McKelvie IanIAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): It is a privilege to be able to take a call in the third reading of the Estimates debate. I want to talk about a Budget and a finance Minister who followed the lead of our previous finance Minister who of course had the role for some 8 years and put this country into very good stead in those 8 years and will continue to do so as the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Stuart Smith's speech a few moments ago emphasised the value of the Government being in surplus. The fact is that the Kaikōura earthquake did such an amazing amount of damage to harbours railways roads and other things in that area—certainly to property in that area—and that the Government was able to move quickly and in fact get that railway reinstated in the very short time it has is a tribute to the financial management of this Government over the last 8 or 9 years. We heard Ron Mark talking earlier about the haves and the have-nots and heard the claims that the Budget rewards the haves. Well that is not true and nor are the Labour members' claims that we lack vision and they have it. As late as yesterday its members continued to drag out their policies of yesteryear. They know best how to spend taxpayers' money and the very speech we heard a moment ago from Carmel Sepuloni proved that. They are much better at spending taxpayers' money than the taxpayers are and of course the Greens have gone to ground completely.I want to spend a moment or two talking about how this Government has continued to seize the opportunities that we have as a country. We have built on the hard work of this Government over the last 9 years and despite three major earthquakes and the global financial crisis (GFC) of 2008-09 we are growing at over 3 percent a year. We have created some 200000 jobs in this economy—well we have not but the economy has—in the past 3 years and a further 215000 are predicted in the next 3 years. We have an economy that is responsive and a public sector that is more efficient and effective and that better serves its people than it has done for many years. The results of that hard work by the Government and its support parties that make up that Government are that we now have a growing population and a thriving tourism industry and you have only got to look at the north of the Rangitīkei electorate to understand the magnitude of this thriving tourism industry and the fact that Ruapehu Alpine Lifts is spending some $100 million on the side of the mountain. The Lines Co. which has been the bane of my life for some years has started to perform in an admirable manner and has got its act in order and accommodation rates in the north of my electorate have significantly risen giving that industry a boost that it probably thought some 4 or 5 years ago that it would never see again. We have an unemployment rate south of 4.5 percent and in some parts of New Zealand it is as low as 3 percent. We have a primary sector that is growing at a record rate and not only at a record rate but also at a sustainable rate through adding value and gains from technology and science. No longer are we using the old adage of producing more from less. We are producing more from less but we are using very different technology and the science behind that is giving us a great advantage as an economy. Regional New Zealand is in the best order it has been in for many years. It is very easy to go round regional New Zealand and pick off some bits here and there and complain about how bad it is but that will always be the case. Of course those people who live and breathe in rural New Zealand—as many of us do—understand very well the ups and downs of regional New Zealand. We understand what happens to us when we rely on a primary production sector and a tourism sector and our small towns have suffered for many years. At last those small towns are in a much better state than they have been for many years. We also have a country and a Government that can care for its less fortunate. I am very proud to be part of a Government that has put an extra $2 billion into the lower-income end of our community just in this last Budget. In the previous Budget all beneficiaries benefited by $25 a week which was the first such lift for some 40 years. I think that the actions of this Government are in the best interests of all New Zealanders. We will always have philosophical differences between the various parties in the House as to how we should go about these things but definitely the role of this Government is to encourage people to look after themselves and to give them the opportunity to spend their own hard-earned dollars on improvements to their livelihoods and their lives. I want to spend a moment or two talking about the Rangitīkei and the $576 million that has gone into the Defence Force upgrades which largely benefit people and communities in my electorate through Waiōuru; Ōhākea which is close to Bulls; Feilding; and of course the Linton army base south of Palmerston North. New Zealand's defence is hugely important for our future. The recent Budget announcements around those upgrades will give the Defence Force great heart and it will really look forward to the future with confidence I think. The ring road around Palmerston North the Kapiti Expressway and having Transmission Gully moving quickly are great advances for my part of the world and I have got to add that from my place to here it used to be an hour and 50 minutes. It is now an hour and 40 minutes on the back of the Kapiti Expressway and I would imagine that with the completion of Transmission Gully in 3 years' time—which will be interesting—it will take 20 minutes off the trip from where I live to Wellington which is hugely important and is a great economic boost to the Whanganui-Manawatū region. The Manawatū Gorge—I want to talk about the gorge for the moment because it has been a challenge for my region for 150 years at least and probably longer. This Government through Minister Bridges has made a commitment to fix the gorge one way or another. There are some challenges around the gorge. One of them is the Ashhurst community and the Ashhurst community of course suffers from a bypass going fair through the middle of it. As we move to repair the gorge one of the first issues that will arise is how we get round the Ashhurst community. The ministry and the Minister are paying particular attention to this and have visited Ashhurst on a couple of occasions already to talk about that. I think the community in Ashhurst can be assured that the Government—this Government—will move in every way it can to protect that community from the extraordinary number of heavy trucks going through there on a daily basis right through the middle of a town. Although to be fair those people who bought in that street knew it was a bypass road for the gorge when it was closed but they did not expect to have 7000 vehicles a day going through it. So I am sure this Government has got to grips with the gorge and will make great progress with it. Briefly back to the tourism industry—which clearly affects my electorate significantly—we have had some recent announcements around the Tourism Infrastructure Fund which has given some of our councils a great opportunity to get on and develop some critical infrastructure for the tourism industry. We have some amazing walking and cycling tracks in the north of the electorate as well and not only are they in the north of the electorate but in fact the Manawatū Gorge walk is a critical walk that joins the Manawatū with the Alastair Scott's electorate on the other side of the hill. That of course is under some pressure as well because of the challenges that the gorge faces. So the Tourism Infrastructure Fund and the spend around tourism is pretty significant for the Rangitīkei electorate. The science spend is another area that is critical for us and of course we have the Crown research industries based on the Massey side of Palmerston North. We also have Massey University. Both of those institutions as well as the Fonterra Research Centre are smack in the middle of the Rangitīkei electorate—a little bit odd that might seem but that is the fact. So as a country we continue to innovate and clean up the environment in partnership with our farmers our foresters and our urban communities. The forestry national policy statement launched today will be a significant advance for that industry. It will give clarity as to how it goes about its business it will give clarity as to where councils need to sit within that sector and I think it is a great move forward and will continue to be. The freshwater clean-up fund—nearly $6 million of that has gone to the Horizons Regional Council and is being spent from Levin and particularly around the Manawatū River. It is a great opportunity for us to get on with the job of cleaning up our environment. It is a challenge for New Zealand. We are a country that has based itself on agriculture. We have also based ourselves in communities that all seem to be located by rivers and we can tell that pretty much every time we get a flood.Finally the Rural Broadband Initiative which must continue and has been hugely productive for provincial rural New Zealand will continue to strengthen the opportunity the farmers have to adopt technology that will in turn help us to improve our environmental outcomes. On our boundary we have a sleeping giant finally awakening from the GFC and the commodity downturn that accompanied that and of course I am talking about those across the Tasman. They are a great strength to New Zealand. We must continue to grow. We must continue to work hard on trade which is critical to our future. We must also strive for increased stability to pay people more and already in the time of this Government—in the 9 years of this Government—average wages have lifted by $17000. There is plenty of scope for that to improve. So that is me. Thank you.