Macindoe Tim: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMacindoe Tim: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 12 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15886. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker—what an excellent choice. I would like to begin tonight by acknowledging and congratulating you Mr Deputy Speaker. I want to acknowledge you because over the Christmas recess you along with other colleagues announced that you would not be returning to this House later in the year. You have given great service to this Parliament and to your electorate of Invercargill and you have been a great friend and mentor to many of us so I acknowledge you. I also want to congratulate you—and I am pleased to see that smile on your face. Members of this House may not know that in the early hours of this morning the member for Invercargill welcomed another granddaughter into the world. Ultimately we are all here because we want to leave this country in better shape for future generations. I believe that you have made a great contribution and that you will be able to have your granddaughter proudly on your knee in years to come and tell her about the country that you knew and that she is going to inherit and in which she will no doubt make her mark.I would also like to say xin nian kuai le to all who are celebrating the Chinese New Year at this time. In honour of this event I am wearing a tie that I purchased 3 years ago when I passed through Shanghai. Those viewers with good eyesight watching on television may think that I am confused into thinking it is the “Year of the Panda”. I do know that it is the Year of the Horse.Hon Todd McClay: I thought it was a birthday present.TIM MACINDOE: To all of them may I say gong xi fa cai. No I am still waiting for your birthday present Mr McClay but I know you will be delivering it in the very near future.Of course the Chinese New Year is not just for Chinese people. My very good friend Melissa Lee tells me that for Koreans this is a particularly auspicious year. It is the year of the blue horse for Koreans. So ahn nyung ha se yo to all our Korean constituents and especially the fine Korean community up in Hamilton West and best wishes to you as well for this New Year. I hope that my Korean constituents and my Chinese constituents and others are as encouraged as I am by this exciting omen—the year of the blue horse—as we commence this election year in 2014. May we enjoy the blue horse plenty of blue sky and most important another blue Government to keep the great progress that the John Key - led Government has been delivering over the last 5 and a bit years going in New Zealand for many many years to come.In many respects 2014 has got off to the best start that many of us can remember for quite some time. Whereas there was a steady diet of bad news from the start of 2008 when the combination of the global financial crisis and Labour’s reckless and uncontrolled spending plunged us into recession and then those difficulties were compounded so dramatically by the Canterbury earthquakes in the years that followedit now seems that almost every day there is a little glimmer of hope; a little bit of announcement of something good that is happening. Whether it is in extra jobs being created extra people gaining access to education—from early childhood right through to tertiary level—or signs of growth in the economy there is all sorts of good news that is really encouraging. Of course we are all very relieved to see it.But the important thing is that we are not out of the woods yet. Those who think that we are are ignoring some significant challenges that we still face. As the Minister of Finance is prone to say we are experiencing grumpy growth. If I could leave one message from my contribution tonight it is that at the end of this year and beyond we must not jeopardise the significant but fragile signs of recovery that we are enjoying at this point. We must ensure that we stay the course that we make sensible decisions and that we continue to work for growth and for real engagement in the economy and not try to have some sort of election year lolly scramble that is totally irresponsible and that will set us back from all the great gains we have made.In my view—and most crucial—the frightening level of Crown debt that we face is the No. 1 challenge that we must continue to face up to to confront and to overcome in the years ahead. At one stage Treasury was tipping that that debt would be in the region of $74 billion. In a country of 4.3 million where many people are not in paid employment where people are living longer and where a large number of people are young students there is a relatively small taxpayer base. We were on target at one stage for core Crown debt to reach $74 billion. I am very proud of the fact that under Bill English’s outstanding stewardship that debt is already down to around about $65 billion but that is still a really horrific challenge.We must ensure that we get into surplus as soon as possible so that we can start to repay that debt. That is one of this Government’s core focuses and core aims. I do not want to be leaving that debt as an absolute albatross around the necks of your granddaughter Mr Deputy Speaker of my children and of their children to come. We have got to be realistic about that so this year must not be an election year lolly scramble.The previous Government proudly boasted that it left the coffers bare. Despite governing through the most auspicious and prosperous times in the first years of this century it spent the lot as Michael Cullen proudly boasted and left the incoming Government—and we were already in recession when the Labour Government went out of office—with a situation where for 5 years the previous Labour Government had allowed public spending to increase at twice the rate of revenue. No household could operate a budget like that. People would be defaulting on their mortgages and they would be hugely in trouble. No Government should operate like that and shame on the previous Labour Government for the fact that it did so.But the really sad thing is that more than 5 years later the Labour members appear to have learnt nothing. They still seem to think that they can convince the voters—that if they bribed them sufficiently with the voters’ own money they might just be able to buy their way back into office. Well that will not do. It would be absolutely reckless. I do not believe that the New Zealand public will fall for that. It is really important that they keep in mind that worrying Crown debt that we collectively have all got to repay when they cast their votes at the end of this year. Nothing that our opponents have announced—and they have opposed almost without exception the initiatives that we have implemented—shows that they have learnt any lessons at all in the last 5 years. Nothing shows that they are fit to be considered as an alternative Government any more today than they were 5 years ago when they were thrown out of office so comprehensively.Our opponents have opposed initiatives designed to create real and sustainable jobs. They have opposed welfare reforms designed to encourage and assist people to become self-reliant rather than dependent on the State for a lifetime—in many cases through cyclical intergenerational welfare dependency. They have opposed education initiatives designed to help those who need it most to raise their levels of achievement. We know that that is the most important thing we can do to assist many to have a better chance at securing a job breaking out of the cycle of welfare dependency becoming self-reliant and being able to enjoy the quality of life with their families that they aspire to as much as we do. They continue to believe that huge bribes using voters’ own taxes is the recipe for success in election year. Well the people of Hamilton West are not fooled by this and they know that the smug nasty attacks from some of the speakers we have heard in recent times are no substitute for coherent and intelligent policies. They know we cannot continue spending money we have not earned and they share my determination to repay debt.New Zealanders are coming home from Australia and elsewhere in record numbers. For the first time in a long time the situation on this side of the divide looks considerably more attractive than it does on the other side of the Tasman. That is something that we can celebrate but it also shows just how fragile certain stances are internationally and we must not be complacent for a moment. New Zealanders are gaining qualifications and increasingly these are leading into good solid jobs in record numbers. Our commitment to the people of Canterbury is unwavering because they have been through a lot and they need a Government that stands shoulder to shoulder with them and this year will be a very important year in the Canterbury rebuild.I will be campaigning proudly on my record. I am very proud of the improvements we are seeing like tangible gains in the delivery of public services. We have set measurable targets and we are delivering on them whether they be in health education law and order or so much more. That is a crucial aspect of government. Could I close just by saying a warm congratulations to those who have been working on the Waikato Expressway up my way. I can now travel from Taupiri to my home in Hamilton West in about 20 minutes—6 months ago it took nearly twice that length of time. I look forward to the opening of the other stages of the Waikato Expressway in the years to come. It is a huge commitment to the people of Waikato. We must not drop the ball on it. This Government is delivering on its promises in all sorts of ways. I will be proud to campaign on that record and hope it will be rewarded with re-election.