Anderton Jim: Budget Debate 
Anderton Jim: Budget Debate 
[Volume:608;Page:5798] 
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 I congratulate the leader of United Future on that constructive contribution to the debate. A little less congratulation goes to the leader of the National Party who warned us in his speech that the coalition Government was getting ready to spend up and said what a terrible thing that would be. Then he said we should spend all the surplus now. I was a bit confused by the message. I think that indicates that Bill English will not be with us for very long. 
I have just returned from Europe and I can say to this House that the European tiger economies Ireland and the Scandinavian countries Finland Sweden and Denmark all indicated to me from their Finance Ministers down up and sideways that they would very much like to have the growth rate that New Zealand has had in recent years the future outlook that we have and the performance of the New Zealand economy. Sometimes I wish that the Opposition politicians—and we have all been there—did not wallow so much in wishful thinking about how bad they hope the economy will become so that they can have some kind of an opportunity. We should all be celebrating the fact that our economy has done extraordinarily well in world terms and that our people have benefited as a result. 
We are often accused of somehow being lucky. I do not know how one makes oneself lucky but we are accused of being lucky. It is funny how lucky one becomes when one actually has good policies and works hard at implementing them. It is a bit like Gary Player who when he was once told how lucky he was with his putting after winning the PGA title in America said the more he practised the more lucky he was. We are practising at being a good Government. 
I want firstly to congratulate Dr Cullen. I watched the Opposition members’ faces during his speech and I put myself in those members’ position. I almost felt a bit sorry for them because I saw on their faces the expression of people who were hearing about a very forward-looking constructive programme for this country—one set of policy developments after another—and it must have really felt like a nail in the coffin every time one of those positive policies came across. I can sort of understand that and if the National Party members contributed a bit more in a constructive way to debate and progress in this country one could almost feel sorry for them—but I have not gone quite as far as that yet. 
I begin by congratulating Dr Cullen on yet another highly positive and constructive Budget—his fourth on behalf of the centre-left coalition that was elected in 1999. My party the Progressives seeks above all else to be part of a Government that facilitates job creation. We want New Zealand to be a place where every young person with no exceptions is in work training or education because that is central to our goal of both economic and social well-being. If people listened to that Budget speech carefully they would have heard that the goal of this coalition supported by United Future is to have every young person who leaves school in a job work or training by 2007. I would hope that it would happen faster than that but the fact that we can talk about that with credibility shows how far we have come from the period when young people in this country were leaving school in despair because they had no chance of any future. In region after region—in the north I say to John Carter—it is exactly the same. Now young people right throughout this country know there is a future in their own land and they feel good about that—as I do on their behalf. 
The best way of ensuring that the dividends for New Zealand will be there to pay for the investment and better job opportunities and employment growth is first to ensure that the Government’s finances are in order. That is important for both domestic and international credibility. The Budget of 2003 shows that Dr Cullen is more than delivering on the fiscal front. No one can reasonably doubt—they can unreasonably doubt but they cannot reasonably doubt—his sound handling of the Government’s finances. Dr Cullen’s management of the economy and the sound state of the Government’s finances are the reasons that this coalition can also take so many other measures to improve social well-being. 
I always say to people around the regions of New Zealand that we cannot have a first-class social welfare system education system and health system unless we have a world-class economy. The economy has been central to what Dr Cullen and this coalition Government have been about over the last 4 years or so. In my view I would have to go back—and people might say “I would say that wouldn’t I?”—to the 1935-49 Labour Government to find a Government that has been as progressive as this coalition has been in terms of the future of this country. I think that is the quality of the Government that this country has been offered. 
National Party members can smile at that but they should look at their poll figures to see what New Zealanders think about it. New Zealanders actually agree with us and it is easy to see why they do. I am proud to be—and I wish some of my former colleagues would be proud to be—part of a progressive Government that is delivering. If those people had had enough patience they would be sitting around the Cabinet table in Government delivering things to the people of New Zealand. That is why I think I am here and why some of my former colleagues are not as a matter of fact—if members want to go down that road. 
This Budget builds on the framework established to support and promote future economic development. It encourages the development of new ideas and commercialisation. It is light years since the people of the Manawatu could come to a function like the launching of the biotech centre in the Manawatu to take advantage of all the biotechnology scientists we have in that region and have a plan to commercialise all the good ideas that are developed through research and development. When did that ever happen under a former administration? The answer is that it did not happen. Now we have region after region contributing to the well-being of this country. When under any former Government was every single region in New Zealand in a positive growth mode? That has not happened since Adam played halfback for the Israelis actually. Here it is quarter on quarter on quarter and year on year with the regions of New Zealand now delivering. 
Budget 2003 reflects a whole-of-Government approach to sustainable economic development and innovation. Measures in many portfolios focus on improvement in skills and talent our international connections and our innovative capacity. There is a growth and innovation package of nearly $400 million over the next 4 years to support sound and smart investment in strategic industries. 
I read an article in the  
New Zealand Herald  
this morning that stated Jim Anderton was a hands-on sleeves-rolled-up Minister of Economic Development but that one business failure overwhelmed 99 business successes. I could not believe that. Let us just think about it. What an extraordinarily negative culture that is. People sit an exam and get 99 marks out of 100 but the one mark they do not get overwhelms the 99 they did get. How does that work? What kind of negative philosophy does that represent? It is about time we actually celebrated success in this country and we have a lot of it to celebrate. 
 We are combining the existing economic industry and regional development funding of $112 million with the Trade New Zealand funding of $65 million and with growth and innovation framework funding to lift New Zealand’s development path. In nation after nation that I visited recently there was an important emphasis on new technology on business development and on growth in the regions. The OECD on investigating what New Zealand is doing has said that Industry New Zealand and the Ministry of Economic Development are at the cutting edge of world-class standards in terms of the development of our economy. 
I would challenge the Opposition parties who criticise the context and content of this Budget to say that they would change the way in which we are doing things and would change the way in which we have a growth rate that is well above the OECD average. [ 
Interruption 
] As I said before the leader of New Zealand First came into the House there are countries around the world—countries that we have looked up to in terms of their economic performance over the years—that are in envy of New Zealand’s performance in the last 3 or 4 years. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: What’s the research and development tax in Australia? 
Hon JIM ANDERTON 
: The member should go to Germany and see what that is like. He should go to Scandinavia and see what those countries are facing. We are doing extraordinarily well. 
Budget 2003 allocates funding for our World Trade Organization negotiations. It has funding for a range of initiatives including increased funding for business incubators and for adding weight to the strong portfolios in business industry and regional assistance programmes. The regions of New Zealand are in the best heart that I as a member of Parliament in my political career of nearly 39 years have ever seen. The regions of New Zealand have a Government that for the first time stands with them in partnership. They know that. They appreciate what is going on and they will never elect people who will not stand with them in the way that this Government has done and will continue to do.