SpeechHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. I fear the Labour colleagues who have just been speaking have not got the meno about what this debate is because Dr Deborah Russell spoke virtually all about the present and Greg O'Connor gave us a treatise on what happened in the 1880s. But actually what this is about is the next 40 years. Now I've mentioned this before my favourite economist is Henry Hazlitt and I commend his book Economics In One Lesson to all MPs as a primer on what—Helen White: No. Ha ha!Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: Oh there she goes. Yes well there's the socialist chuckling away. But let me remind the House what he said in part one: The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences … not merely for one group but for all groups." And then he went on to say this: "There are men regarded today as brilliant economists who deprecate saving and recommend squandering on a national scale as the way of economic salvation; and when anyone points to what the consequences of these policies will be in the long run they reply flippantly as might the prodigal son of a warning father: 'In the long run we are all dead.' And such shallow wisecracks pass as devastating epigrams". Well I would suggest that that prodigal son is none other than the Minister of Finance Grant Robertson because he is kicking the can down the road on all of the significant issues that the Long-term Insights Briefing has got. And we'll touch on the three main ones: superannuation healthcare and climate change. And I'm afraid the Government's position on this is woeful.First the rhetorical question: if this is long term and we don't have to panic today at what point do we start doing small things differently regularly so that in 40 years' time we don't have debt at 200 percent of GDP? And the reality is that should already have started. And the previous National Government in the 2017 election campaign—in fact the last two—started an honest conversation about what superannuation changes might be necessary and the small but direct changes to the eligibility criteria that would take the worst edges off the cost of superannuation in the next generation. And Jacinda Ardern agreed with the previous National Government when she was in Opposition. In fact she thought we weren't doing enough. But when she became Prime Minister she vowed to resign rather than make changes to superannuation policy. So here's a Government that says "Oh yes we've got to take important action." except they don't take important action. And when they do it goes the other way.Take climate change. There's been quite a bit of discussion here and there's been lots of lofty rhetoric by both Labour and the Greens on this only their record is terrible. Gross greenhouse gas emissions are going up not down. That's exactly what happened with the Clark Government when they talked a good game and greenhouse gas emissions went up by 10 percent on their watch. They flat-lined over the nine years of the previous National Government notwithstanding that there was quite significant population growth. A Labour Government comes back to office and greenhouse gas emissions go up again. Why aren't we surprised by that? They ban oil and gas in the Taranaki and then import 2 million tonnes of Indonesian coal to fire up Huntly because we have a problem with electricity supply.Simeon Brown: Oh that works doesn't it!Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: Even Te Huia—my favourite one and Simeon Brown's as well: we know that it would be less harmful on the environment to take the passengers on the Te Huia train and put them into four-wheel drives. They would get there quicker cheaper and with fewer greenhouse gas emissions. How on earth is that a progressive Government actually doing policies that are going to avoid the sorts of harm that this report proposes?And I won't have time to touch on the third of the trifecta and that is the health system. But I'll just say this: at a time when we need to ensure improved health to prevent long-term conditions this Government is focused on spending half a billion dollars rearranging the deck chairs in the health system for no demonstrable gain in health outcomes for New Zealanders now nor in the future. That is a significant waste. It's a distraction in the health system from what we should really be doing: small steady steps towards avoiding these and we're going backwards."