Carter David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Carter David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3141. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Minister for Primary Industries) 
: 
 Following on from the contribution of my colleague the Minister of Finance Bill English when he talked about the seeds of doubt growing in those members’ hearts I want to speak about the kernel of confusion. I listened to the debate with great interest yesterday. There were contributions from senior members of the Labour Party like Mr Goff and Mr Mallard and Mr Cunliffe. And then I came across a comment or a speech by one of these Labour members. This member said in 2010: “in a capital constrained … environment”—and we have certainly got that at the moment—“[Labour] will better leverage the Crown’s balance sheet in new and innovative ways …We can unleash State Owned Enterprises to create and grow [them] with private partners and private shareholders”. That is exactly what National is proposing to do. That is what Mr Cunliffe came down and spoke in Opposition about in the Chamber and yet at his own party conference I believe he made a speech like that advocating the mixed-ownership model. 
Then I came across an even more interesting comment by a senior Labour Minister back in 2006 on the  
Agenda 
 programme. This Minister said: “Something that we need to do and something that I am quite keen on is that as the SOEs develop new businesses especially those that are done in partnership with people in the private sector we could well have floats of the subsidiaries so that they could be listed on the stock exchange. That would help give depth to our capital markets and get some transparency around these companies. I think that would help.” Well amazingly that was said by the Hon Trevor Mallard—the very member who spent hours in the Chamber yesterday arguing against National’s mixed-ownership model when in 2006 Mr Mallard said it was a good idea. So Mr Mallard speaks out of both sides of his mouth saying two different things and it is no wonder we have in the House today an absolute kernel of confusion. 
The other comment that came through in the debate yesterday is that National needs a mandate. Well I remind the Labour members that at the last election there were effectively two issues. One was the idea of the Labour Party to impose a capital gains tax. The other issue that was voted on by people was National’s absolute honesty to go to the electorate and say that if you vote National at the next election—the last election—then we will deliver a mixed-ownership model. And 47.5 percent of those who voted voted National Mr Little. That is as close to a mandate you can ever get using a general election to deliver a mandate so for Mr Little Clayton Cosgrove and Kris Faafoi to argue that we are proceeding without a mandate is absolute rubbish. 
I do not understand why the Greens are running a petition and—surprise surprise—not only are they wasting their time with that petition but they are actually wasting taxpayers’ money. We learnt yesterday that they have got paid officials—$75000 of taxpayers’ money—out there at places like the Fieldays collecting signatures. The Green Party talks about all of its support base—its wide support base so loyal to the cause. If the support base is so loyal to the cause why does the party have to pay its people to stand outside the supermarkets collecting signatures for a referendum which Mr Hague will be meaningless—absolutely meaningless? 
The final point I want to make is about why National is proposing the mixed-ownership model. It is because we have a lot of things that as a Government we need to spend capital on. We need to spend money in Christchurch helping the rebuild; in the Port Hills electorate alone a number of schools have been completely destroyed. I want to see money invested in productivity like water infrastructure—particularly in Canterbury but not only in Canterbury in Hawke’s Bay and in Otago. To develop that infrastructure to develop those new schools we need capital—