Smith Nick: General Debate 
Smith Nick: General Debate 
[Volume:674;Page:20259] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. This House should note today the competent and consistent financial management of Prime Minister John Key and Deputy Prime Minister Bill English which is serving New Zealand so well in such an uncertain global economic environment. This Government’s plan of reducing debt of returning us to surplus within 3 years of opening new markets and growing exports of investing in infrastructure of reducing compliance costs and of getting a more efficient Public Service is all about building a faster-growing economy. It is the right plan at the right time. I could spend this entire speech just noting the raft of reforms we have made over the last 2½ years that are contributing to building a stronger economy. 
More debt is the last thing New Zealand needs right now. We need look only at the dramas in countries like the United States and Greece to know that that is the wrong plan. The worry for New Zealand is our high levels of private debt. Private debt soared from $68 billion in 1999 to $175 billion in 2008. That is $107 billion in just 9 years—nearly $12 billion of extra private debt for every single year during Labour’s last period in Government. Our tax package was about changing incentives. Since that package took effect household debt has been going flat and that is essential for New Zealand. 
It is not just private debt that this Government has had to address. In 2008 Treasury advised the incoming Government that we were looking at a decade of deficits. But in every single Budget this Government has pulled that back. We are now on track to get New Zealand back into surplus within 3 years. Over the adjournment we have seen Labour launch its muddled economic plan which can be described only as borrow spend and hope. There are two particular features of Labour’s economic plan that fall into my areas of responsibility and that Labour does not want New Zealanders to know about. Its emissions trading scheme policy is banking on a $50 price of carbon as part of its policy for ramping up that scheme. Mr Cunliffe has confirmed that his numbers are based on a $50 carbon price from the beginning of 2013. That will mean a 15 percent increase in power prices. That will mean a price increase of 10c a litre on fuel. Yet those members have got the cheek to pretend they are concerned about the cost of living. That carbon price would add $450 a year or $9 a week to the living costs of New Zealand families. It would wipe out any benefit of the messy tax proposal to take GST off some foods. But Labour’s emissions trading scheme is only half the problem. 
New Zealand now more than at any other time needs a strong exporting economy. That is why we are proud of the fact that Statistics New Zealand came out last week and said that in the last year there had been a 4.5 percent increase in New Zealand’s exports—something we should be proud of. The engine room of that growth is agriculture. Labour’s policy not only to put agriculture into the emissions trading scheme 2 years earlier than the current law but also to put it in on tougher terms than for any other trade-exposed industry is just bizarre. Labour will put a higher price for carbon on to farmers than there is on Methanex or the aluminium smelter. And those members plead— 
Hon David Parker 
: No we’re not. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Yes you are—absolutely you are. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn) 
: 
 I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member’s first 5 minutes were not particularly exciting and the half a minute he took after you rang the bell— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I am not sure what the member’s intention was there. I think we will just forget about it.