Parker David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 23 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2321. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 I am going later in this contribution to respond to some of Dr Nick Smith’s comments but before then I think it is salutary to reflect on the fact that this Government keeps making promises that its management of the economy will deliver—it will deliver growth jobs and higher incomes—but it is not working and it has not worked. The Government keeps rolling out these same promises. It is time for New Zealand to stop talking about what National says it is going to do and start talking about what National is actually doing and what it is not achieving.  
Tomorrow it is going to roll out the same promises. David Shearer has already read out some of the repetitive promises that have never been kept by the Prime Minister John Key. I am going to make reference to some of the similar statements by the Minister of Finance because there are so many of them. They are legion.  
In the Budget last year the Minister of Finance promised “growth is forecast to reach 4% next year and the economy is forecast to create 170000 new jobs over the next four years.” Was that achieved? No that was not achieved. And that promise was made after the two major earthquakes in Christchurch and 3 years after the global financial crisis. Then he says in the pre-election fiscal update—of course this is in advance of the election; National was trying to gild the lily there—“At present export prices are high business confidence remains firm and the Rugby World Cup has provided some temporary support for consumption and for services exports.” The pre-election fiscal update had some promises as to growth in the economy and the debt track. Those forecasts did they come true? No they did not either.  
Then on page 2 of the Budget Executive Summary last year he had the heading “Achieving Higher and More Sustainable Growth”. I cannot believe the gall of that statement. After already 3 years’ oversight of poor economic growth National said we were achieving high and more sustainable growth. Instead we have had growth that turns out to be less than forecast. Over the period of National’s Government it has been the worst of the last 50 years. Then in the Budget speech he said that the economy has “in prospect the strongest growth for a decade”—another promise that is not being kept. Then he said that the previous year’s Budget supported jobs and economic growth. Well if that is right why did we not get jobs and economic growth instead of people going to Australia for jobs and insufficient economic growth here?  
Then he said: “New Zealand’s growth rate is accelerating”. But did it? No it did not. Then he said it was “expected to accelerate in the second half of 2011 and through 2012”. Has it? No. Then he said the underlying growth was anticipated alongside Christchurch’s rebuilding—i.e. there would be growth not just in Christchurch but elsewhere. Has there been? No. Then he says the “recovery in activity is now expected from mid-2011”—explaining further delays—“with economic growth rising to 1.8% in the year March 2012”. Did it? No. Then he said it would peak at 4 percent in the year to March 2013. Will it? No.  
This Government’s promises on growth are not worth the paper they are written on. The problem is that National’s big economic initiatives have been the Job Summit which produced a cycleway and mining in national parks which it abandoned. Then it would not agree on any step to close the wage gap with Australia but had some promise that it would cause a step change in the economy which has never happened and then smarting because of criticisms that it had no plan to grow the economy it came up with this ridiculous idea of selling off the State-owned enterprises which increases the Government deficit by $100 million per annum. As we have often said changing who owns what already exists does nothing to grow the economy. You do not get any more exports.  
The economy is not growing. Our export sector earns too little because we are narrow based. We have not got enough savings. Tax incentives go to the wrong place. Tough decisions are needed on all of these issues and National will not make any of them. So even if National limps back to surplus in 2014-15—and I think it will; we would too—it will not cure our fundamental problems because it has not rebalanced the economy. We need growth in jobs in exports and in GDP per capita and on these measures National has failed.