Foss Craig: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoss Craig: General Debate[Sitting date: 13 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14630. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CRAIG FOSS (Minister of Commerce): What an admission of defeat that was—the Leader of the Opposition the party on 32 percent spending his 5 minutes talking about a party that is not even in Parliament yet. The 32 percent party talking about a party on 2 percent. It may be interesting but I would have thought that the Leader of the Opposition would spend his time putting up Labour’s policies as an alternative to the very good policies of this Government. I was very surprised by that.It was just 5 short years ago—just 5 short years ago—that New Zealand overwhelmingly elected the John Key - led National Party to lead the next National Government with our coalition partners. We have spent those 5 years repairing rebuilding and refocusing our shattered economy—repairing rebuilding andrefocusing confidence in New Zealand and trying to build. We are succeeding now but the work continues with Better Public Services which is building and bringing in policies that matter to New Zealanders in their homes and in their families. That is not the PC nonsense that just 5 years ago so preoccupied the members opposite many of whom are still on their front bench.The National Party in the 5 years we have thus far been in Government has been constantly putting in policies to create real jobs and to create real wage growth for families in New Zealand. We must note that Labour and the Greens have voted against every single one of those policies. The National Party is the party of jobs. The National Party is the party for families. Every single one of the policies we have put in place to help their circumstances at their level has been voted against by Labour and the Greens which are forever preoccupied with their PC nonsense and all sorts of interesting things that may be of interest in the beltway or to their caucuses. It is Better Public Services that has brought in national standards in education aiming for a better educational outcome for five out of five of our New Zealand children. There are better outcomes in health with more electives than ever. There are better policies on law and order which have led to a reduction in crime particularly in violent crime.Amazingly it takes the National-led Government to bring in better policies for the environment such as freshwater standards. One would have thought that the Greens would promote that a wee bit when they were making arrangements with the Labour Government last time. National is not only the party for jobs for families; National is also the party for the environment. We do not just talk about it; we do it. We take action.We are also enabling the regions to invest in their future. We are the party for jobs in the oil and gas industry. We are the party for jobs in water storage projects such as the Ruataniwha scheme in Hawke’s Bay. I note that the Labour Party is against jobs in the oil and gas industry. The Labour Party is against the water storage project in Hawke’s Bay.Just 5 years ago Labour policies led to the decade of deficits. The best commentary I have seen in quite a while of what 9 years of Labour meant was from John Armstrong in theNew Zealand Herald. When commenting on the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update he said: “The Treasury’s pre-election economic and fiscal update bleeds so much of the red stuff that the document looks like the aftermath of Dracula running amok in the blood bank. The numbers in this horror story are truly awful.” That was commentary from a neutral observer after 9 years of the Labour Government.The worry is that as bad as that all was those policies are still unchanged in the Labour-Greens Opposition. The policies are actually unchanged. The only new one I know of is the printing money one which I have not heard about for a while but that still seems to be a policy. So the policies of the Labour Party that led to the decade of deficits the policies that led to rampant taxation lack of confidence and a ballooning public sector are still in its manifesto. It has not changed them. It may have renamed them. It may have re-skinned them.National is on track to achieve surplus next year. National is on track to achieve surplus in spite of the export recession over 5 of the years of the Labour Government in spite of the resultant recession for 1 year from 2008 in spite of the global financial crisis and in spite of the tragedy and the tragic circumstances around the Christchurch earthquake. National is on track to achieve a better brighter future. The work continues. We cannot put it all at risk.