Brownlee Gerry: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Brownlee Gerry: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:12699] 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister for Economic Development) 
: 
 That last comment from the Opposition spokesperson for economic development the Hon David Parker in many ways typifies Labour’s problem. He quotes some chap who has done a little bit of analysis in Australia. 
Hon Members 
: Ha ha! 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: They laugh. Once again they look for the silver bullet all the time. They look for someone else to tell them what to do and how to do it. I think it is extraordinary that Opposition members could come in here today and question the Government about economic direction when having just been I suppose booted out by the New Zealand public after 9 years of exceptional mismanagement they expect everything to change overnight. Other than that Labour members expect us to believe that what they were doing was absolutely perfect. What they were doing was apparently exactly right. Well it should come as no surprise to anybody that during the 9 years of the previous Labour Government the New Zealand GDP rose by $10700 per capita. That sounds great does it not? But if we look across the Tasman Australia’s GDP during that time rose by $19700 per capita which is almost twice the rate. Labour members come in here all righteous about what they were doing attacking the current Government and expecting that after 9 years of abject failure everything should be put right in 15 months. Well that is utterly pathetic. 
Grant Robertson 
: How about something? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: That member is still after the silver bullet and it does not exist. Fortunately the Government does not pretend it exists. We have said that New Zealand needs to lift its economic performance across all sectors of the economy. That is what we are about. That has been our record over the last 15 months or so. I remember the previous Labour Government coming in in 2000 and setting up the “jobs machine”. What a huge and abject failure that was. Apparently that was a milestone that they could be measured against and it was an utter failure. Having failed then the previous Labour Government brought in what it called “economic transformations” which was going to be a milestone that it could be measured on. 
Hon David Parker 
: It transformed to custard. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I have just explained that the New Zealand economy went back for those 9 years so that did not go too well. Then Labour came out with this wonderful thing called Fast Forward New Zealand. The problem was that after 6 years Labour recognised that it was in some sort of replay so it had to rename it to New Zealand Fast Forward. Labour brought in  
Growing an Innovative New Zealand 
 the growth and innovation framework. What happened to it? Where is it? What was the new stuff that happened in New Zealand during those 9 disastrous years? It simply does not exist. Then 2 years out from the election Labour members said they had better do something so they brought in the economic transformation agenda. Well I ask them where it is what happened to it and where it went. 
By comparison the Government of New Zealand today has a much much simpler approach to things. Firstly we want to recognise the parts of the economy that can grow and we have done that. We are talking to them and we are assisting them. Secondly we are getting out of their road. We have done that through changes to the Resource Management Act to the way in which we require all sorts of compliance and also through the tax system. We have rebalanced the tax system in favour of savings and productive investment. We are in the process of reforming the electricity market. Members should look at it. It is just one small sector which saw a 72 percent price increase in 9 years compared with the much much flatter rate that we have achieved in such a very short period of time. 
Then of course there is the support that goes into business. One of the ironies I discovered is that New Zealand Trade and Enterprise has been handing out these things called market development grants. If people gave Jim Anderton Pete Hodgson Maryan Street or Trevor Mallard a photograph of their factory they got a grant. Fill out the boxes provide the photograph and they got a grant. What did that achieve? Absolutely nothing. We were going backwards. Our exports were in decline. 
What is more we have brought in a programme of productive infrastructure. Years of neglect of our roading infrastructure is being put right by the current Government. Not one person sitting in this House can mount an argument against that. Then there were the years of talk from Pete Hodgson Maryan Street and Trevor Mallard about the need to get our broadband network up and running. That was talk talk talk. Along came David Cunliffe and he brought the sword out and chopped the thing to bits. He had no idea how to put it back together. Finally we get a new Government that is making the investments necessary to see New Zealand capable of performing at the cutting edge in the decades to come. We have unashamedly begun to reform the labour market which means that more people get a go in the workforce. How could that be bad? 
I heard this afternoon people attack the Prime Minister by saying he had broken his word to the Council of Trade Unions. Well I do not know what the Council of Trade Unions thought he said to them but I can tell members that it certainly was not that we should drag New Zealanders back to the Stone Age give them lower wages and keep them suppressed because that is what the Council of Trade Unions is all about. 
We are improving education and skills. We are cutting red tape and regulation. Our trade strategy is working to open up new markets. We have negotiations right now with Gulf States Korea and India and we are looking to open up those negotiations with Russia. We are supporting business research not some pie-in-the-sky Mickey Mouse make-it-up-as-you-go tax credit. We are putting genuine cash $234 million worth on the table for people who are doing legitimate research. 
We also want to get that link between the science and innovation system and the business community by not only renaming but also reorganising the way in which the Government contributes to science and innovation in New Zealand with the new Ministry of Science and Innovation. In my own area in New Zealand Trade and Enterprise we have refocused on growing those international markets. It is no good providing opportunities for people to trade if they do not have the back up to get into those markets. If businesses do not make sales they cannot employ people to make the goods to process the goods or to add the value to the goods. We have set up the International Growth Fund with a very large amount of discretion as to how New Zealand Trade and Enterprise can assist businesses to get into the international marketplace. Some years ago Jim Anderton said that this country needed 100 new large-scale enterprises if we were going to progress. I ask members 9 years later to name just one. 
Hon David Carter 
: Sovereign Yachts. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Well it could be Sovereign Yachts. There is a classic example. The previous Government poured millions of dollars into it. It had the then Prime Minister up there with a photograph and Jim Anderton up there getting a photograph. They had everybody lauding all over the country the great success of Sovereign Yachts. It was supposed to produce 300 jobs and $600 million through revenue for the country inside 5 years. What did it produce? Absolutely nothing! Those examples could be given to this Committee over and over again. 
In the areas of primary production we have a great great opportunity with the work that David Carter is doing in making sure that that comes to the fore of where our economic future will be most enhanced. It will be the backbone of the New Zealand economy for years to come. Getting the best out of it is the total focus of Mr Carter and his department. What my department the Ministry of Economic Development can do is stand alongside those companies that are in international markets to try to make life a bit easier for them. That is happening with the wine industry the aquaculture industry and the meat industry. Those are industries that have enormous capacity for growth. Labour sits over there and asks where it will all come from. It will come as no surprise that the country with the fourth-largest sea space in the world had an aquaculture industry that in the year 2000 produced less than $300 million in exports and today it is still the same because those guys neglected it. We will assist it to be a billion-dollar industry in quick time. That is economic development not all those slogans we heard recounted before.