O'Connor Simon: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
O'Connor Simon: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Sitting date: 29 January 2013. Volume:687;Page:7582. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 May I offer a happy New Year as others in this House have done to colleagues on this side of the House of course and let us be in the spirit to the other side of the House and all is well. It was a great speech by the Prime Minister earlier today—it was an excellent speech—and by others in this party. It has actually been quite distracting as one tries to write one’s own speech having to listen to such wonderful quality from colleagues and being distracted by it not that I am going to blame them for what is about to come next. But it was a great speech from the Prime Minister and from others. And why? Because it is a bold strong start by National—a bold strong start that speaks to a confident Government and a Government confident in where it has come from and where it is going. 
I find myself if I am allowed to share my own little anecdote confident of where the year is beginning. A year is through now and I am learning from that experience and stepping out I would like to think with the confidence of a second-year MP. I have enjoyed over the last few weeks being out and about in Tamaki. It is arguably the finest place to spend one’s holidays. I am sure my colleague Scott Simpson on the Coromandel would want to disagree with that and maybe even the member from Dunedin who was formerly a whip may be up there as well but there is fine enjoyment in Tamaki. The last few weeks have been a welcome opportunity to engage once again with my constituents and to hear their concerns. Their opportunities though begin or rather they see and feel an optimism for this National Government. The people of Tamaki strangely enough are very optimistic about what this Government is doing and they are worried about what the other lot will do—the Opposition be it Labour the Greens or New Zealand First on the other side. 
What we have heard though today from the Opposition is a lot of rhetoric and there has not been a lot of evidence or facts to back it up. We are hearing from the Opposition that this Government is out of ideas that it has no plan and that it has no policies. 
Dr David Clark 
: Worst economic record for 50 years—fact. 
SIMON O’CONNOR 
: We also hear from the Opposition the same tired rhetoric that is being demonstrated by my colleague Dr David Clark at the moment. It is the same tired rhetoric. A year in and he does not have anything original. We will have to get you a better press man. But what we are hearing is this rhetoric—out of ideas they say the Government is that we have no plan no policies and nowhere to go. This is from the same people who say the Government has done nothing over the last few years. Well something does not quite stack up here. The facts tell us a different story. You see all the rhetoric aside the facts are clear. This Government has been busy from day one and has done a lot to build a brighter stronger New Zealand. 
So let us look at the facts let us look at the facts—something I enjoy dealing with. I want to look at areas like education health and justice. This is where we have come from since leaving the last Labour Government behind. These facts we are about to put out are just some of the pieces of work done by the National Party over the last 4 years. Let us deal with the facts. Let us look at education—70 percent of school-leavers are achieving National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2. That is up from 65 percent from 2008. More people are getting NCEA level 2—that is a fact. There are 12000 more tertiary places—people in our universities and polytechs. These are opportunities for young Kiwis. I note that 20 hours of free early childhood education has been maintained for our youngest and most vulnerable. We have extended it to Playcentres and kohanga reo. We have put $60 million into the Positive Behaviour for Learning action plan to stop bullying in schools. These are real facts. The cost of lending for student loans has fallen almost 18 percent in the last 3 years. The cost has fallen from 47c in the dollar back in 2009 to 39c. We are seeing that student loan debtors are paying back an 11 percent increase in payments. These are facts. 
We are lifting the profile—we just heard it in recent days through the Prime Minister’s speech—of apprenticeships. There are 10000 new apprenticeships. An apprentice who enrols after 1 April will get $1000 toward their tools and on-job costs and the same amount is to be paid to employers. These are facts. These are real actions real things that are happening. 
National standards: this Government had the correct gumption to introduce national standards. We know the Opposition opposed this. It opposes information. It opposes sharing it with other people. I find it really weird because Opposition members often call themselves liberal yet they hate the very idea that an individual might be allowed to access information and think for themselves. Within the broader area of education we have developed Callaghan Innovation. This mechanism this conduit—I had the pleasure to sit on the Education and Science Committee and consider the related bill—will assist research in moving into industry and into innovation. These are facts. All the rhetoric the complaining the obfuscation cannot change them. We are better off now than we were 4 years ago. We are smarter than we were when Labour left office. 
Let us look at health. We just heard announced today an initial $2.6 million funding for cochlear implants. People can hear better. Maybe that would help the Opposition. Real facts: there will be $400 million more for health spending this year on top of $1.5 billion over the next 4 years. There will be 35000 more elective operations and 93 percent of under 2-year-olds will be fully immunised. That is 93 percent; still 7 percent to go but look at what it was before only 76 percent under a Labour Government. It is scandalous but those are facts. Finally amongst other things in health is an immunisation programme for rheumatic fever. The other side waxed lyrical about these issues but this Government acts and those are the facts. Our health system is better now than it was 4 years ago. We are healthier than we were when Labour left office. 
Turning to justice—and I notice the Minister of Justice in front for me so now I am nervous—there are 600 more front-line police the lowest crime rate in 30 years law changes that protect the safety and privacy of jurors the introduction of public protection orders and since 2008 only 4.8 percent of our prisoners are testing positive for drugs down from 13 percent. Also if I may be so bold we have restored QCs. Congratulations Christopher Finlayson—a win there. This is great work that the Minister of Justice has done. The thin blue line is now thicker than ever and we are safer than we were 4 years ago. This is only a sample of the accomplishments that this Government has achieved and there remain a huge range of activities to be done from getting more Kiwis to use online services to the improvements in welfare defence primary industries conservation transport trade and not to mention all the great work that is going on in Christchurch. This Government is about action. It has been from day one since the day it won the Treasury benches every day since and it intends to be for every day moving forward in this term and into the next election. 
In the absence of any real plans from the other side all we are hearing from Labour members is wanting to be hands-on. You have got to actually ask yourself the question: what does this actually mean? Does it mean that their hands will be on your wallet? Does it mean that their hands will be on the throat of New Zealand industry? Of course it does. One needs only to look at the last 9 long years fleecing the taxpayers and strangling industry. We cannot go back to that. Ordinary Kiwis know what a Labour Government means by being hands-on. It is a punch in the guts and it is a slap in the face. Labour should keep its hands to itself. It has no vision. It has no direction. It has empty rhetoric. It will not accede and accept the facts of what this Government is doing. Instead it has tiresome slogans of wanting to be hands-on. I repeat what I had mentioned earlier: it wants to fleece the taxpayers. It wants to get into those wallets. It wants to strangle industry and hold it back. It is a punch in the guts to ordinary New Zealanders and a slap in the face. New Zealanders will not stand for it. We heard today the Prime Minister’s statement in which he tabled a strong bold continuing vision for this country. All of us who stand here in this House on the Government benches stand proudly behind the Prime Minister and all the Ministers. Our hands are out they are transparent they are strong they are ready and they are continuing to work for New Zealanders. The facts have been spoken. This Government is happily in control and working for the betterment of all New Zealanders.