Robertson GrantGENERAL DEBATEHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. I want to begin today by offering my heartfelt condolences to all of those affected by the eruption at Whakaari / White Island. As we heard in the House yesterday both from the Government and from the Opposition this Parliament is united in expressing not only our grief for those people but also our support for their friends and families. This is an unimaginable horror for people particularly those who were on holiday. They were no doubt enjoying themselves no doubt part of an excursion that they had been looking forward to in some cases for years. To find themselves caught up in such a horrific situation makes this even worse. We think particularly of the families of those who are deceased and those who are unaccounted for. We also think of those who are in hospital 25 of whom are in a critical condition as the Minister of Police said today. The experience as has been outlined again by the Minister of Police for those who are exposed to volcanic ash is a horrendous one and at this time I want to make a special note of the incredible work of burns specialists around the hospitals of New Zealand. Every major hospital in New Zealand mobilised its burns specialists within hours and was able to receive people within hours from Whakatāne. It has been a heroic effort once again by our medical professionals. Alongside that I want to make a special acknowledgement of all of the emergency services—police Fire and Emergency New Zealand the ambulance staff the National Emergency Management Agency and the local civil defence—and the members of the public who have rallied round in a way that every single New Zealander can be incredibly proud of. This is an evolving situation and it is challenging when we can't be completely certain or provide that certainty. But we know that our emergency services are working towards that as fast as they possibly can. Today I was very proud to announce the Government's $12 billion capital investment lifting New Zealand's capital investment to its highest level in more than 20 years. We took this step today to futureproof the New Zealand economy. We also took this step today because we inherited an infrastructure deficit. Every member of this House would be able to give an example of a hospital or a school or a rail line or a road that was left to rot under the last Government. But if you want to know what an infrastructure deficit looks like it looks like this. [Holds up graph showing net capital spending over time] It looks like years of low capital investment years of failing to invest in what is needed. It is no different to any household. If you defer the maintenance the problem gets worse. That is what we inherited and that is why we are investing $50 billion in capital over the next five years. When we came into office that was scheduled to be $30 billion. So we have nearly doubled that and we are proud of that record because in New Zealand there is a significant need for these projects.But beyond that we have some of the lowest interest rates that we've seen in the world and we also have an economy that is well positioned to be able to take on the additional borrowing that is required to be able to put these projects into place.I am very pleased that we're doing this. It builds on two Budgets of strong and consistent capital investment: $1.7 billion in our hospitals $1.4 billion in our schools $1 billion into KiwiRail and the $17.7 billion that has been input into the National Land Transport Fund. And now we add to that. Not only does it benefit our economy overall; it gives certainty to our construction industry. Our $400 million going into schools—that's the local tradies who benefit out of that. The big horizontal infrastructure projects—the pipeline is now there: $6.8 billion for new transport projects and money to decarbonise parts of the public sector such as schools and hospitals who have those coal-fired boilers that we need to turn around.This is the package of a Government that has its eye on the long-term wellbeing of New Zealanders. We are futureproofing our economy and we are actually putting our money where our mouth is. No more ghost roads; these are the projects that will futureproof the New Zealand economy and I am extremely proud of a Government that is being able to put this programme of work on top of what we have already done in contrast to the previous Government. The negativity opposite is in contrast to the positive views of this side of the House.