Seymour David; Peters Winston; Carter DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): I am sorry; I was going to bring my performing caucus but we had a little bit of a problem at the last election which we are hoping to rectify quite soon. It is always very difficult to follow the performance of the Māori Party in the adjournment debate but congratulations to them.I would like to thank a bunch of people: first and foremost the people of the suburbs of Mount Eden Epsom Parnell Remuera and Newmarket who elected me to be their representative. I would like to thank the people of the Epsom electorate. I would like to thank the ACT Party and its supporters who have worked hard—and believed in me—to rebuild the ACT Party and I think some of the people who are around the House expressing some perhaps disdain for that possibility have got another think coming. I would like to thank my parliamentary staff both in the Epsom electorate and here in Wellington and my ministerial staff who have done a fabulous job. I am very very lucky to have such a group of cheerful and professional people who have worked throughout the year and made my job much easier than it might otherwise have been. I would also like to thank all of the parliamentary staff around these buildings: security the people who clean the offices in the middle of the night. I would like to thank you Mr Speaker and also the Bills Office the Table Office the Office of the Clerk the messengers and the Parliamentary Library staff who produce so much good research in such a timely manner. I would like to thank all of them. But I would also like to thank a group of people whom I regard as particularly heroic and those are the sponsors of Partnership Schools/Kura Hourua: the people who run Pacific Advance Senior School Te Kura Hourua o Whangarei Terenga Parāoa Vanguard Military School South Auckland Middle School Middle School West Auckland Te Kura Māori o Waatea and The Rise Up Academy. Those people are building innovative schools on tight time frames with students who often had not been deeply engaged in the education system previously and often under frankly fierce and miserly attack from people with political and self-interested motivations. When you go to the prize-givings of these schools as I have in the last few weeks what you see is an outstanding group of educators who are changing kids' lives for the better.On that note I would also like to thank my coalition partners in the Māori Party United Future and the National Party who have believed in this policy and defeated some of the most sad and cynical attempts to defeat it in recent times. I would also like to thank the officials with whom I have worked in Treasury and the Ministry of Education for working through often some tough issues. I think one of the things that makes New Zealand great is the highly professional Civil Service we have here in Wellington. I would also note the Ministers I have worked with Steven and Hekia for the very collegial way that they have helped me achieve some of the things I sought to achieve through our coalition agreement over the year and I should also include our former Prime Minister who I hear is somewhere in Hawaii and also our new Prime Minister with whom I am looking forward to working very much. The continuation of that prime ministership in my view is critical to the prosperity of New Zealand in the coming years because all you hear from the Opposition is negativity. Oppositions almost need to be negative. They need to say that the country is not going well and therefore could do better but these Opposition members actually are naturals at being negative. They actually cannot help themselves. When you hear some of their speeches you might be forgiven for thinking that we live in some sort of Third World despotic dictatorship and I can tell you that is not the view of New Zealanders I talk to up and down this country. New Zealanders know that we need continued stable Government with renewed energy for solving some of our most serious challenges. We need to double the house building rate in New Zealand to get back to 1970 levels. We need to make the education system the most equal in the world not one of the least equal in the world. We need to lift productivity to grow again as it has in times past. Those are all challenges that we are aware of. Those are all challenges to which the ACT Party has answers and it looks very much forward to going to the polls and seeking the support of New Zealanders in 2017.With that in mind I would like to wish everybody in New Zealand and in this House a very merry Christmas a safe and sunny summer and a recharged 2017. Thank you Mr Speaker.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. In the interests of the Christmas spirit and comedy I seek an extension of time for that speaker.Mr SPEAKER: The member cannot seek leave on behalf of another member.DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. In that case I seek an extension of time for myself.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought for an extension of time for David Seymour to complete his speech. Is there any objection? There is.