Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. Well here we are today with a Government that is literally falling apart before our eyes at a time when we need focus. So what have we got? We have the mad professor David Parker thinking that we need to tax unrealised capital gains; we've had Stuart Nash doing whatever he did—I can't remember; we've got Kiri Allan who brought this new approach to transparency which is to say you declare your perceived conflict of interests after you've been caught and that's her approach; and now we've got Meka Whaitiri deciding to join the Māori Party. And so they've lost three votes already and the question is whether they're going to make it to election time with 60 votes intact and a clear majority—I'm not sure.So Who's next?" is the question that we're all asking. Who's next? Who's going to go? I mean I suppose on the law of averages you would have to say it would be the Minister of Police Ginny Andersen because the record has been that a police Minister in this Government hasn't lasted very long so it could be her. But if you thought about it from a sense of merit it surely would have had to have been Chris Hipkins for five years as a Minister of Education and after five years the kids aren't going to school and performance is going backwards—on any measure he should go. And then Kiri Allan is in charge of justice at a time when violent crime has gone up 30 percent and the number of people in prison have gone down more than 20 percent following Government direction. Surely that deserves having to go as well but who knows? Who knows who's going to be next?But what we do know is right here right now New Zealand is facing massive challenges. It needs a Government that is focused that's united that's strong that's coherent and that is on the ball and we're not seeing that from this Government. We've got two big challenges. First we're in a war for talent. Anybody who reads the news knows that the Aussies are on to it. They're out there. They're going hard. They want to attract our most talented and skilled workers over there to help Australia. If the Government's response if the Labour Party's response only is to tax those most talented and most mobile more—well I don't think that's a very good approach. I think that's not a good approach and it's not going to get us very far. A single measure of progress for a country is: are we losing people to Australia or are we gaining people? We're usually losing people to Australia but under the Key National Government we managed to turn that around so that they were coming to New Zealand on a net outflow of people coming to New Zealand. But that's gone back into reverse under this Government and it's only getting worse.The other real issue we have is a growth problem in this country. Where do we get the money in order to sustain the standard of living that we've enjoyed? How do we pay for the extra nurses that we want? How do we get the teachers that we want? How do we have higher salaries? Well we have to have a growth plan in this country. One of the key elements of how you grow an economy is through investment—somebody somewhere deciding to put extra money into growing a business starting a new business either from offshore or from New Zealand people investing. And again if the Government's only approach is to tax investment more—which is what David Parker wants to do—that seems like a dumb idea as well. That's not going to grow the economy any faster. You need to have good quality infrastructure. You need to have low taxes. You need to have a welcoming platform for investment. You need to have a skilled workforce—you're not going to get a skilled workforce when the kids aren't at school. All those things are what you need to grow the economy and that's why National has a clear growth plan. But from this Government we're not seeing anything along those lines.The third challenge we have is a sense of disorder on our streets. Here we have right now a Government that has perfected the culture of excuses when it comes to disorder and crime and particularly youth crime. If there's a crime going on if there's a massive increase in ram raids if people who work in retail and in dairies around the country no longer feel safe in their working environment "Oh well it's not the kids' fault; it's somebody else's fault." is the response of somebody somewhere down the line. And you go off you have a meeting you have your head patted and away you go and we'll see you next weekend doing the same thing. That culture of excuses and soft on crime approach has led us to where we are right now. And the only—the only—target this Government has in the justice sector is to reduce the prison population by 30 percent regardless of what's going on in our community regardless of the level of crime regardless of the fact that every night we hear the chopper over our heads in Auckland. That is the approach that has to change.So we need to win the war of talent with Australia we need to grow the economy and we need to restore law and order. That is what will be happening in this country in a few months' time when National returns to Government. Thank you."