McNair Craig: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
McNair Craig: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
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CRAIG McNAIR (NZ First) 
: 
 As the New Zealand First spokesperson on youth affairs I want to talk about something that is of real concern to the young people of this nation. A lot of them might not be concerned about this particular issue as we speak; a lot of them might not even understand what it all means and what significance it plays and will play in their future. The issue that will affect them the most just purely because of their age is this country’s continuing slide into Third World status. 
We face issues such as the soaring cost of electricity and the Minister of Energy is promising a further increase of 15 percent; the escalating cost of running the family car as the dollar goes up and likewise the price of petrol; and the closing down of schools which affects young people. The sick health system as just mentioned by my colleague Barbara Stewart and as evidenced in the exporting of women for treatment abroad is also a major issue. All of that highlights an economy that is slipping slowly into Third World status. There are other issues such as the skyrocketing value of the New Zealand dollar. That is putting a lot of pressure on exporters and massive pressure on farmers. We all know that and the Minister of Finance himself admitted it. One of the biggest worries is that our standard of living compared with that of other OECD countries is in decline. My leader yesterday rightly said that more and more New Zealanders are time poor. They now live to work not work to live. Three years ago  
The Economist 
 warned that New Zealand looked to be the first country in 50 years to go from the First World to the Third World. That is the point I am highlighting. It is the issue of major concern to our future generation and that is why I am raising it this evening. 
Another issue that the Government needs to look at in the foreseeable future is reprioritising its operating expense capacity in order to fix such things as health waiting-lists to invest in character training for youth and to put more money into programmes such as youth suicide prevention—not just among other things the $1.7 million allocated in the Budget for policy advice in the youth affairs portfolio. I believe we need to look at issues like that. 
Fromlooking at the experiences of successful economies around the world I believe we need to place higher concentration on the needs of the export sector than we are doing at the moment. Both National and Labour Governments— 
Hon Member 
: What’s wrong with it? 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: The value of exports is declining. That is what is wrong and the statistics show it. Both National and Labour Governments of the past 20 years have had a stronger focus on inflation than on the export sector. We are now paying for that in a big big way.New Zealand First proposes to create tax incentives for exporters. We believe that is a major way to expand the export sector and its markets. We are very strong on that. 
Hon John Tamihere 
: Who and how much? 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: We would create a tax abatement scheme—20c in the dollar for new export net profit. 
I want to finish by stating my personal opinion that in the last year certain policies have been pushed on to New Zealanders—for example the Prostitution Reform Act the promotion of Internet gaming and the current promotion of the civil unions bill. It is very sad for the people of New Zealand to have these anti-family policies forced on them without a mandate from the people. Last but not least I believe that New Zealand First will continue to support good policy and continue to oppose bad policy.