Joyce StevenHon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Infrastructure): I am pleased to report that I support the Estimates as they stand. I think they are thoroughly excellent Estimates it has to be said. Can I acknowledge Stuart Nash the previous speaker and say to the member that I have good news. Not only is this Government passionate about the growth of our businesses particularly internationally but it is delivering that growth as well including it has to be said in research and development where that has gone up by something like $329 million annually over the last 2 years to now 0.65 percent of GDP. It is not there yet but it is a heck of a lot better than it has ever been before which is good progress. That is why we should not rerun yet again—I think it will be the fourth election—a debate about R & D tax credits because they do not actually achieve anything and the Government's approach with Callaghan Innovation achieves a heck of a lot more. But I invite the member to take it to the country one more time and give it a run around and see who salutes it.I am here primarily to talk about the infrastructure expenditure because I think that is hugely important. We now have a rapidly growing country right around New Zealand. Through the post-Budget period I have had the opportunity to make around 35-odd speeches right across regional New Zealand. I did not take a bus but I did go and meet a huge number of people. The good news is that in places like North Otago South Canterbury Marlborough Nelson Manawatū Hawke's Bay the Bay of Plenty Waikato Northland and right across the country they are experiencing rapid growth rapid job growth and in some cases some of the best growth they have seen in 20 years.That means it is all-important to invest in the infrastructure to sustain that growth right around the country. If you have a look at the Estimates what they will show members is that what we have done is we have got a number of surpluses going out in the next 4 years which is reasonably unusual across the developed world—in fact almost unique. The important thing though is that all of those surpluses are being reinvested in infrastructure. You could see it as the country effectively reinvesting in its growth.We have set $11 billion of additional capital expenditure by the Crown over the next 4 years to take the total expenditure to $32.5 billion over the next 4-year period through our big infrastructure agencies like the New Zealand Transport Agency Housing New Zealand Corporation and so on and also directly through the Crown. Some of the numbers are quite eye-watering; for example $4.85 billion in new school buildings and renovations—well actually they are all new buildings replacing existing buildings and in new schools. That is a massive investment over that period and that has to be all done over the next 4 years.You also have a massive investment—of course the initial $436 million in the City Rail Link. We have something like $9.2 billion in new roads. There is a lot of investment—$450 million—in KiwiRail. A big part of the investment of course is the reinstatement of State Highway 1 north and south of Kaikōura. I had the opportunity to go down last week and see progress. There is something like 1600 people working on that project now—1600 people working on that project—Denis O'Rourke: Way too slow.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —and something like 2500 inducted into it. I appreciate that that member's leader Winston Peters was down there and he somehow missed it all—he somehow said there was not anything happening—but certainly when I went down there were yellow goods for Africa in terms of the volume of activity that was taking place. So education—health is another one. I visited the acute services building in Christchurch—the $460 million-odd investment that is currently being built there. So a lot in the health area and of course a lot in the housing area—something like two and a bit billion dollars in Government house building over the next 4-year period.Again this is possible only because we have a strong and growing economy as a result of a strong economic plan that is seeing these regions grow and seeing our tax revenues grow which gives us the opportunity to reinvest in the infrastructure for growth. That is the virtuous circle that New Zealand finds itself in because of strong economic management over the last 8 years since the global financial crisis and of course the Canterbury earthquakes. I would recommend to the Committee to support these Estimates because they are the Estimates of a confident growing country and one only has to look across the OECD to know that New Zealand is in a good space right now and going ahead.