Hudson Brett: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHudson Brett: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5402. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRETT HUDSON (National): E te Tiamana tēnā koe. We have been treated tonight to some speeches from the Opposition—treated mistreated choose your language. Opposition members seem to be confusing their own opinions with the facts whereas the facts are quite simple. The economy has been growing at around 2.6 percent. Over the last 4 years 192000 jobs were created; a further 150000 are forecast over the next 4 years. Over the same time period unemployment is forecast to reduce to under 5 percent. The economy is doing very well. Interest rates are low. Inflation over the last quarter was just 0.3 percent. New Zealand businesses and New Zealand families are being treated to a lower cost of living and lower costs of debt helping to provide incentives to businesses to grow and helping Kiwis to feel more secure in the paying of their home mortgages.But what instead have we heard? In the face of those facts what have we heard? Well firstly we had from Mr Robertson wild assertion after wild assertion and as my colleague David Bennett pointed out none of them were underpinned by numbers. His was a very special speech. It is known as a Burger King speech—just one whopper after another. And he got confused in the process on taxation and what he referred to as bribery. As my learned colleague Christopher Bishop pointed out he does not seem to understand what taxation is. I would like to take just a moment to help to put him straight. Some years ago a New York newspaper—I think it was the New York Times—ran a competition where if you could change a single consonant or vowel in a word and create a new one there would be a prize. Some chap came up with the word “intaxication”. Intaxication is defined as the mild sense of euphoria you feel upon receiving a tax refund before realising it was your money to begin with. Mr Robertson thinks giving your money back is somehow a bribe.We went from wild assertions and complete misunderstanding of the taxation system to the Green Party and James Shaw who obviously does not know about Daniel Patrick Moynihan because that member most certainly was thinking that he could have not only his own opinions but his own set of facts. Mr Shaw tried to tell us that dairy makes up 40 percent of our exports while acknowledging that it makes up 5 percent of the overall economy. Well that is a very interesting assertion on its own because tourism is now worth 7 percent of our economy. So based on his maths that would mean that tourism is in the order of 60 percent of our exports on its own. That would leave no room for the $2.85 billion of international student education which is itself an export and equates to around 1.3 percent of the economy which the maths tells us is roughly 10 percent of exports. So we have got to 110 percent of exports already. Nor would it leave room for the wine industry which contributes $1.37 billion worth of exports—up 8.2 percent over the past year. Nor would it provide room for the exports in the information and communications technology sector which contributed about $930 million and which overall as a sector both domestically and in exports is around 1.7 percent of our economy. But Mr Shaw would have us believe that dairy is a far greater proportion of exports than it truly is.What those numbers tell us and what those facts tell us is that we do have a diverse economy because although I mentioned wine I mentioned information and communications technology and I mentioned international students I did not mention meat. I did not mention forestry. I did not mention fisheries or oil and gas or minerals or kiwifruit or any of those other products that Kiwi businesses export around the world which I guess must take us up to—I do not know—130 percent of exports. Using James’ numbers who can be sure? What it does show us is that we have a very strong and vibrant economy and a very strong diverse set of export industries across New Zealand. Although dairy might not be performing at its traditional or recent highs the other parts of our export economy are performing very solidly indeed. They are contributing to those continued good strong growth numbers that match up with any country in the OECD that are continuing to provide jobs for Kiwis and that are continuing to provide confidence to New Zealand businesses and New Zealand families in their future. The country is headed in the right direction.