Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. I recently got in trouble for using an expression that many people use and I'm going to use another one now which is Fine words butter no parsnips." I've never quite understood what exactly that means but I think the intent of it is to say fine words are all very well but it's actually the results and what you achieve that matters. That seems to be a theme that is becoming more and more prominent across the country as people see the difference between this Government's intentions and the reality. I remember Bill English the previous Minister of Finance bar one—Steven Joyce of course—he characterised this Government I think quite effectively at the start as one that has great intentions but very little ability to deliver that. We've seen many instances of that recently and this bill with its fine words and its wellbeing seems to me to be a perfect example of a Government that thinks that it's the PR and the description and the intentions that matter losing sight of the important reality and accountability that needs to lie behind it. That's why we're not supporting this bill and we see it as a distraction.If we think about the gap between the intentions and reality nothing is more stark than the border. When you think about wellbeing which is what this piece of legislation is about there are two biggest issues. We had Professor Easterlin one of the leading intellectual figures on wellbeing economics around the world come to New Zealand actually last week hosted by Professor Robert MacCulloch up at the University of Auckland. He made the point that the two biggest indicators or the most important things for wellbeing right across the world every country are always the same: health and jobs. On the health front there's nothing more important than keeping people safe and we've been talking about the border at the moment and what have we seen? Well we've seen lots of fine words and lots of talk from the Prime Minister about how focused they are on getting things done. And what have we seen in reality? A complete shambles—a complete shambles. So no doubt if we pass this law we'd have a nice wellbeing intention in there that we're going to keep the borders safe and the reality would be just the same: a shambles. That's what we've seen.I remember when I was on the Epidemic Response Committee during the lockdown—it was the greatest shock that I had through the whole process—we had the Commissioner of Police come in Mike Bush his last day; not a good last day for him. He came to the committee and we'd heard all week the Prime Minister saying "Ah yes. People are coming in from offshore but don't worry New Zealanders—don't worry—because they'll go off to self-isolation but the police will check on them within three days to make sure that they're doing what they said they were going to do. Don't worry New Zealand; we've got everything covered." We come along to this committee on our Zoom little computers and we asked Mike Bush: "Well have you been checking up on people within three days?" His answer was "No. No we haven't." So that just laid bare the big gap between intentions and announcements and promises by the Prime Minister and the reality. It was the same then as it is now. And anybody that has been watching the news over recent times will have seen that.It's the lack of accountability that annoys people particularly. When things are going well it's all about decisive action from the Government and the Government's front and centre the Prime Minister's front and centre. And when it's going badly well it's the system's failure and those Ministers are nowhere to be seen. It is becoming a bit of a joke in this country: what does David Clark have to do to be sacked as Minister of Health?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): If you can refer to that part of the bill it would be really good.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Well I will. The point I'm making is that this bill is in its essence about the statement of intentions about Government policy—such as keeping people safe; such as keeping the border tough—and they'd have a little measurement but it's the actual outcome that is the critical thing and the accountability. I could run through so many things that would be included in the great list of wellbeing focuses of this Government that have been a complete flop. I can start with KiwiBuild where they would have included in their wellbeing list in the Budget 100000 houses to be built by KiwiBuild and the abject failure and lack of delivery of that. I think we're up to 323—something like that—fewer than the number of houses that the Prime Minister stopped from being built at Ihumātao by meddling and fiddling in that process. It'll be interesting to see if we ever hear anything about that. So KiwiBuild was a flop.Infrastructure: we're going to roll out all this infrastructure. We're going to build the light rail down Dominion Road. That was going to help the wellbeing of people—nobody's quite sure exactly how because it seemed a very odd priority indeed and nobody was quite sure where it was going to. Was it going to Māngere or was it going to the airport? Was it going to be fast rapid transit or a slow tram? Nobody was quite sure but nevertheless that was a focus and it's not being delivered.Then last year at the first wellbeing Budget with great trumpets what did they announce? Mental health—$1.9 billion; we're going to fix the problem. What have we seen more than a year later? Well nothing much really. They've managed to spend about $20 million on extra actual funding for actual mental health delivery which is a woeful effort nearly three years after a Government came in promising urgent and rapid response to the number one issue of the day and they've been slow and ineffective. So I'm not impressed by some glossy document being produced at the Budget calling itself a wellbeing Budget—having the arrogance to suggest that every Budget that came before wasn't concerned about the wellbeing of New Zealanders. Of course they all were—all of them have been. You don't have to be so arrogant as to assume you're the first Government to come along and care about the wellbeing of New Zealanders just because you list a whole bunch of things and actually don't deliver them and have lots of intentions that you haven't followed up on.So poverty; so jobs—well we're losing jobs and you can't blame the Government entirely for the job losses of course that we've experienced over the past couple of months. They are to be expected from the extraordinary circumstances that we've had to deal with with the closing of the economy. But the relevant question now before the country is: well what are we going to do to reduce the damage in terms of job losses and how are we going to get the country back on track? That's where it becomes important to have a clear economic plan and good results from the investments that are then made. At the moment the only economic plan that I can find that's guiding the Government is debt-fuelled Government spending on a colossal scale and waiting for a vaccine.It seems to me that this country deserves better than that and needs better than that and that's what we will be delivering over the next couple of months. When we think about a wellbeing Budget we think about a Budget and Government policies and Government direction which is about encouraging the investment in the private sector to drive growth. It's the tens of thousands of businesses large and small—individuals and families making decisions about "Yes the world's changed; I think I can make a go of this area here or this area here."—figuring out how to first save their businesses; second to rebuild their businesses; and third hopefully to grow those business.Policies that enable people or encourage people to do that by not overtaxing them not regulating them to death not changing the rules all the time and allowing some investment to flow from offshore into those businesses—that's the sort of thing that will improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders because it will enable them to have a better chance of getting a job a satisfying job so that they can look after themselves and their families so that they can provide opportunities for their kids to get ahead and know and have the comfort to know that their kids will be growing up in a country where they feel like they can reach their aspirations here. That's what we all want to see in this country. It's what we strive towards: a place where young New Zealanders can feel not like they're making some kind of lifestyle choice to live in this beautiful country of ours but that they are confident that they can reach their full potential in a dynamic growing economy that produces the jobs and opportunities that they need.So that is my view of wellbeing and it's a pity that we've got a Government that seems to confuse the statement of good intentions and the reality of delivering on those. Thank you Mr Speaker."