Webb DuncanDr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Thank you Mr Speaker. A pleasure to take this call in a general debate. I was interested to hear the Leader of the Opposition's speech and also interested to learn that he's going to go overseas to nick and steal" some policies I think was his quote. I'm not sure if he finished the sentence with "because I've got no ideas of my own and neither does my party" but that's pretty much the inference that we can take from there. I mean what are the National Party's ideas at the moment? Shanan Halbert: What are they?Dr DUNCAN WEBB: Well good question. Tax cuts or ban gang patches? I mean I love that "ban gang patches"—as if by taking a label off someone you're going to change their behaviour. Of course Michael Laws tried that in Whanganui. What happened there? Absolutely nothing. He was embarrassed when he got told it was unconstitutional to do so and even Chester Borrows that decent former National MP said "Well that won't have any effect"—negligible effect.Now we've got an entirely different approach which is to look at the drivers of crime not just the label on someone's back—a much better idea. Look it'll be good for the Leader of the Opposition to go overseas and talk to his compatriots like Boris Johnson see if he's got any ideas that he can steal from him perhaps. But what he will find out is that New Zealand is seen as a leading light in terms of its economic response to COVID and that our Prime Minister is seen as a fantastic example of good strong compassionate leadership and of course pretty much at the same time we will have the Prime Minister and the trade Minister overseas doing the real work the real mahi and negotiating free-trade agreements.We've seen recently introduced the UK free-trade deal legislation a great leap forward for us in these tough times of constrained supply lines and difficult international relationships but building a really strong relationship with our old partner the UK and of course the EU—a huge trading bloc that we're looking to get across the line. An excellent free-trade agreement and I'm very excited about the work that's going to go on over there. That's what we're doing now: reopening New Zealand to trade. But also it's not only our outgoing trade but we're welcoming in people from around the world with the removal of pre-departure testing and everything else we're doing. We're welcoming people to places like the North Shore—a great little town. It's not quite the Christchurch and Canterbury that we should be welcoming people to but isn't it going to be fantastic that we're going to get tourists here for the ski season? Canterbury has some great locations up on the slopes there. Get down to Tekapō the dark skies area of Canterbury there and the Mackenzie Country—see Matariki in all of its glory. That's what we want to see not the kind of idea that the National Party's coming up with which is basically to oppose the kind of steps that this Government's doing to ease the cost of living issues.What does the National Party say about the cost of living payment? "Don't do it." Here we are trying to help out the most struggling New Zealanders helping them out whilst we know that there is a cost of living crisis so what so they say? "Don't do it." And what do they say when we suggest raising the minimum wage for the people on the lowest wages?Glen Bennett: "Don't do it."Dr DUNCAN WEBB: Not only do they say "Don't do it" Mr Bennett; they say "No give some tax cuts to those that need it least. Give some tax cuts to my mates. Let's give $1.50 a week or $2.50 a week to those on the minimum wage and let's give thousands of dollars to those on the highest wages." That's the quality of the ideas that we've got from the National Party and do you know what? They're not new. They're just the old National Party ideas. The old ideas recycled again. They're not even as good as Bill English's ideas—no not at all. So they've got inconsistent positions. They don't even agree amongst themselves. Nicola Willis to her credit said "Oh we don't necessarily disagree with a raise in the minimum wage." whereas Simon Bridges said the opposite and the leader is stuck betwixt and between.Of course what do they say about Matariki? Look I'm so excited about the coming together of New Zealanders for this fantastic celebration: looking backwards looking forwards rebirth. Well what do they say? "It's another public holiday."—the Grinch. "No no we don't need one of those. We don't need to recognise our nationhood." Well I'm happy and proud to be part of a Government that's recognising our nationhood and opening up New Zealand all over again. Fantastic! The debate having concluded the motion lapsed."