Williamson Maurice: Address in Reply 
Williamson Maurice: Address in Reply 
[Volume:652;Page:1250] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Minister for Building and Construction) 
: 
 When one has been in politics for a long time—as Dr Cullen and a number of other members here including me have—one gets to know one thing that is almost an absolute fact and that is that New Zealand is highly highly dependent on what goes on in the rest of the world. No matter how much we would like to crow about what a magnificent Government we are or what a dreadful Government somebody else was or whatever the fact is that the vast bulk of what happens to us economically and with regard to employment and a whole range of other things is very very dependent on the rest of the world. I wish that that were not the case and I wish we were isolated enough that we could completely control our own destiny but the fact is that the world is some sort of global marketplace now we are part of it and we have to get used to it. 
In respect of that point I say that it was really galling to be a member of the Opposition for 9 years and to see world conditions so staggeringly good—to see unbelievable levels of commodity prices to see the strength of the world economy and to see levels of unemployment that were the lowest across the world. We sat in Opposition watching the Labour Government and hearing Michael Cullen making statements about how it was ferreting some of the good stuff away for a rainy day. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Just as well! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Well—“Just as well!” says Steve Chadwick—what is really tragic is what happened just as the time came for National to clean up at the election. And clean up we did. I do not think I have ever known in the eight election campaigns I have fought—and I say this absolutely sincerely—more people saying this one sentence to me: “We’ve got to get this lot out.” I heard it over and over no matter where I went. The old axiom is slightly true: when one is in Government friends come and go but enemies accumulate. But I have never known it to be quite as strong as that ever. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: Come on—1999! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: No I am sorry but I tell Dr Cullen that it was not as strong as that in 1999. Yes it was strong. It was not as strong as that in 1990 when Labour was slung out but this time it was time for that lot to go. So poor old National came into power at a time when the entire world was heading for meltdown. 
Hon Members 
: Oh! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: No it is no good lamenting it because that is just the reality—that is the reality of it. So now we have to pick up the cudgel and start to do some things that will take off the sharp edges of the world recession. It is no good ever trying to pretend that we will fix the world’s economy. It is no good trying to pretend that what is happening in the United States Europe Britain or Australia does not matter; it all matters. They are all major trading partners of ours; what is going on there matters. 
I am really proud to see the National Party in Government along with its coalition partners start to take some action almost immediately on being elected—almost immediately. Members will remember that the election did not take place until November and the Government was not sworn in until a couple of weeks later yet by the very beginning of December legislation was firing through this House to do some things. 
Let me take what I think is one of the very very best things National did when it came into office. This morning I met with an organisation called the Small Business Advisory Group. Interestingly every one of the members in that group was appointed by the Labour Government when it was in power so they are not a bunch of National Party lackeys or a bunch of our supporters. Every member of the Small Business Advisory Group was appointed by the previous Labour Government but the members of that group unanimously said thank you—they said thank you so much—for the 90-day provisional employment legislation. They all represent small business they are all small-business people themselves and they said that it would make a huge difference. As we went around the table nearly every one of them said they were facing falls in retail sales and customer orders and they were having to let some staff go as time went by. But for those who wanted to take a chance at bringing on a new staff member the 90-day provisional employment legislation meant they were at least prepared to take that risk. I asked if any of them there would want to bring somebody on to their staff hire that person for 89 days while they were trained up to be a productive staff member then sack that person so they could bring the next person in to start training him or her. They started laughing—they absolutely started laughing—and quite rightly so. 
That shows why Labour members have their thinking on this issue so wrong. I do not think that any of those members have employed anybody; that is their problem. They do not know about employing people. If only they knew that the most valuable asset a company can have is good staff and that when companies bring someone on and find that person is of value they will do anything to keep the person. I know a number of businesses that struggle almost daily to ensure they keep good conditions and the right environment. 
I know a number of small-business managers who have told me they are approached on a regular basis especially now that times are tough by some people who might be thought to be at the lower end of the employment register. Those people might be terribly low on the educational or socio-economic scale or whatever but they desperately want to get into the workforce. The managers of these companies whom I have talked to have not been prepared to take that risk in the past. But when the new legislation kicks in they will take that risk; they will have a crack at it and they will see whether those people can get on the first rung of the labour force ladder. They said they will be delighted if that works out and they can keep those people employed. But the Labour Party’s attitude to that is that the boss class will abuse the workforce by taking people on for 89 days and when they are just getting trained up give them the boot. 
Regarding the small-business portfolio I am pleased this Government has taken a whole range of other measures. Frankly I think there is a good argument to say that if a company is a Fletcher Challenge a Carter Holt Harvey or a Fonterra it will have a human resources department and an accounting department with a whole fleet of accountants—if “fleet” is the right collective for accountants. It will also have a whole series of legal advice people and a whole range of other things and therefore it will be able to comply with tax laws which are massive with occupational safety and health laws and with employment law. But it is quite clear that when a company is a one or two person business a husband and wife business or a three-person business the red tape and the bureaucracy of complying with the Inland Revenue Department and a whole range of other Government bodies can literally send that business down the gurgler and then there is not a business at all. So I am really pleased that as a first step in our small-business package we have allowed some discretion. We have said we will move the thresholds for GST filing PAYE filing provisional tax and all of those things. When a company is a one or two person business struggling to keep its operation going it is really annoying to be treated in the same way as a lot of big businesses which have the resources to do those things. 
We have also put in place some things put up by the Small Business Advisory Group. That group wanted an 0800 number that businesses could call for advice. There is now a free mentoring service. We have offered small-business people a free health check on their businesses. People who really do know their oats in this area can go in and look at how those businesses are functioning. There is no question about the methods this National-ACT coalition Government has put in place—within weeks not within months. In many cases it has taken up to a year for some Governments to have an impact after coming into power but within 2 weeks of the election result being declared things were flying through this House and packages are now being announced that change tax and employment laws and that will allow this country to survive this recession better than it would ever have had a chance to do had the country stayed under the Labour regime. 
The last thing I say is “Roll on with some changes to the RMA!” because if there has been one thing that has killed this country’s ability to make economic progress and go forward it has been the Resource Management Act. I welcome the fact that we will take a stick to it in two ways.