Willis NicolaGENERAL DEBATEHon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. I want to start with a message for New Zealanders: things are tough right now. Inflation has been too high for too long. It is almost three years since inflation went above 3 percent and gave rise to a cost of living crisis that was prolonged and has now gone on for some years. Interest rates have risen very high to try and fight that inflation—higher than they would have had to if there had been a Government that was doing its bit to take the fuel off the inflation fire. Now with high inflation and high interest rates there are many New Zealanders who are struggling and we are seeing the results of that.We are seeing those New Zealanders who've switched to a higher mortgage interest rate now lacking the choices they once had about what they spend in their households. We are seeing that in the small businesses who now have fewer people walking through their doors with the money to spend on the goods they provide and the services they sell. We are seeing that with the young entrepreneurs who may have once taken a risk and taken a big loan out on something but now look at that high official cash rate and take a pause. All of that means that today we saw the unemployment numbers climb up. And I have been gutted to hear members on the other side of this House imply that there is a single member of this Parliament who would ever could ever welcome that. Because we feel—deeply—the pain that occurs in a family when a New Zealander who wants a job cannot get one. That is why on this side of the House we take so seriously our duty to sound economic policies that will strengthen the fundamentals of this economy so that New Zealanders can get ahead once more.We understand that the lifting of the unemployment rate this week is not the consequence of a decision taken yesterday or the week before. It is the build-up of successive decisions that were made over many years over six years where the economy was second on the list. And I want to say that we now have a Government that has moved swiftly and decisively to put the economy back where it needs to be front and centre. We have been making the decisions that need to be made in order to strengthen New Zealand for the future—a return to careful spending. Because there was a period when the babysitters were in control they had the credit card and they were charging everything upon it—the TVNZ-RNZ merger and new jobs tax over here; $1.2 billion on three waters over here; Let's throw a few thousand at some Government strategies over here; a few glossy documents a refurb of some offices." The problem is when the babysitters put all the cash on the credit card it's New Zealanders who need to pay it back and New Zealanders are paying it back because inflation has stayed higher for longer than it should have because of an overspending Government.We've had interest rates that have risen higher than they would otherwise have had to and we are now on this side of the House doing the clean-up job. We take that responsibility very seriously. You've seen from the day we were elected that we have taken steps to put discipline in. We have taken steps to ensure that our welfare system encourages people not to languish on a benefit but actually supports them to work. We have ensured that our education system is focused again on literacy on numeracy on attendance the basics that matter; on getting rid of the regulations that have choked the entrepreneurial that have choked employers; on making it easier in this country to build things and to make things with fast-track legislation. You will soon see in our Budget what a responsible Government looks like because we will spend very carefully. Investment will go where it's needed: into our schools into our hospitals into our police and we will also put it in in the most important place: the back pockets of working New Zealanders. So my message to New Zealanders is that we know it's tough right now but you elected a Government with a plan and we will deliver."