Cunliffe David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Cunliffe David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:653;Page:2496] 
3.  
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: What reports if any has he seen about business confidence in New Zealand? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 Reports this year have shown that business confidence was in freefall until just recently. Business confidence measures appear to be stabilising although I must say at very low levels. Well in fact they were falling so fast that they had to stabilise somewhere. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Does the Minister believe that the Prime Minister’s “sunny disposition” is justified when business confidence has been in freefall and is now at its lowest level since 1974 when 65 percent of businesses think the situation will worsen further and when half are reporting falls in their output and a third have cut staff in the last 3 months adding to Treasury’s projection of 60000 more jobless by Christmas; or can he explain to the House what part of those numbers the “tweet” next to him does not understand? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Somehow the Opposition members seem to be surprised about this situation. For several months forecasts have shown that a coordinated world recession will have an effect on the world economy. I can only confirm what the Prime Minister says which is that everywhere we go businesses say “Thank God there’s a National Government and we got rid of Labour.” 
Chris Tremain 
: What measures has the Government taken to ensure that the recent stabilisation of business confidence is sustained and upturned? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Government is putting in place a range of measures that in the shorter term are designed to assist New Zealand businesses through a recession but just as important in the longer term are designed to build their confidence that this economy is one in which they can invest. Unless businesses invest new money we will not see new jobs to replace those that are lost. In the shorter term we have implemented a package of measures worth $480 million over 4 years to assist small to medium sized businesses we brought forward a range of major infrastructure projects and on 1 April we delivered a tax cut to 1.5 million New Zealanders. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Which of these measures will do more to turn round the historic lows in business confidence revealed by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research yesterday: a cycleway that the Minister will not fully fund this year next year or the year after; a 9-day working fortnight policy that excludes 99 percent of Kiwi businesses; or tax cuts that shift demand from low and medium income earners who need it and would spend it to upper income earners who do not and will not? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: What will lift business confidence over the next 12 or 18 months will be the continued programme of an active Government that is making decisions quickly about things that make a real difference to the business environment. That is how we will get new jobs to replace the jobs that are being lost now. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Is the Minister aware that the active Rudd Government in Australia is once again stepping up by injecting massive stimulus into that economy through a combination of income boosts for needy families and bold plans for infrastructure and why does he not admit that his Government’s double act of irrelevant PR gimmicks by the Prime Minister and dour fiscal conservatism from him is likely only to further undermine confidence and drive New Zealand deeper into recession? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Opposition finance spokesperson could do a bit better than that I would have thought. When the New Zealand Government announces a bold plan for broadband he criticises every aspect of it; when the Australians do it he calls it a bold plan for infrastructure. 
Hon Sir Roger Douglas 
: What policy actions does the Minister intend to take to ensure that foreign bank lenders are more likely to roll over debt owed to them by New Zealand companies when it falls due for repayment? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: This issue will be less of a challenge in New Zealand than perhaps in other countries but there is no doubt that global banks are deglobalising. Where Governments increasingly own them they are putting pressure on those banks to lend in their home markets rather than here. The most important thing we can do is to continue to underpin the stability of financial markets and the relatively favourable credit conditions that are enjoyed in the New Zealand banking system. But this issue is one of any number of risks to the availability of credit in New Zealand as it is in other countries.