2. JOHN KEY (Leader of the Opposition) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does she still stand by her statement last year, with respect to the economy, that “Our job in government has been to stop New Zealand running the race to the bottom, and to aim for the top.”?
Is the reason the Prime Minister will not give a date for getting New Zealand to the top half of the OECD the same reason she will not give a date for getting New Zealand to be carbon neutral—that is, because under her policies, short of a miracle, neither goal is practicably attainable?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
Of course such goals are attainable, but when New Zealand’s GDP per capita steadily falls from being, in 1950, third in the world, down to around the 20 or so mark over the course of half a century, that is not easily turned round. These things require clear, deliberate policy programmes that are sustained over time. When New Zealand gets mindless policy lurches backward from National from time to time, it does not help.
Is the Prime Minister aware that the only OECD countries with poorer-performing economies than ours are Korea, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Mexico, and Turkey, which is hardly a stellar line-up, and when will she do something about actually raising the level of the New Zealand economy—not just enjoying the spend-up that she has been enjoying in the last few years?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
It is somewhat disingenuous to quote New Zealand growth at the bottom of the business cycle—and no one has worked out how to eliminate business cycles—and overlook the fact that New Zealand’s growth under a Labour Government has been above the average for the OECD, when under National it was consistently below.
Darren HughesWhat reports has the Prime Minister seen about the importance of the Government making an effort to contain fiscal stimulus in the economy at this time?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
I have seen the IMF report out today to that effect, and I note that any suggestion of large-scale fiscal loosening of the type the National Party keeps promising would, in the IMF’s view, make imbalances in the economy much worse.
Peter BrownDoes the Prime Minister recognise that minimal unemployment is a worthwhile goal; if she does, will she tell us where New Zealand currently stands on the OECD scale with regard to unemployment?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
Over the course of the last 2 years or so there have been a number of occasions when New Zealand’s unemployment has been at the very lowest level in the OECD. We have been in competition with Korea for that honour from time to time. We are still right down there in the bottom group. Again, as I advised the House last week, under the Labour Government employment growth in New Zealand has been well above the OECD average. Our growth in employment from 2001 to 2005 was 2.6 percent, and the OECD average was 0.6 percent—not a record that National ever managed in the 1990s.
Is the Prime Minister aware that when she came into office she promised New Zealanders she would lift their incomes to above the average of the OECD, that when she came into office we were 20th, and that we have now fallen to 22nd out of 30 countries; and why will she not start admitting that rather than her raising New Zealand up the OECD ladder, we have in fact fallen? She should she stop arguing that falling is somehow rising; if that is what she calls success, she should leave office now, before she does so in 18 months’ time.
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
I am well aware that the member pumps himself up with that sort of rhetoric, but he is not convincing very many others. There is absolutely no doubt that wealth in this country has risen in the course of the last 7½ years. The reality is that Greece changed the base on which it calculates its GDP per capita. That has had an impact. What we have done is stop New Zealand’s decline.
On that note, is it not a sign of our declining economy that, relative to Australia, in the last 4 years under Labour the number of people moving across the Tasman has gone from 500 4 years ago to 600, then to 650, and last week it was finally announced that 700 Kiwis a week are leaving for Australia; if her economic management is so strong, why are they all deserting us?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
I am sure the member fancies himself as knowing something about global trends. Any insight into that tells us that what is happening around world labour markets is a major brain exchange, and we have a net skills gain coming here.
Has the Prime Minister noticed that the release of yesterday’s labour cost index showed that for the 22nd quarter in a row employees in the State sector received a larger pay increase that those in the private sector, and can she tell New Zealand private sector workers why they deserve to have a lower pay rise than those in the public sector?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
I am particularly pleased that the member has raised this issue, because what the figures actually show is that central government administrative and defence wages have risen to a level equivalent, over a number of years, to wages in the private sector generally. Where New Zealand public sector wage rates have risen above the private sector is in health and education, where we are trying to recruit, retain, and pay properly very valued people who teach and who provide health services.
If that is the case, is that the same reason why Child, Youth and Family decided to use its vote to pay a $650 bonus to everyone who belonged to the Public Service Association, and does she describe that as a good use for its vote?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
I would describe it as collective bargaining, which gives workers strength.
Craig Foss