Hudson Brett: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHudson Brett: General Debate[Sitting date: 29 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5441. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRETT HUDSON (National): This Government was re-elected last year because the National Party has a plan and has policies that are relevant to New Zealanders and to their aspirations. We are working hard to remain relevant to New Zealanders. On the weekend I was fortunate to join more than 700 people focused on us remaining relevant to New Zealanders and their aspirations. At the National Party annual conference there was enormous positive energy—enough to power a nation and sustainable too. I had the privilege of joining a number of break-out sessions where members were engaged and bursting with positive ideas to even further improve prospects for Kiwis and their families. I am proud to be a New Zealander. I am proud to be a member of a party that looks outwards not inwards and backs New Zealanders to be successful.Let us contrast Labour. Its conference would be its members patting themselves on the back in a telephone box looking in the White pages for policy ideas based on people’s surnames and taking their political advice from an ageing rock star. Well Gene Simmons may very well be “Dr Love” but if Labour got elected the only thing he would be singing is “All Hell’s Breakin’ Loose” closely followed by “Rock Bottom”. Watching Labour members’ performance over the last couple of weeks I was mindful of Will Rogers a former syndicated newspaper columnist who said and I will paraphrase for their benefit: “I don’t make jokes; I just watch the Labour Opposition and report the facts.”So while the Labour Opposition is making a fool of itself this Government is focusing on the things that matter for New Zealanders and their families: creating an economic platform of growth that will deliver more jobs and higher paying jobs. The economy has been growing at 2.6 percent—as fast or faster than most other nations in the OECD—and it is forecast to continue to grow at over 2 percent over the next 4 years. Over 190000 jobs were created over the last 4 years and a further 150000 are forecast over the next 4 years. Unemployment is forecast to reduce to under 5 percent over that same time period. Inflation in the last quarter was running at 0.3 percent keeping the cost of living down for Kiwi families. We have had lower interest rates for longer which is also creating incentive for businesses to invest to grow and to employ more people.Crime is at 30-year lows more children are participating in early childhood education and more are succeeding at National Certificate of Educational Achievement levels 1 and 2. In Budget 2014 we gave a half-billion dollar package for families that included free doctors visits and prescriptions for under-13s which came into force at the beginning of this month. In the Budget this year we further increased that with an additional $790 million package to help children in hardship and help our poorest families including a $25-a-week increase to benefits the first increase to real benefits in 43 years—43 years and two Labour administrations I may add—as well as increases for low-income families under Working for Families and more childcare support for low-income families also.This is a Government that is focused on prosperity for Kiwis and their families and a Government that is focused on creating a diverse and rich environment for businesses to thrive and for Kiwis to thrive. At the moment dairy is a little bit off its recent historic highs but if dairy is 5 percent of the economy tourism is 7 percent. Tourism is 7 percent of the economy. It is larger than dairy. The information and communications technology industry alone is a further 1.7 percent of GDP and I will add there that over the last year information communications technology exports grew to $930 million in our economy—a fantastic result for my old industry. International education is worth $2.85 billion and that is 1.3 percent of the New Zealand economy. The wine industry exports $1.3 billion and that is up 8.2 percent over the past year. We have a richly diverse economy from a Government that is working hard to remain relevant to New Zealanders and that is working for New Zealand.