Wagner Nicky: Imprest Supply DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWagner Nicky: Imprest Supply Debate[Sitting date: 06 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12401. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Third ReadingNICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central):I am very pleased to speak on this third reading of the Appropriation (2013/14 Estimates) Bill because this Budget confirms that New Zealand is in much better shape economically than most of the countries that we compare ourselves with overseas. Our economy is growing at 3 percent. Our economy is growing faster than that of the US faster than Canada’s and much faster than Japan’s. In contrast to the economies of the UK and Europe which are shrinking our economy is going ballistic. That is because we are absolutely focused.This Government is absolutely focused on getting our economy right back on track. I would like to thank the Hon Bill English for his solid Southland determination and discipline and for getting us through the worst of the global financial crisis in the best way possible. It has been tough and we have all had to tighten our belts but we are building a stronger more stable and more resilient economy that will serve us well in the future. Our goal is to help businesses create more and better-paid jobs. We are doing everything we can to educate train and upskill our young people and we are focusing on developing the areas of the economy that produce the best return. Those areas are higher-value exports in-demand specialist services and building on our strengths to produce new products new technologies and new businesses that will deliver those highly paid jobs for New Zealanders.But to be able to create productive jobs that pay well our basic economic infrastructure has to be efficient and effective. This Government has four strands for delivering a productive framework. The first strand is responsibly managing theGovernment’s books. That means using money wisely and keeping down debt and I have to say that thanks to Bill English we are doing that pretty well.The second strand is to build a more competitive and productive economy so New Zealanders can earn their prosperity on a global market. That work is being led by the Hon Steven Joyce and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment. The ministry’s purpose is to grow New Zealand for all and to increase the well-being and the opportunities for all New Zealanders so that they can contribute to the economy and so that they can be part of our productivity.The third strand is delivering better public services. We are doing that by delivering more services for fewer dollars and we are having pretty good successes in this area. We are having successes in areas like procurement. By buying in bulk we are getting better prices. We are cutting overhead costs. We have managed to save $110 million a year on office rentals. We are getting great productivity by utilising online technology to deliver services cheaper and better. Kiwis have really taken to doing business online. They like the convenience. They like the fact that they can do something from their offices or their homes. This year 35 percent of passports were renewed online through the internet 18 percent of companies filed their GST returns online—Hon Clayton Cosgrove: How many jobs did that create?NICKY WAGNER: —and 93 percent of personal tax returns were made online. The Hon Clayton Cosgrove asks how many jobs were created by that. Well actually every single time you cut the cost of doing business you have investment into more jobs. People have more productivity and businesses can increase and grow. But the runaway success of this online work is actually SmartGate at airports. Believe it or not since 2009 6 million people have used SmartGate. That is over 50000 a week. Now we are able to introduce that for US and UK passports as well. It is so much better. It is so much sooner and more convenient.Finally the last and most important priority to me is the rebuild of Christchurch. That is all about supporting people to get their homes fixed to get their communities restored and to rebuild our city—to rebuild the city of Christchurch and the small towns right throughout Canterbury. It is really important as the second-largest city in the country that we get back on our feet and back to being the entrance and the port of the South Island so we can continue to earn our living by exporting products to the world and by welcoming tourists to our city and also to all the other areas that they visit when they come through our city.So these are the Government’s first four priorities—the four important legs of our economic framework. That framework underpins the opportunities the health and the well-being of all New Zealanders. They may sound irrelevant but they have a key effect on every one of us. As New Zealanders we are interested in happy and healthy families safe communities jobs and a decent education for our kids and opportunities for their futures. For that we need economic stability.Right now every family is better off because we have got the lowest mortgage rates for 45 years and because wages are growing faster than inflation so household costs are down whether you pay your mortgage directly or whether your landlord pays his mortgage. Because we have managed the economy well we can pay for public services. We can keep our communities safe. We can fully fund the police and corrections so they can do a great job and they are. Crime is now at its lowest rate for 32 years and in the last year alone the crime rate has dropped by 11 percent. More important it has dropped in the tough areas. Violent crime has dropped by 7 percent and youth crime has dropped by 18 percent.Because we are managing the economy well we can invest in education and training. We are investing more for our little ones getting them into preschool education to getthem a good start. We are investing more for national standards so that no schoolchild will fall through the cracks—so that every child will have a really good basic education and the opportunity to build on that to develop job skills and for further education. We all know that National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 is about the minimum you need to be able to survive in our complex society and to be able to contribute. The latest results show that the number of young people getting NCEA level 2 is the highest ever. It has increased from 67.5 percent to 77.5 percent since 2008 which is a 10 percent increase. That has got to be a real bonus. We all want our young people to enjoy school to embrace education and to develop their skills so they can make the very best of every opportunity.Because we have managed the economy well we are also delivering better health services. More babies are being immunised and we know how important that is. More elderly people are getting operations for hips and cataracts and cancer treatment is now being delivered exclusively in New Zealand. There is no need to send Kiwis overseas. We are truly delivering better sooner and more convenient health care. Thank you.