Robertson GrantDEBATE ON PRIME MINISTER'S STATEMENTDebate resumed from 12 February.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I want to start my contribution today as we did yesterday in the House by acknowledging what has been happening in the Nelson and Tasman region. It has obviously been an appalling situation for the people involved and a great deal of hardship has ensued and there is more to come unfortunately as we continue to support the firefighters and those working in the area. But my fundamental emotion on this is pride: pride in New Zealanders coming together to support one another; pride in our volunteers both within the fire service and the wider civil defence community stepping up time and time again; and pride in the Government departments who have supported those volunteers and supported that community. This is New Zealand at its best coming together to help out one another—to put people first. That's what New Zealanders believe in and it's something I think everyone in this House can be proud of. It is also the fundamental thing that binds together the Government that I am proud of. The fact is that all three parties that make up this Government—coming as we do from different traditions—have something that binds us together: we believe that people come first. We believe that the environment that we live in needs to be protected and enhanced we believe that we are stronger together as communities when we include people—not when we seek to divide people but when we include people—and I am proud of a Government that is doing that. I am proud of the leadership of this Government. As Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday there are choices for Governments. They can govern and manage the shop—and we saw a lot of that in the last nine years—or Governments can take a choice to lead. That's what this Government is doing and I am proud of Jacinda Ardern's leadership in that regard. I'm proud of the year—or just over a year—that this Government has had. From the Families Package to record investment in health and education funding for conservation support for the regions—the list goes on. This is a Government that is not afraid to face up to the big issues. This is a Government that is not afraid to take some risks to make sure that we build a country for future generations not only for them to be proud of it but for them to be able themselves to leave a legacy in the future. I am proud of what this Government will do this year. We are building from an economic perspective on a strong base: solid GPD growth of around 3 percent a year; surpluses in our first year and forecast into the future; debt at the target levels that we are setting; unemployment hovering around 4 percent and in the last two quarters the lowest in a decade; and wages forecast to grow at around 3 percent. These are the fundamentals of a strong economy and this Government is delivering on what we committed to the public in that regard. But we know that it is never enough. We know that there is always more to do and we remain ambitious to do that. In terms of the economy and the areas that I'm responsible for our mission is to modernise our economy. We want to look forward to an era where we do pass a zero carbon bill as we will this year and have a low-carbon economy. That's not just the right thing to do but it has opportunities for our entrepreneurs. There are abilities for businesses to make money from the fact that we can have a better planet and one that we look after for the future. I want us to make sure that we're adapting to the future of work. That's why the announcement from the Minister of Education today about vocational education is so important because we must be preparing our workforces for the economy of the future. The same applies to our well-being Budget where we will finally look beyond just GDP—as important as that is—to success being about the health of our people the protection of our environment and the strength of our communities. These are the things that New Zealanders care about. Time and time again if members of this House asked the members of their families or people they know What is it that you want for your children?" the first thing they will say is that they want them to be healthy and to be happy. That's the same thing that this Government should be saying. The first thing we should be saying is "How do we keep our people healthy and happy?" Yes we need prosperity but we need a Government that cares about who shares in that prosperity and that is what this Government is focused on. So we are looking at the economy of the 21st century: how do we set ourselves up for the middle of the 21st century? On the opposite side of the House they're firmly fixed in the rear-vision mirror. They rolled out the brand new bright ideas of tax cuts and beneficiary bashing yesterday—an amazing step forward from the National Party!But the truth is that things are not good across the aisle. The Titanic is relentlessly focused on the iceberg. They are indeed the angry dog barking at every car. And the real story of the poll this week has been lost: National's eaten all of its friends—the ACT Party and United Future. But they've devised a cunning plan. Now when we were children some of us had imaginary friends but we grew out of it. Well not National or Simon Bridges because in the absence of any potential coalition partners National's found an imaginary blue-green friend—not so much an Avatar as a Tava but we'll come back to that. It's like some fantasy of blue-green friends out there—they are not real. So in the absence of friends they have started turning on each other and yesterday—and I've seen this movie before—was a communications train wreck. It started with Matt King. Honest as the day is long Matt could not bring himself to toe the party line about Simon Bridges. This is what he said: "I like Simon. I like Judith. I like a few of our leaders. Look there's a number of people in our caucus that can lead the party and I'd be happy with any of them." Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the leader but Matt wasn't finished. He said "If Judith went for the job and had the support of the caucus I'd support Judith as well." Judith can mark him down. Meanwhile Nuk Korako had missed the memo completely. He said "There's a number of people who would make a great leader. We'll just see."—presumably not the leader that Nuk has got at the moment. There were also a lot of ATMs among the National MPs yesterday—ATM being "at the moment". Gerry Brownlee said "The leadership was not up for consideration at the moment." Tim van de Molen—or as Simon Bridges knows him Hamish; I'll explain that joke later—said "Simon is doing a good job at the moment." So ladies and gentlemen we have a new nickname for Simon Bridges: ATM—the leader at the moment. Meanwhile the woman of the moment Judith Collins was keeping her powder dry—gunpowder that is. She refused to rule out a leadership challenge saying "I am very clearly not ruling out anything." and she was literally limbering up during Simon Bridges' speech yesterday. Now Judith Collins has undertaken some academic study lately and I want to congratulate her on that. The focus has been on a Bachelor of health and safety—that would be her health and not Simon Bridges' safety. My advice to Simon Bridges is not to accept an invitation from Judith Collins to visit a building site any time soon because she knows what's legal and what's not. But it appears that Judith has done a double major in psychology or more accurately reverse psychology because this is what she had to say yesterday: "My job is to do whatever the caucus needs me to do." If that wasn't a hint I don't know what was. Meanwhile Anne Tolley didn't seem sure what she wanted Judith to do. When Anne Tolley was asked yesterday what she thought of Judith Collins as leader she said "You either love her or hate her." Now Anne didn't leave us any the wiser as to what she thought about that question. For Judith herself—SPEAKER: Order!Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: For Judith Collins herself she employed everything she had learnt in her psychology studies. She said "Opposition leader is the toughest job in politics and I've seen a few come and go." When asked if it was a job for her she said "I'm a lovely sweet person not given to that sort of toughness at all." Then the final twist of the knife from Judith Collins: "The caucus has voted for the leader and he's doing the very best job he can." An A plus for reverse psychology in her studies from Judith Collins. So while the knifing and the backbiting has only just begun across the aisle we are a Government with a plan. We've got a leader who is not prepared to sit back and mind the shop but who actually wants to lead our country forward. We know that there's a lot to do and we know we have to take some risks and we know everything won't happen as fast as we would like. But above all we know that we've got what it takes to give every New Zealander a share in prosperity a place to call home a community to be part of and a country to be proud of. I am proud of this Government."