Macindoe TimHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Thank you very much sir and I'm sure you appreciated the irony as much as I did in listening to those last two contributions in the fact that particularly the member Darroch Ball spent his entire time attacking the Opposition for being incredibly negative having nothing positive to say when in fact it was he who through doing that failed to mention anything positive at all couldn't outline his own vision for the nation and just attacked the Opposition.Well let me move on. I'm sure it is only in the nation's Parliament that members wish each other a happy New Year on 20 February but let me do that. Let me congratulate Tamati Coffey and his partner on their very happy news of recent days and let me also say gong xi fa cai to all those around New Zealand who are celebrating this important time: the Chinese New Year. It is of course the Year of the Pig and my own children uncharitably say that that should be my year. Well it's not; I wasn't born in that year but xin nian kuai le" to my lovely daughters as well. I know that they mean well. I do want to acknowledge a wonderful lantern festival that was on display in Garden Place in Hamilton on Saturday night—fantastic performances—but what I really loved was the fact that there was a huge crowd there reflecting the diversity of modern New Zealand. I loved seeing people of all ethnic backgrounds coming together to celebrate such a significant event. This reflects very well on our nation and long may we continue to move in that direction.Today is also a very significant one in this House as we welcome and say talofa lava to our newest member Agnes Loheni and I'm so pleased that she's here now. We will of course be hearing her maiden statement in just about a couple of hours and I know it will be a very fine address. Could I acknowledge the fine Minister she has just replaced—Christopher Finlayson—who I think served our country extraordinarily well and will long be remembered particularly for the outstanding work he did in making great progress on Treaty settlements. But here in Agnes I think I'm right in saying we have our first female Pasifika member in the National Party caucus and I think that's another really encouraging step in the right direction. She supplements our ranks and further enhances what is already the impressive diversity of the National Party caucus. She's a woman of intelligence experience empathy and very solid values and I know that she will serve this House and in particular her South Auckland community very well in the years ahead.It's also a very significant day for my delightful and caring constituent Margaret Clayton-Greene and from my valued colleague and very good friend Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi who both celebrate their birthdays today and I wish both Kanwaljit and Margaret a very happy birthday.May I on a much sadder note join Kanwaljit and other Indian members of this Parliament and indeed all New Zealanders in condemning the recent horrific attack on the Indian Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Pulwama. We extend our aroha and sympathy to all who were caught up in that atrocity and especially to the victims and their families.We've heard much from the Government that this is the year of delivery. I think 2018 was described as the "Year of Working Groups" and "How on earth did that happen?"—"How did we get into Government?" Well we'd like to see it as a year of delivery but there aren't many encouraging signs yet. If you look at the utter shambles that is KiwiBuild there is no hope of that being a year of delivery—it's a con trick. It's certainly not going to be a year of delivery for beneficiaries and this is a serious point: how disturbing it is to see in good financial times the numbers of beneficiaries going up and in particular a major reason for that being the misguided Government policy that has removed sanctions and that is frankly descending back into what Bill English so rightly used to describe as the "tyranny of low expectations" putting far too many New Zealanders in the too-hard basket saying "We'll just throw a benefit at you and that will do." Well it won't and this must be the year of delivery for those people not just in topping up benefits; it's got to be about giving them the encouragement and at times the proper incentives to get into employment to take up training and to make sure that they are able to become self-reliant.It's certainly not a year of delivery for those who sent their children to partnership schools. It's not a year of delivery for those in the classrooms around the country who now have seen the demise of national standards with nothing put in place to replace them and so gradually we'll just see less and less information that is valuable to parents going home. Well I don't say that national standards were a panacea and a cure-all for everything but they gave parents vital information and I really fear that again we will hear as we used to a decade ago parents saying to us "If only I'd known at the time that my child was falling behind in literacy and numeracy but the Government took away my right to receive that information." Well I say to the Government: deliver something that gives them back that vital information.It won't be a year of delivery for those awaiting elective surgeries and vital medical treatment. Some—of course we hope as many as possible—will receive operations and will receive very good service in our public hospitals but the Government has eliminated the public health targets that were set by the last Government which meant that we were able to measure achievement and we were able to put the resources where they were needed when things weren't moving along in the direction that they should have been and I say "Shame on the Government for taking that away." because New Zealanders have a right to that information. It is right that we acknowledge achievement in the health system when it is being secured but how will we know in the future? It's just another way of taking away things that are important and putting nothing in place. It's all smoke and mirrors and Government has to be about more than just good intentions.I say to this Government: we share I think probably all of your aspirations that sound so decent. All of us want to get the best out of our health system and get the best education for our children. We want our Defence Force and our police force to be able to do their jobs to the best of their ability and across all the vital social services we all want the best. But just saying that doesn't make it so. We actually have to have some effective measures to ensure it can be achieved and so far this Government has been woefully deficient in putting in place a coherent programme—a plan—that will move us in that direction. We have even got a Government that can't yet tell us how they are going to frame a referendum at next year's general election—it's not that far away—on the important questions of the future possibility of legalising marijuana for recreational use.Well it's not good enough for the Prime Minister to come to this House day after day and say "No we're not working on that legislation and we don't yet know what the question will be." This is an important issue. There's a lot of evidence some of which just came out last week of the very disturbing impact on young people's mental health from recreational cannabis use. The public needs to know about this in good time to be able to make an intelligent and considered decision. So I urge all members of this House to support the amendment in the name of the Leader of the Opposition—that "this House has no confidence in the Labour-led Government because in its ambition to be measured on its vague intentions it is proving itself completely incapable of delivering good outcomes for New Zealanders."We in the National Party are working very hard and very positively to ensure that we will be fit to govern. I'll just mention two things. I had the privilege along with my colleague David Bennett of hosting the first of Nikki Kaye's education roadshows in Hamilton. Contrary to what some of the silly idiots on Twitter had to say this was not a destructive sort of thing; there was a very constructive tone and all people who were there were able to engage freely in positive discussion. I hope that it will lead to us being able to put forward a really attractive and appropriate education policy.Members of this House and those who are listening will know that for weeks now I have been trying to get from the Government—particularly the Minister for ACC—a straight answer to the question of why the Government has moved away from applying the vehicle-risk rating mechanism to the setting of motor vehicle levies. OK it's not the front-page headline but it's another example of illogical action by a Government when at the same time that they're putting a lot of money into an NZTA campaign to encourage people quite rightly to try to move into safer vehicles because that is such an important way of ensuring their safety during an accident they are taking away the only financial incentive that existed for it. I've waited for weeks to get a straight answer. This morning I got one from the chairperson of ACC when I asked her "Was there any evidence?" The fact of the matter is that they were going to have a review but this Government cancelled it. In other words they made a decision again having not done the homework and with no evidence at all.Let me just conclude by returning the favour that the Hon Ron Mark did me in the House yesterday. He acknowledged that I had joined him in a very very impressive and memorable trip to the United Arab Emirates Israel Egypt and South Sudan. I can't in the little bit of time remaining do justice to it but it was a tremendous opportunity for me to gain much greater knowledge of the many important aspects of peacekeeping and other deployments that New Zealanders are engaged in. Everywhere we went we saw New Zealanders who were held in the highest regard for the fine work that they are doing and I want to thank them. I want to acknowledge the very important contribution that Kiwi taxpayers are making and to assure them that I believe it is money well spent and to conclude on a very positive note by saying that I was proud to be part of that delegation and very grateful to the Hon Ron Mark for his generous accommodation of me on that trip. I think he's served our country very well and a new friendship has been formed across the House."