Roche Denise: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 01 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9234. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I rise to take the final call for the Greens on the Prime Minister’s statement and I want to address the four priorities that he outlined. They were to responsibly manage the Government’s finances to build a more competitive and productive economy to deliver better public services to New Zealanders and to support the rebuilding of Christchurch.I applaud the Government’s small army of public relations and communications staff for being able to spin this Government’s appalling record on these issues into some kind of achievement. National has promised to responsibly manage the Government’s finance. The reality is that it has increased New Zealand’s public debt to $120 billion. A legacy of National’s poor economic management is tax cuts to its rich mates and giveaways to dodgy corporates. It promised to build a more competitive and productive economy; instead it built an economy that was built on property speculation—ask anyone in Auckland—and on casino capitalism and on unsustainable practices. It has failed to meaningfully diversify the economy and implement a vision towards a greener and more sustainable economy.Our trading fortunes seem to rise and fall with the dairy prices and we see as the result of this farms carrying nearly $60 billion in debt with dairy farms carrying $40 billion of that debt. Nearly one in 10 farmers is under financial stress. The Government’s single-minded focus on bigger more intensive farming endangers our fragile ecosystems. It pressures farmers into intensifying and it undermines New Zealand’s No. 1 strength: our “clean green” reputation.This Government claims to have provided Better Public Services. It has certainly been very good at delivering public services to further private interests—to places like Serco Skycity and let us not forget charter schools—and it has certainly been very good at replacing democratically elected bodies in favour of appointed cronies. We see this with the Southern District Health Board and governance in Christchurch. But the facts speak for themselves. National’s approach is not working.Currently there are 129 days of waiting time to get a State house if you are in urgent need. One in three people needing a house is turned away and taken off the waiting lists to help the Government fudge the books with its creative accounting. The Government’s hard-line ideology is pressuring our hard-working public servants. Our nurses and doctors are having to cope with nearly $2 billion—$2 billion—in underfunding our universities are slipping in the world rankings and our Department of Conservation is struggling to fulfil its core responsibilities due to budget cuts.The reality on the ground was exposed a couple of weeks ago by the Salvation Army’s report. In it it says—and as we know—that there are still 220000 kids living in poverty there are still 150000 notifications for potential child abuse this year and there are over 55000 food parcels being provided by the Salvation Army. Only on “Planet Key” can the number of kids remaining in poverty increase despite the economy growing 12 percent since 2010.The reality about our Public Service is that it cannot continue to struggle with underfunding. Political reporter Andrea Vance was correct: instead of having Better Public Services we have “Bitter Public Services”. Despite the Government’s glossy public relations our hard-working teachers nurses doctors and police are bearing the cost of having to do much much more with less and that means that our most vulnerable—our kids kids living in poverty regional New Zealand and our new migrants—are bearing the costs of these stealth cuts.Let me just talk a little bit about Christchurch and the promises there. My colleagues from Christchurch have already touched on this but allow me to ask the question once more: how can the Government be listing its rebuilding of Christchurch as an achievement and then several days later slash the funding for mental health services in the area? Rebuilding is more than replacing bricks and mortar. It is about supporting people who have been hurt and are facing losses it is about wrapping support around the vulnerable and vulnerable communities and it is about acknowledging that the loss of friends family businesses and ways of life can be painful and difficult and that it requires help. I pay tribute to the incredible resilience courage and fortitude of the people of Christchurch and I condemn this Government which by its actions is failing the people of Christchurch and the people of New Zealand.The Government has repeatedly promised a brighter future for New Zealand but it has always talked a better game than it has been prepared to deliver. For ordinary working New Zealanders we have gone backwards in terms of rights at work we have gone backwards in terms of the work climate where lots and lots of public servants feel bullied and fearful and we have gone backwards about zero-hour contracts. The Prime Minister promised a brighter future for New Zealanders but actually he has left every New Zealander in the dark. The recent increase of the minimum wage to $15.25 an hour and the gap between that and the living wage of $19.80 reflect that reality. Since 2009 the highest-paid third of New Zealanders have seen their incomes increase eight times as much as the lowest-paid third.Last year the Government promised to outlaw zero-hour contracts but instead of moving on that what it is doing is attempting to legalise them. Last year the Government promised a gold-plated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement but we are being sucked in and stuck with an agreement that will cost 5000 jobs and leave us open to being sued by big corporates. There is a better way—there is a much better way.It is interesting to note what the Prime Minister did not talk about. Not once did the Prime Minister mention the word “inequality” or the word “poverty” not once did the Prime Minister address the growing gap between the haves and have-nots in this country and only once did he mention climate change—and then only in passing. A progressive Prime Minister would have talked about child poverty and supported measures to fix it like our breakfast in schools bill—the Government could have supported that—and like maybe decent incomes for families. A progressive Prime Minister would have talked about how climate change is the greatest challenge we face but it is also an opportunity for New Zealand to become world leaders in a new high-value cleantech low-carbon economy. A progressive Prime Minister would have talked about how we can have an economy that works for everyone not just the very rich and a progressive Government with the Greens in it would do more than just talk and spin.We would act on these issues and make sure that every single child in New Zealand is cared for and lives in a warm dry home. We would make sure ordinary New Zealanders would get a fair deal at work and a fair share of the benefits of a smart thriving green economy that works for everyone. We would make sure that we have rivers we can swim in and vibrant green cities and townships with fast affordable clean public transport. An Aotearoa with the Green Party at the heart of Government will be a much kinder place and certainly we would deliver a lot better than what this Government has.