Barclay Todd: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarclay Todd: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 01 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9264. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD BARCLAY (National—Clutha-Southland): A very robust act to follow there—well done Mr Bayly. I would just like to talk in support of the Prime Minister’s statement. I will start off by talking about a remark made by Mr Shearer with regard to the Labour Party’s free tertiary education policy. It is probably fair to say that I am the probably closest to that space of policy in this House. I have actually just recently paid off my student loan. But one of the things that I think is important to remember is that the Government already effectively carries the cost of about 75 percent of student loan payments. When you look at it in that context you see that 25 percent of that loan is still being paid for by the student. It is still quite considerable as part of their salary but actually the cost of appreciating that is considerable as well.I do not think that there is much in life that you get for free but if you do receive something for free many people do appreciate it. But if you are receiving a free education the ability or the incentive for you to actually work hard and study to try to get the best results that you can are not there if there is not a cost to you and there is not an incentive to complete your education. And I can tell you about that first-hand. I think that what the Government is doing with regard to tertiary education already is a very positive move. We are already incentivising students enough to study but not making it unaffordable for them to do so. If you come from a family or if you are in a position where you cannot afford to pay for accommodation or some course-related costs there are payments through the accommodation supplement and payments for course-related costs. There are subsidies there to assist people into education.Just regarding the Prime Minister’s statement New Zealand is in good shape and I say that with strong confidence as someone representing a large rural electorate at the bottom of the South Island. That progress is actually due to the hard work and positive attitude of New Zealanders but it is also because of the stability and cohesion and confidence that come from having more than 7 years of strong and stable Government under John Key’s leadership.We have got a busy agenda in 2016 carrying on from 7 years of hard work and consistent policy development. We are pressing on with social housing reforms to do a better job for our tenants. Many residents in Invercargill will hopefully benefit from that as those discussions progress over the coming years and I am sure that if my colleague Sarah Dowie was here she would be remarking on that.We are also maintaining a strong focus on law and order. To that end I want to compliment and acknowledge the hard-working police officers in my electorate. Particularly I want to name three people and they are the area commanders responsible for the Queenstown-Lakes area the Clutha area and a large part of the Southland area. They are Alastair Dickie Richard McPhail and Olaf Jensen.I also want to acknowledge the hard work of the staff of the Otago Corrections Facility and the manager Jack Harrison. It is an important part of our electorate. It is Milton’s largest employer. It has created opportunities for that town for employment and for other staff to move on. The reason why I mention those areas is that they are often thankless jobs but there are a lot of people who go out every day and protect and serve our constituents right across the country.I want to touch a little bit on some of the things that we are doing. In New Zealand we have to focus on the things that we can control. We are a small Island nation at the bottom of the world. Things that we can control are our own competitiveness and our economic performance and we are also well placed to meet external challenges in so far as we can as well.Otago and Southland as I have already mentioned are primary industry - driven communities and as well we have got Queenstown the Catlins and Milford Sound which are largely driven by tourism. We cannot forget that New Zealand is performing very well compared with most countries in these areas. Just in terms of tourism last year there were over 100000 visitors who travelled to the Catlins and there were over 600000 visitors who travelled to Milford Sound which is back up near pre-global financial crisis numbers. Queenstown was No. 1 for the international visitor spend with 14 percent market share of international expenditure. So these parts of the economy are doing very well.We had the southern field days a couple of weeks ago where 13 MPs came down including the Prime Minister the Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy and the Deputy Prime Minister Bill English. That has provided a lot of support for our farmers down there and I just want to acknowledge that. In closing I have no hesitation in fully commending the Prime Minister’s statement and supporting it. Thank you.