Upston Louise: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeUpston Louise: General Debate[Sitting date: 17 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9447. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): I am sad to say that this is a sad day in this House. It is a sad day for a couple of reasons. The very first reason is that one of the first speakers from the Opposition in 2013 when speaking about women politicians—fine women leaders in this House—reduced the conversation to being about handbags. Not one—not one—female member of the Opposition took umbrage at that neanderthal sexist language that was displayed by that member. I have to say that I am sad to be in this House in 2013 with the soon to be starting Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Jackie Blue and have that kind of statement said in this House and accepted by those female Opposition members. I am sorry and it is a sad day in thisHouse when we tolerate that kind of sexist language that neanderthal language when we have strong competent fine women represented across this House.It is particularly sad because of the timing of today—today of course being the funeral for Baroness Thatcher.Hon Annette King: Trivial matters! Talk about the real issues.LOUISE UPSTON: “Talk about the real issues.” bellows one member from the other side of the House. Talk about the real issues? What did we cover today in question time? Yes the real issues that matter for New Zealanders. The real issues that matter for New Zealanders are low interest rates reducing crime increasing early childhood education participation increasing results in National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 decreasing numbers on benefits and growing the economy. Those actually are the things that matter to New Zealanders.I want to come back to this connection with Baroness Thatcher. She took office in very very challenging times. She took office when the economy from the previous Government was in a shocking shocking state. She was not liked by all but she did an incredible job with difficult environments and she got results. That is what this side of the House that is what this Government is doing in every area that I mentioned before. Those are the results those are the things that matter to hard-working taxpaying New Zealanders not some of the personal petty sexist politics that we had today from a member of the Labour Party.I am proud to be part of a caucus where we have fine female Ministers in Cabinet. We have had two today who have already spoken about the results that this side of the House is producing. The fact is that we have a very fine Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner in Dr Jackie Blue effective from next month. I am proud of the results that our Government produces. I am proud of our woman MPs. I am not afraid to stand in this House and be proud of the results that we are producing because they are the results that matter to New Zealanders.I want to come back to the conversation about the cost of living. Price increases clearly make it difficult for households. So in the House today the Labour Opposition raised questions about power prices. How ironic is that! Under its 9 years power prices went up 72 percent. Now it talks about how we must do something about power prices. Well actually this is a Government that gets stuff done. This is a Government that is actually doing things that matter for New Zealanders in terms of keeping prices manageable.Looking at an increase in wages—that is another thing that I did not mention in my results but New Zealanders have had gross wages increase by 14 percent. That is a significant number. I want to come back to the results in NCEA level 2 because we know that if we want our young people to leave school get a qualification and get a job NCEA level 2 is the minimum that they need. Since we came into office—listen to this percentage—in 2008 there has been a 6.7 percent increase. That is 6.7 percent. You guys do not like facts and figures. You do not like hearing the facts about what we are achieving. You do not like the fact that we are in tune with what New Zealanders are interested in because that side of the House focuses on petty issues—Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Apparently you do not like a lot of things according to the speaker on her feet. She should be told because she has been around for a little bit of time now to follow the Standing Orders and refer to the House but not you.Mr SPEAKER: I appreciate the member’s comment. The member is quite right and the speaker Louise Upston should not bring the Speaker into the debate.LOUISE UPSTON: That side of the House cannot cope with the fact that this Government is delivering results. The fact that we just had an interruption there meansthat the Opposition does not like the facts and figures the results that this Government is producing for hard-working New Zealanders.