General Debate

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business. The National-led Government is on a mission to lift jobs and lift economic growth. Today we saw the Minister for Economic Development roll out a new initiative: the sixth tranche of our Business Growth Agenda—lifting capital markets in this country. Long ago we heard the Opposition stop calling out for a plan on this economy because there is a clear plan on this side of the House, and the sixth tranche was delivered today: capital markets growth.

That sixth tranche of the wider growth package is a great initiative. What we have seen as part of that is, again today, the $60 million initiative from the New Zealand Venture Investment Fund, another initiative that is part of that capital markets growth agenda. That particular lift will really help to fund new initiatives in this country. Raising the level of venture capital investment in innovative companies is going to be a huge focus going forward. We have seen investment from that fund of $117 million into 126 companies, including Orion Health, SLI Systems, PowerbyProxi, and Booktrack, amongst a number of other amazingly innovative companies.

What do we see on the other side of the House as we drive out this plan to lift growth and to lift wages? We see a yawning gap moving us further and further apart from Labour and the Greens as they oppose every initiative we bring to the House to lift jobs and growth—every initiative. Today in question time we saw a great example of that, with Russel Norman once again opposing the film industry in this country and its opportunity for green growth. You would think that with the film industry, they would be behind it. But, no, they are against that industry and against the growth that it is bringing.

They are against tax changes that drive incentives for companies to invest. They are against major roading projects—projects that would increase the efficiency of our economy. They are opposed to free-trade agreements, including the US free-trade agreement, which could bring up to another $2 billion per annum into our economy. They are against Resource Management Act changes, they are against the 90-day employment trials, they are against work expectations for beneficiaries—go figure; they do not expect that beneficiaries should have to get out there and work—and they are against oil and gas exploration. But to cap it off, the most amazing thing that the Green Party was against in New Zealand was Callaghan Innovation. It is against a high-growth institute aimed at lifting high-end manufacturers in this country.

But where I really want to focus today is a detailed example of where the Greens are opposed to just about everything in this country. They came into the House last week criticising the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council for its opportunity to lift growth in the province of Hawke’s Bay—to lift jobs and economic growth. Here was a project that is also good for the environment. It is helping to move water from the aquifers to the dam and, therefore, increase the flow in the Tukituki River. To me that is a win-win. That is a green growth project, which is bringing growth to the economy. There are 26,000 additional hectares of irrigated land, $250 million to $300 million more in exports, and wins for the environment, yet they are against it. They are against it, because they felt that the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s debt was going to go through the roof, from $15 million to $90 million. Well, they cannot even read a balance sheet, because at the same time as the debt was increasing, equity was going up and assets were going up. It was a massive win for the economy.

So I want to talk about that, because on one side of the coin they want jobs and growth, and on the other side of the coin they are saying: “Oh, it can only be green growth.” Well, actually, our economy is dependent on our primary industries. That is where the first dollars in our economy are created, day in, day out. You are going to be able to get green growth at the high-tech end only if you have got a good, strong primary economy.

Actually, the primary economy is exhibiting great examples of green growth all the time—excellent examples. It has some wonderful examples of what it is doing there. Take, for example, the dairy industry, which came out last week with another initiative to improve its environmental footprint. What do those guys do? Oppose it—oppose it. That industry is trying to lift its footprint, and they are trying to oppose it. They are against that. They are against dairy farmers. Everything they go against—they are opposed.

In the last week or so the difference between how the Government treats the richest and the poorest in our country has never been clearer. On the one hand we had confirmation yesterday that the Government ignored Crown Law advice to change the industrial relations law of this country to advantage Warner Bros during the making of The Hobbit. This is the film that also attracted over a hundred million dollars in subsidies from New Zealand taxpayers and that so far has taken over US$1 billion in box-office receipts worldwide. It has dressed up these law changes and its dodgy dealings as something that deserves an award, maybe an Oscar—a winner. The Government thinks it is the winner of the Oscar for nationalism, but it is not. Government members are not Oscar winners, because when you defrock what they have done, their actions turn out to be a treacherous betrayal of vulnerable workers on behalf of overstuffed and overseas powerful interests. There will not be any golden statues for this act of betrayal, this betrayal of decent Kiwi values.

Those papers reveal the Prime Minister and his Government, and their actions, for what they are. It was always about union busting. The Prime Minister and his Ministers said that it was about protecting jobs for the 3,000 workers that were involved in The Hobbit. By his own admission the international film industry now thinks New Zealand is an attractive location for movies because New Zealand has “a flexible labour market and an educated workforce which is not heavily unionised.” The Prime Minister’s own briefing papers from his trip to Hollywood in October last year show the growth in the film sector, but also describe employment in that area as of “varying tenure and sporadic duration”. He has allowed for more precarious work for vulnerable workers. Changing the law has changed New Zealand into the sweatshop of the film industry.

So what about those jobs, eh? The same briefing said that almost everyone was a contractor with earnings that were relatively low or middle-income. With this ill-advised change the Prime Minister has added to the lack of security for a whole raft of workers. He has contributed to what Professor Guy Standing calls the precariat. These are fixed-term casual on-call contractors who sell their services for whatever they can get. They are unable to bargain collectively and the employment environment is not an even playing field, so they often end up with low wages and poor conditions. Professor Standing calls this group and this sort of thing the commodification of work and workers. So what we got from selling our labour laws was a whole bunch of casualised low-wage work, and I guess that as well as The Hobbit being a vehicle to promote the gorgeousness of our country and, hopefully, attract tourists, we also got an international reputation for screwing down workers’ rights. It is not the type of reputation many of us wished for. I want to make it clear, and particularly to the previous speaker, Chris Tremain, that the Greens want to see a strong, vibrant film industry, but we do not think the way to achieve it is to pay poor wages and undermine workers’ rights.

We want to see real jobs. We note that in the last year we lost another 17,000 jobs in manufacturing, according to the Statistics New Zealand household labour force survey that was released today, and we are not seeing a hundred million dollars of investment in that sector, despite the fact that these jobs were real jobs, not casual and insecure. Our Prime Minister has also been doing dodgy deals with Skycity to build an International Convention Centre in Auckland and, again, he says this will create jobs, but we have not done the cost-benefit analysis of what that will mean for problem gamblers and for those who deal with them—and pay for that—in Auckland. Contrast the cosy relationship of this Government with big business—Warner Bros, Skycity—with its relationship with ordinary workers, who received a 25c pay increase yesterday and are still earning poverty wages. Contrast that and you will see that the Government setting is towards the wealthy and not towards the deserving poor.

We are coming up to around about 16 months into the second term of the current National-led Government, and it is about a time, at mid-point, when it is worth while looking at a comparison between what is on offer between either side of the House. I do not think the differences could be more stark. If we look at the circumstances under which this Government came to office, we came in in the year when the global financial crisis had decimated the world’s economy, and we were then smacked by the most incredible natural disaster this nation has ever experienced, called the Canterbury earthquakes—about 11,000 of them—and the huge loss of wealth and income that those quakes caused. I would have to say that that, plus a number of other issues along the way, would normally have taken a Government to its knees. But what has happened is that the public, in the current polling, is suggesting that they still have confidence in where the Government is taking this place—

💬 Andrew Little: It depends which poll.

—under incredibly trying circumstances. I was hoping my Labour colleagues would interject, because I now want to quote from one of the most luminary people from the media in this country—not a friend of mine, not even a close friend, but actually someone whom I do not normally agree with. Brian Rudman of the New Zealand Herald said today in an article headed “… Labour should be making inroads”—I want members of the House to listen to what the wonderful journalist Brian Rudman of the New Zealand Herald had to say—“Despite the best efforts of Opposition politicians, single-issue campaigners and me and my colleagues in the media, most Kiwis seem resolutely unconvinced that this country is heading for hell in a handcart.”

There are about five little nuggets of gems in that little statement. Does “the best efforts of me and my colleagues in the media”, for example, not give you an idea that this is now official? It is actually official that Brian Rudman and others are indeed the official Opposition of this country. He has declared it. He has actually not just said it; he has finally declared something that we have suspected for a while. He has declared it. But the New Zealand public have not been hoodwinked by that—no, no, no. They realise the incredibly difficult circumstances. So when Labour members get up and talk about whether there have been as many jobs created as there should have been, most members of the New Zealand public immediately say “Well, actually, I think the Government’s done a damn good job, based on the circumstances that it faced.”

I want to give the Opposition a good example of a general manager of an Asian airline, when I was speaking to him back in the 1990s—about 1996, or whenever the Asian financial crisis occurred. He said “Maurice, every time I meet with my chief executive back in our home base, I am held to total, absolute targets, and if I don’t achieve them I’d lose my job. But do you know what’s happened this year? Because of the Asian financial crisis and the total meltdown, I’ve been told ‘Just do whatever you can, because the circumstances are so ghastly. We won’t hold you to anything. Do your best.’ ” The New Zealand public have looked at this Government, and looked at a track record of incredible successes along the way, in some of the most trying times, and said “Well, actually, that’s good. Well done. We’re going to stay with you. We’re going to back you on it.”

Then they look at an Opposition who cannot even determine who their leader is. I mean, it is the most open leadership race that has ever been. Normally there is only one person there and another person challenging, but I think there are 34 of them who could be the leader. In the next ballot, they could all be having a go at it. It is the most open ballot. What I found interesting was that in their last ballot for leader—I think this is delicious—there was only one candidate. It was a little bit like the Mugabe leadership challenge. There was only one candidate, and he did not get 10 votes from his own people—10 of them did not vote for him. How does that happen? I would understand that if there had been a really good challenger taking on David Shearer. I would understand that. There was no other candidate, and yet 10 people still did not vote for him. That is why the public do not think they can be a Government in waiting, that is why the people will not ever support the Labour-Greens Opposition, and that is why the public are staying with the current National-led Government.

“It’s No Way to Run a Country”—“It’s No Way to Run a Country”. Well, that is the name of the latest big-budget, closed-shop, crony-ridden feature from this Government. It is being performed by a whole raft of second-rate, B-grade actors, starring, first of all, John Key. He is the leading man. He has made his name with performances involving brain fade and shonky deals. You know, in Italy they have a comedian who wants to be a Prime Minister, and in New Zealand we have a Prime Minister who wants to be a clown. Then we have Bill English. Well, he is just a bit player, really, in this whole play. He takes any role that involves personal rorts. Then we have Steven Joyce. He is the main supporting actor, who has his finger and his toes in every action and every deal. Then we have Tony Ryall. He has been chosen for his ability to play any role, but he does specialise in pantomime—you know, a sort of fairy godmother comes to mind when you think of him. Then we have Hekia Parata. She is a fading star, whose career is really over but they are trying to revive her. I have to say that it is a mystery, it is a thriller, it is a horror, it is a tragedy, and it is a comedy in slapstick all rolled into one, and it is playing right now in your town—and that is this Government.

You know, it is hard to remember a Government that has in such a short time sunk to arrogance, cronyism, cover-ups, and intimidation. Arrogance, because Ministers will not meet with people; arrogance, because they will not answer their mail; and arrogance, because they do not believe the public really matter. Cronyism, because the jobs for their mates come thick and fast. And when we get to cover-up, the doozies of the cover-up are seen day after day after day. It can be Skycity, it can be Contact Energy, it can be in any area like Solid Energy, or it can be in The Hobbit. You name it, there are cover-ups.

Let us just look at some of the dodgy dealing that this Government has been involved in. There have been a lot of terminological inexactitudes told, some fabrications, and quite a lot of porky-telling going on—you know, Skycity. Let us take Skycity. The whole thing has been decided behind closed doors. There has been a case of “nod nod, wink wink”. “Nothing to see here.”, we are told. Is that not what you say, Mr Borrows? A former police officer would know this. “Nothing to see here,” they say at the site of an accident, “move on, move on, nothing to see here.”, while on the ground we have the bleeding bodies.

Well, of course, because of the behaviour of the Prime Minister in this whole area, the Dominion Post made him the “wally of the week”. Well, it was very deserved. Then we get to The Hobbit—deals, deals, and dirty deals.

Then we get to the appointment of Nick Smith as Minister of Conservation. Well, he has just announced that he is going to make the decision about the tunnel and the monorail at Milford. I want to know why he has decided to do that. Who is going to benefit from that decision? Why has he decided that the officials in Wellington cannot make that decision but that he, as Minister, can? Let us just watch this spot, because I believe we are going to see more from this area.

Then we have Mr Ryall, the Minister of Health, who I have to say really does need to man up and take some responsibility for some of those decisions he has been making for almost 5 years as the Minister of Health. The best he could do today was to say: “Well, when they were the Government, they did this and that, and they should take responsibility.” You cannot have the salary, the car, and the seat and not take responsibility.

I have to say, I just happened to comment that I thought that under Tony Ryall the health sector had been intimidated into silence. Well, you will not believe the number of emails that I have had pouring into my office saying: “You are spot on. You are spot on.” What they have said to me is that there has been pressure at a ministerial level not to release health data. Oh! I wonder why? Does the Government not want the true story out? Might it cast the Government in an unfavourable light? There have been officials hauled over the coals when data has been produced that has led to unfavourable headlines.

This is a shonky Government that has got a lot to hide, and it is hiding a lot.

The National-led Government has a really strong plan and a busy agenda to encourage investment, strengthen our economy, and boost jobs for Kiwis, and that is the overarching reason that we on this side of the House get up in the morning. On the other side of the House, it would appear that those members get up knowing that they are led by a man wearing a toga, sitting on a toilet—a man wearing a toga, sitting on a toilet. That must really inspire them to get up in the morning!

I have a message for Ms Annette King, before she leaves the House, and that is simply—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order!

My apologies. You are right; I cannot say that. Nevertheless, I will put on Hansard a correction to the statement that Ms King made in a newspaper. Ms King will need to know that when she deals in the health sector, no one asks for anything more than the facts. There are no cuts scheduled for Ashburton Hospital, and she has worried the people of mid-Canterbury. But when they read in the paper tomorrow that there was no substance to her claim, they will know that this is, yet again, just a Labour Party member who is scaremongering and cannot come up with anything concrete.

In Ashburton, the earthquakes struck there, too. We have lost the theatres in Ashburton. They will be rebuilt. There has been an absolute undertaking that they will be rebuilt. Yes, certainly, the provision of services at the moment is different, but there are no planned cuts to services. Ms King should start out as she means to continue, which is with the facts.

But back to the National Government. Across New Zealand we are faced with a wide divergence of what the communities have to deal with. In Christchurch it is the effect of the earthquakes. I am going to talk about the women in Canterbury in a moment. Also in Canterbury—in South Canterbury—we have just recorded in the last year 4.4 percent growth. That is phenomenal, and in part that is on the back of the Canterbury earthquakes.

I want to go into my message for the women of Canterbury, and then I am going to talk a little bit about apprenticeships, as well. Right now, there are many jobs available. Right now, there are also many women in Canterbury who are no longer in the jobs of caring, retail, and hospitality that they once were in. I want to exhort them to think about their skills in a different way, think outside the box, because if they used to manage a small business, then they can go back and they can manage a small business again, but it might be a small construction business, administration, or project management. So I exhort the women of Canterbury to think differently about their skills, to look through the paper, and, instead of discounting the advertisements and saying: “That’s for a man. That’s for a man.”, to think again—actually apply for those jobs.

We are actually making it quite a lot easier in terms of apprenticeships, as well. Five new vocational pathways are clearly showing young people which sorts of subjects they should take to prepare them for their future. From 1 January next year we will combine Modern Apprenticeships and other apprenticeships-style training under an expanded and improved scheme called New Zealand Apprenticeships. Regardless of their age, the new apprenticeships will provide the same level of support and subsidy for all apprentices. I think that is fabulous, because, once again, I exhort the people of Canterbury who are no longer in the jobs they once had because of the earthquakes to consider this opportunity.

The trades are crying out for people who will take on a new skill, and I certainly encourage them to do so. We already have 4,000 places available in trades and services academies and around 8,700 Youth Guarantee places. These are the pathways into work. This is the future for people. This is a future beyond relying on the minimum wage. This is a future where they have skills and they are rewarded with employment with those skills. They certainly have a much brighter future under this Government.

We are also boosting the overall apprenticeship funding. The current top-up for Modern Apprentices will be redistributed across all New Zealand apprentices. In addition, there will be around an extra $12 million in the first year. That will rise over time. So this Government is putting an awful lot of emphasis on to lifting the profile of, and participation in, apprenticeships. We are also giving the first 10,000 new apprentices who enrol after 1 April this year $1,000 towards their tools and off-job course costs, or $2,000 if they are actually in a priority construction trade.

There is a lot happening in this space. It is a much brighter future for New Zealanders under this National Government, which is working hard to achieve it.

My colleague Annette King has talked about the terrible tragedy, the horror show, the comedy, that is unravelling under this Government. It is no way—no way—to run a country.

Far be it for me normally to comment on the outfits of other members in this House—it is not normally my style—but the Sunday Star-Times has given me a little bit of licence lately, with my newly found reputation for sartorial elegance. Some wag on Twitter, I see, has commented that Jo Goodhew, the member who has just resumed her seat, has today assumed the comedy wrestling belt of the vacant World Boxing Association political featherweight title. It is certainly a stunning outfit.

But moving back to the topic at hand, the fact that this Government is running the country in an appalling fashion. Today—just today—we have had the latest of Steven Joyce’s glossy brochures. It has come out. His year-long comms plan has finally ended. The Business Growth Agenda has produced nothing—nothing that we can see. We have 30,000 fewer jobs in this country as a consequence of this Government being in office in the past year. The Business Growth Agenda is a set of glossy brochures devoid of any meaningful plan, and, in fact, the only thing—the only thing—Steven Joyce has created in that year is a boost at the printing presses. He has been churning out these glossy brochures left, right, and centre.

This Government has no plan, and that is no way to run a country. There are 30,000 fewer jobs than there were a year ago; 17,000 manufacturing jobs have gone overseas in the past year, or have gone completely. New Zealanders have been losing their jobs. Unemployment is pushing 7 percent. There are 163,000 unemployed people. Unemployment has not been this bad since National was last in Government.

We have people also helping that unemployment rate by moving to Australia. It would be worse if we did not have 1,000 Kiwis a week leaving permanently for Australia, and the sad thing is that 40 percent of those people are aged 18 to 30. That is our future. The brighter future they are choosing is offshore. We know that, in total, over 180,000 New Zealanders have left for Australia since John Key took office, and it is no wonder.

The other statistic we have had this week is that the wage gap with Australia has grown by 50 percent under this Government. This Government promised to reduce the wage gap with Australia; instead, it has grown by 50 percent. It was $120 a week when John Key took office; now it is $180 a week. That presents no hope to young New Zealanders who hope to get ahead.

There are so many ways this Government is demonstrating that it is not fit to run this country. When we count back the ways over the year that it has been in office, we can go right back to the broken promise on GST. We can see the teapot tapes, which started to pull the wheels off, which saw the popularity of the Government start to drop. We have seen the growing wage gap between rich and poor—worse than it has ever been in recorded history in this country.

💬 Hon Tau Henare: You got promoted for this? What about Andrew Little?

This is a Government, Mr Henare, with the worst economic growth record of any Government in the last 50 years. It is a disgrace. This is no way to run the country.

We have also seen ACC scandals abounding. We have seen a letter of support written by a Minister with a conflict of interest. We have seen privacy breaches sent out to Bronwyn Pullar—sensitive client data.

We have seen a Skycity deal that has gone wrong for the Government, and a report that sees the PM not vindicated but implicated.

Then we see in the education sector Hekia Parata. She says: “Let’s increase the class sizes.”, she backs down, and then she is on to Novopay. And on it goes—a train wreck in the making. That is no way to run a country.

Then if we think about the higher ethical standards this Prime Minister promised, we do not see any evidence of them. We see Mr Banks with his brown envelopes, still traipsing around with empty brown envelopes—or so he tells us, or so he thinks. He cannot remember helicopter flights, he cannot remember cheap accommodation, and he certainly cannot remember any donations. Well, the police said that Mr Banks filed a false declaration but that it was too late to prosecute him.

Then we go on to the Government Communications Security Bureau. Mr Key suddenly has a touch of the “Banksies”—he cannot remember what happened, either. It is spreading. It is spreading. And onwards we go.

Today the Minister for Economic Development could not remember, either. And then we have got privacy breaches. On it goes, on it goes, on it goes. It is no way to run a country.

That member for Dunedin North is guilty of uttering the most clichés and the worst speeches of any member from his district for 50 years. I must say that he has even inspired Mr Hipkins to copy his worst haircut in 50 years.

I want to put on record some of the great things that are happening in my fine city of Hamilton, and I will get on to that in a moment, but because our Opposition has beamed in again today from “Planet Labour”, apart from the odd few over there who are in “Lentil Soup Land”, I think it is important that we remind ourselves of some of the facts that the Minister of Finance put on record in his speech today in Auckland to Massey University and the Auckland Chamber of Commerce. He has reminded us that although the global financial and economic situation remains pretty uncertain, here in New Zealand we are actually doing pretty well. Our opponents do not like that—they certainly do not want to admit it—but the fact is that New Zealanders do, and that is why a whole raft of public opinion polls lately have reflected that support.

Our economy is growing. We are on track back into surplus. We were told when Michael Cullen left office that he was bequeathing the Government coming in a decade of deficits. He boasted that he had spent the lot. Well, we have got there in half the time because of prudent financial management. Business confidence is improving. Our companies are becoming more competitive. Wages are growing. Inflation is low. Net household disposable income is around 20 percent higher than it was when we came into office.

💬 Dr David Clark: The member’s wrong—real wages are dropping.

These are the facts. Compared with when your Government was in office, Dr Clark, over 60,000 more Kiwis now have jobs. It is a pity that the Green member who tried to tell us otherwise is not here to hear that. Of course our unemployment rate remains too high—that is a reality of the times—but we have got the right prescription and we are seeing good results. Interest rates are at a 50-year low, and households are saving more. And on top of all of that, as the Hon Chris Tremain told us, our $30 billion Christchurch rebuild programme is well under way, with considerable help from the New Zealand taxpayers.

Well, Dr Clark, if that is the worst economic record of 50 years, let us have another 50, because that is the right prescription and we are doing well. They are the facts. It is good news for New Zealanders, and yet the knockers and the hands-on-your-wallet brigade opposite would have us trying to believe that the opposite is true.

Let us remember that the Government has a very clear programme. The Prime Minister outlined it in his statement at the start of the year. We were re-elected in 2011 with a clear plan to build a faster-growing economy supporting more jobs, rising incomes, and better public services, and that is what we are doing. Our plan is to return to surplus, to reduce debt, to push ahead with a wide-ranging programme of reforms, to create a more productive and competitive economy, to drive better results and better value for money from public services—

💬 Kris Faafoi: If it’s your plan, stop reading it.

—and to support the rebuilding of Christchurch. The reason I read that is that I want to put it into the record, yet again, that that is the Government’s programme. That is our focus, and we remain unwaveringly determined to get there. It is the right prescription for New Zealanders. New Zealanders endorse it.

Let us look at just a couple of examples of how our plan is resulting in better public services. We have recently had announcements about smart technology for the police, and the impact of that will be dramatic. It is the equivalent of having many more officers out on the beat every day in every community in New Zealand. In my city of Hamilton, that impact is dramatic. That is one of the reasons why recorded crime is now at a 30-year low. What a terrific achievement that is.

In health there is so much good news that it is hard to know which one to choose, but I am going to talk about something that is relevant to some of my constituents who have written to me lately, and that is that over 45,000 New Zealanders have recently benefited from new and more accessible medicines in just the past 6 months. That number will continue to increase, with $10 million more being invested in new medicines during this financial year.

Let me close by saying that it has been a fantastic start to the year in Hamilton. We have got a booming city. It is a great place to visit. We have just had one of the most wonderful summer arts festivals that I can ever remember. It is always of a high standard. It is right up there with the best that the arts community can offer in New Zealand. Well done to everybody who has run the programme, and thank you. I hope that many other members got there. I want to congratulate the Hamilton City Council on its Green Flag Award for the Hamilton Gardens—one of the best in the country. And well done the Black Caps, because Seddon Park is where they win.

One more speech like that, and Mogadon will be out of business. “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public,”—so said philosopher Adam Smith. And when John Key met with the Skycity Casino people, there was a meeting of minds. A group of wheeler-dealers were meeting with New Zealand’s chief wheeler-dealer, who by a twist of fate and some gullible voters ended up being the Prime Minister of this country.

Remember the background to all of this? Three years ago the Prime Minister’s chief of staff went on a blokes’ holiday to Las Vegas with the lobbyists for Skycity Casino. In June 2010 the New Zealand Herald said: “John Key’s right-hand man is living it up with big-spending lobbyists in the casinos of Las Vegas, sparking questions about their influence on Government policy.” By some strange coincidence, another lobbyist from the same firm is on the board of Television New Zealand (TVNZ). We know that the dirty deal was done nearly 3 years ago.

The Deputy Auditor-General’s report into the Skycity convention centre, despite being a woeful whitewash, lays bare a lack of transparency, and exposes a sordid saga of inconsistency and failure to follow appropriate processes. The money trader running New Zealand is making this country into a banana republic. He prostrates himself before big business, especially overseas big business. We know that John Key promised Skycity that it could get the land from TVNZ. Why does the National Party hold all its important functions at Skycity? Why does the National Party hold all of its important functions at Skycity? It is because they are all in each other’s pockets. The Deputy Auditor-General’s report, such as it is, shows that the process was deeply flawed, far from robust, and far from fair, and the public are entitled to expect better than that.

Mr Key gambled that the deal would escape scrutiny, but the sordid secret is now out in the open. The common mistake made by New Zealanders is to think that John Key and the National Party give a tinker’s damn about ordinary people, like in the old days National did. New Zealanders’ great mistake is to think that today National gives a tinker’s damn. The frightening part of all this is that John Key thinks that this is the way of doing business and that it is normal. I am actually shocked that he cannot see what is wrong with it. That is the part that is so disquieting.

It is a Government out of control. Ask the teachers who have been waiting for 2 or more years to get their pay system fixed. He will not sack the Minister of Education. Do you know why? Because she is the last National Māori standing. The journalists in this country should wake up. The reason why Hekia Parata is still there is that he cannot afford to fire the last Māori standing in his party. It is the final sop to Māori, and a grossly insulting one at that. The only Māori better off under this Government are the Māori Party and its cohorts in the Treaty trough. Ordinary Māori are struggling with low wages or no jobs, and this Government does not care.

💬 Hon Tau Henare: That sounds like a speech from Richard Prosser.

Do not tell me you have discovered you are Māori over there. Do not tell me you have discovered you are Māori. There is no leadership. Instead, there is the slippery salesman doing slippery deals with anybody, anywhere, anyhow. This is not New Zealand’s Government any more; it is John Key’s own piece of Wall Street. He holds this country in contempt. He is an insider trader, posting posts that Mr Key and his cronies understand.

Look, it is high time that people understood one thing about this Skycity matter. It was the biggest tourism affair. It is the biggest development. It is a huge issue, according to Mr Key. He goes to a meeting financed by the taxpayer. Over there are these serious businessmen. And there is no pre-meeting, actual meeting, or post-meeting record. Ladies and gentlemen, anybody who makes that claim is a liar.

I would like to start my contribution to the general debate today by acknowledging the contribution of Charles Chauvel, who will be leaving this Parliament at the end of the week. I would particularly like to acknowledge his contribution to the Regulations Review Committee, which he has been chair of for a number of years. It is a very technical committee and he has been very competent in that role. I would also like to acknowledge the contribution that he has made to the Justice and Electoral Committee, which he sits on as well and which I am also a member of. In his role there he has been very hard-working, always diligent in his work, and he has made great contributions to the bills that come into this House. I believe there will be a hole left in the Labour caucus, that they will miss his law and commercial background, and that they will be very hard shoes to fill. I want to wish him all the best in New York at the United Nations for his career coming up.

This Government has a strong plan and a busy agenda to encourage investment, strengthen our economy, and boost jobs for Kiwis. We will continue to build on our strong foundations of the last 4 years. Not only that, I would also like to talk today about what we are doing in terms of our agenda and where we want to go. We have got a clear and consistent plan about what our programme is and how we are going to deliver it. In fact, we are managing our finances so that we are going to get back to surpluses and we are going to start paying off some of our debt. We are going to press ahead with a wide range of our measures to be a more productive and competitive economy.

One of the measures I want to talk about today is the launch of Callaghan Innovation, or the new Advanced Technology Institute. This is going to focus on industries that have got significant potential in growth. It is going to seek to motivate and connect innovators and entrepreneurs, and it is going to deliver equipment, facilities, and expertise to business. This is a real initiative that is going to help real people, and it is going to be a useful tool in the future for our young coming through who are innovative and creative. Just last week I went to a school and I was privileged to judge the Young Enterprise Trust BP Business Challenge. This is a challenge that schools can do with their year 11 students. What they do is over 3 days they have to form a virtual company, they have to devise a product that solves a problem or fills a need, they have to have researched the product, they have to develop a business plan, and then they have to prepare a 10-minute presentation to judges.

The school I went to was Onslow College, and I have got to say that the year 11 students were so impressive. They were innovative, they were creative, and they had passion for the products that they were putting forward. The winner of the year 11 students was a team that had a product called e-can. E-can, which is a truly innovative product, I thought, is like a wheelie bin. They get the wheelie bin, it sends itself to the curb, it gets collected and emptied, and then it sends itself back on to its docking station. And they power this by solar energy. This product was innovative. This product was thinking outside the square. It is green and it is clean. If this is what the future looks like for us in New Zealand, if this is what our year 11 students look like who are doing economics, who are getting this experience of entrepreneurship and innovation, I think we have got a great future ahead of us in New Zealand.

But also it is a great example of how business, how NGOs, and how the Government can all work together to enrich the education of our children. These year 11 students are going to go on to the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) in economics, and they have to produce a product, they have to take it to market, and they have to sell it. This Young Enterprise Trust BP Business Challenge has allowed them already to have a feel for what it is like to do that, so when they do this module later on in the year, they have already got a heads-up and they are already thinking in the right space. They are innovative, they are creative, and they will do well in year 11 NCEA economics.

What I want to talk about now is our economic growth agenda work programme, and I want to talk about this because I do not think there has been any other Government ever in New Zealand that has stated such clear initiatives about how we are going to grow our economy. So the six areas, when you think—

Helen Reddy had a song with lyrics that said:

That ain’t no way to treat a lady

No way to treat a lady

A woman, your friend.

Well, we have got a new saying: “That ain’t no way to run a country. The citizens, our friends.” This Government is Government by sleaze, by slipperiness, by shabbiness, by tawdriness.

💬 Hon Tau Henare: You’ve been watching too much Les Misérables.

We have never seen the like in this country for as long as I can remember. I have been around for a wee while—not as long as Mr Henare, but I have been around a wee while—and I have never seen anything like it. This Government’s conduct and the way it deals with people and businesses is imperilling this nation’s reputation. Up until now we have stood at the top of the non-corruption or anti-corruption league around the world. Well, that is slipping now. The mask is slipping because of the way this Government conducts itself, because the truth is that when it comes to this Government everything is for sale. It does not matter whether it is State assets and businesses or coalmining companies that it has allowed to run into the ground; it includes law and policy, as well.

We saw it with Skycity. The Government started a process—as you would expect with a Government, a non-corrupt Government—going out, seeking tenders, saying it wanted a convention centre, and the minute it got the ear of an outfit that said: “Oh, we’ll give you a special deal.”, it was into it. It closed out the other potential bidders and maintained a conversation with Skycity throughout. It did not matter about process. It did not matter about the detail. It did not matter about good Government and good governance. It was interested in a cheap, shabby deal. It was classic “never mind the quality, feel the width” style of Government, because that is the way this outfit operates.

Then we had The Hobbit. Of course, The Hobbit came before the Skycity deal was exposed, but now we have got the truth about The Hobbit—the real deal. This is the Government and the Prime Minister who claims he is the great manager, the great deal-doer. They claimed that they would look after the interests of New Zealand, and nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is exposed in an email from Warner Bros. A Warner Bros executive, Carolyn Blackwood, wrote to what was then the Ministry of Economic Development, now called the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. This was the time when screen producers, Sir Peter Jackson, and everybody else had said: “Look, we’re at risk. The film industry is at risk. We have this snake of an Australian running around compromising our industry. Oh woe is us! Save us!”, they said. “Save us”—our meek, humble little industry that generates $250 million per movie for Sir Peter Jackson—“we’re at risk because this snake of an Australian is running around.”

Then what did the Warner Bros executive say, from her air-conditioned office in Los Angeles? She was not really alert to what was really happening in New Zealand. She said: “… we are committed to NZ, both because of Peter and Fran’s deep commitment to be there, [but also because of] our significant investment to date (and in the future) …”. They had already plunged $100 million into production; they were not going anywhere. They were not going anywhere, and this was days before the real deal had been done, when the blacklist had been lifted and there was no need for anything further. But she went on to say, because she could see the main chance, and with Sir Peter Jackson breathing down her neck, that there was one remaining concern: “… the uncertainty of the labor issues creates real risk to us.”

So what did she say? What did she say when Gerry Brownlee asked: “Well, where would you go if it was not in New Zealand?”—where would she go when she has complained about the snake in Australia? She said: “New South Wales”—New South Wales, where she would be dealing with the same snake. It just was not credible. You read between the lines and you can see there was no issue here. If there was ever a time when this Government should have said: “There’s nothing going on here, move on.”, this was it, but it did not, because it wanted to cuddle up to corporate America, lick its boots, and do its dirty work for it.

Then she went on to say this. She said that they had got a deal from Australia and that they had been offered financial incentives. She said it was “a very attractive incentive to us.”—from Australia—“When I asked you”—this is the Ministry of Economic Development—“if your office (or perhaps another branch of the government) was available to discuss that sort of thing with us, too, or if you would consider anything similar to help us … address our growing risk profile (especially given the currency issues”—because they were concerned about the rising New Zealand dollar—“… it sounded like you were amenable to that conversation.”

I want to continue the excellent speeches of my National colleagues to say how proud I am to be part of this strong National Government, which has been working hard and continues to work hard for New Zealanders. Despite continuing global uncertainties, our Government has a strong economic plan: to encourage investment, strengthen our economy, and boost jobs. We are pressing ahead with a wide range of measures to build a more competitive and productive economy, with growth built on the solid foundations of investment, exports, and savings.

We remain committed to job creation and the National Government’s track record of creating jobs remains strong. There are many examples. Among them, and so strongly opposed by the Opposition, is the international convention centre, which is projected to generate hundreds of jobs during its construction and afterwards to run the centre. This will encourage more overseas businesses, particularly from Australia and China, to hold conferences in New Zealand, which will generate a tremendous economic benefit to our country. Last month China’s biggest dairy company, Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, announced plans to spend $214 million building an infant formula plant in South Canterbury. The Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group’s investment would create 80 new jobs in New Zealand. Unlike the Opposition parties, we in National encourage these types of investments because without more investment, we cannot have the jobs and economic growth that our hard-working families and communities need and deserve.

Likewise we are boosting skills with schemes such as the trades and services academies and Youth Guarantee places. In particular, the New Zealand Apprenticeships scheme will ensure our workforce remains competitive. We have been increasing our exports. One of our focuses this year is Asia, because there are huge opportunities for New Zealand businesses. For example, since 2008 our exports to China have trebled. These include dairy products, meat, and wool, but increasingly non-agricultural areas such as technology and machinery. Our services exports such as education and tourism have also risen. Tourism New Zealand has reported major increases in interest in New Zealand as a premier travel destination as a direct result of exposure from The Hobbit. Labour and the Greens had opposed the law changes that allowed the movies to be produced here.

In the next 5 years developing countries in Asia, such as China, India, and ASEAN countries, will increase their share of world GDP by nearly 20 percent. We therefore need to seize this opportunity. The year 2012 was the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between New Zealand and China. This important anniversary was celebrated by the Chinese community all over New Zealand. I was privileged to have been able to attend many of these events. It will culminate with the Prime Minister’s visit to China in April. Given the fact that China is our second-largest trading partner, it makes sense for us to continue to build on this valuable relationship. The Opposition says no to investment, jobs, and growth, whereas the National-led Government remains committed to encouraging investment, strengthening our economy, and boosting jobs for New Zealanders. Thank you.

The Government is claiming that the Green Party says no to investment and jobs. That is a nonsense; it is this Government that is undermining investment. It is undermining jobs in the long term, because it fails to recognise that a healthy economy depends upon a healthy environment.

The Green Party recognises that the $196 million in economic output that Fiordland National Park generated in 2005 depends on the integrity of that park being maintained and protected. That is why we are concerned about the decisions that the new, recycled Minister of Conservation may make about the monorail and the Routeburn tunnel proposals, because this Government is toxic to the environment. It is dismantling the Resource Management Act. It is insisting on rapid decision-making, rather than on quality decisions where the environmental impacts are properly assessed. It has undercut and undermined water conservation orders in Canterbury. It is handing out large subsidies to irrigation companies, so that the state of our rivers gets worse, not better.

It is when you have a pro-development agenda, when you have the Minister of Conservation talking about balance—which in this Government’s lexicon means trading away a bit more of nature in order to get a few more short-term jobs—that we worry. It will be a real challenge for this Minister to make the correct decision on the Routeburn Tunnel and the monorail, and that is because there are very strong legislative protections for nature in both the Conservation Act and the National Parks Act. There is a very proper process in those Acts.

When we have seen a Government engage in shonky deals, backroom deals like Skycity, where it favours its business mates, does not put it out to open tender, and does not follow due process, we do not have very high expectations of this Minister. But he needs to follow due process. He needs to look at what the statute says, because thousands of New Zealanders engaged in the campaign to have south-west New Zealand, Te Wāhipounamu, listed as a World Heritage site to recognise its internationally significant landscape and its ecological and geological values through World Heritage listing. Those New Zealanders recognise the importance of our National Parks Act. They understand the meaning of that Act when it says that parks are to be administered so that “they shall be preserved as far as possible in their natural state:” and that they should be preserved “in perpetuity as national parks, for their intrinsic worth and for the benefit, use, and enjoyment of the public” because they contain “scenery of such distinctive quality, ecological systems, or natural features so beautiful, unique, or scientifically important that their preservation is in the national interest.”

National does not understand about preservation and protection of nature. That is why the Minister must talk to those in the tourism industry in Te Ānau. They have overwhelmingly said that the Routeburn Tunnel would be bad for tourism. It would undermine local businesses in Te Ānau, because putting people in a bus underground for 11 kilometres, where they see nothing of the national park, means they have no immediate experience of the park during that tunnel journey. That is not promoting clean, green New Zealand. It is not an experience that is consistent with our international reputation. It is not why visitors come here, to go underground. They come here to experience what is distinctive, special, and unique about New Zealand, which is these natural landscapes, it is our national parks, and yet the Government proposes to undermine this by its so-called balancing act, which is not a legal test that is anywhere in either the Conservation Act or the National Parks Act.

Then we have the monorail. The Conservation Act outlaws logging on conservation land, yet the monorail promoter, Riverstone Holdings, wants to clear and log nearly 20,000 trees to create a 30 kilometre scar through the Snowdon Forest conservation area. It is astounding that this proposal has got this far. These values need to be protected in our national parks and conservation areas, because they are part of our public conservation estate and our national heritage.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.