Goldsmith Paul: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoldsmith Paul: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 29 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:413. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs):Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I wish to congratulate you on your appointment and very much look forward to a successful and well-managed 3 years in the House partly under your guidance.I was very pleased to be re-elected on the strength of a very strong National Party result at the election—in fact a historic result in terms of a third time with such a high level of widespread public support. That support was particularly strong in my home electorate of Epsom. Indeed I remain committed in my second term here in Parliament to being a strong voice for the people of Epsom within the National Government and to work alongside my colleague David Seymour from the ACT Party which has continued to support the National Government so successfully over these past 6 years.Last week was Diwali and I had the pleasure of speaking to a very large crowd at an event over the weekend for the Rotary Club of Auckland Harbourside. In fact they managed to get 560-odd people to pay $100 to go along to a dinner on the Labour Weekend Saturday night. Diwali is a time of reflection and celebration and it made me think that we do indeed have much to be thankful for in New Zealand. We obviously live in a wonderful physical environment which we all share and treasure. I am blessed to live in a beautiful part of Auckland which is I think one of the most magnificent cities in the world. We all celebrate that.We also should be thankful for the peacefulness of our land. When we look around the world sadly that is not the typical state of affairs. Indeed New Zealand I think can take a great deal of pride from the fact that it has a highly diverse multicultural society—particularly in Auckland and in Epsom where I come from—and yet a successful multicultural society. Again that is sadly a very rare thing indeed in this world. It was to me epitomised by the function that I went to for Diwali based at the Rotary Club of Auckland Harbourside with a third Pākehā a third Indian and a third Chinese from the start. Those three strands of the Auckland population all worked together were all looking beyond themselves and were deeply involved in the community raising funds. There was a hospice that they were raising funds for on that evening. They were all working together developing a cohesive society in New Zealand and in Auckland. I think that is something we should take great pleasure from.Finally I do think we have a lot to be pleased about in terms of the strength of our economy. I think this Government can take some credit for that. Of course it is primarily due to the hard work of New Zealanders in all their many industries and businesses that they have around the country. When we turn to what Governments can and cannot do the most important way that Government can contribute to the economy is fundamentally to provide a strong stable predictable and fiscally sustainable environment in which New Zealand businesses can go about their business and have a high level of confidence—business confidence and also consumer confidence.When you have that confidence over an extended period such as we have had these past 6 years that confidence leads people to invest. You invest only when you have confidence and when you invest whether it is in employing more people or paying for plant and machinery that is how you get fundamental growth in this economy. When you have a period of stability and predictability leading to confidence leading to investment and leading to growth in jobs for an extended period the country does well. That is what we have seen for the last 6 years. It is a great pleasure to be given the opportunity to have the commerce and consumer affairs portfolio which has played such an important part in providing that stable and predictable environment through good legislation and regulation around financial markets around the way that companies operate and around our internet protocol systems our competition law and our consumer law. All these areas are fundamental to providing that strong stable and predictable environment that is so important leading to investment growth and jobs. On that basis I am very much looking forward to the next 3 years.