are looking pretty good they may find however that they need a bit more help because often these things do not happen in just 2 minutes. They may take 4 or 5 years to get on their way and get going. So those people come back to him the next year and say: “Look we’re ready to do the next step. We need a hand here. Can you give us a bit more help?” Not this Minister not his department and not his regional development policies. They do not make things work at all. In fact they say to those people: “No sorry. We gave you some last year. There are others who need help now. You’ll have to be on your own.” The point is why did he ever start? 
Hon Annette King 
: Keep writing your speech. 
JOHN CARTER 
: No this is just a little side issue. If this Minister is not going to see a project through he should not start it. All he is doing is building up people’s hopes and aspirations then we find that they are dashed. I have come across so many projects so many people who have started off with good ideas and who have had some help from this Minister and this Government—the “Helen Clark minority supported by Jim Anderton—” 
Jill Pettis 
: And socialist. 
JOHN CARTER 
: —the “Socialist Helen Clark – led Jim Anderton – supported Minority Government”—only to find those hopes dashed. Even people in Meremere cannot get any assistance. Jim Anderton has failed. Indeed he will come down to the House at some stage—no doubt he is listening on his crystal set to this speech—and he will come bowling in here and say: “That member should talk to the leaders of Northland. They will tell the member what a good job I am doing. They will tell him how regional development is helping Northland.” I can tell the House that they would not say that now. They were supportive at the beginning and I must say that it looked good. When Jim Anderton made the announcements I said to him: “Good on you. If you’re going to help Northland I’m right behind you. I’ll help you even though I’m in Opposition. If you have got a good idea we will use it in Northland.” Well sadly I have been misled and the people of Northland have been misled. The leaders the mayors and the regional council chairmen have all been misled. They have now got to the stage where they are so cynical that they do not want a bar of what he is doing. I have to say that it is a great shame that the Minister has not gone about and done the job that he said he would. 
I want to mention briefly an organisation I went and saw the other day and I suggest to my colleague Brian Connell and others that they also go and look at it. I am talking about the Methodist Employment Generation Fund. I tell members that those people are doing what Jim Anderton should be doing. That organisation is picking up people who need a bit of a hand and it stays with them until it gets them on their feet. It is there for 2 3 or 4 years if people need it to be—and boy is it making things work! We do not need to develop anything new. Quite honestly what we need is already here. We need to take a leaf out of that organisation’s book. If we did we would have some proper regional development. If members want to know about it they should come and get the address from me. I will happily give members the names of those people and they can go and have a look. 
Finally there is one more thing I want to say. Yet again I am appalled by the way this Government rams legislation through select committees. I sit on the Business Committee. In fact I should be there right now talking about the issues of the House. Most members of the Business Committee know that the Government constantly passes resolutions stating that a bill is to come back to the House in 6 weeks 2 months or whatever and that after a certain length of time there is a request for an extension because the select committee could not get the bill through on time. I say to the House that I bet that the Commerce Committee does not have a bolter’s hope of getting this bill back in a month’s time. I say to members that they should not support the motion stating that the bill be reported back in a month’s time. Members should not do that because this bill will end up like every other bill that this Government says should have a short life at a select committee—that is the Business Committee will be addressing the question of an extension of time. It is not right and proper that a select committee should be expected to deal with an issue in a month. I know that there might be a whole lot of budgetary factors and so on around this matter but the Government should have planned its legislative programme a lot better. It is not right to ask this House to support something that will not work and we will vote against that aspect.