Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National): This debate here has seen a display of the most breathtaking arrogance that could ever be put on in front of the people of New Zealand—quite extraordinary. So while the members over there have said Nothing to see here. Just a bit of a problem. We can't get enough auditors to do the auditing that they're supposed to do so let's just ignore the problem"—which affects not just the Auditor-General's office but all businesses throughout the country—"and just put it off for two months for the next two years." The question I've got is: when is there a catch-up point? That's something we'll tease out during the committee stages of this debate. But what is most extraordinary is that the Government has decided to do this largely for itself. Maybe the Auditor-General did come in and say "I can't do it. I don't have the personnel. I can't get to that point. You"—as he would be speaking not to you Madam Speaker but to the Government—"have to help me. The Government has to help me." And the Minister of Finance over there nods his head. Well every MP at least on this side of the House and I know on that side as well has businesses coming to them on a weekly basis saying "I need help. I need personnel. I've got to get them through the gate." and what do we get? We get the process that one goes through to the Minister of Immigration making a good case and what do we get? Nothing—not a thing—and told "Employ locally." "Employ locally." we're told. It doesn't matter how qualified a person is. Apparently they can come in and do the job. So why wasn't the Auditor-General just told "Employ locally. Employ from the New Zealand pool."? Anna Lorck: And they are—and they are. Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: It's because there aren't enough people here Anna Lorck There aren't enough people with the expertise necessary. So we've got this extraordinary situation where the Auditor-General the person who is supposed to protect the integrity of the financial system inside the Government who would pillory—pillory—any organisation that fails to meet their deadlines coming along and asking the Government asking the Parliament to give him or his office an extension because they can't meet a deadline and that's outrageous. I think one of the questions that remains unanswered is how has this happened and if it is just because "Oh they've lost 27 staff members." why have they lost them? If the answer is because they are being taken out into the private sector by other accounting firms well that would tell us that's a good thing. That would tell us it's a good thing. But where there is no capacity to bring in people with audit experience into New Zealand then it is an unreasonable thing to say to this Parliament "Just pass this law for this office and ignore all the problems that others have got." I went to the Minister of Immigration asking him could we get one refrigeration engineer in for a firm that employs over 200 New Zealanders 40-odd of whom are apprentices for a position in Invercargill and the Minister when I spoke to him directly—all very friendly—said "Oh look send me a note. Yep we should be able to fix that." What did we get three weeks later? A note saying "No we believe that the vacancy can be filled from our domestic personnel." yet that business has been 18 months trying to get new staff and can't get them. That's just one and across this side of the House through the evening there will be other examples of workplaces where more people could be employed and the effect on the economy could be improved by a better immigration scheme. Dr Duncan Webb: In the bill? Would there be any refrigeration in here do you reckon?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: And there we have the Hon—no no he's not quite yet. He's a man who holds himself out to be a fairly honourable member. Dr Duncan Webb is saying "Read the bill." Well the bill is just symptomatic of the problem that this House is being asked to deal with. It is not unreasonable to carve out some of the problems that we currently face in this country. The finance Minister—the Deputy Prime Minister—came into the House today and I think enjoyed being able to talk about how well the economy's going and we agree with him. That's a good thing. We agree with him. Hon Grant Robertson: Oh there you go—write that down. Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: It's a good thing. He says "Write it down." Well that's good that you write it down Mr Robertson. Please remember it so that next time you get up to give one of those speeches about how the Opposition doesn't want the economy to grow just refer back to that note and give yourself a bit of correction. Madam Speaker I apologise for the use of the term "you". We do of course live in a time of some confusion around some of those sorts of affirmations—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Well that member might be confused. Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: —so I do apologise. I don't mean to bring you into the debate. However—however—if in fact we are to have the economy continuing to grow at the rate it is there does have to be something done about the flow of people into the country who could augment that. The current unemployment level is extremely low extremely low; almost as low as it was under a National Government—almost. But of course the National Government did not constrain the economy by having the sort of tight immigration policy that leads to this sort of bill in front of the House tonight. So the question simply is: why is it that there can be one rule for a Government agency and a different rule for businesses that are providing jobs for New Zealanders out in the private sector? The thing that's really interesting is that—I hate to say this—auditors kind of sit at the top of the commercial pyramid metaphorically because unless there is activity broad activity inside the economy there's no need to audit. So if we've got a shortage of auditors it tells us just how much activity is going on in that economy and one way of course to prevent it getting any better is to continue with the terrible immigration policy that the Government's currently got where skilled people are told they cannot come to this country—cannot come to this country—and that we have to fill it all somehow magically from local persons. Eventually that will start to slow things—no question about that. So I hope that perhaps the Government might just think about this and recognise that asking Parliament to effectively vote one of its officers an exemption to the existing law by passing a new one albeit temporary is completely unreasonable. There are a number of cases that I could go into about—Hon Grant Robertson: None of them will be relevant to the bill. Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: I beg your pardon sir?Hon Grant Robertson: None of them will be relevant to the bill.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Well no it's not so much that anything I might say wouldn't be relevant to the bill; it would appear to be beyond the Minister of Finance's capacity to understand that if there is a need for auditors in the country it's because there is a huge amount of business activity taking place and that activity—Hon Members: Yes there is. Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: —is what's going to—look at them over there. They seem excited. They're like a bunch of performing seals suddenly clapping. It's as if they've just suddenly realised that New Zealanders are very good at dealing with bad situations—they always have been—and they have done a good job. But they have done it. It's not necessarily anything the Government's done and what is now happening is that their efforts are being constrained by the lack of ability to get skilled workforces into the country. It's just extraordinary that the Government comes in here tonight demonstrates that there is a problem and then says "Oh no we're only going to solve it for our part of it—only going to solve it for our part of it." It's like the 300 teachers. Suddenly when the Government realises "Oh heck we could be in trouble with staffing our schools. Oh look we'll just give ourselves an exemption and we'll bring in 300 teachers." well what about all of those businesses that need staff? No answer—absolute silence. It's as if somehow the economy is a magical thing that works all on its own. The economy works because it has workers in it. Then we have over there—[Interruption] I'll tell you what I don't think that member should engage in fire across the House after the dinner break. I don't think that's wise for her to do that. I don't want to go into any further comment on this bill other than to say it is a disgrace. It is a complete disgrace that the—Hon Grant Robertson: This speech is a disgrace—you're right. Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Well the member over there says my speech is a disgrace. I guess that's the guilty man hiding behind the veil of what he thinks is a sharp critic across the House. It's not. Why is it that the Government is doing one thing for itself when it will not do it for the rest of the economy?"