Bridges Simon: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBridges Simon: General Debate[Sitting date: 30 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:10016. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister of Energy and Resources): The flag referendum has been and gone and there has been a lot of debate and an unprecedented number of flags flying—I think that has been a great thing. The people have spoken and the flag has been retained and we have all as a country I think unified and moved on.Phil Twyford: Ha ha!Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Or so I thought Phil Twyford—or so I thought but Sue Moroney did not seem to move on. She seems to think that rich people in baches are not allowed a view. The thing that is a little bit strange about that is that Sue happens to be a rich person with a bach. I think that on this side of the House we do not need highly paid political operatives like Matthew Hooton to tell us that that is a little bit stupid.Hon Annette King: But you’ve got him anyway.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: What though I say to Annette King is doubly strange about all that is that the Labour Party—Annette King Andrew Little and the front benches—has been cosying up big time to those rich people with baches. They have been cosying up. They want to give them a benefit every single week. They want to give those rich bach owners a benefit every single week so that when they come off the spa is still hot the pizza oven pizza ingredients are still fresh and I think we could call this—what is it called? “UBI: universal bach-owners income”. That is what we have got here.Hon David Cunliffe: Owner starts with an “o”.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Whether you are worth $20 million David Cunliffe whether you have got a house in Herne Bay—whatever your circumstances—you are entitled to a couple of hundred dollars a week. Here is the small technical point about this that I cannot work out. What is the tax going to be to pay for that? Fifty percent? Eighty percent? Maybe. We do not know and we would like answers to that but we can say to be fair to the Labour Party that it is based on some very clever thinking—robots are going to take over all of our jobs.Grant Robertson: Lift your game.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Grant Robertson says robots are going to take over all of our jobs. There are a number of incredibly clever people behind this—professors from all around the world—and there is one incredibly clever person who has got more good ideas than anyone in New Zealand. If you do not believe him just ask him—Gareth Morgan. He has come up with many good ideas and in the year of ideas for the Labour Party I just say to Labour members: “Don’t take just one good idea from Gareth Morgan—take them all. Get him to write your manifesto because he is full of good ideas.”There is the fat tax he proposed which I know the Labour Party is keen on. Listen up Annette King: he says that food is the No. 1 killer in New Zealand—the No.1 killer. I am not sure that not eating is a very good idea either but there you go. He has also got the cat policy and I know Phil Twyford is keen on that one. All good parties need a cat policy: “That ball of fluff you have at home has to go.” I do not know whether cats are getting the universal benefit as well—that is something for the Labour Party—but everyone else is Phil Twyford. On this side of the House we are not concerned about cats or the “universal bach-owners’ income” or any of these things because actually we have got real job creation happening in this country. We are creating real jobs—Hon Annette King: What? Like the building of 10 bridges?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well Annette King mentions bridges. She mentions roads. There is transport infrastructure investment going on in this country. The roads of national significance $11 billion worth of investment in this country is creating 35000 jobs without robots. Regional highway projects throughout the country are creating on Treasury’s estimates—which are quite conservative actually—2100 jobs. On this side of the House we do not need silly ideas like a universal benefit whether or not you are worth $20 million or are a rich bach owner. We have got real job creation in a country that is increasingly confident.