Robertson Grant: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5391. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): It is interesting that on the weekend the National Party held its conference here in Wellington. I read about Paula Bennett who was like the host of some kind of demented version of TheGeneration Game pulling on Jonathan Coleman’s hair to work out whether it was a toupee or not. This was the level of debate and rigour and vision for New Zealand that was emanating from the National Party conference at the weekend. Paula Bennett was taking text messages from the crowd about which member of the Cabinet’s hair she could pull.Between that and the canapés and drinking the Kool-Aid Bill English stood up and told the National Party conference that it was all OK with the New Zealand economy slowing down with consumer confidence collapsing with business confidence collapsing and with employment confidence collapsing. That was all OK because it came at the right time in the electoral cycle. That is now the extent of the vision for the economy from the National Party. It is governing not in the national interest but in the interest of the National Party. That is the extent of the once-ambitious National Party for New Zealand.Once upon a time when there was a massive slow-down in rural New Zealand with $13 billion disappearing from regional and rural New Zealand communities over a 2-year period National Party members would have stood up and said: “This is a serious problem.” It was only a few years ago that John Key said: “When the dairy industry gets a sniffle New Zealand gets a cold.” But not now—not now. It is fine. It is a great thing. It is happening now and by 2017 along will come the National Party just as it did in 2010 with a wee package of tax cuts—unaffordable as they were in 2010. The National Party will come along in 2017 and try to bribe the electorate again.Meanwhile people are doing it tough right now in New Zealand and apparently that is a good thing for Bill English. Apparently it is a good thing that people are doing it tough that there are 146000 New Zealanders out of work and that we have the highest number of people who have not had a wage increase in 5 years. That is a good thing Bill English told the National Party at its conference. Well that is a disgrace. It is a disgraceful coming from the Minister of Finance who stands up and says that a slow-down in the New Zealand economy is good because it is happening now in the electoral cycle.I thought Bill English was better than that. I thought Bill English was a better person than that. But he stood up at that National Party conference and revealed that it is just about the politics. That is all that matters. A slow-down in the New Zealand economy people losing their jobs and communities losing out is a good thing according to Bill English. That is what he told that National Party conference. That in my view is an absolute disgrace. There is nothing in these estimates to say to New Zealanders: “Here’s the plan to get us out of this economic slow-down.” After 6½ years of lazy economic management from this Government there is no plan in here to say how we will get ourselves as a country out of this situation. Instead what we have in here is a lack of vision.What we have in this Budget—and let us not mistake this for one moment—is $60 billion more debt than this Government had when it came into office. We have $60 billion more debt. The Government will not pay down under this Budget a cent of that until 2019—until 2019. There is nothing in this Budget nothing in these estimates to give New Zealanders that sense of hope that there might be some new ideas that there might be some ideas for adding value to our industries and that there might actually be a plan to support diversification. Instead all there is is a continuation of trying to ride the wave of commodity prices. Well guess what? The wave has broken and there is no plan B on that side of the House. The wave has broken—$13 billion dollars has gone out of the economy—and there is no plan B.What these estimates show is a complete lack of vision for the kind of economy New Zealand could have—an economy that supports a good life for New Zealanders in the regions and a good life for New Zealanders in Auckland and an economy that says we are going to be ambitious about lifting exports. The Government set a great big target for increasing exports: up to 40 percent of GDP. What has happened under this Government? It has gone down and this Budget sees it tracking down even further.Let us be absolutely certain. Since this Budget was put on the table it is the downside scenario that is coming through. It is not the great upside scenario of growth of around 3 to 3.5 percent. It is heading downwards—it is heading downwards. There is no sign in this Budget no sign in these estimates that the Government has any plan about what happens when its precious precious plan of sitting there and riding the commodity wave falls apart. I would have thought Bill English with his seventh Budget would be able to come to this House with a plan that says: “I recognise confidence is disappearing from this economy. I recognise we’ve got to do things differently. Let’s actually plan.” There is nothing here like that.