Brown Simeon; Salesa JennySIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to take this my first call in the House this year. I just want to start by echoing the comments of many of my colleagues from across the Chamber about the devastation that we've seen by Cyclone Gabrielle which has tragically killed 11 people including two firefighters: Craig Stevens and Dave van Zwanenberg. The devastation the loss—our hearts go out to those individuals and their families in particular who have lost their loved ones. On the weekend I was in the Hawke's Bay in Gisborne with Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis looking at some of the devastation and meeting with some of the people who have lost everything to the cyclone to the water to the flooding to the silt and it is truly heart-breaking to see the devastation that has taken place. Not only the devastation to people's lives and livelihoods but also the massive impact that it's had on our regions our roads the resilience and our electricity water and communications infrastructure. It is critically important that this Government gets on with the job of fixing these issues as quickly as possible. They will have our support in getting that done.But ultimately the issue will be making sure this Government delivers. And what we've seen over the last five years is a Government which fails to deliver on every single measure. So we've seen the Government respond so far to Cyclone Gabrielle saying it's going to allocate $50 million to businesses and $250 million for roading. We welcome that investment we welcome that to help fix the issues and provide some support to businesses. But let's just put that into context: this Government spent $52 million on consultants for the Auckland cycle bridge in Auckland—$52 million on a cycle bridge in Auckland where they've provided $50 million so far to business relief in the Hawke's Bay and to Cyclone Gabrielle businesses who have been impacted.They're saying $250 million for roading. While I'm sure that will be welcomed to help fix the 400 kilometres of State highway network and the hundreds of kilometres of local roads—I understand 15 major bridges have been washed out. But let's put that into perspective: this Government wants to spend $29.2 billion on Auckland light rail—$29.2 billion. That is not even 1 percent of the amount of money that this speech that was tabled by the Prime Minister today is promising to put into light rail because there on page 13 right at the bottom it says: This year we'll continue progressing Auckland light rail."So this Government is saying $250 million for roading on the East Coast and to help support that region—yes it will be welcomed; yes that is important. The roads in Northland the Brynderwyns on State Highway 1 the Hawke's Bay Gisborne and Coromandel these connections matter and this money will be helpful. But let's just remember how much money this Government is also committing in that speech for the Auckland light rail project.But this Prime Minister finished the speech by saying "Let's get cracking." Well afterwards all I heard was "Let's get clapping." That's what I think the response was; they didn't quite get the message. But what are they going to get cracking on with is the question. And let's actually look at this Prime Minister's track record because New Zealanders know that this is a Prime Minister who has failed to deliver across all of his portfolios. We know the education statistics: regular school attendance under Chris Hipkins' watch has fallen from 63 percent in 2017 to just 39 percent in term 2 last year a decline which started well before COVID. The polytechs: he's turned a small deficit in the polytech sector into a half-a-billion-dollar loss—a half-a-billion-dollar loss under his leadership in the polytech sector. It's almost as bad as KiwiBuild which by the way the Minister for Housing stood up—did anyone hear KiwiBuild mentioned once in that speech? It's not even mentioned in the Prime Minister's speech that was tabled today. KiwiBuild wasn't even mentioned.And what about in Police? Some $6 million was announced for bollards to help protect our small businesses and dairies. And this Government under Chris Hipkins' watch as the Minister of Police managed to deliver 13 before Christmas—only 13 before Christmas. That's how seriously this Government takes law and order. And you've got the new Minister of Police saying that he doesn't have any idea how bad the law and order issues are in Napier. Last time I looked he was also the MP for Napier. He's the MP for Napier and the Minister of Police but he doesn't even know how bad the law and order issues are. But he's got a solution. He's on the phones today folks. He's on the phones talking to the gangs. He's calling up the gangs and he's asking them "Please take off your patches for a day. Today is not a good day for a ram raid. Today is not a good day for a fight or a shooting. Today is the day to take your patches off so please please please." We now have a Minister of Police in this country who is actively negotiating with gangs to try to get them to stop fighting each other. That's how bad law and order has got to in this country where you have a Minister of Police literally pleading on the phone. The police should be backed and the gangs should be smashed. That should be their approach. But this Government is going out there and calling and ringing up the gang leaders to plead with them. That is a shame and it just shows how bad things have got.And then what about the bureaucracy? Chris Hipkins has been the Minister for the Public Service for the last five years where there has been 14000 more bureaucrats employed in the core Public Service. But have we seen a proportionate increase in outcomes in our Public Service? Have we seen better outcomes when it comes to people wanting a specialist appointment or people trying to get the police to respond when they call 111? What about our children getting the education that they deserve? Those are the outcomes—what about filling the potholes on our roads? Those are the issues which matter to New Zealanders. But this Government has been focused on building a bureaucracy in Wellington rather than actually fixing the problems and focusing on the outcomes.We can run through all of the issues whether it's three waters vocational education reforms the Ministry of Education spending $95 million more on consultants Kāinga Ora $77 million more—the numbers are eye-watering. This is taxpayers' money. This is a Government of waste—not a Government of delivery not a Government of getting things done.And when it comes to transport where is the "Let's get cracking"? The speech says that the Government is still committed to Auckland light rail but only just—it says "This year we will continue progressing Auckland light rail." So what about next year? Is it finally going to be on the block next year? But the question is: what are they progressing? What are they progressing? How many metres of Auckland light rail have they delivered so far? They've had five and a half years they've spent 72 million bucks and how many metres of open light rail have been delivered so far? A big red zero. A big red zero has been achieved. So what are they progressing? It says here in the speech "We will continue progressing Auckland light rail." Well they haven't even started. How can you progress something which you haven't even started? But that sums up this Government's ability to actually get things done.I can tell you the people of our regions will much rather that money is spent on roading connections repairing State highways which have been damaged by Cyclone Gabrielle upgrading our roads to be more resilient—not on a pet project which goes through Michael Wood's electorate. That's simply what's happening. And even Helen Clark the former Prime Minister she was on Twitter yesterday saying that actually maybe the Government should be focused on maybe making sure the buses run on time rather than spending $29 billion on an Auckland light rail pet project to the Minister of Transport's electorate. Maybe that would be a better use of taxpayers' money.The only thing this Government is cracking on with is slowing New Zealanders down. Slowing down the speed limits on our State highways making it harder to get around and making it more difficult. That's what this Government is actually focused on when it comes to transport and National will continue to vigorously oppose the blanket speed limits that this Government is proposing.This Government—this country—needs to actually get on and address the challenges that we're facing whether it's making sure we build the transport connections and the infrastructure that we need making sure that we deal with the cost of living crisis that this country is still facing or interest rates which continue to increase.These are the issues that this Government is failing to address and simply is passing the buck down the road. National wants to make sure that we get our country moving in the right direction where we invest in the infrastructure that we need that we help New Zealanders get ahead rather than continue to fall backwards—because they're going backwards under this Government; incomes are not rising as fast as inflation. New Zealanders are going backwards under this Government and this Government does not have a plan to address it.National has a plan. National will take that plan to the election and we will get New Zealand moving back in the right direction and actually get things done for New Zealand. Thank you very much Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call."