Bridges Simon: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBridges Simon: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 21 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:82. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Energy and Resources):It is a great privilege—an unalloyed privilege—to be speaking in this the 51st Parliament in New Zealand’s history to be returned as the MP for Tauranga and to be part of this National Government which comes back into this Parliament with a renewed sense of vigour purpose and determination really to govern for all New Zealanders to the best of our abilities.Can I congratulate you Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch on your return in your fine electorate very close to mine and also on the service you provide this Parliament along with the Rt Hon David Carter who of course was returned. As everyone has done but I think it is worth doing again I also heartily congratulate Chester Borrows and Trevor Mallard who are—and for one of them at least I use this phrase advisedly—great parliamentarians. Again in one case I would not say I enjoyed it but I have had close interactions with both men. In Chester Borrows’ case it was on the Justice and Electoral Committee where he showed what a bipartisan person he can be in the House and in the case of Trevor Mallard my very clear recollection of first speaking in this House was of him putting me through my paces. That is something I suppose that all new MPs whom I also congratulate have to look forward to as they earn their stripes in this great House and serve this country very well.I was really proud to listen to our Prime Minister this afternoon firstly as he talked about the United Nations Security Council and the privilege really it is for us as a small country to be represented temporarily on it and then as he talked about the flag and that important debate that we are going to have as a country. I think that both of those issues show that New Zealand albeit a small country in the South Pacific is very much an outward-looking one and an optimistic one. For all the talk of that big country near us being the lucky country we are a lucky country that has a great future and that we should be proud of and actually very patriotic about. I am looking forward to that flag debate. I think it really speaks about what we can be as a country.This party at least is a party that is outward looking that believes in free trade that knows that our prosperity is tied to the rest of the world and that we can face those issues if you like with confidence and optimism not with fear and knows that actually foreign investment is something that if we manage it right makes a real difference to this country and to our standard of living and that we should really embrace the rest of the world.I was also proud to be a member of the National Party on election night not because of the great result that we got—if not historic then certainly the very strong result on election night—but because of the Prime Minister’s speech and I think it was a fine speech where he made clear that this party along with our supply and confidence partners is here to govern for all New Zealanders. I know that is something that this side of the House takes very seriously indeed. We are going to resist arrogance. It is not a “Stuart Nash is back” attitude on this side of the House. We take our role seriously and we are going to govern for all New Zealanders. We are going to stay in touch with our electorates and I know that is something you have done with aplomb for some time Mr Assistant Speaker. I know in Tauranga that it is very important that we stay close that we listen and that we continue to get out into various sectors of our communities in order to know what it is that they want from us as we are now in our third term.We have yes got a proud and a great track record as a party in Government that has achieved strong economic management better public services very strong public services is bringing down the deficit into surplus and is this term offering tax cuts at the end of it all. But we are not out of ideas. We have got fresh ideas and things that we will be putting to this country to ensure that our track record continues but there is more and better to come: a strong economy better public services and a clean environment.I am really excited about the portfolios that I have both been in as a Minister in John Key’s Government and that I take up as new portfolios. It is interesting to listen to Louisa Wall and I think she is genuine in everything she said but we have heard a lot of scaremongering in this House actually over years about employment reform in this country and the Employment Relations Amendment Bill in particular. I have been really privileged to be part of that to have been the Minister of Labour for National. Now I think it is the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Michael Woodhouse who is going to do a great job. Actually what we have done there has been about delivering more opportunities for more people—more opportunities for more people. We are pro-jobs and we are not going to see the kind of people that Louisa Wall talked about out of jobs.I think it is really sad actually to see parties on the other side campaigning against the 90-day trial and campaigning against the youth start-out wage because they are policies that employers have told us in the independent ministry surveys have created more jobs and have seen employers give young people a go whom they would not have otherwise given a go and kept them in a job. We recognise unlike the Labour Party that New Zealand predominantly is a country of small and medium sized enterprises which do not take on employees just to fire them. They take them on to give them a go and to pay them the best that they can. I am really proud of the work we have done in that area.I am really proud actually of the work that we are going to do in minimum employment standards—actually that we have done with the minimum wage. We have lifted the minimum wage every single year we have been in office so it is now the highest in the world relative to average wages actually. That is not something to be sniffed at. As for paid parental leave there is great work there and Michael Woodhouse is going to do a great job to ensure not only that we increase the entitlements to 18 weeks but also that we widen it to ensure that it goes to more people than ever.In transport—roads of national significance regional roads—we are making sure we have got efficient safer roads for people to travel on while also ensuring better public services than ever before in this country. Actually I am really proud of in electorates like Louisa Wall’s the $1.7 billion investment in rail in Auckland.Debate interrupted.