Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour): Madam Chair thank you for the opportunity to take a call in this Estimates debate. I'd also like to acknowledge the passing of Pita Paraone. My condolences to his family and my thoughts and prayers. I know he was a man of strong faith. I actually stood against Pita in Hamilton East in the election in 2017 and he was a very honourable gentleman. My condolences go to New Zealand First as well. We're hearing from the Opposition a lot of hot air but we're not really hearing a lot of plans. We're not hearing a vision of what they would do differently. They've put out a few economic policies from the 1980s and they're saying That's our plan." But we have a Government with a plan and that plan is to tackle the long-term issues that are being faced in New Zealand and we're getting on with the job. I'm going to explain some of the ways how we are tackling those long-term issues. We're taking a long-term view. We're looking 30 years ahead not just three years ahead. One of the key ways we're doing that is around investment in rail—investment in rail. We heard from the Minister of Finance. He said rail transport would connect the regions to the major cities—connecting the regions and the cities. I was over in the UK recently and we talked quite a bit about Brexit. One of the aspects of Brexit that concerned me was the rural/urban divide. We have a Government who are working hard to invest in our regions as well as in our cities taking a balanced approach to all areas that we're doing. One of the key areas as I said is around rail. Now we have an incredible rail network across this country built by our fathers grandfathers forefathers—Kiritapu Allan: And mothers. JAMIE STRANGE: —and mothers over many many years. That network has not been utilised as well as it could but this Government is taking a different approach from what we've seen previously. That approach is to invest in that network both for heavy rail—taking trucks off the road and reducing emissions—but also for passenger rail. One example in the area where I reside is passenger rail between Hamilton and Auckland. People have been wanting this for years and as a Government we are delivering on that. In the middle of next year there'll be passenger rail between Hamilton and Auckland. Why isn't there passenger rail already—why isn't there passenger rail already? Because there was no vision from the previous regime. But this Government has a plan and a vision. Some of the key aspects around that will be raising productivity. If you're sitting in a car you go from Hamilton to Auckland and as soon as you hit that Southern Motorway you're sitting in a car often for an hour or so and there's a huge loss of productivity there. There's a huge loss of productivity. The Opposition are sharing all these ideas they're offering. Why didn't you do it in the past nine years? Why didn't the members do it in the past nine years? Because there was no vision. But we have a vision around rail taking a balanced approach to transport. I'm going to talk about another aspect which was raised and that was the Provincial Growth Fund. So this is an investment within the Budget: the Provincial Growth Fund. Now from the Opposition members at times we hear negative comments about the Provincial Growth Fund and they say these negative comments in the House. But I've been in the electorates with particularly some of these rural MPs and they secretly love the Provincial Growth Fund. They love it. We know that they love it. Kiritapu Allan: They love it because their constituents love it. JAMIE STRANGE: Their constituents love the Provincial Growth Fund. Their mayors love the Provincial Growth Fund. Their economic development agencies appreciate the Provincial Growth Fund. The reason they do is because after nine years of neglect in the regions we're seeing investment back into the regions of New Zealand. We're seeing people come together. We're seeing groups come together to organise business cases to plan and to lift their heads up again and think about what could be possible in their region. We're seeing through this fund not just the money that's been invested but also even before that people coming together to plan to develop business cases and to actually look at what could be possible within their region. Look I've got 30 seconds left. There's so much to talk about but I might just finish on one more thing. As a former schoolteacher I would like to briefly touch on the aspect of education. There was an investment within education from Vote Finance and that's $1.2 billion for classrooms. Principals have been telling me for years that they need more classrooms particularly in the high-growth areas—Hon Member: Nine years? JAMIE STRANGE: —nine years actually—and this Government are delivering in that area. Thank you Madam Chair. CHAIRPERSON (Hon Ruth Dyson): Lawrence Yule."