English Bill: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeEnglish Bill: General Debate[Sitting date: 16 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:13929. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister): I moveThat the House take note of miscellaneous business. Last week—Hon Maryan Street: Crooks and frauds Mr English.Hon BILL ENGLISH: Labour Party members talking about electoral fraud—you have got to be joking. Do they not remember writing out their cheques for the pledge card? Do they not remember the $800000 the taxpayer had to get back from the Labour Party? But now of course under the new leader of the Labour Party the pledge card like his CV will be a living document—kind of like the Treaty but without the principles. It will be a CV that changes as time goes on. If you ask yourself the question of where David Cunliffe got his numbers for regional economic growth in New Zealandfrom I think he got them from the same place as he got his CV—that is some little compartment in the back of his mind that has a tremendous power of imagination.So it was that the Mother Teresa with the MBA from Harvard got it completely wrong on Taranaki. In this last week the International Monetary Fund put out its figures that said that New Zealand would—Hon Annette King: How nasty.Hon BILL ENGLISH: Yes this is nasty for the Labour Party. New Zealand is the fifth fastest-growing economy in the developed world—[Interruption]. Very good. Out of 35. That is a tribute to all of those New Zealanders who have shown so much resilience over the last 5 years in the face of recession and in the face of earthquakes bad weather and the headwinds of a high exchange rate. And with the support of the Government they have made this economy grow delivering more jobs and higher incomes.Kris Faafoi: That’s with a straight face.Hon BILL ENGLISH: And the Leader of the Opposition said with a straight face—and I have followed a bit what he has been saying—that basically Auckland is struggling Wellington is stuffed the provinces have had it Christchurch is stagnant and Taranaki is gone. Taranaki is gone because “People are leaving in droves.”Well let us look at the headline from today—“Taranaki leaders are hailing new population figures that show the region is booming.” Now we are finding out why the Labour caucus did not vote for David Cunliffe. Those members know what we are finding out that he just makes it up. How stupid could he be to pick the strongest-growing region in New Zealand and make that his poster boy for failure—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order!Hon BILL ENGLISH: So this is the logic. Mother Teresa with the MBA from Harvard University—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! If I get another interjection from Annette King she will be leaving the Chamber as well. I am sorry to interrupt the member.Hon BILL ENGLISH: The member wishes she had stood for mayor. Why did that member not stand for Mayor of Wellington? Because she would have lost—that is why.So here is the logic. The Labour Party is running a campaign on regional development—a campaign on regional development. And what it does is take its shiny new leader and it says: “David pick the fastest-growing region with the highest per capita GDP in New Zealand and use that as the example of the failure of the Government’s economic policy.” Incomes in Taranaki went up as they have in every other region of New Zealand. In the period 2007 to 2010 with the high exchange rate and a worldwide recession the population in Taranaki went up in every region except Gisborne—in every region except Gisborne. The Government’s policy is working. The economy is growing and the regions are among our star performers.