Hodgson Pete: Appropriation (2004/05 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Hodgson Pete: Appropriation (2004/05 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:619;Page:14977] 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Energy) 
: 
 Boy am I proud to be a member of this Government! Boy am I pleased to be part of a Government that decided in the last Budget to increase funding for research science and technology by the greatest amount ever! More money than ever was appropriated in the last Budget for science—an increase of more than 40 percent over the past 5 years. 
Rodney Hide 
: All wasted. 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: Rodney Hide is about as innovative as a brick. There has been a 40 percent increase in funding for research science and technology over the last 5 years. Funding has gone into economic development environmental research social research and scholarships. Money has gone through the Foundation for Research Science and Technology the Marsden Fund the Health Research Council and Technology New Zealand increasing the commercialisation of good New Zealand ideas in a global marketplace increasing patents increasing all the bibliometric analysis that one wants done and increasing collaboration between Crown research institutes universities and research associations. There is increasing collaboration off shore with Australia America Japan and China. There are increases everywhere increases resulting from funding going into the centres for research excellence funding for the Pre-seed Accelerator Fund and funding for the Equity Investment Fund. 
The private sector has done even better. Between 2000 and 2002 in those 2 years the private sector increased its investment in research and development by 32 percent. The private sector increased its investment in universities and Crown research institutes but it did its own research and development and filed its own patents. We have growing innovation in this economy. We have an innovative Government. We have a partnership between the two and it will not be broken any time soon. The economy and the Government as far as innovation is concerned go hand in hand. Not that the money is enough; it is never enough. There is never enough money for say health research or institutional funding for Crown research institutes. There is never enough venture capital funding or intellectual property capacity in this country. There is no such thing as enough but boy is this Government making a difference. 
It is the same with transport. We have got the New Zealand Transport Strategy we have got ourselves the Land Transport Management Act and then “Dr No” became “Dr Yes”. Last June or July when Transfund announced the national transport plan for the next 10 years we saw that it showed for next year in every region of the country a significant increase in transport infrastructure funding. We now have integrated transport. We now have transport in which multimodal planning is the norm. We have increases in every region in the country including the Chatham Islands. 
In energy we have got funding this year for the Electricity Commission. It is about time we had ourselves a managed market. We know that a fully regulated market does not work. We know that a free market does not work. Therefore we have got ourselves somewhat more of a managed market. We have got funding going into gas exploration. We have changed the fiscal incentives. We will address the gas shortage that this nation is facing. 
In the last Budget not only did we have New Zealand dollars which is what one would expect in a New Zealand Budget but we had a new currency and it is tonnes of carbon dioxide credits. Those tonnes are being tendered in the next month or two. If a country can produce a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions then we will give it up to that amount in credits. That country then has to go on the global market to sell them. I signed an agreement with the Netherlands Government yesterday afternoon as it wants to buy 34 million tonnes of credits. We have 6 million tonnes available if the price is right. We are seeing climate change making money for New Zealand industry. What is more we will see this Government run that process at a profit—that is to say we will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than the carbon dioxide credits that are put into the marketplace. [ 
Interruption 
] They are owned by the New Zealand Government which is a signatory and ratifier of the Kyoto Protocol. That is a matter of international law and the member should get her facts right. 
Unemployment in this country is now 4 percent. That is not quite the lowest rate in the Western World; it is the second-lowest rate. We have got regional growth everywhere in every region. We have got per capita income increases. We have got a reduction in national debt. We have got increased provision for superannuation. We are one of the few countries that has decided to partially pre-fund national superannuation. Because of the “Cullen fund” we will not have the problems that France Japan or other nations have. We have the Working for Families package which is the hallmark the flagship of the last Budget. It addresses a major problem in this country which is the rich-poor gap. We are hearing from the rich; they cannot stop interjecting on me. The rich-poor gap is being closed by this Government. 
Last week I came back from a remarkable trip through China Korea Japan wherein one finds one-third of the world’s research and development effort. I went there with a delegation of New Zealand science leaders and we are thickening our linkages to those three nations. After 5 days in those three countries I returned to my home in Dunedin. The headline in the  
Otago Daily Times 
 was “Mr Bumbling Brash loses plot”. The article states: “Dr Brash’s assertion that New Zealand risks becoming just another Pacific island State not only bordered on the ridiculous but was silly politics to boot.” That was my welcome home and it came from John Armstrong a respected political commentator. He said: “At the end of the day National’s leader is perfectly within his rights to make a fool of himself.” and he goes on for another thousand words to show why the leader of the National Party made a fool of himself. It was remarkable. 
I picked up the latest  
Listener 
—I had been missing it having been out of the country—and I found there that Jane Clifton another political commentator says it is hilarious that National has come up with the idea of reducing Cabinet from 20 to 15 because the new leader has had time to realise that he would be pushing the proverbial uphill “to find 10 trustworthy warm bodies to call Ministers”. I think this is called snatching virtue from the jaws of necessity. 
So we are back to the stupidity of New Zealand politics where we have a Government that is working with the country to produce economic growth and jobs and prosperity like we have not seen in 20 years and we have another party that is saying we are becoming another Pacific Island State. It is almost unbelievable just how detached the National Party is from reality. It is extraordinary. In fact if we have a capacity constraint in this country—and sure as hell if one is trying to build roads in Auckland that question may arise—I think the biggest one is on the front bench of the National Party. It is a remarkable capacity constraint. National members have another election coming. They will get themselves a new intake. They might get some bright new things they might get some fresh faces but right now we have a poor National Party under apparently poor leadership. 
Well that ain’t good for democracy. How is this Government being tested? How is this Government being shown up? Where is the quality opposition in this Parliament at the moment? It is to be found in other parties. It is to be found in the Green Party in the New Zealand First Party and in the United Future party. It is not to be found in National and it certainly ain’t to be found in ACT. All that ACT can do is change its leader and go to Auckland and say it is taking the pulse of Auckland for the next 2 months. Do members know what the pulse of Auckland is? It is 60—that is how many people turned up at ACT’s meeting in Auckland last week. That is the pulse; it is a very thin and thready pulse that ACT has in Auckland. But the point of the story is that the ACT party is not a decent Opposition either. ACT members are very good at shouting out and cracking jokes amongst themselves but they have no depth. There is no particular analysis. 
Darren Hughes 
: 2 percent. 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: That is why they are at 2 percent. The National Party is a problem. It is a problem for New Zealand democracy because it does not have depth. It is a problem for New Zealand democracy because when its members reshuffle they cannot even fill the front bench. They have to fill it with the senior whip. It is not as though they have a nine-person front bench. New Zealand First has flogged half the front bench off them and they still cannot fill the rest. So we are in a situation were the other so-called major party does not have much talent and its leader provides absolute proof of what lack of talent means. He went to Australia and made a fool of himself then came home again. He asked a question in this House today for the first time in a month. Where has the Leader of the Opposition been?