Radhakrishnan PriyancaPRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Labour): Fakalofa lahi atu Mr Speaker—in acknowledgment of Niue Language Week. It's an absolute pleasure to rise and take a call in this general debate particularly after the member who has just resumed his seat Simon O'Connor bleated on about wrong priorities and the regional fuel tax both of which I'll address in my speech today. When I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about today I reflected on my first general debate speech which was pretty much on the cusp of the Budget announcement in May this year where we talked on this side of the House about our vision for what we wanted to do in Government the acknowledgment that we had to build strong foundations first and that that meant absolutely building a strong economy so that the benefits of that growth and that generation of wealth could be shared more fairly which was the point that all of us made on this side of the House—the point that none of us actually saw under the nine years of the previous Government. We talked about the crisis we'd inherited back then because of course any time we measure progress we have to do it from a baseline and that was the baseline we inherited and we talked about fixing that. Now of course arguably we could have said even then—at that point—that in the first 100 days of this Government we achieved more than the other lot did over nine years. But now it hasn't even been a year that this Government has been at the helm and yet there's so much that has been done already to ensure that that economic growth is maintained and that it's shared more fairly as well and that's what I want to focus on because those are the issues that matter to New Zealanders. Now in terms of economic growth we've seen growth in the last quarter to June 2018. We've seen that that growth has been broad—that it's been across 15 out of 16 industries—which is excellent. We've already demonstrated good economic stewardship but indulge me as I explain how we've done that or what some of the indicators are that show we have done that. Growth has been faster than some of the other strong comparable economies internationally. Moody's has given New Zealand a big tick—an Aaa credit rating again—and they've said: Overall the economy is doing very well and financial markets are viewing New Zealand very favourably". Internationally there's confidence in the future of our economy.Now how have we shared it? In so many different ways that I won't be able to go into all of them in the two minutes I have left. Hon Peeni Henare: Well that's a shame.PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: Yes but I'll focus on some that I feel particularly strongly about. The previous speaker Simon O'Connor talked about wrong priorities. I challenge him on that because one of the first things that this Government did was cancel the tax cuts that that side of the House would have put into place if they had been re-elected—Hon Peeni Henare: The top 10 percent.PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: Yes the top 10 percent of income earners—it would have gone into the pockets of all of us. Instead what have we done on this side of the House? We've cancelled that and reinvested it into the pockets of the families who need it the most and frozen our pay rises instead. That I would argue is indeed one of the best priorities that this Government could have invested in.So we've invested in the social economic and infrastructure foundations of this country. That benefits everyone. We've invested in the Families Package which includes Working for Families the Best Start payment and the winter energy payment that will see about 384000 families with children better off on average by $75 a week and that is huge. For the family that was thinking about whether they take their children to the doctor or put food on the table that is huge. We've invested in housing. We've ensured that the minimum wage has increased. We're addressing pay equity issues specifically for workers in female-dominated industries who for so long have languished on the minimum wage. Recently I met a woman who was working and had been working on the minimum wage for 26 years. For 26 years she had never seen a pay increase. Those are the people that this Government is prioritising.We are investing in housing. Housing is a huge part—and given that I'm running out of time I'll keep it at this. We are addressing the housing crisis at every point of the spectrum: addressing homelessness; building more State houses; stopping the sell-off of State houses; affordable housing for my generation which was locked out of it; and increasing renters' rights while balancing protections for landlords. We are addressing every part of it. This is a Government that's strong that's cohesive and absolutely investing in the right priorities. Thank you."