Luxon ChristopherCHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition): Thank you Mr Speaker. I move that all the words after That" be deleted and they be replaced with "this House has no confidence in this Government that returns to Wellington"—Hon Chris Hipkins: Point of order Mr Speaker. I regret to advise the House that once the Speaker has put the vote there's no further debate on it.SPEAKER: I hadn't completed putting it.CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Thank you Mr Speaker. I move That all the words after "That" be deleted and are replaced with "this House has no confidence in this Government that returns to Wellington at the start of each year with more promises it has no intention of keeping and fails to deliver."Mr Speaker before I begin can I just wish you and all my colleagues here a happy New Year. I trust you've all had a good break. It's good that everyone is back raring to go—I can tell you the National Party is ready.Kiwis are tired. They're tired of this Government that's addicted to spending and they're consistently failing to get things done and after four years—four years of stagnation and failure—they're tired of being let down by a Government that has turned out to be what? All spin and no delivery.This Government has never met a problem it didn't think it could solve with just a little bit more Government a little bit more Wellington a little bit more centralisation a comms plan more bureaucracy and less input from affected communities. They're tired of a Government that's clearly out of ideas; out of energy; out of steam; and in less than two years frankly will be out of office.Because I can tell you the people of New Zealand can see what an absolute mess this Labour Government is making of things. They see through it. They can see that Labour has doubled our country's debt and they've set Government spending on a completely unsustainable long-term path. They can see that all that spending all that borrowing isn't actually getting results and it's not delivering the long-term solutions to our challenges or improving people's daily lives and it's actually not getting things done. This Government confuses activity with achievement. This Government confuses words with action and they are two very very different concepts. And now here we are with an overheated economy and they can see it's clearly making things worse. It's pushing up prices it's pushing out the private sector and it's squeezing everyday New Zealanders.Now Kiwis' ability to be able to get ahead and to enjoy a higher quality of life depends on the size of our economic engine and it needs some serious upgrading if we're to go forward together well. We're suffering in this country from what is a productivity disease. The average Kiwi is working for an hour to earn what the average Australian earns in 44 minutes. Now Grant Robertson when he was in Opposition used to talk endlessly about productivity per capita metrics. He doesn't do it anymore. He doesn't do it anymore because he fundamentally doesn't care about small-business people. The only economic tool he's been able to use is to spend more of Kiwis' money with Government spending now up a staggering 68 percent since they came to power. And that spending is driving a massive increase into the cost of living which is now running at a 30-year high of almost 6 percent.We have a cost of living crisis in this country. And I'm hearing it when we go around the country; I'm sure many of the MPs in this House are hearing it as well. It doesn't matter whether there's frustration around a block of cheese costing $15 to $16 or unsustainable levels of rent that are becoming so unaffordable to everyday Kiwis. They are feeling the pain of this Government's economic mismanagement. You've got to ask yourself just one question: are you better off under this Government than you were 12 months ago? Are you better off than you were four years ago? I can tell you right now the answer is an absolutely categorical no. Under this Labour Government people are working harder they're not getting ahead and they're going backwards. Everyone knows it everyone feels it. Even Grant Robertson knows it he feels it he knows it's true as well. That's the reality and sadly that's what you get with a Government that is focused on making announcements on spin and not actually on getting results. That's what you get: spin over substance. You get activity over achievement. You get a so-called year of delivery that delivered little more than press releases. You get the year of the vaccine that somehow delivered the slowest vaccine roll-out in the developed world resulting in a 15-week lockdown at $8 billion. You get a Government that banned rapid antigen tests then changed its mind and then decided to confiscate them from the good proactive businesses who were just trying to keep their own workers safe. You get a Prime Minister who promised to make housing more affordable but instead she's delivered the largest the fastest increase in house prices in our nation's history. The average house price is now over $1 million and in just four years of Labour mismanagement we've seen house prices rise by a staggering $380000. It's a truly shocking result of Government incompetence. Now Labour are pushing the dream of Kiwi homeownership away from a whole generation of young New Zealanders and I can tell you that rapidly-rising interest rates are only going to make things much much worse. Weekly rents are up $125 since 2017—that's making it harder for Kiwis to pay the bills let alone a chance to be able to save up for a deposit. Just think about that that's a Kiwi renting who has to go find $6500—after tax in a year—to rent the same house that they were renting just four years ago. You've got almost 25000 people languishing on the State waiting list for a State house—that's a fourfold increase in four years. That's unbelievable—it's unbelievable. There's 4500 children living in motels sharing unsuitable accommodation with violent gang members and drug dealers all at a cost of about $1.2 million a day. So it is an absolute moral failure and it is an indictment on a Government that promised to solve the housing crisis but has made it so much worse and this from a Prime Minister who promised to build 100000 KiwiBuild houses in 10 years. But here we are we're four years in and how many more do we have to go? Another 98000 houses to go. The Prime Minister promised big on State housing but over the past six months we've seen the State landlord remove homes that it's built. That's right they've taken away more houses than they've built in the last six months. Now nowhere has the Prime Minister promised more and delivered less than in transport. Now one of the first promises she made was that she'd send a tram from downtown Auckland to Mount Roskill it would cost less than $2 billion and it would have been completed by the end of last year. Well here we are we're four years in and the only thing that's been delivered is a brand new spanking price tag of $15 billion. And depending on what officials you want to listen to it could be up to $24 billion and then you've got a promise of a decade of disruption in Auckland. I reckon that for all of that the Government could actually go out and buy each of the team of 5 million people a brand new state-of-the-art swish e-bike. And they would still have billions of dollars left to invest in heavy rail they'd still have money left to invest in upgrading ferries they'd still have money to invest in dedicated busways and improving maintenance and safety on our highways. But that's the sort of sensible projects that are actually about helping people and businesses connect and do business around our towns and cities. That's not what Labour politicians are about; it's about a legacy or trying to impress Twitter followers.Now at the last election voters were also promised "no new taxes". But when you have a 68 percent increase in Government spending when you have a doubling of the debt in this country—which has to be repaid forget about what modern monetary theorists say it has to be repaid; and when it does that will mean that we don't have the cash to invest in better public services or productivity-enhancing intergenerational infrastructure—you just know you know in your bones that Labour is going to increase your taxes. There's no doubt about it it's coming. Because Labour can't manage money they'll come after yours. Labour broke that election promise of new taxes in pretty quick time. What we saw was a ramming through of a stealth capital gains tax which was quickly followed by the infamous "ute tax" and if that wasn't enough Grant Robertson has now cooked up another brand new tax. This time he wants to slap it on every single worker and every single business in New Zealand and would you believe it? The Labour Party wants to roll out a jobs tax.Now they're going to try and hide it; they're going to call it a levy or they're going to call it a contribution or they're going to call it income insurance but you all know the saying: "If it looks like a duck if it swims like a duck and if it quacks like a duck then it probably is a duck." I can tell you that this is a tax—this is a tax—Hon Member: What kind of duck?CHRISTOPHER LUXON: —not a Mallard—making Kiwis pay an extra tax at a time when Kiwis need that cash in their own pockets—as they navigate a cost of living crisis when they're buying stuff that's going up twice as fast as their wages. That's what they really need—they need the money back in their pockets not going to Grant Robertson through another tax. They're living in a cost of living crisis but it doesn't seem that this Government cares or even understands the reality of that for people.Now what we didn't hear much about from the Prime Minister today was what's happening with the three waters reforms. Now I can tell you Nanaia Mahuta she made up her decision on day one. She locked in on a model. She's gone through a sham consultation process with local government and despite saying it would be voluntary lo and behold it's now been compulsorily acquiring the assets from ratepayers and citizens who've spent decades paying for them. I can tell you the costs are unrealistic the scale of benefits aren't there there's massive cross-subsidisation between districts and most importantly it's got a convoluted co-governance and management structure that essentially is like a set of Russian dolls that launders the asset out of the control of ratepayers and citizens and local government through a process to end up in the Government's hands. But I wouldn't be too worried about it because I can tell you what I think is going to happen. I can tell you what's going to happen: Grant Robertson is worried right? He's been studying those polls over summer he's been looking into the numbers and—in the same way he went and killed off Michael Wood's lovely $785 million walking and cycling bridge in the same way that he's pushed and cajoled and argued with the Prime Minister about finally opening the joint up—he's going to come in and he's going to squash these reforms too. I bet you that's what's going to happen. You mark my words: these three waters reforms are absolutely finished and I predict that we're going to have a new local government Minister very very shortly too. Either way watch this space. A big back-down is coming your way.I've made it clear that our job as the National Party over the next 20 months is not just to hold this Government to account to oppose them and all their failure to deliver—of which there's just endless opportunities—but we are here to propose. We are here to propose an alternative vision of this country so that come the next election the New Zealand people will be able to see a National Government in waiting ready to go.Now we've already proposed some pretty sensible upgrades to our COVID management plan and as we navigate our way through Omicron and out of these endless restrictions we've been doing the same. Usually what happens is they like to rubbish our ideas and then they go back and then they pick them up and they talk about them and then a few months or a few weeks later lo and behold pre-departure testing rapid antigen testing a special fund to pre-purchase the COVID treatments—that all starts to appear in the Government's plans. Now I have to say we don't mind that—we don't mind that—we're good with that because we're here to act in New Zealand's national interests. If we can help a Government that doesn't have its own ideas we're very good with that. We're fine with that. So feel free as we propose—take good practical ideas that are in New Zealand's interest and get them done.I have to say I think the Government did a pretty good job in 2020 managing COVID and I've said that publicly and I'll continue to say so. But I have to say 2021 was a shambles. We had lots of time to see what was going on we had first-mover advantage and we didn't get anything done on time. It was a total sort of look one or two days ahead never have a plan and just make it up as you go along. That was the story of 2021 and we ended up losing the plot pretty quickly. For most of the year we had the slowest vaccine roll-out of the developed world after being told we would be in the front of the queue. When Delta hit we only had 20 percent of the eligible population fully vaccinated and so we had to go into that extended lockdown.Rather than delivering quickly on vaccines or rapid antigen tests and boosters the Government's response has relied on extending everyday restrictions to everyday life. Because there's been no plan we need to be looking further ahead and that's why we've been arguing for things like rapid antigen tests so that people can have them wherever they want them. They can take control take personal responsibility and buy them from supermarkets and pharmacies. We want them to be available to everyone. Seniors workers kids in schools should all have the opportunity to get a tester to help keep us all safe. But what did the Government do? What did the Government do? They banned them for no other reason than they were ideologically opposed to any non-Government solution. They didn't work with community organisations; they didn't work with businesses; they don't believe actually that a Government should work with business and community on some of our biggest challenges which just speaks to the arrogance the centralisation and control agenda—the we-know-best agenda—that this Government's running with. And it's only after challenge from the media that we see a Government react and miraculously start finding large quantities of rapid antigen tests in a matter of days. But it could have been done six months earlier; it could have been done a lot lot sooner.The National Party will continue to push the Government to do better on COVID and that's our job. But it's also our job to offer solutions to all the other long-term challenges New Zealand faces and I have to say we've got lot of long-term challenges that we're not getting outcomes or results for. To rebuild our economy we're going to need to rebuild our connections with the world—and that's 7.8 billion people sitting in 195 countries that we trade and do business with. And New Zealand has a very proud tradition of going out in the world and building business and building export businesses to do so and we need to reclaim that confidence that ambition that aspiration that we seem to have lost. I want New Zealand to be world leading; I want New Zealand to realise its full potential on all levels; I want a place where good enough is not just good enough for us. National understands that the only sustainable way to lift incomes across the economy is for Kiwis to become more productive.Now for too long Kiwis have been of the mind-set that they just need to get ahead by working longer hours. We're already some of the longest-working people on planet Earth but our incomes still lag behind. So we've got to boost productivity to realise our potential; we've got to work smarter not harder; and National's going to do that by investing education so the basics are taught brilliantly and our kids can go out in the world and realise their dream and actually access higher-paying jobs. We'll do it by delivering the infrastructure we need to support growth; we'll do it by attracting the top talent here because we know when we do they grow the pie for all of us; we'll do it by opening up New Zealand to the world; we'll do it by backing small business up and down the country—not just letting businesses suffer while the Government overheats an economy. I'd say that expanding that economic pie is how we secure our future. Today the Prime Minister made a big deal about unemployment being low and it's true: unemployment is low in this country. But that's what you get when you have unprecedented Government spending and record-low interest rates designed to stimulate the economy—the only two levers that this Government and Grant Robertson have been capable of using. But that's what you get and unfortunately that's the same recipe that's pushing up inflation. That's the same recipe that I can tell you won't end well for us and the real frustration with unemployment being so low is that this Government has not been able to help Kiwis get off benefit and into work. There are almost 90000 more people on a benefit today than when Labour first took office—90000 people. One in nine Kiwis is currently dependent upon the State for an income and it just begs the question: what is the Government actually doing to support those on benefits into jobs? Even more concerning is the fact that Kiwis are spending longer on those benefits: 116000 people now spend more than one year on a job-seeker benefit and that's an increase of 50000 Kiwis since Labour were first elected—50000 people staying on a benefit for longer. On this side of the House we know when someone's out of work for a long period of time it is difficult for them to re-enter the workforce. But if you can't get people from welfare to work now with all the vacancies with all the labour shortages with low levels of unemployment in this country when will you be able to do it?Let's be honest we think the Labour Government has not only engineered a cost of living crisis; they've engineered a dependency crisis that is the exact opposite of kindness and compassion. They don't care that they have written off and consigned a whole bunch of New Zealanders to a life that's just slightly better than poverty and subsistence. They've decided in their heads with all their lovely white-collar backgrounds as academics and professional career politicians and union organisers that somewhere between where they are and where the other jobs are there's a miraculous line that work below that level isn't worthwhile. I can tell you right now we want people off welfare getting into work and we know why—because when you get a job when you get into work you get a sense of self-worth; you get a sense of mastery; you get a feeling of control of your life. I have to say National is more aspirational for New Zealanders. We care deeply about all of this this; we care deeply about New Zealanders; we don't want them consigned for ever to be on welfare; we want them in work. We think that's dignity; we think that's the pathway that they need. New Zealand deserves better; New Zealand deserves a Government that is forward thinking; New Zealand deserves a Government that is prepared to tackle the big issues a Government that doesn't simply just react to the latest headlines or put all its efforts into spinning the news cycle a Government that doesn't just throw money at a problem and then just walk away. We want a Government that restores our confidence our ambition our aspiration as a country—a country that actually builds a society of opportunity. That's what we're going to do with a National Government and that's what we're going to deliver for the people of New Zealand. Thank you."