Key John: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKey John: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 10 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1363. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): I move That this House express its confidence in the National-led Government and commend its programme for 2015 as set out in the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament. Mr Speaker can I take this opportunity to welcome you and other members back to the House for the parliamentary year and to remind the House that New Zealand went to the polls on 20 September 2014. For the third time the New Zealand public delivered a clear mandate to this National-led Government. The message was pretty simple: carry on. Carry on making the country wealthier carry on making this a more vibrant country carry on making this a more multicultural and globally connected country and carry on making New Zealand a successful little nation we can all be proud of. That is what they said. And for the third time the public allowed us to work with our friends in the ACT Party United Future and the Māori Party. I want to take this opportunity to thank them for being part of what is a strong and stable Government. It has been for the last 6½ years and will be for a further 2½ years for the 9-year period and then beyond hopefully in the years ahead.We went into the election campaign last year with a pretty simple slogan: “Working for New Zealand”. Working for New Zealand. We went there because this is a Government that is working for New Zealand. Growth last year was at 3.2 percent; on average it will be 3 percent or more for the next 3 years. Wages have gone up 15 percent over the last 5 years. Employment: 80000 new jobs were created in the last 12 months and 217000 more New Zealanders are in work than 5 years ago. When it comes to Kiwis and the decisions they make very very few of them are going over the Tasman to Australia—in fact we had the smallest net loss across the Tasman since 1994. It has got to the point where the Government is now running job fairs to make sure that New Zealanders in Brisbane and in Melbourne who left under the previous Labour Government know to come back to New Zealand because there are jobs here for them. On the weekend we had the Sevens here in Wellington. They could not fill that stadium but Helen Clark could—every single year she could fill the Westpac Stadium with Kiwis wanting to leave.The cost of living is good for New Zealanders. Inflation is at 0.8 percent—it is low. Interest rates are half of what they were when this Government took over. The balance of payments deficit at 2.6 percent is a third of what it was under the previous Government. We are getting close to surplus and when it comes to the debts that this nation has by 2020 they will be under 20 percent of GDP. That is a third of what they were projected to be when we inherited those terrible policies of the free-spending free-wheeling Helen Clark administration of 1999 to 2008.So how can we summarise all this? Quite simply. New Zealand is a country of people who now live longer earn more are better educated have better health and are less likely to be victims of crime. That is why the New Zealand public when they went to the polls resoundingly asked us to come back and to be the Government for a further 3 years and that is the programme that I want to lay out for you today.But just before I do that let me make the contrast that is on display between this active busy Government and the do-nothing Opposition over there. Andrew Little has been the leader of the Labour Party for 84 days—84 days. In 1873 Jules Verne thought you could get around the world in 80 days. Well in 84 days Andrew Little has not even got around his caucus let alone the world. He has not even got around the four people who voted for him. He is not Andrew Little; he is Dr Dolittle. This man does absolutely nothing. Granted his predecessors whom I faced managed to stagger from gaffe to crisis and back againin 84 days but this is a man who has done absolutely nothing. No—I am wrong. He has had two ideas—two ideas—in 84 days.No. 1 has been to give Māori sovereignty. Under Andrew Little they can write laws only for themselves but they are not allowed to buy an ex-State house. They are not allowed to buy a State house but under Andrew Little they will be allowed to write laws only for Māori. The other great idea he has had in 84 days is to hold a workshop about what a job is. That is a novel concept for a Labour MP—I am prepared to admit that—but it is hardly the stuff that sets the electorate on fire. No this is it. This is the summary of 84 days of Andrew Little. It is a success. Why? Because he is not David Cunliffe. That is it. That is the reason why “Project Little” is working. But we are a busy Government; they are a do-nothing Opposition.So let us move on to what the Government is planning to do over the course of 2015 and the years ahead. Resource Management Act reform: this is a House that so often talks about the cost for New Zealanders of buying houses. Let us see how many of them are prepared to stand up and back the Government’s agenda to make the Resource Management Act work better for our country and for New Zealanders.The Business Growth Agenda—350 initiatives that make it easier to do business with the Government that see more money invested in science and technology that see our export markets grow. It will see a Food Safety Science and Research Centre established at Massey University to educate young New Zealanders. It will see four additional centres of research excellence and three information and communications technology graduate schools there for young New Zealanders.When it comes to the workplace this is a Government that will be advancing legislation that will balance the need for the creation of jobs with the safety of those who go to our workplaces each and every day. In those critical areas of forestry construction and agriculture this will be a Government that will champion legislation over the course of the next 12 months to make it safer.When it comes to wages this is a Government that will raise the minimum wage in 2015 as it has done every single year that we have been in Government—every single year. We already have the highest minimum wage to average wage ratio of any country in the OECD but in 2015 the minimum wage will rise.Infrastructure: when you want a country that operates efficiently and effectively you need infrastructure. That will mean more roading projects. The Waterview Connection in Auckland—Alice that massive big machine that is digging the tunnel through there at Waterview has already turned around and is heading back towards Auckland. That will see that $1 billion - plus project completed over the course of the next few years. The Waikato Expressway: my friends in Hamilton there talk so wonderfully about the commute from Hamilton to Aucklandnow. Christchurch motorways are being built. Northland that place we love so much; Northland those people we respect so much—they need to get to Auckland on the road and this Government will be supporting Pūhoi to Wellsford not just with planning but with a road. That is on top of the 11 regional roading projects I unveiled last year and the $100 million going into urban cycleways because we know that people want to get around their cities on their bikes.Ultra-fast broadband: this is a Government that is getting New Zealand wired for the world. Five hundred and seventy thousand homes can already connect to ultra-fast broadband—69000 of them have taken it up. And if you live in Whangarei or Te Awamutu or Ōāmaru your city or place has been fully fibred under a National-led Government. Labour was opposed yet National is getting New Zealand wired up.We on this side of the House know we are not going to get rich selling things to each other. We are as a nation getting rich if we sell things to the world and our trade agreements will reflect that. In a few months’ time there will be the signing of the free-trade agreement with Korea—a very important partner for New Zealand. The Gulf States are looking much more closely at a free-trade agreement. And the Trans-Pacific Partnership—what does the Opposition actually think? Does it want a free-trade agreement with the United States a $17 trillion economy? Dr Dolittle does not know. Half the caucus says yes; half the caucus says no. You would not have a clue. Its political support partners the Greens do not want a bar of it. They do not want to sell goods and services on an unrestricted basis to the United States. The active busy National-led Government says yes; the Opposition says no.Climate change—an issue that this House cares about. This is the Government that will be taking to Paris later in the year a target that New Zealand can adhere to when it comes to climate change along with solutions in science and technology when it comes to agriculture.Housing is an issue of considerable concern to New Zealanders. Who does not want to own a home? But this is the Government that has not sat around and done nothing. Under this Government 100 special housing areas have been approved—100 special housing areas; 84 of them in Auckland. Last year 2000 new homes per month were constructed under a National-led Government—24000 homes in the last 12 months. That is double the rate from when we took over and you can see it in the GDP and employment activity. In 2014 residential construction alone was $10 billion and there is plenty more of that to come.And when it comes to social housing this is not a Government that thinks Housing New Zealand has to own every home; this is a Government that is prepared to go out there with community housing providers as I announced earlier in the year and say to people: “We will supply more income-related rents. We will allow iwi to actually own homes. We will allow the Salvation Army and Presbyterian Support and other community groups to have the homes. There will be more homes available. The bottleneck and logjam that are there will be unblocked with a far more sensible scheme.”New Zealand has voted in the Government because it does things for them and their families. And foremost in that is the creation of jobs. No one is more proud than when their youngster gets a job or when they make sure they can keep their job or get another job. Two hundred and seventeen thousand jobs have been created under this Government in the last 5 years. And what the effect of all of the stronger economy means is that the Government has more money even in these very challenging conditions to spend on things that matter to New Zealanders.This year—free doctors’ visits for 400000 New Zealanders under 13 years of age. This year there will be an extension of paid parental leave from 14 weeks to 16 weeks and a year after that on 1 April an extension from 16 weeks to 18 weeks and for those who are not eligible for paid parental leave the parental tax credit will increase from $150 a week to $220 a week.When it comes to ACC with good management we have sorted out the mess we inherited from Labour and we will see motor vehicle ACC costs drop by $130 per car and the levies on employers and the self-employed will also drop. When it comes to the most deprived kids in New Zealand society look to the Budget of 2015 for some ideas on what the Government will be doing in that area.Education: we all know that nothing is more important than helping young New Zealanders to get an education. This is the Government that is putting $359 million this year into a series of initiatives that will keep good teachers in the classroom for longer that will mentor teachers and principals. When we see a failing school we will not do what Labour and the Greens and others in this House have done and turn a blind eye and imagine it does not matter; we will attract a good principal to go to that school and turn it round. And this is the side of the House that supported national standards and the roll-out of technology to our schools. We see more kids in early childhood education and more Māori and more Pacific students coming out. Education is working under National but there is a lot more to be done.When it comes to our corrections facilities Wiri prison will be opened I think in 2015 and by 2017 every prison in New Zealand will be a working prison where our prisoners will be expected to get skills and get the opportunity to take a job when they ultimately leave prison.When it comes to Māori this is a Government that is actually doing something for Māori in New Zealand—46 deeds of settlement signed under this Government; under the previous Labour Government one to two a year were signed. At the rate that Labour was going it would have taken until 2060 to achieve what I think National will achieve by 2017. This will be a Government that will reform and rewrite the Te Ture Whenua Māori Act which will see 1.4 million hectares of land available for development $8 billion worth of value to the economy and thousands of jobs. The Government will not forget those who are vulnerable in our communities. There will be more work done on child abuse domestic violence community security and safety and on using technology to enhance the police.In 2015 there will be a review of the intelligence agencies to ensure that our laws are fit for purpose and that we have intelligence agencies that can keep New Zealanders safe. When we have seen intelligence legislation in this House that makes New Zealanders safer far too few political parties have been prepared to step up and support it but when we saw the crises in countries like France recently in Canada and in Australia we did not hear a word from the Opposition. They are not prepared to support legislation to make New Zealanders safer but they are as quiet as little lamb chops when things happen outside of that.It will be a busy year for foreign affairs. We are on the Security Council in 2015 and 2016. Issues like Ukraine and Iraq and Syria the Middle East and the war on Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) will be all important for us as a good participant on the Security Council to debate and discuss. This will be a Government that will take seriously its responsibilities when it comes to standing up to ISIS. As I said in Waitangi I will not as leader of New Zealand stand back and see Jordanian pilots burnt to death I will not see young children beheading soldiers I will not sit back when people are thrown off buildings because of their sexuality and then be lectured by the left about human rights. They do not care enough about human rights to do something about it. No wonder they are looking down in shame.When it comes to Christchurch the big job of the rebuild of Christchurch will continue. The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority will become a departmental agency.This is going to be a busy year for the Government. We were elected by the people of New Zealand and were given the biggest mandate in the history of MMP to carry on the work we have done in the past and want to do in the future. We are not here to fill in the green seats; we are here to do a lot for New Zealand. It is a pretty simple message: it is a lot over here and it is a little over there. And I tell you what New Zealand is hungry for a lot and only four people over there wanted “a Little”.