Mathers MojoMOJO MATHERS (Green): First I would like to offer my congratulations to Bill English for delivering his first statement in the House as Prime Minister. Unfortunately I found the promises in his statement to be hollow because every year that National is in Government it becomes obvious that its obsession with growth at all costs is costing us. It is failing to fix poverty and the growth that we are seeing has come at the expense of our rivers and clean water. The Waikirikiri the beautiful river that my children just a few years ago spent many hot summer days in swimming and playing now has toxic algae and has been reduced to a slimy green trickle at Coe's Ford. Is this the brighter future that National has promised? Is this bright green slime that brighter future?It is not just this river. Right across the country we are seeing rivers visibly deteriorate before our eyes. There are now 10 rivers in Canterbury alone that have toxic algae this summer. By these rivers children have to be driven half an hour to the nearest swimming pool because the river at their doorstep is now too polluted to swim in.We are told by scientists that the condition of these rivers and waterways is only going to get worse because there is a wall of pollution coming down upon them and this is a direct consequence of National's obsession with growth. It has also come at the expense of our precious wildlife with more species being threatened with extinction each year. Nearly 4000 of New Zealand's precious and unique plant and animal species are currently in danger of going extinct. Eight hundred are listed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) as at high risk of extinction which is an increase of nearly 200 just in the last 5 years. We have the highest proportion of endemic endangered species of any country on earth and the vast majority do not have any active recovery plan presumably because DOC is too starved of funds to develop them.National is sacrificing much of what we hold precious—the simple things that give meaning to our lives—in order to feed a greedy economy: clean water swimmable rivers healthy seas a stable climate and secure homes. All of these fundamentals are currently being sacrificed by National on the altar of greed. What makes it worse is that any wealth that is being created is not reaching those in need. The fact is that after 9 years this National Government has not even made a dent in child poverty rates. The Salvation Army report released last week showed that we still have 200000 kids in poverty. How is that even possible when the economy is supposedly doing so well? This has happened because the Government has chosen to prioritise making the wealthy even wealthier literally handing over millions of dollars to millionaires—as in the Saudi sheep deal for example—while continuing to deprive those in need our most vulnerable families of the basics.I note that the Prime Minister even stooped so low as to have a dig at disabled people who face massive failure to find employment by implying that we are just not trying hard enough. National's obsession with growth at all costs has also come at the expense of affordable homes. The situation is now so bad that even families on decent incomes are being priced out of the million-dollar housing market. This is not acceptable. We can do better. We must do better.