Genter Julie Anne: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGenter Julie Anne: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 10 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8856. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. The Prime Minister’s speech really highlighted for me the wasted opportunity of the last 8 years. It was rich in the usual rhetoric about responsible financial management paying down debt delivering benefits to New Zealand and growing the economy. We always hear a lot about that from the Government but the reality does not quite match up with the rhetoric.Credit where it is due—things are ticking along. This National Government is very good at focusing on the short-term and protecting the status quo. That much can be said for it and it is true what the Prime Minister said for example about wages rising. They are rising just faster than inflation. So real median incomes since National took power has increased by about 2.8 percent. But for many New Zealanders they are not actually better off particularly many who are living in Auckland where house prices have increased by 80 percent during that time. So obviously some property investors are much better off than they were 8 years ago but many people particularly young people and low-income people are going to find it that much harder to find a decent place to live that is close to jobs and education.After 8 years it is pretty clear that National is not going to do anything to reduce our shocking levels of inequality which go back to the 1980s and the 1990s. There has been no plan to increase the supply of social housing. There has been a very half-hearted attempt to close the tax loopholes on property which is unlikely to have much impact given how full of loopholes that particular legislation is. There is not even a plan to feed lunch to hungry kids in schools even though we could easily afford it.National has also shown that it is not going to do anything to rapidly increase the diversification and innovation in our economy. Our exports are a smaller percentage of GDP than they were when National came to power. Back in 2008 exports were 31 percent of GDP. Now they are back down to 28 percent. Over the last 8 years the export of low-value unprocessed primary products like milk powder and raw logs not only have not declined as a share of our exports but they are actually growing faster than any other value-added category. So we have more of the same and no diversification no innovation—and this is from Statistics New Zealand’s Global New Zealand - International trade investment and travel profile.If we look at the breakdown of our exports we can see that total primary products have increased. Unprocessed primary products have increased and in the processed primary products the only thing that has increased is milk powder. Out of our total manufactures the elaborately transformed manufactures and simply transformed manufactures have not increased at all. In fact they have declined slightly since National has come into power and of course the answer to that is to incentivise more research and development. Of course we hear from the Government that that is what it is doing but New Zealand’s overall investment in research and development has started to decline as a proportion of the overall economy. We invest less than half the OECD average.National has also shown it is not going to do anything to substantially clean up our rivers or to reduce dangerous carbon pollution. So after 8 years of governing not much has changed except that Auckland house prices have gone up we have more children in poverty net debt has increased by $60 billion and of course our carbon pollution has gone up considerably and is on track to blow out. But there is an alternative.The Green Party knows that we can have a New Zealand where every child—every single child—grows up in a warm dry safe secure home; a New Zealand where they can swim in our rivers without fear of getting sick where they can walk and cycle safely to school and where they can learn and succeed because they have access to healthy food in school. This is not a pipedream. It does not end there. We know we can have a New Zealand where those kids will grow up and be able to find meaningful work that makes the world a healthier and happier place and that does not simply rely on extracting more commodities from our land and water and where they can get paid a living wage for that work and if they fall on hard times or get sick or decide to start a family the Government will be there to back them. We know that looking after our people is the most fundamental key to having a healthy happy successful society.National will say we cannot afford this; the truth is we cannot afford not to do it. The Green Party has the practical costed policies that will deliver this and we know that they work because they have worked overseas. This is the vision that we have and will deliver for New Zealand when we are in Government.