Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National): The only thing that the House has learnt this afternoon from any of the speeches from Government members is in fact that the supply of tomato sauce in New Zealand is secured because of the hard work of Anna Lorck in her local electorate. I want to congratulate her for rolling her sleeves up for getting those tomatoes in getting them in the vats and putting them in the bottles. But that is the sum total of what we have learnt new from any Labour speaker in the House this afternoon. I stand in support of the amendment to the motion moved by Christopher Luxon that says that all the words after That" be deleted and replaced with "this House has no confidence in this Government that returns to Wellington at the start of each year with yet more promises it has no intention of keeping and regularly fails to deliver".I congratulate all of the Labour speakers today for the diligent way in which they have recited the research unit notes for the House—the way in which they've repeated all of the slogans that the caucus rehearsed in their caucus meeting on Tuesday religiously putting them in front of the House and almost as religiously elevating the Prime Minister to a near-sainthood status.This is a country that has faced down so far very very well the COVID-19 threat. But there are some things about that that cause a problem and I want to pick up on the last speaker Rachel Boyack who talked about the vulnerable. Well what about the vulnerable people out there who cannot for one reason or another take a vaccine who cannot after they've had an adverse reaction to their first vaccine progress to the full vaccine status? Why are they being cast out into the wilderness? Hon Member: They're not.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: The member over there says "They're not." Well get acquainted with the reality of what's happening and going on in the lives of so many of those people. And then just to top it off we've got the State running round now saying to people in that position "Get yourself doubly vaccinated get yourself boosted or your job is all over." They've got no ill intention—none at all. Quite happy to but can't. And that's where I think this Government falls over. So-called compassion only extends as far as the mantra that comes out of the health department—no further than that.You look at all of the other aspects of life in New Zealand and I am reminded that it has been previous Labour leaders—and indeed the Labour leader we've got now and I use that term because that's how she described herself in the House today—who have always said New Zealanders' greatest concerns are about health they're about housing they're about education they're about the economy and they're about security. Well let's just go through all of those things and have a look at the record of this Government.Let's for a start look at security. How many people in this country are happy with the extraordinary levels of crime the extraordinary levels of burglary the extraordinary levels of violent crime and murder that we see at the present time? No one is happy with that. And this Government's response will be "Oh well we've actually increased the numbers of police." That's also totally misleading because the poor old police are now asked to do so many tasks that are away from the actual day-to-day policing that they are so good at. So let's not be silly about this. Let's at least acknowledge that there is a crime problem in New Zealand and very little is being done about it—lots of words; lots of as I said at the start and as Mr Luxon has said in his amendment to the motion good intentions promises but failure to deliver.Then there is the issue of education. We have in this country only 60 percent of our enrolled students regularly turning up to school. I'll say that again: only 60 percent of our enrolled students regularly turning up to school.Hon Member: During lockdown.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Oh so over the other side "Well they were in lockdown." Dear me. Those people those students according to the education Minister were able to log on and to continue their schooling through all of that. I'm talking about truancy. If the member over there says there's a 40 percent truancy rate simply because of lockdown that's a failure of Government policy.Then you look at something like housing and this is where it really hurts the Labour Party. They've made massive massive promises about what could be done. Then all they can do really is look over their shoulder and say "Well none of it was our fault. None of it was our fault." Well let's be very very clear about this: at the moment a young person trying to put together a deposit is faced with the mountain of having to accumulate 20 percent of the house price that they are trying to buy—or 10 percent if it's a new one. So if you look at the average house price of a million dollars they've got to come up with either $100000 or $200000.Hon Member: The average house price isn't a million dollars.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Well that's an average price over there. Somebody just started mumbling saying "You probably can get them cheaper in Hastings." If people looked at who was representing them they'd probably be deserting the place in droves. No wonder—the member has driven the property price down! But here's the point. Here's the point: on average young people have to amass either $100000 or $200000 to get a deposit on a house. You know in many cases they can actually afford the extraordinary mortgages that they would have to take on from that point. But no the system's been shut down because this Government prefers that people are in the Government's thrall and crows only about a Government housing programme forcing people into a life time of rent. Well I don't take any objection to the other side of the House saying that we sold some State houses. Largely they were sold to tenants who had paid for those houses over the 60-odd years of their existence many times over.Then you look at some of the schemes that they've come up with. What was that one—the shared-equity one? Big announcements. Big television coverage by the media who seem absolutely enthralled by anything the Government does. And what's the result? Twelve—12 houses. That's a big big dent in the housing problem! Twenty-five thousand people currently on the waiting list for a State house; 4500 children living every day in motels at a cost of $1.2 million a day—$1.2 million a day for motels to keep 4500 children in the company of less than desirable circumstances.Hon Member: You sold the houses and put them in motels.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: And over there they're saying "Wasn't that great they're not on the streets?" Well there are still people on the streets and there will be more if the economy continues to go down the track that it is. I'll come back to the economy in my final comment.The last one is health. I heard Andrew Little telling us how wonderful the health system is going to be in the future how marvellous it's all going to be and then caveat by saying it might be five or seven years away. As if somehow creating new structures—Willie Jackson today saying "The Māori Health Authority is going to solve everything." It won't—it simply won't. People will get sick and need treatment regardless of their ethnicity and that should be the focus and it always was the focus under the previous National Government.The economy is very interesting. We've got 6 percent inflation at the moment and a Government over the other side of the House that said "No new taxes." Well sometimes there is a thing called a de facto tax—a de facto tax. And that is: when the value of your dollar starts to fall your purchasing power is reduced. That effectively is a tax if it's sheeted back to excessive or unnecessary or unreasonable expenditure by a Government. And what happens over there? They all just scream across saying "Tell us what you'd cut—tell us what you'd cut." This is a Government planning to spend at least another $6 billion in the coming year and no explanation of that. Has there been ever a decision to sit down and have a look at all the Government expenditure and say "What can we look at?" No that won't happen of course because these guys think everything they do is absolutely brilliant—absolutely brilliant totally necessary the whole lot. And then they'll say "Well you only came up with small examples." [Bell rung] Sorry Madam Speaker is that the end of me or what?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): No. Hon Gerry Brownlee I just hit the button a bit late.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Right that's happened to me once before Madam Speaker. I'll start my 10 minutes again—that's fine!ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Well you're welcome to carry on with 41 seconds left.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: The point I make is that when people are having the purchasing power of the money they earn reduced by a 6 percent rate of inflation that's a tax on their pay packet without a question. If the Government doesn't do something about reining in its own expenses that trend won't stop. Look at the increase in rental prices. Extraordinary. A couple of hundred dollars on in the last three years. How do people do it? Of course it exacerbates because then there is the accommodation supplement that goes into that as well. This is not a Government that knows where it's going. It is a Government absolutely enthralled by its own spin.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): I call Glen Bennett—five minutes."