Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and happy New Year to you. This is my first opportunity to take a call this year and I've got to admit that I love the Government's optimism because quite frankly that's all it is. When you look at the Prime Minister's statement let's think about some of the imagery that she used. She wants to create an ambitious programme to build a stronger and fairer country—again beautiful imagery; it's something that I can actually agree with. She wants to put families and children at the heart of Government—again that's something that I would agree with on the face of it—and as part of that too she says that she wants to back our regions. As a provincial MP representing the fair city of Invercargill I would have to agree with that too. I didn't vote for them though—I didn't vote for them.I didn't vote for them because that Government does not have the competency to deliver despite their saying that this is going to be a year of delivery. What have we seen in the past 365 days since they took office? Two hundred and thirty-three working groups at a cost of about $300 million. They have basically farmed out decision making and farmed out policy making because those people sitting over there now in Government failed to do the work while they were in Opposition. On the contrary we have been here for 365 days and we are embarking on a programme of intensive policy-making. We are going around the country listening to constituents we are having mature conversations and we are formulating policy that will take New Zealand forward and continue to grow its economy and create opportunities for all New Zealanders.You can't deny the stats. My colleague Mr Bayly being the economist that he is very aptly described to the Government how the economy works and talked about some of these stats but you can't deny the stats: GDP is falling. GDP was at under our Government 3.5 percent and now there is a projection forecast for 2 percent. The economy is slowing unemployment is up 10000 people are unemployed in the last three months but what does that actually mean for families? What does it actually mean for people in the regions and for people in the cities who are just simply trying to get ahead and achieve their goals? Well if GDP is slowing policy making and decisions have been made that don't back business and businesses aren't prepared to invest then they're not prepared to take on that extra person to take a chance on another person being employed and that means that people don't have options. Mum and dad may not be able to get a job mum and dad may not be able to earn and that means that there's no money to put into their families to feed their children and that they have to come cap in hand to the Government for a handout.In real terms what does that mean? Well let's look at it. The number of children in benefit-dependent households is up and this is a Government that puts children at the heart of Government. The number of care and protection reports is up family violence referrals for child abuse and neglect is up young people not in education is up household indebtedness is up people on the jobseeker benefit is up the cost of living has risen and the number of early childhood education enrolments is down. This is not a New Zealand that I am proud of. I know that ordinary Kiwis want to achieve I know they have their own hopes and dreams and Government—responsible Government competent Government—is about putting in place policies that enable that to happen and that enable people to feel a sense of productivity and contribution to their community to get ahead to be skilled to contribute to their community whether it be in a paid way or through a community organisation and to feel valued. But that's not what we're seeing out there with this kind and caring Government.Let's talk about backing the regions. Well my goodness what devastation has occurred with respect to this new vocational review? It was interesting at question time today when the Hon Chris Hipkins answered questions about the positivity and the reception of his vocational review—well not so much for the Southern Institute of Technology down in Southland. We are absolutely flabbergasted that this Government wants to take the autonomy of Southland Institute of Technology away from Southlanders and the community and centralise it and have some bureaucrats in Wellington calling the shots. Southland Institute of Technology is integral to our community. It is integral to our plan to attract 10000 more people to the region by 2025. Its strength is that it attracts mature students and family members to our centre and the pastoral care programme integrates them into the community providing them with services and providing great networking opportunities. Centralising that decision making means that we will be a cookie cutter polytechnic with nothing to sell and no point of difference to attract students to our town.We need those skilled people to come to Southland to continue to grow our economy and to make life vibrant in our city but this is a Government that simply wants to undercut that. Also given that we have approximately a $3 million surplus because we do sell our international education what's going to happen to that surplus filtered off north to go into the deficits with the ill-performing polytechnics? Why should Southern Institute of Technology be punished because it's a high performer? That is ridiculous.The other thing that I'm not happy with is this lack of engagement with the sector. Six weeks of engagement and a meeting that only comes as far south as Christchurch? I don't think that's meaningful consultation. I think the decisions have already been made and I think that it is simply about undercutting our region and centralising everything to a Stalinist model—Stalinist. It's ridiculous.I'm going to finish with something that's close to my heart and of course that's conservation. With the greenest Government ever I'm quite surprised at the lack of direction that this Government is taking on environmental issues and its commitment to conservation. No cameras on commercial fishing vessels despite the Minister of Fisheries promising to Forest & Bird that that would happen and what have we seen so far? Hector's dolphin deaths seabird deaths and a lack of commitment to conservation. Admittedly there were technical difficulties to work through and as a regional MP I agree they needed to be worked through but I actually believe that the technical difficulty is one Rt Hon Winston Peters and that it is simply New Zealand First calling the shots and holding the Green Party down with regards to their conservation agenda and not making any progress in that regard.The other thing that I'm quite shocked about in respect of conservation is this lack of commitment to facilitating recreation and again engagement. For the most open and transparent Government of all time there does really seem to be a lack of meaningful consultation with stakeholders and interested parties. It's the same in conservation. Look at the tahr cull—completely ignoring recreationists' and hunters' views. The indigenous fish bill—riding roughshod over Fish & Game with regards to getting out and fishing game fish. And when we move forward looking at the Game Animal Council—completely undercutting them with funding. This is a Government that is not delivering and they will not deliver in the future.