Smith Nick; Mallard TrevorHon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment): New Prime Minister Bill English has got off to a cracking start in stark contrast to the confused disunited and very messy start to the year that Andrew Little has made. In this contribution I want to contrast the progress and the leadership that the new Prime Minister has made relative to that mess opposite.We begin the year with significant international uncertainty. Any Prime Minister who was putting this country's interests at the forefront would make it their No. 1 priority to connect early with that world. That is why it was absolutely the right choice for Prime Minister Bill English in the early weeks of January when most of us were sunning on the beaches to go to London to meet with the new Prime Minister of the UK Theresa May to go to Brussels and meet with Jean-Claude Juncker in terms of the EU and the instability and issues that were there and to meet with Angela Merkel in Germany. You see at the same time as Andrew Little was lying on the beaches Bill English was already out of the starting blocks looking after New Zealand's interests.Then we move to Rātana and Waitangi Day. What I saw at Rātana and what I saw at Waitangi was the most comfortable Prime Minister I have seen in two decades engaging with the issues that matter in respect of good race relations in this country. You see Bill English is moving race relations into a new chapter where we can honestly celebrate Waitangi Day. He had his finger absolutely on the pulse of New Zealand public opinion in refusing to be part of the fiasco that has become part of Te Tii Marae.I contrast that with the contradictory messages from Andrew Little: in one breath criticising the Prime Minister for not going to Te Tii Marae and then saying in the next breath that if he were Prime Minister on 6 February 2018 he might not go. That is just so symptomatic of the lack of vision and of the confusion within Labour around something as important as our national day. I stood yesterday with our Prime Minister at the maraes in both east and west Auckland and felt a sense of optimism amongst New Zealanders about the future of race relations. The contributions of our new Prime Minister on the issues of enterprise for iwi and on the issues of whānau show that he has got his finger on the pulse of the issues that matter for Māori.Then we came to the Prime Minister's announcement of the date of 23 September for the general election this year. Again the Prime Minister was showing leadership in the very good culture that has been set by his predecessor John Key in being open and honest and straightforward about that most important of institutions and that is the election of this Parliament by democratic means.I contrast it: how much notice of elections did Labour give when it was in Government? Labour used it to play political games. Labour gave just 6 weeks' notice of the election in 2002 and just 8 weeks' notice in 2005 and 2008. In stark contrast the approach that this Prime Minister has taken shows real leadership in not playing games with our democratic institutions but being fair and upfront with New Zealand at the beginning of the year as to the date of our general election.Can I contrast that with the moves inside the Labour Party. If there is anything that we know about the world beginning this year of 2017 it is that it is an uncertain and unstable place that requires stable government and we do not even have stability within the Labour Party. I say this to my colleagues: can any member of my team remember a time in the last 10 years when a new candidate has been announced for the National Party and on the same day attacked by their own colleagues? I have checked the record: there have been over 30 talented candidates joining our parliamentary team here in Parliament and I challenge members opposite to tell me once—when on the very day Willie Jackson is announced as the candidate the Labour Party is ripping his guts apart in public. Labour pretends it is fit to govern the country and it cannot even govern itself.Then you come to the core issues of policy. Again the contradictions stand all over the place. I ask members opposite where they stand on important policy like charter schools which is about getting kids ahead. Willie Jackson is a strong advocate and is now a member of your team. So what is it? Is it the Labour Party's bowing to the teacher unions and the opposition to innovation and education that is going to rule or the championing of Willie Jackson for those sorts of causes? Then you get the same contradictions in Whānau Ora for which Willie Jackson is an advocate because of what this Government is doing with the Māori Party but Labour has pledged to rip it up. It does not know what it stands for. And then we come to the state of the nation speeches where New Zealanders were looking for substance from their political leaders on issues that matter. You had a speech from Bill English that was not only tough on crime but tough on the causes of crime.I can say from my community in Nelson that the additional 1100 police staff the extra investment of $500 million into additional resources for Police and Justice—but the real visionary part of that speech from Bill English was not just a debate about putting resources into the Public Service but expecting results from the public sector: results in terms of crime reduction results in terms of responsiveness of key public services like the 111 number and the proposed non-emergency number as well.I contrast that with the warm fuzzy and sizzle that you got from Labour and the Greens. Did they answer any one of the substantive questions of contradictions of policy between Labour and the Greens and what they would do in Government? Because there are over 20 questions that the media have rightly asked: what would a Labour-Green Government do—would it be Green Party policy or Labour policy were they privileged to form the next Government of New Zealand? They could not answer and a Government-in-waiting that cannot answer those basic questions is not fit to govern.I want to finish with Pike because today the Leader of the Opposition again showed that he is unfit to govern and riddled with contradictions. We have got over 650 pages of very detailed analysis showing that it is not safe for men to enter the drift of that mine. But here is the contradiction: the Leader of the Opposition has argued in one brief that it is safe but in the next he has argued that we have to exempt it from the very workplace safety laws that we put in place in response to that disaster. Both of those positions cannot be true. Either it is safe and you can do it under the law—that noteworthy Mr Little said was too weak—or it is not safe. His position on that issue shows that he has failed the most basic tests of leadership and that his contradictory position shows just how weak and hopeless the Opposition is.I am proud to be part of this Bill English - led Government with the vision and the leadership that it is providing for New Zealand and I am looking forward to the election later this year.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member's time has expired.