Calder Cam: General DebateText is subject to correctionCalder Cam: General Debate[Sitting date: 06 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14415. Text is subject to correction.]Dr CAM CALDER (National): To evoke an old Spike Milligan song Labour is walking backwards for Christmas. And not only back for Christmas—right on back to the 1970s. We are hearing alarming echoes of Soviet Union statist policies in the form of a State-run insurance company and a State-controlled electricity market. Free trade—and we have got one of the proponents of it over there. I have got to pay credit to the member Mr Phil Goff who negotiated the free-trade agreement with China. Free trade has long been a bipartisan agreement but now the current leader is questioning Labour’s support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership while Labour’s ex-leader is saying “Labour should continue to back it.” But what the leader the dithering David Cunliffe is saying to one audience he might not be saying to another audience. “Will we back it? Well maybe yeah—nah nah.”Labour is painting a picture of itself as a party bemused befuddled bewildered and becalmed and certainly as one that is unfit to govern. With Labour at the helm New Zealand’s ship of State would veer dangerously on to the rocks of higher borrowing higher spending and higher taxes—the very policies that pushed New Zealand into the global financial crisis 6 to 12 months before the rest of the world. A Labour Government supported by the Greens would be an absolute disaster for New Zealand in stark contrast with the steady considered prudent financial management that has characterised the National-led Government’s stewardship of the country’s finances over the last 5 years. This principled and pragmatic Government continues to work relentlessly for the benefit of every New Zealander adjusting the mesh in many areas and at a multitude of levels. It has succeeded in cushioning vulnerable New Zealanders from the ongoing effects of the worst economic conditions in decades and one only has to look at the situation abroad to realise how fortunate we are in this country.Over the years the Government’s prudent financial management of the nation’s finances has received ringing endorsements from stars in the world economic firmament. It has been noted that reducing our exposure to overseas debt markets asmuch as possible whilst as I mentioned before still cushioning vulnerable New Zealanders from the harshest edges of the ongoing global financial crisis—we are doing that. Our considered fiscal stewardship means that New Zealand’s economy is performing better than the US the UK Germany the bulk of the eurozone and of course Japan. The effects of the drought earlier in the year have largely been shrugged off and we are witnessing a continued upturn in the non-agricultural sectors as well meaning that the New Zealand economy is set to go for a substantial acceleration of growth in the second half of this year and beyond.Growth is occurring as we have heard across a range of sectors in addition to construction and housing. Consumer spending is growing at an increasing space with spending on services particularly strong over the June quarter. Manufacturing and services activities surveys have put in consistently strong readings over this year. China’s insatiable demand for our primary products means our export earnings are looking very healthy.It is gratifying that the expansion is becoming more consistent across the region. My colleague here mentioned Taranaki—many of us call it “Taradise”—where the twin pillars the black and white pillars of oil and milk are propping up the economy and causing it to grow hugely. In fact it is leading New Zealand as we speak.This is a Government that is getting results for all New Zealanders. Our focus has been on growth that is sustainable and built on higher savings and earnings rather than ever-more-increasing debt and greater consumption. As I have noted previously our prudent policies have been praised by Peter Orszag President Obama’s previous Director of the Office of Management and Budget. He praised New Zealand as standing out in the world as the only country that has coupled additional economic stimulus with medium-term fiscal consolidation. Not surprisingly huge numbers of New Zealanders report suffering nightmares at the thought of our measured approach being replaced by an economy measured by a coalition of money-printing Greens and a Labour Party bereft of strong leadership dithering and dodging and answerable only to its union masters.Other support of the Government’s economic management has come from the IMF’s Managing Director Christine Lagarde who praised the Government’s economic policy Business Growth Agenda and described the New Zealand economy as being very stable very promising and a lot better than other parts of the world. The IMF endorsed New Zealand’s balanced and pragmatic economic management and confirmed that the Government’s economic plan strikes the right balance between supporting growth and eliminating public debt.Imagine what the report might have been if New Zealand’s economy were managed by a dithering and dysfunctional pick-up team of a not-quite-sure-where-we-are-going anti - free market Labour Party and the red-Green money printers. The New Zealand economy is in very good health and it needs a National Government to stay that way.