Parata Hekia: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Parata Hekia: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:670;Page:16707] 
Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister for Ethnic Affairs) 
: 
 Tena koe e te Mana Whakawa. Tena tatou huri noa i to tatou Whare. Nga mihi nui o te tau hou ki a tatou katoa. Happy New Year to all of us. Gong xi fa cai; happy Chinese New Year. I am delighted to stand to follow the speakers on this side of the House to talk about the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament. I start by reading the very first part of the Prime Minister’s statement and I recommend to the members of the House that they read all 20 pages because they seem to be under some misapprehension that there is not a plan. It might be because they have not taken the opportunity of actually reading the 20 pages of detail that carefully set out what that plan is. 
But let me start at the beginning because I think it bears reiteration: “This year the National-led Government will continue building a brighter future for New Zealand. Our 2011 programme will focus on achieving two of our key goals: We will build the foundations for a stronger economy and build better results from the public services New Zealanders rely on. These are the platforms upon which New Zealanders’ aspirations rest.” Is that not fantastic? There is so much in it and as I have already said I really do commend it to members of the House so they have the opportunity of informed debate. 
This Government inherited an economy in very bad shape. I shall not rehearse the dimensions of that because this House and New Zealanders are very familiar with that parlous state of affairs. We had to stabilise it. The good thing is that in 2011 the forecast is that we will grow the economy at just over 3 percent. What will that mean? It will mean better jobs and it will mean higher incomes and that is important for all New Zealanders. 
To do this the recipe is quite simple. There are three ingredients: we need to increase savings we need to increase investment and we need to increase exports—it is as simple as that—while also constraining Government spending. That means we need to focus on growing and supporting our businesses to become ever more successful. It means that we need to focus on productivity and levers that will give us greater productivity in our economy. Some of the investments we have made to that end are medium to long term such as investing in early childhood education and paying the highest level of investment that has ever been paid. It is very irresponsible of members on the Opposition benches to mislead the public when the facts are that this Government is investing in early childhood education at a level never matched by any previous Governments. In addition we have extended 20 hours’ free early childhood education to playcentres and kohanga reo. In so doing we have given practical effect to one of the cornerstone values of the National-led Government which is choice. Parents get to choose whether they want to send their children to teacher-led early childhood education centres or to parent-led early childhood education centres. As a child who went to playcentre—one of the very first in New Zealand in fact—as a daughter of the first graduate of kohanga reo and as a mother whose children went to kohanga reo and to kindergarten I feel very qualified to talk about the validity of the approach we are taking in early childhood education. 
We have gone on to invest in national standards at the primary school level because as my colleague said earlier it is important that we know how well our students are doing in primary school. 
We have invested in education in world-class infrastructure in the State highway network in the roads of national significance and in broadband. We have invested in science and innovation and unlike the Opposition we have invested in it in such a way that it will support businesses in their research and development to improve what it is they have to sell. We have invested in employment law reform we have streamlined and simplified laws and regulations particularly in resource management and we have introduced the most comprehensive tax reform seen in a generation. 
In terms of supporting businesses from 1 April we will see our company tax rate reduce from 30 percent to 28 percent. So it behoves us all to look at what the opportunities are to invest in in order to grow the economy and one of those areas is in increasing exports. We have the opportunity of China with which we have a free-trade agreement. In the year ended in June 2010 we had just over $4 billion worth of exports to China and we imported just over $6 billion worth of goods. There is an opportunity there to grow our exports into China. We have the opportunity of developing a free-trade agreement with India. Last year we exported just over $700 million worth of goods and we imported just over $300 million worth. 
We have the opportunity of increased diversity within our nation of New Zealand to build on those transnational links. Over half a million people in New Zealand belong to different ethnic communities which is 13 percent of the population as at 2006. Three hundred and fifty thousand of those or 9 percent have identified themselves as being of Asian ethnicity. The predominant groups within those are the Chinese community and the Indian community. Those communities together with the wider New Zealand nation have the opportunity to contribute significantly not only to our cultural wealth and our linguistic wealth but also to our domestic and export opportunities. I welcome the opportunity to work with our many and diverse ethnic communities. 
We have another opportunity to increase productivity by involving half the population—women. We can unlock the potential they have to offer to our economy. As stated by the OECD making better use of women’s skills is key to increasing productivity and raising our standards of living. In 2009 two-thirds of our university graduates were women. Women under the age of 50 are now more likely than men to have a bachelor’s degree or higher. Women aged 30 to 34 have labour force participation rates that are low by international standards so we have a job to do there and more than one in three women work part-time. The largest single contribution to New Zealand’s productivity over the past 30 years has come from an increase in women’s labour market participation. 
One of the other many investment pathways as I have already intimated is through building our businesses and our companies. Part of improving the performance there is about corporate governance. International evidence shows a positive correlation between women in leadership and corporate performance. I propose to take a best-practice approach to women’s leadership and I will be focusing on the package of skills that boards need and the skills that women can bring to boards and to closing the gap with Australia with regard to women’s participation on company boards. 
In the State sector this is at 41.5 percent as of last year but in the private sector we have stagnated at just over 9 percent. Clearly we need to lift the performance of corporate governance if we are to lift the performance of our corporate sector. International evidence is unequivocal. We need to have a portfolio of skills across all of our boards and we are in a parlous state. Of our 100 top boards in the New Zealand stock market 57 do not have any women at all on them. This is something I think we will be joining with the corporate sector to address. We want to lift performance and we need to do that by focusing on how we strengthen corporate governance and the skills that women bring to those boards will assist in that regard. Progress on this issue has been rapid in Australia following recent Australian stock market guidelines requiring companies to set and report on gender diversity targets. We need to catch up with Australia. 
Finally in terms of our commitment to building the strength of our economy it is important that women’s skills are realised and deployed as they have huge potential for our economy. Our diverse communities have much to contribute to strengthening our economy and nation. The programme laid out by our Prime Minister in his statement to Parliament provides opportunities for all. 
Tu nian ji xiang—good luck in the Year of the Rabbit. Kia ora tatou katoa.