Upston Louise: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeUpston Louise: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 11 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15788. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): I am going to speak today in the debate on the Prime Minister’s statement and focus on the things that do matter to New Zealand. I am not going to resort to the sorts of comments and offensive remarks made by the speaker who just resumed his seat Mr Phil Goff. I am really surprised at the Labour women sitting in the House who did not violently object to the phrase that Mr Goff just used about the Prime Minister.Hon Phil Goff: What phrase?LOUISE UPSTON: I am not repeating it Mr Goff because it does not honour this House. No no I refuse to use that word and I am just shocked that none of the Labour women did anything about using such offensive language in this House.Anyway this side of the House this Government under John Key’s leadership is creating a New Zealand that is better today and better tomorrow a stronger place for today’s families and tomorrow’s families. If you think about the things the Prime Minister covered in his address at the opening of Parliament they are the issues that matter to Kiwis up and down this country: a stronger economy more jobs better front-line health and education services a safer New Zealand and of course rebuilding Christchurch and Canterbury.But actually all of this stuff comes from having a stronger economy. We have Labour members who instead speak about the need or desire to interfere with a private company’s business and think that that is going to solve the problems of the New Zealand economy. Well we have spent 5 years—this is our sixth year—focusing on what does make a difference in the economy and we are reaping those rewards. We do not reap those rewards for our benefit; they are for the benefit of every single New Zealander. In the first week in the House the Opposition was instead already talking about spending three-quarters of a billion dollars that is not even sitting there. So we have an Opposition that just wants to go back to the old ways of the past thinking that just because we are getting the books balanced this year we then go off on a lolly scramble we go out and spend when we still have a fragile economy. Yes it is growing and yes things are looking up but actually we should not go out and spend all of the benefits of what has been a very tough period of time.One thing I am really encouraged by though is visiting the different towns the smaller towns in the Taupō electorate whether it is Cambridge Tīrau or Tūrangi. It is really really encouraging to see the number of new businesses that are opening whether it is in retail manufacturing or tourism. There are new businesses opening every week which is really fantastic. That comes from the confidence of an economy that is growing because no one in their right mind would go out there and start a business start employing staff and take on those sorts of commitments if they did not think that the economic environment was one that could sustain that opportunity. So I want to say congratulations to those small businesses in the Taupō community that are out there doing it and taking risks to employ people in this environment that is growing. Business confidence is clearly up.So what we are seeing is that the signs are there and it is looking positive but we should not basically be putting that at risk. We have still got to be cautious. We have still got to be careful and not basically just go out and spend everything that we have in the strength of position we have got to. If you look at business confidence it is the highest it has been since 1999. That is a phenomenal result. We often have conversations in this House about wages. Well the average weekly wage has gone up 2.8 percent in the last year and that is compared with an inflation rate of 1.6 percent. So yes the gap is small but it means that in terms of wages we are heading in the right direction.One example Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch that I wanted to speak about today and one that you will be very familiar with is the Cambridge section of the Waikato Expressway. One of the platforms of the Government’s Business Growth Agenda is infrastructure and its role in helping to fuel this economic growth and opportunity. We are talking about a 16-kilometre section of the Waikato Expressway that I visited just yesterday. It is really fantastic to see the number of people who are employed as a result of that project. But more important the real benefit that I am immensely proud of is that as a result out of that project’s 300 jobs 20 are done by people who were on benefits in the local Work and Income office and who now have jobs. That is 20 people who before this project did not have jobs and now do. Not only do they now have a job and a pay packet to take home each week; they are getting skills they are getting certifications and they are passing the rigours of the work environment that is in place on that project which is fantastic.So it was fantastic to see that this is another section of the Waikato Expressway that when finished will carve something like 20 or 25 minutes off a trip from Tīrau to Auckland which is great. I know that the Greens will always talk about the fact that they do not want more roads and they do not want roads of national significance but people in my electorate still drive cars on roads trucks are used to get their exportgoods to market and to the ports and although it is great to see the increase in cycling good luck if you wanted to try to cycle from one end of my electorate to the other any day soon.In terms of other opportunities or other things that this Government is focused on one of the other aspects of the Business Growth Agenda is of course around education and skills. This is an area that members on the other side of the House absolutely get wound up about because we are getting results in areas where they did not when they had the chance. So I was proud to accompany the Prime Minister at Ratana and at Waitangi. I am enormously proud when he stands up and speaks to audiences and gives the results that this Government is achieving in Māori education. We often hear that Māori are disadvantaged that they turn up in all the statistics we do not want them in but actually education is one of the main areas where we get to improve those statistics. We are getting higher levels of participation in early childhood education lifting achievement in National Certificate of Educational Achievement and increasing numbers in trade training opportunities and apprenticeships. They are the things that count. They are the things that count in terms of getting results getting achievement and getting opportunities for the rest of their lives.One of the highlights for the start of this year was the Prime Minister’s announcement about the opportunities for high-quality teaching and principals because it is an issue particularly in some of the rural areas. We do sometimes have difficulty attracting teachers and principals into the small rural areas and that has been an issue that some of the schools and the boards of trustees have raised with me over and over again. Well this way we get to have the teaching excellence shared amongst a group of schools in a small community. They get to share that with one another. I think that is absolutely superb and again is one of the very practical sensible things this Government is doing to lift educational achievement. The group that will really benefit in the Taupō electorate more than any other is those Māori students. We are unwilling to have them left behind.So I am very proud that the Prime Minister’s statement to the House this year talked about the priorities and where we are heading as a Government as we lead into election year in a very very strong position with a growing economy raised achievement in education quicker attention in terms of health requirements and safer streets and communities.Meka Whaitiri: Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker.