Parata Hekia: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: General Debate[Sitting date: 17 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9445. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koutou huri noa i tō tātou Whare. I am delighted to stand and speak on this Government’s record in terms of its contribution to lowering the cost of living. Under that previous administration electricity went up 8 percent in every year and let us remember here that those were great years when surpluses were being returned and yet that same Government was raking off costs from ordinary New Zealanders those whom the previous speaker the Hon Shane Jones and that administration pretended to support. This Government however understands how to both focus on keeping the costs of living down by keeping interests rates as low as possible by working to get a competitive electricity market by ensuring that consumers have in their own hands the ability to switch between power companies and on the other side of it focus on encouraging work and employment.First of all this side of the House understands that it is not Governments that create wealth; it is businesses it is employers and it is ordinary Kiwis who back themselves. The other side of the House specialises in slicing and dicing and redistributing other people’s money. Our side of the House specialises in asking how we support businesses to grow opportunity and grow employment. How do we ensure that more tax stays inthe pockets of New Zealanders? Because we believe actually that they make better choices for themselves than Governments do.On this side of the House we understand that we need to get the best value out of assets. I as Minister of Education am happily awaiting the possibilities that will flow from realising value out of our assets. This side of the House understands the distinction between ownership and shareholding. That side of the House does not. We want to grow the value of our assets. We want to reduce the cost on New Zealanders. We want to invest and entrust their ability to employ people to grow the wealth and to distribute it. That side of the House does not understand that equation. We understand that it requires a whole lot of levers. That is why we are having welfare reform which again follows the principle and theme of investing in what people can do not what they cannot do and in perpetuating independence not dependence—two significant differences between this side of the House and that side of the House.We want to invest in education because it has the medium to long term ability to grow the economy and grow productivity because we believe in New Zealanders who have skills. We believe that if they have skills and they can read and write then they can get jobs they can keep jobs and they can grow in those possibilities. That side of the House wants people angry and aggrieved and dependent on it. We do not. We believe in New Zealanders. We believe in this country. It is the little country that can under this Government. Under that Government it is the little country that cannot.That side of the House and all its friends believe that the answer is to borrow and pray. Our side of the House believes in the fact that we need to pay our debt get it out of the way and support our economy so that New Zealanders can make choices for themselves and afford to pay for them. We have done that in some of the toughest years this country has ever faced. Again we understand appreciate and respect that wealth comes from businesses from people working and from releasing value from assets which is something we share—picking up from my colleague’s earlier acknowledgments—with Baroness Thatcher. She came into a country in as parlous a state as we came into in this Government. She recognised that she had to break the hold of those Opposition members who wanted to keep the greatness of that country and that empire down. We here on the other side of the world empathise with that and appreciate how important it is to do away with the constraints and the obstacles that otherwise would prohibit the flow of the creative and imaginative genes that New Zealanders have. That is why we are investing in science and innovation. That is why we are reducing compliance costs. That is why we have a Minister of Health who is investing in New Zealanders being strong in good state well and able to look after themselves not dependent aggrieved and operating on myth rumour and half-truths.Our Government believes in strong New Zealanders capable of looking after themselves not dependent on a bunch of—I see I am being waved to sit down. But can I say that it is a delight to be on this side of the House with right-thinking New Zealanders who trust and believe in Kiwis—