SpeechHon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): Well I enjoyed hearing the speech from my colleague opposite—the speech that he wrote two days ago when he thought that he was going to be the National Party finance spokesperson—but it was the same old story from the National Party. The same old story: wide-roaming criticisms of Government spending but did we hear a single proposal for what they would actually cut because that's what it comes down to. What actually is the vision? What actually is the policy from the members opposite about how they would secure our recovery and how they would take New Zealand forward because it's all very well for members opposite to stand up in this House and wax lyrical about Government spending but it don't mean nothing and it's not a plan unless they can say what they would actually do.So far we've heard about boats: cameras on shipping boats. That is pretty much the one tangible proposal we have heard from the Opposition. If that party opposite as per Mr Bishop's speech just now genuinely believes that there are billions of dollars of overspending within the Government accounts then start naming it now so that the New Zealand people know what they'll be getting if they vote for that party's agenda. I'm very happy to tell the House what that agenda will be: it'll be cuts to health it'll be cuts to housing it'll be cuts to education and most foolishly of all as we come out from a pandemic it is a party that is unwilling to make any tough decisions and make any calls around building a robust and good health system for our country.That isn't the only confusion the only lack of detail that we've had over the last week because I have to say that I've been watching very closely the comments of Mr Christopher Luxon on the matter of the minimum wage over recent weeks. We've had a range of positions from the Leader of the Opposition. First we heard that he was very concerned about the possible impact of a 10c increase on the price of his trim piccolo because the person serving him might have to be paid the minimum wage. We did then have a bold position and a noble one from the deputy leader and new finance spokesperson Nicola Willis who told us that actually the National Party isn't opposed to the Government's recent increase in the minimum wage. That got brought back into line pretty quickly. On breakfast television this morning though Mr Luxon was very happy to tell us that in fact Well we're very supportive of increases in the minimum wage." before telling us that he opposed the one that we made last year at the same time as we got unemployment down to 3.2 percent. Well I think it would be very helpful indeed for the House and for the country for Mr Luxon and the National Party to actually just narrow it down a little bit to just the one position on the minimum wage because it's my view that the cleaners the security guards the bus drivers the supermarket workers who serve every single member of this House and who help to make our society work and who have got our country through COVID need to know what's at stake for them. This is a Government which has stood up for our low-wage workers which is proud of the fact that we've retained their standards of living and kept unemployment low during the crisis of COVID and we don't actually know what that side stands for. Well I think we know; they just won't say it. It's this side of the House which stands with them.The challenge that we have here is that at this time as we move into a recovery from COVID-19 we need steady and focused leadership that is actually focused on dealing with the long-term issues that New Zealand faces and that is what this Government is focused on. Our country has come together so well to deal with the challenge of COVID-19 and now is the time to recover and to move forward. That is why the announcements in recent days about New Zealand's plan for reconnecting with the world in a careful and staged way are so important. We can see the way forward there for our businesses and for our tourism but if we had to follow the lines of the Opposition last year we would have opened up New Zealand to enormous health risk and I'm so proud that we held firm there and we have a steady and focused plan.Our economic recovery plan is about making sure that we continue to invest in the infrastructure that New Zealand needs for the future including the record transport infrastructure spend that our Government is rolling out to build the infrastructure of the future. I was really pleased this morning Mr Speaker to visit the Hutt workshops—a place that you would be very familiar with—with the member for Hutt South Ginny Andersen where we saw the huge work that is going on to follow up on the Government's investments to make sure that we have a rail system that's resilient and reliable after years of it running down under that previous Government. Two weeks ago I was very pleased to visit the first stage of the Takitimu North Link in Tauranga funded by the Government: $650 million and a critical piece of transport infrastructure employing New Zealanders employing apprenticeships and partnering with local iwi and Māori to get people into work on that important project. Of course this is a Government that's focused on those issues that matter to New Zealand and we've dealt with it in the last few days dealing with those cost of living pressures in a way through fuel excise duty and road-user charges and making sure that public transport is more affordable for the people of our country. This side of the House is focused on securing New Zealand's recovery."