Adams AmyHon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Well I rise this afternoon of course to take a call in this debate on both the Supplementary Estimates and the imprest supply legislation being obviously the bills that both adjust the financial accounts of the Government for the completion of the year we're currently in the 2017-18 year and then the mechanism by which Governments are provided with the authority to spend money for the first part of the coming financial year the year 2018-19 until obviously the formal Budget process works its way through.But in terms of this House and this debate what it really is in a more tangible sense is the first iteration of this Government's approach to managing the books. It's the first iteration of us seeing how the Labour - New Zealand First - Greens Government is planning to use the incredibly strong economy that they have inherited and what we are continuing to see is that this is a Government that is fiscally incompetent that was not ready for Government and that has not moved beyond the sound bites of policy. They have no substance they are as shallow as a puddle and as we work through the details and the costings of their policies more and more that's becoming utterly and apparently clear. It's very easy actually for politicians in Opposition—as the Government were just a few months ago and as frankly they fully expected to be post the election. That's clear by the lack of preparation that they undertook. It's very clear when a Government hasn't done the work. We see that they have found it so easy to simply say things—We're going to build houses we're going to plant trees we're going to fix the world we're going to house the homeless and we're going to feed the hungry."—and then they get into Government and they go "Oh—expletive—" and they work out that actually they have over promised they don't know what it's going to cost and they have no idea how to deliver. That is what we are seeing through the Supplementary Estimates the imprest supply legislation and the pre-funding of the Budget commitments because that is of course what this bill does.If you look to the promises made—the extensive promises made by this Government in Opposition during the election campaign and in the Speech from the Throne—they had no concept of what was even possible they had no concept of what it would cost and they clearly have no concept of how an economy works and what's needed to keep growing the engine room of our economy to keep our businesses strong and productive and positive. You only have to look very lightly at any number of business confidence surveys to see the utterly clear message that businesses are sending to this Government: "We don't like what you're doing we don't trust you and we don't have any confidence that you're going to get it right." Now we have seen repeatedly from this Government—from Grant Robertson from David Parker from Iain Lees-Galloway from Stuart Nash from Megan Woods—that they don't particularly care what the business economy is telling them; they don't particularly care what the officials are telling them. Anybody who expresses an opinion that doesn't suit their ideology is dismissed and degraded. I mean we've seen the Minister of Justice in the House stand up repeatedly and say every single legal academic and expert in this country is wrong. We've seen the Minister of Police saying he doesn't bother to read advice he doesn't like that doesn't suit his needs. We've seen Megan Woods say she's received advice but she just disagreed with it so she ignored it. We've seen Grant Robertson tell us they haven't bothered to get advice on the fiscal impact of one of the most significant announcements they've made—the announcement to end oil and gas exploration. This is a Government that patently is not concerned about the long-term effects on the economy and that should worry New Zealand desperately. It should worry New Zealand because in this legislation that we are debating we are seeing spending being hard-wired in in that age-old Labour way. There's one thing Labour Governments are good at—well there's two actually: taxing and spending. This is a Government that is doing both.So in the election campaign—it's not that long ago—we all heard Jacinda Ardern standing proudly on the stump saying "There will be no new taxes under a Government that I lead." yet what has happened? Well they've come into office; the Auckland regional fuel tax that was only ever talked about for Auckland is not only now in place and pushing up fuel costs in Auckland but in fact is staring down the barrel of every region in New Zealand as council after council are lining themselves up to say "We'll have some of that free money the Government is handing out too." Quite apart from the fuel tax they've put up taxes already in the first nine months by $2.5 billion. That's what's funding the spending in these proposals—$2.5 billion. That's only in the first few months and that's before Michael Cullen gets his fingers on the full range of new taxes that he is looking at. The impact of the policies that we are seeing funded through the Budget through the imprest supply and begun in the Supplementary Estimates are hurting hard-working New Zealanders. That's where it really comes home to roost. It's not actually about the economy or the fiscals or the numbers; it's about the Kiwis who suffer and here's what happens: you have fewer jobs in the economy. Under National 10000 new jobs a month were being created. You take the steps that this Government has taken to put the heebie-jeebies through the business community and do you know what that number's down to already? It's down to 4200 per month—less than half of the new jobs. That hurts Kiwi workers. It means less choice and lower incomes. We know the cost of petrol is going up. The hardest-working—some of the Kiwis who are doing it the toughest—are now facing more than 25c a litre extra on their petrol under this Government. This Government who pretended to come in and care about hard-working New Zealanders—one of the first things they do is act to put petrol prices up when they're already going up. One of the next things they do is drive just about every landlord out of the private rental market and push rents up. You look at the change in rents under this Government. That goes straight to hard-working New Zealanders the very New Zealanders that this Government told us they cared about. Of course when you put costs up for business when you put the minimum wage up when you put the petrol prices up—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'm not doing any of that.Hon AMY ADAMS: —when the Government puts the cost of transport up the very thing that happens is the cost of goods goes up. So New Zealand families and those particularly at the lower end who are struggling to get by they lost the tax cut that the National Government had put in place for them they lost the strong growing economy that the National Government had in place and they lost the fact that 10000 new jobs a month were being created. What have they had so far? They've had higher petrol prices they've had more taxes they've had higher rents and they've had higher costs of living. That is the reality of this Government when you get past the sound bites. I want to look at some of the other spending initiatives we've seen in these pieces of legislation and I want to start with one of the ones that the Minister of Finance talked about in his contribution. He trumpeted proudly that Labour were going to put money back into the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. Here's what he didn't say: Labour are borrowing to play the stock market.The money going into the Cullen fund is being borrowed. How many financial advisers in New Zealand would say to New Zealanders "What you should do is rack up some debt and go and play the stock market."? Hardly any. "Not many if any"—to quote Scribe—I would suggest. Yet Grant Robertson thinks that that's an excellent way to play with New Zealand's finances.He is borrowing money to play the stock market and he stands in this House and says effectively—and I paraphrase—"Aren't I wonderful?" That's what he's saying. Well actually no Mr Robertson; you're not. Running up more debt increasing our debt in real terms when the economy should be growing well when it should be in the best financial times and when it has got some of the best terms of trade we've seen for many years is a nonsense. It is a nonsense to be putting up taxes to be raising debt while the economy is so strong—and why? They overpromised they didn't understand the cost of the promises they were making they paid far too much of a dowry for Mr Peters and his ensemble and now the chickens are coming home to roost. If there was any truth whatsoever in this nonsense that they are peddling about some crisis in underfunding why have they funded less into health than National did? Why have they funded less in education than National did? The operational grants for schools are lower this year than they were under National. The increase in district health board funding as a percentage is lower this year than it was under National. The total funding to health is lower this year than it was under National last year and in fact it will be lower every year for the next four years. That is not a crisis in underfunding. The same is true in infrastructure spending. We keep hearing about the infrastructure deficit that somehow they need to fix. There is less money in this Budget going into infrastructure than under the National Government. The Labour Government want to talk about nine years they have to fix. I would suggest to them that they have inherited one of the best economies in the world and in nine months they have already shown very strong signs that they fully intend to break it and hurt New Zealanders."