Robertson GrantGENERAL DEBATEHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. It's interesting to think about priorities in this House. We've seen more questions today about texts emails and goat culls than we have about the economy. There's a reason for that. There's a reason for that and that's because the National Party don't like good news—they don't like good news. They don't like the fact that we've just had the best quarter of growth in two years. They don't like the fact that Moody's have said that our triple A rating stays and that they think that our prospects are better than most of the other 11 countries who have a triple A rating. The growth that we are now seeing in the economy is broad-based—15 of 16 industries growing in the last quarter. But we know on this side of the House that we cannot be complacent about that growth. We know that if we want a healthy economy everyone in New Zealand needs to benefit from that and that is why we've got initiatives like the Provincial Growth Fund. That is why we've got initiatives like the Green Investment Fund. That's why we're investing in research and development. And that's why we're investing in skills and training. We know on this side of the House that the good news that we're seeing about the economy today can only get better and it will get better. It will get better because we have a long-term plan to do that. This is a Government not only focused on growing a productive and sustainable economy that delivers higher standards of living and better wages to New Zealand; we are also focused on being a compassionate Government as well making sure that when there is a wrong we are prepared to stand up and right it. I want to congratulate my colleague Phil Twyford about what he did this week with Housing New Zealand on the meth panic and meth contamination issue. I want to contrast that with the bizarre backflipping over on the other side of the House where we had Paula Bennett telling the House that it was something that they should look at—they should look at compensation they should look at being fair—and then Simon Bridges lost control of the communications machine to Judith Collins. That's what happened. We can see the lengths that Simon Bridges is going to to try and get back control of the communications. He's using the tried and true write-it-on-your-hand technique. [Shows photo] That's what he's using. Now we have had the best forensic experts in New Zealand analyse what is written on Simon Bridges' hand and I can confirm it says the following things: Simon: good. Jacinda: bad. Where's Judith? Don't wash hands." That's the instruction Simon Bridges is giving himself because Simon Bridges and the National Party are stuck in the first stage of the seven stages of grief: shock and denial—shock and denial. That's all they've got. I was wondering when I looked at those words whether it was actually a cry for help because in the past people have written things on their hand placed them against windows and said "This is a cry for help. Let me out! Judith has me trapped here! Let me out of here!" The other option: we have had a close look and we believe it may contain the list of potential leakers. That's what we think we may have here. [Shows photo again]. Now it's very hard to read; I can make out a "J" but then there are no other letters. It does say "Not me." although we're not sure about that either on this side of the House. The National Party is now the dog barking at every single car that goes by. But the one thing they're not barking at is the economy. On this side of the House we know that the National Party came into this House in Opposition saying that this side of the House would ruin the economy and this side of the House wouldn't be able to see those growth rates and now they've stopped asking questions about it. Now they're not even prepared to get on their feet and mount a decent case about where they would take the economy because it's all about the goats and it's all about the texts. Well on this side of the House we know that what New Zealanders want to hear about is how their wages are going to grow the fact that they've got a Government that cares about them and their families and is prepared to invest in it and the fact that they have a coalition Government that represents the majority view of New Zealanders that we can be a better country that we can be a country that's more productive that's more sustainable and where we care about one another. That is what this Government is about. The National Party have forgotten all of that."