Hudson BrettBRETT HUDSON (National): I speak in respect of the report on the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE)—particularly that conducted by the Commerce Committee. At that meeting among a number of things we talked about our programmes and progress around research and development growth.I particularly want to speak in relation to some points that Mr Fletcher Tabuteau of New Zealand First raised just a wee bit earlier in this debate. Mr Tabuteau acknowledged that private sector business contribution to research and development in the last 12 months or so had grown by 29 percent. That is very true—29 percent. You would think that would be something to be proud of and to raise and laud as something good for the country but Mr Tabuteau did not. That might come as some surprise but you know that New Zealand First members are often known to defy common sense and logic so it possibly did not come as too much of a shock to members on this side of the Chamber. What it did show is that Mr Tabuteau does not understand this Government's R & D plan nor does he understand the R & D objectives of any countries in the OECD.You see it is the intention of small developing countries or large and advanced countries for the private sector to bear a greater burden of the R & D investment. There are generally two things that countries are looking to achieve. Generally they want to grow their R & D expenditure to around 2.5 percent or more of GDP and they want business to have the lion's share of that. In New Zealand—and if Mr Tabuteau had actually sat on the Commerce Committee instead of just pontificating from his seat over there he would know that the report from MBIE shows—the level of Government R & D investment in New Zealand is considered very strong within the OECD particularly given that we are considered a small advanced nation of course and not one of the larger ones.So when we have a situation where the private sector business investment in R & D is outstripping the Government investment in R & D that is actually a good thing. It is a good thing because it shows that we are getting closer to the objective of not only growing overall research and development expenditure but having the private sector contributing a greater amount towards that. So overall the news we got from MBIE around that was that it is pleased that there is a greater propensity or a greater willingness for business to invest but we still have a way to go. Another area that MBIE pointed out we have a way to go in is the commercialisation of that R & D. We might then note that the change of the chief executive of Callaghan Innovation is to someone who has got proven experience in the private sector and has been brought on to help companies in New Zealand to exploit that R & D investment further.The other part I would like to touch upon is in one of the other reports. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) came to talk to us. As a small trading nation at the bottom of the world to which no one owes a living we are wholly dependent on exports for the prosperity of New Zealanders. So when we are trading with other nations it is not actually about commodities or goods or services it is actually about jobs and income. That is because the more trade avenues we have and the fewer barriers we have for our goods and services to be traded overseas the more jobs we create in New Zealand and the higher incomes are raised for the workers in those areas.We heard from NZTE whose job is to help Kiwis act upon and exploit the free-trade agreements that people like the Hon Todd McClay work so hard to put in place around the world. I would acknowledge the work that Mr McClay has been doing to put in perhaps a new form—but to salvage some very positive trade outcomes from all of those Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and the progress that was made up until the very late part of last year. It is NZTE's job to help New Zealand companies to actually capitalise upon those. It particularly has been doing a lot of work around a group of 700-odd companies that are actually not the largest enterprises in New Zealand—companies that have less than $500 million revenue—and it is helping them to actually engage in those markets to grow their opportunities and to convert those free-trade agreements into jobs and higher incomes through the provision of more products and services. It has been doing an extremely good job. In fact NZTE officials were saying to us that they were engaged in about $1.5 billion worth of overseas activity. It is great work all round in the economic development sector.