Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National): I had this crazy feeling of déjà vu during Andrew Little's speech then. It was like he was the Labour leader all over again back in 2016 where he spent almost all of his time talking about the National Party and all the things that National was allegedly doing wrong. The only difference is: it's not 2016; it's 2022 and he's been a Minister in this Government for 4½ years. So it's not good enough to stand up in Parliament and talk about 1935 and the first Labour Government and the long history of health funding and the welfare State and talk about the problems of the National Government five years ago. He's been a Minister in that Government for 4½ years and it's time the Government took some accountability for the massive increase in spending—particularly in the health sector—without any improvements. Matt Doocey points out $1.9 billion appropriated in Budget 2018 and—as the Mental Health Commission found—no material improvement in mental health services and that's emblematic of the Government's approach which is that they're really good at the talk they're really good at the tax and they're really good at the spend and they are utterly structurally incompetent at actually delivering better services for New Zealanders. So Election 2023 is only 18 months away and they're not going to be judged on how many 1 p.m. press conferences have been held they're not going to be judged on how much social media monitoring the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has done they're not going to be judged on how many versions of the traffic light framework that the Government can come up with. Election 2023 is going to be judged on traditional economic metrics. Is the economy going forwards and are Kiwis getting ahead or are they going backwards? Has the Government delivered on its promises and their commitments in housing in child poverty in transport in light rail and in all of their big commitments from elections 2017 and 2020? And are they good stewards of taxpayers' money? Because what has happened in the last five years is we have seen an increase of 68 percent in Government spending and I put it to the House and I put it to New Zealanders we have not seen a 68 percent increase in results and effectiveness. We've not seen a 68 percent reduction in congestion. We've not seen a 68 percent increase in cancer services. We've not seen a 68 percent increase in midwives around the community. We haven't seen a 68 percent increase in hip operations. No no no. We have seen waste driven throughout the Public Service to the point where the New Zealand Transport Agency has a ten-fold increase in communications staff earning over $100000. Corrections got a 400-person increase in Corrections staff in the back office even though prisoner numbers are falling. So Mr Speaker I put it to you there's been a big increase in spending but not the appropriate increase in effectiveness of results. And there is a squeezed middle out there and there is a cost of living crisis and what they're looking for in the Budget tomorrow is not the biggest increase in Government spending in New Zealand history which is what will be delivered a $6 billion new operating allowance the single biggest increase in Government spending in New Zealand history. They're not looking for that; they're actually just looking for some relief from the endless pressure that they face out there in this economy with inflation at 7 percent and wages only rising at 3 percent per year. I'll tell you what else they're looking for—particularly young Kiwis. They're looking for a bit of hope because they stare at a housing market where rents are up 150 bucks a week and it costs 200000 bucks to get a deposit to buy an average house in New Zealand. They look at a State house waiting list that has quintupled in the last four years and they look at the shameful fact that 4800 Kiwi kids tomorrow will wake up in a motel room. Nearly 5000 Kiwi kids will grow up in a motel room and the Minister says Better than a car." Well that's the standard. One of the housing Ministers—there's five of them—stands and says "Oh it's better than a car." This is the pathetic standard that we have come to in this Government. This is the pathetic shameful standard that this Government's come to—"It's better than a car." This is the level of ambition; this is the poverty of ambition of the Government that it's better that kids grow up in motels than cars. This is the level of the poverty of ambition. We started with 100000 KiwiBuild homes. Five years later the Government's been reduced to "At least they're not in cars." How pathetic. How shameful. And in 18 months' time Kiwis get the chance to throw out this useless lot."