Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. Here we are at the end of a threeyear parliamentary term. We are on track to see one of the most dramatic falls in popularity in New Zealand history since 1972 and Norm Kirk. Three years ago Jacinda Ardern stood here bestriding the New Zealand political scene like a colossus with a clear majority. She was most popular giving everybody praise to the stars and here we are three years later and her party is down in the 20s in the polls. A big majority of the country think the country is headed in the wrong direction and there is desperation for change on the streets of this country and we're left with Chris Hipkins. The only thing he's got left is Project Fear" to frighten people with all sorts of claims. How has it come to this? I think the key to it is what I heard Jacinda Ardern say when she left and she gave all her interviews "Well it's not so much what you do; it's how you make people feel." Well unfortunately that doesn't really stack up because right now people feel angry. They feel marginalised. Many people feel they are without hope and they certainly feel ready for change and that is what's going to happen in two months' time.And it does matter what you do. When you say you're going to build light rail from central Auckland to the airport by 2021 it matters if you've actually started if you've even figured out which route it's going to take. If you've spent 150 million bucks and you still don't know what you're talking about it matters. People notice. It does matter when you say you're going to build 100000 KiwiBuild houses and you end up building only about 1600. That matters. It makes you look like you can't actually deliver. It matters when you announce that you're going to spend $1.9 billion fixing mental health and actually you get to the end of six years and we find out that we've got 19 fewer psychiatrists in the country and people are waiting longer than ever to get the help they need.All these things matter. It matters when you say you're keen to reduce child poverty but you've neglected the economy to the extent that we're in recession and we've had rampant inflation for more than two or three years. The Government thinks the only sort of thing you can usefully do in the economy is take more money from some people and give it to other people and that somehow that makes everybody richer. It doesn't. You've actually got to have a growth plan and we haven't seen any signs of a growth plan.That's why in two months' time people will be voting for change and it can't come soon enough. The National Party will do several things. We'll fix the economy. We'll actually focus on how you grow the economy and put more money in the hands of New Zealanders and that means taking less out in the first place by giving them some tax relief—a hundred dollars less tax for an average couple and up to $250 a fortnight for an average couple with kids. That makes a real difference to their lives and that's what we'll be focusing on.We'll have a job to get inflation under control which is to stop reckless Government spending which we've seen on a colossal scale. Nobody can believe that $50 million was spent on a cycleway across Auckland Harbour Bridge and it didn't lead to anywhere. Day after day we hear stories of properties being rented by Kāinga Ora in Wellington—$250000 a week and nothing's happening. They're sitting there empty—it's been month after month. It's just emblematic of the waste under this Government.We'll be restoring law and order. We've heard time and time again from this Government that the only priority they've got in the justice space which they've clearly articulated is to reduce the prison population irrespective of what's going on in our communities. People see a 33 percent increase in violent crime and they wonder "Well why are they still only focused on reducing the prison population?" They see a 100 percent increase in retail crime and they wonder why this Government is focused on everything else.Then when we look at health and education we see an 80 percent increase in Government spending and fewer kids at school. We've seen a doubling of the number of kids who are chronically absent from school. That is a disgrace and to think that a Minister of Education for five years—Chris Hipkins—delivered such an appalling outcome in education and got promoted by his party to be the Prime Minister shows you how short of talent this party is and how much we need a change.If we look at health we see the extra billions and billions of dollars going into health with most of it going into restructuring and people are waiting longer to get access to the emergency department care that they need and the cancer drugs that they need. That's why under Shane Reti's leadership in the health space we'll return to actually having some targets and chasing them down. Change can't come soon enough and so that's what's going to happen on 14 October."