Seymour David; Mallard TrevorDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the ACT Party in opposition to the Prime Minister's motion and with some support for the National leader's amendments that you've finally received on the Table and with a few additional comments. This year New Zealand faces a choice between the politics of gesture and the best political marketer in the world who is also the world's worst policy deliverer. A choice between a speech which delivered no substance whatsoever—there were lots of intentions. You have to hand it to the Prime Minister for outlining the intentions—everyone wants a better world—but not once did she describe how it would be delivered. And as for the Deputy Prime Minister—for now—well let me give a bit of an education in some of the basic shapes. [Holds up pictures] This is a pentagon. This is a hexagon. This is an octagon. And this is a should-be-gone". And there's so many reasons why he should be gone.He says "Oh I'd sue but you don't have any money." Here's the truth: the truth is that it's all gone wrong. The facts are out there. People know what's been going on. He can bluff and he can bluster and he can huff and puff and threaten to blow our house down but the truth is going to come out and it's going to finish a career. The tragedy of that career being finished is this: people are going to sit down and try and write the legacy of Winston Peters. They'll try and compare it to the legacy of perhaps Mike Moore who changed this country for the better for ever. As they sit and they try to describe what Winston Peters has achieved in 40 years they will find they have nothing to write. What a shame—what a shame. But sadly it is still true that he is taking the shape of a "should-be-gone".This Government is so filled with good intentions and yet none of them work. Most of them it turns out actually are a failure. The Prime Minister as has been noted didn't talk about KiwiBuild. I think she talked about the Child Poverty Reduction Act. What has it done? It's seen child poverty go up—as if passing a law to measure child poverty was actually going to reduce it.We've seen intrusive market studies into whole sectors such as petrol retailing and get this: the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs says that they're going to bring down the price of petrol 32c by attacking the cut that petrol companies take. Well the petrol companies only take 25c a litre so can the Minister of commerce—you know I've done geometry for the Deputy Prime Minister; maybe the Minister of commerce needs to learn basic arithmetic. You can't cut the price of petrol 32c by reducing the petrol company's cut when the petrol company only takes 25c. That's the problem in a nutshell with this Government.Then they banned plastic bags to reduce the amount of plastic in the ocean. Well there're two problems with that. I actually asked the Government how much of the plastic from the ocean comes from plastic bags in New Zealand. Do you know how much it was? No? Neither do they. The Government can't tell you how big the problem is they were trying to solve. So they've got us all walking out of the supermarket like this [Mimes holding groceries] or buying even thicker bags with more plastic to solve a problem they don't even know exists.I could go on and on talking about ineffectual policies that this Government has put in place. Here's one: we have a real problem in this country with our firearm laws. We know this because an Australian weirdo—and frankly as it turns out one of the most evil people to set foot on our shores—is able to get off the plane. He's a single male. He lives alone. He's just got here. He gets a licence. He gets an AR-15. The police sign off on 3000 rounds of ammunition. No alarm bells were rung. No one thought "Gee this is a bit of a problem." What's the Government done? They haven't solved any of those problems. What they have done is they've gone and isolated and undignified and collectively punished a quarter of a million New Zealanders who did nothing wrong. How's that for a Government of inclusion and kindness? It's another damaging policy that is ineffectual. And then the Prime Minister had the temerity to say—and I guess if you're 100 percent marketing-led you can say these things regardless of their veracity—that this is a Government of infrastructure. I mean how does a Government of infrastructure spend two years trying to work out which projects they're ideologically opposed to and then try to take the credit for building infrastructure that could have been started two years ago? If that's a Government of infrastructure then I'd hate to see one that actually does things on time.Not only are their policies ineffective at making New Zealand a better place; they're actually damaging. This Government sees every aspect of public policy through the lens of class warfare. Employers are people who save up invest capital have ideas and attract customers so they can give someone a job. I think that's pretty cool. I think that's admirable. Not this Government. At every step of the way—minimum wage increases national awards under the new name of fair pay agreements new regulations on every aspect of employment—they actually make it harder for people to employ. They actually make it harder for people to get jobs. That's why you've got record terms of trade and the welfare roll is going up. Only this Government could manage those two things simultaneously.Take landlords. Landlords are people who save up invest manage property and for a weekly fee—which is often less than the mortgage on the property—provide accommodation. I think it's a wonderful service. I think they're great people. Not this Government. Constantly such people find themselves under attack with more and more rules and regulations that make it harder to do their job. The irony of ironies is that not only is it bad for the landlords but because landlords and tenants have a symbiotic relationship this Government manages to hurt the exact people it's trying to help. Almost everything they do harms the people they're trying to help and defeats the purpose they're trying to achieve because they just don't get basic economics basic logic and the basic ways that this society works.This country deserves better. This country deserves a society that works because it gets better policies that actually deliver the intentions not just serve as background to an unending marketing campaign by the Prime Minister who—I'll give it to her—is the best marketer in world politics but the worst public policy deliverer.Let me say finally in relation to our Parliament if there's one thing we can all be proud of and agree on it's that we have been enormously fortunate to inherit parliamentary democracy. There is a long history where gradually power shifted from the monarch to the people who send representatives to the capital city to speak for them.It's because of the importance of that job—holding the Crown to account—that we have such great privileges. Traditionally Mr Speaker it has been the person in your role who is the prime defender of that tradition. Early Speakers literally lost their heads for speaking up for and defending the rights of parliamentarians versus the Crown. Mr Speaker I watched your ruling on the Leader of the Opposition and I observed the way that you treated me through question time towards the end of last year. I'd put it to you that as the person with the privilege of upholding the parliamentary tradition you for now have all the power except for one which is to choose how others will judge you as you leave this place in future. Thank you Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: Following agreement at the Business Committee the debate on the Prime Minister's statement will now be adjourned and oral questions held. The debate is adjourned and set down for resumption next sitting day."