Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (Minister for Economic Development): New Zealand is a confident little country with real wind in its sails and that is because of great business people great businesses and actually a good Government that is delivering through Budget 2017 and Budgets before that and I am really proud to be a part of it.In terms of economic development Winston Peters we know went looking for the problems. Actually what he would have found I know as someone who is out there every day in regional New Zealand is that 12 of our 15 regions are growing strongly. The three that are not have some of the highest regional GDP anyway and that is a result of as I say confident business people and businesses and good Government settings. We are seeing employment up—actually it is the second-highest in the OECD and behind I think only Iceland. We have got unemployment coming down. We have got growth up. New Zealand is on a roll.We are seeing through the Budget the sorts of policies the sort of smart funding that are really delivering on that. Paul Goldsmith today was talking about a regional research institute funded through the Budget that was going into horticulture. It is one of our industries or sectors—whether it is kiwifruit apples or viticulture—that is really on a roll in New Zealand going from a small handful of hundreds of millions of dollars to actually I think in all of those cases more than a couple of billion dollars each. It is a really growing and high-value area. Whether it is honey whether it is ICT and technology—there again we have come from nothing to where we are today a $16.5 billion sector with some of the highest-paying jobs in New Zealand. As communications Ministers what we are doing in the Budget in that area is making a real difference.And in that technology area are rockets not far from where Stuart Nash lives although he does not deserve any of the credit for this. We are the 11th country in the world to go into space. So whether it is composite fibre going into the yachting and the America's Cup yachts or whether it is Rocket Lab we are creating a clever diversified high-value economy that New Zealanders know is on a roll and has real as I say wind in its sails.In terms of infrastructure we have heard a load of old cobblers from some of the other parties in this Committee. Here is what New Zealanders know to be true: with an economy on a roll with an economy that is strong with Government books that are strong we are investing unprecedented funding into the right kind of infrastructure to fuel our economy and provide the platform. That is true whether it is transport—as Minister of Transport I talk about that—or whether it is communications. Broadband—we have some of the best policy settings and smartest funding through Crown Fibre Holdings in the entire Western World. In transportation through the Budget there is $12 billion—$12 billion over the next 4 years—in land transport. Of that $9 billion alone is into State highways—over 500 kilometres of new lanes around this country. Whether it is Auckland and the Waterview Connection it is a stunning success that I get more messages about than you would believe or the regions of New Zealand with the roads of national significance with the arterial roads with the public transport with the cycleways or with the rail investment that is going on—in all of these areas there is unprecedented investment in New Zealand.We are investing in resilience whether it is in Kaikōura where we are investing not only to rebuild but to improve; whether it is the Manawatū Gorge which we know has got real problems at the moment but where we will invest because we have got the economy that can back this sort of investment; or whether it is in the Coromandel or other areas besides.In terms of broadband we should be really proud of what the Government is funding in an incredibly smart way in that area to make New Zealand a high-knowledge high-value diversified economy. We are getting that ultra-fast broadband the world's gold standard in broadband not just into the big centres not actually just into the bigger towns but right through into the townships of New Zealand. With Rural Broadband Initiative 1 and now Rural Broadband Initiative 2 which is in a commercial process right now we are going to cover this country. We have gone from the back of the queue in the OECD I think I am right to say to about 11 at the moment in the world and with the policy settings we are on we will get into the very top handful the top four or five without too much trouble.What a great Budget that delivered for New Zealanders.