Luxon ChristopherGENERAL DEBATECHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Well Mr Speaker you are no doubt a very well-read man and I'm sure that you are very familiar with the tale of the emperor's new clothes because as the story goes two con men promise a prideful emperor a fabulous new suit of clothes. That emperor then parades before his subjects in his non-existent suit until a boy cries out But he isn't wearing anything at all!" And then when the crowd realise the child is right they roar in laughter. However the very sad thing is that the emperor continues on his parade because the turn back would be foolish and wrong. Well here in New Zealand in 2022 the Labour Government is the emperor and it has for five years—five long years—paraded through town telling people that they care telling people to be kind and telling people that they are going to deliver. And while the people at court in the Labour Party on the other side praise their emperor the crowds outside of this place are pointing and what they're saying is they can see five years of failure: a Government that spends more it hires more and it uniquely and unbelievably delivers worse in every area across the board.So let's look at some of these failures; let's look at why the emperor has no clothes because it couldn't be clearer. Let's look at the story on the economy because it's very simply five years of failure: inflation at 7.2 percent the highest in 32 years; real wages down 4 percent; no one can get ahead; everyone's going backwards and there's no plan to deal with it from the other side. We've got mortgage interest rates at record levels. We've got interest rates going higher than they need to be because this Government's addicted to spending an extra billion dollars more each and every week. At the same time they're collecting almost $15000 more per household in tax but they won't give it back to Kiwis to keep in their own pocket to spend and save as they see fit. Instead what do we get? We got a rinky-dink band-aid idea called a "cost of living payment" that went to dead people. And what I would say to you: that is the sign of an utterly incompetent Government if you just can't even give the money away.So what's the story on health? Well it's five years of failure there too because every single health metric has gone backwards every single wait-list time has got worse and we have 200000 Kiwis now on a health-related wait-list. We have a health workforce at breaking point; 4000 nurses are needed and we can't even fast track them through an immigration process. Meanwhile we spend money building up a massive bureaucracy when we should be spending it on the front-line healthcare services.What's the story on crime? Well I can tell you it's a familiar refrain: it's five years of failure. Violent crime up 21 percent assaults up 31 percent gang membership up 50 percent ram raids up 500 percent. And what we have is a Labour Government soft on crime and I can tell you National's going to support the police and we are going to tackle gangs.What's the story on housing? Well it is five years of failure. Homeownership is down. Remember KiwiBuild—1.4 percent of the hundred thousand houses have been built. Now if you can't own a home you have to rent a home and rents are up $140 a week. And if you are not lucky enough to rent a home you end up going on the State house waiting list and that's up four times. And if it's really grim you end up not getting a State house; you're in emergency housing. And 4000 kids woke up in a motel accommodation today; a million dollars a day is what it's costing us. And if you can't get emergency accommodation where do you go? You end up living in your car and that is four times worse than it was when this Government came to power.What's the story on education? It's five years of failure. This is a developed country and we have 54 percent of our kids not making school regularly. We have 100000 kids chronically absent from school. And then if you are lucky enough to make it through the front gates we've got record low abysmal levels of academic achievement. Here we are in New Zealand and 98 percent of our kids in decile 1 schools failed to pass the most basic writing tests. This is New Zealand; we don't do that any further. That's not transforming lives; that's actually a social failure. It's a moral failure and it's a future economic crisis.So what's the story from the emperor's new clothes? What's the moral that comes out of it? Well it's pretty simple: just saying it's so doesn't make it so. Pride becomes a fall and karma gets you in the end. And I want to tell you speaking of karma the New Zealand people are going to be able to say next year "the emperor has no clothes" and they're going to elect a National Government that wants to put the country back on track that will deliver and that is going to take New Zealand forward incredibly positively. Thank you Mr Speaker."