Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition): I move—Rawiri Waititi: Point of order Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: I'm not certain that there can be a point of order at this stage. The member has a very few seconds to convince me that there could be one. The call is very clearly that of the Hon Judith Collins.Rawiri Waititi: Kei te mōtini Te Paati Māori kia riro i a mātou tekau mā rima mēneti ki ngā kaiarahi o Te Paati Māori i roto i tēnei wāhanga whakautu kōrero.[Te Paati Māori would like to make a motion that as co-leaders of Te Paati Māori we be allocated 15 minutes to speak in the Address in Reply.]SPEAKER: Order! Order! The Hon Judith Collins.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Thank you Mr Speaker. I move that the following words be added to the address That in the context of a Government that is borrowing more than any other in our history and the burden this leaves future generations the Government will be held to account for the poor quality of its spending. The Government will be asked to focus on the core issues that matter to New Zealanders to urgently reform planning rules and make it easier to build houses to rein in escalating house prices to build more roads and unclog our cities to stop work on the light rail distraction to grow our productivity to address falling outcomes in education to improve outcomes in law and order and to balance the books.Congratulations to the Prime Minister and the Labour Party. The Prime Minister has achieved a remarkable election result. She has a clear mandate to implement her agenda and no excuses this time. I'd like to also congratulate you Mr Speaker and the other presiding officers. I'd like to also acknowledge the Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson. Good to see Grant Robertson getting the job that he's really been doing for the last three years. I acknowledge the leader of the ACT Party David Seymour and the new ACT MPs. I acknowledge the Hon James Shaw and Marama Davidson on returning the Greens and the new Green members. Can I acknowledge the Māori Party co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer on returning the Māori Party to Parliament; all of the new MPs particularly the two who have just spoken Ibrahim Omer and Arena Williams. Arena Williams is my neighbouring MP with Manurewa right beside Papakura. And I'd also like to acknowledge Louisa Wall for her grace today. Thank you Louisa Wall.Can I acknowledge all those MPs who are new to Parliament and to say to you this is a privilege to be here and particularly to our new National MPs: Nicola Grigg Christopher Luxon Joseph Mooney Penny Simmonds and Simon Watts. There are only five of you but as I've told you I came in with a group of five in 2002 and three of us ended up leaders of the National Party and the other two have gone so they won't be there. So it's great to have you here. Tēnā koutou katoa.Miss Ardern is governing New Zealand during one of the most important times in our nation's history and I wish her well because the decisions that we make here in this Chamber over the next three years will shape the country we live in for decades to come. Our infrastructure our prosperity our productivity our ability to pay back debts the education our children receive and the strength of our communities—in basic terms: how long Kiwis spend sitting in traffic how much of their hard-earned money is spent on rent or the mortgage their ability to find a good job and earn a decent income the quality of their local school and how safe they feel in their community. These are the things that matter to people on a day-to-day basis. These are the things that New Zealanders expect their Government to be focused on: high-quality spending transport housing education law and order. These are the things that Labour has failed to deliver. At a pivotal time in our country's history the role of the Opposition is more important than ever. It is critical that the Government be held to account on its decision making and spending and National will do just that. This is a Labour Government entering its second term in office and it's worth remembering that because we heard very few new ideas in today's Speech from the Throne. In fact this Government failed to deliver on so many of its promises from three years ago it was as if someone had picked up a copy of the 2017 Speech from the Throne blew the dust off it added a COVID section deleted the KiwiBuild section and that's what we heard today. The hardest thing for me today was to keep a straight face while I listened to it. The Labour Government promised in 2017 to address New Zealand's housing child poverty and transport issues. And what's happened? Well they all got worse and that was even before the COVID-19 pandemic. House prices rose 25 percent nationally under the Labour Government before COVID hit and now it's up to 37 percent. Under Labour the State house waiting list doubled. It's now trebled. More New Zealanders are becoming victims of crime. The number of children leaving school with basic numeracy and literacy skills is in sad decline. The Prime Minister cannot point fingers in other directions to explain her failures; she must own them. In National's last four years of Government 56000 children were lifted out of poverty. Under Labour 12000 more children are now living in material hardship and that's before COVID hit—that's before COVID hit. That's an extra 12000 children living in households that cannot afford essentials like fresh fruit and vegetables. That's an extra 12000 children living in households that delay going to the doctor when they're sick. That's an extra 12000 children living in households that now have to borrow to meet everyday needs. We have the ability to do much better for our people. We have the resources we have the work ethic and we have the entrepreneurs. And if we are to we need to back them to succeed we need to grow our economy and we need to lift these children out of poverty. COVID-19 will continue to cast a shadow over this country and the rest of the world for some time to come. On top of the eye-watering debt that this Government has already piled up to hold our economy together there's a looming challenge of how to fund and distribute a vaccine and reopen our borders to the world. The next three years will require shrewd investment as well as prudent fiscal and economic management. And New Zealanders want to see a plan to grow the economy and return us to surplus to pay down our debt. Unfortunately while we've heard plenty of slogans today like futureproofing the economy" and "accelerating the recovery" we haven't actually heard one real plan about how to grow the economy and that's because the Government doesn't have one. Debt is fast becoming one of the most significant and growing issues facing our country. The pre-election Budget had no single year where a surplus was forecast; just deficits for the next 14 years. That's 14 years of debt being piled on top of debt. That's a mountain of debt. At the start of this year New Zealand had $65 billion of debt; now it's $94 billion of debt and by 2024 the forecast is that there will be $200 billion of debt. It all adds up to a future where as a percentage of our total economy Government debt is higher than any time since the 1930s higher than the levels we experienced even in the 1980s when New Zealand narrowly avoided financial crisis. This is the future that Labour will leave for the next generation. There is no money left when the next crisis hits whether it's 10 15 or 20 years from now. Lax spending today will burden future generations with higher taxes and lower incomes and people across New Zealand all have to be careful with their money and their Government should be as well. The Government says it will overhaul our welfare system this term. Well where's the money going to come from? No detail just they want to overhaul it. More than a third of Government spending is already for welfare payments at a time when debt is piling upon debt. We will be very interested to see how the Government expects to overhaul our welfare system. We will hold the Government to account on its spending.The Government will talk about how our economy is holding up better than other developed countries. They won't mention how they have spent more as a percentage of GDP than any other OECD country. It is not an achievement to increase debt by $140 billion in just four years. The Government has a responsibility to ensure that every dollar of borrowed money they spend results in future growth and expanded opportunity for Kiwis. National will hold the Government to account for the quality of its spending for delivering infrastructure that actually unlocks economic activity for making investments that actually help lift our productivity for prioritising investments that support the private sector to create high-quality high-paying jobs and we'll hold the Government to account for throwing millions at ideological pet projects like green schools that add nothing—nothing—to New Zealanders but just debt. That's all it adds. Spending taxpayer money on any old construction project is wasteful and we will hold the Government to account for wasteful spending. If it's a simple stimulus that is needed New Zealand taxpayers can spend their own money better than any Government.Another key problem facing Kiwis right now is their ability to provide a home for their families. There should be no doubt that the cause of high house prices is New Zealand's arcane planning rules. There's a reality check for the Government. The time and cost of cutting through Government red tape is what's keeping Kiwis from being able to own their own home. It was never foreign buyers nor was it Chinese-sounding names. It was a disgrace that such people were targeted by the Labour Party. Labour's plan for the Resource Management Act (RMA) looks like it will just make the problem worse. They're all set on working with the Green Party and what a disaster that'll be no matter how fondly I view the Green Party members. Labour has already wasted three years being distracted by a capital gains tax and KiwiBuild and meanwhile house prices have jumped more than a third. Since Jacinda Ardern became Prime Minister the average house has earned more than the average worker. Let's say that one again shall we? Since Jacinda Ardern became Prime Minister the average house has earned more than the average worker. That's the legacy of the Labour Government. In the three years since Labour was elected the median house price has gone up by more than $200000 and in that same period a worker on the median income had earned about $160000—that's a disgrace. It's a sad state of affairs and it needs fixing right now.The Government will point out that they plan to build 18000 more State houses and we will point out that the State house waiting list is growing at a rate of a thousand people per month. The Government wants to spend $10 billion to build 18000 houses over four years at a time when more than 20000 families are already waiting. Some of us will remember when they planned to build 16000 houses in three years too and they got I think 600. By the time these State houses are built the waiting list will simply have outgrown them and people's hopes will be dashed again. It's a colossal amount of money and it won't fix the real problem that New Zealand's planning regime is utterly broken. We now have more than 360000 New Zealanders receiving the accommodation supplement. That's more than half of the entire rental market that is having at least some of their rent paid for by the taxpayer; 18000 more State houses won't solve that. We can't go on this way. The RMA needs to be scrapped. My offer to the Government to work on bipartisan reform that will stand the test of time still stands. We need to do this urgently to release more land for housing to remove barriers to development to fast track new subdivisions and to unleash a house building boom. Every day we will hold the Government to account for its failure to deliver on housing and every day we will hold the Government to account for its failure to deliver on its promises.Let me come to transport. When Labour came into office they cancelled 15 roading projects up and down the country—15. They gutted the construction pipeline in favour of a light rail project—remember the light rail project?Hon David Bennett: How's that going?Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Well the Government still can't decide. [Interruption] These are good questions. What's happened to it? Well the Government can't decide if it's going to be a tunnel a road or apparently up on stilts. It was supposed to be built by 2021. We've only got six weeks to go—they'd better get on with it. We haven't even seen a detailed design or construction plan and in the meantime Aucklanders all 1.7 million of them are paying 10c a litre more for petrol to fund the ghost train that never arrives. New Zealand should be in a construction boom right now. Instead we're waiting for projects like the Tauranga Northern Link and Mill Road to even be started. We will hold the Government to account for its failure to deliver on transport.The Government outlined this morning that one of its key priorities will be climate change so we're wondering how come emissions have gone up under them for the last three years. National will continue to support robust sensible policies that will help us reduce emissions. We worked with the Government cross-party to establish an independent Climate Change Commission. We note that the initiatives highlighted by the Government today are not recommended by the independent Climate Change Commission. We will hold the Government to account on its ability to reduce emissions not on how many things it can ban.National will focus this Parliament on core education outcomes. For two decades New Zealand has been falling down the international tables on literacy and numeracy and the status quo simply is not delivering for many of our children. National will speak up for them. We will hold the Government to account on its inability to improve education outcomes.Under this Government front-line police feel disempowered and disrespected. Just ask them—disempowered and disrespected. More police are being shot at. Gang numbers are up by a third since Labour took office and with all the "soft on drugs" rhetoric methamphetamine-related charges are up by almost as much. Under this Government violent crime reported by police is up but convictions are down. Labour is more interested in getting prisoner numbers down than it is in keeping communities safe.Andrew Bayly: Soft on crims.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Soft on crime is right. They are putting criminals ahead of victims.Coming back to corrections assaults on corrections officers working in our prisons have risen by 37 percent in the past 12 months alone. Kelvin Davis has been asleep at the wheel and the Prime Minister too. Staff at Auckland Prison have been the victims of more than a hundred assaults in the past year. As an employer the Minister's not looking after his staff and he needs to do better.Prison populations may be coming down but at what cost? The Government isn't keeping communities safe. It just wants to give all those criminals a big hug and they'll make them be good boys and girls—it simply doesn't work like that in the real world. New Zealanders are the victims of a Government's poor law and order policy. Crime fell dramatically under the previous National-led Government and sadly it's back as a major issue in our communities. National will hold the Government to account on law and order. Let me reflect on what Labour hasn't talked about. Well they haven't talked about KiwiBuild but we'll all know why don't we? [Interruption] There's 16000—100000 houses in 10 years. It's not going well. For the past three decades—[Interruption] Let's talk about something we want to talk about. For the past three decades now the global technology sector has been the fastest-growing sector in the world. In New Zealand too the tech sector's grown to be one of our biggest export earners—about the same size as our meat exports. COVID-19 might just supercharge this. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders have returned home from places like San Francisco London and Hong Kong and New Zealand has a base of a thriving tech sector here already. News for the Labour Party: it's not just a data bank. It's a lot bigger than that. It's a sector where being at the bottom of the world isn't necessarily an impediment and we can double or even triple our exports from technology over the next 10 years. National will work with the Government to put our tech sector in the spotlight to highlight this as an area to grow our economy and our prosperity. Three years ago the Prime Minister said in this very debate that if National is to defend its record we must defend record homelessness and child poverty. Well three years on the Prime Minister has not delivered; it's got worse. Homelessness and poverty are worse now. In October 2017 the Prime Minister said "If you have hundreds of thousands of children living in homes without enough to survive that's a blatant failure. What else could you describe it as?" Well the numbers of households needing food grants more than doubled in the first two years of her Government and it's just got worse since COVID—more than doubled before COVID. We all know that the Prime Minister has good intentions but good intentions are not enough. Three years ago in this very same debate the Prime Minister pledged her Government's intention to build 100000 KiwiBuild houses to reduce child poverty and to reduce homelessness. On each of these measures—her own measures—she has failed. The impact of this failure is felt by hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders and their families and in this term of Parliament National will hold the Government to account for its delivery. We will stand up for everyday New Zealanders who were promised so much by Labour—promised so much. We will stand up for those hard-working hard-saving people who were promised a pathway to owning their own home and every year—every month indeed—it gets worse. We will stand up for the small-business people who are working day in and day out who have put their homes on the line who have taken a risk to employ a new employee and who are struggling to pay the bills. Today I heard from the Speech from the Throne that the only help for small business was they could borrow more money get more debt and pay another holiday—that sounded like it. There was no vision. I think the Labour Party's idea or the Government's idea of how to help a small business is to take a medium one put Labour in charge and look at it going down to small. For the people dependent on Government benefits though they want a job. If they just want a job we will stand up for them. For the innovators and the entrepreneurs who want to try something new but don't want to get tied down by red tape we'll stand up for them too. For the farmers who get up early to earn New Zealand's way in the world and expect the Government to think practically and with principle about what those regulations mean for them we'll stand up for them too. For the parents and the families who expect a world-class education for their kids and they don't feel like they're getting it we'll stand up for them too. For the workers doing it hard who want the Government to be as careful with their money as they are we'll stand up for them too. And for every New Zealander who aspires for more who wants a pathway forward and who wants their hard work to be rewarded the people who want their children to have more opportunities than they had—yes we'll stand up for them too. National will speak for these people. We will speak up for New Zealanders in this House because they deserve better than they have had. They deserve more from a Government of good intentions and many excuses. They deserve a Government that delivers not just a Government of good intentions. Thank you Mr Speaker. I'm very proud to be able to speak in this debate because this is a debate where good intentions from the Government will be put to the test by this party. SPEAKER: The question is that the amendment be agreed to."