Clark David: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClark David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 10 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8861. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): New Zealanders have simple aspirations. We want to lead a good life with the people closest to us and we want the chance to own our own home. We want an income that means we can look out for the people we love. We want time to spend in the outdoors enjoying the best that our clean green country has to offer. That is the New Zealand that I grew up in. It is the stuff of the Kiwi Dream a dream that is central to our country’s identity. Unfortunately the current Government’s obsession with the interests of an in-crowd is crowding out those very aspirations for an increasing number of New Zealanders.Inequality is growing in New Zealand. We know this because we are told we have a rock star economy yet real household incomes in some parts of New Zealand are still lower—and that is over half a decade since the global financial crisis ended—than they were when this Government came into office. We know this because homeownership is now at its lowest level in 60 years. Our economy needs to work for Kiwis not just for a handful of National Party in-club cronies.As I said things used to be different. We have had an economy that worked for us before and on this side of the House we know that under an Andrew Little - led Labour Government we can have that again.I grew up in the land of milk and honey knowing that New Zealanders could foot it with the best in the world. Our living standards were better then; we measured better on the scales than those countries we like to measure ourselves against. Back then success was not guaranteed. My father built his own small business. He had to learn new skills to make that happen. Around the same time my mother went back to high school and then eventually she went on to study to become a doctor. Both of my parents made sacrifices for their successes and things were tight at home when I was younger. But in our country of opportunity when the Kiwi Dream was real talent and persistence paid off. Plenty of kids I know had far more difficult childhoods than I had and plenty of them have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Back then it seemed like anything was possible. The Kiwi Dream involved the possibility of the poorest kid in the neighbourhood succeeding and becoming one of the wealthiest people in the country.Now we see an economy that is increasingly weighted in favour of those who already have privilege those who are already doing well and we see an economy that puts up barriers to stop other people getting ahead. Of course there are Kiwis who continue to succeed today but we all know that conditions are tougher particularly under this Government. Fewer small businesses are being created. The income tax changes have ensured that the wealthiest portion of New Zealanders have a higher income than they used to while middle New Zealand is going backwards. We need a Government that backs the Kiwi Dream. We need to make it possible for more Kiwis to succeed. The truth is that our economy does not work for us like it used to. Those of us who are doing OK are uncomfortable with the fact that in the sandpits our children play in there are other kids who do not have food necessarily for school who do not have shoes and who do not have raincoats.This is not the New Zealand that we aspire to. This is not the New Zealand that we all dream of. It is not the Kiwi Dream. It should not be like this and it does not need to be like this. Nobody I know thinks that the growing inequalities under this Government are a good thing. Nobody I know thinks that this harsher reality is OK. It is not what New Zealand is about. When I grew up most Kiwis dreamt of owning their own home but for many today this is just a pipedream. A lot of households have two parents working just to meet the rent. It did not use to be this way. Things have become unbalanced and we need to face up to that fact and say what needs to be done to put it right. If today’s New Zealanders are to enjoy homeownership again we need decent incomes. If people are to spend time with their loved ones like previous generations did we need a credible plan for our economy.Unfortunately this Government’s silver bullet at the moment is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. It would have us believe that prosperity will flow and all the economic crises and difficulties that the country is facing the challenges we are facing will diminish—will be gone. But that deal was a long time coming and it has delivered a lot less than would be expected ordinarily. The deal was in fact for dairy. It was rubbish.Chris Bishop: Oh rubbish.Dr DAVID CLARK: Yes that is right—rubbish. The member is correct. An independent study shows that the portion of our country’s wealth going to working people will decrease and 6000 job losses will eventuate in the first 10 years of this agreement. That is the only independent study that has been done on the labour market. This Government has not even researched what the TPP agreement will do to the labour market. It does not care that the wealth will not go to working people any more. It does not care that jobs will be lost.New Zealand failed to even ask for the homeownership sovereignty protections that Australia Malaysia and others achieved in the agreement. Why was it good enough for Australia to have protection from foreign speculators not resident in its country and not good enough for New Zealand to even ask for it in the deal—why on earth? So we have Tufts University the Peterson Institute and the World Bank estimating that New Zealand’s economy will benefit very little from a ratified TPP agreement—less than a rounding error in Government forecasts.This Government could have—and should have—done so much better for Kiwis. This Government has already broken plenty of promises. It promised to grow exports as a proportion of our economy to 40 percent. Well the figure has dropped below 30 percent and it is dropping further every year. This Government is failing to set goals for itself that it can achieve. The reason that it is failing to achieve those goals though is that it is not taking the steps to deliver on them. Seven years on from the global financial crisis exports as a proportion of our economy are below 30 percent and trending down and overhyping the benefits of one trade deal has done nothing to halt this decline.You do not need a textbook to know that having a wealthy elite prospering at the expense of a dwindling middle class is a recipe for economic stagnation. The signs are all around us. Drifting is not working. The current Government seems content to roll from one dairy price cycle to the next under-investing in regional infrastructure and content to blame the farmers when things slide. Well it will not do.We need a diversified economy with deep skills if we are to realise the Kiwi Dream again. We need a Government that creates the conditions for high-value jobs and plenty of them. The number of people out of work which went up before is up 15000 in the past year alone. We need to better support the small businesses that create the jobs that will make the change that we need. There is much to be done to make our economy work for New Zealanders. If only there was the will to do it—the will to make our economy benefit all not just a few in-club National Party cronies. The solutions are obvious. The research and development tax credits tax simplification red tape removal—the possibilities are endless. We have heard them in this House before but they are not the recipe this Government is offering.This Government is offering more of the same—more of the same—and no new ideas. But solutions are not coming. The OECD estimates that New Zealand’s economy is about 15 percent smaller as a result of inequalities growing in recent decades. Inequalities have been a 15 percent handbrake on our prosperity yet this Government seems desperate to continue down the same track ignoring the warning lights on the dashboard and the increasingly sickening smell of burning rubber. It is locking more and more middle New Zealanders out of the Kiwi Dream and it shows no compunction whatsoever.To conclude the story of my parents’ success shows what was once possible. It shows that plenty of people once did it. The Labour Party is determined to see the Kiwi Dream become a possibility for more people again. Labour’s Working Futures Plan of 3 years’ free post-school education is in stark contrast to National’s tired approach to leading the country. We need the Kiwi Dream and we need a Labour Government to deliver it.