Little AndrewGENERAL DEBATEANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Well we are the daggy end of this Parliament and we have in front of us a shabby grubby failing little Government that is now at the end of its useful purpose—assuming it had one in the first place. We know that one of the big tests of character and leadership is that when confronted with tough situations and when confronted with the consequences of your own past you have got to step up and take responsibility right? That is what leadership is about that is what character is about. And what is the track record of that miserable lot over the last few months?Well let us start with the Todd Barclay affair—and there may well be more than one of them but let us start with that. Here is a situation where we had our own Prime Minister running from it for months. He could not open up could not be transparent. Asked to release his statement to the public at large he refused to allow it to happen. He was finally confronted with the facts and has dodged and dived and ducked and weaved ever since then. It goes to integrity and it goes to character.But it does not stop just at that grubby little affair. Just look at the fuel margins issue which Judith Collins has been left to deal with. She got some plaudits for commissioning a report. Simon Bridges was the Minister of Energy and Resources once upon a time; he could have commissioned it. He knew that there were concerns about the massive margins being charged on fuel at the petrol pump but he did nothing about it. So Judith Collins takes over and she thinks: Well Stuart Nash is on to something here because he's a smart guy and he's in touch with his community and he's in touch with ordinary New Zealanders." She bends over backwards commissions the report and we get the report. It confirms what every driver in New Zealand has known especially during the summer holidays when mysteriously petrol prices go up for no other good reason than that we know a lot more people are on the roads trying to get somewhere.Judith Collins commissioned the report and what is her response? Confronted with 9 years of inaction and inertia what is her response? She says: "Commission another report." Commission another report—we have had this problem for 9 years. We have had a Minister of Energy and Resources who has done nothing about it for 5 years Judith Collins gets hold of it she commissions a report that tells us in minute detail that we are being overcharged and it is all wrong—we have got the information we have got the evidence and her response is: "Let's have another report. Let's have another report. Let's report after the election and then let's have even another report in November just before Christmas just in time to do nothing about it for the next summer season."On housing we have had—and we know the crisis that housing is in New Zealand: prices through the roof 80 percent of renters not being able to afford to save for their first home 40000 houses needed in Auckland alone and this Government doing nothing about it. We have got a new excuse now from Steven Joyce the Svengali of the National Party there wheedling his way through every issue hand in every point of failure of this Government. He now says: "Blame 2003." It all goes back to 2003 and something that happened then. Nine years on and they still cannot take responsibility. I just ask Steven Joyce to get out for once and talk to real New Zealanders. Talk to the young teachers I met in Auckland recently who are on good salaries teaching in an Auckland Central school and have given up hope of ever owing their own home. That is the reality for them.And what is this Government's response to Hutt Valley and the desperate shortage of housing and affordable homes there? Mysteriously 2½ months before the election when Chris Bishop is on the back foot because he has done such a hopeless job it trots out a plan for 60 affordable homes. This is when they are hundreds of houses short of what they need hundreds of houses short of State homes because they cannot rely on the local list member to do anything meaningful about it. It is absolutely appalling.This Government is at the tail end of its life. New Zealanders expect better and deserve better and they are going to get better. They will get a plan for more housing for affordable housing right across this great nation of ours. They will get a plan for restoring the cuts in health services and especially in mental health. And they will not have Ministers parading around saying that they have been a Minister for 8 weeks and did not know this was even happening even though they have been in a Government for 9 years and knew exactly what has been happening.We have a plan to get it fixed because New Zealanders deserve better and want better and with a Labour-led Government they will get better. On education we will have a system that makes our young people fit for the 21st century—because this Government has given up on young New Zealanders."