Kaye Nikki: General Debate 
Kaye Nikki: General Debate 
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NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) 
: 
 I am delighted to be able to speak in this general debate today. I have been waiting to give this speech for a very long time. As the MP for Auckland Central I want to dedicate this speech to the people of New Zealand who work on farms and in forests and those who support the primary industries. As the MP for Auckland Central I have been the subject before of slight jabs from my colleagues in terms of my support for the rural industries. In fact one person said to me today: “You do know Nikki that for a good latte you need milk.” I wanted this to be the discussion in my speech today. 
The fact is that this side of the House has an economic plan that is focused on unrelenting support for our primary industries. We acknowledge that our export-led recovery has been driven by the rural workers of New Zealand. We know that a large chunk of our economic performance is because of the primary industries. Seventy-one percent of our economic performance comes from our exports from primary industries; $32 billion is what it is worth to our economy. 
Where are our exports up? They are up in meat areas and they are up in dairy areas. In fact I will give you the figures here. We were up 12 percent in 2010 in meat exports and dairy exports were up 20 percent. So it is absolutely unbelievable that at a time when New Zealanders are struggling and our country is laden with debt we have an Opposition that is promoting policies that are harmful to this area. 
Let us talk about some of those policies that it has promoted. It has promoted additional costs in terms of the emissions trading scheme. It has promoted additional— 
Mike Sabin 
: Capital gains. 
NIKKI KAYE 
: It has promoted capital gains tax in terms of land. Compare this with our party which has been unrelenting in its support whether it is through science and innovation in terms of the $50 million that we are putting in to key research in climate change or whether it is through all the initiatives that we are trying in order to ensure that young New Zealanders have more opportunities in our primary industries. 
We heard today about the Youth Guarantee places that we are offering. We also know for instance that the Hon Paula Bennett has been working really hard in the area of Auckland to ensure that some of our young people have greater placements in terms of jobs. What we are focused on is ensuring that there are real career options for young New Zealanders in our primary industries. 
When we look at some of the job figures—I think in TradeMe today there are jobs in our primary industries. But unfortunately we are having to get new immigrants to go there because we need to make sure that some of our young people are work-ready. All of this Government’s programmes instead of the rhetoric from the opposite side focus on real pathways to work for those young people to have jobs in our primary industries because we recognise that although we may hear a whole lot of clutter from the Opposition about how we need to diversify our economy the fact is that a major area of our export growth comes from the primary industries. 
I am proud that as the MP for Auckland Central yes I represent an urban electorate but I have also got some rural areas like Great Barrier Island and I am proud to stand here today and give my support for all of those rural workers around the country who have worked so hard for the last 3 years to ensure that we have an export-led recovery. We have got more to do—we have got so much more to do. If you look at some of our achievements whether it is through the $35 million that we have put into the Irrigation Acceleration Fund whether it is through primary sector innovation and the $70 million that we have put into the Primary Growth Partnership or whether it is through the $45 million that we have put into the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases we understand that the way that we are going to improve the lives of so many New Zealanders is to lift our standard of living and have an economic plan. 
You contrast that with the Opposition. Every time Opposition members speak they just talk about what they will not do. They are anti-everything. You contrast that with our party which has good policies in welfare good policies in ensuring young people get into jobs and good policies in investing in science and innovation particularly in areas that are in the primary industry like food innovation because we know our opportunities lie in countries like Asia and we know that if we can increase our exports and we can support— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Countries like Asia? Asia’s not a country. 
NIKKI KAYE 
: Countries like China and Singapore that are within Asia. We know that we can improve our standard of living if we can support those rural workers in our primary industries. 
This side of the House has a plan; that side of the House is anti-everything. This side of the House has the support of New Zealanders because we are focused on a strong economic plan.