Key John: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKey John: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 09 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8743. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): I move That this House express its confidence in the National-led Government and commend its programme for 2016 as set out in the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament.Mr Speaker is it not great to be back? I hope that you had a good holiday and members did and what a wonderful time it was for New Zealand. What a great display of cricket yesterday afternoon by Brendon McCullum in the Chappell-Hadlee series. New Zealand up against Australia one more time under a National-led Government—what a wonderful result. And of course the Sevens—a tremendous result by the Kiwis not only just here in Wellington but in Sydney; the Warriors of course at the final; and then Lydia Ko back in New Zealand on Friday to defend her New Zealand Women’s Open title.But it is not just sport that has the country in good heart; so it is in so many other economic forums. We had a record number of tourists come to New Zealand this year—3.15 million tourists came to New Zealand to enjoy our country. No wonder they are coming because many of them are coming to live here as well. They can see New Zealand is a great place to live under the policies of a National-led Government. We are seeing more carriers flying direct to New Zealand. Emirates has decided that it is not enough to fly all those times through just Australia to New Zealand but it is coming direct to Auckland. Of course Air New Zealand is doing tremendously well bringing people from the United States through its new Houston leg and through Buenos Aires in Latin America.Let us just look around and see what is happening in the data that we see in the early part of the year. The ANZ business confidence survey saw confidence rise to an 8-month high with a net 23 percent of firms being confident. When it came to consumer confidence we saw record sales over Christmas and the ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence survey had us up at 121.4—a very strong result for consumer confidence. For manufacturing activity the December business numbers were stronger than in any other month in March of 2015 and the BNZ-BusinessNZ Performance of Manufacturing Index saw the fastest rate of expansion since October 2014. In fact when one looks at the BNZ - Business New Zealand Performance of Manufacturing Index and the expansion of manufacturing this has gone up every single month since the moment Labour declared there was a crisis—38 consecutive months in a row. And was that not great?Of course when it comes to business optimism look no further than the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research which said: “What a great result. What’s happening out there? Very strong—people looking to hire.”—and hired they were. Last week we were greeted with a new unemployment rate here in New Zealand: a dramatic fall to 5.3 percent. That is a very strong performance. We have the third-highest employment rate in the OECD we have very strong results of growth for young people and of course wages are rising faster than inflation. That was greeted with absolute joy by New Zealanders with one exception—one exception. It was a great annoyance to the Labour Party and in particular to Grant Robertson the doom merchant when it comes to employment.Grant Robertson is worried about a robot taking his job. A cynic could say: “Too late one already did.”—the job he wanted—but never fear he has got his people working with every editor of every women’s mag around the country getting Jacinda Ardern nicely positioned on the front of all of those just waiting. Grant is so worried about work he decided that when Parliament packed up he would go off to Paris to the OECD to learn about work and the future of work. He is going to base his commission that he is setting up on that. Here is how it went. It started at 10.30 a nice little break of an hour and 45 minutes for lunch then a quick 20 minutes for afternoon tea all done and dusted by 6 o’clock and an hour and a half for cocktails. That is the future of work under the Labour Party. Job done—it was a big day!Of course the big issue—the big issue—is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. What a tremendous trade deal this is for New Zealand. What a tremendous trade deal: 93 percent elimination in tariffs 40 percent of our markets covered 800 million middle-income consumers $2.7 billion of value to New Zealand. So it had the TPP significance for the members of the Labour Party. Do any of us know why? Well when we think “TPP” we think Trans-Pacific Partnership; they think “Two-position Party”—that is what “TPP” says to them. That is because when it comes to David Shearer he rightfully said to the New Zealand Herald—this is before he got a good spanking from the leader—“I’ll be voting for it. There’s no change there. Nothing’s changed my mind and the national interest analysis—fantastic.”Phil Goff is definitely voting for it because it is to quote Phil the same as the China free-trade agreement that was signed under Labour. Helen Clark is a tremendous supporter of the TPP agreement. In fact every Labour leader in the last 20 years supports the agreement except the current one. Well—that actually is a bit debatable.So when you look at Andrew Little’s positions—and granted he has had more positions than the Labour Party has had leaders in the last 5 years—he says he hates the TPP agreement. He hates it. He got asked a pretty simple question by Mark Sainsbury: “Will you withdraw New Zealand from the TPP?”. Do you know what his answer was? “We won’t.” He is going to kick up bobsy-die but no no he will not. So then they asked him: “Will you vote against it?”—a pretty simple question. He went: “Yeah well we already said—aah—if there—yeah—er—aah—if this legislation—aah.” He said: “We don’t get to vote on TPP.” What about pulling out? That apparently is incredibly difficult to do even though the text of which he has read 500 of the 6000 pages says you can just do it by simply putting in notification for 6 months. When he was asked “Why won’t you pull out of TPP?”—this was my particular favourite for the summer—he said: “Because we’re the free-trade party.” Yeah right—“We’re the free-trade party.”So when you look at his opposition it seems to be around sovereignty. So what he thinks is the problem is that other people other corporations other Governments can come to New Zealand and they can put a submission in against our law. That is apparently the problem. Here is a little technical issue. The first issue is quite right they can do that. In fact anybody is free to come to New Zealand and put in a submission to our select committees. It is called open and transparent government. But what did Andrew Little do at the end of last year?I know—he rushed off to Australia to go and put a submission in against its legislation and last night he was telling me to give David Cameron a ring so I could put in a submission about his legislation. So he has got a massive problem with everybody else doing it—except himself.So let us just go through one or two of the myths of the TPP. Sovereignty I think you will all agree we have covered off. Anyone is free to come and put in a submission about New Zealand but this Parliament determines its law—and this Parliament on its own. There is a theory out there that somehow this affects Māori. Well it does—positively—because the text says the Treaty of Waitangi is specifically excluded and when it comes to Wai 262 that is excluded as well. And by the way the wording in the TPP agreement is basically the same as the wording in the China and Korea free-trade agreements. There is nothing new and you did not see the protesters out there then but funnily enough you see them now.Apparently the problem is that it was negotiated behind closed doors. That is what Andrew Little said at Rātana: the whole problem was that it was behind closed doors. Except the only minor technical problem was that it was exactly the same in one form as any other free-trade agreement we have done including the China free-trade agreement that was concluded by Phil Goff sitting over there and the Labour Government. But what is more than that for years the Government has been undertaking consultation on the TPP. We did not wait for the text to be completed. We did not actually wait for the national interest analysis to come out. What we actually did was we went up and down the country including to substantial groups of iwi including the Federation of Māori Authorities. In fact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade tells me that there has been more consultation on the TPP than on almost any other free-trade agreement that it can see—or any other things that we have done.The last issue is that theoretically we can be sued under the provisions of investor-State. Well do not accept my word for how difficult that is. Let me quote this for you from Phil Goff who said and quite rightly so because he actually understands what he is talking about when it comes to this area: “The barrier to get investor-State dispute is very high and the chance is very unlikely.” We have had investor-State in this country for 30 years. Forget about a case being won. There has not been a case taken in 30 years.Andrew Little came out with quite a little doozy when he was trying to summarise his position—and granted his press secretaries must have had quite a field day with that. He put up: “TPP highlights divisions in New Zealand.” The right heading I should have pointed out to them was: “TPP highlights divisions in the Labour Party.” David Shearer and Phil Goff might be prepared to say what they think but quite a lot of MPs are out there talking to people in the business community. Names are getting named about who is quietly supporting the TPP in the Labour Party ranks. We know why Andrew Little is not. It is because every single union came out pretty much in opposition to it. We know who elected the Labour Party caucus. It was not the people sitting over there but the union movement of New Zealand. And they are opposed and that is why it is.Labour is the “Two-position Party”. It is not just when it comes to the TPP. I remember in this House a very spirited debate about sending our guys our men and women over to Iraq to train people. I remember that spirited debate. What great work they are doing. We saw Ramadi taken back over Christmas—by people trained by our men and women. I remember that debate. At Christmas despite Andrew Little telling us he did not want to send trainers by Christmas he wanted to send the SAS. Labour is the “Two-position Party”. When it comes to the flag I am not even going to bother. It is still on Labour’s website. Its position is still to change the flag by a referendum.Let us get to the Government’s agenda. It is long and varied. Employment law will be an important piece of legislation passed this year and important work done by the Government. When it comes to pay equity the Government is dealing with the issues of TerraNova Homes and Care—the court cases there. We are working with the stakeholders. I think we are working very constructively there. We are looking for sensible and practical guidelines that can be implemented and good progress is being made. Good progress is also being made on the minimum wage. There is more to come from the Government on that front but every year this Government has encouraged and put up the minimum wage and of course we are seeing wages growing faster than inflation.When it comes to legislation around minimum employment standards that too is going through this Parliament in 2016 along with work around the zero-hour contracts. When it comes to the costs for employers and employees we are going to see ACC costs fall by $450 million in 2016. There is great work being done by the Minister and by the ministry. When it comes to average motor vehicle costs for ACC they are being cut by a third down to on average about $130.The Business Growth Agenda—it was good to see Winston Peters coming along and supporting Steven Little our man—well Steven Joyce. That would be Andrew Little. I forgot his name; he has had so much attention recently. But what is the Business Growth Agenda going to do? There will be more of the regional programmes more initiatives around tertiary education more for ICT more graduates in ICT the roll-out of three graduate schools around the country and the lifting of the number of engineers. It is about skills and innovation.When it comes to apprenticeships there has been a big increase in both the number of apprenticeships—those being trained—and particularly pleasing a very big increase in the number of Māori and Pacific students doing well in our education system. We can see that with the increase in the National Certificate in Educational Achievement levels; we can see it through the numbers going through our universities in the successful completion rate; we can see it in our apprenticeships; we can see the growth in the Māori economy—and all of this happened on the back of the Business Growth Agenda with more science and innovation and certainly the National Science Challenges are helping to drive that.I do not have a huge amount of time to go through all of the initiatives for education and health but it is fair to say that the Government will invest more money this year more money in both the infrastructure supporting our education and health systems more availability for drugs in our community more choice for people when it comes to education and better opportunities to equip youngsters for modern New Zealand providing access to not only world-class education but world-class health systems.Infrastructure will be a big part of the Government’s programme for 2016. This year the Government will spend $6 billion alone in infrastructure. What it is fair to say is that we build the infrastructure and the Labour protesters lie in the middle of it—but at least it is providing some use for them from time to time. But we will be at the table with the City Rail Link; we will be there with the East-West Link doing work on that; with the Waikato Expressway; with more roading for Christchurch; and with more regional roading projects. They are still cheering in Taranaki about the Mt Messenger tunnel—still cheering about what has been happening there.When it comes to housing affordability Resource Management Act reform is high on the Government’s agenda. And for those parties who want to talk about housing affordability the costs on business and the costs on households there is a simple solution: come to this Parliament and support sensible resource management legislation and the Government will work with you.Connectivity is a big part of this Government: with the world with free-trade agreements but also with ultra-fast broadband—for that initiative of 80 percent—and also with rural broadband.As I said when it comes to housing there will be work in a number of areas including more land being released; work on withholding taxes and their implementation—and almost certainly for foreigners—and of course more work on the special housing areas. When it comes to rental properties legislation will be introduced in relation to the installation of smoke alarms in rental properties.When it comes to the environment there is the important legislation around the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary: 620000 square kilometres going into an ocean sanctuary that is twice the land mass of New Zealand and the equivalent of the land mass of France. What a great way to preserve our environment.For the least well-off in our community benefits will rise by $25 per week for beneficiaries with children from 1 April; there will be more obligations on sole parents; and a major review of Child Youth and Family—the review has been completed the work has been done and the Minister is now working on that. When it comes to social housing we will see the transfer of social housing providers in Invercargill and Tauranga and new places in Auckland. When it comes to Māori there will be more work when it comes to Treaty settlements so that by 2017 all iwi who want to settle with the Government can. There is enormous work happening in the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act reforms.When it comes to security legislation the Government is working hard on the reforms being proposed in the new report by Patsy Reddy and Michael Cullen in relation to the Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Security Bureau. There will be the small issue of the flag referendum in March.This is going to be a very very busy year for a National-led Government. We are hungry we are energetic we are ready to go and unlike the Opposition we are united. We know what we stand for and we know what we stand against. We have many policies but we are on the same page. We are the “One-position Party” and with great momentum for New Zealand. Meanwhile the “Two-position Party” can spend the rest of 2016 arguing with each other because they are the only people who are going to be listening to them—themselves.