General Debate

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business. The last fortnight has given us, over the adjournment, a foretaste of what a Labour - Green - New Zealand First coalition would look like, and it is ferocious. Metiria Turei has said that the New Zealand First Party is racist, and Barry Coates—well, he will not even go near them—

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. In the interests of exactitude, and being only 7 weeks out from the election, that Minister should not be allowed to make statements about coalitions that are demonstrably, palpably false.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! It is a wide-ranging general debate and nothing that the Minister has said so far is at all out of order.

Let me just be clear for the right honourable member—the last fortnight has given us a foretaste of what a Labour - Green - New Zealand First coalition would look like. What a shambles—what a shambles! Metiria Turei says New Zealand First is racist. Barry Coates will not even go near them. Andrew Little over here says Winston Peters is a blowhard with a big swinging something or other who is leaking against them—who is leaking against them. Winston does not even think Andrew Little is going to make it back into Parliament in the next Parliament, and he does not give a rat’s derrière what Little thinks in any event. I ask the House: does this sound like a future Government of New Zealand? It sounds like an omnishambles. What an omnishambles we have on the other side of the House.

Even if—and it is a very, very scary “if”—they could work together, it would be a collective recipe that would be bad for New Zealand. When we have got employment as high as anywhere in the Western World, when we have got unemployment falling, and when we have got growth again at the highest levels in the OECD, they want a breather. Andrew Little has not even started and he is puffed—he is puffed from what he is doing. They want a breather on the other side. They want to pull the handbrake on New Zealand and on the growth we are seeing.

Well, on this side of the House we are up for growth. We are up for the exciting, vibrant New Zealand that we are seeing at the moment. We are not tired or pessimistic. We are energised by the New Zealand that we see today—a New Zealand where anything is possible for New Zealanders, where New Zealanders on the world stage are taking it to the rest of the world and making us proud. There is excitement and innovation happening all over the place. Opportunities are coming from Emirates Team New Zealand—how proud we were—winning the America’s Cup, and Rocket Lab taking New Zealand to 11th in the world to go into space. We are backing that growth, we are providing for it, and we are also implementing our plan for New Zealand—our plan to grow the economy and to share the benefits and the dividends—[Interruption]

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! The interjection level is now too loud. I am sorry to interrupt the member.

It is good to see that one member of the Opposition is energised, because their leader clearly is not.

On this side, we are up for that growth. We are growing the economy. We are delivering for New Zealanders benefits and dividends. I think about some of the things that have happened literally this last week. We have confirmed a $230 extra investment in the Kaikōura road. We are able to do that because of the strong—

💬 Iain Lees-Galloway: $230?

You know what I mean—a $230 million investment in upgrading and improving that road, which we can do only because the economy is growing. Also, in terms of the Manawatū Gorge we have confirmed this week that there will be an improved, permanent, and much more resilient route for the people of that area. We can invest those hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars—actually, billions of dollars—into New Zealand, in infrastructure and health and education, only because the economy is growing, because our plan is working. On this side of the House we are energised. We are up for the growth. We do not want a breather. We do not want to see the shambles of a Labour - Green - New Zealand First Government anytime soon in this country, and we will be working hard for New Zealanders to deliver another National Government.

I admire the member Simon Bridges for his levity and for making the most of the situation. In a Government that seems content to manage decline, that was a pretty good effort he made at spinning the benefits of a growing economy. But we all know, and New Zealanders know, that where the economy has been growing, the benefits have not been shared fairly. We know that real wages have been dropping, that many New Zealanders are living in cars, that New Zealanders are not getting care in the hospitals, and that they cannot afford to pay the school fees or go on the school trips. We know that New Zealanders are missing out and that only very few are doing well under this Government. Most New Zealanders are working hard. They are working hard to get ahead, but, unfortunately, they are struggling to stand still.

That is why in this election there will be a very clear choice for New Zealanders. People can choose the tax cuts the Government is offering—that tax package that is targeted at the top 10 percent, who will get the $400 million that Steven Joyce is promising. He will get a thousand dollars a year in his pocket because of those tax cuts. He says everybody in this Parliament needs a thousand dollars a year, and that is the priority right now. That is where Government members’ heads are at right now. Well, those tax cuts are not a priority for most New Zealanders. Most New Zealanders want to be able to afford to go to the doctor. Most New Zealanders want their kids to have a world-class education at their local school. Most New Zealanders want to be able to have a dream of affording their own home, and we have the lowest homeownership rates in New Zealand since the 1950s.

Today in the House we saw where the Government’s exclusive focus on the short term leads. The elective surgeries that the Minister of Health was trumpeting turn out to be little more than eye injections and skin lesion removals that could be done outside of a hospital. The Minister had no answer for the fact that in Auckland, Counties Manukau, Bay of Plenty, and Waikato—in all of those growing populations, all of them—the actual number of surgeries being performed in hospitals is dropping, once you remove the eye injections and the skin lesion removals that could have been done outside of the hospital environment.

Healthcare is dropping in this country. The level of unmet need is growing. Last year 60,000 New Zealanders were sent back to their doctor because the district health board (DHB) did not have enough money to send them to a specialist that the GP requested. The GP did not send that letter as a joke. Saying “I think you are sick; you need a cancer scan.” or “I think you are sick; you need a hip operation. Go and see the specialist.”—it is not a joke. But the DHB said: “We don’t have the resource to even see you in the hospital. Go back to your doctor, and when things get worse come back again.” That is what is going on in this country. That is why the Labour Party in Government will focus on making sure that public services are funded adequately.

The amount of underfunding in the health system is $2.3 billion. It is not just about putting money in right, either. It is about putting money in, but it is also about making sure that money is well spent, and currently that exclusive focus on short-term targets is sending money in the wrong direction. It is making the DHBs focus on making the Government look good, like in The Wire, pumping up the statistics instead of getting on with meeting need where it presents.

We have also seen in the last 24 hours stories told of what is happening at Dunedin Hospital, where the ICU beds are limiting the availability of spaces for elective surgery patients to go through. We heard the stories of Amber Gibbs; Alan Sutton, whose surgery was cancelled three times; Merv Telfer, whose surgery was cancelled seven times; and Owen Glover, who died—died—waiting for surgery after having his surgery cancelled four times.

I have learnt since then that yesterday afternoon, at one point, there was not a single ICU bed available in the whole of the South Island of New Zealand. I put that to the Minister; he said he would have to check on that. He is not across his portfolio. If he does not know what is going on in our hospitals and in our health system, that is a Government seriously out of touch. It is crowing about what the Opposition may or may not be doing this week; it does not have any policies itself. It has lost its way. We need, instead of investing in tax cuts focused on the wealthy, a Government that focuses on making sure ordinary, regular, everyday Kiwis who are working hard can get their doctor’s appointment, can get the education their kids need, can afford to save for their retirement, and so on.

In closing, we need a hospital rebuild in Dunedin. That has been promised since before the last election. We do not even have a business case, and now we are told it will not be till midway through next year. We need some urgency on that matter.

Well, it is certainly the age of alternative facts, and, if it was not for that member’s hairstyle, I would say he simply resembles Trump with some of his comments, because the fact is—the fact is—as released in the Ministry of Social Development’s annual report, that incomes for both before-housing costs and after-housing costs, right across the spectrum, have been growing. Real incomes in real terms have been growing for New Zealanders—that is, people on lower incomes, middle incomes, and higher incomes. What is more, that report also shows that the low income and material hardship trends for children are flat or falling. That is a terrific thing for this Government to have achieved. In fact, it shows that there are 30,000 fewer children now in poverty, under those two measures, than there were under the last years of Labour. So despite a global financial crisis, this Government has raised those families above the poverty line.

I want to talk today about infrastructure, because this Government is investing in infrastructure in a way that we have not seen for many, many decades. I was privileged on Sunday to travel through the new Waterview Connection tunnel. What a fantastic piece of engineering that is.

💬 Dr David Clark: Thank you, Helen Clark.

Oh, yeah, right! Oh, yeah, right! If you also travel down State Highway 1, the Huntly bypass is under way and the Cambridge Bypass is completed. The Waikato Expressway, of course, is under construction, and in my own part of the world there is the Tauranga Eastern Link—absolutely fantastic pieces—

💬 Hon Todd McClay: Te Puke bypass.

The Te Puke bypass—the absolutely fantastic infrastructure that this Government has been investing in. And it continues. And it continues because this Government has a strong record of working with local councils.

Just on Sunday we stood with the Prime Minister, we stood with the Mayor of Auckland and the local MP, and we talked about how this Government was helping to lift the quality of life and enabling growth in those communities. Standing alongside council, this Government is co-investing up to $600 million to ensure that infrastructure can be built that will encourage and enable further growth. As we stood there in Auckland announcing the launch of the Crown Infrastructure Partnerships by the Auckland mayor, Auckland Council was really interested in taking up that opportunity because it has got two big projects, one in the north, which will see 5,500 new houses, and one in the south, which is looking at about 17,800 new houses. The first part of the plan there in Drury South—as we stood opposite the quarry there with the Stevenson Group, which is looking to invest $300 million itself in the investment, you could feel the excitement from the Auckland mayor. He was absolutely delighted with the work that the Government was doing with his council organisation, and really looking forward to putting in the projects that the Government was announcing.

Not a couple of weeks ago, my colleague the Hon Nathan Guy and I were with the Wellington regional mayors co-investing for water resilience, because Wellington and Porirua are almost unique in that they are cities that do not have their own water supplies. So, of course, being a high-risk area for earthquakes, this Government is working alongside those councils and saying we will help you ensure that there is water available—22 bores are being made available, and this Government is putting in $6 million alongside those councils to make sure that those cities, should there be an emergency, have adequate water supplies for their people.

I cannot go without finally talking about my electorate and the announcement that that bridge leading to the historic East Cape Lighthouse will be replaced. And just as important is the Mōtū Bridge. I drove through there the other day. That is coming on. I tell you, people in Gisborne cannot wait for that two-lane bridge to be completed. It has not come out of the transport fund; it has come out of this Government’s investment in regional roading plans, working alongside councils and delivering in infrastructure right across this country. This is a great Government.

It has been a great 3 years in this Parliament, and for ACT it is just a new beginning. I am 16 points ahead in the Epsom electorate before anybody endorsed me, and I am going to be working hard for the next 8 weeks to earn the support of my neighbours to send me back here, to represent them in Parliament again.

But that is just the beginning, because with an electorate seat every single party vote for ACT counts; 1.2 percent of the vote brings Beth Houlbrooke into Parliament—an award-winning businesswoman, a mother of two, the elected chair of the Rodney Local Board—and what an outstanding MP she would make. Some people watched the Auckland mayoral election. Some people watched Chlöe Swarbrick and thought: “She is pretty good, but imagine if she had an economics degree.” Well, that is No. 3 on our list, Brooke Van Velden, and what an outstanding MP she would make.

Some people ask: what if you had an international cricketer and a renowned leader within his community of South Auckland? That is Bhupinder Singh, and with Epsom plus 2.8 percent, Bhupinder Singh becomes an ACT member of Parliament. What if you had a guy, a guy who left school at 16, started working at Countdown, and became “Mr Fix-it” in the organisation, one of Countdown’s top managers, whom they send in to fix their tough problems? That is Stephen Berry. Repeating our 2008 performance of 3.5 percent of the party vote plus Epsom, that is a team of MPs who would make this Parliament proud and who would represent New Zealanders well.

Why would we want to do that? Well, there are a lot of positive reasons to vote for ACT, but let us just focus on how bad the alternative is and how bad the Opposition is. The Labour Party is on course, as Richard Prebble recently said, for total destruction. It may be the first of the Labour parties in the Western World to completely implode. You only have to look at their dilemma when you see their position on ACT’s partnership schools, kura hourua. Half the caucus is in favour; half of them are against. The leader says they are going to be closed; Kelvin Davis says he will resign if they are closed. Which one is it? Does the Labour Party today represent poor, disadvantaged Māori children who want choice and opportunity in education, or does it represent adults with comfortable, well-paying jobs who happen to join teacher unions and support the Labour Party?

Then you come round to New Zealand First. What a disaster. There is Winston Peters. He has been sacked from Cabinet three times by three different Prime Ministers. He has been voted out of two electorates, and the third electorate has not had an opportunity to vote him out yet, but help is on its way. It is going to vote him out on 23 September. This is a guy who has more bottom lines than a 100-year-old elephant. He is now up to nine bottom lines. He has peaked too early in this election, and he is going to find out that the problem with Winston Peters’ politicking is eventually you run out of other people’s gullibility. He still has not paid back the $158,000—

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.

—and frankly, the way he campaigns is racist.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! A point of order—the Rt Hon Winston Peters.

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: I will tolerate a fair bit from that member, but I will not tolerate him getting up and making deceptive, deceitful statements like that. I know what we paid back—all $158,000, in circumstances—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. [Interruption] Order! That is not a point of order. [Interruption] Order! That is not a point of order. That is very much a debating matter. The member can continue his speech, and if the member feels he has been misrepresented throughout the speech there is another means. It is not raised on the floor of the House. I refer the member to Standing Order 359.

If one ACT MP can get that far under Winston Peters’ thin skin, imagine how far five ACT MPs could get. He does not like it up him but the ACT Party has kept him out of power for the last three elections, and we are going to do it again. I understand his frustration, but he has got to stay there.

What about poor old James Shaw? You have got to hand it to Metiria Turei; she has won. I used to get business people coming up to me, saying: “You know, I saw that James Shaw. It seems like they’ve finally got someone sensible in the Greens.” Well, not any more, because the Green Party is now the party that says: “We’re gonna give you a 20 percent pay rise to stay at home, and don’t worry if you want to smoke drugs on the taxpayers’ expense, and don’t worry about looking for a job. If you do that, we’re gonna raise your taxes.” Those are not the values of New Zealand, and it is the end of an expansionist Green Party. What a tragedy for James Shaw.

There is a lot more to come, because people might start to ask the question: how deep did the fraud go? Were there children actually in the house when Metiria Turei was claiming the DPB, or were they actually living on the North Shore with Ann Hartley under a whāngai arrangement? We look forward to hearing that from Metiria Turei. Maybe she did not even have any kids in that flat where there were too many people, when she was claiming the DPB. Let us find out later in the debate.

A vote for ACT is a vote for stable, centre-right Government, keeping the other muppets out, and tackling the hard issues, such as housing, tax, education, and fairness between generations, that have been neglected for too long. Thank you.

The Lion supporters have gone home, and I congratulate my excellent constituent Warren Gatland on bringing a talented squad and their entertaining, enthusiastic compatriots to our shores for a fabulous series. The America’s Cup is back where it belongs, and I also congratulate Emirates Team New Zealand and give them thanks for all the excitement that they brought us in recent weeks. [Interruption]

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! Ron Mark, you have continued to interject right throughout question time and you are continuing now. If you interject again while I am in the Chair this afternoon, I will be asking you to leave the Chamber.

💬 Ron Mark: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I wish to apologise to you, Mr Speaker, but I take offence to some of David Seymour’s behaviour.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Well, then, raise it at the time. I did not hear anything and the member did not take it. I am just fed up—the member will resume his seat. I am just fed up with the interjections that are occurring across the House. It has been continuous throughout question time, and it is continuing in the general debate. I have made my point. If the member wants to continue arguing, I can invite him to leave even earlier.

Well done, Emirates Team New Zealand. Just make sure that you have a victory parade in Hamilton next time, please.

Lydia Ko is back on form. Our country is on a roll. The hoardings are going up, and we are off. So in less than 2 months, New Zealanders will have gone to the polls and chosen those who will be members of the 52nd Parliament. I would like to say that they will have chosen their Government, but according to that master of faux outrage, the member for Northland, that is his prerogative, and he will be informing the rest of us what his choice will be on 12 October. Well, what a bizarre gesture that is to the rest of New Zealand. Most of our compatriots would prefer him to let them know which way he might go before the election, because I am sure that that would have some bearing on the choices that they might make. But, apparently, he does not believe that they deserve that courtesy, so most will see through that puffery and contempt.

As the Hon Simon Bridges noted earlier in this debate, the prospect of a Labour/Greens/New Zealand First Government is looking shambolic and utterly unworkable. On one level, their infighting and contempt for each other is providing fodder for the cartoonists and entertainment for their growing band of opponents. But it is also disturbing to think of the damage that such an appalling combination would inflict upon our country.

That is why this morning Prime Minister Bill English made clear National’s gratitude to our existing confidence and supply partners, in the Māori Party, ACT, and United Future. They have played a constructive role in bringing good Government to this country in recent years. They have provided stability and clear focus on important issues that actually matter to New Zealanders and their determination to secure economic growth, better living standards, more jobs and opportunities have delivered major gains for our country, despite the incredible challenges that we have faced, especially through the global financial crisis, the domestic recession, and the Canterbury earthquakes. Those gains really are considerable.

Let us look at our recent report card. New Zealand’s economy grew 3 percent in the year to March, making us one of the top performing OECD countries, and that strong growth is expected to continue for the next few years. The average annual wage is up more than $17,000 since we came into office. Inflation remains low. The economy is diversifying. Interest rates in New Zealand are low. We were one of the first developed countries to get back to surplus after the global financial crisis, with a $1.8 billion surplus posted last year and growing surpluses projected for the years to come. We are on track to reduce Government debt to around 20 percent of GDP by 2020-21, and we are rated first in the world for prosperity and the ease of doing business. That is a tremendous record.

During the recent adjournment the Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and building and construction Minister came to my electorate in Hamilton West to make announcements about the allocations to five councils of the fastest-growing towns and cities in New Zealand from the Housing Infrastructure Fund. For Hamilton, it is fantastic news. A $272 million loan will enable our council in Hamilton to fast track vital infrastructure that will finally see the Peacocke subdivision come to pass.

I have long argued, as the MP for Hamilton West, that the growth in our city, which has been considerable, needed to be more balanced. I am absolutely delighted to see that investment going into the south and west of my electorate, where it will rejuvenate those suburbs and provide many jobs and opportunities for families for generations to come. There will be 1,000 new homes rolling out pretty quickly, and over the foreseeable future after that we will see more than another 7,000 homes.

This is a Government that is delivering the infrastructure that this country needs to ensure that we have further growth and further opportunities. As the Associate Minister of Education, I have had the great privilege of going around the country in recent weeks, announcing details of our roll-growth plans, which will bring 305 new classrooms to schools around the country. These are the things that matter to New Zealanders. We are very proud to deliver them.

Poverty is not a weapon to be used against the poor. [Interruption]

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member can start her speech again. She does not need to be interrupted by those interjections.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Poverty is not a weapon to be used against the poor. No Government should ever use poverty as a weapon against its own people. The safety net has become a poverty trap, but the Green Party will fix it, because everybody deserves a fair go in this country. It is the Kiwi way to look after each other, but our welfare system—the safety net that our grandparents weaved together for us—has been torn to shreds in the last two decades.

It is not right that a kid does not have a shot at a healthy future. That is an injustice that we all should be upset about. So the Greens will end poverty in New Zealand. Everyone who receives a benefit, every student on a student allowance, every person working minimum wage, and every family doing it tough is going to have more money in their back pocket from our mending the safety net package: more money to pay the rent, more money to put food on the table, and more money to pay the power bill for 350,000 New Zealanders and their children. With this, 350,000 New Zealanders and their 179,000 children will be lifted out of poverty. These kids will wake up in a bed, not in the backseat of a car. They will go to school with bellies full of breakfast, and lunchboxes full of lunch. They will spend their weekends playing sport and not in hospital with respiratory illness.

Our plan to mend the safety net makes sweeping changes to benefits, to Working for Families, to wages, and to taxes, to transform the poverty track that we have now into a genuine safety net. We will increase benefits and make it easier for people to earn more money and to secure more stable work. We will fix Working for Families, get rid of the discriminatory in-work tax credit, and create a children’s credit that will be available to beneficiary families, student families, and grandparents taking care of their grandbabies. We will raise the minimum wage so that by 2020 it will be over $20 an hour. We will remove the sexism and the discrimination from Work and Income New Zealand that allows it to hound and to persecute solo mums who are just trying to do the best for them and for their kids.

In the last week, I have been told so many heart-breaking stories about life on the benefit, and many are from the children of beneficiaries, who are now grown. They thank me for speaking out in defence of their mums and their dads. Many are disabled people who talk about how impossible it is to get their entitlement, let alone live with a disability, on a benefit, and with no clear pathway out.

So I am asking those of us here—those of us who have a stable home, who have a secure income, who have a decent life, who believe that every New Zealander should have the same, no matter what their circumstances—let us all reject any notion that poverty is acceptable at all in our country. Let us commit to ending poverty in New Zealand, and let us commit to creating a Government that has, at its heart, that same purpose: to end poverty in our country. Poverty should never be used as a weapon against the poor, and a Government of which the Greens are a part will never ever use poverty as a weapon against our people. Thank you.

It is always a great pleasure and a joy to participate in the general debate and, particularly, as a member of the National Government, to talk about the amazing work that National has done to support New Zealand infrastructure across the country, support more jobs, grow the economy, and grow the aspirations and opportunities of Kiwi families under nearly 9 years—9 great years—of the National-led Government.

Under this Government, we have worked hard, despite natural disasters, global economic crises, and all manner of world political interest, to get our people into jobs, into the economy, and to build New Zealand as an international trading nation. That reminds me of a comment that a great leader once said to me. It was John Key, actually—the Rt Hon Sir John Key—who said: “We will never get rich as a country if we just trade within our own country.” If we just sell to each other, we will never get rich. We need to trade with the world, and we need to become a good and fantastic trading nation, and that is what we are doing.

It is a brave new world out there, and a fragile world, but our nation and our Government are up to the task of tackling it with the No. 8 fencing wire spirit that all Kiwis aspire to, as the innovative country that we are. A couple of days ago I was on a phone call to a friend of mine who lives overseas, and I had to try to explain what this No. 8 wire mentality was, because they did not understand that. I had to think that No. 8 wire is the kind of wire that can fix anything, that it was the most versatile of wires that can help farmers and help people who needed equipment that needed to be purchased, but when they live far away, they could not, and they used this No. 8 wire. They actually got that idea that New Zealand was, in fact, very innovative. When we live so far away from the rest of the world, we need that kind of innovative spirit and style and approach.

Our economy is forward-looking and is supporting Kiwi jobs and businesses. Our Innovative New Zealand package of $761 million for sciences, skills, and regional development initiatives is helping to grow, diversify, and reinvigorate different aspects of our economy. Our infrastructure packages are getting $2.1 billion into 21st century school buildings, fit for purpose roading projects, amazing ultra-fast broadband speeds, and, of course, better cities with safe and warm houses for our communities.

Our four key aims—better public services, infrastructure, reducing debt, and reducing the tax burden—will always be at the core of our values as a Government team. We know the hard work that goes into every tax dollar that the Government collects, and we will continue to deliver for New Zealand. Look at the amazing transport infrastructure that National is delivering right across New Zealand. The New Zealand roads of national significance project is driving urban and provincial industry, such as the recently opened Mackays to Peka Peka Expressway on the Kapiti Coast, making travel in the lower North Island fast and effective without compromising local community roading. The Auckland western ring route roading project and provincial projects such as the Whirokino bridge replacement in Manawatū-Wanganui are working to ease traffic and to provide long-term infrastructure for New Zealand’s community commuting and freighting needs.

In particular, the Waterview Connection in Auckland will help reduce traffic congestion and promote easier movement across Auckland regions. After the Waterview tunnel actually opened up, I had a Facebook message from someone who commutes all the time from Glen Innes to the North Shore. It took only 20 minutes, and they were absolutely amazed. They had been locked into a gridlock of traffic from Glen Innes to the North Shore, but after the traffic was diverted to the tunnel and people were using alternative routes, it actually cut time for travel from Glen Innes to the North Shore, and they were very, very happy that the National Government is, in fact, delivering for New Zealanders.

I know that members opposite try to sound enthusiastic and full of energy when they get up and try to sell their retreaded vision for the future of New Zealand. But, frankly, what I am thinking is that they must know, deep in their hearts, that they are not going to win this election. They are terribly disappointed in the performance of their leadership, and they are waiting for the election to be over so that they will have a brand new leader, and then, perhaps, in 2020 they might have a remote chance, a very remote chance, of taking over the Treasury benches. I do understand the Opposition’s feelings because I would also hate to be in Opposition for 9 years, let alone 12 years.

In 4 weeks’ time, this Parliament will be dissolved, we will go back to our electorates, and we will go to the people and give them the opportunity to elect a Parliament and a Government that is fit to face the challenges that this country faces at this point in time. We have numerous challenges that we have to face. The people of New Zealand have a very, very clear decision to make. Do we carry on with a Government that has just one trick up its sleeve—giving tax cuts to the few at the top—or do we change to a Labour-led Government that will invest in housing, that will invest in healthcare, that will invest in education, that will invest in public transport, and that will make working people’s lives better? That is the choice we have—the one-trick National Government, with tax cuts for the rich, or we can sort out the problems that this country has and that have grown in an unrelenting fashion under the National Government.

New Zealand has the worst rate of homelessness of any developed nation in the world—the worst rate of homelessness of any developed nation in the world. The Government’s comprehensive emergency plan is to spend $140,000 a day on motel rooms. We can talk about the big numbers. We can talk about the percentages. I want to talk about a constituent of mine who approached my office just this morning. He will not be getting into a motel room, and he will not be getting into a State house either. He lives in a shed. He lives in a shed. He is on ACC, so he is getting a little bit of money, from one week to the next. But he is not in a dire enough situation to be offered emergency housing or a spot on the waiting list. He is living in a shed, and there is no place in the National Government’s system for him to get into a home. That is wrong. That is outrageous.

That is the state that we are in, in this country, after 9 long years of a National Government that does not care about people. All it cares about is figures and numbers and headline growth. What has pushed that growth? It is population growth. The truth is that, in real terms, person by person, we are no better off than we were when National first came to Government. Incomes are not rising in real terms. Housing costs are gobbling up what additional income people get. GDP per capita growth is sluggish. The only thing that is driving growth in this country is population growth, and that is at an astonishing rate because this Government has allowed immigration to go through the roof.

Immigration, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a good thing for New Zealand. We rely on immigration. We need people to come from overseas to fill jobs here in New Zealand. But it does become a problem when the Government fails to plan for that growth, when the Government fails to build the houses that those people need to live in, when the Government fails to build the roads and the public transport that those people need to travel around on, and when the Government fails to invest in the hospitals that we need to provide healthcare for those people, or the schools to educate those people and their children.

It is not just the migrants who lose out when the Government fails to plan. It is everybody in New Zealand. Belatedly, the National Government decided, in April this year, that it would come up with a policy to maybe slow down the rate of population growth, slow down immigration. But it was such a half-baked plan, so poorly thought through, because the Government failed to engage with the debate and then came out with a knee-jerk reaction, which sounded like it had been dreamt up the night before, that now Bill English is overriding the immigration Minister and saying that those policies that were due to be implemented in 2 weeks’ time are not going to go ahead. What a shambles. What a shambles of a Government, after 9 years, that it cannot even get a straightforward policy like that sorted out.

This country needs a new Government—not just one that is prepared to invest in the public services and the infrastructure that we need, but one that has thought through its policies, that has a proper plan for the future of New Zealand, and that has a leader with integrity. We used to think Bill English had integrity, but then the Todd Barclay case came along, and he ducked and he weaved and he lied and he hid. It is time for a fresh approach, a new Government, led by Andrew Little.

I would like to focus on infrastructure. Last weekend I attended the New Zealand Chinese Building Industry Association’s annual conference. I chaired a panel discussion regarding China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the opportunities for New Zealand. “Belt” refers to the economic belt of the Silk Road and also “Road” refers to the 21st century maritime Silk Road. New Zealand is on the maritime Silk Road. That is how New Zealand is related to the Belt and Road Initiative. This initiative is closely related to infrastructure, because infrastructure has been fundamental to economic growth. We all understand that the Chinese have focused on the building of infrastructure in the past 40 years. They say that if you want to get wealthy, build roads first, and that is what they have been doing for the past 40 years.

We all understand that infrastructure is particularly important to all economies, and similarly in New Zealand, so this Government is very proud to say that we are the infrastructure Government simply because we understand the importance of infrastructure and have invested heavily in infrastructure. I will give you an example: ultra-fast broadband. We have invested $2 billion in ultra-fast broadband. We understand our economy is global, and our e-commerce has been growing fast, globally and in New Zealand.

Many international businesses depend on the internet, so we have been investing heavily in this particular object. Combined with the Rural Broadband Initiative, this ultra-fast broadband programme is the biggest ever infrastructure project taken in New Zealand. Now we have 1,132,000 households and businesses that have access to fibre, and 370,000 schools, businesses, households, and hospitals are now connected to fibre—to ultra-fast broadband. We are a global connectivity leader, so New Zealanders should be very proud of that.

We also come to transport, because we know it has been a challenge. Of course there are reasons why we now have this particular transport challenge. We believe it is because our economy has been doing very well and has been very successful. We now have more jobs. People are economically active. They move around, and also people are staying in New Zealand and many people are moving back to New Zealand. So those are some reasons. But, nevertheless, we are facing a challenge. We are going to find solutions. We are investing billions of dollars in transport, including $436 million in Auckland’s City Rail Link, at just stage one.

So what is Labour’s solution? Well, basically, it is that people should not come to New Zealand—stop them from coming to New Zealand, and maybe ask people to leave—because we need to slow down the economy so that we can have a breather. So that is Labour’s solution, which is, basically, to slow down the economy and have people leave and not come to New Zealand. That is its solution. That is the difference between a united, hard-working, forward-looking Government and a lazy and also, of course, a lack-of-ideas Opposition. That is the difference.

I emphasise that in this Budget, Budget 2017, we are investing another $4 billion in infrastructure, and this is the single-biggest investment of new capital in infrastructure in one single Budget for decades. What is more, we are going to have another $7 billion—another $7 billion—in the next 3 years. So, in total, we are going to have $32.5 billion invested in new infrastructure in the next 4 years. That is how much we are going to invest in infrastructure, and that is how much attention we are paying to transport and to other infrastructure.

That is what this Government has been working hard on—that is, we are going to lay a solid infrastructure for all aspects including transport, our schools, and everything. So this is genuinely—genuinely—an infrastructure Government. Thank you.

That was a message straight out of Beijing. In the Morrinsville RSA last night there was not a chair left as we launched our Waikato candidate, Stu Husband. The National Party members launched theirs of course and they got 25. So we are not giving any regard to “All Brylcreem and No Socks” who spoke here today. We have seen the last National Party polls—the most recent ones—and it is all bad news for them, for them and for a whole lot of parties here, but it is good news for one other party. Take a wild guess which party that is.

We do not care about Epsom’s three-quarters of a million dollars bludger and his cuckolded behaviour in this Parliament. The reality is, as the former American President Truman had on his sign, “The buck stops here”, but not in the New Zealand Government today. Look, it reminds me of the American showman P T Barnum when he ran a travelling circus menagerie and a museum of freaks—and that is whom we have heard from today. The cling-ons propping up this National Government, the cuckolded vassal, the political puppet, and racial separatists—that was the biggest subject that at Morrinsville last night concerned a packed hall, mainly of National Party farmers—[Interruption] You can laugh now, but they were down in Invercargill when we were down there, they were in Motueka, and all over the country. We are not suckers.

Take the Fuji Xerox scandal. For a year this Government over here said there was nothing in it, nothing to see. It was imploding around the world, a $500 million scandal, right under our face, and the Government is implicitly involved and has got school after school in these jack-up Ponzi schemes devised by their head of sales and now managing director, Gavin Pollard. Why, the Japanese came here last week and apologised to this country. The Japanese Government did, but not those people over there. They were caught out—said there was nothing there—and now we go to this Transpower utility sale. He gets up and makes out they know nothing about it. Could I just say this. In 2013 there was a referendum where 2:1 the New Zealand people were opposed to these power sales. But it does not stop these guys. Over $2 billion of assets, and quietly behind the people’s backs they have got this scheme being talked up—a four-way option to sell this huge asset. It is a disgrace.

Can you recall who UBS AG is? Well, it is the same Swiss investment banker, and I want to tell the journalists out there who do not seem to understand. It was involved, you will recall, in December 2003. It helped Transpower sell off the South Island transmission grid to an arm of—who and where—Wells Fargo United States. It was a complicated, smelly leaseback all the way through what country? The Cayman Islands. And it all went belly-up in 2009. That is how long the association is—a penny-bad privatisation with foreign investment bankers.

National is doing one thing and saying another. Remember what they said? Bill English said, back in 2013: “There won’t be any more asset sales, largely because everything that can be sold will have been by then.” Steven Joyce says: “We are going to be transparent about asset sales.” Transparent—that guy would not understand transparency if he fell over it. He showed it on the Fuji Xerox scandal. He is showing it over and over again, and on Novopay he is just a bungling incompetent.

In the next few weeks in this campaign we are going to expose what Tony Ryall has been doing. He got put on the board, and in the space of 4 months has been made the chairman. They booted off a guy that Treasury wanted to have retained there. No, they chose their man—all to do what? It was to get ready to facilitate a sale. This former—this is Tony Ryall—BNZ bank teller who was so behind the sale of the biggest bank in this country, BNZ. When it was sold it had six out of 10 New Zealand clients, and today 95 percent of our banking is foreign-owned. And these guys do nothing about it. They are globalists, and I am telling you why New Zealand First is packing the halls around this country. It is because they have had a gutsful of you. They have had enough. They want a change and they are going to get one, and no amount of character assassination is going to stop us on this great purpose.

It is a pleasure to be talking in this debate and it is interesting, just sitting in the House, that you can almost feel the expectation of the Opposition members that they should be in Government. In fact, it is stronger than that. It is almost as if they feel they have the right to be in Government. But I have got to say I think there is a real arrogance in what I am hearing today—a real arrogance. In fact, there is even one member who thinks he is going to determine when we are going to be back in power and what date it is going to be—12 October. There is a sense of arrogance that permeates this place, which is rather off-putting.

But what I would like to say is that good government is more than that. Good government requires vision, it requires hard work, and it also requires an ability to implement. But, most importantly, it actually requires an ability to deliver, and all that requires a team that is collaborative and cohesive. When I look across this House I do not actually see that on the other side. I do not see that cohesion. Everyone will tell you, whether it is a sports team, whether it is a business, or whether it is a political party, that the single most important ingredient is having cohesion, and we do not see that.

After the long dark days following the global recession we finally have got this country back into a position where we are mightily proud of where we have got to. We have got one of the strongest economies in the world, growing at 3 percent, one of the fastest in the OECD. We have got more people working now than ever before—2.5 million hard-working New Zealanders working every day. There are 67 percent of our people who are working, which is great. And the average salary is going up too. It is going up from $59,000 to nearly just over $64,000.

The important thing is that we get more people in jobs. It is interesting that 10,000 new jobs are being created every month in this economy and that is because we have got people out there taking a risk, borrowing money, looking after people, hiring staff—and that is the thing that makes New Zealand great. As a result we are diversifying our economy. We have now got tourism, a bigger industry than dairy. We have got those high-growth sectors: ICT, construction, wine, international education—all huge sectors. International education is $4.5 billion. And we have also got those really exciting high tech ones—even the space industry that is currently evolving on the Māhia Peninsula. As a result of all the good hard work of all New Zealanders this Government has been able to deliver a surplus: $1.8 billion last year, $2.9 billion forecast this year, and $7.2 billion forecast for 2021. I can hear the Opposition. I can feel them slathering at the opportunity to try to spend these hard-fought gains that New Zealanders have fought for all through those dark days.

So what have we done with it? Well, this is a Government for infrastructure. It is a massive Government for infrastructure, and the recent Budget just showed that. There is an additional $11 billion set aside for infrastructure, with $9 billion of that going into roading and transport initiatives. Then there are all the other things that are going on. It is quite exciting. Over the next 4 years $32 billion is going to be spent on things like transport, schools, hospitals, defence, housing, prisons—and all of the stuff around rail, and all those good things that we are all so precious about.

But I would just remind you of something. Last year—what did we spend most of our money on? The big, crucial spending that we spent it on was the $800 million that we put towards making sure that all the welfare beneficiaries benefited by $25 per week—the first real increase in 43 years. That is something done with a social conscience. Again, there is the $2 billion Family Incomes Package this year—great things, looking after all our New Zealanders.

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Finally, over the last adjournment break, we had an admission by the Deputy Prime Minister, Paula Bennett, that, in hindsight, the Government could have acted earlier to address the housing crisis that we have in our country.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge Haami Mānahi, also known as “Sam” and “Bonz”, who died on the steps of the Manurewa Methodist Church over the adjournment, and also Keith Johnson who died on a bench in St Peter’s Cemetery in Onehunga. Both these people were homeless New Zealanders—homeless Aucklanders—who were part of the over 750 Aucklanders living on the streets.

I think it is time that we reflected, because for Yale University to put out, over the adjournment, an international study that has given New Zealand the gold medal for homelessness is actually a disgusting situation for our country to be in. It is absolutely appalling that what we will be renowned for around the world is our rate of homelessness. I think it is really important that we reflect on that and try to understand where and why this has happened.

We know that when this National Government came into power, in 2008, we had 69,000 State houses, and today we have 64,000 State houses. So, over the last 9 years, the National Government has actively divested itself of State houses.

What are State houses for? State houses are there to meet the needs of the most vulnerable New Zealanders. Currently, we have 5,353 New Zealand families on the waiting list—3,700 have been deemed at risk by the Ministry of Social Development and, of those, 2,400 have children.

I want to highlight an incredible contributor to our community, a man called Major Campbell Roberts, who, in June this year, said that he had a conversation with now Prime Minister Bill English in 2010. At that time, Bill English was not only the finance Minister but also the Minister responsible for the Housing New Zealand Corporation. What did Bill English say to Major Campbell Roberts in 2010? He said that we had a looming housing crisis, and that in 2016 and 2017 we would feel the impact of that crisis. So it has become the prophesy of our now Prime Minister, Bill English, that we would have a looming housing crisis.

In October 2014, in response to questions from Simon Collins in the New Zealand Herald about the proceeds from selling State houses—what we are going to do with that money—Bill English said: “I mean, if we want less stock, there’s not much point in rebuilding stock with it.” So this National Government has actively divested itself of the responsibility of providing houses to those most in need, those most vulnerable New Zealanders. So what has it done since 2014? Actually, it has tried to sell State houses. It has tried to sell them to the Salvation Army. It has tried to sell them to the Methodist Mission. It has tried to sell them to Australians so that they could come over to New Zealand and administer that stock for the Government.

We should not forget that, in 2011, the mandate of the Housing New Zealand Corporation changed. It went from being a provider for our most vulnerable, integrated with the Ministry of Social Development, to being a landlord. So, essentially, this Government has chosen not to contribute to providing housing to those most vulnerable New Zealanders, which, actually, has resulted in the amazing levels of homelessness that we are seeing in New Zealand today.

People out there listening: this National Government has created homelessness. Over the 9 years that it has been in power, if it had invested what it should have, we should actually have 87,000 State houses in this country. We would not have people on waiting lists, we would not have people living homeless on our streets, and we would not have New Zealanders dying. We know that you lose 20 years of your life by living on the streets. This Government—it is its shame and its legacy that will live on in the name of Prime Minister Bill English.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.