Hipkins ChrisDEBATE ON PRIME MINISTER'S STATEMENTDebate resumed from 13 February.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): It is a fantastic time to be a New Zealander. Unemployment is at near-decade lows of only 4 percent; wage growth is at near-decade highs at 2.6 percent; stronger growth than most other OECD countries; strong investment in our core public assets like schools like hospitals like roads like railways; a record investment in the public health system most notably a huge investment in mental health; and of course New Zealanders have a leader who they know and trust in Jacinda Ardern. It is a great time to be a New Zealander. The members opposite I've got one message for them: for goodness' sake cheer up. While they busily try and talk down the country they seem to be working on the assumption that New Zealanders have very bad memories. Well let me take them on a little trip down memory lane back to 2017 when two-thirds of people in New Zealand got a pay rise that was less than the rate of inflation. Across the OECD New Zealanders had one of the lowest shares of economic growth going to wage and salary earners. That's why this Government has proudly increased the minimum wage. We are investing in apprenticeships and on-the-job training so that we can get people earning higher incomes. We've invested in a Families Package to boost family incomes particularly for those who have been struggling with the costs of raising their children and what has that resulted in? Near-record low unemployment and wage growth near-record highs. So the members opposite really do need to cheer up. Let's go back. Let's remind ourselves of what we inherited in health—$2.3 billion worth of health services cut or spending on health cut over National's nine years in Government. The cost of going to visit the doctor increased by 44 percent during National's time in Government. South Auckland's largest hospital Middlemore Hospital had mould and sewage loose in its walls when we became the Government such was the state of neglect that we inherited from the last Government. So this Government is making progress. We've made doctors visits $20 to $30 cheaper or in fact entirely free for almost 600000 New Zealanders. We are getting serious about home heating and making sure that every New Zealander has a warm dry place to call home and they want to get rid of that. We have hired 1500 more nurses 600 more doctors and 500 other medical professionals and as I have already mentioned we've made the biggest ever investment in mental health in this country. I don't meet many New Zealanders who don't know someone or who aren't related to someone who has at some point struggled with mental health. New Zealanders want to see us taking this seriously and in this Government after nine years of that problem being ignored we are doing something about it. We are fixing up the hospitals that were for so long neglected under the last Government. Up and down the country hospitals are finally seeing the much-needed capital injection that they have been crying out for. What about in education? Let's go down memory lane when it comes to education. When we came into Government we had 214 overcrowded schools and 488 more schools at risk of becoming overcrowded. Kids were learning in gymnasiums and libraries because the last Government had put planning for growth on the never-never. We have taken action and we have been dealing with that. We saw a 40 percent reduction in the number of people who were training to be a teacher and that is the reason that we are currently experiencing a teacher shortage. Parents were being asked every day every week to put their hands in their pockets to subsidise the shortfall in Government funding. When we came into Government $146 million worth of supposedly voluntary donations were going into schools from parents and we are taking action to deal with that. We're taking action to deal with all of those problems in fact. We have already built 726 new classrooms up and down the country to get ahead of that roll growth and to deal with that overcrowding and we have a fully funded plan—a fully funded plan—to deal with population growth in our school sector. Unlike the last Government who kind of vaguely thought that maybe they should build some more classrooms but didn't have any money for it and thought that they could put it on the never-never we have a plan and we have funded it. We have also fast tracked $400000 investments—or pro rata based on the school's roll size—for all State schools all up and down the country so that they can get ahead of those upgrade needs that we know they so desperately need. We are already working and making progress on recruiting more people into teacher training and it's plugging those teacher shortages that we inherited from the last Government and we know that there is more work to be done. We have introduced extra funding. We have given schools extra funding so they don't have to rely on parents for donations. I am very pleased to say that over 90 percent of the schools that were eligible for that have taken that extra funding up and they are not asking their parents for donations this year. We have made NCEA and scholarship free for all New Zealand students because cost should not be a barrier. Inability to pay should not be a barrier to someone being able to obtain their school qualifications as it has been. That is a problem that we have fixed. Let's go to housing because this Government is proud to be taking action to tackle the housing crisis. Under that last Government house prices increased by 10 percent a year in National's last term in Government. House prices were exploding and what was their solution? To sell off 6000 State houses—that was National's answer to the housing crisis and look at where that ended up. Then they suddenly realised there was a housing crisis—remember?—and we got Nick Smith's magical mystery bus tour of the places where he was going to build extra houses which included cemeteries and substations. Unlike that Government we're taking that seriously. One of the first things we did—and it's had an impact—was ban overseas speculators buying up houses and that's something the other side want to do away with. They think that wealthy overseas speculators should be at the front of the queue ahead of New Zealand homeowners when it comes to buying houses in New Zealand. That says everything about their priorities when it comes to housing. I stand by that policy completely. Banning overseas speculators from buying houses has helped to bring down house price inflation in New Zealand and it means that New Zealanders are getting their way back to the front of the queue to buy houses in New Zealand. We are building thousands of State houses to replace the ones the National Government sold bearing in mind—as has now been well documented in this House—that we would not have had a waiting list for State housing if the last Government had continued to build at the rate they should have. Instead they sold State houses they demolished State houses and they reduced the number of State houses and the result is we've now got burgeoning wait lists for State housing. We are getting on top of that and we are dealing with that. Let's talk about transport. A fully funded transport plan to start the year—that's what we saw on this side. Not the promises on the never-never which the last Government were so keen on making when they said We'll do these roads sometime in the next 10 years and we're not quite sure how we're going to pay for them and we haven't really done any of the planning and the design and the consenting work but we'll just go out there and promise them anyway". Oh no under this Government you'll get a fully funded plan.We know that the last Government's efforts were pretty haphazard and do you know why? I drove from Auckland to Waitangi just a few weeks ago and I thought "This is great. I'm going to drive on this new Pūhoi to Wellsford expressway that National promised back in 2009." I thought that would be a fantastic trip because it was going to be a nice fast trip. Well do you know what? Not one section of that road has opened—not one section of that road has opened. They only got as far as planning and funding it to Warkworth and that still hasn't been done 11 years after they promised that it was going to be there. The second half of the road was on the never-never. Maybe one day they would have got around to it and I thought "That's all right because at least I'll be able to drive over the 10 bridges that Simon Bridges promised the people of Northland." No no—yet another case of a promise on the never-never from the National Party.What people get under this Government is that when we promise something we will deliver it in roading. When we stand up in front of people and say that we will deliver a roading project we'll put the funding aside to do it.It's about time that the Opposition cheered up and realised that New Zealanders are confident. New Zealanders are looking ahead to the future and they don't want to be dragged back by the National Party."