Lees-Galloway IainIAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): There is not a lot in what Mark Mitchell just said that I could possibly agree with but I am going to start with the tiny little bit that I do agree with and that is that Governments must run the books responsibly. There were none more responsible than the Clark Government—9 years of surpluses. [Interruption] If you would be quiet for a little while Brett Hudson and listen. There were 9 years of surpluses. New Zealand's net Government debt was down to zero—the first Government ever to do that. And at the same time that Government introduced paid parental leave extended it once extended it twice introduced Working for Families introduced interest-free student loans—all at the same time as running surpluses and paying down New Zealand's Government debt. That is what a responsible Government looks like.All Governments have to decide where their priorities sit and Labour has always made a priority of working families. It was Labour that introduced paid parental leave; the National Party voted against it. It was Labour that extended paid parental leave; the National Party voted against it. It was Labour that extended paid parental leave again; the National Party voted against it. It was Labour that introduced Working for Families and John Key called it communism by stealth. It was Labour that introduced KiwiSaver and National voted against it. For people out there who—I can understand on a night like this—are feeling disillusioned with politics as usual and think that all political parties are the same they are not. There are clear differences between this side of the House this side of politics and that side of politics. We put families first we put working people first and we are prepared to make a priority of that. We do not go out and tell untruths about policies that we are uncomfortable about opposing.The finance Minister—the numbers guy; the one who is supposed to understand how the numbers on the books work—has repeatedly gone and told blatant untruths about what this policy would cost. It costs less than half of what Bill English has been claiming it would cost. When he was found out when he was caught out he just said: Oh I made a mistake." "I made a mistake." said Bill English the numbers guy the one who knows what the numbers are supposed to be about. We know that Bill English is actually on top of his job. He is not like the Prime Minister—he does not float from cloud to cloud. He does actually know what the numbers are and he knew what the numbers were when he went out and gave New Zealand the wrong numbers. He knew he was on the wrong side of public opinion he knew his priorities were in the wrong place and so he had to go and tell untruths about what this policy would cost.This does ultimately come down to priorities. Can New Zealand afford it? Of course we can afford it. The Prime Minister says that we have got $3 billion for tax cuts. The cost of this legislation is such an infinitesimally small proportion of that—I think we figured out that it is something like 0.03 percent of the $3 billion that the Prime Minister wants to spend annually on tax cuts. That the Prime Minister could actually effectively have his tax cuts unchanged and still implement this policy—it simply comes down to priorities and for more than a decade the National Party has repeatedly proven that it does not believe in providing paid parental leave. OK it increased it by 4 weeks once and that was a direct consequence of the lobbying from not just Opposition parties but the organisations that Sue Moroney has already recognised the organisations that backed 26 for Babies. That was true democracy in action.It can be frustrating sitting on the Opposition benches. There are so many times when we put up the good arguments and we put up the good ideas but we get defeated because that is democracy. We are in Opposition at the moment but our democratic system actually gave us a Parliament that is quite finely balanced and the people voted for a Parliament that is prepared to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks. That is the will of Parliament that is the will of the people of New Zealand. This Government in its arrogance is stopping the people of New Zealand getting what they voted for and that does more damage to our reputation as politicians than almost anything else.We are a democracy. We pride ourselves on being one of the most open most transparent and most democratic systems in the world where one person one vote really does count—that is what it really means—and we get a Parliament that genuinely reflects the will of the people. This Parliament wants to extend paid parental leave to 26 weeks and the National Government which is in a minority on this says no. That crushes the will of the New Zealand people and it crushes people's faith in our democratic system. It is no wonder that people say politicians are out of touch that we just do not get it and that we are not listening.But I want to say to people that it is not all of us who are not listening. It is that Government that is not listening because even when it is in the minority in this Parliament it is prepared to put down the democratic will of people and use its veto to stop something that costs such a small amount in Government terms. It is not that we cannot afford it; it is simply that this Government does not make a priority of paid parental leave and it certainly does not make a priority of working families. Do we need more evidence of that? People are living in cars for goodness' sake. That is the New Zealand that the National Government has crafted over the last 8 years: people are living in cars. In my electorate on Friday there will be a crisis meeting to figure out where to house people because for the people who have been forced into motels by this Government's policy—whom the Ministry of Social Development and Housing New Zealand cannot find somewhere for and so they have put them into a motel—those motel rooms are going to become unavailable. There is nowhere left for those people. That is the consequence of this Government's policy.So there is a difference between the National Party and the Labour Party. There is a difference between the centre-right Government and the centre-left Opposition which will be in Government soon. There is a difference and the difference is that we put families first we put people first we put workers first and we will build houses not tear them down. We will support people to save for their superannuation to save for their retirement. We will support people to raise their children. We will support people to have higher incomes so that they can have the choices that that Government talks about. We will not squeeze people harder and harder and harder so that those at the very top can get more from this Government at the expense of everybody else. This Government is talking about giving more money to private schools for goodness' sake. I went to a private school. I can tell those members that those schools do not need more taxpayer funding. What we need is for the majority of people who send their kids to public schools to not have to pay the highest fees that they have ever had to in history and for our public schools to be properly funded so that every child has the opportunity to get a proper education and get ahead.But that is not the way of this Government. Tonight with this legislation it demonstrates where its priorities lie and they are not with working New Zealanders they are not with New Zealand families and they are not with New Zealand babies. There could not be a more clear example of that than this Government's application of the veto and its failure to actually act in a democratic fashion tonight. It is time for a change and the only way we are going to change these things is by changing the Government."