Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam): Before I launch in to my comments on the Prime Minister's statement in support of the amended motion by the Hon Simon Bridges let me just say to Mr Mark that much of what he is doing I think is a continuation of efforts that have been around for a wee while. I'll just point out to him though that when the opportunity came to visit Iraq to see our soldiers at Taji New Zealand First apparently were unavailable to make that trip something that was very disappointing to me personally. But Andrew Little came along and it was a valuable thing to do. I think what the Minister of Defence is doing in continuing to go into the field to give our personnel in the field the sense that their mission is very much on the part of the best interests of the people of New Zealand is a good thing. So can I just say to the Hon Ron Mark I do wish you all the best in the considerations that are clearly going to come with the impending announcement by the Rt Hon Winston Peters.So when the Prime Minister delivered her speech the other day I think there was an expectation that it might have been a little bit more substantive than actually was put on the Table.It's a speech I think notable for its lack of content—notable for its overreliance on emotional and values - based statements that really do very little to advance the cause of better living for any New Zealander.I look at that speech and see how many times the Prime Minister protested that the current Government are showing leadership in a range of areas—a range of policies where apparently all who went before had failed. But that is utterly ridiculous when you've got a Government that now is looking at a job creation situation in New Zealand that's fallen from 10000 new jobs a month down to just 650 jobs at the last measure. That is apparently leadership—that is apparently Labour Party leadership.Then there is this talk about the economy: the constant claiming by the Prime Minister and the finance Minister and anybody else that ever gets to speak about it from that Government that the economy is continuing to grow at an extraordinary rate which they seem to think is 3 percent. Everybody else that's looking at the indicators is warning that the economy is not growing at that rate. We take no joy in that whatsoever—no joy in that whatsoever—because what it means is that opportunities for New Zealanders who are working or who want to be working are not going to be there. That's why the job creation is down to just 650 new jobs a month. It's why there are 10000 more people on the jobseeker benefit now—that's the old unemployment benefit—than there were 12 months ago. That apparently is Labour leadership and it's all OK; it's all good!Then there is the unexplained position that we now seem to have in foreign relations—this claim that we have an independent policy an independent position on foreign relations. Well we always did have. But lately the attacks that have come from Government Ministers on the Chinese administration show that we are no longer independent. We are much more interested in listening to others who are whispering in our ears to make the sorts of statements that have been made. And make no mistake; the Government can gloss over it all they like. They can say that everything that's happened in the last little while—the aeroplane being turned back the education student numbers falling the tourist numbers falling the recent decision on communications—are nothing to do apparently with the Government but everything to do with the deteriorating relationship. This is not a happy situation.And then I'd ask the question: where has the comment been from the New Zealand Government about the atrocities going on in the Kashmir in India? Where has the Government's position been on the human rights abuses and the terrible situation developing in Venezuela? Nowhere. Nowhere because we don't want to offend somebody else who's whispering in our ear. That is apparently Labour leadership.Then we have the Tax Working Group about to come down this week with their recommendations. There is no doubt that there will be a whole lot of gloss put on a very ugly pile of droppings that is delivered to the New Zealand people this coming week. A capital gains tax is nothing short of an envy tax and it not only reaches people who own property—which is always the easiest way to deal with things—but it will go to have an impact on everybody's KiwiSaver balances. It will have an impact on other private savings opportunities but most of all it will have an impact on people who are trying to get into the housing market because if someone is selling a house and they are going to have to pay a capital gain on it because it was a second property an investment property then they are going to want that reflected in the price. And that is the international evidence that anyone can see wherever they'd like to look. So that of course in turn will set the median price for new homes.And then it comes to what an extraordinary situation we've got with the Government claiming that KiwiBuild is a reasonable thing for first-home buyers when the prices for those homes are astronomically large—astronomically large—and well out of the reach of most first-home buyers. That's why they're not selling. That's why they're not being taken up. At some point the Government is going to have to tell us all how much they've underwritten this massive programme and how many dollars they're going to hand out to people who have invested in the programme without delivering a single benefit to any of those who are supposed to be the customers the clients for KiwiBuild. That apparently is Labour leadership.There's the $5 billion they've stripped out of the roading. Can you imagine what it must feel like if you're in a rural community when the People's Champion"—or what is he called: the "Regional Champion"; I don't know what he calls himself—turns up the town doles out cheques all over the place but does nothing about the access that those communities have to major transport networks. The ridiculous situation in the House today where the Minister for road safety is saying that she is right on side with the Minister for Regional Development when he's saying sensibly "Let's build a road that's safe." and the Green Minister is saying "No no. We'll just put some wire ropes down the middle and everything will be OK." That's not going to cut it in a regional development sense. People aren't silly. They know that if one and one don't equal two then it's not of any benefit to them.There are many other things. I want to finish my comments today on the issue of energy. I can't believe that we've got a Minister of Energy and Resources happy to say that New Zealand's natural gas supplies—given the current arrangements—will run out in between five and seven years' time. Well what happens then? What happens at that point? Does that mean that the entire North Island—that is largely reliant on gas for all sorts of domestic use—has to convert to some other fuel presumably electricity? Is it possible to replace that petajoule value with electricity in just seven years? No it most certainly is not. So this country will be importing gas from countries far and wide and we'll be convincing ourselves that we're doing a favour to the environment. This is the most nutty backward and I have to say almost deceptive policy that you could possibly have but apparently that's what you do if you're showing leadership—totally unacceptable.Madam Deputy Speaker you think for just a moment—or everyone in the House should think for a moment—about this situation. Everyone is saying "It's wonderful. We're going to have hydrogen technology before we know where we are." Show me one place in the world where hydrogen technology is a significant contributor to their energy needs. That doesn't exist in that quantity. And we've had the recent report that the New Zealand Government and the New Zealand Minister have completely decided to ignore which says that electricity produced from hydrogen is 10 times more expensive than energy produced from the combined cycle gas. So why are we heading down a track that denies how history works? I think hydrogen—and hydrogen technology—will be a big big energy player in the future but it's no further developed than steam was 300 years ago. It takes time and in the meantime the Labour leadership is going to inflict enormous cost on ordinary New Zealanders."