General Debate

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business. In a spirit of great positivity, can I say that last week New Zealand heard some very positive news. We heard that the economy has grown by 3.5 percent compared with the previous year, and the Government has been at pains to point out that this is one of the strongest levels of economic growth of any developed country across the OECD. So this ought to be a cause for celebration, and in some circumstances it would be. But, of course, if you look at different figures—if you look at the per capita rate of growth—not so much. It is not necessarily so good. And, according to Bill English’s answers in question time today, if you sort of squint your eyes and turn the page up the other way, you will see it trending in a direction, but, actually, not necessarily up.

There are other numbers that tell a different story about New Zealand. The week before last we saw the numbers from the income survey that told us that, on average, the bottom 20 percent of households in New Zealand now spend more than half their income on housing. We heard that 28 percent of families in New Zealand are spending nearly a third of their income just on housing, either paying a mortgage or paying rent—just having a roof over their heads—and yet the top 20 percent of households by income have seen the proportion of their income going on housing falling, and the average cost to them in terms of proportion of income is just 9 percent.

We have a problem in New Zealand, still, of rapidly growing inequality. It is unfair and it is wrong. It is little wonder, then, that we are also home to that very embarrassing statistic in a country of 4½ million of having 42,000 people who are homeless. For far too many New Zealanders, their incomes are simply not keeping up with the real cost of living, and we heard the figure that for the top 10 percent of earners, their income is now nearly 10 times—10 times—the income of the bottom 10 percent. Thirty years ago it was just six times that. Housing costs are out of control. The average house in Auckland is now $1 million, and across New Zealand it is $750,000. We have a young generation coming out of further education and training saddled with debt, and it is affecting their life choices and their life chances. We might have a growing economy, but we have something else that has grown at an extraordinary rate, and that is inequality. We can do better. We can be a better New Zealand.

You see, a better New Zealand will make sure that there are affordable houses for all New Zealanders, to buy and to rent. A better New Zealand will pass the laws, work with the developers, work with the councils, and work with iwi to make sure that this can happen. A better New Zealand will make sure that there is a State housing organisation that is about looking after the vulnerable, not about passing on excessive profits to the Government of the day.

A better New Zealand will make sure that we have a well-supported and fairly funded education system that will give our children the chance of success. A better New Zealand will make sure that every school will have the resources and the means and the leadership to offer our children—all children—the best teaching and learning.

A better New Zealand will make sure that we have a health system that has healthcare available to all New Zealanders when they need it, and will not discriminate against the elderly, or depending on where you live.

A better New Zealand will make sure that we have a police force that has the resources and the support to keep our communities safe. A better New Zealand does not have rising burglaries, rising assaults, and rising violence.

A better New Zealand will go the extra mile for our young people who are presently not in work to make sure they get work, they get training, they get skills, and they get ahead. A better New Zealand will get to work on lifting incomes, and will work with business and with workers and their unions so that they can work together to lift productivity and lift their incomes and live with greater dignity.

Labour stands for that better New Zealand. Labour stands for dignity. Labour stands for a successful future for all New Zealand.

That speech from Andrew Little just proves that it did not work. The Leader of the Opposition flew off to Canada to get advice from the second-most positive politician in the world, after John Key, and he said: “Mr Little, be positive.” He got off the plane, and I thought: “OK. I’m sceptical, but I’ll be positive. This might work.” But, as the days have gone on, including today, it turns out that some things just cannot happen.

The Opposition being positive? Well, it is like Andrew Little looking happy—it just cannot happen. Grant Robertson looking industrious? It just cannot happen. The Labour Party coming up with a progressive idea? It just cannot happen. New Zealand First acting rationally? It just cannot happen. So the trip to Canada was a waste of time, and it should not have been because there is so much to be positive about—so much. It is overwhelming, actually, in respect of the economy—an overwhelming amount of evidence that the economy is progressing positively and delivering consistent and moderate benefits to New Zealand households.

The growth rate is pretty good. We are third or fourth top in the OECD. Unemployment is at around 5 percent. The Government books are stable and in surplus. Employment growth is stronger than it has been for a while. There is a big turn-around in the number of New Zealanders leaving this country—thousands of them are staying home, when they were leaving in their thousands just a few years ago. Even in the dairy industry commodity prices are picking up.

But, of course, from the Opposition’s point of view this is not how it was meant to be. We had the manufacturing crisis, the cost of living crisis, the jobs crisis, and the post-earthquake crisis, when the economy was meant to fall in a hole after the earthquake. But my favourite is the dairy crisis, because we have had two crises with the dairy industry: first, that it was going too well, and then that it was going badly. They were both a crisis. And, of course, what we know in this House is that as soon as the Opposition says it is a crisis, it starts going really well. That is what happens every time.

What did those members do to be positive? Grant Robertson and Andrew Little both stuck to their jobs. Andrew Little went to every poll he could to try to find the negative one, and he did, on his desk—the poll he had done himself. That was the end of being positive about Government in New Zealand. Grant Robertson, surprisingly, I have to say—and I am positive about this—went through 22 pages of economic data. That is probably more this week than in the previous number of years he has been the spokesman—22 pages. He found a negative number, one-quarter of real disposable income after tax for one quarter, and he said: “That’s negative.”

If Justin Trudeau was ever interested in whether anyone ever listens to him, then he should ask the New Zealand Labour Party, because it did not. And that is Labour’s problem. It is fundamentally out of kilter with the aspiration and confidence of New Zealand. It is running the best arguments out of 1996 about the economy. But it has changed: it is better. It is different. It is strong. It is forward-looking. It is aspirational. It is delivering the ability to solve a whole range of problems, from Treaty settlements through to how we get more effective public services.

Labour’s positive phase is over. It lasted from the door of the airplane to when Andrew Little got through customs, and that was it. Now it is back to the same old grinding negativity, although you must say the Leader of the Opposition is well adapted to that task, and I am sure he is going to stick to it.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Kia ora tātou katoa. It is with a bit of a heavy heart that I take a call today. I have a heavy heart because—

💬 Clayton Mitchell: Here we go—here we go.

You know what is coming, eh, boys? You know what is coming. I thought that tomorrow was going to be a good day. Four iwi tribal nations were going to come to this Parliament and be hugely grateful because the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations was going to deliver some goodies for them to allow them to go into the future. I come here with a heavy heart, because I know many of those people. I know many of those people in Taranaki who are waiting for tomorrow—actually, not just tomorrow, but for Friday. Actually, I have pretty much never been here on a Friday because we go and do business out in the community. What happened was New Zealand First pulled the plug. It pulled the plug on Māoridom—it pulled the plug on Māoridom. Let us have a look at it: 2 weeks ago all parties in this House agreed at the Business Committee that five—five—settlement bills would be brought to this House this Friday.

💬 Hon Members: So what?

So what? So what? New Zealand First pulled the plug on it. It pulled the plug on Māoridom to allow them—

💬 Clayton Mitchell: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I would just like to clarify for the House’s record that we have not pulled the plug. This is nothing to do with New Zealand First—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is not a point of order. If the member uses a point of order like that again simply to break a speech, I will deal with it very severely.

Ngāruahine from Taranaki, Te Atiawa from Taranaki, my in-laws Taranaki iwi, Rangitāne o Manawatu, Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa—today they are hugely brassed off. Why? Because over 400 people were coming to Wellington from the Far North, from Taranaki, and from Manawatū. Why? It was because they wanted their day in the sun. Te Atiawa has been waiting for 30 years to come to this Parliament. I was there. I met the people. I know their pain, unlike some of this lot—unlike some of this lot. So it is a huge disappointment that they have been let down, and they should never trust New Zealand First to back them—never trust them at all. Hundreds of people made arrangements to come to this House. They paid out of their own pockets. They organised their own transport and accommodation for 2 days. And you know what? They are going to have to pay for it, because it has all gone down the gurgler. Why? Because New Zealand First found some sort of technicality to decide that it was going to pull the plug on Māoridom.

It could have done a number of things—it could have done a number of things. It could have raised issues at the agreement in principle phase. It could have raised issues before the deed of settlement. It could have raised issues in the select committee process. It could have had a Supplementary Order Paper. And, of course, it could have gone back to the iwi. It could have done all that long before yesterday. Oh, but no, no, no, no—“We’ll do it 2 days in advance. That is plenty of time for 200-plus people who were coming from throughout the country to cancel their planes.”

I say that one party in this House should be absolutely ashamed of itself today for what it has done to our people, who have so many dreams and aspirations that they want to realise. But it is all held up because it is as if one party has said: “Oh, we’re changing the rules of Parliament.” I do not think so—I do not think so. [Interruption] We are playing with the rules? There is only one party that is playing with the rules, and it is called New Zealand First. Why? I will tell you why: because it talks about this vote. It talks about a party vote.

Actually, pretty much most of us were going to go out and do the community stuff that we are all asked to do, including—oh, maybe not New Zealand First. But, anyway, the rest of us work, and it is common protocol to follow the course of action that is set out. But for one reason—and Taranaki and Manawatū have not been told yet by New Zealand First why—it pulled the plug.

So, just to help us, I will just take one quote. Here is a quote—this is from Peter Moeahu—“I attended Māori Affairs select committee hearings where submissions were heard, all of them in favour of the bill reading. Their member sat through the select committee process and at that time said there were no problems at all. We can have no idea as to why they called late information, or where this came from. Frankly, we are very disappointed and disgusted at New Zealand First for what they’ve done.”

My message is this to Te Ao Māori: Te Ao Māori, kia tūpato ki tēnei ngāngara! [Māoridom, be careful with this creepy-crawly!]

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. [Interruption]

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! I am just waiting for silence, and then I will hear the point of order.

That member, Te Ururoa Flavell, is digging such a big hole, I seek leave for the House to give him extended time. [Interruption]

Order! The member will resume his seat. The time for his speech has finished, and the member cannot seek leave on behalf of another member.

I want to rise, firstly, and support Te Ururoa Flavell because he is one member of this House who supports and promotes regional economic development, in deed as well as word. Unlike one or two other members of this House who talk a lot about regional economic development and do less than diddly-squat—less than diddly-squat—for regional economic development, Te Ururoa Flavell is out there every day working for New Zealanders in regional parts of the country, and encouraging them to have aspirations for themselves and their families.

This Friday was to be another step forward for some of those regions, and the weasel-worders of New Zealand First have ankle tapped that aspiration for regional New Zealand. Regional New Zealanders will recognise that. They will recognise the level of contempt for their time, for their money, and for their efforts to come to this city and be aspirational for their futures. They will not forget that this Friday.

This country is growing strongly. It is growing strongly, not on the efforts of clowns like the Rt Hon Winston Peters, but on the efforts of hard-working New Zealanders in regional New Zealand—people whom the Labour Party was laughing at today on the West Coast; people whom the Labour Party was treating with derision today for their aspiration to grow their region and for their aspiration and their coming together with central government yesterday to create a positive plan for the growth of their region.

Up and down this country, people in small, medium, and large companies—not Governments and not politicians; small, medium, and large companies—are the people who have grown this economy 3.6 percent over the last year. It is small, medium, and large New Zealand companies that are hiring the people who have seen 325,000 more jobs in this economy since the height of the global financial crisis. It is small, medium, and large companies that are building the biggest building boom that New Zealand has ever seen.

The Labour Party might like to sit over there and deny all of that because it is the progenitor of post-truth politics. It does not want to believe the evidence at all, because Grant Robertson, when he runs around talking about post-truth politics, is talking about himself. That is a denial of what hard-working New Zealanders are doing every day to get this country running, to get jobs growing, and to provide people with aspiration and opportunity and wages so they can lift themselves up out of the challenging circumstances that some find themselves in.

As a result, we have the lowest level of youth—15 to 19-year-olds—out of work, education, and training that we have ever had, but not according to the Opposition. Again, that is not the politicians’ actual work; that is because this Government has worked hard to get it to a point where those things can happen. Across the other side of the House, members are in denial. They are in such denial that they are even denying the polls of New Zealanders. So they are not just denying the businesses; they are denying the attitudes of New Zealanders who are recognising what this country is doing to succeed in every region of this country.

This week we have seen New Zealand First show the most contempt—the most contempt—for the people of regional New Zealand by getting them to book tickets to come to this city to celebrate their Treaty settlements, and Winston Peters has given them what is known up my way as a two-fingered salute and said: “It’s all about me. It’s not about you. It’s not about your aspirations, your young people, and your futures.” That is the selfishness that is New Zealand First.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou, kia ora. I would like to start by paying tribute to my departing colleague, Kevin Hague. Last night, in his final speech, he talked about the worthy issues that have, unfortunately, been ignored by this Government over the last 8 years, and the frustration of the partisan political response. We have watched this lot this season—for eight seasons—and I want, in this contribution, to ask what the Government’s story is.

I agree with Kevin’s sentiment. It has been a Government that has taken only a token response to the tough questions. It has been a “bare minimum” Government. You only have to look at the announcement it has made to look into it. Take “50 by 50”, which is its greenhouse gas target. It is a snappy slogan, sure—never mind the science—but the fact is that all its Government policies are actually around increasing emissions and pollution, not reducing it.

Take the policy for a pest-free Aotearoa by 2050—great. It is pretty hard to find anyone in this country who is opposed to that, but then the Government does not fund it to meet the target, and members go off and have photo ops with a bunch of kiwis. Take electric vehicles—another area where it is great to see intention. It is an area where we have got an issue that takes more dollars and sense than almost anywhere else on the planet. However, Simon Bridges decides to set a target that is less than his officials’ do-nothing scenario, and then he does nothing. Simon Bridges has launched that one eight times.

The Government has set so many empty targets across the 8 years, you have got to wonder: does National actually have internal key performance indicators, internal meetings, to come up with setting those empty targets? It is Government by meme, Government by slogan, Government by focus group. It is a Government that cares more about looking like acting than actually acting. You have got to give its members credit though: they are pretty good performance actors.

It is damaging, because the country faces huge challenges and we need action, not a bunch of actors. Instead, when we do get the substance, what we see is the Government selling things off or passing them on to its corporate mates. It sold our power companies and it is selling our farms. It sold out on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. It sold out on charter schools, and, in the midst of a housing crisis, it is selling out the State houses.

Once upon a time, there was a great Prime Minister in this country who was immortalised carrying in the dining table to help a family move into their first State house. In contrast, Key, who grew up in a State house—the supposed character from central casting—is the one putting a “For Sale” sign out front.

There is something important I want to touch on: Key is the Government’s best actor out of that lot. He is going to contest the next election, but I want to ask: will he continue the role if, by chance, he scrapes through on another one-seat majority into a fifth term? I doubt he is going to continue in that role. So the question for voters is: who is going to be picking the next Prime Minister? Is it going to be the bunch over there—the extras on the backbench? We have seen it in Australia in 2010, 2013, and 2015. We saw it in Britain this year. Who is going to be picking the next Prime Minister? Is it going to be the National backbench extras or the people of New Zealand directly?

The Government’s plan, of course, is to ignore the pressing issues, ignore unswimmable rivers, ignore inequality, and ignore homelessness. It must be hard writing a script to avoid the issues every week, but, luckily, Nuk Korako—he stepped up with an adventure story of how to rescue bags from airports. In his legislative cameo, Matt Doocey is taking up parliamentary time with a story about how we can email instead of writing letters to shareholders to see whether they want a hard copy of the form.

But what we know is that we sometimes see the incompetence behind the bad acting. Take Nick Smith. This guy has got the reverse Midas touch—everything he touches turns to dust. He announced grand plans to release land, but forgot to mention he was talking about cemeteries and substations. There are measures, there are policies, there are initiatives, but there are not houses being built. This is the Minister who took something that the vast majority of New Zealanders support, including many iwi—the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary—and somehow managed to turn it into a Treaty of Waitangi breach and a threat to Government stability. Can I suggest, as he considers retirement, that he considers—and I, please, ask this—a position in the coaching team for the Wallabies?

Then we have got the invisible Minister for Women doing her worst impersonation of an out-of-date stereotype, which is to be seen but not heard.

It is time for New Zealand to have a conversation about not acting, but action. It is time for solutions, it is time for a positive vision, and it is time for less of this focus on treating New Zealanders as viewers. It is time to treat New Zealanders as informed citizens, give them the information, show the leadership, and take the tough calls. It is time for a new chapter.

As we are here in the debating chamber this afternoon, there are unlikely to be a lot of New Zealanders watching us, but for those who are, they might be—[Interruption] An extra 250,000 New Zealanders are not watching us because they are in work now. But let us think about the demeanour of the parties in the Parliament at the moment.

On this side of the House, we could throw a party—and I will talk a little bit more about why soon. But, in the meantime, let us just examine what is happening on the other side of the House. Disappointment reigns in Labour—disappointment because the money it expended, or, rather, the taxpayers of New Zealand expended, sending its leader off to Canada so that he could transform from “Angry Andy” to “Sunshine Sandy” did not work. No, it did not work.

Then, I have to say that the Green Party must be feeling disappointed on two counts. I, first, want to acknowledge Kevin Hague and his work while he has been in this House. There must be disappointment to lose talent like this, because Kevin has worked creatively and positively with many other members of this House. That has been acknowledged here this week, and I too want to acknowledge him—you will be missed.

But there is also disappointment that the Greens’ potential partners—if and when the people of New Zealand ever think they are worthy of the Government’s Treasury benches—are unbelievably disorganised, so much so that any possibility that New Zealand First members might appeal to Māoridom to vote for them, for whatever reason, is out the window, down the drain. How horribly embarrassing for the position that New Zealand First now finds itself in. Think about how much it cost those 400 people to book their flights, to book their accommodation—but no, New Zealand First does not care. The outrage from the Māori Party is absolutely as it should be, on behalf of the people who will be missing out. [Interruption]

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! We are now getting to the stage where I cannot hear the speaker. The main interjector is Darroch Ball. If he continues to interject through the general debate, I will be asking him to leave.

Thank you for the opportunity to continue, because it is time to talk about why we might party. There are lots of reasons why we might party, but we are not going to because there is still a hang of a lot of work to do. The reason we might party is that New Zealand is growing the third-fastest in the OECD—3.6 percent for the last year. It is the envy of so many other nations, but there is a lot more to be done. We are getting on with the work.

I want to talk about the unemployment rate in Canterbury. Actually, it is a little worrying because it is now down from 4 percent 2 years ago to 3.2 percent, and we are crying out for people to fill the jobs. On a recent visit to my electorate of Rangitata, Steven Joyce discovered that Industrial Controls, a tech company, is going gangbusters and could easily take on 20 more people in the next 2 years, but those people are quite hard to find. We have got good accommodation for them—affordable accommodation for them—great schools, and a fabulous community to live in, but unemployment is quite low. We would love the people from the rest of New Zealand who need those jobs to come and live in the Rangitata electorate. So that is good news.

We have got real wages—that is, wages adjusted for inflation; not pretend wages—growing at 1.4 percent per annum. That is 50 percent faster than it was under Labour—a fact it is not particularly interested in. The real families of the Rangitata electorate want to know they have got a job, they want to know that their wages are growing, and they want to know that their mortgages are going to stay, hopefully, really, really low, in the way they have been. That has been such a bonus for them making ends meet.

The people of New Zealand are out there saying: “Government, you’ve still got some work to do.” We know that. We understand that, and we have plans for many, many more initiatives that will tackle some of the really hard stuff that the Opposition would rather talk about than come up with plans about. So it is all talk, no plans, terribly negative—embarrassed over there, and ashamed over there. It is positive over here, but no time to party just yet.

Yesterday I was back in my old home town of Dunedin, and as I walked along the streets and saw the familiar landmarks, the wonderful historic heritage, and the haunts of my youth, I thought about how fortunate I am to have grown up in that city and, indeed, in this country, blessed as we are with incredible natural resources, talented and creative people, and a solid foundation laid by previous generations. As a boy from South Dunedin, I benefited from New Zealand at its best, growing up in a home that was purchased from capitalising the family benefit, going to fantastic local schools with kids of all backgrounds, and enjoying the coastal environment, in the hope that my life would be better in the future.

I got to thinking yesterday about the kids growing up in South Dunedin or South Auckland or south Waikato, and I thought to myself: “Are we giving them the chances offered by New Zealand at its best?”. Sadly, the answer, with the Government we have today, is that we are not. New Zealand at its best means that no matter who you are or where you are from, it is your talent and hard work that will define your success, but at the moment in this country, we seem to have delinked those things. Who you know is more important than what you know under this Government—the Koru Club economy, where whom John Key or Steven Joyce meet at the buffet matters most, rather than what they are providing in terms of productivity for New Zealand; where commercial fishers seem to get away with it and recreational fishers do not; and where Saudi sheep farms are the priority, not New Zealanders working hard.

New Zealand is at its best when we stand up for the marginalised or for those who are left out, and not when we have a Government that makes excuses or will not measure a problem to know whether it even exists, and not when we have a country where 10,000 extra young people in the last year were left living with too few pairs of shoes or without a good bed to sleep in. We are at our best when we offer every New Zealander a fair share in prosperity. We have seen growth numbers this week, but they hide what is really happening. Disposable income is falling. The poorest New Zealanders are shouldering the burden of the housing crisis, with half of the bottom 20 percent of income earners paying 50 percent of their income in housing costs. Forty thousand New Zealanders are homeless. Wages are stagnant. That is not New Zealand at its best.

We are at our best when we celebrate success and prosperity and we all do and pay our fair share, when we do not give a free pass to those who fail to do this, and when the Prime Minister does not stand up and say: “If you’re worth more than $50 million but you’re claiming to earn only $70,000, it’s OK because you pay a lot of GST.” That is what John Key said. Hard-working New Zealanders pay a lot of GST, and they pay their way.

And New Zealand is at its best when we offer to every young New Zealander the opportunity to grow up in a safe, warm, and secure home, with a world-class education at their local school and with their parents safe in the knowledge that if they get sick, they will be looked after.

We have built this hopeful sense of opportunity on the efforts of past generations, who have been dedicated to the idea that the next generation should be better off than them. But we are facing the very real prospect that the next generation will be the first to be worse off than the one that preceded it—high levels of student debt, insecure work, and some of the lowest levels of homeownership that we have ever seen. New Zealand is at its best when people work hard, do the right things in their communities, and know that there is a Government that will back them, and not be a disinterested bystander stuck in an ideological rut like this Government is.

Labour wants New Zealand to be at its best again. That is why we are focusing on building opportunity for a good life—wherever you live in New Zealand—supporting high-wage industries and jobs, supporting strong regions, and giving people more hope and opportunity through policies like 3 years’ free education post-school or training, restoring health funding, fixing the homelessness crisis, and giving New Zealanders the chance of the security of homeownership. When I was in Dunedin yesterday I was talking about the future of work. That is what Labour is focused on—building an adaptable, resilient, and inclusive economy where people can have good jobs and high wages into the future. That is New Zealand at its best, and with a Labour Government, New Zealand will be at its best.

It will come as no surprise that there is one party that should not be in this Parliament, and that is the New Zealand First Party. I have said it for years. It should not be here, and its members should never be allowed in this Parliament because they do not represent what is important for New Zealand. They are deliberately using the system just to promote their personal interests and get their own gain out of it. That is all they do. That is all the New Zealand First Party members ever do. That is all they do.

We can see it with the Treaty settlements that were supposed to be here on Friday. We heard a great speech from the Māori Party leader, who was telling us about—

💬 Ron Mark: What’s his name?

It is Te Ururoa Flavell. He told us what you, Ron Mark, need to know, and that is that Ron Mark deliberately broke that process down, the process that would have actually enabled settlement for people who have been waiting for 30 years to have their day in this Parliament—30 years. Mr Winston Peters has been in Parliament for that long. He has been in Parliament for 30 years and could not give other people their day. He could not come into this Parliament and make a decision and help them out. This is something that had been agreed on by the whole Parliament.

This is not something new. This is something that the New Zealand First Party just tried to make political capital out of. That is what the New Zealand First Party is about. Its members have been doing it for years. Every time we talk about migration, they make political capital out of other people. It is the fear factor. Taking advantage of other people—that is what that party stands for. Those members cannot, and should not, be in this Parliament. We should not give them the time of day. But people need to know what they actually stand for. People need to know what New Zealand First actually means. New Zealand First members never vote for anything in this Parliament. They never do anything in this Parliament. They are just here, clipping the ticket, and watching. That is all the New Zealand First Party has ever done.

Look at them all sitting there. None of them have done anything. What have they ever done for their electorates? They have got no electorates, so they cannot do anything. What have they ever done for New Zealand as a whole? Name one piece of legislation New Zealand First has put up in this Parliament that has helped New Zealanders—name one. Name one piece of legislation that has actually gone through and helped New Zealanders. You cannot name one. Name one piece of infrastructure that they have provided for New Zealanders. You cannot name one. It is impossible to name one because they have done nothing. Thirty years in this Parliament, and what is the response? Nothing. They have done nothing but create fear, create anger, create disappointment, and let people down. That is all the New Zealand First Party will ever be known for. That is all that its members will ever have done. They are a disgrace to Parliament, and we all know that in here.

The people who would have come here on Friday, who have given years of their lives to see this—that will not actually happen because the New Zealand First Party members deliberately destroyed that process. They deliberately destroyed it for their own gain. They will not win out of this—the New Zealand public are not that silly. The New Zealand public will see through salesmen like that—shoddy salesmen who are trundling the old goods that they have been trundling for 30 years. The New Zealand public will see through this—they will see through this.

We do not need the Donald Trumps of the world in this Parliament. We need people who are actually going to build a country, who are going to respect all people in this country, who will respect people who come from different countries and make New Zealand their home, who will respect the people of New Zealand who come here with legitimate grievances, looking to this Parliament to sort them out, and who will respect our country going forward. New Zealand First members will do none of those things. They never have, and they never will. Name one of the things that they have ever done to help New Zealanders. We would love to hear that.

💬 Hon Member: Work for the Dole.

Oh, Work for the Dole—these guys here are all on the dole. They are all on the dole. They are all sitting there, and they are sitting there only as long as they vote for Winston when he tells them to. Even better than that, not only do they have to vote for Winston but Darroch Ball has to get Winston to write his questions for him. He has to get him to write his questions. They cannot even write their own questions—Winston writes their questions. They all vote for Winston.

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. We are prepared to take that sort of address—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Can I have the point of order, please.

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: —but the point is that you cannot mention a member by their first name.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: I agree.

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: And that is not the least—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Order! I need no more. On this occasion the Rt Hon Winston Peters is absolutely right. We are not going to have this Parliament reverting to members referring to other members simply by their Christian names. Mr Bennett should refer to Mr Peters either as Mr Peters or as Winston Peters. [Interruption]

Or “Whatever”—“Whoever.” Sometimes I wonder whether he actually still exists, or whether they just trundle him out every 3 years, bring him out, and put him on a campaign slogan. I remember this campaign slogan from the last election: “It’s Common Sense! … Join this historical campaign and stand up for the values that make our country great.” The values—

The member’s time has expired.

I do not know whether the member who has just resumed his seat is aware of this, but we have microphones in front of us and there is a sound system throughout the whole building. There is no need to yell, Mr Bennett. In fact, if your microphone was off, I would still be able to hear you too much, to be honest.

The arrogance of that member, who thinks that he can come into this Parliament and dictate which other parties are represented—it is called a general election, and enough people voted for New Zealand First that it is entitled to be here. All of us imagine how it would be if everyone else voted the same way as we wanted them to, but that is not democracy. We have a healthy democracy in New Zealand, and we end up with people in National, ACT, United Future, the Greens, New Zealand First, and the Māori Party. Not all of us like it, but it makes for a healthy democracy. So put away the arrogance, Mr Bennett, and think about what people outside in the real world actually voted for. To have a lecture on racism and race relations from that member, whose party paid for billboards that said “Iwi/Kiwi”—that is taking arrogance to a new level.

I think an increasing number of people are saddened by what they know and understand and see as growing inequality in our country. That is what we have seen every year for the last 8 years. For many New Zealanders, the dream that I grew up with, the Kiwi Dream of being able to have a good education, get a job that pays properly, work hard and save, and be able to buy a home of your own—that Kiwi Dream that I thought everyone would be able to grow up with is just slipping away, because over the last 8 years house prices have gone up at a crazy level. There has been an over 62 percent increase in average house prices in New Zealand over the last 8 years. We know it is even worse in Auckland. You would have to save for years to have a deposit on the front doorstep of an Auckland home now. The average price is over a million dollars. Other than high-income earners, which we all are in this House, how many do we know who would just be able to get a job, work hard, save hard, and have a deposit on a $1 million home in Auckland? How many? I am asking the National Government members. How many average people in your electorates do you know who would be able to do that—get a job, work hard, save hard, and put a deposit on a house in Auckland for $1 million? A lot of people now just have that Kiwi Dream slipping away from them.

We know that the gap between those who have and those who have not is getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Is that because people on low incomes are lazy, as Bill English would point out? I do not agree with him. I know many people on low incomes who work a lot harder than many members of this House, and we are on very high incomes. We have a privileged position in this House, but it does not mean that we should be patronising and dismissive of people who are on low incomes and who work as hard as they possibly can.

If you look at every income group in New Zealand, for the lowest two income groups particularly—the people who earn less than most other people in New Zealand—every year the percentage of people in those two income brackets who pay more than a third of their income on housing costs has gone up. So every year for the last 8 years, the percentage of people on the lowest incomes who pay more than a third of their income on housing costs has gone up, and, at the very same time over those 8 years, the percentage of the top bracket—the top 20 percent of income earners—who pay more than a third of their income on housing needs has gone down. So the highest-income earners pay less as a percentage of their income on housing while the two lowest income brackets pay more. How is that fair? That is on Minister Anne Tolley’s department’s own figures. Official Government figures say that the highest-income earners pay less and the lowest-income earners pay more. I do not think that is fair at all.

Growing inequality in our country is just wrong. In my view, and in Labour’s view, every single member of a New Zealand society and community should have a chance—

Barbara Kuriger—I would have called the member earlier if she had called loudly.

It is a week of highs and lows, and to get up in the morning for the last few dairy auctions and find that the price is gradually starting to change—the 50c announcement in the forecast from Fonterra recently was absolutely brilliant for our farmers. Today, to wake up again—I am actually starting to look forward to waking up every fortnight, on a Wednesday morning, and seeing things gradually starting to change. It goes with a word of caution, though, because there is quite an amount of debt that has accrued over the last 2 or 3 years, so there is still caution in place because there is a lot of debt to be paid back.

What has disappointed me over the last 2 or 3 years is that everything in the economy has been going particularly well for many of our primary industries, but, unfortunately, the cream on the top, which has been dairy, has been missing. I look forward to that cream on the top coming back again and our dairy farmers starting to smile.

I acknowledge the people from the rural support trust who have been out there helping over that time to keep people afloat, not only financially but in terms of the care and attention needed when people are under pressure. So that is a high. The low has been that I was looking forward to Friday of this week because the iwi of Taranaki, Te Atiawa, and Ngāruahine were really looking forward to coming here. We have got 3.6 percent growth in this country, and we have got iwi here that are looking forward to partaking in this growth. They actually have a vision, they have a future, and I know that they were looking forward to coming down here on Friday. I am going to be here on Friday—[Interruption]

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will resume her seat. It is not so much the volume of the barracking, but the nature of it. I will assure members that I did not have leave, and they are to cease asking me.

Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. So, yes, in answer to your questions, I will be here on Friday, but, unfortunately, I am not going to be doing what I thought we were going to be doing on Friday, and I am deeply disappointed for our local iwi.

On a more positive note, I want to talk about last week. I was at a Careers and Transition Education Association seminar in Taranaki with local schoolteachers, looking at how we transition our young people from school and into work. If there is one thing that provincial New Zealand really needs, it is more skilled people. No one can ever tell me that there are no jobs in provincial New Zealand, because I go out there every day and I talk to employers, and not only do they want farm workers, but they want truck drivers, they want plumbers, and they want electricians. I commend these teachers and these people who are actually transitioning process—the three in two in schools.

We have actually given $14.4 million in Budget 2016 for another 5,500 apprenticeships by 2020, and that has been allocated. If there is one thing that rural New Zealand needs in spades, it is skilled people, because now we have actually got out there, we are getting the roading infrastructure, we are getting the broadband, we are getting all the technology—young people will come and live in provincial New Zealand if they can pull their cellphones out of their pockets, if they can connect online. Other people will come, and are coming. We are seeing them coming and living in the parts of the world that we represent. They can come and live there, and they can now do business because the infrastructure is right there for them.

The other thing is, with roading—I have seen the commitment in my electorate. I have just had Minister Bridges out, opening the first safety road in his $600 million Safer Roads and Roadsides Programme—State Highway 37. It goes out to Waitomo. It is integral to tourism. Tourism is another thing that is growing, particularly in provincial New Zealand. I see it all the time. We have got a $1.2 million grant going into 80 beds in the middle of the Pureora Timber Trail. Most people do it over 2 days, it is 85 kilometres—we have needed that accommodation. We get people to come here, and we get people to stay here longer.

I am really proud to represent Taranaki - King Country and have this extra money going into roading, tourism—all of the things that we aspire to as a Government. We are the third-fastest growing economy in the OECD, and I am very proud to be part of this National Government. Thank you.

What a load of absolute drivel this House has been subjected to over the last 40-odd minutes. All of the assertions coming from Te Ururoa Flavell and from the Government members about what New Zealand First did or did not say would all be disproven quite easily if I tabled my phone and the records that are contained in it. So let us be clear: the National Government and its cling-ons have the numbers to vote to go into urgency or extended hours on any day, at any time that they like, whether or not it suits us. They have the numbers. The National Government and its cling-ons have the numbers to pass the Treaty settlement bills without New Zealand First’s 12 votes. Between them, they have 64 votes, plus Labour in support. They do not need us—they can do what they like.

The third point is that if these bills were so important to National, it would have had its full muster of MPs and Ministers in the House for Thursday and Friday, it would have moved extended hours as it had planned, and it would have had the debate, had the vote, and passed the bills. Here is the fourth point: if it knew so many iwi were coming to the House to attend those hearings, why did it not stick to its game plan and carry on? Well, we know why, because the email trail proves it: it had all these leave applications, and it wanted people to go off on leave. Well, that is not our issue. If the Government finds the Treaty settlement bills so important, then why is the entire Government not here to see them through and to join in the celebrations with iwi?

Here is another point: a couple of press releases have come out from the drama queens—Gerry Brownlee, Chris Finlayson—and were supported by that gangsta lookalike Marama Fox on TV last night. What did they say? They accused—

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member has referred to a member in a way that is inappropriate. I am warning him to not do it again.

So what they do is they then—

💬 Hon Anne Tolley: You always go too far. Why do you always go too far?

Oh, blah-blah-blah, Miss Anne Tolley—there she goes. So they have said a number of things in press releases that are just simply inaccurate. The last one that came out from Gerry Brownlee said on the first page: “On Monday this week, Mr Brownlee spoke to Mr Mark, who confirmed his party’s ongoing support for the bills.” Correct—he did, and we did say that—and then we said we would support a voice vote. He continued: “On Tuesday morning, Mr Mark phoned back to say New Zealand First was not going to support two of the settlement bills”—correct—“and, therefore, could not support the voice vote only proposal for Friday.” That is absolutely incorrect.

I will read the transcript of that phone call: Gerry—Brownlee, that is—“Hello, Ron.” Ron—Mark, that is—“Gerry, how are you, man?”. Gerry Brownlee: “Good.” Ron: “I needed to call you immediately. I’ve just—er—we’ve just—adjourned briefly from caucus. We’ve had a long discussion on two of those iwi bills, Taranaki Iwi Claims Settlement and—er—Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa—umm—we are going to oppose both of those, Gerry.” Gerry: “Thanks, Ron.”, and he hung up. No mention in my telephone at all of that statement that we withdrew our voice vote - only proposal—nothing, nyet, zip, nada. That is a total untruth. So, on that big, drama queen reaction, the Government pulled it.

Well, here is the challenge, Government: declare urgency now; declare extended hours now. Put those bills on the Table on Friday. We, New Zealand First, will be here in full muster. We do not care whether all you guys are taking an early break and you have got your kids pulled out of school so you can start your holiday early—we do not care. We will be here. We will cast our votes against the two bills we said we would, and we will give you a voice vote, Government—a voice vote on the other three, as I said we would in that telephone conversation.

This is a disaster and a debacle of Gerry Brownlee’s making. This is not our making; this is his. If those members want me to table the telephone recording, I will.

This is a debacle of the Government members’ own making. This is an indication of their incompetence, their stupidity, and, actually, their disrespect for Māori, because they never had any intention of sitting there on Friday and seeing those bills through as a Government in support of those iwi, whom they now claim they mourn for. Give me a break, you most insincere, pathetic Government. I just have no time for you, and nor does New Zealand First.

It appears that the previous speaker, Ron Mark, is unaware of the old political adage that explaining is losing. But on to—[Interruption]

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I would just like to ask the two relatively senior members of the House to let Mr Smith speak. If people want to seek leave to table something, they can, and now would be the appropriate time to do it, but I do not think we should have the back and forth about whether it should be done or not. Stuart Smith—starting again.

Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. I think I made my point before, but on to our economy. With 3.6 percent growth in GDP we are the third-highest in the OECD. There has been some talk about this being led by immigration, and I think that what is, in fact, behind this is that people are voting with their feet. They are not leaving and they are coming home. Coupled with the 3.6 percent GDP growth, we have the second-highest employment rate in the world. That is fantastic. So it is not a migration-driven thing. If it was, we would not have that high employment rate.

There was also talk about dairy and how it was causing all of the fantastic growth we have had over the last 8 years under a National Government. But dairy has gone through a very rough patch lately. Fortunately, it has improved, but the economy has sailed on none the less and is doing extremely well, and I am very pleased, like my colleague who mentioned it just before, that the Global Dairy Trade was up again last night: $2,780 for that critical whole-milk powder price. We need it to get up to $3,000 a tonne, but we are over $5 a kilogram, which is what farmers need to really make money. Fifty cents up is the projection—up to $5.25—by Fonterra, and when you take the share dividend into account as well, it is a $5.75 to $5.85 return to the farmers. That is fantastic.

Horticulture exports are doing fantastically well, led by kiwifruit, which is up 41 percent to $1.7 billion. That is a fantastic performance. The wine industry, which had only $18 million of exports back in 1990, is at $1.6 billion today. That is a fantastic performance from the wine industry. But I want to take that back local to my electorate, which is the home of three-quarters of New Zealand’s wine production, but we also have many other industries and strings to our bow. Airbus, one of the two largest aircraft manufacturers in the world, has only ever bought three other companies in its entire history and one of those is Safe Air, based in Blenheim at Woodbourne airbase. Safe Air has a fantastic prop shop in Marlborough, where propellers are refurbished. It also has a wonderful electroplating bay. Those are very difficult to build now, so all of the electroplating in New Zealand is really done in Woodbourne, and even foreign air forces use the prop shop to get their propellers refurbished.

Aquaculture is also going extremely well. We had Dr Jason Clay speak here in Parliament in Minister Smith’s office for a cross-party lunch the other day. He was pointing out how we are going to go and face the growing population and deal with the global paradox of 1 billion people not having enough to eat and 1 billion people being obese—in part, this will be through aquaculture. In Marlborough in New Zealand, 1 hectare of salmon farm produces 22 jobs and $13 million of revenue. That is $590,000 per job. High-end manufacturing is one of the few industries that will get into six figures: $590,000 per job is a phenomenal amount of money, and I think, as Dr Clay pointed out, that we have to start looking at these other industries to feed the world. Farmed fish exceeded beef in production a couple of years ago, so we are looking at the world through a completely different lens now.

Looking back to Marlborough, we have great tourism growth as well. We are having three significant openings next month. The aviation heritage museum is opening its World War II display—a new hangar, which is, in part, supported by Peter Jackson and some of his aircraft. It is a phenomenal facility. That is going to be open. The ASB Theatre Marlborough is a 740-seat theatre in which Dame Kiri Te Kanawa spoke earlier in the year. She proclaimed it as having the best acoustics in the country. In addition to that, a local five-star hotel has almost increased its capacity by 50 percent, and is opening that wing next month as well.

The wine industry, of course, is going phenomenally well and will be increasing by 2,000 jobs in the next 4 years, which is 10 percent of the working population in the Marlborough region. So that is a phenomenal success to go along with the success of other regions in New Zealand and our economy, in part due to a good Government. Thank you.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.