Bridges SimonGENERAL DEBATEHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. You know when they play the political gold back over the last few years that last interchange is bound to be there. That was something special. There's one thing we need to remember about this Government in 2019 and that's that the Prime Minister has said and she's made it quite clear that this is the year of delivery. That's what it is: it's the year of delivery. Actually yesterday she said—[Interruption]—Grant Robertson—it was the year of striving. That's where she was—the year of delivery—and so far we don't have even a roundabout to Shane Jones' house that's been delivered. So what has the Government delivered? Hon Members: Nothing.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Oh nothing. Slushies—Kelvin Davis says 193 slushy machines at nearly $6000 each. Well Grant Robertson drank them all—that's the situation there. Well I want to take you through it: KiwiBuild. Well at $2 billion for 33 houses does it—[Interruption] Shh! Shh! Transport is in absolute disarray. On Friday their mate Michael Stiassny resigned and in fact nearly all of the staff at the New Zealand Transport Agency have resigned because they went there to build roads and not a single new road has been started in the last 18 months. In health it's getting worse. We've got a situation where we've got no accountabilities—they did away with those—where the targets in health have been cancelled where deficits are growing and where right at the moment all around this country—Winston Peters—doctors are striking putting lives at risk—Rt Hon Winston Peters: Mr" to you—"Mr" to you junior.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Putting lives at risk the Rt Hon Winston Peters. Then we've got the situation where in education there's how many reviews? Eighteen ideological reviews coming at you in that area and today from Nicola Willis we've had a remarkable example of the waiting list for preschoolers needing extra help. It has exploded from 74 days to 106 days. As the Prime Minister said "In the life of a [little] 3 or 4-year-old child who's [too] hungry to learn that's 74 days too long." Tracey Martin when asked by Nicola Willis how long it was going to take them to meet their goal of halving that said something like I heard the quote five to seven years—five to seven years from Tracey Martin. In the environment we've got nothing happening. In police we've got no 1800 police officers promised—that's something the Prime Minister tells us they are striving for. And in the economy as Amy Adams has made quite clear in this House we've gone from 4 percent growth to 2 percent growth and today we saw what that means: 4000 fewer jobs in New Zealand at the moment. In poverty more beneficiaries more hardship and more housing grants in their thousands and that in the year of so-called delivery is an absolute shame. And the members over there think it's a joke that the economy is worse that poverty is worse and that the cost of living is getting higher and higher. Rents under those members' watch because of their taxes and regulation are up some $50 a week to $3000. Electricity under his watch is up and petrol prices are at their highest in six months. Well on this side of the House we've got positive plans for this country and we'll implement them quickly. We know that bills such as on tax indexation no new taxes repealing the oil and gas ban and many other things will be great for New Zealand. I want to finish today by talking about Nuk Korako who's made a fine contribution to this Parliament and who has been a fantastic chair of the Māori Affairs Committee. I wish him Chris and his strapping lads all the very best for the future. Rt Hon Winston Peters: I seek the leave of the House for an extension of time for Mr Simon Bridges. I'm allowed to do that?SPEAKER: Order! No the member's not. The member is not allowed to seek leave for another person to have an extension. That's been ruled many times that I have been in the House—[Interruption]—and I would prefer that he didn't make his supportive comments sotto voce.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I seek leave for an additional five minutes.SPEAKER: Is there any objection? It will be an extra five minutes as consistent with the leave sought by the Deputy Prime Minister so everyone who is yet to have a speech will still get to have one. Is there any objection to that? There appears to be none.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: The clowns on the other side think that somehow it's a bad thing if in the National Party we highlight in the year of delivery that they've got no plans no policies they've achieved absolutely nothing. Over there there's a muppet called Ron Mark who's laughing but he's been the poorest defence Minister that New Zealand's ever had. He wears the medals on the wrong side of his shirt even though he knows that's wrong. And there's Winston Peters putting around a bit of paper like he's a tough clever guy but here's what we've learnt this afternoon—there's a couple of things. Number one: he's too scared to go into Pike River mine.SPEAKER: Order! The member knows he cannot make that accusation. He will withdraw and apologise.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I withdraw and apologise.But what we've also learnt is he still sleeps on the job. I think it was question No. 9 and the deep contemplation went on on my stopwatch for one minute and 35 seconds. Catnapping works according to Winston Peters. I'm glad I've got more time because I didn't get a chance to run through the 15 things that New Zealanders—what Shane Jones the guy whose sole contribution as Minister for Regional Economic Development so far is a roundabout to his house that hasn't been built. That's what Shane Jones has contributed to New Zealand.I heard Winston Peters on Magic or one of these radio stations saying "We've done this we've done that." They've done nothing. They didn't do away with Māori seats. They didn't do anything on immigration. Frankly they haven't met a single promise they made at the last election. And Winston Peters says they have. Here's a challenge. This is not a trick question; there's nothing tricky about this. You can probably do this with your eyes closed Winston Peters. Give me one thing—Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I was trying to be beneficent and charitable by moving the motion which you said is out of order but he can't bring you into the debate. [Interruption]SPEAKER: Look I'm trying to rule on a point of order. This is a robust debate. It's the most robust debate that we have. We tend to have a little bit of lenience in it and I am giving that to the Leader of the Opposition.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: So I pose the question albeit that question time's over in this place today to the Rt Hon Winston Peters. It's a question that he should be able to answer when he stands up with his eyes closed: name one thing—one thing—that he promised in the election campaign and that he's delivered that has actually happened in New Zealand today. That's why on our polling last night he's on 1 percent.See on this side of the House we've got the policies we've got the plans and we'll make action when we get into Government. We will ensure no new taxes. We'll ensure tax indexation so that as cost of living has gone through the roof under that Government over there—rents up $50 a week for the people who can least afford it electricity up petrol prices I think at $2.25 today around this country the highest they've been in some six months. About 16 17c of that is tax imposed by the Rt Hon Winston Peters. We'll ensure that they are safe from those cost of living rises through my tax indexation bill. We will repeal the needless restrictions around foreign investment. We will repeal the barmy oil and gas ban that means Winston Peters won't get a single vote in Taranaki. Not even his family will vote for him in that province. We'll repeal any changes to the three-strikes regime.Here's a radical thought: we'll introduce again just a little bit of accountability into the health system into the public sector so that actually we know how long people are waiting in emergency departments and how many cancer treatments are happening. Right at the moment with doctors striking there is absolutely no way to know honestly how many people are being hurt by that. We'll repeal the ridiculous industrial relations changes that are being made by the Government that are slowing this country down that mean when they were laughing earlier actually there are 4000 fewer jobs going on in this country.We'll also make sure we introduce a comprehensive medicinal cannabis regime that's incredibly—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member's time has expired."