McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Thank you very much. This debate's taking place today at a very important time when businesses up and down the country realise the economy is slowing some commentators are saying it's faltering and the Government is in absolute denial over (1) that happening and (2) who's responsible.It was interesting earlier this year that there was a debate between the Prime Minister and Simon Bridges not over whether the economy is slowing but over whose fault it is. We continue to hear from the Prime Minister and we continue to hear from the finance Minister and the Minister for Economic Development it's global headwinds.Well what we heard in the committee and what we hear every single day is that the Government is saying that actually our exports are at record levels and export prices have never been so good under this Government—albeit they're not spending a lot of time overseas talking about trade deals; they're spending all of their time back here criticising our number one trade partner Australia and our number two trade partner China—or the other way around depending upon the commodity prices. But actually at the same time the Government is saying that the reason the New Zealand economy is slowing or business confidence is at record low levels—close to global financial crisis (GFC)—is because of international headwinds. Well I say to the Minister for Economic Development the business community doesn't believe that; the economic experts the commentators and the economists don't believe that; and increasingly we're seeing that Kiwis don't believe that either.So what exactly is happening with the economy and why after two years has this Government not got an economic development plan? Actually that's what business needs. Business confidence will increase—will go up—if there is a plan that businesses can understand. Well when this lot came to Government GDP growth was around 4 percent. Now we're told we'll be lucky if it's 2 percent. Around the world there's talk of recession; in New Zealand of negative interest rates. We see the Governor of the Reserve Bank drop the official cash rate (OCR) by a whole 0.5 percent—a whole 0.5 percent—not because he sees that inflationary pressure is there or the economy is doing so well; because he is worried about the economy.Do you know the only other times the Governor of the Reserve Bank in living memory has dropped the OCR by half a percent? Well it was the GFC half a percent; 9/11 half a percent; the Canterbury earthquakes half a percent; Grant Robertson with a Labour Government half a percent.Hon Member: All disasters.Hon TODD McCLAY: Oh my gosh—all disasters. So it's no wonder that the ANZ business confidence index is telling us it's minus 44 percent. Minus 44 percent tells us that businesses are not confident and they are not investing.GDP growth is very important. It's much more important than how people feel. Well the problem that we've got is that with no economic development plan businesses can't be confident and if they're not confident they're not investing they're not growing the economy and GDP growth will fall. When GDP growth falls do you know what this Government does? They decide they need to borrow more—we've heard that—or tax more. So what are they saying to New Zealanders and what are they saying to businesses? Well they're saying actually that they've got new taxes or cancelled taxes and that's the economic development plan. Businesses should grow by being taxed more. They've cancelled National's tax relief there are three new fuel taxes there's a regional fuel tax on top and they've got the brightline test. It's tax after tax after tax and at the same time those big big surpluses that they inherited—didn't grow themselves for an economic development plan; they inherited—are running out faster than Winston Peters' knee after he comes back out of hospital. They've said they are going to have to borrow.I saw something on Facebook the other day. It was a meme but it was the smiling face of the Prime Minister and above it it says We intend to borrow enough to get us completely out of debt." That's the problem we have when a Government has no economic plan after two years when they say business confidence is not important the Prime Minister pays more attention to consumer confidence—and now that's fallen as well—and they blame everything on global headwinds. No wonder businesses are so concerned.The final bit here is we need a Government that actually is paying attention to all of the small things as well. Why are there not enough workers in the New Zealand economy? Because they can't process visas for skilled workers or unskilled workers in our economy. They should actually stop making excuses and they should just do their job."