Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): I rise on behalf of the National Party as the member of Parliament for North Shore on the Appropriation (2021/22 Supplementary Estimates) Bill. National oppose this bill. I tell you what: listening to that last speech about a finance Minister that has responsibility that is in control I was thinking Where have they been?" This is a Minister in a bill that we are going through today that is an open chequebook—an open chequebook for a Government that is addicted to spending and a Government that is addicted to debt. And we've got a Minister of Finance at the helm of this ship going through a massive storm and basically going to crash-land our economy and hard-working Kiwis are going to pay for those decisions. The New Zealand economy and the New Zealand economy more broadly which is impacted by these Supplementary Estimates is in a nosedive and the pilot Prime Minister is across overseas doing clinks and drinking shot glasses of grape juice while the Deputy Prime Minister is in the navigator seat thinking "You know what? Those dials in front of me are all going red inflation and the machine's going 'Pull up pull up' ". And he's going: "Don't worry I know what I'm doing. I know better than what the dials are telling me." The problem with that attitude from a Minister of Finance is an arrogance that he knows best. But all the warning signs are saying that our economy is in a nosedive and this Government has played a role in terms of where we're at. What we want from this Government is the ability to recognise that we're in a freefall and to start to take action around that. But sadly and sadly for hard-working Kiwis and for Kiwis around this country we have got a Government that is addicted to spending addicted to debt and has an inability to fiscally manage this country and its future. So what I want to talk about in regards to the bill is the $127 billion that is in the spending for this year. That is just over $57727 per Kiwi household and that amount is about $1100 a week of spending. That is the quantum of spend that that side of the House is currently spending and not investing in terms of us. And we've talked about how that quantum of spend has increased significantly. Let's talk a little bit about three waters which is included within this appropriation: $2.5 billion of borrowings or spend that has just been spread out in a bribery fund for local councils. One and a half billion of that is going to be borrowed at commercial rates—$100 million of interest costs alone $50 per household in terms of interest repayments per year before these entities have even started. That is in regards to a piece of legislation that is one small element of a significant appropriation in regards to what we're talking about. We talked before about the $350 sugar hit. Let's be clear: this is going to do nothing on a sustainable basis to help hard-working Kiwis out there dealing with a cost of living crisis. The navigator in charge of this plane while it's nosediving thinks they know best and this $350 payment is like trying to turn over the fuel gauge to the backup engine when fuel is pumping out of the plane as it's heading for the mountain. This Government are out of control and they have an inability to manage. National have come up with some good ideas in regards to how we'd do that: inflation-adjusted taxation policy making sure that Kiwis would get sustainable money back into their pockets and that would benefit middle New Zealand. Lastly this appropriation includes a significant amount of money on consultants contractors and bureaucrats. There were 14000 more bureaucrats in the last five years; $34 million on consultants and contractors on an advertising campaign for three waters which was absolutely wasteful spending. One and a half billion dollars is the cost for those additional bureaucrats and that excludes front-line teachers front-line nurses. The National Party oppose this bill."