Bennett David: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: General Debate[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9807. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East):Over the last few days we have heard from the leader of the Labour Party that he intends to actually manage interest rates by setting interest rates in New Zealand. Today he did not resile from that position. He came into this House and defended it in the general debate. Even if he knew he was wrong yesterday he had his chance to move away from it today but he did not because the Labour Party genuinely believes that it can charge and determine what interest rates would be in New Zealand. That is economic lunacy. That is the Labour Party gone wild.The Labour Party is a party that has no understanding of economics. It has no understanding of how interest rates are set and it is a party that looks for pure political hits and has no compassion and understanding of what it is talking about. Let us look at other countries that do such things. Look at the incidence of where there is no independence in this area: Bahamas Barbados Jamaica and Turkmenistan are the countries that the Labour Party would want to be in with. That is the kind of economic plan that the Labour Party intends to follow.It is not only the Labour Party withsetting interest rates. We know that the New Zealand First Party wants to control exchange rates as well. Align that with the Labour Party and its interest rate controls and we go back to a situation many decades ago that has been seen to fail in the economic history of this country and any other country.The Opposition will say that there is dairy bubble that has suddenly arisen on this Government. That is simply not true. If anyone looks back they will find that the greatest percentage in increase in dairy farm debt occurred under the Labour Government. That was when the conversions happened in the South Island; that was when the greatest increase in dairy debt came. It was under Labour not under National. So do not blame the Government for the individual choices that farmers have made and are dealing with at this stage.What we do need is a Government that delivers a strong economic base; a Government that delivers an economy that is open free and can deliver low interest rates and a strong base for our financial sector to be secure so that people can actually get money lent to them. We do not need a Government that goes out and makes rash promises around education policy that would add billions of dollars on to the Government expenditure therefore increasing Government debt and therefore increasing interest rates that farmers would have to deal with. We do not need a Government that would not support farmers in the areas of policy that we can help them with such as trade such as the Resource Management Act such as water such as immigration and things like that that they actually need.Farmers listening to this need to think what Labour would deliver. Labour would deliver an economy where it controls interest rates. How is it going to set those interest rates? What is going to be the appropriate interest rate? How is it going to make sure banks actually do those interest rates? What would it do as its sanctions if banks did not follow those interest rates? What would be the consequences for farmers if they had secured long-term debt under other interest rates? All those questions can never be answered by the Labour Party members because they do not understand fundamental economics and how interest rates are set and how the money markets work.The second thing Labour would do other than setting your interest rates is that it would be trying to set your exchange rate in conjunction with the New Zealand First Party. How would it set the exchange rate where would it set it and how is it going to make sure that that happens? The Labour Party members cannot answer those questions even though that is its policy effectively. The next thing Labour would do would be to deliver a very poor economic situation for New Zealanders where banks would not want to invest in this country. The biggest dilemma for New Zealand dairy farmers would actually be the supply of capital coming into this country. Those banks would not supply capital to the New Zealand market because they would fear what a Labour Government would do to the rules and regulations around the use of money in this country. That would dictate that there would be less capital there and that would be a big hindrance on New Zealand farmers and all New Zealand businesses.We know what Labour would do to farmers: it would destroy farming in New Zealand it would create an economic environment that would be against farmers and it would have dire consequences on an industry that is battling with international prices. Do not listen to the Labour Party members’ rhetoric do not listen to those far-out promises of setting interest rates that are not realistic. Look at the equation: you have got the equation of the Bernie Sanders Labour Party you add that with the Trump New Zealand First Party and you come up with a reasonable Green Party in the end. That is what the Opposition looks like to New Zealand farmers. Thank you.