Willis Nicola; Dyson RuthNICOLA WILLIS (National): Well that was an apologist speech from a Minister who knows that he is overseeing an explosion in the number of gang members in our country. He can claim that it doesn't matter if there are more people with patches on the street that that's just what the media's focusing on and we need to worry about something else. Well I'll tell you if we are walking down the street in Napier and we see a patched gang member—I'll tell you the effect that has on an everyday person Stuart—it is intimidating it is frightening and it tells us that we're living in a community where people who snub their noses to the law can get away with it and we don't like it.Here on this side of the House I accept your argument that yes the police have a mandate to arrest them and the police do a good job. I absolutely accept that. The gangs aren't the police's fault; the fault lies with the Government who have not given the police the mandate to lock offenders up. In fact the mandate is actually catch and release. There is an explicit objective from this Government to reduce the number of people in prison. If you think that that's not having an impact on the way criminals view our society then you would be wrong. We have to look at this problem and be realistic about the Government's role in it and Stuart Nash knows it and that's why he spent so long apologising for it in that speech.But what I want to speak about today is a number of items in the Prime Minister's statement that made me reflect on the election campaign we had in 2017. In that statement we had from the Prime Minister a number of commitments for the future. I have to say it's wearing a little thin with me because I've been hearing these commitments for the future for a long time and I am not seeing the delivery here in Wellington.I want to take you through a really specific example and that is housing. I stood next to Grant Robertson the local MP in Wellington Central in the Aro Valley community debate and he promised the assembled people—he promised—he said We have to bring rents down." He talked about all the houses that would be built under Labour he talked about KiwiBuild.But what have we actually seen in Wellington? We've got rents rising the fastest in the country. We now have the most expensive rents in New Zealand up a hundred dollars a week since this Government was elected. What that means is that there are people in groups of 30 or 40 standing on footpaths trying to get a flat. It is harder than ever for people to find a home. We have public waiting lists for public housing that have absolutely exploded; hundreds more signing up for a State house and not getting it. We have emergency housing grants that have blown out. That is a number that represents more families more individuals more Wellingtonians forced out of a proper tenancy and forced instead into living in a motel. That's what's happening with housing in Wellington. Some people will accept the argument. They'll say "Oh well you know the Government's giving it a good go; no one expects perfection." But I'll tell you what they do expect: they expect progress and we have not seen that on housing in Wellington.National for our part is absolutely focused on the future and the policies that will genuinely make a difference in these areas. We know that it's not simple. We're actually planning to repeal and replace the Resource Management Act which lies at the heart of many of New Zealand's housing difficulties. We are committed to investing in the infrastructure that will enable more housing development.Those on the other side of the House would do well to do some reading tonight because we have released 10 discussion documents which detail positive credible plans for the future and we are talking to New Zealanders about them. When you look at Wellington whether it's infrastructure where we've been robbed of key projects like a second Mount Victoria tunnel and promised—potentially one day maybe—light rail just like Auckland did. They were promised it would be delivered by 2021. It's 2020 Prime Minister and the clock's ticking and you still haven't got a contract. Whether it's health where targets have been removed and performance on everything from access to cancer treatment to emergency waiting times has slipped back where there are code reds in our maternity wards where the midwives still haven't had their claims addressed and there are chronic shortages occurring. Whether it's early childhood where instead of 100 percent qualified teachers as we were promised we have major teacher shortages across the board. This is a Government that promised big that can't deliver that is fundamentally out of its depth. It's time to put mum and dad back in charge and elect a National-led Government.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Ruth Dyson): Before I call the recently engaged—congratulations—Dan Bidois could I just really encourage members to not bring the Speaker into the debate despite the poor leadership that's been demonstrated by some senior members of the House over recent days? If members could really turn their attention to that it would be appreciated."