Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. It's an absolute pleasure to rise in this general debate to talk about a topic that we have not heard much about today have we ladies and gentlemen? That is the topic of increasing economic growth. For those on the other side of the House that require a translation of what those words mean—because I do expect and understand that many on that side of the House would not have a clue what we mean when we say increasing economic growth"—I'm going to give a little bit of a lesson around where we need to be focused as a country.One of the areas that you are not going to hear much from that side of the House on tomorrow is what actually drives this country; pays for our education and health services; and makes us—and should make us—the envy of the world in terms of a place to live raise a family retire and that is around the elements that drive economic growth. Infrastructure investment drives economic growth. You hardly ever hear conversations around infrastructure from that side of the House unless we are dealing with the tidy up following a natural disaster. Before the natural disasters that we saw this year did you ever hear of any announcements from that side of the House around large-scale infrastructure investment programmes that they would undertake to increase economic growth increase jobs and increase productivity? The answer is no because they do not understand the reality of what is required in this country to get us to turn around the situation which faces us right now and get us back on track and get us successful in this world. One of the issues around infrastructure investment is the need for certainty. The private sector requires certainty of pipeline of what are those large infrastructure projects that the Government will partner with local government and the private sector to invest in over the next 10 20 30 years and beyond. These infrastructure projects are critical in order to unlock the economic growth and potential within our regions our provinces and our cities.Right now this country is stuck at the stoplights at the traffic lights stuck on a red light and it's a red light from that side of the House that means this country is not going ahead. We need real leadership leadership that understands the fundamentals—that economic growth is our pathway in this country to drive us from where we are today to where we need to be in the future. It beggars belief that on this side of the House there is a complete understanding of that yet on the other side of the House they simply do not understand. Recently we put out at the beginning of this year the National Party's policy around "local water done well"—Anna Lorck: They don't like that anymore!SIMON WATTS: —our solution in regards to long-term infrastructure investment in water across this country. And you hear the member from Hawke's Bay yapping on on the other side because their plan will not deliver sustainable change for her communities and her communities will tell her that on 14 October and it's lights out time for a new MP in that region. Rightly so because this Government has failed to take the action required to turn this ship around and we are now under this Labour Government destined for that ship becoming grounded and grounded pretty swiftly. We need to unlock that economic potential through infrastructure growth. We need to get on and start building this country back. We need to start giving certainty to our private sector to employ the workforce to train apprentices to get people out there and start building this country. That is the certainty that comes with long-term infrastructure investment. That is what's not happening from the other side of this House. That is what is going to change 154 days from now. I am looking forward—under a Christopher Luxon - led National Government—that we are going to turn this country around get this country back on track and that is critical for New Zealand success and I'm looking forward to being part of that.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed."