Adams AmyHon AMY ADAMS (National—Selwyn): Madam Assistant Speaker thank you very much and I'm very happy to rise and take my first call for 2019 and can I say happy New Year to you and to all members of the House. We're looking forward to being joined by Agnes Loheni on this side of the House. She's a wonderful person and she will make a fine MP and we're very much looking forward to her maiden statement. The Prime Minister has dubbed this—somewhat ironically and in a way that I'm sure she will come to regret—the year of delivery. And what a wonderful way of pointing out how absolutely little this Government has done so far. It's been the year of working groups and the year of thinking about policy that they didn't spend any time working on in Opposition and now apparently it will be the year of delivery. But the only things that this Government has delivered are backward steps. The only things we've seen from the Prime Minister take us backward. So let's have a look at them. The very day after the Prime Minister announced the year of delivery what did she announce? A massive backdown on KiwiBuild. That's going backwards. All the promises—you know if this was in the commercial world that would be a Fair Trading Act breach wouldn't it? Elect us and you'll get 10000 new houses a year maybe 1000 the first year maybe 300—actually let's just not measure." That's a great step forward Prime Minister. We've seen more strikes. How about that for taking us backwards; taking us backwards to the 1970s? This week alone junior doctors and midwives—just in the health sector. And speaking of the health sector cancer wait times have gone backwards: under the National Government four weeks' maximum; under this Government no targets no accountability people waiting eight weeks or more for cancer treatment. This is a Government that promised to be about kindness. Well tell that to the people on the cancer waiting list who are being told that this Government no longer cares enough to measure and report on cancer waiting times. The economy is slowing down. There is no question. The economy is getting worse under this Government and this Prime Minister has gone in record time from "Everything's wonderful." to "Don't blame us. It's not our fault." In the speed of light she's gone from one to the other as we are seeing the slowest economic growth in the last quarter in five years. We're seeing 10000 more people over the last quarter in unemployment and that new jobs rate that Simon Bridges talked about earlier is a minuscule a pitiful 600 jobs a month created over the last quarter under this Government. That is an appalling backward step. That's what's being delivered by this Government.The other area in which this Government is delivering a massive step backward is in the cost of living for New Zealanders. You go out there—and I'm sure members have over the summer been out talking to people—and the one thing you hear is that it's getting harder and harder for those hardworking families in the middle of New Zealand who work hard who do the right thing who pay their taxes to get ahead. And just this week we've had another jump in average rents across New Zealand: now $40 a week more under this Government thanks to their reforms—and remember this was the Government that said it was all about helping tenants. Well how did tenants get helped if they pay $40 more a week in rent? And the Government was told. They had advice from the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment they had advice from Treasury they had advice from those actually in the sector that this would happen but they knew better. Remember that? They knew better; it wouldn't happen. It has happened. They need to get their head out of the sand start listening and start doing things that actually advance New Zealanders. In the state of the nation speech the Prime Minister talked about three planks of her economic plan. "Oh good" I thought "finally we are seeing an economic plan." What is it? The first one was an aggressive trade agreement. Well how's that working for them? The week after the Prime Minister gets back from Europe we see the EU threatening our preferred lamb and butter access. The week after she's back we see the skids go on one of the most important issues for our exporters. And now we're seeing exactly how much damage the Winston Peters wrecking ball has done to our relationship with China. This is our biggest trading partner. This is not about some race-based jingoism dog-whistle out-on-the-stumps politics. These are the jobs of New Zealanders and that Government is putting it at risk by not caring enough to make sure we maintain a healthy respectful relationship with our major trading partner. That's why the Prime Minister can't get them to pick up the phone. That's why the Prime Minister is not going to China. The second big part of the Prime Minister's economic plan is tax: "We're going to make the tax system fairer." Fantastic. Somebody tell me how taxing small businesses how taxing farmers how making our capital markets less attractive and how making foreign investors not want to come to New Zealand is going to be a good thing for the New Zealanders. I can tell you it's not. It is a massive step backwards and it doesn't matter how often the Government says the word "fairness" taxing New Zealanders more taxing small business taxing farmers and taxing retirement savings is bad for New Zealanders and they're not going to thank this Government for it. And then the third part of her economic plan—so two strikes so far if you're keeping track at home. The third plank: skills. Well again how's that working for you Jacinda Ardern? There were 10000 more people in the unemployment lines over the last quarter; 26000 more young people not in education work or training. The last Minister who spoke said she wanted to see every young person—well so far Carmel Sepuloni it's a fail. Under this Government that number has gone up by 26000. So I'm not going to sit here and have that Government tell us how much they care when they're taking the people who need their help the most backwards. The costs are getting harder. There are fewer jobs. There are more people in the unemployment queues. And you want to talk about housing. Well KiwiBuild is a massive fail but here's one thing the House might not know. I remember Phil Twyford in the election campaign saying that no one would be sleeping rough under his Government. Well let me tell you some figures he might not have heard in respect of emergency housing special needs grants. The month that the National Government left office they were running at $2.2 million for that month; about 1000 people—$2.2 million. Do you want to know what they were in November of last year—the most up-to-date number? It was $6.4 million and double the number of people. Under this Government more than twice as many people are needing emergency housing assistance and they're spending three times as much money because of their incompetence their failure to deliver their failure to have anything other than big words hollow promises and utter falsehoods to the people of New Zealand. That's what kindness and well-being means under this Government: more people who can't get houses more people on the dole queue more people getting hardship grants. That's the reality of this well-being Government. We've got to get past the platitudes the big words and the global media photo opportunities and start having some accountability. There is zero accountability from this Government. Look very carefully at the Prime Minister's words in her statement today. She's now talking about being measured on long-term changes in New Zealand. Do you want to know what "long-term changes" is code for? It's code for zero accountability. She doesn't want to be measured on anything that happens in this term of Government because she knows the measurements are all bad. She wants to talk about pie-in-the-sky long-term accountabilities. Well I can tell you that New Zealanders deserve more. They don't deserve a Government that is so incompetent so wasteful and so lazy that they're now taking $17.7 billion more tax from New Zealanders over the next four years.Matt King: How much?Hon AMY ADAMS: They're taking $17.7 billion and that's before the capital gains tax. But that's not enough for Grant Robertson. He wants a capital gains tax as well so he can come after you. Well I say to that Government: stop wasting other people's money. Stop spending it. Stop wasting it.Shane Jones' $3 billion slush fund is poorly planned: zero jobs zero impact $50 million on students who haven't even turned up to do their courses $2.8 billion on an utterly failed first-year tertiary fees policy and let's not even start on a failed KiwiBuild programme. If this Government stopped wasting New Zealanders could keep more of what they earn. 2019 will see people realise that Labour means fewer jobs higher costs and Labour taking more out of their pockets. National in 2019 is about jobs opportunities communities making decisions—not bureaucrats in Wellington—and more money in the pockets of hard-working New Zealanders. And every day in this House we're not going to stand here and face empty words and promises from a Government that is taking New Zealand backwards."