Smith Nick: Appropriation (2010/11 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Smith Nick: Appropriation (2010/11 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Sitting date: 03 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:12901. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 The elephant in the room that has been ignored by the deputy leader of the Labour Party is simply two words: Chris Carter. You see those members opposite want to sort of pretend that the dramatic political events that unfolded in this Parliament last Thursday simply did not happen. I challenge the next speaker for the Labour Party to front up— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: How much stress leave? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Oh it is Mr Cunliffe who will talk about the elephant in the room Chris Carter. 
This debate is about Budget 2010. It is the most visionary Budget that members of this House have seen in a decade. It is a Budget that addresses the challenges that are facing New Zealand in respect of our economy. In contrast we have the unfolding mess that is the Labour Opposition. Those members are so much more focused on the scraps amongst themselves than they are on the real issues that are facing New Zealanders. Is it at all unbelievable that we have a situation where mother Helen Clark and dad Michael Cullen have left the Labour house and the children are running riot? This is a leaderless Opposition and members on this side of the House simply point out the contrast. 
I raise a simple issue: can we believe Phil Goff’s policy pronouncements? He said on 20 July in respect of trading in the fourth week of annual leave: “I am quite relaxed about that as long as there are safeguards to ensure that the employer cannot abuse it.” Well the interesting thing is that 2 days later the president of the Labour Party a Mr Andrew Little who is not an elected member of this House said “No the policy is that there will be no tradability of the fourth week of annual leave under Labour Party policy.” I ask who is writing the Labour Party’s policy. Labour’s leadership has left this Parliament and it is now in the hands of a union leader. That exposes the depth of mess that there is within the Opposition. 
I remind members opposite of the legacy that Labour left New Zealand in terms of our economy. Over the 9 years that Labour was in Government the debt of this country grew from $90 billion to $180 billion. We have a situation— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Net debt was reduced to zero. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Mr Cunliffe knows that consumption expenditure was out of control. Even more importantly I point out that over the period from 2002 not one new job was created in the productive export part of the economy. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: That’s rubbish! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Mr Cunliffe knows that that is true. If we take the period of the last 3 years of the previous Government we see that in each one of those years economic growth was less than 1 percent. I faced the very first Cabinet meeting of this new Government when Treasury advised us that Labour’s legacy was a decade of deficits. Every single projected year from 2008 to 2018 had this country churning up additional debt. 
We have had to confront those basic economic problems by putting forward a growth strategy. I will go through each of the six key elements of this Government’s plan to lift our country’s economic performance. The first of those contained in the appropriations that we are debating is in respect of tax reform. It is the most comprehensive tax reform that New Zealand has had for more than two decades. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Rubbish—wimped out! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Well I have a challenge for Mr Cunliffe. I ask him what he would do. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Fix LAQCs. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Ah we have some Labour policy. My question for Mr Cunliffe is whether Mr Little has signed off on that latest piece of policy we are hearing about from Mr Cunliffe. I suspect not but I suspect that Mr Cunliffe will be building a chummy relationship with Mr Little as the months of speculation over Labour’s leadership go on. What we see in this Budget package are tax changes that will help drive economic reform— 
Moana Mackey 
: The Minister has destroyed ACC. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Now we have Moana Mackey chipping in about accident compensation. Let us look at Labour’s record on accident compensation. Within days of being appointed as Minister I say to Moana Mackey I was called into an urgent briefing because of the mess that members opposite left in the accident compensation scheme—a debt of $2.4 billion in the second to last year of the previous Labour Government and a $4.8 billion loss in just the accident compensation area in its last year in Government. That is absolutely financially reckless and it is one of the reasons that the people of New Zealand will not trust Labour with the Treasury benches. So tax reform is at the heart of the 2011 Budget. 
The second major element is regulatory reform. Regulatory reform in respect of the Resource Management Act has both a phase one and a phase two. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: That’s not going to change the world. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Well I put this to Mr Cunliffe: what did Labour do in its last year in Government when 27000 resource consents were not processed in the statutory time frame? What did it do? It did zip. In fact it got worse in every single year that Labour was in Government. What did its members do about the prolonged and protracted legal disputes over getting resource consents for new infrastructure? If members ever want to see a disaster in relation to Labour’s record they should look at the Wellington motorway and the decades that it took for its consent. 
A third key element of this Government’s programme is the $320 million commitment in this year’s Budget to research to development and to innovation. If we are to grow the economy and if we are to close the gap with Australia investing in our scientists and in innovation has to be a key part of the programme. Equally so this Government has been committed to constraining growth in the public sector. How many members opposite really in their heart of hearts believe that it is OK to have the public sector grow by 50 percent—huge growth in the public sector—at the same time as the economy grew by just 10 percent? That was absolutely unsustainable and that is why today the Government has announced a further important piece of work on ensuring value for money for the taxpayer in those key areas of public sector policy advice. 
Hon Members 
: Cuts. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Members opposite shout “cuts”. Those members believe in a bloated expanded Public Service an unproductive Public Service and a Public Service that grows at a huge rate. The truth is that Labour members care more about navel-gazing in Wellington than they do about real services for New Zealanders. 
Then there is the huge programme of Anne Tolley and Steven Joyce: investing in skills development and in better standards in education. Of course there is the programme on infrastructure investment. I have a simple response to Annette King in terms of her challenge on closing the gap. When will the tax policy that this Government has introduced come into effect? It will come into effect on 1 October. When are the resource management changes that we passed last year coming into effect? Only yesterday. When will the infrastructure that we have invested in start to pay a dividend in terms of growth? The truth is these are long-term policies that will pay rich dividends for New Zealand. We are here for the long haul.