Robertson Grant; Rurawhe AdrianHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): Sometimes around this place I feel like I wear more hats than Rawiri Waititi so I'm going to try and work my way through a few of them now. I am going to start with the hat that I wear as the Minister for Sport and Recreation and I will say Up the Wahs." Given that before we come back here in October we will have gotten to the first stages of the men's Rugby World Cup I will also wish the All Blacks "good luck"—and to do as we should all do—and follow the wāhine and make sure that they too perform well and so I wish them luck too.I also wear the hat as you well know of being the Leader of the House. I do just want to spend a little bit of time talking about what's happened in this Parliament since we came back at the end of 2020. I want to start though with my recognition of you as the Speaker and your team of presiding officers. It is fair to say there has been a change of style in the presiding officer team. While I know it's in the early hours of the morning in Ireland I'd like to say Mr Speaker we've appreciated your arrival on the scene and have appreciated the dignity the mana and the wisdom that you bring to this House and indeed to your fellow presiding officers who have done a terrific job as well.Mr Speaker there's a few statistics I'd like to run through for you. The House has sat for 1484 hours and 48 minutes in this term of Parliament—or for the benefit of the National Party that's 57 hours a fortnight because I know that's how you do it nowadays. We've passed 194 bills as a Government; there's also been 16 members' bills passed. There have been 2656 oral questions approximately half of which were addressed—but no I'm sure they were all addressed; not many of them were answered probably but 2656. There were 134342 written questions lodged. I think anyone who's thinking about slashing the Public Service might want to have a think about all of the work that goes into answering written questions and Official Information Act requests. On that note I want to thank the public servants who serve us when we are in Government to the best of their abilities whoever that Government might be.Mr Speaker as you of course well know there is a huge team that sit behind the operations of this place. I want to particularly acknowledge the Clerk's Office for the hard work they do here and indeed in our select committees as well. I want to acknowledge the whole of the Parliamentary Service but particularly want to acknowledge our security staff. During this term of Parliament our security staff had to deal with the occupation outside of Parliament. It was a traumatic experience for many of them but they did a terrific job on our behalf during that time. Indeed again today we saw the need for our security staff and I want to make a special acknowledgment to them for the work that they do on behalf of all parliamentarians.I want to thank the buildings the IT the travel—I want to make a special acknowledgment of the cleaners. Occasionally I find myself here late at night—not for the reasons I once might have found myself late at night here—and the cleaners are working through the night to make sure that our offices are clean. I'm very proud of the fact that through this period of time their wages have lifted and their wages have lifted to the point of a living wage. And I think that is the right thing to do for people who do a tremendous job on our behalf.I also want to thank Hansard and the Library. I want to thank from a Ministerial Services point of view the VIP travel driving team—they do an amazing job as well at looking after all of us. I also want to thank the travel office for the work that they do. I want to thank the messengers inside this Parliament particularly for delivering the things that are needed in this House such as Ginny Andersen received earlier today—that's an in-joke for the Labour Party that one.I want to acknowledge also those who work and serve for us in our offices. That means our offices here in Parliament but also our offices right around the country. The people who work in our electorate offices are the front line of democracy and they do an unbelievable job on our behalf often in quite insecure environments often in very difficult environments. I want to thank them and I want to thank all of our staff.It is dangerous to single out any one individual but I can tell you on behalf of the Government that this Parliament would not run if it wasn't for Peter Hoare and I want to say that very clearly. Peter is the most exceptional servant of this Parliament and the work that he does I know is appreciated right across the House.So I acknowledge everyone in this House as we come towards the end of this term for the work that they have done to make sure that materials got through.I want to acknowledge the National Party's shadow Leaders of the House and whips for the work that they have done to cooperate. I actually do think it's quite sad that Michael Woodhouse has not got to do a valedictory—I think he would have deserved that given that he is the parliamentarian that he is.And I want to acknowledge all departing members across the House. I particularly want to acknowledge the Labour departing members who we've worked with so hard over the years: David Clark; Stuart Nash who I think will be watching from the gym; Poto Williams; Marja Lubeck; Paul Eagle; Jamie Strange; and the now properly and fully dressed Aupito William Sio. All of those are members of Parliament who contributed huge amounts to our Labour team and I am so proud to have served alongside you.I also want to mention my friend of 30-odd years Todd Muller who gave an excellent speech in Parliament last week but also Todd for your bravery and your courage over this term of Parliament in speaking up about issues to do with mental health and wellbeing in particular and I wish you well my friend into the future.Mr Speaker I also wear a hat as you know as the Minister of Finance and I can't really let the opportunity go past now just to take another opportunity to have a look at National's tax plan because I don't think we've heard enough about it over the course of the last 24 hours or so. More holes than Swiss cheese. In the housing side in particular I actually just need to read out what Nick Goodall from CoreLogic said. "I also did a quick calculation to see where the $740 million tax … came from and I'm struggling to figure it out … If you assume 5 percent of the 2600 properties sold above $2 million went to foreigners … that would [get you about] $50 million at 15 percent"—somewhat short of the $740 million that have been promised. Be it that or SkyCity's written gambling tax or the complete elimination of climate action. And let's be clear: that's what sits at the heart of that plan—albeit the removal as James Shaw's already said of half-priced public transport for disabled people for our younger people for those on low incomes and the removal of 20 hours free for two-year-olds that is coming in. There are headlines dotted right through the media today that tell you that if you scratch the surface of the National Party plan you see the holes in it and you see that you still can't trust National with numbers. As I would have said were she here "There's a hole in your back pocket dear Nicola dear Nicola."I want to finish in my role here in the House as a member of the Labour team. I was pretty excited today when the ANZ New Zealand Business Outlook came out (a) because it was positive—not always the case—but (b) because of its headline which I mentioned earlier today during question time: "Goldilocks is in the building". I then thought about in my traditionally modest way this story that Luke Malpass wrote which said "Meet Grant Robertson: The goldilocks of fiscal probity"—one is too modest to speak further on that matter.But it did make me think about the team that is the Labour Party and "Papa Bear" "Chippy" who leads us. I want to acknowledge the Prime Minister Chris Hipkins for his exceptional leadership over this period of time. As other colleagues have mentioned he took over from Jacinda—somebody that we all loved and respected so much and he has done that in a way that is authentic to the "Chippy" that we know. New Zealanders on the election campaign over the next six weeks will come again to see Chris Hipkins as a reliable person someone they can relate to and someone who will lead New Zealand well into the future. I also want to acknowledge "Mama Bear" Carmel Sepuloni our Deputy Prime Minister who has once again led us and brought us together during some pretty challenging and difficult times that have occurred over this. Megan Woods then made me identify the baby of our caucus—"Baby Bear" Naisi Chen. And I want to acknowledge all of the class of 2020 who came in this term who've added so much to our caucus. This is a tremendous team. It's a team I am so proud to have worked alongside. It's a team that knows the meaning of Labour values of looking after our people and of making sure that we provide for the future generations.I agree with James Shaw: this is an election that is a straight-out contest between a progressive Government with Labour and the Greens and perhaps another party which might speak in a moment or going backwards under National. I know what New Zealanders want and prefer: it's a continuation of our team.SPEAKER: This is a split call. I call Penny Simmonds."