Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National): These are dark and foreboding times for New Zealand. Never before have I witnessed and stood amongst as much destruction and devastation as I saw in Hawke's Bay and Gisborne last week. It is apparent I think to all members of this House that in this dark hour we must back New Zealanders in a great time of need and we have a great responsibility as leaders to deliver for them. As I stand here Cyclone Gabrielle has wreaked its havoc. I extend our utmost thoughts to those who have experienced the loss of family members with the death toll of 11 people—to all of your friends and families. I think of the more than a thousand people who are still uncontactable and the great anguish and anxiety their friends and families must be experiencing. My thoughts are with all of those people and families and communities who have had their lives turned upside down their houses destroyed their farms destroyed their jobs gone and their possessions gone. To everyone in Napier the Coromandel Hastings Tolaga Bay Gisborne Auckland—all of you who are anxious who are exhausted who are frustrated and who in too many cases are feeling hopeless. I think our job in this House is to give these New Zealanders hope. National will continue to support the efforts needed to respond to this great disaster. We continue to stand behind all of those working on the response. We continue to back the need for a rebuild and we know that that is both immediate and medium term. But we also see that hope will be about more than the words that are offered. Hope will be about delivery. So how is it that we will contribute to that? The first thing I want to do is to shine a spotlight on the heroes in our community who rose to this time of need because I see hope in them and one of them is a man called Cameron Taylor. I had the great privilege of spending some time with him on Friday and he told me of his rapid evacuation from his home in Hawke's Bay as he saw the rivers rising. As he drove out of the floodwaters into safety his immediate thought was for those families living near him who may not have been so lucky to escape. So putting health and safety rules to the side Cameron talked to a pilot he got himself up in his chopper and he went and rescued families from their roofs. He had no thought for himself. He was selfless he was brave and he was courageous. Even when he thought that he had rescued all the people and he saw a hole in a roof with a metal bar and a white cloth extending out of it he said Let's hover the chopper there." and he pulled with his bare hands an elderly couple from their ceiling cavity where they were floating on water. These are acts of heroism and as Cameron shared this trauma with me he was very slow to then talk about the fact that his business which employs 300 people has suffered immense destruction: orchards gone packing house filled with mud cool-store broken. So as we work together over these next few weeks and months to rebuild those areas ravaged by disaster I'm going to think of Cameron and of how we need to be accountable to him. I am worried about whether or not this Government has the track record to properly deliver in these circumstances because we do have a backdrop here of a Labour Government who have failed to deliver infrastructure starting with the promise of 100000 KiwiBuild homes never built and the light rail promise that was meant to be at Auckland Airport by 2021—not one metre laid. But more recently I think of the promise from Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson following COVID that they would build back better and that they would immediately fund shovel-ready infrastructure projects. The words were there and they started 225 of these projects—they're great at starting things—but they haven't finished them. Only 49 have been completed. So I stand with those New Zealanders who in this hour of need say "Nicola I am worried that they're going to fudge it that they're going to forget about us and that they're not going to get it done." It's all very well and good for Minister opposite to say that this time it will be different but New Zealanders know that the road here was paved with Labour's good intentions and good intentions won't get the bridges built. Good intentions won't pay the supermarket bills of workers who lose their jobs. Good intentions won't deliver the housing that this Government has already had five years to deliver and hasn't been able to do it. So we will stand proudly in this House to hold the Government accountable and we will propose smarter ways for delivering the recovery that New Zealand so badly needs. But my thoughts when I think of what hope is needed in the country now extends beyond the rebuild. We must not forget that whether New Zealanders have been touched by the cyclone and the floods or not they are in the midst of a cost of living crisis and that cost of living crisis has gone on and on for month upon month. We have now today had the 10th increase in the official cash rate. We've never had the cash rate rise this fast before. The only time it's risen this many times was under the last Labour Government and even then it was five. The very real reality that mortgage holders across the country are looking at is flicking from having a mortgage with a two or a three in front of it to a mortgage with a 6 or 7 percent rate. That is hundreds of dollars per fortnight and this is at the same time that the Reserve Bank tells us that inflation—that thief in everyone's pocket—is here to stay for some time longer. Even while the US inflation rate dips well below ours and even while Canada starts to say goodbye it's here to stay in New Zealand and I find it unfathomable—absolutely unfathomable—that at this time of crisis when New Zealanders are seeking hope and confidence and certainty the finance Minister and his Prime Minister think it appropriate to dangle over New Zealanders' heads the prospect of yet another tax. This is a sword of Damocles that should not be there at this time because actually the job that those two men need to do right now is give people confidence that there are better times ahead and you don't do that by saying "Actually we see this as a great opportunity to pad down your pockets for some more cash for our pet projects." How can it be OK that at a time when there are New Zealanders who don't even know whether they're going to have a job next week and who worry about whether or not they're going to be able to keep their home the Ministers opposite think it's a great time to double down on their pet political project of light rail? Those workers those engineers and those diggers need to be helping out on our rural roads and getting lifelines and infrastructure connections going again and a good Government would see that. So National stands here knowing that many people are relying on Parliament to deliver for them. Well we back them. We stand with New Zealanders not just with words but with delivery. That is our track record because we know that only with delivery will New Zealanders have the strong foundations to bounce back from this worst of times. We will hold the Government to account. This one's for you Cameron."