Brownlee Gerry: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBrownlee Gerry: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 21 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:44. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery):Can I begin my comments this afternoon by congratulating you Mr Speaker on your return to the Speaker’s Chair with the overwhelming endorsement of members of this House. I want to congratulate your assistants: the Deputy Speaker the Hon Chester Borrows; Lindsay Tisch who has been a long-serving and very loyal member of this Parliament and who continues his work as your assistant; and also the new man in the team the Hon Trevor Mallard who I know will bring his own style to the work. I want to also congratulate the Clerk’s Office the Governor-General’s office and the Parliamentary Counsel Office for the work that they have done to organise the ceremonies of the past 2 days which remind us of the deep ties we have to longstanding democracy in this country.I also need to acknowledge our mover and seconder of the Address in Reply debate today Chris Bishop and Barbara Kuriger. My colleague Tim Groser was remarking before—and I think he was absolutely right—that it showed why the National Party is so strong. Firstly the urban liberal Chris Bishop gave a great speech to reflect on his views about where this country might go in the time that he is in Parliament and then Barbara came in to speak as the quintessential rural person who is very very connected to the needs of those rural communities. I think that when you put those two together you start to see some of the breadth of the National Party and I know that other maiden speeches will expand that in the days ahead.I also want to congratulate David Seymour on that last speech. I think that what you demonstrated to us all was the reason why the National Party sits so comfortably in a governance arrangement with the ACT Party. I am sure that your contribution to this House will be considerable over the years to come.Rt Hon Winston Peters: It’s a jack-up.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: I did not want to go on to discussing the New Zealand First contribution quite so quickly in my limited time today but the member over there invites me to do it. He sits there saying: “It’s a jack-up. It’s a jack-up.” He is saying that only because he is saying: “I did so well but I’ve got nothing.” Then there was the issue of him saying: “Well look what happened—the Prime Minister is shoring himself up by 14 new members and a whole lot of other people exiting.” This is a guy who has exited his entire caucus on three occasions during his time here in Parliament. It is so bad that one of his returning members Mr Ron Mark was not even known to the deputy leader who yesterday described him as Don Clarke. Well Don Clarke is not available for the All Blacks and he is certainly not in this Parliament.I want to turn now to the substance of what I want to say which is support for the Prime Minister’s motion put before the House in this Address in Reply debate. I was disappointed by the contribution from the Labour Party but not surprised—not surprised—because if it is boiled down and analysed it is more of what we have had for the last 6 years. If only the ungrateful voter had voted for Labour members everything would be OK! If only the ungrateful voter had recognised that everything they said was good and everything we did was bad then everything would be OK! If only the ungrateful voters would stop thinking about what is best for them in their lives and start thinking about what the Labour Party thinks is best for them in their lives then everything would be OK! I have got to say that although this Government going into a third term is very very conscious of showing any signs of arrogance whatsoever there is a fundamental arrogance in that Labour Party position that will not change with a change of leader. It needs a deep change of the culture of that party. It would be easy to spend a lot of time today talking about the leadership challenge but it does not matter. It does not matter at all. As long as that attitude prevails Labour will not connect with New Zealanders.What connects with New Zealanders are the sorts of things that the Government has set out in the Speech from the Throne today like the idea that we should constantly strive to improve New Zealanders’ incomes. In that regard we have heard a lot of comment from other parties about how for example you should perhaps devalue the dollar because that might somehow make things easier for people. Well the question there is: where on earth is there a place where the purchasing power of one economy is enhanced by another economy deciding to reduce its own purchasing power? That is the problem that we have got inside other parties here trying to comment on that.The reality is that in the next couple of years the average wage in New Zealand will climb to $62000. It is climbing at a rate that is ahead of inflation in this country. There is a reason for that. It is because the Government has policies that do not of themselves create work do not of themselves create export opportunities but that facilitate the people out there who take risks on a daily basis to build businesses to seek out markets and to sell their products and along the way they provide opportunities for other New Zealanders to enjoy that success through higher incomes. That is a pretty simple thing.Then there is the issue of child poverty which we have said we want to do a lot more about. I think it is only fair to look at some relativities in that regard. If you listen to the Green Party then everything is all bad and there is no hope for anybody in this country in that regard. If you listen to the Labour Party members they are going to hold us to account. Well all they need to do is watch what is going to happen as we see more people exiting benefits and going into work. There can be no denying that life for a working family is a lot easier than for a family that lives on a benefit. If the only answer you have got is to say: “We’ll make it all easier for those people on a benefit by lifting them up.” then you start to persecute the people who work. So there will be some very interesting debates in this House over that particular issue.The other thing that has come up constantly over the last 6 months has been housing in New Zealand. It is staggering that we have had the Labour Party members come out today and say that they will not support change to the Resource Management Act. Green Party members came out today and said they will not support change to the Resource Management Act. Well it is very simple. If there is not more land available for subdivision if there is not better use of existing land and if the artificial costs that are put into the cost of using that land are not removed by taking away laws that put those costs in place then there is no attack on the issue of low-cost housing. So I challenge the Labour Party members to think for themselves beyond the rhetoric that has been their mantra for the last 6 years and to start to think seriously about the issue of housing costs.This Government will do it and no one should underestimate either the need for a Government to get its own finances in shape to be able to show a picture that says we do not have rampant runaway expenditure by the Government we do not have expenditure plans that go beyond the means of the Government because that reflects directly in interest rates. It is an easy calculation. Every time an interest rate goes up one whole point then that is an extra $1000 a year on whatever your mortgage amount is that has to be found. If we are looking at $300000 and $400000 mortgages or bigger—which are in many cases the norm—then that is a large amount of money that can be altered or taken out of a person’s income each week by virtue of bad Government policy. The Homestart loans programme will see a change in the way that developers put product into the market. Couple that with some Resource Management Act changes and a desire by the Government to see more of this housing built and I think we will see some real movement in that regard.I should speak a little bit about the other issue that has come up repeatedly this afternoon—that of what New Zealand might do in response to the Islamic State activities in the Middle East. I can repeat only what the Prime Minister has said over and over. There will be a discussion among the political parties. There will be a debate in the House. There will be a considered position that represents New Zealand’s position. I want to say that I watched the Q+A programme last week and those four Labour leader aspirants were all appalling on this subject because they were scaremongering where they need not scaremonger. The New Zealand defence forces are extremely capable and they are capable across a range of activities that might be useful in the suppression of this appalling organisation that is so barbaric and repulsive to us. But it needs to be something that is well considered and it will be. Thank you.