Foster-Bell PaulPAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): E Te Māngai o Te Whare mauriora! I really need a nice cold refreshing glass of Coke to wash that cloying taste of the nanny State out of my mouth after that last contribution. Can I say what a great time it is to be a Kiwi; what a wonderful time it is to be a Wellingtonian. It must be a worrying time for our friends and cousins in the United States and we wish them all the best as the world's greatest democracy goes through its 4-yearly ritual. It is a great time to live under this constitutional monarchy where we have a head of State who is completely and utterly reliable at all times and we have a Government that is doing a fantastic job.Here in Wellington which I am proud to work in as a list MP the economy is going very well. Jobs are on the increase. It is a delight to be able to report to the House that in the year ended September employment in Wellington was massively up—in fact unemployment was down by 1.6 percent so we are well below the national average of 4.6 percent. Wellington is making a significant contribution to our country's GDP and a significant contribution to job creation and growth in the services sector.So what does the success in growing employment in Wellington look like? It means bigger and better events. This year we had an absolute record time with the World of Wearable Art Awards. We had the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo where the town was absolutely sold out. We had the success of the Shakespeare Globe Centre's battle between primary school children re-enacting the Battle of Agincourt from Henry V at the Westpac Stadium which I was pleased to go to yesterday. There were 500 primary schoolkids who participated in that event and I want to shout out to Dawn Sanders who organised that wonderful event. We hopefully will have a revitalised format for the Sevens next year. So these are events that drive jobs and economic activity in the capital.The hospitality sector is performing strongly. Visa Wellington on a Plate here in Wellington had over 20000 tickets sold last year and there were 126 different kinds of hamburger on offer—something that really appeals to my taste and sensibilities. We have to thank the hospitality sector for the work it does. I want to call on the police the medical officer of health and the council to respect the decisions that have been made by Parliament and the laws we have enacted to allow the hospitality sector to successfully operate and to continue to employ thousands of people here in Wellington.Accommodation is going gangbusters with insufficient rooms in Wellington—as there previously were. We have seen the construction of new hotels from the five-star Sofitel to the 137 rooms of the Park Hotel on Lambton Quay. Congratulations to Alex Cassels on getting that one off the ground. And we look forward to a new Rydges breaking ground shortly at the airport. We have seen burgeoning transport links from this Government's investment in Transmission Gully so we have the road piece of the puzzle through to new flights linking Wellington to Canberra then on to Singapore where we have seen an expansion of freight capacity from 2 tonnes on a narrow-body aircraft to 15 tonnes on Singapore Airlines' airliners. This is very positive.What is the Government doing to back up this success and to underpin it? We are doing a lot. The Government is running a fiscal surplus. We are managing the State's books—the Government's books—in a very fiscally responsible way. This gives business the confidence to invest their own money into creating new jobs. We are warming against the maladies that result from failed policy prescriptions such as Labour's bungled announcement on the weekend over its jobs policy. Aside from this picture of overall sensible economic management there are a number of specific programmes that are successfully underpinning local growth. I want to reference a couple of them.By setting up a new ICT graduate school in Wellington we have trained up even more highly qualified digital gurus who are going on to work in the film sector. Combined with the Whitireia and WelTec combined creative campus on Cuba Street the software design sector is getting a supply of good quality locally trained graduates to meet its needs.Last month in October two out of three of the business accelerator grants that were given out by the Government went to Creative HQ which is a local incubator. It is doing wonderful work. We are seeing financial sector technology and energy which fit really well within our capital's brand as an innovative and clean and green city. I will point out—as have other colleagues—that New Zealand featured on the Legatum Institute's Global Prosperity Index released last week as No. 1. This does not make us the wealthiest country in the world but it means we have the best quality of life with the resources we have. I want to shout out to Harriet Maltby who leads the work on that at the Legatum Institute in London. Harriet will be visiting New Zealand shortly and we hope to be able to show her how correct she was when she pointed out that we are No. 1 in the world.