McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour—Wairarapa): Thank you Madam Speaker. If they just sat on their hands the country would be better off.Hon Todd McClay: Exactly.KIERAN McANULTY: That's what Mr McClay said in his contribution and now he is backing it up by saying Exactly." Doesn't that sum the National Party up? If they just sat on their hands the country would be better off. I think that absolutely sums up the do nothing conservative small Government low taxes low spending approach from the National Party. I ask this House where did that get the country during the global financial crisis? Investment was cut spending on health was cut spending on education was cut and when we came in in 2017 we had to clean it all up.When you look at the problems that this country is facing in housing if we just took our hands off the country would be better off they say. That's exactly the approach that that side took on housing. That's why the number of Government-provided social houses went down under their watch. That's why they sold every single house every single social house in Wairarapa in 1999. Throughout their nine years of Government they didn't put a single social house in Wairarapa. And I'm proud to say that this Government is finally building Government social houses in Wairarapa yet again.Exactly the same with climate change. When they were in Government they signed us up to all these accords and all these treaties and then did absolutely nothing about it. Every single time we as a Government have put in measures that are actually going to help us meet the agreements that they signed us up to they've voted against them.The minimum wage is exactly the same. When they were in Government every single year they put the minimum wage up and they waived their blue flag and they said "Look at us. How great are we?" And then whenever we do it they say "That's a terrible idea. That's hurting business." What they fail to know is that New Zealanders can see through the politics. New Zealanders know that it is the minimum-wage workers that have worked the hardest alongside our frontline health workers that have got us to where we are now in this COVID response. They don't agree with it. Or do they? Who knows? The other day I was sitting next to Nicola Willis doing our weekly radio slot with Newstalk ZB and she said "We do not oppose raising the minimum wage." What does the leader say? I don't know couldn't form a position. He didn't have the ability to stand up and say yes or no. He fluffed about. So we don't even know where they stand on the minimum wage. But here we are as a Government helping 300000 workers lifting their wages and contributing to this economy. Because what that side knows but don't say is that small to medium businesses the ones that they've spent most of their time talking about their revenue is dependent on people's capacity to spend. If they don't raise minimum wages like some of them are encouraging us to do their ability to spend money goes down in real terms. Small to medium businesses miss out as a result.They haven't learnt a thing about the way in which this country has responded to COVID. It was the investment from this Government that kept people in jobs that kept businesses going and it is that spending that they now are criticising and saying that that's causing inflation even though they know that this is an international phenomenon. When they are asked to give examples of the things that they would cut they cannot give an example that would make any impact on inflation. The only examples they've given has equated to 0.1 percent of Government spending. That is not going to make any difference to inflation. If they were upfront they would say that yes the way that they want to deal with inflation is to make cuts and it's back where we started with these guys under the global financial crisis. It's cuts to health. It's cuts to education. It's not spending money on infrastructure. It's not putting the planning ahead that we need.This is the Government that actually has a plan. We are the ones that are investing in a plan to increase primary exports by $40 billion. They oppose it. They just want to tread water. This is the Government that is actually putting the investment in to make sure that rural communities get the health they need and rural schools get the investments they need. And if you don't believe me here's a question for you: how many times did Chris Luxon mention agriculture or farmers in his response to the Prime Minister's statement? None. Not one mention. They spend all the energy they like saying they care about farmers they've got the biggest platform of the year and they say nothing. I am proud to support the Prime Minister's statement."