Irrigation on priority list, says English

The Government is committed to helping South Canterbury harvest its water economy potential.

Delivering Timaru Rotary's annual Mainland Address last night, Finance Minister Bill English outlined issues New Zealand faced in securing its recovery from the global recession.

"One of our top priorities is investment in infrastructure," Mr English said.

Ensuring the right processes were in place to facilitate the development of irrigation systems in Canterbury and East Otago was one area on which the Government was focused.

"It's a fantastic opportunity for us if we can get it right."

Mr English said the Government's aim was to get the decision-making process surrounding irrigation development to work better.

"At the moment it's drawn out, complicated, uncertain and expensive."

The first come, first served method had been "historically convenient" but would not necessarily give the community the right environmental outcomes or the best productivity.

Mr English outlined the divergence in growth rates between New Zealand's tradeable and non-tradeable sectors: the tradeables sector – such as exports or tourism which directly compete with foreign markets – had declined by a tenth in the past five years, whereas the non-tradeable sector – essentially jobs created by the Government – had grown by 15 per cent.

With the Government borrowing $250 million a week for the next five years to pay to cover spending, the country could not look to it to continue to provide employment, he said.

"We are following a series of policies to achieve that; none of them are silver bullets."

Investing in infrastructure, reducing red tape for business, lifting production in the public sector and reassessing the tax system were all areas the Government was looking at, Mr English said.

- © Fairfax NZ News