Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Madam Chair for this opportunity to take this call. It was great to get quite a good number of entities before the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee for their annual reviews. One thing that was common in all these annual reviews was that they all reflected the good work that was put in place by the previous National Government. I think that if we kept the plan that was put in by the previous National Government there was capacity to grow and there was capacity to do more to support our economy but what we have seen since this Government came in is business confidence has been fluctuating. Actually business confidence has been declining.I believe that to create that confidence in businesses we have to do more innovation and we have to invest more in research and development. In the hearing that we had from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) they endorsed a model that was put in place by the previous National Government—that is National Science Challenges. National Science Challenges were put in place by the previous National Government and we also decided funding for 10 years for that research project and this was in two rounds of five years. So the research that is being conducted through National Science Challenges is very specific to New Zealand. The outcomes of that are going to hugely benefit New Zealand. We also saw there was a celebration in Parliament to acknowledge the success of National Science Challenges. So yes while it's good that MBIE has endorsed the National Science Challenges programme that model of funding research and development by the previous National Government—and the Minister I see was celebrating the success of National Science Challenges—what I would like to see is actually more commitment continued support and to see how there will be more funding for National Science Challenges in the next Budget.Bringing in some ages-old policy of the previous Labour Government to say that we are going to do more to increase R & D spending is not going to do anything. We heard from Callaghan Innovation—this was based on the feedback they received from hundreds of their customers—that Government investment is a must. Government investment in research and development is a must to drive business research and development investment. Businesses don't get the confidence unless the Government is taking the lead and is investing in research and development and that is what the previous National Government did through various models of funding research and development. So we saw that in the past under the National Government. We saw that research and development investment increased. So yes there is a big talk from this current Government but so far what we have seen is only them repeating that they have an ambitious plan they have a long-term plan but nothing concrete has come through. If it is about just re-announcing the previous National Government's programmes if it is just about celebrating the success of previous National Government's programmes then that is not going to help further increase research and development investment.Another striking thing that came out during the annual review hearings was from MBIE. This was actually about the number of skilled workers they are short of in the construction industry. They told us that we are short of 51000 skilled people in the construction industry. That actually comes down to the Government's immigration policy. They campaigned on cutting immigration. Yes they campaigned on cutting immigration. They have not come out and taken any stand on immigration policy so far since they came in. So what I want to see is that they should come clean about their immigration policy. If they want to take a U-turn about their immigration stand that is fine too but businesses need to know that. Businesses will not have the confidence in investing more or growing their business if they are not sure that they can find people to work in their business—51000 is a big number. MBIE is also responsible for establishing their KiwiBuild programme. So it is going to put a further constraint on this sector which is already constrained.If I continue with the same example property developers—they are suffering because banks are not lending money; they are tightening their criteria to lend money. One thing that came out from MBIE which was really interesting is that they think to solve this problem the Crown should be guaranteeing payment in case of loss or damage in the pre-sale stage.So this discussion we were having there only because business confidence is so low and this is because this Government is not coming out clean on any of their policies. They have done nothing since they came in.