Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement

What an absolute pleasure it is to rise and speak in support of the Prime Minister’s motion. It is great to be back in Parliament for 2017. Can I just say what a contrast we have seen at the start of the year between the Government and the Opposition. I do not think I have seen such a contrasting start to a year in all my time in this place. I think that since the start of this year, you could actually say it has been the political equivalent of A Tale of Two Cities: on this side, it has been the best of times; over there, it has been the worst of times. It has been the winter of foolishness and incredulity that Charles Dickens warned us about. In contrast, under Prime Minister Bill English, in the National-led Government we have as much energy and as much determination in year nine as we had in the first year.

We are proud of the record of this Government. We are incredibly proud of the work that we have done to date. But, even more than that, we have got more to do. The last month alone has shown the absolute energy and work programme that this Government is still delivering. In the meantime, Labour has been divided. Its members have been down at mouth, they have had no policy, and they have had nothing to say about New Zealand and New Zealanders. All they have talked about is themselves, their internal dramas, and their power plays. We have had their own leader making calls so bad that his members are denouncing them. His members are denouncing them and his caucus is denouncing them. All they can talk about is what is going on inside that rickety old tent of the Labour Party.

By contrast, we are not rolling out tired old retreads from the hard left of politics who split the party. We in the National Government, under Bill English, are unified and we are hard at work, and we are relentless in our desire to back New Zealanders to succeed. Just look at the last month. The last month alone—we are only in mid-February. In the last month we have announced more than 1,100 more police staff, thanks to police Minister Paula Bennett. That is a 10 percent increase in our police numbers.

We have announced that 400,000 more New Zealanders are going to get ultra-fast broadband (UFB), and I commend my colleague Simon Bridges. It is taking UFB—gold-standard connectivity—to 85 percent of the population. That will transform regional New Zealand.

We have announced just recently—and I was very pleased to announce it—a pathway to allow historical homosexual convictions to be expunged from the records of men who were convicted before 1986. I am very proud of that. It is this Government looking to put things right, and I am very proud to be able to announce it.

My colleague Judith Collins has announced a review into petrol price margins. We are going to make sure that New Zealanders are not paying more for their petrol than they should be.

Today, as you heard in question time from Gerry Brownlee, from Jonathan Coleman, and from others, on the day that is the 3 month anniversary of the Kaikōura earthquakes, we are continuing to stand by the people of Kaikōura. We will continue to stand by them, as we did for the people of Canterbury, for some time. While I am on that topic, can I just, for one moment, acknowledge those in my own electorate who have been evacuated from their homes due to the big fires on the Port Hills and wish them all the very best.

I want to come back to those announcements made in the last month, because they really are significant. Let me start with one that is close to my heart, the UFB programme. I do not think many New Zealanders realise just how incredibly advanced this makes New Zealand. This sort of connectivity is the gold standard worldwide, and this will make New Zealand the fourth-best-connected country in the world—the fourth-best—behind Japan, Singapore, and Korea. With a country of 4.5 million people on a large geographical area, that is quite extraordinary.

When you talk to people in Australia, in Canada, in the UK, and in America, they are not even aiming for broadband anything like this. Frankly, what we are rolling out is the envy of most of our colleagues around the Western World, and this is the Government that saw the benefit of it. This is the Government that put $2 billion into these programmes. We are going to make sure regional and rural New Zealand are able to partake of the digital economy. I am excited about it and New Zealand is excited about it. It is a National-led Government that delivered it, while Labour voted against it.

Let us come back to that law and order package. Minister Bennett talked about it in question time. This Safer Communities package is fundamental to making sure that Kiwis continue to be safe on our streets. It is about reducing our criminal gangs, it is about addressing the increase we are seeing in some communities around meth consumption, it is about targeting child abuse, it is about responding better to burglaries, and it is about ensuring we have got the police force to support the family violence work that Minister Tolley and I are leading, which I talked about earlier.

I agree with Minister Bennett: I think the non-emergency number is huge. I think the non-emergency number is something that Kiwis get and like. They want to know “Who do I call? It’s not an emergency, but I need someone and I don’t know who to call.” It is us showing that we understand what Kiwis need. As a rural MP, I have got to say that taking 95 percent of us to be living within 25 kilometres of a 24/7 manned station is massive. It is massive. Almost all of our communities will know there is help at hand, close by. I am looking forward to seeing, as we all are, which of those 15 to 20 stations are going to go 24/7. We know they will be spread right across the country. It is truly this Government standing up for every single New Zealander, from Kaitāia to Bluff.

Can I just point out that the Safer Communities package also includes, of course, quite significant top-ups for our rehabilitation programmes, our legal aid service, and the court system, to make sure that the whole system can cope with that work programme. I want to congratulate the Minister and the Prime Minister on that announcement because it is absolutely significant.

I want to talk a little bit about the role that I am absolutely delighted the Prime Minister has created and given to me, which is around social investment. Actually, this is at the heart of what we are doing as a Government in the social sector. It is about recognising that if we can get in earlier, respond better, and spend our money more wisely, we can create much better lives for the people in need and we can create a much smaller bill for the New Zealanders who pay their taxes and who go to work every week to pay their taxes.

It is early days, but we are already seeing outcomes from this piece of work that absolutely prove the theory. Already we have seen 50,000 fewer children living in benefit-dependent households since 2011—50,000 fewer. We have seen $12 billion, Minister Tolley, come off welfare liability, thanks to our making sure—it is pretty simple. We know our customers, we target our services, and we understand the impact of what we are doing. This is a piece of work that is going to see, right across Government and right through the social sector, our business-as-usual approach becoming more targeted and more effective. As I said, it will create better lives for those most vulnerable in society, and I am very excited to be a part of it.

I also want to talk a little bit about social housing, because I think there is a lot that New Zealand does not know about social housing. I want to tell New Zealand, for a kick-off, that we are spending $2.1 billion every single year helping Kiwis afford the cost of their housing. That is a remarkable commitment, but, actually, that is not the whole of it. Did you know that last year we committed $350 million to emergency housing? Let me ask members of this House whether they know how much was permanently appropriated for emergency housing under Labour.

💬 Hon Members: How much?

Zero—zero. Not a single dollar—not one single dollar. Last year we committed $354 million to make sure that for every Kiwi, if they are in need of a roof over their heads, we can get them into something while we find a longer-term solution. This is a Government that actually acts for the vulnerable in our society. It acts to look after our vulnerable children, it acts to improve our education system, it acts to reduce youth crime, and it acts to help people in need of housing with social housing assistance.

We are going to be putting another 6,500 social housing places into the long-term programme over the next 4 years. As the Prime Minister said, it is not just about Housing New Zealand—we want to work with everyone in the community sector who can provide targeted and effective places that will support our vulnerable to get their lives back on track. It is not just about their housing—it might be about a range of issues, and the initiatives we are announcing are about that.

In the meantime, the economy continues to soar. This is a country that is the envy of most of the Western World. We have got jobs growing, we have got unemployment falling, and we have got $2 billion less of ACC levies—$2 billion we have put back into the pockets of New Zealanders. That is why this is a Government that is fired up and ready to go. It started this year at a gallop and it is not slowing down.

Listening to that contribution I thought: “Perhaps there’s hope for Jonathan Coleman, after all.” Perhaps there is hope after all, and perhaps he should not give up on his leadership ambitions, as the longest-running audition in New Zealand politics continues to find a successor to John Key. Amy Adams barely gets a pass mark for that contribution, because if all that she can do is to boast about the fact that National is now spending $350 million a year on emergency housing—if that is her big boast of the signature achievement of this National Government—I do not think she is in with much of a chance. I do not think that is something it should be boasting about; I think that is something it should be ashamed of. Previously, we did not need $350 million for emergency housing, because there were enough houses for the New Zealanders who needed them. I think that the fact that it is now boasting about that says everything about how it has gone completely off-track.

The overwhelming message from the National Government during this debate has been: “This is as good as it gets.” The Government that used to be ambitious for New Zealand is now telling New Zealanders that they should take what they are given, and be grateful for it. It has given up on the hope of building a better future—a brighter future—for all New Zealanders.

I looked to Bill English’s speech for a suggestion that the Government had a plan for New Zealand’s place in the new global order that we seem to now be experiencing. The world is changing dramatically around us. The neoliberal consensus that has dominated the world economy over the last 20 or 30 years is crumbling, and that crumbling is being driven as much by the right as it is by the left. I was looking for some direction from Bill English, for some leadership from Bill English, and for where he sees New Zealand fitting into this grand new world order, and there was absolutely nothing. Even the International Monetary Fund has been critical of the trickle-down economic theory that has dominated for the last 20 or 30 years, pointing out that the value has not trickled down and that it has been captured by those at the top.

Was there a word from Bill English on how we ensure that prosperity is shared? No, there was not. There was nothing in his contribution. Instead, we simply see a Government looking in the rear-view mirror to the failed ideas of the past: more privatisation, more shrinking of the State, more market, and more blind faith in monetary economics. We do not see a positive vision for the future; they are simply looking backwards. Of course, the economic orthodoxy that Bill English is so fond of and relies on is failing around the world because voters increasingly recognise that, in the current economy, effort and contribution have been decoupled from reward. There are people out there who are working hard, trying to get ahead for their families, but they are not—and it is not through lack of effort and it is not through lack of contribution; it is because the economic game has been rigged against them.

The sea change in attitudes around the world that has seen the UK voting to leave the European Union, that saw Donald Trump get elected in the United States, that has seen the very alarming rise of the far right throughout Europe—we are not immune from the trends, the underlying trends that have contributed to that. So look offshore. Those who voted to leave—the contrasts were quite stark. Those who voted to leave the European Union or voted for Donald Trump were more likely to live in provincial areas while those who voted to remain in the European Union or voted for Hillary Clinton were more likely to be in the cities—the towns and the provincial areas expressing their disquiet with the current establishment. Those splits also existed between those who have wealth and those who do not, those who are educated and those who are not, and those who are young and those who are old.

Those tensions exist in New Zealand as well, and we should not be ignoring the fact that there is a groundswell of concern amongst a lot of New Zealanders that the current economic system is not working for them. Where was the direction from Bill English about that? There was nothing in his contribution. He was simply saying this is as good as it gets, and get used to what you have got because there are no alternatives. Well, there are alternatives, and I think Bill English should be opening his eyes and his ears to those.

I wanted to hear from Bill English about how the National Government is going to tackle the hollowing-out of the regions throughout New Zealand, because make no question about the fact that we have seen—take education, for example. We have seen a decline in tertiary education provision. We have seen a decline in manufacturing employment in the regions. There are now people leaving regional New Zealand in search of employment because they cannot find it in those areas. We are seeing a growing gulf between the shareholding society and the working society: the people who own the capital are doing pretty damn well while the people who are working to generate the productivity are not doing so well.

There was nothing from Bill English in his contribution about how we can deal with that. Nothing in his contribution about the breakdown of the intergenerational compact that has been part of the New Zealand way of life. The current generation of young New Zealanders leaving school and going on to further study will leave that study with more debt than any other generation before and they will be shut out of the housing market more than any other generation before. We have seen this breakdown of the inter-generational promise, and Bill English is completely silent on that. He had nothing to say about that at all.

The housing crisis cannot be understated: one in seven Auckland houses is now being sold to major property speculators rather than to first-home buyers or even homebuyers; 78 percent of renters cannot afford a deposit for the average New Zealand home—78 percent. That is nearly 80 percent who are locked out of the ability to buy a house altogether, and their rent is continuing to increase more than their wages are increasing. What is the National Government doing? Well, it is selling more State houses. It is not building more houses. How will selling State houses and spending $350 million—as Amy Adams boasted—on emergency housing help that situation? It will not.

We need a new plan. This Government needs a new plan. The Labour Party can offer it a new plan and it is built on three pillars: opportunity, security, and fairness. A big part of the Kiwi Dream, of the Kiwi promise, has been that of opportunity: the promise of opportunity, the opportunity to be educated and to get ahead, the opportunity to find secure, well-paid work, and the opportunity to own your own home. These are opportunities that should be available to all New Zealanders but yet they are not. Let us face some facts about that. Someone who has educated parents is more likely to succeed in the education system themselves. Someone whose parents own their own home is more likely to be able to own their own home themselves. Conversely, somebody whose parents have been on a benefit is more likely to end up on a benefit, and somebody whose parents have been engaged in the criminal justice system is more likely to find themselves engaged with the criminal justice system.

Our economic and societal structure is not providing a level playing field. It is locking in inequality and disadvantage rather than helping to tackle it. We can do something about that by making sure that opportunity is shared equally, and we start with that with education: 3 years of free post-school education, making sure that the opportunities kids get at school are not dictated by the ability of their parents to pay—and yet increasingly that is happening. The same happens in early childhood education. The quality of early childhood education that kids can get is increasingly being dictated by the ability of their parents to pay. That is not the Kiwi promise. That is why we have had, since the 1930s and 1940s, this idea in New Zealand that there should be universal provision of entitlement—of entitlement to education, to healthcare, and to a secure retirement. These are values that we need to rekindle and rediscover if we are going to make sure that economic prosperity and the benefits of economic growth are shared with all New Zealanders and not just those who are already doing well, as is happening at the moment.

So there is so much more that we need to do: 3 years’ free post-school education, increasing school funding so they are not reliant on parental donations, building houses. This is something that the Government should fundamentally be involved with so that we can ensure that the dream of homeownership or even of secure accommodation—ensuring that rental accommodation for those who cannot afford homeownership is available to all New Zealanders, because today, as of right now, it is not. These are things that New Zealanders might have looked to Bill English to address in the Prime Minister’s statement and yet they would find all of those things missing. This was a time for Bill English to stamp his mark of leadership on the Government, but his mark of leadership simply says that New Zealanders should be grateful for what they have got because this is as good as it gets.

I do not think this is as good as it gets. I think New Zealand is a fantastic country. It is full of opportunity, but those opportunities are not reaching all New Zealanders, and that must be our mission. That will certainly be the mission of the next Labour Government: opportunity, security, and fairness for all New Zealanders, not just those who are currently doing well.

Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā, tēnā tātou e whakawhāiti nei i roto i tō tātou Whare Pāremata i tēnei ahiahi.

[Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and acknowledgments to all of us gathered here in our House of Parliament this afternoon.]

Good afternoon. I am pleased to stand in support of the motion to support the Prime Minister’s statement. It has been only 8 short years that this Government, this National-led Government, has been on this side of the House, not only offering hope and aspiration and ambition to New Zealanders but delivering the environment and the conditions in which that can be realised. We have done that from an approach where we believe in New Zealanders and their capability to make choices for themselves, to take decisions to lead better and hopeful lives.

Unlike members on the other side of the House who consider themselves the third partner in every family—the increase of dependence on the Government, the happiness with which they embrace other people’s unhappiness and inability to get ahead—we most definitely are not that kind of Government. We continue to hold high aspirations for all New Zealanders, and we can stand here proudly, not boastfully but proudly, on the record that our Government has of our last 8 years. It is important to recognise that we have come a long way and that a strong economy gives us choices, and investing in that strong economy has been a hallmark of this Government under the previous Prime Minister, and under the previous Minister of Finance, who is now our Prime Minister—Bill English.

How many Prime Ministers and how many leaders can be so fit, so agile, and so gritty that they can shear a sheep and do it to beat Sir David Fagan, who is, of course, the 20-times gold medallist Olympian in one of the most difficult and most challenging sports and areas of work in the world? Of course, that is our Prime Minister, Bill English. If the House has not seen it, it is free to go on to my Facebook page, like it, and be able to watch that video. Under this Prime Minister, Bill English, a plan most definitely has been articulated to the House, and, for members of the Opposition who remain unclear or confused because they live on a planet of alternative facts, we have them produced in colourful pamphlets with pictures and photos to help those who are unable to understand facts even when they stare them in the face.

We have a record—we have growth in the economy of New Zealand, which is the envy of the world. It is still one that we aspire to improve, but it is a fact and it is that fact that gives us the choices that enable us to help New Zealanders make their lives better. We have had more jobs created in the past year—130,000 of them. We see the median income growing. We see our Government continuing to invest in those sectors that will help it to grow even more. We have been the Government that has made the biggest investment in infrastructure.

Again, may I invite members to visit my Facebook page and see on there the Hon Nathan Guy celebrating the fact that the Kapiti Expressway will open formally this week. The Kapiti Expressway is only one example of this Government’s investment in real infrastructure. Up and down the country, as I drive on newly built roads, I say: “Thank goodness for a Government that continues to give.” We just need a little bit more attention on State Highway 35, but I am not here to get parochial. I am here for the greater good of wider New Zealand.

Infrastructure has not been confined to roads. The previous speaker on this side, the Hon Amy Adams, talked about an area close to her heart—ultra-fast broadband (UFB). Ultra-fast broadband will allow for greater connectivity into the regions, the very regions that the previous speaker from the Opposition, Chris Hipkins, is out of touch about. He does not seem to understand that we have had growth in those regions. Growth is not confined to our metropolitan centres. Over in Taranaki, we see tourism, dairying, and the energy sector growing and growing. Down south we have got an outbreak of economic development occurring—

💬 Hon Jacqui Dean: Otago.

—all through Otago, as the member from Otago is chiming in. That is as much because we have invested in infrastructure. In schooling alone this Government has invested just on $700 million in information and communications technology to make sure that all 2,500 of our schools can be connected and can facilitate learning that enables them to engage in the global challenges that our kids are increasingly becoming a part of, and leaders in. So we have been involved in investing in infrastructure—not just talking about it but putting the hard-earned taxes of New Zealanders where our mouths have been. We understand that the arteries of a nation are its roads, its energy, transmission, and modern infrastructure such as information and communications technology.

I come from a little town well known beyond its actual size—Ruatōria. It is one of the towns that is on the list for UFB to come to first, as we move out into the provinces. That is going to make a difference for businesses, for the potential of employment there, for people to get jobs. The call centre that was recently opened there, and in Waverley, which the Prime Minister referred to, can currently employ 10 people because that is all the load that the line will take at the moment. The owners of that company have told me that with UFB the potential for greater employment is huge and untapped, and they are excited about it. These are real New Zealanders backing themselves.

I see my time is nearly up—I am going to speak even faster, because I want to talk about education. Under this Government, again, we have seen more kids participating in early childhood education. We set ourselves a target. We have been publicly accountable for it, and it is one of the problems of success. Almost 98 percent of all our earliest learners are participating in early childhood education, and that is a result of doubling, more than doubling, the funding into early childhood education.

Where do people get the argument that funding has been frozen? Only in the alternative “factosphere”, because we are now up at $1.8 billion. When we came into Government it was $800 million. In regular maths that is twice as much under this Government. In schooling it has increased 35 percent. Vote Education is the highest it has ever been, at over $11 billion. That is a 35 percent increase in education. How can that possibly be described as frozen funding?

And underfunding? At the same time student numbers have gone up by 3.56 percent. I am trusting that the Opposition can understand the difference between those two things. Funding has gone up 35 percent, student numbers have gone up 3.56 percent. How can that be underfunding, except for in the alternative reality of Andrew Little and them over there? In education, has that made a difference? The answer is yes. “Ae,” Māori tell you, “yes, it’s made a difference.” I posted—again, on this fabulous Facebook page. Clearly I am going to be swamped by people wanting to go there and see the latest report of our accountability as a Government. But, on there, we have seen overall achievement go up to over 77 percent for all New Zealanders, and the member for Mana will just be euphoric to know that Pacific Island success has gone up to 77.6 percent, from the parlous 51 percent that his Government was proud to leave to members on our benches in 2008.

So it is not just that the funding has gone up; we have seen real results for that. More kids are getting more opportunities to make more choices about the quality of life they and their families can have, because this Government has understood the critical cornerstone that education does play.

So the members on the other side can go on and on about alternative facts of underfunding, frozen funding, and undermining children’s futures, but anyone looking at the facts will know that that does not bear scrutiny. It does, then, lend doubt to the kinds of assertions and allegations that the Opposition seems intent on making.

This Government has a record of 8 years of achievement. It has a plan to go forward in 2017. It has fit, energetic, gritty, and determined people of high calibre and competence who are committed to a bright future for all New Zealanders. When we look at the leadership of the Rt Hon Bill English and the Hon Paula Bennett and the team that is alongside them and then contrast it with the people on that side—and some who have been selected and characterised as fresh faces are older than me, and I am leaving—we have got to ask ourselves: is that the kind of team, the contrast that we are interested in?

💬 Hon Annette King: Oh, it’s about age, is it?

I am really talking about the definition of freshness, as opposed to ageism.

I think that this Government has got a record to be proud of. It has got more to do and it is fit and purposeful in the interests of New Zealanders. Thank you.

A 5-minute call on behalf of the Green Party—David Clendon.

I am pleased to take a call in this debate on the Prime Minister’s statement, and in due course we look forward to supporting the amended motion put by the Leader of the Opposition. I am a member of the Law and Order Committee and I routinely sit, as well, on the Justice and Electoral Committee, so I was looking in the PM’s statement for issues pertaining to justice and law and order. I have to say that anybody looking for some new vision in his speech or anybody looking for some innovation or looking for some positive change would have been sorely disappointed, and, indeed, they would have been equally disappointed with the speeches we have heard from the Minister of Corrections and, just now, from the Minister of Justice, because, unfortunately, there is not a hint that this Government understands how to deliver justice or how to make our communities safe.

One positive inclusion in the statement, of course, was the increase in funding for police—the commitment to put in another 800 front-line officers and around 300 support staff. That is a good and long-overdue thing. It is interesting that only weeks ago the Government was still in denial about the fact that the police were overstretched and under-resourced, which anybody who has been listening has known for at least the last 18 months, since we started hearing directly from front-line officers that they were understaffed and overstretched, and could not get a day off and could not meet reasonable public expectations about service delivery because they were being asked to do too much with too little. So this extra funding for police is not a generous move; it is simply playing catch up. It is over the next 4 years, so for at least the next couple of years the police will continue to be working under enormous stress and under enormous pressure, and it is by no means an insightful or a visionary move by this Government. Call me cynical, but I suspect that had this not been an election year, the police would have had to make do for quite a bit longer yet.

So we are pleased the police are getting more resource. That is a necessary step, but it is by no means sufficient to genuinely make our communities safer, which is what this Government proposes to do. The police have a particular mandate and a particular skill set, and there are things they can do, but there are many things that contribute to safe communities that the police cannot do.

We heard earlier from the Hon Annette King direct quotes from people working at the front line in our mental health services—words like “broken” and “crisis”—and, again, anybody who is listening understands that that is the state of mental health services in New Zealand. The police are spending a lot of time picking up the debris—the human debris—from the failure to manage and to provide an adequate mental health service in the community. That is the part of the jigsaw that is missing. We have had a little bit of support for police, which is a good thing, but absolutely nothing from this Government to even acknowledge or confess that the mental health service is under-resourced or that drug and alcohol treatment—most people seeking treatment for drug and alcohol problems in the community are put on waiting lists and, in the meantime, very often they end up offending. Those are the people going through the revolving door in and out of prison for drug-related offences, burglaries, and the like. There was not a word in this statement about more support in that area, either. So this Government is doing very little to actually serve and make our communities safe.

We heard—and I quote directly—“Investment in modern infrastructure is a priority for the Government.”, and its members talk proudly about transport, schools, hospitals, defence, and housing. Oddly enough, they did not mention the $2.5 billion that they have committed to basically keeping more people in jail for longer—expanding capacity in our prison system. Perhaps that is something to do with the fact that our Prime Minister, a couple of years ago, called prisons a moral and fiscal failure—and what a great shame he did not stand by that very true and accurate statement. Prisons are a moral and fiscal failure and will continue to be, and it defies belief that we are spending an extra $2.5 billion on top of an annual budget of about $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion to perpetuate failure and to perpetuate crime and offending, because that is what our prisons do. This so-called social investment approach from this Government, allegedly spending money now to improve lives for the better and to reduce future costs—spending more money on prisons and locking people away is about as far removed from a genuinely social investment approach as one could possibly imagine.

This Government is failing. We will have to wait a few months and a change of Government before we see genuine progress and change.

A 5-minute call on behalf of the Green Party—Marama Davidson.

E Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe huri noa ki a tātou o te hoa kaimahi o Te Paremata, tēnā tātou katoa.

[Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and acknowledgments to us all, fellow colleagues throughout the Parliament.]

The Greens are standing every day to affirm our commitment and our relationship as a Te Tiriti party in a way that this Government never has and never will. I am really pleased, as the spokesperson for Māori development, to be able to stand today and respond to the Prime Minister’s statement and offer him ideas of how he could have filled it in to make sure that he was honouring Aotearoa and our relationship commitment to Te Tiriti.

I was very proud to announce our plan and commitment for Te Reo in schools a couple of weeks ago. I was not surprised, because we have been talking about this for some time—for years—to also hear of the support of the largest New Zealand teachers union, Te Riu Roa. The New Zealand Principals’ Federation also came out in support, because it is something that it knows should have happened some time ago and is something that it is happy to see. That is alongside the CEO of New Zealand tourism, who understands that our Reo rangatira is our point of difference. It is our unique and amazing taonga, which we have a responsibility to save, to nurture, and to put back into the place—into the site—it was actually stolen from. That was the case for my grandmother, which is why it has taken my own family, my own whānau, three generations after her to put Te Reo back in.

I am also proud of the work of my colleague Jan Logie in leading in Parliament to call this Government to account for its proposals to water down the priority of placing tamariki Māori in Child, Youth and Family’s care with whānau, hapū, and iwi Māori. Jan Logie has raised questions to the responsible Ministers, has attended all of the meetings that she has been able to know about, and has been able to raise voices like that of Paora Moyle—an ex-State-care child herself—to uphold and raise awareness of the horrifying abuse that has taken place in State institutions. One wonders, therefore, why on earth we are continuing with this colonisation tool of removing tamariki Māori from their whānau, especially when we know and have for years upheld the practice of whāngai. To this very day, there are always Māori available—if we do our jobs and provide the support—to provide fantastic, nurturing care for tamariki Māori.

I cannot go without mentioning my colleague Catherine Delahunty’s leadership on the Public Works Act. It is a simple thing to do—to prevent public works legislation from confiscating more and more Māori land. The Public Works Act is a piece of law that has been used as one of the largest tools of land alienation—and is something that the Greens are pushing for, and something, again, that this Government will not agree to. We had Patricia Grace in last week, telling her incredible story—a common one for this whole nation—of the generosity of her tupuna Wī Pārata Te Kākākura and his amazing gifting of land to the Government, to the Crown. This has happened throughout our history: generosity in the face of deep injustice.

I am proud to be standing with a party that is upholding our kaitiaki responsibilities for mokopuna, for whānau, for whenua, and for Reo rangatira. As kaitiaki, those are our responsibilities. All of the things that I have just outlined are ways that we could uphold our commitment to Te Tiriti, and they are ways that this Government is not even willing to discuss, in most cases. This is why I am proud to see growing support from Māori for the Green Party. This is why we have been able to put up the largest number of candidates that we ever have to date. This is why the support from Māori electorates and Māori voters is at its highest to date, and we plan to continue to grow that. We back up our relationship and commitment to Te Tiriti with our work every day, whether it is by standing with the communities and protecting their moana against deep-sea oil drilling or protecting Ihumātao from being developed and stolen again—

I am sorry to interrupt the member, but her time has expired.

What a great start it has been for the National-led Government in 2017. It is a very exciting year. We have got the election date confirmed and we are ready to go. We have proven, just since the start of the year, how successful a start it has been for the Prime Minister, Bill English. Has it not been a fantastic start for this side of the House? When you have had the Prime Minister go up to Europe on the international stage and meet all of those top dignitaries there—and then, of course, he came back and made the right call to not go to Te Tii Marae. Of course, Labour trundled out there and then said: “Well, the Prime Minister should have been here, but, actually, we’re not even sure if we’re coming back next year.” What a terrible mixed message that was from the Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Little.

Then, of course, we had the phone call from the President of the United States of America—a very successful phone call between our Prime Minister and the President. Then we had the Prime Minister shearing a sheep on Saturday night. What Prime Minister around the world could shear a sheep in the style and in the way that our Prime Minister did? No one could. And, of course, he beat the world champion Sir David Fagan. Anyone who is interested and wants to know how good Sir David Fagan is, there is a YouTube clip of him shearing a sheep the fastest ever, in 14 seconds. As fast as that machine could go, his hand was going to keep up. He is an amazing athlete—and I say well done to Bill English.

Then, if we look across the other side of the House—what a terrible start it has been for them. We saw Labour and the Greens getting together for a sort of a state of the nation speech that had no policy announcements, and then last week the Labour caucus just imploded. I say well done to Poto Williams for speaking her mind. Of course, she could not speak her own mind—she needed to get a PR company in to do it—but, nevertheless, I say well done to that member for actually speaking up and saying something that she truly believes in. What fired up a good part of the Labour caucus was Willie Jackson coming in. Willie has been promised a great list-ranking spot, and, of course, that means that a whole lot of Labour members—who are going to lose their seats this year, so they are very reliant on the list—are imploding over on the other side of the House.

I remember speech after speech after speech from Labour in this Chamber, saying it would never do any electorate deal. No, sorry, that was the Green Party—it would never do any electorate deal. Well, what has it done? It has done an electorate deal on Greg O’Connor running against Peter Dunne in Ōhāriu. Now we have got confusion on what the Green Party really thinks, because it wants to do a deal and make sure that its candidate gets across the line in Ōhāriu. My belief, of course, is that he will not. Then we have another fresh face coming in to the Labour Party—Laila Harré. Really, are those three the future of the Labour Party? I am not really sure. We will leave that up to the good voters of New Zealand.

Can I specifically focus on the Prime Minister’s statement and his motion—just the high-level message that I took out of it. The economy is in great shape. It is going to grow at 3 percent over the next 5 years. Unemployment is going to drop to 4.3 percent. Is that not fantastic? There will be 140,000 jobs created over this period of time. We are in a fantastic position. Little old New Zealand, down here in the South Pacific, is pulling the plough, getting on with growing our economy. Tourism numbers are going gangbusters. Then, think about the police announcement made by the Prime Minister and police Minister Paula Bennett being really well received in rural New Zealand—really well received. There will be more cops on the beat and a quicker response time. They are making sure that all of our communities are safer, with a real focus on rural communities, which I think is fantastic.

Then, if we get a little bit closer to home in the Ōtaki electorate, there has been a great announcement on the UFB2 rollout for towns in my community like Ōtaki and Foxton—or Shannon, in Ian McKelvie’s electorate. They have been waiting ages for the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband, and the National-led Government is going to deliver it.

The really exciting news this week, of course, is the Kapiti Expressway. The Kapiti Expressway is going to be officially opened on Thursday.

💬 Kris Faafoi: You didn’t want it.

And Kris Faafoi campaigned against it. Kris Faafoi, in the northern part of his electorate that he never goes to, in Raumati, had signs up against it. We are going to remind Kris Faafoi’s voters that Labour was against $630 million being invested in our community, in our region. We have waited absolute decades and decades. Five hundred jobs—created with the Kapiti Expressway. It is 18 kilometres long, with 18 bridges and 16 kilometres of cycleway, walkway, and bridleway, 1.5 million trees planted, and wetlands enhanced by about sixfold or eightfold. This is a truly majestic road. The Prime Minister is going to be there on Thursday, opening it. When Labour and the Greens were opposed to it, David Cunliffe, as leader—remember when he was leader? It was a terrible result, was it not! The reason it was so terrible was that he came out opposed to the Kapiti Expressway.

And we have always been confused about Labour’s position on Transmission Gully. Transmission Gully is going to be built, and we are going to drive on it in 2020. For my community and for the commuters who come from Horowhenua into Kāpiti and into Wellington each day for work, at the moment—just to go a 100-kilometre stretch from Levin to Wellington—it takes, at peak time, over 2 hours. It is diabolical. This Government is investing $2 billion, from Wellington Airport all the way to north of Levin—in fact, right through to Foxton, where we are going to build a fantastic new bridge over the Manawatū River and a new trestle, which will be a $70 million investment.

But wait, there is more. We are going to invest $330 million in 13 kilometres from Peka Peka to Ōtaki. I would not have a clue where Labour and the Greens are on that one. We are going to start in the middle of the year. Kris Faafoi puts his head down in shame because we know that the Greens oppose roading infrastructure and we know that Labour, depending on what day of the week it is, opposes decent infrastructure as well, because it opposed the Kapiti Expressway. Those members are now so embarrassed, I am not even sure whether Labour will turn up to the community walkover on the weekend. There will be thousands who will come to the Kapiti Expressway. It will be the first opportunity for them to walk along a section of it. Get on the bus—it will be absolutely fantastic.

But now I think I have ridiculed Labour enough.

💬 Scott Simpson: No!

Do you want me to go on? Well, I could. I could, but I would need extra time, and I want to talk about a few other important things in the area that I look after, which is the primary sector—the powerhouse of the New Zealand economy. It is actually in pretty good shape. Dairy is going well—climbing off the bottom, rebounding really well. Horticulture is going gangbusters. The forestry sector is in good heart. Exports into China are going really well. And then, of course, we should not forget about seafood, because it has been doing pretty well, as well. Its exports are looking pretty promising.

On the other side of the coin, it is quite tough for our sheep farmers. The beef prices have stabilised and stayed up. We have got the US herds rebuilding, a bit more Brazilian product coming in—it is pretty tough down on the farm for our sheep farmers. We are doing what we can to support them. Of course, we have the Primary Growth Partnership, whereby we are investing with industry a huge amount into the red meat sector to lift its viability and productivity.

This Government is focused on irrigation, because it is really topical. When you go to Northland, where I was a couple of weeks ago, they are finding it pretty tough with drought conditions up there. They are screaming out for water storage projects. So are people in Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne. Of course, if we had the Ruataniwha Dam built now, would that not be absolutely fantastic? But Labour and the Greens oppose water storage projects. We have invested about $145 million into water storage. We believe it is hugely important.

This year is going to be a year about acknowledging the great work that our farmers, our fishers, and our growers do to actually support the New Zealand economy. They are a massive part of it. We will have policies that will support rural communities, because the produce that comes off the farm needs to get to the port. Predominantly, it goes on the road. This Government is investing in infrastructure. We are investing in roads. We are investing in rail. We have done more than in the history of the New Zealand Parliament to invest in decent infrastructure. It is going to be a fantastic year. Bring it on.

I listened to that speech and the way I felt about that speech is a lot like the way I feel about this Government: I just wanted it to come to an end. It was the longest 10 minutes, and the scariest phrase I heard during those 10 minutes was when Nathan Guy said: “Wait, there’s more.” There is no more. This is a Government that is tired and out of ideas. It is behind the eight ball. This is a party that is saying that it is out there putting more police on our streets. It is just 12 months too late. That is a promise that this party over here made at the last New Zealand Police Association conference, at a time when the Government was in complete denial about whether there was increased crime and whether our police were stretched. It is 12 months late.

The Government is now boasting about a petrol inquiry that my colleague Stuart Nash called for about 15 months ago. But guess what? Who blocked that petrol inquiry at the select committee? That is right, punters, it was the National Government. So when we want to get fairness around petrol prices and when we want to get more police on our streets, do not look towards the National Party for the answers. In 2017 people will be looking towards this side of the House to find solutions to the problems that really matter to New Zealanders. Their problem during the 2017 election is going to be housing.

When I got back home from my electorate office yesterday, I decided to go for a walk as I needed to clear my head. I walked through the park and saw kids practising tag and some people walking their dogs. When I got around the corner, I saw a man standing next to a van. I pulled my headphones out and said: “Gidday, how’s it going?”. He said: “Gidday. I need to talk to you, Kris, because I need some help. I’m living in my van. I’ve been living in my van for the last couple of months. I’m in a really dire situation. I’m waiting for a Housing New Zealand house. I’m in a bit of a tough spot personally. But I’m a local and I don’t think it should be so hard to find a house to live in. I’ve been dossing at other people’s houses but I don’t want to be a burden on anyone else for much longer.”

This is not a man who was complaining about his lot. He said that he had enough food. He was on a sickness benefit but he could not get himself a home. Here he was, still a proud Porirua man, asking why it was so hard to get a house in Porirua. I agree with him, because it should not be so hard for someone who has lived in the community and who has grown up in the community—

💬 Hon Jacqui Dean: What did you do?

Well, I did what any good local MP would do and got his contact details. No one else was helping him at that stage. I want to know what the Government is doing for him. I pose that question to the members on the opposite side of the House. What are they doing for him? I can say right now, with absolute confidence, that the Government is doing nothing.

In this election, when we are talking about solutions to that man’s problems, talking about the people waiting for affordable housing, and talking about the people wanting to buy an affordable home, not just in Porirua and the Kāpiti Coast but further afield and in Auckland, where the problem is most acute, we are going to do something about it. We have been telling people for some time that we are going to do something about it.

I am very proud of the KiwiBuild programme—100,000 homes over 10 years. As the Prime Minister has said—far too late—we need to build some homes. We have been saying that for years—we have been saying that for years. The absolute solution to the problem is to build some homes, something that the party over there has failed to do in the last 8 years.

We hear from Nick Smith about consents, but we do not hear enough about meeting the targets of building those homes. Maybe Nick will have one of those consent-warming parties, where we can go along and say: “Hey, here’s my new house—oh, no, actually, it is a bare plot of land.” The consent might be there but the house is not there. That is exactly what is going on in Auckland at the moment. They are not meeting the demand.

We on this side of the House are going to take some action, and that is why I talk about KiwiBuild. At the last election we worked with the Porirua City Council to partner with it and to use some of its land to build some affordable homes in Porirua. That is part of the solution. That will be replicated around the country so that the people who desperately need homes will get them.

I want to talk about leadership, because this is going to be a big issue this year. I am proud to sit behind my leader, who, as a union boss, stood behind people like my mum when she worked in a factory. When the workers went on strike, the union stood behind my mum. When we hear members on the other side bagging the unions, I want to make sure that all those union members out there who are paid-up members and want to change the Government get out there and make sure there is a change of Government this year. We have to make sure that we kick the Government out of office in order to do for our communities all of the good things that we want to make sure happen: affordable housing, good healthcare, good education, and good jobs and wages for our people.

This Government has been in power for far too long and has ruined all those things that are fundamental building blocks to make sure that we can live the Kiwi Dream. The Kiwi Dream of owning a home has all but disappeared. I think the median price of a house in Auckland is $850,000 at the moment. The Government says it has done all it can do. That is not leadership. We need leadership, and that is where KiwiBuild comes in.

This year healthcare is also going to be an issue. I want to talk about that in the context of the front page of yesterday’s Dominion Post, which said that mental health care at the Kenepuru Hospital was unsafe. That is because of what this Government has done—on purpose. It has slowly taken $1.7 billion out of healthcare over the last 8 years. What does that mean? It means that facilities like that one in Porirua, which serves the Wellington region, get run down. The care at that facility cannot be up to scratch. The resourcing is not up to scratch. What we do get is a report that says that for a certain period one in five murders that happens here in Wellington is because of the lack of care that is offered by the local district health board. In my books, that is not good enough. That is not the New Zealand that I think most New Zealanders want to live in. We want to make sure that those who are the most vulnerable get the care that they need.

Let us move to education. We heard the education Minister talking about a whole lot of statistics, but the biggest challenge that the education system has at the moment is preparing our workers for the future that we do not quite have yet but is on the horizon. That is why I am very proud of the policy that we have of 3 years’ free tertiary education for those who have not done post-school education. That will give people a chance to re-skill, to be able to support their families in a workplace that we have not had yet but is on the horizon—and jobs will just disappear. That is what I am proud of.

There is a message that I want to say to people who are not in this House right now but who are out there in the community and are frustrated and tired of this Government: we need you. We need you to make sure that people are having those discussions that they are sick and tired of this Government. We need you to make sure that you are out there helping us, knocking on doors, delivering pamphlets, and making the phone calls so we can have a change of Government in 2017.

There was a big difference between the two state of the nation speeches—between Bill English, the Prime Minister, who is not a leader, and our leader, Andrew Little, who is a leader. We reaffirmed our commitment to housing, education, health, and jobs and wages. What did we hear from Mr English? We heard a rehash of Labour’s policy and nothing on housing, and complete denial of the No. 1 challenge that Kiwi families are facing today: either getting safe accommodation, getting warm accommodation, or having the chance of buying a house. What did Mr English say about housing in that speech? Not one sausage. He is in complete denial. They do not want to talk about it because they know they are most vulnerable on the housing issue.

I have one more ask for people who are watching at home, and it is a local ask, because there is a lot of land on Castor Crescent in Cannons Creek that has been empty since the Housing New Zealand homes were demolished back in 2011. Housing New Zealand said it would replace those homes, but they have not yet been replaced. That is having an awful effect on that community, because they want people back in their community. They want their area to be vibrant again. We can put some pressure on the Government on 4 March, because I am holding a public meeting there, and I am inviting the community to make sure that they come and send a strong message to the Government: “You promised to put back the homes you demolished in 2011. For 6½ years you have sat on your hands and done nothing. So come back, make sure you keep your promise, because the families of my area need homes to live in.”

The man whom I saw on my walk yesterday needs a house to live in. The people who come to my electorate office need a house to live in. This Government has done nothing to help those people.

To Jacqui Dean, who asked me “What did you do about it?”, I say that I am doing something about it, and your Government has done nothing for the last 8 years. You have sold houses and not built enough to keep up with demand, and that is going to be your downfall in 2017.

The next call is a split call. Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi—5 minutes.

Thank you for the opportunity to support the Prime Minister’s statement. First of all, I would like to congratulate the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Bill English, on his strong leadership. The previous speaker, Kris Faafoi, was talking about leadership. Leadership is what Bill English has shown, in starting this year. He is a very strong leader. We have seen his success as a finance Minister over the last 8 years, and now he is taking this country to the next level. He is a strong leader yet a very humble person who has not forgotten his roots. He is still the same Bill English for his own people of Dipton, and he has shown his connection over there.

When we talk about leadership, we have got the Hon Paula Bennett: a solo mother who started out when she was jobless, but she kept her focus, and today what is she? She is the Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand. That is what you can achieve in this country. The sky is the limit. The only thing is that you have to do the hard work.

The Government created a lot of jobs last year. How many? There were 130,000. The previous speaker, Kris Faafoi, was saying that the Government does not have any plan or has not done anything. If we have not done anything, how come 130,000 jobs were created last year? Our economy has been constantly growing, at around 3 to 3.5 percent for the last 8 years. When Labour left office, the country was already in a depression, but because of the good management of this Government, the country is back in surplus. We are the first country in the OECD that has come back to surplus. We have got policies, we have got an agenda, and we will work for New Zealanders to succeed. It is very important for New Zealanders to understand that the National Government is the only party that has got a growth agenda.

The minimum wage has been growing for the last 8 years. We are earning, on average, almost $59,000 per annum, which is $12,000 more since we came into office. The economy is diversifying, tourism is growing, and we see a bulk of people coming from overseas to visit New Zealand. Recently I met one of the operators who was visiting us from India. He said that high-spending tourist people are looking for opportunities to come and visit New Zealand, and we hope that in the years to come we will see more and more tourists coming to this country.

I would like to touch upon the recent announcement by the Prime Minister about safer communities. It is one of the issues that is very close to the heart of ethnic people, and I have been talking to them to get their input and know about what they would like to see. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, rightfully, announced the additional 1,125 more police officers, who will be helping the communities at large. It is not only in the main cities but also in the regional areas that they will be focusing.

Most importantly, I would like to touch on this topic: 20 ethnic officers are going to interact with the ethnic communities so that they can tell them what they should be doing to avoid the minor crimes that are happening in our society. More than $500 million is being invested in the justice sector so that we can reduce the crime and we can reduce the reoffending, and the Government is working hard upon that. With the new non-emergency number available 24/7, that will be helping people to address their issues when they want to get connected with the police or any other department.

I would also like to say that this Government is focused upon doing things for the betterment of New Zealanders, so that—

I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. His time has expired.

It is an absolute pleasure to rise in support of the Prime Minister’s statement for 2017. Given this is my first address to the House this year, let me wish you, Mr Assistant Speaker, a happy New Year, and given the debate was getting a little bit robust before, let me wish the Opposition a happy New Year. Why do I do that? It is because I am a happy, motivated, invigorated member for Invercargill, and I belong to a very happy, united, invigorated, driven team here on the National Government benches. We are led by a very passionate man, the Rt Hon Bill English. Why is he like that? He likes to invest in people, in New Zealanders, to help them achieve their hopes and dreams. And why is he like that—because he is from Southland, and so am I.

Why are Southlanders so happy at the moment? I can report that Invercargill people and wider Southland are in such good heart after a weekend of celebration. We hosted, in Invercargill—

💬 Scott Simpson: Sheep shearing.

Absolutely—sheep shearing, Mr Simpson. We hosted the Golden Shears, the international Golden Shears, on the weekend. We were beamed live all over the world. We hosted such a fantastic, phenomenal event. Over 4,000 people attended. We had participants from over 32 countries. It was a magical event. Who also attended? Well, I was there. I was there on the Friday. I was there on Saturday. I was there both nights. Who else was there? Mr Todd Barclay, member for Clutha-Southland, was there on Friday, on Saturday—on both nights. Minister Nathan Guy showed up in support of the event and so did our Prime Minister, our Southland Prime Minister, who is now representing New Zealand. And why is that? Because the National Party is supportive of regional New Zealand. And how did we do that? How did we do that intangible result in not only showing up in support but we swung in behind that event providing $260,000 of the $380,000 event to make sure it got across the line.

💬 Darroch Ball: And I wonder why you turned up—got to get your money’s worth.

And what is that called, New Zealand First? What is that called? It is called regional development. Let me say that slowly: regional development. That is right. We believe in providing initiatives to bring about medium- and long-term results. So what happened? We had an influx of people to Invercargill. They stayed in our hotels. They ate at our restaurants. They enjoyed our tourism facilities, and they spent money. This event created jobs for our people, and all the while we celebrated in our success. Southlanders are very lively, actually. When we went to the event, we participated—we got behind all of the teams. It was fantastic to watch their grit, their drive, and their determination—

💬 Hon Jacqui Dean: Sounds like us.

—and watch their hard work. Exactly! It is exactly like the National Party. No wonder the National Party resonates with those people.

💬 Kris Faafoi: You mean the sheep. I think you mean the sheep. Ha, ha! The sheep are just like the National Party.

We are in support of regional New Zealand and hard-working farmers and hard-working people who are involved in the primary industry. And it is not just about sheep, Mr Faafoi; it is about hard work and skill. Those people who were involved in those events were amazing. Let me give a shout-out to the New Zealand team. We had quadruple success at that event in not only the individual events but the team events. It was amazing.

But, also, it was wonderful to see our arch rivals, the South Africans—so humble and hard-working—come over to New Zealand and achieve in the blade shearing events. Blade shearing is almost a lost art, but they were amazing, wonderful to watch, and so humble, as were the New Zealand team. It was a wonderful event and I celebrate that event. I celebrate the Government coming in behind us and helping with an event in regional New Zealand celebrating the success of Southland. Again I say, $260,000 was put into that event to help us get across the line—absolutely fantastic and I cannot wait for more events, especially at our flagship infrastructure, the Southland ILT Stadium. I just want to congratulate that team on the military precision that they showed in setting up that event for each different spectacle that the stadium hosted. Thank you.

The next call is a split call. Clayton Mitchell—5 minutes.

A very inspirational contribution there, Miss Dowie. I appreciate that. It is also Valentine’s Day today. So to everybody: happy Valentine’s Day—while we are giving out offerings of peace, love, and tranquillity in the House. And, of course, to everybody up there in the Gallery and to people back home—making sure that a little something is offered in love and kindness. Mr Assistant Speaker, do not go out of your way; I do not expect a present this year—that is fine.

I think the people of New Zealand are sick of the bickering, to be absolutely honest. Some days in here it is like two seagulls fighting over a chip, so it was actually quite refreshing to have something quite polite, such as the contribution we had by Miss Dowie—so, fantastic on that.

We have got a new leadership for the Prime Minister. He is definitely not John Key; he is Bill English and by his leadership he will be known. We cannot judge him for what he has not done yet; despite the fact that there have been a number of debacles over the past 8 years of this Government’s leadership. We have had a “ponytail-gate”; we have had debacle with our flag referendum. We have had the foreign trust debacle—we can all remember that. That was a terrible indictment and a real blotch on our paper. And the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, which has now gone out the back door. We have had the Saudi sheep deal—who could forget that as nonsense? And, of course, the dodgy Sky deal, just to name a few.

💬 Darroch Ball: Skycity.

The dodgy Skycity Casino deal—yes, thank you for that. And, of course, we have got the problems with housing. But we cannot be throwing stones at Bill English, who is new at the helm, steering this country; we can only judge him for what he has done. In fairness to him, I think he started off quite well with his new appointment of Jacqui Dean as a Minister. We have seen the appointment of Alfred Ngaro, Mark Mitchell, and Dave Bennett—although that is questionable, let us be honest: you know, Dave Bennett. But to be fair, they are good appointments with good, hard-working individuals and we look forward to seeing how they perform this year.

We can, however, go back to 2002 when Bill English was a little bit green in the job. We want to see some real leadership from him moving forward, but let us just see how things lie. He is not responsible for what has been done, but he is responsible for fixing these problems up that I have outlined just before. The old Prime Minister, John Key—I should not call him the “old” Prime Minister, that is derogatory—towards the end of his leadership, in regard to a new bill that was entering the House called the Broadcasting (Games of National Significance) Amendment Bill, which is going to be giving free and live-to-air sports for New Zealanders—was caught saying that if this bill was introduced, it will have a negative impact on those heroes and heroines of the sporting codes because they will be going overseas to find more lucrative sporting contracts.

This is absolute nonsense. This is absolute fearmongering. It is unsubstantiated. In actual fact, the opposite is already occurring. Just as early as yesterday, Israel Dagg announced the fact that he is going to stay in New Zealand for pride of this country, for the lifestyle choices that he could have here, and to keep going with his New Zealand All Blacks team, as opposed to taking a more lucrative French contract. Last week we saw Ben Smith come out and say exactly the same thing. And when we look and we listen to the rest of the world we see they are ensuring that their people—their taxpayers who are putting billions of dollars to support sports and recreation in and around their countries—can see those sports live and free-to-air, such as Australia, the UK, India, and Canada. All those countries, plus a plethora of others, have seen the sense in doing so and they understand that those people will not leave. Those people—those sports heroes and heroines—will stay in their country, because we know that if you give access to all people equally, and not just the privileged minority who can afford to pay for subscription TV, they will be inspired to do their best, to be the best that they can be, and to stay here and be patriotic and proud Kiwis fighting for what they believe in. We know that there are 1.1 million to 1.2 million people who do not have access to Sky Sport. This is not anti - Sky Sport or anti - international companies; this is just ensuring that we are looking after the rights of New Zealanders.

When this bill comes into the House next month we hope that we can get the support and we see real leadership from Bill English, despite the previous leader saying that it was unlikely that they were going to support it. We hope that it gets the support that it deserves to make sure that New Zealanders have full and free access to games of national significance—things that inspire New Zealanders. We look forward to it progressing further. Thank you.

I call Darroch Ball—5 mintues.

It is a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First for the first time this year. I am hazarding a guess that I will be standing quite a few times up until the election, because the National Government has wanted to make some changes in the social services area, and, boy, do we need it in this country. The problem that we have got at the moment, though—and Sarah Dowie’s speech actually reminded me of much of what the Prime Minister’s speech was, and, to be honest, much of what the rest of the National Government members’ speeches were, and that was: everything is awesome, blah, blah, blah, everything is awesome! That is pretty much what it is.

Let us not get things wrong. New Zealand is a great place to live. New Zealand is a great place to live, and there are some good things to say about it. But the problem and the habit that the National Government has got itself into that I have experienced over the last 2½ years of being an MP is that all it talks about is the good. It never mentions the bad, and it certainly does not mention the ugly. Well, New Zealand First is here and the other Opposition parties are here to hold the Government to account and to point out what the bad parts are that the Government is trying to do, to point out what the ugly parts are that the National Government is doing.

I recall last week that members like Mr Bayly stood up and made a list of where New Zealand was on the OECD for ranks of different things, whether it be prosperity, transparency, economic development, or whatever he said on his list. The fact of the matter is that it is good that we are there in those high echelons of the OECD rankings, but, first of all, we should be. That is where New Zealand should be. It is not that National put us there; it is National’s job to maintain us being there. So when its members start rattling off a list of where we are in the OECD rankings, that is just the job that is expected of it as the Government. That is the job that is expected of the Government to do year in, year out.

What the Government members failed to mention are all the bad lists. What about the bad lists and the ugly lists? How about we start talking about youth crime? How about we start talking about where we are ranking on youth suicide in the OECD? It is absolutely outrageous, but there was not one mention from the PM and not one mention from the National Government members. And the reason why they do not want to mention any of the bad and they do not want to mention any of the ugly is that if they mention it, then they acknowledge it, and if they acknowledge it, they have got to do something about it. The National Government does not even want to touch any problems—any bad or ugly problems—with a barge pole.

How about we talk about something that came up in the House earlier on today about the “neets” rate—youth who are not in education, employment, or training. Ninety-one thousand—91,000—15- to 24-year-olds in this country are not in a job, not in any education, and not in any training opportunities. What is going to happen to those 91,000 kids? They are going to end up being reliant on the State. Not only are they reliant on the State now but they will be in their futures. The biggest problem with that is that it is an increase of just about 20,000 young people in 1 year. That is just under 2,000 per month. We heard Steven Joyce stand up here when I was asking questions during question time today about it, and he did not even want to acknowledge it. He was making excuses about the survey and the information that we got it from.

I have not even mentioned child poverty yet, but there is a whole list of issues that New Zealand needs to be addressing that the National Government is not addressing.

I just want to quote something—and it is not like National or the Ministers or the members do not know about these bad or ugly things; they just do not want to acknowledge them. I have got a Cabinet paper—advice given to the Cabinet social policy committee—that was signed off by the Minister for Social Development and the Minister of Justice, and I want to quote something. It says: “Justice Sector agencies are working together to address a range of shared challenges, including rising rates of serious crime, a rising prison population, high demand for alcohol, drug and mental health services, worsening over-representation of Māori in the justice system, and inter-generational patterns of offending.”

But we have not heard any of that kind of stuff, and this is the most important stuff that the Government needs to start acknowledging. It is the most important stuff that the Government needs to have plans to tackle. But there was not one mention from the PM, not one mention from any of the Ministers, and I guarantee you from this point forward there will be not one mention from anyone in National about what they need to fix. Because once they acknowledge that they need to fix the important things that I have just read out, and all the other lists that we are failing on, then they need to fix it, and the New Zealand First Party is here to hold them to account and to ensure that they fix those problems. Thank you.

The next call is a split call—Todd Muller, 5 minutes.

Thank you, Darroch, for your autobiographical account of New Zealand First, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”. That is a great way to kick off the year, from my perspective.

I want to contrast what we have heard through this debate from the two sides of the House, and particularly the National Government and the Labour Opposition. On this side we have a clear plan and a united caucus that, in my view, you can summarise with the words “competence, coherence, clarity, and cohesion”. This is a party that is working and that is delivering. And when I look across at the other side—what an absolute mess! What an absolute mess! It is a disparate, angry, frustrated group of politicians who have not yet realised that there is absolutely no substitute for discipline, there is no substitute for hard work, there is no substitute for deep policy thinking and, above all, there is no substitute for actually listening to New Zealanders and responding to them in a real and meaningful way, which this Government is doing.

No amount of angry, shouting rhetoric from the leader of the Labour Party is going to cover the inadequacy of the visionless lot that I look at on the other side. The Labour Party is divided, it is shallow to the core, and it is an emaciated version of its history. When it celebrates 100 years—as it has over the last few months—in my view it looks more antiquated and more out of touch than ever. A great example of this occurred in the last hour. When we were listening to a tremendous speech by Amy Adams and she was talking about our social investment model and how that is turning around lives in this country as we speak, she mentioned the word “customers”. “Customers!”, Labour members shrieked. And they did—go back and listen. They shrieked at that use of the word “customers” as if somehow that is a toxic word to use in the context of public service.

Well, this party does not resile from that. We believe that the most vulnerable people in our communities should be treated as customers. That is the philosophy that we have brought to this approach. These people are vulnerable. They need actions. They do not need more rhetoric from the other side around spending money. They need investment and activity that will work, turn them around, and actually make a difference in their lives. I thought that was particularly telling—the way Labour members reacted to the use of that word, because the idea of seeing people as customers, of actually adding value, is so foreign to their absolute being and ethos on the other side, and that is why they are struggling as they are at the moment. They are struggling particularly in the context of a social investment model that has delivered, as we heard from the Prime Minister’s statement, 50,000 children who are no longer living in benefit-dependent homes. That is real change to people and families in this country, and it should be acknowledged.

In the document that the Prime Minister spoke to when we began this debate—the Prime Minister’s statement—you can turn to any page and see an action plan that is delivering real value for New Zealand. On the first page we start where we must if we are going to deliver, as we are, a country that is moving forward: an economy that is performing. Some of these statistics are quite extraordinary. Annual economic growth is expected to grow over 3 percent and is expected to beat that over the next 4 years.

We need to look back to the 1960s, and perhaps further back in our history, before we see another such long line of strong economic growth—and that is in front of us. That is to the credit of the New Zealand people who have worked hard to get us into this position, and it is also to the credit of a Government that knows how to manage the books and get the fundamentals in place to enable that achievement to actually deliver for people and their families.

Unemployment will drop to 4.3 percent by 2021, and over the same period another 140,000 jobs are expected in this economy, which is an extraordinary outcome. And when you put on that that the average wage will rise through that period to $66,000, that is a Government that is absolutely working.

As I have been around the electorate of Bay of Plenty over the last few weeks, I have heard from person after person a view that this economy and this country are heading in the right direction. They know that you have to get the platform of economic performance working first, which we are doing, and from that platform invest in the areas of health, education, and law and order with the proceeds of that success.

Their work and our hard work are working together to deliver real value for our communities, and I am very, very proud as the member for Bay of Plenty to stand on this side of the House and support that attitude of achievement and ambition, and I am very proud to be able to support the Prime Minister’s statement on behalf of my community. Thank you.

I call Maureen Pugh—5 minutes.

I too join my colleagues in standing here in support of the wonderful new Rt Hon Bill English, Prime Minister of New Zealand. One of the best things that we can do for this country is establish a strong economy, and this Government is absolutely focused on the Government’s finances, because that is what gives us choice as a country. The infrastructure spend in this country over the last 5 years has been $18 billion and in the next 5 years that will increase to $32 billion. Focusing on the economy gives us choice.

We are also focusing on our young people and their education. We understand that education is one of the most important things we can do for the future of this country. We are now seeing record levels of National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2, especially with our Māori and Pacific children. We are investing a further $359 million to keep our best teachers in their classrooms, and also so that they can share their expertise and leadership across other schools.

The workforce participation rate is the highest it has ever been in this country. We have around 130,000 new jobs created just in the past year. Average wages have increased by $12,000 since we came into Government. That is double the rate of inflation, and that means more money in Kiwis’ pockets. One of the things I am most proud of as an achievement of this Government is that over the course of New Zealand’s history there have been 82 Treaty settlements. Sixty-six of those have been under this Government, and 56 alone in this term.

Investing in new ways to support our most disadvantaged children is also a priority of this Government. We believe that the best way to improve the lives of benefit-dependent families is to get them into work. As a result of this commitment, there are over 40,000 fewer kids living in benefit-dependent homes. This is critical for our social investment policies, and we know that breaking that cycle of benefit dependency is essential for these families. However, we also know that there are some vulnerable families that do need support, and it was this Government that introduced the first benefit increase in 40 years.

This Government is also setting standards around the world. We are now the world’s least corrupt country. What a record to be proud of. We are also the world’s most prosperous country, and New Zealand is now top in the world for doing business. These are not our statistics; these are independently gathered statistics.

I would like to speak a little bit about some local projects that I am particularly proud of. Greymouth is now getting its state-of-the-art $70 million hospital, as a result of the investment from this Government. We have got the new $28 million Taramakau road-rail bridge under way as we speak, and of course West Coast - Tasman was a big winner in the latest ultra-fast broadband (UFB) roll-out. We will see UFB rolled out into Kaiteriteri, Tākaka, Motueka, Ruby Bay—small communities, but it is essential for their future—Murchison, Wakefield, and Brightwater. On the West Coast we will soon enjoy fibre in Westport, Rūnanga, Hokitika, and Reefton. This Government understands the importance of positioning New Zealand on the global stage, and we know that providing this core infrastructure is vital. We are a Government with a long-term vision for all Kiwis.

This Government is also investing in the regions, very heavily. I am very happy to be supporting the regional growth study on the West Coast, which is seeing a huge amount of attention and investment into potential projects that will secure the economy in that area. Also an exciting announcement this year was that the Government is increasing police staff by a massive 10 percent. That is an increase of 1,125 staff, 880 sworn officers. We are keeping communities safe. Thank you.

The next call is a split call—Gareth Hughes, 5 minutes.

Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I want to start by congratulating you, Bill English, on delivering your first Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament. You are now out of Key’s shadow, and the country is asking what you stand for. Can we trust you to lead in the national interest, not just in the National Party interest? You are the Prime Minister, but no one outside the National Government caucus room elected you as leader. Kiwis want to know now whether you are right for our times.

For example, Prime Minister, why did you wait until this year to say marriage equality was right? Where were you when it mattered? You were voting against it. Why did you vote against medicinal cannabis in 2009, stopping countless people getting the relief they needed, yet supported it last week? Why were you pro the racist Springbok Tour, questioning the science of climate change, and talking about refugees as Middle Eastern leftovers? How can you be for our time when you have been consistently behind the times?

The international situation is going through the biggest shift, the biggest reorientation, in perhaps a generation. Where do you stand, on our behalf? On Trump’s despicable racist immigration ban, you fell silent. You waited days to share a weak opinion, then your phone call with Trump—a hater, a bully, a misogynist—was, to quote you, “fantastic”. No, that is disturbing. Contrast that with Justin Trudeau, who said unequivocally that it was wrong, and refugees and migrants were welcome. At a time of crisis, we need to stand up and be clear in our support of human rights. We need human rights lions, not lambs in sheep’s clothing. Why did you not raise our greatest threat, climate change, with Donald Trump? He is censoring environmental data, gagging scientists, and says he will pull out of the Paris climate agreement, threatening our kids’ futures. Is it because, once again, you are behind the times?

When asked whether you were a feminist, you said: “I wouldn’t describe myself as a feminist. I don’t know what that means.” Well, let me tell you, man to man, and exactly what I tell my daughter, that boys and girls should be equal and should not be treated differently. That is exactly what the Oxford Dictionary says. Prime Minister, it is quite simply the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of equality of the sexes. If you are not a feminist, you are against equality. I challenge you, Prime Minister, to say you are for equality. I challenge you to advocate for equality. I challenge you to act for equality.

Let us look back at your speech, in which you set out your big political vision for this year—business as usual. Business as usual means more homeless on the streets, a generation locked out of housing, more debt, more inequality, more foreign ownership, more pollution, and more cows, cars, and coal. Business as usual is our kids risking getting sick if they swim in our lakes or rivers. Business as usual means our homes, our environment, and our businesses are at risk.

The National caucus may have selected you as there was no other alternative, but there is a positive alternative for the people of New Zealand. The Green Party knows where it stands on human rights. The Green Party stands for modern and clean jobs. The Green Party stands for protecting the environment that we love. The Green Party stands for homes, for fairness, and for lifting our kids out of poverty. Green values are New Zealanders’ values, and, unlike you, we are on the right side of history. We are on the right side of the times. This year we offer change for good—a new Government with a mission to do good, good policies delivering real change, for good.

People are looking all around the world and they are worried. There are desperate refugees, growing walls, travel bans, rising tides, and massive inequality. New Zealand—we can be a bastion for human rights. We can be a home for fairness, and a place where people are happy, safe, and satisfied. The times they sure are a-changin’, and it is time. We need change, for our times.

I call Jan Logie—5 minutes.

Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. I want to dedicate this speech in reply to the Prime Minister to all those wonderful women with hardly a minute to spare. Although there may certainly be some men in that boat, I do say “women” advisedly.

This is for all those women who are trying to care for their children as best they can, and also those trying to care for their parents as well—all those women who are still doing most of the housework, who are probably the only ones to notice that there is only one roll of toilet paper left. This is for all those women who still manage to squeeze in time to be down at the marae, in their community, and at the school gate. This is for those heroines who are doing all of this, as well as working either full time or part time, or trying not to be sanctioned by Work and Income, which according to many people I have spoken to is almost a full-time job. This is for them.

Political statements all too often, to me, seem to be about statistics and issues and political propaganda, and not people. I want those women, and the men who are doing the same jobs, to know that we value them in this House. We want to make their lives a bit easier.

The latest Statistics New Zealand report shows that although retirement is the most common reason men leave a job, parental family responsibilities is the most common reason for women. Did you know that although 63 percent of men’s work is paid, around 65 percent of women’s work is unpaid? And that the average woman gets only 84c for every dollar men earn. Māori women earn just 73 cents for early dollar Pākehā men earn, and Pasifika women just 67c. This imbalance is unfair and it creates a social incentive for women to continue carrying more of the unpaid work. We need to start valuing women’s work—paid and unpaid. Caring for and supporting others holds us all together as families, as friends, as communities, and even as businesses. That needs to be acknowledged and that burden needs to be shared.

I am thinking, in this speech, particularly of a caregiver I met last year, who was a sole parent working full time on just over the minimum wage after years of work—she was holding people’s lives in her hands every day. She was holding people’s lives and dignity in her hands every day. She was bringing up her son as a sole parent and was bringing him to work with her because she could not afford to turn down extra shifts and she could not afford the after-school care. That is just wrong. It is not valuing her important work and it is also robbing families of their rightful income and support.

This is something the Government can fix. The imbalance between men’s and women’s pay is mostly a result of underpaying women and it is mostly the Government that is doing this paying. The Green Party is absolutely committed to equal pay, and in Government it will make sure the fight for equal pay is taken up proactively by Government and is not left to all those hard-working women, on top of everything else, to have to prove their case. The Green Party will make this a priority and will make sure that there is the money there to pay them fairly.

Last week I heard the Prime Minister talk a lot, but I did not hear much about making life easier for these amazing women and their communities and the people they are caring for. I do not understand why the Prime Minister did not talk about equal pay when there is supposedly so much work going on and it is going to be a significant part of the Budget. Women are working hard for their money and it is past time we paid them right.

Can I wish members of the House and those listening a happy Valentine’s Day. All of those romantics amongst us, I am sure, have sent their cards and flowers. There are a few shakes of the head—that is a bit sad. Romance is clearly dying in Invercargill. Actually, I do not send flowers on Valentine’s Day because I was married on the 13th of February, and that means flowers are very expensive at this time, so I do not do it twice. My wife—to whom I have been happily and blissfully married for 24 years—yesterday got a big bunch of white roses.

But there are a few people who are not feeling the love as much as I was. I do not think Poto Williams was feeling the love for Andrew Little, and she certainly was not feeling the love for Willie Jackson. And Young Labour members, well, they were not feeling the love for any of the Labour Party leadership last week. Meanwhile, on this side of the House there is harmony, there is energy, and there are new ideas. As we head into the year—an election year—that is going to be really important. I contrast that—and I am going to elaborate on a few of the areas for which I have responsibility as Minister—with a campaign strategy from Labour that looks like this: “We don’t like the Government, so nor should the public. We are not going to actually campaign on any policies.” That is what Mr Little said on Breakfast last week—“We might raise one or two more things.”

Apparently, Labour thinks all of its policy is out in the public domain, whereas this Government has not even started. We have already made a number of announcements around regional and rural broadband initiatives, and the half a billion dollars for police, which I can tell you went down extremely well in Dunedin—in my area—where people are confident that not only will every single district get extra police but also that there will be expectations around burglary-resolution rates, call outs, 24/7 non-emergency lines, and so on.

While we are talking about police I note that my friend, former president of the Police Association and a former rugby colleague at Western Suburbs, Greg O’Connor, has been selected as the candidate for Ōhāriu for Labour—good luck to him, he is going to need it. But he clearly got the Labour memo, because I have not seen a flip-flop as fast as what Greg O’Connor showed this week. After years and years and years of saying the police should be armed, the first time he was asked as a Labour candidate “Should police be armed?” he said no. He is going to toe the Labour Party’s line, which is that police should not be armed. As a former Minister of Police I happen to agree with him. I happen to agree with him, firstly, that it is the Commissioner of Police and his—or her in the future—team’s decision on what ordinance police would use and deploy. But here is the thing: at the least, one should be consistent and have the conviction to say even something like this: “Well, I don’t agree with the Labour Party line on this, but clearly it is a caucus collective responsibility.” No, he could not do that. He just flipped—he just rolled.

I think we will be seeing a little bit more of that from a party that is so desperate to get back into power its slogan will be: “We don’t like the Government, so nor should the public.” I do not think that is going to get it very far because it is going to need the sorts of ideas that this National-led Government has been coming up with for years and that it will continue to come up with.

I want to start, in my capacity as Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, by actually expanding on comments that Jan Logie had made her in her contribution. I think this was one of the single-largest important policy announcements last year, the legislative process for which will be introduced into the House, I hope, in the next couple of months—that is, the issue of finding a legislative solution to the recommendations of the pay equity working group.

The Court of Appeal, in the case of Kristine Bartlett and TerraNova Homes and Care, handed down, what I thought and still think is, an extremely well-considered and intelligent judgment. It took the 43-year-old Equal Pay Act, which was never written or designed for the sorts of things it is now being considered to do, and made a compelling case that the Equal Pay Act 1972 is designed to provide not only equal pay for the same work but equal pay for work of equal value. The Government accepted that recommendation and set up the Joint Working Group on Pay Equity Principles, which was very well chaired by Dame Patsy Reddy, now our Governor-General, and comprised representatives from business, unions, and ministry officials. It came up with excellent recommendations for the principles that should underpin a pay equity negotiation. I think everybody would agree that the goal is for bargaining between parties not to rely on the courts or on the Government to intervene—certainly not, except in very rare circumstances. That is where we need to get back to. The Government has agreed to those recommendations and is presently framing legislation, which I hope to bring into the House—certainly in the first half of this year. I think that will go an extraordinarily long way towards achieving the sort of equity that Ms Logie was talking about in her contribution.

But, in the meantime, we are not waiting, because I announced the increase in the minimum wage of about 3.3 percent to $15.75. I understand and appreciate the calls that many have for a living wage, and if organisations can afford that, that would be fine. We certainly augment the minimum wage for families, with generous Working for Families support, income-related rents, child support, and accommodation supplements. But the minimum wage that we will have on 1 April will be the highest in the world relative to the median wage—the highest in the world—and it will be the fourth-highest in the world in real terms. So I think that is going to be a significant closing of the gap that we continue to do. I think that the 31 percent increase in the minimum wage since we have come into office, compared with a 14 percent increase in inflation over that time, sends a clear signal that this Government is keen to ensure that our starting-out workers and our lower-wage staff are well looked after.

Of course the TerraNova case has given rise to the negotiations, which the Hon Jonathan Coleman and the Ministry of Health are leading, for a settlement, hopefully, in the not-too-distant future. I am confident that when a settlement package is able to be achieved Cabinet will look at that extremely positively.

I want to just end by touching on a new role that I have picked up since December and that is as Minister for ACC. I would love to take the credit for the $126 million reductions in levies this year, which is part of a $2 billion per annum reduction that this Government has managed to introduce since 2012—$2 billion a year. That has come out of excellent work that ACC has done in combination with previous Ministers to ensure that those who suffer injury at work, at play, in treatment, and on the roads are, firstly, cared for well, are compensated for their loss of incomes, and are then rehabilitated to ensure that they can return to work or independence as quickly as they can. Those rehabilitation rates are a very important indicator of scheme performance, and I, as Minister, will be redoubling efforts to ensure that ACC continues to focus on rehabilitation rates—some people call them exit rates—and it is important that we do that because what we know is that people who stay on the scheme longer than about 9 months or so have very, very significant difficulty in getting back to work. Although sometimes it can be seen like tough love, it is really important that case managers and rehabilitation providers continue to work with claimants to ensure that they are made better.

But in the meantime I am confident that we can do that and continue to deliver the levy reductions that we have been able to provide for employers, for motor vehicle users, and for earners when they are at leisure, because only this Government—only this Government—pays that level of attention to the scheme, which it introduced in 1972 under Jack Marshall after the royal commission report of 1967. It started on 1 April 1974 under Labour and, of course, it has had successive iterations of change, but the fundamental principles remain. We will work hard to ensure that every stakeholder in ACC—levy payers, health providers, injured parties, and so on—are treated well and fairly, and I think that, for me, is symbolic of an energetic, ideas-focused Government, and we will continue to be that in 2017.

The next call is a split call. I call Poto Williams—5 minutes.

Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Before I begin my substantive contribution can I please send my best wishes out to those people of the Port Hills, who are watching with some distress that properties are under risk of the fires. May I send my condolences to the family of the helicopter pilot who appears to have lost his life in fighting those fires.

As I am an electorate MP—and I know that my colleagues who are electorate MPs here in Labour do this every single day—my office opened its doors after the summer break on 11 January. In the next 2 weeks my office was swamped with 85 requests from constituents for support and advice—85 requests in 10 working days. A quarter of these requests were about financial hardship and many of these people had gone to Government agencies to seek support, only to be turned away—a significant number of people turned away from Government agencies that are charged with their support. For them, the National Party’s brighter future, the economic dream, is actually an economic nightmare because they struggle every single day just to be fed, just to be housed, and just to get on with life. There were 85 requests in 10 days, and I am hearing from my colleagues that it does not seem like that is unusual—from members on this side of the House.

We have had people come to us in the last 6 months—it is a practice of mine to keep a count of the number of interactions my office has with people, and I must absolutely acknowledge my team: Heather, Leeann, and Paul. They do an extraordinary job between the three of them, and I even get to pick up some of the work, we do so much. What we are finding when I do my annual report or my 6-monthly report is that many of our people are the ones for whom this Government claims that it is doing a good job. Government members say that they are doing a great job at getting people off benefit and into work, when many of the constituents who come to me in my office for support are people in employment and they are struggling to actually keep a roof over their head and keep food on the table for their kids and to get their power bills paid. I have these numbers for anyone who cares to look. I have these numbers for anyone who cares to look. And we care to look. We care to look at the numbers of people who come to us for support.

I want to talk about housing because currently this Government wants to sell 2,500 Housing New Zealand homes in Christchurch and about 350 of them are in one of the suburbs in my electorate, Shirley. We know that Government officials went to Australia after they announced the sale of these houses, because they knew that social housing agencies in New Zealand would not be able to actually take over the role of purchasing and running these homes. So they have gone to Australia. Why is it that we are looking to Australians to care for New Zealanders and keep New Zealanders in homes, because, let us face it, the profits from that will not stay here; they will go offshore.

If this Government is serious about housing Kiwis then it should not be looking offshore for community housing providers in Australia to take up the reins. Housing is a core Government function. Keeping Kiwis in Kiwi homes is a core Government function, and Labour, when it becomes the next Government, will do exactly that. It will build houses and it will make sure that Kiwis actually get the housing that they deserve. For New Zealanders out there, rest assured that the economic nightmare that this Government has delivered you will be no longer. We promise you an economic dream, where every Kiwi will have the house they deserve, the education they deserve, and the healthcare they deserve. Thank you.

Tēnā koe Te Māngai o Te Whare tuatahi māku ki roto i ngā tikanga o ngā mātua tupuna ka tangi atu ki te hunga mate. Ko ngā mate ki runga i te pae o mahara ka whakaaro ake ki tērā hau tupuā a Kīngi Ihaka i ngaro atu ki Te Pō, ka whakaaro ake mō Te Archbishop, arā, ko Paraone Tūrei kua ngaro atu, kāti! Rātou ki a rātou, e moe, e moe, e moe!

[Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. The first thing for me to do according to the customs of the ancestral forefathers is to lament those who have passed away. The deaths on the horizon of remembrance that come to mind are that of the renown and noted Kīngi Ihaka, who is lost to the void. I think about the Archbishop, namely, Paraone Tūrei, who has gone; enough! They the dead to themselves, rest, sleep, slumber!]

As is customary in the Māori culture, I would like to pay respects to those who have passed on in recent months since the last time the House sat. I want to acknowledge them and I now bring the conversation back to the topic at hand. Thank you very much for allowing me this opportunity. There is one word we have not heard from the other side of the House. It is “crisis”. They seem to tiptoe around the word “crisis” when actually—

💬 Hon Members: It’s your word.

Well, the proper word now is actually “crises”—there are so many things going wrong in Aotearoa New Zealand today and I want to touch on a couple of those. One of these crises is, as mentioned by members on this side of the House, housing—a huge issue in Tāmaki Makaurau and across the country. Another crisis issue is education. Another one is health. But for mine, in Tāmaki Makaurau, I want to focus on housing.

I want to start by saying that recently the Māori Housing Network was established to ensure that homeownership numbers amongst Māori—and opportunities for Māori tribes and other agencies to engage in providing housing for Māori people are more efficient and more effective. My research led me to these numbers and, as a fluent native Māori speaker, it pains me to say this, but I think it is one of the most appropriate sayings for the issue at hand. I know that my esteemed colleague here Mr Kelvin Davis regularly says this: “Too much hui and not enough do-ey.” I can tell you from the Māori Housing Network that for every seven public consultation hui they have, only one house is built. For every seven hui only one house is built.

I can also say to the House that none of those houses have been built in my electorate of Tāmaki Makaurau, where homeownership has now plummeted for Māori to 28 percent—half that of the general population. Pacific Island homeownership has plummeted to an all-time low of 18 percent—28 percent and 18 percent—plummeted. I believe this is a crisis. Can I also say that as of November 2016, no houses have been built in Tāmaki Makaurau and, even worse, no houses have been contracted to be built.

So what kind of a future does that leave for the people of Tāmaki Makaurau? Today the Leader of the Opposition, Andrew Little, pointed out to this House and also to the public the plight of one of our constituents living under a tarpaulin. Is this the future that our people can look forward to? I say to the people of Aotearoa New Zealand and the people of Tāmaki Makaurau that come 23 September they will have a choice. They will have a choice to make and that choice will be to make sure that the future generations of Aotearoa New Zealand have a home, that they have all of the opportunities that many members in this House have been able to partake in: homeownership, quality education, quality healthcare—something so, sadly, missing from this Government over the past 10 years.

Just to remind the House once again, before I conclude: for every seven public hui, only one house is built—none of those in Tāmaki Makaurau. For me that is a crisis. I spoke of the homeownership rates: 28 percent for Māori and 18 percent for Pacific Island people. I have not seen one vision from this Government that will put more Māori into homeownership, that will put more Pacific Island people into homeownership, instead of condemning them to private rates of rental properties. Some, and most—particularly in Tāmaki Makaurau—cannot afford it. One two-bedroom place in Tāmaki Makaurau is $560 rent per week. How can our people survive in Tāmaki Makaurau? And we know that this crisis, this plague, is indeed spreading across the country. So come 23 September I encourage all New Zealanders out there to get out and vote, and vote for change.

I move, That this debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to.