Foss Craig: Address in Reply 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Foss Craig: Address in Reply 
[Sitting date: 14 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:330. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CRAIG FOSS (Minister of Commerce) 
: 
 And so says David—a Sermon on the Mount Mr Cunliffe. It is good to see you back in the House. I suggest that next time you stand a little closer to the razor though. A few things have changed over there in the Labour Party but some things do not change whatsoever. I do note there were some changes although listening to the speeches I do not know. I think some of them maybe had been written in about August last year. What did we see just yesterday? They have changed leaders over in the Labour Party and that is fine. Mr Shearer is now leading the assembled masses over there if you like. But I did see a picture of him being led by a poodle in the paper or online somewhere so that is not particularly encouraging I think for his leadership thus far.  
First of all though—I do digress and I apologise to members—is the acknowledgments of other members for the election results. Congrats and otherwise to the National Party for its winning of the election—thank you—are taken on board. But I return the compliments to those whom I contested in my electorate of Tukituki who ran a pretty good campaign and kept it clean. I think respect was gained for all parties concerned. I also welcome new members to Parliament and welcome back returning members. I am sure we will get to know some of the new members a bit more and I look forward to seeing you from time to time particularly around the House. I for one quite enjoy discussions outside of this Chamber around committees and things like that.  
November 26 does seem quite some time ago now but I would just like to point out that if one looks at the map of the North Island say from Wairarapa all the way up to somewhere near Auckland one sees it is a nice shade of blue—National Party blue. I feel a little bit sorry for the Hon Parekura Horomia who has quite a burden on his broad shoulders to look after that whole part of the country. But the people have spoken. The people spoke on November 26 and they resoundingly rejected the policies that the Labour Opposition put up to the public. They resoundingly rejected those policies to the tune of the lowest poll result I think it is for the Labour Party ever—27 percent or you could say 73 percent against. [ 
Interruption 
] I do not know what the issue there with that one is—27 percent. Did I miss half a percent or something? I do not know; I will give it to you. But it was 27 percent.  
The people of New Zealand gave this Government a mandate. They gave this Government the permission to continue working towards such a brighter future. They gave us permission to continue to manage the country’s finances in such a better way to prudently manage every single taxpayer cent every single dollar so as to get the best outcome possible because we fully and honestly acknowledge where that dollar comes from in the first instance. As we all know it comes from taxpayers in one way shape or form.  
As we saw previous speakers were talking about structural issues in the economy. Well yes we were in Government for the previous 3 years but much of what we are still trying to tidy up was set in train from about 2004 to 2007 when Government spending and Government revenue doubled. 
Kris Faafoi 
: This is the speech from last year. 
Hon CRAIG FOSS 
: That is right but I am responding to the other speeches that were written last year.  
New Zealand voted for the mixed-ownership model. Interestingly all the rhetoric aside the former Labour finance spokesman Mr Cunliffe—and I think the Hon Trevor Mallard when he was commerce Minister or thereabouts—used terms along the lines that their ambition was to unleash the power and potential of State-owned enterprises. A speech Mr Cunliffe gave at Victoria University in November 2010 I think it was used that exact term. Funnily enough I think it got taken out of some online versions but unleash— 
Hon Amy Adams 
: What? 
Hon CRAIG FOSS 
: Well yes I think that is what we may be doing. I cannot quite understand why they are still arguing about it now having ignored the mandate and what New Zealand said. If I listened carefully to what Mr Parker said essentially he said the National Party’s victory at the election was some kind of statistical error— 
Hon Amy Adams 
: An aberration. 
Hon CRAIG FOSS 
: —an aberration because there has only been one other one-term Government the one where unfortunately the Hon Mr Norman Kirk passed away. I actually fully encourage members opposite to continue in that vein because if I recall the rhetoric before the election apparently it was about policies—I do remember that bit. If it was about policies and Labour put its policies out there National put our policies out there to the public and only 27 percent or so of the public voted for Labour’s policies think it through a little bit. Remember the old GST off fruit and veges? Perhaps Labour members have thrown that out to be fair; I do not know about that. I will be interested to hear. Remember not paying PAYE on your first $5K? I do not know whether they have thrown that one out. I would be interested to hear. They have changed leader they have changed some of the front bench around to be fair and good luck to them all. I am looking forward to what they have to say in that space.  
I would also particularly like to acknowledge in my new role as Minister of Commerce that I do intend to work as closely as I can with Mr Cosgrove who is the new commerce spokesman over there continuing the heavy regulatory reform work that the Hon Simon Power started of necessity in the last 3 years. But I fully acknowledge that it was assisted generally in a bipartisan way across the House and hopefully we can continue down that track. I look forward to working with him quite closely where and when possible. I am sure there will be policy differences but on the whole I suspect we are all heading to the same place as far as that regulation and legislation coming up is concerned.  
I noted before the mixed-ownership model and I noted what Mr Cunliffe and Mr Mallard had said previously. I recall that the history of the new Leader of the Opposition—I think it came up when he was the candidate for Mt Albert 2 or 3 years ago—includes writing a paper proposing that defence forces were contracted out. I think it was to Sandline International or something like that. I do not really mind—I have not read the paper—but I was just thinking about this the other day. I do not really mind but I am just quite interested to hear—if it was good enough for that member to write a paper or thesis about that and propose it fair enough—if he has changed his mind how he reconciles that with his current position on the mixed-ownership model as we try to unleash the potential of New Zealand and therefore the Crown’s balance sheet to try to realise our awesome future.  
New Zealanders see on TV every night what is going on in Europe. We see what is happening in southern Europe across Greece across Spain etc. I do note that the previous Labour Party leader in one of his speeches essentially announced that the global financial crisis was over. He may have changed his mind to be fair. What is going on over in Europe is a threat to this country—regardless of the reason for the moment. It is indebted to the tune of $180 billion. We are reliant on the world’s capital markets to fund our aspirations. Regardless of the policy stuff around that actually it is right that New Zealanders and this Government are prudent and very cautious to try to avoid down here what we see is going on up there. If we do not unemployment will indeed go through the roof if the Government finances are out of control—if that in fact happens. Interest rates will go through the roof inflation will go through the roof and the whole thing will start to collapse.  
Little old New Zealand which is doing its best to try to punch above our exporting weight around the world actually has to do so well even so much better I think than many people realise just to tread water as we try to realise our expectations as we start to grow our exports particularly to Asia. Again I freely acknowledge the generally bipartisan nature of free-trade agreements which have been ratified by different parties and Ministers of Trade and Prime Ministers over the years—absolutely—and that is great. You know when we exit New Zealand we generally speak as one and most members understand how necessary that is to help pay for our aspirations. I heard a speaker say this quite recently. It is simply this: “New Zealanders I think they understand that if we want more better schools if we want more better health if we want those things that we expect of an OECD developed country in 2012 do you know how we do it? We simply have to export more grow more.”