Brownlee Gerry: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBrownlee Gerry: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 29 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15623. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery): I rise to support the motion moved by the Prime Minister yesterday and to defeat the amendment to that motion moved by the Hon David Cunliffe. If there is anything that typifies the way in which this election year has started it would have to be the ill-named start that the Opposition leader added to his programme last week.It has been a bad start. If we are to see this year progress on the same sort of basis then I think by the time we get to the election we will see David Cunliffe dressed in a plaid jacket white shoes and sunglasses going around and peddling his policies to New Zealanders. The one thing that they have learnt this week is that when it comes to this guy whether it is his CV or a policy it pays to read the fine print. It pays to understand all the nuances that are in it because apparently whether it is policy or a CV it is a living document.The other extraordinary thing that we have come to learn this week is that you do not have to have money to spend it or save it. It is going to come as a huge revelation to so many New Zealanders who go out every day to work—to earn a little bit more to hopefully get into a better tax bracket because they have a Government that respects what they do and what their contribution to the community is—that in fact they do not have to do that! They can simply go around anywhere observing something that they would like but not acquiring it and then assume that that is a saving that they can go off and spend somewhere else. I talk of course about the $1.5 billion that David Cunliffe has now said he has available to him and his caucus for policy initiatives.The other thing that sits behind that is the suggestion that tax and taxation is an amount that sits there and you decide how much of it you require. Well that is not how it works. Taxation is money that comes directly out of the pockets of working New Zealanders. Whenever he says that we gave away tax cuts he is trying to say in fact that his party felt it had some entitlement to have its hand deep inside the pockets of New Zealanders who work hard every day every week every year to try to get ahead. That will not wash. Sooner or later he and his colleagues are going to have to come out and tell New Zealanders beyond the head-shaking that they did today in confirming this how much extra tax they are going to require of them how much extra borrowing is going to be done on their behalf and how much turning of a blind eye to New Zealand’s current debt picture is going to go on under any regime that might be led by Labour.The contrast yesterday was between a Prime Minister outlining the programme that the Government has embarked on outlining the work that the Government is doing and outlining the intentions that the Government has for the betterment of all New Zealanders in the year ahead noting that we have an election where there will be other policies put in front of New Zealanders to consider—that was contrasted against a Leader of the Opposition who spent his time making a semi-coherent attempt I suppose to bring together every lefty cliché that you could possibly imagine and also making what you might describe as second-rate comical contributions along the way. There was very very little content if any about what his proposals for New Zealand’s future might be. It was simply a list of what he sees as being wrong in his very jaundiced eyes. New Zealanders are aspirational people. They will not be moved in my opinion by those who simply want to be negative all the time and talk down the good things that are happening in their lives. That I think will become very very evident as the year progresses.I want to make a couple of comments about the Government’s commitment to Christchurch which I have considerable involvement with. It is well supported by every Minister in Cabinet and well supported by every member of caucus. People seem to forget how big that disaster was. We announced today that more than 50000 houses have been repaired since those disasters occurred. When you consider that that is the equivalent of every house in Napier and Hastings having a substantial repair done to it it gives a little bit of context to what we are dealing with. That is only two-thirds of the task that is in front of the Fletcher EQR office at the present time that Earthquake Commission - managed repair.In addition to that there are another 30000-odd homes where private insurers are currently engaged in getting progress for those people. There will be MPs who come out along with other people who say those people are being ill treated or mistreated or whatever. All I can say to them is that since September I have repeatedly said to bring those cases to us and we will look at them. I want to put on record today that I have had no member of Parliament bring a single case to my office where there is an allegation of mistreatment by an insurer or by the Earthquake Commission. It is quite an extraordinary thing. I have had lots of letters to me personally and they have all been dealt with as they have arrived.The point though is that Christchurch is a very very good example of the resilience that New Zealanders instinctively call upon. Over the last 5 years while the Labour Party has been in denial over the difficulty of our economic circumstances New Zealanders have got on with making things better for themselves alongside a Government that has supported them through it. It is extraordinary that having spent all those years in Opposition saying there is no economic problem Labour is now out there claiming that the problem has gone and that it can start spending the gains that come from better management of the economy. People will not be fooled by that.Can I make a couple of comments too about some of the investment that National has made in our economy. Any economy is driven by the quality of its infrastructure. We have those commitments in broadband we have those commitments in education and we have those commitments in the transport sector as well.I can report that the biggest project in New Zealand’s history the western ring route in Auckland is under way it is on target and it is tracking to its budget. The Tauranga Eastern Link is under way. It is under construction it is on target and it is below the projected budget. The Waikato Expressway continues to be developed. It is a work in progress. Everyone can see it when they go up and down that road. It is also tracking below budget. The Christchurch motorway—and there are two big projects there; one is completed and the other is starting—is also tracking on its original budget path. Furtherwe have the Wellington Northern Corridor a road that has been promised for a very very long time and that is also looking as if it will start some time towards the end of this year.Governments are elected because of the way in which they connect with people. I would remind our colleagues across the other side of the House that one of their great leaders Norman Kirk once said that there are five great rights that people expect from a Government: the right to be well housed the right to have good education the right to be healthy the right to have a job and the right to feel secure in their homes. On every one of those points our record outstrips them and their past history by a very long shot. I strongly support the Prime Minister’s motion.