Carter DavidRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): It's a pleasure for me to take a call on the Appropriation (2018/19 Supplementary Estimates) Bill and I want to start with a bouquet to the Government. I want to acknowledge that in the Supplementary Estimates there's a belated appropriation of $259 million for the Government's effort and the farmers' efforts and the meat industry's efforts to do away with Mycoplasma bovis. This is a very large appropriation in the Supplementary Estimates and I think it's a good call. What the Government and the industry are embarking on is potentially a world first—to eradicate a disease that's known to have recently arrived to New Zealand.So I want to take this opportunity to thank the Government for agreeing to be part of the programme. It's a Government that farmers don't often see as being attuned to rural New Zealand. It's a Government that certainly hasn't got a lot of credibility within the farming community. But this was a call that was made by the Government. It's a brave call; it's not a programme that's guaranteed to succeed although at this stage the information we're getting on a relatively regular basis via the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) suggests that the programme is on track. It hasn't been enacted without huge frustration amongst some of the farming community and anybody who's incurred this disease on their farm has certainly had some frustrating moments dealing with MPI. I think one of the biggest challenges has been around compensation when animals have been forcibly culled from properties. The compensation issue is not an easy one and it does require realistic applications and realistic anticipation by the farmers of what is fair and reasonable compensation.Can I just say while I'm talking about Mycoplasma bovis that one of the things the Government needs to grapple with is the current NAIT system—the National Animal Identification and Tracing system. It does not work satisfactorily and I can say that from a personal perspective as a Banks Peninsula farmer. We were recently required to re-register on to the NAIT system and identify the properties that we owned. I went on well before due date to do so only to be told by the NAIT programme that I no longer owned my farm; somebody else did. Well I'm paying the rates I've been there for nearly 40 years I know which land I own and the NAIT system is wrong. I emailed the NAIT people immediately to say their system was wrong. The email bounced back and I've had no further communication with them. So for Damien O'Connor to blame farmers for not using the NAIT system correctly he needs to get his officials in and have a good look at the system because unless it's user-friendly farmers will struggle to use it properly and until we get that right then this disease and any other that may occur in New Zealand is very difficult to fight.I want to refer to the earlier remarks of the Hon Grant Robertson Minister of Finance when in his Budget closing speech and in the debate on the Supplementary Estimates he made the comment that this Budget that he's presented is fundamentally different. He then went on to talk about it being a wellbeing Budget. Well I can say to that Minister having listened to the presentation of the Budget having now been around many parts of New Zealand listening to New Zealanders' impressions of the Wellbeing Budget it's nothing but rhetoric. This Budget in many ways is no different to most of the other Budgets I've seen over my period of time. I guess there is one big difference—yes it is fundamentally different: I never recall a Budget being given to the Opposition two days before it's to be officially announced by the Government. So in that respect it's fundamentally different and I want to thank the Government—this current Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government—for their promise to be open and transparent but to release Budget documents to an Opposition two days early is taking openness and transparency a little too far.The next point I wanted to comment on was with regard to Vote Social Development and to say to this Government: this economy is contracting and contracting fast and if you want evidence of that in the Supplementary Estimates look no further than an appropriation in the 2018-19 year of a $167 million additional money for job seeker grants. For those listening job seeker grants are the old unemployment benefit. So what you're seeing is an economy that was strong under a former National Government—10000 jobs a month in the period leading up to the last election—and we now have in the last quarter under this Government 4000 jobs lost from the employment sector. And that's because employers haven't got confidence.When you look at the terms of trade—the way this country should be trading—it should be booming. Meat prices: the highest I have ever seen. Dairy prices: good. Fine wool: good. The economy based on agriculture is in as good a space as it's ever been. But go to the Fieldays and talk to the farmers and while their confidence should be high it's not and the reason it's not is that they don't trust the current Government. They don't have confidence that they'll get a fair deal out of the current Government.I guess in my closing comments I wanted to talk about Vote Building and Housing. Of course there's a large transfer there of $84 million and I guess it's around the ability of the Hon Phil Twyford to talk about KiwiBuild. I noted the Prime Minister during a post-Cabinet speech on Monday night saying the Hon Phil Twyford has done an incredible job. I want to know what she means by an incredible job." because KiwiBuild was meant to deliver 100000 houses in 10 years and 10000 houses each year. To date 19 months into this Government it's delivered 141 houses via KiwiBuild. So I say to Mr Phil Twyford "Bye bye. You'll be pleased to be getting some new portfolios I suspect when the Prime Minister does a reshuffle on Thursday afternoon."As a Christchurch MP the last comments I wanted to make were around Vote Finance and Christchurch facilities following the earthquake. Can I say that the convention centre started well and truly under the former National Government is making good progress. It's going to be a very impressive facility when it is completed and opened but there is the Metro Sports Facility which appears to just be stalled. There's a huge fence around the site that's been apportioned to it and I didn't see anything happening from the time that this Government was elected. There is also the red zone—this massive area that's now been depopulated to the east of Christchurch. Talk about some ambitious plans that were meant to be released months ago. I haven't seen them and I think there was a tremendous opportunity to utilise that land properly. It requires foresight it requires ambition and it requires things like a multi-international rowing arena that could really be used in the future and put Christchurch on the map. But again under this Government those projects are stalling.So—Dr Duncan Webb: That's rich coming from you.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Sorry?Dr Duncan Webb: That's rich coming from you. What did National do for nine years for Christchurch?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Order! Don't bring the Speaker into the debate.Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: That is Dr Duncan Webb the member for Christchurch Central whose electorate these projects I'm talking about are in. He should be standing up speaking for Christchurch Central and Christchurch generally but he's one of those people who in Opposition or before he came into this place was an absolute lion about a lack of progress. He's been an absolute lamb since he's been here in Parliament.What you see is an economy that's declining. You've got employers right around the country worried about the direction of this economy. You've got terms of trade that are never better. We should be exceeding the growth rates of most of our trading partners and we're not. That is because this Government's not attuned to what drives an economy. What drives an economy is business. Business needs confidence to operate. It needs certainty. It needs sensible policies and it needs a Government that's prepared to tax reasonably and spend reasonably. What you get with this Government is one that taxes hugely spends hugely and when those figures don't add up it's now going to be intent on borrowing more and handing a bill to the next generation.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Kia ora. I apologise to the member; your time has expired."