Clark highlights tsunami response and economy

New Zealand's response to the tsunami, the economy, and moves to lift labour productivity and boost saving rates have featured in Prime Minister Helen Clark's opening statement to Parliament today.

Helen Clark emphasised Labour's record in Government and said her positive speech was in stark contrast to the narrow and punitive focus of National leader Don Brash's welfare speech last week.

She covered a broad range of topics in her speech, beginning as this year began -- with reference to the devastating effects of the tsunami in southern Asia.

New Zealand had never been found wanting when disaster had struck the Pacific and had been proud to play its part when disaster affected Commonwealth partners in the Indian Ocean, she said.

Helen Clark said New Zealand at the beginning of 2005 was a "confident nation" that was moving ahead.

"Working together, we and New Zealanders have achieved a great deal in the past five years. New Zealand is a very different place now from the way it was in the 1990s.

"But our country has to keep moving ahead to become an even more compelling place to live in, work in, bring children up in, invest in and above all take pride in," she said.

This week a report on economic indicators would be released, with none of them showing deterioration, Helen Clark said.

However, the report also said where performance needed improving, "most critically in labour productivity and in our levels of innovation".

Labour productivity had grown in recent years but remained well below the OECD median growth rate, Helen Clark said.

More needed to be done to increase women's participation in the workforce.

The Government was looking at its set of policies "across parental leave, child and out of school care, flexible working hours and work life balance to see how to boost both participation in the workforce and good outcomes for children".

How to encourage savings which could lead to home ownership was also under consideration, she said.

Other areas Helen Clark referred to included Treaty of Waitangi settlements, with the Government's aim to complete historical settlements in the next 10 to 15 years. A closing off date for lodging claims would need to be set to achieve that.

She used the speech to fire an opening salvo to this year's election campaign, saying New Zealanders would determine the course the country would take for the next three years, later on this year.

"The choice this year is straightforward: stick with the government you know works, is getting results and is building a stronger future for New Zealand.

"Or, run the risk of lurching back to the division, the unfairness, and the sheer nastiness of the 1990s. That's no future for our country."

Party leaders and MPs get the chance to comment on the prime minister's opening statement, a debate that is set down for 14 hours. This is followed by a vote of confidence in the Government.

- NZPA