Lubeck MarjaMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Kia orana. Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. It's such a joy to have the privilege to take a call in this general debate because obviously there is so much that we have to celebrate. It's very obvious that we are a Government that's tackling the big long-term issues facing New Zealand. What I'd like to start off with—I know we have already heard it from a couple of our speakers but there is so much good news to share. We've had the biggest pay rise for workers that we've seen in a decade: 4.4 percent. We have unemployment at the lowest we've seen in a decade actually under 4 percent now at 3.9 percent. We've also seen Māori unemployment at the lowest since 2008 at 7.7 percent.Now we have more jobs we have higher wages but still the Opposition sees this as a glass half empty instead of what should be a glass half full. They try and continue to talk the economy down and down and down. There's so much to celebrate like I said but the National Party doesn't like the direction that our country is heading in. They're ignoring the facts of more jobs record unemployment and record wage growth. In fact I heard something this morning on Morning Report. It was Simon Bridges and he said one person's misinformation is another person's fact." That actually makes very clear that that's how the National Party operates. They are desperate they're in denial and with whatever they're saying they're trying to just rewrite history.When talking down the economy they also use information from the business confidence surveys and they keep repeating "Oh business confidence is falling." This is the graph. It's very clear actually from historic data here that business confidence and GDP are not at all connected the way the National Party would like us to believe. If you would like to look at this graph and maybe just have a good look at the figures—because these are facts—it shows that business confidence which is the blue line continues to fall at times of very strong GDP growth which is the line in red. Now that was during the Clark Government. Then very strangely from May 2009 at the end of the recession and coinciding with the start of a John Key - National-led Government it stayed high despite the fact that GDP in that period was actually lower than it was in the previous decade.Hon Dr Nick Smith: So what's the member's point?MARJA LUBECK: My point Mr Nick Smith is that this business confidence survey and the assertions there are nothing else than an opinion poll by business leaders. It's an opinion poll and it should not be used to talk the economy down. The facts are positive and assertions by business executives are really just assertions.There's a lot to celebrate. Did I mention that this Government is tackling the big long-term challenges that are facing New Zealand? I think I might have said it already but we did hear from Minister Willie Jackson before that he is leading some really great programmes for our young people like for example Mana in Mahi. This Government is not a Government that has given up on our young people. We are doing everything we can to get them into meaningful well-paid jobs.Also what we see in the regions—Minister Mahuta mentioned it previously. A lot of businesses are doing exactly the same because there is a different kind of vibe I think the Minister mentioned in the regions where there are opportunities for our young rangatahi. I'd like to name one particular example that I know Minister Willie Jackson opened a couple of months ago in Northland. This is Northpower. It's a private business together with People Potential a private training organisation and the Ministry of Social Development. They got together to help young people get into highly skilled employment. This initiative helps prepare learners to enter the workforce. It keeps them safe. It gives them access to jobs and opportunities that in the past they would never have had. This kind of regional initiative is what we're seeing all over the place. It's positive. It's glass half full getting our NEETs into well-paid meaningful work together with obviously all the other really great Government policies that we've seen.We know there is a lot to do. We know also that we cannot fix all of that stuff overnight but under the leadership of our brilliant Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern we've started with the job we're getting on and we're doing all this because we know there are big long-term challenges facing New Zealand that we are committed to fix. Thank you Madam Speaker."