Tabuteau FletcherFLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First): Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this debate today Mr Deputy Speaker. Welcome back to you and welcome back to the other members of the House. It is great to follow the Minister for Professional Sign Removal"; I was worried that I might have to follow Mr Brownlee. As much as I disagree with just about everything that he says at least what he says is eloquent and entertaining.Mr Brownlee commented in his contribution on supposedly greater employment figures—actually so did the previous speaker Mr Goldsmith. Because Mr Brownlee works about an hour a week himself he thinks that he and his party should define employment as "about an hour a week". That is how this Government defines employment. So when—Todd Barclay: Where are you going with this Fletch?FLETCHER TABUTEAU: Where am I going with this Mr Barclay? Because you work an hour a week and decide to define everyone else's employment as an hour a week you completely undermine the job statistics used in this House. When you say employment is at its highest rate you are saying that more people are working an hour a week than ever before. That is an indictment on you. That is an indictment on that party on that side of the House. It is a meaningless statistic and it is an indictment on all of you.That ruling party has taken New Zealand to a new post-truth era. Mr Brownlee just showed us how expertly the members across the Chamber can do this when they speak to the public. They manipulate statistics; I wonder whether I can get away with saying that they manipulate the truth.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No you cannot.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: No I cannot? I take that back Mr Deputy Speaker.Ron Mark: But you wouldn't say that would you?FLETCHER TABUTEAU: No I would not say it. This National Government has taken the New Zealand public literally down the garden path. It has started its campaign by using phrases like "We're great economic managers." "We're here for business." "We're here for farmers." and "We're here for the regions." I have only 7 minutes and 30 seconds left so I hope I can elucidate and illustrate to the New Zealand public just how ridiculous those statements are.Our new Prime Minister—and I just want to touch on this first because I am worried for him—is being sold to the public as a down-to-earth family man and an honest operator with those core religious beliefs that are the foundation of the man. And here is the kicker for the members opposite: I truly believe that line. I believe that script. He is a good honest hard-working man. He has those core values. But I despair hugely for him. I worry for him with great empathy that in this new era of post-truth politics that this National Government brings to New Zealand he will not be able to survive running up to the election period.Why do I say that? Because we have seen him before attempt to run for Prime Minister in the past and boy did he look tired towards the end. He looked absolutely exhausted and I have no doubt that that will happen again for the Prime Minister. Why do I think that? Because this post-truth era goes against what the man believes and doing that is incredibly incredibly exhausting. I wonder whether he will be able to make it to that final goal.The Prime Minister for example stood up in Auckland and spoke to an Auckland audience and not only omitted discussing the housing crisis but denied there is one—in a city that ranks in the top five in the world for housing unaffordability; in a city that has to absorb more than two-thirds of record immigration numbers at a time of the Government's vigorous apathy allowing foreign speculators to use New Zealand homes as speculative financial instruments. It is allowing foreign speculators to use our homes as investment tools instead of ensuring that those homes are available for Kiwis to live in and to raise their families in. The Government is vigorously doing nothing about it. The Reserve Bank is trying valiantly but vainly.Minister Joyce gave us another example of post-truth politics. He spoke of a downturn in housing prices a day after he was advised by Statistics New Zealand that house prices over December and January have gone up in Auckland in an unprecedented manner that has not been seen over that period for a very very long time. The Government is using the brightline test which experts said would do absolutely nothing for the housing market and the evidence of that is in front of us now. The Government talks about consents. Mr Joyce again talked today about the amazing number of consents that have gone through this month but failed to mention the huge downturn in consenting that followed in that same period. Consents are going downward and the trend is downward. Working families now struggle to find a home let alone rent one or pay for one.Yesterday the finance Minister spoke to the Finance and Expenditure Committee about threats to the New Zealand economy. He could speak only about external threats never mind that the Reserve Bank and other astute observers hold the incredibly high debt levels of our dairy industry as a real threat not only to farmers' livelihoods but to our entire economy. And what does National do? It sits back and prays that prices in the world markets will go up. I think they did once recently but by like less than 1 percent.The Government does nothing. Its modus operandi prevails: vigorous apathy. One of the more obvious examples is the new Prime Minister's position on the police. In the very recent past New Zealand First was attacked for saying that police numbers need to increase to balance out the astounding number of immigrants swelling our population in what has been described as the greatest social experiment of our time. That man and that ruling party said that crime was falling that no action was required and that freezing the Police budget for the last 8 years was completely justified. The message now has not actually changed; the Prime Minister has only said that he is going to increase the numbers. He has not said why. There has been no discussion from the Government about the justification for this. Everything is fine according to your own spin. Why are you raising the police numbers? Now that he is in his job we need more police—but the discussion is not taking place.Just the other night—oh you have not rung the bell Mr Deputy Speaker. I need to get to my conclusion. [Bell rung] Ha ha! I have got about 20 pages of notes here. New Zealand now has levels of inequality we would normally associate with Third World dictatorships. Immigration has been used by this Government as a panacea and so far on the surface it would appear to have been working. It has been able to claim 3 percent growth in GDP but that is meaningless. Immigration will never be the solution and when the taps are finally turned down New Zealand's growth will fall back to zero where it literally is right now. That is the actual situation now. It is a complete fallacy that increasing the population although increasing your wealth will increase revenue. The larger workforce—and we have seen evidence of it already—will necessitate enormous costs for infrastructure and social spending.You will be amazed to know that I agree with the National Government on at least one thing: I believe that we live in a great country full of hard-working aspirational people. Where we differ is in the underlying meaning of this. I believe that it has been because of these amazing people that this country has been doing as well as it has. They have succeeded in spite of that Government and I believe it is the good working people the Government has been leaning on heavily who will no longer believe the spin or believe the marketing message. We live in a great country and we deserve the truth."