Little AndrewGENERAL DEBATEHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. I say what an absolutely fantastic time it is to be in this coalition Government; this Government made up of three hard-working deeply principled parties—the Labour Party New Zealand First and the Green Party—and taking on the long-neglected very hard task of putting in place change transformation but most importantly improvement for the lives of every New Zealander. We've had nine years of neglect and harm and frankly destruction of the interests of far too many New Zealanders. It was time to turn the ship around and boy is it happening. Boy is this Government making a great difference. So let me count the ways because what I'm going to talk about is the difference between the good old-fashioned conservatives who bury their heads in the sand and hope nothing will change while the rest of the world around them deteriorates and declines and people are worse off compared to this Government which is progressive sensible thoughtful inclusive exchanging and actually making a positive difference. Let's look at what's happening in education. Now that's a long list so I'm not going to say everything but it is an amazing list of change: bringing our education system and our education institutions well into the 21st century—and long overdue—funding school rebuilds creating good learning environments for the next generation creating an effective assessment and qualification regime making sure that our young people passing through our education system have the skills for the future: the intellectual thinking and creative skills and the practical skills that go with it as well.What a great thing that finally in the 21st century finally in 2019 there is a commitment to put New Zealand history at the heart of our curriculum. That was a bold move by a Prime Minister who loves her country—absolutely committed to the next generation—and a country now truly on the journey to reconcile itself to all of its past all of its history so that we all get to face the future with confidence. Also we are fixing the barriers to equality of opportunity in our education system by putting more money into our schools so we don't have to tap the parents in many cases of the poorest communities to prop up the education system; getting rid of those so-called voluntary donations—that's going to make a huge difference—and putting lunch in schools. Now we can't do everything at once and we can't put it into every school straight away but we can make a big difference—all of that stuff. And here's the clincher: doing something properly about vocational education actually restoring the place of our polytechs giving the Industry Training Organisations a real job to do of working with industry and employers to make sure that our employment community employer community and the business community have the future stream of skills that they need because they've been asking it for years. They've been asking for that for ages. In health we're starting to restore the infrastructure of that most vital social service and this year the biggest investment in one of the areas crying out for attention—mental health and addiction; the curse of the age. We need more support people need more support and they're going to get it. All of this while at the same time working on an economic development strategy—there actually is a strategy a plan to increase productivity increase investment in the things that really make a difference. Through the champion of the regions the Hon Shane Jones actually giving life back to the regions again—which proves that like any good Government you can actually work with compassion you can actually look after people including the most vulnerable and you can add to the nation's wealth. That's what responsible balanced progressive Governments do not like what the last lot did—neglect ignore let things deteriorate and leave it for the next Government to have to patch up which is what we're doing. Then you look at housing—one of the hardest and most challenging issues that any Government has to deal with particularly after the years of neglect that we've had. We've taken it on a hard issue because this is a Government that is not afraid or shy of taking on the most challenging the hardest issues. If we don't get it right once we'll come back again because we cannot give up on such a vital area. The first Labour Government was defined by what it did in housing; this Government's going to be defined on what it adds to the livelihoods of people. That is the difference between this side of the House and that side of the House because what they've demonstrated in the last week—because they can't stop talking about the Labour Party—is that they stand for nothing. They certainly don't stand for a positive wholesome vision for the future of New Zealand.