Mark RonRON MARK (Deputy Leader—NZ First): Once again it is very interesting listening to some of the speeches from the Government benches. You really would think off the back of that speech that everything that the National Governments did prior to 1984 was bad and wrong. They must have been such a useless bunch of governors administrators Ministers and Prime Ministers! That is what Mr Bishop thinks of the legacy of his old National Party. Up in Pahīatua in the Wairarapa and Mangamutu we do not think that way because the Rt Hon Sir Keith Holyoake came from Mangamutu. He is dearly loved and people did not think he was an idiot Mr Bishop. They thought he was actually a very kind generous man who stood by the old principles of the old National Party—something that has been replaced by the Liberal Party of New Zealand" which is very evident in this Budget and very evident in the speeches that we hear today.This Budget and these Estimates do not reflect the National Party; they reflect a neo-liberal party that has managed to take over what was once a grand old party—a party that was strong on social conscience that was firm in its head about personal responsibility and that managed with fiscal prudence the economy of the nation and the development of all of its people. This is a Government that thinks it is better to divest itself of such onerous responsibilities as providing housing for low-income New Zealanders—for New Zealanders who struggle because of the very low wages they earn and because of the very competitive trickle-down free-market economy that we have created.This is the new National Party—the new "Liberal Party of New Zealand"—that believes in the fiscalisation of our economy as opposed to managing the nation's economy to the benefit of all people and not just the wealthy elite few who happen to own personally millions of dollars. These are the very same people who benefited the most from the magic tax cuts that so undermined this Government's ability to deliver competent capable efficient and effective public services to the people of New Zealand like being able to run a prison where prisoners are safe and being able to run a justice system that keeps the citizens of New Zealand safe. But no that does not matter to this neo-liberal party because such things do not matter to it. It is all about the bottom line the fiscalisation of the economy return on investment and to hell with ordinary New Zealanders.It is probably reflected when one goes and looks at the pecuniary interests and sees just where these people come from. The neo-liberal National Party of New Zealand parachutes people into rural New Zealand who are not from that area. What does it say to every rural National Party member—Hon Member: What are you talking about?RON MARK: What does it say Alastair Scott? What does it say to the people of the Wairarapa that the National Party would prefer to have a banker representing—Hon Simon Bridges: He lives there. He runs a vineyard there.RON MARK: He does not live there. Mr Bridges the man responsible for WorkSafe who does not know that when you climb a big ladder on a digger and you get to a certain height above the ground—Mr Bridges you should have a harness on. But that is—Hon Simon Bridges: Oh this is cruel.RON MARK: Ha ha! But that is Mr Bridges who brings a law to the House and then demonstrates "Well you know do what I say and not what I do." It was a good morning Mr Bridges but you do understand the impact that your legislation—the occupational safety and health legislation—is having in terms of compliance for those businesses that you trumpet that you so support.We were standing there at that particular event wearing hundreds of dollars of safety equipment. I kid you not—Mr Scott was there I was there Mr Bridges was there—we got out of that bus at the Waingawa Log Hub and we must have walked 10 metres from the bus to the area where we congregated so the Minister could have the photo opportunity but we wore the most expensive flashest high-visibility jackets padded and insulated as they were all at the cost of Centreport all at the cost of the logging industry all at the cost of the truckers—the people who put on the event that day. We had brand-spanking-new hard hats. We had steel-capped boots. Thousands and thousands of dollars on us dignitaries—apparently we were—who turned up to watch Mr Bridges cut the ribbon with a pair of scissors.Hon Simon Bridges: They were sharp!RON MARK: You know what I did say to Mr Bridges—as he took the scissors and he walked across that uneven ground towards that big loader I said: "Mr Bridges have you had a safety briefing on how to use those scissors? I don't want you cutting yourself." He had not—he had not. The irony is not lost on us that this Government would pass onerous legislation that the Labour Party might be proud of passing. This is not lost on New Zealand First. But I did attend the civil contractors' conference where again Mr Bridges and I—he made a comment to me that we were probably seeing too much of each other that week. But he did open the event and opened it well. But it was interesting listening to the—Hon Simon Bridges: Now you have told everyone our secret.RON MARK: No no we have not talked about it. We did attend that conference and one of the things that came out from that conference sitting there listening to the debate and the discussion and the workshops was how onerous the occupational safety and health legislation is now proving to be and how it has got people thinking not about productivity not about getting efficiency—it is about every second of every day sweating over whether the procedures are exactly right and identifying each and every risk no matter how stupid and nonsensical that risk might actually be. Such as 15 or 20 dignitaries getting out of a bus stepping down that step on to a piece of prepared ground where they could observe someone cutting the ribbon and having to wear hard hats big expensive high-vis jackets steel-capped boots and not being allowed to actually go and have a look at the loaders operating and the train carriages being loaded because that would have exposed them to risk. What a load of absolute nonsense and drivel. So let us talk about some other things.Andrew Bayly: Let's talk about the Budget.RON MARK: I could talk about these things for hours. Last year Mr English said of the 2015 Budget: "We are also starting to see the impact of Government social investment in approach." With burglaries in mid-Canterbury and South Canterbury up 40 percent and where burglars in Northland have a 97 percent chance of getting away with it he is right—he is right. We are seeing changes in social investment.In 2008 Mr Key promised that there would be one police officer for every 500 Kiwis. Well when New Zealand First was in the coalition Government we had the ratio down to one police officer for every 488. Now it is one police officer for 526. So the Government after 8 long years has failed to hit its own very modest and pathetic target. It has failed to even keep pace with what it inherited from 2008. As the Rt Hon Winston Peters said we need up to about another 1900 police just to get to a point where we are comparable in police per capita ratios with the United Kingdom.As for the party that professes to be rural it is full of MPs who could not tell a cow from a bull or the bull from the bull. And they are just about as out of touch as a tsunami of rural crime goes unreported because there are no police. Look at Carterton. We might well have a police station—Martinborough—but there is no sense in having police stations if there are no police officers rostered on. In Carterton there has not been a police officer rostered on at the Carterton Police Station for over 6 months which worries me as a former mayor because Carterton District Council is contributing half the wage for someone to sit at the desk to allow that place to be manned. Clearly it is not being manned by police officers.It does not matter where we look in this Budget. If I was to address some of the questions—some of the comments made thus far by the Government members. I just want to draw to their attention that when they want to address immigration—we know what the Government's view is on immigration: open the door allow people to be poured into this country to help their business mates to increase their profit margins. It is about driving the minimum wage down and we said back in March 2016 that New Zealanders were having to compete with people who were coming in and accepting below the minimum wage paid under the table. People who were competing for jobs—jobs that Kiwis should have been taking.When this Government says we have a shortage of low-skilled workers well whose fault is that? The free market apparently was meant to provide all of those skilled workers and those apprenticeships. Well quite clearly the free market model has failed and that is why we believe the Government should have picked up its responsibility and funded trade training just as it used to do in the days when actually Mr Holyoake and Mr Muldoon—National Party Prime Ministers—were doing so."