Bennett David: Public Finance (Fiscal Responsibility) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Public Finance (Fiscal Responsibility) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 27 August 2013. Volume:693;Page:12921. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): I just want to take a short call on the Public Finance (Fiscal Responsibility) Amendment Bill. It is very encouraging to see the Green Party supporting this bill for once and I thank them for that and New Zealand First for its comments as well.Hon Tau Henare: Showing real leadership.DAVID BENNETT: I think that is really just as Mr Tau Henare just said an indication that the Green Party is changing tack. While Labour is trying to work out where it stands on many things the Green Party is seeking to take back some of its ground as it has successfully done over the last couple of years. The Labour Party has made a number of comments in regard to this bill that are just plain incorrect. It is very disappointing to see a party that had such a proud history being in such a position now of weakness and also now having to make such silly comments in regard to a bill like this.One of the comments that came through in its members’ speeches and through their speech notes which they obviously had to follow was that they needed to say that there had been 9 years of surplus in a row under the previous Labour Government. Well that may be the case but you lived in the most economically prosperous times of that generation. You did not have to deal with rebuilding your second-biggest city. You did not have to deal with a world recession. This Government has dealt with those issues—dealt with them successfully—and got New Zealand back into surplus within a short period of time. I think that is something that we need to be incredibly proud of as the National Party and the public of New Zealand are as well.One point that Labour members did not leave you with was that the Labour Government set up the recession in New Zealand before the world went into recession. The Labour Party’s policies led to New Zealand being in recession before the world went into the global recession. That is how poor an economic manager it was. That is the reality that the public needs to be aware of not some line about 9 years of surplus in a row. The reason it put New Zealand into recession is that it is a poor economic manager that set up New Zealand with some poor economic policy. It does not want a bill like this because New Zealand will stop having poor economic policy. [Interruption] What is that Damien O’Connor?Hon Damien O’Connor: How much have you borrowed?DAVID BENNETT: How much have we borrowed? Damien O’Connor does not want to see Christchurch rebuilt. Damien O’Connor does not want to see people keep a standard of living through this recession. The reason that the Labour Party is against this bill is that it knows that the bill will control it doing that silly economic management that it did last time when it put New Zealand into a recession before the rest of the world. Bills like this are here to stop the kind of silly economic activity that you saw from the Labour Party last time it was in power.Hon Damien O’Connor: Irresponsible managers.DAVID BENNETT: Irresponsible managers—that is what Labour members are. You are right Damien O’Connor. Labour members are irresponsible managers. Theycannot even manage themselves. They will never manage the New Zealand economy properly. This bill is good for New Zealand.