Goldsmith Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goldsmith Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 29 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4852. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
2. 
PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: What is the Government doing to encourage economic growth and raise New Zealanders’ standard of living? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Acting Minister of Finance) 
: 
 The Government has taken a number of very important steps to support sustainable economic growth based on more savings and exports rather than unsustainable growth based on consumption debt and property speculation. Some of those steps include rebalancing the tax system with higher taxes on consumption and property speculation and reducing taxes on work and savings improving education standards and skills increasing investment in science and innovation better incentives to get more New Zealanders off welfare and into work a multibillion-dollar investment in infrastructure delivering better public services reducing government costs on business and last but by no means least getting the Government’s own finances in order by setting a path back to surplus which provides a stable macroeconomic environment to assist competitive businesses to have confidence to invest and grow. 
Paul Goldsmith 
: Are we seeing positive signs of growth? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: In the midst of a very deep global downturn we expect volatility and low growth as we are seeing around the world economies. So against that backdrop I was pleased last week for example to see the latest monthly overseas merchandise trade figures showing that in July the value of exported goods rose by 8 percent to $4 billion which helped the country record a July trade surplus. Exports to China rose by 39 percent led by whole-milk powder. Merchandise imports were up by 11 percent over July last year. These are the kinds of figures that help indicate that volatility month to month notwithstanding the country is on course to growing a stronger economy. Of course this follows the March GDP figures which the Opposition does not want to know about which showed— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! Question time should not be an opportunity to make mini-speeches. The Minister’s answers tend to go on a little long. I am sure he will claim he has got lots to talk about. Despite that this is question time. 
Paul Goldsmith 
: How does economic growth help reduce poverty? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Poverty is reduced in households where adults are in paid work. More than half of the children considered to be living in poverty are in benefit-dependent households. That is why the Government is very focused on economic growth. Growth gives people the confidence to start businesses and grow their businesses to hire more people and to pay higher wages. That matters because although issues around persistent poverty are complex and interrelated what is very clear is that paid employment is the most significant factor in lifting a household out of poverty. 
David Shearer 
: Given that paid employment is so important for reducing poverty why is it that 40 percent of those people in paid employment are in poverty and will he agree to lift the minimum wage? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: The member may not know but it is very difficult—in fact impossible—for Governments to legislate their way to prosperity. The only way that you grow wages and actually secure opportunities for more jobs is to give businesses the confidence to invest and grow and actually add jobs themselves. That is actually done by making some decisions that give businesses opportunities in New Zealand in areas like for example intensification of agriculture oil and gas exploration and dare I say it convention centres. All of those things assist to provide the opportunities to grow incomes. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Given his admitted concern that primary sector export growth has been adversely affected by the highly inflated value of the New Zealand dollar how will the Business Growth Agenda—his third economic strategy in 4 years—address this problem? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Well I would argue that the Government’s economic approach is addressing the problem because what we have seen—notwithstanding as the member has pointed out pretty high rates against the US dollar in recent times—is very significant growth in exports over the last 4 years. I think from memory it is about 5.5 percent for goods exports and 4.5 percent in total. That is notwithstanding some of the challenges where areas like the tourism industry have been hit hard by things such as— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am asking the Minister to tell me how his Government’s plans intend to address the volatility or the inflated value of the New Zealand dollar which the Government has admitted. I am not asking about all the rest. How do his plans intend to fix up the volatility of that dollar? That is the direct question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think the member’s point is fair enough. That is what the question asked and I think the Minister was not really focusing sufficiently on that aspect. The Minister started by saying that he believes that the Government’s policies are addressing that issue and went on to talk about exports rather than actually the value of the New Zealand dollar. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Yes the point I was making was that actually exports were growing notwithstanding the volatility and highness of the New Zealand dollar. My point to the member would be that in fact there are no effective means by which Governments can do that. There are many people who promote options by which they can do that but for a small and open economy like New Zealand’s doing the sorts of things that are advocated by the member and other members of the Opposition would actually effectively be a one-way bet against world markets that are much much larger than New Zealand. I would suggest that a much more productive approach is looking to improve the environment so that competitive businesses can compete and succeed in the world environment that we have today. 
Paul Goldsmith 
: What programmes is the Government undertaking specifically to support the least well-off New Zealanders? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: The Government has worked very hard to maintain support for the most vulnerable New Zealanders during the global financial crisis and of course the economic impacts of the Christchurch earthquakes which are substantial as well. We have maintained indexes of benefits to the Consumers Price Index to maintain their real value even through the recession. Similarly entitlements to Working for Families have been maintained broadly through the recession. We have also strived to improve the quality of publicly funded health services that can assist vulnerable New Zealanders—for example with initiatives like free after-hours general practitioner care for under-sixes the increased participation in early childhood education increased immunisation rates and reducing the incidence of rheumatic fever and making a major drive to improve house insulation. All of those things are supporting the least well-off New Zealanders. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: How can he be confident that the Government will meet its export growth targets given that his latest economic strategy—the third announcement in the last 4 years—contains no plan for increasing the value of primary sector exports and no plan to address major skill shortages? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I think the member has misread the document. He will— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I’ve read it all right. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: No he has not read it because— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Nothing at all. 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: Well that is because it is one of six documents and one of the things that is addressed in future ones is primary resources and skills. If he had even read the first page he would know that. Fundamentally if you want to see further exports in the primary sector which the Government is certainly very focused on we need to achieve some things such as the modification of the resource management framework to speed up decision making—and I look forward to the member’s support on that. We also need further capital investment in our primary sector industries. That comes from domestic capital investment and also international capital investment. I look forward to seeing the member’s support of international capital investment in the New Zealand economy.