Nash StuartSTUART NASH (Labour—Napier): I just want to take one issue with something that Alastair Scott said before the dinner break. I think it really defines the difference between Labour and National when it comes to spending and responsibility and how we view things. Alastair Scott was talking about the housing issue. He said this about Labour's solution: Do we really expect the Government just to build houses?" as if this was just anathema. Well the thing is the answer to that is yes—it is yes. The reason I say that is I believe the main difference between the two parties is that National believes you can leave things up to the market the market will provide the best solutions and the Government does not need to interfere because it will all do OK whereas Labour believes—certainly in a country the size of New Zealand—that the Government has a very important role in providing for its citizens in giving them a hand when they need a hand by providing houses providing education providing police services and actually meeting or even exceeding the expectations of New Zealanders. We believe that the Government has a very important role in driving equity of outcomes and of opportunities. We believe that Government is about doing the right thing when it comes to fairness for all New Zealanders.I would just like to talk about my four portfolios but before I do this one thing that I think that this Government has done particularly poorly—there are a number of things but it is one thing that I would like to highlight and I will weave through my four portfolios—is managing our global brand. I have talked about this a bit. Our global brand is worth about $20 billion a year. It is what differentiates us it is what businessmen and businesswomen take overseas when they are hawking their products and it is what makes us proud to be Kiwis because we stand for integrity we stand for fairness and people know that we come from a country that values these values basically. It is who we are and it is part of our DNA. People know it and I am very very proud of it. But if we look at what is happening in the country I am concerned that this global brand we have has been mismanaged to the point where we have got brand dissonance—there is no doubt about that. We need to start managing for this because if we do not we are big trouble.Let me start with police. No matter what the Minister of Police says the crime rate is increasing. The statistics have just come in and this year month on month burglaries nationally were up by 35 percent compared with last year. There were over 1500 more burglaries committed in the year to May 2016 than in the year to May 2015 and yet there are less police on the beat in Hawke's Bay. Hon Ruth Dyson: Fewer.STUART NASH: Sorry—fewer police on the beat. In Hawke's Bay there has been a 43 percent drop in police on the beat between May 2015 and May 2016. That makes a difference. Lower resolution rates—we know this—we know that in Auckland less than 8 percent of all burglaries committed are going to be solved. That does not play into how we view our communities and the role of Government in providing protection for our communities and crime prevention but also in solving crime so that the bad guys can go away.Forestry is now dominated by overseas interests. This was epitomised for me by a situation in Gisborne where there is a Malaysian investor who owns a 35000-hectare forest. There is a sawmill there that is owned by the local economic development agency. It could employ about 40 people in the area with the highest level of unemployment in the country and with one of the highest levels of deprivation—a fantastic place to go on holiday though. It is a magic spot Gisborne. This forestry company is sending pruned logs right past this mill to send overseas without a cent of value added at all. As a consequence of that this mill cannot start up without a guarantee of logs. When the Minister was asked about this she said: "Well that is the market. We let the market decide about this.". Well that is wrong—that is wrong. What about Kiwis? What about jobs for New Zealanders? This sawmill which wants to buy logs in Hikurangi does not want any special favours. It is prepared to pay for logs at the global price—but no. This is what happens when we lose control of our future in a strategic industry. It is wrong and we need to change that as well.Let me look at revenue. We have got a tax system that is just not fit for purpose. John Shewan has come out with his report and the fact that he had to write a chapter on New Zealand's reputation shows that we are in trouble. When I talk about our global brand being one of integrity and fairness and transparency and John Shewan comes out and says that our global reputation is at risk then we know we need to do something about that. The thing about a reputation—and again John Shewan outlined this—is that it is often about perception as opposed to the facts. So when a member of the Government stands up and says "Well the facts say this." my response to that is that is all very well but when international media are calling New Zealand a tax haven and when international media are saying "Invest in New Zealand and set up an overseas trust in New Zealand because the laws are lax and you don't have to declare who the beneficiaries are and it is easy to get away with hiding money." then we know we are in trouble. Who cares if that is the reality? That is the perception in the international media and again it cuts to the very heart of who we are as Kiwis. We are a country full of integrity and this cuts to the very heart of that.Let me have a look at electricity and energy. It was fantastic to see the Minister of Energy and Resources drive to a photo op for the 1000th electric car to be registered in New Zealand but the thing is he drove to that photo op in a huge big diesel BMW. He had the photo op then he jumped in that huge big diesel BMW and drove back to Parliament. Would it not be great if the Government actually walked the walk and if Ministers started this by driving electric vehicles? Imagine if our Crown fleet was electric vehicles. Would that not be fantastic? Hon Paula Bennett: What a great idea!STUART NASH: Would that not be great? Even the Minister agrees with me. She obviously does not have the power to influence those in control because obviously if it was up to her then we would have a Crown fleet full of electric vehicles but there are none—there are none. What a shame. Start walking the walk and stop talking the talk. It is actions that speak louder than words. Imagine international visitors being picked up at Wellington Airport in Tesla cars. Imagine what that would do. Imagine the brand—imagine how that would resonate around the world. We have led the way in a number of these initiatives we really have. From the day we gave women the vote—we were the first country to give women the vote.Hon Ruth Dyson: Excuse me we won it.STUART NASH: Sorry women won the right to vote. Then we were nuclear-free. We were leading the emissions trading scheme. We were global players in all these things that were incredibly important to defining our global brand and who we were on the global stage. People looked at New Zealand and said: "Wow these guys are just amazing. Look what they stand for." All of these things played into who we were and ever so slowly over the last 8 years these have been eroded. We are now falling behind in the emissions trading scheme—that plays into our global brand. Nuclear-free has sort of disappeared. Women have still got the vote—thank goodness for that. But these things that made us great these things that defined us and these things that gave us a unique selling point are slowly being eroded to the point where we have now got a tax system that is seen as an easy target for overseas money-launderers. We now have a forestry system where the overseas investors just do not care about local jobs. We have now got an electricity system that is creaking—there are global innovations going on and we are way behind the eight ball.We have got a police force where the men and women on the front line work incredibly hard. They work incredibly hard but that thin blue line is stretched to breaking point. Then I read the Budget this year and saw that there was no money allocated for more police—man that is the wrong direction. What is worse is that I had a look at the New Zealand Police's strategic plan between 2016 and 2020 and it says that there are going to be no more officers on our streets—and that is simply wrong. There is so much more that needs to be done but the thing that I am afraid of is that that Government is just unwilling to do it. The only way that we are going to get things back on track is a change of Government. Bring on 2017. Thank you very much."