Christopher Luxon
Minister, Ministerial Services
Minister, National Security and Intelligence
Prime Minister
Permanent linkWell, kia ora, good afternoon, everyone, and it’s great to be back in Parliament for the next two weeks. As we get closer to the end of the year, we’ve got a lot on our plates. On Saturday, I returned home from a short but important trip to Laos for the East Asia Summit. A big focus for our Government is to lift the intensity and also the urgency of our foreign relationships, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, and strengthening our international relationships is key to our economic prosperity. With job number one for our Government being to rebuild the economy, hustling for more trade and more investment overseas is a non-negotiable. But New Zealand’s economic prosperity is only possible with global and regional security, and that is why New Zealand needs to use our agency, our influence, and our role in the world to contribute to and shape global and regional security, and you’ve seen our Government demonstrate that from the outset.
In Laos, I met formally and informally with several leaders to discuss security challenges and also to advance New Zealand’s economic interests, and that included meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who I was pleased to sit down with for our first face-to-face meeting. It was a very warm, positive and constructive conversation that we were then able to continue when we were seated together at the leaders’ dinner. Prime Minister Modi and I reiterated our commitment to take the India‒New Zealand relationship to greater heights, and I accepted a formal invitation from the Prime Minister to visit India. And our teams will now work on securing mutually convenient dates for the visit to take place in what we hope will be the very near future, but likely in early next year.
Growing our trade relationships will boost New Zealand’s economy, lift incomes, reduce the cost of living and provide the public services that Kiwis deserve. Trade supports a quarter of all jobs in New Zealand, and for those working in export industries, their incomes are higher too, earning 7 percent more on average compared to other sectors. Trade helps business too. Exporting firms are 25 percent more productive and grow faster than non-exporting firms. And that is why I’m ambitious for New Zealand to do more on the world stage, because it’s how we become wealthier as a country, which in turn is how we can lift incomes, create jobs and opportunities, and afford to invest in better public services that Kiwis so deserve. Ultimately, it’s about improving the quality of life for New Zealanders, who we know have been doing it particularly tough over the last few years.
One year ago today, New Zealanders put their trust in National to lead a new Government and to get the country back on track. National campaigned on rebuilding the economy and lowering the cost of living, and New Zealanders responded to our plan by delivering us a historic victory, the first time under MMP that a major party has been returned to Government after just two terms in opposition.
Now in Government we are doing what we promised to do and what New Zealanders elected us to do. We are making the tough but necessary choices to help us rebuild the economy. We kicked off a savings programme as soon as we entered Government, with $7.5 billion in savings identified at the mini-budget last December, rising to $23 billion in savings locked in at the budget in May. And that ensured that we could deliver tax relief and fund frontline services without stoking inflation or driving debt higher.
We’re also taking bold action to turn New Zealand into a high-growth economy, and that means clearing out the blockages and opening up competition in construction and financial services, agriculture, infrastructure and housing. And of course at the centre of those reforms is fast-track, with 149 regionally and nationally significant projects set to enable 55,000 new homes and the equivalent of 30 percent of current renewable electricity generation.
We’re now seeing signs that our plan is working. With financial discipline in place, interest rates are falling, food inflation remains low, business confidence has risen significantly, and forecasts suggest that inflation is set to keep falling when the latest data is released this week. I know, however, it is still tough for many Kiwis out there and there is so much more for us to do. We certainly aren’t out of the woods yet, but as Forsyth Barr said last week, the contours of an economic recovery are starting to take shape, so we know that our plan is putting us on the right track. I’ll now hand over to our Finance Minister, Nicola Willis, to talk a little bit more about the direction of our economy and what it means for families and businesses.