English BillHon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister): That speech from Andrew Little just proves that it did not work. The Leader of the Opposition flew off to Canada to get advice from the second-most positive politician in the world after John Key and he said: Mr Little be positive." He got off the plane and I thought: "OK. I'm sceptical but I'll be positive. This might work." But as the days have gone on including today it turns out that some things just cannot happen. The Opposition being positive? Well it is like Andrew Little looking happy—it just cannot happen. Grant Robertson looking industrious? It just cannot happen. The Labour Party coming up with a progressive idea? It just cannot happen. New Zealand First acting rationally? It just cannot happen. So the trip to Canada was a waste of time and it should not have been because there is so much to be positive about—so much. It is overwhelming actually in respect of the economy—an overwhelming amount of evidence that the economy is progressing positively and delivering consistent and moderate benefits to New Zealand households. The growth rate is pretty good. We are third or fourth top in the OECD. Unemployment is at around 5 percent. The Government books are stable and in surplus. Employment growth is stronger than it has been for a while. There is a big turn-around in the number of New Zealanders leaving this country—thousands of them are staying home when they were leaving in their thousands just a few years ago. Even in the dairy industry commodity prices are picking up. But of course from the Opposition's point of view this is not how it was meant to be. We had the manufacturing crisis the cost of living crisis the jobs crisis and the post-earthquake crisis when the economy was meant to fall in a hole after the earthquake. But my favourite is the dairy crisis because we have had two crises with the dairy industry: first that it was going too well and then that it was going badly. They were both a crisis. And of course what we know in this House is that as soon as the Opposition says it is a crisis it starts going really well. That is what happens every time. What did those members do to be positive? Grant Robertson and Andrew Little both stuck to their jobs. Andrew Little went to every poll he could to try to find the negative one and he did on his desk—the poll he had done himself. That was the end of being positive about Government in New Zealand. Grant Robertson surprisingly I have to say—and I am positive about this—went through 22 pages of economic data. That is probably more this week than in the previous number of years he has been the spokesman—22 pages. He found a negative number one-quarter of real disposable income after tax for one quarter and he said: "That's negative." If Justin Trudeau was ever interested in whether anyone ever listens to him then he should ask the New Zealand Labour Party because it did not. And that is Labour's problem. It is fundamentally out of kilter with the aspiration and confidence of New Zealand. It is running the best arguments out of 1996 about the economy. But it has changed: it is better. It is different. It is strong. It is forward-looking. It is aspirational. It is delivering the ability to solve a whole range of problems from Treaty settlements through to how we get more effective public services. Labour's positive phase is over. It lasted from the door of the airplane to when Andrew Little got through customs and that was it. Now it is back to the same old grinding negativity although you must say the Leader of the Opposition is well adapted to that task and I am sure he is going to stick to it."