Norman Russel: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Norman Russel: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 25 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:3902. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 E te Mangai o te Whare tena koe. Over the weekend Government Minister after Government Minister was rolled out at the National Party conference to attack the Greens. Either National members have nothing to say about their own economic achievement or they must be pretty scared of the support the Greens are getting to have spent so much time at their conference attacking us—or maybe both are true. Although National likes to talk up its economic management it has actually bungled its way through the past 4 years. Under its watch debt has skyrocketed and many New Zealanders have lost their jobs. National came into office with zero net Government debt and it is now $40 billion—that is right billion—in the hole. That is the biggest borrowing binge in New Zealand’s history. 
We hear a lot of excuses from National about the difficult financial times but what exactly has been National’s brilliant economic response? It decided to borrow $2 billion to give tax cuts to the rich it is borrowing another $1.5 billion to subsidise polluters and it is splurging $12 billion on economically irrational motorways. National oversaw 63000 more Kiwis lose their jobs. Unemployment is increasing under National. National believes that GDP growth is the be-all and end-all but it continually misses its Budget growth targets. Let us be clear about this: John Key has overseen the worst economic growth record in at least half a century. 
 What National is scared of is that the Green Party offers a serious alternative. Our smart Green economics plan is jobs rich innovative environmentally sustainable New Zealand - owned and long term. The UK’s biggest business lobby group the Confederation of British Industry has just released a report showing the billions of dollars that green growth can add to the economy. The director-general John Cridland said: “with the right policies in place green business will be a major pillar of our future growth.” National certainly is not going for growth; its dirty grey plan is jobs poor derivative environmentally destructive foreign-owned and short term.  
John Key and Steven Joyce who have ineptly stood by as 63000 Kiwis have become unemployed like to lecture us about the need for job-creating policies but the truth—the fact—is that their policies have led to more unemployment whereas our policies create more jobs than theirs. Investing in public transport is jobs rich. For every dollar invested in public transport it creates twice as many jobs as every dollar spent on motorways. National is wasting $12 billion on uneconomic motorways that increase our dependency on imported oil and create very few jobs. The Greens will invest in a sustainable smart transport system that gets us off our oil addiction and creates twice as many jobs as investing in motorways.  
Sustainable clean energy creates three times as many jobs—dollar for dollar—than investing in fossil fuels which is this Government’s obsession. Not only is investing in sustainable energy the right thing to do for the climate and our future but it creates more jobs now. Twenty-thousand manufacturing jobs have disappeared under National as the Reserve Bank’s myopic focus on inflation dooms us to a current account deficit. The Greens will grow the manufacturing sector by reforming monetary policy so that our manufacturers have a level playing field at home and overseas.  
Bereft of ideas National is selling assets to try to patch up its botched economic management. Its plan B is to deface our national parks and drill our oceans for fossil fuels. Mining employs just 5500 people—that is it. You would have to increase the amount of mining fivefold just to replace the jobs that have been lost in manufacturing while this National Party has been in Government.  
Tourism and agriculture employ 92000 and 97000 people respectively. These industries depend on our “clean green” brand and bring in nearly $40 billion in export revenue. The smart thing to do is to invest in these job-rich industries rather than damage our brand to create a brief fossil fuel bonanza for foreign-owned companies. That is why the Greens back clean sustainable farming and why we back high-value environmentally friendly tourism.  
The truth is that National’s woeful record on jobs and job destruction is no accident. It is happy with high unemployment because it helps drive wages down. The Greens will not put up with it. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Point of order Mr Speaker— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! I intend raising a point of order myself. Before I call the next member I have allowed one Government member to read a speech in the general debate. Having been sucked into that I had to allow a member of the Opposition to read a speech in the general debate. I am sorry for the rest of the speakers but in the general debate this afternoon there will be no more read speeches. We have had enough of read speeches.