Hipkins ChrisCHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): This is a National Government that has given up on the big challenges facing New Zealanders. After 9 years in Government those members are just too tired. They have given up. They shriek they yell they patronise and they bully but they have given up on the big issues that confront New Zealanders. For all of the facts and figures that they are giving up they have lost sight of the fact that they are here to govern for people—for people.Here is a number that I am going to give to the Government today: 702. That is the number of schools in New Zealand that are either already overcrowded or are at risk of becoming overcrowded within the next year or two because this Government has not kept up with population growth. It has been happy to take the extra tax revenue that comes from population growth but when it comes to investing in the services that that increasing population needs it has done nothing. It has not been willing to invest that money. As of today by the Government's own definition there are 214 schools that are overcrowded. That means we have got kids having their classes transferred to libraries halls gymnasiums and even old dental clinics because they have not got the classrooms that they need to keep up with that growth. There are another 488 schools that are at serious risk of becoming overcrowded in the near future.The Government is now frantically playing catch-up. Yet we know that of the hundreds of millions of dollars that it has announced in terms of spending in the last 3 or 4 years only a fraction of that has actually been spent because the Government is constantly trying to catch up and it is not doing a very good job of it. That is why parents know that the learning conditions that their kids are facing simply are not good enough. Parents in early childhood education know just how much the Government has run down the early childhood education sector because although participation is up—and that is a great thing—the funding on a per-child basis has gone backwards not only in real terms but in nominal terms as well.Early childhood services are not getting the money they need to deliver quality education for kids. So if they were to catch up for the 9 years of National Government they would be looking at hundreds of millions of dollars if not a billion dollars or more of back-funding to make up for the fact that the Government has not increased early childhood education funding to keep up with the growing population and increasing costs. As for schools the Government froze school operations grants last year which meant that increasing salaries for school support staff had to be absorbed by cutting things somewhere else or by cutting the school support staff themselves and that is not good enough. The Government of course has frozen student support for tertiary students for years and in fact in many cases it has reduced the level of support available.This generation of students leaving tertiary education now will be the most indebted ever in New Zealand's history and that is not good enough. And even within the debt the Government is not willing to acknowledge the increase in cost. The amount that students can borrow for their living costs has not changed I think in the entire time the National Party has been in Government and the result of that is now people cannot even borrow enough money to pay the rent on their flats let alone eat and that is the track record of the current National Government. But it is not just education; we have seen woeful neglect in mental health and we are suffering the consequences as a society for that and the Government has got nothing to say on that. It has simply given up. When it comes to the challenge of homeownership the Government has a lot of smoke and mirrors it has got a lot of puffery but it is not actually delivering results. Homeownership rates are the lowest—the lowest—that they have been in several generations. That is a whole generation of New Zealanders now completely shut out of the housing market. Something like 85 percent of the people who are renting today will never save enough for a deposit to buy their own home. That is the legacy of this National Government. It has robbed from the future by refusing to pay into the Superannuation Fund kicking the can down the road and saying that the future retirement of New Zealanders is something for a future Government to worry about. This Government has completely washed its hands of it. And while we are talking about washing things one thing it has not washed or has not cleaned up is our rivers. It is quite happy to admit that New Zealand rivers are unswimmable. The birthright of New Zealanders to go down to their local swimming hole for a swim in the summer has been taken away increasingly in recent years and this Government does not care about that. It seems to think that is good enough. I do not think that is good enough. I think it is time we have a Government that focused on the future. Remember the brighter future the National Party promised? It never arrived for New Zealanders. I think it is time we had a Government that is genuinely aspirational for New Zealanders and that is what New Zealanders will get if they vote for a change of Government and vote for a Labour Government in September this year.