Bishop Chris: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBishop Chris: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5398. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS BISHOP (National): What an interesting contribution we had from Mr Robertson earlier. It was a revealing insight into Mr Robertson’s state of mind. What did he say at one point? He said that the National Party will take to the 2017 election a plan to bribe the electorate with tax cuts. Well I personally hope we do take a tax cut package to the next election but what a revealing insight into what Mr Robertson thinks about New Zealanders with their own money. He said that giving them tax cuts is a bribe. I think that that is regrettable.What else did Grant Robertson say? Well he accused the Government of lazy economic management. Oh the irony—the irony—of Mr Robertson accusing this Government of being lazy. The guy who is spending 2 years on the future of work—2 years gallivanting up and down the country and offshore no doubt to the United Kingdom and Canada to talk to all of his left-wing mates—is accusing us of laziness. Well that is just deeply ironic.You see the Labour Party is really at sixes and sevens at the moment because its Chinese demonisation campaign I think it is fair to say has been an utter disaster. So—Hon Annette King: What do the polls say Chris?CHRIS BISHOP: The polls have not moved for Labour but not only that all of the Labour Party’s best activists are flooding Twitter and Facebook and resigning. So the very people whom the Labour Party relies upon—Sue Moroney: How many Chris?CHRIS BISHOP: The people whom Sue Moroney relies on in her continual and perennially failed Hamilton West and Hamilton East and Piako and Port Waikato campaigns to put up her hoardings which were frequently reused in the last campaign—all those activists are resigning from the Labour Party. Why? Because the Labour Party has been revealed not as the progressive force for enlightenment and tolerance and for welcoming migrants and foreigners to the country but as a party that is prepared to play the race card for base political purposes. And not only that; it failed. So it is really at sixes and sevens.It is really at sixes and sevens about the issue of free trade as well. Actually—and this is really sad—only one party in this Parliament now stands up for an open and tolerant—[Interruption]The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order! Actually I would like to hear what is being said. [Interruption] I am on my feet; the member will be silent. That was not necessary. I ask the member to come back to the substance of the estimates debate please on this one.CHRIS BISHOP: Thank you very much Mr Chair. I do want to talk about the estimates but I want to respond to the point that Grant Robertson made about the dairy price and to the point that Mr Shaw made as well. What these estimates contain particularly with finance and Government administration—Vote Finance—is the diversification that is occurring in the New Zealand economy and it is actually quite regrettable that the Labour Party thinks that this is not occurring. What this Government has set out to do over the last 7 years is grow the innovative parts of our economy through things like Callaghan Innovation through things like new rules for research and development and through things like information and communications technology graduate schools. We have sought to do that and actually that is increasing.I just want to pick up on the point that James Shaw made before. He said that the amount of research and development that is going on in the economy is not increasing. Well I think you could probably argue about the numbers but it is true to say that as a percentage of GDP the amount of research and development that is going on in the economy has not increased at the rate that we would like. I think that it is also fair to say that the development of things like Callaghan Innovation and some of the new tax rules that we are introducing have not flowed through into some of those statistics yet. The numbers that he was talking about were for 2014. Some of those developments came in only in 2013 or 2014 so these things take a while to turn round.But what is true is that the number of firms in New Zealand that are engaging in research and development is increasing and the amount of money that is being spent is increasing in real terms. As a percentage of GDP I think it is true to say that those numbers are flat but why is that? Why is that? Because our GDP has been growing and our GDP has been growing at one of the fastest rates in the developed world.So Mr Shaw made a good point but I think it is true to say that these estimates contain a range of measures that are going to increase the amount of innovation occurring in the New Zealand economy. It was a sage speech by Mr Shaw. It is unfortunate that we cannot say the same about Mr Robertson’s contribution.