John Key - Speech to National Party Regional Conference

Ladies and Gentlemen, my fellow National Party members, it’s great to see you!

I’m delighted to be here as your Prime Minister.

Our hard-working National-led Government is now halfway through its first term.

We’re relentlessly focused on what matters to New Zealanders.

They voted for a brighter future.

And we’re making the decisions that will secure that brighter future.

I want to start by thanking some special people today who underpin what we do.

The first of them is our President, Peter Goodfellow.

Peter, thank you for what you have done in your first year as President of the National Party.

As we get ever closer to election year, Peter has focused on ensuring that the party will be ready financially and organisationally for the challenge that lies ahead

I also want to acknowledge the Lower North Island Ministers both in and outside the Cabinet.

Simon Power.

Our very capable Minister of Justice, Commerce, State-Owned Enterprises and Associate Finance. What a workload. And he’s also guiding the reform of electoral laws in a much more inclusive way than our predecessors did!

Chris Finlayson.

An outstanding Attorney-General and Treaty Negotiations Minister, whose sound judgment and clear thinking is a huge asset to our government.

Nathan Guy.

A hard-working up and coming Minister who has a lot to offer, and he’s making a real difference for the people of Otaki.

Let me also mention the wonderful Members of Parliament who hail from the Lower North Island and do such a good job of representing you and your fellow New Zealanders.

Chris Tremain.

Our highly effective senior Government whip, doing a great job for the people of Napier, and making sure that Hawkes Bay remains a lovely shade of blue.

Chester Borrows.

Working hard for the people of Whanganui, always putting their point of view forward and doing great work as Chair of the Justice and Electoral Select Committee.

Craig Foss.

Our other boy from the Bay, chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee and doing us proud in Tukituki.

John Hayes.

Representing Wairarapa with passion, and putting his background to good use as chair of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade select committee.

Hekia Parata.

Firmly establishing herself out in Mana and doing great work for our Party.

Paul Quinn.

Tackling his role as an MP for the National Party with all the gusto he displayed on the rugby field.

Katrina Shanks.

National’s woman in Ohariu, chair of the Social Services select committee and a great representative for the Party.

The Lower North Island is well served by this talented group of National Party MPs.

They’re doing a fantastic job. But of course they wouldn’t be there without the support of the Party organisation that is working so hard for them.

So thank you to Regional Chair Malcolm Plimmer, thank you to the Board Members, the Electorate Chairs, the volunteers, the activists, the members.

You make this party strong, and your persistence and loyalty are essential ingredients in National’s success.

National Party members, when I stood before you a year ago, Bill English was preparing to deliver his first Budget for this government.

While it seems a long time ago now, let’s not forget that the backdrop was the worst global financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Countries were falling deeply into recession and uncertainty pervaded markets everywhere.

We had to make tough choices in that Budget.

And I’m pleased to say that we didn’t shy away from making them.

We protected New Zealanders from the sharp edges of recession by safeguarding their entitlements – as we said we would do.

We poured billions of dollars into infrastructure to unclog the arteries of growth – as we said we would do.

We pushed resources to the frontline right across the public service – as we said we would do.

We took measures to keep the country’s debt under control – as we said we would do.

The 2009 Budget was responsible and credible. It was a Budget for the times.

It averted a costly credit rating downgrade that would have hurt all New Zealanders, through their mortgage interest rates or business loans.

Fellow National Party members, New Zealand required strong economic leadership and we delivered it.

One year on, the good news is that our country has weathered the worst of the global crisis.

A sign of that is the dramatic fall in the unemployment rate that you saw this week, from 7.1 per cent to 6 per cent.

There is always some volatility in these numbers so I’m treating them with cautious optimism.

What’s clear is that New Zealand has emerged from this recession more quickly and in stronger shape than most of our trading partners.

But the need for strong economic leadership is no less than it was a year ago.

In a few moments I want to talk a little about the challenge ahead; about why New Zealand needs strong economic leadership if it is to take advantage of the opportunities ahead.

But first, let’s reflect on the year since the last regional conference.

It has been quite a year for our talented team.

We’ve introduced National Standards in our schools.

We’ve put children and their parents first, and told teachers we want them to report in plain English about how a child is doing.

Because it’s important that children who are slipping behind are identified, so that teachers and parents can help them before it’s too late.

We’ve put more police on the streets and given them better tools to go after criminals.

We’ve significantly strengthened laws to crack down on gangs.

We’ve declared war on P.

I’m delighted to say that our multi-pronged attack on methamphetamine is already yielding great results.

At the border, Customs is on track to smash last year's record amount of precursors intercepted, strangling the supply to those who would peddle P in our communities.

We’re providing more treatment beds to get people off P. And those who have profited from the drug are finding that their assets are being taken away from them in increasing amounts, thanks to our strengthened recovery laws.

We’re toughening sentencing laws, with a three-strikes policy now before the House that will ensure the worst repeat criminals receive the maximum allowable sentence.

Because I believe New Zealanders deserve to know that the country’s most dangerous repeat violent offenders are not walking alongside them in their community.

In health, we’ve delivered an unprecedented increase in elective surgery operations for people on waiting lists.

A total of 135,444 patients had elective surgery in 2009 – that’s nearly 13,000 more than the year before, and the largest increase ever recorded.

And that’s just in our first year!

We’ve introduced legislation to reform the benefit system, to help break the cycle of welfare dependency and get people back to work.

We’ve moved resources to the frontline all over the public service and halted the rampant growth that was seen under the previous Government.

We’ve been kicking off major new roading projects all over New Zealand to get the country moving.

We are now well underway in making the biggest investment in New Zealand’s roading network that has ever been made.

And you are set to reap the benefits right here in your patch.

The National-led Government is absolutely committed to developing the Wellington to Levin corridor, including Transmission Gully.

Even closer to home, just south of here work is underway on Muldoon's Corner - a project that will greatly improve safety on the Rimutaka Hill Road.

This is a project we were able to advance by more than two years as part of the $500 million Jobs and Growth plan early last year.

We’ve helped get our younger generation through the economic downturn with job programmes like Job Opps and Community Max to give them a start at working life.

We’ve unveiled significant new changes to the way the finance sector is regulated. Because while we know there will always be an element of risk in investing, we don’t think it’s acceptable for people to simply get ripped off

The improvements we’re making will make it harder for that to happen.

We’ve taken a knife to red tape, we’re making progress on our plan to deliver ultra-fast broadband across the country, and we’re moving forward on our Youth Guarantee and Trades and In Schools policies.

Fellow National Party members, this has all been done while still keeping a tight rein on government spending.

Because we are committed to restraining government spending and making the most of what we have.

We have done what we were elected to do and we have kept our promises.

New Zealanders put their trust in us and we are delivering.

None of this would have been possible without our partners ACT, the Maori Party and United Future.

It’s important that I acknowledge their ongoing collaboration and support.

Ours is a stable and balanced government.

From time to time we will have disagreements. That’s healthy and it’s normal After all, we’re not the same party.

But the reason these relationships work is because they are based on trust, respect, and a willingness to find solutions together.

Rather than worrying about what we don’t agree on, we are focused on what we can do together.

We have sought common ground and we have found it.

ACT leader Rodney Hide and his deputy Heather Roy bring a lot to government.

We agree on many things. For instance, we agree that Government doesn’t have the solution to all the country’s problems.

That we want to see value for every taxpayer dollar that we spend.

That we need to reduce the red tape and regulatory burden our small businesses face.

And that the worst criminals in our country should be dealt with firmly.

United Future’s Peter Dunne is also bringing his experience and outstanding knowledge to the table.

Peter has played a crucial role in the work that has gone on to reform the tax system, which you will see in the Budget in just over a week’s time.

And we are working together on the War against P.

I’m pleased to have him on board.

The Maori Party, too, is making a big contribution.

As you know, I reached out to the Maori Party after the election and did a deal with Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples when we already had the numbers to form a Government.

I did it because I believe it is in the long-term best interests of New Zealand.

I want us to stop looking in the rear-view mirror at grievances past, and to instead shift our eyes to the challenges of our shared future as New Zealanders.

I am optimistic that the next phase can be characterised by better race relations and an even more strongly united sense of our shared aspirations for New Zealanders.

Maori youth are going to be a big part of our future workforce.

We need them to succeed.

The fact is that the Labour Party, while claiming itself as the natural party of choice for Maori, left a legacy of poor policies that didn’t solve anything.

Having issues like the Foreshore and Seabed Act hanging over our heads is simply not constructive.

I want to lead us down a path where these issues are settled, and we can all look to move forward together.

Some of what we do in this area will, I understand, challenge you and other New Zealanders.

And there will always be extremists in the debate who falsely characterise things in a way that may even frighten you.

Let me be clear: there is no room for separatism in New Zealand.

What there is room for, however, are solutions that help us to lift Maori achievement and aspiration, because that benefits all New Zealanders.

Sometimes there will be a uniquely New Zealand answer to a problem – like you’ve seen in recent days with Whanau Ora.

Whanau Ora is all about families taking responsibility for themselves. It’s about them having aspirations and ambitions, and getting ahead under their own steam. It’s about personal responsibility.

That’s where Whanau Ora is in line with National Party values.

And it’s a policy that is focused on results – the kind of results that it is in all of our best interests to see.

Our relationship with the Maori Party gives us the unique opportunity to erase the rearward-looking grievance mentality that has at times been a feature of Maori and Pakeha relations. And to move towards a unified, aspirational, and forward-looking perspective.

That is a prize too important to surrender, and we should grasp it for the long term benefit and harmony of New Zealand.

In this regard, I’m delighted to have Tariana and Pita making the contribution they do to this government.

The relationships we have with these three parties mean the National Party can look forward to providing stable government well into the future. Not just this term, but with the continuing support of the voters beyond that.

Fellow National Party members, New Zealanders chose a brighter future when they voted for our Party in their hundreds of thousands at the 2008 General Election.

And since we became Government we’ve been working hard every day to secure that brighter future.

We’re now in the phase of making the decisions that will get us there.

You’ll see some of them in the Budget on the 20th.

Even though the economy has started to grow again, we still have to make tough calls.

The Labour Party is already saying we should go back to the days of borrow and spend, and ramping up our foreign debt.

It would be easy to take the road of little resistance and shy away from making the hard calls.

But what we really need is economic leadership.

Only a strong economy can provide financial security for our families, well paid jobs for our young people, and larger superannuation payments for our older people.

We are going to take strong and decisive action to strengthen the New Zealand economy.

We have a lot of things going for us as a country.

We are rich in natural resources, we are one of the best food producers in the world, we have a beautiful landscape, and we are home to some of the smartest and hardest-working people in the world.

But we have not been making the most of our strengths.

Under Labour, New Zealand’s economy was already in recession well before the global crisis struck.

Our export sector was in poor shape, and the incomes of hard-working Kiwis were falling further and further behind other countries like Australia.

The National-led Government is determined to change that.

We are focusing on jobs and growth through the six pillars of our economic programme.

They are:

• A multi-billion dollar investment in infrastructure.
• Cutting red tape and regulation.
• Better business innovation and an ambitious trade agenda.
• Improving education and skills.
• Demanding better, smarter public services.
• And changes to the tax system to make it fairer, so that hard work and enterprise are rewarded.

We are focused on a number of sectors as we look for faster growth.

One of them is science and innovation.

We know that New Zealand companies have time and again proven themselves to be world-beaters.

The challenge for us is to get more of our firms using science, research and technology to deliver more valuable products and services.

Because that will translate through to better-paid jobs for New Zealanders.

You can expect to see science at the heart of what we do in the Budget a few days from now. We have made this area a priority for new spending.

I have also tasked all of our Ministers with finding and fixing the blockages that are holding up growth in their particular portfolios.

One of the areas we’ve already moved on is aquaculture.

Cabinet has agreed to a range of changes that will free up the regulatory bottlenecks that have kept aquaculture planning in limbo.

No new aquaculture space has been created under 2004 reform law and that simply isn’t good enough.

We support the industry’s goal of generating annual sales of $1 billion by 2025, and that’s why we’re removing roadblocks that are getting in the way.

As you know we’re also looking at the potential for responsible mining to create jobs and contribute to New Zealand’s growth.

Since we proposed opening up a very small part of Schedule 4 land in the DOC estate for mining there has been an emotional debate.

I can understand that.

We are listening to the thoughts of all people and I think it’s fair to say there is a real mixture of views.

Proposals like this one are never easy – but neither is the alternative.

If we want a faster growing economy and better paid jobs for Kiwi families, we have to do something to make it happen.

That’s why we’ve been looking at responsible mining for jobs.

We’ll examine the submissions that come in on the mining proposal and take a fair and balanced approach to the issue.

Another area where the government is addressing major hold-ups is water storage and irrigation in Canterbury.

We want a situation where water storage and irrigation projects which meet environmental standards, and which are good economic propositions, can happen in a decent time frame.

The National-led Government is serious about creating ongoing jobs for New Zealanders and that’s why we’re looking at all these opportunities.

We’re also providing the largest number of tertiary education places New Zealand has ever seen to upskill our workforce.

Fellow National Party members, these are just some of the issues we’re addressing to get New Zealand on the path to faster growth.

Also fundamental to our approach is a disciplined fiscal policy.

Unlike the Labour Party, we are not willing to saddle future generations with a mountain of debt.

I hope you’ve seen the irresponsible comments from our political opponents over the past fortnight.

They think we don’t have a debt problem.

Remarkable isn’t it – we’re borrowing $240 million a week, and Labour says we don’t have a debt problem.

Make no mistake – Labour wants to raise taxes and borrow more, saddling future generations with a mountain of debt.

Their old-fashioned tax and spend recipe is simply not what hard-working Kiwi families deserve.

Look at Greece right now. It has a high level of debt and is in all sorts of difficulty.

When we became the Government the Treasury showed us their projections of the fiscal position. They showed Government deficits persisting forever, and government debt rising uncontrollably.

That was Labour’s parting gift.

We have turned that situation around and we’ve got debt back under control.

This year’s Budget will be about continuing to strengthen our fiscal position so we can secure the future that New Zealanders want and deserve.

I’d like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my friend and Deputy Prime Minister Bill English.

What a great job he is doing as Finance Minister.

In the Budget you will see another $1.8 billion of lower quality government spending redirected into high priority areas.

Last year the government found $2 billion to reprioritise.

That means we’ve weeded out nearly $4 billion of lower quality government spending in just our first two Budgets.

It’s a significant sum of money that has been freed up to go into better healthcare services, improving education, and keeping New Zealanders safe.

Redirecting spending isn’t always easy, and our political opponents invariably complain.

But I make no apology for reprioritising lower quality government spending.

It’s what we were elected to do, and Bill English is driving that.

New Zealanders deserve to have their hard-earned money spent responsibly.

This Budget will reinforce the National-led Government’s credentials as a responsible manager of personal and business taxes, with a growth plan and a tax system that better rewards hard work and enterprise.

And we will also produce a set of government accounts that make much better reading than those we inherited from the Labour Party.

Remember that not long after we took government, forecasts showed that left unchecked, net debt would soar to just over 50 per cent of GDP by 2023. And it would keep on rising forever.

That’s the legacy that Labour left behind for New Zealanders.

In last year’s Budget we managed to pull that figure back to peak at 35.9 per cent, and while I can’t tell you exactly what the figure will be in this month’s Budget, I can say that there will be further improvement.

That improvement is only being forecast because we are taking a disciplined approach now, and because we plan to do so well into the future.

National Party members, we are on the path toward the brighter future New Zealanders resoundingly chose 18 months ago.

A future where we celebrate achievement.

Where we reward effort.

Where the economy is strong and our communities are safe.

Where education standards are high.

Where our young people choose to live in this country because it offers all the opportunities they need and want.

My fellow party members, National is the right party to be leading New Zealand toward a brighter future.

That you can be sure of.

Thank you.

ENDS

© Scoop Media