Groser Tim: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGroser Tim: General Debate[Sitting date: 15 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:9942. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TIM GROSER (Minister of Trade): I moveThat the House take note of miscellaneous business. I have been doing a bit of travel recently—rather more than any sane person would want to do—but it has at least given me one opportunity to look at the political process through the fractured lens of the Labour and Green parties and then to look at the reality facing New Zealand. So without wanting to sort of caricature it too much the argument from the Green-Labour side of the House is: “The country is going nowhere. The Government does not have a plan.” OK? But let us just look at the facts—let us just look at the underlying facts.This country along with Australia is growing faster than any developed country in the world and has excellent growth prospects. This country has got a cost of living increase of less than 1 percent. That is about as low as we have had in three decades. And if we drill down into the highly sensitive issue of food prices I wonder whethermembers on the Opposition benches saw the figure for the increase in food prices in the 12 months to April 2013. I wonder whether they saw what the increase was. It was zero—actually I am not quite correct; it was negative 0.1 percent all right? Does that not make the Labour Opposition look foolish for its stupid botched strategy of trying to eviscerate GST by removing GST from fruit and vegetables? It was prepared to butcher a well-constructed policy to solve a non-existent problem.We are looking at unemployment which is too high for the more disadvantaged elements of our society but the unemployment rate is half—is half—the unemployment rate of 17 countries in the eurozone. We are looking at after-tax wages which have increased by 20 percent—20 percent—since 2008 which is twice the increase in the cost of living over that time. We are looking at mortgage interest rates which are the lowest for 50 years. Sure if you buy a house in an upper-income area of Auckland you will not see the full benefit of this. But roughly 90 percent of New Zealanders who live in their own houses are living in houses they have owned for more than 2 years. If they are paying off a $300000 mortgage they are $230 a week better off—$230 a week which would be over $300 in pre-tax terms. That is what this Government is delivering through sound orthodox policies that are trying to fix problems at the root not this rinky-dinky stuff coming out of the Opposition.New Zealanders are in their homes enjoying the benefits of a stable Government and crime is lower than in the last 30 years. New Zealanders are safe in their homes because of the policies of this Government. What does that tell us? It tells us that this Government is focusing on things that matter to New Zealanders that it is not obsessed with its own political navel that we have isolated the problems that need fixing in this country and that we are laying the foundations both in the Budget tomorrow—and I am looking forward to Mr English’s fifth Budget; it will be a great Budget and it will track the way forward for the next 12 months—and in the progress we are making on a sustained plan called the Business Growth Agenda which is going to lay the foundations for more progress of the type that I have just outlined. This Government knows what it is doing and it has a set of Ministers backed by strong support from our caucus who are focusing on the problems that matter to this country. If you just comb through some of the statements that have been made just in the last 3 days what you get is a picture of Ministers who are working to a concerted plan know exactly what they are doing and are focusing on real issues.In the social policy area there is the decision to turbocharge the scheme to provide trades training for young Māori and Pasifika people. Six hundred places were established in 2011. We are going to turbocharge that to 3000. The Minister of Housing has just announced $377 million worth of new housing for 500 State houses and to accommodate the larger families of today another 3000 bedrooms. This is a Government that knows exactly what it is doing has got a very firm plan to put that in place and is making great progress.