Peters WinstonRt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): Mr Speaker—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Order! Before the member starts I think there were 17 occasions during the Prime Minister's speech where notwithstanding a warning Mr Brownlee interjected. He is to cease and not interject at all during this speech.Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think it'd be useful sir if you explain to the House what Standing Order you're calling on to stop a member speaking in this House.SPEAKER: Order! I referred the member earlier to the Speaker's ruling—Hon Gerry Brownlee: Standing Order.SPEAKER: I'm referring the member to Speaker's ruling 125/4. It is a longstanding one; it has been enforced by Speakers in the House before. It might've been a long time since the member's been in Opposition but he should know it and I did warn senior members on the Government side of its existence earlier. I will have no further discussion of this.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: This is about a Budget building foundations. It's fact not fiction; real not fake news—like someone I'm just seeing going. A little over six months ago we made a decision to go with the Labour Party in a coalition Government and today's speech by Mr Robertson reinforces the reasons why we did. We congratulate Mr Robertson and Prime Minister Ardern for today announcing our plans for a fairer more prosperous future for all New Zealanders.Mr Grant Robertson's first Budget will be remembered for the foundations announced today investments to release our country's potential and starting the job of restoring capacity across public services after nine long years of National's woeful neglect. Now I can say Mr Robertson as you were reading out that Budget the National Party clearly got a deluge of mail today because they all had their heads down the whole time from start to finish because it must be painful to have to admit that they were so derelict in their duty of running a balanced fair economy.It's a Budget that reflects the significant priorities of the Labour Party the New Zealand First Party and indeed the priorities of the Green Party as well. It's a Budget that reflects the unique make-up of the first truly MMP Government. I say that because I was in an MMP Government once—in fact the first one—where they did their best to derail the party that put them there in the first place. Oh yes I remember very well and I remember some of the characters sitting over there now—guilty as anything still at the grindstone behind Simon sharpening up their knives and waiting for the next takeover merchant. It's a truly MMP Budget.In response to the concerns expressed at the last September election: it's a Budget supported—and I'm saying this to my colleagues in the media—by the vast majority of New Zealand voters. New Zealand First as you know has been a committed and constructive partner—as we said we would be—during the last six months and we set out all of us to make a positive difference to the people's lives and the Budget of this country in 2018 demonstrates that. It's for changing direction. It's not for a modified status quo and it's not for thinking you can tweak and somehow get by with trickle-down. Now the Opposition leader should know that. I wanted to say how clear it was and how pleasing it was to hear a Budget that actually explained things with a simplicity of language.Now the mantra of the National Party in this campaign for this Budget is going to be making the claim that New Zealand is awash with money.Chris Bishop: That's right.Hon Member: That's right.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Who said That's right."? Hon Members: We all did.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh one of them did. The rest are not putting their hand up. Who said "That's right"——New Zealand's awash with money?Chris Bishop: I did.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Chris Bishop. That's why he's number 37 in their caucus. Mr Bishop you're not going to get a promotion. I know you have more brains than that but you're not going to get more than 37 in your caucus if you talk and think like that.Can I just say it was clear as daylight that the National Party had been hiding the costing—$20 billion for example when it comes to the Defence Force was a fiscal risk. It wasn't even budgeted for. Then he had a frigate that was overrun by and costing $148 million and they kept it quiet from the public from July last year all the way to election day. Then the shocking rundown of the health sector referred to by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance—with the woeful neglect of Middlemore Hospital merely the most obvious symbol of neglect and under-investment. And you know such perfidy defines the National Party's last nine years.As for the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak well that happened three months before the last election and what did they do? Well nothing. And every day this man Nathan Guy who was responsible for it responsible for doing nothing about border security—there weren't 150 border security breaches; there were 173 on their watch. And he has the effrontery—which probably tells me that too much of something from the cow's tail got in his ear when he was farming—he thinks he can come down here and everybody will forget that he was the man with the DNA the fingerprint the thumb print and blood all over it. He is the man responsible. But no no; not him—he's so arrogant he thinks he can come back to this House every day and start charging the new Minister a decent Minister of Agriculture—a decent Minister of Agriculture. He thinks he can attack him. Amazing!Can I just say you know National's grandiose transport plans—none of them were within the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) funding. The superhighway from Whangarei to Warkworth not one cent was in the NZTA funding. Not these people. They go around and they think they can flimflam some country folk by saying that if it wasn't for us we'd have a superhighway. Now my friend Mr Twyford knows that that is—to use an agricultural term—bulldust. No money for the Dunedin Hospital. No it was going to be a public-private partnership. Who was the private entity? They didn't know—but they said it anyway. Whangarei Boys' High School—$62 million. The voters asked: how are you going to pay for it? They said a public-private partnership. Now what is this a bank? No it's something of fiction that's nothing until you establish it. So they never had any money for it. No they didn't. No money for more police for the surge in prison numbers and for the multibillion-dollar infrastructure deficit and billions of dollars in the fiscal hole for education. They weren't awash with money. They just weren't responsible. They thought they could disguise it.Now you know National was a marketing operation based upon spin and not much else. Where is John Key? Anybody up there know? Where is Mr Key—"Mr Spray and Walk Away"? Where's Bill English? Where is Steven Joyce? Where is Jonathan Coleman?Hon Maggie Barry: Where's Andrew Williams? Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I beg your pardon?Hon Maggie Barry: Where's all your people?Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh "Myrtle Rust" knows. [Interruption] SPEAKER: Order!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: The expert on weeds knows then. The expert on weeds knows. Where is Jonathan Coleman? Well they all packed it in because once National's marketing flimflam collapsed so did their commitment—once National's flimflam had collapsed so did their commitment. Steven Joyce's final act his $11.6 billion fiscal hole was born out of a deep sense of cynicism and people saw through it.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Go and read the documents.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Somebody over there I think it was Nick English—was it Nick English?SPEAKER: Order!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Nick Smith. He got there because of Bill English. But Nick Smith said he was right. He said Steven Joyce's $11.6 billion fiscal hole was right.Hon Dr Nick Smith: That's why you broke the promises.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: You know Mr Smith? If I was as tired as you I'd give up and go home. I really would. I'd quit. I'd find a new career before it's too late—before it's too late. Sitting there every day shouting out "Answer the question." is so tiresome is so bald and it's so age-istic that it probably befalls you. But the member should be very worried about his future. He's only there on sufferance.Hon Dr Nick Smith: At least I won my seat.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh he says "At least I won my seat." Look actually one of my great shames is I went down to Richmond way back in 1990 and I packed the place out with 600 people to campaign for him. I had to explain to them—you were so young—that Pitt the Younger was 24 when he became the Prime Minister of England. But I forgot to say that the candidate we had for the National Party at the time namely Nick Smith was still in nappies. I feel sorry for when I did that because I owe a big apology to the people of this country.Worse is National's descent into fake news. Whether they're pretending to pour resources into areas of need when they did not or perniciously making stuff up about the Government's plans it's clear we've reached a new low in our politics. Mr Steven Joyce had a Damascus moment a voluntary admission of how short National's budgetary plans were. That can be the only reason why he came up with $11.6 billion: because they weren't spending it. Whatever the cause the Key-English Government's legacy will be their underfunded and under-delivered promises and chronic underperformance. Now it's down to fake news and fake announcements. We've reached a new low in politics.I remember Holland—not personally of course; Holyoake—personally of course; and Muldoon. And do you know what? Against them against these guys those men had honour. Mr Bridges does not. As Michael Bloomberg recently warned and I'll quote him "The only thing more dangerous than dishonest politicians who have no respect for the law is a chorus of enablers who defend their every lie." There are plenty here that I see today. Bloomberg went on to say "The greatest threat to democracy isn't communism jihadism or any other external force or foreign power; it's our own willingness to tolerate dishonesty in service of party and in pursuit of power." He could have written that about the National Party because that's exactly what we heard today.National's temporary leader for Tauranga and for the National Party leadership would do well to heed these words. He'll not make any headway until he cuts out the faux outrage and fake news and offers a mea culpa for the poor performance of him and his predecessors. Take for example over the period of the last Government trade declined as a percentage of GDP from 30 percent to 27 percent. They were promising they were building trade and it fell from 30 to 27 percent and what does the National Party leader say in response to the budget for foreign affairs and trade so critically needed? He says we've got our priorities wrong.So what would his priorities be about making wealth offshore?Hon Dr Nick Smith: Doctors before diplomats.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: He had none. They got rid of 100 top-line trade and diplomatic specialists offshore—100. And there Mr Smith sits there with all that propped-up taxpayer support for all his useless years in this Parliament and he laughs and smiles as though that's a good outcome.Mr Bridges' speech today reinforces why he is failing: no vision no plan and no ideas; just carping and whining. It was poorly delivered—should have been touched up by a speech therapist as to the pronunciation—by a desperate pretender. The last man to believe in trickle-down economics—which even the Fred Astaire of the South Pacific the member for Epsom calls an imaginary friend—is sliding into insignificance. No wonder Mr Bridges is showing early signs of relevance deprivation syndrome and it's a safe prediction that it'll only get worse for him because many voters—many more voters—dislike his leadership as those who merely tolerate him.Voters see you see there's no leader. He offers no vision and his sole achievement to date is to rip apart the previous bipartisan approach of this country as a hallmark of our politics when it came to foreign policy. It was always above politics. But not this fellow—so desperate he attacks the very issue that he himself created: a huge disparity. He may believe as he said last week that it's a waste of money trying to compete with others in the Pacific but our partners in the region and those outside it disagree with him. Hopelessness and resignation are Mr Bridges' raison d'être but they are not mine they are not my colleagues' and they are not those of our country's partners who want to work with New Zealand to make a difference in our own backyard to our economic security and indeed our personal security.New Zealanders look for a Government which offers fresh direction—for a Government which offers energy and drive and—dare I say it Mr Smith—youth. They look for leaders who offer stability they look for leaders who offer substance and Budget 2018 demonstrates the coalition Government is delivering on these expectations. The speech by the Leader of the Opposition exposes the dismal state of leadership of the National Party. They were so bad they had a leadership contest and not one of them was rating 1 percent. Not one was rating 1 percent before they ran in the leadership contest—not one of them. So it shows how desperate they are.It was a speech devoid of ideas riddled with clichés and speeches like that are why they created the word "vacuous".Hon Tim Macindoe: What's the current poll rating? "Mr 1 percent." Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Let me tell you sunshine I'm here after all these years because we know how to get a poll up but not that failure—not that member there. He was a Minister for three months—back to the backbench; he'll never be back again. Speeches like that were the reason why they invented the word "vacuous" and here is what the voting public has concluded about the leader of the National Party: what you see is what you get and what you get is "Mr Simon Slick Bridges" "Mr Simon Soundbite Bridges" "Mr Simon One-way Bridges" and yes "Mr Simon Short-term Bridges".Budget 2018 showcases New Zealand First and other parties who are the heart of this Government. We're making a positive difference to voters across our portfolios through making better investment choices achieving better policy outcomes and by restoring lost capacity in areas where it's desperately needed.I leave shortly for Japan in the next couple of hours. Why? Because we need to beef up our trading relationship—and indeed every relationship we've got in the Pacific. And next week we'll be off to China. Again unlike that group there we're out to grow our exports so that money comes back to the families in New Zealand—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Tell us about TPP.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —and we can finance good economic policy and good social policy. And I'll even finance a mouthguard if I can afford to spare the money to bring back for Mr Smith.In regional economic development we've got the Provincial Growth Fund. We're planting a billion trees. We've got a port study because we're going to connect up our port value and our port assets and our transport assets in this country. We've got a new forestry service starting in regional New Zealand.We've got for example the things that also matter in defence. That's a substantial boost in a critical area which means that our defence capacity in the Pacific—so desperately needed by so many Pacific Islands and by the Pacific itself—can now show up responsibly.We're going to see of course 1800 new front-line police but it doesn't stop there. My colleague the Minister for—Chris Bishop: No you're not—five years not three.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No no. Now I want to tell Mr Bishop that my colleague the Minister of Police ensured that it didn't stop there. There's also 480 backup office staff.Chris Bishop: Yeah yeah yeah.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Yeah yeah yeah—yes; exactly. Tell me what was that member's party's record? Declining numbers against population. Mr Nash has come around and it's a dramatic turn-around and I expect that to be the last stupid question I hear from "Number 37" in the National Party caucus.Whether it be Oranga Tamariki whether it be health funding—district health boards so much in debt—being attended to or doctors visits for under-14s this is a change in the outcomes so desperately needed by this country.In foreign affairs what we released last week we'll be going on in that respect. But you know I've got to say this to my colleagues and the Prime Minister: we should have got more. If you realise the problems that we face out there and how they've been subject to such long neglect we should have got more but we're not dissatisfied or un-humble about it. But I hope that in the next few Budgets we'll do better.The reality is you see we inherited a portfolio where our multilateral aid had fallen to the lowest in the OECD. In all those countries we were the lowest in the OECD. Look at the chart and there's New Zealand at the very bottom. Well we're going to turn that around because in the end we believe in international rules sound Government and international protocols. A small country like ours desperately needs that to be promoted and we've got to spend money getting ourselves into that right frame of influence. As for racing well we're going to turn racing around and we're doing so dramatically with some revised policies.But in conclusion could I just say this: we're going to make New Zealand great again. We're going to make a great economy. We're going to make that economy great for the regions. We're going to make sure that it'll be great for young New Zealanders to gain employment. We're going to make sure that it's going to be great for exports but that the money is shared at the end by everyone.For nine long years the old truths about businessmen and businesswomen being the backbone of the country and the regions being the fertile and broad countryside support for the big cities were forgotten by National and so the Labour - New Zealand First coalition Government supported by the Greens has taken its first steps to effect a transformation in our economy and prospects. The adaptive work will take longer than one Budget but today a strong foundation has been laid. You know we know there's much more work to do and we look forward to fulfilling and continuing our role as a constructive force in the coalition to achieve positive change for our supporters and indeed for all New Zealanders. For those National Party supporters so despairing of the Opposition my words to them are "Hang on because help's still on its way.""