Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister for Economic Development): No problem Mr Assistant Speaker. It is a privilege and a pleasure to end this debate on the Prime Minister's statement and for a couple of reasons. First to follow the new member Michael Wood with his big bold brassy red tie. I am told he bought it at Trump Tower—it has got that look about it. Another reason of course is that this is the Prime Minister's statement and on this side of the House we are so proud of him for the cracker of a start to this year that he has had.He has been to Europe where he has represented our interests as a country with aplomb. He has met with the leaders there—Merkel and May—where he has talked trade talked about our interests and progressed them. New Zealanders expect and are glad to see those things when they watch the television in the evening. And of course he has done that with Michael Wood's fashion ad Mr Trump as well. There in doing that he again represented us and our interests very well.He has also made some incredibly significant announcements. Safer Communities is I think the best package we have seen in relation to policing in this country in many a long year. Over 1000 policing staff around the country—Hon Member: How much?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —about 900 around the country—meaning that every single region in this country will have more police in due course and that is because of the Prime Minister's leadership in this area.Of course there is UFB2. It is an investment of over $300 million—a superb announcement—which means that over 150 additional townships around this country are getting ultra-fast broadband (UFB) which is effectively the gold standard in broadband internationally coming to these towns and centres.Clare Curran: They'll all go and get it somewhere else—7 years is too long to wait.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: We go from a goal of 75 percent to 85 percent coverage on the back of that. We go Clare Curran from the back of the pack in the OECD to past the middle. Actually with these decisions being made and the work going into this we are near to the very front of the pack in the OECD. Despite our situation as a sparsely populated country—a country with interesting geology shall we say—we will be up there with the Japans with the Singapores and with the South Koreas. We will be right at the top with UFB. I want to thank the Prime Minister for his leadership and the communications Ministers before me for their hard work—like Amy Adams and Steven Joyce who worked so hard on this. The best that Clare Curran can say having voted against the progress in this area not once but twice is: Not long enough." Well the only answer to what would have got this happening faster in New Zealand is if we had become the Government earlier. That is the only thing that would have got this faster and so I say to the people of New Zealand: if you want to see this continue you know what to do in the end at election time on 23 September.The contrast between this side of the House under the leadership of Bill English our new Prime Minister and that side of the House is absolutely stark and could not be starker. This Government under Bill English is focused on the important issues and on that side of the House they are totally focused at the start of the year on their internal issues. They are absolutely focused—[Interruption] They want to hear it again. This side—the important issues. That side—the internal issues. As a constituent of mine said on the doorstep in Tauranga: "How can we expect them to run the country when they can't even run themselves?". That is the situation.We over here are focused on the important issues—on the economy on law and order on infrastructure on health on education and on the environment. When it comes to the economy—Amy Adams is here next to me—what is a really interesting thing from getting briefings from Treasury and so on is that a sign of the strength of our economy right now under this leadership and this Government's policies is that the biggest threats to our country are in fact external. They are international. A Labour Government—that is almost an external threat as well. But over on this side we know that the economy has grown by 3.5 percent and is one of the strongest in the OECD. The average annual wage is growing; it is at almost $59000 and is up more than $12000 since we came into office. We could go through all of that. We have a diversifying economy an economy that is the easiest place to do business and voted most prosperous by a number of surveys in the world. We have a lot to be thankful for as New Zealanders when it comes to the economic direction and leadership we are seeing from the Bill English - led Government.It would not be a speech if I did not mention infrastructure because as Chris Finlayson said earlier today in his contribution—amongst talking I must admit about Rasputin and Lenin and the Australian Greens party. It was a typical Chris Finlayson speech but he made this very important point I think: the National Party is the party of infrastructure and we are really delivering whether it is in education whether it is in health infrastructure or whether it is of course in transport.If you want a sense of that from the regional transport projects from the smaller end right through to the bigger ones here is a list of a number of things that we started which we are doing in this country right now and will open this year in 2017. Tomorrow the Prime Minister will open the MacKays to Peka Peka Expressway project which is over $600 million of investment in a four-laned motorway and is going to make a massive difference—Kris Faafoi: It doubled in price.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —to the people in Kris Faafoi's electorate. He is sniping right now but he squealed and begged like a little boy to go along and have a look at it and take photos with his leader because he knows how popular these projects are and how important they are.Whether it is the East West Connections which we are making strong progress on and will be opening some initial works on; whether it is the Normanby Bridge in Taranaki and Whanganui costing over $11 million and which the local MPs have been working hard for; whether it is the widening of the Southern Motorway for which we will have the opening of the first parts this year; whether it is at the Brynderwyn Hills in Northland where over $18 million of safety improvements will be opening this year; whether it is the bridges of Matakohe and the Taipā where we will be starting construction this year; or whether it is the Waterview tunnel which will be a game-changer for Auckland—it will have a palpable effect. That is bad news for Labour because despite how many times Annette King says it we started projects and we will finish them because we are the party that does that. There are many more projects—Auckland Airport Kirkbride underpass another section of the Waikato Expressway. There are many many projects.But let me finish by saying this just one more time: we are going to win this election in a few months' time. The reason for that is that on this side of the House we are focused on the important issues for New Zealand not our own internal issues."