Doocey Matt: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDoocey Matt: General Debate[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8482. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): I just apologise to the young children in the gallery of the debating chamber this afternoon who had to sit through and listen to that negativity and cynicism because on this side of the House we are positive. The first thing that I would like to do as we draw an end to 2015 is acknowledge the hard work of all New Zealanders. It is New Zealanders who have brought this country back to a surplus it is New Zealanders who have caused this country to have the highest workforce participation on record it is New Zealanders who have allowed this country to have forecasted positive GDP growth that is the envy of all other OECD countries and it is those New Zealanders who we are supporting through these Resource Management Act reforms. On this side of the House we back New Zealanders and we know that they can do more and we want to support them.First of all before I go on I want to thank this National Government on behalf of all Waimakariri residents for the new Rangiora Hospital which was opened last week. It was an honour to have the Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman come and open the new North Canterbury Health Hub which will be seen as the gold standard in health services across rural communities. It must be embarrassing for people like the Hon Annette King—and for Clayton Cosgrove who was the Labour candidate at the time—who stood outside the old Rangiora Hospital and said: “This will not go ahead. This Government is not going to fund the Rangiora Hospital.” Fast forward to less than a year later and we are opening up this fantastic world-class facility for regional New Zealand for North Cantabrians.This is part of a bigger picture. We are rolling out $900 million in the biggest hospital rebuild programme that New Zealand has ever seen building Christchurch Hospital Burwood Hospital and Rangiora Hospital. What we are doing is backing Canterbury post-earthquakes. As we know the Canterbury recovery is one of the top four priorities. We have got the earthquake recovery Minister at No. 3 and our next Canterbury Minister is at No. 7. What does Labour do when it has a reshuffle? Its first Canterbury MP is No. 10—that is what it thinks of Canterbury. It is the second-biggest economy in the regions and the second-biggest by population and it puts its first Canterbury MP at No. 10. Labour is not sticking up for Canterbury and it is not sticking up for Cantabrians’ recovery.What we are also doing is supporting housing and there are a lot of lessons out of the earthquake recovery. We know that with the land-use recovery plan we freed up land and we increased supply and that equalled demand. As we know with the Treasury forecast we are heading towards a housing surplus in Canterbury. These are real lessons that are informing this resource management bill. If you look at annual house price inflation across New Zealand of over 10 percent Canterbury is at about 5.5 percent and Waimakariri is at 3.5 percent. We are the third-fastest growing electorate and the third-biggest populated region in the South Island but we have only 3.5 percent annual house price inflation. That proves what the Productivity Commission said—that tight regulation of land increases house prices.We know that it is up to local councils under this Resource Management Act bill which will allow them to match the needs of residential growth with land needs. What we know with the KiwiSaver HomeStart package is that in the first 6 months 122 families in my electorate qualified for that and have gone on to buy their first home—over $550000 worth of grants from that scheme are going into young families in the Waimakariri and that should be celebrated. This has been incentivising builders to build houses for under $450000 which is the cap and to deliver affordable housing. It has been a great year in the Waimakariri: new beginnings openings and milestones. We have opened the Rangiora Town Hall the Oxford Town Hall the Ruataniwha Kaiapoi Civic Centre the hospital and the Ashley Bridge. We have started $300 million worth of roading improvements. It is going great guns. On behalf of all Cantabrians thank you to all New Zealanders for supporting us through this difficult time. With your indulgence Mr Speaker—[Bell rung]