Goodhew Jo: General Debate 
Goodhew Jo: General Debate 
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JO GOODHEW (National—Rangitata) 
: 
 Tena koe e te Mana Whakawa. I wish to begin my address this afternoon by outlining the good news. The goods news we are hearing from our constituents out in the real New Zealand is that they can see that New Zealand is pulling itself out of this recession that there is hope and that what National campaigned on—a brighter more ambitious future for New Zealand—is certainly coming. Our six-point plan is our plan. 
I will spend just a moment talking about the Hon Phil Goff and his effort in the general debate this afternoon. “Labour has a plan” he said “Labour has a plan.” Well I will give him a hint. While he said that Labour had a plan his whole front and middle bench looked down because those members did not believe it nor did New Zealand. Members can ask the pollsters. They can find out what New Zealanders are saying. Labour does not have a plan and we certainly have not heard of a plan. 
But in the meantime this National Government gets on with the business of being the Government. We will have a growth-enhancing tax system and better smarter public services we are lifting education and skills we are boosting infrastructure we will have better business innovation and an ambitious trade agenda and we are cutting red tape and regulations. That is a real plan. That is real action. That is this John Key - led National Government. 
I will concentrate on two parts of the six-part plan. I will concentrate on better and smarter public services and I will also mention how we are going about boosting infrastructure. We are getting more out of Government spending. We want to improve front-line services rein in debt and get the books back into surplus. Our most recent Budget showed that we are on track to do that 3 years faster than we said we could a year ago. That is good progress here in New Zealand. 
We have capped the Public Service. It had become totally and utterly bloated under the previous Government. We have freed up $2 billion of low-priority spending in Budget 2009 in order to put it into front-line services in health education and law and order. We are seeing extra police in Counties-Manukau. We are putting more than half a billion dollars extra into health. We are seeing that almost as much again is being put into education and New Zealanders know it. Those schools out there know that they have had a 4 percent increase in the operations grant. They are not telling the Government to take it back. They know that they are getting the concentration on the teachers the nurses the doctors and the health professionals. That money is being spent on front-line services in New Zealand. 
We have moved a further $1.8 billion into front-line services in Budget 2010. Still we are managing to concentrate on making better use of the Public Service. We are reforming benefits by rebalancing obligations and support and by bringing a focus on to work which is a focus that New Zealanders are more than welcoming. We are also tackling long-term welfare dependency and we are reforming accident compensation so that it is affordable sustainable and fair. I can tell members that in answer to the surveys I sent out to my constituents they have said: “Good on you National Government. You are doing things that we really care about.” 
We are boosting infrastructure. We are spending $10.7 billion over 10 years on new highways. Work on the Victoria Park tunnel began last November a year ahead of schedule. I can only assume that those members over there wish they had managed something anywhere like that. Without extra funding that project may never have got off the ground and neither would we have the jobs and other extra benefits that that project is bringing. 
We have ultra-fast broadband. Do members know that there are dozens of schools in my electorate that are getting ultra-fast broadband? There is $300 million being spent on the Rural Broadband Initiative to ensure that those rural schools and communities have fast Internet access. 
We are upgrading electricity transmission. We are investing $3.3 billion to help ensure the security of supply and there is Transpower’s $672 million on the interisland electricity connection upgrade which was kicked off in April this year. That is just the beginning. 
There is Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart. We thought there would be maybe 27000 participants in the first year but we have had more than 50000. There are a lot of good things going on in this National Government. To finish I say ka mutu nga mihi.