Hide Rodney: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHide Rodney: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 09 December 2008. Volume:651;Page:49. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT): Let me begin by paying my respects to the Rt Hon Helen Clark who led this country for 9 years. I disagreed with many of the policies of her Government—I am not a socialist—but I do not think any of us can doubt that Helen Clark worked hard was committed to New Zealand and is aferociously intelligent politician. I believe that Phil Goff has big shoes to fill in taking over from Helen Clark but I believe that he and Annette King will be up to the task. Let me also congratulate John Key and Bill English on their success and say how much I have enjoyed—already—working with John Key particularly in negotiating ACT’s supply and confidence agreement with National.I want to thank the people of Epsom for putting their trust and their vote with me. I will continue to work hard each and every day to be the best MP that I can be for Epsom.I want to thank the loyal ACT workers who have worked for many many years to hold our party together to build our support and to deliver a better New Zealand. On election night we increased our vote to go from two MPs to five MPs. I think it is fantastic to have Heather Roy back and to have Heather Roy as a Minister. I am so pleased that Sir Roger Douglas is back with us in Parliament. I am proud that we have John Boscawen who led such a fantastic campaign against the Electoral Finance Act. If he had been a bit more successful maybe the police would not be investigating me for my yellow jacket but hopefully we can deal with that. I am also so pleased to have with us David Garrett who will work to make New Zealand a safer country for everyone which is something we all want.On election night 2008 clearly New Zealanders voted for a change. They voted for an end to the nanny State to the idea of politicians and bureaucrats telling us what we can do when we can do it and how we can do it to the extent of making our showers dribbly and telling us what light bulbs we can have. I believe they also voted for an end to the politics of envy. They wanted an economy that was growing and a tax system that rewards success rather than punishes it. John Key did an amazing job of putting together in 8 days the support that he has for his Government in this Parliament. That was unprecedented and I have to say that if his ability at doing that is anything to go by John Key is going to make a fine Prime Minister.For our part we concentrated on the big picture. The ACT Party is not a party that is there just to get a few extra policemen or extra spending on this or that—what we were concerned about was all of New Zealand. We saw and we continue to see the key task to be building a stronger economy. That is why we have in the agreement the commitment to catching and matching Australia in the income stakes by 2025. That is a big ambitious goal. We have set that goal in our agreement with the new Government. We realise that it is not enough to just set the goal we actually have to measure it and adjust our policies on the basis of our achievement. To achieve that parity would require a lift in productivity of 3 percent a year. That does not mean Kiwis working harder. In fact as we increase productivity we can afford to work less. What it does mean is working smarter with more.We have in the agreement the establishment of an advisory group to advise the Government and measure our performance annually on that goal. We are proud of that. It was made possible only by John Key’s commitment to the relationship and by the shared vision and philosophy that National and the ACT Party have. Indeed if members saw the piece on the news last night about a poor family living in a garage they would realise that our economy is underperforming and the costs of housing are too high. The answer to that is not for the Government to spend more money it is actually to build a stronger economy and get the costs of building and renting a house under control.We achieved other successes with National on behalf of New Zealand. The first was to get ACT’s “three strikes and you’re out” policy to a select committee for consideration. I heard other parties pooh-pooh that legislation but those parties need to answer the question of what is wrong with having a law on the statute book that would see 78 New Zealanders who were murdered—viciously cut down—still alive today.What is wrong with such a law? Do those parties value innocent lives so poorly that they would rather let their ideological blinkers say that law does not work?Our review of the emissions trading scheme has come up for discussion here. It is very clear that ACT’s position is that we should not have an emissions trading scheme. National campaigned on keeping one. We managed to negotiate in the best interests of the country a proper review of New Zealand’s response at a high level. I have to say it would have been a lot better if the previous Government had done that at the start rather than never doing it. I see those members of the previous Government continue to say they are in favour of diversity but anyone who disagrees with them has to be shut down and shut out and we cannot have the proper debate.We also have a commitment to reviews on spending and the medium-term goal of reducing the top rate of tax to 30 cents. It is clear to us and to New Zealanders that over the last 10 years spending has got out of control. We are pleased that we have a commitment to send ACT’s Taxpayer Rights Bill to a committee. We are pleased that we have a new position of Minister for Regulatory Reform a commitment to look at the Regulatory Responsibility Bill and indeed to look at a productivity commission in New Zealand.We are pleased about the taskforce on the Resource Management Act because even if one was a committed greenie one would have to say that that Act is disappointing. It is certainly disappointing for the frustrations that it causes over silly things. I think everyone should agree in the House that we can do better. On education I say that I look forward to working with the National Party the Māori Party the Green Party and the Labour Party on an inter-party working group looking at what is wrong with having greater choice and diversity in education and why we have such a monolithic one-size-fits-all view on education.But most important on election night the people voted for a change. With John Key and the National Party with the support of Peter Dunne and the United Party with Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples and the Māori Party and the ACT Party change will be delivered. Thank you.