Foss Craig: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Foss Craig: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 30 January 2013. Volume:687;Page:7625. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CRAIG FOSS (Minister of Commerce) 
: 
 I join the rest of the House in expressing our confidence in this great National-led Government led by our awesome and great Prime Minister Mr John Key. We have stable leadership over this side of the House. We continue with stable leadership and in tough times challenging times for this country and around the world that is what is required. Yet day after day we read about coups about numbers and about what Mr Cunliffe may or may not be doing—challenging Mr Shearer or not. Apparently Mr Shearer has the vote tied up for the Labour caucus in a few weeks’ time but I understand he is afraid to put the vote to the entire Labour membership which is interesting and there has been a fair bit of commentary on that. 
But there are many challenges so I will speak to what this Government has done and what it intends to do as outlined in the Prime Minister’s statement. Also I will talk to some of the other interesting issues out there. We must remember the challenges we face. When this Government was elected yes 4-ish years ago now we faced remember the decade of deficits. Recall that because the Labour Opposition and its friends the Green Opposition are in denial actually of what the state of the economy was what state the accounts were in at that time and what state the world economy was in at that time. So we had an unbalanced economy where the State sector had grown phenomenally over particularly the previous 5 years. The State economy was suffocating out the real economy that creates real jobs. We faced a decade of deficits. 
The global financial crisis was really starting to kick in. Remember New Zealand had been in recession for 1 year prior to this Government coming in at the end of the previous Labour regime and the Government is having to deal with that. Of course tragically we are having to deal with the effect the aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes and now the rebuild. So when we hear the Labour Opposition and the Green Opposition talking about spending or the state of the Government accounts or whatever we need to remind ourselves of the three major challenges that this Government has faced has faced down and is continuing to deal with in spite of what is going on around the rest of the world. Those challenges are the unbalanced economy which we inherited which takes so long to put right. It is a bit like an oil tanker—once we get the direction changed we are off. It is a hard hard job. 
The global financial crisis continues. This country is reliant on global capital to fund its wants and its rebuild. It needs the world to try to perform a bit better than it is but the global financial crisis is still around us even though the Opposition seems to be in denial of it. Of course the social and economic impact of the Canterbury earthquakes still will have a large impact on the Crown the taxpayers’ accounts for many many years to come. But to deal with that we have laid out four main priorities. Of course we have to responsibly manage the Government’s accounts or the taxpayers’ finances if you like. We have to build a more competitive and productive economy. We cannot just talk about it—some like to; we have to do it. Some hard calls are needed to be made in there to build a more productive economy. 
We have to export we have to grow our exports and we have to become more productive if we are to fulfil the wants of our population. Of course we have to deliver on better public services. That sounds pretty simple stuff. That is a pretty tough job. But we have got there in spite of flat Budgets which we have had to deliver. There was no real growth in those Budgets other than education and health over 4 years now but we are delivering better public services. 
Of course we are under way on rebuilding Christchurch. The bulldozers are under way. It is really starting to ramp up there. Of course there are ongoing issues. Of course there are personal tragedies but we are getting on with the job and I salute Gerry Brownlee for the leadership he has shown there—the personal leadership he has shown the people of Christchurch—and of course our Prime Minister Mr John Key. 
So what does that mean though? If you are sitting at home what does that mean? Well the changes we have made the challenges we have faced down the decisions have resulted in a 12 percent increase in after-tax incomes for New Zealand—i.e. your take-home pay on average is up 12 percent over the last 5 years under this Government—under this Government 12 percent. Interest rates are half what they were when we came into Government. That is what the changes and the discipline we are making in the economic sense means in the household. The cost of the home mortgage is half what it was just 4 or 4½ years ago. It means we can afford 35000 more elective operations. That is what is meant by better public services. It means we can afford and prioritise to have every State house insulated. In spite of the social rhetoric on the other side this National Government is insulating every single State house. That should be applauded. 
We are hearing a fair bit about this hands-on rhetoric from David Shearer. We are hearing a bit about hands-on so I think it is important to remind ourselves of the last time Labour and its Green colleagues had their hands on the economy because when they had their hands on KiwiRail it cost the taxpayer about $1 billion—a bit of a donation essentially to an Aussie corporate. When they had their hands on the Public Service there was an absolute explosion in the numbers and the cost of the Public Service without any corresponding better outcome. When Labour and the Greens had hands-on on the tax system the tax take doubled. The highest tax rate was about 39c and there was an explosion in loss attributing qualifying companies. There was an explosion in loss attributing qualifying companies yet the other side—Mr Parker earlier kept talking about capital gains taxes etc. and he was part of a Government responsible for that. 
When the Labour and Greens Opposition had hands-on on the health system we had waiting lists for waiting lists for waiting lists. We had people lying in corridors of hospitals bleeding into buckets. That is when it had hands-on on the health system. When it had hands-on on the economic development side of things we had things like Sovereign Yachts. Remember that one? There was $25 million just written off. That was its idea of economic development. 
When they had hands-on on export policy they declared an export year. That was it—declare an Export Year and therefore exports should grow. It did not happen; in fact they declined. When they had hands-on on the levers that influence inflation inflation was well outside the top of the band of 3 percent. It was at about 4.5 percent in the year leading up to this new Government coming in. When the Labour Government had hands-on on the tools that influence interest rates interest rates for home mortgages were in double figures near 11 percent. They are now around 5 percent. That is what Labour’s hands-on means to the economy. 
When they had hands-on on the education system 20 percent of our kids were failed or failed within that system. It does not matter why; they did. But they did not do anything about it other than constantly criticise the initiatives we are making—particularly in that low of 20 percent—to try to improve that outcome. When Labour had hands-on on those things that can influence the current account—and campaigned on it ferociously—actually they doubled once Labour got into Government. When they had hands-on the current account under Labour doubled. When they had hands-on on the Treaty settlement process it stalled and stuff-all happened. A huge credit to the Hon Chris Finlayson for the effort and work he has achieved over recent years. 
When Labour had hands-on on the State housing stock 20 percent of that stock—about 20000 houses—ended up dark rotting and damp in the wrong place at the wrong time and the wrong size. When it had hands-on in a previous Government looking after the State assets it flogged off about $13 billion. We have just been lectured by one of its members about what one should or should not do regarding leveraging of the balance sheet on State assets yet I presume that was the lesson that that Government learnt when it sold—without any caveats without any controls regardless of who the buyer was offshore or onshore—about $13 billion of State assets when it had hands-on on the economy. 
One thing—despite what this Government is doing every change we try to make to try to address some of the issues in this economy the Labour Opposition opposes and the Green Opposition opposes. They constantly oppose them. There is one in particular in my area of Hawke’s Bay that they are opposing. The water storage project which the Labour Party seems—I would like to have clarification—to be opposing is about a 3 percent growth in Hawke’s Bay a longer season for jobs longer processing better farming better cropping and more certainty from your farmer your farm worker and to your port worker in Napier. The Labour Opposition and I definitely know the Green Opposition are opposing about a $200 million to $250 million investment in Hawke’s Bay. I am very interested to find out exactly where the Labour Opposition stands. 
Thank you Mr Speaker. I am enjoying working as part of this hard-working National Government with stable leadership.