Goldsmith Paul: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goldsmith Paul: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Sitting date: 26 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3380. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to speak in this second reading debate on the Appropriation (2011/12 Supplementary Estimates) Bill and the Imprest Supply (First for 2012/13) Bill. 
I am reminded of the fact that on Friday morning I went up at the crack of dawn 8 a.m. to the top of One Tree Hill on the edge of the Epsom electorate. We were there to celebrate the centenary of the death of Sir John Logan Campbell who is recognised as the father of Auckland. He died in 1912 and is most famous for the fact that he left Cornwall Park—one of Auckland’s greatest assets; a beautiful park—for the city which the people enjoy and it does not cost the ratepayers of Auckland one bean. 
The civic-mindedness of Sir John Logan Campbell is an inspiration to us all. He went through lots of ups and downs during his career. In the 1870s he almost had to subdivide that park to pay off his debts and it is a good job that he did not. But the thing about Sir John Logan Campbell is that before he was a great benefactor he was a great entrepreneur and his life and story is typical of Auckland’s story as a city of enterprise. He was a man who started with nothing came to New Zealand in 1840 and built a lot of businesses. He was involved in the Bank of New Zealand and New Zealand Insurance. He had farms. He had all sorts of businesses—liquor beer— 
Andrew Williams 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I thought this debate was on the Appropriation (2011/12 Supplementary Estimates) Bill. This is very wide of that subject. Could we stop the history lesson and get on with debate? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Can I thank the honourable member for his contribution. The member of course is right but I also allow a little bit of latitude when members are first starting. 
PAUL GOLDSMITH 
: I was setting the scene and wending my way to the point. And the point is that John Logan Campbell is an exemplar of the enterprise that is at the core of the city of Auckland our greatest city in New Zealand. Enterprise is at the core of New Zealand’s success and at the core of this Government and this Budget which we are here to discuss is all about encouraging and supporting enterprise in New Zealand which is how we are going to make progress. 
It is not written in stone that New Zealand will always continue to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world; it is not ours as of right. It is not something that we deserve in any way; it is something that we have to earn every year. It is about generating products that the world wants to buy at a decent price and every year we need to go out and fight in international markets to persuade people that they will buy our products. 
We hear from the other side of the House a sense of entitlement that is reminiscent of the problem that plagues many countries around the world particularly in Europe where populations and Governments have given in to the idea that somehow everything is owed to them as of right and for ever and a day they will continue to have these wonderful pensions and have these wonderful social security arrangements and somehow the money will magically come from somewhere to pay for it. It does not work like that and here we are at the end of an era where those Governments will have to face up to that reality. They can try to put it off for a few years but they will only make the situation worse. 
We are lucky that we live in this country where at least over the last couple of decades Governments have recognised that New Zealand has to earn its way. We lost sight of that reality I think in the 9 years in the earlier part of the last decade but this Government has brought us back to that realism. It is interesting that most parties in this House recognise that it is critical that we grow the pie in New Zealand—grow the pie in terms of the overall economy in New Zealand—so we can afford all the sorts of things that people enjoy so we can afford superannuation down the line so we can afford to have health care of the style and quality that we have come to expect so we can afford to buy the latest pharmaceuticals and so we can afford to employ quality teachers in our schools. 
I suppose the only party that does not seem to understand that is the Greens whom I regard as basically an extremist party. They actually want to shrink the pie. They actually want to make the economy smaller. They talk about mining the soil. They are against the farmers who create most of the wealth in this country. They want to make it more difficult to have a farm and to grow a farm. They do not want us to mine. They do not want us to use any of our resources. They actually want us to go backwards as an economy because somehow they think this is a better way to live. Well I have not met anybody who does not want to have access to the best-quality health-care that money can buy but they do not seem to see the contradiction in that. It is amazing. 
I thought we were going to have Mr Hone Harawira speaking to us next. I find it kind of embarrassing really that we have somebody in this Parliament who complains about local Maori in Northland heading off overseas to Australia to work in the mines. He says it is terrible and he says we should be providing work for these local Maori in New Zealand but at the same time in the same breath without any barefaced embarrassment he will oppose every little thing that the Government proposes to do in Northland. 
He opposes any idea of any mining going on in Northland—no we cannot possibly do anything like that. He does not seem to see the contradiction in what he is saying. You cannot on the one hand say that we do not want mining and on the other hand say: “Oh this is terrible people are leaving New Zealand to work in Australian mines.” The contradiction does not seem to enter his head but it enters everybody else’s heads and that is why they are so embarrassed to be hearing this sort of thing. 
It is like the Greens going on about housing affordability no end while they do not seem to see the contradiction in artificially raising the price and cost of land in Auckland by their ideological fixation on tight boundaries for the urban area. Put one and one together you do get two but they do not seem to see this connection. 
This Budget and this Government are all about being realistic about how the economy works and the fact that you have to earn your money and you have to grow the economy—and it is important to grow the economy. We understand that we have to leave some room and some money for New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses to grow and reduce the demands that the Government makes on individuals and companies so they have the resources and so they have the capital to invest in their businesses to employ people and to grow the economy. The only people who do not seem to have cottoned on to that idea are Len Brown and his Labour and Green friends on the Auckland Council who seem to be quite happy to put rates up by 30 percent—10 percent each year in Epsom for about the next 5 years. Ten percent each year! People are looking at inflation of about 2 percent over the next little while but council members seem to be living in a parallel universe. They think you can just keep on increasing the rates by 10 percent each year for ever and a day because somehow they deserve it. The council can spend its money far better than the poor ratepayers and you just keep on cranking it up somehow and somehow this is going to lead to— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! When the member uses the word “you” he is speaking to me. 
PAUL GOLDSMITH 
: My apologies Mr Speaker. I was getting carried away there. It makes me very upset when I think about what is going on in Auckland Council at the moment and the way that it is using ratepayers’ money and continuing to increase rates. 
I return to some of the issues in this Appropriation (2011/12 Supplementary Estimates) Bill. Despite the surprises that have come our way the New Zealand economy is now much stronger than it was when the Government came in in 2008. We have improved the tax system—the 2010 Budget was critical for that—so that it encourages work and savings rather than incentives to hide income or to head offshore. 
Just imagine if we had been so unfortunate as to have had the Labour Party in power! We would have been fiddling around with the GST system and the good people in Remuera who go to Jack Lum’s and buy the asparagus that has been flown in first-class from Sweden and Spain would not have to pay the GST. That would be so important! Would that not be a marvellous and sensible way to deal with the tax system—stuff up GST? That is what the Labour Party was proposing to do. We might have been considering a capital gains tax at the moment. That surely would have solved New Zealand’s problems in terms of encouraging enterprise! You would slap a capital gains tax on each of the farms and each of the small businesses that have been built up and somehow you would be encouraging enterprise by adding a new tax for those entrepreneurs to have to pay. 
We have also made the Government run parts of the economy more efficiently so they do not get in the way of the internationally competitive parts of the economy. We have reduced our reliance on foreign lenders by limiting our debt. That is what the whole story of the Mixed Ownership Model Bill that we have been debating at great length over the last week has been about. 
Although it may be possible to get plenty of money on international markets at the moment at low interest rates there is no guarantee that that will be the case in 1 month’s time in 6 months’ time or in a year’s time. It is only prudent and proper that this Government should be reducing the overall amount of debt that it is taking on by the mixed-ownership model which frees up $5 billion to $7 billion in capital as we have discussed and enables us to continue to invest in many assets and in incoming earning assets such as the irrigation scheme in the South Island. 
We have also cut tape to encourage enterprise and flexibility. We can talk about the changes to the Resource Management Act which are under way. We have introduced the 90-day probation period for new workers and that has had a remarkable effect. I could go on at great length about how this Government is doing the hard graft that it needs. Thank you very much and I commend this bill to the House.