Tabuteau FletcherFLETCHER TABUTEAU (Deputy Leader—NZ First): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First with a good-news message for those people in the Opposition over there a good-news message to the people of New Zealand and a big warm greeting to everyone because despite the speech from the Leader of the Opposition earlier today it's actually good to be back. It's good to see you all. Let's get on with the work shall we because I'm looking forward to it and this gives us an opportunity to outline what that looks like.But I tell you what—and I do hate to be negative after that but it was incredibly frustrating listening to the Hon Simon Bridges who seemed to wallow and revel in the post-truth facts he was kind of spewing out at every opportunity in his contribution. I can only pick on one because I want to move on to the bulk of my speech but one example was his apparent—apparent—vehement opposition to a capital gains tax. And I say apparent" because in the last year they were in Government the National Party introduced legislation to the House which was a capital gains tax. Despite the fact that they tried at all times never to say the words "capital gains tax" it was a capital gains tax and it was the National Party that introduced it to the House and it was the bright-line legislation. So that's just one example I picked up from the Leader of the Opposition's contribution this afternoon. Can I give my I don't know condolences to the leader. His contribution didn't start well. I'm not sure he knew what he was doing when he moved the motion to rebut the Prime Minister's contribution. But here we go; he kind of got there. But what I want to suggest to the members opposite and the Leader of the Opposition is that as painful as it was to watch National operate under their "do nothing" mindset when they were in Government—"do nothing do not disturb or do anything unless we're picked on"—it might be a good way to run the Opposition. Let me make a few points about what it was that this Government this coalition Government that I'm proud to be a part of is having to pick up the pieces from. Our regions are neglected. There was some mention from previous speakers about how long-term this neglect has been this kind of post - neo-liberal movement back in the mid-1980s but let's be clear about this. The support base of the National Party is supposed to be from the regions—and I'm going to touch on that later on—but no MP over there when they were in Government stood up and decried the lack of effort the lack of motivation the "do nothing" contribution from the National Government. In education we're seeing skills shortages now because there was no money spent in tertiary education. I was part of that for a long time. I saw first-hand just how difficult it was for not only the staff but the students having to cope with that supposed refinement of our tertiary education sector.Then there's border protection. Almost every other month the very livelihood of this country was put at risk because of supposed cost savings from the National Party. Just about every other month there was some kind of infringement across our border compromising the very lifeblood of our nation and it was unbelievable: "Nothing to see here; let's not do anything about it." In terms of homelessness and the lack of homes they go on about the struggle to build homes and it's real and it's tough but we are getting on with it. We are building homes because we need to. They took them away. They demolished them. They refused to add to the pool. And here we are still trying to deal with this housing crisis. My next point is about the mental health crisis and the suicide rates in New Zealand. Their solution there was actually to take away money in nearly all parts of the medical services not only directly through our health services but through our volunteer organisations and non-governmental organisations.Next is roading and infrastructure and their imaginary four-laning of just about every part of the country. It's just unbelievable how they speak to New Zealanders about how this Government on this side of the House isn't four-laning this or that road or this or that part of the country because when we looked at the books and all the promises that were supposedly made we saw that not a bean not a cent was allocated to those roading projects. It's just unbelievable. I turn to police and crime and unfortunately the expansion of the drug market in New Zealand. Crime in New Zealand went up. The drug problem has increased in New Zealand and I'm proud to be a Government member and a New Zealand First MP who said we've got to stop this. We've got to increase our police force. We've got to put resource there to stop the harm and stop the crime and let's try and create better safer communities for New Zealand. Another issue is our prison population. What was the solution to the ever bulging bubble of prisoners in New Zealand? I know—the National Party will spend over a billion dollars on a new prison and then spend at least $100 million more each year maintaining that. It's just unbelievable.For me in the area of foreign affairs and trade—I've travelled the world and had the privilege of representing New Zealand in my role and what I have seen from our team in foreign affairs and trade around the country is a rejuvenation of energy a pride an increase in not only resource but commitment to this country and actually that has tangible benefits. What did they say? They said we're going to increase our free-trade agreements by some percentage. Actually what we need is more people on the ground eyeballing our trading partners helping our businesses engage and making it easier to do business overseas and that's what I've been seeing over the last year. Geez I've written about six pages of notes and I've just got off the first page. So I think it's best to touch on perhaps the economy because Mr Bridges—and I'm sure others in the Opposition—tried to talk it down. But as Mr Parker pointed out in his contribution when you look at the rest of the developed world New Zealand's economy is growing faster and stronger—Hon Member: 0.3 percent.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: —compared to the rest of the developed world. Yeah 3 percent. Thank you. So it's good news for New Zealand and the New Zealand economy the regions and the people in them. But this is about more than GDP and the growth numbers. The conversation and policy now and the future direction of this Government is about the well-being of New Zealanders. It isn't an arbitrary number of GDP—it's great to have economic growth but how do we share that? How do people in New Zealand equally or rightly share in that growth—growth that's from something other than rampant immigration growing the population in Auckland and property speculation supposedly making New Zealanders wealthier?That's not what we're trying to do here. In fact the latest statistics—despite the post-truth claims of the National Party over there with regard to the signing of the UN resolution—are that we've actually had a decrease in immigration and forecasts are that it will continue to do so because quite rightly as has been pointed out numerous times we have the right to make those decisions on behalf of New Zealanders when it is in our best interests to look after New Zealanders. Whether they've been here a day or whether they were born here it's our job to look after New Zealanders.So with the political turmoil around the world which others have touched on—I won't go into detail there because I see I've only got 40 seconds left. I want to point out that as the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister have said GDP in New Zealand is stable. It's not only stable but growing at world-leading rates. We are carefully managing the books in terms of any potential future world shocks and that balancing and that surplus is an important stabiliser for New Zealand as we move forward but it's there. It's there and we're ready and we're able and I congratulate the finance Minister at the end of my contribution. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker."