Joyce Steven: Adjournment — Sittings of the House 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Joyce Steven: Adjournment — Sittings of the House 
[Sitting date: 12 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7486. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 Could I also add my thanks to all the people who work around this place for the work they have done in the year that has just gone. As we head into Christmas I think we should help the Labour Party members ponder the big political imponderable of the year—that is if 2012 has been such a bad year for the Government as they say it has then why is it that at the end of this year this Government is as popular as it was at the start of the year? I think you should ponder that over the barbecue at David Cunliffe’s over summer. 
Actually I can tell the Labour Party members why they have this problem: it is because they have no political credibility. They have no credibility with the public and they have no economic credibility. They think the public are gullible and the reality is the public are not gullible. The Labour Party members think they can argue that black is white one day and white is black the next and nobody notices but they cannot. They are completely politically inconsistent. If they sold used cars they would give used-car salesmen a bad name. They are in complete denial of the worst economic crisis the world has seen for 80 years. That is their starting point to deny that. As long as they keep doing it they are still going to keep falling over with the public. They act as if the Government is not dealing with an earthquake. They say our growth record is poor yet it is faster than most countries in the OECD—in fact it is a lot faster than when they were tossed out. They say New Zealand has a balance of payments problem but our balance of payments deficit is half the size it was when they were in charge. 
They say New Zealand needs more savings but we have actually got a positive savings rate for the first time in 20 years. They say the cost of living is too tough and yet real wages have grown over the last 4 years more than they did over the entire 9 years of the Labour Government. They say unemployment is a disaster but 5000 fewer people are now on the unemployment benefit than a year ago. They say manufacturing is in a crisis and yet volumes in manufacturing are up in the last year. They say exports are down but they are up. These people are in fantasyland. And the big news for them is that the public is not buying it. They go on about jobs and then they do not want the Government to do anything about giving businesses the opportunity to grow jobs. They say we need more houses and then yesterday in this House they opposed the Resource Management Act reforms that would speed up consents for houses. 
Then it gets worse. Labour has no credibility and then you add the Greens and it is even worse. There is even less credibility and a lot less economic credibility. The Greens argue for jobs and growth and then oppose every single thing that would lead to real jobs and growth. Agriculture? No. Oil and gas? No—there was little Gareth on the front page of the  
Dominion Post 
 this morning. Aquaculture? No. New coalmines? No. Convention centres? No. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Did you hear what the member said? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: The member must use a person’s correct name. So when referring to the Green member he must use the full name. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: So there was Gareth Hughes on the front page of the  
Dominion Post  
this morning once again turning down oil and gas. So no new coalmines and no convention centres. They are even opposed to just building a commercial building. 
More Chinese tourists? This one is courtesy of Winston—no. Johnny foreigner investing in New Zealand? No that is not allowed. International education is not allowed. Green jobs? Apparently yes. So what is a green job? It is a giant make-work scheme. Here is a clue for Labour and the Greens. It is not an industry if there is nobody wanting to invest in it except the taxpayer who is being forced to. It is not an industry; it is a Ponzi scheme. It is giant make-work scheme and we know where those end up. They end up on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea with Governments that have no money. But that is all right; they can print the money. They just set up the printer and they can print some more. 
Labour members deny it but actually they are the junior partner in this coalition with the Greens. If it is such a good idea to print money why do the Greens not just go and print off some carbon tax credits and solve climate change that way? It makes just as much sense. 
New Zealanders understand that this Government is delivering in a tough world. We are growing New Zealand. We are clawing our way out of the global financial crisis and in fact we are doing better than most OECD countries. New Zealanders also know that members on the other side have not acknowledged the reality that the world is in today and they are never going to trust them while they do not acknowledge that reality. New Zealanders are also saying that these people have no solutions. Their solutions are exactly the same as the old solutions which is to promise all sorts of free stuff with borrowed money. 
Actually the world has changed since then. You cannot promise free houses and pretend you do not have to borrow money. It is the same old bankrupt visions. Frankly it is even more controlled by the political wing of the public sector unions. It is all about the politics of patronage. The public are not buying it. Ponder that at David Cunliffe’s barbeque this summer—the public are not buying it and if you keep going the way you are going they will not buy it for another year. Merry Christmas Mr Speaker.