Yates Dianne: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Yates Dianne: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:615;Page:10838] 
DIANNE YATES (Labour—Hamilton East) 
: 
 Before I begin to talk about the economy I want to pay tribute to two people who died suddenly during the parliamentary Christmas adjournment as I would like to have this tribute recorded in  
Hansard 
. The first person I want to mention is Maureen Wilkie who worked as the electorate agent for Jim Bolger and then for Shane Ardern in Te Kuiti. I think her very well-attended funeral—and I note that Mr Carter was there—was a tribute to her contribution to the Waikato – King Country community to her family and to politics. Electorate agents do not often get honoured in this House but I think it is appropriate that we pay tribute to her. 
The other person is Bob Priest. He was recently nominated for New Zealand honours and he worked tirelessly for Environment Waikato and more recently as an Environment Commissioner. He was a friend of our planet our treasured environment and he devoted his life to leaving a better country for our children to inherit. As I said I would like to take the opportunity to pay tribute to those people and to have that tribute recorded in  
Hansard 
. 
New Zealand is a place about which I have no difficulty in understanding what it means to be a New Zealander. At this particular time I am very proud of New Zealand and of the progress being made by this Government. The latest annual gross domestic product figure of 3.9 percent continues to stand up very well internationally. The unemployment rate is at a 16-year low. It is particularly good in the Waikato and in my electorate where it is 3.2 percent. That is below the national average of 4.5 percent. I am looking at Mr Gudgeon who recently had an article in our local paper that said New Zealand First was going to slash the unemployment rate. What to? We have the lowest unemployment rate in my memory since coming to this House. I have no idea where Mr Gudgeon is living but I believe it is obviously not in this country. 
We have participation in tertiary education and skills training that has been rising along with funding. We have in the Waikato over 9000 people in workforce training. In Southland as Mr Peck has said we have difficulty in finding people to fill its many jobs. In fact when I went to get on the plane this morning some people at our local airport asked whether I knew someone who could work in their store—they wanted X number of people. It is now becoming a problem to find people to work in various situations and I thank Minister Steve Maharey for the programmes he has initiated in getting people qualified for those jobs. We have built up a very strong relationship with industry the regions local government and stakeholders across our community. I attended the regional development conference in Timaru and I was very impressed with the number of projects and the development happening throughout our regions. 
I am particularly proud of the Waikato. We are to open our Waikato Innovation Park on 19 February. It is a most exciting development. It is exciting to go and see not only the building but people interacting and working in biotechnology and information technology in a street-like environment where there are scientists administrators and a range of people sharing ideas. The place is abuzz. We have investors coming and we cannot process immigration applications fast enough to obtain these people who are keen to be involved in New Zealand and embraced in those projects where ideas are flowing. I am proud as a New Zealander to see what is happening there. It is anticipated that we will have development 17 times the size of that innovation park. We cannot put the buildings up fast enough to cope with the people who want to invest and be involved both at the venture capital level and at the level of the sciences. It is a very very exciting project and it is growing. 
I thank all the people who have been involved particularly the Business2Hamilton people: Derek Fairweather John Birch and those who have been involved in setting up the innovation park which Jim Anderton is to open on 19 February. It is an example of a partnership between local government local investors and central government working together. I invite Mr Gudgeon to go along and have a look. It is absolutely tremendous. I hope he is at the opening because it really is a place where New Zealand is abuzz and where the kind of creativity we have been talking about is happening. For those members of Parliament who have not been to the Waikato I invite them to have a look at this project. 
Although Mr Peck claims that Southland is the fastest growing regional economy I remind members that the Waikato is the largest at 4.1 percent. We have agriculture to thank for that we have innovation to thank for that and we have in some measure the rain which we are never short of to thank for that as well. Gisborne and the Waikato are the fastest-growing regions and as I said the Waikato Innovation Park is a tremendous link with both our food production and biotechnology. 
I remind the House that New Zealand’s consumer confidence rose in December 2003 to be at the highest level since 1996. Not only that but we have a huge increase in building consents. I am very pleased at the Hon Lianne Dalziel regarding the work being done on the Building Bill to ensure we not only have an increase in building but have our buildings up to standard. Good work is being done by the Government in this regard so we not only have buildings up to standard but also have skilled people working on those buildings. 
As I have mentioned we have great development in skills and I will also pay tribute to the Modern Apprenticeships scheme. One less good aspect of that scheme is that I wish we had more women involved. Only 7 percent of those in the scheme are women and they still tend to be in the traditional occupations. But that is changing. Once again in the Waikato I am very pleased to see young women involved in electronics and other industries and becoming qualified in those areas. As I said 9400 people are involved in industry training in the Waikato which is a tremendous effort on the part of Steve Maharey. 
I also want to talk about small business. We know that this week the Minister for Small Business John Tamihere is inviting small-business people to Wellington but we have also been looking at small businesses in our electorates. We know that they have been largely responsible for a considerable amount of growth which as I said is 9 percent in the Waikato. We visited Donovans Chocolates a chocolate factory with a great story. It started off as a tiny little shop-front chocolate factory. It grew and expanded to the other side of town. Now out at Te Rapa which of course is on the new highway between Auckland and Wellington it is expanding and getting contracts with the Signature range to supply throughout New Zealand. It is making a tremendous effort. It started with a little mom and pop store but it now has two sons involved and is expanding greatly. It is a perfect example of what is happening to small business in New Zealand. We went across the road to have a look at Oxford Pies a food industry expanding in the same way and we know also of the wonderful good-news story that is Aria Farm. I live on Aria chips: lamb chips chicken chips and beef chips. They are a great invention for busy people who need to prepare food in a hurry. That firm now has a franchise in England and Europe. 
Those are some of the very good-news stories of people who have been assisted by various Government projects and by research grants. It really is happening in this country and no wonder Mr Brash is quiet about it because it has happened under a Labour Government. 
I also want to mention the Pacific Business Trust. In the Government Administration Committee we had a long look at that trust some years ago. This year we looked at its financial reports and we commend the trust on the excellent work it is doing with Pacific peoples—as we are doing with Maori economic development. If we are talking about equality I think we are a long way from equality in this country. 
I will also mention an infrastructure issue. If people have travelled between Auckland and Hamilton they will have seen the four-laning going on on the main highway. That four-laning was absolutely drawn to a halt under the National Government but it is now happening and will greatly improve transport between our two cities.