Key John: Adjournment — Sittings of the House 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Key John: Adjournment — Sittings of the House 
[Sitting date: 12 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7469. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: I move  
That  
the House do now adjourn until 2 p.m. on Tuesday 29 January 2013 and that the sitting days in 2013 be as follows: 
January 29 30 and 31; 
February 12 13 14 19 20 21 26 27 and 28; 
March 12 13 14 19 20 21 26 27 and 28; 
April 9 10 11 16 17 and 18; 
May 7 8 9 14 15 16 28 29 and 30; 
June 4 5 6 11 12 13 25 26 and 27; 
July 2 3 4 9 10 11 30 and 31; 
August 1 6 7 8 20 21 22 27 28 and 29; 
September 3 4 5 17 18 19 24 25 and 26; 
October 15 16 17 22 23 and 24; 
November 5 6 7 12 13 14 19 20 and 21; 
December 3 4 5 10 11 and 12.  
As the parliamentary year draws to an end can I take this opportunity to offer my best wishes for a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all members. Mr Speaker can I wish you the very best for your Christmas. I hear these endless circulating rumours that this may be your last Christmas as Speaker of the House. If that proves to be the case then can I not only wish you the very best for your time in other roles but also say to the House that I believe that you will go down in history as one of the greatest Speakers who has presided over this Parliament in a fair and meaningful way. 
Can I take a moment on behalf of all MPs to thank the parliamentary staff who do so much to help all of us and that includes security the messengers the Visits and Ceremonial Office IT the Parliamentary Library the Clerk’s Office the select committee staff Hansard all of the executive assistants who work for MPs and our electorate agents. Can I take a moment to acknowledge Cabinet and in particular the Deputy Prime Minister Bill English who has done yet again a fantastic job of assisting us through. I say to the National Party caucus that I wish you all the very best for a very merry Christmas and a wonderful time back in your electorates. Of my office staff I thank Wayne Eagleson in particular and Emma Holmes who look after me so well. I thank the staff in all the Ministers’ offices and the people who look after me through the year of course: the drivers of the VIP Transport Service the Diplomatic Protection Squad and at my electorate office Mel and Genelle who do such a great job. 
The year has ended where it started. The National Party caucus is united focused and delivering a brighter future. That is in contrast to the Labour Party caucus which once again is divided disillusioned and pondering its future. In a way Grant Robertson summed it up best. He is 100 percent behind David. Aren’t they all? The question though is which David? That is the one we are worried about. That will of course be the question that David Shearer will be pondering as he cuts his turkey on Christmas Day. Does he have the numbers or is he in more trouble than Skippy in a bushfire? That is roughly where he is going. David Shearer knows one thing: David Cunliffe is not happy being just the MP for New Lynn. He is plotting he is scheming he is ringing the unions and he is having barbeques all over the show and unlike David Parker he can count to 14. He knows the magic number and there he is. 
But I must say as we go off to the parliamentary Christmas drinks tonight with the press gallery can you imagine what it would have been like at the Labour Party caucus drinks? Goodness knows what happened when they started sending each other Christmas cards. What on earth did David Shearer write to David Cunliffe in his Christmas card? “Thanks for all your hard work DC and support during the year. Your loyalty means a lot to me.” Still it could have been worse. Labour could still have Chris Carter in its caucus and the truth is that Parekura Horomia thinks he still is in the caucus. Mind you Parekura Horomia thinks Helen Clark is leading the party and most of them wish she was including David Shearer. In February we have a real treat coming up and that is the Labour Party equivalent of  
The X Factor.  
We know that one of them is getting voted off we just do not know which one. 
But let us give credit where credit is due. Labour ended the year with one policy. There was only the one policy and the fact that it did not add up or make sense is fair enough. Labour’s policy was to build 100000 homes for $300000 each mainly in Auckland. Not to worry that David Parker thinks it is 700000 homes—that is OK. There is a minor possible drawback and that is that the home does not come with a section—as long as you are happy with that—or the section does not come with a home. They will be clouds floating above Auckland. Those homeowners will walk off the steps and they will think they are Felix Baumgartner. They will be falling 60000 feet to terra firma. There will not be anything there but there you go. 
Then there were the Greens. Well the half-whiff of a decent poll and there was Russel Norman down at Working Style getting a new suit. You would think he would be a bit reasonable. He wants to be the Minister of Finance. No wonder David Shearer thinks it is a good idea. It is because David Parker cannot add up and that is the basic prerequisite for a Minister of Finance. It took me a year—I am prepared to accept that—but I have finally worked out what green growth is. It is this: printing $20 bills. That is green growth under a Labour-Greens Government. You can only imagine it Russel Norman as the Minister of Finance ringing Bellamy’s: “I will have a mung bean burger with double alfalfa. Add in a bowl of fries and $5 billion and get it to my office by this afternoon.” 
Then there is New Zealand First. That party ended the year with a lovely caucus singalong. It went a bit like this: “Eight in the bed and Winston said ‘Roll over roll over.’ So they all rolled over and one fell out. There were seven in the bed and Winston said ‘Who’s next?’.” That is the question—who is next? We really do not know. But my advice is do not ring the TAB and do not go to the Wingatui races on Boxing Day. Other than that you will be exactly fine. I will not start with the Mana Party because let us be honest Hone did what he does best. He got arrested in 2012 and that was it. 
In the worst of economic times this National Government continues to deliver for the people of New Zealand. [ 
Interruption 
] Labour does not want to hear it. Those members want to pretend they live in a world where all these things have not gone on but let us have a look. The deficit is half what it was last year and we are on track to be in surplus by 2013-14. There were 65000 more jobs over the last 3 years. Labour and the Greens went out there—[ 
Interruption 
] That is right. Apparently there is a manufacturing crisis yet sales by volume are up 5.4 percent for the year to September. Homeowners across New Zealand are paying the lowest interest rates for 50 years. Real wage growth is taking place for New Zealanders and yes the real after-tax wage gap between New Zealand and Australia has narrowed under our watch. We have a 90-day probationary period which has allowed lots of New Zealanders to get a job and now a youth starting-out wage will do the same. There are time limits for large consents on projects so that we can start seeing as we have the likes of roads of national significance being rolled out just like in Te Araroa where I was the other day. We have a new system for processing oil and gas permits so that we can take advantage of those natural resources in an environmentally friendly way that is fair. The roll-out of ultra-fast broadband has begun across the country for New Zealanders. Yesterday this Government comprehensively won its court case for the mixed-ownership model and next year we will see those shares going to the market. The negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership a free-trade agreement worth US$3 billion a year to this country are well and truly under way as are the negotiations now for the ASEAN Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and many other free-trade agreements—something a Greens-Labour Government does not want a bar of. That is what is happening economically. 
The health system—you do not see it on the front page every day. Why? Because Tony Ryall is doing a magnificent job with the health system in New Zealand. These are not times where there are New Zealanders consuming miles and miles of debt and on the back of that making their own balance sheets worse but paying the Government of the day extra tax on this. These are tough and difficult times and yet under those conditions we have extended free doctors’ visits to under-6-year-olds right across the country. We have rolled out rheumatic fever prevention programmes to 148 schools across the country helping 28000 children and by next year it will be 50000 children. Elective surgery—35000 more operations a year are taking place under this National Government than when we inherited the place in 2008. For that tragic and terrible disease that so many New Zealanders suffer cancer the waiting times for cancer treatment in this country have gone down considerably under a National-led Government. There is a lot to be proud of in health. 
Mr Speaker you are giving me the message that it is time for me to sit down so very quickly let me just say the following: in welfare reform amazing reforms are taking place under this Government the crime rate is down hundreds of thousands of homes are being insulated and national standards are being bedded in and information is going to parents. 
Can I wish you all the very best for a merry Christmas. To the National caucus I say have a great time and see you in 2013. Be proud of what you have achieved. We have ended where we started the year: beating those guys and leading New Zealand to a brighter future.