McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. I wish to start this the final speech of this particular Parliament with some thankyous. I'm sure I speak on behalf of all my colleagues on this side of the House to thank all those that have assisted us in our role. It is a great privilege to stand here and represent our communities but we could not do it without the assistance of those that work here at Parliament that work in our out-of-Parliament offices in our electorates and of course our families and friends without whom we could not do the job that we are tasked with doing.One lesson that I learnt very early on is that this despite what people may see in the debating chamber is not as adversarial as one might think. I came into this House thinking it would be like a school ball—girls on one side boys on the other and no one talking—but I'm very very pleased to say that that is not the case. I learnt that lesson when I was asked to attend a Probus meeting in Greytown as my first speaking engagement as a newly elected MP. After preparing a speech—a 45-minute speech as was the request—I was told upon arriving not to talk about politics. What does one talk about? So I talked about the examples of the House working together of National Labour New Zealand First Greens and ACT—when the time comes and when the task requires we work together. There are examples of that in the recent Standing Orders Committee. I often cite the example of Ian McKelvie my old mate from the parliamentary cricket team and I working together to get livestock rustling across the line with the help of Andrew Little the Minister of Justice so that that can be seen as a crime in the Crimes Act. There are numerous examples and I'm certain that the 120 members of this House each have one or many of their own. I think it is only appropriate that we acknowledge that.It does not mean that we don't disagree. There is plenty to disagree about and as I was sitting here listening to the rubbish that the National Party members were providing in their speeches today I was thinking of one particular phrase: We should be like Australia."—we should be like Australia. As I sat on the Epidemic Response Committee the committee that we set up and asked the Leader of the Opposition to chair because we knew that it was important that particularly at that time when Parliament was not sitting the Government was held to account every single day on that committee we heard the National Party and their hand-picked experts tell us that we should be like Australia. Now I will point out at this moment that "We should be like Australia." was not the first piece of advice that they gave us. That was "We should be like Sweden." Then that changed to "We should be like Singapore." and then after the second wave of each country they changed to Australia because at that time they felt that Australia was doing better in the response to COVID-19 than New Zealand.Then enters Professor David Skegg the hand-picked expert from the Opposition the world-renowned epidemiologist who said New Zealand actually needs to go harder and the Government listened. Professor David Skegg said that if we followed the path of Australia we would see a second wave of cases. He said that they would be in a period of lockdown months longer than New Zealand. I thank Sir David Skegg for his contribution and I acknowledge the leadership of Jacinda Ardern and of Ashley Bloomfield and of our health officials who listened to the science and the experts and left all the other noise to one side. I am very very grateful and I'm sure that many many people are. In fact I know that those that come and speak to me in Wairarapa tell me that they only need to look at Australia now to see what New Zealand could've been like or in fact would've been like if we followed that advice. Thank God we didn't.There are many many examples with which to compare the approach that this Government—the parties that make up this Government in particular the Labour Party—is taking into this election. We have a plan on which to grow the economy and that plan stands as direct contrast to what the Opposition is offering which is a lot of bluster and not many examples of policy. We are hearing a lot of roads but no examples of how they're going to get funded and no examples of how they're going to start. In fact I was very very pleased to see the Leader of the Opposition Judith Collins come to the Wairarapa and announce their support for roads that we've already started: the Ngaumutawa Road intersection the Norfolk Road intersection and safety barriers along State Highway 2 between Clareville and Waingawa. Only two weeks prior the New Zealand Transport Agency had said the work is under way—and they wondered why no one got excited about it.We have seen examples of this all over the show. They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The pathway to the National Party's manifesto for this election is paved with unfunded roads. That is what they are thinking—that the New Zealand public will dismiss the leadership and the plan that this Government has put forward and go along and support National because they've promised a road without any detail as to how to fund it.Look we've seen examples of this before. Thank God for Ginny Andersen the real voice of the Hutt who delivered Melling interchange after years and years of talking about it from the previous Government. Thank God for Kiritapu Allan who turns up and within three years has seen record funding for roading on the East Coast one of our most deprived areas of the country. These are just a couple of examples of this Government connecting to the regions and delivering what actually matters. As has been mentioned today already we only need to see back to the global financial crisis to see how a Government can go about things and compare it to how this Government has gone about things. This Government has chosen to invest to take advantage of the low interest rates and take advantage of the prime position that this Government under the stewardship of Grant Robertson got us to.Now we acknowledge the work that Bill English did. If only they would acknowledge the work that Michael Cullen did to put them into a position. The fact is that through successive smart managing of this economy this Government was able to bring it down from 21 to 19 percent debt. That was the position that allowed us to be in the strong situation that we are in now—19 percent debt pre-COVID. Compare that to 40 percent in Ireland 80 percent in the UK and 90 percent in the USA.They have the gall on that side of the House to stand there and lecture us about debt without offering any plan whatsoever as to what they're going to do except $31 billion of additional roads without details of funding and there is talk from international analysis that they are going to have to strip $80 billion of services to New Zealand in order to meet this debt target that they have set. It is rubbish. It is austerity. It is what we saw during the global financial crisis and that is why we saw tens of thousands of apprentices go by the wayside at that time but that is also why this Government has said no. We are going to invest. We are going to make sure that those apprentices come out of this with the skills that we need as a country when the economy rebuilds and we have seen examples coming out from Stats New Zealand that we are already on track.Now we know that hard times are coming but it is about preparing for those. I also know that we're all encouraged to see that jobs are up over 5000 as per the stats released by Stats New Zealand—that unemployment is at 4 percent. I see the Hon Gerry Brownlee was ridiculing that number. Australia uses a very similar way to us to measure unemployment. They are at seven. We are at four and they are at seven. "We should have been like Australia." Thank God we didn't follow the advice of the National Party during the greatest crisis that our generation that many generations of New Zealanders have seen. It is that leadership that New Zealanders will consider when they cast their votes at the election and I have a sneaking suspicion that frankly there is no comparison. This Government has a plan. New Zealanders can see it in action.In my final seconds I want to thank you and again everybody else including those on the other side of the House for what from a personal perspective has been an utter privilege: to be a member of Parliament for the last three years. Go well. Thank you."