Groser Tim: General Debate 
Groser Tim: General Debate 
[Volume:673;Page:19385] 
Hon TIM GROSER (Minister of Trade) 
: 
 A number of members from various political parties have spoken very eloquently and sincerely about the aftershocks and there is no question that everybody’s heart is with the people of Canterbury. But of course one also thinks about the economic consequences of these great natural disasters. I would like to make the very obvious point in regard to our No. 4 trading partner Japan and our No. 1 trading partner Australia that they too have seen the huge economic consequences of their own tragedies not just in appalling human terms but also in economic terms. In Australia we have just seen the worst GDP quarterly output figures for 20 years as a consequence of the floods and the tornadoes. 
Unquestionably these great acts of God can influence the real economy and we are very conscious of that. But at the end of the day the question remains of whether we have got ourselves on to a pathway where structurally we can look forward with a certain degree of optimism to our future. In my view the answer to that is unquestionably yes. The foundations in spite of these shocks in spite of the global financial crisis are being laid as Mr English has pointed out on numerous occasions for a more sustainable growth trajectory for New Zealand: one that is not based on debt-fuelled consumption or on structural Government programmes that support unsustainable jobs and wealth creation but on a true basis of reinforcing the competitive strengths of the New Zealand traded sector and earning our way in the world. That is the basis of the policy structures we are putting in place and that is why I believe New Zealanders should have confidence that we are on a trajectory to a sustainably more secure future. 
Could we get back to surplus faster than the projections that we have on the table? Yes of course we could but that would require a far faster and far more brutal adjustment by firms by farms by households and by the Public Service to the circumstances I have outlined. So we have taken deliberate decisions. I do not think we have taken unreasonable decisions. Some of those decisions have been quite tough but we now have a pathway to get New Zealand back on to a sustainable trajectory that I think people should have great confidence in. We have taken reasonable but balanced positions and in the process maintained welfare programmes to support those in difficulty and we have fully compensated people on superannuation for the structural tax changes. 
Once again we have just heard in question time as we hear every question time attempts to find one individual or one company in hard times. Out of 4.5 million folk one can always find a case study to wave in front of people but the reality is that we have to advance our society using measures that look at averages. What we know is that in terms of the direct impact on the pocket in the 9 years to September 2008 for the after-tax average real wage—that means adjusted for inflation—we saw a 4 percent increase over 9 years. We have more than doubled that as there has been a 10 percent increase since September 2008. So although there will of course always be folk who for their set of individual reasons get themselves into trouble and we all feel for them the reality is that the position of New Zealanders has on average advanced more than twice as much in little over 2½ years as occurred in the entire 9 years of Labour. 
In the meantime we are proceeding with a structural agenda of reform that will build that sustainable economic future. We had a concerted attempt to get better value for money out of our public services. The days have gone when truckloads of money would arrive through the front door of Government agencies for which there was very little accountability—as long as it had the right label it got a big tick. We are now starting in a very reasonable way to advance our agenda.