Bishop ChrisADDRESS IN REPLYDebate resumed from 6 December.Hon CHRIS BISHOP (Leader of the House): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. And isn't it good to be back in Parliament—my first time sitting on this side of the aisle at least a little bit closer to the front than in 2014. Can I say again what I said yesterday and congratulate you sir on your election to this office.I also want to acknowledge my good friend and former employee James Meager who gave such an outstanding speech in the Parliament yesterday. He is going to make an outstanding contribution to this Chamber. My good friend Katie Nimon the MP for Napier—what a great speech that was as well. We've got a whole range of National Party maiden speeches over the next few weeks and months. It's going to take quite a long time to get through them all because there are so many more National Party new MPs. It's been fascinating entering the Government caucus room in the last two or three weeks. We're overflowing out of it and it's quite a contrast from after the events that we don't talk about after the last election!Can I acknowledge all new members of the Parliament. This is a special place. It's the place where we change the laws. It's the place where we repeal laws. It's the place where we debate the future of this country. Very few people get to become members of Parliament in New Zealand and so everyone who has been sent here whether by their electorate or by their party on the list brings something to this Parliament. I mean that genuinely.Can I say that I've moved into my office and one of the first things I did was—I've got a framed copy of the entire judgment of Fitzgerald v Muldoon given to me when I first became an MP by close friends; a famous law case. I've got it framed and it's on the entry into my ministerial office. I put it there because it speaks to two things that I always want to remind myself of when I enter the office. The first is the sovereignty of Parliament. Fitzgerald v Muldoon stands for the proposition that Parliament is sovereign in New Zealand. We make the laws. The people who make the laws are ultimately accountable to the people through the ballot box. That's democracy. And in our constitutional arrangements in our system it's the Parliament the people's House that makes the laws of the land.The second thing that Fitzgerald v Muldoon stands for is that the Government is accountable to Parliament. Of course the famous case makes the point that Mr Muldoon couldn't just suspend the law of Parliament by fiat or press release or decree. To actually change the law you have to go to the Parliament to do so. I want it to be a reminder to myself that we as Ministers are accountable to the Parliament and that's ultimately what the next three years will be about. We're going to have robust debates in this place. We're going to put forward legislation. The Opposition is not going to like it. We're going to have some good old barnies in the House and it's going to be good but ultimately Parliament is sovereign and we will as a Government be accountable to it.Can I also say in reflecting on the last few weeks isn't it fantastic that we had a peaceful transfer of power in New Zealand? Very few countries around the world have transfers of power like we did—very few countries. In so many countries—and sadly the trend is increasing—too many Governments take power at the barrel of a gun or the leaders of the country are in power because they're the brother or the son of the person who came before and power is exercised through military might rather than through votes at the ballot box. I do want to take this moment to acknowledge the former Government for the very good way they allowed the new Government to take office in a very sensible way. It wasn't particularly expeditious but that's on us!But it's New Zealand's first MMP coalition with three parties in it and I think it's worth reflecting on that because there are a lot of people particularly during the interregnum period—and members opposite won't necessarily say this publicly but I reckon I'm right in saying that they enjoyed the break from being in Parliament and enjoyed the break from their ministerial boxes. And it was good actually. The country didn't fall apart without the Parliament sitting and the Government not really in office and the new Government taking office. The country didn't fall apart. I actually reckon most New Zealanders quite enjoyed the break from politics but anyway we come to this new Parliament as the country's first three-way coalition. It took a bit of time to get there. It took a couple of weeks extra maybe than people would otherwise have liked but what it speaks to is a Government with the confidence of the majority of the House. And it enjoys a strong majority and it enjoys circularity between the coalition agreements—National and ACT and New Zealand First signing up to each other's programmes putting aside some differences and sharing what we want to achieve as a country and as a Government together.The Speech from the Throne laid out I think the Government's agenda extensively and it was good to sit there and listen to a speech on the Government's side of the aisle. A little part of me did feel sorry for the Opposition sitting on the other side of the aisle—a little part of me—because I've been there. I've been there done that got the t-shirt. It's not good—it's not good—and I did feel a little bit sorry for them because what's going to happen in the next 100 days is that we are going to repeal some of the legislation passed by the last Parliament under the last Government. And as I said in response to the shadow Leader of the House in the Business Statement there is no reason to keep things on the statute book that are bad law.There has been a bit of a commentary developing from members opposite and you saw it with the Hon Kieran McAnulty's remarks: Oh well when's the Government going to do something? Parliament is meant to do something."—as if repealing stupid legislation that takes the country backwards is not doing something. And I think it speaks to everything that the Labour Party thinks about Government and about Parliament: that we have to spend more money we have to do things set up a new Government programme. The way to achieve economic transformation is to get all the officials into a room and consult with the stakeholders and get the external consultants in to write a glossy document! Economic transformation isn't created by literally writing a 100-page glossy document with thousands of officials creating it called Economic Transformation. Economic transformation takes place by individual decisions by businesses and by individuals and families up and down the country—the individual businesses and sole traders making that courageous decision to hire a new person or to invest in a new piece of machinery or actually to get on that flight and go to Australia or further afield and try to sell their business or their services.It speaks I think to the previous Government's attitude that economic transformation is all about just issuing press releases and all about publishing glossy documents and that Government is always about doing things—it's always about having to create stuff! Actually I'm a member of the National Party and I'm a member of this coalition Government. I think Government is about doing fewer things. I think it's about doing the things that Government does well and effectively and being efficient with taxpayer money and getting value for money but I actually think we'd be better off if Government did fewer things if Government reduced as a proportion of GDP if Government got out of the way of businesses and families. And that's why this Government is committed to cutting red tape and investing in productivity-enhancing infrastructure to get Government out of the way and let Kiwis get on with their lives. We need less Government in this country and in this economy not more Government.We've seen the outcome of more Government. We've seen what a ginormous increase in Government spending does like we saw over the last six years. We have the official cash rate at the highest it has been since 2008. We have ever-increasing debt. We have deficits as far as the eye can see. The books bequeathed to us by Grant Robertson and the Labour Party are not in good shape and over the next few weeks and months and probably beyond that as well we will be doing an exposure exercise to show to the New Zealand people just what a shoddy job the last Government did and what a terrible situation the incoming Government inherits. Let me tell you: it is going to be a job to turn it around but turn it around we will because this country needs us to succeed. Our young people need us to succeed across health and education and law and order. And let me close by saying that we are up for the challenge. I can't wait to get started."