McClay ToddHon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Thank you Mr Speaker. The last speaker in this debate was talking about slashing. There are only two things the next National Government will slash. The first is the wasteful spending undertaken by this Labour Government and there is a lot of it. We would not have spent $51 million on a bridge over the Waitematā for cyclists who didn't want it that's never going to be built. That $51 million could do a whole lot of other things. It could help some of the people that have the least in the country. Or here's a novel thing for the Labour Party give it back to the taxpayer who earned it and had to give it to you.The second thing we are going to do is fix productivity and we'll start in this House. We are going to slash the number of Labour MPs because this is the least productive Government that we have seen. We know that because actually the excuse for everything that's not working is (1) COVID (2) the war in the Ukraine. And once in the Ukraine that fighting has stopped and the war crimes have stopped they will find the next thing on the international stage to blame for their lack of productivity and the lack of delivery from the Labour Party.The tourism sector is very very deeply disappointed in the Labour Government. They had high hopes at the time of the pandemic that Labour was going to support them. Do you remember in this House in the Budget two years ago when we were in limited numbers because of the lockdown the announcement of $290 million to support tourism businesses throughout New Zealand to get them through until visitors came back. The Minister of Tourism at the time Kelvin Davis who was one of the worst tourism Ministers this country has seen rivalled by the new tourism Minister who is now an apologist for the things the Government has got wrong said at the time—Kelvin Davis—that we are going to be focusing on strategic tourism businesses. Do you know what the definition of strategic tourism businesses" was? We heard it from the new Minister too the other day: it was self-defining by tourism businesses. The Auditor-General decided to look into this because the tourism sector was so concerned at the way the $290 million was being spent and has come out with one of the most damning reports I have seen of the spending of this Labour Government. From start to finish of that report there is nothing that the Government has done that has worked for the tourism sector. When asked about spending for the first three announcements the Government made before anybody in the country could put in an application for the fund because the criteria had not been published the Auditor-General criticised the Government for accepting applications from AJ Hackett Discover Waitomo and Whale Watch Kaikōura early. These three businesses wrote a letter. They did not claim any immediate financial risk to their assets. They did not have to provide any financial records or information and money was given to them.This is taxpayers' money. If Kelvin Davis was still the Minister of Tourism we would be asking for his resignation. Stuart Nash wasn't the tourism Minister then but he needs to front up to this House and explain. He needs to apologise to the New Zealand taxpayer for the way the money was shovelled out the door without any records. Those three companies got money and when the Auditor-General asked for the paper trail and the information used for the Government to make that decision Ministers to make that decision there was no paperwork that could be found and the Ministers told the Auditor-General "Well we're not sure why the decision was made because a whole lot was going on. We had to do it quickly."Well here's the reason and it's very clear. Stuart Nash may not know it but in Queenstown they do. You see on 24 June 2020 after the announcement of this fund the tourism Minister announced $10.2 million for AJ Hackett to save about 15 jobs. Two days later the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern travelled to Queenstown. That announcement was made after a letter was written without any substantiating information without any criteria met so that the Government and the Prime Minister didn't have to face tough questions in Queenstown and sent the message: "We are doing something about tourism. We're supporting them." All over Queenstown other businesses didn't get the funding that they needed. They stuck to the rules when they finally published. The Prime Minister didn't visit again and so they didn't get an early announcement. That is not how you spend taxpayers' money. Stuart Nash needs to front up to this Parliament and explain what went on. He needs to come before the committee if called. That is the reason the tourism sector is so deeply disappointed in this Government. They did everything asked of them and this Government threw money around without actually benefiting those that needed it the most."