Bishop Chris; Salesa JennyCHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. Well the member who's just resumed her seat is right: it's not the start we were expecting and it's certainly not the start she was expecting I suspect when Chris Hipkins rang her up and said I've got a job for you. I'm moving into the big seat; you're going to take on the Minister of Education role." Jan Tinetti thought "Fantastic! My life's dream." but what she doesn't realise is she's been handed a hospital pass because we've got an education system in crisis that Chris Hipkins oversaw for five years: truancy on the increase results on the decrease and a Government with no plan to fix it. Jan Tinetti is going to be responsible for sorting out the Te Pūkenga mess bequeathed to her by Chris Hipkins Jan Tinetti's going to have to sort out increasing truancy bequeathed to her by Chris Hipkins and Jan Tinetti's going to have to sort out declining achievement in our schools—kids who can't read and write even when they actually get to school again—bequeathed to her by Chris Hipkins who has overseen a shambolic education department for the last five years; $5 billion of increased spending 1400 more bureaucrats at the Ministry of Education but yet results are going backwards and this Government has no plan to do anything about it.The first five years of this Government have been defined by five things: big spending big taxation wasteful Government programmes an inability to get things done and soft on crime. The news for New Zealanders is that Labour's changed the face; they've changed the top two but the actual Government programme is all the same. It's same old Labour. Plus ça change same old Labour.Go through the numbers. This Government like the Ardern Government has a big spending agenda because Grant Robertson who's overseen a 50 percent increase in Government spending in just the last five years is still the Minister of Finance. Apparently all the Ministers are going through reprioritisation exercises and they're going to find out all the nickels and dimes. Well I have asked every Minister a written question; I've said to them "What are you doing with your reprioritisation exercise? What have you identified so far?" Guess what? Nobody's found a cent. Now I did only ask them a couple of weeks or so ago so we'll wait and see but my prediction is that yeah I'm sure there'll be a million-dollar slice here or a $500000 programme slice there but the big spending will continue and that's putting pressure on inflation that's going to stay high above the band for longer. It's putting pressure on mortgage interest rates and it is a big contributor to the Government's problems and to New Zealand's problems.Secondly big taxation: $17000 $500 more per household since 2017. This Government is addicted to taxation in the same way that they are addicted to spending. What did the Government want New Zealanders to think a few weeks ago? Oh the jobs tax—sorry the social insurance scheme Grant Robertson's fantasy. They wanted everyone to think "Oh no it's been deferred; we can't do it." What they didn't tell New Zealanders is you had to read the fine print: it's just been kicked to the long grass for a year. If Labour get back it'll be back on the table after the next election.And they haven't done away with all of the other taxes that they've introduced in the last five years. The tenant tax is putting pressure on rents up 150 bucks a week in the last five years; the ute tax the regional fuel tax. What we know is that David Parker has his "Piketty unit" squirrelling away hundreds more—well probably not hundreds but certainly dozens more bureaucrats in the Inland Revenue Department in Wellington down the road from Parliament squirrelling away there furrowing into the tax code to try and figure out even more pernicious ways to raise tax on New Zealanders because when you increase spending by 50 percent in five years you have to pay for it somehow and they know that. So we've got more taxes coming down the pipeline. So again changed the leader; the policies haven't actually changed.Third thing is the waste: $50 million spent so far on light rail that was meant to be built by 2020 but has yet to—[Interruption] I'm sorry it has started—it has started. Michael Wood was out there today with his little bucket and shovel out at some—I don't know where he was; somewhere along the voluminous route pretending to start on light rail. I think it's euphemistically described as "early works". Well early works—look having been involved in a few photo ops in my time early works with a little bucket and shovel to do seismic work; no one's going to believe that. It doesn't pass the sniff test. Light rail is as far away now as it was when Phil Twyford was the poor bedraggled Minister of Transport all the way back in 2017 and Michael Wood was doing Facebook videos about how Labour's number one transport priority in Auckland was light rail which he said would be built by 2020. He said that the only way to deliver that was to party vote for Labour. Well enough people did in 2017 and now we find out they've been betrayed because here we are in 2023 and it hasn't even started—well it has started if you count Michael Wood 's little bucket and shovel act today.Fifty-one million dollars on a cycle bridge that nobody wanted that ended up being cancelled. And then we get to the consultants. Chris Hipkins said in 2018—the last National Government—"I'm going to do something about those consultants they used. I'm going to get it under control." Well what have we now? Last year $1.25 billion spent on consultants and 14000 more bureaucrats in Wellington compared to five years ago. This Government knows all about how to spend and they know how to spend it wastefully. Again change the leader you change the leadership; you don't actually change the party you don't change the Government.Fourth point that defines this Government: an inability to get things done because despite the 50 percent increase in Government spending despite the oodles of extra tax they have taken off New Zealanders when you look right across the board from social services to infrastructure to housing things are going backwards not better.Nicola Willis: But what about KiwiBuild?CHRIS BISHOP: And my colleague Nicola Willis raises the example of KiwiBuild another totemic policy like light rail. One of the few things that people actually remember about the 2017 election campaign—they vaguely remember light rail but they definitely remember the 100000 houses that David Shearer dreamt up in the back of the VIP car with Annette King all those years ago. They remember that Labour said we were going to build 100000 homes and I think last time I looked I think we were at about 2 percent out of 100000 homes. So that has become the totemic policy failure by this Government.But it's not just KiwiBuild; it's everything involved in the infrastructure space from light rail the fact that the Government smashed the transport pipeline in 2017 when they cut the State highway budgets and caused chaos in the sector. That is why we do want the Government to commit enough resources and reorganise themselves to rebuild the shattered communities on the East Coast and the Hawke's Bay and we will hold them to account for that because it is very important that that happens. But we do have scepticism that this Government has the wherewithal and the commitment and the organisational ability and the nous to actually know how to get things done because very few transport projects have started in the last five years and the Government is defined by its inability to actually do things.Finally again on the theme of "you can change the leader but the Government does not change" this Government is soft on crime. I predict this phrase "unsubstantiated rumour" will become like "I reject the premise" because "unsubstantiated rumour" is what Chris Hipkins said about the multiple—it wasn't even a few; multiple—reports coming out of Hawke's Bay and the East Coast of lawlessness primarily driven by the gangs. Here's the sad thing: I used to be the police spokesperson and I was against Stuart Nash and Stuart Nash used to turn up here and say "Ah well I'm going to smash the gangs." It's literally what he said. He used to you know puff himself up and say "Under Labour they need to know I'm going to smash them. We are going to go out there and take their guns off them and we are going to crack down on them." Five years later Stuart Nash is the police Minister again after the hapless Poto Williams was shunted out and Stuart Nash's latest thing is "Oh please take your patches off. That would be really good—please take them off." So the guy who went from "I'm going to smash them." has been reduced to asking them to take their patches off. Doesn't that just summarise the descent of this useless Government?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call. I call the Hon Willie Jackson—five minutes."