Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National): New Zealanders have just endured another punch in the gut with a lift in the official cash rate. Interest rates have risen for the 11th time in a row and what do the members opposite want to talk about? Well we've got Willie Jackson waxing lyrical about co-governance we've got Kieran McAnulty defending the failed three waters reforms and we had Grant Robertson at question time today making every excuse under the sun. But the reality is this: today many New Zealand mortgage holders will be doing the maths and trying to work out how they make it add up in their house when they refix their mortgage this year and it goes from an interest rate of 3 percent or less to double that. They'll be saying to themselves That is hundreds of dollars every fortnight that we have to find in our family." They'll be saying to themselves "Where are we going to find it?" and the unfortunate thing is that some of them won't find it. Some of them will be forced to sell their hard-earned homes some of them will go into mortgage arrears many of them will go into deep financial distress and we all know the pain that that creates in families. The conflict between parents the pressure on kids the opportunities that go lost—that is the reality today. New Zealanders have endured an unprecedented sequence of lifts in the official cash rate and why is it happening? It is because we are enduring a prolonged cost of living crisis with interest rates following inflation that has been out of control for two years because Labour's big-spending big-taxing anti-business approach has delivered nothing but rising prices for New Zealanders. We had Sarah Pallett the member just before me deciding to talk about nurses. Well let me tell her a little bit about nurses because this week 5000 nurses we learn are leaving for Australia. Let me tell you a little bit about Australia. In Australia here's a couple of big factors. Inflation: it's lower there. Interest rates: they're lower there. Over there there isn't the crisis that we've had here and—yes the members opposite are right—they are spending a lot more money this Labour Government. In fact they're spending a billion dollars more every week and that's why voters say to me "Nicola where's all the money going? Why aren't there the results to show for it?" Hon Andrew Little: How much is going on nurses' pay? Oh you don't want that now. NICOLA WILLIS: Why is it here in Wellington that two out of five people when they turn up at the emergency department—Hon Andrew Little: Tell the nurses. NICOLA WILLIS: —will have to wait more than six hours—Andrew Little. They'll have to wait more than six hours for care in that emergency department and it's because your health reforms have failed to deliver results for New Zealand patients who need them. As for the $5 billion that's gone into the education system—well the average pay of someone in the Ministry of Education might have gone up but let me tell you literacy and numeracy achievement has not and I'm not surprised because this is a Government that has become completely distracted. So much for bread and butter! Instead they've been lurching from sackings to scandal to half-hearted apologies. We've had Marama Davidson blaming cis white men for the woes of the world. We've had Stuart Nash sending secret Government information to donors and calling the ninth floor the Prime Minister's office about it three times—three times—and them at no stage saying "Hey we probably shouldn't cover that one up." and then we've had Kiri Allan forgetting to read the ministerial handbook too. This is not competence. This is not standards. This is not a Government that is focused on what matters for New Zealand families. This is a Government that has lost the plot and New Zealanders are sick of the culture of excuses and cover-ups. We were told—weren't we?—that we had inflation because it was a global phenomenon. Well here's the news: inflation is lower in the United States of America it is lower in Australia it is lower in Canada and actually New Zealanders are suffering more than people in those countries because they have a Government that cannot deliver. Meanwhile what's National doing while you deal with all your scandals over there? We've been delivering policy—the Family Boost childcare rebate—to ensure that families with kids in childcare get up to $75 more every week in their back pockets lifting education standards reducing wasteful consultancy spending electrifying New Zealand and strengthening this economy so that we can get New Zealand back on track."