Smith Nick: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Smith Nick: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2012. Volume:685;Page:6131. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 That speech from Clayton Cosgrove showed that he has learnt absolutely nothing from the rejection of him personally in Waimakariri and the rejection of the Labour Party’s whingeing negativity in Christchurch. New Zealanders and not just those in Canterbury are looking for positive leadership which they are getting from this Government. 
 You see the most important challenge for our country today is how we navigate our way through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. This afternoon I want to quote what President Obama’s budget office adviser told the IMF last week. He said “… if you look across all the developed countries there is only one country … which has [the right policy combination] which is New Zealand …”. What an extraordinary compliment for the effective governance of this John Key - Bill English - led Government where in terms of economic policy we have ourselves in great shape. 
Let me go through some of the vital signs of the New Zealand economy. Last week we had the inflation figure: 0.8 percent. That is the lowest level of inflation in 16 years. What was the inflation rate when we came to Government? It was 5.1 percent. What does that mean? That means ordinary New Zealand families struggling to keep up with the cost of groceries with the cost of power bills with the cost of their rates and with all of those things that make a difference for ordinary New Zealanders. On inflation New Zealand is doing very very well. 
Let us take interest rates. Interest rates affect the capacity for businesses to invest and to create jobs and they impact on the costs of every single New Zealand family that is aspiring for that Kiwi dream of being able to own their own home. The interest rate right now is 5.3 percent. That is the lowest—the lowest—interest rate in 40 years. And how does it compare with the interest rate when we became the Government? It was over double that. It was at 11 percent. I know members opposite do not understand how important low interest rates are to businesses and households. We do. It matters. We are delivering. 
Then let us look at a figure like economic growth. What an extraordinary result given all that is going on globally for the economy to have grown by 2.6 percent in the last 12 months. I look around the world—Britain Greece Spain Italy—extraordinary economic collapse extreme hardship and millions of people going into unemployment. Here in New Zealand we have had our economy growing for 13 straight quarters. Let us just look back again to 2008. Do you know that in 2008 in those three quarters of March June and October it was not that we had economic growth; our economy had negative growth and it was going backwards. 
Let us look at one of the big issues: government debt. When we came into Government Treasury said we had a decade of deficits. The debt was going to blow out to 70 percent of GDP and yet as was noted at the IMF last week New Zealand is one of only three developed countries that is going to have a balanced budget in the year 2015. I again give credit to Bill English and the team for being able to deliver that sort of result. 
I will mention another positive figure. Over the last year New Zealanders’ debt servicing costs have dropped by $4 billion and New Zealand households have saved more in the last year than they have in 20 years. Every New Zealander knows at heart that we need to improve our savings. That is an extraordinarily positive outcome. It is just one of many vital signs that show that this Government is on top of its game and that the economic management—the big issue—we are getting right. I just challenge members opposite to stop the negativity.