Coffey TamatiTAMATI COFFEY (Labour—Waiariki): Mr Speaker thank you very much for that. The Prime Minister's statement is so full of joy for so many New Zealanders because of the aspiration and the hope that it brings them but also the dollars as well. And all you will hear is nothing but negativity from that side of the House. Why? Because they didn't do it—because they wish that they had have done it because we're actually doing it.I would caution the previous member that stood and talked just then Denise Lee when she said that the Prime Minister said nothing about pay equity. Well let me read it for that particular member because she obviously wasn't here at the time or maybe she was checking her Facebook or something like that. But what the Prime Minister said was we are committed to pay equity and lifting wages particularly for our lowest-paid workers. Since we came to office we've introduced the living wage for public servants teacher aides and school support staff. We've reached pay equity settlement agreements for around 5000 mental health and addiction support workers more than 1300 Oranga Tamariki social workers and 329 social workers for very young children in early childhood and primary schools. Our hard-working nurses also reached a settlement delivering the biggest pay increases that nurses have seen in a decade. So I challenge that member. I challenge her to actually read the Prime Minister's statement before she stands and contributes to it.This has been a great term that we've had: so far so good. Just in the last recess I spent a lot of time heading around the Waiariki actually drilling down into some of the things that are making a difference for the lives of our people because that's what this Government's always been about. Our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that if there was one thing that she was going to do while she was here it would be to lift children out of poverty and we haven't fully realised what those investments look like. And even the Opposition have to admit that we are investing like we've never invested before.When I went out to a couple of our schools last week I went and spoke to some of the teachers some of the principals and some of the kids and the change that they're seeing at the coalface at the flax-roots level of their schools is overwhelmingly positive. That was a statement by Phil Palfrey who's the principal of Kaitao Intermediate—overwhelmingly positive—because he's seeing a layering of things that are happening for families and for schools. So when we talk about the healthy lunches in schools free lunches in schools—yeah that's making the difference. The children are calmer they are fed and they are not distracted by the sound of their own empty stomachs. That is actually making a difference. I'm proud to say that in the Waiariki electorate 20 out of the 30 schools that are part of the pilot project are actually from our electorate. So I'm going out there and I'm engaging with our schools to find out the difference that it's making and what they're telling me is that it is all good.There are local jobs being created as well. In one of the schools that I've visited they've actually employed one of the teacher aides and a couple of the parents to come in and to prepare the food. It's not much but actually overwhelmingly the small bit of food that is on the plate for that child is enough to get them through the day and it's enough to make them feel as though they are supported by their school and make them more productive during their school day. The knock-on effect for that is that the parents also win out of this as well. I spoke to one set of parents who said to me that they are now saving $120 in their shopping every single week because they no longer have to buy the food that they used to have to buy for their very ravenous four kids that they had at home. So they are absolutely overwhelmed at the progress that this Government's making.Healthy lunches in schools—that's one thing. Then you couple it with the fact that there's the schools that have opted in to school donations and $150 per student is nothing to scoff at. When I went to Kaingaroa Forest School last week—there's only just over 50 kids that go there—they said that things have always been tight for them but now they can actually loosen the reins a little bit. They can still do things on the cheap but they can actually do things on the not so cheap as well these days. That has spinoff benefits for the kids.The Government paying for NCEA fees—that's another relief for schools and for parents as well. And it's the school infrastructure investment that I'm most proud of: up to $400000 per public school in New Zealand to be able to upgrade their own infrastructure however they want to do it. So I got great joy last week going to Rotorua Primary School and talking with the principal about what it was that he was going to spend the money on. You know what he said he was going to spend his $150000 on? Well he said that actually half of it—about $70000—is going to be spent on solar panels for the roof. And it's his estimation from the work that they've done that through that investment the solar panels on the roof of the school will take care of about 70 percent of the school's energy costs. If there are any gains over and above that from them capturing the energy they also have that ability to be able to distribute those benefits back out to whānau in need—whānau of the local school. So again as I start layering these things that we're doing you can start painting a really rosy picture about what life is like for our families out there that are really struggling.I want to address the point that Andrew Bayly made recently about the impact that the rise in minimum wage is going to have on small to medium enterprises. I am a small- to medium-business man and our company—we actually employ 30 people and we employ them on the living wage—Andrew Bayly: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think I heard the member reference me about the minimum wage; I didn't mention that at all.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): This is a pretty robust debate. I did not hear that and I can't remember if you mentioned that or not—I'll take the member's word for it. But this is a debate on the Prime Minister's statement and members of both sides can make their contributions. It's a debating point.TAMATI COFFEY: Thank you Mr Speaker. We were talking about the impact that small-medium businesses are having out there in today's climate and actually can I make a statement just to say that with the increase in minimum wages actually what it's doing is it's putting a little bit more money into the pockets of those business owners. Yes it may be impacting the usual bottom lines but actually when more people have got a bit more money in their pockets they can actually go back out and spend that in the local economy. That was the point that I was trying to make.We are the Government of infrastructure and that's a great thing because we have invested like we haven't seen before. The New Zealand upgrade—the investment in infrastructure all around New Zealand is going to be beneficial because we need it because we haven't had that kind of investment for such a long time: $12 billion in projects right across New Zealand to futureproof our country.In the Waiariki what have we seen? Well we have seen the Tauranga Northern Link—yeah that's right; we've seen that actually ticked off under this Government.Todd Muller: It was already out to tender. What a disgrace—absolute disgrace.TAMATI COFFEY: But not just that—because actually once you get to the end of the Tauranga Northern Link there's another stretch of road that also needed to be funded too which is the stretch of road to Te Puna to Ōmokoroa.Todd Muller: You'd never say that at Ōmokoroa—you'd be chased out of town; you'd be chased out of town. You're absolutely appalling.TAMATI COFFEY: So what have we done? We're fixing the road. That's right—I can say that to my colleague over there. And actually it's the people of Tauranga that know that it is our Government that has actually invested in this.As well as that in Rotorua we've kicked off Te Ngae Road the upgrades to that and also the Ngongotahā roundabout. I've had countless messages from the chamber of commerce who have talked to me about the impact of the roundabout and the congestion that they face in that area.But actually it's through our Government that we are making those upgrades to our roads because it makes good business sense. And the Opposition just can't seem to handle the fact that on this side we get business; we know business. But actually what we know is we know that people are the core of your business and if you look after the people they'll look after your business. So I want to say that and I say that proudly.I also want to talk about when it comes to people the investment that we are making in terms of mental health. And actually yeah I don't know how you can knock that because we inherited a mental health crisis from the Opposition. So thank you for that. We're rolling up our sleeves and we're doing something about it. It's the new acute mental health facility at Tauranga Hospital that actually is being funded under our Government because of the huge demand and also we're doing it up the road in Whakatāne as well because they need it too just as much and they need kaupapa Māori responsive services too. So as we redesign it we're going to make sure that actually Māori are at the heart of these services because it's our Māori people who keep presenting with those needs.So we start talking about the impact that all of that is going to have to our people and actually it's looking pretty rosy for our people. But are we finished yet? Not at all because as our Prime Minister has said time and time again in this House there is more mahi to do and that's what we're doing; we're doing it. When the Opposition says that we haven't got a plan I encourage everybody in New Zealand to read the Prime Minister's statement and actually see our plan and I want you to compare it to their plan—cos there's a whole lot of nothing.