Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National): Well quite to the contrary from this Government's smug and sanctimonious approach to the public finances New Zealanders know that the country is going backwards under this Government. After five years they can point to very little substantive achievement and very little to actually show to the New Zealand public what they have accomplished for the massive increase in Government spending. Now David Parker wants to tell the story that every Government since the 1984 to 1990 Labour Government has been fiscally disciplined and has paid down debt and been prudent and responsible. That is sort of true apart from the last five years when there has been a 67 percent increase in Government spending—a $51 billion increase in Government spending. That is an enormous sum of money—a 67 percent increase in Government spending—and I'd just put it to New Zealanders whether they are 67 percent better off for that increase in Government spending—Hon Michael Woodhouse: Are they 1 percent better off? CHRIS BISHOP: —Are they 1 percent better off?" as Michael Woodhouse says—and I would say that the answer is indisputably no. They are not 67 percent better off. There hasn't been a 67 percent reduction in child poverty. There hasn't been a 67 percent increase in hip operations or cancer treatment access or a reduction in emergency department wait times. In fact emergency department wait times are worse—far worse. Dr Shane Reti: Every health metric. CHRIS BISHOP: Dr Shane Reti makes the excellent point that every health metric is worse. Dr Shane Reti: Choose one—any one you like. CHRIS BISHOP: Choose any one—every single metric is worse. I want to talk briefly later on in my contribution about the housing market and about housing in New Zealand because I can tell you something for free: housing is not 67 percent better off as a result of this Government's fiscally ill-disciplined approach to the public finances. On almost every metric you choose to measure it things are going backwards in New Zealand and not getting better. The Minister of Finance says "Oh unemployment is at record lows."—yes it is. That's true and we welcome that—congratulations. But of course New Zealanders ask the question: why do we have record numbers of people who are under 25 who are on the job seeker benefit at a time of record low unemployment—I mean riddle me that. How can that be? People know that it doesn't make any sense and they say that at a time of labour shortages and in a time when businesses up and down the motu are crying out for workers we have a situation where the Government is prepared to let predominantly young New Zealanders languish on the job seeker benefit for year after year and only the National Party has a plan to do something about that. So yep unemployment is low but what David Parker didn't want to talk about in his contribution was that inflation is at a 30-year high and for the first time in a very long time New Zealanders are going backwards in terms of real wages. It's a point that needs to be remembered and that the Government needs to be reminded of over and over again because under the Key-English administration which David Parker sometimes likes to wax positively about—Rachel Brooking: Not very often.CHRIS BISHOP: Well you sort of laugh at it but he's the one who was talking about it. I mean he gave quite a positive speech about the Key-English administration and how they were fiscally disciplined and this that and the other thing. Six months ago he gave a speech about how the tax switch which the Labour Party criticised strongly back in 2019—David Parker gave a speech to the Institute of Policy Studies I think it was at Victoria University talking about how it was like a masterful sign of political communication. So you might sort of laugh at it but you're laughing at your own Minister. David Parker needs to know that inflation is at a 30-year high but wage growth is well behind that. In the Key-English administration over the time of that Government's time in office wage growth was around about double the rate of inflation. In other words year on year Kiwis were getting ahead at double the rate of inflation so when people got a pay rise and they compared that to inflation they were getting ahead and of course that flows through to superannuation rates as well because the super is tied to 66 percent of the average after-tax wage. Now we are in a situation where that has reversed and where inflation is running well ahead of wage growth as measured by the labour cost index (LCI). Now I've been an MP for eight years; in fact I was reminded by my colleague Dr Shane Reti today that today is the eighth anniversary of the 2014 election and what a great election it was. Hon Michael Woodhouse: Happy anniversary. CHRIS BISHOP: Thank you very much Michael Woodhouse. What a great election it was and a great Government that kept doing things well and didn't waste money like this Government. But anyway eight years ago I can remember Grant Robertson turning up in Parliament and sitting right here where Nicola Willis used to sit—I mean he was actually at various different places on the front bench as he had a variety of different jobs. But anyway Grant Robertson would be standing up and saying "LCI growth LCI growth LCI growth." He used to rant on about the labour cost index which is of course a measure of wage inflation and now of course when he's in Government Grant Robertson doesn't want to talk about the labour cost index because it doesn't suit him because he knows that when you compare the LCI which is wage growth to inflation as measured by the CPI—the Consumers Price Index—for the last two years or so the CPI is higher than the LCI. So in other words New Zealanders in real terms are going backwards. You can look it up—I got the library to do it the other day or a while ago—and you can compare all the times that Grant Robertson turned up to Parliament and used to talk about the LCI. Now of course he says "Oh well that's one measure. We want to talk about other things." Well he wants to talk about other things because his preferred measure of wage inflation doesn't show what he wants it to show; in fact it shows that the country is going backwards. Wages are not keeping up and that is literally why we in Opposition say—and it is true no matter what David Parker likes to think—that Kiwis are going backwards. I'd just encourage Government backbenchers and in fact Government Ministers more likely—because there are some Labour backbenchers who get out and about around the country a little bit sometimes. But Government Ministers are stuck down here in Wellington. They're in their cloistered offices and they're taking the VIP limos around the country and I'd just encourage them to get out of the limo and talk to real people. Hon Kiritapu Allan: Mostly we use rental cars bro. CHRIS BISHOP: Well Kiri Allan is someone who keeps it real. I'm not having too much of a go at Kiri Allan. She is someone from the East Coast. She knows that her people on the Coast up in Tai Rāwhiti—she knows that some of them are doing it extremely tough so she's out there keeping it real. But some of her colleagues need to take a leaf out of her book and get out of their VIP cars and limos and go and talk to real people because what they'll find is that people are doing it extremely tough. They stare at their wages not keeping up with inflation and in particular they stare at a housing market that's come down a little bit but of course it's rents that are up 140 bucks a week in the last five years. I think it is a disgrace that this Government in the last five years has spent over a billion dollars on emergency housing. We see the scenes of squalor and human misery and the despair in Rotorua and we see 26000 people on the State house waiting list. Again I remember that in 2014 2015 and 2016 there was no wait-list. There was no wait-list. I can remember a time in New Zealand history when there was no State house wait-list and that's got to be the aim. The aim is to eradicate the State house waiting list. I can remember the Labour members talking about how it was disgraceful that children were living in cars and that it was appalling that children were living in motels and I would agree with them. But on every metric housing is worse under this Government. Things are far worse than they ever were with 4000 households living in motels around the country. People who are in the most severe and urgent need of State housing are at A20 on the State house wait-list in the bureaucratic parlance. People who are in the most severe and urgent need—we give them a number and it's A20. They used to wait 45 days for a State house and 45 days is too long—we accept all that. They now wait 421 days for a State house—421 days. That's a year and a bit—it's well longer than a year. It's a disgrace. The Government says "Oh we've built more public houses than any other Government in New Zealand's history." and the Prime Minister rants on about it: "We've built 10000 houses." That is wrong. Let me give you the numbers. Kāinga Ora: since October 2017 has built 6716 Kāinga Ora houses but guess what? They've demolished 4000 or they've sold them. They like to say that they've stopped selling State houses but they haven't stopped selling State houses. They're demolishing them and they're selling them. The net increase in new builds: 2000. Where does the balance come from to get to the 10000? Leases redirects and buy-ins. That's not building new State houses; that's just juking your numbers by buying more State houses. That's not building State houses so we shouldn't believe the Prime Minister."