Bennett David: Appropriation (2011/12 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Bennett David: Appropriation (2011/12 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
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DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to follow on from the last two speakers Chris Tremain and Rahui Katene. I thought both of them indicated two fundamental points of view that I think the New Zealand public and the world are waking up to at the moment. This imprest supply debate is crucial for that because it reflects the vision of this Government and how we deal with our economy and build a stronger future for New Zealand. 
The two things I thought were important were first a thing that Chris Tremain talked about which was the need to get our economic fundamentals right. The days of living— 
Simon Bridges 
: You’re losing Steve David. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: No I think Steve Chadwick needs to listen and learn. The thing we need to do is get our economic fundamentals right. As Chris Tremain said it is like with a household: we can do only what we can afford we have to be careful in how much we borrow and we cannot live beyond our means. Those are some really basic economic fundamentals that Labour can never support. 
The second issue was one the Maori Party raised—it is a very important issue—which is that we need to look long term. We need to look at Governments and economic management that deliver long-term solutions. We are looking at a world that has changed. The economic environment has changed in the last 5 years and it is changing by the day. If we look at what has happened—[ 
Interruption 
] No it has changed. We have seen the Asian economies rise to become much more dominant and the European Western model that America and Europe have engaged in falling apart in the sense that it is not the economic fundamentals of the future. We have gone back to a situation in which we had to earn our way in the world work save invest and sell things to the rest of the world in order to survive and progress. Those are the things the Asian economies are doing so well. Those are the fundamentals of economic management that we did so well many years ago but due to the Labour Party - type mentality the West lost that. The West is having a wake-up call now that it needs to get back into the game. 
The other thing the Asian economies are showing is what the Maori Party has indicated: that we need to have a long-term view and that Governments cannot just make promises any more on what will be necessary to win elections. The Labour Party is crucially defunct in this area because it always makes promises to win elections. Its members never look at the long-term impact of what they are promising; it is all about them and their power base—that is all they ever want. The reality is coming to hit home. They are having riots in England now because people are not working and they are not getting good education so they are not doing the economic fundamentals. We have had Government after Government promising these promises that are unaffordable and will not lead to long-term strong economies. 
That is what is happening in America and Europe at the moment but that will not happen in New Zealand because this Government takes a long-term view like the Maori Party. We understand the economic fundamentals that Chris Tremain talked about and we can get it right so that New Zealand can deliver that strong economy and take advantage of the modern economic environment that will be based in this region going forward. 
That will be a big lesson for Labour members to understand because they cannot even fathom what it means at the moment. They do not even know what economic management is. Labour put this country into recession when the rest of the world was booming. How could it do that? Labour has a plan for New Zealand—the plan that Stuart Nash forgot about at question time today. Labour’s plan is to make New Zealand have deficits for the next 10 years and to borrow billions of dollars to pay for its election promises—short-term election promises just to win votes not to look long term at building the productive and economic base of this country— 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: By selling off our assets. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Look at that; we have them coming in with their comments about asset sales. That is all they can talk about. They cannot actually deal with the economic issues we face as a country going forward. 
What the Labour plan would deliver is more debt. Is more debt a good thing to have at this time? Labour should ask the Americans what more debt means. More debt means we get downgraded. When we get downgraded what does that mean? That means we are going to be in a situation where we have higher interest rates for our people. The people in New Zealand do not want higher interest rates. The biggest thing we can do for households is not to drop the price of milk by changing the laws around what somebody can sell a product for but to keep interest rates low because they are the biggest bill that households face. Interest rates need to be low. And what did Labour do when it was in Government? It had some of the highest interest rates of the last decade. Do members remember those 9 percent interest rates we had when the world was growing well and Labour was in Government? What are the interest rates now? Households are saving a lot of money because we have lower interest rates and are delivering for ordinary Kiwis. That is the reality of the situation. 
One speaker who spoke a bit earlier—I think in the general debate—was saying that his people have not been looked after and are not delivered for by this Government. Maybe it is not a question of this Government delivering for people; maybe it is a question of people making their futures in this country and in this region of looking forward and not expecting the Government to deliver the answers and of looking at themselves to get those answers. In this world you will not be given a free ride by anybody. That is the message you are getting out of the debt crisis in America at the moment. There is no free ride; you have to earn your way. You have to actually save. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: In every second sentence the member brings me into the debate. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: I am sorry Mr Deputy Speaker. As a country— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am standing. There are a lot of things you are saying that I agree with but you cannot include me. 
DAVID BENNETT 
: When we look at that we see that the country needs to earn its way in the future and individuals need to earn their way in the future. What are the secrets of that? It is getting a good education and National is delivering on providing standards in education and a future for New Zealanders where they get that good education to go forward. What do you also need? You need jobs. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! 
DAVID BENNETT 
: Yes I am sorry. What we also need are jobs for our people once they have been educated and those jobs will be delivered. The jobs cannot be delivered when there is a high tax rate which the Opposition is seeking to impose. That would be destructive to growth and to the promotion of people taking advantage of opportunities making choices taking some risks and building more industry and more jobs for people going forward. National is providing that economic environment that will provide more jobs for people who are well educated so they can take advantage of the jobs. 
The next thing National is doing is providing the infrastructure so that those businesses can grow and provide even more jobs going forward. That infrastructure is crucial for this country going forward. Labour does not want to see that infrastructure going forward. It wants to cut that infrastructure spending and use the money it will borrow from overseas just for handouts for day-to-day living rather than looking long term. 
The crucial thing about this economic situation the world has found itself in is that we need to look long term we need to have that infrastructure we need to invest in education and we need to have a financial system that engages people lets them take risks and builds that economic growth. That is what National is delivering. If we compare that with the Opposition which thinks in the short term about what it needs to win an election—which it has no chance of doing if it carries on with its current economic policy—we see that it does not look at economic policy that will actually grow an economy; it looks at economic policy that will pay for its short-term promises. It does not want New Zealand individuals to be the best they can.