Ross Jami-Lee: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoss Jami-Lee: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate[Sitting date: 26 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11336. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Supplementary EstimatesJAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany):As we near the end of this debate on the Appropriation (2012/13 Supplementary Estimates) Bill and the Imprest Supply (First for 2013/14) Bill—and we have had to listen to Labour members whinging and whining because they do not like hearing the truth and they have had to listen to the truth for the last 2½ hours—I would like to tell the Labour Party that failure is an option because at 30 percent in the opinion polls the Labour Party has chosen failure. We know that the Labour Party has chosen failure because it keeps David Shearer on. It sees its polling ratings going down the drain and it has no hope of getting back into office at the next election because New Zealanders appreciate the economic plan that this Government is following. New Zealanders appreciate the growth rates that we are seeing in this economy. They appreciate the extra jobs that are being created in New Zealand and they do not appreciate what the Labour Party stands for.Hon David Cunliffe: The Tony Soprano of the National Party.JAMI-LEE ROSS: I hear David Cunliffe has just woken up and I know why he has woken up. He has woken up because tomorrow the Labor Party leader is getting rolled. The only thing that Mr Cunliffe needs to worry about is that it is not happening here in New Zealand—it is probably happening in Australia—but Mr Cunliffe is excited because he is inspired at the moment. He is inspired by the low opinion poll rates. He is inspired by what Kevin Rudd is doing across the Ditch and he is hoping that some day Labour Party members will be circulating a petition on his behalf. The reason why they are going to have to start circulating those petitions is that New Zealanders know that we are succeeding as a country on the back of economic growth in Budgets that this party has been passing.Let me give the other side some numbers because it is important that we drum this home. It is important that we remind those members how well we are actually doing as a country. At the moment after-tax wages are up 22 percent. That is huge considering the global financial crisis that New Zealand has been through. Our economic growth rates are currently sitting at 2.4 percent.Hon Ruth Dyson: Just make it up.JAMI-LEE ROSS: That is better than most developed countries in the world. Ruth Dyson does not like to hear it. She thinks it is made up. But actually Ruth Dyson let me tell the Labour Party and the other side of the House that we are growing faster than the US we are growing faster than Canada faster than the UK and the eurozone—Hon David Cunliffe: Get a real job.JAMI-LEE ROSS: David Cunliffe would never have achieved this because Phil Goff and David Cunliffe did not even know their figures at the last election. They would never have achieved this. We are growing faster than the UK growing faster than the US and growing faster than the eurozone and off the back of a global financial crisis—a global financial crisis and a Labour Party leadership that saw the economy starting to tank in 2008 when Labour was in office. We know that these are good growth rates.Unemployment is actually doing quite well at the moment too at 6.2 percent. At 6.2 percent that is better than most developed countries at the moment. We have got a lower unemployment rate than Canada the US the UK—lower than the OECD total—lower than France Italy Ireland Portugal Greece and Spain. It is those two at the end that we have to think carefully about—Greece and Spain. If the other side ever got into Government we know that we would have a similar story to that of Greece and Spain because the Labour Party is the anti-growth party. The Labour Party is the anti-growth party that does not support New Zealanders. It is the anti-growth party with its mates inthe Green Party that would be taxing New Zealanders a huge amount. Those parties would be spending huge amounts more than otherwise is necessary. They would be putting in more red tape on New Zealand businesses. They would be putting more red tape on New Zealanders as they are just trying to get ahead and that would be anti-growth.Those parties like to tell the country that they care about manufacturing. They like to tell the country that it is in a crisis and that they are going to have the solutions for it. The only crisis when it comes to manufacturing is the leadership the examples and the story we are getting from the Labour Party because since 2008 the manufacturing sector as a whole has grown by 9.2 percent—Su’a William Sio: What’s the unemployment rate?JAMI-LEE ROSS: —as measured by GDP by industry. When Labour was in office in 2008 the manufacturing sector actually shrunk by 12 percent. I heard William Sio wake up. Let me tell you about William Sio. I spent 3 years on the Manukau City Council with William Sio. Every time there was a policy and an option to increase rates and increase spending William Sio was always there. He was always there to spend more money. He was always there to tax the good people of Manukau more. He never cared about trying to cut costs or trying to get rates down. He never cared about sensibly balancing the council’s books. He was always wanting to spend more money. If William Sio and his mates on the other side ever occupied this side of the House we would see those types of policies. We would see a whole lot more spending. We would see a whole lot more debt. We would see a whole lot more anti-growth policies from Labour.Let me give those members a couple of numbers—60 and 20. Those numbers are worth remembering because under the economic plan left by the Labour Party in 2020 we would have seen debt reaching 60 percent of GDP. Under our plan debt in 2020 will be at 20 percent of GDP. If the other side does not think that that is significant I can tell you that New Zealanders out there who care about debt and who care about the economic situation that this country is in know that 60 percent of GDP sitting there on the debt books is bad. They know that Labour would have pushed hard for that. They know that Labour would have succeeded in that area raising the debt up to 60 percent of GDP. That would have been very destructive for New Zealanders. That is why the anti-growth and anti - New Zealand Labour Party should be kept out of the Government benches and should not be allowed near them.We know that the Green Party has now artificially said that it will be abandoning the printing of money but do we actually believe that? Do we actually believe that the Green Party will not be printing money? Because about the only way that the Labour-Green Opposition could ever pay for its policies is to print more money and that would be disastrous for New Zealanders.I want to talk a little bit about New Zealand’s housing situation because I am pretty excited about what this Government is doing in housing. In Auckland right now we have a huge housing problem which we need to address quite quickly. I would have hoped that the Labour Party would get on board with our housing plan because the Auckland Housing Accord and the special housing area policy that have been put in place as part of this Government’s economic plan are going to see housing really take off around the country especially in Auckland where we need a lot more housing where we need a lot more growth and where we need a Government that will be there assisting New Zealanders. That is exactly what we are doing—that is exactly what we are doing. In New Zealand under the special housing area policy that is part of our economic plan that Nick Smith is pushing forward we are going to see 39000 houses built in the next 3 years—39000 houses built in the next 3 years. That is almost aquadrupling of the housing that has been built in the past few years. That will have huge impacts for New Zealanders.In the health area we have got a fantastic story because Tony Ryall is really a health Minister that any future health Minister should be modelling themselves on not Annette King. Maggie Barry was absolutely right today when she said that Annette King was one of the worst health Ministers we have seen in 50 years. Tony Ryall is the model. Tony Ryall is the model. In health we have had 35000 more elective operations in this year compared with in 2008—8000 extra operations every year.Hon Trevor Mallard: Another one of Slater’s failures.JAMI-LEE ROSS: I am a bit concerned about Trevor Mallard. We know he likes to attack police officers. We know he likes to threaten their jobs. He is probably wishing he could do that to me right now but I am not part of the police Trevor Mallard. Trevor Mallard you should stick to what you are good at threatening police officers because that is about all he is good for.In health and education we are seeing huge improvements in policies. We know that New Zealand is growing. We know that jobs are being created in the economy. We know that the unemployment rate is on the way down. We know that New Zealanders are supporting what we are doing. We know that New Zealanders appreciate the growth that is happening in the country. They appreciate the National-led Government. Let us hope the anti-growth and pro - money printing parties on that side of the House never get into Government.