Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National): Well anybody who was in the House this this afternoon couldn't help but feel the hot heat of hubris coming from the other side of the House. Not for one moment was there any possibility in their minds that the public of New Zealand might totally embrace them and return the whole House full of red full of Labour members after this election. Well it's that attitude that always gets up the backs of New Zealanders. When we were talking this afternoon about unemployment and the debacle over the stats that were released yesterday Grant Robertson was laughing. When Grant Robertson was asked a question by one of his own members about what all the stats meant he made a joke about it as if the lives of New Zealanders don't matter to him because apparently they're so silly they're not even going to look at what he's offering. They're just going to vote because they think they're being kept safe from COVID-19. Well let's go back to the start of this year. Overwhelmingly voters were rejecting the coalition arrangements for government. They were rejecting them. They didn't like what they were doing. They didn't like all the nanny State stuff. They didn't like having their hands held. They didn't like being told what to do. And then there was without a doubt the circumstances around COVID-19 that were well handled. There is no doubt about that. But that's grist for the mill. It's what Governments do. It's what people expect. It does not mean that they are going to be in their droves turning out at the ballot box to say We want more of that." because what they'll be told about is the more that was there before and they didn't like it. Let's be clear too that right now 212000 New Zealanders are on the jobseeker benefit and 452000 New Zealanders are in supported work—the wage subsidy—and then tens of thousands of others like the one that Barry Soper wrote about yesterday cannot get on the jobseeker benefit and are not being caught up in the stats. It's not hard to see that figure in a rapid period of time going to astronomical levels. The reality is and let's be clear the Government chose the 4 percent yesterday because it was a good figure. They could have asked for some kind of mathematical ripple on the actual stats they got that showed 6.2 percent unemployment. And they could also answer the question—Dr Duncan Webb: Oh come on!Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Oh there he is over there the member for Christchurch Central retiring shortly. He's the one who just said "Oh come on." [Interruption] Not fair? It's in here—the Government's own document. The Government made a choice about what was put out yesterday. No question. And then there is of course the issue of the joblessness in here among women.How can that Government sit there for a moment and laugh as they did this afternoon about 90 percent of the jobless in this particular set of stats being women? Because what that tells us is that they are second jobs that have been lost to families. That's why kids aren't getting music lessons. That's why kids aren't getting opportunities for sport. That's why schools are going to suffer a little bit more than usual—because families can't afford those school outings if they have them with COVID-19; it's all so difficult. Perhaps it's just been wiped. Those are the sorts of things that start to drag a society down really quickly. And when that projection earlier for an 8.5 percent unemployment rate was put out there by Treasury and the Minister had to talk about it in the House back in late April of this year that's what sparked the second tranche of the wage subsidy—because they knew they couldn't go into an election with 8.8 percent unemployment. So that's masked. Now I say that it's good for those people who are getting it. They need it but it will not last. And if anyone wants to know this country is currently borrowing just for the wage subsidy $600 million a week—week in week out. Six-hundred million dollars—and when the wage subsidy comes off large numbers of those people will transfer on to the special COVID benefit and that will only drop the borrowing by a small amount because the tax effect gives you a net around $600 million a week.These people have got no idea. That's sitting over there saying "Well we're going to grow the economy." Well how? Where is there one initiative to help people get into work? There is the member for Wairarapa laughing. He doesn't care about that. He couldn't give two hoots. It's all very well saying "We're going to train people into new jobs." but look at the numbers. They're pathetic compared to the numbers who are going to be so badly dislocated in a very short time to come. Then we look at some of the achievements that some parties like to talk about. The Green Party must be living in a totally delusional world if they are able to stand up as their leader was today and say that so many New Zealanders are better off than they were three years ago because of them. Well what about all the people who are in work but are suffering salary sacrifice at the moment people who have had their wages cut people who have had their hours cut people who had a chance of overtime that's now gone? How are those people better off for anything the Green Party has done? Totally delusional. And have they done one thing for the environment? Have they done one thing? Just tell me one thing. Any of their members could just yell out one thing they've done. Not a jot—not a jot—because they've been too busy worrying about the general sort of social engineering aspects of their party which generally dominates them.And then we've got our friends in New Zealand First. Hon Julie Anne Genter: Plastic bags.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Well that's the first. There we had Julie Anne Genter calling across the House saying—what have they done?Alastair Scott: Plastic bags.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Oh there we go. They got rid of plastic bags. Well what an achievement! Wonderful. Then we have the New Zealand First Party who today had a leader who I think spoke in his speech a little bit about the Provincial Growth Fund. [Interruption] There we have Poto Williams over there saying "Don't mention him. He was out of it. We couldn't understand him." And I agree with the member. I totally agree with the member. Three billion dollars for their fund—that was Winston Peters' big claim. What a wonderful thing it was to go around New Zealand dispensing the cash. And they've gone everywhere and he's blamed National members for turning up and saying "Well this is good." Well I tell you what—if you can get it for your electorate why not? Why not? It was free cash. It was going out everywhere. If there's a lot of slush around and a bit splashes on you and it's good for you then why not?But let's be very clear. That slush fund is nothing like it's made out to be. They've made lots of announcements—lots and lots of announcements. They haven't come anywhere near spending the $3 billion but for every dollar that they've announced how much has been delivered? The sum of 12.9c—12.9c in a dollar. What a fraud. What an absolute fraud. And these are the people who say "We're looking forward to coming back into this Parliament to tackle the biggest economic crisis that this country has ever faced." It's the biggest economic crisis the world has faced since those Bretton Woods - type conferences back in the late 1930s. It is not a happy time for this country and they're going around saying "Aren't we lucky! Haven't we done so well!" and we've also got them saying "Stand by. There could be a second wave. Just keep yourself close. Put a packet of face masks in your back pocket. You never know when it might come over the radio that you've got to start wearing them." If that's the case then where is the success? Where is the success?What we have is a Government that has a very poor delivery record—a very poor delivery record—and they can sit there smugly saying "Oh but we've done so well." No they haven't. No they haven't. Name one thing one social indicator one of the eight social indicators that's gone in the right direction in the last three years. None. Absolutely none. There's a bigger waiting list for State housing. There are more children in child poverty. You can go through them all and every one of them is a massive massive negative. Well in the next few weeks the National Party will be on the hustings. We've already announced a lot of policy that they won't know about. They won't know about it because they don't care about putting people into work and those fallacies will resonate with New Zealanders because the one thing that New Zealanders fear most is debt. They know that debt is the way for them to have a more impoverished life and they have a Government that is saying "This is all good it's all manageable it's all fine. We'll clock it up at $600 million a day or more." Do you know that just in the last couple of weeks they've spent $120 million a day on other initiatives and does anyone know what they are?Hon Scott Simpson: No. Not one.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: No. No one knows because they don't know what they're doing either. So it'll be "Two Ticks National" on the 19th and a big chance for New Zealand."