Shaw JamesJAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green): It is always a great pleasure to be offered the opportunity to respond to the Rt Hon Christopher Finlayson—Hon Members: No he's not.JAMES SHAW: —the Hon Christopher Finlayson—who I have to say from my interactions with him could not think of anything worse than representing a local electorate like Rongotai. That is why we are putting up such an outstanding candidate there—to put him out of his misery and make sure he is safe in the knowledge that he will never actually have to represent an electorate and deal with common people. Teall Crossen is the Green Party's candidate for Rongotai next year. She is an outstanding lawyer like the Attorney-General. She is an environmental lawyer. She is someone who is so committed to the environment and it is a great pleasure that she will be facing off against the Attorney-General next year.Minister Finlayson referred to the promise 8 years ago of a brighter future. I think it is time now obviously that we talk about the leadership that the Prime Minister has provided and whether that promise—that hazy wavy notion of a brighter future—has in any way been delivered. In my view it has not.The Government is fond of using big numbers like the rise in gross domestic product for example and the rise in the median wage. All those numbers do is obscure the real story about what is actually going on inside the economy. So yes the median wage has been rising but for the bottom third their incomes have actually gone backwards relative to the cost of living over the course of the 8 years of this Government. You cannot say you are providing a brighter future for all when fully a third of your population have seen their incomes go backwards over the over course of your Government—the 8 years of this Government. I have to say that I think Mr Key has called it quits so that he does not have to sit through an entire year of Opposition members yelling 9 long years" at him next year. That is what is going to happen because the Government's record does not stand up to scrutiny. As National prepares to vote on a new leader for its caucus and for its party and by extension therefore on a new Prime Minister it is time to talk about what leadership really means. Leadership is the ability and the means to go first and to show the way. That is what leadership is—to go first and to show the way. This Government has done anything but that over the course of the last 8 years. Everything has been focused on maintaining its popularity not necessarily on fixing the underlying problems. It is about papering over the cracks when it should have been building houses. It has managed to maintain popularity rather than actually deal with the great crises that are facing us today.The Government has dealt with some of the symptoms or it is dealing with some of the symptoms; for example in the housing crisis where it is chucking a hell of a lot at it and hoping that something sticks when in fact the housing crisis is a direct consequence of the way that it has managed the economy over the course of the last 8 years. It has encouraged an economy based on speculation and borrowing rather than on investment and productivity. It has presided over an enormous growth in inequality and a huge accumulation of wealth by essentially property owners in this country because of the way it has skewed the investment flows and the taxation system towards property and property ownership.On climate change the single greatest challenge facing our civilisation and our country today the Government has done absolutely nothing. Mr Key likes to stand up and talk about all of the things that the Government has done but the results have achieved a 19 percent growth in our emissions over the course of the last 8 years. So Government members can say that they have done a whole lot of stuff but their results show that we are going backwards when it comes to climate change.Leadership is about getting beyond the politics of self-interest. Leadership is about the long term not the short term. It is about much more than political gains over the course of the next few months or the next year. We need a vision for this country that is about more than just staying in power or staying in Government. The only way that we are going to get that is by changing the Government and change is coming."