Mitchell Mark: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mitchell Mark: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 13 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2931. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney) 
: 
 It is with great pleasure that I take a call in this general debate. When we watch and read the news day after day informing us of the massive challenges and problems being faced by much bigger developed economies it brings into sharp contrast the incredible job our National-led Government is doing in protecting and building our own economy. New Zealand is only 0.25 percent of the world economy. We are not insulated from global forces just because we are geographically remote. We are affected by what is happening to the rest of the world.  
But the great news is that we are beginning to emerge as standing out from a large part of the pack because this Government is doing the right things. Growth in New Zealand over the next years as my colleague Nicky Wagner alluded to—and by the way I must say that Christchurch is very lucky to have a representative like Nicky Wagner who is as passionate about the rebuild there as any New Zealander could be—is forecast to be higher than in Europe Britain Japan the United States and Canada. We are expected to achieve around the same growth rates as Australia at about 3 percent. That is because we are getting the fundamentals right.  
Brendan Horan 
: The forecasts so far have been so widely askew.  
MARK MITCHELL 
: You might say “So what?” but this is actually very important to most New Zealanders. We are expected to achieve those growth rates because we are getting the fundamentals right. We have sound economic and financial institutions. We have products and services that are in demand and will continue to be over the coming decades. We are growing our exports in the most vibrant and thriving regions of the world like East and South-east Asia. The rebuilding of Christchurch will effectively be a huge stimulus programme funded largely by significant insurance payouts coming largely from overseas. So as a country we face a relatively favourable set of circumstances and opportunities over the coming years. We are ready to make the most of those opportunities while continuing to carefully manage the exposure to global risks.  
I would like to talk about our business sector and the key growth initiatives of this Government. Back in my own electorate of Rodney I have been running a series of business forums of which I held my third last week in Silverdale. These are some of the issues that have been highlighted as being important to our local business people: a reduction in red tape and compliance costs— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: What have you done about that? 
MARK MITCHELL 
: This is what we are doing—this is what we are doing. We are removing 176 unnecessary regulations from the law books and repealing 31 obsolete or redundant Acts. We are amending 13 Acts to reduce compliance costs and the regulatory burden on business. What would Labour and Mr Cosgrove do? They would apply a capital gains tax to all our businesses. They would return to 1970s industrial relations policies and wind back National’s ACC changes meaning higher ACC levies.  
What else is important to the local business people in Rodney? Investment in infrastructure was highlighted as being important. Investment in infrastructure is highlighted as being important so what is this Government doing to invest in our infrastructure? We are investing $12 billion over the next 10 years in new State highways and $1.8 billion in new local roads. This is important.  
This is significant actually to our communities and I would welcome and invite anyone to come as a guest and visit the people of Rodney north Rodney and Northland and to speak to them about the Puhoi to Wellsford motorway. This has been tagged as a holiday highway by the Opposition. It is not actually a holiday highway; it is an economic highway. Labour members as I understand are saying that if it was up to them if they were in Government this road would be cancelled. Come north and find out how popular that policy is.  
We are investing $12 billion over the next 10 years in new State highways and $1.8 billion in new local roads. We have committed $750 million to the $4.6 billion plan to improve the rail freight network and to help rail to become commercially viable. We are investing $1.35 billion in public-private partnerships to roll out ultra-fast broadband with 90 percent of businesses to be covered in 4 years. This is a significant policy. If you talk to our small businesses and our entrepreneurs in remote areas who rely on an ultra-fast broadband service or to those whom an ultra-fast broadband service would allow to expand and grow in the global market this is important.