Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Well thank you very much Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise in regards to the Prime Minister's statement and take a call.I want to first recognise the implications as the Prime Minister noted in his statement of the flooding that impacted Auckland and in particular my electorate of the North Shore. Now areas of my electorate including Milford Sunnynook Stanley Point Bayswater Mairangi Bay and elements of Takapuna all suffered flooding and quite significant damage to multiple homes and households. The implication of that on businesses was also significant. My community like many around this country are continuing on that path to clean up and tidy up following those events.As the prior speaker the Hon Nanaia Mahuta noted these events have and will and do reinforce the need for us to take action in regards to the resilience of our communities. The impact of climate change in terms of the impact on weather events that we are seeing much more regularly is absolutely a factor that we need to take into account in terms of our long-term planning. And for me and for my community that is something very much close to home.While I'm on that topic I want to call out one of our local heroes and the gentleman's name is Steve Clegg. Steve is the site manager at the Wilson Trust Home. The Wilson Trust Home is a home for children with disabilities and it is one of the country's leading centres based in the area of Hauraki and Belmont next to Takapuna Grammar. Steve during the floods and the storms following was noted by the principal of the Wilson School for basically coming out in the middle of the night with chainsaws to be able to cut a number of trees that had fallen blocking that Wilson Trust site. I think it's just one small example of local people responding to local issues in a way in which benefits all in our community. So Steve along with many others across our country we acknowledge that work.I was actually talking last evening to one of the extended-care paramedics that was deployed from Auckland into the Hawke's Bay and was alongside our defence personnel iwi relations and other members basically helicoptered in for the first week post that. It reinforced as well that actually the response and the applications felt in the Hawke's Bay had meant that many people across this country have come to provide support and assistance for a community that has been significantly impacted.For those within our local government areas not only those local government councillors and mayors and emergency support staff and staff within our councils not only in the regions heavily impacted but also those regions that have come to support those regions because they have the capability and the ability to support—I acknowledge them. Those members across all of our councils and local government have done an absolutely tremendous role in terms of leading a local response to what has been a local crisis. And the ability of no doubt local knowledge to be able to be deployed at pace has seen a number of significant benefits and it's added a significant amount of value to those Kiwis that are very much hurting and continue to hurt as we face the coming weeks.In the Prime Minister's statement the other element that was also referenced was around the economy. The Prime Minister stated that inflation is biting into Kiwi household budgets and is impacting families. And he's right—it absolutely is. Inflation is a significant implication and burden on hardworking Kiwis across this country. Inflation is at levels that are a significant point in our history. The reality is that a number of these factors are having a significant impact in terms of hurt that many Kiwi households are facing.The challenge is that the hurt that Kiwis are facing is in part a result of the hurt from policies of this Government. That is the reality because we can no longer simply call out that the drivers of inflation are only as a result of global matters—that train has left the station. With global factors around supply chain constraints cooling as outlined by Treasury and many other players it moves us back to the reality that Government spending and the cost of this Government is driving the cost of living crisis that our families are facing. And we have to acknowledge that. We have to be able to look in the mirror and recognise that we and this Government have to—Anna Lorck: Well what are you doing about it; what are you going to do?SIMON WATTS: —and do have a role in regards to that. And it's interesting—we've got a call from the other side saying so what are we doing about it? So this is a really good example of a Government that cannot be accountable. They are a Government—they are a Government. But I'll tell you what quite happy to—if they want to call an election tomorrow let's do that and let's swap sides and let's get some stuff done. Because that is the reality of members on that side of the House that are simply not taking accountability or responsibility for the challenges that this country faces.Anna Lorck: Where are the positive ideas?SIMON WATTS: And they're still going on but I'm going to continue to focus on what is in front of us.So why don't we talk about the comments by the Prime Minister in regards to the three waters refocus—three waters refocus. I wanted to share a little bit of update stats because we've got some new numbers today; $35.8 million is the latest update in terms of how much this Government has spent on policy development for the three waters reforms—$35.8 million. That is the scale and significance of wastage of expenditure by this Government. And the Prime Minister in his statement says we are only going to refocus. They have had four long years of planning in regards to this reform. Surprisingly when you get a polling result that shows you that 70 percent of Kiwis think this is an absolutely ridiculous idea the Prime Minister or the new Prime Minister decides well it's time for refocus. Well we still have not heard what that refocus is going to be even though they said it was going to be in a couple of weeks. But National has outlined a very clear plan. Here it is: local water done well. Here's the solution: instead of $35.8 million of policy development they can have the National Party policy for free. Here it is. It's over here. Happy to table it; happy to have a read of it. It's got all the answers. It's going to solve the problems. If only this Government would listen.It's also interesting—the large number of councils across this country that have come in in support and endorsement of this policy because National right from the start has said we will work with local government not against them. It's funny that the Prime Minister has added into this statement now that we'll work with local government". I don't know what they were doing for the last number of years but that is the reality. They are spending $1 million a month on consultants and contractors on that failed mega-entity reform programme—$1 million a month. That is an absolute disgrace.The Prime Minister also in his statement noted around the investment required in three waters to bring it up to scratch. The Prime Minister quoted numbers of $120 billion to $185 billion. These numbers are implausible. They are numbers that are simply based on the Scottish water model that independent experts have said are simply not the reality. Yet the Prime Minister continues to use such numbers in the public domain which are not substantiated by a number of third parties across this country. So that is the reality of more information in the speech that doesn't link with what's actually happening on the ground.The other aspect in the Prime Minister's statement was actually around some information around education. We heard about these 82 attendance officers to turn around the over 100000 kids that are in long-term truancy from school—82. So I'll tell you what I did the maths because we had a question in the House today if I recall about let's do the mathematics on what that is. So 1219 students—SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired."