Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): Thank you Mr Speaker. Well if this is a Government that has hit the ground running I'm not sure what alternate reality we are living in. But certainly we should be talking about transparency and open government absolutely especially after the answers that the Associate Minister of State Services (Open Government) just gave. Open government—we'd been lectured on this for the last nine years while we were over that side of the House. New Zealand Labour New Zealand First and New Zealand Greens lectured us on the importance of the Official Information Act—line chapter verse; on we go—lectured us on the importance of using it and the appropriateness of urgency and lectured us on how the Official Information Act is so integral to good government. What do we see now? A secret agenda hidden away that goes to the heart of how this Government is going to be run sets out the modus operandi of what they are going to do.So often when we were over that side of the House we were lectured on Say what you mean; do what you say." But what has this Government done? They've hidden behind their documents and done flip-flops. Flip-flops. No wonder the Leader of the Opposition called them a circus troop. Absolutely: we've seen flip-flops we've seen tightrope artists we've seen contortionists as they've weaved their way through promises made and backtracked. Absolutely. So it's no wonder that we are questioning them about their openness and their transparency because really I don't think that they mean it at all.What does this mean for the regions? There've been so many promises out there about policies but what are the ramifications? There's been no thought gone into it. We have had claims about immigration that immigration is going to be cut—22000 to 60000—but what does that actually mean? Who are these people that are going to be cut from migration?Let's talk about Southland and our regional strategy. New Zealand First has been a party that's stood up and talked about how important regional development is but on the flip side it's talking about cutting immigration. So where is some of the region's workforce going to come from? There's no transparency around that policy; it's just a number that's going to be cut. Oh but look there there's a backflip by the Minister because we're not concerned with numbers anymore! Well let's be upfront: what's in that document; what's in that dossier? Come forward and let us know so that people like those in Southland or in Taranaki can plan for the future.Just the other day I was visiting a constituent. Five jobs for electricians available—five jobs available that he could hire straight away. Where are those people going to come from? Well I've got news for New Zealand First: they're not going to come from Auckland Wellington or Christchurch. We need skilled people.Moving on to regional development with the flip-flop and this $1 billion fund that "Dr Evil" keeps talking about—$1 billion whether it's new funding or a mixture. How is that going to be applied? Well our previous Government put $2.4 million into our SoRDS project—the Southland Regional Development Strategy—to attract 10000 more people by 2025. Where's the consideration going into that? How does the $1 billion apply to that? We don't know but we're going through policies and doing flip-flops and not being transparent about what it means.This is not a Government that's hit the ground running; it's a Government that's made a whole lot of promises in the election campaign and doesn't know how to deliver. They're not fit for Government. They don't know how to be Ministers. They don't know how to be good Government members. They don't know what the ramifications of their policies are.Let's move to tertiary education shall we and this free-fees scheme. If they understood regional development they would have understood the Southland Institute of Technology's (SIT) free-fees regime and its importance in our Southland regional strategy. But what's happened? We've just had a blanket policy with no consideration for what SIT is doing except when they did have an emergency meeting during the campaign. They sent Mr Andrew Little down there to have a bit of a chinwag with our CEO because he knew he was getting into dangerous territory.So look there is no thinking about the ramifications of these policies. No wonder they're doing flip-flops no wonder we're questioning them about transparency because they're not doing what they say and they're not clearly communicating it to the New Zealand public. No wonder the New Zealand public are confused and no wonder they're losing interest in this Government pretty quick."