Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam): Who would believe that that speech has just been delivered by a former professor of economics? Very few I think—not that there'll be many people listening to it poring over it or trying to understand what it said.I rise to support the amendment by the Hon Simon Bridges to the Prime Minister's motion and I am surprised but actually not particularly thrown by the fact that so many of the Labour Party speakers have stood up talking their hollow rhetoric. They remind me largely of the emperor with no clothes and I say that because they're absolutely brilliant at making announcements not just once not just twice but three or four times over and never actually doing anything.In my hometown of Christchurch: a big fanfare two years ago with the $300 million capital sum for Christchurch to get on with the business of recovery. How much of that's been spent? How much of that's been committed? Not one dollar. What about a new project that might've got the city moving? Not one—nothing that wasn't done by the previous Government.Then you come to the issue of things like homelessness. Homelessness was going to be their big call—We're going to fix it." What have we got? More people homeless and why? Because they've dramatically reduced the rental pool by putting the boot into landlords from one end of the country to the other not recognising that most are just mom and pop investors who are terrified of these new arrangements.Then we get the economics professor saying there before that the Government's never built more State houses. That programme was all started under a National Government and guess where the houses are being built? They're being built on land that was cleared of 60- and 70-year-old State house dungers that were no longer fit for people to live in. But this Government says "No they should still be there and they should be able to put people into them." They have absolutely no idea.Consequence of all this: rents on average up $50 across the country in some parts of the country much more—Queenstown and Auckland for example $70-75. That's over $2500 a year. Then on top of that let's add in the petrol costs. Now Fletcher might like to say that petrol's cheap in Rotorua—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Use his full name.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: —but my constituents in the South Island don't live in Rotorua. They pay more than people are paying in Auckland even though there's an Auckland regional fuel tax. So tell me how that works for the betterment of ordinary New Zealanders. That's an extra $700 a year. So we're climbing now to almost $3500 worth of Government expenses thrown on to average New Zealand families because of their policies. So no wonder that child poverty is on the rise. No wonder that homelessness is growing.Then we have today in the House the Minister of Housing standing up saying that they've really got on top of the shared equity scheme to get more people into their own homes. What do we hear from her? They've had 18 months of workshops 18 months of sitting round looking at each other thumb twiddling wondering how they're going to spend the $400 million which by the way they've announced for a third time. These people have no idea how to make things work and that is the problem. The Prime Minister's statement was very very much a ringing example of that.Then we come to the Green Party. Tell me one thing the Green Party have achieved for the environment in the time that they've been in Government so far—just one. Absolute silence across the House. Their biggest achievement so far has been a referendum on personal use of marijuana. That's what they'll go out to the electorate with and say "Look what we did. We've been a total doormat as far as the environment's concerned for the entire term but by the way we got you a referendum on marijuana use." Fantastic!Then of course if we look at other aspects of the environment why is it that when there is an overwhelming majority in the House to pass the Kermadec legislation it's not ever brought forward? It can only be that I'm wrong that the National Party wants to support it but the Green Party doesn't because if they did it would be on the floor of the House any day of the week. I can see them over there in the Green Party all sort of waving their heads about and saying "Oh no but we're supporting the coalition." They're being walked all over by New Zealand First every day of the week. What happened to the "freebate" scheme? Well we'll get the Official Information Act request eventually. Someone will release it—probably have to go to the Ombudsman to get anything these days off the most open and transparent Government New Zealand's ever seen! Then we'll find out and what it will be effectively is that Mr Peters and his mob didn't think it was a good idea so they gave the Greens the "Don't come Monday" on that particular one.We've heard about the 12 infrastructure projects that were committed under a National Government—they keep on saying they weren't funded; well they're funded Budget by Budget and the last two Budgets have been theirs and it's them who didn't fund them because they cancelled them. Now they turn up and say "We've got a $12 billion infrastructure programme." Ask one question: what's on the list? Total silence because there isn't one. It's just an announcement. Nothing to go with it; just an announcement. Unbelievable. And guess what? Between now and 19 September we'll hear that announced over and over and the Prime Minister will say "We are the infrastructure Government let's do this." Well "let's do this" means just talk about it and not actually do it and I think New Zealanders are starting to see through that.We've seen the debacle over KiwiBuild. I can't stress enough how bad that is. How bad is it that a Government can set up a programme to build houses with huge targets spend hundreds of millions trying to put it together end up only building under that scheme 300 houses then end up with many of those unsold and have a State housing organisation turn around and say "Don't give them to us because their specification isn't high enough."? I asked the Minister about this and she said "Oh it's small things like the benches aren't wide enough the showers aren't big enough there's no garages the access ways aren't good enough." Well what is good in them? And why were they so good for New Zealanders? Let me tell you the market always speaks and it's spoken here with a ringing endorsement of the previous Government's policies because last year 25000 houses were sold to first-home buyers using the scheme put in place by the previous Government. Megan Woods claims those as if they're all hers. Unbelievable.And you keep on going through all of these things and finding the difficulties that people face all the time. What I think is really interesting is just how fascinated the Government is with themselves—absolutely fascinated. Now when "the Professor" was speaking before he was talking about all the wonderful things that he sees happening. The reality is he doesn't see them happening; he just hears about them. Just hears about them from his colleagues hears about what we're going to do—what we're going to do. So I'm sure that the Labour Party going into the next election round will be not saying "Let's do this"; they should be saying "Let's talk about doing this"—because that's been very successful for them: just talking about it just announcing never doing. There's no fear that that'll affect the New Zealand First Party in the next Parliament by the way no fear at all. I don't mean to be unkind but I suspect that it's all over.I want to make my final comments about the claim that they're going to reduce the cost of petrol and diesel at the pump. Well here's the deal: in every $2.10 average per litre fuel price in New Zealand for petrol there is $1.10 in tax—$1.10 in tax. And then there is—and this is the bit that moves all the time—the 70c cost of that fuel per litre. Now as your exchange rate goes up or down that moves. Everyone knows that these people have had some advantage from that. The final margin inside that at best is 30c—30c on a litre to land it to distribute it and to sell it; 30c. And so you have to say good luck to Megan Woods. She told me on Friday that they're going to bring in a regime somewhat like the electricity arrangements. Well we know what those prices have done under this Government in their complete inability to get on top of regulatory arrangements in this country. This is no doubt a speech from the Prime Minister that is nothing more than the emperor in his new clothes strutting about fascinated by himself.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I understand this is a split call so I call Jan Logie."