Bakshi Kanwaljit SinghKANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. I stand in opposition to this debate. The previous speaker Michael Wood whatever he said I think it will be summed up in this line: that Labour is failing on delivering their promises. This Labour-led Government—all the three parties made different promises. Every time we see what's happening in this House we can see that this Labour-led Government is failing on delivering their promises. I would like to start by quoting one of the journalists who I feel is very independent and well-respected in journalism Duncan Garner. In one of his articles he wrote but the truth is Labour told you a bunch of utter garbage. They told you what you wanted to hear—dog-whistle politics to keep up with Winston Peters. But the truth is they have done diddly-squat to get there … I've watched politics closely for the last 25 years and this Government is the least effective of them all by some margin". That sums up what this Labour-led Government is including their coalition partners New Zealand First and the Greens. We see from time to time that their policies—what New Zealand First is advocating Greens are opposing. What Greens are advocating New Zealand First is opposing. Darroch Ball: What nonsense. KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: I will prove it—listen to this. It is not nonsense you listen have some patience. Keep some patience. First of all when the Green Party defence spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman said the country should be spending all that money which they are spending on big planes equipment in defence—that that can be invested in smaller planes and the rest of the money can be invested somewhere else. New Zealand First is advocating for all this spending in the defence area and the Greens are opposing it—that was what I wanted to say then. Darroch Ball: How could they oppose it? KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: They are opposing it. They are opposing—there is a crack. Darroch Ball: They have voted for it. How could they oppose it?KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: Yeah listen to it. Listen to it. What she is saying you haven't heard it. You haven't read what they are saying. So what you are proposing they are opposing it. The second point where I would like to show that the cracks are coming up is that all the three Government parties had a policy to reinstate the Mental Health Commission but it had had long standing support from the Greens. The Greens advocated for this policy for a long time and we just heard from Michael Wood how he was proud that the Labour Party has implemented the mental health policy. On the other hand New Zealand First issued a press release claiming credit for it even before it was announced and it claimed that New Zealand First had identified that mental health was the major issue this country was facing as if no other party realised it. That shows again what I am trying to say which is that the policy was advocated by the Greens and New Zealand First claimed that that was their policy. That is a total crack in these three parties and we will see further that this is going to happen from time to time. Another point which I would like to pick up on in their broken promises is that every day I go out in the community—and we have got the Minister of Immigration sitting over here—and people are time and again asking me what's happening to the parents category. The Minister has had sitting on his table the report—which has been sitting there for almost the last 18 months—about when the review was to be taken up and the decision was to be made. I hope that the Minister is going to take a call and explain why the decision has not been made on the people who are waiting for the decision for their parents to come over and join them. They are just very eager about it and National said that this policy will be reviewed after two years and the decision will be made. But it is another broken promise I would say for the people who are expecting that this policy will be reviewed. Another area in immigration that I would like to touch upon is the delay in the processing of visas. Time and again we are seeing—particularly from the Asian subcontinent—that the visa processing time is taking longer and longer. In particular I would like to touch upon the student visa and it has been reported that with the way this policy is going ahead there could be at least a $33 million cost to the New Zealand economy because of the lack of visa processing for the students. There are so many institutes that are coming and talking to us and saying that there is not any kind of assistance from New Zealand Immigration for getting these visas processed. These are the broken promises which are not being delivered on by the Labour-led Government. Another broken promise is on KiwiBuild. We were promised that there would be 100000 houses in the next 10 years which meant that every year there would be 10000 houses. The goal for the first year was reset so that 1000 houses would be delivered in the very first year but what we are seeing is that not even 100 houses are being built. It is less than a few weeks from 1 July when those 1000 houses were supposed to be delivered. Now the talk about the next year was that another 5000 houses were to be delivered—no clue what is going to happen. In the third year 10000 houses were supposed to be delivered but we are seeing nothing happening on that front. What we are seeing is the Minister every day coming to the House and talking about those houses which were already consented or were being built. They are being included in this KiwiBuild project and they are buying the houses in bulk from the developers from the plans. So again I will repeat that the Labour-led Government is not delivering on their promises and the people are disappointed in the performance of this Government. I would also like to touch upon some of the taxes. The promise was that there would be no new taxes but what we have seen to date is that seven new taxes have been introduced. We saw on the day of the Budget under urgency that two new taxes were introduced and passed. It is going to—Barbara Kuriger: Tax tax and more tax. KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: Exactly. Tax tax tax—that is the policy of this Government whereas the promise was that there would be no new taxes. They also promised that there would be cheaper doctors visits: $10 for a visit to the doctor. What is happening? Nothing. They also promised $20 million for access to lifesaving medicines for New Zealanders with rare disorders but in this Budget there is nothing. Again our Labour-led Government is not delivering on their promises. We also had the promise from this Government about the annual health and eye check for seniors. Seniors are totally disappointed. They thought this Government was going to look after them but they are very much disappointed. They also promised for early childhood education funding for 100 percent qualified teachers—nothing in this Budget. They also promised that no one would be sleeping in their cars last winter. We are now in the next winter but still that promise has not been delivered on. Hon Aupito William Sio: That's what your lot caused. KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: Aupito William Sio knows very well that in his electorate a lot people are sleeping in cars and garages and he is doing nothing. He has got all the power. He can do a lot for his people but I am seeing nothing happening from his side. We also saw the commitment in housing that people would be moved into houses but what we are seeing is that more and more motels are being taken up to accommodate those people. They also promised light rail to the airport from Auckland within four years and I think that light rail was supposed to go through again Aupito William Sio's electorate but still we haven't seen the business plan for how it is going to happen. We know that the Minister is not able to deliver what he has promised. So those two major projects which are housing and transport they are totally failing on and I think that this is the time to oppose this coalition Government to ensure that we give the message that this is a failure of this Government."