Wagner Nicky; Williams PotoHon NICKY WAGNER (National): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker and I too would like to congratulate you. I would like to congratulate all of the presiding officers. The Rt Hon Trevor Mallard—he's been around this House for a long time. He's been involved in almost every role and I think he's perfect to be able to manage and look after the House in the future but it's particularly good to see you Madam Deputy Speaker and also my colleague from Christchurch Poto Williams. To have more women in the Chair is something that we all support. So thank you madam.I think we should look at the 52nd Parliament of New Zealand as something that's unique. It's unique in so many ways. It's unique because it's got a large number of new MPs. It's unique because it's got a particularly large number of women MPs. We have 46 women MPs this time. That's 38 percent of the House and the most that we've ever had in this Parliament and what's more the women in this Parliament are very diverse. They're diverse in age they're diverse in ethnicity and they're diverse in life experiences and I think that diversity will add value to this House but also add value to the people of New Zealand.It's also unique because we have a very large very strong very focused and experienced Opposition and that's a good thing because this Opposition is absolutely committed to support the people of New Zealand to make sure that the new Government is held to account. The session has begun well. It's begun with a hiss and a roar and we're going to have some very interesting months ahead.Now I think the Speech from the Throne covered almost every wish and every desire and scratched every itch of any Kiwi in New Zealand. It was aspirational it was idealistic and it was dripping with good intentions. But—but—there was so little detail so little substance about how these things would be implemented about how these things would be paid for and about how this activity was actually going to happen. In some ways it was a really expensive warm fuzzy laundry list. Expensive because it was funding for regions and funding for almost anywhere else. There was free this free that free everything. It was a little bit like a lolly scramble. Very easy to promise; very hard to deliver and one thing we know in life is that over-promising and under-delivering normally ends in tears.So there'll be no surprises that bank economists looking at the speech and looking at Labour's promises have forecast that Labour is going to have to borrow significantly to deliver their promises—borrow significantly. In fact the ANZ thinks it's probably something like about $13 billion—$13 billion—which is just $2 billion more than Steven Joyce was worried about and the BNZ agrees. In fact it thinks this is a conservative estimate. The thing that really frightens me most is that the ASB has revised its economic forecasts around the future growth of New Zealand. Those forecasts which were sitting at a very high 3.8 percent have now come back to 3.2 percent after these economists have had a good look at this new Government and listened to all their promises.I actually think that was what a lot of people were thinking when they listened to the Speech from the Throne. Yes I understand the aspiration and yes I understand the intention but actually how are we going to pay for it? How are we going to pay for it?" because there was lots of information about ideas. In fact somebody said there were 51 different promises but there was nothing—absolutely nothing—that was convincing that was concrete or that was anything to do with how it was going to pay for it. No energy and no effort was made on the earning side of the equation. We all know—it doesn't matter who you are it doesn't matter how big or how small your budget is—that you have to earn before you can spend. Spending big—great—but you've got to earn big too.Now the key issue here is—and I don't want to be cynical; it's not in my nature to be cynical—that any Government has to be fiscally responsible they have to be economically savvy and they have to be hard-headed. A Government cannot—cannot—over-promise and under-deliver. Even a Government like this which has inherited such a strong growing economy with the numbers of jobs increasing every month wages going up and the future looking rosy has got to understand where their next money is coming from before it can promise it all away. As I said very little effort very little idea on the earning side of the equation. But the thing that really bothered me is there's two big issues that have been missing totally out of the Government's Speech from the Throne. In contrast to the National Government speech in 2011 and 2014 there was absolutely no mention of Canterbury Christchurch or even Kaikōura and giving some support for earthquake recovery—Chris Bishop: No mention? You're kidding!Hon NICKY WAGNER: —no mention of that at all.Chris Bishop: That's unbelievable.Hon NICKY WAGNER: And we know that it's going to be needed. So the Government has to come clean: where is the money? The National Government committed to stand by the people of Canterbury committed to fund infrastructure redevelopment committed to the anchor projects and committed to transition out of Christchurch and Kaikōura is only on the first year of that journey. But this Government—this Government—has committed to nothing. So I think it's like the Government's absolutely forgotten us. We used to have three Ministers in Christchurch—three Ministers who were committed to the future of Christchurch and to making sure our city was rebuilt. We now have only one. In actual fact I'd like to ask that Minister—the Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration—first of all can she commit financially to supporting Greater Christchurch and is she going to make regeneration happen? We have absolutely no promises around that.There is also a problem in terms of the fact that a lot of people in the South Island are feeling really nervous about the drift of influence to the North with the Prime Minister from Auckland the Deputy Prime Minister from Northland and the Deputy leader of Labour a Northlander too. It's as if the Government doesn't know anything about what happens beyond the Bombay Hills. And actually there's a lot of us down there and we work pretty hard and we produce productivity for New Zealand.But the other thing that really worries me is that there's been no mention in the Speech from the Throne—again unlike the National speech in 2014—no money for supporting disability for supporting disabled people across the country. Now back in 2014 the National Government committed to Enabling Good Lives a transformation—Fletcher Tabuteau: You didn't put any money in it.Hon NICKY WAGNER: —of disability support. We absolutely did put money into it and what's more we've got money to roll that out. This is a co-designed sector-supported initiative that will give disabled people more choice more control and more opportunities in their lives. This is incredibly important for the disability sector but again—not one peep about disability support in the Speech from the Throne.The other thing they seem to have done is they seem to have forgotten how important the disabled sector is. Did you know 24 percent of New Zealanders have some kind of disability? But in this case they tacked disability issues on to social welfare. It doesn't even stand alone. So the problem that we have here is: yes disabled people do use social welfare but they have so much more that they need to be able to do. They need to have opportunities to be involved in every sphere of New Zealand's life. They need to have opportunities to be part of the community opportunities to be part of education opportunities to be part of the workplace. So I'm really concerned. The two things that are really close to my heart—the rebuild of Christchurch and looking at what's happening in Kaikōura—no money not a mention in the Speech from the Throne. And the second thing—the welfare the future of the disabled community and people with disabilities and how they can have more choice more control and more opportunities in our community—nothing about that either. So I'm concerned. We left New Zealand in good heart and a good support—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise to the member. Sorry your time has expired."