Clark DavidDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): A Māori friend of mine said to me recently: Do you know what the difference is between William Hobson and William English? At least William Hobson showed up." I think that epitomises what we have seen so far from this Government. We have seen a Government led by Bill English—if we can use the word "led"—that is simply failing to lead. The most fundamental job of a leader is to lead. That speech there from Mr Brownlee—I think the irony there was probably lost on him. It was the speech of a stuffed shirt—the epitome of a stuffed shirt perhaps. What that speech told us what Mr Brownlee tried to tell us was that—he was arguing against speeches with no substance that were full of bluff and bluster in a speech that had no substance and was full of bluff and bluster.That is the unfortunate thing from this Government. It is out of ideas. Not only is it out of touch not only is it arrogant but it is out of ideas. It does not have leadership on its side of the House. When its members talk about new leadership and new faces let us not forget that Bill English was here in Parliament when I was still in high school. That is the new face of the National Party: a leader who was here when I was still in high school. That is not a new face. So what we have is the same old same old from the National Party.The vision that National presented in the state of the nation speech was a skinny version of Labour's policy of 1000 new policemen. It said: "No no. We can't manage 1000; let's make it 880." The thing that sticks in my mind about that speech was an interview I heard afterwards on Radio New Zealand National where Bill English was asked to explain why they were following Labour's policy—why it was a watered-down version of Labour's policy. Mr English said: "Oh it's not it's not. We have been thinking about it for a long time. And you know when you manage the economy and you think about the money and you think about the options you've got and so on—we thought through the many options and we realised we had some options and we eventually decided that the option that was open to us that we'd like to take was policemen."There was nothing in there about vision. It was not the kind of answer that will inspire New Zealanders. It was not leadership. It did not say: "We need safer communities. We want a New Zealand that's fair. When people work hard they should be able to get ahead not be afraid that someone's going to pinch from them or beat them up in the street. We want a New Zealand where everyone has the opportunity to get ahead." No no—it was: "We worked bureaucratically through the options available to us and we eventually came to the conclusion that we'd like to do a watered-down version of Labour's policy.What we have on this side of the House in Andrew Little is a leader. We saw that very clearly in Dunedin just 1 week ago when we packed out a hall in Dunedin with 400 people. The people who were there—and they had been around for a while some of them—and particularly the reporters said it was the biggest political meeting in Dunedin since the 1980s. There is change in the air. Bill English said in the House the other day that he could not pack out a crowd of 500—it was a passing comment. I would challenge Bill English to come down to Dunedin and host a meeting. Let us see whether he can get 400 people in a room because I bet he cannot. People will not show up. Only insomniacs will show up to hear Bill English deliver a speech in Dunedin.And that is the problem. National does not have a leader and its members know it. Their heads are down on that side of the House. The only man smiling during question time today was Jonathan Coleman. He knows his time is coming. He knows that we have a temporary leader in Bill English and we know Bill English's past track record. There is no leadership on that side of the House and that is why the squabbling has started behind the scenes over there. On this side of the House we are united we have a vision for a New Zealand where every New Zealander can get the healthcare that they need where it is affordable and accessible where parents are not being asked to dig deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into their pockets just for the basics of a primary school education. But that is what we have got under this lot. That is what we have got under this lot.That is not even to mention housing which I would like to mention next. This housing crisis that we have in New Zealand is the big issue out there. Everywhere I go in the country it is the thing that is on the top of people's minds. Grandparents are worried that their grandchildren are putting off having kids because they cannot afford a place for them to live in—because they cannot afford a stable warm dry home to raise their kids in. It is having a real impact on New Zealand. We heard again today some apology from Mr Joyce about the number of consents going up. There are still not enough houses being built each year to meet the rising demand now let alone close the gap that has emerged under this Government's watch. We have a housing crisis—41000 New Zealanders are currently homeless. We have the lowest homeownership rate in New Zealand since 1951 and it has happened under National's watch.We have the biggest gap between the ultra-rich and the rest of us that we have ever had. The OECD put out a paper just a couple of years ago saying that New Zealand's inequalities had grown faster than any other country in the Western World and that that was holding growth back in New Zealand. It is not only that it is socially wrong—the OECD did not make comment on that—I happen to think it is wrong when people do not get the basics that they need when kids grow up in cold damp homes. I think that is wrong. The OECD made the basic point that when you have that growing inequality and you have some kids who do not get the basics and who go to school hungry they do not learn they do not maximise their opportunities—that has held New Zealand's growth rate back it estimated by a full 15 percent over recent decades. Growth in New Zealand has been well behind what it should be because of those growing inequalities and it has just got worse under these people as the homeownership rate has continued to drop.The official statistics on homeownership disguise the size of the problem because it is an average across the population. The fact is for 25- to 40-year-olds homeownership rates have about halved in a generation. That is just wrong. How can we hope for young people coming through who are skilled who have student loans—which by the way are billowing—to want to stay in New Zealand when they must go overseas to pay off their debts? That seems to be the only option for many. It is not the future that I want for New Zealand and I do not think it is the future that most New Zealanders want. Most New Zealanders want to know that they will have the opportunities in education that they can get access to the healthcare system that one day they will be able to afford their own home. That is the Kiwi Dream. That is what Labour stands for and that is what Labour will build when we make Government in September when the interim Prime Minister moves over and lets us have a real leader in this Parliament in Andrew Little.Let me talk a little bit more about underfunding in the health system. As we know Infometrics has independently calculated that this Government has cut $1.7 billion—$1.7 billion—out of the healthcare system in the last 6 years and that is hurting New Zealanders. They cannot get access to the surgery they need. I have them coming into my electorate office every week and I am sure members opposite do just as much as we do on this side of the House.We also have in Dunedin where I am from a situation where we urgently need a hospital rebuild. When he was Minister Tony Ryall was promising a business case for the Dunedin Hospital rebuild before the year was out. Well it has not happened. We got a new Minister in Jonathan Coleman but he is no longer a new Minister. He promised it would be by the end of the year then he promised the start of the next year then he promised a year later and now we have a preliminary business case due in the middle of this year. It just keeps getting pushed out. It is an absolute disgrace.I have looked at overseas studies particularly in Australia where they have just had a hospital-building boom and there are countless reports written on how to plan and build a hospital. It can take 4 months to settle the vision and a hospital can be built—a quality hospital—in 4 years. It has just about been 4 years of talking since Tony Ryall promised that new hospital. But they just do not seem to care on that side. We have a Government that is sitting on its hands that is not concerned about ordinary middle New Zealand—and not so ordinary middle New Zealand. Most Kiwis are missing out on the healthcare that they really need. They are missing out on the healthcare their kids are not getting the education that they once did and so many more people are living in cars in New Zealand. It is a national disgrace and that homeownership rate just continues to drop.There are obvious solutions there. Of course we could ban non-resident foreign speculators from buying housing in New Zealand. It is a very simple solution. They do it in Singapore. They have preserved the option to do it in Vietnam and various other countries around the Pacific. But when for example this Government was negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement it did not even ask for that provision. Government members wanted to lock overseas speculators into the New Zealand housing market. They wanted to make that a law that we signed up to as part of an international agreement. That is how little they care about first-home buyers being locked out of the New Zealand housing market. It is a shame but it does show where their priorities lie who their backers are whom they are trying to appease and it is not most New Zealanders.Most New Zealanders do want opportunities they do want a world-class education at their local school they do want access to quality affordable healthcare and they do want do have a warm dry home to live in and to bring up their kids in or to see their grandchildren living in. It is not too much to ask. It is the Kiwi Dream and Andrew Little when he is Prime Minister will deliver that dream again for New Zealanders."