New Zealand Executive Government Speech Archive

Jim McAlpine, former Managing Director, Richard Northey, Onehunga MP, Belinda Vernon, National Party candidate for the Maungakiekie electorate, Chris Fletcher, Eden MP, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to be here today, and also something of a surprise, because I didn't expect to be wishing my former colleague Barry Brill a happy 60th quite so soon!

But you all deserve congratulations for this 60th anniversary, and I think the track record of the three companies who have merged to make up this business suggests you have every reason to be confident of another good 60. And I say that, knowing that these days things don't ever stay the same in business for very long.

Your markets change, your customers change, your products change, and your strategies change. Succeeding in those conditions depends on your ability to keep up with the trends and constantly redefine what your business and your market amounts to. I think the fact that you're doing well in eight different countries, and gearing up to extend your contracting activities through Asia says that you're well in touch with your business and your future opportunities.

So I want to congratulate you on reaching this milestone, and on the confidence you've shown in the future by opening new premises both here and in Tauranga. You've kept up with changes, and you've often led them, whether it was refrigeration in supermarkets, or container refrigeration towers.

And of course, in the case of the latter, you've moved on when you saw that was the right thing to do. You'll know of course, that these days, being a long-established company doesn't necessarily give you the edge it once might have done. That can be a little unnerving, but it also means that for our budding exporters here in New Zealand, our chances of building new markets and new business around the world are very good.

It's always a pleasure for me to visit New Zealand businesses who proudly describe to me how they won export orders against much bigger competitors by sizing up the market and developing their products accordingly. I think your successes prove you use that kind of thinking here. It says you're attuned to the market and you know how to adapt.

And adaptation is what it's all about these days, including for those of us in politics. We've spent the last three years in Government learning a great deal about governing under conditions not dissimilar to those we can expect after the election. And I believe you and other New Zealanders can take heart from that. I'm confident that the experience we've already had in governing with coalition partners has given us the experience we need to make a smooth transition to the new system of government.

I'm also confident that as we take our message around the country, New Zealanders will agree with us that the track we're on is the best one to make everyone more prosperous. We'll be pointing out, as my colleague Bill Birch said a while ago, that you don't produce a top team by locking it in the dressing room.

You send it out onto the field, pitched against the best in the world. Between 1991 and 1995 when New Zealand manufacturers were exposed to open competition, they raised their real value 44 per cent faster than the rest of the economy. Exporters facing tough global competition produced new jobs at nearly twice the rate of those with domestic sales only.

That is the new world we are working in, not behind barriers but in open competition with the world. In saying that I freely accept that there are still many interventions and distortions in the world trading arena but that cannot be an excuse for New Zealand to follow inward-looking policies. You know the picture: controls, import restrictions and tariffs - all the burdens that used to hold our economy back.

Things changed for the better when we opened up the market, and let the consumers make the decisions. And things also changed for the better when we introduced the Employment Contracts Act. Some people will tell you that the benefits from greater productivity are going into the pockets of a few. But they're wrong, the benefits are higher productivity, more output and tens of thousands of new jobs.

As a country we have made great progress in the last few years and the challenge facing all New Zealand voters at the election in a few weeks time is to make the right political choice to keep New Zealand moving forward.

Over the last few days we have enjoyed the spectacle of Olympic sport and New Zealand's success at Atlanta.It reminds me that for years when New Zealand was going nowhere it was common to urge New Zealand business to emulate our sportspeople and win in international competition. We can proudly say they are doing that now. In congratulating New Zealand business for that success I want to also thank and congratulate the staff in New Zealand businesses up and down the country for making it all possible - with a special mention of the staff here at McAlpine Refrigeration Ltd.