Smith Stuart: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSmith Stuart: General Debate[Sitting date: 06 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3262. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura):It is great to have the opportunity to speak in the general debate this evening. There has been a lot of talk about economic performance and so on but look there are 80000 more people in work than there were a year ago. What does that mean on the ground? In Kaikōura just recently I was talking to some businesses that claim to have had their best year ever in business. Those businesses are doing well and they are actually employing lots of people. It is at that level that employment is growing in New Zealand rather than by keeping something like the Hillside workshops which are no longer relevant to New Zealand’s economy and business—Phil Twyford: No longer? It’s because you closed them down.STUART SMITH: Well if they were they would still be in business. We have an inflation rate of less than 1 percent and that is significantly lower. We are in a unique economic position where we have got economic growth but low inflation and that is quite unusual. We are actually adjusting our economy to it—it is fantastic.I want to talk a little bit about housing which has been discussed a lot lately. It seems to be a triumph of ideology over good sense where the debate is swinging on who owns the houses rather than on having a house for people to live in. If you do not have a house in the social housing areas you do not really care whom you rent from or whom you get it from—[Interruption] Not you Mr Assistant Speaker of course—the person concerned. I think the main point is that those people do have a place to live. That is why relooking at the whole system is a much better way of going about it and I am proud to be part of that.In relation to that I want to talk a little bit about Resource Management Act matters about how new houses are being built and about how new developments are getting on. Just recently we had the Rules Reduction Taskforce in my electorate. It went through and looked at the rules that impact those things and it was quite significant. We had an hour with the councillors and council staff who told us their views on the duplication of rules and on the rules that do not seem to make a lot sense. Then we had an hour with builders and an hour with the general public. We met with consultants who help with resource consents. We met with architects. And we met with engineers. It was amazing the stuff that came out of that and I am sure that we are going to get some really significant gains out of that.For example it is the little things which wind builders up—the test and tag rule where when you go and buy an extension cord or a power tool at the local hardware store you can take it home and use it but if you want to take it on to a building site it has got to be tested and tagged before you can use it. Then in 3 months’ time you have to do it again. There are no moving parts—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): That is the fifth warning the member has had.STUART SMITH: Is it? OK. When we get tests for our cars we get 3-year warrants for brand new cars. So to have an extension cord that has a life—as far as the test goes—of only 3 months does not seem to make any sense at all to me. It is time that those sorts of rules were dealt with—the sooner the better.One of the other things that came out of that is that there are 170 planning documents across the 78 councils in New Zealand but in Scotland which has 5.3 million people and is of a similar size to New Zealand they have only 37 planning documents. Clearly we have a much more complex local government environment in which to work and that is causing some issues. Certainly in the Marlborough Sounds where over 78 percent of New Zealand’s aquaculture is based the council is mooting in its long-term plan that all aquaculture farms go to being a discretionary activity. In the past they had not been under that regime and that will mean that their consents all run out in 2024. There is some doubt that the council will actually have the resources to deal with it and even if it does it is going to cost those marine farmers $20 million just to go through the process when 98 percent of those consents would more than likely just roll over anyway.Those are the sorts of things that we need to have a really hard look at to ensure that we are not just wasting ratepayers’ money and stopping businesses from developing. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.