Russell DeborahHon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. Xin nian kuai le and gong xi fa cai—happy Lunar New Year. The National-led Government was sworn in on 27 November. That means that today they are on their 80th day in Government. They will reach 100 days in Government on 5 March. So on 6 March we're going to wake up and think What have they achieved?" What have they achieved?Well Mr Speaker the coalition Government has a 100-day plan and I want to read out to you the operative words in some of the 49 things they have promised to do. They have promised to "stop" work on the income insurance scheme "stop" work on the industry transformation plan "stop" work on the Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme. The next operative word is "withdraw". They go on to "start producing". They go on to "narrow the mandate"; to "remove" something. They use the word "cancel". Then it's "repeal". The next word is "stop" then it's "repeal" then it's "repeal" then it's "repeal" then it's "cease to implement". Those are the operative words in their statement. From there on the next word is "abolish". It's "stop" "begin to repeal and replace". It's "stop". It's "lodge a reservation against". They're going to begin disestablishing. They're going to disestablish. They're going to repeal amendments. They're going to work to repeal the Therapeutic Products Act. So of the 49 steps that they are going to take 24 broadly use a negative word in them. A negative word like "repeal" "replace" "abolish" and "stop".In fact there is one other action that they propose to take in there. They say it's phrased positively: "Introduce legislation to restore [the] 90-day trial periods". But in fact that means stopping worker protections. Of the 49 steps that that Government has chosen to take more than half of them are negative. More than half of them say "reduce" "repeal" "replace" "stop". This is an incredibly negative Government.They've got no ideas. In fact their only idea seems to be: not Labour. There are no positive ideas coming from that Government and their only idea is: not Labour. In fact so intent are they on doing this they have rushed a number of bills through this House under urgency without full discussion and with committee stages that have not been given their full rein.Shanan Halbert: Outrageous.Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: That is outrageous when we do not have a full select committee process. So we repealed the Reserve Bank's mandate. We got rid of those fair pay agreements. They removed the Clean Car Discount. They repealed the Natural and Built Environments Act. They repealed the Spatial Planning Act. They repealed 90-day trials. They repealed the Tax Principles Bill. They repealed the affordable water legislation. And right now they're working on repealing the indexing of benefits to wages. All done under urgency all negative. In fact that's a real problem because it means there are some unforeseen consequences of their actions—unforeseen consequences of their negativity that have a seriously deleterious effect on New Zealanders.Let's start with one which they are so proud of: repealing the Auckland regional fuel tax. Now the way the regional fuel tax was was that councils could ask for it. Auckland Council asked for it. It turned out that the price of petrol in Auckland is roughly the same as everywhere else in the country anyway. But now that that levy is gone some of the much-needed transport projects in Auckland are under threat—some of the safety improvements some of the alternative modes of transport some of the measures which will reduce our emissions are under threat. That is the negative consequence of what they have chosen to do.They've linked main benefits to the Consumers Price Index. That might seem innocuous but the appalling consequence of it is that 7000 children will move into poverty. Now those child poverty reduction goals are tough and it has been hard to meet them but to take actions that push children into poverty is absolutely appalling. So that's the kind of negativity that has come through from this Government.When it comes to the water reform the negativity from this Government means that ratepayers up and down the country will be faced with huge bills. So all the way through the country this has a negative effect on people. Reduce repeal replace. I say to the Government: they must stop."