Woolerton R Doug: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Woolerton R Doug: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:629;Page:1107] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 Of course the Minister who has just resumed her seat is quite right. If she were not we surely would have heard from those august members opposite on the front bench who are competing against each other for the leadership as we speak. I challenge Gerry Brownlee and John Key Don Brash Simon Power Bill English—any one of them—to hop up right now and tell us what they think of that. For my part after many many years of waiting for it I was relieved to hear the Prime Minister mention primary industry. I was expecting it because we all know what has happened. We as a country have overspent on consumer goods mainly from China and other countries with lower wage structures than ours. The amounts we have overspent are well reported and quite extraordinary. 
So it is the same old situation—out comes the call and everybody discovers primary industries again. Away it goes; we have to crank up the good old exporters and the word goes out to farmers: “One more notch of the belt boys. Crank up the milk crank out the sheep crank out the beef the forestry and the fishing.” because there is nowhere else from where we can get the money to repay that debt. That is what this country is facing. 
I am pleased that the Prime Minister has realised that that is where the money must come from but I wish everybody in this House would be far more honest about it. As the pleas go out to producers we have to ask what other parties have said about this situation in the past. The National Party I have to say has certainly not said anything. New Zealand First for years now has been going on about the need for this country to export. We have gone further. We have said that incentives should be put in place that give the message quite clearly that exporting is priority No. 1 in this country. Over the last number of years we have seen a high export dollar which has burnt off those very people we are now as a Parliament and as a country having to turn to in order to save us from our debt. Every farmer and every person involved in manufacturing in this House or every member who is related in any way to people involved in the exporting industry knows the critical situation they are in and we cannot look to the flash new sunrise industries because the real money in this country still comes from the farms the forests and the seas. We say that that should be recognised and that those people should be helped to get on with their jobs and increase their outputs. 
New Zealand First is not going to do what we have heard this afternoon in this House has happened to date. We are not going to say “I told you so.” Well I am actually. I am going to say “We told you so.” Our immigration policy mentioned that our export policy mentioned it and our trade policies mentioned it because it is the lifeblood of New Zealand. But we are going to join in and help the Government get out of this mess. We will lend our voice and encourage farmers to produce more and we will encourage fishers to produce more. All we ask and the plea I am making here today is that the contribution we are asking our people to make is recognised in this House. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: For the benefit of members I tell them that New Zealand First has split its call with two speeches of 5 minutes each.