Joyce Steven: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJoyce Steven: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12064. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development):Well it is interesting standing in this Chamber talking about economic development. Immediately you see the juxtaposition on the Opposition side of the Chamber where once again we are seeing Green Party members absolutely opposed in this case to a convention centre but fortunately to almost every form of economic development. Meanwhile their friends in the Labour Party desperately try to pretend they are in favour of economic development by rerunning the same load of rubbishy wiffle-waffle that they have been running for the last 13 years but ultimately they are completely against economic development.I have a few examples proving that the Labour Party and the Green Party are against economic development—just a few examples. One example is their opposition toThe Hobbit movies which have just wrapped up production in New Zealand—that would not have happened under a Labour-Greens coalition. Other examples are their opposition to all resource management law changes that have helped speed up investment decisions and will help speed up more; their opposition to all the roading projects around the country; their opposition as we have heard to the Aucklandconvention centre; their opposition to oil and gas exploration on the East Coast; and their opposition to mineral resources exploration anywhere—except we are now reliably informed the Labour Party has a new policy on oil and gas exploration which is that when they are in Taranaki they can talk it up and everywhere else they are in the country they should talk it down. That is the new policy—the double-speak of the New Zealand Labour Party. It is a case of “If I am in Gisborne or if I am in Wellington or if I am in Dunedin then I am against oil and gas exploration but if I am in Taranaki then weirdly I am in favour.” That is the approach of the Labour Party.Opposing foreign investment of all types in New Zealand is as we know the latest path for the Labour Party and the Green Party. They are opposing of course Bathurst Resources and supporting the environmental groups who are trying to run a war of attrition against Bathurst on the coast and trying to stop the jobs there. They are opposing tax changes to encourage productive investment. Aquaculture reform is another thing that they are deeply opposed to. These are all things around the country that this Government is working on to encourage jobs and growth in the regions and what are they in favour of? Oh they are in favour of woolly stuff that says we should just hug the regions and say we are doing better. Well this Government is focused on a whole range of initiatives including the ones I have listed.Then of course there is the broader macroeconomic situation of the Labour Party and the Greens Party. We are seeing that this Government’s responsible economic management is delivering better growth than in just about every country in the OECD—Dr David Clark: Worst economic record in 50 years—worst economic record.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —I see the parrot has started up—and the Labour Party is against all the initiatives. And what would it do? It would slap on a capital gains tax. It thinks the answer to encouraging more capital to be invested is to tax it more. Goodness knows that will work—not! And Labour’s other options are to increase the price on business of the emissions trading scheme and all these other things that it wants to load more costs on to just like it did in the last 9 years. Labour members have not learnt a single lesson. They come down here. They spout rubbish about economic development like “We care—we care but by the way we’d put more costs on business. We’d tax businesses more. We’d stop them doing all these things that are creating jobs in New Zealand and we’d turn back the clock.”I just want to touch on Northland because Mr Jones does not appear to be able to read. I think it is important that he knows the full list of the Government’s initiatives in Northland so that he can refer to them in future when he wants to talk economic growth. I am talking about ultra-fast broadband in Whangarei rural broadband throughout Northland increased Youth Guarantee places and expanding trades and services academies. We have developed New Zealand Apprenticeships which is very popular in Northland. We have been refocusing NorthTec on skills for the region. We have been lifting Māori school-leaver achievement. We have been arranging the petroleum block offers in Northland and the minerals exploration and we are reforming the aquaculture market to allow more aquaculture in Northland.We have also been building the Pūhoi to Wellsford road of national significance. We have been encouraging the leveraging of the cultural and asset base for the Māori community in Northland. And most of all we are not saying as the local MPs up there are saying: “Oh you shouldn’t do mineral and gas exploration up there. You should do it over in Western Australia.” We are saying that we are prepared to do that up north. We are also supporting the agriculture sector with the Primary Growth Partnership.All these things are happening in Northland rather than just a few platitudes which is the specialty of Mr Grant Robertson and Mr Jones. They run around with a fewplatitudes and pretend they are interested in economic development. This Government is doing economic development and remember they are opposing the jobs.