McClay Todd: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McClay Todd: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 12 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7455. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
1. 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: What progress has the Government made with its economic programme in 2012? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Associate Minister of Finance) 
on behalf of the Minister of Finance: The Government is making very good progress in the face of very significant ongoing global economic challenges. The Government was re-elected with a clear plan to build a faster-growing economy that can encourage businesses to invest and grow. We are focused on four main priorities: responsibly manage the Government’s finances so we can return to surplus and repay debt push ahead with a wide-ranging programme of microeconomic reform to create a more productive and competitive economy drive better results and better value from public services and support the rebuild of our second-largest city after its earthquakes. New Zealanders can be reassured that this Government is absolutely focused on creating more opportunities to grow the economy unlike the Greens-Labour Opposition which is constantly— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! Order! 
Todd McClay 
: What progress is the Government making with responsibly managing its finances so it can return to surplus start repaying debt and build a buffer against future shocks? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Once again the Government is making very good progress. On coming into office in late 2008 the Government was presented with forecasts showing permanent structural deficits and ever-increasing Government debt. This Government has worked hard to turn that situation round by reining in new spending and reprioritising existing spending to deliver better results and that is all despite the extra costs that have come from the Canterbury earthquakes. The Crown’s operating deficit before gains and losses was $9.2 billion in the year ended June 2012—half of the $18.4 billion in the previous year—and the latest forecast will be included in the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update next Tuesday. The Government has set a target of returning to surplus in 2014-15. That is very important so that we can reduce debt to more prudent levels and build resilience to future shocks. 
Todd McClay 
: What approach is the Government taking in building a more productive and competitive economy? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: The Government is working aggressively to do everything to give businesses the confidence to invest grow and create jobs. The Government has taken a wide range of measures to ensure economic growth is built on a solid foundation of exports savings and productive investment. The programme that we are undertaking is set out in the Business Growth Agenda which contains more than 250 initiatives for expanding our export markets encouraging innovation developing skills building infrastructure improving our natural resource use and growing capital markets. Together they are a comprehensive agenda of microeconomic reform which will support jobs and assist businesses to become more internationally competitive. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Before I call the honourable member the House is unacceptably noisy. But I remind Ministers that if they go on with very long answers—[ 
Interruption 
] Order! If they go on with very long answers the House will tend to get restive. 
Todd McClay 
: What reports has he received on proposals that would put the New Zealand economy at risk cost thousands of jobs and increase the country’s vulnerability to overseas lenders? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I have seen many such proposals this year. They include saying no to responsible mining saying no to making movies in this country saying no to seabed exploration for oil and gas saying no to a convention centre in Auckland saying no to speeding up the Resource Management Act saying no to the Government’s multibillion-dollar investment in roads and other infrastructure saying yes to a capital gains tax and more costs on business saying yes to printing money and saying yes to constantly talking down the New Zealand economy. That economic prescription would cost thousands of jobs. It is called voodoo economics and it is what the Green-Labour Opposition wants for New Zealand. 
Hon David Parker 
: After 4 years as Minister of Finance what does the Minister of Finance regard as his greatest failure: unemployment at its highest in 13 years income inequality at its highest recorded level 54000 people leaving for Australia in the past year 270000 children living in poverty a current account deficit forecast by the IMF to be the worst in the developed world a widening wage gap with Australia negative household savings or external non-Government debt at 100 percent of GDP? I will accept the answer: “All of the above.” 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I think the member has inadvertently laid out exactly why the Labour Party is not trusted to be the Government of New Zealand. Most of the stuff he said was completely wrong and most of the stuff he said was actually worse under the Labour Government including the balance of payments. And he has the cheek to sit there and pretend the global financial crisis did not happen and that the Government has not faced the Christchurch earthquakes. As long as he stays on “Planet Labour” he will stay over there on “Planet Opposition Benches”. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I know it is the last day of class but the House is just too noisy. It is no particular member’s fault. There is no way I could stop a lengthy question because we have had a lot of lengthy answers. What I ask members to be mindful of is that we should not have too long questions and we should not have too long answers and we just need to be a little more reasonable with interjections.