SpeechGENERAL DEBATEHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Ironic that that member's just taken her seat when we're in the avoid Government" at the moment. Avoid the letter don't talk about the letter. Avoid the letter do not talk about that. Avoid Ihumātao; so avoid talking about it avoid the people avoid going there. Try and sort of throw in a bit of "We're going to halt the building." and then hope that kind of goes away. Just avoid it. Avoid talking about corrections because man have we seen a mess in corrections. The Minister could not even keep the public safe from the worst mass murderer this country has ever seen from his jail cell by putting the right checks and balances—that were already there by law—in place. Were questions asked? Were questions asked so that for such an exceptional criminal in their midst they would actually do something to ensure that the law was upheld? So avoiding this. Avoid talking about that. Avoid talking about the Minister and his responsibilities. Avoid actually looking at the fact that he could further terrorise New Zealanders quite frankly and make the victims feel worse—so avoid talking about that. Avoid Reihana and the fact that a double-murderer was let out without the victims and without the families of the victims actually knowing it and then having to bump into him because again the job had not been done—but avoid talking about that. Certainly avoid debating legalising recreational cannabis. Avoid talking about the fact that the referendum's coming up—avoid talking about that as a Government and the responsibilities that they take in it. Avoid talking about the mess that is within the Labour Party and the fact that people are feeling that they have to go to members of the Opposition to have their voices heard. But avoid talking about all of these things and try and throw a dead cat in the ring. This is what we've had in politics this week. So the first thing they tried to throw in was the: "Oh gosh we need to change the laws around prisoners being able to write letters."; no you don't—no they don't—no you don't. Actually the law didn't need changing; what had to happen was that the actual law itself had to be upheld. So that one didn't work eh? The public weren't that stupid; they knew that actually it wasn't a law change that it needed; it just needed a Government that would actually do its job yeah? So they sort of didn't buy that one and so quickly that was dropped.So the next dead cat that they sort of went "Well what can we throw on the table?" is: "Let's do fuel prices because that will work yeah? Everyone hates paying too much for petrol and we'll be able to go out there and look really strong on petrol and I can thump here." The Government are thinking "We can go out there because everyone hates paying too much." What they didn't bet on is the reason that New Zealanders at the moment are mainly paying too much especially in Auckland—1.5 million Aucklanders—is because we've got taxes being piled on and on and on by the current Government. If they actually cared about people and the cost of fuel they could do something about it this afternoon. They could drop their fuel taxes this afternoon and take them away and we would vote for that. Yeah I'm going to be bold and out there and say that we would support them if they wanted to drop the regional fuel taxes this afternoon—Hon Phil Twyford: Shall we drop your ones too?Hon PAULA BENNETT: —we would actually go in there and we would see that happen. There's a bit of a shout-out from someone there from the Government and they said "We'll drop your ones too."—meaning the previous Government's one.Hon Gerry Brownlee: They're all theirs. Every bit of tax is theirs.Hon PAULA BENNETT: That's right. Well you know we saw 18c over nine years; we're going to see 24c over three years under this current Government yeah? So that's what it is; it's pile it on pile it on. It was Mr Twyford that did a shout-out then—just in case anyone is vaguely interested—and I want to say to him "With all of that money have you spent any of it and could you please build some infrastructure" [Interruption] "and actually some roads for it?"SPEAKER: Order! Hon PAULA BENNETT: The Prime Minister says that there is not enough—SPEAKER: Order! I did a ruling listen.Hon PAULA BENNETT: I'm trying to test it out not on you though Mr Speaker; on them you—competition in the fuel prices. The last time we heard that from a Labour Government we got Kiwibank yeah? So you know you've just got to ask yourself: "Has Kiwibank actually meant that we've seen bank profits go down?" Well no it's actually given some choice to New Zealanders but it has not taken away—so is it "Kiwifuel" that we're going to see next? Is the Government taking over the infrastructure from the fuel companies and are they going to start building "Kiwifuel" at the pumps and subsidise it for those that they see while still piling on taxes in other areas? No results—SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired. The Hon Phil Twyford. [Interruption] Right the member will resume his seat. All members who said boo or something similar will stand up—and not walk out. Right noted."