Ball DarrochDARROCH BALL (NZ First): I think we need to get one thing straight first of all—New Zealand is a great country to live in. It has been for a very long time it has now and it will be in the future and we have been a great country for a number of reasons. Obviously we've been in the upper echelons of the OECD rankings for all of the good stuff. We are a great country because we've got a great Prime Minister who's leading us and we've got the best Deputy Prime Minister that this country's ever seen who's leading us as well. But if one was to just listen to the National Party speeches no one would know that we're a great country to live in. It's all negative it's all anti it's all down it's all depressing but that's because—and I figured it out—they have just slipped into being the quintessential Opposition. They bark at every single car and they are nothing but anti - whatever the Government's trying to put forward. You see they don't stand for one thing. The only thing that they stand for is everything that the Government is not. With every single thing every single idea every single proposal and every single project that this Government is putting forward the National Party opposes it. That's all that they do and all that they say and the irony of it all is—if you have a look at everything and every single subject of what they are opposing—that this Government is actually doing something to try and clean up the mess of the almost decade when they were in Government. Look what they're opposing: KiwiBuild for starters. Why do we have to have KiwiBuild in the first place? Because of a housing crisis under the making of the National Government over the previous 10 years. But what do we hear? You see we are trying to build houses and in fact we are building houses. This Government has built more houses than any other Government since the 1970s. But you don't want to hear the positives from the National Opposition. It's all negatives; it's all anti-KiwiBuild. You hear all the anti about the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF). Why do we have a PGF? Because of the underfunding and lack of funding and investment in the infrastructure in our regions. But you don't hear anything positive about that from the National Party. It's all negative; it's all anti-PGF. We've just heard about the issues currently apparently from Mr Doocey—about the mental health issues that we've got in this country. Why do we have all of the projects and all of the funding that we are doing on this side of the House in regards to mental health and the district health boards? Why are we focusing on that? It is because of the lack of funding and infrastructure and focus that the National Party had over the past 10 years. You see this is it. They are complaining about the very things that they neglected in the first place and they unfortunately have been passing their notes around to all of the backbenchers from the front bench—all the backbenchers of the National Party—and we're going to hear all the same negative down depressing things. But the thing is you see that most if not all of what they are complaining about and the comments that they make are actually wrong. They're totally wrong. I'll take an example. Unfortunately I had to endure—a few of us had to endure—a speech from Jo Hayes in the House last night and not only was it absolutely depressing and negative but it was absolutely wrong. She made comments about our unemployment numbers and about how unemployment numbers were low. Well they are—they are 4.3 percent. I mean we can look at the unemployment numbers under the National Government. Under National in 2014 it was over 5 percent—in fact over 5.5 percent. In 2016 it was over 5.8 percent. Unemployment has come down under this Government. She also was complaining about the business confidence being down. Radio New Zealand (RNZ) in January of this year said Business confidence has bounced back … Businesses were more positive about their own future prospects". I just said before that one of the things that she said was that we are not building enough houses for people to live in. This Government has built more houses than any other Government since the 1970s. In 2013-14 just over 300 houses were built in New Zealand. This year over 2000 houses are available—over 2000 houses have been delivered for people to live in. One other thing is the relationship that she mentioned—verbosely—with China. I want to quote from RNZ on 16 February. A Foreign ministry spokesperson from China was asked about the relationship between the two countries being China and New Zealand. They quoted "Those insisting on such an interpretation are evidently either making a big fuss over nothing or harboring ulterior motives. On bilateral relations a China-New Zealand relationship enjoying sound and steady development is in the interest of both countries and [both] peoples." This country is going in the right direction. We are being led by a great Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. We are a great country to live in and that National Party needs to wake up and have a look in the mirror."