Woods MeganDr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): It is my privilege to take a call in support of Andrew Little's amendment: that we have no confidence in this Government. Listening for the hours now that we have had on this Prime Minister's statement and listening to the National Government members' speeches one after another getting up and claiming that they are the party of ideas and then spending their entire call talking about the Labour Party explains to me exactly why I have no confidence in this Government.This is a Government that has no ideas. It can say it has new ideas all it likes but when all it can do in its policy announcements for the year is reheat other parties' policies when it talks about its announcement on police numbers I have absolutely no confidence that this Government understands what is happening for New Zealanders. It seems to be a party that is absolutely obsessed with this side of the House with the Labour Party. I can understand that. We are fascinating. We are interesting and we are just brimming with ideas—Hon Member: We're humble!Dr MEGAN WOODS: —and things that we want to do and we are humble as well. You are absolutely right. To have a party that is coming in to its ninth year in Government that cannot talk about what its vision for New Zealand is is a grave concern for all New Zealanders.We have speeches like the one we heard from the Hon Gerry Brownlee today who seems strangely obsessed with the 1970s. All the way through his speech—all the way through his speech—he was obsessed. I can only imagine that the Minister was having some kind of traumatic flashback to the fashions of the 1970s and having recovered memory syndrome around bellbottoms and the velour jumpsuits that he had to wear. We need a Government that is focused on the issues that matter. But what do we have? We have a Prime Minister but we certainly do not have a leader in the new leader of the National Party Mr Invisi-Bill" Bill English.What does he do whenever there is a challenge? He does not front up. This is a Prime Minister who thought he did not need to field a candidate in a seat where his party had done very well in the party vote. This is a leader who does not turn up to Waitangi. This is a leader who does not front up when the issues are there and that is not what we have on this side of the House. We have a leader who will not tell us exactly what happened on that phone call with Donald Trump.What I want to know and what the Prime Minister has not discussed and certainly his Deputy Prime Minister has not referred to again is whether or not Paula Bennett was making calls the morning of that phone call for the Prime Minister to discuss one of the most important issues of our time and our generation with President Trump. She was imploring the Prime Minister to discuss climate change. She was on the radio saying that she hoped that this would be discussed. But was this discussed? Is this one of the things that we are hearing? No it is not. But that is hardly surprising because when the Deputy Prime Minister who is also the Minister responsible for climate change gave her speech in this House yesterday did she mention again one of the most pressing issues of our time and our generation: climate change? No she did not. She spent her entire 10 minutes taking pot shots at the Opposition rather than sketching out a vision for one of the most pressing problems we have in our time. The reality is that we are not on track to meet our targets and we have no plan from this Government.What else has not been discussed? Well we have a Prime Minister who gave his state of the nation address and did not mention the housing crisis once. This was not something that was mentioned but it is one of the biggest issues facing New Zealanders and I know that in my electorate office in Wigram people's inability either to afford home ownership or to find rents they can afford is certainly one of the things that occupies our constituency work all the time. It is a major concern to so many New Zealanders but the Prime Minister does not think that it merits a mention in his state of the nation address.Another thing that was conspicuous in its absence in the state of the nation address was any mention of the Christchurch recovery. Once upon a time the Government used to mention this as one of its key priorities but it certainly is not now. This is no longer a priority for this Government. This is a Government that has slashed Earthquake Commission staff at a time when we have an increased number of remedial repair complaints coming in. There is no plan no end date. The Government will not even give an end date to people who are waiting for their homes to be repaired more than 6 years on so they can get on with their lives.This is a Government that is still leaving inner-city Christchurch to stagnate around the anchor projects. The anchor projects that were meant to stimulate what was going to happen in the CBD have not become that point of stimulus; they have become a dead weight of an anchor. What is happening in the middle of Christchurch is in spite of the Government not because of it. We see the private sector flourishing but we have seen fenced-off areas where there should be a convention centre. We have no movement as yet where we should see housing in the East Frame. Cantabrians are sick and tired of it. They know that this is a Government that no longer has them as a priority.When it comes to education my colleague Chris Hipkins asked questions in this House today about the increased costs that are increasingly falling on parents who send their children to a State school. We in this country believe that we have access to education. It does not matter how much money your parents have; you can go to a school and get a good education and have the ability to realise your potential no matter where you come from.For the last couple of weeks in my electorate office we have been dealing with phone call after phone call and people coming in who just simply cannot afford their children's stationery bills. We are talking of upwards of $200 for each child at primary school in some instances. The Minister of Education has decided that you blame the schools. I do not for a moment blame these schools. These are schools that are trying their very best but the reality is that our schools have had their operations budgets frozen and they simply cannot afford to provide the kind of education that children need without having to ask parents to dip into their pockets.This is not good enough. This is not the New Zealand that we believe in. This is not the New Zealand where everyone gets the opportunity to realise their potential and the kind of vision that we have. The kind of New Zealand that Labour believes in is where everybody has a go at the Kiwi Dream and it is not dependent on how much money you have or how much money your parents have when it comes to our children.The other issue that occupies another big chunk of time in my electorate office is people coming in who simply cannot access our health system. The Hon Annette King talks about this all the time and brings this issue up for scrutiny time and time again because it is something that we must look at. It is absolutely one of the worst parts of the job of being an MP sitting opposite an elderly constituent who is in pain but has been told they do not match the criteria. They know and you know the fact of the matter is that they are not a priority in such a stretched health system. They are not making the cut for specialist appointments and they are certainly not making the cut to go on the surgery waiting list.This is not something that any member in this House should be prepared to accept. This is not the kind of country that we believe in. It is not what I want for the people of the Wigram electorate and it is certainly not what I want for us as a country. That is why Labour has a different vision—one where we do restore funding to health where we properly fund our education system where we make sure we address the housing crisis and where we face the challenges of the future that are facing us. We do not just forget to mention big issues like climate change and put them on the back-burner.We must have a Government that is ready willing able and full of ideas to face these challenges of our future. That is an Andrew Little - led Labour Government which come September will be occupying the Government benches. The people of New Zealand know that this is a Government that is out of ideas a Government that simply is not showing the leadership that is needed and a Government that is not standing up for New Zealanders when it is required. We deserve more than a Prime Minister who is "Mr Invisi-Bill"."