Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's very nice to be able to talk in this debate. It was good hearing that Minister talking about work and of course that's his key responsibility. I think the first thing I would say is that we also support the ideal of working because of all the dignity that comes with that. That is an essential role. But I just couldn't but help as I listened to the Minister talk about his portfolio—you know he talked a good shop about all these wonderful proposals they're doing. It sounds really nice—Mana in Mahi and all that sort of stuff—but the reality is I think the essence is: what are we delivering—what are we delivering? That is the issue with this Government. This is a Government that is failing to deliver on its promises. The very point that he's chosen to talk about—we have seen a wholesale decline not only in economic activity over the last 19 months; we've seen a $3 billion loss of economic activity per annum—per annum. That is a huge impact on every small business in New Zealand with the consequential loss of preparedness to go and employ someone. And that's why we're seeing the trend in the loss of new job creation. It's nice talking about the platitudes and the new policies and it sounds wonderful and lots of money. That's just talking about outputs and putting money into new programmes because we want to be seen to be doing lots. But the issue is: what are the deliverables and what are the targets and what are the outcomes?What I know is that when we were in power only a short 19 months ago we were creating 10000 jobs a month and we actually created 240000 jobs over a period of three years—an incredible number of new jobs. And since this Government's come into play—since this Government has come into play and in operation—we have seen a wholesale decline. In fact as the newly appointed finance spokesperson noted—and the Hon Paul Goldsmith will be excellent in the role—that's come about through people losing confidence. And it's not hard to understand why that is.When you think about what it means for small businesses and I've got our spokesperson beside me the Hon Jacqui Dean—you know when you bring in much more union-friendly labour laws and there is always a role for unions but when you talk about higher minimum wages which will ripple right through the employment of a business and when you talk about capital gains tax and when you add all the other uncertainties that's what leads to people saying I'm not going to take on new people." That's the issue about job creation and that's why I think that Minister's not going to be able to deliver anything in this term of Government while he is in charge. [Interruption] He is failing; that is right.Yesterday I had a fascinating day. I happened to be in Auckland and I'd been asked to go along to quite an interesting conference. It was actually called the BuildNZ conference and it had a whole stack of components actually. It had KiwiBuild and a very exciting and interesting discussion going on there. It had a suite of rooms at the Auckland showgrounds with all these people who were demonstrating all the fantastic products and services that are taking place in the housing and building and construction industry. So I was very lucky because I was able to be asked and I was given half an hour to talk about what National might do in the area of building and construction. Of course I accepted that invitation very readily when it was sent to me because why would I not go and be proud of what we're going to do and what we've done? That's why when I went there and there were I think probably about 200 people in the room—I don't want to exaggerate but of that order. It was good to be able to traverse a whole range of issues about what needs to be done and what we will do. I've got to say it was a relatively friendly sort of atmosphere.I also had the opportunity to go into the KiwiBuild section and actually got asked a question while I was there because people acknowledged me. Duncan Garner who was MC'ing gave me the opportunity to briefly respond to some questions. It was interesting—it was interesting—it was interesting. It was interesting that the Minister wasn't there. I just was at a loss—I was at a loss because there were so many excited people in that room who were saying "Look get on with it. Get on with KiwiBuild." But unfortunately there was no one there. There was no there to answer that question at the time when it was raised. Now I do want to acknowledge the Hon Jenny Salesa. I do have to acknowledge you Minister because you did have the courage to turn up at one o'clock I think. Unfortunately I had to go just before you turned up but I know you came for I think about 40 minutes—for about 40 minutes. What you should have been Minister—and I know you were very careful not to talk about housing because that's not—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Address your comments to the Chair thank you.ANDREW BAYLY: Sorry. I know the Minister was very careful not to talk about housing even though she was asked on a number of occasions because you know that's not your portfolio. But that's right. You are certainly building and construction. I think the Minister of Housing and Urban Development should have been there. I really do. There were a lot of people asking about it and it was a missed opportunity. Do you know why—do you know why? The question is that this is the Government that promised 16000—I have to repeat it to myself; 16000—new homes in their first term—Tim van de Molen: How many?ANDREW BAYLY: 16000 and there's 140 I think done. There are 140 built. And of course those owners of those building firms in that room who rely on the housing market to make a living to look after them and pay for their families and create a living for new people to get new jobs—oh sorry. They're not employing people at the moment because they were so concerned about the conditions of the housing market and the signals that are coming out of this Government.I actually had one woman come up to me and she asked a public question about the stresses that they were facing in their business. They had had no orders for four months. The stress coming out of that industry because of the concerns about what's going on—she talked about the liquidity the banks toughening up. She was even talking about what she might do with her house. This is a market that is not working at the moment and that's why the people were there. They wanted to have an honest conversation. I think it was a very disappointing thing that the Minister didn't show up. But the worst thing I think is the claim that this Government is making: you know they talk about all the different shops and different things they're doing. They talk about Hobsonville Land Company—and I know Chris Aiken personally from a long time ago. He has done a great job. But that was a project initiated under the National Government. And then there are all the projects that they're talking about that they're doing which I find slightly disconcerting because Minister Twyford is very very keen to talk about further developments at Mount Roskill Northcote Porirua Māngere—a total of 27000 houses but unfortunately all those were commenced under a National Government. In this Supplementary Estimates debate one of the things that has come into these Supplementary Estimates is the issue of the buying off the plans cost. Now we had Minister Twyford in before the select committee and when we asked him publicly what is the cost of the underwrite which is in effect the cost of buying houses from developers should they not be in a position to sell he repeatedly says that it is a zero cost. However in this Budget—in this Budget—there is $210 million set aside for the cost of the underwrite. I struggle to reconcile the comments of the Minister. But the other issue that came out is that this Government is paying and buying those houses off the developers after 60 days. That's a current sell time for a house yet they've allocated $200 million to do that underwrite."