Address in Reply

It’s clear from the question time today that members opposite are adjusting to their new situation. They’re feeling a little uncomfortable about their new situation, and I think that New Zealanders around the country would welcome me reminding members opposite why they lost and why they no longer control the Government benches. That’s because over their six long years, they managed to preside over an economy that worsened and made the outcomes for New Zealanders worse.

We have had inflation out of control for more than 2½ years, and the result for working people, for New Zealanders across the country, has been a cost of living crisis that rolled on and on and on. In the face of that cost of living crisis, we then had a Government who instead of doing the right thing and looking at what it could do to control that inflation, to reduce that inflation, instead decided to spend New Zealanders’ money with wild abandon. It increased spending by dramatic amounts even while inflation roared on, and it spent that money on wasteful things; on projects that New Zealanders would not have prioritised but which were political projects and ideological projects for the members opposite.

What that party opposite refused to do at any juncture was reduce the income taxes that New Zealanders were paying. Even while inflation pushed people into higher tax brackets—even while inflation stripped people’s bank accounts bare—the members opposite continued to say there is never a right time for tax reduction. Well, the members on this side of the House know, because we spent time with the working people who voted for change at this election, that New Zealanders want to be able to have a Government they can trust to be good stewards not only of taxpayers’ money but of the economy in which we all play a part.

So in the address from this throne, we heard the commitments of our Government, and they are going to be to reduce the cost of living and deliver income tax reduction. And what we’ve heard over these past two weeks is every reason under the sun why we shouldn’t offer tax reduction. What I’ve put to you is that there are some members of this House, some politicians, who believe that they can always spend New Zealanders’ money better than they can. I am proud to be part of a Government that knows that New Zealanders who this week are worrying whether or not they can afford to pay for swimming lessons for their kids this summer, New Zealanders who are worrying about how they’re going to pay off the credit card in time to put food on the table for Christmas, New Zealanders who are worried that the mortgage payments are now so high that they may need to consider selling their house—I want all of those New Zealanders to know that they now have a Government who understands you can’t just ignore the economy and spend and spend and spend. Actually, you have to deliver.

So we—we—will make sure we bring Government spending under control and will prioritise the things that actually matter to working people: effective public services that are sustainable into the future and that provide good value; delivering the conditions and the infrastructure that allow private enterprise to flourish, that allow for greater innovation, that allow for greater productivity, that allow for more people to be hired.

And we are at work. Already we have introduced 90-day trial legislation, which will mean that some people will have an employer give them a go where previously they were not prepared to. Already we have removed the bureaucratic fair pay agreement regime, which would have imposed mandatory union deals on workforces that didn’t even want a bar of it.

I am at work. And I tell you, it is a solemn thing when you get given the Government books as the Minister of Finance and when you turn those pages and you find that actually we had a Government that committed to all sorts of things—whether it was new Pharmac medicines, whether it was school lunches—but didn’t actually remember to put the money in the Budget to pay for those things into the future, and who did that on such a grand scale—so many billions of dollars of commitments that weren’t funded into the future—that what I see in those books is a Government that was prepared to recklessly leave a hole in the Government finances.

So the task ahead for our Government is not just the task that we campaigned on, which was to ensure we addressed the cost of living and took pressure off inflation and reduced the taxes that people pay. Our task is also to restore a sense of fiscal responsibility to Government. That means that we need to get rid of these bad habits that crept in by the big spenders on the other side. We will be needing to make changes to ensure that when any Minister on these benches appropriates money that belongs to New Zealanders, they ensure that it is spent in a way that is responsible—and that when members opposite present policies or accounts, they can look people in the eye and say we are making this announcement today, confident we can fund it into the future.

Because it seems disgraceful to me that we had a Government that was prepared to sign up to long-term contracts for medicines but wouldn’t put the money in the Budget to fund them. And yet they crowed—they crowed about a supposed return to surplus in 2026–27. Well, smoke and mirrors. Because actually what they were playing was one big game of duck-shoving, in which, in fact, their surplus was never going to return on their watch. They were prepared to keep doing what they had already done three times—move that surplus out—because fundamentally they like to spend more than they earn.

So we will be restoring the discipline that is needed to give New Zealanders confidence—confidence actually that the things we fund can be afforded not just for the members of this House today but for the kids and grandkids who follow us. Because it is a reckless Government that drives the books into ongoing deficits, and that was the intention of the members opposite.

I tell you what, it’s been a solemn experience, and members here will have had the same experience, when you take that warrant as a Minister and you reflect on the responsibility that comes with it. When I think about that responsibility, I want to tell you about the people I have in my mind. I have in my mind the family whose door I knocked on in Johnsonville during the campaign. Parked out the front was a Wellington Combined taxi. As I came to the front door, the mum spent a bit of time coming to the door. She had two children at her feet. She said her husband was at prayer and she was going to bring him to the door because he really needed to speak to me. He came to the door and he said, “Nicola, I just want to know why the Government makes it so hard for people like me. I work my taxi shift and I work a cleaning shift, and my wife works at McDonald’s. We work every hour that we can and we do everything to care for our children. But the rent keeps going up, the food keeps going up, and they take my taxes and they spend it on things I do not want.” And I said to that man, “You need a change of Government, because it is time that you had a Government that will let you keep more of those earnings you work so hard for. It is time that you had a Government that won’t play games with things like inflation, that will make sure the Reserve Bank does its job and gets it under control. It is time for a Government that treats your money with respect and doesn’t just give speeches about nice things but delivers results, that sets targets, that has high expectations of public servants, that expects performance, that drives performance, that gets results for you.”

So when I go to work each day, I’m not actually thinking about which piece of spin or which piece of lovely rhetoric the previous Government gave in a speech, whether it was the 100,000 KiwiBuild houses or the nuclear-free moments. I’m thinking about what it’s going to look like for that family in 2026. On this Government’s watch, we will get the cost of living under control, they will have more money in their bank accounts, and we’ll have public services that deliver good value effectively. And here’s what’s more: we will have the books in better order so that all of those things can be sustained into the future. It is time for responsible Government, for grown-up Government. The adults are back in charge, and New Zealanders say to the last lot: good riddance.

I’m going to start by just reading a text I received from someone I knew who was at the international airport leaving the country on 24 October. This person texted me to say, “Am en route to the US”—

Hon David Seymour: Were they a former Labour MP?

Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: National staffer on leave. In brackets: “Pissed.” Says, “National will take six weeks to sort coalition. Willis is”—a derogatory word—“and can’t do simple sums. Judith is a big threat to Luxon. Should be foreign Minister. Someone Christmas should be AG but won’t make it and is National’s only rainbow person. They expect to lose three electorates. Angee is nice but not quite good enough.”

I share that with you as a reminder to the House to be careful about what you talk about in public spaces, including the Koru lounge, but also just to give some evidence of the fact that it’s not just this side of the House that has no confidence in that Minister of Finance and her ability to be able to do simple sums. Turns out the people closest to her do not have the confidence in her as well. So I thought I’d start on that very positive note.

On the next positive note, can I acknowledge the new Speaker of the House and all of the presiding officers. We hope for only one thing: that there will be fairness and clarity in the rulings that are undertaken here. If that is how things are conducted in the House—and that is our expectation—then the Speaker and all of the presiding officers can expect that this place will be orderly and that we will reciprocate our respect to the Speaker and to the Deputy Speaker and all of the Assistant Speakers.

I also want to acknowledge the absolute privilege that it is to be elected into this place as a member of Parliament. I want to thank the Kelston electorate for supporting me again. It is a privilege. It is the primary reason that I’m here: to support the electorate that I have been elected to serve.

Of course, the ideal is always that we are elected into Government, but New Zealanders didn’t choose us this time round, and of course we respect that decision. However, New Zealand should rightfully expect that we will be a strong Opposition, that we will hold the Government to account for working in the best interests of all New Zealanders, and that we will hold the Government to account for the promises they made, the promises that led to New Zealand electing them. And we will.

What a great opportunity that this Address in Reply debate provides for us to do just that. Before we even got to the Speech from the Throne, we had the coalition negotiations, and I want to speak to that a little bit. It reminded me of a really bad circus I once took the family to, one where they were trying to balance multiple people on a bike, circling a ring, but each time they’d go around, someone or multiple people would fall off. The audience got increasingly nervous. Were these people going to be OK? Is this going to result in someone getting hurt and an ambulance needing to be called? Were these professionals? Did they know what they were doing? And what had we just bought tickets to?

I think there are a number of New Zealanders who bought tickets to this political circus asking themselves the same question right now. After the coalition bandaged up and finally managed to get through the negotiations, we started to get hit with the early musings of what were their priorities. At that point I was starting to wonder whether the Government were deliberating focusing on issues far removed from the cost of living issues as a strategy to take attention away from the number of issues that they have campaigned on: “Let’s repeal smoke-free legislation. Let’s get rid of te reo Māori names for Government agencies. Let’s take away any bonus for te reo - speaking public servants who may be undertaking additional duties in their workplace.”

I was confused. How were those things going to help us as a country get back on track? How was bashing Māori, banishing te reo Māori, encouraging social and racial division, and making moves to increase the uptake of smoking in Aotearoa New Zealand going to help New Zealanders pay for their bread and butter?

Then it became even more confusing. The first move in the House this week is to get rid of fair pay agreements, extend 90-day trials, remove the Reserve Bank’s dual mandate to focus on keeping inflation down whilst not taking their focus off employment—and just keep in mind that Australia has just moved to put that mandate in place.

So apparently, putting jobs on the line, pushing towards a world where more Kiwis can find themselves unemployed, equates to supporting New Zealanders with the cost of living. I thought the Speech from the Throne might help to provide more clarity, but, yeah, nah. Instead what we got hit with was the biggest demonstration of gaslighting a nation that we as Aotearoa New Zealand have ever faced.

Look at some of these examples that I just pulled out: “It is the people outside Parliament who will be the Government’s priority in decisions over the next three years.” So you will start off by making legislative changes that put at risk their ability to work and provide for their families? It wants “people to see demonstrable, measurable results that make their lives easier and helps them to get ahead.” So then the Government moves to get rid of regulatory impact statements so that New Zealanders can’t see what the impact or benefit or losses might be to them through the legislative changes? And then: “Having 11 percent or one in nine New Zealanders of working age on a main benefit means too many people are dependent on the efforts of their fellow citizens instead of being self-supporting.” While they are at it, they are thinking, with the two other strategies, “Let’s put the boot into beneficiaries in the good old-fashioned way, including all of those on main benefits with a disability or health condition so that New Zealand has someone to blame for these crappy changes and the crap results that are likely to ensue.”

Many people have been saying outside this House—and I’m going to add my voice to it—that this Government is looking like the most backward, regressive, divisive Government that we have ever seen as a country. I absolutely agree with that. What concerns me is that there a number of communities that will be impacted by these regressive changes more than others.

On behalf of our Labour Pacific caucus—because we have a Pacific caucus—I want to acknowledge one of New Zealand’s most prominent Pacific health leaders, Sir Colin Tukuitonga for going on record and saying it as it is. He said, “I really don’t want to work with this Government. I have no confidence. They are not going to treat Pacific people well and I want to be free to speak up and speak out.” Sir Colin Tukuitonga is absolutely right with what he is saying. And to follow that up, I want to quote Dame Luamanuvao Winnie Laban, who once said—in fact I think she said it more than once—that “if you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” And right now that is where the Pacific community and many of the other communities that are going to be impacted by the negative effects of that Government’s policies are sitting—on the menu.

Very genuinely, it does scare me. I don’t get the sense, despite the previous speaker’s attempt to try and make it sound like she was in touch, that the Government actually cares about New Zealanders. I don’t get the sense that they have an understanding of the reality and the lived experience of the most vulnerable New Zealanders. We all clearly got the sense in the lead-up to the election that there were certain sectors, certain New Zealanders, that that Government had in mind when they were proposing their policies, and the ones that lose are vast majority of New Zealanders; every other New Zealander that doesn’t sit in those rich-list groups that that side of the House has very obviously demonstrated their support for over the course of—actually, not just an election campaign, not just through the Speech from the Throne but over the course of decades.

I may have paid once to go to that really bad circus that one time and I won’t be going back, but I have no doubt that if the Government continues on the trajectory they are on—and they will—New Zealanders won’t just be pledging to forego tickets to the next show; they will be wanting to leave the show early and asking for a full refund.

Let me start by saying it’s a privilege to be here in Parliament, and I hope every member of Parliament feels the same way. Can I congratulate you, Mr Assistant Speaker O’Connor, on your appointment to this role and say how much we look forward to working with you, and with the Rt Hon Gerry Brownlee as our Speaker. If the last week or so is anything to go by, the House will be able to flow freely. It’s a place of robust debate and it’s where we test out ideas.

With that in mind, it didn’t take very long for nasty Labour to come back, did it? Carmel Sepuloni was on her feet, talking—making up, actually, some text message of fake news somebody happened to send her with such intricate detail from the Koru lounge, from a drunk person. What absolute rubbish! But I’ll tell you the problem we’ve got with the Labour Party—and we’ve been there. We know what it’s like. It’s hard to accept that you’ve been rejected by the public—we were there for six years. And what we have heard or will continue to hear is that actually nothing is wrong—the public got it wrong, and actually they’ll change their minds very soon.

Carmel Sepuloni actually reminded me of Chris Hipkins. It’s a little bit like that story I used to tell my kids—you know, the little engine that thought it could: “I think I can, I think I can.”, and then the public said “You can’t.” And now they’re over there not sure what they’re doing. Carmel Sepuloni said she’d been to that circus once and she’d never go again. Sorry, Ms Sepuloni, you’ve got to go back to the Labour Party caucus every single week, because I think that’s where the circus is.

Can I say on behalf of my colleagues that we are very proud to have formed what will be a strong and stable Government. Carmel Sepuloni says she thinks about those who have the least, the poor in society. The bit that she forgot to say is that over six years, those poor people, the vulnerable she’s so worried about, are worse off today than they were six years ago. It is an obligation on this Government to grow the economy and help people to help themselves so they get ahead, and with New Zealand First and with ACT in coalition, the first coalition Government ever formed in the history of New Zealand where three parties sign up to a deal together, we are focused on what needs to be done and we should be judged on what we deliver, not “I think I can, I think I can, I hope I can.” And, of course, Labour never did—they couldn’t.

Can I thank the Rt Hon Prime Minister Christopher Luxon for the confidence he has shown in me and all of our caucus in asking us to work very hard on behalf of New Zealanders. I’m extremely proud to be given the opportunity to serve as a Minister in this Government. And as with every single other Minister in this Government in National and ACT and New Zealand First, we pledge to work hard for New Zealanders and put their interests first and deliver for them, not just put out press releases about houses that nobody can live in or under, not just put up roading cones around the country, but to do the hard work and deliver for Kiwis to get the country back on track and make sure that, actually, they are better off.

I have been given agriculture as a portfolio and it’s one of the best portfolios you could have because of its absolute importance to New Zealand and the New Zealand economy. Every morning, all around New Zealand in every part of the country, hard-working men and women get up, they put on their gumboots, they get on their tractors, they go to milk the cows, they work hard because they care about their land and they care about their animals, they care about their communities, and they are the heavy lifters of the New Zealand economy. And, actually, if you have a look over time, this place—they say there have been fewer members of Parliament than there have been All Blacks but if you actually look at the All Blacks, a team that all New Zealanders can be proud of, over the history of it the number of farmers that have served as our top sportspeople in itself talks to the importance of rural New Zealand to the fabric of society in New Zealand. And to anybody in this House that doesn’t understand that when rural New Zealand does well all of New Zealand does well, and when the rural economy is strong the New Zealand economy is strong, they will be on that side of the House because of all the things that Labour did to our farmers over six years.

We have a strong team in the Government. Our rural team, Nicola Grigg, Andrew Hoggard, and Mark Patterson; a rural team to go out and deliver on the commitments we made before the election—because we trust farmers—to get Wellington out of farming, to stop Wellington trying to run farms, to focus on outcomes, not process. To trust farmers and work with them to find the solutions because they are committed to meeting their environmental obligations—they want clean water, the same as everybody else in New Zealand—to meet their climate change reduction obligations sensibly, not closing down farms and putting people out of business. On behalf of the National-led coalition Government, can I thank those men and women of rural New Zealand for the hard work that they do, and say they can be very proud of their contribution. Finally, after six years, they have a Government that backs and supports them, will stand behind them, and help lead in the great things they do.

From horticulture, where we are the best in the world at producing kiwifruit, and there is so much more that we can do. You know, the average kiwifruit grower gets more from their exports in international markets than kiwifruit growers anywhere else in the world and we thank them for that. In viticulture—very important—did you know, Mr Speaker, in the UK market, a very competitive wine market, New Zealand wine gets on average £1 to £2 more per bottle than anything else, which means our wine growers are not competing on price; they’re competing on quality and they are winning there. I thank them for their hard work. In apiculture—something we can be very proud of—our beekeepers and others who produce mānuka honey that others around the world in Australia and elsewhere are trying to emulate and take that name, but the reputation of high quality of the great benefits of mānuka honey and all other honey that comes from New Zealand is the reason those prices are so high.

To our sheep and beef farmers, who, actually, probably have done it hardest over the last six years under a Labour Government and then a Labour - Green Government where it’s very, very hard. We have farmers who don’t know whether or not they can survive the next winter, let alone whatever else Labour had in store for them. To tell them that we value them, we’re going to work hard to get costs down on their farms, because the New Zealand economy needs sheep growers and beef and wool, we need that desperately. And to our dairy farmers, who from time to time have had a bad rap from people who want to use their hard work politically: thank you for what you do. Without the contribution of the primary industries, our economy would be poorer.

To the foresters, those who invest in forests, who grow trees, and those who process the wood: as a Minister of Forestry—and a previous Minister, Shane Jones—we’re going to work hard to make sure that everybody in New Zealand knows the importance of the contribution of forestry to the New Zealand economy, and that people plant trees because of the value of wood, not because the Labour Government told them they would give them bits of paper called carbon credits that would be worth more than the wood in the future. You know, we want people to be growing trees, we want to be processing that wood in New Zealand, adding value, creating jobs, and the New Zealand First -National - Act Government will deliver upon that. We’re going to do this by focusing on the rules and regulations that Labour forced upon farmers to put costs up to levels that now they cannot make money. We’re going to focus on better rules, fewer rules, on the outcomes, so that our rural sector can be as strong as we need it.

Finally, I’m given the privilege of being the Minister of Trade, a very important role because as we produce enough food for 400 million people around the world to get 10 percent of their diet from New Zealand, we have to sell it. You will see an unrelenting focus—a focus that New Zealand has never seen before—from this Government on growing exports by value. We’re going to double that over 10 years; the building blocks will be put in place now. We’re going to lead more trade missions around the world to help our exporters find new markets and we will judge the success of those missions not on the number of meetings they have but on how much more they will sell. We’re going to make more of the agreements we have in place and negotiate more, and I will be on a plane on Monday of next week going to India, the very first meeting. Do you know, the Labour Government said it was a priority for them? It took them virtually 4½ years to get anywhere near India and they’ve been there two or three times this year. It’s a shame they didn’t go last year or the year before. Well, actually, within the first hundred days before Christmas, we’ll be there showing India why the relationship that we share with them is a strategic priority for this Government. There are many great things we can do together in India and Indians in New Zealand, but the first thing we have to do is rebuild the harm to the relationship that was done under the Labour Government.

Finally, can I thank the people of the Rotorua electorate for having confidence in me and giving me an opportunity to continue to serve for them. The time of the last six years of the talk about how you’re better off because we are nice to people is over. We’re going to roll our sleeves up and actually deliver for the people of the Rotorua electorate, from Te Puke and the kiwifruit through to Rotorua. We’ve made commitments to close down those homeless motels that people were being dumped in from all around the country and they were languishing; it was harming them, it harmed the reputation of our city. It’s no wonder the then Prime Minister Chris Hipkins never came to Rotorua during the campaign. He was ashamed. I’m not ashamed of Rotorua. It’s a great place, full of great people. We will be fighting hard for them.

Rural New Zealand is back. ACT is back alongside the collective rural caucus—they are back—and farmers are celebrating. We all came here to this place to speak our truth, the way in which we all see it, to share in a contest of ideas and have them canvassed, have a full and frank debate. As a rural advocate, a farmer, I am certainly one of those people. I came here, ACT came here, the farmers came here unapologetically to speak to the issues affronting the rural sector without pause, without fear, without equivocation, but with pride and a respect for the men and women that feed a nation; her people. For that, I say they deserve forthright representation, they deserve our loyalty, they deserve our respect, for without them we are a country economically destitute; we are a country half starved.

For six years—perhaps more—rural New Zealand had been in a state of emotional decline. Many had suffered the left’s farming illiteracy. But there’s hope on the horizon. Real optimism has returned to the rural sector. The National - ACT - New Zealand First Government—we have heard those folks. We are here to deliver to those in the sector; they deserve no less.

From previous vanity projects, utopic or utopian ideas, or burdensome regulation, those former Government handbrakes will be a thing of the past, and in quick order. This Government—

Ingrid Leary: Are you reading your speech?

MARK CAMERON: Well, you could read it for me if you like.

We heard the drive for change. Our rural caucus had consulted with the parties. All three parties had listened, offered to discuss the problems, and have them defined. Before solutions were sought, we stressed the point, the need for cost-benefit analysis and understanding on farm regulations to give farmers certainty, not theatricality nor piety.

There is much to fix. Whilst I absolutely refuse to politicise mental illness, while I absolutely refuse to politicise suicide, the terrible havoc and loss it leaves on rural communities is enormous. It is felt especially by those in small, tight-knit communities. Sadly, this is becoming more common-place and it must be reversed. We must not forget that for the last three years, the world ground to a halt. Our country ground to a halt. COVID pushed pause on almost everything and everyone.

Yet farmers, rural New Zealanders—we persisted. We kept working. When the rules of nature halted so many, they persisted. They kept working to feed a nation and to help feed the world. This Government, we recognise that reality. We know that for many who wouldn’t or couldn’t, farmers kept going. In spite of all the challenges and in spite of the former Government, farmers were good for it.

Hon Nicola Grigg: Hear, hear!

MARK CAMERON: Absolutely.

Not those previous unworkable, untenable outcomes that only knew piety, not practicality. We need to balance places like the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee with practical people, not those that were wet behind the ears, but those who have experience on farm—vets, farmers—who understand outcome and the rigour of farming practices, not theorem.

We will return the live animal export trade. Trying to reconcile that is worth half a billion dollars to this country. Imagine what you could do with half a billion dollars and employ the logic of a gold standard—giving certainty to farmers, certainty to markets—

Chlöe Swarbrick: How are we going to do that, Mark?

MARK CAMERON: —must be done; clearly evident. I’m not going to engage with that now. In coalition going forward, we all agreed.

Farmer morale has been at an all-time low. How do you reconcile that? I’m fascinated by the fact that we’ve had high payouts and yet we’ve got farmer morale at an all-time low. We all see this. We acknowledge it. This coalition Government knows that good lawmaking is tantamount to good outcomes, that farmers and their canvas—it is their work; it is his work; it is her work. This is marked in inputs to outcomes, where weather, markets, costs on farm are meted out to farmers as their daily rigour.

Farmers in this building, we all collectively recognise the absolute importance of sensible, pragmatic lawmaking—something for so long we have missed out on—that achieves tenable outcomes on farm, something that the previous Government, and I have to stress this point, were so often four sheets to the wind on. I am drawn into thinking of a story that highlights the spirit of Kiwi farmers. It is our tenacity; it is our guts; it is our pride.

Recently, I attended the RRT gathering, an acronym for the post-cyclone rapid response team day out in Northland. Some were in tears, many shed in their gratitude. A community embraced its people. I heard of a chap that illustrated to me the absolute epitome of rural New Zealand, absolute Kiwi pride. He had travelled ill with cancer for four hours from Kaitāia to be part of that day. He battled on with his condition; he battled on with his post-cyclone recovery, and yet he still managed the time to be there for himself, for his community. Surely there is no greater conviction, no greater belief, in rural communities.

I say to the members of this House, rural New Zealand is full of fantastic people, driven people, capable people, and this Government sees it. It is my hope all parties will come in this House to know this as a truism, to know this as a fact. For to do any less is what I say to them is to have turned their back on rural New Zealand, and this is something we must absolutely not do. After all, I’m sure everyone would agree, everyone here eats; we are a nation ever hungry and we must never ever forget that reality.

He caught me by surprise! He had a couple minutes left on the clock, so I’ll have to get stuck into it.

Now, we’ve heard many things today, and I will acknowledge the fact that, yes, New Zealanders did vote for change at the last election. But I question: did the change they voted for include more people smoking to enable the funding of tax cuts for rich New Zealanders, because that’s not what I’m hearing back. I don’t think that New Zealanders voted for that. And did New Zealanders also vote for the kind of change that will deliver lower wages and worse working conditions for hard-working New Zealand workers, right before Christmas? Did they know that—that that would drive it down?

So I think it’s important to note that the first two pieces of legislation that this new Government brings to this House under urgency is targeted on jobs and employment, making sure that unemployment is removed out of the Finance Act, and also driving down workers’ wages through repealing fair pay agreements. They are the first two pieces of legislation out the gate.

And I ask you, what does this say for the leadership of the National Party? What does this say for the leadership of the National Party, when some of the most meanest stuff that’s in their basket so far has been farmed out to some of their coalition partners? Shane Reti has sheepishly shoved the cigarettes and the lighter over to Casey Costello, giving her the delegation to have to look after this one while he can concentrate on improving outcomes for Māori. The fact that we have a Māori Minister of Health who is promising to improve health outcomes for Māori while delegating responsibility for more smoking for Māori to his coalition partners is an absolute stain on the name of the new Government.

Secondly, the other one that’s been passed over is the fair pay agreements, slid over to Brooke van Velden today, to leave her to make the embarrassing statements such as “Workers will be worse off. They would’ve been worse off under fair pay agreements.” They’re delegating those out. So, if this is the honeymoon period, then it’s going to be one hell of a divorce, I can tell you. It’s going to be a rocky old relationship if this is the courting period.

So, let’s take a close look at what’s happening with fair pay agreements. In a cost of living crisis, we’re hearing that Kiwis are stretched and they need more legislation that’s going to be brought in that will do exactly the opposite of what they’re trying to do. It will drive down wages and it will decrease the working conditions. It’s really interesting to note that the OECD has put out a good report available online—if anyone would like to check it out—showing that productivity actually increases under fair pay agreements. Not only did the OECD agree but also so does the Treasury, who gave great advice, saying that the official advice was ignored by the Minister that Pasifika women, Māori, young people, disabled would all be adversely affected by the fact that fair pay agreements will be repealed.

I think it’s important to note that it’s not just about good things for our workers, but it’s actually good things for our employers. An interesting point that came up, that was obviously on Newstalk ZB with Nicola Willis last Thursday—we talked about productivity and flexibility. And what Nicola Willis said on the radio—and we just say, “Look, actually, that would impose huge costs. It would reduce flexibility. It would actually be a step backwards for New Zealand and the flexible employment relations that workers enjoy.” Well, what I would actually like to say is it does the opposite, because if we have a standard agreement across an industry, that means in those regions that are crying out for workers that need people in there, we can have workers go from one area to another with a standard agreement on what their wages and their conditions are. So research provides that it in fact increases productivity and increases flexibility. It stops them from being undercut by employers who offer lower wages and lower conditions.

A classic example, if you live in the Wellington region, would be our bus industry. We can all remember the “bustastrophe” that occurred right here in Wellington, and that was exactly the opposite of what fair pay agreements would have done. So the Public Transport Operating Model, introduced by Steven Joyce under the National Government—which was the privatisation of the public transport system—enabled a contracting race to the bottom that meant lower wages and lower working conditions. Fair pay agreements would enable a standardised wage and a standardised set of conditions that would have meant that we did not have bus drivers leaving to become truck drivers; leaving to go to Australia—and that is what the National Government is stepping away from, and it will be their basket to carry when we see things like this occur again.

I’d like to pick up on the point around productivity, because when we don’t have a race to the bottom—as we had with the bus drivers in Wellington—in areas such as manufacturing, we have employers that actually compete on things like better products, technology, improving the products and the way they’re doing their intellectual property, skill development of their workers. Instead of having a race to the bottom, instead of having that type of competition, we’re actually competing on smarts and having a better level of products marketed out in innovation to our global partners that we can compete on, instead of racing amongst ourselves to the bottom. Because all it does is it’s a trickle-down approach that gets us nowhere. We’re back in the 1980s, we’re back on that old treadmill that National always brings us back to: the sad trickle-down that never sees those at the bottom get a drop.

I’d like to touch on one other area today, and that is te reo Māori and the move away from Māori language and tikanga Māori. It’s been a message loud and clear that’s come across from this Government, and I would like to stand and say how disgusted I am with the approach that we’ve taken. The fact that we have Māori heritage, Māori culture, and Māori language in New Zealand is what defines us from the rest of the world. I’m proud, as a New Zealander, to be able to speak Māori; I find it to be an important part of my identity as a New Zealander. The fact that we introduced a new public holiday—Matariki—that was the first of our own public holidays here in New Zealand—I’m proud of that fact.

When my kids came home and taught me about Matariki; told me about the names of the stars in the sky, I could see the pride in their faces when they talked about it. We were able to look up at the stars and reflect on loved ones that we had lost in the past year and tell those stories. Those are important parts of our national identity, and it makes me sad, upset, and disgusted that as a Government, we are stepping away from who we are as a nation. I think we need to set the standard by saying that we are proud New Zealanders, that we have a shared history, and the Treaty of Waitangi is part of our history. Yes, there will be debate, and it is healthy to have that debate. But to hide from it and to sweep it under the carpet is a sad indictment on us as New Zealanders.

I look forward to being able to continue to move in a way that we see better moves for us as a country, and I want to make sure that in the upcoming weeks, months, and years, we will continue to interrogate this Government—as it struggles to find money for the tax cuts that it has promised New Zealanders, as we see that when the tobacco money runs out, as we see that there is no foreign buyers tax, and as we see that New Zealanders realise that the change that they voted for will not be delivered by this Government. It will be a circus. There are clowns in this circus, and they are performing their roles for the greatest spectacular we will ever see in New Zealand politics. As we watch the buck being passed, and as we see those at the very bottom—those who struggle the most—suffering as a result of the selfishness of this new Government, we will be there to make sure we fight for our people, that we fight for the fact that we have workers who deserve fair pay, workers who deserve fair conditions; that we have people who want to be able to live healthy lives, without having to have people capitalise on pushing tobacco. And as we have a country who is proud of te reo Māori, proud of tikanga Māori, and proud of who we are in Aotearoa, we will continue to call upon our partners, right across New Zealand, to continue to this fight, to say that we are not selfish. We do not just want more money for those who already have some; we will fight for those who need more—and I am proud to be part of that.

Mr Speaker, tēnā koe. Tātau e te Whare e noho tahi nei i roto i tēnei taha o te tukunga pōti, tēnā tātou katoa.

[Mr Speaker, thank you. All of us of the House that are sitting here together on this side of the election, greetings to all of us.]

Firstly, to those of you who are new MPs, including my colleagues here in New Zealand First—welcome. Believe you me, it is immeasurably more comfortable on this side of the House than on that side of the House, having suffered the misfortune of being on that side of the House more days than I care to remind myself. To erstwhile colleagues on that side of the House, it was a fateful and bleak day that the leader and I woke up in 2020 after a night of heavy contemplation in Russell and then realised that we were unemployed. Yes, there was the small matter of a gallon of red wine, as I remember—that was celebrating whakapapa, the Dalmatian side. However, as a consequence of a very vigorous campaign and respect that we engendered within the electorate, New Zealand First is back and contributing to this coalition Government.

Technically, the Address in Reply debate is traceable back in terms of our parliamentary traditions to the House, where members of the House sought to change the content of the Sovereign’s address. Now, years passed, and it’s morphed into what we have in New Zealand at the moment, which is a broad, free-ranging debate in terms of the Government’s agenda. So after three years of banishment and a period of self-reflection—something that comes to me with great difficulty—we have contributed to some key policy outcomes that are reflected in this speech, and I want to start with the first one.

We’re going to bring rigour and common sense to the hysteria surrounding climate change. Climate change policies in New Zealand have been driven by a tiny minority with loud voices who have no conception as to the consequences of their narrow, shallow ideas on the day-to-day functioning of the economy. For those reasons, whatever work has been happening in the Ministry for the Environment—not unlike Thomas Beckett, the “meddlesome priest”—that is now stopped. The coalition agreement says that there’ll be no more uncertainty as to the role of the emissions trading scheme (ETS) as the pivotal, paramount institution guiding us as we make the transition from our current emissions profile to a more sensible and defensible place—but not at the cost of those legacy industries that give us our wealth, our wellbeing, and jobs. So for those of you buried in the Ministry for the Environment, working away on those policies: they belong to the old regime that now sit on the other side of the House.

Now, of course, the perfidy didn’t just stop with ETS. We’ve got the significant natural areas; we’ve got the national policy statements pertaining to biodiversity—they’re gone. They will no longer have any legal impact in our rural economy, on our farmers, on our landowners—squashing the bejesus out of people’s property rights. Similarly, we will no longer have onerous, unworkable water regulations; not only unworkable, but completely destructive of the viability of the very industry that is our key contributor in terms of export earnings. Two national policy statements that will go the way of my dear friend David Parker’s magnum opus: out the back door, into oblivion. And just to show that there are other areas that people want me to concentrate on, I am the Minister for Resources. I look forward to leading the debate changing the law, enabling gas and oil exploration, wealth development, to take place yet again in New Zealand.

Now, just to ensure that the other side of the House feels that’s a little bit unbalanced, mining is coming back as well. We most certainly need those rare earth minerals. In those areas called the Department of Conservation (DOC) estate, where it’s stewardship land, stewardship land is not DOC land, and if there is a mineral, if there is a mining opportunity and it’s impeded by a blind frog, goodbye, Freddy. We are going to extract the dividend from mother Nature’s legacy on the DOC estate in those areas previously called stewardship land. Now, why is this important? If we do not have coal and gas continuing to contribute to our power system, we’re going to have blackouts, brownouts; we’re going to have a power system that lacks security, riddled with risk; and it’ll diminish the status of our nation as a first-class, First World country. This side of the House is not taking that risk.

Of course we’ll hear from the other side of the House, but 2030, Jacinda Ardern’s aspirational figure, inversely related to reality, the majority of her legacy—that will no longer be the case. We are not going to meet the 2030 dreamy, fairy-tale, aspirational figures that we’ll be freeing ourselves of fossil fuels as a source of generating energy. We’re going to deal with reality. We’re going to have not only a plan but we’re going to have some certainty for the providers of international capital who are going to help us develop our economy. If you look at what’s become of our current account deficit, none of us can be lackadaisical. None of us can continue to spend the way that we have been, as has been evident on the other side of the House.

Couple more things: we will have a strategic, fast-tracked piece of legislation in this House. One of the great lies about climate change is that, yes, apparently, it’s a crisis. Name me one law that has changed in the last nine years expediting simplifying investors’ ability to navigate the digestive tract otherwise known as the Resource Management Act and in a timely fashion secure resource consent, find the money, deliver the project. No one in this House can. With the development of our fast-tracked bill, where authority will lie with us the politicians—no more unelected grandees who destroyed the aquaculture ambitions of Murihiku, who caused Ngāi Tahu to squander the thick end of $2 million and not a single bit of kaimoana in the water. How are regions going to grow unless we give certainty to investors and hope to the people who want to continue to raise their children in these areas, go to church, play rugby, netball, support the local businesses? Stand by for the fast-track process where the authority rests with the politicians. Fast track for aquaculture, fast track for mining, fast track for energy, fast track for infrastructure. That’s the future coming in your direction, and to people who want to boost productivity and resilience in New Zealand, you could not pick a better champion than my good self. Modesty forbids me to say much more!

We’re also going to tame some of the ethos problems in the bureaucracy. As we go and dive further with the senior Minister of Finance, we are learning we have been living beyond our means for too long. This is not only a challenge for our broader societal concerns but it’s a challenge for the leadership of the democracy. Two issues stand out: the debacle of Te Pūkenga. As someone who loves the language, why have we used these beautiful words to describe the most fiasco-, snafu-orientated bureaucratic developments? It diminishes the language. Oranga Tamariki, describing that particular Government department—should never have been given that name given the large number of children that have suffered. It ruins the quality of the language.

In this last thing, I would remind us: I was in this House when $1.8 billion, $1.9 billion was allocated for mental health. Not even Treasury or the gnomes who work in the audit department—sadly, they’re still chasing me for terrible falsehoods of the Provincial Growth Fund time—can find a sliver of evidence as to how that money has improved the capacity of families and communities to look after themselves. So if there’s ever an event that’s an indictment on the people who’ve held the health portfolio on that side of the House, it’s the $1.8 billion that got poured down the orifice of the bureaucracy, supposedly going to give you and me and our whānau better health outcomes of a mental character. The opposite has happened. But rest assured, your spirits will soar—New Zealand First is back.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, that contribution from that member who has just resumed his seat, Shane Jones, made for incredibly painful listening, talking about the thousands of young people who have marched in our streets asking our leaders to pay more attention to addressing climate change, depicting them as a tiny minority who’ve been advocating for change, not to mention, of course, recommitting to mining on conservation land and a whole host of other policies designed to take us backwards as a nation.

But, Mr Speaker, let me begin my first contribution in this Parliament by congratulating you on your election as Speaker and all of our other presiding officers as well, and also extending a warm welcome to our new members of Parliament, whose maiden speeches we have been listening to as well.

I’ve been reflecting on the Speech from the Throne, because that, of course, is meant to be the contribution from the new Government laying out their vision, their vision for progress for us as a nation. They started off by saying—and I quote—“The new Government is committed to delivering; to getting things done. It wants people to see demonstrable, measurable results that make their lives easier, and help them to get ahead.” Lofty goals, great aims, but what are they actually delivering in order to be able to achieve that? They then went on to say—and I quote—“The Government’s aim is to improve outcomes for all New Zealanders, while leading a unified and confident country.” Again, I don’t think any of us on either side of the House would disagree with us wanting to achieve all of that, but the devil is in the detail, or the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

So I listened on, hoping to hear of some vision as to how they would actually deliver on this, and yet the main cornerstone of their economic policy appears to be cutting spending on things like Auckland light rail, axing Industry Transformation Plans, the Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme, the Income Insurance Scheme, and, of course, delivering tax cuts for their rich mates. That is the cornerstone of their economic policy. Once again, we see the axing of investment in high-quality public transport networks to keep hundreds of thousands of people connected in our largest city while also reducing emissions and congestion—back on the scrap heap, but yet building another 13 new roads of national significance somehow is not wasteful spending. Somehow, that’s going to ease congestion and improve productivity. How? I don’t know.

Arguably, this election was a cost of living election. We heard from many who were struggling to put food on the table and, as the member Nicola Willis said earlier in this House today, families who were struggling to send their kids to swimming lessons. What in this Government’s policy is actually going to deliver benefits to those people? When they talk about making lives easier, for whom, I ask? Their rich mates? The tobacco lobby? That’s who is going to benefit from the policies of this new Government, not those families that they talk about, not those families whose doors they knocked on and stories they heard. Not one will benefit, because what this Government is delivering is tax cuts in deregulation. Well, I have news for them. The 80s called and they want their trickle-down economics back. The last 50 years has seen a dramatic decline in taxes on the rich across advanced democracies. This is nothing new. Thatcher tried it. Ronald Reagan stood and campaigned on it; so did Trump, and so did our new incoming Government as well—all elected on promises of major tax cuts for top earners, arguing that freeing up money for the wealthy allows them to hire more workers, pay better wages, invest more.

Has it worked? No. It’s been an abject failure. Wealth doesn’t trickle down. All that happens is that the inequality gap widens, public services decline, housing is privatised, public transport is privatised, education is privatised, public transport declines, roads increase, and unemployment increases. Where have we seen all that before? 2008 to 2017—the Key Government, and we’re on the cusp of seeing all of that again. Not to mention that they’re funding their tax cuts for their rich mates by repealing smoke-free legislation.

Now, the coalition agreements say that decisions will be based on data and evidence, and yet this decision to repeal what would have been globally leading legislation—smoke-free legislation—flies in the face of data, in evidence. We know that it will cost thousands of lives, that young people will be encouraged to take up smoking, and that it will result in $1.3 billion in terms of healthcare costs. But do they care? No. No, they don’t. Their agenda will only benefit tobacco companies and their rich mates.

So, then, I looked for their social development and housing policies, thinking, “Well, they slammed us for not doing enough even though we delivered over 13,000 public homes in our term in office, so surely they have some ingenious plan to clear the public housing register.” Here’s what they said, and I quote, “Turning to social housing, the performance of Kāinga Ora is a concern. There will be a review of its finances, procurement, development and asset management practices.”, and then some whinging about antisocial Kāinga Ora tenants. That’s it. That is the sum game of their ambition to clear the public housing register. And then what about welfare and work? I thought, “Surely, something about encouraging employment”. All we see: sanctions, bringing back 90-day trials, repealing fair pay agreements that we know, and evidence tells us, will disproportionately benefit women, youth, Maōri, and Pacific people.

Where is the ambition and vision? Nothing in the Speech from the Throne about supporting social services that play a significant role in supporting individuals, families, and communities. We’ve seen the role they play time and again, whether it was during the pandemic or the severe weather events that we’ve seen as well. Nothing ambitious to address the intractable issues that face us as a nation: child poverty, family and sexual violence, systemic discrimination; nothing about lifting the wellbeing outcomes of Pacific peoples or ethnic communities.

Instead, just a lot of Maōri bashing—scrapping Te Aka Whai Ora, the Maōri Health Authority, just because its very point is to address health inequities; looking to scrap affirmative action to incentivise te reo in the Public Service; pushing to scrap te reo names of Public Service agencies; introducing a Treaty Principles Bill, and I want to quote on that point Dame Anne Salmond, who said it better than I can ever put it. She said, “Far from trying to reconcile different understandings of the Treaty, their text ignores or distorts the original promises. This is disrespectful, and arrogant. For a party that won just 8.6 percent of the vote in the recent election to attempt to rewrite a pact that involves Queen Victoria and her descendants as well as the rangatira and theirs is presumptuous in the extreme.”

In these times of crisis, a new Government will be assessed on its ability to bring New Zealanders together. ACT’s proposed approach to Te Tiriti will do the opposite. I agree with Helen Clark that it would “rip us down the middle”, and with Jim Bolger that it’s a “bloody stupid” idea.

Everything that they are repealing, rehashing, and proposing will take us backwards as a nation. It will entrench inequity, and it will divide us. The thing is, they don’t understand equity. Equality is about providing the same for everyone—giving everyone the same resources and opportunities. Equity is understanding that we don’t all start from the same place—people have different circumstances, and equity seeks to remedy this by taking into account advantage and redistributing resources to then reach equal outcomes.

While others have said before me that New Zealanders have voted for change, I don’t believe that this is the change that anyone has voted for. Repealing smoke-free legislation, repealing everything that will actually lead to what they say they want to achieve, which is a unified and confident country—nothing that they’re actually doing is going to achieve what they claim they want to achieve. Therein also lies another problem. They’re not actually doing what they’re saying they want to do.

This is a Government that is an absolute shambles. This is a Government that will take us backwards. It’s a regressive Government, and I absolutely don’t believe that they will achieve even their own loftiest goals. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’m exceptionally pleased to be taking part in this Address in Reply debate after the wonderful Speech from the Throne that we were able to listen to the other day. I want to take this opportunity to say what a privilege it is to be sitting on this side of the House, and to thank the good people of New Zealand who voted for change and have given us that privilege.

I also want to congratulate you in your elevated position. We took part in a number of debates together and I think that your measured approach and your very sound thinking has been rewarded, and I acknowledge that elevation that you have received. Well done.

We know that we are entering into Government during a time where there is going to be incredibly tight fiscal constraints due to the excesses of the previous Labour Government, and we are all going to have to cope with those constraints. But across the portfolios that I have the privilege to have been given, there are some bright spots and they are provided by people on the ground who we know are able to bring life to policy.

I want to talk, first of all, about a young man called Flynn Laker who lives in Arrowtown. I know Flynn and his family well. He is the son of Tracey and the late Tony Laker. He’s the brother of Meg Laker. Flynn has Down Syndrome, but he has never let that stop him get on in life. Flynn works part time and he also runs his own business, and he’s something of a television celebrity. Flynn has “Flynn’s Sox” and on his website Flynn is the boss of that business. If you are hoping to get some socks for Christmas presents from Flynn, you are out of luck—he is completely sold out.

I talk about Flynn because he is a wonderful example of, given the right support and the right encouragement, how people from our disabled sector who are living with a disability can be involved in employment and self-employment, and the wonderful experience that that brings for our disabled people should not be diminished in any way. And so I take that story and I make that something that will go with me all my time—that I have responsibility for the disability sector. I’m thrilled to be able to give a shout-out to Flynn today.

I now want to talk about the environment because I’ve also been given that privilege of that portfolio. In the previous Government, it has made me incredibly sad and disheartened to see how environmental factors and environmental issues have been used to split this country—rural against urban, different sectors of our population against each other. The reality is that every one of us, regardless of what we do and where we live, impacts on the environment, and therefore every single one of us has a responsibility to improve the lot of the environment. So, whether it is improving the quality of our freshwater, minimising the amount of waste that we produce, or reducing the amount of plastic pollution, we all are to blame for what happens, and we must all take responsibility for that. So I think it is incredibly important that we get away from pointing the finger at different parts of our economy, at different parts of our communities. We have to be joined up on taking responsibility for improving our environment.

So I want to talk about a wonderful example of collaboration which has been in the media today in my part of the world; where collaboration between WasteNet and Phoenix Metalman has seen a recycling initiative to recycle lithium and alkaline batteries in Southland. I note that the Invercargill City Council’s manager of infrastructure operations has highlighted the environmental importance of this initiative, saying that there have been numerous fires in regional landfills that have been caused primarily by lithium batteries, and this recycling initiative will reduce those fires and other environmental risks. I just want to say how pleasing it is to see people on the ground taking initiative, being innovative, being entrepreneurial, and coming up with solutions.

The other portfolio that I am very pleased to have is the tertiary education sector. I acknowledge the challenges that a number of our universities are working through in response to declining New Zealand domestic student numbers and international student numbers not yet being back to pre-COVID levels. I recognise that this is a difficult time for staff, and I recognise that the universities are playing a very difficult balancing act between being financially responsible and retaining capability. So I acknowledge the universities and the staff during this challenging time.

I also want to mention Te Pūkenga, the combined polytechnics and industry training organisations’ mega-merged entity that we will be working through the process of disestablishment for. Sadly, there have been no enduring benefits for the over $200 million that has been wasted by the previous Government on this failed experiment. We will work through this disestablishment sensibly and calmly, working a process in consultation with staff, with students, with community, and with industry. And we will listen to what they are saying, unlike the consultation that took place during the rogue process which established Te Pūkenga, which ignored the advice of officials, which ignored the feedback from the sector, and which ignored the concerns of communities.

We will listen and we will make sensible decisions following that consultation, because the industry training and polytechnic education and training in this country is incredibly important. We will make sensible decisions about where economies of scale can be achieved, we will make sensible decisions about where shared services actually save money—not cost more—and we will ensure that maximum regional autonomy can be achieved because we know that’s where the best decisions are made.

I give these examples across those three portfolio areas that I am so proud to have been given by our Prime Minister. Because we know that it is the people on the ground who are innovative, who are entrepreneurial, who are able to self-determine their future. They are the people making a difference. This Government will stop the top-down, one-size-fits-all, Government-knows-best mantra that we have had to put up with for the past six years—and it did not work. We will ensure that we are empowering and enabling people to find solutions—people who are on the ground, who know how to make things work in their sector. Mr Speaker, I am delighted to be given this opportunity to speak. Thank you.

E te Māngai, tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. Mr Speaker, just want to welcome you to the big Chair as the first Green to sit in that place. Welcome, welcome—

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teaunau Tuiono): Kia ora. Ngā mihi.

CHLÖE SWARBRICK: —and hope to not give you any cause to pull me up.

I’m just reflecting on some of those comments as just made by the speaker who’s just resumed her seat, the Hon Penny Simmonds, particularly with regard to her now being the Minister for the Environment. It was really, really interesting to hear her thinking or speculating about the notion of division or the rural-urban divide and also talking about how we’re all, as Aotearoa New Zealand, responsible for our emissions profile. I was thinking about how that is exactly what is laid out in the emissions reduction plan as enabled by the zero carbon Act, the independent Climate Change Commission, and many of the other blueprints and frameworks that were laid out by the Greens in our last six years of Government.

I found it really, really interesting to hear her say that we needed to not point the finger at certain industries, when in fact we know—again from the emissions reduction plan and from our own emissions profile, as determined by the science, not by politicians—that we know full well which industries are disproportionately responsible for our emissions profile. We know that the top-polluting sector is the agricultural sector.

Mark Cameron: IPCC 2016—read the paper.

CHLÖE SWARBRICK: And you can yell all you like about it, but those are the facts. That is science. You then know that following on from that, it is transport. Yet what we have from this incoming Government is a dedication, against all of the evidence, to pull back on the measures and the metrics that we have put in place to actually start to pull down those emissions within those certain sectors through an industry-wide approach known as the emissions reduction plan. So I just think that it’s really important for the incoming Government to be fully honest with themselves and with New Zealanders about what it is that that they are trying to achieve here.

In my first speech here in the House subsequent to the election, I just wanted to start—obviously, firstly—by acknowledging those comments from the Hon Penny Simmonds, but in my opening remarks by thanking the people of Auckland Central. It is genuinely the honour and privilege of my life to serve my home and community of Auckland Central from the central city, the 45,000-odd New Zealanders who live within the motorway boundaries, Eden Terrace, Newton, Saint Marys Bay, Ponsonby, Freemans Bay; out across the mighty Hauraki Gulf; Rakino Island and the dozen-odd people who live there permanently; Aotea Great Barrier Island and the 1,100 folks who are out there—where we first discovered Caulerpa brachypus, and I’ll be on at our Minister of Conservation about that—and also, obviously, my 11,000 constituents on Waiheke Island.

I am so honoured to have received that mandate as the local MP, not by virtue of the work that I solely have done—and I think that that’s an important thing for all members of Parliament to recognise: that we are here by virtue of the communities who put us here and the hundreds of volunteers who worked overtime in order to organise to put us in this place. We built that community in Auckland Central, conversation by conversation, on values of compassion and of empathy, and, God forbid, an earnest belief in the importance of evidence-based policy.

It would be remiss of me not to mention one of the metrics that my campaign manager Leroy—shout-out to one Leroy Beckett—constantly cites subsequent to our election retaining that seat, obviously firstly historically in 2020 against the red wave and then against the blue wave in 2023, where we received the largest-ever votes of any Auckland Central candidate, ever, in the country in that seat of Auckland Central. What we said there is that this was not a moment, this was a movement; and I said in our rallying cry on the night of the election that that work must continue. We did not do that organising solely for the sake of getting into this place, but by continuing to work on the mission that I was elected upon. That’s pretty abundantly clear to anybody who was following the Green Party’s progressive proposals throughout this election to emphasise and to prioritise the place of people and planet—not to have the economy that we currently have in place that exploits both of them.

I also just wanted to acknowledge and thank the New Zealanders, across this country, who voted for the strongest ever Green Party result, this election in 2023, to give us 15 MPs to hold this Government to account, because we are just warming up.

Hon Paul Goldsmith: Oh!

CHLÖE SWARBRICK: We also have three Green electorates, Mr Paul Goldsmith. Those Green electorates, two of which you would have come through on your way here, to the House, Rongotai and of course Wellington Central—and you’re welcome to visit Auckland Central anytime, in your arts and cultural capacity.

We may have a reactionary right-wing Government hanging on by a thread, but I’d like to remind New Zealanders that we also have the most left-wing Parliament that we have ever seen in my entire lifetime. So, to unpack that, just for a second, we have 21 seats—21 seats—explicitly to the left of the Labour Party. Also, for the first time in the history of an MMP environment, we have a good—I’d say, actually, even a great—relationship, that is not gatekept by one of the two legacy parties, between two ostensible-minded parties. That is, of course, the relationship between the Greens and Te Pāti Māori.

Now, while this Government may be blu-tacked together by hot takes from your uncle at Christmas, you know, led not by the Three Stooges but, in fact, by the three Scrooges, who are coming for you this Christmas, trying to ram through legislation—anti the workers, anti the renters, and we’ll just wait and see when it comes to being anti the planet.

But what we know, out there, and what many of us have felt—even, most recently, at the rally on Parliament’s lawn at noon today—is that there has never been a sentiment of political awareness that I have ever felt in this country in my lifetime. New Zealanders are waking up and understanding that this place, this Parliament—politics is the manifestation of their will. And we get the politics that we think that we deserve.

Our call to action for all New Zealanders, if they are feeling disenfranchised or disempowered by what they are seeing from the agenda of this incoming Government—which is far less of a vision than it is a shredder—is for them to get engaged. Because things will only get worse if regular people—normal, good, decent people—stand by on the margins and let it happen.

To that effect, I just want to remind people that the most important thing, here, is not just to get mad, not just to get sad, but to get organised and to get mobilised. Because, as we’ve just said and as we’ve just seen, we are just warming up.

Everything is impossible until it’s not. We have a fascinating economic history, in this country of Aotearoa New Zealand, where, every 40 to 50 years or so, we see a form of economic transformation. In the 1930s and 1940s, of course, we had the advent of the welfare State in the wake of world wars and austerity proposals—an opportunity for us to come together and create the social contract, which, of course, gave us social housing, social welfare, and, with it, some of the greatest periods of prosperity that this country has ever seen.

Then we saw the shredding of that, in the 1980s and 1990s, with trickle-down economics, which this Government seems intent on bringing us back to.

Actually, on that point, I thought it salient to reflect on what was just put forward before, in an earlier debate point, by the Hon Shane Jones, a member of this incoming Government, who was talking about the importance of bringing back oil and gas for sake of certainty within the sector. That is quite the opposite of the point that New Zealand First was making when they were supporting the moves of the incoming Government in 2017, when, of course, we were repealing—or, rather, banning—new, offshore oil and gas exploration, when New Zealand First reflected on what occurred in the 1980s, particularly to regional and rural communities, and what occurred to those communities who were whacked with massive change overnight and saw massive job losses that disproportionately impacted those communities.

New Zealand First said then, in 2017-2018, that the most important thing that they could do, in supporting this oil and gas ban, was give those communities an opportunity to prepare, because they knew that the writing was on the wall. And the science tells us, funnily enough, as the Hon Shane Jones himself was reflecting, that we cannot burn all of the fossil fuels that we have already discovered. Because if we burn anywhere from one fifth to one third of what we’ve already discovered—we know because the science tells us; if the Government was interested in listening to it—we are going to burst past 1.5 degrees of warming, which is critical for retention of life as we know it.

To that effect, again, I just really, really, really want New Zealanders to reflect on the fact that all of these things are choices. We do not have to have an economy that exploits people and the planet; we can have an economy that supports them. We can have free dental care; we can have free tertiary education; we can have a guaranteed minimum-income; we can have rent controls—if we decide, as a Parliament, to move ahead with an evidence base and values of compassion, to implement policies that support both people and the planet.

Just on the final point around climate in particular, I want to make it really, really clear to the Government that you can negotiate with and you can change the rules of the economy, but you cannot negotiate with the laws of science, of physics, and of chemistry—of planetary boundaries. We will be organising, and we will not be letting this Government get away with anything quietly. What they have seen and heard so far, from the thousands of New Zealanders who have mobilised against their agenda, is that we’re just getting started.

Firstly, congratulations, Mr Speaker, on your appointment to the role. I’d also like to congratulate Prime Minister Chris Luxon, ACT leader David Seymour, and Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First Party, for putting together a comprehensive coalition agreement that sets out the real change New Zealand has demanded, and how we will transform New Zealand over the next three years. I’d also like to congratulate returning ACT members of Parliament and the new ACT members of Parliament, who are looking forward to making a productive contribution in this House and in their roles. I’d also like to congratulate members of the Opposition. You are now sitting in the right place, according to most New Zealanders. And I’d like to thank the volunteers and the supporters of the ACT Party in West Auckland and central Auckland—where I spent a lot of time during the election campaign—and around the country, in those regions which asked for ACT to go to Parliament to deliver real change. Thank you for your support. We could not be here to deliver for you without all of those hours of effort you put in, putting up signs and helping us organise events and meetings. Thank you.

Now, I want to come to the proposals set out in the Speech from the Throne—in particular, those which relate to resource management reform and the need to deliver infrastructure in a more coherent and cost-effective way. This Government has made it clear, in the coalition agreement, we have a plan to do it, and we have some specific measures that will deliver that. It’s quite different from the incoherent but aspirational Speech from the Throne that I heard in 2020, as a new Member of Parliament, delivered by a former Labour Prime Minister. Now, in order to reform the system used to fund, finance, and deliver infrastructure in New Zealand, so that Kiwis can receive better infrastructure services, we must approach it through a value-for-money lens. We must think about how we actually solve this mushrooming infrastructure-deficit and the eye-watering costs that have been produced to deliver even the most basic things like hospitals and fixing three-waters infrastructure.

The last three years, we reached peak stupid when it came to infrastructure proposals. We had the $750 million walking and cycling bridge across Auckland Harbour, which, for that amount of money, didn’t even include a bus lane. We had plans for Auckland Light Rail and Let’s Get Wellington Moving—imagined in a bubble where capital is unconstrained. Projects that are under way now, like KiwiRail’s Inter-island Resilience Connection terminals in Picton and Wellington, have been managed so poorly by the sponsors in the last Government—the former Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, the former Minister for State Owned Enterprises, Dr Duncan Webb—that this new Government is now potentially on the hook for billions of dollars to rebuild the landside and the coastal structures and to pay for these Interislander ferries.

There are good reasons why this Government will soon begin work on a national infrastructure agency, one of the measures set down in the coalition agreement, and institute long-term city and regional infrastructure-deals, allowing public-private partnerships, tolling and value capture, and other innovative measures to generate revenues to pay for infrastructure. That’s because it’s not good enough just to pick projects from some ideological bucket and announce them on a campaign trail; you actually have to consider how individual projects and programmes of work deliver economic and social benefits for the regions where they’re to be delivered. That’s what this coalition Government will do.

We’ll also introduce commercial rigour in the way that infrastructure projects and programmes are delivered and the way that money is allocated and costs are controlled.

Hon Nicola Grigg: What is this innovation that you speak of?

SIMON COURT: For example, this innovation I speak of means that, when proposals are delivered to Government, basic questions will be asked: who is this for, how much will it cost, how certain are you that this cost will land there, and the time frames—questions that didn’t seem to be asked by our previous Government, but that anybody involved in delivering infrastructure projects in the private sector or in the commercial world would always ask the proposers. The coalition Government also intends to introduce financial incentives for councils to enable more housing, including considering sharing a proportion of the GST revenue collected on new residential building with councils because local government has all of the costs of delivering local infrastructure, but, apart from some very basic rating tools, does not have the ability to access revenue to deliver those big pieces of bulk infrastructure which are needed to allow cities to grow up as well as out.

Now, it’s not good enough just to reform the funding and financing aspects in order to build the infrastructure so we can build cities; we also need to reform the resource management laws. This is not a new problem. We’ve had successive governments run into activist judges and poorly thought-out environmental legislation. Think of the Basin Reserve flyover, a project proposed almost a decade ago to unlock transport in Wellington; stymied by a heritage grandstand which, I promise you, if it was knocked down in an earthquake nobody would miss. Think about projects like the Mt Messenger bypass in Taranaki; stymied by objectors who in the end were found to not have a case but who held the project up for years and have cost the Government and taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Or the objectors to seabed mining off the coast of Taranaki who—it turns out, all of the environmental considerations were addressed, and yet that project is still stuck dealing with the Supreme Court directions to consider tikanga, an esoteric concept that cannot be readily defined by applicants or lawyers or the Environment Court.

Well, I heard for three years, sitting on the Environment Committee, all kinds of ways the previous Government was going to deal with that. However, the former Labour Government’s Spatial Planning Act, and Natural and Built Environment Act didn’t address it. They introduced new novel terms like “te oranga o te taiao”, which submitters told the Environment Committee could take a decade to litigate, to work out what they even meant. How is anybody supposed to get a consent to build infrastructure—roads, bridges, waste-water treatment plants, let alone a housing subdivision anywhere if you don’t even know what the terms in the bill mean?

Well, forcing decision makers to give effect to the Treaty wasn’t going to get more housing and infrastructure built but this coalition Government does have a plan. We will repeal those two pieces of legislation—the Spatial Planning and the Natural Built Environment Acts—in the first 100 days. This Government will introduce a fast-track consenting regime to get infrastructure projects built that are currently locked up, stuck in consenting and permitting. This Government will amend the Resource Management Act, which will be reinstated to make it easier to consent new infrastructure including renewable energy to allow farmers to farm, to get more houses built, enable aquaculture and other primary industries to get ahead. Then we will replace the Resource Management Act with a new resource management law, premised on the enjoyment of property rights as a guiding principle. Imagine that: being able to use your land to build or grow what you want without the risk of having people come out of the woodwork, come from far and wide, bring their homemade signs to protest and oppose what you want to do with your own land. ACT believes, and this coalition Government believes, that’s one way that we can help Kiwis get ahead: let them use their own land to become more productive.

Now, there are many more things in this Government’s 100-day plan, that coalition agreement, which will improve the lives of everyday New Zealanders, make this country more productive, give certainty to businesses and individuals who want to invest in building infrastructure, whether it’s a culvert or a bridge on a farm or a culvert under a State highway. It’s going to take a little bit of time to solve some of these problems, but the solutions are clear in the coalition agreement. We’ve been thinking about this for three years and, to those New Zealanders listening or watching at home, we are ready to get on with it. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I also add my applause to that commentary just given. Mr Speaker, congratulations on your ascension to that fine role.

SPEAKER: You as well.

Hon NICOLA GRIGG: We’re all very pleased to see you there.

It is a privilege, after that stonking great election result, to be standing on this side of the House after three years on the Opposition benches, as part of the 54th Parliament and, indeed, a part of this innovative, visionary coalition Government. I would like to welcome members from across the House, particularly too those of you who are new here. Some people liken it to Hogwarts: you do get lost, but you will eventually find your way. That is the topic I’d like to talk about a little bit today: after six years in the wilderness, after six years of directionless ambling around, directionless travel, economic hard times, we are back. We are going to rebuild this country. We are here to get New Zealand back on track. We have a very big few years ahead of us. There is a lot to do, there is a lot to repair, there is a lot to renew. We have a vision for this country, despite what the naysayers will have you believe. We have a vision, we have a plan, we are excited. We believe New Zealand is the best little country on planet Earth, and it deserves a Government who will serve it and accompany the success of Kiwis, not try to determine it.

As we all went out on the campaign trail just, I don’t know, it was about six months ago—it feels like a lifetime ago—we took on the feedback of New Zealanders. They wanted to be heard; for six years they have been told what to do, how to live their lives, and they wanted to be heard. That came through loud and clear. So here we are with a coalition signed, sealed, and delivered; we are ready to deliver on what they have asked for. It’s really interesting listening to the speeches on this side of the House about the new ideas, the big ideas, the huge energy. We’ve been itching to get back to work since the election. The results rolled in and New Zealanders were heard loud and clear. The coalition Government has done and will continue to do what the previous Government could not do, and that was to listen. I would like to acknowledge the leaders of the coalition Government: of course, our new Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon; the leader of the ACT Party, David Seymour; and of course the leader of the New Zealand First Party, the Rt Hon Winston Peters. We have formed a coalition under the leadership of these three gentlemen that will deliver on the needs of New Zealanders with commitment, with cohesion, and with consideration.

The speech delivered by the Governor-General on behalf of the new Government has outlined our direction and optimism for this great country. It has most certainly highlighted that we’re determined to get things done. We’re determined to get things done for New Zealanders and for them to see tangible differences in their everyday lives, because that is what really matters. We want to establish stability again, we want to grow economic prosperity, we want to restore national unity and national pride. We want to boost social cohesiveness alongside rights and responsibilities of being a New Zealand citizen, amongst all our goals.

On this side of the House, rebuilding the agricultural sector is very near and dear to my heart, and indeed to those of my colleagues. I’ve been very privileged to have been named the National Party’s Associate Minister of Agriculture (Horticulture), and I’d also like to identify the dream team, made up of Andrew Hoggard from the ACT Party and Mark Patterson from New Zealand First. We will be supporting the lead Minister of Agriculture, one Hon Todd McClay, and we are ready to get things done.

The agricultural sector, like the rest of New Zealand, has really, really battled for the last six years, and if you think inflation is bad in the urban environment, go out on-farm. At 16 percent, it is making life miserable. It has been very, very tough out there for an industry that actually only wants to do the very best it can, despite the rhetoric that has come from Government benches over the last six years. They have been bombarded with regulations, with rules, and with restrictions that are not fit for purpose and that have not been based in scientific evidence of best practice. They have been slammed with increased costs, and they have been all but forgotten by the previous Government.

So I want to take the opportunity this afternoon to speak about our agricultural and rural sector. We do know, over here on this side of the House, how very important these good men and women of New Zealand are to our culture and our economy, and let’s not forget that they have so often served as the economic lifeline for this country and they really should be recognised as such. We have not forgotten that they need confidence and they need our support, and that is why we are going to make our intentions clear.

A lot of other speakers have talked about our 100-day plan, and I just want to quickly outline some of the coalition highlights, and they are that we are going to enable our farmers and landowners to offset their emissions. We’re going to calculate the sequestration against their on-farm emissions. We’re going to amend the new “Resource Management Act Mark II”, as we call it. We’re going to allow farmers to farm, we’re going to get houses built, and we’re going to enhance the primary sector, including fish and aquaculture and forestry and pasture and horticulture and mining.

We’re going to cut red tape. We’re going to cut regulatory blocks on irrigation, on water storage and on managed aquifer recharge and flood protection schemes, and, goodness me, all of these are actually beneficial to the environment. I know, Mr Assistant Speaker Tuiono, you are also very strident in your views about the agricultural sector, and I’m sure that we will come to a lot of alignment in the coming years as we all work together for the benefit of this sector.

We’re going to be ambitious for our country. We’re going to liberalise genetic engineering laws. We’re going to ensure strong protection for human health and, of course, the environment.

We’re going to reverse the ban on live animal exports, but New Zealand will become a world leader in ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare. We’re going to reform the NAWAC, as Mark Cameron alluded to—the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee. It is not fit for purpose. It’s membership, its functions, and its mandates are not appropriate.

We’re also going to cease the implementation of those significant natural areas that have also been previously mentioned. We’re going to improve farm environment plans. Farmers are great custodians of the environment, and this House must remember that. They are so often so unfairly targeted with vitriol that is entirely undeserved.

We’re going to replace the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management. We’re going to make it fit for purpose. We’re going to go catchment by catchment, and region by region. We’re not going to allow this top-down, nonsensical, unscientific approach to continue.

We’re going to incentivise the uptake of emissions reduction mitigation. We’re not just going to tax the sector into submission; we are going to encourage it to lead the world in this space. We are going to meet our carbon zero 2050 goals. We are on track to meet those targets, and I know that every farmer in New Zealand is on board with that and is thoroughly incentivised to get going with it.

Of course, we’re an export-dependent nation down at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, at the bottom of the world. We are going to prioritise trade agreements—fair free-trade agreements—and we will be targeting as our first port of call the great nation of India.

On trade, I’ve also had the privilege of being made the Minister of State for Trade. Of course, when the Prime Minister rang me, I did actually have to ask him what exactly that meant. But a quick google away and I soon discovered what exactly it meant, and I’m very excited to get on board with that, as well.

New Zealand has gained so much by having really strong global relationships with our overseas partners. We do play a very important, prominent role in the globe. We are seen as a fair player, and that in this day and age is very important. So we’ll be working very closely with the Hon Todd McClay, who is the Minister for Trade. I am excited about his vision and the opportunities available to New Zealand. We understand that there are about $10 billion in non-tariff barriers sitting on the table that that previous Government ignored for six years. That is some work to do.

From tomatoes to wine and everything else in between, we will get our exports to market. We are excited to rebuild our relationships, we’re excited to rebuild our economy, and we’re excited to see the results that that means for every living New Zealander in this country. Mr Speaker, thank you for allowing me to make the contribution.

Thank you, Mr Speaker—“Mark Patterson”, I think. But may I start by congratulating you on your ascension to the Chair, and it’s pretty historic for your party as well as for yourself. So that’s a fine achievement.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon on becoming Prime Minister of New Zealand. It is the highest honour we can accord one of our citizens, and we in New Zealand First have been impressed by the way that he’s tackled the task so far and his relationship that he’s sought to establish with us. He’s been very direct in his expectations—gone is the fluff and in is the action. Also, I congratulate the Hon David Seymour and the ACT Party on forming the balance of the coalition, and we look forward to working with you over these next three years.

I would like to congratulate, as has been said, the new MPs in the House, and across the House particularly. If my experience is anything to go by, no matter how much you’ve been around this place, until you’ve sat in these green chairs and had to debate the issues, big and small, and the gravity of those—every issue is important to someone somewhere and some of them are important to everyone, and nothing quite prepares you for that. So enjoy the ride, but it is a big responsibility.

I’d like to congratulate particularly the new New Zealand First team: Casey Costello, Tanya Unkovich, Andy Foster, and Jamie Arbuckle. They will be fine contributors to our team.

To Ingrid Leary, for winning—or just squeaking in, I might say—over myself and Scott Willis in the Taieri electorate, I say congratulations, Ingrid. It’s great to see you here, and Scott as well, who is the most rarest of rare species: a practical Green. We’ve had a bit of a pledge between us. We do have quite a constructive relationship and we will work together on local issues. Ingrid and I have already started on lobbying for some extra funding for a forestry school in Milton. Scott and I have already started on a much more serious matter. He had to bring the suits up from Dunedin that I’d forgot on Sunday, when I headed up to Gisborne. So thank you, Scott.

New Zealand First is back, and we can thank a lot of people for this, but I think the people we really need to thank are the Labour Party for their increasingly authoritarian stances, for their attack on our very democracy, for being out of touch with the working New Zealanders that they purport to represent, for trying to centralise almost everything, and for running our economy into the rocks to where our economic outlook is sitting at 159th in the world by IMF measures, sitting only just above Equatorial Guinea, which actually happens to be in the middle of a coup at the moment. So the cavalry has arrived in just the nick of time, and the attack on our agricultural community, as the Hon Nicola Grigg was just outlining before—and I’ll get back to that shortly—was nothing short of extraordinary.

In fact, my decision to stand again for this House was not one that was taken lightly, but when the Labour Party announced that they were prepared to sacrifice 21 percent of the sheep and beef sector at the altar of the climate change policy, I just could not sit by and take that. So New Zealand First is back, I am back, and I’m sure our farmers are pleased that the coalition Government is now in charge and that sort of policy would never be allowed to pass anywhere near into legislation.

Thank you to the voters. They turned to New Zealand First for our pragmatic, common-sense, and egalitarian policy platform.

I must pay tribute to the Rt Hon Winston Peters, one of the most consequential politicians ever to have sat in this House. You’ve got to realise, when you’re a political party outside of Parliament, outside of this platform, to get back into Parliament—the leadership to do that was inspirational, it was totemic, and it was historic. It is probably the one thing that we do have in common with Te Pāti Māori is we’re the only parties that have fought our way back from outside Parliament. The wealth of knowledge that he brings to this House will be most needed in this time.

I also must take the chance to acknowledge Darroch Ball, Julian Paul, Holly Howard, and Dot Jones, who gave their time voluntarily full-time for three years, without a pay cheque to put the structures in place. While Winston’s out front—and we, as politicians, were out front—they were laying the foundations. We stand here, guys, on your shoulders.

We need to turn New Zealand around. We need to be lifting our growth. We need to be providing more opportunities, and that is just what we intend to do as a coalition. It is my great honour to have been named and trusted with responsibility of Minister for Rural Communities, and Associate Minister for Agriculture. I do acknowledge the Hon Nicola Grigg and the Hon Andrew Hoggard and the team that Nicola referenced under the Hon Todd McClay. We intend to set the agricultural community alight with some common-sense and pragmatic stewardship.

We can say that agriculture is back in this House. It’s not only the leadership that I’ve referenced, but I welcome the gumboot-wearing MPs—I think, Wayne Langford, the President of Federated Farmers. It is great to see so many farmers back in this House, and that is a consequence of the uprising from rural New Zealand. They saw that they needed to have some leaders in this House to represent their interest. Rural confidence was at a 20-year low; it didn’t come before in the nick of time. Agriculture and horticulture are New Zealand’s only industries of scale that are internationally competitive. They are incredibly important to this country. The numbers get thrown around time and time again to the point where they seem to not mean anything: $57 billion or $58 billion of foreign exchange to an economy that is running a current account deficit could not be more critical; 350,000 New Zealanders directly employed; it is 82 percent—82 percent—of New Zealand’s merchandise export trade. We will champion our farmers and growers, we will respect our farmers and growers, and we will see them as the solution, and not the problem. [Bell rung] Time goes a bit quicker after three years, I’ve noticed!

We do have our challenges: water quality and quantity, our emissions profile from agriculture and how we’re going to do that, and getting the right tree in the right place. I am glad to see that not only is New Zealand First back in the House, agriculture is back in the House, but wool will be back in Government buildings. It is my favourite part of the coalition agreement. It astounds me that we could not get this past the Green Party the last time we were in Parliament to champion this. This sustainable fibre is back in Government buildings and we intend to do a lot more with wool as we look to get it back to contributing to the New Zealand economy.

Rural communities—those 700,000 Kiwis—as I’ve said, it’s where the nation’s wealth is created. We need to return the vibrancy back to that. It is not just farmers or the shearers or the truckies or the stock agents. We want the artists and the entrepreneurs and the small-businessmen out there. After COVID, people have reassessed their priorities. These communities are now starting to grow again as people question the merits of sitting two hours a day in traffic, and sitting in a glass tower behind a desk. People are coming back. We have to make sure we are ready for them. We have to make sure they’ve got good primary healthcare including mental health, good education, good roading and, increasingly, connectivity and communications. They need a police presence, and they need access to resources so they can actually sustain their economies. The Rt Hon Shane Jones outlined earlier exactly what we intend to do to build our economies.

So, in this role, I will be a strong advocate. I expect to have a battalion of rural MPs knocking on my door, filling my inbox with invitations. My door is open. Let’s get rural communities back on track. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in this debate. I’m just mindful of the fact that we’re approaching a time when maiden speeches are coming up. I’m very much looking forward to hearing Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke’s speech. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait for 10 minutes of my speech beforehand; great to see the media is accumulating for this operation.

It does take my mind back—takes me 12 years back to when I gave my maiden speech. I referred to my great grand-daddy Charles George Goldsmith coming out to the Poverty Bay in the 1840s. He was a great lover of the wāhine of the Ngāti Porou. He had many relationships, and he had a lot of children. That was the kind of enterprise that founded this nation, and I agreed to follow in his footsteps.

But of course, coming into Parliament, the goal of—I’m sure—all MPs over time is to be able to be a part of a Cabinet and a Government that works hard to improve the lives of New Zealanders. So I’m very thankful for the opportunity that the voters gave the National Party and our coalition partners to form a Government and to be a part of a Government that, I believe, will improve the lives of New Zealanders in many ways. If we go back to what people were focused on during the election campaign; certainly, when I was up and down the country talking to people, the number one issue was the cost of living. Everywhere you go, if you went on to the doorstep and asked people, “What are you worried about?”, immediately they’d be talking about the cost of rents, the cost of food and day-to-day articles, and how they’re going to put together the money that they need in order to feed their family and to get ahead.

That is why the overwhelming priority and focus of this Government at the start—under the leadership of Chris Luxon and Nicola Willis—is on trying to push back against the inflation that has dominated over the last couple of years, and do what the Government can do to take pressure off households, starting off with some tax relief. People think this is an amazing thing. Well, because there have not been any adjustments to the tax rates over a long period of time during inflation, people are paying more and more tax. It is right and appropriate that the Government adjusts those thresholds so more money isn’t being taken out of their pockets at a time when they are struggling to pay the bills. So that’s what we will do.

Then we’ll also bring back and restore some discipline to Government spending so that Government isn’t stoking the fire. It’s a fair criticism to be made of Grant Robertson, the former finance Minister, who was stoking the fires of inflation—

Chlöe Swarbrick: How much are the name changes costing?

Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: Thank you very much, Chlöe. Very much focused on poor quality spending. So that’s going to be a focus for us. Also recognising the impact of ill-conceived regulations in terms of the cost. I was just talking to an architect in Auckland last week who was talking about the latest home insulation requirements in Auckland, and the extremely thick insulation required in a pretty warm part of the country, and the additional costs that that’s adding to building houses, and ultimately to the cost of housing, which flows through to every household in Auckland trying to get affordable housing. So regulatory side of the State is so important.

The second thing that you’d hear on the doorstep after cost of living was law and order. I can remember many times during the campaign trail, previous Ministers of Justice who I debated against—there were a number of them—and general academics would say, “Oh, you’re fearmongering when you’re talking about crime”. Well, that, I’m afraid, is not the truth. People see what’s going on in their communities, and they raised it with us over and over again. So we all visited shopkeepers all around the country who had been the subject of ram raids and attacks in their workplaces. People could see the impact of gangs in their community and they wanted the Government to do something about it. They were concerned that the only clear target that the previous Government had was to reduce the prison population irrespective of what was going on in our communities, and we needed to change that. That’s the first thing we’ve done in Government—change that to show that our focus in justice is upon improving public safety and reducing the number of victims of crime. That’s what we’re going to be focused on.

We’ll be restoring real consequences for crime, because part of the goal of sentencing people who are convicted of crimes is to denounce the act and to give some succour to victims that there is justice for them. So we’re going to be working our way through some changes in the justice area. We’re going to be restricting the ability of judges to significantly reduce sentences so that people actually do face real consequences for crime. Then we’ll be giving the police the powers that they need in order to deal with gangs in our communities. So whether that’s banning gang patches in public places or whether it’s giving the police powers to disperse gangs when they’re taking over a township like Ōpōtiki, as we saw in the past, and also dealing with firearms that have become a real issue in our communities.

But at the same time, we also want to make much better progress in rehabilitating prisoners. So an important part of our overall justice priority is to deal with those—half of the prisoners who are in prison right now are remand prisoners who are awaiting their trial. At the moment, they are not eligible to access all the rehabilitation programmes that are available—drug and alcohol relief; a whole bunch of things that are there in order to help them get ahead and get back on track when they leave prison. So one of the things we’ll be doing is making sure that all prisoners are eligible for those rehabilitation programmes and we think that will make a big difference.

Of course, the other area, when we talk about youth crime, much more significant things are about making sure the kids are at school. After six years where truancy got out of control, our Government will be focused on dealing with some of those long-term drivers of crime.

I also was very pleased when the Prime Minister, Chris Luxon, gave me the Treaty negotiations portfolio. I’m very conscious of the fact that I stand in a proud tradition in the National Party of a party that has actually delivered in that space, because there’s a lot of talk on the other side. But it was Sir Douglas Graham that kicked things off with Prime Minister Jim Bolger, who got the Ngāi Tahu settlement sorted and one with Tainui, which set the benchmark that that got things going. And then after a long period of drift, after Helen Clark, Christopher Finlayson turned up and really turbocharged that Treaty settlement process in order to bring some progress.

Now, not everybody is going to be happy with every outcome, but we made progress and certainly my goal is to continue that tradition so that iwi and hapū across the country can reap some compensation for the breaches of the Treaty and get their feet established so that they can do well in the future. So that’s something that I’m looking forward to. Obviously, we’ve got big challenges up in the Far North and I’m hoping for goodwill to abide on all those areas.

Recognising that we as a country are trying to do something that is quite unique around the world and it is a challenging prospect of how a country recognises the Treaty of Waitangi and honours that Treaty, while also stands for those core human rights of equal citizenship and equality before the law. And that I don’t for a moment think is an easy discussion but it’s one that we’re going to carry on with goodwill.

The final one I’ve been given is arts and culture. And I certainly celebrate with all people across the House the magnificent creative industries that we have in this country—our artists, our writers, our historians, our musicians, and our photographers, and all the many people, film makers, who contribute to making this such a rich and vibrant culture. I regard that as actually quite an important economic portfolio, because the creative sector is significant in our economy. It’s actually a big export earner. The film industry is a big export earner. The music industry is a big export owner. So when Todd McClay goes heading off to our places on trade missions, as well as the meat workers he should also have some of the musicians and the artists, because they are great exporters as well and that’s something I’ll be championing. Thank you very much for your commentary on that score.

So with that, I just want to acknowledge the maiden speech coming up and I wish the member, Hana-Rawhiti, all the very best in Parliament. This is a broad church, this Parliament, but we all desire to improve the lot of our fellow New Zealanders. And on that basis, thank you, Mr Speaker.

I call Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke to make her maiden statement.

Tēnā rā koe, e te Pīka. Tēnā rā tātou, e te Whare. Ka ngau ki Mōkau, ka ngau ki Tāmaki. Ka rū te whenua, ka mate te marama, ka taka ngā whetū i te rangi, ka ara Waikato i te rua, au, au, aue ha.

Haka—E ko te tūī

He aha rā, he aha rā?

He aha te mahi mō runga i te marae e tū nei!

E ko te tui, e ko te tui!

E ko te hono ki te kotahitanga ki te Kīngi Māori e tū nei

E tū nei i runga i te mana Māori motuhake e tū nei

Whiti! Whiti!

Whiti ki te tika

Whiti ki te ora

Whiti ki te rangimārie

Titia iho

Au! Au! Aue hā!

Hikohiko te uira, papā te whatitiri, whakahekeheke mai te Kōhanga ki runga o Pāremata.

“Kua ara ake ahau i te papa o te whenua, kua kite au i ngā whetū e tū takitahi ana. Ko Matariki te kairuri, ko Atutahi kei te taumata o te Mangōroa. Ko te Atua tōku piringa, ka puta, ka ora.” He tongikura nā Kīngi Tāwhiao.

Kei taku kīngi, Kīngi Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero te Tuawhitu, me te whare kāhui ariki whānui, te Puhiariki o te motu, Ngā-wai-hono-i-te-pō, kua rangatira tō tātou nei pō i a koe. Rirerire hau, pai mārire.

Ngā mate o te tau, o te marama, o te wiki, o te rā nei, ngā rārangi kīngi o te pō, hoki atu rā koutou ki te pare kawakawa o Pareārau.

Ki te mana whenua o Te Ātiawa, nei rā ka tūohu.

He raukura nō Rongowairereiao, Taranaki.

[Thank you, Mr Speaker. Greetings to us all, to the House. I wander to Mōkau, I wander to Auckland. The land quakes, the moon wanes, the stars fall from the sky, Waikato arises from the abyss, it is our time.

Haka—E ko te tūī

What is it, what is it?

What is the purpose of the gathering on the marae that stands here!

It is to unite, it is to unite!

It is to come together under the mantle and unity of the Kīngitanga

Upon the foundations of our Māori self-determination

Emanate and shine!

Emanate what is right

Emanate life

Emanate peace

Let all these things come together

Au! Au! Aue hā!

Lightning flashes, thunder crashes, the Kōhanga generation descends on Parliament.

“I arose from the bed of the earth, I have seen the stars standing alone. Matariki is the one who serenades in farewell, and Atutahi is at the zenith of the Milky Way. God is my refuge, I emerge, I am well.” A royal statement by King Tāwhiao.

To my king, King Tāwhiao Pōtatau Te Wherowhero te Tuawhitu, and the entire royal household, the Royal Consort, Ngā Wai-hono-i-te-pō, this night has been honoured by you. Peace and goodness be upon us.

The dearly departed of the year, of the month, of the week, of this very day, the ranks of kings of the night, return to the kawakawa wreath of Jupiter.

To the mana whenua of Te Ātiawa, I bow to you.

The leader from Rongowairereiao, Taranaki.]

Over 1.2 million acres confiscated. He uri o Whakaotirangi o Waikato.

[A descendant of Whakaotirangi of Waikato.]

Over 1.2 million acres confiscated. He whakahekenga nō Āhuaiti o Ngāpuhi.

[A scion of Āhuaiti of Ngāpuhi.]

Over 200,000 lands confiscated. He mangainga nō Hamo-i-te-rangi o Ngāi Tahu.

[A descendant of Hamo-i-te-rangi of Ngāi Tahu.]

34.5 million acres confiscated. Ka ora tonu tō rātou uri whakaheke. Ko Mutuwhenua te marama i te rangi nei, ko Hine-i-te-weka te whetū.

[Their descendant heir will live on. The moon phase today is Mutuwhenua, the relevant star is Hine-i-te-weka.]

Well, I was almost just going to say, “We are here; let’s get to mahi.” But those flights down for our whānau were pretty expensive and some of my cousins even missed Allen Stone’s concert tonight for this. No, this is better. Ironically, they say the stars align, but I think tonight is a little bit more than the stars aligning. The meteors will shower. The comet 46P in a full circle moment will shower tonight across Aotearoa. Last time this meteor showered was in 1972, when te Petihana was brought to Pāremata from our grandparents. This mokopuna delivers their maiden speech 51 years later.

I truly feel like I’ve already said my maiden speech outside the steps of Parliament last year, for the 50th anniversary of Te Petihana, where my last statements of my speech—I quote—“I will leave the decision with you whether or not you jump on our waka or not, because with or without you we will sail in both worlds. We’ve come so far, but we’ve got a long way to go. Let’s see what we can do in the next 50 years.” My last question at the time was to Minister Grant Robertson: “Aotearoa, te Whare Pāremata, are you ready?” A whole year later, we can say we have made it inside the House and we have arrived. We are here. We are sailing. We are navigating, just like our ancestors once did, in the biggest ocean in the world, Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa—even though some others aren’t even jumping on the Waka Kotahi.

Ki te māreikura, te wahine iho pūmanawa, e Nanaia Mahuta, e kore e ea te kupu, e kore e oti ngā whakamānawa ki a koe. Nāhau rā i para tēnei huarahi, nāhau rā tēnei Whare Pāremata i hamahama, nāhau rā i ringa raupā ki tō tāua nei iwi. Nei rā tō mokopuna e tūohu ana ki a koe.

[To the esteemed lady, the most talented lady, Nanaia Mahuta, the word will never be fulfilled, my gratitude to you will never end. You who blazed this path, you who hammered this House of Parliament, you who worked tirelessly for our people. Here your mokopuna bows to you.]

I was given some advice before making it into Parliament, to not take anything personally or it’ll eat you up. Well, I can’t help but take everything personally that has been said in this Chamber. In only a couple of weeks, in only 14 days, this Government has attacked my whole world from every corner. Health, taiao, wai, whenua, natural resources, Māori wards, reo, tamariki, and the right of me and you to be in this country under Te Tiriti. How can I not take anything personally when it feels like these policies were made about me?

E kore rawa au e tuku i te mana ki a koutou ki te pēhi nei i tōku nei ao. Kāore au e mōhio ki tētehi ao anō.

[I will never cede the mana to you who are suppressing my world. I don’t know any other world.]

I am not fearful of this place or this debating chamber; trust me, I’ve been to marae AGMs all my life—I will not say which marae either.

I dedicated my last speech outside of Parliament to my grandparents. I quote: “This is for my nana Eileen, that became in debt with a student loan to learn her reo she once lost. This is for my nanny Ranini, that was ashamed as a little girl of her name. This is for my papa Albie, that worked in a blue collar all his life to fit in society. This is for my pop, that still finds it hard to have confidence to sit on the pae. This is for my nana Gail, in her 70s, that spends most nights studying her language and now messages me on Facebook in te reo every chance she gets. This is for my koro Taitimu, that wanted me to come here with a hammer and red paint.”

However, this speech today, my maiden speech, is dedicated to all our children that join me from up above: our wharekura, our kura. To my younger siblings, my goddaughter, my nieces and nephews from up above, no matter what comes out of this Government, I will make sure our kids hear us. Never fit in. You are perfect. You are the perfect fit. To our tamariki, your reo is whispering for you. To the tamariki Māori who have been sitting in the back of their classroom their whole life, whakamā, waiting generations longing to learn their native tongue, to the tamariki who haven’t been to their pepeha yet, it is waiting for you with open arms. To our mokopuna, they can attack me, but I will not let them attack you. Our first words we spoke in this House was an oath to you.

To Hauraki-Waikato, I am at your service in and outside of Parliament. I will die for you in these chambers, but I will live for you outside these four walls. I will be a constant sponge, soaking up and listening to our kōrero tuku iho and the needs for our people, straight from the soil. Your job for me is to keep me in line and in check.

The first thing Te Pāti Māori taught me is to believe in myself and to always keep grounded. We do not own these seats; we are kaitiaki for our people. We are not the ones, but we are the kaikarere from the home base to the Beehive. We are the protectors in here and the providers in our home.

Ki ngā hoa piri o tēnei tauā o Te Pāti Māori: Rawiri te kaiurungi e tū hakahaka nei; Whaea Debbie, te wairua nō ō tūpuna a Te Whiti rāua ko Te Tohu; Whaea Mariameno, te wahine, ā, ko Reitū, Reipae e hao nei i tēnei waka nō Te Hiku; Takutai, ka rongo i tō reo nō Rātana Pā e tiori mai nei ki a au; Tākuta, tō whakapau kaha ki tēnei tira; Meka, tō wairua atawhai, e koa ana te ngākau ki te kite i a koe.

[To the loyal companions of this army of Te Pāti Māori: Rawiri the navigator that stands here to haka; Whaea Debbie, the spirit of your ancestors Te Whiti and Te Tohu; Whaea Mariameno, the lady, reminiscent of Reitū and Reipae that encapsulates this waka from the Far North; Takutai, I hear your voice from Rātana Pā singing here to me; Tākuta, your tireless work for this team; Meka, your nurturing soul, I am happy to see you.]

I am absolutely privileged to be by your side. At 21 years old, I can definitely say this was not the plan. I was perfectly fine growing my kūmara and learning maramataka, but this House kept tampering with things they shouldn’t be touching, and that’s why I left the māra to come here.

To my whānau who have travelled near and far from across the motu and everyone watching at home, I see you, I hear you, and I feel you, but I cannot thank you enough. I know they won’t like me saying this, but I want to thank all my grandparents, my parents—this is my mum’s worst living nightmare, me being in here, and my dad watching on the TV going, “You go, girl—get em!” My teachers, our kura, our club, my cousins, my in-laws, my bestest friends, and my siblings for keeping me sane and grounded and telling me when I need a wardrobe check. My partner, for your unwavering support and constant love. To every person that has gathered up top today, i rangona tō mātou haka. I rongo? I rangona. I whatitiri tēnei Whare i tō tātou nei reo.

[Our haka was heard. Did you hear? It was heard. This House thundered with our voice.]

To every person that is watching from home, to every person in this room up above, this isn’t my moment; this is yours. Every time you hear my voice, it will echo of my ancestors. Every time you look me in the eyes, you will see the children that survived. Over the next three years, you will see history rewrite itself without a pen. See you at Tūrangawaewae on the 20th. Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā rā tātou katoa.

Waiata—“He aha kei taku uma”

Haka—“E ko te tūī”

Wairua Tapu, kuhu mai, nau mai ki konei. Wairua Tapu, arahia, kōrero mai anō, tihei mauri ora.

[Holy Spirit, enter, welcome to this place. Holy Spirit, lead us, speak to us again, the breath of life.]

E te Māngai, tēnā koe. Mr Speaker, congratulations to you, sir, on your new role. It’s a privilege to serve with you and learn from you. Indeed, it’s a privilege to stand here today surrounded by friends and family, both in the gallery and down here in the Chamber. A humbling experience and some might say an unlikely one—from the chubby kid that came last in the fourth-form road race, the kid that hid in the music block for half of high school, the kid that was told it’s OK to dream about being an air force pilot, but you really should think about being a maths teacher like your mum.

My story is not one of getting everything the first time up at the plate but rather one of perseverance, of determination, of character refined in the fire of failure and forged through adversity in the truest sense of “per ardua ad astra” and “nihil boni sine labore”. My story has always been that you cannot tell the man from the boy, and I stand here as living proof—troubled yet not distressed, perplexed but not in despair, cast down but not destroyed. I’ve been knocked back a few times, but I’ve never given up.

There have been a couple of challenges that have taken me two goes and an extra three years to get there with, but I’ve found there are very few challenges that cannot be overcome with hard work, with perseverance and, most fundamentally, with character, which always plays the long game. If that chubby 14-year-old kid can go on to run a few marathons, join the air force and deploy on operations all around the world, then there must be hope for everyone.

But first, to quote the sadly now infamous song, let me introduce to you myself to you. I was blessed to grow up with the most amazing parents. They were both schoolteachers. Mum stayed at home to look after the kids and it’s a sacrifice that I’m eternally grateful for. I had a pretty standard 1980s upbringing—backyard cricket with my brother, playing Care Bears with my sister. Just the things that we all did—OK, maybe not. But look, we didn’t necessarily have everything, but I can’t think of anything important that was lacking.

Mum demonstrated what true servant leadership looks like. She shaped my view of service and while she may never get the recognition that I think she deserves, I want to honour her here today, and on the special day—happy birthday, Mum. [Applause] You’re using up my time; I do not have this time to spare!

Look, I think Dad would be so proud if he was still with us. Proud—probably also annoying numerous people in the gallery with a ton of anecdotes from the previous 53 State openings of Parliament. But it was Dad that took me to air shows at Ōhakea as a kid that set me on the path that I followed, and Dad set me on this one as well. But I believe it takes a village, and I am a child of a huge village. I’ve been shaped by faith, family, and the forces. The village I started in encompassed All Saints’ Church, Winchester School, Palmerston North Boys’ High Boys’ Brigade, a whole host of music teachers and bands, and I want to acknowledge all of those who shaped my first 20 years.

I also want to acknowledge my National Party family, particularly Lorraine Pollock, Bruce Little, and the entire team from Ōtaki. Now, I’m here for every single person in our community, but I know that I’m here because of you, because of your trust, your encouragement, and your support. Thank you. Can I also acknowledge the previous 12 MPs for Ōtaki since 1893, in particular the Hon Nathan Guy, and I’d also like to acknowledge the Hon Roger Sowry and the Rt Hon Jim Bolger.

To our new Prime Minister, absent though he may be today, I want to congratulate him on his new role and thank him for his leadership, his friendship, and his guidance over a few years now. To Shirley Sowry, the HQ team, the board, my fellow MPs, Ben and the Young Nats, everyone from National: thank you. I love being a part of our team, anchored by the same values, encouraged by each other, and inspired by the opportunity we have to deliver for Kiwis.

Can I acknowledge all the parliamentary staff who work, who serve in this place with grace and professionalism, and the entire class of 2023 from across every party. We are here to serve, and what better example of service could we ask for than the women and the men that I served with in our Defence Force in New Zealand, through the Pacific, into Asia and Europe. Sailors, soldiers, and aviators who do not seek war or conflict, but their service is such that they are willing to operate in those environments in order to bring about a lasting peace. E ngā toa o Te Ope Kātua [To the warriors of the Defence Force], to my fellow warriors of the Defence Force, tēnā koe. Kei te mihi. [I greet you.] I acknowledge all of you and the life-shaping journey that you’ve taken me on for the past 23 years.

In Afghanistan, I served with decorated heroes like Lance-Corporal Leon Smith. Now, Leon paid the ultimate price, in full, and I want to acknowledge—[Hon Chris Penk passes a glass of water]—thanks, brother—all of my brothers that I served with who lost their life while serving their country, whether in New Zealand or overseas. Leon, Nick, Muddy, Diesel, Ben, and Dan. E kore rātou e kaumātuatia. [They will not grow old.] They shall grow not old, but I will not forget them. In my service, I seek to represent all of those who preserve our democracy but don’t always get to practise it: our Defence Force, police, fire, paramedics, every first responder. I pledge to be your voice in this House, and enough of you have my phone number to ensure that I never forget.

During my service I was privileged to work for their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales. It was a role that, like being an MP, it doesn’t make me special but you get to work with some really special people and do some really special things. On one occasion, I remember we were leaving the museum at Wigram, and as the Duke and Duchess got dragged away towards the cars, I noticed a girl down the end of the line that didn’t get to give her flowers to the Princess. So as the motorcade was waiting, I raced over there and I knelt down next to her and I said, “Would you like me to take those flowers and give them to the Princess for you?” It’s always the Princess. “Oh, yes, please,” she said, and I took them and was able to pass them on. Someone said to me afterwards, “You know, Tim, what’s the point? There are thousands of kids around New Zealand that never got to give their flowers to the Princess. You can never make a difference.” I said, “Yeah, you’re probably right. But I bet it made a difference to her.”

You know, one person is always enough. I’ve always believed that the ones matter; they add up, they multiply, they have this rippling effect. In the Air Force, it was one tourist on Mount Arthur; it was a hunter in the Ureweras; it was a school teacher in the Tararuas; it was a family in rising floodwaters; a soldier whose life was in danger in East Timor; a mother and a baby in the Solomon Islands. In my career, in my service, in my life, one person has always been enough and I’m painfully aware of my limitations. I know that inevitably I’m going to say the wrong thing and I’m going to do the wrong thing. I have no silver bullets. I know I can’t change the world, but I do believe that I can make a world of difference to the ones that I meet in Foxton, in Levin, in Ōtaki, Waikanae, Paraparaumu, and everywhere in between. They may be just one, but people matter to me and one is always enough.

Imagine, if you will, a community of people inspired and motivated by the ones. I believe our country is at its best when we do community well. Too often these days, people look for community online, but all we find are echo chambers that reinforce a narrow view of a diverse world. Community calls us to reach out to cross divides, to grow in empathy and understanding, not division and intolerance; to celebrate our differences, not try and eliminate them. I want to work as an MP to break down division, be that between urban and rural, young and old, between ethnicities or religions.

Community is the long game that will heal those divides. And so often, we expect the Government to provide every solution for every need and want. Well, I believe in limited government; that, actually, we all hold solutions to many of the problems we face; that we are at our best when the community response can lead the Government response. Community balances the utilitarian perspective against the needs of those that live in the margins, the few that feel they will never be a part of the many. That’s why I love National’s social investment approach: because it’s about outcomes; it’s about targeted results for those that would otherwise be left behind. It’s acknowledging that we don’t all have the same start line in life, but we all deserve an equal shot at the same finish. So I believe in a community where we can have compassion for those at the extremes, but we can still value personal responsibility, competitive enterprise, and reward for good old-fashioned hard work.

So I come to this place motivated by people, inspired by service, passionate about community. But most of all, I just love this country. I’ve been privileged in my service to see how respected and coveted our nation is abroad, but I wonder sometimes if we’ve lost a sense of—as the great philosopher Fred Dagg said—a sense of just how lucky we are, how amazing our people, how incredible our backyard. As much as I want to build a road to Levin—and I really want to build that road to Levin—as much as I want to see our culture shift from compliance to judgment to focus on effectiveness and efficiency, not just process and publicity; actually, deep down, I really want to see us united as a nation, the way that Kiwis unite at Eden Park and London pubs and in conflict zones around the world. In those places, we rally around the national identity, not based on geography or ethnicity, but grounded in our shared ideals, the Kiwi way of life, and the belief that everyone deserves an equal opportunity in Godzone. Maybe that can be the starting point for this difficult conversation.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but this country matters to me, and it matters that we acknowledge our past, that we right wrongs, that we celebrate our differences. But it also matters that we are defined by the kind of people that we are, and most fundamentally of all, we are all Kiwi. My style of politics is anchored by the belief that that which is common to all of us is a powerful gravity—far greater than that or those who would seek to divide. That’s why I wear the kiwi as a visible and outward sign of an inward and invisible bond that we can all share. That same symbol was painted on artillery and aircraft that my grandparents fought in and on during World War II.

For 23 years I had the privilege of carrying that symbol, that patch, on my uniform and on the aircraft that I flew. In this one small image lies an indisputably strong brand; an immediate point of difference from our nearest neighbours that reminds me that we shouldn’t try and be the best small version of another country, but the biggest and best version of ourselves.

So I finish where I started. I still believe that the boy does not define the man. Our past does not define our future. Where we are today does not need to limit where we could be or what we could achieve. I stand in this place with hope, with genuine hope that greater things are to come and greater things are still to be done in this city, in our regions, and throughout this land. And if those words don’t resonate or reflect our current reality, then my work here, as part of a strong National Party team, is to join those dots and to serve in such a way that that hope is fulfilled; that all Kiwis have the quality of life, the public services, the education, and the opportunities that we all deserve, no matter our current circumstance or starting place.

Finally, if I can, to my girls. Lucy, I’m inspired by your willingness to give anything a go. Not enough for me to try eating salad, but I’m inspired by your attitude. Becky, sometimes your determination challenges me. I know I try and pretend it comes from your mum, but actually it is your empathy and your compassion that challenge me the most and I seek to replicate a little of that in my service. Alice, I love the way that you find such unhindered joy in the everyday. I wish you’d find a little bit less of that after your bedtime, but we all need more of that in this tall poppy world. And to Emma, you have borne the brunt of it over the last few years as we embarked on this crazy adventure. You have kept the ship afloat. You have parented alone. You’ve put up with every sigh, every eye roll, every tantrum, every argument over what to wear, and that was all just from me. You’re the yin to my yang, you’re the tonic to my gin, you are the glue that holds it all together, and I love you.

And so, I care about our country, our community, our people, and service. I hope that at the nexus of those four things we will find a country that not just these young women up here but every generation to come will be proud of. E kī ana mā whero, mā pango ka oti ai te mahi. Nō reira e ngā mana, e ngā rangatira kua whakarauika mai nei i tēnei wā, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, mihi mai, karanga mai, mihi mai, tēnā tātou katoa. Kia ora.

[As the saying goes, with collaboration will the work be done. Therefore, to the authorities, to the noble leaders who have assembled here at this time, thanks and greetings, thank you for your welcome, greetings to all of us. Thank you.]

Can I just let the House know that following the speech by Tākuta Ferris, who will be called shortly, the House will set itself aside for the dinner break. We are clearly going to go past 6 o’clock, but we’ll just wait till all your people are in place.

E te Whare, kei ngā mana katoa, kei ngā uri o Te Tai Tonga, tātou tahi, te iwi Māori kua whakarauika mai, tēnā rā tātou. E te Pīka, e Gerry, tēnā koe.

[To the House, to all of the leaders, to the descendants of Te Tai Tonga, all of us, the Māori people who have assembled here, greetings to all of us. Mr Speaker, Gerry, greetings.]

In 1835, 28 October, Māori declared their independence and sovereignty to the world and the world acknowledged it. He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tirene, the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand, enacted by the authority of Te Whakaminenga o ngā Rangatira o ngā Hapū o Nu Tireni, the Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand. The declaration was made and the country of New Zealand came into being.

The declaration announced the arrival of Māori into the international community and was a clear signal that Māori had the intention and capacity to develop internationally and independently in trade and diplomatic endeavour, both on domestic and international fronts. These things will not be lost. They will not be forgotten, will not be relegated to the dark corners of a colonial history. They have been maintained, they have endured, and we will continue to nurture and grow them in the hearts and minds of mokopuna and the nation; a national consciousness of a new Aotearoa New Zealand.

The declaration asserted four key themes. Number one, Māori sovereignty—sovereign authority over New Zealand, Nu Tireni. Number two, Māori would not accept any form of law or government, any form of Kāwanatanga, unless appointed by them. Number three, the chiefs would meet once a year, in congress, in autumn, to frame laws, maintain peace, and regulate trade. And number four, they invited King William IV to continue as protector of their infant state, and they in turn would continue to protect his subjects who resided in their country, Nu Tireni.

Ko te Whakaputanga te tuakana; ko Te Tiriti o Waitangi te teina.  

[The Declaration is the senior; the Treaty of Waitangi is the junior.]

The declaration is the foremost constitutional document; Te Tiriti o Waitangi is the second. Mana motuhake is described in the declaration as emanating from the land—“te mana i te wenua”—and is therefore inherent in every tangata whenua, be they kaumātua, pakeke, tamariki, or mokopuna. [elders, seniors, children or grandchildren.]

Mana motuhake is not something we declare; Mana motuhake is something we possess. He iwi motuhake te iwi Māori. 

[The Māori people are a people like no other.]

The Māori people are a sovereign people. That fact that the Crown signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi directly with the chiefs of the confederation—a clearly defined sovereign entity—acknowledged that Māori sovereignty was paramount in 1840, and that the Māori partner in the dual agreement was indeed the principal partner in possession of 100 percent of control, power, and authority over all land and resources in Aotearoa New Zealand. This did not change on 6 February 1840, as the Māori text of Te Tiriti o Waitangi was presented to the chiefs of the confederation and subsequently signed.

The idea that a fierce and independent people, who had actively asserted their independence only four years and three months earlier, and had clearly stated they would not allow any form of Kāwanatanga, any form of government, to exist in their lands unless appointed by them, would somehow now agree to surrender their independence, cede their sovereignty, hand over Kāwanatanga, the government of their entire country, to a people from a foreign power, is nothing short of preposterous.

If anyone needs help understanding which text is the legally binding text, they need look no further than this quote by one of the longest-serving Chief Justices of Aotearoa Dame Sian Elias, who said, and I quote, “it can’t be disputed that the [text of the] Treaty is … the Māori text.” Why we continue to wallow in the ambiguity of interpretation is beyond me. It is time for this country to mature and let the English text of Te Tiriti o Waitangi be laid to rest. The time has come.

Through the process of induction into this House, I note there is only recognition of one sovereign, namely the King of England. Could it be that the very people who were invited into a sovereign land by a sovereign people, now consider themselves the sole sovereign of that land? The answer, as we all know today, is no, they are not the sole sovereign of this land. Yet they have maintained the position and systems that would render the true sovereign invisible—well, at least for a period of time.

But that time ran out in earnest in 1975, as Te Ao Māori drew breath, raised its head up, and dared to look to the future. With unwavering dedication, led by visionary thinkers such as Whina Cooper and Joe Hawke with self-determination, Whatarangi Winiata with iwi development, Taihakurei Eddie Durie in Māori law, Hirini Moko Mead and Piri Sciascia in cultural revitalisation, Ranginui Walker and Lisa Tuhiwai Smith in mātauranga Māori and academia, Mason Durie and the māreikura Rangimarie Rose Pere in Māori health, and Moana Jackson and Mereana Pitman in matters of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and constitutional law. From that time till now, we have been in the process of undoing the countless, unthinkable, unscrupulous deeds that first sought to annihilate and then assimilate a people to oblivion. Yet this is not our history. This is not our story. This is not our reality. And it is most certainly not our future.

So to this House I say: fear not. Fear not that you are incapable of identifying your sovereign counterpart in this country, for I am here today to clarify for you and to declare to you that I am the sovereign. And that as I look at my own tamariki, I know that they are the sovereign. And as I look at my parents and all of my kaumātua gathered here, I know that they are the sovereign. For the Māori people are a sovereign people, and we have never ceded our sovereignty, we have never abdicated our sovereign authority, and we have never ever left this land.

I stand here as a reminder that the Crown signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi with the chiefs of the confederation, in recognition of their sovereignty—the very same chiefs that the Governor-General acknowledged in her Speech from the Throne on Wednesday of last week. You see, the relevance of the chiefs of the confederation is not lost on the Governor-General.

I know many would rather we forget about 1975 and the establishment of the Waitangi Tribunal, and even more so 1985, when that tribunal won the right to investigate historical breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, dating back to 1840. That’s right, e te iwi, when the tribunal was established, it could only consider Te Tiriti o Waitangi moving forward. Heaven forbid there’d be a light shone into the dark corners and recesses of the colonial history and narrative by a now highly educated and experienced bunch of radical Māori.

It took 10 more years of fighting to win that right, and in 1985 we were 145 years into the Tiriti relationship with the Crown. Yet it would take only seven more years to prosecute the Crown and its Government, find them guilty, and settle the first Treaty settlement in 1992—the fisheries settlement.

You see, for a long time now, the Crown and its Governments have been losing ground on their monopoly over power and resources in this country—a monopoly that they have held and enjoyed for far too long. From that time until today, the Government’s vice-like grip on control, power, and authority over resources has slowly but surely been undone. Its rule by iron fist has all but been halted, as the principal partner to Te Tiriti o Waitangi regains their feet and we begin to re-establish ourselves economically, politically, in education, socially, and most importantly culturally.

Belief in Te Ao Māori continues to grow. The seeds that were sown in 1975 that were tirelessly nurtured, tended by generations of Māori—generations who would never live to see the fruits of their labour, but had unwavering belief in their tīpuna, in their whakapapa, in their mokopuna, and in their future. These seeds have grown into Tōtara haemata [great leaders], and they now stand strong and fervent all over this country. We know we were prepared for this job and we are ready, and Aotearoa hou is within sight.

I’ve not come here to speak about myself or the nature of how I arrive in this Whare. I’ve come to talk about our people: the many independent nations, the hapū, the iwi, the tangata whenua of this land, the principal partner in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the authors of He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o Nu Tirene, the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand, the document that constituted this country we all call New Zealand. Yes, my friends, e te whānau, Te Tiriti o Waitangi did not create a country; it established a constitutional relationship between two sovereign nations, one in the South Pacific, the other in the north-western hemisphere. It afforded Pākehā the dignity of self-government in a foreign land—a land upon which their Queen’s own law and authority had no rights nor jurisdiction to exist. It afforded the Queen the right to purchase land in another sovereign’s country, enabling her to care for, to nurture, and to grow her own people. Quite the magnanimous gesture, on behalf of those chiefs, in 1840.

In recognition of the rights the Queen and her people had been granted, she in turn responded reciprocally, extending the rights and privileges of her own people in England to her host nation, via article 3 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This koha, this gesture of goodwill, did not come at the expense of pre-existing Māori rights. We were granted the additional rights of British subjects; we were not subjugated. This symbolic gesture was a tatau pounamu [enduring peace; binding contract], from one sovereign to another, in recognition of the significant rights and privileges she and her people had been granted. E te Pīka, e Gerry, might I say, magnanimous indeed.

I’m here to speak on behalf of the people who, despite the relentless onslaught of colonisation in all its guises, continue to maintain deep whakapapa connections to their land, their kāinga, their moana, their language, and their culture—not as theatrical expressions, as some may have you believe, but as an immovable foundation, an ethos, a philosophy, a world view, a kaupapa that drives every breath they take.

This is the dream that was dreamt all of those years ago, in 1975. I am indeed the product of the self-determining actions of Māori in the 1970s and 1980s, and every year since. I understand completely that the current tension that exists between Kāwanatanga and rangatiratanga, or between Māori and the Government—exacerbated in the extreme by the current iteration—is a direct result of the blistering speed at which we, the principal partner in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, are reclaiming, reinstating, rebuilding, reinvigorating, reimagining, and reasserting ourselves in our own country.

My message to all of the people in Aotearoa is this: fear not, for your rights were gifted to you in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Take a personal responsibility for upholding Te Tiriti in your everyday life, for it is your personal Bill of Rights here in Aotearoa. It is your family’s declaration and ultimately the constitutional bedrock of your rights to be here in Aotearoa. Treasure it. It was a gift from our ancestors to you. Yet despite all of this, the level of ambiguity that remains around the nature of the Māori-Crown relationship, the role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the place and responsibility of Parliament and Government in it somehow continues to defy explanation. Could it be that the political agenda of the Pākehā partner is aided and abetted by ambiguity? Successive Governments and generations of Pākehā settlers and their families have benefited and been privileged by this ambiguity, but everything comes to an end.

Clarity is what my generation of Māori demand, and we are well equipped to assist—informed by 48 years of determined action from the tribunal; 48 years of prosecution experience against the Crown and its Government. We understand the story, the context, and the events perfectly well. The history, the experience, and the reality of the once-silent partner has now been unearthed, investigated, corroborated, and laid bare for all to see.

To my fellow MPs: if you are unaware of what I speak of, then I would say you are underprepared—under-equipped—for your role as an MP. The Te Paparahi o Te Raki determinations of 2014 were a watershed moment in the history of the Māori-Crown relationship. The determination that Māori did not cede their sovereignty by signing Te Tiriti o Waitangi would alter the course of history forever. The current findings of the subsequent inquiry, entitled Tino Rangatira me te Kāwanatanga, are set to take the 2014 findings even further and require the Crown to revisit the constitutional settings of this country to more appropriately give effect to and embody Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Many politicians have quoted Apirana Ngata in relation to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and his views of the early 1900s. What they failed to realise is that when Ngata, Pomare, and Te Rangi Hiroa came to prominence, the greatest challenge was not Te Tiriti o Waitangi or the revival of te reo Māori; it was saving their people from extinction. This was the blood of Māori at the turn of the 1900s as the population plummeted to around 40,000. The view of the day was that the most effective way to preserve the population was to assimilate rapidly to the now-dominant way of life, the Pākehā way, hence Apirana’s great saying, “Ko tō ringa ki ngā rākau a te Pākehā”—your hand to the ways of the Pākehā—as a means of preserving the life blood of his people. 

This did not preclude Apirana from the notion of research and discovery of new knowledge, nor from investigation and the unearthing of new evidence and new understandings. You see, there has been no rewriting of history. There has been no reinterpretation of history. There has only been an unearthing of history, the investigation of history, and the discovery of new understandings—which has ultimately led this nation to the current understanding of our dual history. And whilst this might not suit the agenda of those who seek to maintain the status quo, that does not change the fact that this is the current understanding.

If anyone thinks my explanations to be fanciful, much of what I have quoted here is referenced from the He Tohu exhibition, the national exhibit of the founding documents of our country: He Whakaputanga, the declaration; Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty; and the Women’s Suffrage Bill are located just across the road in Archives New Zealand, an exhibit that is visited by thousands of schoolchildren every year. So if you think I’m a lot to handle, wait till you get a load of your kids or your grandkids.

So let me conclude by saying I’m not here to service the needs of this House; I’m here to contest it and the manner in which it exercises authority over things it has no authority over. I am here to represent the 12,800 Māori in Te Tai Tonga who voted me into this position to represent their views, give voice to their aspirations, and be a light for them. Te Pāti Māori does not presume to speak for all Māori. We understand perfectly well there are many colonised Māori trapped out there. But we do speak from a purely Māori perspective, for and on behalf of a purely Māori constituency. I have to ask the House: is that not pure democracy, pure democratic process, in action? Yet Te Pāti Māori continues to be unapologetic, championing Māori issues. We are continually called out as radical, racist, promoting apartheid—I must say the irony of it is not lost on me.

So we go to raise an army of voters—young voters, young Māori and non-Māori voters; tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti alike who will arrive in ever-increasing numbers into the future; numbers great enough to contest this democracy.

So to all our whānau, to all our people, stand up. Stand up and be the light. Be the light for your whānau, be the light for your communities. Toitū te Whakaputanga; toitū Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Tēnā tātou.

[Honour the Declaration; honour the Treaty of Waitangi. Greetings to all of us.]

Waiata—“Tiaho iho rā”

Haka—“Tēnei te rūrū”

Sitting suspended from 6.23 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

I move, That this debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to.

Debate interrupted.