Scott AlastairALASTAIR SCOTT (National—Wairarapa): While Nuk Korako might be looking for his lost luggage the Labour Party continues to carry around its old baggage. It has not adapted. It continues to live in the past. It has no new ideas and any new ideas are shot from the hip. In fact some of the rhetoric the speeches that we hear from the Opposition members across all three Opposition parties—one wonders what country they are living in because they continue to talk the place down. They continue to say that New Zealand is doing so badly that there are so many bad things happening here. Things are miserable woeful. But the opposite is true—the opposite is true.We are in a construction boom—a construction boom. More apprentices are involved in the building industry and across the trades than ever before. That is what is happening. More people want to live in New Zealand and Opposition members call that a problem. People are voting with their feet. They are choosing to stay in New Zealand. Why is that? Well that is because there is opportunity here. Kiwis are coming home from the UK and from Australia and most importantly they are not leaving because they realise the opportunity is here. The Opposition members blame the immigrants for the apparent problem" of this construction and apprenticeship boom that we are in. They blame the immigrants. But in fact the number of immigrants that we have brought in as a country over a very long time has been relatively stable—around 40000 to 50000 a year. We bring those people in to fill the gaps to fill the skills gaps that we are not able to fill here today. We do that because we are building a nation. We want to enable those skills to be used and utilised effectively and efficiently and particularly in today's climate and around the IT sector. If you look on www.seek.co.nz there are a lot of jobs available for people and highly skilled sectors of the economy.So that is what is happening. The economy is growing—the economy is growing at around 3.5 percent. That is an increase in the projected growth rate. That was announced just today by the Governor of the Reserve Bank. That is good news—that is good news. It is incredibly good compared with other countries of the world and that is why we have an official cash rate of 2 percent. Other countries in the world have negative interest rates. That is how poorly run their economies are. It demonstrates the strife that the European economies are in—when one puts money into the bank to keep it safe the depositor pays the bank to look after their money. You do not get any interest at all such is the deflation and the pessimism that is out there. Here we have a positive growth rate projected to be 3.5 percent. We have projected unemployment to continue to fall. These are all signs of a positively growing economy. Just today in the select committee we heard from immigration people that there was increased inquiry. More people want to join this economy; more people want to come into New Zealand. They are coming from countries like the UK and Australia because of things like the Brexit situation. The instability of some of the other countries around the world is driving people to economies that are stable that are reliable and that have opportunity for their families.These people do not have Chinese-sounding names. These people have American-sounding names: names like Chad Brad Angelina and Chuck. Now is that a problem? Is that problem for the Opposition and will that be a problem for Phil Twyford? Perhaps it might be.Grant Robertson: I don't like the name Chuck.ALASTAIR SCOTT: Well you might develop a policy around that Mr Robertson. American-sounding names may not be accepted here based on a shoot-from-the-hip policy derived from the Labour Party.The alternative is not an option. In the Green Party Miss Julie Anne Genter suggested that there was credibility on that side of the House in her party around its economic views and economic policies. But then her co-leader wants to halve the value of houses in Auckland—halve the value of houses in Auckland. How she is going to do that was not explained but that is the endgame. That is the sister; the brother in the partnership—or what can we call the relationship nowadays? The green-red—what is the relationship now described as? Is it a relationship still? But the Labour Party does not support that policy—and rightly so. It is ludicrous. So when Julie Anne Genter suggests that they have credible economic policies on that side of the House unfortunately the proof is in the pudding and they do not.Then we had Ron Mark. Well that was an interesting contribution. I could only describe his contribution as quaquaversal. Just to help you that means he is going off from the centre in all directions—meaning nothing saying little but aiming with his shotgun approach and hoping to stick something somewhere. Of course the closed-door policies the anti-immigration policies the anti-growth the anti–Chinese the anti - free trade—the "No. No. No. Party"—is what makes that party lack credibility lack aspiration and is another example of a party living in the past. No aspirations and no aspirational goals for Kiwis to aspire to.So as the Minister said earlier this Government is careful about how it spends taxpayers' money because the Opposition parties do not consider whose money they are responsible for. So for example Grant Robertson's 100000 house programme—let us say 10000 houses a year. That is $5 billion of taxpayers' money. Even if he was to able to recycle that at half a million dollars a house let us say that is a lot of money. That is a big amount of money and he forgets that the taxpayer is going to have to pay for it. Where are those houses going to be built? Well there are going to be thousands of rugby fields compulsorily acquired by Andrew Little because that is what he said would happen. He would compulsorily acquire private property to fulfil his dream of being the largest house-building company in the country.Realistically what is going to happen when Mr Little turns up to the auction sites bidding for land to build his houses under his design and in his colour schemes and whom is he going to compete with? Whom is he going to compete with? He is going to be competing with first-home buyers. He is going to be competing with people who are in the queue waiting and bidding for a property. He is simply going to increase the demand for housing and we understand that increased demand can do only one thing and that is to put prices up.The housing ripple effect is affecting the Wairarapa. It is affecting provincial New Zealand. It is enabling people to be in jobs. It is creating confidence in the regions. People are building with more sparkies and plumbers and construction. Capital Precut Solutions is an example of a business in the Wairarapa that is doing very well by exporting pre-cut framing from the Wairarapa to Auckland. This is an example of how provincial New Zealand is doing well under the confidence and the stability of this Government. Software companies in the Wairarapa are exporting throughout the world. That is because we are connected through the Rural Broadband Initiative and Fab Lab is another example—connecting to the world using high-speed ultra-fast broadband enabling schoolchildren in Pongaroa to be connected to their colleagues across the world anywhere in the world anywhere on this planet.This is a very good Budget. It is coming from a stable and reliable and aspirational Government and that is why I commend it to the House."