Cunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Cunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:615;Page:10817] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of State) 
: 
 What a pleasure it is to speak in support of a Government that cares about all New Zealanders—a Government that is not only growing the economy but delivering on the social services that are true to our roots. It is proof that there is more to economic growth than cutting taxes for our rich mates as National would have us do; proof that we can pay our way and save for retirement expenses at the same time; proof that we can deliver on the promises of opportunity for all New Zealanders. This country is on a roll. This country is focusing on growing its exports up the value chain. 
 This country is growing and it wants to take every New Zealander along for the ride—not just the elite few. We are fortunate that we enjoy many of the characteristics that international experience suggests are conducive to economic growth. We have “a stable macroeconomic environment with the government running fiscal surpluses public sector debt at a ... low level and inflation under control”. We have “a tax system which … is among the least-distorting in the world. And international surveys suggest that our people are among the most entrepreneurial in the world.” So says one Dr Don Brash in a paper released last year. But let me add more good news. We have a strong domestic economy strong visitor numbers rising global demand— 
Craig McNair 
: High immigration! 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: —and high immigration which if one is not myopic adds to a growing economy. 
New Zealand’s growth is strong. Last year we topped the OECD. Our economy has expanded for 13 consecutive quarters and gross domestic product was up 3.9 percent in the last 12 months. That growth has spread throughout the economy. In the September quarter all our regions were growing simultaneously for the first time in 18 months. Rural New Zealand posted a 1.6 percent rise—the strongest quarterly rise in 3 years in those rural areas. 
Consumers are optimistic. In the December quarter of 2003 consumer confidence was at its highest level since March 1996. Building consents are up. In 2003 nearly 30000 consents for new dwellings were given—the highest recorded number since 1976. 
Most important from a social perspective unemployment is down—way down. It is at its lowest level in 16 years at 4.4 percent. It is particularly pleasing that it is down in regions like Taranaki Waikato Northland and Southland. For the first time in 16 years Maori unemployment is down below 10 percent. Among others taking up opportunities are Pacific Island people young people coming off the unemployment benefit parents returning to the workforce and students who have finished their studies. This country is indeed on a roll. 
Part of the reason is that this Government has been a good steward of the economy. We are running a surplus of no less than 5 percent of gross domestic product repaying Crown debt faster than members opposite did when they were in Government investing in infrastructure to repay the deficit that that Government left behind and saving for our superannuation expenses so that older New Zealanders can live in security. We are doing this as well as working towards achievable realistic social goals and investing in areas that help us move up the economic food chain over time as we add value with our intellectual capital. 
It is this Government’s view that economic growth is about partnership between the private and the public sectors. There is more to growth than repeating the tired old “cut taxes” mantra that the Opposition continually falls back on. Indeed the World Competitiveness Forum acknowledged last year that Government expenditure can be productive and contribute to the competitiveness of a nation. What we have really done is move from a cost-based view of value to one based on value itself. We know we cannot compete with China or Thailand based on wage rates alone and why would we want to try? Our societies and our labour costs are very different and will remain so no matter how low we were to try to drop wages in a “Dr Don” kind of world. 
That is why we are focusing on a high-value-added economy. That is what the growth and innovation framework is about. Let me outline some of the things we are doing in that regard. Fostering innovation is crucial to our growth potential. Last year’s growth and innovation package contained measures to increase the value of publicly funded research to increase private research and to promote greater private sector participation in research and development through $140 million in grants through Vote Research Science and Technology over a 4-year period and more money is to be invested in research funds—the New Economy Research Fund and the Marsden Fund to name just two. The growth and innovation framework also makes a significant contribution to building skills and talent—crucial variables that strengthen the interface between industry and the education sector. I refer to programmes that have been highly successful like the Modern Apprenticeships programme and the Gateway programme that assist school leavers to enter the workforce. 
As part of our growth and innovation framework the Government established four private sector task forces to develop specific sector strategies. Within the current Budget $110 million has been devoted to the implementation of initiatives that support those strategies. The Government is also accelerating the work of business incubators and helping the companies that emerge from those to enter the workforce. 
I want to talk about a visit I did last week for my colleague Mr Tamihere to a small business called Helipod north of Auckland. Helipod is an excellent example of the type of business that New Zealand wants to foster. It is smart and it is fast growing. It is not worried about a few cents here and there on so-called compliance costs because the value of its products in the American market are worth so much more than its cost of production that it does not matter. It has the real problems faced by real people trying to grow a business. It needs to fund growth. It needs global connections. It needs market access. Those are exactly the things that this Government is tackling head on. The whingeing from the Business Roundtable and Business New Zealand is not only bad economics; it is out of touch with many of their own membership. 
Let us contrast this positive pro-growth approach with that of the Opposition. Wit poet raconteur—Dr Brash is clearly none of those things. So in desperation as Television One noted he has decided that it is “better to be divided than to be ignored”. He has consciously set out not only to divide the majority against the minority but to mislead New Zealanders in the process. He says that this Government targets programmes on the basis of race not need. That is simply untrue. The vast bulk of our Government’s programmes are already targeted on the basis of need not race. That is why we have a $120 million development package for the West Coast of the South Island. It is based on need not race. That is why we have a transport package for Auckland. It is based on need not race. That is why we target education initiatives for Maori and Pacific Island pre-schoolers based on need not race. Why? Because only two-thirds of “brown” children go to pre-school now not 95 percent like “white” children. In 20 years when one-third of our workforce is Maori or Polynesian it will be in the interests of superannuitants like one Donald Brash that those people have the education and skills that allow them to support him in his dotage. 
Dr Brash is like a  
Dr Who 
 character who gets in the TARDIS and travels back in time to the economics of the 1990s and the social policies of the 1950s and misses entirely the Treaty of Waitangi of the 1840s. Like some Rip Van Winkle he wakes up and asks “What about the treaty?”. What part of the word “partnership” does he not understand? This country is founded on a deal between tangata whenua and Pakeha and we aim to honour the treaty just as our forefathers intended.