Street Maryan: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Street Maryan: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19335] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to speak on the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise financial review. This is a critical arm of our international experience but it is also a critical arm of our economic strategy. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is located within the Ministry of Economic Development. It is quite a complicated accountability mechanism in that a number of Ministers have an interest in the operation of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. 
I draw attention to the fact that some points of dissatisfaction have been registered with the performance of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. They need to be addressed. They need to be addressed in a number of ways. 
In the first instance I say that in the course of my duties as the Opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs and trade and overseas development assistance I have had the opportunity to visit a number of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise offices around the world. I have visited the one in New York the one in Dubai the one in Shanghai and most recently the one in Brasilia. In all of those offices there are highly skilled individuals who are doing their best to promote New Zealand’s economic interests and New Zealand’s investments where that is the appropriate form of partnership with that country or are marketing New Zealand goods overseas. 
We have very good people but we lack a Government vision directing them where they ought to go next. In the financial review done by the Commerce Committee that lack of vision was demonstrated in some of the dissatisfaction registered by some of the clients of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. In fact the chief executive himself who is relatively new in the role is reported to have said in the select committee that the figure of 84 percent of those who said that New Zealand Trade and Enterprise added value to their business might not accurately reflect the situation and could mask a higher level of dissatisfaction. 
This is not good enough. We need to be able to maximise the opportunities that are being carved out around the world through a sequence of free-trade agreements. As those free-trade agreements are coming on stream—all of them so far initiated by the previous Labour Government—we need to ensure that this Government has the right vision the right emphasis and the right energy and get-up-and-go to make the economy grow through the use and support of very good staff in these offices around the world. They are an integral part not only of our international mission and our international footprint but of the growth of our economy. 
There is a lack of integrated vision a lack of imagination and a lack of willingness in this Government to address the issues that are beginning to stymie our progress in picking up the free-trade agreements that are coming on stream. This needs to be addressed. It is there in the report. There is not universal satisfaction with what New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is doing. I think the blame for that lies at the feet of the Government because I know that the people I have met in the course of my travels work hard to promote New Zealand’s interests and they do it differently in each country. 
Why was expenditure on grants significantly below budget—$46 million compared with $62.8 million the previous year? Why has there been virtually a 50 percent drop in the expenditure on grants? Why is that money not going out the door? If it has been appropriated by the Government for grants to assist New Zealand businesses to maximise their export opportunities overseas why is that not happening? This is not good enough. If the Government is going to appropriate that money for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise then the money should be going out the door.