Nash StuartSTUART NASH (Labour—Napier): Look we did not think we would see it here. We read about the phenomena in the United States. You have just heard a post-truth speech from that Minister Amy Adams. The Minister stood up and said that Unlike Labour we have produced all these surpluses." Well if the Minister knew her history she would know that every single Budget that Michael Cullen delivered delivered a surplus. The first seven Budgets that that Government delivered had a deficit. How can you say that we did not deliver surpluses? That is simply not true.The Minister stood up and said that there are two things that her Government is working hard to deliver: safer communities where people can get ahead. Well between 2016 and 2015 there were 11000 more victimisations—11000 more. The Police are woefully underfunded. They admit it themselves. In fact both Police Ministers we have had in the last couple of years have admitted it. Ninety percent of burglaries go unsolved and that Minister says we are creating a safe environment for Kiwis! How can she stand up there and actually say it when the facts simply do not bear that out? She said: "We wanted to create an environment where New Zealanders can get ahead." We now have 140000 unemployed New Zealanders. We have 90000 New Zealanders between the ages of 15 and 24 who are not in employment. I believe that they have been let down by an education system that is not catering to 21st century learning. When you have 90000 unemployed young people you have got to have a look at what the Minister has done to the system and say that it is simply not working for young people in the 21st century.Minister Amy Adams talked about the average wage increasing in 2021. Really? Do New Zealanders really care about what will happen to the average wage in 2021 when at this point in time they are struggling to put food on the table and petrol in the car pay the power bill pay the mortgage and if they are lucky find a house so that they can pay the rent? They do not want to know about the average wage in 2021; they want to know what the Government is doing for them now. It was astounding—oh I was shaking my head.And we had Mr Bishop before that Minister and Mr Bishop talked about hypothetical scenarios that simply have not existed. But Mr Bishop's speech was actually quite revealing because what Mr Bishop talked about was what the Government wants to do in the next year or two. I think there are fundamentally two major differences between Labour and National. The first is that Labour is not looking to where New Zealand will be in 2017 2018 or 2019. We want to know—we have got a vision—where we want New Zealand to be in 2040. What we are doing is we are looking out to the future and saying we have got a vision.We want to create a New Zealand that our grandchildren and great-grandchildren can inherit. We want to create an environment that is really good for them and an education system that is world class to make sure they have the training to make sure there are the jobs available and when these young children now are adults to make sure they have the ability and the skills and the competencies to take on tomorrow's jobs. That is why Grant Robertson undertook the Future of Work project and it was enlightening. Amy Adams said that people are looking at New Zealand and saying: "Why can't we be as good as you?". That is because Grant Robertson was the one who painted the future for where we need to be. We have a vision.The other thing was Mr Bishop and Amy Adams kept talking about fiscal risk but that is another one of the differences. For us it is not just about the dollars and cents. For Labour it is about the people. For Labour it is looking and saying: "What do we need to do to that will serve all New Zealanders? What do we need to do that will create sustainable economic development—that will create jobs and wealth and will put more money in the back pocket of good hard-working Kiwis—but will create jobs? We will look after our children and our elderly." The Minister Amy Adams talked about our magnificent health system. It has been underfunded by $1.7 billion. Labour is looking at this and saying: "What do we need to do to make sure all Kiwis have the health system they deserve?". That is the difference between Labour and National. For us it is about creating a vision. For us it is about making sure that New Zealanders have a role to play and can buy into that vision. For those members it is about dollars and cents and it is coming to the fore now—there is no doubt about that.But the other thing that Mr Bishop said that did make me smile was he said—and I quote—"The hard work is just beginning." and I think that was a very salient admission that for the last 8 years this Government has not been doing much at all. Mr Bridges has—there is no doubt about that—but he is probably the only Minister on that side who has been working very hard. None of the other Ministers have. Oh no no—Judith Collins has done quite a lot of work as well. But by and large the hard work should have started the week after the election. That is why Labour has a plan for what we want to do in the first 100 days not the first 2000 days. We are going to start working hard the day that our feet hit the floor on that side because we know what we want to do to create the vision that New Zealanders will buy into.But another one of the major differences between Labour and National is that National believes that the market can control the outcomes—the market has got all the answers so if you leave it to the market everything will be OK. Labour believes that in fact in a country the size of New Zealand with 5 million people the Government actually has a very important role to play in economic development.Again if you look at the statistics you know they speak for themselves. Investment in research and development has dropped from 0.54 percent of GDP in 2012 to 0.52 percent of GDP in 2014. At 0.54 percent or 0.52 percent it is still incredibly low and I believe one of the reasons why it is so low is that the Government has not created the sort of environment that encourages small businesses medium businesses or large businesses to invest in research and development. Although the small business roadshow will go ahead and they will sit down and they will drink some wine and they may have a couple of hors d'oeuvres my experience is that what people in small businesses actually want is not a glass of wine. What they want is to know that the Government has a plan in place to allow them and to encourage them to invest in research and development because that is what is going to drive jobs.I do remember that the Prime Minister when he was the Minister of Finance actually came out and said something along the line of one of New Zealand's competitive advantages is we have such a low wage rate. He said that—we have such a low wage rate. Our minimum wage is so low it is cheap to employ workers. One of the major problems we have in this country is our low productivity. It really is dreadful. We need to create an environment that encourages business to invest in capital. That will grow capital. That will grow jobs. That will grow productivity. Mr Scott knows this because he is a businessman. He must look around and go "What do we need to do to actually grow jobs?" and it is not about talking about them. It is not about roadshows. It is about creating the sort of fiscal business environment that encourages business to invest in research and development.I remember when the Mosgiel plant for Fisher & Paykel closed down with the loss of about 400 jobs I think. At the time the first reaction was "Goodness me! Four hundred jobs? That's really going to gut a community like Mosgiel." The next question was: why have we got an assembly plant with 400 people? Why is that plant not employing 100 people working 24/7 and is a lot more efficient than the most efficient plants around the world? We are a country with low productivity.Let me sum up. I want to start by saying that Labour has a vision for New Zealand. Labour has a vision for New Zealand that includes all New Zealanders. Labour has a vision for New Zealand that includes the education system that includes the health system and that includes funding the health system in a way that meets the expectations of all Kiwis. Labour has a vision for New Zealand where the tax system enables businesses and works with businesses to grow as well as not disadvantage Kiwis.We know that we have not got an education system fit for the 21st century. That is why we have come out and promised 3 free years of post - secondary school education. Unless we start treating New Zealanders unless we start training them and unless we start investing in their future we are never going to reach our potential. I do not want to benchmark New Zealand against other countries. What I want to do is be part of a Government that always says: "How can we do better?". Labour has a plan for that. Thank you very much."