Reti Shane: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeReti Shane: General Debate[Sitting date: 06 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3260. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei):It is a pleasure to speak in the general debate today. It is a wonderful opportunity to follow the segue of my colleague and to lift our eyes to the horizon—lift the eyes of Northland and Whangarei to the horizon because we know the truth. We live there. We smell the air we breathe it and we know the truth. We are lifting our eyes to that horizon and that horizon is looking good. That horizon has had seven consecutive quarters of economic growth—seven consecutive quarters of economic growth—spread across a number of industries.I am going to tell you which industries they actually are but first of all up front I would like to acknowledge our international team—New Zealand’s international leadership on nuclear disarmament—because last week a member and I had the privilege of being in New York at the United Nations. Our team there is excellent. I would like to acknowledge them. I would like to acknowledge New Zealand’s strong voice and international leadership on nuclear disarmament but let us get back to Northland and Whangarei.I could talk about a whole list of initiatives but I am biased. I am biased because I am with a Government that has created those opportunities. So why do we not hear what other people say? Let us listen to what others say. Māori have a whakataukī and it says this: kāore te kūmara e kōrero mō tōna mana. The kūmara does not speak of its own sweetness. So let us let others talk about us. What are they saying?Let us go to the start of the year. The Northern Advocate on 10 January 2015—boom! It says “Our busiest summer in 5 years—Northland is riding a five-year summer holiday high with tills ringing at record levels campgrounds full …”. Later on 15 January it says that the building industry is booming: “Northland’s construction industry is booming with building consents reaching a seven-year high in New Zealand.”Let us go to a month ago. Tourism—and what was the key word? Boom. Tourism boom for Northland: “Northland’s hospitality sector is making hay big time this endless summer—so much so that a number of high-profile events in the coming weeks could force visitors to scramble for decent accommodation.”.Whangarei and Northland are lifting. We are seeing the benefits of stable government and thoughtful economic development and that thoughtful economic development continued on the weekend when the Prime Minister announced that a $3 million cycle track would be coming through the far north. And a few days before that Whangarei District Council announced another cycling initiative. It goes like this: “New cycle track will be bonus for safety” and I quote from the Northern Advocate on Saturday 1 May. A new multimillion-dollar cycle track next to railway lines will connect five Whangarei schools. What a great initiative.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Excuse me—the echoing has gone on for long enough. I think we will get back to the member now. Thank you.Dr SHANE RETI: The Northern Advocate on 2 May says “The Kamo cycle route has been on the cards for a while … But with some promised funding and preliminary approval from KiwiRail to build the track plans for the Kamo route are now under way.” This will connect five high schools in Whangarei. What a great initiative that is combined with the $3 million for the cycle pathway through the far north. It keeps getting better. It is like an infomercial—wait there is more; wait there is more.Port Whangarei Ltd has recently undertaken an order to install a 100-tonne mobile boat hauler. That is going to bring marine repairs to Whangarei which will increase the labour force and will bring revenue into Whangarei. A year later they are going to pick up a 450-tonne mobile boat lift. That is going to catch a lot of the international luxury yachts and those yachts that are going elsewhere will come to Whangarei.If you go another five or 10 kilometres around the coast to Northport—the other deep port—it is also announcing good news. You see part of our economic growth issues have been around containerisation. We have not been able to fill containers in Northport. Here is what it announced 10 days ago: “Northport is to purchase a $5 million mobile crane for delivery by the end of the year giving it the ability for the first time to load dedicated container vessels.”What the company is predicting is that 40000 trucks that currently go past Northport will now be able to be loaded on to containers in Northport. When you imagine that every logging truck that goes past is equivalent to 5000 vehicle movements and when we look at safety on the road this is a good news story and it is clear evidence that Whangarei and Northland are doing well. Northland is lifting. Whangarei and Northland are great places to live and New Zealand is a great place to live. We are doing well and this is all due to our good and stable government. Thank you.