Hipkins ChrisHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the House): Mr Speaker it is a great pleasure to take a brief call in this very important adjournment debate and I will keep it brief because I know the members of the parliamentary press gallery are hanging on my every word eager to file their coverage of this very important debate before they finish up for the political year and head off to have a few beverages with their colleagues. I know that they'll be keen to get that over and done with.It's been quite a debate here. I have to say Simon Bridges' speech was probably one of the better ones that he's delivered so far this year. He clearly didn't write it himself but it was one of the better ones. Mr Bishop told us about all of the roads that he wants for Christmas. That was quite interesting because he may as well ask Santa Claus for them because the last National Government certainly didn't fund them. But this Government unlike the last Government is actually focused on filling the infrastructure deficit that we inherited.So here comes the graph; I thought it needed one more outing before the end of the year because on this side of the House we are very proud to be the infrastructure Government the infrastructure Government that New Zealand has been lacking. Now for the members opposite I thought I'd give them a little lesson. The global financial crisis happened in 2008 and 2009—the first bar of the graph where there's still a reasonable level of infrastructure spending National's first year in office. Of course the Budget for 2009 was set by the last Labour Government. Then we see the global financial crisis winds up and it officially was declared over in 2011 the global financial crisis. Then we see at the end of the global financial crisis that capital spending for the Government continues to be cut. Of course the Christchurch earthquake was the other excuse. One would think that the Christchurch earthquake might've prompted an increase in the Government's capital spending but no we see the numbers—they keep going down. They went down in 2011 they went down in 2012 down again in 2013 down again in 2014 and then finally National realised Actually maybe we might've made a few mistakes here." and you see a little bit of spending going up in 2015-2016 but then it goes down again in 2017.And what do we see in 2018 with the advent of a Labour Government? Oh infrastructure spending starts going up. It goes up in 2019 it goes up in 2020 and it goes up in 2021. This is the infrastructure Government delivering the infrastructure that New Zealanders have been asking for and that New Zealanders have needed.But of course this is the season to be kind so I do want to say a few words of thanks to the Opposition. I want to thank the Opposition for their wholehearted endorsement of the Government's legislative programme this year. How else to explain the fact that this Parliament has passed more legislation than in any other year on recent record? Seventy-four bills have gone through this House. Now that's a number slightly different from the number that I know Mr Speaker will probably use because for consistency's sake we've treated cognate bills or bills that are subsequently divided as one bill for the purposes of consistency. We went back and had a look at National's record in Government. The highest point they ever got was in their second year in Government where they managed to pass 63. So I do want to thank the Opposition for their wholehearted cooperation with the Government to pass this record level of legislation.Of course they must have huge confidence in our in our legislative programme because our legislative programme received half the degree of scrutiny in the committee stages of this House than the bills passed by National in their last full year in Government. I think that that shows they've got huge confidence. Despite their public rhetoric they know actually in their heart of hearts that this Government is doing the right thing by New Zealand and so I thank them for their support. They know that we are tackling the big long-term issues facing New Zealand. They know that we are lifting children out of poverty they know that we are dealing with the underinvestment that there has been in infrastructure and they know that we are getting serious about mental health.You see evidence of the Government's enormous progress and the fact that we're getting on with the job in my own portfolio in the education sector: $1.2 billion injected in this year's Budget for school infrastructure new schools and classrooms throughout the country. Todd Muller's been bashing down my door demanding more and more for his electorate because he knows that his own Government didn't deliver the new schools and classrooms that his electorate so desperately needs. But it gets better—there's more—because another $400 million has just now been pumped into a capital injection for school maintenance so we can bring schools up to standards. Of course this builds on our work earlier in the year. We gave most teachers in the country an average pay rise of $12000. We had the first across-the-board increases in early childhood education funding not once but twice. We did it last year and we've done it this year as well. We've put extra funding into schools so they don't have to ask parents for donations resulting in a lot of families feeling the squeeze not quite so much at the beginning of the next school year. We've scrapped fees for NCEA to level the playing field. We have delivered a living wage for school support staff—that's teacher-aides caretakers ground staff the people that may keep our schools running on a daily basis. They are getting a living wage under this Government.We are getting serious about tackling the skills shortages that have been holding New Zealand back making sure that we're focused on learning that's relevant learning that's future-focused and that's going to ensure that people can participate fully in our productive economy. Bringing together on-job learning off-job learning online learning into a seamless form of vocational education so that New Zealanders can access anywhere any time the learning that they need in that area. It is long overdue and it is something this Government is very proud to be delivering.A brief word before I end about the coming election campaign. We will come back to this House no doubt all guns blazing next year as we head into election year. Political leaders at their best inspire hope they bring people together they show compassion and they are willing to have open and honest conversations about long-term and complex challenges. At their worst political leaders stoke fear and resentment they set out to divide people they pull up the ladder of opportunity behind themselves they attack those who dare greatly and who have the audacity to believe that better is possible.I believe that New Zealand at its best punches well above its weight. It is clear from their behaviour in recent months that the members opposite are intent on punching down in election year. My message to them is: if they want to be political leaders at their best if they want to inspire hope if they want to bring people together if they want to show compassion if they want to tackle the big long-term challenges facing New Zealand we will go toe to toe with them on all of those issues. If they want to drag the campaign into the gutter they will be down there by themselves because we will not follow them along that dark corridor. They may be inspired by others around the world who have been successful in doing that; well I believe that New Zealanders are better than that. I believe that New Zealand is given a choice between a Government that inspires hope that wants to bring people together that's open and honest about the challenges that our country faces that's not afraid to dare greatly and an Opposition that wants everything to be a small target that thinks better isn't possible that we should just settle for what we've got now and that we should give up on hope. I think New Zealanders will choose the right path. I've got huge faith in this side of the House going into election year. It's going to be a fantastic campaign. Let's bring it on."