General Debate

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business. What we have seen in the House this afternoon is the shabby entrails of the last vestiges of an underperforming Government. It has lost control. It has lost track. It has got nothing to offer New Zealand in its time of greatest need. It sits there, with nothing to offer New Zealand. It sits on the sidelines doing very little.

The Government claims no responsibility for the things that it can control. It claims the credit for things that are completely out of its control. It blames a Government of 8 years ago for things that go wrong on its watch. That is the New Zealand Government today. That is the New Zealand National Government that we have got presiding over us for the next 2 years. Then, of course, it will change.

On this Government’s watch, this is a Government that has had its back turned on the best interests of New Zealand, and, under our noses, New Zealand has been undergoing profound change. Let us just think about what has been happening.

The Government is doing its level best to sell absolutely everything. It is not pleased enough with selling our employment laws to Warner Bros. It is not pleased with selling our thousands of State houses, when people are queueing up, trying to get into good houses, trying to get into safe, warm houses—the very least expectation we have for our most vulnerable. The Government is not content with selling our State businesses, our power generation businesses. It is not content with trying to sell off our Pharmac purchasing model to overseas interests. It is not content with putting our lawmaking capacity on the block, under the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It is not content with selling off our gambling laws to Skycity and others.

It does not stop. The integrity of the Government has been sold to a Saudi businessman, and that is now under investigation. There is the whole shabby line-up—Minister after Minister, issue after issue. This is the National Government 2008 to 2017, and then it will come to an end. But in the meantime the damage is being done—in the meantime the damage is being done.

This Government is also presiding over an ever-growing sale of our productive base, our productive land assets, and our productive industries—selling them overseas. It is the Government’s inattention, this Government’s inattention, and so many New Zealanders are feeling it now—not just those in Taranaki, not just the rising number of unemployed in Taranaki, not just the rising number of businesses that are struggling to get ahead because of this Government’s inattention.

We have a slowing economy. Seven regions are now reporting shrinkage in their economic growth, and let us just see what happens in the next quarter. We have out-of-control house prices in Auckland and a Government that will just do nothing—just do nothing—about it. Thousands of Aucklanders are shut out of the opportunity to own their own home. The one thing that we promise New Zealanders—those who are newly arrived here and those who will grow up here—is that if they work hard, if they save hard, they will have a chance to own their own home. Well, that is out of touch because of this Government’s inattention and lackadaisical approach.

There is a growing number of jobless people across New Zealand. There is growing poverty in New Zealand. The Government says that $25 a week from 1 April next year to a selected few is going to make the difference. It will not. The Government does not care. It treats a growing number of New Zealanders as if they just do not matter, and we have a growing number of businesses that just want to get ahead but they cannot do so. There is more red tape imposed by this Government. There are more hurdles to leap. It just does not care.

If this Government stands for one thing, it is a failure to stand up for the future—a future that New Zealanders are desperate to hear about and know about and hope for. Well, the Government is not delivering, and it cannot deliver because this is a sideline Government. It stands on the sidelines and hopes for the best—it stands on the sidelines and hopes for the best.

But what is worse is that a new characteristic has emerged from this Government and it is so far adrift of the New Zealand characteristic. This Government no longer represents a sense of compassion, a sense of conscience, a sense of moral responsibility. It has lost its way. It has no values, no moral compass, no nothing to offer hope to New Zealanders.

Well, it has to be better and it can be better. We need a Government, and we will get a Government, that truly represents the New Zealand character; a Government interested in investing in the real future, in infrastructure, in research and development, and in real diversification—stuff that will make a difference. But most of all, we need a sense of hope and conscientiousness and compassion for all New Zealanders, and for our reputation abroad. New Zealanders deserve nothing less.

I read a quote in the Listener the other day that I think applies well to the Opposition parties, especially at the end of that last speech. It says: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” If ever you heard that, we have just heard it from the Leader of the Opposition. Actually, the owner of that quote was Groucho Marx—so be it. We hear from “Angry Andrew” again—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order!

—that regional New Zealand is in deep crisis. Well, thank God the Labour Party has declared another crisis because that means that the regions are about to take off. But out there in the regions—

💬 Ron Mark: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Not too long ago, that very same member pulled me up on a point of order for referring to a member—in fact, the Hon Maggie Barry—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! Can I just get the point of order, please?

💬 Ron Mark: The point of order is that she referred to—well, I am not going to repeat the epithet, but—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! The member will resume his seat. When the comment was made, I called “Order!”. It is not helpful to the order of the House to talk to any member like that. That is complete lack of respect for any member of this House. I would be grateful if all members would refrain from such language in the future.

We are out there in the regions—we are out there and we are getting the job done. I do not often get the opportunity to talk about my electorate in the House but I am going to do so today, because, actually, I represent a very large and diverse electorate, which runs from Gisborne right up the East Cape, out across the Eastern Bay of Plenty, right across to the edge of Te Puke, and then right down to the top of the Rotorua lakes. It takes in places like Murupara and Galatea—places that there would not be many people in this House who have actually been and visited. My electorate is a fantastic place and it has got a heap going for it, not the least being fantastic weather. Yes, it does have some tough issues. It is one of the poorest regions in the country, and it has some major difficulties with things like benefit dependency, gang membership, etc., etc. But it has so much going for it, and I want to talk about that today.

This Government is out there in my electorate, and in many others around the country, doing the job that New Zealanders elected it to do. So if we just have a look at education, this Government is investing in education in the Eastern Bay of Plenty in particular. There is a new kura that is going to be built in Whakatāne. The Associate Minister of Education, Nikki Kaye, came into Ōhope last week and announced a $13.5 million rebuild of the Ōhope Beach Primary School. They have been working for 7 years. They have got leaky buildings, they have got asbestos—you name it. It is a $13.5 million rebuild of that school. That is on top of when you go over to Kawerau, where there is a $15.6 million rebuild of Tarawera High School—looking fantastic and about to be opened in the next couple of months. This Government invested in that area, in education, so that those kids get a good chance in life.

There are three communities of schools in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, three groups of schools working together, focused on lifting student achievement, because they know that that is what is going to make the difference in the lives of those children. Economic development—we hear the Opposition talking about a lack of economic development. Well, this Government has worked with all the regional leaders in what is called the wider Bay of Plenty—that is, it goes right down to Taupō, Rotorua, Tauranga, and across to Ōpōtiki—and they have produced the Toi Moana Bay of Plenty Regional Growth Study.

One of the major features of that growth study is Ōpōtiki aquaculture. For those of you in the House who have not heard me talk about this over the last 10 years, this is a huge opportunity for Ōpōtiki to have. It has already established a mussel farm offshore. They are providing spat all over New Zealand. They are growing the biggest, fattest, juiciest mussels. There is so much that I want to talk about; I have touched only on a very small part. This Government has been working with Ōpōtiki now—

💬 Hon Member: Feels like you’ve been talking forever.

For johnny-come-latelys, I have to say that Labour members are turning up there now and saying that this is a great project. They did absolutely zip for them when they were in Government. They turned their backs on Ōpōtiki when they were in Government, but this is a Government that is out there in the regions, that is doing it, that is working alongside local government, that is working alongside businesses, that is growing economic development, and that is helping those in regional parts of New Zealand to get a good living and have the opportunities for their children that we all want. I think this Government is really getting on with the job.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Kia ora tātou katoa. Well, in Minister Tolley’s speech talking about getting the job done, I did not hear the environment mentioned once. This Government’s economic policy, which focuses on short-term extractivism, is not building a long-term, sustainable future for New Zealanders or the New Zealand economy.

I would like to talk today about our indigenous plants and wildlife because they are some of our most significant and special features. They are a result of our long and isolated evolution and the diversity of our land and seascapes. New Zealand is a global hotspot for biodiversity because we have so many species that are found here and nowhere else in the world. We have got very high levels of endemism. All of our skinks and geckos are found only in New Zealand, and more than 90 percent of our insects, a quarter of our birds, and 80 percent of our higher plants. Half a dozen islands in the Hauraki Gulf have got higher levels of endemism than all of Great Britain. We also have a biodiversity crisis, with far too many species threatened with extinction, and this Government is doing far too little about it.

We have the Minister of Conservation sitting in the front row, head down, failing to invest adequately in funding the Department of Conservation to protect our special places on conservation land and protect our threatened species. Conservation funding for natural heritage management was cut by $7 million this year. The Government is failing to ensure that the law is enforced properly, whether it is the Forests Act or the Resource Management Act. It is a Government that proposes to change the Resource Management Act to weaken nature and strengthen private property rights.

The Treaty bills that we addressed in this House this morning sought to redress some of the gross injustices of the colonial era and the harm that the Crown allowed to be done to Māori and to their Treaty rights. But we are still harming the first inhabitants of these lands: ruru, kākā, mānuka, kauri. What we need is stronger law and much greater investment in conservation, and a complete change from this Government’s agenda of short-term extractivism.

Under the Resource Management Act the recognition and protection of the natural character of wetlands, the protection of significant indigenous vegetation, and significant habitats of indigenous fauna are identified as matters of national importance. Yet what do we have in Northland? We have the plundering of wetlands for ancient swamp kauri. We have the peat mining operation in Kaimaumau wetland, and we have the Government failing to provide guidance to councils on how these legal responsibilities should be applied.

There was work done on a National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity—that stopped under this Government in 2011. After public submissions, the Minister at the time stopped it. Why? Because he said there were issues, including the impact on private landowners. Once again, it was the Government putting the interests of private landowners first. Three years later the Government decided to restart that work. But I am not confident that we will get better protection for our special native plants and wildlife under any national guidance from this Government because of what we are seeing in the National Environmental Standard for Plantation Forestry, which has been released recently.

Forestry is a major export earner, but it occurs in areas where there can be significant environmental impacts. This proposed National Environmental Standard on Plantation Forestry is a missed opportunity to encourage a smart, sustainable forest industry in the long term while protecting our natural environment. It promotes afforestation at the expense of our indigenous species. It has got a very permissive regime, which allows areas of tussock grasslands and shrub lands to be overplanted with exotics, except in areas that councils have specifically identified as significant in their plan.

Forest and Bird has called the proposed standard woefully inadequate in the way it deals with the protection of wetlands and high-conservation value areas. It is inadequate too in terms of the way it deals with riparian buffers. They are well recognised as safeguarding waterways, yet it is proposing only 5-metre buffers around smaller streams and around wetlands.

This Government claims that it is providing national guidance, but what it does is provide guidance that strengthens the rights of private landowners and does not adequately recognise our distinctive biodiversity and our important landscapes and protect them so that we ensure that a strong economy is based on strong environmental foundations.

It is my pleasure to update the House on what is going on in my region, my region of Canterbury and Christchurch. I would like to thank the Minister Anne Tolley for telling us about all the action in her town, but we can add more than that.

Post-earthquake, Canterbury and Christchurch are really buzzing. We have got a region that is really making things happen. It is almost as if the 15,000 earthquakes have forced us to think about our priorities, to refocus on what is important, and to think creatively about our future.

Last night I celebrated with the Hon Louise Upston, the Minister for Women, a magnificent outcome of the earthquakes in terms of what is happening in the construction industry. There is a significant new trend in the rebuild—it is women in trades. The demand for skilled labour has really opened the door for women and they are pouring in. There are 8,600 women working in trades in Christchurch compared with 3,600 before the earthquakes. What is more, there are 500 wildly enthusiastic women in training at the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology, all looking forward to getting out into the action. The employers told us last night that women are adding real value to their workplaces. They added value with diversity, they added value with more variety in skills, and more work and better quality work was being done.

But this is just one of the positive changes across the province, as new ways of thinking and new ways of working are creating new and exciting opportunities for Cantabrians. If you drive into Christchurch you can feel the buzz of change. There are the signs of construction, dozens of cranes, thousands of cones, high-vis everywhere, and more and more shiny new homes and buildings.

But I do not really want to focus on the construction of infrastructure beyond noting what has been completed: things like 67,000 housing repairs, 20,000 new homes, 75 percent of the horizontal infrastructure, and many new buildings and facilities. There are completed anchor projects such as the cricket oval, the bus exchange, and full steam ahead activity on the Avon Ōtākaro precinct, the Christchurch Justice and Emergency Services Precinct, and the Metro Sports Facility.

That is all great stuff and a fantastic achievement for our city. But I want to talk about the unseen changes in the province and the city: the attitudinal changes, the collaboration, the hubbing of ideas and services, and the positive focus on the future. It is really exciting to see that young people in particular are responding to this new focus and energy. Ever since the earthquakes they have been more interested in education. They are achieving better results. This year 81.6 percent of 18-year-olds are leaving school with National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 or more, and that is a record in Christchurch and across New Zealand.

But beyond school, more young people are in education, in training, and in work than ever before. The unemployment rate for 15 to 24-year-olds is down by an amazing 42 percent and I think it is because these young people are able to see the benefit, the immediate benefit, of education and training and have identified what they can do to be part of the future of our city and our province.

I came across a couple of young guys the other morning. It was very early—far before start time. They were waiting at the gate to their construction site and they were champing at the bit to get in. They told me that it was their first job and they could not wait to get to work. What a great start for their careers. Right across the city we are all engaged in life more in Christchurch. More of us are playing sport, more of us are going to arts events, and more of us are involved in community projects than the rest of the country. It is as if Christchurch has been inspired and energised by all this change.

Yes, of course there are people who still have a long way to go to rebuild their lives and we are waiting for them to get back to normal. But we are really focusing on providing them with the support that they need, and things like the Residential Advisory Service—the RAS—which is a free legal service for earthquake repairs and issues—

The member’s time has expired.

On this side of the House and in the Labour Party right across the country we are preparing to celebrate 100 years of the Labour movement. The Labour Party was formed in 1916 by people who wanted to get a better deal for workers. They were sick of being exploited, they were sick of not having a chance to get ahead, they were sick of dying of diseases caused by exploitative working conditions, they were sick of their children dying too young, and they were sick of their children not being able to go to school and not being able to get ahead. The Labour Party was formed because we held the values of working people, we knew the value of work, and we wanted people to get ahead.

After the first Labour Government was elected, the National Party was formed to keep Labour out of Government. That was the sole purpose of the National Party: to keep the people who represented the working people—the hard-working, ordinary, salt of the earth - backbone of the country—out of Government and out of power. That is what the National Party is all about, and that is why the National Party has no idea what it stands for. It has no values; all it has are focus groups and Crosby/Textor. That is all the National Party has.

We believe in a country that does far more for New Zealanders than what working people and ordinary New Zealanders are getting from this National Government. We believe in a country where if you work, you can get ahead, and where if you work, you will actually get paid a decent day’s pay for a decent day’s work. That is what we believe in. We believe that if you get a job, you should have some security in that work. You should know from one week to the next how many hours you are going to get and how much you are going to be paid, so that you can put some money aside, so that you can get a mortgage or get a loan, or so that you can save up for your kids to be able to go to school camp—all the variety of things that people ought to be able to take for granted but that have become luxuries under this National Government. Working people get a raw deal under National.

I want to talk about one of my constituents. I am going to call her Jane because she is so scared that her employer might find out that she has come to speak to me that she does not even want her real name to be exposed. Jane came to me and she said: “Is there anything I can do about my employment situation? I do not have an employment agreement. When I go to work my employer decides what is work and what is not—what I get paid for and what I do not get paid for.” So when she is sitting on the phones, staffing the phones, she does not get paid. When she goes into a meeting she does not get paid. Unless it is work as defined by the employer, she does not get paid. That is completely illegal, and my advice to her was: “We have got to go to a labour inspector. We have got to get this investigated.” Her response was: “I can’t do that, because I might lose that little bit of work that I’ve got.”

That is the plight of working people today under this National Government. Working people are too scared even to stand up for the rights that they are given in the law. At the same time, this Government has passed law after law after law stripping away workers’ rights. Well, we believe in something much better than that. We believe that Jane should get not only her minimum standards as allowed for under the current law but also guaranteed hours. She should know how many hours she is going to get from one week to the next. She should get paid a decent wage for the work that she does. She should be respected by her employer for the work that she does. She should have the opportunity to develop her career so that she can get ahead in her chosen profession and so that she can live the life that members opposite, who think that getting a passport every 5 years is the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, take for granted.

That is how out of touch those members are. They talk about how they are getting more people into work when those people are on zero-hour contracts, when they are on the minimum wage—or not even getting the minimum wage, because they are on contracts and they have to work too many hours to get the money that they have been contracted for and they do not even get the minimum wage. We can do much better than that. Labour has a vision that is far more ambitious for working New Zealanders than National could ever be, and it is time for the end of this anti-worker Government and for something that actually provides New Zealanders with the Kiwi dream that New Zealand was originally founded on.

I love our country, and today I am especially proud to be a New Zealander. I am particularly proud of our constitutional arrangements, which have served us well and are internationally admired, and I want to add to the tributes that were paid in this House earlier to Her Majesty the Queen on this momentous day as she surpasses the record of her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria in becoming the longest-serving monarch in British history. Of course, as we know, she became the longest-serving Queen of New Zealand about 2½ years ago.

Despite the distance involved and the fact that she is the Queen of the Commonwealth and has many countries to visit over the years, she has paid no fewer than 10 visits to New Zealand. She came here in the year of her coronation and took part in the opening of Parliament. She was here for the James Cook bicentenary celebrations in 1970. She was here in 1977 when, amongst other things, she formally opened the Executive Wing, which we know as the Beehive, and, of course, there is a plaque on the stairs acknowledging that. She was here in 1990 for the Commonwealth Games, which she closed, and, of course, the important thing that year was the sesquicentenary of the Treaty of Waitangi.

In more recent years we have enjoyed regular visits from her children, her grandchildren, and, most recently, her great-grandson, Prince George. They are an outstanding family, and, of course, they reflect the great commitment to service that Her Majesty gave as a young woman when she said that whether her life be long or short she was committing herself to a lifetime of service. I acknowledge that and think that she has been an outstanding example for us all to follow.

I think it is particularly significant that today in the House we have this morning seen two more final readings of Treaty settlement legislation, because, of course, the Treaty settlement process has all been conducted during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. She was here in 1995, and this year is the 20th anniversary of the signing of the first settlement, which was in my own area—the historic Tainui settlement, which she attended in person. She issued the all-important Crown apology in person and in the presence of the late and much-loved Dame Te Atairangikaahu and Prime Minister Jim Bolger. As a National MP, I am incredibly proud of that process, and I believe that it is making a huge difference in bringing our country together and righting the wrongs of the past.

I am very proud that New Zealand is a stable, democratic nation with a firm commitment to human rights and respect for the rule of law. This is something we should never take for granted, because when we look around the world we see how many people are being deprived of that. Of course, at the moment we see the dreadful atrocities being committed against the people of Syria, and I am proud that we have taken more refugees, or announced our commitment this week to take more refugees.

I am also very proud, at a local level, that we are attending to the important things. Other members who have spoken before me have also spoken of our regional investment. In my own region of the Waikato, on 28 August I was very proud to be at the sod-turning ceremony for the new Huntly bypass section of the Waikato Expressway. This is a $2.1 billion project, in total. It is an incredibly significant investment. I was amazed to hear a Waikato MP today denigrating it, because this is the single most important investment that we can possibly make in our region. The 1.5 kilometre Huntly section is the fifth of seven to be built, and when the 10 sections are completed the entire 102 kilometre Waikato Expressway project not only will have been completed on time and within budget but it will make an enormous difference to everybody travelling through our region and to those who need to move freight, do business, and so on, as well as, most important, saving many, many lives because of safer roads.

So, yes, we are getting the job done, and I am very proud of that. I am also very proud that our Government has been tackling and will continue to tackle the serious social issues of child abuse and violence against women. I was delighted to accompany the Hon Anne Tolley in Hamilton about 10 days ago to the launch of Hamilton’s children’s team. I am disappointed our local media did not give more coverage to it, because at its peak that team will be working with up to 650 of our region’s most vulnerable children, and what more important work could there be than that? All power to their arm. I am so proud that that is under way, and I was proud to advocate for that when the children’s teams were first being mooted.

I am also very proud that in New Zealand we have had over half a million patients receiving a first specialist assessment in just the last financial year—a 26 percent increase from when we came into Government. I could go on and on. We are getting the job done. I am very proud of our country.

I thought there was a theme developing with the National members’ speeches, and it was all about how great the economies were going in their regions. Then Tim Macindoe got up and could not speak about the economy in the Waikato, because it is going down the tubes under this Government. It is shameful that he spent most of his speech talking about the Queen. Do not look at the Waikato economy going down the tubes; look at the Queen.

💬 Phil Twyford: Look over there.

Yes, look over there, look at the flag, go look at the Queen. The truth is that in the Waikato we are facing the perfect storm. We are facing the perfect storm.

💬 Tim Macindoe: Talk the region down all the time. Never have a good thing to say about our region.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order!

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. It is very difficult when the member is getting so angry about his lack of attention to the Waikato—

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will resume her seat. I have just drawn the member into line. I now invite the member to get on with her speech rather than refer to the ruling that I have just made, even if I have made it from my seat.

Well, I am disappointed that the member for Hamilton West did not talk about the Waikato economy, because it is the perfect storm. His Government ought to do something about it because at the moment we have got plummeting dairy milk prices, which is affecting our region and, at the same time, escalating house prices because that Government has failed to fix the housing crisis in Auckland. The crisis is marching on down over the hill, over the Bombays, and straight down to Hamilton, affecting house prices, increasing rents, and meaning that MPs like me and Tim Macindoe have got hordes of people coming into our offices trying to find decent places to live—trying to find places to live. That is what is happening in the Waikato.

But I do want to talk about a hopeful future for this country, because what we do need is a Government with a decent moral compass, one that is in touch with the people who it is there to represent. Who demonstrated that this week? Andrew Little demonstrated that in truckloads—in truckloads. He led the fight to get the refugee quota lifted and the emergency measures in place. Since April he has been calling for the refugee quota to be lifted. He did not have to wait to see the dreadful photos. He did not have to wait for Crosby/Textor to tell him to start moving. He did not have to wait to see public opinion starting to change. He knew since April that that was the right thing to do, because we could see the humanitarian crisis just revving up over in Europe and the Middle East and those parts of the world. What we need is the sort of leadership that Andrew Little demonstrated: the ability to say that that is the sort of thing that New Zealand can help with and should help with, and he was on the front foot on that issue.

I do not know what John Key was doing, but he certainly was not listening to the New Zealand public on this. It took him weeks to catch up, and that is not the sort of—

💬 Hon Member: At sea.

He was completely at sea with it. That is not the sort of leadership that we need, because John Key is taking his instructions from Crosby/Textor, and they got it wrong—they got it wrong. Mr Assistant Speaker—what?

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): I think the member has been here long enough to know that she cannot say that members are receiving instructions from outside parties. She will not say that. In fact, she will withdraw.

You would like me to withdraw?

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): I would.

OK, I withdraw. What I will say is that he takes his advice from Crosby/Textor. That is where he takes his advice from. He ought to be taking his advice from the New Zealand people, because the New Zealand people knew what the right thing to do was, and Andrew Little got that right as well.

A hundred years ago the New Zealand Labour Party was formed. It was formed on the back of a dispute by miners, who actually went on strike over crib-time. Crib-time is what they used to call getting a tea break. That is what miners were on strike about 100 years ago, and 100 years later we have that Government taking away ordinary workers’ right to have a tea break. Some things never change. The National Party is back to its old tricks, and the Labour Party is the one with the answers and the positive vision about what working life ought to look like.

Next week we will be talking about 26 weeks’ paid parental leave—another area where the Government is hopelessly out of touch with the New Zealand public because it does not understand and has no interest in knowing about the pressures on New Zealand families. It is the Labour Party that understands the pressures that are on New Zealand families, and we will fight. Yes, we are determined, and we are going to continue to fight to get that right, because while the National Party just takes a laissez-faire approach to it and tries to deal with the politics of it, it will continue to get this wrong. It is not about politics. It is actually about doing the right thing—doing the right thing, like Andrew Little had the instinct about and like the Labour Party has the instinct about—in making sure that every child gets the best start in life. It is clear that the best ideas are coming from this side of the House.

I would just like to make a contribution with regard to the comments made by the previous speaker, Sue Moroney, around the celebrations of the 100-year existence of the Labour Party. Who would have thought? I suspect that the forefathers of the Labour Party looking today at those benches would be disappointed at the scant affair that is being represented there today. Also, another point I would like to just acknowledge in the last member’s speech is that we heard so many times about how she has a vision and she has a contribution for New Zealand’s regions, yet we did not hear one initiative—not one sausage—about something that she would do in her home seat of Hamilton. She also thinks that the new expressway announced by the Minister of Transport today would be suitable for the landing of a Jetstar plane, also not quite appropriate and a bit out of touch, I would think.

I would like to join my colleagues and the colleagues across the floor in acknowledging Queen Elizabeth II, our longest-serving monarch in New Zealand. I would like to acknowledge Paul Foster-Bell, who has taken the opportunity to host a function in recognition of that tonight, on level 2, Parliament House.

I would just like to take up a couple of themes in my presentation, and they are around education and around tourism, specifically relating to the Clutha-Southland electorate. But first I would like to acknowledge my senior colleagues who, since I was elected almost a year ago, have gone out of their way to come down in droves to the Clutha-Southland electorate and meet with my constituents and familiarise themselves with the issues facing our region, and who are taking real action to address some of those challenges. We have had 51 town visits by Ministers and MPs from 18 of my colleagues over the last 12 months. The Opposition says we are not focused on the regions, but I have had half of caucus down to my electorate over the last 12 months. I have not seen many Labour MPs down there.

I have seen Annette King down there, observing the mess she created when she was health Minister. It has taken a National Government to put in a commissioner and finally sort out the issue that successive Governments have been facing with the Southern District Health Board. It has taken Jonathan Coleman to make the call and put in a commissioner, and she is doing a fantastic job. A future plan for the Southern District Health Board is what the commissioner is working on now, and I look forward to seeing her communicate that to the district in the coming days.

Just regarding the Southern District Health Board and health in the area, I want to acknowledge a project that I am personally involved with, which was initially driven by the previous member of Parliament for Clutha-Southland, Bill English. It is looking at alternative forms of governance for Wakatipu health. There is a feasibility study going on at the moment to see whether or not health in the Wakatipu district can be managed or governed in a separate way. A former Minister of Health, Bill English introduced community governance in Gore, Balclutha, Ōāmaru, and a number of other areas, and that is having a significant impact in that area. Only 60 percent of the funding for Gore Health Ltd comes from district health board contracts. The remaining 40 percent comes from dentists, GP services, and the mole-mapping clinic, and services all the way up to Ashburton. That is innovative thinking from provincial New Zealand. It is something that Queenstown can be a part of as well.

It is great to see new initiatives being taken up by this Government. It is exploring new ways of doing things. With regard to education, I have been proud to be able to promote and drive the Government’s Communities of Schools initiative, which so far has seen 12 of our 72 schools sign up. We have a further 15 schools that either are in negotiations with the ministry or have put forward an expression of interest to be part of a community of schools. This provides an innovative way for schools who are already working together to further strengthen their relationships and combine resources in order to get great outcomes for specific learning difficulties in particular geographical areas.

We have Mataura School, which has an art demonstration at Parliament at the moment. It is the largest-ever art display that has been in the Parliament Buildings, so I encourage all members to go and check that out. It is a piece of Southland that is being displayed in Bowen House at the moment. We have got a number of initiatives going around in education. The Minister of Education came down and she has met with almost all of our principals and board of trustees representatives over the last couple of months, in a series of meetings to find out what differences they need in order to continue doing a great job in education.

In terms of tourism we have a number of great initiatives going on. Tourism is a part of the economy that is booming at the moment. Tourism in Queenstown is going exceptionally well. We had about 1.9 million visitors last year. It is 4 percent of GDP nationally, just behind dairy. We have a number of projects going on to help sustain tourism growth in the area. One that I want to mention before sitting down is the Milford futures project that I am driving at the moment, which is to find a new way to sustainably manage tourism into Milford. Thank you.

What a great example from the previous speaker to make my next point. This National Government has become a Monty Python skit, straight off “Planet Key”. It is just wonderful to watch. They make noises about how wonderful things are. They make noises about being a hands-off Government and about being a laissez-faire management system—in that this Government should not do anything for private enterprise. This Government has no role to play, they say, in private business. They tell that to the New Zealand public with pride. But here is a bit of a brief reality check for members on the opposite side. Does MediaWorks ring a bell? Does Rio Tinto sound familiar? Does Warner Bros sound familiar? A hundred million times, a hundred million dollars, this Government has interfered and intervened in private business—even South Canterbury Finance, the company that abused the vagaries of the time. It was given over a billion dollars of taxpayers’ money.

New Zealand First can actually understand and support Government intervention in certain cases.

💬 Chris Bishop: Oh, of course you can.

It is the inconsistency, Mr Bishop. It is the inconsistency of this Government in the message that it tells New Zealand. It tells us that the Government should not intervene. It tells us that it should not pick and choose—

💬 Chris Bishop: Trust you guys! You’d pick better, right?

But Mr Bishop, you do pick and choose. You do intervene. As with just about every message from the Government, it says one thing but then its actions belie the lyrics from that wonderful song sheet that has been written for them: say a nice thing, do another.

New Zealanders do not need to be reminded of the $12 million payout to billionaire Saudi farmers for a model farm that New Zealand has no ownership of—not even a small part. It makes no sense whatsoever. Yesterday in the House the Rt Hon Winston Peters brought to the House’s attention the arbitrary decision-making of this Government to use a foreign-owned waste management company instead of a purportedly highly effective New Zealand company. There was no tender process—completely undemocratic.

Then there is Rocket Lab. We found out in the House today that this Government has been holding Rocket Lab up as a wonderful, successful example of Government helping out New Zealand business. But what we found out today is that this is a 100 percent American-owned company, and at this stage, the Government has handed over about $25 million so far. Stories are told by this Government about supporting Kiwi business, but Rocket Lab is an American company with shareholders such as Lockheed Martin, a billion-dollar foreign corporate. This Government is giving it money.

This Government is selling out. It is selling out New Zealand to large foreign corporates. They do not believe in small New Zealand business. We have been told that Mr Key and Mr Foss cannot even be bothered to turn up to the of small New Zealand business annual conference, and apparently this has been going on for 3 years. They just cannot be bothered. What this Government needs to appreciate is that it has agreed to new Government procurement rules, and that means they give no preference to New Zealand companies. But they give no cognisance to the fact that a million dollars spent in New Zealand results in an average of 10.5 new or sustained jobs, $105,000 taken back in tax, and $130,000 saved out of welfare payments. It is not racist—as New Zealand First is often accused of being—to be proud and to stand up for New Zealand and New Zealand first. It is, in fact, absolutely common sense.

This Government continues to be short-sighted in its decision making to sell off Kiwi land, Kiwi homes, and Kiwi businesses. The strategic partial sale of energy assets makes no economic sense whatsoever. In fact, it is theft from those Kiwis from the past who put the toil in to create those Kiwi-owned assets, and it is theft from future generations. New Zealanders, whether they be brand new or born here, must be proud to be New Zealanders. As so many examples from around the world show us quite starkly—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

This afternoon I would like to speak about an issue that has been in our courts a lot recently and in our media but has had very little response from this Government, and that, of course, is the issue of pay equity and the mass exploitation of women’s traditional work in this country. I want to frame it initially around recognising that if we addressed pay equity we could increase productivity in our country, we could improve the quality of our services, we could reduce child poverty, and we could increase consumer spending and the money that is going around businesses at a local level, which could then promote growth in our businesses and create more jobs.

Pay equity is not something to run away from. It is something to embrace as an absolute economic opportunity for this country and an opportunity to deliver some justice to women all around this country. In the words of a rather authoritative source, Audrey Young: “You’d have to have been raised on Mars not to know that ‘women’s work’ is worth less in the marketplace because it is women’s work.” Well, sadly, it seems “Planet Key” must be quite close to Mars. When the Prime Minister was asked about the issue of pay equity in response to the midwives’ case and whether he thought it was structural sexism, Mr Key said there were some industries that were dominated more by women than by men, but “whether that causes issues or not—one of the arguments people put up is: is it because they are women that the pay is slightly less, or is it because that’s what the job pays?”.

Our Prime Minister does not seem to have any understanding whatsoever of our law, which recognises equal pay, or of the issue of discrimination in terms of work of equal value within our law—what we have been telling the UN for decades now that we are committed to addressing. He seems to have no consciousness of our international obligations or even some basic established economic theories. He has no idea. He is just kind of responding, but not making much sense. What we know is that rest home workers are one example of a group that it is pretty obvious are being discriminated against. They are doing intimate work with significant and increasing technical skill being required of them, and heavy lifting, with people’s lives in their hands. Most of these workers are women and they are paid just over the minimum wage or at the minimum wage. If you think about the skills required in that job and whether the minimum wage is fair remuneration, it is blindingly obvious that it is not.

We also heard from the midwives last week that they are paid around $53,000 per annum, despite it being a job that requires a lot of training. They are required to be on call 24/7—which they are not paid for—and, again, they hold people’s lives in their hands. They are up for public notification if they get something wrong. It is an entirely skilled job. They are paid $53,000 a year because of the Government’s decisions.

All of these groups of people, including educational support workers, are in front of our courts at the moment. I am incredibly grateful for our unions and all of the low-paid workers within those unions who are funding those cases to try to get some justice for our communities and the women in our communities. But it did not have to rely on a court case. We do not have to litigate this through the court because it actually is blindingly obvious that there is exploitation going on and it is well established.

I want to call the Government out on being missing in action and actually working against the interests of our community in this area. When National came to Government in 2009 it closed down the pay and employment equity unit. It scrapped the plans that were in place to identify and redress this exploitation. The Government has been siding with the employers in the court. We cannot get a straight answer from the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety on whether the Government going to review the Act in order to be able to shut down these cases in the court. It is in our economic best interests to embrace pay equity and justice for women.

As New Zealanders we are fast becoming tenants in our own land. In Auckland, where a third of our population lives, 57 percent rent. They are tenants. For Māori people, only 28 percent own their own homes, which means 72 percent of tangata whenua in Aotearoa rent. They are becoming tenants in their own land. For Pacific people the number is even worse: 18 percent of Pacific Islanders own their own homes, so that means 82 percent of all Pacific people in New Zealand are tenants—82 percent—because homeownership is just so unaffordable for the majority of Pacific people in this country. Five years ago in 2010 our Prime Minister John Key stated: “I’d hate to see New Zealanders as tenants in their own country …”. He probably wishes that he had not made that statement, because that is, unfortunately, the future that so many New Zealanders are faced with now: being tenants in our own land because people just cannot afford to buy their own houses. This is not surprising, of course, particularly in Auckland where the average price of a house is $855,000 and climbing each week. South Auckland has suffered one of the worst fall-outs from this Government’s lack of control, with house prices having risen by 79 percent since 2008, and rising by 19 percent since last year alone.

The Government promised that there would be no more asset sales. That is yet another broken promise because that is exactly what this Government is currently doing, particularly with the selling-off of our second-largest asset, our State houses. That is exactly what this Government is doing—selling them off to their mates, to their private developer friends, and to overseas companies. Instead of keeping its promise of no more asset sales, this Government is going ahead with selling off our farmlands, selling off our school lands, selling off our school houses, and selling off other State-owned enterprises and State assets in addition to selling off our State houses.

Is this a Government that listens to the public though? Well, sometimes it does. Just recently in the last week or so it listened to the public when the public actually said that we should become good international citizens and take on more refugees—that New Zealand as a country should be more compassionate and should be more caring to those refugees overseas. But instead of waiting for polls and instead of waiting for the focus groups to tell the Prime Minister and this Cabinet and this Government to do the right thing with the refugees, this is something that the Prime Minister should have taken leadership on without having to wait for those polls and those focus groups to tell him to do so.

On the issue of selling off our State assets, this Government has arrogantly ignored two-thirds of New Zealanders who last term voted against the selling-off of our State assets. They voted against selling off Mighty River Power, Meridian Energy, and Air New Zealand. Instead of developing and implementing a comprehensive economic vision, members of this Government are just putting their head in the sand and hoping in respect of the economic realities—in terms of what they say when they try to make the economic realities appear as good and as positive as possible according to the National Government—that somehow the people of New Zealand are going to agree that everything is fine and that homes, particularly in Auckland, are not going through the roof.

This Government would throw away one of our most precious assets—our homes; the homes that could house our most vulnerable, the homes that actually already house our elderly, the homes that house a lot of our disabled. These are our State-owned homes. The family of Emma-Lita Bourne is one of those tenants from my electorate in Ōtara. Emma-Lita unfortunately died because her family’s house was mouldy, leaking, damp, and freezing—and she lived in a State house. This morning I heard the Hon Bill English saying on Radio New Zealand National that it is the responsibility of tenants—that it is up to tenants to let the Government agencies know that they have maintenance issues. Well, in the case of the Bourne family, that family let the Government agencies know—not once, not twice, but 48 different times—

💬 Hon Ruth Dyson: What?

—48 different times—that there were maintenance issues in their house before the unfortunate event of this little girl passing away. It would be great if this current Government, instead of pointing the finger at the previous Government of 7 to 8 years ago, took responsibility for things that happen on its watch. Thank you.

It is a pleasure to round off this debate, for a couple of reasons. The first is that I congratulate the Queen on being the longest-reigning monarch over New Zealand, which is exciting. The second reason is that the 1-year anniversary is soon coming up for the class of 2014, and my own 1-year anniversary of being elected to the position of MP. This is very exciting. I think that has given us enough leverage to at least assess how the House behaves and perhaps assess the performance of the various teams that make up the benches in this House.

What do we have directly opposite? Well, we have a writhing cesspit of negativity, clinging to the hope that one day people will agree with their warped sense of world view. You know, sometimes we will introduce bills into this House that members opposite may agree with in part, but they still cannot bring themselves to be gracious, when this is a moderate Government that is appealing to New Zealanders who have issues and are looking to solve them with pragmatic solutions.

I want to address the member opposite who said that Labour is the party for workers. Well, I would dispute that. I want to celebrate the announcement last month that New Zealand Aluminium Smelters got a deal across the line with Meridian Energy for the supply of power. If it were up to the members opposite, they would have left New Zealand Aluminium Smelters to rot. That is 800 direct jobs at the smelter and 3,000 indirect jobs. They would have left it to rot. Instead, what did this Government do? We supported our people, we believed in them, and we believed that their jobs were worth it and the economy was worth it. We supported the regions.

The Invercargill electorate is an export-driven economy, and how we are supporting that is through the Business Growth Agenda. Without us selling our primary goods and services to the rest of the world, there would be no jobs, there would be no incomes for our people, and we certainly would not have a labour participation rate of 74.3 percent, compared with the rest of New Zealand at 69.3 percent.

We need more people to help our production. One of the other initiatives that we have is that we have changed our immigration rules. Immigration initiatives are so vital for the provinces, despite members opposite always rounding up on foreigners and people who want to come to New Zealand to make a better life for themselves and contribute positively to our economy. So changing the points system so that skilled migrants can come to the regions, making it easier for them to come to the regions and commit for 12 months, which is a long time frame, means they can come and be integrated into our society and produce and contribute. They can not only help to produce our 14 percent of total export receipts, but also contribute to our society in an intangible way by having their children in our schools, thereby adding to the diversity and tolerance in our area. It is absolutely wonderful.

There are jobs for the vulnerable too. We are supporting the vulnerable. Obviously we have made increases to benefits—a net $25 for our most vulnerable people. But also there are jobs in Invercargill for our beneficiaries. We have had a decrease in beneficiary numbers by 4 percent, which means nearly 200 people are going back into the workforce in Invercargill.

So, again, through our Business Growth Agenda we want to see more connectivity. We want to connect even our southernmost businesses with the rest of the world. I note that that was something New Zealand First did not support, yet they have the audacity to ask the Minister about connectivity. Connectivity is so important to our regions, especially when you are in remote areas. We are continuing to move that initiative forward so that our businesses can export.

I just want to say that we are not one-trick ponies down in Southland. It is not just all about agriculture, which often resonates from the other side of this House. We have other opportunities too. We have tourism—fledgling tourism sites that are growing at an exponential rate because of the magical scenery that is down south. We are attracting both domestic and international visitors to the Catlins.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.