van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Madam Speaker. Look I'm happy to offer the previous speaker my pocket square because he has a large dollop of sad sauce right there on his face. But cheer up Mr Robertson; it is time to accept that the public have spoken. They have resoundingly told us here in this House that the Labour Government was a failure. Time and time again this Government—the previous Government I should say—let down the country. We saw Kiwis up and down New Zealand changing their minds at the polls and thank goodness they did because there are so many examples so many cases of this country going backwards. I heard it consistently in the mighty Waikato on the campaign trail. People were worried that their groceries cost too much that their kids weren't learning what they should be at school that their parents couldn't get the hospital care they needed and that the local dairy kept getting ripped off. It was that simple. Across the board on those key measures that matter to Kiwis they were being let down. Thankfully change is here. We have a Government now—a coalition Government—that is ambitious for New Zealand again that has a plan and will actually deliver outcomes.That's one of the big things that I think was missing in the previous Government. Sure as we heard earlier on in the debate before question time everyone comes here with good intentions but they simply did not deliver better outcomes for New Zealanders. And ultimately that's what Kiwis want. Most Kiwis don't follow politics too closely. They just want to know that their lives are being improved over time because they have more opportunities themselves. They have the ability to get a good education to get the healthcare they need to feel safe in their communities and to have a prosperous career or a successful business because of the environment that the Government of the day has helped to enable.It's that enablement that a Government should do. It is not up to the Government to tell people how to live their lives to give them the solutions but to actually offer them the opportunity to succeed. That is what this Government is absolutely committed to and I am very encouraged by that. Especially in the Waikato the beautiful Waikato we have a lot of opportunity ahead of us under this Government. When we look at some of the ambitious projects that have been outlined under our 100-day plan and indeed in the broader policy suite the Waikato will be in good heart.The continuation of the Waikato Expressway is a fantastic and much-needed project that will help to save lives help to reduce congestion and grow the economy. Ultimately linking that through to the Bay of Plenty with my colleagues Tom Rutherford and Sam Uffindell will be a fantastic piece of infrastructure that this country needs linking our fourth- and fifth-largest cities and up the road to Auckland as well. This is the sort of infrastructure that a Government needs to provide for the country to be able to prosper. That's where we've been let down. And we can see that with the few significant infrastructure projects the last Government put forward none of which actually commenced or progressed at all. They just didn't have that same ambition to achieve. That is where we are very focused on actually enhancing outcomes delivering outcomes for New Zealanders.It has been fantastic over the last nearly two months since the election as I've gone to a wide array of events around the electorate and building into the Christmas period there's always a lot of those sorts of community events on—the level of optimism is magnificent. Everyone is positive about the opportunity ahead of us. That for me—well it's humbling because it's up to us. We have the opportunity now to deliver for New Zealanders and I'm confident we can. But actually it's more like what I remember of New Zealand—a place where people are confident that if they put in the hard yards they will succeed that their communities can succeed that all of New Zealand can succeed off the back of that. I don't think we've seen that for a number of years now. I was increasingly sad when time after time as constituents over the last few years came in with a broad array of complex challenges many of which had been exacerbated under the previous Government policies it was simply—well it was really sad. It just was. Because these were people who really wanted to get ahead and in many instances it was around housing-related issues—and we've seen that wait-list for public housing go through the roof an extra 20000-odd under the previous Government despite them saying that housing was going to be one of their key solutions that they first came in on. Of course we all know about KiwiBuild and how that was an abject failure. But actually what we saw time and time again in these areas was just a failure to deliver and Kiwis got despondent off the back of that. I think we've seen that morale lift significantly. We're not out of the woods. There are tough times. We are still not seeing the economy in a position where we would like it to be. We have work to do in that space but we're committed to that work. And that's why we're seeing the first piece of legislation coming through next week helping to get the Reserve Bank back focused on that core mandate so that we can get the economy back under control get that cost of living under control and help people to be better off—simple things that make a difference in people's lives; direct outcomes. And that's how we will be holding ourselves to account on this side of the House: are we delivering better outcomes than what Kiwis had before the election? I have every confidence that we will be able to answer with a resounding yes in that regard.Now I've mentioned the expressway and of course the Waikato heart of farming. It's the biggest dairying region in New Zealand it's the land of milk and honey; it's a wonderful place. I can't advocate strongly enough for it and we are very delighted to be able to bring forward a range of solutions for our rural sector as well. Of course there are many great rural sectors in New Zealand and I do want to acknowledge my colleagues in the House returned and new members—actually we have a lot of members now with a farming background and that is fantastic to see. We represent a broad array of electorates across the country and that farming backbone of New Zealand is absolutely critical. It's what New Zealand was founded on.And when you think about not just the economic contribution but the spirit of Kiwis the sense of community those things that you see underpinned so well and represented daily in rural communities—Mark Cameron: Fantastic rural caucuses in the House now.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: Absolutely. There's a whole range of rural representatives here on this side of the House and we are delighted to be able to advocate strongly for them. So I am confident we will be able to help get rid of some of that red tape. That was one of the key drivers for me getting into politics. It was to reduce the red tape and compliance. As a business owner and a farmer I've seen the impact of that. We need to shift the dial so that people can succeed. Our productivity has continued to decline for some time and now we are focusing on addressing that. I am confident we are going to have a fantastic three years and make some really meaningful change. Of course health and education are another couple of big areas. And I do just want to touch briefly on health because in the Waikato we will be in our first 100 days signing a memorandum of understanding with the University of Waikato about establishing a third medical school. That is a wonderful project that will actually deliver meaningful outcomes. I keep talking about meaningful outcomes because actually that is what matters and that is what we have not seen over the previous six years under the Labour Government. So I am confident that we will start to see that. It will take time to turn that dial of course but we are working on it from day one.In education I have young children at primary school. They love going to school and the teachers are incredibly passionate and I am just delighted that we are bringing out some policies that will help our kids across the country to achieve to the level that they should be able to. Basic things: an hour a day of reading writing and maths. That's still only half the school day. A lot can be done if you have a good education. And we've heard from the education Minister Erica Stanford around the terrible Programme for International Student Assessment results we've just seen and the ongoing challenges we've seen across education. There is so much to be done in that space and it is so important. If we don't get education right we are setting ourselves up for a massive failure down the track—an economic failure but also a social failure. If Kiwis aren't contributing if they don't have the ability or the innovative mindset the basic understanding of education to succeed then our country will be worse off for it. So I'm delighted to see that.And of course law and order—unfortunately as lovely as the Waikato is we are still impacted by law and order issues that are experienced across the country. We need to shift that dial and I'm confident we will do that. It's about sending the signals in the first instance but actually delivering meaningful outcomes and we will be doing both of those things. So all in all it is a very exciting time. I was just so pleased to be listening to the Speech from the Throne and to have heard our commitments as we've progressed through developing the coalition agreements to a point where on this side of the House there is a high level of ambition. The enthusiasm the energy to deliver is massive and I am just so pumped for a successful three years ahead under this Government helping to right some of the wrongs that we've seen over the last Government's tenure and actually to deliver significant change in those areas that have been let down.So on that I am very pleased to continue the successful Address in Reply we've heard from this side of the House. Thank you.