Foss Craig: General Debate 
Foss Craig: General Debate 
[Volume:667;Page:14648] 
CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 I was not aware that the previous speaker had been Prime Minister at any stage but it is now in  
Hansard 
 so I congratulate the Hon David Parker if I missed that. I say to Mr Parker that the New Zealand financial crisis began 1 year before the global financial crisis. The global financial crisis made the economy the status and the conditions that this Government inherited even worse but the recession in New Zealand started 1 year before the global financial crisis. As we know from 2005 in particular the tradable sector of the New Zealand economy—the real economy; the bit that creates real jobs—has been in recession since about that time and that recession is what this Government is all about changing. 
On 1 October there were tax changes when the biggest the fairest and the largest rebalance in 25 years of the New Zealand tax system kicked in for New Zealand PAYE taxpayers. On 1 October more money was left in the pockets in the purses and in the households of New Zealand families after-tax income. Yes it is a tax switch yes it is a tax rebalance and yes some things will go up. GST has gone up 2.5 percent and that was fully acknowledged all the way along—it is fiscally neutral if members like to recall. But the balance has changed. Incentives have moved to saving and to stopping consumption—ongoing outrageous consumption. I note that the Greens still vote against this but we have put consumption taxes up in New Zealand and we have incentivised savings. We have put the cap on savings rates at 28 percent. 
After 1 October 72 percent of all taxpayers in New Zealand faced a tax rate of no higher than 17.5 percent. Superannuation has gone up $11 per week. We have addressed very well throughout this Parliament how this Government has compensated superannuitants and those on various benefits for the increase in GST. It has kicked in and it has kicked in very very well. As we learnt today rating agencies around the globe have endorsed the actions and the policies of this current Government as we try to get this economy back on track after 9 long wasted years which were an absolute travesty. What does that mean? It means mortgage interest rates will stay lower for longer under this Government than they would have under the policies of the previous Labour Government. 
Let us have a look at Labour’s track record which my colleague alluded to previously. Its GST track record shows that it took GST from 0 percent to 10 percent and from 10 percent to 12.5 percent with no compensation. This National Government took it from 12.5 percent to 15 percent with compensation. Let us look at Labour’s inflation track record. When it left office there was 5.1 percent annual inflation—5.1 percent annual inflation. Do members remember the policy targets agreement which the Opposition said was not working? It was supposed to cap inflation at 3 percent. In fact it was well north of 3 percent for most of its tenure. 
Let us see what Mr Phil Goff and his fellow cosmonauts are up to at the moment. What are they suggesting? They are suggesting that we take GST off fruit and veges. Well OK let us have the discussion. But did members see Mr Goff on  
Q+A 
 the other day? He was all over the place. Interestingly the Leader of the Opposition hardly addressed his announcement on the weekend in his speech but Mr Parker did. Let us have a look at the previous Labour Government’s sale of New Zealand land: 650000 New Zealand hectares were sold. Six hundred and fifty thousand New Zealand hectares were sold under the previous Government; 20-odd thousand hectares have been sold under this Government. There was a real wage growth of 3 percent under the previous Government over 9 or 10 years—3 percent—and there has been a 9-ish percent growth under this Government after only 2 years. 
Mr Speaker I know you mentioned excessive clapping before but I cannot hold myself back because the good news just keeps on coming. This economy is moving away from a debt-funded consumption economy. On  
Q+A  
the other day when Phil Goff was asked what he would do about the corporate tax he had not even thought about it. He had not even thought about the implications of his announcement of the 25-percent threshold. 
This Government is doing all it can to stop to change course and to arrest the juggernaut of debt consumption unfocused spending and non-measurable outcomes of the previous Government. We have rebalanced the economy. We have put incentives back into this economy for families to make the decisions in their households to save to pay off their mortgages and to not increase debt. The macro statistics say it right now: “Good on you New Zealand.” Those families are doing the right thing. It makes it hard right now but they are doing the right thing for this economy in the medium to long term to remove their vulnerabilities. Thank you.