Key John: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKey John: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 28 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15525. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): I move that this House express its confidence in the National-led Government—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Can I first of all ask the Prime Minister to present the Prime Minister’s statement.Grant Robertson: He’s a first timer.Mr SPEAKER: Order!Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Quite the opposite. Mr Speaker—Mr SPEAKER: Simply present the—Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I present the Prime Minister’s statement.Mr SPEAKER: That paper is published under the authority of the House. Copies are available on the Table. I call on Government order of the day—[Interruption] Order! I know everybody is very keen to get this year under way no more so than myself.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Mr Speaker—Hon Members: Yay!Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Well thank you for the applause because I moveThat this House express its confidence in the National-led Government and commend its programme for 2014 as set out in the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament. This Government starts the year where it left off: with a plan for New Zealand that we present today; with a sense of what is required for economic management—affordable sensible and responsible; with a vision for this great country; and with a united dedicated and committed team.The Opposition begins the year where it left off: desperate divided and delusional. Mercifully it was quite quiet over Christmas I have to say. David Cunliffe was verymuch like a white tiger: he was out there but no one actually ever saw him. Russel Norman spent his entire summer break working out how he could get an invitation to go back to the Dotcom mansion for the third time. Hone Harawira took a public tour of Parliament to see what it is actually like. One thing that did happen over Christmas though was that the Opposition proved I think quite clearly that it should have gone to summer school when it comes to mathematics or economics because it is quite one thing when the Green Party wants to print money but David Cunliffe has actually taken that to a whole new level. You see he has gone right past the printing press right past bitcoin and he has now gone into imaginary or make-believe money. It is fantastic stuff. You do not have to borrow it. You do not have to print it. You most certainly do not have to earn it. According to David Cunliffe all you have to do is spend it. That takes you into that kind of interesting space of where the Opposition is these days.As John Armstrong quite rightly pointed out in theNew Zealand Heraldthis morning it is a bit of a tricky Opposition. You need to actually read the fine print. This is the Opposition that last year wanted New Zealanders to believe that if they earned under $18.40 an hour they would get a pay rise under Labour. But it turns out in the fine print that it is actually only if you are working for a Government department pretty much in Wellington. He wanted them to believe that there was $1.5 billion just sitting out there mysteriously waiting to be spent. Yesterday he wanted New Zealanders to believe that if for an entire year they had a 1-year-old or younger and they earn under $150000 a year—Labour’s new definition of poverty—they would get 60 bucks a week. But actually when you read the fine print they do not. They get it after the paid parental leave has finished. That is right. The Opposition was not rushing to say: “David Cunliffe here to talk to you about my policies for the middle part of 2016.” It was like: “Vote for us and you get the money.” Well the Opposition has gone from yeah nah to yeah nah maybe. Read the fine print. They are Labour and the Greens. They would be a high-spending and high-taxing Government if they ever get there which is good because that is the only high that Labour and the Greens look like they can agree on at the moment.Let us go to this Government and what it has actually achieved and what it is actually delivering for New Zealanders. The programme today spells out where this Government is going to go. But what is worthy of discussion is also where this Government has been and whom the New Zealand public actually trust with New Zealand. It is this Government a National-led Government that has balanced the books in this country and will see us back in surplus by 2014-15. It is this Government that guided Christchurch through the tragedies of the Christchurch earthquakes stood behind it week after week after week making sure it had the support that it needed. It was this Government that guided the country through the global financial crisis to a point where economic commentators around the world talk about New Zealand as the stand-out developed economy.It is under this Government that 17000 people left a benefit last year and 1500 people a week leave a benefit and get a job. It is under this National-led Government that people are employed. It is under this Government that ACC rates are being reduced for New Zealanders for workers for employees across the board and it is under this National-led Government that when we look out there at the crime rate in this country we see it is at a 33-year low.It is this Government that can be trusted to roll out ultra-fast broadband. I know David Cunliffe is saying that he is going to close down Facebook. That is actually something that most leaders around the world have not managed to do. But that is right. That was today’s proclamation from David Cunliffe—the fine print. He is going to close down Facebook. That will be interesting. But this is also the Government with thetrack record that has seen an enormous increase in elective surgical operations available to New Zealanders. This is the Government that stood up with a plan to prevent the harm that is taking place in our communities against young children.This Government and its plan is the reason that three-quarters of a billion dollars will be spent this year in New Zealand on looking for oil and gas—because of this Government. And actually despite what David Cunliffe said about his new-found friends in Norway it was Labour that had no rules in the exclusive economic zone let alone tough rules. It had no rules whatsoever when it came to deep-sea drilling. Last year when we were in this House Labour members were the ones being critical and all of a sudden miraculously that has changed.It is under this National-led Government that housing will become more affordable because we have the right approach to fixing that issue. That is through the accords with the Auckland Council and ultimately around the country. That is with making sure that new land is released. That is with making sure that there are refinements to our legislation particularly over time to the Resource Management Act to allow young New Zealanders to buy a home.It is this National-led Government that has stood up and is tackling the issues of teacher performance and principal performance so that every young New Zealander gets a chance to succeed to do well and to have a world-class education. That is what is happening under this Government. Under this Government Transmission Gully will be built like the Waterview Connection is.In the plan for the year the Government goes back to the four key points that it has been implementing for some time. To responsibly manage finances—that has got to be the top priority. I say to New Zealanders who see these other political parties offering something that if it is too good to be true it probably is. When David Cunliffe tells you he has found $1.5 billion at the end of a rainbow and he is out spending it roughly depending on whether you read the fine print maybe just maybe you need to ask where that is coming from. By the way if you are earning $150000 and you are in that category of poverty according to Labour you will also have your tax rate going up year after year after year. And if you are a young couple who is buying the bakery in Hāwera and you are trying to make a living under Labour it will put a capital gains tax on you because you are rich and because you are out there trying to create employment because you care about trying to get other people a job. When Labour has done all that and when it has spent like it did last time it was in office—if it ever gets there again—we know what happens. Interest rates go up. The competitive part of the economy goes south and a National-led Government has to come in and tidy things up.Their heads are down over there for one reason and one reason alone: they know it does not add up. They know we are not even out the end of January and they have spent three-quarters of a billion dollars with their mates the Greens—let alone everything that happened last year. That is what New Zealanders like about this plan and trust about this Government—that in the course of 5 years we have actually held Government spending pretty much at the same rate but we have prioritised what matters. At-risk New Zealanders have had Working for Families maintained pensions maintained and accommodation supplements maintained. This Government has reprioritised to ensure that happens.This Government will also stick to its plan of building a competitive and productive economy. It will continue to deliver better public services and it will rebuild Christchurch. Let us go through some individual bits of the plan. Back in 2008 when we became the Government this is what Treasury told us: the debt to GDP ratio was going to 60 percent by 2020. Why? Because we were inheriting a bunch of the stuff we saw yesterday: say anything do anything to try to get there and try to tell people youare doing them a favour with their own money until the music stops and you get booted out and someone actually has to come in and tidy the place up. What does this year’s plan show? It shows that by 2014-15 we will not be a decade of deficits; we will be back in surplus—we will back in surplus. Debt will have peaked at 26.5 percent and by 2019-20 it will be at 17 percent—16.9 percent. New Zealanders take enormous confidence from that. This Government will work on repaying debt because we actually trust New Zealanders and they trust us to be able to take care of them when there is actual need. When a Christchurch earthquake comes a strong Government can stand in support. A profligate one cannot.When it come to competitiveness this Government will remain committed to the Business Growth Agenda and to expanding export markets. That includes trying to complete our free-trade agreement with Korea with Russia and with the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries not the least of them being the United States. In 2014 this Government will do something that parties on the other side of the House talk about but never actually support and that is get behind the film industry. This is the Government that saw over—Jacinda Ardern is shaking her head but she was the Hobbit-hater out there saying not to create 5500 jobs for the hobbits—5500 jobs created. Now we have gotAvatar 2Avatar 3 andAvatar 4 being made in New Zealand because of this Government’s actions. That is what happens when you have good government.We are committed to smart investment. We are committed to making sure that science is at the heart of the Government. We will continue to work with Callaghan Innovation in making sure that New Zealand firms and New Zealand businesses across the country have the very best science available to them. We will continue down the path of our National Science Challenges and of our Primary Growth Partnership and making sure we use science to make New Zealand a more competitive economy.When it comes to skills and in the workplace this Government will continue to do that and it will ensure that we reach our target that 55 percent of 25 to 34-year-olds have some sort of advanced trade qualification diploma or degree by 2017. There will be an additional 4500 places in trades and services academies and this year alone over 10000 people will have access to the Youth Guarantee—fees-free learning for 16 to 19-year-olds under a National-led Government.When it comes to safety in the workplace that will be a priority for the Government this year as we look through WorkSafe New Zealand to improve the culture in our workplaces so that workers across New Zealand can go to their place of work and be confident that they will come home from their daily work. We will make sure that WorkSafe New Zealand works with those industries that need support and need change to ensure that that takes place.We will make sure that ACC reductions continue to be delivered so that New Zealanders can pay less for their ACC. When it comes to infrastructure as I said earlier work on Transmission Gully will begin work will continue on the Christchurch Western Corridor work will continue on the Waikato Expressway work will continue on the Waterview Connection not from borrowings—not from borrowings—but in some part from proceeds of sales of minor assets in New Zealand companies that have deepened our capital markets.This party and this Government remain committed to ultra-fast broadband so that every school in the country every hospital in the country and three-quarters of all New Zealand homes can be wired to the world. We looked with great amazement and pride at Lorde yesterday. She is a great example of how New Zealand music was delivered over the internet. Joel Little himself said that they produced that music to give away on the internet and in fact it turned her into a singing sensation.We will carry on our work around housing and addressing those issues and particularly Christchurch will remain an important part of the Government’s agenda as it has been since the Christchurch earthquakes. There are those anchor projects—the justice precinct over a billion dollars going into schools and into housing. And when it comes to education we will not say that the answer to fixing the whole problem in the education system is giving the odd kid a lunch. That is not actually going to fix the problem. What will fix the problem is paying $50000 to a world-class principal to go in and fix up a school that is failing those kids. That is what is going to fix their education. We are going to say to those teachers to stay in the classroom share your expertise be paid more for that be an expert teacher go around the other schools in your cluster or be an executive principal and expand that. We are going to continue with national standards so that parents can understand the progress of their child and we will continue to work on moderation amongst schools.We will continue our work in law and order because New Zealanders feel safer under a National-led Government. We will continue with Addressing the Drivers of Crime and rehabilitation. We will look to strengthen and expand the rights of victims in legislation that makes it easier for children who are witnesses or for rape victims. We will continue our work on cyber-bullying. As I said when it comes to health one of the top priority areas for this Government is that we will continue to ensure that patients are at the centre of what we focus on in our health system. We will make sure that they continue to get access to elective surgery faster we will continue to make sure they have world-class and gold-standard cancer treatment and that there is more money for magnetic resonance imaging and CAT scans and we will continue to make sure that people can feel confident in what we are doing.You can walk the walk or you can talk the talk. This is a National-led Government that walks the walk. This is a National-led Government that has shown through the work of the last 5 years and will continue to show in 2014 that we are up for any challenge that is put before us and that we can meet those challenges and deliver a brighter future for New Zealanders. We are not going to sit there and try to bribe the electorate with imaginary money that does not exist. We are not going to ask people to read the fine print like a commercial contract when I give a speech at a school someplace in New Zealand. We are going to say to New Zealanders that they can trust what we say and they can trust us to deliver what we do. We are a good Government not a tricky Opposition. Bring on 2014.