Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (Leader of the Opposition): I move That all the words after That" be deleted and replaced with "this House has no confidence in the Labour-led Government because in just two short years it has plunged New Zealand into deficit and failed to deliver on any of its promises."I can see the relief on Jacinda Ardern's face that that is going to be her last Prime Minister's statement. And actually I'm not sure where the relief is more palpable: on her face or her caucus's. But to be fair—Hon Kelvin Davis: Tell us how Waitangi went!Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —after almost three years—well we'll see in a TV poll rather soon actually Kelvin Davis. I'd say rather well. After almost three years of dithering and experimenting and mismanaging the economy and failing to deliver on her promises New Zealanders can finally see light at the end of the tunnel. Actually they can't because Labour cancelled it! But don't worry because National gets things done and we'll build it.We won't have to hear any more next year hollow statements from the Prime Minister. She's not going to have to stand up and make empty promises about building 100000 KiwiBuild houses in 10 years and just hope for the best. And by the way did she mention KiwiBuild?Hon Members: No.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Is it in this document?Hon Members: No.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: I find that staggering. The Prime Minister says "Know us by our deeds." How many KiwiBuild houses have they built?Hon Paul Goldsmith: 250.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Two hundred three hundred. They have cancelled more houses at Ihumātao than they have built in this term of Government and she has the audacity to say she's running a facts-based campaign this year where they are the party of infrastructure. I don't think so.She won't have to make ridiculous comments like they'll get light rail down Dominion Road before 2021 and just hope for the best. Where is that light rail? Michael Wood gets out from his house in Mount Roskill every single morning and he looks for it. He'll be looking a heck of a long time. It hasn't been built it hasn't been planned it hasn't been funded it hasn't been consented—nothing whatsoever has happened. And she won't have to talk about ending poverty in her first winter and hoping for that because we know her by her deeds and we know that it's getting worse. A Salvation Army report makes that very clear today.Jacinda Ardern's Government will go down in history as a story of lost opportunities for New Zealanders whether it will be no infrastructure projects starting anywhere in New Zealand—and that's the story; that's right. Well I hear you say "Shane Jones' roundabout." Actually even that hasn't started as I understand it—not even that. Not a single infrastructure project in her three years in Government—not light rail not KiwiBuild not roads not nothing and almost 30000 people on the dole and seven out of nine child poverty indicators getting worse under this Government. And she has the temerity to start and say she's starting at the beginning because things were so bad. These things are getting worse under this Government. That is what is happening in New Zealand right now and these aren't just statistics.Hon Kelvin Davis: Quote real numbers Simon. Quote real numbers.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: These are real people on the ground—in your electorate actually Kelvin Davis—who are getting poorer who are finding it harder who don't have houses who don't have food and who have to go for food parcels because your Government is failing to deliver on its promises.What's even worse about the speech we've just heard in this long diatribe here of hollowness where nothing is happening here is not only have they achieved nothing in three years there's nothing new. There is a sense of being bereft of anything new for New Zealand a sense of aspiration and delivery for this country in the years to come. We've had 300 KiwiBuild houses and Phil Twyford looks down because he knows the record and how bad it is. We were supposed to be at 6000 at 10000 a year at 100000 over the next decade and counting and they've cancelled more than they've started. Not a single kilometre of track of light rail down Dominion Road when it was meant to be built by 2021. They pumped up fuel prices. They raised a regional fuel tax that is really hurting those people Kelvin Davis—Hon Paul Goldsmith: FleecingHon SIMON BRIDGES: Fleecing? Well we know who the "Fleecer in Chief" is Paul Goldsmith and it isn't you. They've done all these things and instead of getting new roads instead of doing new infrastructure in this country we have less happening than before in a very very long time.The amazing thing about this document is—I think it's on page 3—they start by saying because they're obsessed with the National-led Government how terrible it was we overinvested in roads. Six paragraphs down what does she say? We're going to build lots of roads. She spends more time in this speech talking about roads than she does about light rail—the one thing they did promise—because actually New Zealanders know they can't deliver on their promises.They have cancelled more in Kelvin Davis' electorate than they've started anywhere around New Zealand—Whangārei to Te Hana the East-West Link Cambridge to Piarere Pōkeno to Mangatarata Piarere to Tauriko Waihī to Ōmokoroa the Tauranga Northern Link Katikati Tauriko West network connections Ōtaki to Levin Pētone to Grenada Link Road and Chris Bishop the Melling Interchange: all cancelled. None of it is happening. And now Phil Twyford I hear in speeches is not sure what to say. Well he's not allowed to talk but sometimes he gets out. Jacinda gets angry at him but he gets out and talks—SPEAKER: Order!Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Jacinda Ardern. True to their form what we know about this Government is they are first class at announcements. I don't even think they're third rate at delivery; they are hopeless at it and New Zealanders deserve much better than 2½ years in coming back and saying "Yeah we will do some of these projects." and the best they can offer is that one or two of them are going to have a cycleway. Well Julie Anne Genter might be happy with that but New Zealanders aren't. They are mightily brassed off at the lack of delivery when the cost of living another important issue is going through the roof. Actually if only they were building roofs—they're not but the cost of living is going through the roof.We hear the stories every single day around New Zealand. We hear the stories of New Zealanders who feel they are working harder. They are trying harder. They are doing more. They are spending more time at work but the tax the cost the regulation—whether they are working for someone or they're their own employer—is making things harder and taxes are going on others and not on them as money is wasted by this Government like it's a drunken sailor. The cost of living I repeat is going through the roof: whether it's $2600 that median rent has gone up a year under this Government—$55 a week—and this Prime Minister over here talks about eighty-something dollars a week more. Well most of it's gone in rent. Petrol is $200 more a year just in the additional tax that's been put on for a typical person. There are the cancelled tax cuts—that takes us to another thousand dollars a year that people could have had in their pockets and that would have made a difference in terms of paying those bills getting those school uniforms doing the things that matter. Nevertheless under this Government with that cancelled they are some $4000 a year worse off and there are 28000 more people on the dole. What is that? Half of Whanganui? Half of Whangārei? A couple of Whakatānes? There are more people on the dole. When New Zealanders are working harder and are fed up with that because of the costs they're paying there are more people who are on the dole right now. Job growth has flat-lined because there are no expectations under this Government to get a job. [Interruption] And they laugh but New Zealanders aren't laughing because they see a situation where there's been lack of delivery where there's no infrastructure where the economy's getting worse and where there's a situation where people are facing more costs. There are 7000 more children in poverty today than there were a couple of years ago I say to Ron Mark—7000 more children. Actually there are tens of thousands sitting there and the Christchurch City Mission says that things were better under us and that things have got much much worse.Hardship grants have doubled. Emergency housing grants have increased by 500 percent and the social housing waiting list has more than doubled to over 13000 families. They've been better at filling motels than they have at building houses. Hundreds of millions of dollars are going on people—and you'd think the Prime Minister would finish on a strong point actually. She finished on 1800 new police officers. I say again: I thought Jacinda Ardern that we were going to have a facts-based campaign this year. If you don't like what you promised just change the target and pretend nothing happened. Say black is white and white is black and hold up a graph that's blank and red and supposedly means something.They said they'd deliver. While we're on promises they said they'd deliver 100 percent qualified early childhood teachers. Where are they? Today we hear we're waiting longer and longer and longer for children with special needs who need special attention in our schools.One billion trees Shane Jones. Where are they? The best he's given us is a small dying shrub. And someone probably paid a donation for it but that's the way it goes. They have been so incompetent. They haven't delivered and they are not managing the economy at all. In fact we see things going backwards—a situation where we had decades of surpluses actually as far as they eye could see according to Treasury. The legacy of John Key and Bill English is a situation where from the global financial crisis we went to prosperity and now this Government has got us back in deficit.If Grant Robertson were here—SPEAKER: Order! The member knows he's out of order—or he should.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Grant Robertson will tell us—about that situation that deficit—that we will be back in surplus soon. One thing I know about Labour parties is that once they're in deficit you never go back. They have a taste for wasteful spending. And that's the situation. And we'll see Jacinda Ardern at this Budget. You've been bequeathed Jacinda Ardern a fantastic legacy and you have failed to deliver. You have squandered it in just three short years.Three years ago our economy was growing at nearly 4 percent per annum and we're now at almost half of that—from tax and cost and regulation.Hon Kelvin Davis: How many more of your MPs are leaving?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: You want to talk about taxes? Hon Kelvin Davis: How many more MPs are leaving?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Oh you want talk about why one of your MPs is being challenged Mr Davis. Why is the guy over here who's only been in Parliament about five minutes going on the list because he can't hack it? I thought he was one of the tough guys one of the good guys. This is a guy who wants to run these things when we know the situation.We have slipped down the GDP per capita table—behind Chile Hungary Poland Latvia Estonia Lithuania Spain and even Greece. [Interruption] Well was it Winston Peters who talked about a Polish shipyard? Actually I think it was his mentor but that's where we're going under this Government. We are slipping behind.I say again to Ron Mark that he may be laughing but New Zealanders aren't. On this side of the House we have a plan to fix that. That involves getting more money in people's pockets making a stronger economy actually building the infrastructure. Let's actually do this Stuart Nash—and making communities safer. I see Stuart Nash over there in a situation where right now around New Zealand—in his electorate there's open gang warfare. What was it? Fifty gang members brawling a few weeks ago Stuart Nash—50. AK-47s—guns. How many were arrested? Four I'm told. Under Stuart Nash we have a tag and release policy that isn't going to work.New Zealanders deserve better than this Government. They deserve a strong economy to build the roads to do first-class infrastructure to build the world-class schools. They deserve financial security so that they can look after their families in good and bad times. They deserve the ability to fill up their petrol tank and to have a better cost of living in this country. They deserve the environment that Jacinda Ardern and James Shaw talk so much about—that's seen emissions go from going down under us to going up under them. [Interruption] Kelvin Davis keeps interjecting and he obviously didn't get the memo they sent around before about not doing that and sitting there with their head in the—he never was the smart one in the class; let's be honest about that. But here's the thing. Some say—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! I'm going to now ask both sides to settle down and when I'm on my feet the member will sit. That mightn't have been in the best taste but it does set the tone for the debate and I'm going to ask the member to continue. But some of those interjections are to stop as well. Not that member—the ones in reaction to what the member said.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Some say that none of this is the Prime Minister's fault: the fact actually that Phil Twyford can't do any infrastructure; that Carmel Sepuloni had boasted about getting things under control but we have 28000 more people languishing on the dole; the fact that David Clark sends out the chief executive of health to front on coronavirus and he's missing in action. Somehow these aren't her problems. I say let's stop making excuses for Jacinda Ardern. Leaders lead. Actually leaders get things done and New Zealanders know—Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern: Ha ha!Hon SIMON BRIDGES: And she laughs about that. Where has her Minister been on coronavirus? Where has Phil Twyford been? Where has the Minister of Housing—the new one the next one—been on these issues? They have been out for the count.The National Party has a plan. We take a very clear plan.Hon Members: What is it?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Well it's not a—unlike hers it's not a complicated plan. It doesn't involve fake news and graphs that are "based on Treasury" but actually she's added to.Hon Members: Ha ha!Hon SIMON BRIDGES: They laugh and they laugh because right at the start of this year Jacinda Ardern went out with a transparency tool. She said she was going to be the most transparent—all of these things. Well right now they're peddling paid targeted advertisements all over Facebook begging New Zealanders for money for the Labour Party. And have they signed up to the transparency tool? No. Has Jacinda Ardern signed up to it for her personal page? Has the Labour Party? Has the Government? No they haven't. That was the big song and dance and they haven't.You see on this side of the House New Zealanders know—like John Key did like Bill English did like I will—that we will deliver a stronger economy. We know in uncertain times what to do. We'll provide the tax relief that's required and we've already started laying out that plan. We'll make sure there's less regulation for small businesses and we'll do the infrastructure that's required. That's the second part of this plan. We'll build some roads. We'll actually do this—Kieran McAnulty: What plan?Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —Kelvin McAnulty or whatever your name is; I don't know what your name is. We will do this by building the roads around New Zealand and New Zealanders know that we will actually deliver. Stuart Nash and Andrew Little we will make sure that New Zealanders have the safety and the security that they deserve. We understand that behind the statistics where there are tens of thousands more victims of crime right now where burglaries are going up where sexual violence is going up where robberies are going up where gang members are up 30 percent exponentially in his own electorate—we're not going to do tag and release. We're going to resource those police. Whether it's 1400 or whatever the number is in reality we are going to make sure that New Zealanders are safer.There's a contrast in this Parliament between big talk a lack of delivery zero substance behind that party over three years failing to deliver for New Zealand and on this side a party that when it says it will do something delivers for New Zealanders that is going to deliver that money in their pockets that is going to deliver the infrastructure that's required and that's going to deliver a safer New Zealand for all families."