Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National): This is astonishing. Here we are and one of the Government's senior Ministers—I'm slightly taken aback. I was watching the clock thinking This will be good; two minutes to go off this long laborious speech." which I don't even think the Minister of Health believed with her political attacks. She's not a politician and you can tell because the political attacks fell flat. It was a long eight minutes. I thought "There's two minutes to go; I have to sit there and listen to more of this." and then she sat down. Astonishing. But I'm prepared to stand up.When they write the history books about this Government they will remember it as the most incompetent useless Government in New Zealand history in the last 50 years. They will remember it for three things: (1) massive spending (2) waste and (3) the fact that they are and remain soft on crime.Let's talk about spending because this Budget reflects a Budget that increases spending massively. Over the six years of Grant Robertson's time as finance Minister spending has gone from $76 billion per year to $128 billion. That is an 80 percent increase in Government spending in six years. It is an astonishing increase in spending. That is $28000 per house—Hon Judith Collins: Addicted.CHRIS BISHOP: —$28000. He is as Judith Collins says addicted to spending. Every year he turns up at Budget day 2 p.m. on a Thursday and hands around the documents with his merry henchmen—Megan Woods and James Shaw and all the rest of them—and proudly displays the wellbeing agenda. We don't hear much about wellbeing any more from Grant Robertson. But every year he hands round the Budget documents and the year before he said he'll spend a certain amount of money and then every year he breaks that promise. Things have got so bad that the Treasury has to write into the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update—write into the documents—that he always overspends. It's right there in the documents. They've had to put a note to the financial statements that say on average the Government exceeds the new operating allowance every year by $600 million—every year on average. Now you add that up over six years and it all adds up. That's how we've got to a position where after just six years Government spending is up by over $50 billion and there's been an 80 percent increase and $28000 per household. I put it to you Mr Speaker—and to the House and to New Zealanders—that we are not 80 percent better off for that spending. Child poverty is not down 80 percent. Violent crime is not down 80 percent; in fact it's up by a third. The environment is not 80 percent better. We have not got 80 percent fewer people on welfare; in fact the number of job seekers is up by 50000 at a time of allegedly full employment. So I put it to the people of New Zealand: are you 80 percent better off for the 80 percent increase in Government spending? Actually I think they know the answer is no they aren't.What does the Budget also say? The Budget documents say that inflation will be higher for longer because of this Budget. That's in the document written by Treasury. They say that interest rates will be higher for longer. That's because at the very time Grant Robertson should be taking the foot off the fiscal accelerator he is doing the opposite. He has massively blown out the operating allowance again. We are now in a situation where the operating deficit for this year is $7.6 billion; last year he said it would be $600 million—well now we're $7 billion out again. Because of that the surplus has been delayed again. Does anyone seriously think Grant Robertson will ever—Hon Willie Jackson: Yes.CHRIS BISHOP: —deliver a surplus? Oh yes yes "Sir Willie Jackson" says yeah. Whatever. The next Government to deliver a surplus will be a National-led Government because we know how to get spending under control.So interest rates will be higher for longer and so every time in the next six months in the run up to the election New Zealanders go into the bank and say to the bank manager "I need to re-fix my mortgage because I was on a one- or two-year rate two years ago and I was paying 2.5 percent or maybe 2.6 percent or maybe 2.8 percent in my fixed-rate mortgage and I need to re-fix because it's expired." and "Mr Bank Manager" says "I can offer you 6.5 percent or maybe 6.4 percent if you're lucky and it's not going to change much." New Zealanders need to know they are paying more in interest bills every week or fortnight or every month because of Grant Robertson. That is the take-home point: people are paying higher mortgage and higher interest bills and paying more to the bank manager and don't have as much in their back pocket because of Grant Robertson because at the same time as the Reserve Bank printed money he kept spending—he's utterly addicted to it.What is he addicted to it for? That's the second thing the Government will be remembered for and that is waste. There was $55 million on a cycle bridge that never got built; $3 million for the Mongrel Mob to run a money-laundering scheme about anti-meth operations; hundreds of thousands of public relations consultants swimming around the Wellington vortex doing frankly not a lot; and Te Whatu Ora running weird Instagram ads and surveys so people can tell Te Whatu Ora that they don't like the health system. Ayesha Verrall has just resumed her set and her ministry is spending thousands of dollars running weird Instagram surveys so that people can click a button saying "I don't think the health system delivers for me." Well guess what! By the way you all pay for this—all taxpayers pay for this—90 percent of people clicked the button that said the health crisis is in crisis because it is. Just crazy spending throughout the bureaucracy and throughout the weird vortex that is the Wellington political industrial complex. So as a result the size of the State just continues to increase—it just goes on and on and on. That's why we have 14000 more Public Service workers in Wellington enjoying their lunches—I'm not having a go at them; many of them work very hard but they have an ill-disciplined unfocused Government that's got rid of all of the targets that's got rid of all of the accountability that's got rid of all of the leadership from the top. That's why we have a hapless education Minister who's got no control—Hon Willie Jackson: Who's going great guns—great guns.CHRIS BISHOP: —over her ministry—no control even apparently over her ministerial office as Erica Stanford has demonstrated. That's why we have a hapless broadcasting Minister who spent two years trying to merge TVNZ and RNZ together for reasons that were never articulated by anyone—never actually articulated properly—and then had to get rid of the idea because finally the new Prime Minister came in and said "This is crazy. Why are we spending hundreds of millions of dollars merging two functioning agencies together?" In fairness to Willie it's not entirely his fault; his mate Kris Faafoi was partly responsible for that and of course he has shuffled off the mortal political coil because he got to the point where he probably said "Why are we doing this? I have got no idea. I'm out of here. I'm going to hand this baby over to Willie to shepherd through." and then of course it's been killed. But that's the problem—that's the problem. We don't have a Government that's actually focused on getting kids to school; we don't have a Government that's focused on once they're at school getting them to be able to read and write; we don't have a Government focused on actually giving the police the powers that are required to get tough on crime; and we don't have a Government that's focused on targets in the health system so that surgical waiting lists go down and emergency department waiting times are taken seriously. We have a Government that is obsessed with fluff and nonsense spending for the sake of spending consultants for the sake of consultants and not delivering anything.They are soft on crime. There's been a 33 percent increase in violent offending; a 55 percent increase in the last three months of ram raids; a 41 percent increase in victimisations; and a 60 percent increase in gang membership in the last six years.So when they write the history books about this useless Government they will remember it for massive spending for blowing the fiscal limits. They will remember it for waste. They will remember it for being soft on crime. Mostly they will remember it for not being able to actually get anything done. After six years there's been an 80 percent increase in Government spending; we're not 80 percent better off. We will oppose it at the election. Finally a National Government—SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired."