Carter David; Rurawhe AdrianRt Hon DAVID CARTER (National): Madam Assistant Speaker can I start by acknowledging you and welcoming you back to this House. I want to acknowledge all members as they return from a very long summer break—welcome back to 2019. Can I start by making a comment about the previous speaker the Hon Kris Faafoi. I was very disappointed with his opening remarks when he personally attacked the Hon Maggie Barry who had just given a fine speech. That sort of politics is not necessary. I was actually going to start my contribution by acknowledging the excellent job that the Hon Kris Faafoi has done as Minister of Civil Defence over the last couple of weeks in Nelson. I've watched with huge interest. Twelve months ago where I live was under the same threat—on the Port Hills of Christchurch. I've got to say the response this time by Fire and Emergency New Zealand has been far superior and the role that the Hon Kris Faafoi has played in being there as the Minister clearly supporting the community has been excellent. So I take this opportunity of acknowledging Mr Faafoi and thanking him for his contribution. Those fires in Nelson will be frightening to the local community. We went through it last year on the Port Hills. Fire is completely unpredictable. The uncertainty that's then imposed on the residents is something they just have to live through and while the fires now may seem under control the agony for many of those people will go on for a long time. The second comment I wanted to make is that there was a relatively rough start to proceedings with a particular select committee this morning and I remind the House that it's the duty of all members of Parliament if they're on a select committee to fulfil that responsibility. I was very annoyed then to see two Labour members scurrying around the press gallery actually telling mistruths about what had occurred. I take this opportunity to thank the Prime Minister who has actually come out now and acknowledged and criticised her own Labour MPs for not being there on time. She said—and I quote—They've made mistakes. We need to own that. My expectation is they do their jobs. There are no excuses. I've made it very clear this is not acceptable." So thank you to the Prime Minister for reminding the Labour members of their responsibility. We had the earlier response in this debate—which I listened to—from the Hon Tracey Martin where she blamed National for the calamity of the select committee hearing today. She was one of the members that was meant to be there at 8 o'clock and she waltzed in at eight minutes past 8 herself. She was part of the problem and the Prime Minister—I thank her for acknowledging it. The Prime Minister though has also I think already labelled this political year and has put a target fairly on her forehead. It's the year of delivery and that's something that applies to this National Opposition as well because we are going to be well-prepared for the next election and if successful we will be ready to govern unlike the last Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government which was clearly caught by surprise and ill-prepared. So from the National Party point of view it will be a year of delivery. It will be a year of eight substantial discussion documents as we prepare policy to go to the electorate in 2020. I've been thinking how you'd classify the last year and I'm sure it would be the year of the working groups—233 working groups; estimated cost $290 million. There's one that I read about recently: the working group into mental health chaired by Ron Paterson whom I know well. I admire that man. He did a good job in preparing that report and presenting it to the Government late last year. Members won't believe what the Government's response to that report was. It was to form a further nine working groups to look at the report given by the first working group. I say to the Government that if it's the year of delivery you won't do it by forming working groups. It's time to get on with the job and make some policy that will improve the opportunity for New Zealanders. There are some strong challenges for our Government—there's no doubt about that—with one of them being the slowing economy. The last quarter of GDP growth at 0.3 percent was the worst performance of this economy in five years and the Government seems oblivious to the fact that the economy is slowing and slowing dramatically. I say that they inherited a very strong economy—there is no doubt about that. They inherited an economy where job creation was flying at the rate of 10000 jobs a month. What's the latest figure I've heard from the current job employment rate?Alastair Scott: 600? Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: 670 a month compared with 10000 a month under National. That is going to be a problem. I see the Hon Willie Jackson in the House. I couldn't stop laughing about his press release last week. Unemployment prior to Christmas: 3.9 percent. It's up to 4.3 percent in the latest figures and the Hon Willie Jackson spun that as good news—an increase in unemployment was good news. No one else in this House but the Hon Willie Jackson could do that. I don't think the media bought it but it was a gallant attempt I've got to say. It was a very gallant attempt. So we've got unemployment going up we've got the number on the jobseeker benefit going up and yet with the economy slowing I predict these figures will get worse. I listened to the Prime Minister's speech yesterday and she listed—as I understood her speech—three priorities. The first priority: share the prosperity. Prime Minister if you've got a declining economy it's going to be very hard to talk about prosperity. Why is the economy declining? It's initiatives like the foreign investment ban that was placed on this country by the Government last year. It's the lack of business confidence in this Government and its performance and its economic nous and we saw that with the speech that the Prime Minister delivered to a business audience in Auckland last week. How would you describe it? Well many of them have described it to me as absolutely underwhelming. The second priority: she said we will pursue free-trade agreements. An EU photo opportunity and the very next day the EU announces they're going to bash us around on our current tariff access to the EU. The photo opportunity did nothing. The third focus: skills. I accept that we've got a lot of work to do there. I just want to conclude very quickly on the "Provincial Slush Fund". At the moment Shane Jones is going around as the "first citizen of the provinces" and spraying money around. I remember questions in this House prior to the Christmas break when he one day said that 7000 new jobs had been created and then it was 9000. Congratulations to Paul Goldsmith who's done the work: 54 jobs have been created. And then—Hon Willie Jackson: It's better than none. Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: "Better than none."—54 jobs have been created and then we learn that the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment has taken on 118 new staff to run the "Provincial Slush Fund". It's going to have to deliver I say to the Hon Willie Jackson because that money is taxpayers' money. Those members can spray it around as liberally as they like but New Zealanders at the election time will judge the efficiency of that fund. I say to the Government members opposite if they think their money's being wasted by Shane Jones in trying to buy electoral support so that he wins a seat at the next election in Northland or Whangarei they won't buy it. The final comment I'll say is that if there's any attempt by New Zealand First to gerrymander the MMP 5 percent threshold in an attempt to survive see if New Zealanders will buy into that because I assure you Dr Deborah Russell they will not. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): I understand this is a split call—five minutes."