Bidois DanDAN BIDOIS (National—Northcote): E te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe. It's my pleasure to join the chorus today of congratulations to you Mr Assistant Speaker O'Connor in your elevation to Assistant Speaker and also dare I say for winning and holding your seat. We on this side of the House know how hard it is to do that and I commend you for winning the people of Ōhāriu's support once again. I'd like to acknowledge the new MPs across the House—it is a fantastic privilege to be back here with you—and also to the new MPs here in my own caucus team. How great were the speeches from Katie Nimon and James Meager? Excellent talent. We've got excellent talent with principles with vision—just like what Barbara Edmonton wanted but she did not choose to comment. It's my first contribution actually to this House since I left and I've been in the political wilderness for the last three years. I return to this place with a little bit more humility with a little bit more resilience and better listening skills. I also return having reflected deeply on the challenges that our country faces in this present time and in the future. I'm a little bit wiser slimmer—having not been to Copperfields as much—and above all I think I say for the benefit of my new colleagues in the House I've reflected on how short political careers are. So my one piece of advice to those of you who are in the proud 2023 year group is to make this job count. Make this job count because there are so many members of Parliament that leave here having achieved nothing and our goal in this Parliament and in this term is to actually effect change for people out there.Now we're here debating the contribution of the Prime Minister's Speech from the Throne here today and I can maybe just take a step back and I want to thank the voters who have elected us to be here. In particular I'd like to thank the voters of the Northcote electorate who have instilled in me the ability to be here and to speak on behalf of them. I'd also like to thank the many volunteers who got out day after day and campaigned for all of our seats across New Zealand. It is an immense privilege to have people that give up their time and their effort and their resources because they believe in you—not you Mr Speaker. They believe in us and they believe in what the National Party stands for.I'm a really proud member of the National Party. Katie Nimon has made reference to Adam Smith of whom I am a lifelong admirer. In my belief Adam Smith's values are the core values of a centre-right National Party—a classic economically liberal National Party.Mr Speaker the take-aways that I see from the election are I think pretty clear for us to see. But I want to give you and this House some observations from the bellwether seat of Northcote. The desire for change was strong. We did a poll locally and three-quarters of the Northcote electorate said they were unhappy with the way the country was going. That is something that that side of the House—Hon Willie Jackson: Can't believe that.DAN BIDOIS: You can argue all you want Willie Jackson. You can argue all you want but the voters in Northcote and the voters in the wider public were very clear that they were not happy with the way this country was going. They wanted change and they've got that through ACT National and New Zealand First. New Zealanders are very clear: they want hope for a better tomorrow—that's the first thing. So it's what Barbara Edmonton said: hope for a better tomorrow. But they want a Government that can actually deliver for them and they want a Government that presents real solutions to the problems that they face. Now my community wants meaningful change particularly around areas like law and order and it's a great privilege to call Mark Mitchell the current Minister of Police—and you're doing a great job Mark. Crime is up 50 percent in the last six years under this Government. I've got shops in our community of Northcote that have been ram-raided and I've just had today by the way a jewellery shop that has decided to close because they've been ram-raided three times. So that's a key area of priority of focus for delivery for us.The next area is the economy. The cost of living is biting. I met a person on the campaign trail whose husband actually had to leave this country and take a job in Australia just to pay the mortgage here in New Zealand. That is not the type of country we want to live in; that is not the type of country that we want our kids to grow up in. So I'm really pleased with the package around tax and I'm very confident that our finance Minister will find the money in order to pay for that.Education is another one. It's a disappointment that the former Minister of Education Jan Tinetti didn't want to talk about the Programme for International Student Assessment results that have just been released. She didn't want to talk about 20 years of educational decline in this country but here on this side of the House we will and we are committed to reversing that trend. It's a trend I will say that successive Governments have contributed to in this country. So we have a huge task ahead of us in Government to reverse that multi-decade decline in educational underachievement.Health and mental health is another one. On the North Shore of Auckland we've got wait list after wait list for emergency surgery elective surgery—the basics are all there. In mental health I have people contacting me over the phone crying because their son or their daughter cannot access the appropriate mental health solutions that they need. This is an abomination in this country and it is something that I'm convinced our new Ministers Shane Reti and Matt Doocey are committed to improving on and getting delivery in that area.The list goes on: transport on the North Shore. Simeon Brown the Minister of Transport has already talked about how expensive the previous Government's options were for the third harbour crossing or the second harbour crossing. We have to deliver a real practical solution for transport in Auckland to futureproof—Hon Members: What is it?DAN BIDOIS: Well it's certainly going to be a lot cheaper than putting tramways down Dominion Road and right up to ghost trains that never happened.Right then we've got environment and climate change. Can I say this House is absolutely committed to the targets in the Paris Agreement and to actually delivering on our climate change commitments—Scott Willis: What's your plan? DAN BIDOIS: —and actually we've got some fantastic policies around electric vehicles (EVs). Do you drive an EV sir? Scott Willis: I do. DAN BIDOIS: Oh good—excellent. So you'll be happy with the EV roll-out that we've got.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): Mr Bidois one rule that hasn't changed while you were away is we don't use the word you" across the board—DAN BIDOIS: Thank you very much Mr Speaker. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): —but we address the Speaker.DAN BIDOIS: Thank you very much. So we have a lot to do and Barbara Edmonton—Edmonds—said actually where were the principles of this Government? Well I will give you some principles. Ingrid Leary: Point of order Mr Speaker. The member is required to call the other member my colleague Barbara Edmonds by her correct name which is Edmonds not Edmonton.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): That's something for the Speaker to decide I think.Ingrid Leary: Thank you sir. I'd just to point out that it was three times.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): I'm sure the member as he gets to know the new members in the House will take note of their correct names and we will add 20 seconds on for that.DAN BIDOIS: Thank you very much Mr Speaker. That's very generous of you so I can spend 20 seconds talking about the principles of this Government. The first principle is a return to equal citizenship in this country. Principle No. 2 is liberty—economic and individual liberty. Principle No. 3 is the value of the private sector and the farmers in this country as the engines of economic growth. Principle No. 4 is equal opportunity. I believe in the economics of opportunity not the economics of envy. The last core principle of this Government that I want to highlight is that we will restore consequences for those that break the law. Those are the types of principles that we will seek to uphold in this National ACT and New Zealand First Government and I'm really excited about the coalition arrangement that has been announced. I'm immensely optimistic about the future potential of this country. We have a liberal democracy as was indicated. It is one of the few places in the world where people the people of New Zealand get to pick who sits here. We are well placed geographically. We're friendly to all nations around the world. We've got industrious people. We've got a lot of work to do but I have no doubt that Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and the whole team—with ACT New Zealand First and National—are committed to delivering for New Zealand and delivering for the people of Aotearoa. Thank you."