AdjournmentText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeAdjournment[Sitting date: 31 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19807. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]AdjournmentHon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister):I move That the House do now adjourn until Tuesday 19 August 2014. I am proud to move this motion on behalf of a Government that is working for New Zealand. It is a cohesive Government leading a confident country with aspirations for a better future and a brighter future. The election campaign is going to show how different the Opposition is from that. The great thing about this period of this Parliament is that the achievements of this Government have actually been New Zealand’s achievements. It is not so much what the Cabinet or the caucus or the coalition parties have done; it is what the households and workplaces of New Zealand have done to pull this country through some of the tougher times it has seen in decades to the point where New Zealanders can look forward with confidence. The Government has supported them in their resilience and we will continue to do so. We did what we said we would do. We worked alongside people. We protected the most vulnerable. We focused on the issues that matter: a competitive and productive economy. We sorted out the Government’s books and we rebuilt Christchurch.I want to thank all of those people who have helped with the business of government. Mr Speaker I want to thank you. I can read your writing and you are an excellent Speaker although we often disagree. Can I thank the staff here in Parliament. Their respectful support is not always deserved by every MP but I must say that your professionalism helps us to lift our standards. Can I thank the cleaners the security and catering staff library staff Hansard staff the Cabinet Office our research units and particularly our office staff across the parties who have to keep an eye on every parliamentary question—all 30000 of them—every letter every Official Information Act request and make sure that every email is opened and account for every single expense. I want to—[Interruption] Actually some members could have benefited from parliamentary staff who could open their secret trust. Do you not think that that would have helped? Do you not think so? Because then we would know whether Kim Dotcom had donated to the Labour Party. I suspect he probably has because he wants to be influential if the Government changes and what better way than to do what he does with everybody else—put money in their bank account?I want to thank my colleagues. This is a group of people who have arrived at the election in 2014 with the ideas and the energy to get even more progress in the next 3 years than in the last 3 years—even more progress. I want to acknowledge in passing just a couple of my colleagues: my good friend of 24 years in Parliament Tony Ryall and my neighbour from the south Eric Roy. I also want to acknowledge all those other MPs who have given their valedictories. What they demonstrate to this Parliament is that the strength of this party is people who are deeply connected to their communities whose instincts about how New Zealanders think are finely tuned and well asserted in our political process. I want to thank all those members particularly the ones who came into provincial seats that used to be marginal or Labour seats and are now safe National seats and will remain so after this next election. The reason they are going to win is pretty simple: there are more new jobs their economies are growing crime is going down educational achievement is going up and the communities are getting better as the economy gets stronger.I want to thank our Prime Minister. I know it is a luxury in this House but we have a leader we support.Hon Members: Yay!Hon BILL ENGLISH: I know. But I have to admit that he makes it easy. It is the only little bit of sympathy I have ever had for the Labour Party. You are meant to support your leader but you need him to just give you the skerrick of hope that the thing you voted for is what it is going to be. Ah! They did not. [Interruption] That is right; I am coming back to that. But this Prime Minister believes in New Zealand and New Zealanders and their aspirations. That is the difference. He does not want them where you have to feel sorry for them; he wants them looking upward and forward just as he does with his relentless optimism for this country which we have enjoyed the benefit of as the team who works with him. He has appealed to the best in every New Zealander. For every high-profile event with the Queen the President of the US and the Chinese leadership and every interview in the media there are hundreds of small warm encounters with New Zealanders who admire the Prime Minister. That is why he rates 70 percent and the other one rates 7 percent. That is why.I want to thank our coalition partners United Future and ACT who have committed themselves to stable and credible Government and we appreciate that. I want to also acknowledge the Māori Party and in doing so remind the House where it all started with my old friend Tau Henare who in 1993 was the first non-Labour member to hold a Māori seat for 70 years. He won the seat that 70 years previously had been held by his great-grandfather. That started a process—Rt Hon Winston Peters: Which party?Hon BILL ENGLISH: For the New Zealand First party. That was when it was good. He started a process so necessary for New Zealand which was the unravelling of Māori from being patronised by the Labour Party. I want to credit Winston Peters for helping with it. Our relationship with the Māori Party is one of respect not agreement. It voted against us over 90 times in this term of office—over 90 times and it probably wishes it was a hundred sometimes. It has added significantly to the quality and the breadth of Government thinking. Actually in getting around a few people after the Budget—Te Ururoa Flavell may remember this—an old man in an iwi discussion we were doing about the Budget said: “You know Labour want us where they feel sorry for us.” That is absolutely right and we are going to change it.I want to thank the Labour Party for dumping David Shearer. By now he would have been really good. I want to thank Labour for then also going and selecting David Cunliffe. That is even better. Ah sorry no I got that wrong. It was not the Labour caucus that selected David Cunliffe; it was all the other ones. As he said himself: “People will make up their minds as they get to know me.” They have got to know him and they are making up their minds. It is getting so bad that Trevor Mallard used the allegory of the moa. As he said himself scientists have advanced their work in being able to use DNA techniques from extinct animals to reconstruct new life. That is what the Labour Party is going to need; it is. Actually it is a warning from Trevor because when he loses Hutt South they will have to use DNA from him to renew the Labour Party later.Can I thank Kim Dotcom. For a man who set out to rid this country of John Key he is doing more than anyone else except David Cunliffe to make sure John Key stays. I hope that he is on the TV every night. I had hoped that David Cunliffe would be on every Labour billboard but guess what? He is on hardly any of them. I think that is the smartest thing the Labour Party has come up with this term because there has not been anything else.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Leader of the Opposition):Now that Paula Bennett has got her seat sorted out she probably could have afforded to stand with the rest of them. I think I have not seen Bill English so excited since he got 21 percent in the time he ran. I do want to acknowledge something that he has said which I think is right. It is to New Zealanders that we owe the credit for surviving the Canterbury earthquakes and the global financial crisis. We all know that milk and disaster are not an economic strategy. What New Zealanders are waking up to is the sad realisation that actually there is nothing there—there is no plan. This is a Government that goes from day to day muddling through in the name of political pragmatism what is actually just reinforcing privilege. If New Zealanders want a fairer better more decent society that is going to require change. It is going to require the MPs on this side of the House to move to that side of the House so that we can implement the changes that New Zealanders want.This is the final debate of the year the adjournment debate and it is a time to extend the hand of collegiality if not friendship across the House. I believe that we have a set of policies that will help MPs on all sides. The Māori Party—our retirement policy will help all three of them. Peter Dunne—Labour believes in more transparency for our spying operations and nobody has done more for that than Peter Dunne. And the ACT Party—our apprenticeships policy has been widely applauded. I understand a certain John Key wants an apprenticeship for some young fulla in Epsom. We will see how he goes. I want to extend the hand of friendship to Steven Joyce because he and I have something in common: neither of us wants to see Judith Collins as Prime Minister.More seriously I do want to thank the people who keep this place ticking. I would like to start with the cleaning staff and in particular Service and Food Workers Union member Jaine Ikurere whom I met yesterday when we announced our $2 an hour rise in the minimum wage policy launch and site manager Arran Milne. You guys you do a thankless task but it is greatly appreciated by all of us. Good Lord! There is enough mud thrown around this place. Thank God somebody is cleaning it up.Thank you to the messengers to Heather Daly and her team and to Philippa Henwood from Visitor and Support Services and her team; to the ever-helpful travel office—Roz Parry and her team—to Alan Mumford and his team from Buildings and Services; to Peter Andrews and the team at VIP Transport Services; to Janette Smidt and her team at Security; and of course the Bellamy’s and Copperfield’s staff including staff at 3.2 and the General Manager of Parliamentary Service David Stevenson. I would like to thank my Chief of Staff Matt McCarten and our Whip’s Office manager Emma Williams and the dedicated and talented team of Labour staff executive assistants out-of-Parliament staff and issues assistants. I am sure all parties would want to join together and thank our hard-working staff for allowing us to do the job that we do.The adjournment debate is also a chance to thank those who make Parliament work. It is an opportunity to sum up the issues that have really focused the minds of this House over the last 3 years. You might say: growing inequality a failing economy and the antidote—Labour’s strategy for a high-value economy that puts people first and delivers for homes jobs and families.But before we get into that I do think we need to pause for a brief moment to note the tragic state of affairs in Gaza. This is a humanitarian disaster. The Labour Party stands with the international community in its call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. I would note that we have supported the Government in its statements but I want to register our growing concern that the strength of those statements has not kept up with the deterioration of the situation in Gaza. We want to see more resolve and more strength now from New Zealand in pushing hard for an immediate ceasefire.As I said yesterday when I announced our minimum wage policy raising it by $2 to $16.25 in our first year of Government will put $4000 a year in the hands of minimum-wage workers in this country. That will make a huge difference to the 40 percent of our children who are growing up in poverty even though their parents are working—the working poor. It is high time that we stopped saying that poverty is only a matter of the unemployed. It is not. A quarter of a million New Zealanders will be affected by this wage rise. That is one of the most important things we can do to make this country whole again and that is just the first round.Make no mistake—work and wages are a major issue for New Zealand. They join other significant issues of the day: the transfer of our productive assets from all New Zealanders to just 2 percent of them; the fact that the Government’s major attack here on the economy was tax cuts that we could not afford for people who did not need them; the fact that Government put up GST on everybody else even though it said it would not; the Government’s erosion of New Zealanders’ privacy by extending the powers of the Government Communications Security Bureau; and so many of the Government’s actions where it has shown a disregard for the majority of New Zealanders including it might be said the creeping politicisation of the Public Service and the broader institutions of Government—something that is worrying all New Zealanders.Hon Member: Ha ha!Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: The Minister may laugh but New Zealanders expect a professional Public Service not toadies and cronies for people who are acting on behalf of privilege.Hardly a week seems to go by without one of the Government’s Ministers being mired in scandal. What does the Prime Minister do? He shrugs and walks away. If it is not the Minister of Conservation bullying environmental advocates doing their statutory duty it is his Minister of Transport ignoring aviation security or the Minister of Justice forgetting about conflicts of interest involving donations and her husband’s directorships or it is cash for access or it is interfering in a police investigation for another donor or it is Mr Banks resigning over electoral fraud.That is just the Cabinet. If we cast a little wider the endless stories of looking after the top few at the expense of everybody else are widespread like taking off workers to appease an international film company or bailing out multinational corporations or subsidising polluters or throwing millions of dollars of public money at elite golf competitions failed yacht races or oil executives’ junkets—$250000 on entertaining oil barons; mining dining and wining—while we have delivered a minimum wage rise to quarter of a million New Zealand workers. That is the difference between that side of the House and this. The choice could not be clearer.Do you know what? All that looking after the Government’s mates would not be so bad if it was just a bit of excess in an economy where everyone was doing fine. But that is not what is happening. Instead the Government is indulging the top few while leaving most New Zealanders behind like the 46 percent who have not had a pay rise the many more who have not had enough to meet the increased cost of living and the 260000 children living in poverty. They are just the Kiwis who are doing it really tough. What about all the others who are working hard playing by the rules and just cannot get ahead—the ones who are afraid to open their power bills each month because they do not know how they are going to pay for them and the ones who go out and work a hard day’s work every day who expect not too much but expect to be able to get ahead yet at the moment cannot? They cannot even afford to not go back to work once their paid parental leave runs out and they are worried about getting a decent education for their kids or worrying about their mortgage rates going up.These are the people whom this election campaign will be about. These are the people who will decide who gets to govern for the next 3 years. The Government offers them nothing. In fact it takes it away. It took away their assets it took away their rights at work it took away 2.5 percent through GST it has run down health funding and it has run down social housing. Now the Prime Minister is saying that giving the lowest-paid Kiwis a modest pay rise is “really frightening”. Like fairness and decency it is something to be scared of! Labour rejects that view.We have a plan to build up New Zealand businesses and grow the economy—to be a Government that works alongside our businesses and communities to grow wealth and create jobs. There is no point in economic growth if it does not lead to a fair and decent society. The plan is all costed. New Zealand can do better will do better and we know that we can deliver. The next Labour-led Government will not just work for New Zealanders; it will work with them and alongside them. It will have the aim of making New Zealand the fairest most decent society in the world—a place where everyone has a good job a good roof over their head and opportunities for their family to get ahead with them.METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green):I love Aotearoa. I love our country. I want it to become the country where every child in New Zealand has enough to thrive—what a future for our children. Just 34 days until early voting opens for the election until we can genuinely change this Government so that every child has enough to thrive and I know that New Zealanders will give their party vote to the Greens to make sure that that happens.It has been a long hard 3 years but we have got there. I want to take this moment to thank the Green team who have worked so hard to make this country a cleaner fairer and smarter one and who live the Green values and make it so obvious in the quality of their work. I thank the cleaners who work so hard for too little money to keep our offices clean; the messengers who though they are not paid to deal with rubbish put up with so much more of it than they deserve; and the Chamber officers here who make question time livable for us.This place is so much more than the sum of its parts. Thanks to the librarians who work tirelessly on the Green Party’s endless requests for more information; thanks to the ministerial staff who deal with our questions and Official Information Act requests; and thanks to the press gallery which spreads its love around with promiscuous inconsistency but which we continue to love in our own special way too.Thank you to the Labour Party our partner in the fight for a fairer future. And thank you Mr Speaker for keeping us on our toes while barely restraining yourself from throwing us out of the Chamber when we leap to them.The Green Party has had a great term. We have led the Opposition—you know that is true—we have set the agenda and we have outlined our vision for a cleaner fairer smarter New Zealand. We are stronger now than we have ever been this close to an election. We are ready our leadership is proven and we are prepared for real change—much-needed change—which is coming this September. “Party Vote Green”.Over this term of Parliament we have put poverty the environment and smart economics on the political agenda and I am very proud of that. But I do confess that we have spent a bit of time being confused about National’s resistance to our cleaner fairer smarter plan. With more kids in poverty house price rises increasing 10 times as fast as incomes and rivers too polluted to swim in how can it keep saying that things are getting better?As the term progressed we kept wondering what planet the Government was on. Of course the answer was provided in part by John Key himself last year when he started to paint the picture of life on “Planet Key”—the manicured golf courses the endless holidays and the mysterious lack of toilets. You might remember this. Things at that point started to make a little more sense but nevertheless our party strategists continued to wonder how National could keep ploughing ahead in denial of the reality on planet Earth.Well I have found out how. Apparently on the very first day of caucus every National MP is issued with special white-out goggles. These white-out goggles filter from their sight all the poor people all the brown people and all the poverty. They make invisible pollution and pretty much all those other nasties and misfits that they do not like. They leave the world of National members as white as the purest toilet paper—a world made of holidays long lunches endless green golf courses and a disproportionate number of middle-aged white men with Bachelor of Commerce degrees. It is a world populated with people just like themselves.It is in this white-out on “Planet Key” that the Skycity convention centre for example becomes a marvel of ministerial influence rather than a monument to ministerial interference. Auckland streets become paved with golden tokens. You do not need to constrain gambling when it causes no harm. One can look through these white-out goggles and maybe even I would have been sold on the deal because National has found gold.And poverty? Poverty is gone. Poor children do not exist on “Planet Key” so why would you bother working for them? What use is there in having payments for the poorest newborn babies if no one is born into poverty in the first place? So those members say: “Let’s just give the money to everybody else.”—to people just like themselves.The environment is so beautiful with these white-out goggles on it is no wonder the National people cannot even think about rivers needing standards to ensure that they are clean enough to swim in. When they go down to the river it looks like a music video from some kind of angelic gospel song except of course all the folks who are wading in the water are white. What an amazing place “Planet Key” is with these fabulous goggles on. I cannot see a thing most of the time when I wear them but what I do see does look awfully white. Hell I cannot even see myself. It is no wonder Anne Tolley did not like my jackets—they must have looked very odd as they wandered through the Chamber all by themselves.Of course National Ministers must wine and dine the oil companies and hope that they will drill our shores because with these goggles on there is no chance of an oil spill. They can drill all the way to China. And of course there is no reason to stop intensifying the dairying industry. The rivers are safe from pollution because just like the people on “Planet Key” the cows on “Planet Key” do not shimmy either.But seriously I am going to take the goggles off for a moment—just the goggles mind—and for a moment reflect on the reality that is planet Earth. This beautiful place Aotearoa New Zealand is a great country which has risen above the fray in the past and whose time to shine has come again.Over the past years the Green Party has challenged the dim and privileged view of the future that National has for us. We have challenged John Key’s lack of aspiration for our environment for our economy and for our people and his unwillingness to spread the benefits around. We have exposed his denial of the families who are living in the greatest need in this country. We in the Greens have been described as the real Opposition as we have mapped out our vision for a cleaner fairer and smarter future and our vision is grounded in the possible.John Key governs as if there are three things that are inevitable: child poverty dirty rivers and a third term. No—no. The Green Party says that none is inevitable at all. Poverty as Nelson Mandela once said is not an accident. Like racism and apartheid it is man-made and can be removed. Every child can have enough to thrive. It is the duty of those of us who have the power to ensure that they do. Poverty is not the cost of prosperity just as dirty rivers are not the cost of progress.In the same way that New Zealand led the world by making a stand against nuclear power we too can make a stand against child poverty and for our environment. We can have a smarter cleaner fairer economy that innovates and that measures its success in the well-being of the people whom it serves. We can have a society where every child has enough to thrive because the benefits of the wealth of our society are more fairly shared. We can have as a birthright for our children an environment that is clean and that continues to provide for our economic well-being well into the future.We have an opportunity this 20 September to challenge the old fossil thinking and to steer a course for a cleaner a fairer and a smarter future—one where every child can thrive. This will be the country that I love the best. Thank you.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (NZ First):I want to pass on our regards to all retiring colleagues and wish them the very best. To those soon to retire bad luck but that is what politics is like—and there are going to be a few I can assure you. I want to say also to get rid of the debris of organisation that those who want to see a change in this country and a real change will be at the Kelston Community Centre at 1.30 on 10 August for our launch. It is just common sense.Hon Gerry Brownlee: What’s the address? What’s the street number?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No no Mr Brownlee. If you want to come you will have to get there early because it is going to be wall-to-wall. It will not be like those telephone-booth meetings you have been having where you say something or cough and they report it. No no; we respond to market demand.First of all let us be very clear that New Zealand First wants to thank all the many people whose commitment integrity and professionalism here ensures that Parliament runs in a smooth and seamless way. Thanks to everyone in the Speaker’s office. Thanks to everyone in the Clerk’s Office the Hansard reporters all the library staff and the telephonists. We acknowledge especially all the messengers and their helpful cheerful manner around these parliamentary precincts. We thank also the security guard team for keeping us safe here and above all we give a special thanks to the cleaners who deserve a pay rise. We will deliver them a pay rise as soon as this election is over. Our apologies if we have forgotten anybody.We appreciate all of those who are part of the parliamentary community and enable us to operate as an effective political party and keep these people honest—it is not the easiest job there is. It is not an easy job at all. We support the dedication of our staff in our own office who have made this year for New Zealand First yet again a successful one and as you know we will be celebrating our 21st birthday tonight.Hon Member: That’ll be untidy.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Unlike the National Party we do not get drunk on a wine biscuit. In this Parliament we have been a firm and outspoken Opposition party whilst always being constructive. We have been unafraid to tackle contentious issues; areas such as for example what others regard as taboo: Whānau Ora wholesale immigration scandal after scandal in the Immigration Service and the Treaty industry. This has been the party with the resounding message. It is the party that people in this country can rely upon the one that has the record—not just a dog whistle when it gets worried but a consistent record through these last 21 years.We have spoken for the ordinary people of this country the people whom the National Government has consistently chosen to ignore and overlook and I know personally that the National Party’s political support is soft. It is seriously soft. It is below where it was at this time for the last election and on the present basis it is seriously in trouble as some of the inside body language shows. Mr Key called an early election. He called an election and he said it was to calibrate it with the APEC agenda. That was false—Steven Joyce let it out of the bag. He said “Oh our supporters were going to the beach.” so he fixed that one. You see how deceitful they are? They called a snap election on the basis of their political advantage. They have had 6 years at the helm and there is an old saying “Pride cometh before a fall”.David Bennett: You should know about it.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: There is Mr Bennett laughing now but I know his knees are shaking—I know his knees are shaking. The question is: do their policies deserve another term? The answer is “What policies?”. The answer is a resounding no. Why give their policies more time to do more damage? We are on a slide. There is $150 billion of debt and they are smiling. National debt—that is the Government debt—is up six times to $60 billion and they call themselves proficient managers. They are unbelievable. They are bereft of ideas and intent only on helping their well-connected mates and cronies. That is what is going to lose them the election—they have looked after their own. But this time is for those that have been abandoned and forgotten or as the famous Australian Prime Minister Menzies called them “those forgotten New Zealanders.” They are going to go out on election day they are going to express their anger and they are most definitely not voting for the National Party.Our correspondence our emails and our contacts say that they know to hang on for just 7 more weeks because help is on its way in the form of New Zealand First. This is what National’s record is: massive debt—massive Government debt—and homeownership rates that are the worst since 1951 when Holland was the new Prime Minister. Then there is all that incompetence—the bread and butter of this administration is total incompetence. “Mr Fix-it” was going to fix up Novopay. He is an ace. Of course every morning he gets up and he points towards Pakuranga and bows to a man called Maurice Williamson who made him the multimillionaire he is. That is another story but when I hear these stories about how competent they are and how much business experience they have I do my investigations and we know how he got his money.Novopay—what a fiasco. The $800-million South Canterbury Finance blowout—$800 million and they would not have an inquiry. They refused to have an inquiry as to the incompetence of Ministers or Treasury. In short they made an underwriting arrangement with South Canterbury Finance and did not cap the underwriting document.David Bennett: And who gave it?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Mr Bennett says “Who gave it?”. Look at your colleagues. What have you been doing in caucus? I mean do you go to caucus to eat your lunch? Go and ask the Ministers: “Why did you incompetent bozos lose my people—the taxpayers of Hamilton East and West—$800 million?”. That is called “accountability”. No of course this is a National Party that has this feature: it asks a nice guy like Goldsmith to stand in a seat and pull down his hoardings. How politically cuckolded could you get? To use an old English expression how politically cuckolded could you get?Mike Sabin: Tell us about Ron Mark.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I want to tell Mr Sabin that he is in trouble in his electorate as well. He wanted to move to Whangarei because he is not popular. He has not got John Carter’s skills. No he is not popular in Dargaville Kaihu and all those places. I know because they keep on saying: “Winston when are you going to put up a candidate? We don’t like this guy.” When the Mangawhai Heads people got into trouble what did he do? He just deserted them. He just deserted them. Those Mangawhai people in their thousands are most definitely not voting for any party that did not help them. But one party did: New Zealand First.This country’s sovereignty has been so compromised by National. We have so many people who are non-citizens and are allowed to buy into this country buy property and cause a massive housing bubble in Auckland. From Kaitāia to Invercargill they are paying high interest rates—four rises in the CPI already. From Kaitāia to Invercargill they are paying high interest rates—because of what? Because of National’s open-door policy for immigration and offshore buying of Auckland homes. What a farce.Soon the people of this country are going to get one of those glorious things that in the canvas of history has been most rare: a democratic vote. If you look down the ages of history having a vote at an election is a rare privilege. But they are going to get it and they coming out with a vengeance. I want to tell the media one thing. If any reports are out there that New Zealand First is in discussions with any other political party any such report will be to use Geoffrey Palmer’s famous words spreading rumour with malice. It will be false. It will be an intentional lie on the part of that journalist. It will have no basis whatsoever.Only one party is independent in this Parliament and its name is New Zealand First—its name is New Zealand First. That is why hundreds of thousands of New Zealand are going to show up some of the people in the press gallery on 20 September—because they are coming out and they are going to make sure that this time their voices are heard. Our commitment to them is that we will not let them down.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery):Every one of those members applauding there was simply slapping his or her face to try to wake up. I want to begin my contribution this afternoon by acknowledging you Mr Speaker for your work over the last 2½ years in the Chair. I think it has been a very very good time for Parliament in no small way due to the way in which you have allowed the proceedings here to be conducted. I want to add to that thanks to the Clerk’s Office: Mary Harris Debbie Angus and the rest of the team who do that work. For the sake of time can I simply say that I agree with the long list that has previously been mentioned by all speakers here today and thank those in this complex who try their very best to make our lives a little easier including my own ministerial staff who work very long hours—as do they all—to make sure we are in a good space all the time.I was very alarmed when I heard that comment from the Rt Hon Winston Peters when he said he had personal knowledge that people were going to vote away from National. Well I need to inform him that we have not counted on his vote for quite some years. His personal knowledge may be useful for him but comes as no news to us. Further on the suggestion that there is anybody out there putting rumours about that there are discussions between parties about future coalition arrangements that engage New Zealand First I want to confirm that I have heard no such rumour I have started no such rumour and I want no such result.I think that the point I would like to make as we go into this election and what this afternoon has shown very clearly so far is that the message our opponents are taking out to voters is incredibly negative—incredibly negative. When you think about what it is like for people to go about their daily lives and to do all the things they have to do to make their own lives good for them their families and everybody they are associated with there are things that create struggle every now and then. There are things that get on top of people occasionally. But most people know that that is part of run-of-the-mill life. What they want to see is a Government that actually pictures a horizon for them that has a positive effect on their lives.You have only got to look at the way in which wages in this country have risen over the last 6 years the way in which bureaucracy in this country has refocused itself on doing things that make life easier for people and so many other areas of Government activity. Health care is now more accessible to many New Zealanders than it has been in the past. Education is seeing more young people in training than we have ever seen in this country before. These are positive things that voters look to and know about.The great Norman Kirk once said there are four things people look to. One of them is personal security. In this country crime statistics being down and the presence of our police in our communities in such a positive way are also part of that positive message that people get about the way they can live their lives under a Government that wants to support them to do that.When you get the sort of message we got from the Green Party today—that sad dismal horrible sort of view of life that says that only a Green influence in Government can be used to change it—people are not going to listen to that. I want to say this to the Green Party: I have been in this House for quite a time. The attitude of New Zealanders towards all things environmental towards all things related to conservation has changed immensely—it has changed immensely. All of the initiatives around recycling the way in which we deal with the atmosphere our air quality our water quality—you keep naming it and I will keep telling you that the Greens have never been part of any of that because they always sit on the outside criticising and telling everyone how bad it all is.We got that again today. Every river apparently is so damn filthy you cannot get near them and all farmers are huge polluters. They talk about the pollution economy. They forget that it will be the income that comes out of this economy that will allow some of the changes that need to be made to make the environmental improvements they seek.Voters do not really connect to that negative message. They have no interest in that negative message. I cannot imagine what it would be like to go down to one of the hall meetings that will be held over the next 7 weeks and to see the Green members the Mana members and the Labour members all sitting there saying “We’re it—the great triumvirate the trinity of Government in New Zealand in the next 3 years. How bad is it and how bad does it have to get for our message to finally sink in?”. People are just going to say they are not interested.Sue Moroney: Do you reckon?Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: They are over there and they are laughing—they are laughing. Sue Moroney is laughing because frankly she has never had a meeting of more than 20 people and even then they had been asking to come along and deselect her. I think that the clear and stark difference in the campaign that is coming is that the National Party has a positive message about the future of New Zealand and the Labour Party and all of its cohorts have a very very negative message about what is wrong with the country. In the end people know that if there is a criticism of this country it is a criticism that is levelled at its people. That is a political message that people will not listen or connect to.Then of course there is the fact that you can back it up with some of the great statistics that are out there at the present time. We keep on hearing “Let’s raise the minimum wage.” Well this Government has raised the minimum wage consistently regularly and frequently to get it to the level it is now $14.25. None of us over here would say that that is as good as it can get but our record shows that it is continually increasing. Labour goes out and says “Right we’re going to make it $16.80 and then we’re going to take it up over time to $18.”—or whatever figure it likes.We have a very low level of unemployment in this country. We have that low level of unemployment because there are jobs people are able to get into the job market and they are able to make a start. When they become valuable workers in their workplaces they do get wage rises. They do get moved up the ladder. It does not matter how much the Labour Party the Green Party and Mana want to say that that is not true; it is. “Jobs first” has to be the call. I want to suggest to those New Zealand First members over there that that is just common sense. A quick look at the number of new jobs that have come into our economy starts to tell the story—172000 new jobs inside the last 6 years.The projections for an economy that is growing the way this is at the moment give a huge amount of hope that all people in this country will be doing better as we move forward. That is the essence of what a Government is supposed to do. It is telling that our emigration statistics now are starting to look in a positive direction. Every criticism that was out there around that at the time of the last election has been dissipated by the reality of what has actually happened.As many will know I have a great deal to do with the Government’s involvement in Christchurch. It has been extensive it has been unstinting and it has been generous not because we want to get any result for the Government but because we know that it is what New Zealanders expect us to do as a Government. I think that the situation in Christchurch is turning for the better. It has been tough on people. It has not been easy and there is still a long way to go but there are a couple of things I would point to.Firstly we had this week the Labour Party spokesman going out and saying we were way behind the housing target for New Zealand. I explained to him that if he looked fully at the statistics that were in the Land Use Recovery Plan he would realise that he was talking about a figure out to 2021. Well he did not seem to want to take that on board so I put information out to him saying we had a target for the current 3 years and are running well ahead of that. He did not want to take that on board. He said it was just me making it up. Then today we had Statistics New Zealand coming out and saying that since 2010 there have been over 6000 new houses built in the Christchurch area. That is running massively ahead of what could be expected at this point. Then there is all of the central business district where we are seeing a lot of activity.What is interesting in Christchurch are the high levels of employment and the fantastic engagement of people. We are living in a stressed environment—no question about that—but people are doing it they are doing it for themselves and they are following the lead from the Government. All we have got from our opponents is the idea that we create some sort of super-committee that might be able to do things in their view a little better. It will not because people make better choices for themselves. This Government is about choice. We have delivered on everything we said we would do and we are very confident in going to tell that story to the people of New Zealand over the next 7 weeks.Hon DAVID PARKER (Deputy Leader—Labour):Can I begin from this side by remembering Parekura Horomia. It is a great sadness for us these 3 years that his long and valued contribution came to an end with his death. Mr Speaker can I also acknowledge you. Can I add my good wishes to those other MPs who are retiring. Can I add my thanks to all of the staff around Parliament and can I make special mention of our own staff including our out-of-Parliament staff who I know work so hard for us.Bill English said at a time when his MPs’ heads were down over his faux pas in respect of unopened emails as they madly checked their BlackBerries for their latest polls that we had no prospect for our country of a change of Government—a very depressing thought for a lot of New Zealanders if he was right. Unfortunately as he said that we had a new poll out—we had a new poll out. That poll showed National down 5 percent the Labour Party up 6.5 percent and an 11.5 percent closing of the two-party gap. But unfortunately whilst all of his colleagues were actually on their mobile devices checking that Bill English missed it. We should not be surprised that “Mr 21 Percent” did that. If it was as Mr English would have the New Zealand public believe why is it that National is doing all these shonky deals trying to resurrect the ACT Party yet again?After David Garrett’s passport fraud; after Rodney Hide the man who was busted for his perks after having been the self-proclaimed perk-buster; after the disasters with Don Brash; and now after the disasters with John Banks and that conviction for fraud National still thinks it should tell the people of Epsom to elect an ACT Party candidate. Is that because National is confident that the election is already in the bag? No it is not. Similarly National is trying to shoehorn Mr Dunne who has never denied that he leaked the Kitteridge report back into the Ōhariu seat. It ain’t all over.We on this side are pleased that this is going to be an election that will be a contest of ideas of how to improve our country. We know that this is going to be a close contest because there is already recognition that the Labour Party has a positive comprehensive set of policies to upgrade our economy and to make other improvements. All our positive policies are costed. Our alternative Budget is already out there and we are already past this inane assertion of the National Party that we are tax-and-spend irresponsible people because we have shown that we reduce net debt as fast as—in fact a little bit faster than—the National Party alternative. Our fiscal plan is out there and no one has shot a hole in it. It is credible. The commentators accept that. We can get on and have a debate about policy.A couple of elections ago the National Party campaigned on a brighter future for all New Zealanders. That was its catchphrase. It has given up on that because that slogan has become so patently untrue in respect of the way in which it governs for the few. Its slogan this year is “Working for New Zealanders”. Well we on this side will be highlighting what New Zealanders know which is that actually it is not working for all New Zealanders; it is working for some New Zealanders.So who is it that National is really working for? Well it is pretty obvious—it is pretty obvious. In tax terms 40 percent of its income tax cuts went to the top 10 percent of income earners. It is pretty clear that it is not governing for the vast majority of New Zealanders when it comes to tax policy. Who is it that those members are working for in housing? Well they are certainly not working for first-home buyers because thousands of first-home buyers are being shut out. They are working for the speculators. They refuse to close the tax loopholes they refuse to stop overseas speculators they will not build any more houses and as a consequence we have got the lowest homeownership rates in over 50 years and they are still dropping. So National is not working for first-home buyers; it is working for the speculators—for the people who own multiple homes.What about children—what about children? We all know that we have got rising child poverty in New Zealand. It is an absolute disgrace that the Government’s Budget package in respect of lifting the incomes of children excludes the poorest children. It excludes the poorest children in New Zealand—it does. It excludes them because those members do not care about them. Government members are not governing in the interests of the majority of New Zealanders. We all know that when the gaps get as wide as they are getting in New Zealand we all suffer but those especially at the bottom suffer. I think it says a lot in respect of this Government that its income support package for families in this year’s Budget did nothing—did nothing—for the poorest children in New Zealand and it further widened the gaps.What is National doing in respect of power companies? Who is it working for there? Who is getting the brighter future? Well—Hone Harawira: Nationalise!Hon DAVID PARKER: Actually no we are not going to nationalise but we are certainly not going to sell the power companies to the 2 percent of New Zealanders who bought shares under this Government. Two percent of New Zealanders bought shares in its asset sales. The other 98 percent—well National was not working for them. It is not working for the people who pay ever-higher power prices and members on this side of the House are certainly going to do something about that when we stop the privatisation of the value of our rivers by giving people a decrease in their power bills.The Labour Party is promoting positive policies. “Vote Positive” is our campaign slogan and if people vote positive they will vote Labour. You know we have had a doubling of our membership—we have had a doubling of our membership. We have got a better on-ground presence than we have had for decades—decades—and our membership continues to grow. Why? Because people like the Labour alternative. It is positive. Our economic policies are designed to break this low-value low-wage economy that we have now got in New Zealand under National. We have policies that will increase the amount of capital that we save in society. Like what the Australians have done for ever—and one of the reasons why they have got higher wages—we are going to have a universal KiwiSaver scheme. Everyone will have a nest egg in retirement and the economy will be stronger.Then our pro-growth tax reform policies they tax capital gains. That pushes investment away from speculation which pumps up residential rental house prices and it pushes that money into the productive economy and jobs. In addition to that the capital gains tax of course makes it fairer. Sixty percent of the capital gains tax in America is paid by the top 1 percent. It is the same in Canada—it is the same in Canada. Sixty percent of the capital gains tax in Australia is paid by people on incomes over $180000 a year. It will be the same in New Zealand. It is a very fair tax because at the moment those people pay lower rates of tax than middle-income New Zealanders.We then have research and development tax credits encouraging our economy to become more innovative. We have accelerated depreciation to encourage investment in forestry jobs instead of exporting those raw logs. Our policies in addition go further than industry development and improving the economy and balancing the Budget. We are going to make life easier for families. Our Best Start package reaches all families with children who are on an income of under $150000 per annum. We do not exclude the poorest families like National does. Our NZ Power policy will reduce electricity bills. We are going to build 100000 new affordable homes.That is the positive alternative that is available under Labour at this election. We are pleased to be through this ridiculous tax and spend narrative that National tries to put on us. We ran the last nine Budget surpluses that this country has seen and we will run one next year. “Vote Positive”—party vote Labour.Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister of Police):I am pleased to stand and take a call here as this 50th Parliament comes to its end. Before I go any further can I acknowledge here in the House a great achievement today by our New Zealand athletes at the Commonwealth Games and our world champion who is dear to the hearts of all New Zealanders Valerie Adams. She gained a gold medal which then achieved for New Zealand our 600th medal at the Commonwealth Games.Can I start by paying tribute to all the valedictorians in the House who are leaving us and going on to lives outside Parliament. It has been amazing to sit and listen to the valedictory speeches from all around the House and I want to acknowledge all the work that MPs do. In particular I want to pay tribute to the Speaker’s team and thank them for their guidance and their assistance. Can I pay tribute to the retiring members Deputy Speaker Roy and Assistant Speaker Robertson and thank them for their help over the years. I want to acknowledge my colleague Tony Ryall who was the previous member of Parliament for parts of my electorate at various times. It has changed. I think that when he was first elected into Parliament Te Puia Springs formed part of his electorate. He has been a great mentor a great colleague and a great Minister of Health for this country. He will be sadly missed. I also want to acknowledge my two millennium-class colleagues who are leaving Dr Hutchison and Phil Heatley. We are now down to two out of eight. Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch you and I are left. I have to say that the whisky will last a bit longer. I wish my colleagues all the best.Can I thank the staff here at Parliament from the messengers to the cleaners to the security people to the people who look after our offices. We have a great staff here at Parliament who make this place work. Also can I thank Ministerial Services. I particularly want to thank the people who work in my offices both here in Parliament—who do a great job; it is a thankless job at times but they do a fantastic job—and also in my two offices in Gisborne and in Whakatāne. Where would we be without our office staff who maintain our presence in our electorates when we have to spend so much time here in Wellington?I also want to pay tribute to the Leader of the House the Hon Gerry Brownlee. He has done a fantastic job of guiding this House through the legislative programme over the last 3 years. He has an amazing way of combining humour with absolute efficiency. I think we would all agree that he has done an outstanding job and we thank you Gerry Brownlee for that.This term has been a term of considerable contrast. I want to touch on just a couple of issues. If we look first at leadership the leadership here on this side of the House from John Key is strong it is consistent it is transparent and it is open. Any of us who have been with him as he has travelled around the country know that he is genuinely interested in people. It shows and people respond to that and they want to be with him. They want to have their photos taken with him they want to talk to him and they respond to him because as the Deputy Prime Minister said earlier he actually believes in them. He believes they can do whatever it is they want to do. He genuinely wants to help them do that and it shows. So on this side we have that sort of leadership.You compare it with what we see around the House and actually “shambolic” is the word I would use to describe that—it is shambolic. We have seen a number of leaders. We have seen some shifty behaviour.Hon Member: Tricky.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: We have seen “Tricky” yes. You have to read the bottom lines. You have to read the small print. We have seen no clear leadership from the Opposition—no clear leadership to match anything that John Key has produced. So I think that that is a sharp contrast for New Zealanders. When they think about whom it is that they would like to have lead this country then without a doubt it has to be John Key from the National Party.The second issue that I think is a clear contrast is that this side of the House has a very clear direction. We know exactly where this country is going and we are helping it get there. We have four priorities. First of all getting the finances back into some sort of shape and getting back into surplus has been incredibly difficult. As we know there was a whole string of surpluses from the other side of the House under the Labour Government and it spent like a drunken sailor at the very best of times. They were the very best of times and what did this country have to show for it? Not a lot—not a lot.Andrew Williams: No debt.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Yes we did have no debt and that was one thing it did really well but it left a whole lot of unfunded promises to people. Anyone who asked for it it sprayed money around. This Government at the height of a recession had to come in and clean up that mess.We have also had to grow the economy because we knew that this country was going backwards. We were spending more than we were earning so we have had to reshape the economy and New Zealanders have risen to the challenge. Again we have heard in this House today how New Zealanders have turned our economy round. We have focused on better public services because the taxpayers have a right to expect that their Public Service performs for them. We are achieving that with our Better Public Services targets which show that very clearly. We are very focused on that.Finally we have been focused on rebuilding our second-largest city which was so dramatically demolished by those tragic earthquakes. We have seen enormous progress made and this Government has been determined to be alongside Cantabrians as they rebuild their large city.What have we seen from the Opposition? Well actually it has been all over the place. Again you would describe it as pretty shambolic. It has manufactured a whole series of crises all of which have turned out to be false—all of which have turned out to be false. In fact on this side we are actually asking for another crisis so that we can get another boost in the economy. It has consistently put down the enormous work that has been done.I want to mention a couple of particular areas. First of all I think of the outstanding increase in educational achievement that we have seen under this Government.Hon Trevor Mallard: Dropping standards.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: All we have heard from the Labour Opposition which sat back for 9 years and watched as kids’ achievement levels dropped—and it did nothing because it was too scared of the unions. Under this Government we have got good achievement data and we have seen an enormous change in what is happening in our schools. All the Opposition can do is say that we have lowered the standards. All it wants to do is undermine the hard work that thousands of teachers around our country have done.Then we come to the reduction in crime. We have backed the police. They have turned themselves inside out. They are one of the most modern effective police services in the world and we have seen crime reduced to a 29-year low. What did the Opposition do? It undermined all that good work that the police have done by focusing on five staff members who miscoded 697 recorded crimes out of 1.25 million crimes recorded in a year. So all they have done is use less than the margin of error to try to undermine our hard-working police force who are out there every day protecting our citizens.That is the difference. That is the stark difference that is presented to the country this year. This is a Government that knows that New Zealanders can achieve and that we just need to get in behind them and clear the way for them against Opposition members who nit-pick who fight amongst themselves and who have shown no strong leadership. There is a very very clear choice for people as we go into this election in September. They can choose a Government that knows where this country is going and that is united. Government members like one another they have fun together and they are refreshing. They are able to bring in new members and salute those who leave us.I have just turned and seen my colleague Chris Tremain. As an old Napier girl I think Napier is going to be poorer for not having you as its local MP. I know you have got a great candidate there who is going to fight and win a magnificent battle there in Napier but I want to pay tribute to Chris Tremain because he has done a great job for that city of Napier. We know that the Opposition is focused on inputs; it always has been. It is time for another National Government.SUE MORONEY (Labour):Mr Assistant Speaker it was indeed time for that member Anne Tolley to resume her seat as you quite clearly indicated. I want to add my thanks to all of the staff who make this facility operate who support members of Parliament to do their jobs. They do it in the most gracious way I might say—that is that the staff do their jobs in the most gracious way to help us to do our jobs. From the messengers to the cleaners to the Office of the Clerk staff and to everyone in between—the library staff the people who provide us with food in the facility—Paul Foster-Bell: What about the Treasury advisers?SUE MORONEY: —and even the Treasury advisers—thank you. I think that Treasury often gives very good advice that the Government chooses to ignore but never mind—never mind. Government members do choose to ignore that when it does not suit them.But really I want to thank from the Labour Party caucus those staff members who go about doing their job diligently. They are not in the limelight but they make this place function and they do it in such a pleasant way. They do it without fear or favour actually and I think that is very very important. Mr Speaker I want to thank you and your office for their work throughout the course of the last 3 years. I do also want to thank the departing members. I congratulate them as they go towards the next part of the adventure in their lives. We all look forward to seeing what happens with the rest of their lives and participating with them. I think that the thing about New Zealand is that there are genuinely two degrees of separation so we do fully expect to come across each other to see the departing members and to see where they land next. That will be very interesting.Listening to the debate from the other side I wonder what country the National members actually think they are in. According to them there are plenty of jobs there are high wages no one has a problem with housing and Christchurch has been rebuilt—Christchurch has been rebuilt. I think that is a bit of a surprise to the people in Canterbury but they heard it first from Bill English today who got up on his feet and said “We have rebuilt Christchurch.” Then there was this pause because I think that even members of his own caucus drew in a big breath because they could not quite believe it themselves and neither should they.It just goes to show how out of touch the National Government has become. I do not know which New Zealand those Government members are operating in but I invite them to come to the Waikato region which should be humming. Coming out of recession coming off the back of the best dairy payouts ever you would expect the Waikato region to be absolutely humming. There should be plenty of jobs there should be high wages there should be plenty of support for children but there is not and that is the reality. In the Waikato region unemployment is going up. At the height of the recession unemployment was 5.6 percent in the Waikato region. Now as we come out of the recession it is at 7 percent—7 percent unemployment in the Waikato region. It is going in the wrong direction.This is from a region that ought to be humming but hardly a week goes by now when we do not hear of major job losses in our region—last week 110 jobs were under threat at Canpac. Canpac is part of the dairy industry. It was once not that long ago—only about 3 years ago—the largest private sector employer in Hamilton. It was the largest private sector employer in Hamilton and now it is down to about 300 staff and of those 300-odd staff 110 have their jobs on the line. And this is in a region where it ought to be humming.But that is only the beginning. Since the end of April 120 jobs from Hutton’s a meat processing plant have gone. What we know is that since the end of April only 40 of those 120 staff have got permanent sustainable work—permanent sustainable work. What their union reported was that the jobs on offer if there were any to be had were mostly insecure contracted jobs jobs with 90-day hire and fire at will provisions to them. They were jobs that no family could actually pay their mortgage on that no family could actually make sure they could feed their children on that no family could make sure they could pay their increasing power bills with.That is the New Zealand that we see when we get out in the real world. I invite the members opposite to get out in the real world because their speeches show how out of touch they are. Their speeches are painting a picture of a rosy New Zealand. Maybe that is the part of New Zealand that they are seeing but I invite them to actually come to the regions—actually anywhere in New Zealand—because what the statistics do tell us is that the only place that really is getting ahead is Canterbury. So let us all have an earthquake because that is the only plan under this Government. It had a natural disaster and milk prices—the only two things that were working for it. Now that the milk prices are starting to collapse we have got only natural disasters left and that is not a plan.Labour on the other hand does have a plan. Labour has a plan to actually get that better future for New Zealand because it is a better New Zealand that we want. We want families to be in a positive environment not one where they are having to work out what they are going to go without from week to week so that they can make ends meet or where they are having to work out whether it is the power bill that gets paid or whether it is the doctor’s visit for the child that happens. Those are the very real things that New Zealanders face on a day-to-day basis.In a region like the Waikato a smart plan is not a Government that is prepared to cut 180 agricultural research jobs from Hamilton. If that Government actually had a regional economic development plan it would not think that the best thing to do is cut 180 jobs from AgResearch in Hamilton. It is one of the best dairy-producing regions in the world—in the world—and that Government thinks that the best thing it can do for our region is cut innovation research and science in the field of agriculture. That is what it thinks.Hon Simon Bridges: Oh you just want to put SMEs out of business.SUE MORONEY: Simon Bridges thinks that. He believes it but that is the road to nowhere for our region.We need a Government that is actually going to start making some smart plans like giving children the best start in life. We in the Labour Party know that actually if we invest early that will reap rewards not only for that child and their family but for their community and all of those who live beside those children—for all of those who want to live beside well-rounded productive members of our society contributing to the best of their ability. That is what Labour’s plan is about because under our Best Start policy we will lift children out of poverty. We will lift children out of poverty. There will be $60 a week extra going into families with infants and for the lowest-income families that $60 a week payment will continue until that child’s 3rd birthday. On that child’s 3rd birthday that child will then get access to 25 hours of free early childhood education. So we will be able to actually see that child progress right through to the time that that child starts school and when that child starts school their parents will not have the bailiffs coming around to get them to pay the school fees because under Labour’s policy we will be ensuring that families do not have to pay those so-called voluntary donations to schools. We will ensure that that child is in a class where they can get quality teaching because they have lower class sizes.That is the future under Labour. It is a really positive future. It is one dealing with the day-to-day issues that everyday New Zealanders face. It is not the fairy cuckoo-land that the National members have been describing. It is not the out-of-touch New Zealand that the National Government believes is there. A place where there are plenty of jobs a place where no one has any housing problems a place where there are high wages—that is the Labour Party vision. It is sadly what the National Government thinks is already in place. But listen up New Zealand: if New Zealanders believe and are experiencing the New Zealand that National members are describing then you know what to do with your vote. But most New Zealanders know that that is fairy cuckoo-land and they know that they need a better future for their country. That means voting Labour voting positive and voting early on 20 September. I look forward to our return to Parliament after the election and look forward to seeing a better future for this country.TE URUROA FLAVELL (Co-Leader—Māori Party):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tātou e te Whare tēnei rā. Earlier this week we celebrated 10 years since Tariana Turia was elected as the first Māori Party MP and her ability to speak in the House—not so much her ability but certainly what she said in the House at that time certainly shaped where we have come from. In her first address on 27 July 2004 she said this: “We are here today to say loud and clear that being Māori is everything to do with how well we do in life. We will restore to ourselves our rightful place as tangata whenua and we will need no one else’s permission than ourselves. We can do this and we can do it now.”It is appropriate in this last speech of the 50th Parliament for the Māori Party to acknowledge the legendary impact and influence of two of the finest Māori leaders whom I have had the privilege to know. It has been a huge honour for me to work with them and be with them on our journey and I will miss them both. Tariana and Pita have transformed the priorities of policy agencies the agenda of Government and the attitude of New Zealanders by their unstinting belief in the potential of whānau to do for themselves. Their legacy is written into the hearts and minds of our people through their historic signing of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples the substantial investment allocated to Māori economic and social development across subsequent Budgets and of course the unique and life-changing approach that most of us know as Whānau Ora.We have seen the influence of Whānau Ora spreading into the housing sector with Te Pou Matakana Commission the agency now responsible for management and distribution of Māori housing funding—and here she is. Hey! We have seen its impact on the disabilities sector with Enabling Good Lives representing the aspirations of disabled persons and their families to determine their own destiny. We have experienced the power of Whānau Ora recognised in Waka Hourua the national suicide prevention approach for Māori and Pasifika communities in E Tū Whānau and in Ngā Vaka o Kāiga Tapu Pasifika—family violence prevention solutions grown by delivered to and from local communities themselves who are best able to create their own answers.When we signed up to the relationship accord with the Government in December 2011 our first priority was to support the evolving focus and ongoing implementation of Whānau Ora. I pledge my absolute commitment to you Tariana Turia that I will continue to hold subsequent Governments to account to protect that kaupapa that our people know and love. Ē ko koia e āra e! [Well done arise!] We have been fascinated by the interest of some of the parties in this House who suddenly want to review it amend it and shut it down. Well I will be doing absolutely everything in my power and I will be trying to encourage as best I can those parties to get over themselves and to put faith in our families. Those families know what is right for them.The second and third milestones of our relationship accord were focused on eliminating poverty through a Ministerial Committee on Poverty. We are really proud that this Government agreed to bring together a coordinated ministerial focus to poverty. During the 2005 Parliament when of course Labour was at the helm there was a massive 335 pages of Hansard-recorded questions debates and speeches in which the Māori Party MPs asked the Government to prioritise families experiencing severe or significant poverty and hardship. The 335 pages got us nowhere with Labour failing to even agree to a benchmark definition of poverty from which to measure progress.In contrast we have been really pleased at the scope of influence that that committee had. Through our negotiations with the Government over $65 million has been invested in addressing rheumatic fever over $100 million in home insulation targeting low-income families a warrant of fitness for rental housing has been initiated and $90 million was invested in primary school - aged children now being able to go to the doctor for free any time of the day or night and get a prescription as well—all for free. There is still work to do. But the important thing is that because we do have a relationship with the Government we are able to raise those issues directly rather than being from behind the megaphone or in question time from the cross benches.I did want to acknowledge the willingness of the Prime Minister and his deputy the Hon Bill English for always making space available for us to raise issues to review policies and priorities and to face up whenever we had brought challenges to the table—ka nui te mihi ki a kōrua. It has been a relationship based on mutual respect which the Hon Bill English mentioned earlier and it is something that I can tell the House we definitely value highly. It has meant that we can oppose the Government’s key policies without flinching such as the asset sales or the Resource Management Act. Our vote on the latter has been crucial in stopping the legislation in its tracks. He mentioned 90 bills; we might go for 100 next time.But be that as it may I want to just point out the obvious irony recently in the last 24 hours in fact. ACT New Zealand First and Mana even all issued statements speaking out against race-based policies or the missed opportunity of the local government legislation which passed into law on Tuesday despite the contribution of two Māori MPs from Labour and the Greens. We voted against the local government legislation because of the way in which it undermines the statutory significance of Māori representation. We met with the Associate Minister of Local Government and subsequently wrote to him making two recommendations. One was a first-principles review on Māori representation including the impact of the Māori Statutory Board in Auckland which is a key initiative established as a result of Pita’s negotiation in Cabinet. The other was to initiate a joint work programme with the Ministry of Māori Affairs and the Department of Internal Affairs to increase and improve Māori participation in local government processes.My point is that although mainstream parties inevitably complain loudly or do nothing we have always been about getting around the table and making a difference. Māori MPs in mainstream parties will always be under the influence of their respective leaders and party policies and we all know how Māori feature under that. We just have to remember the foreshore and seabed legislation. I remember a phrase that the late Eva Rickard used when she decided to leave Mana Motuhake when it chose to come under the umbrella of the Alliance Party. Her summing up of the situation for Māori-based parties in alliance with another brings a sound message for us today. She said: “Dead fish flow with the current.” Well we have seen the fate of dead fish before in this Parliament and we in the Māori Party are obviously determined to maintain our uniqueness—our precious earned reputation as the strong independent Māori voice in Parliament with influence. This is about survival as Professor Whatarangi Winiata used to tell us. It is about tino rangatiratanga. It is about maintaining the integrity of the Māori seats.I do want to make a brief mention of our other parties with dollars in their eyes or parties that like to party. There is nothing wrong with a bit of stunt politics to generate interest in the electoral process but my only hope is that the Electoral Commission can put to use the resources of such a benefactor to the vital job ahead and that is lifting the Māori vote. In a democracy every vote counts and we have been bitterly disappointed in the failure of the electoral system to get the vote out amongst Māori communities in particular.The Māori Party will continue to speak truths about the issues that confront us. We have had bills passed to prevent gambling and multiple interventions in tobacco reform. We have called and will continue to call for a review of the justice sector to eliminate institutional racism that stymies the lives of our people. Although others may talk on and on about pipeline dreams the Māori Party has got on with the job. We have extended KickStart Breakfast to bring food into the schools—into every school in the country. We have introduced Māori history into schools. We have advocated for the recognition of cultural significance and on and on. I think that we have done the nation proud by the efforts that we have been able to introduce into this country and we look forward to a further term.In the time that I have I just want to say in terms of the Māori Party that our energy has never been higher to support the challenges our people entrust us with. I do want to say in closing that I pay a huge tribute to the cast of hundreds who provide us with amazing support in this Parliament: the messengers the cleaners the caterers the translators in particular who have not been mentioned today—ka nui te mihi ki a koutou e hoa—the Office of the Clerk security IT the librarians Hansard the reception team the building staff all of our own staff in our offices our electorate teams and our membership and in particular the parliamentary teams because they always show us huge respect. We appreciate that. We do not always perhaps give that but we do appreciate it and we thank them so much. We wish everybody well in the next election.HONE HARAWIRA (Mana—Te Tai Tokerau):Hoi nō hei kōrero tuatahi e Te Kaiwhakawā māku ki a Tariana rāua ko Pita e heke mai ana i ō rāua ake tūranga i tēnei wā i te mea ko rāua ngā tokorua e ārahi i a māua ko Te Ururoa i roto i Te Whare i te tīmatanga o Te Pāti Māori. Nā rāua i awhi i a māua kia tae mai ki tēnei wā. Kua tumuaki a Te Ururoa ki tōna Pāti ko hau anōki. Nō reira mihi atu ki a koe e Tariana kōrua ko Pita. Tua atu ki a Tau e puta atu ana i Te Whare ka mihi atu ā ki a koe nōki e te tuahine e Tōrete ‘hakoa hanga tūkino ana koe i taku pire. Hoi anō he tuahine tonu ki a mātou o te ao Māori nō reira e tika ana kia mihi atu ki a koe. Huri tū ki a tātou anō rā e Te Whare wā tātou kaimahi ‘hakoa ko tēhea pāti ko wai te tangata me mihi atu ki a rātou katoa. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou huri atu huri noa kia ora tātou katoa.[And so the first comment for me Mr Speaker at this point time is to Tariana and Pita who are about to relinquish their leadership roles because they are the two who led Te Ururoa and I into the House when the Māori Party came into existence. Those two nurtured us right up to this stage of our existence. Te Ururoa is now leader of his party and I am leader of mine as well. Therefore I salute you and Pita Tariana. Furthermore I acknowledge you as well Tau who are about to leave this House and you too sister colleague Claudette and regardless of your disparaging remarks about my bill you continue to remain a sister of Māoridom to us so it is right that you are recognised. So I stand to thank us all once again: the House all our staff regardless of which party they are working for who that staff member may be I extend my gratitude to them all. Acknowledgments and good wishes to you all collectively around and throughout and thanks to us all.]It would be nice to be able to say that all the differences between Mana and this National coalition Government in the last 3 years had seen our country come out of the global financial crisis with a positive attitude and an increased capacity to rock and roll but that would be a lie. There have been increases of course but not across the board and not in ways that signal a rebuilding of society and an improvement in opportunity for everyone.Sure there have been increases at the highest echelons of our society; spectacular increases in the levels of wealth accumulated by the richest 1 percent of people in the country. There has been an increase in the salaries earned by chief executives and corporate directors an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor and an increase in funding for National’s holiday highway but there has been a cut in funding for the maintenance of local roads every year for the past 6 years in regional areas like Northland. There has been an increase in extractive and environmentally destructive industries like deep-sea oil and toxic land mining and a lowering of safety standards in primary industries like mining and forestry.But when we look at the wider population Māori Pasifika and more and more often tauiwi as well we are seeing increases in all the wrong places: an increase in unemployment an increase in the number of people earning less than the average wage an increase in the number of people leaving for jobs overseas an increase in inequality an increase in child poverty an increase in homelessness an increase in the numbers of children hospitalised with poverty-related illnesses and diseases an increase in the educational achievement gap between kids in low and high decile schools an increase in the numbers of people in prison—I could go on but you know the story.Such is the carnage for those at the bottom of society and such will be the legacy of this Government and its coalition partners. The truly sad part is that life does not need to be like that not for anyone in this country. We live in the greatest country in the world. We have the talent the resources the time and the space to be world leaders in whatever it is we choose to do. When I say—and I often say it—“Happy are those who dream dreams and are prepared to pay the price to make those dreams come true.” it is because I truly believe that we actually have the capacity to make those dreams come true.The question is: why should feeding the kids be something we dream about? Why should anyone think that living in a warm and decent home is nothing but a dream? Why do people think that full employment is the impossible dream? Mana sees all of those not only as possibilities but as distinct realities. We now have the support of our colleagues in Internet-Mana to ensure that people understand how real those ideals can be. Feeding the kids through a comprehensive food-in-schools programme already has the support of Labour the Greens New Zealand First and the Māori Party. Ten-thousand State houses a year for those on low incomes is our policy but that has already been taken up in part at least by Labour and it dovetails comfortably with some of the more innovative housing ideas from the Greens.There is no reason why we cannot backstop a strong Government-driven home building programme with community jobs for the unemployed all around the country—in hospitals in schools on marae around old people’s homes and anywhere else where we can help rebuild people’s self-esteem while preparing them for jobs in the private sector.We know we have the support of most New Zealanders to stop the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement to repeal the Government Communications Security Bureau legislation and to take back the power by nationalising the electricity companies and making them core assets never to be sold again. We also know that unless we provide a free tertiary education for our kids we will continue to get what we have already got—the loss of all that intellectual capital as our kids head off overseas in pursuit of jobs to pay off their loans meet somebody start a family build a new group of friends and then never come home again.I know you are asking yourselves how we are going to pay for all of those things and I can tell you that somebody in the standing room only audience at our public meeting in Rotorua on Tuesday night also asked that question. It was the richest guy in the room who took the microphone and asked the questions that other seriously rich people are also asking like: why is it that people can make millions on the stock market and pay no tax on it at all? Why are banks not paying a financial transaction tax on the billions of dollars that they transfer from place to place in search of profit? Why do we allow uber-rich people to buy very expensive homes cars helicopters and yachts and not pay a luxury tax for the privilege? Why is the Government spending so much on roads and yacht races and so little on ordinary people?You see our policies are based on the belief that we should be backing ourselves to lift everyone in Aotearoa to a place where we could all be positive contributors to our society where healthy families are the norm where every child can learn because they are all well-fed where free education is normal where warm homes are a standard where jobs are plentiful where everybody pays their share to achieve those goals and where Parliament accepts that the only legislation worth passing is that which passes the test of first being good to our tamariki and our mokopuna. Then and only then will we be able to make those dreams come true.Of course realising those dreams will require more than just Internet-Mana believing we can achieve them. It will mean us working with others as well which we are more than happy to do. But as to whom we would work with after the election? Well as a matter of principle we will not be working with National for the very simple reason that no Government since World War II has created so much inequality so much hardship and so much poverty for so many people in such a short time as this National Government and its coalition partners.Although David Cunliffe says a Cabinet position for the Internet-Mana in a Labour-led Government is unlikely if as John Armstrong of the New Zealand Herald said “With Labour’s woes intensifying and that party’s support bleeding away there is a good chance that Internet Mana could be hovering around the 5 percent level by the time the official campaign gets under way.” believe you me Internet-Mana will be getting a call.While I am talking about other parties here is a short comment for those who have already pulled the race card on Mana: grow up. It is the oldest trick in the book bashing Māori at election time to boost your voter appeal but it is also the ugliest. You do yourselves a disservice by stooping to such levels and you insult the intelligence of the voting public by inviting them to sup from your well of poisonous racism.The fact that Mana actually has more non-Māori candidates than Māori ones has obviously slipped your minds but you know what they say—do not ever let the facts get in the way of a good story especially a good racist story. Mind you the fact that Internet-Mana is playing to packed houses and community halls all around the country while nobody else has the courage to put themselves up there for the public to see and to hear and to challenge is probably the real threat to other parties in the run-up to the election especially those who cannot get enough members even to fill a hall for their annual conferences. I will quote again from last week’s New Zealand Herald which stated: “If any spies from the Labour Green or Māori parties infiltrated yesterday’s Internet Mana rally in West Auckland they would have come away with very worried looks on their faces.”Hon PETER DUNNE (United Future—Ōhariu):Mr Speaker may I begin by congratulating you on the way you have served this House as Speaker since assuming the role at the beginning of last year. As someone who has known you probably longer than anyone else in this Chamber I have been very impressed with how you have settled in to what is a challenging difficult and very important role within this Parliament. I think that members who obviously spent the first few months of your tenure testing you out in the way that all new Speakers are tested would recognise your integrity your commitment and your dedication to this Chamber and to the traditions and the privileges of this House. Can I also say in that context that I want to acknowledge your two assistants who are retiring Eric Roy and Ross Robertson: both long servants of this House characters in their own right and people who will be remembered as fair and decent New Zealanders who have made a very solid contribution to the conduct of affairs in this country and to the electorates that they have represented.To all the other members who are retiring and whose valedictory speeches we have been privileged to hear thank you for your service to your communities and to your constituents. What these speeches show in a way that perhaps only a maiden speech shows is a little of the vision and the personalities behind the individuals and a little bit of the aspirations that they bring to the role and a little bit of the integrity and the reflection that they have on the role as they come to a conclusion. We can be well satisfied with the calibre of parliamentarians in this country. I am sorry to see those people move on but this is a bit like school at the end of term. Most people come back some move on there are mixed feelings and life by and large carries on unchallenged.I think that is the same for a Parliament at the end of its term. This is the 50th New Zealand Parliament coming to a conclusion. It is the end of 162 years of consecutive parliamentary government. The election of the 51st Parliament in a few weeks will put us into that rare league of a very few number of countries that have had continuous democratic parliamentary government for that length of time. I think that as all the debate takes place on the hustings all the catcalling the name-calling the abuse and as the substance of debate flows around we should remember that we are one of a very select band of countries to have retained the thread of democracy for that length of time. That is a very important privilege for all of us.I have been very pleased during the term of this Parliament to see all of the provisions of the United Future - National confidence and supply agreement honoured and I want to acknowledge the Prime Minister in that respect. I say that it has been a pleasure working with him and his team throughout the term as it has been with my colleagues the Hon Tariana Turia the Hon Pita Sharples and Te Ururoa Flavell from the Māori Party. We do not actually have a bilateral agreement with the Māori Party but we do work closely with it on a number of issues and I have been struck by the level of accord that we have on those issues in terms of a particular view and where we have been able to work very constructively and positively together. I will not go through all of the provisions of our confidence and supply agreement that have been implemented but I do want to highlight two that I think are critically important.The first and by far the most significant was the announcement just a couple of days ago that Wellington’s almost mythical—certainly long-awaited—Transmission Gully highway has finally been agreed to proceed as per our agreement as a public-private partnership and that work will begin next year. I saw a piece in the newspaper that made a reference to a Mr Field who had been the member of Parliament for Ōtaki and who back in 1919 had suggested that Transmission Gully ought to be developed as a World War I memorial highway for the burgeoning motor vehicle fleet in New Zealand. My records show that the first such reference to Transmission Gully being developed as some sort of a highway—although in those days it was seen as a railway—was in 1906. But it was another 20 years after Mr Field’s claims in 1919 that serious consideration began to be given to Transmission Gully a mere 74 years ago in 1939.We are patient people in this city but I think waiting 75 years to get a highway development agreed tests even the most patient of disposition. Wellingtonians will be absolutely delighted to see work commence on this highway very shortly and to see its completion by 2020 so that we do have that second access and egress from our city we do have a modern flow that will speed up the traffic movement between here and the Kāpiti Coast in particular by around 10 to 15 minutes and it will make it much easier for commerce and trade coming into this city using our port and our airport. I am very pleased after a personal campaign of well over 20 years—which has seen me introduce at least two member’s bills to this Parliament bring petitions to this Parliament and work with successive Governments—to see that agreement in place and that highway being now on the point of construction commencing.The second thing that I wanted to comment on was the passage late last year of the Game Animal Council Act. This has had quite a similar period of gestation although it has not quite been 75 years. It has been a hope by those in the recreational hunting sector for many many years that some form of national representative statutory body could be established to give account of and recognition to their interests and to ensure that their role in contributing to the management of the game estate in New Zealand was recognised and able to be taken account of. The establishment of that council by legislation late last year and by appointment earlier this year—and the fact that it is now meeting and up and running—is a very important achievement in that regard.It sends a couple of important signals. The first signal is that the large number of New Zealanders who enjoy outdoor recreation in this country is recognised and has a place and a voice. The second signal that it sends is that a small party that is committed to some pretty key ideals and is working in collaboration with a major party of Government can achieve things that might not normally be on the scale of activity of that Government party simply because it has so many other things to worry about. Voting for small parties giving particular focus to certain key areas of policy is a worthwhile outcome because they can be achieved. That gives a level of confidence as we move into elections such as the one that is forthcoming about the worth of voting for those organisations.The House will be dissolved shortly to contest the general election. There will be the challenges that are implicit in that about policy and the direction of the country. We stand at a very critical phase. We have come through the biggest most massive economic depression since the 1930s. We have come through relatively unscathed in comparison with a number of other countries. The challenge now is to not fritter away the strength that we have established but use the gains of that strength constructively and positively to lay foundations for the future that will see sustained economic growth a boost in incomes and confidence levels return so that the population is retained here and new migrants feel confident coming to this place and welcome within it.One of the nasty undercurrents that I believe is already seeping into this election campaign is the issue of race. We have seen this card played many ways and many times over the years where a particular segment of the population is isolated and therefore by implicit insinuation blamed as the cause of a range of other issues: migrants coming to Auckland create a housing crisis—you can read the code. That is a very nasty development in our society not just for the political implications of the game but because more important it starts to divide our population and it starts to set people against each other. At a time when this country needs to move ahead positively in a broad multi-ethnic multicultural way to start to play these narrow sinister games for political advantage is I think despicable. The only solution that I would proffer for people who feel concerned about that is the very simple one of making sure they do not vote for those parties preaching that sort of anathema as policy.Beyond that I wish every member who is seeking re-election good fortune good luck and a good positive campaign. I say to those who are leaving us that I have valued your service and company and I know that your contribution to the country is not yet at an end. To all members of Parliament as the 50th Parliament comes to a conclusion I congratulate you on the contribution that you have all made in some way or another to the progress of this country over the last 3 years.KEVIN HAGUE (Green):As the last speaker for the Green Party in this Parliament I begin by again placing on record the gratitude of the entire Green Party caucus to all of those many workers around Parliament who enable us to do our work and also to the Green parliamentary and party team of both staff and volunteers. We appreciate you all very very much.I extend our best wishes to those in the House who will be leaving Parliament at this election. There are those who do so willingly at the end of their service—and I especially acknowledge my fantastic colleague Holly Walker—and I also acknowledge that there are others around the House who will not be back to join us despite their intentions and hopes.Phil Twyford: For whom the bell tolls.KEVIN HAGUE: Indeed.I do my best to find common ground with others across the House and across party lines. I think that doing so is an essential part of politics. In fact it is the art of the possible. It is also a fundamental Green value. At this point I want to particularly highlight one of the achievements of this Parliament and that was in marriage equality. We were proud to be part of a coalition of members across the House from parties both within the House and outside the House and with communities. That was I believe a great model of how we can go about making a positive change that will make a big difference for many people’s lives. But having a vigorous contest between beliefs and values where they impact in important ways on people’s lives is also another part of politics.I have just recently wrapped up a national speaking tour on the big issues in health. The last slide in the presentation that I put on for audiences had five points which were that health care should be a fundamental right for all New Zealanders; there should be no barriers to access especially not financial ones; services should be universally available; services should be preventive in focus; and services should be integrated. I asked the audiences whether they could guess where that list came from because although it sounds like a summary of Green Party policy it was not something that I had written. In fact just two people out of literally thousands on this speaking tour have guessed it right. They are the objectives of the New Zealand public health system that was established by the Savage Government in the 1930s.When I tell audiences that there is usually a visible reaction of shock and indeed I experience it myself. I feel a chill in my cheeks the hairs on the back of my neck—if there are any—stand on end and I think it is just so amazing that something from the 1930s should actually still feel so fresh and relevant almost 100 years later. That is because we have had a succession of Governments since at least 1984 that have seen the role of the State in a very different way. They have seen the role of State as being to maximise GDP growth and in that model people count either as the labour input to the firm or as consumers and the natural world counts as either raw materials for the firm or waste disposal. That idea of government has driven this country in entirely the wrong direction.I believe it also stands at the heart of why so many people feel alienated from the very process of government and have not been participating in voting. What we stand for and what Savage stood for is an entirely different idea of what the Government should be about. We believe that the State should be the embodiment of our collective responsibility to care for each other and to care for the natural world and to prepare the ground for those future generations. We believe that the point of the economy is to help us deliver our social and environmental goals not the other way round.We have tried to work with this Government where we could. We are proud of our formal relationships with it to insulate and heat cold damp unhealthy homes to build a national network of great cycle trails to document and clean up toxic sites and to improve pest control through resetting traps. We put forward many other ideas on how we could work together on areas of common policy and we were disappointed that they were all rejected by National.We have also been proud of our resolute performance in leading the opposition on the insidious and corrosive effects of child poverty and increasing inequality the shocking deterioration of the quality of fresh water the privatisation of public assets the imbalances in the New Zealand economy freedom for West Papua calling out the atrocities of Israel against the people of Gaza in recent days irrational transport planning and funding decisions ongoing cuts to health and education services the cynical attacks on citizens’ basic privacy rights through the Government Communications Security Bureau bill and other legislation the egregious money-for-policy Skycity deal the sick culture of disentitlement at ACC the erosion of services for women who experience sexual violence and attacks on workers’ rights. Sometimes we have won.Back in the early days of the Green Party our political opponents used to accuse us of being too idealistic. We do not hear that any more. The public has noticed that we have successful co-leaders and a stable united caucus. Our contributions are consistently principled and we have proven ourselves to be ready for Government with transformational ideas that are grounded in practicality properly costed and affordable and supported by the key opinion leaders amongst those who would be affected by them.National’s weapon of choice now is the false dichotomy—along the lines of Fox News’ stance of saying either you support the war in Iraq or you oppose freedom—along with National’s disdain for evidence and science. We have shown consistently that it is possible to create great jobs by creating a smarter greener economy that works for everyone while also restoring our environment like cleaning up our rivers and protecting our beaches from oil spills and delivering a fairer society where every child has enough to thrive. We do not have to sell off the family silver and accelerate the stupid economy based on extracting non-renewable resources. We can instead invest substantially in innovation research and development capitalise on new flexible technologies like 3-D printing ensure we have the internet access and speed necessary for weightless industry provide capital for the smart transition of our economy through having a green bank and restructure the electricity industry to deliver cheaper greener energy and incentives to increase solar power.We do not have to further erode the law or the rights and incomes of workers and beneficiaries to increase big business profitability based on the religious belief that this will somehow trickle down. We can instead provide affordable secure and healthy housing for everyone who needs it through our Home for Life programme ensure that income support provides the most benefit to those with the greatest needs shift minimum incomes towards a living wage properly fund the services that people need provide free primary health care up to the age of 18 and recognise and resource the role of schools at the heart of communities.We do not have to accept that environmental damage and extinctions are inevitable and that the pollution economy is the only way. We can instead ensure that every river and lake is safe to swim in and that our beaches are protected from dangerous deep-sea oil drilling. We can save the Māui’s dolphin from extinction and enable it to thrive again. We can implement a climate action plan that will actually reduce emissions delivering significant net tax savings for the average household or business.Yes we are still a party of ideals but we are also a party of ideas that will take our country forward rather than into the Dickensian stagnation that National offers. Smarter fairer cleaner—party vote Green.GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central):I want to begin as my colleague David Parker did by remembering today our departed colleague Parekura Horomia. I miss Parekura. I miss him from this House. I miss his influence on our caucus. I miss being told to shut up by him when I talk too long in our caucus meetings. He was a person who told us in the Labour Party to hold the line which we are doing and we will. If I remember one thing from this term of Parliament it was the scene at the Hauiti Marae where he was farewelled. He was farewelled as a loved member of his community of his whānau of his iwi but also by his people. Parekura was the model of an electorate MP who knew his people. They knew him. They could talk to him. He could talk to them. We miss his presence in this House today.Can I also acknowledge all of the departing members from the House. I have certainly appreciated all of the valedictory statements that I have heard—a wide variety of them. I want to make a couple of specific acknowledgments. I want to acknowledge Tariana Turia for the words that she said in her valedictory speech about a number of Labour Party colleagues. Everybody knows the history of Tariana’s departure from the Labour Party and the grief that was around that but I took her words in a spirit of generosity when she spoke. I particularly want to acknowledge her comments about our former colleague the Hon Darren Hughes and note that they were very much appreciated on this side of the House. Mr Speaker can I acknowledge the two members of your team who are departing us HV Ross Robertson—brackets “no relation” close brackets; I will say that for the last time—and Eric Roy. They have both been excellent and loyal servants of this House. They are people whom we on this Opposition side of the House deal with a lot during the Committee of the whole House stage along with Lindsay Tisch and we want to acknowledge all of their work for running this place in a fair and firm manner.To you Mr Speaker thank you for your role. It has been a pleasure working with you. I am secretly disappointed you have never followed through on your threat to throw me out of the House. I need to get my bad boy image up.Dr Rajen Prasad: Still time!GRANT ROBERTSON: I have got about 7 and a half minutes so you never know. Mr Speaker we thank you for your work in the House.I also want to add my acknowledgment as colleagues have to all of the staff who support us here in the building. I want to particularly thank Mary Harris the Clerk of the House and her team who do just such an amazing and professional job when we all behave in an incredibly difficult manner. Mary always smiles when Gerry Brownlee comes up with a new idea at the Business Committee and she manages to make it work within the Standing Orders and I thank you for that Mary. I also thank all of the security staff the messengers the Bellamy’s staff and the Parliamentary Library. I particularly want to acknowledge two groups: firstly our staff who work in our out-of-Parliament offices. If anyone needs a reminder of this I got it yesterday when I got a phone call from my out-of-office staff to say that they had had to call the police because someone had tried to rip off the door in a rage actually about an election poster that had been pasted up somewhere near their house which seemed an unusual thing to be that upset about. In all seriousness every single day our staff are out there on the front line dealing with some of the most difficult problems in our community and I thank all of them—Labour Party staff and other staff as well.The last group of people whom I want to particularly acknowledge are the spouses and partners of MPs. Every single departing member has mentioned at length the support that they have had from their partners and spouses and said that they would not have been able to do their jobs as parliamentarians without them. That is so true. Those who are the people who look after us have their own lives and look after the families are people about whom I think New Zealanders need to understand just the pressure that they are under and the amazing support that we are provided with by all our spouses and partners. I thank them all on behalf of the Labour team.It has been an interesting Parliament. I will not dwell too much on it but there is one day that sticks in my memory and it is the day that we passed the marriage equality law which Kevin Hague mentioned before. It came straight off the back of another Labour member’s bill which also passed that day. It was like the Commonwealth Games; it was our golden hour or our golden evening. We also passed the bill that will mean that Anzac Day and Waitangi Day when they fall on the weekend will now be a public holiday.Hon David Parker: The Clark bill.GRANT ROBERTSON: The bill in the name of Dr David Clark and possibly drafted by somebody else but we will leave that for the Hansard of previous days. That was a day when on this side of the House we felt we were really achieving something very important. In terms of the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill I know that for a lot of people this was raised as an issue that somehow was not one of the things that matter. Well I think everybody in the House will know from the amount of correspondence we received and from the amount of interest that there was in this legislation that it did matter. This was an important social advance and it made Maurice Williamson an international TV star which may or may not be a good thing.The other acknowledgment that I would like to make to the Government before I get stuck into it as per normal is actually around the question of the passing of Treaty legislation. I do believe that in this Parliament using the extended hours provisions we have as a Parliament been able to make a very important and special difference in the way in which that legislation passes. Every single settlement that passes goes through this House with a huge level of emotion and a huge sense of opportunity for the iwi involved and I think it is a very important part of what we are doing at the moment.We get the chance to spend the next 50 days in our 3-yearly job interview and what an opportunity it is for us to travel around this great country of ours. When I think about New Zealand I think about a country with amazing natural advantages to which we as a country have added considerable advantages through our own effort. We have done that in terms of having one of the longest unbroken democracies in the world as my colleague David Parker often tells us. We do that by standing up for ourselves on the world stage. All of those things that are important about New Zealand and about being an egalitarian country are what this election should be about. My Labour Party colleagues will be familiar with Norman Kirk’s great saying.Kris Faafoi: Tell us!GRANT ROBERTSON: Oh well we could do it in unison if you like. What New Zealanders want is somewhere to live somewhere to work someone to love and something to hope for. That is what this election will be about.Jacinda Ardern: Will you deliver all four?GRANT ROBERTSON: I will. I will deliver someone to love for you Jacinda Ardern. It will happen. On the question of jobs of homes and of families that is what this election will be fought upon. It will be fought upon whether or not New Zealanders get a fair share from the economic growth that the Government promises us. It will be about whether we reduce child poverty whether we create decent jobs and whether or not all New Zealanders can live in warm dry safe homes. Those are the issues that we will be campaigning on in the Labour Party and I relish the opportunity to get out there and be a part of that.The positive vision that Labour has for this country stands in contrast to a Government that has now become known for its arrogance for its rorts for its conflicts of interest and for its dodgy deals—Dr Rajen Prasad: That’s right.GRANT ROBERTSON: That is right. There is not time enough today to go through all of those issues but it is time to ensure that we have a look at “Team Key” the first XV. Here it is. I will run through very briefly a couple of the player profiles from “Team Key” the first XV. John Banks: “John Banks’ season came to a premature end after his cabbage boat became marooned on an island of arrogance and wilful blindness. Likely to shift next season to a new club the Pāremoremo Pirates.” Playing in the hooker position Peter Dunne: “In and out of the team all season. Confuses his team-mates with his record of playing for both sides. Lost the trust of his team-mates when he leaked details of the game plan.” Playing at prop Judith Collins: “Tried to ingratiate her team-mates with her provision of half-time milk but her strategy of getting her retaliation in first backfired when she kneecapped herself. Still much loved for leading the team in the rendition of its team song ‘Don’t Cry for Me Oravida’ ”. Murray McCully playing at lock: “The team’s virtual member. No longer a physical presence in the team. Also failed to show up to any trainings this year due to a failure to open any emails.”Then there is Gerry Brownlee: “A late-season fitness drive has seen a positional shift and he is getting legendary status around the country where security staff everywhere encourage people not to do a Brownlee.” Then there is the open-side flanker Maurice Williamson: “Often found roaming the field and out of position. After a promising start at his guest appearance for the Rainbow Warriors he was escorted from the field during the game against the Police.” And then there is the team captain John Key: “He led by example from halfback hiding behind the forwards evading dodging and then”—his low point—“giving his mate the job as the team head of security.” This is the National Party first XV. This is the high standard that John Key said he would bring to New Zealand.At this election New Zealanders get a choice between a Government led by the Labour Party that will focus on families on homes and on jobs and a tired out-of-touch arrogant National Government. This side will win.LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō):This is the final day of the 50th Parliament and it is only 51 days until New Zealanders will decide who they want to take this country forward. The sorts of things that New Zealanders are considering are who they can trust who can best manage the Government’s finances who has the best plan to help families to get ahead and who do they want as Prime Minister.I want to reflect on the comments that the Hon Bill English made when referring to our Prime Minister the Rt Hon John Key. Much has been said of the company he has kept over the last few years in terms of world leaders but the measure of the man—the measure of the leader—is the person he is each and every day with each and every New Zealander whom he comes into contact with. Whether he is at a Fieldays meeting whether he is opening a velodrome with the royals and whether he is on a marae in Tokoroa the response to our Prime Minister is overwhelming and that is what New Zealanders are looking for in terms of leading this country forward.I am enormously proud to be the senior whip of this stunning National caucus. This is a caucus that is working for New Zealand. We work hand in hand with our communities. We are positive we are aspirational and we know where we are going.If you look at some of our priorities we have been very clear all of the time that our focus has been on responsibly managing the Government’s finances building a more competitive and productive economy delivering better public services and for those in Christchurch and Canterbury rebuilding their city and their region. And it is clear that our plan is working. The economy is growing real jobs are being created and wages are going up but the most important thing is actually the amount of confidence. Consumer confidence is rising and business confidence is rising and that is really the sort of thing you trust. When you are out listening to your constituents and visiting local businesses they are talking about the fact that they are confident in the direction that this Government is taking them and that is the real measure of our success.If you look at the achievements under the Hon Steven Joyce who is leading our economic development programme the six areas in our Business Growth Agenda are detailed they are specific and we are reporting on progress. Whether it is in export markets innovation skilled and safe workplaces natural resources capital markets or infrastructure this is a Government that is progressing so many areas because we recognise that there is not one single thing that will fix some of the challenges that we inherited.If I could take just one in terms of infrastructure it is the Waikato Expressway. I know that my fellow Waikato MPs are also delighted when we see the progress every time we drive down that stretch of the Waikato. As a road of national significance it was to be completed within 10 years and if I look at the section in my electorate of Taupō alone—the Cambridge section—it has been planned for over 60 years. The community wanted that 60 years ago and this is a Government that is delivering it. If you look at the industries that are important in my electorate and across New Zealand—forestry farming tourism—that single road which will carve off 35 minutes from the journey from Bombay to Tīrau will have such a significant and lasting economic impact that I cannot begin to do it credit in this short address.But when you are in your community and you are talking to mums on the side of the netball court or you bump into people in the supermarket in your ordinary life as a Kiwi the things that people say that matter most in addition to the economy are education health and law and order. It is undeniable and you cannot refute the record that this Government has achieved in its first 6 years in those areas. If you look at education which is so ably led by the Hon Hekia Parata more children are in early childhood education. We are lifting academic achievement in our schools and not only are we doing it in our schools but we are actually tackling it taking it on and producing results in the very communities that need it most.I am very proud when I read articles in the New Zealand Education Gazette that profile schools in my electorate like Tokoroa High School. But that is only one of many—that is only one of many schools up and down this country that are absolutely transforming their students’ lives. That is coming from the dedication of their principals of their boards of trustees of their teachers and of their parents. That is every single school but it comes from the leadership; it comes from the direction that is offered by our Minister.In health every single family knows how important health is. If you have got a child if you have got a parent if you have got a grandparent who needs hospital attention or if you do you want it and you want it soon. It was a fine day in this House yesterday when we farewelled the Hon Tony Ryall because his record in health is just unbelievable. It is absolutely outstanding. Whether it is more hip and knee replacements more cancer treatment faster a higher level of immunisation—my colleagues are listing them behind me because I just will not have time to mention them all. There are additional resources in hospitals. The Tokoroa family medical centre has been upgraded into a health centre. More money has gone into a significant upgrade of Taupō Hospital and this is happening in regional hospitals up and down New Zealand. The one thing that has really stood out which has probably had the most feedback of anything was our decision to fund GPs and prescriptions for those under 13. That is what this Government is focusing on—the things that actually hard-working New Zealanders value.So if I now look at the other thing that is significant New Zealanders want to be safe in their homes and their communities. Again this is a Government that has made collaborative efforts in justice police corrections and courts. We have that very idea of actually asking what the results are that we need to produce breaking down the barriers in departments and saying we are going to set these targets we are measuring them and we are achieving them. If you look at for example the total crime rate since June 2011 it is down 16 percent—Hon Members: How much?LOUISE UPSTON: Sixteen—one-six. But actually the one that I think is more important is youth crime and that is down 30 percent. These are figures but actually I want those of us in the House to reflect on the number of people who are safer and as a result of these results are not victims.I want to make some thank-yous before I finish. I thank my fellow whips Tim Macindoe and Jami-Lee Ross. I have to say that managing a team of 59 stunning individuals has not been as challenging as people may think. They are highly committed they are connected to their communities and they are dedicated. So it has really been a fantastic term of Parliament. But actually one of the things that I want to mention is the valedictory statements that were made by members retiring from our caucus: Dr Cam Calder John Hayes Chris Auchinvole Colin King the Hon Chris Tremain the Hon Kate Wilkinson Dr Paul Hutchison the Hon Phil Heatley Eric Roy Shane Ardern the Hon Tony Ryall and also in his novel way via Twitter the Hon Tau Henare. Each one of these people is a remarkable person in their own right and their contribution and service to New Zealand has been stunning.I want to thank all of the staff in this building and across the country and I want to recognise Grant Robertson’s acknowledgment of what our electorate staff face on a day-to-day basis. Whether it is the team in the Parliamentary Service or in the Office of the Clerk or our support staff—whether they are in cleaning security the gallery the Chamber or catering—I thank each and every one of them for the work they do to support this House.We are now seeing the end of the 50th Parliament and we look forward to the 51st Parliament so it is quite appropriate that we are now 51 days to the election. Our top athletes are currently in Glasgow going for gold and we have already brought home 34 medals 11 of which are gold. It is 51 days until New Zealand decides who its Prime Minister will be. I can tell you that National is going for gold and it is game on.Mr SPEAKER: Honourable members as we close the 50th New Zealand Parliament I want to thank you all for giving me the privilege of being its Speaker. Since I assumed the role 19 months ago I have strived to referee the proceedings of this House in a way that has treated all members fairly in a non-partisan way. Although some of my decisions have been questioned I leave with an absolutely clear conscience. The 50th Parliament has sat for 227 days—a total of 1058 hours—and what is pleasing to note is the limited use of urgency at 79 hours and the increased use of extended sittings at 110 hours. This reflects the very successful changes made to the Standing Orders after the last Parliament.I also want to note the extraordinary commitment of my team of presiding officers. To the two retiring referees Eric Roy and H V Ross Robertson you will be sorely missed and I wish you both well in your lives after Parliament. To my other presiding officer Lindsay Tisch depending on the election and the will of the House it is possible that we may have the opportunity to work together again and I look forward to that.Other members have noted and I also want to acknowledge all the staff who make this place work. The recent performance improvement framework reviews of both the Parliamentary Service and the Office of the Clerk highlighted the very unique nature of both organisations. It noted the special dedication of the staff to this complex and to the way democracy actually functions in New Zealand. So to all the security staff building services staff travel office staff Bellamy’s staff telephonists receptionists VIP drivers and all the others a huge thank you to you all. To my office staff of Lisa Kinloch Oliver Whitehead and Roland Todd thank you for making my job possible. We handled our challenges smoothly. To the Serjeant-at-Arms Brent Smith thank you to your team for maintaining the traditions and the dignity of this House.I particularly want to acknowledge our Clerk of the House Mary Harris. My job would be near impossible without her wise counsel on a daily basis. The strategic intentions for the Office of the Clerk were tabled in the House yesterday. Those directions set four key core values for the organisation which are impartiality accuracy integrity and expertise in parliamentary matters. These are the values that are indeed the values of Mary Harris herself. She is an exceptional Clerk recognised throughout the Commonwealth and honoured this year with a Queen’s Service Medal for services to Parliament. Mary has signalled her intention to retire in May next year. She will leave a huge gap. To her assistant Andie Lindsay your enthusiasm and hard work are second to none. You serve your office and this Parliament with distinction. I also note the retirement today of Fay Paterson after 25 years of service to the Clerk’s Office and her direct involvement with the Table of the House. Fay deserves to be recognised and we wish her well with her future.The other person I have been privileged to work with over the last year is David Stevenson General Manager of the Parliamentary Service. He has done a wonderful job of guiding Parliamentary Service through a challenging time following the release of personal information to the Henry inquiry. I value his work and that of all of his staff both within this building and in our electorate offices. To my parliamentary colleagues on the Business Committee the Officers of Parliament Committee and the Standing Orders Committee thank you. On all those committees we have worked together as we have progressed agendas if somewhat hastily due to the earlier than anticipated election date. The new Standing Orders are an acknowledgment of the way this Parliament continues to change and to adjust our democracy which I can assure you is respected and in fact renowned throughout the world.Although we now all wait nervously for voters to determine our fate if I am fortunate enough to continue this role I intend to progress three particular challenges. First is modernising the daily prayer in a manner that is acceptable to the vast majority of members of Parliament but with strongly held views this may not be as easy as it sounds. Second is to change the way Parliament interacts with Māori protocols. I was embarrassed that two of our women members of Parliament were offended at a traditional pōwhiri held at our last Youth Parliament. I hope to modernise Parliament’s Māori protocols so that all MPs are treated with respect regardless of gender. A third issue that I mentioned earlier today is members taking photographs within this Chamber. There are very strict rules for the press gallery which they must abide by and I think it will become increasingly difficult for me to enforce those rules if there are different rules set for members of Parliament. That will probably be a job for the Privileges Committee as it makes further progress on some of those social media issues.To all retiring members of Parliament thank you for your services to New Zealand. Your valedictories have been varied and interesting and I wish you well as you chart your new directions. To the rest of you embarking on an election campaign that will determine your future direction good luck. Finally in the words of Speaker Sir Richard Harrison in closing the 39th Parliament in 1981: “I wish those of you who are standing for re-election the success they deserve. In that way I am being entirely impartial.”Motion agreed to.