Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura): Thank you Mr Speaker. Can I first thank all of those people who have been involved in dealing with both the flooding in Auckland and also Northland as well as what has been happening particularly in Tai Rāwhiti and Hawke's Bay and other parts of the country. It is a very difficult time for them because those who are working together are often living in the same mess that they're trying to clean up. And that is why it is really important for us to give our support to them and to thank them for their service. I also want to acknowledge the volunteer fire servicemen who were killed in that very first flooding. It is incredible to think that they have given of their time personally and voluntarily to help others and have been caught in that slip at Muriwai and killed. It is a dreadful devastating thing to happen not only for them but even more particularly for their families.It is at these times that we have to come together and try to help the rest of the country in the best way that we can which is why the Opposition under Chris Luxon's excellent leadership is encouraging us all to assist the Government because the Government definitely needs some help.We heard today from the Prime Minister Chris Hipkins who is newly minted and obviously we'd all like to wish him well in his short tenure. But it is really important to remember that this Government has not changed. Its face might have changed but he shares a brilliant quality of Jacinda Ardern's and that is the ability to smile and say whatever is needed to be said but actually deliver nothing. And that is one of the problems. Today we heard Chris Hipkins say Let's get cracking." Well I remember someone saying "Let's do this." No one quite asked what that "this" was or who was going to do it or what was going to happen but something's going to have to get cracking apparently.Likewise we saw in the speech tabled by Chris Hipkins a phrase which is likewise the mark of this Government: how we have changed to respond to the shifting environment. I think he was responding to the cyclone and its effects but it could just as well be a response to the polls and that is one of the problems. So he has said "We are going to deal with the cost of living." Well all we've seen happen is it's gone up.We see today that the median rate for residential rent is now almost $600 a week. That's the median. And people who rent often can't buy. And if they have bought then they're like people in my electorate in Papakura who may have bought last year or the year before for $900000 or maybe $850000 a two-bedroom two-up terrace place in Papakura and found that Kāinga Ora the State housing arm has gone and bought up a whole chunk of those houses in the street and put gang members in them. And then they've turned around and they've become not only the worst landlord in the country but now the worst neighbour in the country. And I have people like that that I'm trying to help whose interest rates have gone from 2 to 3 percent to up to 6 to 7 percent. And they have no equity left in their homes—nothing; they've lost everything. And worse they're having to pay what they don't have.And where is this Government on that? Well they'll say they've raised the minimum wage. Actually businesses are paying for the minimum wage and so are my constituents who are having to pay for it in increased costs. They said they were going to sort out supermarkets. I'm just so grateful that it's the supermarkets in charge of food distribution otherwise there wouldn't be any food in the country because if it was a Government agency it would not happen.We've seen Chris Hipkins say in this month February 2023 "Increase in crime is just an unsubstantiated rumour." Tell that to the people of Hawke's Bay. Tell that to the people of my constituency of Papakura who are ram-raided. Tell that to the dairy owners. Tell that to the people who are trying to make a living and employ other people. Tell them that it's just an unsubstantiated rumour. I think some of them might want to tell him where to stick his unsubstantiated rumour and it might not be very polite.And if we look at Stuart Nash the MP in Napier at the moment: well in January 2017 he said it was time to smash the gangs. Now as the police Minister again—and he is also the local Napier MP—he has urged the gangs to help and not loot amid the cyclone recovery. He told them to remove their patches. I don't think that's quite the same as time to smash the gangs. What we have seen is an over 50 percent increase in gang membership under this Government.And let's just look to the future shall we? We've had 5½ long years of a Labour Government. What we have seen is we've seen now a new Prime Minister but he comes across as though it's really nothing to do with him what happened before—that was the Ardern years it's different now; it was the COVID. We've heard what happened to that poor pregnant journalist trying to get back to New Zealand: the Taliban offered her safe haven. But pregnant New Zealanders under his watch as the COVID-19 Minister were not allowed to come back to New Zealand at the same time where 50 overseas DJs were.Now there's got to be something wrong with the mentality of someone who would do that. He ran the managed isolation and quarantine system. It was his fault. It was his operation. He ran the education ministry. And now we have 45 percent of children who turn up to school regularly—they're the minority the kids enrolled who actually turn up. He was the Minister of Police between other unsuccessful Ministers. He was the Minister of Education who stood back and let our kids go without education. It is his fault that Papakura has in Rosehill College a college that is only open four days a week. It is his fault because it's him who has not prioritised teaching and teachers and students. It is him who let that happen. It is him that had the polytechnic merger which has taken some very well-functioning polytechnics and stuck them in with non-functioning ones into a major mess and ended up with 22 different chief executives. It is him that did that.The one thing I would say about Chris Hipkins is where he succeeded. He succeeded in growing the Public Service with an extra 14000 bureaucrats because he was the Minister for the Public Service for five years. That is him. He did that. He succeeded in growing the Wellington database. Well done! And who has paid for that? My constituents who are paying extra interest rates. My constituents who are paying extra rent. My constituents who are now waiting for cancer treatment. It's those people who are paying for his largess with their money. And when I hear him say today Grant Robertson's a great finance Minister—for whom? For whom? Did he grow the economy? No. Did he grow the tax take? Yes. And did he spend it wisely? No he did not.We have to deal with the cost of living crisis. We have to combat youth offending. We have to get kids in school and get them to want to be there. We have to unlock economic growth and get this country moving. We have to back the police tackling gangs and other violent crime. When I hear of One NZ the former Vodafone having their batteries stolen their generators stolen from Hawke's Bay by armed gangs I like the rest of New Zealand am disgusted. I do not think this is an unsubstantiated rumour. I do not think that this is OK. I do not think it's all right for the gangs to be told to take off their patches. I do however know that this Government has failed for five years. There's no reason to believe it won't continue until the next election."