Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South): Thank you very much. Well I'm looking forward to Mr Coffey continuing to crow about fees-free tertiary education—possibly the stupidest public policy decision in a very long list of this Government. The fees-free tertiary education has actually seen fewer students go into tertiary education. It has seen by far the most overwhelming benefits of that education go to wealthy white middle-class kids. It's not poor Māori and poor Pasifika that are benefiting from fees-free tertiary education. The Government's own figures released just last week I think it was show that actually the benefits are not going to them. They're being captured by middle-class kids from Remuera and Epsom and central Wellington which is exactly what National had said would always be the case: that there is a case for helping people to get to university and survive through university and to succeed at university but the case for that is not a massive handout from the taxpayer to increase the subsidies on an already extremely generous student support system. The way to do that is targeted scholarships; it's things like the First Foundation that I've had a little bit to do with which is a fantastic organisation helping students who would struggle to go to university achieve and get there in the first place. It's not an argument for an untargeted free-for-all which is exactly what fees-free is.So Tamati Coffey well frankly I'm looking forward to hearing him campaign up and down the campaign trail next year because New Zealanders I think know that fees-free is a failure just like everything else in the so-called year of delivery from the Government. I mean it was just comical that the Prime Minister frankly started her year—I mean it probably sounded good in the focus groups sitting around there with her advisers and said Oh we'll make it the year of delivery. Last year was the year of the working group; this year we'll make it the year of delivery." And she probably meant well by it; she always does mean well. But of course what she wasn't counting on was the incompetence of her own self and the incompetence of her colleagues and their total inability to deliver.Tamati Coffey talked a lot about child poverty. And I want to talk about child poverty because this is the raison d'être apparently allegedly of this Government. Apparently why Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern got into politics in the first place was to eradicate child poverty. Well the facts are these: that child poverty fell drastically under National's watch and that's in complete rebuttal and contrary distinction to what Tamati Coffey said. The facts are these: in 2008 there were 170000 children living in material hardship in New Zealand. Those numbers increased during the global financial crisis (GFC) to 220000 in 2011. Then something quite remarkable happened. Over the next five years the number of children living in material hardship all but halved down to 135000 in 2016. What caused that members? Well what caused that was strong economic growth rebounding out of the GFC at low rates. And then of course we had the Christchurch earthquake to deal with as well but by 2013 2014 2015 and 2016 the New Zealand economy was growing 3 3.5 and 4 percent per year. And of course wages were growing at double the rate of inflation—wages were growing at double the rate of inflation. What that means is over time families get ahead. And of course we cut taxes in 2010 as well. We incentivised earning and—Marja Lubeck: That's why they ended up living on the streets?CHRIS BISHOP: That's why what? Sorry I honestly couldn't hear you. I mean when wages increase at double the rate of inflation families get ahead and of course they're able to provide more their children.Marja Lubeck: And that's why they lived on the streets and on the bridges and in cars?CHRIS BISHOP: I've just talked about children living in material hardship halving between 2011 and 2016 Marja Lubeck. If you actually supported proper urban planning reform and got on board with that then we'd be able to do something about homelessness and be able to do something about our housing market as well. But I look forward to you supporting urban planning reforms and getting rid of the Auckland urban boundary one day in the future!Of course the previous National Government has left this legacy for the current Government and what do we see? Well what we see in the Budget we're talking about and we see in the appropriations bill is an economic outlook stretching off into the distance that is a gloomy one. Yep of course some of it is to do with the international challenges that we're facing: the global headwinds to use a sort of clichéd phrase that are confronting New Zealand as a small economy—again to use a cliché a cork bobbling around on the ocean at the bottom of world and all that stuff.But actually most of it is self-inflicted. Most of it is economic incompetence demonstrated by this Government; uncertainty created by 300 or more working groups. The uncertainty created by what's going to happen with the reregulation of the labour market. You won't hear much about that any more from the Government. They got rid of the 90-day trials and that was all very easy but all these grand plans of the national awards and the reregulation of the labour market by old mate Jim Bolger and the back-to-the-1970s approach to industrial relations which by the way was a time of economic disaster for New Zealand when productivity massively slumped and the economy went to the toilet. So why we would want to return to those days led by Labour no one knows. So business confidence is down and consumer confidence is down and there is no plan. The economy is slowing. And the Government will say "Oh well we've got these industry transformation plans." I mean I kid you not; it's like something out of some sort of Stalinist-style 1970s five-year plan. We've got the industry transformation plans. Don't worry—David Parker says "Trust us I know what I'm doing." Has there ever been a more depressing and worrying phrase ever uttered by a New Zealand Government Minister? "Trust me I know what I'm doing." says David Parker. Well New Zealanders will judge whether or not—I mean to be fair to him he was actually saying it about—well not to be fair but just to point out he was saying it about water quality and agriculture. He's so proud of himself he would say it about the economy as well and he'd say it about his industry transformation plans. I can't even believe I'm saying it; they're so comical as to be unbelievable. So this is the year of delivery so far for the Government—thankfully for us disastrously for them. It has been a year of disaster. If you look through the manifesto and you look through the portfolios and you look through the Estimates of what the Government is doing it's very hard to find something that is actually going well. KiwiBuild—well I mean even the Government doesn't talk about KiwiBuild anymore. Their heads are down they know what I'm saying is correct; even they don't talk about KiwiBuild anymore. We had the reset that's gone off into the long grass the tumbleweeds are coming. We don't talk about that anymore because that was an utter disaster. I'll tell you what's going to be next: the next thing to be reset is transport. We saw the first sign of it today in question time when Phil Twyford—the man who says we've over-invested in roads for decades—was forced to his feet to admit that the Government is reconsidering its allocation of money into rapid transit. Now there's a story there about why they are having to do that and I'll let you in on a little secret: it's a story of incompetence because that's the running theme with these guys. But they are reallocating money or they're going to reallocate money let's face it from rapid transit back into State highways. Now we welcome that because projects like the Tauranga Northern Link and Penlink up in Marja Lubeck's electorate—well not her electorate but the area she claims she's a list MP—Hon Member: Where she lives. CHRIS BISHOP: Where she lives—all of these roads that are shovel-ready. That's not my language; that's the language of Treasury—shovel-ready market-ready roads all of them that are ready to go. The Tauranga Northern Link for example was funded consented and out for procurement in one of the fastest growing areas in the country one of the most dangerous sections of State highway in the country and it was cancelled by Labour. So we welcome the money going back into State highways. Our point is: what was Phil Twyford doing for two years fluffing around by putting money into rapid transit? Now we come to the incompetence and I'll end my speech on it because that's the theme of this Government. Rapid transit—they've put all this money into it. Fuel taxes are going up petrol taxes are rising and we've got the Auckland fuel tax—all this money going into rapid transit. The light rail a slow tram down Dominion Road—when's it going to be built? Jacinda Ardern and Phil Twyford say "We know it'll be built by 2020.". What do we find out last week or the week before? We find out no spades in the ground till 2021. This is an incompetent useless Government and I can't wait for them to be thrown out of office in a year or so's time."