Robertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 08 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9771. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Leader—Labour) to theMinister for Economic Development: Does he agree with the Prime Minister’s statement “The reality is even Wellington is dying and we don’t know how to turn it around. All you have there is government Victoria University and Weta Workshop”?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development): As the member knows the Prime Minister himself has said that he could have chosen his words better and that he was referring to the fact that the head offices of large corporates have migrated from Wellington to Auckland over the past 45 years which of course I agree with because it is true. However we are very fortunate to have a number of thriving innovative and successful businesses in Wellington like for example Weta Workshop which may not have been the case of course if the Labour Party had gotten its way and we had driven theHobbit films offshore.Grant Robertson: Further to the Minister’s answer if the Prime Minister does not think Wellington is dying why did he say it was?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I think I did answer that in the opening answer which was to note that the Prime Minister himself says he could have chosen his words better. But I have more good news for the member because the household labour force survey came out this morning and Wellington’s regional unemployment rate has fallen by 0.9 percent with an additional 14000 more people in jobs in Wellington than in the previous quarter. So the good news is that Wellington is picking itself up and growing well.Grant Robertson: What responsibility does he take for Wellington dying or being under pressure or whatever the Prime Minister’s latest phrase is today after his Government slashed thousands of Public Service jobs and failed to support manufacturing or other sectors in this city?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: It is very interesting the world that member lives in. But the reality is that this Government is investing—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am sorry to interrupt the Minister but we must have the ability to hear the answer.Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It was a pretty straightforward question and the answer was prefaced by abuse of the member.Mr SPEAKER: The difficulty was that it was a relatively straightforward question I agree but I was not able to hear the answer because of the noise. [Interruption] Order! I will now ask the Minister to continue with his answer.Grant Robertson: Responsibility Steven that’s it—what responsibility?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: This Government is taking responsibility for working very hard alongside Wellington to grow the Wellington economy in areas such as infrastructure with the ultra-fast broadband; roading which incidentally the member could help with if he gets some of his friends on the council to start supporting some of the transport projects around Wellington; innovation with our investment in Callaghan Innovation and our research and development co-funding for businesses in Wellington the Hutt Valley Porirua and so on; the development of Victoria University which is going very well and has just got an excellent result out of the Performance-based Research Fund; and of course industry development in areas like the movie industry tourism and international education.Grant Robertson: When the Prime Minister said “We don’t know how to turn it around.” is that a reflection on his Minister for Economic Development’s complete lack of any plan to help grow the Wellington economy?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: It is always difficult when I end up answering the question before the member asks it in his next supplementary question. I have just given him a huge list of things that the Government is working on to develop the Wellington economy. If it is helpful for the member I will repeat that list for him. There is the infrastructure we are investing in: the ultra-fast broadband the roading and in fact the commuter rail where we are helping Greater Wellington get a 100 percent modern fleet as a result of this Government’s investment. There is our investment in Callaghan Innovation which of course is headquartered in this city and our involvement in National Science Challenges where organisations like the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and so on are participating. There is our involvement in the city’s business incubator the development of Victoria University the refocusing of the polytechnics to make sure they are—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That answer is quite sufficient. Thank you very much.Grant Robertson: What is his response to Wellington property developer Ian Cassels who said that John Key should resign because he is not representing New Zealand or valuing what Wellington has to offer?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Mr Cassels of course represents the commercial property industry which has struggled with the fact that the Government has not kept building brand new office buildings in Wellington every 5 minutes like it used to under the Labour Government when it was setting itself up under Labour for a decade of deficits because of the amount of public sector spending it was doing. We are not doing that any more. We are not able to do that any more. What we can encourage is private sector investment and the growth of industries in Wellington and if the member would like I am more than happy to go through the list one more time.Hon Annette King: Does he stand by his comments this week on Newstalk ZB about Wellington when he said “Annette’s right. There’s very big investment going into the IT sector and the high-tech manufacturing sector. There are lots of staff based here.” and has he thought about how he could turn round the Prime Minister’s ill-informed views about Wellington?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well I do stand by my comments on Newstalk ZB this week including my offer to support Annette King in her campaign for the mayoralty. I have run a couple of campaigns in my time and I have to say Annette that you would do a moderately better job than the current mayor.