Tabuteau FletcherFLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First): It galls me to hear the contribution from the last speaker Melissa Lee. Let us put this in perspective. She quoted all these fantastic tourism numbers and spoke of growth in tourism in New Zealand. As a member of the House who grew up in tourism and who is our tourism spokesperson now I say that in terms of the numbers that were quoted you cannot fault the statistics. But the implication that the Government had anything to do with it with regard to the appropriation debates that we are having now is misleading in the extreme. It is farcical that the member would imply—and that is all she is doing; she can only imply—that this Government had a hand in tourism growth in this country. It is patently untrue—untrue.The reality is that tourism around the world and here in New Zealand is growing. It is a fantastic thing to see—and thank goodness for those Government members who do nothing but just sit there and cherry-pick something to talk about in the House. They are not talking about dairy any more are they? They dare not talk any more about what is happening to the dairy market. They were a couple of years ago when it was going strong and they had nothing to do with that either. But now they are talking about tourism like they had something to do with it.To contrast the contribution from the previous speaker—the take from the Government in terms of GST revenue alone totalled nearly $1 billion. The Government spent approximately $300 million nearly $400 million on funding Tourism New Zealand and other projects which is—I do not know shall we go so far as to say commendable"? But then the Government talks to New Zealand about the tourism infrastructure fund like it is going to solve the problems that regional New Zealand especially is experiencing with regard to capacity issues with tourism numbers that we are experiencing right now.Not only will seven to 15 new public toilets to be built over the next 4 years do nothing to help New Zealand's severe infrastructure shortage in terms of coping with these tourism numbers but in fact what we are hearing now from the tourism industry itself is that unless there is a greater investment—and we are talking big big numbers; not $12 million over 4 years—our New Zealand brand is going to be affected negatively. Our brand is going to go backwards. That will affect our tourism dollar take and the Government is literally doing nothing about it except coming up with a $12 million fund and spinning it as though it is solving New Zealand's problems. It is just completely unacceptable.With regard to monetary policy and the juxtaposition we have with regard to that and the appropriation debate we are having today let us get real about the situation. The Reserve Bank Governor has come to the limits of his power. No longer is he wielding a blunt axe; actually just about anything he does can be damned if he does it and damned if he does not. The problem we are experiencing and—excuse the pun—the flip side of the coin is that this Government's fiscal policy is bereft of ideas bereft of forethought and is simply reactionary in nature and not even sufficient at that.The reason I say that is that if you look at spending on health spending on the police spending on education—just the big things that come to mind as I make this contribution—although the money number for those has gone up in relation to the number of people living in New Zealand those real numbers have fallen and it is hard for some on that side of the House to appreciate the very very big difference. This Government is spending less on education less on health and less on—I think there were 19 or 20 appropriation sections and I think 18 of them went backwards in real terms. So that is the legacy of this Government. It is reacting but it is not reacting well enough.As for the previous speaker making a statement around debt going down—she did not specify what; she said "debt"—when the last Government left this House and this Government took over the debt was around $8 billion. It is a big number in the average Kiwi's head but that number has gone beyond $80 billion and is screaming towards $100 billion. That is the legacy of this National Government. That is the acuity—these are the responsible money managers whom we are supposed to believe and that is what they call themselves. That is their legacy. It has grown more than tenfold and in anyone's books that is huge. With regard to debt that is completely unacceptable.I really wanted to talk about only two things in my contribution but the previous speaker got me fired up as those on that side of the House are wont to do. I want to just point out that the Budget and these appropriation debates highlight two points: the first is that this Government has no idea where regional New Zealand is and the second one is that it has been asleep at the wheel for 8 years over the Auckland housing market. Just unbelievable. Actually it is two points but it pretty much covers the entire New Zealand economy.This Government is just ignorant of what is going on around it in the bulk of the country. It staggers the mind. It truly staggers the mind that some of those MPs are only just realising now—as is the New Zealand public as the polling figures come out. New Zealanders are only just realising now that the Government has no idea what it is doing. It has no plan. It is reacting poorly from case to case and as for "A plan that's working"—which is not even a byline any more; it was the big statement around the last Budget if I remember rightly—well there was no plan and nobody understood what it was because the Government would not and could not tell us.With regard to the housing crisis I think it is fair to say that unless you are over what I have coined the "rich line" now it is no longer about middle-class New Zealanders—you have got to be rich to live in Auckland basically. Let us put that into perspective. Principals in New Zealand are in the top 10 percent bracket of income earners in New Zealand. So principals—top income earners top 10 percent—were told by the Prime Minister they would have to downgrade their expectations when it comes to buying a house in Auckland if they want to live there. That is the top 10 percent earners in this country being told to downgrade their expectations by the Prime Minister and a group of people who are doing nothing to address the issue of the housing crisis in Auckland.And it is spreading. It is spreading like a virus. Down into Hamilton up Whangarei down into the electorate of Rotorua prices are getting out of kilter with reality. It would be awesome if house prices were going up because there were increases in New Zealanders wanting to live in Rotorua there was a huge growth of jobs there and you know normal economic factors were contributing to growth which was leading to an increase in house prices but that is not the fact. We are getting that Auckland market coming down and speculating in the local housing economy. It is distorting reality and the very real nature of the problem is that rents are becoming unmanageable for the average Rotorua household that does not own their own house and more and more Kiwis cannot even get into a house. That is the legacy of this National Government. That is what is happening.No matter what these Ministers say they are failing at doing their job. The Government's lack of action and its short-term focus is literally killing the future of New Zealand and the people in it. We have watched our economy being propped up by poor immigration policy—a "short-term-itis" fix to a long-term problem—and National is reluctant to do anything about it. This Budget has done nothing to address those issues. Thank you."