Lee Melissa: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: General Debate[Sitting date: 16 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17331. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): I have a lot of respect for Shane Jones the member who just sat down but I would give him just one piece of advice: people who live in glass houses should not be throwing stones.I feel that I have to start my contribution by saying how grateful I am to my parents who in a way forced me to move to New Zealand. They forced me to migrate to New Zealand when I was much younger. When I first got to New Zealand my feelings towards my new country were not how I feel about it now. I am a very proud Kiwi or a “Kowi” actually—a Korean Kiwi which is what we Koreans actually call each other; “Kowi”—and I cannot think of living anywhere else but this gorgeous country of ours Aotearoa.I would like to think that I am pretty ordinary in that I am a mother—a single mother—with a teenaged son and my mother lives with me. Although privileged to be a member of Parliament and lucky to have had the successful career that I have had my life is like everybody else’s. I wish that my family have good health and that my sonwill get a good education and according to him he attends the best State school in New Zealand. I want my family to be safe and protected from crime and I hope that we do not ever become welfare dependent. These are the things that matter most to our New Zealand families which is why this National-led Government is investing heavily in these areas.Like all Kiwi families who live within a budget and most of us do this National-led Government is careful and fiscally responsible. We are carefully targeting our spending in the areas that matter and sticking to a $1 billion Budget allowance for the 2014-15 financial year. Growing our economy so that more people can have jobs more people can have better pay and more people can have economic freedom is the paramount concern for this Government. As a small country at the bottom of the world New Zealand’s economic future lies in the strength of our connections to our international markets and to our neighbours to sell our goods and services. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s objective is to help New Zealand companies achieve international success. China South America the Middle East and the ASEAN region provide strong opportunities for New Zealand’s economic future.I went to Indonesia not long ago and that is one of the areas that we are actually focusing on. Just to give you an idea of how big that country is it has a population of close to 250 million people. Yes it is a lot poorer than us in terms of its economy and how well its economy is actually doing but its population is growing at the rate of our total population in New Zealand a year—growth of 4.5 million people a year—and the economic growth in that country is phenomenal.I was told when I was there that New Zealand companies are going into Indonesia to trade with it and are actually doing fantastically well. New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is there and our embassy is there to assist our New Zealand companies to do so and I think it is fantastic. Lifting our trade with these regions will help create higher-paying jobs for Kiwi families. The additional $69 million will allow New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to connect more Kiwi companies with growing markets delivering stronger long-term economic growth for New Zealand.Another one that I am personally waiting for is the free-trade agreement with my birth country. They are currently negotiating and I hope that they will actually come to a conclusion very very soon. That will boost trade between our two nations my birth country and my country—New Zealand and Korea—and it will actually make a huge contribution to the growth of our economy which is doing fantastically well.New Zealand is in a good place. We are growing. Every day our economy is looking bright and our future is looking much better because of what National is doing—Dr David Clark: Where are the jobs?MELISSA LEE: —and it is doing better than Labour did in the previous 9 years of Government.