Parker David: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParker David: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2940. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour):I have to start by responding to one of the comments made by the speaker before last—the speaker from the National Party the member for Taranaki - King Country—who said as part of her contribution that the economic development of the country was made better by the manufacture of drones out of Taranaki - King Country. A crueller member than me would say they elect them except I would have the gender wrong so I will not say that.This third-term Government resorts to spin when it is trouble. The Finance and Expenditure Committee reported back to Parliament that during the term of this Government net debt has gone from zero to $60 billion. I did not hear that referred to by any members of the National Party who sat on the Finance and Expenditure Committee. That same Finance and Expenditure Committee reported back accounts that showed that exports as a percentage of GDP are decreasing not increasing—that the Government is failing in its own target. This has become such a problem in New Zealand that we see symptoms of it erupting everywhere.We have just come from a briefing from the Reserve Bank which has no doubt been given to members of other parties in this House and also to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. The Reserve Bank gave us a presentation that included the startling fact that despite this enormous rise in Auckland house prices per capita GDP—that is the output in Auckland per person—is increasing at a substantially lower rate than the rest of the country.You would think that if the Government thought it should be encouraging through its economic signals this ridiculous outcome in terms of Auckland house prices we would at least be getting better off as a country. But the truth of it is that we are not and why did the National Party lose Northland? Because the people in the provinces know it. They know that under the current settings of the current Government the vortex that is Auckland sucks all of this money sucks all of the immigration into Auckland and makes the economic problems in Auckland worse as evidenced by the fact that the average house price has gone up by $300000 since National was elected.What is the other side of that effect? What is the other effect of that misallocation of investment of money? It is that not enough money is being invested in our productive export sector. The Finance and Expenditure Committee reported that back to this House as well. Indeed it is so clear that we are getting commentators in the likes of the Sunday Star-Times lamenting the fact that in the—[Interruption] Sorry what was that?Chris Bishop: Rod Oram.Hon DAVID PARKER: Yes Rod Oram can count. He can count. He reports quite accurately that exports which the Government said it was going to increase from 30 percent to 40 percent of GDP have now—on the figures Rod Oram reports but the member opposite seems to deny despite the fact that they are also in the Finance and Expenditure Committee report back to this House—dropped as a percentage of GDP to under 30 percent of GDP.What was that man’s former boss’s response to it? Change the way you measure the target. So Mr Joyce came along and he fiddled the measure and he fiddled the measure and initially that benefited him because it appeared as though there was an increase in exports from 30 percent to 33 percent of GDP. But then actually on the volumetric basis that he swizzled it to it turned against him and sent it backwards even under that measure. The truth of it is that the measure was intended to measure the value of New Zealand’s exports as a percentage of our economy. That was going to go according to National from 30 percent to 40 percent of GDP. It has gone backwards. It is now under 30 percent of GDP. Our trade with the rest of the world in goods and services is dropping as a proportion of the economy.The target which the Government still says is now just an aspirational target of 40 percent is never going to be met by this Government—never as long as this Government is in because it has got the economic signals wrong which is why house prices in Auckland are going crazy and there is under-investment in the provinces. What is happening in terms of those subsets of exports? Well we all know that the dairy price has gone down. Everyone concedes that. That is one of the reasons that the nominal value of exports has dropped recently. But of greater concern is that more elaborately transformed exports have been dropping as well.