Copeland Gordon: Estimates Debate —  
Copeland Gordon: Estimates Debate —  
[Volume:610;Page:7168] 
GORDON COPELAND (United Future) 
: 
 I want to take up where I left off by saying I am deeply concerned that New Zealand has saddled itself with an unbalanced process in relation to the conservation estate. Since the enactment of the Conservation Act it comes as a surprise to most New Zealanders to find that effectively no new hydro schemes or tourist facilities have been built on conservation land even in circumstances where the proponents of such desirable activities which would boost our economy could readily have agreed to conditions that would have led to a net gain in conservation values. That makes no sense. We are shooting our own economy in the foot and closing off win-win situations sight unseen in many instances. For that reason United Future has formally asked the Government to undertake a review of the Conservation Act in the interests of balance and common sense. 
I also want to refer to the decongestion of land transport in Auckland. United Future believes that the nation must assign urgency to the resolution of Auckland’s congestion. The prize will be a gain estimated to be in the region of between $1 billion and $1.5 billion each year. On current projections completion of the decongestion network could extend beyond 10 years. In view of the high stakes involved that is unacceptable. For that reason United Future favours a speedy commitment by the Government to the funding of Auckland’s land transport needs through borrowings. That could take the form of private-public partnerships or—this may indeed be a cheaper route—borrowings by the Crown itself. 
 The opportunity to borrow is presented to us because of the strength of the Crown’s balance sheet and its triple A credit rating. Both bridging and say 30-year-long borrowing mechanisms should be explored and employed. Let us remember that we will save between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in each year that we are able to accelerate the completion of the network and see transport in Auckland once again moving freely. There is a great deal of debate in this Chamber about our inability to fast track a free-trade agreement with the United States and estimates were that that would yield a billion dollars a year to our economy. Here we are looking at saving a billion dollars by decongesting Auckland. 
I appreciate that funding the repayment of the loans would need to be thought through carefully. Where funds are borrowed and can be repaid at the other end of the bridging period then the only cash-flow requirement will be for the interest payments. Where longer-term loans are involved then a source of both interest and principal repayments will need to be found. That could take the form of tolls an increase in petrol excise duty congestion charges or something similar. We must for the sake of our economy be creative get on with the job and realise the economic benefits as soon as is practically possible. 
Another point I want to mention once again is that United Future believes that our economic growth can be both sped up and smoothed by endeavouring to grow New Zealand’s annual population in a way that will add at least 0.5 percent per annum to gross domestic product (GDP). That area has been woefully researched to date. We have failed to establish the linkages between economic growth and population growth or to adopt a highly flexible immigration policy based on the resultant net population increase goal. For too long we have followed a boom-and-bust policy which in recent memory has actually seen negative net migration in some years when the number of departing Kiwis has comfortably exceeded the number of new immigrants. By contrast in 2002 we saw a huge boost to our population and to our GDP growth rate as returning New Zealanders boosted near-record numbers of new immigrants. 
There is a truism about setting goals. If one has no goals one will by definition never know whether one has achieved them. United Future believes therefore that we are better to set a population-growth goal including immigration on the basis of robust research so that we can plan our future on a systematic basis. 
I want also to mention the important role that increasing research and development expenditure can make to our economy. United Future will support the efforts of the Government to incentivise research and development by private industry in New Zealand and we would even look at changes in the tax system if that is the way to do it. There is another aspect too that would be in our policy mix and that we need to see greater effort given to. This time it is really a matter for the Minister for Economic Development and his Associate Minister—that is to foster sector cooperation so that the necessary critical mass is created for joint marketing and pricing initiatives by New Zealand in order to penetrate markets and maintain our exports of value-added products.