O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): I think that last speech—anyone sitting at home sitting in the gallery just have a listen to that last speech and it sums up the ridiculous situation that the Opposition find themselves in because you've had speaker after speaker lamenting how much has been spent in this Budget and then the last speaker spent the last five minutes chastising this Government for not spending more on an industry which sadly is an industry which has suffered probably the most heavily involved in tourism involved in getting New Zealanders overseas. Admittedly I have had people from that same industry come into my office; I'm sure every electorate has. I have nothing but sympathy for those people because not only that they are also the only people over there at the moment who are actually getting money back for New Zealanders who have money invested in travel companies overseas and these are the companies that have to get it. So I do feel some sympathy for them; however we cannot save everything.Can I go straight to the appropriations. The appropriations—$50 billion this year. Now we've been absolutely chastised for spending that money—It's a terrible thing." Just imagine if we hadn't. Just imagine if we hadn't brought in the wage subsidy. Just imagine if we hadn't made the decision at the beginning of this COVID-19 pandemic if we had said we'd do what the last three speakers have said we do—"Sit wait don't spend money because we can't afford to." Well where would we be? Have a look at our cousins across the Ditch. Have a look at the Victorians. How many times in this House have you sat in that Chair have I have we sat here and listened to us being told "Be more like the Aussies."? How many times have we been criticised whatever leader whoever's over there—"Why aren't you more like the Aussies?" Well we're not like the Aussies; we're New Zealanders and we're taking a broad view.The whole idea is that when we start to come out of this COVID downturn—and we are because we are the one country. I heard a statistic this week that said Auckland Airport is as busy as Heathrow Airport. That's the sort of thing that's happening in this country. Every one of us here will have friends overseas—even mentioned by my colleague from New Zealand First about how there's an American Embassy everywhere in the world. New Zealand was the only one that had an unregulated crowd at that embassy. That tells you something. That's how successful we've been.I go back to the appropriations Madam Speaker—DEPUTY SPEAKER: That would be good!GREG O'CONNOR: Well I've hardly ever left them actually but I know that you do run a very tight line on these things; so I will run very strictly down—so I'm in a sheep pen with fences put up by yourself in your second to last day in the Chair but you've been consistent right the whole way through I do have to say. But can I just say I'm reminded that I was cleaning out an old uncle's belongings after he died and I found a slip that this uncle had been given during the Depression—1938—and it was to go to a work camp to plant trees. That was at the time when the Labour Government had started spending some money at the end of the Depression. Originally in the United States and in New Zealand it was all shut down and there was no spending done.I also remember driving from Westport to Nelson through the Golden Downs forest and that area was planted by those same people and it was only a little bit later in the United States during the New Deal—when Roosevelt started spending money—that the Americans came out of the Great Depression—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I don't want to interrupt your story—well I sort of do—but just to let you know that ACT is not here to take the other five minutes; so there are another five minutes available to you to continue.Hon David Bennett: No not him!GREG O'CONNOR: And the crowd went wild that they were once again ashamed at a speech like mine. But what I'm focusing on and going back to the appropriations—not that I feel like I've ever really moved far off of them—spending the $50 billion. Again I just want to warn that we've had plenty of evidence that if you do stop spending and a very good example of that—and if you just want numbers and often when those members opposite are debating they say "Let's count the numbers. We've got to have targets." Well just what happens when you stop spending? I'd like to go to the police appropriation. What happened when you stopped spending—or not you Madam Speaker; I'm sure as a Minister you were only too keen to spend more money but certainly your police equivalent at the time—the fatalities on the road a number that we can actually go for. In 2013 there were 253 fatalities on the road. That was at a time when police numbers were cut as a result of Budget cuts by 111. By 2017 those numbers had gone to 379 which was almost a 49 percent increase in numbers. That was a direct result of failing to spend. While I'm still on the police appropriation I could almost go to the gang policing at the same time. That was at a time when you may have heard in fact the current leader talking very tough when the Rebels Motorcycle Club arrived in New Zealand—how she was going to stop that from happening; she was going to invest and there was no way that they were ever going to be allowed to establish. They were going to be—I think "crushed" was the word used. Well the Rebels motorcycles are one of the most successful gangs in New Zealand now. And the reason why? You can talk as tough as you like but if you don't actually put the investment in it—and today we are paying the price for that. We are paying the price for that reduction in investment at the time.This is an opportunity because if we get this right—and I believe we are getting this right—those generations that will come after us will look back and say "This was a time when New Zealand invested heavily in its future." I heard one of the speakers opposite talk very proudly that Bill English never spent more than a billion at once. Well can I just say the evidence was clear. If you don't pay the bills and do the maintenance someone has got to do it down the track. If we did what those members opposite are advocating now if we stopped spending if we sat here waiting to see what's going to happen exactly what would happen is that we would end up—someone would have to pay the bills further down the track which is exactly what our Government has had to do. We've had to pay the bills and do the maintenance for that stopping of spending that actually happened at the time. The important thing too as we do go forward with this appropriation it's really important that you have a broad plan to ensure that you know that you have a context in which every dollar you spend is being contested. So is this dollar we're spending within a plan that is designed to improve New Zealand to make New Zealand better for the future? Let's just go through that five-point plan. Investing in our people: one of the things I'd really like to focus on there that's in the appropriation is the free apprentices and trades training in key areas. Tell me anyone who is in this House who hasn't had a local business—whether it be air conditioning whether it be any sort of a trade—approach saying "We haven't got any people. We haven't got any tradespeople coming through."? We stopped training in 2008 2010 and as a result they were demanding that we open the borders demanding that they be able to get people imported so that they could actually have this work done. It's incredibly important we now have an opportunity to make sure that doesn't happen and this is when I point to investing in our people. What better way to ensure that we have got our young people into apprenticeships and trades training that they are coming out work-ready job-ready as they will be as the work picks up. The work is picking up. The work is very much picking up.We then go on to the second part of this and it's barely raining outside at the same time. Jobs jobs jobs and this leads firstly into this that there are going to be 1100 new jobs. Well what better way to ensure that the jobs that we are investing in are ones that our children and grandchildren are going to thank us for and what better way than the environment? Eleven thousand new jobs that are going to be out there whether it be out on the farms out in the provinces where those young people are going to be out there not only doing useful work but actually learning how to get a job how to work and ensure that in the future.In the time left to me I won't go through the other two but I would like to go to the last one which is to position us globally. Again I challenge everyone in the House: we will all be speaking to people overseas and the one thing they do is to talk about our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Now it's not just the fact that they're talking about her individually; what it is they're talking about is New Zealand and how good is that going to be to ensure that our produce that brand New Zealand that New Zealand Inc. is on the world stage as we come out of this as we produce more produce that needs to be sold on the world stage that at a time when borders are slowing down we have that opportunity to make sure that New Zealand Inc. is high on that world stage. Thank you Mr Speaker."