Lees-Galloway Iain: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLees-Galloway Iain: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 21 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:75. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North):It is a pleasure to be back in the House even if I was being interrupted by the senior Government whip at the time that you called me. Mr Assistant Speaker can I join other colleagues in acknowledging your re-election to your role as Assistant Speaker and also your new colleague Trevor Mallard. We are all very excited to see the poacher turned gamekeeper. We also acknowledge Chester Borrows as Deputy Speaker and the re-election of the Rt Hon David Carter as Speaker. We look forward to working alongside you. For those returning presiding officers we look forward to your continued fair and firm presiding over this House.It is a pleasure to be back in this House representing the fine city of Palmerston North. It was a mighty challenge at election time. The National Party threw everything it had at us. You could see the money swimming around our electorate. National chose the best candidate it could and put an enormous effort into taking Palmerston North. This is not new for me. At every election my demise has been predicted by iPredict and various other pundits out there and yet I keep coming back. It is very very pleasing to be back here. I would like to thank the voters of Palmerston North for continuing their confidence in me to be their representative to be their strong voice here in Parliament. I would also like to thank and acknowledge the hundreds of people who worked so very hard on our campaign in Palmerston North. We are very pleased with the party vote result we managed to get in the circumstances. We are very pleased with the contribution we made to the party votes that Labour did get across the country and we are also very pleased to be able to hold the seat.Although the people of Palmerston North chose to elect a Labour member of Parliament to be their representative here they have very very high expectations of this Government. Now more than ever the people of Palmerston North desperately need a Government that is going to work in their interests and support them to play to their strengths. Today just this very day we had new data out that spells out some of the concerns that Palmerston North has to face. In the year to September 2014 there has been a 6.6 percent increase in the number of people receiving the job seeker benefit in Palmerston North. Although this Government may be pleased with its efforts to reduce the number of people on the job seeker benefit by 2.6 percent across the country—although those of us on this side of the House are dubious about whether or not those people are going from being on a benefit to actually being in work—the truth is that in my city there has been an increase over the last year in the number of people stuck on the unemployment benefit.There was a 9 percent increase in the number of 18 to 24-year-olds on the unemployment benefit and there was an 11 percent increase in the number of 25 to 39-year-olds on the unemployment benefit in my city. Overall there was an increase of just 0.7 percent but an increase nevertheless in the total number of people receiving a benefit in my region and that compares with a 3.3 percent decline across the country.My province of Manawatū and my city of Palmerston North like many provinces around the country is being left behind by this Government. The economic growth that may or may not be occurring across the country is certainly not being felt in my electorate.Ian McKelvie: That was before you were working hard for your city.IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: I hear Ian McKelvie interjecting. Mr McKelvie the statistics do not lie. You should be standing up for your region as well because the picture is not pretty in the Rangitīkei either. We are being left behind by this Government. Now more than ever we need a Government that really is working for the provinces. We need a Government that has a real plan. When you walk around my city right now what you see is empty land where there used to be houses empty land where there used to be businesses and empty shops where there used to be a thriving retail sector. That is the truth. That is what is happening in my city right now. We need this Government to work much harder for the provinces than it is right now.But what does this Government have planned for my city? Right at the top of its plan is to reduce the number of State houses we have by 500. Right now this very day more houses have been torn down in Palmerston North and there is no plan at all to replace those State houses. Seven years ago houses were removed from Botanical Road. They have never been replaced by this Government. Last year houses were removed from Rugby Street. There is no plan for that empty land. Now there are at least four different locations around the city where this Government plans to tear down houses and it has absolutely no plan for what to do with that land. We all know what the Government is thinking—that land is going to be sold off and those houses will never be replaced. That is this Government’s plan for State and social housing in my city and that is not what my constituents want.I heard it loud and clear through the election campaign that we need social housing in our city. There is a need. Homelessness is real. There are people living in garages. There are people relying on their parents to look after them their children and their grandchildren. There are people who have no home no place to call home. They rely on friends. They couch surf from one friend to another. That is what housing insecurity looks like. That is why we need a decent State house provision to ensure that people who are in desperate need of accommodation can turn to the State can turn to their community in their time of need and know that they will have a roof put over their heads.But what is this Government doing for my city? The Government’s plan is to reduce the amount of State and social housing that we have by 500. The Government has no plan for one of our biggest State assets one of our most important assets. Regardless of what you think about the need to provide social housing why on earth would you leave land sitting empty year after year? Why would you leave houses sitting empty? Why would this Government leave houses sitting empty for the windows to be broken for the hot-water cylinders to be raided for the copper or to be stolen and for that asset to be run down when this Government is supposed to be the Government of sound economic management? It just does not make sense.In some of the parts of my city that have been most affected by this removal and destruction of State houses we have another serious concern and that is access to primary health care. It is as true in my electorate as it is in just about any other electorate around the country that those most impoverished areas those most in need of access to primary health care have the least provision. So it is my goal and my aim to see in the suburb of Highbury and the suburb of Roslyn integrated primary health care services located in those suburbs because those are the places that need them most. Yet we are seeing integrated primary health care being developed in the areas that already have the most health provision. Highbury continues to be overlooked. Roslyn continues to be overlooked. So it is my aim—and I am happy to work across the House to make this happen—to see integrated primary health services provided to those in my electorate who need them the most.There is one other aim that I want to talk about tonight and that is around the environment. We all know the stories about the Manawatū River. We all know that it desperately needs to be cleaned up. We need to set standards in this Parliament that actually ensure that our waterways will not be degraded further—Jacqui Dean: That’s what we’ve done.IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: —and that they will be cleaned up over the next generation. Jacqui Dean says that they have already done that. No Jacqui Dean the standards have been set so that water that is perfectly clean right now could actually be degraded under the standards set by this Government. So this Government has actually said that it wants to set standards that will allow water to be degraded. I am sick and tired of hearing about this false dichotomy between the economy and the environment. Our economy is built on our environment. Saving our environment is not about saving the planet; it is about making sure that there are jobs and that there is a lifestyle and that we can grow food and that people can live well in the future. It is not about raping and pillaging our planet now so that future generations have not got the opportunity to live the life that we take for granted.Those are the challenges ahead of us that is what my constituents expect from this Government and that is what I am going to be pressing it for over this term of Parliament.