Mapp Wayne: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mapp Wayne: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 21 July 2010. Volume:665;Page:12536. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr WAYNE MAPP (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 Obviously Labour has never understood the term “discussion document”. Those members have never understood that it is actually about hearing from the public—hearing in fact from the 35000 people who sent in a form submission or made a full submission—then taking on board what they said. One might wonder why Labour members have so much difficulty understanding the concept of listening to the people. The reason is— 
Dr Cam Calder 
: A 9-year dictatorship! 
Hon Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: Exactly! It was a 9-year dictatorship and that was exemplified by the Electoral Finance Act. There were marches in the street there were submissions there were questions week after week in Parliament and there was a whole campaign in the newspapers and the media saying that the Electoral Finance Act was a fundamental breach of democratic principles. But what did Labour do? It just boxed on; it just crashed on. The public could see the way that the Labour Government ignored the people. It was contemptuous of the public voice. 
Dr Cam Calder 
: Arrogant! 
Hon Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: Arrogant! What a contrast that Labour Government is to the current Government—what a contrast. We put out a discussion document that is as it says a discussion document. We listen to the people and we take on board the people’s voice. 
Labour needs to ask itself a simple question: why is it that during the discussion around mining National was about 20 points ahead of Labour—the whole time through? Because people had an intuitive sense that we were actually listening that we were actually taking on board public comment. The public understood that that was a fundamental feature of this Government. There have been enough examples in a general sense for people to understand that the style of the John Key - led Government is to take on board public concerns and on serious issues—and I recognise that mining is a serious issue—to react accordingly. 
Labour of course is extremely disappointed. It would like us to be mining in national parks. It would like us to be mining on schedule 4 land because that would give Labour the ability to play this issue out month over month over month. But the response of a Government that listens is to take on board the public’s fundamental concerns. That is I suggest a fundamental difference between this Government and the previous Government. 
I want to look at the economic record. I have been listening to the previous debaters and they kept saying that Labour had a fantastic economic record. What is the truth of that? 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: They take tough decisions. 
Hon Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: Yes tough decisions like the Electoral Finance Act—that was a really tough decision Darren! That really worked for Labour! The public really gave their judgment on that one Darren. While the Labour Government was fiddling around with the Electoral Finance Act and completely distracted by it what was actually happening in the real world? Well for 5 years there was declining export growth. The real economy was shrinking. Certainly there was growth fuelled by the extra borrowing by the private sector; certainly there was growth fuelled by the expansion of public sector expenditure which meant that the size of Government relative to the total economy grew substantially. 
What did it lead to? It led to recession hitting New Zealand 12 months before the rest of the world. Why was that? We saw a succession of investment failures in New Zealand during 2007 and 2008. We were already in negative growth before the change of Government in 2008. New Zealand’s recession preceded the rest of the world’s by 1 year. That is easily forgotten because it has been subsumed in the broader global financial crisis but that was the reality. That is why so many New Zealanders made the decision to travel to Australia. People saw better prospects there because frankly the Australian economy was being managed better than the New Zealand economy. Members on that side of the Chamber are silent now are they not? They know the truth of this. 
National inherited years and years of mismanagement and we had to fix it. What has the National Government done? We delivered a tax reform package entirely oriented around growth. It is the best tax reform package in 25 years. The Resource Management Act reforms have been significant. There have been improvements in infrastructure roads and broadband. The science and innovation package caps it all off.