Groser Tim: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Groser Tim: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3143. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TIM GROSER (Minister of Trade) 
: 
 There are many extraordinary things about this debate over the mixed-ownership model. There is first of all the literally ridiculous claim that somehow we are proceeding without a mandate but Mr Carter has I think just demolished that argument comprehensively. Let me— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have not been in the House and I have not heard the previous contributions but it appears to me that the member is anticipating the order of the day. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! No no. There have been a number of contributions around this issue and anything can be debated in the general debate. He was not specifically dealing with any specific measures in later legislation. Members must not interrupt other members’ speeches unnecessarily. 
Hon TIM GROSER 
: The other strange aspect of this debate is the idea that somehow the members opposite us are looking at this in a hermetically sealed bubble with no comprehension about the context in which we are taking these decisions and more particularly no comprehension about the state of the international economy which is forcing some very tough choices. 
Let me try to explain this in very simple terms to the members opposite. I do want to pay respect here to the Mr Happy books because I will use very very simple language here—these are books that I brought up my children on and I am sure many other members have brought up their very young children on the same series of books. In my version of a Mr Happy book this is “Nice-to-have Land”. Let me take you back through memory lane. In 2000 we lived in “Nice-to-have Land” and these people were then in charge of “Nice-to-have Land”. They ticked off any proposal that had the right type of label on it that said the right things that looked shiny and bright and then they built up core Crown Government expenditure from $32 billion—$32 billion—to over $60 billion as they ticked off everything that was nice to have. But unfortunately this happy band of brothers and sisters did not look above them to see that there were some dark skies gathering overhead. And they started to appear as soon as 2005 hit the shores. We started to then run out of the good times and over the next 3 years New Zealand’s average growth rate was less than 1 percent per annum productivity tanked the debt-fuelled consumption boom continued but the people who ruled over “Nice-to-have Land” did not see what was happening as they enjoyed themselves ticking off every nice-to-have proposal. 
Well in 2008 the people who lived in this country said thank you very much and that they wanted some prudent economic management around this. All of this let us never forget was before the collapse of Lehman Brothers before that triggered the global financial crisis. So this country was the only country in the developed world to be in recession before the whole difficult situation unfolded around the rest of the developed world. We have replaced “Nice-to-have Land” with a much tougher measure: “Must-have Land”. Nothing that cannot pass the must-have test has got through this Government. We have not imposed austerity. When I listen to some of these charges about austerity I just think about what else is going on around the world like 700000 civil servants in the United Kingdom being given their leave. I am thinking about the huge increase in university fees in the United Kingdom to an average if I am not mistaken of £9000 which is around $22000 or $23000. Even in Sweden if I am not mistaken youth unemployment is now about 22 or 23 percent. We have unemployment in Greece of 52 percent. There are massive upsets in world capital markets. 
This is the context in which we are managing a very difficult situation facing our country. Proceeding with a mixed-ownership model is indeed an integral part of it. It is all part of a strategy of trying to do more with less trying to get better value out of public services trying to ensure that we have the funds available to fund vital capital investments like broadband improved schools and a whole series of things in the hospital and health areas otherwise we would be going on to international capital markets. Nobody knows precisely what is going to happen over the next 6 to 12 months but you would have to be a supreme optimist to believe that that is where New Zealand should be going—that New Zealand should be trying to borrow as much as it can overseas—in situations like this. So the mixed-ownership model must absolutely be set in that context and I am very proud to be supporting a Government that is doing that.