Adams Amy: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeAdams Amy: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 12 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15847. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon AMY ADAMS (Minister for the Environment): It is my delight to rise to support wholeheartedly the Prime Minister’s motion that this House have confidence in the National-led Government. Why would it not? Why would it not when we are heading into 2014 into another election year and the record of this country under the leadership of John Key and this Government is the envy of so many in the rest of the world? They look at New Zealand—and we have seen this just this last week with the visit to Australia—and they wonder how we have done it. How has this Government led us through the toughest of times protected its people and put us on a path to prosperity? Take a moment to look back as I am sure the country will as we head into the election. Despite all of the bombastic table-thumping obfuscation we are seeing from the Opposition and despite the shady deals and desperate horse-trading of some of the minor parties which are desperate to do whatever they can at whatever cost to get back on to the Treasury benches—they do not care how much of your money they blow. They do not care how much debt they lay on our future generations. Now we have aserious question as to whether they even care about our justice system. They are prepared to horse-trade to get back in.But here is the reality. This is what New Zealanders are going to know when they head into this election. They know that in November 2008 we picked up a country where Treasury had forecast that after 9 years of Helen Clark and Michael Cullen’s leadership we were facing never-ending deficits. We had a manufacturing and a productive sector that had been in decline for the last 5 years despite the best international conditions we knew. Government spending had blown out by 50 percent in just a few years with very little to show for it actually other than a very bloated union sector. That Labour-Greens Government was thrown out quite rightly by the people of New Zealand for economic sabotage; for its high-handed nanny State ways; and for its innate belief that it knew better what to do with the average Kiwi’s money than the Kiwi family did. New Zealand rejected that. It rejected it comprehensively and it did it again in 2011.Even after taking on the economic shambles that Labour and the Greens left us we faced the global financial crisis which actually turned out far worse than was predicted even at those early stages and of course we had the tremendous devastation of the Canterbury earthquakes the total cost of which is now approaching somewhere north of 20 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. These are significant hits that this Government has had to deal with and yet where are we now? Well unemployment is at 6 percent even though we have participation rates at some of their highest levels and they are falling. We have crime at a 30-year low with more foot patrols thanks to the work of my colleague Minister Tolley. We are getting more elective surgery and more access to medicines. For the first time we have decent rheumatic fever treatment. We are getting more children being immunised more children in early childhood education and more children getting National Certificate of Educational Achievement results.We have one of the best growth rates in the OECD and it is the envy of many countries. Confidence is at an all-time high. For the first time we are going to have New Zealand - wide frameworks to address serious issues that were neglected under the last Government like our water quality and like the environmental protection of our exclusive economic zone. Those members talk a big game in the environment but look at the record. This National Government has done more for environmental protection than Labour and the Greens ever have.Let us look at the issue of Treaty settlements. Labour and the Greens talked a big game there but let us look at the reality. Since the Treaty settlement process started which was under a National Government there have been 60-odd Treaty settlements completed with more than 40 of those in the last 5 years under the very successful leadership of the Hon Christopher Finlayson. That is the biggest single thing that we can do to advance the Māori economy and to help Māori communities take their place as they should in our society and in our economy.We have in my portfolios the very successful roll-out of the ultra-fast broadband and rural broadband projects which is going to improve connectivity for 97.8 percent of New Zealand. Let us just remember that all of these things that I am talking about—ultra-fast broadband the Rural Broadband Initiative exclusive economic zone protection water quality frameworks water quality clean-up—were all voted against by Labour and the Greens. They voted against them. So now those members stand up and bleat and moan but the reality is that Labour and the Greens opposed our improving internet connectivity for 97.8 percent of New Zealand. Not only are we doing that but as the figures I announced today show we are well on track—in fact ahead of our build. We are doing it in a way that frankly is the envy of many other countries that are rolling it out.We have also improved cellular connectivity. We have completed obviously the digital switch-over and we are working through the auction of the spectrum that will be used for fourth-generation mobile services. I can tell you that the requirements that we have put into that auction mean that within 5 years more than 90 percent of New Zealanders will have access to fourth-generation mobile cellular connectivity giving them download speeds on their mobile devices of up to 100 megabits a second. That is world leading—well certainly it is leading for this part of the world—and it is something that New Zealanders can be very very proud of. In this year we are going to complete as the Prime Minister said in his statement our work on trans-Tasman mobile roaming to make sure that New Zealanders do not pay more for their roaming than they need to. Again this issue was completely neglected under previous Governments.In the environmental portfolio I will be very proud to be introducing into this House shortly a bill that will for the first time ever mandate independent arm’s-length statutorily required environmental reporting—something that this House this Parliament and this country have never had. This is the Government that has the courage of its convictions and is prepared to say that we are not going to screw the scrum if we get numbers we do not like. We saw that in 2007 when Labour deleted a chapter of a report that did not work for it. We have the courage and the principles to say that no New Zealand deserves environmental reporting that is honest that is arm’s length that is completed to the highest standard that is independently reviewed by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and that will give New Zealanders for the first time an honest analysis of what is going on in their environment.Can I say in that regard that I find it absolutely outrageous that we have members of this Parliament who would look to beat up our international reputation and all of the good work that our agricultural sector that our councils and that our stakeholders are doing around water management. They would absolutely go out and trash New Zealand’s reputation in the media and in the international fora simply to push an agenda. I can only surmise that either they do not know what is going on or they are deliberately throwing New Zealand’s reputation to the wolves to score cheap points. For a party that prides itself on protecting the environment that is outrageous. Were that party to ever gain Government I think we should all have reason to be very very nervous about what it would do to this country’s economy and what it would do to the standard of living of New Zealanders. We already know that it would print money and that it thinks that is a solution to everything. We know that Labour will come in and throw money around—never mind the debt; never mind the fact that my grandchildren and my children will have to be paying for those promises and that spending extravagance.What we have learnt of course is that we cannot trust what those members tell us anyway. We have learnt that every word that comes out of David Cunliffe’s mouth has to be checked very very carefully. Then it pays to also check with Phil Goff to see whether he has got a different position and then of course we would need to just double back and see whether Kim Dotcom has put a rider on anything that those members have to cross-check against.Tim Macindoe: And is Trevor Mallard prepared to support it?Hon AMY ADAMS: That is right. Well Trevor Mallard is a law unto himself. We know this of course. But what we have on the Opposition benches is a party of desperation a party that is prepared and has shown itself willing to mislead to throw this country to the wolves and to run down all of the good work that this Government has done to get New Zealand into a strong state.There is one way that we can provide for New Zealanders and that is to ensure that we have the wealth that this country deserves to have to ensure that we can providethem with schools the education the lifestyle the standard of living and the opportunities that they deserve. This is the Government that is delivering on it. This is the Government that has a track record that the rest of the world looks at and marvels at. This is a year when we will be saying to the New Zealand public that we cannot afford to put that at risk. We are on a fantastic path. We are on a path that is frankly remarkable considering the challenges that we have come through. New Zealand has every reason to be very proud of the position that it finds itself in and I have no doubt that New Zealanders will continue to support this John Key - led Government through 2014. That is why I absolutely support the Prime Minister’s motion.