Parker David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 30 January 2013. Volume:687;Page:7612. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 We had 10 minutes from the Minister of Finance and he did not talk about his own record or his own Government’s policies once—not once. This is a Government that has unemployment at a 13-year high—over 7 percent which is the highest since when he was last Minister of Finance—a Government that has created no extra jobs over the last year and a Government with the worst growth record in 50 years where the real economy of manufacturing and exports outside the primary sector is shrinking and continuing to shrink where the current account deficit last year was $10 billion and this year is forecast to be worst in the developed world where the Crown revenue forecast for the 5-year period has dropped $13 billion in the last year and where the overvalued dollar is crippling our exporters. I would have expected the Minister of Finance to address those issues rather than misrepresenting Labour housing policy rather than misrepresenting the numbers we have used and rather than claiming credit for the insulation of State houses which was funded by a Labour Government under a Green Party initiative that was promoted by Jeanette Fitzsimons. I recall it because I was there. I was part of the Cabinet that approved that bid by the Greens. 
Mr English continued on from what we had yesterday from Mr Key. Mr Key stood up and I am going to quote what he started with. He said: “What a good strong start it has been for the National-led Government has it not?”—self-praise—“What a cracker of a start—full of energy and full of new ideas ready here to continue the 4 years of sold work and progress we have seen in the past. It is not even February and we have had a Cabinet reshuffle” and then he listed the new initiatives. He listed only two. He said “14000 new apprentices to be hired over the next 5 years …” which will not even make up for the loss. And what was the next thing? What was the next thing on his list? 
Andrew Williams 
: Warrants of fitness. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Exactly—warrants of fitness. The next big idea was “warrant of fitness changes that will support every New Zealander around the country.” What an embarrassment—what an embarrassment! 
You know it is little wonder when the biggest economic idea the Government has for this 3-year cycle is selling off State-owned enterprises and what is the latest news on that? Brian Fallow in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 on 24 January under “SOE sales folly without smelter sorted” said: “When the Prime Minister outlines the Government’s plans for the year ahead he will no doubt be clear that it is not going to shrink from doing something foolish just because it is [so] unpopular.” It is foolish given that the price of power is uncertain because of Tiwai Point problems. Therefore not only will it make the Crown deficit worse but also the price it is going to get is suppressed. 
If you are a serious Government addressing New Zealand’s problems you would actually be doing something to address the problems of our exporters. The Government does not like it. It blocked an inquiry at the Finance and Expenditure Committee into the shrinking exports outside the primary sector and now it complains that it was not invited to the inquiry that was outside that process. Talk about spin! Well I will tell you what: we have had over 130 substantive submissions from organisations and manufacturers. That is in addition to a far greater number of form submissions. That is 130 submissions of substance. 
We have had people like HamiltonJet. HamiltonJet came along to us and I will quote what was said in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 about what it said. The heading in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 this week was “CEOs slam killer dollar”. “The single monetary policy goal of targeting inflation is now past its use-by date.”—Keith Whiteley from HamiltonJet came along and said that. HamiltonJet is one of our proudest export companies. It is dominant in the large marine jet market. It has got over 50 percent of the world market. Its closest competitor is Rolls-Royce and it is better than it. At the moment it needs to invest $20 million to improve its productivity. At an exchange rate of US80c—and our exchange rate is currently more than that at about US83c—it would make a 2 percent return on that investment despite the fact that the company is debt-free—2 percent. No wonder our exporters are not investing. No wonder our exporters are not expanding. 
We heard similar things from others. We heard Stewart Hyde from Wyma Engineering. This again is a world-leading company. It manufactures machines that wash vegetables before they are sold in supermarkets. It is a big market internationally and it is the world leader. What did it say? In recent years because of the exchange rate it has been forced to outsource four-fifths of its componentry from overseas. So it has exported four-fifths of those jobs—exported them. It said that it has cost it 40 local jobs—this is one company alone—and the company is now considering moving its final assembly overseas because this Government will not do anything to change monetary policy. 
The world has changed. I am going to read you a couple of excerpts from  
The Telegraph 
 newspaper recently: “A monetary revolution is underway.” This is from  
The Telegraph 
 on 1 January 2013. 
Hon Christopher Finlayson 
: It’s good that you read  
The Telegraph 
. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: What was that? 
Hon Christopher Finlayson 
: It’s good that you read  
The Telegraph 
 not the  
Guardian 
. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: I do read  
The Telegraph 
 in respect of these issues because Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has got a lot to teach the National Party who are up to date—not the National Party;  
The Telegraph 
. The IMF is also up to date. It is saying that the world has moved on. This is how the article starts: “The US Japan Britain as well as the Swiss Scandies and a string of states around the world are actively driving down their currencies or imposing caps.” They are all doing it and in New Zealand we sit here like saps. 
We lose 180000 people to Australia. The Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union told the inquiry that is has had redundancies every week in the last year in the exporters and where are those people going for their next job? They are either going to Australia or moving into insecure jobs where they have insecure income from week to week in other service sector jobs outside of manufacturing. That is what we were told. 
We were told by chief executive officer after chief executive officer of export companies that outside primary processing the situation of manufacturing—the future lifeblood of this economy—is dire. One of the submitters said that the Government says things like “The manufacturing performance index is improving.” and then he pointed out that that is what happens when the weakest the tail-enders fall off. “That is not good news” he said. This is what he did say and I thought it was a good metaphor. He said: “That’s a bit like a cricket team improving their batting average by shooting the tail-enders.” That is not a sustainable solution Mr English. And why did you not in one instance address the fact that under the current Government we have amongst the worst current account deficit in the developed world—$10 billion last year—causing more borrowing from overseas and more asset sales to foreigners? 
This Government has no plan. This is why we are losing people to Australia this is why wages are not keeping pace with housing costs and this is one of the issues that this Government should be addressing. 
What did the manufacturers say they wanted? They said that they wanted changes to monetary policy first and foremost which the Government refuses to address despite the fact that all these other countries have moved on. Manufacturers say that they want the exemption for capital income removed. Having the exemption for capital income removed was the second thing on their list—a capital gains tax. Again the Government is ignoring the advice of Treasury of economists and of all the other countries in the world that want a neutral investment signal so that the money goes into productive enterprises instead of driving up the price of land. The Government will not address that yet it pretends it wants to do something about housing costs. 
The next thing on their list was that they want a research and development tax credit. They do not want to be told by a Government quango like Industrial Research Ltd how to improve the efficiency of their business. In fact they were horribly insulted by the likes of Mr Joyce telling them that they should be increasing their prices or becoming more efficient. They say that that is their job they are very good at it and they do it despite the fact that they cannot prosper as the HamiltonJet example showed. 
We heard from A W Fraser the biggest bronze manufacturers and turners in Australasia. Again it cannot make a quid. Mr Sutherland said that Mr Joyce and Mr Key say that it is good that its new machinery is less expensive. He said that it cannot afford to buy the new machinery because when it uses it it cannot turn a profit from what it sells because of the high dollar. 
The next thing on their list was also something that is in Labour Party policy: improve the savings that we would achieve through universal KiwiSaver. Is it not interesting that businesses are saying that they need the improvements to tax that Labour is promoting and that they want changes to monetary policy that we have led—that we have led? 
Hon Bill English 
: No you haven’t. What change have you proposed? 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Well we have proposed changes to mandate and the membership of the board to have the decisions taken by the board rather than the governor and we propose that macro-prudential tools should be able to be used for fiscal and economic outcomes and not just for stability of a financial system. So these are substantial changes. The National Government is failing in its duties.