Luxon ChristopherGENERAL DEBATECHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business.Well thank you Mr Speaker. I have to say there was an air of excitement in the Beehive this week—an air of excitement—and the reason was very simple: the Prime Minister was in her office and she was gazing at her calendar thinking How many more days have I got before I get to leave the country and go travelling again?" While she was doing that someone just burst through the door. It was Megan Woods bursting through the door shouting and yelling "I've found it I've found it I've found it! The solution to our Gib crisis!" And she said "I'll set up a task force!" But not just your run of the mill normal task force; this is going to be a high-level high-power task force! I have to say such is the urgency and such are the big ideas coming from this Labour Government that I thought Luke Malpass expressed it so eloquently yesterday when he said "The Government did what everyone screaming out for plasterboard to finish their house or renovation was asking for: another task force."Now I know they're really bad but you really can't start making this stuff up. It's like the political version of "The Office" that we're watching at the moment. I have to say that no New Zealand Government before Jacinda Ardern's Government has spent so much and achieved so very little. No Government has spent so much on spending and delivered so little on outcomes and I think it's almost an achievement in itself. It's kind of a Wellington miracle! How do you spend more money more bureaucrats and deliver worse outcomes? It's a unique skill! It's a very unique skill that they've perfected very well. What I can tell you is that when National was last on that side of the House in Government we were spending less money each Budget than that Government is spending and we were getting much better outcomes.Now I thought just to remind the back benchers of the Labour Party it would be quite good to show them what a good Government looked like. Because what did we deliver? We delivered shorter hospital waiting lists. We delivered shorter emergency department wait times. There was a shorter social housing wait list as well. There were shorter cancer wait times. There were actually more children attending school. We didn't spend $5 billion hire 1400 more bureaucrats and get worse attendance and worse academic achievement. I seriously hope Minister Hipkins is going to bring something different to Police. We had more kids actually passing NCEA level 2 at the same time. We had fewer Māori children leaving school without a qualification. We had lower gang numbers. We had less violent crime. We had fewer people on jobseeker benefits for longer than a year. We had lower inflation. We had lower interest rates. We had far higher levels of consumer confidence. We even had lower coal imports and an average national house that was $360000 lower than it is now. We certainly had more competent Cabinet Ministers and the New Zealand Transport Agency had half the staff that it has today and it managed to build more roads. Motels weren't a permanent address and you didn't have to go on a waiting list at Mitre10 to buy a piece of Gib board! I'm looking across the Chamber which has emptied out very quickly and I just want to say to the Labour back bench that I know they just wish they had a Government half as competent as that one.The inability of this Government to deliver anything I have to say is quite staggering. They simply do not know how to get things done. They confuse spending announcements with outcomes and in the middle sits delivery implementation execution getting it done. Their answer to the Gib shortage: another ministerial task force. Their answer to the ram raids going through the roof: strobe lights and fog cannons and Chris Hipkins. Their answer to the cost of living crisis: a temporary Band-Aid that certainly won't help the squeezed middle. It's like putting a Band-Aid on open-heart surgery. Their answer to a skyrocketing State housing wait list: only a thousand KiwiBuild homes built in this last four years. Their answer to exploding gang violence: well the police Minister is going to have a chat to the justice Minister and maybe they'll work it out. This Government I have to say couldn't deliver its way out of a paper bag and after five years I have to say it is so sad. It is so sad to actually see a Government literally making it up on the fly putting Band-Aid solutions together confusing spending announcements with outcomes but I have to tell you that Kiwis up and down the country don't have to wait long because a National Government is just round the corner. We're the ultimate task force you need and a National Government that actually knows how to get things done that knows the difference between spin and achievement and delivery and a National Government that will get things done for New Zealand and create a society where Kiwis can get along and they can get ahead. Thank you Mr Speaker."