4. Economy—Government PoliciesHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister for Economic DevelopmentEconomy—Government Policies4. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister for Economic Development: Does this Government have a broad economic development strategy; if so what is it?Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for Economic Development): Yes and I thank the member for the patsy question. The new Government wants equality of opportunity and more equal outcomes no matter your circumstance at birth or where you live. We aim to diversify our export base and move from volume to value. We want to change the investment signal so more capital goes towards the productive economy rather than unproductive speculation. This is in contrast to the Opposition's growth model of weak per capita growth housing speculation poorly targeted immigration and a fake surplus achieved by not paying the bills for infrastructure or maintenance leaving our cities clogged and our regions hollowed out. The productive economy under the last—SPEAKER: No no. I think that's probably more than enough actually.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Why doesn't creating the conditions for continued private sector investment feature in his strategy given that that investment ultimately drives development?SPEAKER: Well I've now got a problem because I stopped the Minister part-way through his strategy. I'll let the Minister answer it but I now apologise because I didn't realise where the member was going.Hon DAVID PARKER: We're not. Indeed we're going to fix that problem in New Zealand because under the past Government the productive economy was languishing. Exports dropped from 30 percent to 27 percent of GDP after nine years of the last Government aiming to lift them to 40 percent of GDP. Like the member for Northcote New Zealanders have said goodbye to this mess. Under this Government we're going to be more prosperous and a fairer country.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does the Minister accept that business confidence levels have an impact on private sector investment?Hon DAVID PARKER: Yes the trend does. The latest ANZ business survey shows business confidence on the rise. The other point I would make is that I was at a recent presentation by one of the most senior bank economists who showed that business confidence surveys have a selection bias because the respondents predominantly lean towards National. New Zealand's economic growth which is the best indicator of economic performance has on average been higher under Labour than under National Governments—an average that goes back all the way to World War II.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he believe that personal attacks on business leaders such as we've seen from his colleague Mr Jones will help arrest falling business confidence levels?Hon DAVID PARKER: The editorial that the Deputy Prime Minister referred to answers that question as to whether that's appropriate but I would further note that I've seen reports from another MP last week describing Air New Zealand's decisions as shocking short-sighted hypocritical and saying the company is guilty of deception. That MP was his front-bench mate the Hon Nathan Guy.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does the Minister think ceasing all oil and gas exploration would help New Zealand's economic development?Hon DAVID PARKER: The last block offer resulted in one successful bid. Decisions on future block offers have not yet been taken but it's clear that even if they were to slow down or stop the previously opened block offers remain open for development and as the Prime Minister and the Minister for Climate Change said yesterday that transition takes decades. He should listen to his own leader who says that we need that transition to start.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does the Minister think the Government's proposed overseas investment rules will increase foreign investment in New Zealand and thereby help New Zealand's economic development?Hon DAVID PARKER: They will ensure that New Zealand homes and farms are owned by New Zealanders so that we are not tenants in our own country. In respect of other areas of non-housing non-farm expenditure announcements will be coming next week which will show that we will be facilitating further foreign direct investment in the forest industry. Growth rates under this Government like under prior Labour-led Governments this time in coalition with New Zealand First with the support of the Greens—we will beat the record of our predecessors.Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does the Minister think uncertainty about whether the Government intends to implement campaign promises on reducing immigration is helping to increase investment in New Zealand?Hon DAVID PARKER: One of the criticisms that the incoming Government has made of the last Government is that they had a model of growth that was built on greater population rather than greater productivity. New Zealand has an appalling rate of productivity growth. That is caused by misallocation of capital including into speculative asset classes rather than growing the points of comparative advantage we need. Where we need immigration we will have it. It will be targeted but we won't have the low rates of per capita growth that the member seemed to be satisfied with when last in Government.