General Debate

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business. Right now on a distant continent something of enormous import is happening that is going to affect the lives of us all—in this generation and for future generations. Of course I am referring to what is going on in Marrakesh in Morocco, where the 22nd conference on climate change is now happening. I know that there will be some people rushing off from the Chamber now to be fixed to their television screens to see what is going on in Morocco, while a few others will, of course, be seeing what is going on in the United States of America.

I was just checking Twitter and I noticed that Texas, which is normally a solidly Republican seat, is too close to call, and I believe that is because Texans have got quite a good sense of when someone is talking a lot of hot air. One of my favourite sayings comes from Texas. It refers to someone who is all hat and no cattle. I think that partially what they are seeing in Texas is that Trump is all hat and no cattle—he is a lot of talk. In that way, he is quite similar to the National Party, because the National Party members say they are environmental champions. They say that they will make New Zealand predator free, but they will not say how they are going to pay for it. They say that they care about our rivers, but they will not make them swimmable. They say that they will sign the Paris Agreement and ratify it, all of that good stuff, but they are not actually going to cut our pollution. So what we need to do is look behind the rhetoric.

I think that what is going on today is a good illustration of the way that people are grappling with this current era of post-truth politics. The National Government has been in power for 8 years, and in 8 years our greenhouse gas emissions have risen 19 percent. This is despite announcement after announcement after announcement from the Government about how great its record is and how deep its commitment is to cutting our climate pollution. The Government says, on the one hand, that it is committed to doing something about climate change but, on the other hand, everything that it does actually increases our emissions. There are more roads and motorways, less investment in public transport, more drilling for oil off our coasts, and more intensive dairying. After 8 years, our emissions are up. It is all hot air from the National Government. That is its plan.

What is going on in Marrakesh? What is New Zealand’s commitment to these climate change talks? As far as I can tell, we are interested in forestry rules that allow New Zealand to write off an entire year’s worth of emissions—to just rub the slate clean. We are interested in setting up an international market for carbon credit trading that means that we can pay other countries to reduce their pollution so that we do not have to—we can let ourselves off the hook in another way. When it comes to international aid, where we made multiple hundred-million dollar commitments last year in Paris, there is no sign of any new or additional aid to our Pacific neighbours, who are the first to feel the effects of climate change. It is all hot air from the National Government when it comes to climate change, and it greatly concerns me. What are our negotiating teams doing in Marrakesh? Are they actually trying to reduce our emissions? Are they actually trying to work out an international framework where our commitment and the words that we say have any effect in reality whatsoever? I honestly cannot tell you.

I do not think that Americans will choose Trump today, because hype and hot air eventually become transparent. Just like with Trump, New Zealanders are not going to buy more talk and no action. They want real action on climate change. Eventually, it has got to give. After 8 years with no action on climate change, it is time to change the Government, and change is coming—especially to climate change.

Thank you to the Greens for that round of applause for me. It is always good to be able to reach across the aisle. I really like James Shaw. He is a lovely person, but when he starts talking about post-truth politics, what the hell is he on? Just get down to what really matters.

What we have here is a Government that has been very sensible in the way in which it has managed the country’s economy. We have delivered on our promises. I saw the other day not only that New Zealand is the fourth safest country in the world according to the Global Peace Index but also that we now have the fourth fastest economic growth in the OECD. We should have a huge round of applause for New Zealand and New Zealanders. Just last year we created 144,000 jobs. That is enormous in a country of this size—4.5 million people and an extra 144,000 jobs in just 1 year. It is such a good thing that the Labour Party has announced a crisis in employment, because, of course, the unemployment rate has dropped further as a result of that. It is now down to 4.9 percent. That means we have the second highest employment rate in the OECD group of developed countries. This country’s economy is rocking. Wages are now up. The average wage is now $58,400 a year. That is $12,000 more a year since 2008—more than double the rate of inflation. The inflation rate at the moment, I think, it is around about zero-point-something percent—

💬 Hon Member: Four.

—0.4 percent. So what we have is that more people have more money, have got more jobs, and have more opportunities. They are better educated, they are doing better, and, by the way, inflation remains low.

We have also got interest rates—so let us look at interest rates. They are now as low as they were in the 1960s, when Keith Holyoake was the Prime Minister. That is how low they have been, now, for the last few years. This is something that actually makes a huge difference to people, not only to buy homes but, actually, for small-business owners. I have news for people like the Labour Party members, who do not understand anything about businesses and small business. It is that most people in New Zealand who go into business go into small businesses, and the way they get the capital is they borrow against their homes. They extend out their mortgages; they get overdrafts. That is how they do it. And when you are paying 28 percent—which is certainly what we were paying, my husband and I, back in the 1980s when Labour was in Government—it is very hard to make that work, and yet we did by sheer, hard work. Actually, today, the interest rates are at such a low rate that people can take a risk, they can start a business, and they can employ people, because they can take that risk. Those low interest rates are actually translating into better business, cheaper business, more jobs, more opportunities, a richer country, and more people who have got a future that they can be proud of.

So, when you are talking about post-truth politics, let me say this to the member James Shaw, who just resumed his seat: let us talk about jobs. That is what this Government is all about: jobs, and jobs that work. The Government’s books are back in surplus. This means, actually, that this Government does have the opportunity to talk about what can happen with that surplus—what can happen, what can be done. Unlike the Opposition, we actually have to pay for the promises.

💬 Hon David Cunliffe: Your role model lost the American election.

It is great to hear Mr David Cunliffe finally speaking again in the House. Is that not lovely? I must say it is always good to have Mr David Cunliffe—or the Hon David Cunliffe, I should say—speaking. It always reminds everyone just how good Andrew Little is. He really is great. I have a lot of faith in Andrew Little. I was thinking the other day of perhaps starting a “Nats for Andy” campaign, but, look, I think he is doing so well on his own. I think every time this man ever declares a crisis it is all sorted.

💬 Kelvin Davis: Let’s get another speech running, Judith. This is terrible.

He has got magical abilities. He is doing so well. I see Mr Kelvin Davis trying to pipe up and support me in that, and I think that is great. It is good for his leadership ambitions. He is also doing so well, as we saw today. Ninety percent of people in paid employment are in permanent jobs. Remember what happened when we brought in the ability for people to be able to have a trial period at work? The Labour Party and the Greens said everyone would get sacked. Not under this Government. Not under this economy. Not under this country. People now have an opportunity to have a future that they can own.

I knew that National was going to try to hide a few things during the US election count, but I did not think it would try to hide the end of Judith Collins’ political career, because that speech—it is all over. There is no more “Judith Campaign”. The small faction for Judith Collins that remains in the Chamber now—that is it. And after that speech, I do not think the “Judith for PM” or the “Judith for National Leader” campaign is going to go anywhere whatsoever.

On the weekend the Labour Party held its conference, and I heard the speech of the next Prime Minister of New Zealand, Andrew Little. Andrew Little’s speech on Sunday was a speech of positivity. It was a speech about the things that New Zealanders care about: good, decent housing for all New Zealanders; an education system where it does not matter what community you are from, there will be a world-class education there for your children; and a health system where we restore the $1.7 billion worth of cuts that this National Government has made and where we do not think it is OK for people to lose their sight while they wait for treatment. That is the health system that National has delivered us. Andrew Little promised something much, much better than that.

And there was the centrepiece of the speech that Andrew Little gave at that conference, which is the fact that on this side of the House, we give a damn about young New Zealanders. We believe that having 74,000 young New Zealanders not in employment, not in education, and not in training is not only a disgrace, it is a massive loss of potential talent for our country. It is 10,000 more people than when the National Government took office. It is 3,000 more than last year. This is a Government sitting on its hands as the potential of young New Zealanders goes to waste, and the plan that Andrew Little outlined on Sunday was a clear one. We are going to have programmes that are about making sure young New Zealanders are ready for work.

Steven Joyce, in his response to our announcement on Sunday, said: “Why are you competing with other employers who want to employ these people?”. There is the man who does not understand the labour market, because these are the young New Zealanders who need a helping hand. These are the young New Zealanders who could be fantastic contributors in the workplace, but they do not have the skills to take those jobs up at the moment. That is why they need a programme with mentors. That is why they need a programme where we will support them to get the skills to be able to go on and flourish and fulfil their potential. And the National Government’s solution for those people is to write them off as being pretty damned hopeless, drug-addled, not ready, and not living in the right place. That is called giving up. That is called giving up on the next generation of New Zealanders.

We are not going to do that, on this side of the House, so we have got the Ready for Work programme in place. We have also got a programme that will ensure that New Zealanders can face the future of work with confidence, and I want to say to all of my colleagues and the thousands of New Zealanders around the country who have supported Labour in our Future of Work project, thank you very much. We are proud of this report because what it does is what National never does. We are looking ahead. We are not worried about how we are going to look in the next 24 hours of the news; we are worried about how New Zealand will look in 20 years’ time. It is time for a Government that actually plans for the future and that gets alongside New Zealanders to grow new businesses, to adapt to the changing technology, and to make sure that the benefits of globalisation actually reach working people.

On that side of the House they would rather see young New Zealanders as collateral damage in their ideological crusade. Well, on this side of the House we are not interested in that. We are interested in practical solutions: 3 years’ free post-secondary school education and training, taking the dole being paid to 18-and 19-year-olds and making that a subsidy for apprenticeships, and getting people into work opportunities that grow their skills and make them the kind of employee that people will want to take on.

I have been to about 20 Labour Party conferences now in my life, and the one that I went to over the weekend is the best one I have ever been to. This is a party that has a plan for the future. We are going to do what Labour parties have done for a hundred years. We will build a better New Zealand. We will invest in people. We will make sure that every single New Zealander has the opportunity to grow up in a warm, dry home, to have a good education, and to have decent work. That is the legacy of the last hundred years of the Labour Party, and that is what will win us the election next year.

You really do have to hand it to the Labour Party, do you not? It is 100 years old and it can still think up new taxes. It is 100 years old and it still comes up with new levies, new ways to attack business, and new ways to attack jobs. It is 100 years old and it is still coming up with new ways to tax people. The announcement that Labour made on the weekend has turned into a shambles—an absolute shambles. A battle with the media is now going on. I now understand what post-truth politics is. It is the days after a Labour conference when it is trying to explain whatever it was trying to explain on the weekend—whatever announcement it might have been.

No one really knows, I do not think, what Labour announced on the weekend. No one really knows whether the costings are for 4 months, 6 months, $15 million per annum, $60 million for 4 years, or $19 million for 6 months. No one really knows. Its new tax, its new levies, its tax on training—its levies on migrants are very interesting particularly with what is going on around the world. Essentially, they are being viewed as an attack on migrants, an attack on small business, and an attack on jobs—and jobs will pay.

Commentary from those who actually know what it is like to run a business has not been at all flattering for the Labour Party. Business New Zealand said that smaller businesses would suffer if they were charged to hire employees. Tourism New Zealand Aotearoa said that putting a levy on small business would fall flat on its face. Mr Nash even, when he was asked about it, said: “Hmm, I would need to read about that a little bit more. I would need to think that through, work that through.” It is hardly a ringing endorsement of the policies that the Labour Party announced, or tried to announce and re-explain, on the weekend.

The timing is amazing. There were 140,000 new jobs across New Zealand over the past year, growth is as good as it has been, and New Zealand, for many, many years, has been the envy of the OECD and the developed nations. Seventy percent are engaged in employment—or under 5 percent are unemployed. All the numbers are very, very positive in job participation and the normal unemployment numbers, and that is when Labour decides what a good time it is to talk about unemployment etc., etc. Everything is going in the right direction.

Labour has no idea what its policies would mean for small business. Labour has no idea about the cost and the burden of the stuff it waxes lyrical about at its various conferences. Perhaps that is why 57 percent of small businesses in recent surveys believe they will succeed under National, with only 10 percent believing they would succeed under Labour—only under 10 percent. Labour always forgets that someone somewhere has to pay for the stuff that it announces—someone has to pay. They might pay in cash, they might pay in taxes, they might pay in fewer jobs, less job growth, fewer hours—they just have to pay. Someone pays somewhere.

Interestingly, let us use—I do not know—Mt Roskill, for example. There are 5,000 business units in Mt Roskill. Which one of them would pay Labour’s tax? All of them? Some of them? Which of the 5,000 businesses in Mt Roskill would be paying Labour’s new training tax? Which of the 28,000 workers in Mt Roskill would not have a job, not have as good a job opportunity under Labour’s proposals, with the added costs that would be a burden on businesses across the economy, for example, on the 5,000 business units in Mt Roskill?

Which of the migrants who choose to come, or want to come, to, say, Mt Roskill would suffer under the levy or, let us say, the bias against them, under Labour’s proposals? Which of the 50 percent of the people in Mt Roskill who are born overseas would suffer if Labour’s policy was to be implemented—be it in respect of jobs, job growth, levies, new taxes, new training taxes? I am quite sure that the people of Mt Roskill will be thinking through what it means to them if Labour’s policy was ever to be implemented: the cost of a tax, the cost of a levy, the cost of jobs, and the cost and prospects to the good, hard-working people of Mt Roskill, particularly to those who have chosen to come to, live in, work hard in, and contribute to New Zealand. Thank you.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. Just a quick comment on the contribution by the member, the Hon Craig Foss, who just resumed his seat. It was fascinating to hear the discussion about the introduction of taxes and levies suggested by the Labour Party from a Government that has actually introduced two in the last 18 months on telecommunications and, actually, on tourists coming into our country. So it is amazing. It is always interesting to hear the—it is a word that I cannot use, but it is always very, very interesting to hear it from the Government benches.

I want to talk about rural women. I want to talk about rural women here today, because they have actually been forgotten by this Government. They have been forgotten on so many levels. There is the rural women’s conference that is taking place this Friday, and it is about time that they were acknowledged.

I want to talk about a survey that came out in August that was a research project released by Lincoln University. It showed that 57 percent of rural women surveyed find isolation their top issue. The reason why I raise it is that it fascinates me that we have a Facebook page called Farming Mums NZ. There are 6,000 followers on that particular page—6,000 members. It is a social media site for farming women, who are the backbone of the country, who are the rocks of their family, who support their husbands during hard times, who continue to take their children to school, who work on the farm and work off the farm, and who make sure that they can contribute financially to the farm when it is going through difficult financial times. This Facebook page, set up by the farming mums of New Zealand, with 6,000 members, has been set up there so that women can articulate and support each other, as they are 30 percent of those in the rural areas who are killing themselves. They represent 30 percent of the rural suicides in New Zealand, and they have asked for a single thing of this Government. They have asked for the possible support of a full-time counsellor to be provided so that the women who are a part of this social network group can have a professional whom they can speak to, whom they can seek advice from, and whom they can get a service from.

In 2012 Prime Minister John Key announced that $62 million would be set aside for mental health services to be rolled out over a period of years here in New Zealand—$62 million. I have got the figures today on the amount of that money that has been spent. All links to do with that announcement have disappeared. All links to do with that announcement have now disappeared. Of the $62 million—and it was targeted at youth mental health, but it had families and communities as well, as the downstream effect—$44.6 million of it has been spent since 2012. That leaves $17.4 million unspent. But all links to this announcement have been removed. Even if we were to look at the youth mental health, the projections that are inside the Budget all the way up to 2018, that would equate to only another $12 million. So that means that there is $5.4 million available to this Government to support rural women and this particular service, this single thing that so far they have been asking for.

If you were going to get an experienced counsellor to be provided to these 6,000 women, it would cost you $15 a head per annum—$15 a head per annum. So between $90,000 and $100,000 a year for a fully qualified and experienced counsellor who these women could have available to them so they could continue to be the backbone of their community, continue to support their children in their day-to-day lives, and continue to support their husbands.

I would ask the Government to listen now to the statement I have just made and reach out to rural women. Here is in an announcement for you, Minister for Women. Here is an announcement that you could make this Friday or Saturday, whichever day it is that you are actually going to that conference. You could make this announcement and provide this funding so that we can support the women who are doing it hard right now out there in the rural sector. The rural mental health initiative is attempting to do what it can, but without literal support from this Government, women will continue to suffer, women will continue to fail, and women will continue to be among the suicide statistics of our rural communities. Kia ora.

I do agree with the member, Tracey Martin, who spoke prior to me about really recognising the vital role that rural women provide across the country. As a rural MP, I know first hand how important they are and also the challenges that they have faced over the last little while. But I was disturbed, earlier in the House today, to hear members opposite actually scoffing at the highest level of women’s participation in the workforce ever. I found that a bit disturbing because I would have thought that that side of the House would be celebrating the achievements of women in employment as well as in leadership, which I spoke about earlier.

One of the challenges, of course, when you have such a strong, growing economy is looking at how we provide even greater and deeper opportunities for our young people. As the Associate Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, I am particularly proud of the release of the Building Skilled and Safe Workplaces chapter of our Business Growth Agenda. This is one of six chapters that are really fundamental to how we are going about growing the economy. It contains the 55 initiatives that are currently under way, as well as announcing 12 new ones. They are about ensuring that we are continuing to grow our economy and continuing to grow the skills that, actually, young and old New Zealanders have.

Part of that announcement was the two new skills hubs in Auckland. The Auckland CBD Jobs and Skills Hub, which, of course, is in the Wynyard Quarter, will revolve around the extensive commercial development that is going on in that area. One of the keys though, and one of the things you will hear more and more about, is the partnership approach. These hubs are a partnership between central government, local government, businesses, tertiary providers, Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development, and industry training organisations.

We have seen the huge success of what has occurred in Canterbury with this very joined-up approach, and I am particularly proud of the significant increases in the number of women in construction in Canterbury. This partnership is a vital approach and one that we are seeing as leading to even greater levels of success because of leveraging off one another.

Of course, today we have announced a new target to have 50,000 people training in apprenticeships by 2020. No matter what part of New Zealand you are in, we will see that there are more and more employers who are seeking out young New Zealanders who are willing to train in their areas, whether it is the whole range of fields in construction—of course, the primary industries are still crying out for more people to train in their areas.

Another of the initiatives that have been under way is the Sector Workforce Engagement Programme. Yes, there is one in tourism, as well as horticulture, the dairy industry, one that is particularly important in my electorate is the one for the road freight operators, and, of course, construction. When we have a significant building boom, like we do now, we need to make sure that we are training more young New Zealanders in the area of need.

But there have been a few conversations over the last few days about the young people who are not in education, employment, or training. From what I have heard, Labour is clearly out of touch with this particular group, whereas our Government has put in a range of different initiatives. We are continuing to innovate, whether it is the Māori and Pasifika Trades Training Initiative, trades academies, Youth Guarantee, or the skills hubs that we have announced. We are also trialling an initiative called DualPathways, which supports tertiary education providers in secondary schools to again, as I said, work in partnership with employers and industries. It means that students can be enrolled part-time in secondary school and part-time in tertiary education. We are working hard on that very group of young New Zealanders whom we want to provide with the greatest of opportunities, whether they are male or female.

I am particularly proud, as I said before, that we are providing more opportunities to young New Zealand women. This is a Government that is working hard to provide opportunities for all New Zealanders, to make sure that they are valued for the work that they do and that they upskill in the areas where there is high demand, high wages, and greater opportunities in the future, so that we can build a New Zealand we will all be proud of. Thank you.

Yesterday morning I had the privilege of visiting an organisation called the Bridge the Gap Project, run by a woman called Amanda Betts. That organisation works with our young people, some of whom have come through the Child, Youth and Family system and some of whom have come through the youth justice system, and it focuses on the potential that they have.

Much of what that organisation does is slightly out of the box, and it is really hard, I was saying to her, for any Government agency to put the Government agency framework around it, but it is successful, and I can see why. It starts with these young people, by allowing them to have the opportunity to see what their potential is, even physically. Many of them show up in their “gangster gears”, never really having had anyone model to them what they need to do when going for a job or how they need to look when going for a job. This organisation shows them what they have the potential to look like. That is only one part of it, because we know that there is a whole lot that needs to go on internally, but it does make a difference to their frame of mind and how they feel about themselves.

Just reflecting on what we have seen over the last 8 years of a National Government, it is incredibly disappointing that we have not had that same potential-based approach taken by the National Government. Instead what we have had is this deficit approach, where it looks at our young people, it looks at people on benefits, and it looks at people who are unemployed as liabilities. It measures the forward liability of these people. The Government talks about the risk of long-term welfare dependency. So it is all about that deficit take on human beings, rather than asking what this person has to offer, what the value is here, or what the potential is that needs to be realised.

Unfortunately, that is the view that the National Government has taken, but what I am grateful for is that on the weekend, at the Labour Party conference, our leader, Andrew Little, made it very clear that that is not the perspective that we are taking and that is not the way we will be treating our young people. We are looking for the potential. Andrew Little talked about the importance of investing in our people. He talked about the importance of investing in our future. He said that Labour—and he meant this—is committed to rising to the challenges that we face, including the challenge of 74,000 young people being unemployed or out of work and training. It is not acceptable that so many young people are out of work and training. They are not having their potential realised. They are not being supported by that Government.

Andrew Little also went through the many values that Labour has, those values like fairness, opportunity, and aspiration, our absolute belief in the importance of achievement, and our absolute belief, also, that once you get there you also give back. That is what that side of the House all too often seems to forget.

We had an announcement around our Ready for Work policy and the fact that we will not allow 74,000 young people to languish, doing nothing, not in employment or training, as that side of the House has. We have had members on that side of the House mock that policy. How unfortunate that we have had them mock that policy. But why should we be surprised? Why should we be surprised, when the Deputy Prime Minister has been recorded—recorded—as saying that our young people are “pretty damned hopeless”? We have had the Prime Minister alluding to the fact that our young people have a problem with drugs. And we have had that side of the House put everything back on those young people, as being their fault that they are not in employment or training, rather than looking for solutions, like this side of the House has.

This side of the House is about opportunity and making sure that we secure our future by investing in our young people now. It is about that Ready for Work policy that Andrew Little announced on the weekend, but it is also about the entire comprehensive package that Labour has announced over the last year at least, and probably the many more policies that we will go into the next election with that actually complete that comprehensive package, which is about investing in our young people.

As my colleague Grant Robertson said earlier, it is about our 3 years’ free post - secondary school tertiary education policy. It is about helping businesses to meet the cost of new apprenticeships. It is about ensuring we have professional careers advice in our schools, to help our young people make good decisions about work or further study. It is about things like grants for young Kiwis who might want to start their own businesses. Those are all solutions to a problem that we face, and thank goodness we have got the leadership over on this side of the House to actually do something to deal with the problem of 74,000 young people who are unemployed or not in training.

It is a great pleasure to rise to take a call in this general debate. I want to remind the member who just took her seat, Carmel Sepuloni, that just because she talks about it does not mean that it is actually the reality. This Government has, in fact, added 144,000 more jobs in the past year, with 35,000 of those in the past quarter. Just in case the Labour Party is not very good at arithmetic, “quarter” means “3 months”. Our unemployment rate is at the lowest level in years, at 4.9 percent. We are the envy of the world—a 4.9 percent unemployment rate. This is a great achievement by this Government and by our honourable Ministers. It is an achievement for all of us, in fact, because when unemployment is low, jobs are high, and our economy is working for New Zealand, our aspirations as a nation can truly be achieved and we can actually succeed as a nation.

Jobs and social investment are two key aims of the National Party. The National Government is providing real tangible outcomes, supporting the best interests of the wider New Zealand community, and working to ensure more New Zealanders can, in fact, follow their aspirations and their dreams as part of a fantastic, growing world-class economy.

This week the Hon Paula Bennett announced a massive $300 million investment into social housing, for emergency housing. This announcement translates to supporting up to 1,400 extra emergency housing places, with at least 600 of those in Auckland, and 800 others in other regions of high demand around the country. Under this funding boost, there will be an extra $71 million a year for annual rent subsidies, while another $102 million will be held for community providers of social and emergency housing, to support tenants to transition into longer-term housing options. Some members across the House have actually said that this is a Government that does not support people who are vulnerable. I have to say that that is, in fact, not true, and that this is one aspect of the Government’s work that has actually delivered for the people who are vulnerable. There are many, many others.

Of course, in the past year the National-led Government was, in fact, the first Government in 43 years to raise benefits for families with children, to give greater support and engagement to vulnerable families—the first time in 43 years. Of course, New Zealand has been named top of the global prosperity index, a week after the World Bank rated us No. 1 for ease of doing business. These great acknowledgments from the world market show what a great country New Zealand is to work in, and how much we are, in fact, respected by the world.

When that result came out this week, I was very proud, obviously—being a New Zealander—so I posted it on my Facebook and on my Korean social media. I have had numerous replies from my friends who are living in Korea, who are actually envious. Their comments ranged along the lines of “I wish I lived in New Zealand.” and “I want to move to New Zealand—what are the things that I have to do to migrate to New Zealand?”. These are the comments. They are envious of New Zealanders. I think we should all be very, very proud that we have that status in the world.

Wages are up, near 2 percent on last year. Compare that with inflation of 0.2 percent. There are better wages in the job market, which are all growing the opportunities that young and old New Zealanders alike have, to seek out their dreams in our great nation.

I also want to raise the importance of the social housing accord in Auckland, and the work that we have been achieving to get more homes into the market. There are over 150 special housing areas in Auckland, everywhere from Clarks Beach near Manukau Heads, to North Shore, and even in Mount Albert, where I am a list MP, in Auckland. These new developments will increase the housing stock, help more Kiwi families into affordable homes, and improve the lives of many. It is a shame when Opposition members decry such an amazing initiative by this Government to step up, get land open, get consent granted, and support construction jobs, infrastructure, and the social welfare of the people of our largest city. It is a real shame that they oppose every Government initiative, hold their own constituents back, and fail to recognise the excellent plan the Government is putting in place for the improvement of Auckland and wider New Zealand.

To me, we are very blessed here in New Zealand to have so many opportunities to progress and develop our aspirations. I just want to say that New Zealand is a wonderful place. When a Korean-born woman can actually become a member of Parliament in New Zealand, this country is in fact a great country.

A few weeks ago I asked our Minister of Health whether or not he would investigate a sugary drinks tax, because on that very day the World Health Organization had come out pushing for countries across the world to implement a sugary drinks tax to help fight the huge rise in chronic diseases, like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and chronic tooth decay, which have all been spiking since there has been a huge rise in the consumption of sugary drinks.

Unfortunately, our Minister of Health was unwilling to investigate such an initiative, despite the World Health Organization pushing for it, despite the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor chairing a global commission on childhood obesity that recommended this very policy, and despite 70 public health experts here in New Zealand having written him a letter saying that, in fact, there was much more evidence in favour of a sugary drinks tax and its impact on health benefits than there was for any of the initiatives in our Government’s childhood obesity plan.

What this reflects to me, I think, is the problem that we have with this National Government. When its ideology conflicts with the evidence, it falls back to its ideology. Although I know its members mean well, and I am sure that the Minister of Health does want to ensure that there is a reduction in chronic diseases, the reality is that the Government is not taking any practical, evidence-based steps to ensure that we are protecting the health of our children and our people for the long term. That is what the Green Party is here to champion. We want a healthier, happier New Zealand, and we are going to use proper, evidence-based policy to deliver it.

The Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor has advocated for this very policy, but it is not only that. Just last week there was a new study published. I think it is going to make it very, very difficult for our Minister of Health to continue saying that there is no clear evidence that a sugary drinks tax will reduce obesity or chronic diseases related to obesity, because in the latest peer-reviewed journal we have got this Projected Impact of Mexico’s Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Tax Policy on Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease: A Modeling Study, which demonstrates that over time the reduction in consumption of sugary drinks is predicted to significantly reduce type 2 diabetes, strokes, myocardial infarctions, cardiovascular disease, and other related costs, and that the benefits of this policy overall, in terms of avoided health costs, are over US$1 billion.

My question and my challenge to this National Government is: if you really believe in protecting the health of our children, if you really believe in reducing the cost to the health system, and if you really believe in governing for the long term, then follow the evidence and the recommendations of the experts on the World Health Organization and here in New Zealand—the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor—and start investigating policies that will actually make a difference to reducing the consumption of harmful, sugar-sweetened beverages.

If the Government is unwilling to do this, I think the only conclusion that New Zealanders can reasonably come to is that it is on the side of the big food and sugary drinks companies that stand to gain, which are using lots of money to confuse the public about this issue because they want to continue selling as many sugary drinks as possible, no matter how sick it makes our kids. That is their goal. Just like the tobacco industry before them—and I note that there are two former tobacco lobbyists on the Government’s side here in the House—and the fossil fuel industry now, they are using their power and money to fight positive public policy that would benefit all people in this country. That is what the sugary drinks industry is doing—and does it not make sense? Does it not make sense that they would not want to see policy that would actually result in a reduction of consumption?

Of course, if we actually believe in economically rational policy, it makes perfect sense that a tax on sugary drinks would work. Of course it is going to reduce consumption, and not only that, it is probably the very best incentive we can give to that industry to develop alternatives that are healthier and do not make people sick. That is already what is happening in the UK, where Tesco is deciding to reduce the sugar content in its own drinks line as a result of the tax that was implemented in the United Kingdom. The revenue for such a tax can be used to fund health services and health promotion, and so it makes sense. Thank you.

E Te Māngai o Te Whare, mauriora! I really need a nice, cold, refreshing glass of Coke to wash that cloying taste of the nanny State out of my mouth after that last contribution. Can I say what a great time it is to be a Kiwi; what a wonderful time it is to be a Wellingtonian. It must be a worrying time for our friends and cousins in the United States, and we wish them all the best as the world’s greatest democracy goes through its 4-yearly ritual. It is a great time to live under this constitutional monarchy, where we have a head of State who is completely and utterly reliable at all times, and we have a Government that is doing a fantastic job.

Here in Wellington, which I am proud to work in as a list MP, the economy is going very well. Jobs are on the increase. It is a delight to be able to report to the House that in the year ended September, employment in Wellington was massively up—in fact, unemployment was down by 1.6 percent, so we are well below the national average of 4.6 percent. Wellington is making a significant contribution to our country’s GDP, and a significant contribution to job creation and growth in the services sector.

So what does the success in growing employment in Wellington look like? It means bigger and better events. This year we had an absolute record time with the World of Wearable Art Awards. We had the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, where the town was absolutely sold out. We had the success of the Shakespeare Globe Centre’s battle between primary school children, re-enacting the Battle of Agincourt, from Henry V, at the Westpac Stadium, which I was pleased to go to yesterday. There were 500 primary schoolkids who participated in that event, and I want to shout out to Dawn Sanders, who organised that wonderful event. We hopefully will have a revitalised format for the Sevens next year. So these are events that drive jobs and economic activity in the capital.

The hospitality sector is performing strongly. Visa Wellington on a Plate, here in Wellington, had over 20,000 tickets sold last year, and there were 126 different kinds of hamburger on offer—something that really appeals to my taste and sensibilities. We have to thank the hospitality sector for the work it does. I want to call on the police, the medical officer of health, and the council to respect the decisions that have been made by Parliament and the laws we have enacted to allow the hospitality sector to successfully operate and to continue to employ thousands of people here in Wellington.

Accommodation is going gangbusters, with insufficient rooms in Wellington—as there previously were. We have seen the construction of new hotels, from the five-star Sofitel, to the 137 rooms of the Park Hotel on Lambton Quay. Congratulations to Alex Cassels on getting that one off the ground. And we look forward to a new Rydges breaking ground shortly at the airport. We have seen burgeoning transport links from this Government’s investment in Transmission Gully so we have the road piece of the puzzle, through to new flights linking Wellington to Canberra, then on to Singapore, where we have seen an expansion of freight capacity, from 2 tonnes on a narrow-body aircraft, to 15 tonnes on Singapore Airlines’ airliners. This is very positive.

What is the Government doing to back up this success and to underpin it? We are doing a lot. The Government is running a fiscal surplus. We are managing the State’s books—the Government’s books—in a very fiscally responsible way. This gives business the confidence to invest their own money into creating new jobs. We are warming against the maladies that result from failed policy prescriptions such as Labour’s bungled announcement on the weekend over its jobs policy. Aside from this picture of overall sensible economic management, there are a number of specific programmes that are successfully underpinning local growth. I want to reference a couple of them.

By setting up a new ICT graduate school in Wellington we have trained up even more highly qualified digital gurus, who are going on to work in the film sector. Combined with the Whitireia and WelTec combined creative campus on Cuba Street, the software design sector is getting a supply of good quality, locally trained graduates to meet its needs.

Last month, in October, two out of three of the business accelerator grants that were given out by the Government went to Creative HQ, which is a local incubator. It is doing wonderful work. We are seeing financial sector technology and energy, which fit really well within our capital’s brand as an innovative and clean and green city. I will point out—as have other colleagues—that New Zealand featured on the Legatum Institute’s Global Prosperity Index, released last week, as No. 1. This does not make us the wealthiest country in the world, but it means we have the best quality of life, with the resources we have. I want to shout out to Harriet Maltby, who leads the work on that, at the Legatum Institute in London. Harriet will be visiting New Zealand shortly, and we hope to be able to show her how correct she was when she pointed out that we are No. 1 in the world.

I have attended a few Labour Party annual conferences, and the one that we attended last weekend by far has been the most exciting and most inspirational one that I have ever attended. Andrew Little and Labour—we are committed to investing in our people and ensuring opportunities for all, and ensuring that we have a comprehensive housing policy. Andrew Little made the commitment that we will address homelessness and ensure that fewer of our families are living in cars or garages. Andrew Little is committed to addressing inequality, as well as addressing childhood poverty.

Labour, during our conference, also launched its Future of Work report, and I would like to acknowledge and commend my colleague and friend Grant Robertson for leading this project. It was a project that took over 2 years and involved a lot of members of Parliament from the Labour Party, but it also involved a lot of presentations—hundreds, actually, that Grant Robertson himself did—a lot of talking to a lot of people, and listening to and gaining the advice from people in the field about what it is that we should do. The Future of Work policy is something that the Labour Party has worked on, as I say, for about a couple of years, but it is one that has actually given us the opportunity to look at how we would address this issue. It is not just the Labour Party in New Zealand that is looking at this issue. There are so many other countries in Europe that are looking at the fact that in the next 10 to 20 years, with automation and with technology, we will have to address this head-on. Labour is the party of ideas. Over 100 years, we have a record of delivering progress for our people.

If I can just look at two announcements that this National Government has made today. National is so proud of its two new initiatives that it has chosen today, of all days, to make its announcement on apprenticeships as well as on the skills hub in Auckland. But why has National chosen today—the day on which the media, not just in New Zealand but the media around the world, are going to be focused on the US elections? Can I just say that one of those reasons might be that we have 74,000 young people who are not in education, employment, or training. So many of our young people—27,500 of those who are “neets”—are Māori, and over 11,000 of them are Pacific, which is disproportionate to the numbers that Māori and Pacific make up of the total population.

But that is not the only reason, I think, why National has chosen today to make these announcements. When we look a little bit closer at this $183 million—it sounds like a big amount—it is only $10 million that is new money. When you look closer at the target that the Government has, it is going to have 50,000 apprenticeships in 4 years. But when National came into Government in 2008 we had, at that time, 53,400 apprenticeships. Today there are only 41,800 apprentices.

💬 Chris Bishop: No, no.

There are. Why is it that this number of apprenticeships has dropped dramatically under National? It is because it has not had a focus on apprenticeships and on making sure that it is fixing up its own mess. This is one of the reasons why National is hiding its initiative, by announcing it today, of all days, when everyone else, including the New Zealand media, is going to be focused on the US elections. We have 12,000 young people who are unemployed today, and that is 12,000 more young people, compared with those who were unemployed in 2008. National just does not care enough about our young people. Our Deputy Prime Minister was calling our young people “pretty damned hopeless” and writing them off. This announcement today, of two new initiatives, is far too little, far too late, to fix the damage that National has done.

Let us look at what happened in 2013. It was the year that Hawkins Construction and Fletcher Building, as well as Auckland Council, and many others, wrote a report called Workforce Skills Roadmap for Auckland Construction Sector (2013-2018) and presented it to the Hon Steven Joyce. That particular report mapped out that in Auckland they are going to be short by 32,000 skilled people by 2018. This announcement today is too little, too late.

Earlier today my colleague Melissa Lee referred to New Zealand’s world-leading financial performance and, just earlier, my other colleague—my learned colleague—Paul Foster-Bell also mentioned a world-leading performance by New Zealand from the Legatum Institute. I would like to just explain what that means for New Zealand. What it means is that we, as New Zealanders, are receiving the biggest bang for our buck. We have been independently assessed as getting the best in our society for our taxpayers out of every tax dollar spent, and that means in social services, healthcare, education, social housing, and emergency accommodation for our most vulnerable. That is an independent assessment of this Government’s performance.

As many of you know, I am based in the most beautiful part of the world, in the West Coast - Tasman region. Sometimes we have had a few challenges with job losses. These were in the coalmining sector, held across generations. Some of our grandfathers, sons, and grandsons had a traditional rite of passage into jobs in the mining sector. We had losses in jobs in Westport-based cement works, the dairy sector also took quite a hit on the West Coast, and still other jobs were lost in other industries. But, rather than just sitting back and feeling sorry for themselves, under the leadership of Mayor Gary Howard from the Buller District, they picked themselves up and looked to find solutions. That drive, creativity, hard work, and determination are basic prerequisites of success, whether it be individuals, a community, or a country, and this Government has that drive. It is creating new models. It is working hard and is determined that we all succeed.

Earlier this year, a partnership was formed between the Buller District Council and Government through the Ministry of Social Development and the local economic development trust, Development West Coast. The outcome to date is an employment initiative that has seen the creation of 22 new positions. Six people have come off Work and Income benefits, seven apprenticeships have been created, and not only has this partnership created new jobs—and real jobs—it has given the community hope for the future and a belief that it is well-supported to achieve.

But probably the most significant partnership that has been formed is between this Government and the whole West Coast region, in the form of the Tai Poutini regional development study. In my view, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for communities across the Coast in business, iwi, and local government service groups to work together with Government—and a willing Government—to identify the potential growth and investment areas and then make progress on delivering on them. This study has identified a multitude of low, medium, and highly achievable opportunities, some of which are gathering momentum as we speak. I look forward to February of next year, when the implementation plan will be delivered.

This regional growth study has provided an opportunity for our most capable people to lead this study, provide input, and steer our own future direction. It is another exciting example of forming a great working relationship with this Government, enabling the Coast to benefit hugely from ongoing investment and support. This study complements the Government’s Business Growth Agenda. It is supporting business growth, creating jobs, and improving the standard of living for our people across the Coast. It will look at initiatives in a multitude of areas, including tourism, minerals, ICT—some of the smartest people I have ever met work out of EPIC in Westport—forestry and wood processing, horticulture, food and beverage, education, and fishing and aquaculture, as well as transport, communications, and energy.

This Government has backed up its support of the regions, and we have benefited from the Government’s Ultra-fast Broadband Initiative, the West Coast Wilderness Trail, the Old Ghost Road Trail, and various other investments. As Henry Ford once said, coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, working together is success. This Government is willing and open to working with our partners in the region to continue our work on building a strong economy. It is a hand up, not a hand out, and it works. Thank you.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.