O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): I actually quite enjoyed that contribution by that member. We wouldn't agree on a lot of it actually but it's a calm rationality. It's a different form of opinions but I actually really respect Gareth Hughes and in sad anticipation he will actually be missed in the House. I know this was not a valedictory but it also just shows I think the best of the House in these debates which is that actually all parties can bring if you will a particular philosophy and perspective. It's a refreshing change from earlier Green contributions which unfortunately—particularly around this situation of COVID—give truth to the adage Never let a good crisis go to waste." The idea that because of COVID we can say "Look at all these amazing things we did."—that that somehow is a platform for going forward. So while it's been good that we're able to put all the homeless together—we heard from an earlier Greens speaker that it's just amazing what powers a Government can have and use to bring about a particular agenda of parties and that's just not particularly helpful in a democracy. But as I say the Green Party and others very much like a crisis to allow them to push through their particular agendas and we're seeing that sadly around the world. We've also seen in the whole COVID situation at the moment a Government that I think by and large has done a good job but I'd be remiss in this Budget debate—it has pumped billions and billions of New Zealand's taxpayer dollars and in fact borrowed enormous amounts from overseas. The Government has made some mistakes—and I think as the MP for Tāmaki I need to acknowledge those—from I believe a lockdown that came not hard and fast as we're often told but came too late. I think it's important as the spokesperson for customs to also note that we had a situation where the border on 3 February was closed to China but over 38000 people from China—or travelling from China. They were not necessarily from China. They came here—38000 people—and were only effectively giving a pinkie promise to stay self-isolated. It doesn't make any sense. I think it's a problem and a number of constituents have raised with me that we needed to have closed the border sooner in order to manage things. We have seen since of course New Zealand has locked down. We have been able to contain and manage the virus. The problem is however—and I've certainly seen it as I go around my electorate—the community has suffered. It has suffered. It understands why we've had to lock down but week after week has wrought enormous damage. I fear that whatever this Government is trying to do it is not going to be enough not because of the amounts of money—they are scary amounts of money; eye-watering amounts of money—and the fact that it will take generations to pay off. The problem is that it's not well structured or focused and we only need to think of the $50 million package the Government announced—a slush fund in my mind—because there is no clarity around how it's being spent. There are two if you will broad examples coming out of my electorate where people are definitely struggling. Certainly in businesses and that will be no surprise to anyone in this House. Businesses are struggling. You cannot stop an economy for almost nine weeks and not expect businesses to be incredibly damaged and simply giving them cheap debt is not a solution. The wage subsidy has been I would say excellent for the workers but that does not directly assist the business. Put relatively simply but I would suggest accurately it's all well and good to pay someone a wage subsidy but you want them to have a job at the end and I don't think the Government has focused on that sufficiently. Certainly around my electorate when I think of Tamaki Drive it's driven a lot by hospitality. Those cafes and restaurants continue to struggle with what have basically become rather arbitrary rules. It's quite possible it turns out for thousands of people to gather in central Auckland and protest together—for good reason—but up to a few days ago you couldn't have more than 10 people sitting together properly in a restaurant. It's all become rather arbitrary. Need I point out as well the outright discrimination by the Government against people of faith and religion. It's the fact that again you could protest you could play sport and you could go to strip clubs and restaurants but you couldn't actually gather for your bar mitzvah or the mosque or churches. It's been absolutely ludicrous and I feel we're continuing in this line in some ways to be puppets pulled by strings around all these continued levels and discussions and rules. You can't walk down the street without having to see signs about kindness and calmness. There are signs on the street telling me to keep left; in fact even in this building there are signs on every stairwell telling me how to walk up some stairs. We're beginning to live in some bizarre dystopian little world and it needs to stop. It is simply a form of propaganda and it's just completely unnecessary. I've been calling for a while for us to return to normal on the fundamental principle that New Zealanders are smart intelligent people. We know how to manage our lives and we've had enough of the Government constantly telling us how to do this. As I said at the start the left in particular love a crisis because it allows them to justify getting into every aspect of our lives. Speaking of getting into our lives I want to touch very quickly on social housing. The Government's made enormous promises. They've told us today in fact in a select committee that they are absolutely confident that they will build 3200 new houses in the next year—just State houses. None of them are going to bought or leased. These are completely totally new builds. I just want to clarify and put that on the record today because I am telling you now that in about nine or 12 months we will be going to the Minister of Housing and wanting to see very clearly that 3200 new homes are going to be built. As I was pointing out we already have seen the huge failure that is KiwiBuild but also we know the Government promised in the last year to build 1600 new houses and it failed. The Government was only able to build 1400. Now I don't want to take away from it. That's good—1400 is good in itself—but that's not the 1600 and now the Government's doubled its target. So it's thrown a lot of money around and an incredible amount of rhetoric but can it deliver? I'm going to make my own little statement here: no they won't. They won't deliver and it'll be our role to keep them on track. I also want to jump back into my electorate—and I'm bouncing around here a bit—around our businesses particularly around the enormous cuts which the Auckland Council has announced in my area. First and foremost it's putting ratepayers in a terrible position of choosing between rate increases or having their projects cut. That's actually quite an unfair choice. It's a form of blackmail if you will. But really importantly—and it's my pitch if I would to the Government—they have talked about shovel-ready projects. I really encourage Government to announce those quickly and/or provide the billions of dollars promised to the council. A number of the private businesses who help our infrastructure—it doesn't matter if it's the water to the roads—need certainty. They need certainty. We cannot have what is a boom and bust dynamic with that being that councils cut the services the private contractors are cut workers are lost and then let's say in three months' time the money pops up and those businesses are trying to re-form. It's not going to work. So I encourage Government there. Look in my final thoughts actually I want to turn more into the foreign affairs space and to customs another set of portfolios or interests. In the customs space I'm disappointed to see that the Budget had effectively no new money—no new money. The singular primary vector of coronavirus is through our border. One would think the Government might have just put a few more dollars into that space to allow the Customs Service to do the excellent job that they already do. My last point's around foreign affairs. We have seen more money there but I would encourage the Government to speak more loudly particularly about what's happening in Hong Kong. Today in something that's never happened before myself and three other foreign affairs chairs from around the world have signed a joint letter to the United Nations and to our respective Prime Ministers. So that's Tom Tugendhat from the United Kingdom David Fawcett from Australia Michael Levitt from Canada and myself. It's a joint letter to the UN Secretary-General calling on the UN to put in a special envoy to Hong Kong. What is happening there under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party is an affront to democratic principles and our countries must stand up strongly against that. We have also—all four of us—written to our respective Prime Ministers asking that they add their voices with a special session of the United Nations to call for that envoy. I implore the Government the Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs to speak up clearly. If democracy matters it matters not just in New Zealand but around the world and I for one will continue in my role as a member of Parliament to speak up for the importance of freedoms and rights around the world. Again I just want to put on record that I am very proud—in a sense this is the first time that I know that this has happened—that four chairs of foreign affairs committees have united together and spoken with one voice. On that I think I might end my contribution."