O'Connor Simon: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Simon: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19055. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki):Well it is fascinating that we have just heard from the Labour member David Parker that same sort of empty rhetoric that Labour has been accusing the National Party of—and it finished in fact on the idea that the National Party because it is conservative does not spend money. This Government has spent over $500 million extra in this Budget to support Kiwi families particularly children and parents—Dr Cam Calder: The most vulnerable.SIMON O’CONNOR: The most vulnerable. This is one of the fundamental differences between a left-wing and a right-wing Government: the left wing is great at talking but never walking the walk that is required.Dr Cam Calder: We target the expenditure.SIMON O’CONNOR: We target the expenditure but we actually do it. We have heard for weeks members on the other side say: “Oh let’s put together a whole lot of measures on child poverty let’s put a whole lot of reports together let’s just make numbers stack together.” The National Party through the likes of Vote Finance has walked out and actually walked the talk. There is $500 million more for families and the most vulnerable are targeted.Dr Cam Calder: Free GP visits.SIMON O’CONNOR: Absolutely—National has funded as my colleague has just noted free general practitioner visits until the age of 13. It is about actually doing things.But what about members on the other side? They were talking about wood just a little bit earlier. This seems to be the great solution. I remember being at a social justice talk with Labour and the Greens which was hilarious—they have no idea of what it means to be social or just but anyway there they were. Their great solution to the economy just like we heard before was logs. Logs are the solution. Of course last week this Government was passing the West Coast Wind-blown Timber (Conservation Lands) Bill—under urgency rightly—to take native timber that had been downed and felled by nature. You would think the Greens would love that. But only this side of the Chamber moved that bill and supported it. All these others—oh yes they say logs are our future—voted against it. There we go New Zealand—Dr Cam Calder: Just slugs and bugs.SIMON O’CONNOR: Absolutely. This is the side that actually makes the difference and you know you are making a difference when you talk in this Chamber and they start getting fired up. Again they talk but they do absolutely nothing.We are very proud of what we are doing. I found over the past few weeks campaigning around my electorate of Tāmaki including last night at an excellent public meeting that people are grateful for what this Government has done in the financial spaces. We have an incredibly well-performing economy which is growing at 3.8 percent. We had average wages increase by $3000 in the past 2 years and 84000 new jobs have been created.Dr Cam Calder: How much was that?SIMON O’CONNOR: That was 84000 new jobs created. These are real things. These are measurable statistics that you can bring out. Not just measurable; what I am finding from people in my electorate is that they are experiencing it. In fact a number of people in my electorate are some of the top earning people. And do you know what? They are happy to pay their taxes and their fair share and they are paying even more than their fair share now. Through National’s comprehensive tax cuts right across the board those top income earners—and there are a good number in my electorate—are now paying more taxes. Do you know why they are prepared to pay them and they are happy to pay them? Because they are with a party that cares about and tries to help people.Once again we have seen those moneys given to the most vulnerable. I keep talking rightly about the parental tax credits the extension of paid parental leave the general practitioner visits for under-13-year-olds that are now free and more money into schools. Unlike the member from New Zealand First Andrew Williams who complained that it is just about repairs to leaky schools we are actually investing in new—Dr Cam Calder: Did he say that?SIMON O’CONNOR: He did—it is shocking that that member of all members would talk about leaks. But that member forgets that we are pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into new classrooms like the ones at St Thomas’s School. Look at something like Stonefields School in my electorate which is now a green school. The way it has been designed under the governance of this Government is as a school of sustainable quality. That is a new school with new innovations new technologies which this Government has championed.In Vote Finance National walks the talk. We walk the talk. We actually make a difference. That is why we poll the numbers that we do and that is why we see that others are not seen as relevant. Coming back to my electorate it understands day by day that the changes that have been made are making a difference. I think even of an area like Glen Innes. For me that is a wonderful community in my electorate. They are experiencing this change. Hundreds of new homes are being built a number of those State houses. They are warm and modern created—Dr Cam Calder: Healthier and drier.SIMON O’CONNOR: Healthier and drier absolutely. They are raising the options for people and that is moving right across the sector. There is an enormous amount of positivity happening here.Vote agreed to.