Carter David: Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Carter David: Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:656;Page:5939] 
Hon DAVID CARTER (Minister of Agriculture) 
: 
 I have some advice for the member who just resumed his seat the Hon Chris Carter the former Minister of Education. I suggest that he spends more time in New Zealand and finds out what is really happening. His contribution was a typical contribution from a man in denial. He seems to think that Labour ran the country in good shape over the previous 9 years. He seems to think that the election did not happen and that the people of New Zealand did not wake up to the fact that Labour left a mess. 
The Budget was difficult to prepare. It was difficult because of the mess that had been left by Dr Michael Cullen. I will forever remember the day when Dr Michael Cullen the then Minister of Finance appeared on the TV news and revealed the Pre-election Fiscal Update. He sheer gloated saying to New Zealanders: “Whoops! After 9 years of economic buoyancy I have left the place in such a mess that I am leaving a decade of deficit for whoever wins the election in a couple of months.” 
History shows that New Zealanders knew the economy had been run down and was in a mess. They gave National the vote to form a Government and we are grateful for that. But no one should ever forget the mess that Dr Michael Cullen made after 9 years of buoyancy. 
Chris Carter points out that Australians are in a position where they are battling the current economic recession now by spending more money. We do not have that option. That option was taken away from us by the profligate spending by the previous Labour Government on all sorts of programmes. One was called What’s Up. Badges were given out to New Zealanders by Chris Carter as the Minister of Education in an attempt to improve literacy. It was absolutely useless. If Chris Carter spent more time in New Zealand and more time with the people he is meant to be representing he would know that he left a serious problem with literacy in this country. 
As a former Minister of Education he will go down as a complete and utter failure. He not only spent money with reckless abandon but also made sure we dropped the literacy standards in this country over that period of time. Chris Carter’s record is shameful. He suggested that our current Minister of Education the Hon Anne Tolley is an invisible member. Well she may well be invisible in China London the United States or wherever it is that Chris Carter has been travelling to but in this country she is very visible. She is tackling the real issues and the mess that was left behind. 
The real problem that this country faces is that we have the most incredible economic conditions since the 1930s. Although the whole of the developed world grapples with this recession—it is an international recession—New Zealand under the previous Labour Government can claim one credit. It entered into recession before the international recession hit. That is the condition the Labour Government left New Zealand in. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: And the member’s Government said it was a drought. That’s what that member said. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Mr Mallard has woken up. He is another member who is in complete denial of the mess his Government left. He was an Associate Minister of Finance. He can take the next call and explain the mess that was left. 
Chris Carter said in his contribution that our Budget had cut spending. Again if he spent a little more time in New Zealand he would know that the Budget did not cut spending; it very carefully controlled the amount we could spend. It increased the amount of spending in all of the important portfolios where we had to increase spending but it did so with caution. The Budget was very focused on the debt structure we had been left— 
Hon Maryan Street 
: And very focused on tax cuts for the wealthy—very focused on inappropriate tax cuts. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: —and on the fact that we had to remain credibly recognisable by international rating agencies otherwise every New Zealander would have incurred an increase in interest rates. That may not worry Maryan Street. She might be one of those lucky New Zealanders without a mortgage. She might be one of those people who do not know anything about businesses that borrow money to create capital and create jobs in order to give New Zealanders jobs. Those New Zealanders are the people we have to think about when we are putting together a Budget. They are the sorts of people who are affected by the rash decisions made by the previous Labour Government. They are the people we had in mind when we carefully put together a Budget that was respectable and recognised the huge issues we have to face. 
In health alone I remember 9 years of Labour Budgets. The previous Labour Government used to spend more money every year—ridiculously large amounts of money. I expected that we would get something out of that expenditure but we actually got fewer elective surgeries under Labour even though it increased the Health vote by over 50 percent in those 9 years. 
The Hon Tony Ryall is doing a superb job tidying up the mess left by the previous Government. He is focused on making sure that the taxpayer money that goes into Vote Health is there for those people who need it. It is not there for the bureaucrats to build huge bureaucracy around the system; it is about delivering the best health dollars to those people who need it those people needing primary health care and those people in our hospitals tonight who should be the focus. 
Hon Maryan Street 
: Primary health care! Oh yes let’s start on primary health care. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Maryan Street should be ashamed of herself for not seeing it. 
I will finish my contribution by talking about my particular portfolio areas of agriculture forestry and biosecurity. Although this country is in recession most people realise—certainly every member on this side of the House does but maybe Labour members do not—that the New Zealand economy will come out of recession when the New Zealand rural scene performs. The rural sector is the backbone of the economy. It was given scant regard by the previous Labour Government but if we look after that sector watch the cost structures that have been recklessly imposed on it and give it a chance to compete effectively and fairly against other producers around the world then it will be the industry that drives this country out of recession delivering better living standards for everybody. 
That is why we were so focused on the primary growth strategy. The Primary Growth Partnership has to deliver the next level of innovation to the sector. 
Hon Maryan Street 
: And it is a tenth of the Fast Forward Fund. 
Hon DAVID CARTER 
: Oh here we go—the rubbish about the Fast Forward Fund. Maryan Street would borrow $700 million today and somehow magically that would become $2 billion. No one else not even Jim Anderton believed that story but Maryan Street still believes it. I guarantee to that member—I have told her before; I know she will not listen but I will say it again in the hope that she will listen—that over the next 15 years the Primary Growth Partnership will deliver considerably more money than we ever got out of the Fast Forward Fund. We are not going out there to borrow money to create a fund; we are doing it with industry. We have people in the industry saying that our scheme will work. 
The industry had no faith at all in the previous scheme. Mr Anderton announced the previous scheme and then said: “Now we had better build a bureaucracy around it.” The industry was panicking about that scheme. That is why people in the industry did not vote Labour at the last election. Like most New Zealanders they saw the opportunity to get a better Government one that is really focused on the economy. That is why the Labour Party lost—and lost decisively—the last election. 
When the next Labour member stands to make a contribution in the debate I think that member should acknowledge that Labour got it wrong. Labour members should acknowledge that the people of New Zealand finally woke up to the way Labour was trying to spend its way round the country to buy votes in an attempt to stay in office. New Zealanders woke up because they know that this economy can perform substantially better. They know that the economy should be delivering for them a substantially better lifestyle and standard of living than it is. With John Key as Prime Minister the National Government will perform for a long long time delivering substantially to New Zealanders.