Tabuteau FletcherFLETCHER TABUTEAU (Deputy Leader—NZ First): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a privilege to stand up on behalf of this Government and speak to the Prime Minister's statement. I think I could contribute my entire 10 minutes by correcting just about every line offered by the Hon Todd McClay in his contribution to the House.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I don't think so.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: I know so Mr Brownlee. I know so and I will. But the first thing I want to point out and it was noted on this side of the House and I'm sure the other side of the House knew it wasn't coming—they knew it wasn't coming—but there was no mention of the great Opposition leader Simon Bridges: not a murmur not a mutter not a single utterance of the name Simon Bridges". Now that's got to tell a story to New Zealanders does it not?—a story of National probably hedging their bets on what the leadership might look like as they go into Opposition. But I will now spend my time replying to the previous speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well hopefully talking to the Prime Minister's—FLETCHER TABUTEAU: Yes I am and thankfully he was also. So what the previous speaker talked about was immigration and how hard it was to find. So actually what we've done as a Government is made it easier for Pacific peoples to come in to New Zealand to come in to industries. Primarily it is about getting out into our orchards and things like that. But actually as the Minister behind me Aupito William Sio will know what we're trying to do is expand that category so that more Pacific peoples can come in—and not just pick fruit; but can they work in leadership roles in the pack houses or actually where else have we got issues in terms of labour shortages? And we've said that perhaps in building homes it might be a great idea to bring in more Pacific peoples to help build our homes. The previous speaker complained about immigration. What I would complain about that previous Government the National Government was that they used wanton unfettered immigration as a way of growing the economy. In fact again Mr McClay mentioned GDP per capita. And I would contest his contribution strongly because the average GDP per capita under the National Government in their nine years was less than 0.4 percent for the entire time. The claims that Mr McClay made did not ring with me in the House. He used a convenient statistic about 25000 people out of work or something like that. But he forgets to add up the ongoing commitment this Government has made to work in supporting small businesses and large ones to employ more people. Just last quarter there were 3000 more people employed in our economy. And actually according to Statistics New Zealand actually all of them all of the additional ones were women—quite an amazing statistic. So he then spoke about income and earnings and the cost of living. Well actually the cost of living has gone up but wages have gone up faster than that cost.Hon David Bennett: Oh!FLETCHER TABUTEAU: Mr Bennett doesn't like to hear that good news but our incomes our disposable incomes which are income after cost—for the benefit of those opposite—have gone up faster than the cost. Well our disposable incomes have gone up.It's interesting that Mr McClay would use fuel tax as an example of burden on the average New Zealander because in Rotorua the price of petrol is lower than I've seen in years. It's under $2 per litre. So yes this Government did what the Opposition would have done had they been here and we implemented and continued with the fuel tax regime the road-user charges regime but actually what we've since discovered is that the price of petrol has remained constant and in my hometown of Rotorua it's actually dropped.He accused us of being a Government that hasn't done anything but we've done more—and perhaps I'll use my own example to illustrate that—than the Opposition did in their nine years in Government. I like to think of them as a Government by public relations. All they did was release public PR statements to the media and told their support base and they told the media what they intended to do—what they intended to do. Judge them by their actions I say. Judge them by their actions because if we do that then they will not pass and they have failed the people of New Zealand. On this side of the House this Government as was so clearly put forth by the Prime Minister in her statement to this House we are doing more simply just to catch up.Can I use the example of housing for example. In her contribution the Prime Minister spoke about blue smoke. I like to think of it as a blue haze of denial. Over the last nine years there were no houses built by the Opposition no State houses built—oh there were a few; I have to qualify that. There were a few State houses built by the Opposition in their time—Hon Gerry Brownlee: Yeah quite a few.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: Yeah quite a few but there were more torn down Mr Brownlee. There were more literally torn down by the National Government in their time and so New Zealanders now are struggling. As has been pointed out on this side of the House numerous times if those people on the Opposition benches there had built houses at the rate that this Government is doing right now there would be no housing crisis in this country today. So what are we doing? We're cleaning up their mess. We're cleaning up the mess. They either find it funny or uncomfortable but either way thankfully it's the truth.They spoke about rents going up—well Mr McClay spoke about rates going up by $50 a week. Well actually under the tenure of the previous Government rents funnily enough went up. They went up by a similar amount. The line of regression shows the cost of renting rental properties has gone up at a steady and consistent rate.Hon Gerry Brownlee: That's not right.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: No it is right Mr Brownlee. It's very very right. I'll tell you what a line of regression is later. So what the other member said was that National's economic promise to this country was that they would keep debt low. That's what the member said but then he'd said we'd be spending more. He said there'd be less taxes but then there'd be more spending and then he said we'd be investing more. These are the inconsistencies of the Opposition's argument to the people of New Zealand.Thankfully those New Zealanders have seen exactly what those empty promises and those empty words mean. They have seen it first-hand in the previous nine years of that previous Government. They saw first-hand the fact that they were underfunding our customs agency for example.Hon David Bennett: Can't even fill 10 minutes.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: So a completely porous border Mr Bennett. Mr Bennett in his own hometown was dealing with border incursions viruses—was it red velvet? There were numerous incursions of viruses and diseases and they sat on the other side there and said "No we've got it covered." Yet Minister Salesa just recently announced—correct me if I'm wrong Minister—a more than $6 million increase in funding to New Zealand Customs so that they could protect our borders with more people better protocols and better systems so that New Zealand farmers Mr Bennett—your mates New Zealand farmers—could actually work and do their job without fear of infestation or their livelihoods being ruined because that Opposition party wasn't doing their job.I finish just by using Rotorua as an example. I'm proud to say for example that Rotomā No. 1 a Māori trust in Rotorua has committed to invest $80 million in the local business community. Why have they said that? They said that because this Government is investing more in our provinces and our regions and of course particularly more in Rotorua than ever before. They have the confidence and the belief to invest their people's money for future income and returns and I'm proud to say that I have been part of that work. Thank you Madam Speaker."