Foss Craig: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Foss Craig: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:12687] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 I will speak on Vote Tourism. I congratulate the Minister of Tourism on his vision aspiration plan and action—not words; action. He has put in place an economic base on which New Zealand can rebuild its tourism after 9 years of shambolic misguided tragic disgraceful and quite frankly defeatist administration by the previous Government of not only the tourism sector but the entire economy. The tourism sector rests upon a robust economy which needs to have good infrastructure an educated workforce and a business sector that wants to invest in the future and is also ambitious. Yes this Government is bullish and aspirational for New Zealand not like the defeatist rhetoric that we hear constantly from the other side of the Chamber. 
I am saddened particularly in this debate to essentially hear confirmation that Labour wants to rip up the cycleways once they are built. I am disgusted—and people in Hawke’s Bay will be very disappointed—with the confirmation from earlier speakers in relation to one of the key announcements from our Minister of Tourism earlier last year that once the cycleways are put in place Labour wants to dig them up. If I am wrong about that I look forward to other members standing up to say that Labour backs the cycleways. 
Other members have talked about how to attract tourists to New Zealand. One of the things that we need is to have a competitive exchange rate. Well what happened to our exchange rate in the previous 9 years or so? It got to nearly 80c against the United States dollar under the previous regime. Interest rates reached double figures under the previous regime. Those who worked and those businesses that wanted to invest in themselves in New Zealand and in tourism had to fight the highest interest rates in the OECD because of the spend-up—the unfocused spending the unaccountable spending and the non-transparent spending and outcomes—of the previous regime. Not only did it push up interest rates with its unfocused spending—I acknowledge the member—which underpinned the high exchange rate and the inflation rate as previous members have said but we have been in recession since about 2004 in the tradables sector of which Vote Tourism is a large part. We had an Export Year. Apparently that was to have fixed everything; it did not. 
Success in the tourism sector and the effectiveness of Vote Tourism will depend on—and tourists to New Zealand can come and witness—what is probably the biggest transformation in our taxation system in 25 years. They will witness that here. To make their tourism experience much better they will witness the provision of better faster smarter public services and the use of public funds. I go back to the corporations and companies that are investing in the tourism sector whose tax rate will go down to 28c in the dollar next April. They will also have a workforce that is starting to become better educated because of national standards. The focus of this Government is on front-line services on deliverables and outcomes not on the endless plans and talk that we hear from members on the other side of the Chamber. Actions speak much louder than words. 
Tourists will enjoy motorways and airports that have been improved with the boost in infrastructure spending. 
Carmel Sepuloni 
: You haven’t done anything. 
CRAIG FOSS 
: The member wants infrastructure to be built over a couple of days. Well in fact that takes years. Interestingly for example tourists can now shop at another supermarket that took 4 months to get on to the board because of the Resource Management Act changes that this Government made as opposed to one that took 12 long years to build under the previous Government with its shambolic administration of the Resource Management Act. Tourists will come here and of course I am sure that they will come to the Hawke’s Bay wine country. It is actually relatively cheap to do so. I hope that tourists when they come back again and again will see a better economic environment in New Zealand and will see that we have moved up from No. 22 in the OECD rankings which we tragically slid so fast and so far down to under the previous administration. One thing that tourists will also see is our more efficient public services. In fact about $2 billion of savings have been made in the Budget to have a better realisation of the investment of taxpayers in “New Zealand Inc.” and particularly in the tourism sector. 
Members on the other side of the Chamber have taken the mickey—shall we say—out of our aspirations for a growth in trade with China where we aim to cater for an increase to $20 billion by 2020. I ask what is wrong with that. Why are the Opposition members being so defeatist? We are an exporting nation; we need to export our way out of the current situation. 
Vote agreed to.