Joyce Steven: Appropriation (2010/11 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Joyce Steven: Appropriation (2010/11 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Sitting date: 03 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:12922. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister of Transport) 
: 
 I rise to speak in this debate because I am very very excited about the initiatives this Government is taking to grow the New Zealand economy. Before I continue I must point out to the previous speaker Maryan Street a certain fact of life. If the Department of Corrections is growing to the extent that it is I ask her whether that is the fault of a Government that has been in office for 22 months or of the previous Government that had been in office for 108 months prior to that. It was that previous Government that left the legacy of the growing numbers for the department to deal with. In fact soon after I got the opportunity to sit around John Key’s Cabinet table we were shown a graph that showed the legacy of the spiralling numbers of prisoners left by the previous Government which we are now dealing with. We have already managed the numbers down and we are looking to manage them down further. But that legacy of the previous Government sits in front of this Government right now. 
Right across the public services that New Zealanders value the big issue is getting New Zealand to grow faster. Getting New Zealand to grow faster is how we will afford those services. The Government has a massive economic growth agenda that is unfolding as we speak— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am sorry to interrupt the honourable Minister but the discussion and yelling across the Chamber is not acceptable. Let us concentrate on the debate. If members want to interject on the member speaking then that is fine but this other dialogue is not called for. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. It is all right; I know the other side has been under a bit of pressure lately. 
The economic growth agenda is very very important not just to this Government but to the country. It is all about getting New Zealand to grow faster and this Government has an agenda that is unfolding day by day. Personal tax reform will take place on 1 October this year when most New Zealanders will be paying a top personal tax rate of 17.5c in the dollar. That is a magnificent achievement and it will encourage people to work hard get ahead and keep more of their own money. 
In the new highways area which is an area I happen to know a little about we have projects around the country that are growing quickly. The Kopu Bridge in the Coromandel has just marked 1 year’s progress and the Victoria Park tunnel which many Aucklanders drive past every day is growing rapidly. Shortly Nikki Kaye’s birdcage will be shifted from one side to the other to get the tunnel done. Last week I was able to announce the bringing forward of the Tauranga Eastern Link by about 7 years as a result of tolling—it has been brought forward by about 7 years. The link is a 23-kilometre four-lane highway and it was the subject of a press release this Government made on 29 July last week as we progressed our economic growth agenda. 
Today just to pick another random example the Minister of Finance and the Minister of State Services are out there saying that we are going to have a very close look at the policy expenditure of the Government which has ballooned out hugely over the last many years. In looking at Mr English and Mr Ryall I am confident that they will have a very close look at the policy purchasing process of Government because part of our economic growth agenda is keeping Government expenditure under control. It is only by keeping Government expenditure under control that we can keep the pressure off interest rates. Lower interest rates allow the economy to grow. 
There are a whole range of things. There is the science investment that we announced in the Budget. It is a very important investment and this Government is very serious about the country’s investment in science and innovation. 
The small matter of employment law reform is very important. It was announced by the Prime Minister just a couple of weeks ago at a conference in Auckland. It is a very important yet reasonable and moderate reform of employment law and it will achieve a huge amount in terms of giving employers the flexibility and if you like the confidence to employ new workers. That is already having an effect in the workforce. I suspect it will be quite helpful for the Labour Party when it comes to hiring a replacement in Te Atatu. I think the employment law reforms are big positive steps forward in our economic growth agenda. 
We are also putting more money into tourism—I say that in picking another random one from the list. More money for tourism was announced this year and that is very good for New Zealand’s very important tourism industry. We are also lowering company taxes to 28c in the dollar from the current 30c in the dollar. That is a good contribution to the economic growth agenda. 
We looked at some of the issues around productive land in the South Island and said that we had to do something about removing the logjams for irrigation in Canterbury. We had to make some calls there as we had some issues with the battle between regional councils—and frankly within regional councils—about coming up with a water policy for Canterbury. That is very important as it is a big productive part of the New Zealand economy so we have taken the steps that the other side acknowledged they should have taken. I think it was Trevor Mallard who came out after we had made the change and said that they had been going to do that. It took them only 9 years to think about it; it hadn’t happened. But that is a very important part of the economic growth agenda. 
Aquaculture is very important for the growth of the New Zealand economy. The reality is that under the previous Government we had a moratorium on aquaculture and as the Minister of Fisheries has pointed out Labour’s step forward from there was to extend the moratorium a bit longer. Those were the issues. There was a situation in aquaculture where the industry was frozen. We have unfrozen it and we are moving forward. 
Ultra-fast broadband is another issue. I was pleased to come down to the House and speak now because we have just made a press release today to say that the final refined proposals have been received by Crown Fibre Holdings in order to deliver ultra-fast broadband. The company has received proposals from a total of 15 parties. A number of the original respondents have formed new consortia or indicated a willingness to do so and the company is now in the process of crunching through those bids. The process is contestable which is very exciting because it will get the best price for the Government and the best price for taxpayers and it will give ultra-fast broadband right around the country to 75 percent of homes as soon as it possibly can. I think that that is very exciting because it will help growth. Once we have given that opportunity to people they can work from their own homes and increase the size of their businesses. Most important they can communicate with the wider world and that will allow them to achieve more. 
We can move on to things like trade negotiations. We have Tim Groser and Murray McCully out around the world for two reasons. The first is that it keeps them out of here; the second is that they are advancing our trade negotiations agenda. They are working very very hard at advancing that trade negotiations agenda because they know that New Zealand is a country of traders and that the only way we can get ahead in the world is to trade more. Interestingly the trade statistics on that are out and they say that we are trading more since the new Government came along. The statistics say that exports are increasing. Just the other day merchandised trade data for June showed a 6.8 percent increase in export values over the June quarter and we have a quarterly trade surplus of $389 million. That is the largest since September 2001 which was about when the previous Government lost interest in the tradable economy. We have been working to grow exports and trade negotiations are just one part of that. 
If I can I will also touch on export education because that is all part of the trade exercise. We have now had 2 years of year-on-year growth in international student numbers in this country so that is a 7 percent rise in the number of fee-paying international students for the first 4 months of this year compared with last year. I was able to announce that last week. That increase was on top of a 6 percent increase for the year before. So there we are—we are growing the international education sector. That does a number of things: firstly it brings income into the country which is very important. Again something that the previous crowd forgot about was that we actually have to earn our way in the world. The second thing it does is that it brings income into institutions which is also important. Of course lots of crocodile tears are being shed on that side of the House for institutions but those members do not work to help institutions increase their revenue streams. 
This is all good progress and it is part of the Government’s economic growth agenda that will see this economy turn round. I am excited to be a part of Budget 2010 because it will help us to close those gaps with Australia and with the wider world. That is what this Government is all about.