Little AndrewGENERAL DEBATEANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. This is a Government that is in total disarray and it is time that New Zealanders got better because they deserve better. They deserve better. Ten weeks ago it was just so easy—10 weeks ago the Government handed down a Budget that did absolutely nothing for most New Zealanders because this Government did not care. It did not care about housing—that so many New Zealanders could not afford to buy their first home and that so many New Zealanders were living in overcrowded housing living in garages and living in cars. It did not care that the Budget said nothing about health spending and did not keep pace with the changing demography of New Zealand. It did not care that the Budget froze education funding for primary and secondary schools and froze funding for the police. It did not care about any of that. It was brazen. It was Government. It was in charge and any Budget would do. Well it has been a long 10 weeks. It has been a long 10 weeks. The Government thought it could get away with handing down that Budget and caressing the nation with a soothing balm of unrealistic projections and a hopeless selling job afterwards. It has not worked. New Zealanders have not bought it because far too many New Zealanders today are missing out and being left behind. They now see a Government that has no answers that has no plan—Government members might have a few choice words to say but they do not have a plan for the problems facing New Zealand. You see when you are John Key and Bill English you do not have to worry about couples who work and work and save and save and cannot get their first home. They do not worry about them. They do not have to worry about teachers and principals who are working harder and harder to provide the education and get the time with the children that the children need but cannot because of the overwhelming bureaucracy that they have got to complete for their schools. They just do not care about it and they do not worry about our police force which is struggling to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population. What did John Key say yesterday? Oh they have issued them with iPads. They have issued them with iPads. That is going to help when you are faced with somebody screaming and ranting high on P—when you hold up your iPad! I hope that it is on Pokémon GO and you can get the nearest Zubat. Is that what it is going to be? Is that what the answer is to out-of-control crime because of this Government's failure to resource the police properly? Well I tell you what: the rest of New Zealand cares. And of course the Government has now discovered because David Farrar has told it that the rest of New Zealand cares and expects something better.So what has it been doing since the Budget? It has been panicking. It has been in an absolutely mad panic. In fairness I have to give credit to Paula Bennett because on the eve of the Budget she at least realised that something was wrong. That the biggest crises facing New Zealand a housing crisis and a homelessness crisis—she realised that there was nothing in the Budget. So she quickly without telling Bill English and without telling anybody announced this plan to give $5000 to people to leave Auckland. Of course 10 weeks on 12 people have signed up for it. That is a start I suppose. It will help. There are 42000 people homeless so to start with the first 12 I suppose is a good step but that is as far as they have gone. That is as far as they have gone. And then we see a week after the Budget—because suddenly they realised they had better do something about housing and they better do something for local government. So without consulting Nick Smith and without consulting local councils Bill English and John Key put together this $1 billion infrastructure plan—big and mighty and powerful; $1 billion dollars. They spent 3 weeks putting it together and did not tell Nick Smith until the day before they went to Cabinet. They did not tell the local councils until 2 days before they announced it so they had something to tell their conference to give the impression to their conference gathered at Wigram that they actually had something to say about housing because up until that time they had nothing—up until that time they had nothing. This has been an absolute shambles. All along the way their answer has been that they have been working on it for years. They have not. And what was Judith Collins' answer yesterday when suddenly we got the announcement that the Government has realised there are too few police for the population we have got? She said she has been working on it for months. There is nothing in the Budget. The Government froze the funding in the Budget. There is nothing in the 4-year Police plan but she said she has been working on it for months. Clearly she has been working in isolation. She has not told anybody. Who is she talking to these days apart from the backbenchers? She is talking to the backbenchers to make sure she has got the numbers is what she has been doing. That is what she has been working on—nothing to do with her ministerial responsibilities. New Zealanders are seeing a Government that is tired that is out of ideas. It is giving short shrift to a shonky shady shilly-shallying Government and it is coming to an end now because we have a plan for housing we have a plan for education and we have a plan for health and New Zealanders will see a better choice next year.