Lees-Galloway IainHon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety): Thank you very much Madam Deputy Speaker. What a shame for poor old Michael Woodhouse to have to come down to the House and not talk about what the National Party's plans are for New Zealand what the National Party would do to improve New Zealand but instead to have to defend the record of the nine years of neglect under National. The nattering nabobs of negativity from the National Party opposite have nothing positive to say about the future of New Zealand; all they can do is come up with negative things to say about the Government's plans and defend their own dismal record.The truth is there is a lot of work for this Government to do because nine years of neglect is a lot to turn around. This is why the National Party is having to work so hard to defend their record because they have been found out. The previous Government prioritised meagre surpluses and tremendous tax cuts for the people at the very very top over investment in the vital public infrastructure that people need to be able to have a decent living standard in this country—$2.3 billion worth of underfunding in the health system. Despite the minimisation that Michael Woodhouse tries to do the truth is Middlemore Hospital is awash with sewage mould asbestos and power cuts; Dunedin Hospital is run down and National incredibly slow to respond to that; and district health boards (DHBs) nationwide with significant capital investment shortages and deficits. So many DHBs left in deficit after nine years of neglect from National.But it's not just in health. We all know about the housing crisis as well. Median housing prices almost doubled in nine years under National and then we had a homelessness crisis ballooning with 41200 people severely housing deprived under National. The regions were starved by National: the Napier to Wairoa railway line completely left to rot Whanganui port development dragged out. National believed that economic growth came from inflating house prices in Auckland. That was the only plan they had and they left the regions to struggle. And of course the super fund—not a single contribution to the super fund in the nine years of neglect under National.There is a lot of work for this Government to do but we do have a plan to deal with it and we've already got off to a tremendous start. We cut the tax cuts for the rich and instead decided to invest in middle and lower income families. Our Families Package sees $5.5 billion over the next four years going to improving the lives of those who need it the most. It will see 384000 families with children better off by an average of $75 a week. The winter energy payment will go to superannuitants and the recipients of main benefits. We've seen an increase in the minimum wage—something I'm tremendously proud of—to $16.50 an hour and our plan to increase it to $20 an hour by 2021. We've passed the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill (No 2). We've got $2 billion going towards our ambitious KiwiBuild programme to build those houses that people so desperately need.And we funded our first year of fee-free post-secondary education—and it's not as Mr Goldsmith would have you believe all about people going to university. Actually hidden in today's unemployment stats—and it is tremendous that unemployment has come down so low—we still have nearly 12 percent of people underemployed. Why? Because they don't have the skills. They did not have the opportunity to get the training they needed to take up the opportunities that exist in the New Zealand economy in our labour market. That's why we need to make education more accessible because people need to be able to get those skills so that they can grab the opportunities that are being created in this wonderful prosperous nation of ours.We want to see everybody benefit from economic prosperity here in New Zealand and I say the people of New Zealand are already showing that they like what they see from this Government. Let's look at the last Colmar Brunton poll: Labour up 6 points from election night—6 points in our first six months. The Government overall: 3.5 percent higher in the last poll than it was on election night. The people of New Zealand are telling us they like what they see from this Government. They know we've got a lot of work to do but they can see that we have a plan and that plan will be developed all that much further on Budget day later this month.