Achieving Higher and More Sustainable Growth
Mr Speaker,
Our main task remains to return New Zealand to sustained prosperity. The economy has been underperforming since before the global financial crisis. Indeed, per capita GDP has not grown since 2004.
This Government believes that a competitive and well-balanced economy can deliver more jobs and high incomes.
Between 1990 and 2004, a 15-year period, on average the New Zealand economy grew by over 3 per cent a year, and export volumes rose by over 5 per cent a year.
On average 35,000 jobs were created every year.
So our plan is simple, and always has been.
It's about returning to conditions that allow New Zealand to focus on what it is good at doing.
It's about making sure we have a tax system that encourages work and savings, rather than providing incentives to shelter income.
It's about having an efficient public sector that doesn't crowd out the internationally-competitive parts of the economy.
It's about limiting government debt, to reduce our reliance on foreign lenders and to give us a buffer against future economic shocks.
It's about regulation that encourages enterprise and flexibility.
It's about an education system that is producing skilled workers, and those workers knowing they have a successful future here in New Zealand.
It seems simple but it's easy to get off track, as we have seen.
However, it is the only way to create permanent, worthwhile jobs for Kiwis and their families.
It's a proven formula. It works.
