General Debate

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business. They say a week is a long time in politics. I can tell you that just 24 hours can feel like a very long time in politics too. Imagine then what can be done, what can be changed, what can be achieved in just over 50 days.

I did not come into politics to be an Opposition member of Parliament. In fact, every single person sitting behind me, sitting beside me, did not campaign to be in Opposition. We are here because of our inherent belief that New Zealand can be better than this. Every single one of our Labour team will have a story to tell about when they realised this simple fact—in fact, they will have many stories to tell, and daily reminders of that simple fact.

I have often spoken about my very short time living in a small forestry town plagued by unemployment and plagued by poverty. But when you are a child you do not see politics. You see unfairness. When you are searching for your first home or facing an increase in your rent, you probably do not see politics. You just see a lack of hope. When your bills outstrip your income again and again, and you are looking for ways to bridge the gap, you probably do not see politics. You just see the next countdown to another pay day.

And yet all of these challenges can be different. No one is asking politicians to provide a silver bullet, but they are asking for ideas that give them hope and that give them change. Our vision is for a better, fairer future for New Zealand—a place where everyone, no matter where they live or what their income, has the best education and the opportunity to flourish. That concept is as true now as it was when Peter Fraser stood and said that “all persons, whatever their level of ability, whether they live in town or country, have a right as citizens to a free education of the kind for which they are best fitted and to the fullest extent of their powers.”

Our education policy does this, and I am proud of the work that our education spokesperson, Chris Hipkins, has done on it. It is a policy that stops treating schools like factories and children like products that need to be standardised, tested, and dispatched. It acknowledges that a child’s creativity peaks at 7 and fosters that creativity.

Our vision is for a place where everyone who has the ability has access to decent work, and not just for the work that presents itself now, but for the jobs of tomorrow. That means investing in lifelong learning, starting with giving work and hope to every one of the more than 70,000 young people not in education, training, or employment; that means a country that calls a home a right; that does not sell State houses, but builds them; that recognises market failure and steps in to build the stock we need; that sees homeownership falling and sees that the next generation risk even greater inequality, as those who have become those who inherit, and does something about it.

It is a place where small to medium enterprises thrive. They are our job creators, our innovators, and whether it is our R & D tax credit, our plans to incentivise investment, our focus on building the talent they need, or just our belief that they deserve a level playing field and for multinationals to pay their fair share of tax, just like they do, small and medium sized enterprises are key to New Zealand’s future. Our future is for a better, fairer future for New Zealand.

Finally, we are the people’s party, and the people of New Zealand have an inherent connection to the land in which they live. Governments have been latecomers to something Māori have always known. We can be world leaders on environmental challenges of tomorrow. Let us not just legislate our climate targets; let us use them to innovate to our advantage. We are young. We are smart. We are a beautiful country. It is time, though, to make it even better. It is time for Labour.

Can I begin by congratulating the previous speaker, Jacinda Ardern, on her ascension to the leadership of her party, and can I congratulate her on her speech, which was positively Little-esque. It was positively Little-esque. She is going to be, she says, relentlessly positive about New Zealand. Well, I think she is probably about 30 percent of the way there going on that speech. She obviously has a lot of work to do over the next 5 and a bit weeks until the polls open. But I note she is out there, she is doing it, and she is already talking about changing policies—except all she has done so far is say that she will not be interested in a fresh approach. I can see why, because the two policies she has namechecked this afternoon are, firstly, R & D tax credits, which have been Labour’s policy for roughly 2 millennia, and the education policy that was written in 2011 or 2014, which is apparently still the best possible education policy in 2017. So the fresh approach has quite clearly gone.

I wonder this afternoon whether I could offer Jacinda Ardern a little bit of political advice in the interests of bipartisanship. I think that is important. I have helped Annette King over the years. I have made Annette everything she is today. I thought I would offer a little bit of advice.

The first bit of advice is to watch Grant—watch Grant. A lot of leaders have made the mistake of not watching Grant. I suggests she watches Grant, because, amongst many other things, he will want to spend the surplus several times between now and 23 September. I would suggest she watches Phil Twyford, because he has got a bit of a tendency to scapegoat parts of our society, which is not exactly relentless positivity—not exactly relentless positivity.

Can I suggest she watches David Parker, who wants to take a scorched earth policy to New Zealand’s regions with his approach to water and climate change. Can I suggest she watches Metiria and the Greens, who are interested only in removing all obligations from people receiving a benefit. I suggest she does that. Can I also suggest she watches Winston, because it is always a good idea to watch Winston when you are in the Opposition, because he thinks he is the Leader of the Opposition. He especially thinks he is the Leader of the Opposition as of yesterday, so I suggest she watches that.

But I would like to encourage her in her relentless positivity, and I would like to encourage her to get out and have a look around New Zealand. She talked about the time when she was growing up, when times were tough in rural New Zealand, and actually she should go out now and have a look because, actually, rural and regional New Zealand are in really good shape. Rural and regional New Zealand are growing strongly. She should go to Hawke’s Bay and see all the horticulturalists growing their businesses because of this Government’s approach to trade. She should go to Ōāmaru in North Otago, which is growing the fastest it has in 25 years. She should go all around the country.

She should go to Dunedin and see the tech sector growing in Dunedin. She should go to Auckland, which this new Opposition spokesman at the back said was struggling. She should go and drive through the Waterview tunnel to her electorate and see the progress that is being made there. Above all, she should go to west Auckland and South Auckland where many New Zealand families will be getting the benefits of the family incomes tax package from this Budget on 1 April of next year.

All of those things are positive things that are happening in this country because we are taking an open and connected view of the world. Kiwis are encouraged to get out and win on the world stage. New Zealanders are embracing that. The country is growing strongly. The Labour Party members are still denying it and that is their problem. They can change leader as often as they like, but if they do not see New Zealand companies growing, if they do not see jobs growing, if they do not see incomes growing, if they do not see families benefiting from this Government’s approach to getting the books to balance and investing in infrastructure and services, then they will continue to languish because they are completely disconnected from the reality of most New Zealanders around the country in regional New Zealand, in our big cities, and that is why New Zealanders are supporting this Government—because it is growing New Zealand and delivering for New Zealanders.

Order! I was reluctant to interrupt the member through his speech because he was certainly battering against a considerable amount of interjection, but throughout his speech he frequently referred to members by their Christian name only. I have asked him not to do that in the past. He needs to watch that in the future; it will lead to disorder.

Well, it is really interesting is it not, listening to Mr Joyce’s speech: “Go to west Auckland, go here, go there, go everywhere.” Mr Joyce, if the rural New Zealanders are doing exactly what you think they are doing—prospering and doing well—we think you should go to Woodville, Masterton, Dannevirke, Porangahau, and Pongaroa. I tell you what rural New Zealand will tell you, Mr Joyce; they will tell you to go to hell, because it is not wonderful out there. It is tough, and other places are not wonderful.

It is not wonderful within the immigration service is it? It is not wonderful on the Government benches when it comes to looking at immigration. Yesterday the Rt Hon Winston Peters was highlighting to this House that in October last year Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment—Steven Joyce’s little birth child—investigator Theodore Ashton found that thousands of approved residence applications prior to October 2016 could be in error because of fraudulent English testing—fraud. In November 2015 Nigel Bickle, deputy chief executive of Immigration New Zealand, said that on a test sample of—get this, listen up Government—95 out of 98 visa applications, applicants were not asked for any evidence that they met the minimum English proficiency test, and it goes on and on.

But wait, there is more. When we come back to this question of unskilled migrant workers, what did we see the Government do last week? It announced a revamp—it announced the tightening-up and changes—but then last week it backtracked on changing immigration rules to rein in immigration numbers as New Zealand’s net migration numbers continued to skyrocket to 73,000 in the last year. So the Government announced that $49,000 of income would be the threshold—and then it cut it down to $41,000. Why? To retain an extra 6,000 to 7,000 unskilled migrant workers. So the Government is tinkering around the edges, trying to deal with the problem of net migration, and it announces a sensible policy, and then—on the back of some pressure from employer lobby groups, which want to prop up unprofitable businesses and want to continue to exploit cheap migrant labour—it does a backflip.

Well, we know, in New Zealand First, that this has been going on for years and years and years under this Government, especially in the area of low-skilled jobs such as those in hospitality, restaurants, cafes, retail, rest homes, labouring, and fruit picking. I have got to tell you, just last week I had anecdotal evidence of a courier operation in Taupō where a low-skilled migrant is working for $3 an hour, but, nice and neatly, using the employment laws to circumvent that by having a contract—on the promise of residency down the line. This Government has been told time and time and time again of these corrupt and fraudulent practices and—dare we say it—abuse of migrant workers. But it still continues to ignore it.

So what is New Zealand First telling you we are going to do after the election, when we are in Government? We will slash unskilled temporary migrant workers—currently running at 185,000. We will reinstate that $41,000 threshold. Extending work rights to student visas, 165,000 of them, and the associated rorting of the international school system being used as a de facto unskilled work visa and pathway to residency—we will smash that. Family reunion for unskilled workers—we will slash that. Restrictions on parent advisory category—we will do that. And the Government’s own reports that show that family sponsors have been abandoning their elderly to burden New Zealand’s very generous health and welfare system—oh, we are going to deal to that as well.

It is absolutely appalling that this Government continues to preside over immigration policy and immigration rules that are killing this country and, worst of all, allowing migrant workers to be abused. That is not going to continue.

I did want to begin my contribution to the general debate by acknowledging and congratulating the MP for Mt Albert on taking over leadership of the Labour Party. I must say that I look forward to the day when the gender of a person taking on a role like that stops being a point of interest in the discussion and whether it is a man or a woman ceases to be relevant and, actually, the interest is in the quality of the person taking on the role.

This party—our party; the National Party—over the last weekend put out our party list for the 2017 election. I am incredibly proud of that list. It is the most diverse party list that we have ever put out ahead of an election. It represents people from all around New Zealand, from all walks of life, from so many different ethnicities, and from so many different backgrounds. The reason that we see so many New Zealanders of all different types wanting to be part of this team is that they know and they see that we are a Government and we are a party that came here to represent and deliver for all New Zealanders.

When you come to this place, you know that making a change for New Zealanders is not going to be easy. It is going to require some issues that are incredibly challenging—there are not easy options simply waiting out there to be taken. These are hard issues that we tackle every day. They are challenging, they are tough, and they bring with them incredibly robust debate. Making progress on those issues takes a number of things. It takes, obviously, a group of people who are dedicated, who are committed, who are hard-working, who have a clear vision, who know what they want for New Zealand, and who are relentless in pushing for those outcomes for New Zealanders. You have got to have a strong belief in this country, you have to have a belief in its people, and you have to have an absolute determination to deliver more and more for them.

We want to deliver jobs. We want to deliver better incomes. We want to deliver opportunities for every single New Zealander. We want the best health. We want the best education. We want the best connectivity. We want our streets to be safe and our communities to be healthy. This has to be a country that is a good place to do business, where people want to come and invest. We want, as I say, our communities to be good places to raise children.

All of that requires a number of things. It absolutely requires, and is underpinned by, a strong economy. This Government knows that it is not Governments that create jobs and raise incomes and pay taxes to fund all the things we do; it is hard-working New Zealanders who have the confidence to invest. That is what this Government understands.

There is one other thing that that absolutely requires. It requires strong, stable leadership that remains focused every single day on getting the task done.

Every day that you spend in Government—

💬 Iain Lees-Galloway: New Zealand’s answer to Theresa May.

—looking internally, fighting with yourselves, fighting with other parties, working out how you are going to arrange yourself is a day you are not focused on the outcomes for New Zealanders.

I can tell you that this is a party and a Government that, every day, comes here, not looking inward and worrying about how we sort ourselves out and not in spats with our support partners—and name-calling. This is a Government that focuses instead on getting the things done that New Zealanders need.

It is very simple, really. If you cannot manage yourself, you cannot manage a country. You cannot run your own system and work with other parties in this House cooperatively and constructively. Yes, you can disagree, but you can do it in a way that is respectful and mana-enhancing and that advances the debate. That is what delivers for the people of New Zealand—not infighting, not division, and not spending all of your energy on your own internal struggles.

What has that approach of strong, stable, unified, hard-working support meant for this country? Well, I will tell you what that has meant. It has meant an economy that is growing at 3 percent, which is one of the best growth rates in the OECD, and that has meant more jobs. We have had an increase of more than 200,000 jobs, and the average wage is now up to nearly $60,000 a year. That is an incredible increase. It means families in New Zealand are better able to afford the cost of living. We have seen those real wage increases far outstripping inflation. This is not some inflation-fuelled increase in wages; this is more money for New Zealanders.

Of course, just in this year’s Budget you saw us pass the Family Incomes Package, which, interestingly enough, Labour opposed, even though it put more money into the pockets of some of our most vulnerable New Zealanders. Labour, when push came to shove, did not want to support that because it did not suit its political agenda of opposing the Government, and that showed more than anything that for those members it was a case of the politics. If the politics means that they should oppose it, even though it helps New Zealanders, that is what they would do. Well, not this Government. We are focused on delivering for New Zealanders. We have delivered for New Zealanders over the time that we have been in Government, and we will continue to do it, on the basis of a strong, stable leadership of a strong, stable team.

I hosted a housing and homelessness meeting in Manurewa on Monday night. We had a great turnout of locals on a cold night in a community that does not trust our current political processes. The locals are asking where all their emergency funding has gone—the $300 million that Minister Paula Bennett was so proud of when she announced it. It has not really made it out to my ’hood.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of people whom our local community is having to step up and feed and clothe. A man died on the steps of our local church less than 3 weeks ago. We are talking about Manurewa here. People are having trouble accessing help for their medical needs so that they can heal sores and preventable illnesses—illnesses that should not be a part of our country today. The locals are calling for a night cafe—

💬 Hon Member: It’s free.

—at the least, where people can come and have a warm place to be, and have food and drink and somewhere to put their blankets—a place to be welcomed and humanised. Although my colleague points out that there are free medical centres, well, it is not happening in Manurewa. So what is going wrong there? Medical centres are still charging. I want to acknowledge local community worker Debbie Monroe, who for 4 years has been having to step up and feed and clothe and befriend the people sleeping rough on our streets because of this Government’s failure to provide adequate housing.

On Sunday night I visited a camping ground in west Auckland and I saw some things, including a family of three living in a cabin room less than half the size of the average MP’s office in this precinct.

💬 Hon Maggie Barry: Stop shouting.

I will shout. I will shout about this. I will shout about a family of three living in a cabin less than half the size of what you and I work in every single day. The father went to pains to tell me that he came from a background of running a business, having capital and machinery, and owning land, and through life situations, he has found himself living in this undignified situation. He has refused to ask for help from anybody or from the Government because he is embarrassed and ashamed of having to do that.

That shame is the shame that has happened to this country. It has poisoned our country for too long. This is the shame that has insisted that poor people are to blame for their misfortune and that they are undeserving of our support. While the Minister does not want me to shout, I am feeling their voices and I am trying to make them heard. So I will stand in this House and talk about the things I know and see, and I am sorry if people have a problem with how loudly I do it.

Whatever response this Government has about whatever the good things are that are happening, it cannot spin away what is also happening. This is not our country. We know this Government has done this. It has created these harmful, undignified situations for our people. It is talking about being stable, but this is not stability. It is talking about belief. Can we at least agree to believe that there is a housing crisis? Can we come together in this House and even say the words “housing crisis”?

Can we withstand the discomfort when our own privilege meets us squarely in the eyes while we listen to our people, our citizens, tell us their stories from the shabby, dark truth of a gross caravan? Can we stand in the Work and Income lines, which bend around two corners, and can we be leaders and stand for the fact that these are just ordinary people who are trying to do the best they can with very little? Can we take the leadership of Metiria Turei and offer the vision and the plans to fix this?

I ask you all, if you are not prepared to stand to fix this, then what are you doing here? Thank you.

I want to begin today by offering my congratulations to the new Labour team, to the new leader, and to the new deputy, and I wish them well, because they are going to need it. They are going to need it.

💬 Chris Hipkins: I don’t think you really do.

Ah yes, I do—yes, I do. I wish them all the luck in the world, because they are going to need it, because the problem is not leadership; it is about taking to the country with confidence and with a plan that is shown to be working, and that is what Labour has not done. It has not done it.

It has not got a credible plan, whereas on this side of the House, we know—we have seen strong, stable Government through some of the toughest times that this country has ever faced. Through the global financial crisis, through the Canterbury-Christchurch earthquakes, and, more recently, with the Kaikōura earthquakes, this Government has shown leadership, it has shown support, and it has shown that it can get the economy back in order so that it can be of support to people when they are in need.

I want to say to Marama Davidson, the previous speaker, that the hearts of all of us in this House go out to those people who fall on hard times. Of course we want to have a country that has a helping hand and that shows a helping hand to those who fall on hard times, but there are hard-working New Zealanders who provide that, so there always has to be a balance. There always has to be that balance between where you can have two households literally living next door to one another where some people are struggling and others are working hard to pay their taxes and raise their families, so there always has to be that balance, which means there always has to be some form of obligation. So of course we want the sort of country that cares for one another and provides, but by the same token there has to be some obligation.

I am very proud to be part of a Government that has overseen the restoration of this country’s economy to the stage where we now have surpluses and we can make choices about how we spend those surpluses for the benefit of the wider New Zealand community. I was very proud last year to see the first raise in the benefit levels in over 40 years going to some of the poorest in our community, and proud again of Budget 2017, with that $2 billion package addressing both the accommodation supplement and low income levels through Working for Families, which will see over a million people get an average of $26 a week.

But, more importantly, I am really proud to have been able to lead the overhaul of our child protection system. This is a 4- to 5-year process—in fact, it will probably be a 6- to 7-year process by the time we are finished. It is important that we understand when we are reaching out to those most vulnerable in our community that the most vulnerable are children, because they have no voice. We talk about their parents and we provide assistance to their parents, whether it is housing, whether it is benefits, whether it is the accommodation supplement, etc., but those children, for no fault of their own, start their lives under severe circumstances. We have an obligation, which is why we come into Government in the first place, why we come into this House, to support them.

Last year we had the first set of legislative reforms, and just 3 weeks ago the big legislative programme passed through this House. I have to say that I am extremely disappointed, because I have sat in this House for some years now listening to members talk about the responsibility that we have to these young, vulnerable New Zealand children and young people, and those very people, when they had the opportunity to put those children at the centre of a big legislative change and a big system change, actually voted against it. I was even more disappointed when it became clear that they had not done their homework and read the bill that came back into the House from the Social Services Committee, but apart from all that, if we want a system that actually puts those children’s interests at the heart of everything we do, then we need to have their voices, and that legislation gave them their voice. It gave them their voice not only for themselves but for the system, and it was disappointing that the Opposition parties all voted against it.

It has certainly been a momentous 24 or 36 hours in politics, and the election of Jacinda Ardern and Kelvin Davis as the leadership team of the Labour Party is one of the great political moments I have witnessed in this House. But there has been another enormous moment in New Zealand politics in just the last few hours. Steven Joyce turned down the chance to go on Morning Report and abuse the Labour Party. This was once prophesied by a small Inca tribe many centuries ago, and no one ever believed it would come to pass. Over the centuries people have thought it may happen that Steven Joyce may turn down the opportunity to make mindless statements about the Labour Party, but it has never occurred. Then this morning he turned down the chance to go on Morning Report and have a crack at the Labour Party.

💬 Sue Moroney: Why was that, Grant Robertson?

My colleague Sue Moroney asks why. It is because they are scared—because they are running scared on that side of the House. Bill English and Jonathan Coleman were sitting there today in the front row with no idea what to do in the face of a Labour Party led by Jacinda Ardern and Kelvin Davis.

I want to say something briefly about Andrew Little. Andrew is one of the most honourable people whom I have ever worked with in politics. He is a person who has spent his entire working life trying to advance the causes of working people. Every decision that he made as the leader of the Labour Party and in his former career has been about what is best for working people, and I acknowledge his courage and his bravery in the decision that he took yesterday. I also want to speak about Jacinda Ardern. Some people know that I shared a parliamentary office with Jacinda Ardern, and I want to put on record today that I apologise to her parents, because when she entered that office she had never drunk alcohol and did not swear very much. Now she is a whiskey connoisseur, and I am not going to talk about the swearing because it will get me in trouble. She is a person whom I have known for a long time whom I have huge admiration for.

One of the reasons for that is that I regard Jacinda as a truly global citizen. Sometimes the members on the other side of the House and in the media like to take the mickey out of the fact that Jacinda led an organisation called the International Union of Socialist Youth, but in doing so what she was doing was expressing her values as a global citizen—her commitment to look outwards to how she could work with people from right around this planet to make the world a better place. She has done that from a very, very early age and continues to do it now. Philip Matthews, I think it was, put on Twitter yesterday that Jacinda was a cross between Lorde and Helen Clark. That is what he said yesterday. I do not know whether people have heard Jacinda sing, but we will stick with the Helen Clark bit at this stage. But, actually, that is the kind of inspiration I think people are now feeling from seeing Jacinda in that leadership role.

But what I know that Jacinda and Kelvin Davis both believe is that, actually, it is not about them. It is about the people whom we are all put in here to represent. It is about making sure that we are a country where we are prosperous because we are clever and talented, not because we are selling houses to each other; that when we are in Government we know that our job is not just to be the managers of the status quo but to be the builders of the future; and that we take an overwhelmingly positive view of New Zealanders, who are resourceful, innovative, creative, just, and compassionate—just and compassionate. That is what I think about when I think about Jacinda Ardern and Kelvin Davis, and it was my absolute pleasure and my pride to nominate Kelvin to be the deputy leader of the Labour Party yesterday. In Kelvin Davis we have a man of huge mana, an educator from the Far North of New Zealand who lives his values, who has stood up against violence not only in this House but in the community that he serves.

I could not be prouder of the line-up that the Labour Party is taking to this election. I could not be prouder to stand for a party that has for more than 100 years stood for a better and fairer New Zealand. I could not be prouder of this country that we can deliver to New Zealanders a quality of life and an environment that they will enjoy for the future. There might be only 50 days to go in this election campaign. The Labour Party is going to run the campaign of its life for the people of New Zealand.

The Labour Party is going to have to do just that—run the campaign of its life—to turn this bus around, because while there might be two new drivers, the bus is still the same. I am pretty happy that Kelvin Davis is sitting shotgun in that bus, because he might need a few bullets to put in that gun to make sure that this party does not throw Māori underneath that bus yet again. If we look at the history, that is exactly what has happened, over and over and over again. I have heard since I have sat in these benches: “Oh, the long 9 years.” Well, I tell you now, it has been a long 150 years.

As I travelled home from a tangi yesterday I was missing all of the adventure that was going on in the House, but I got to watch the parliamentary channel on my phone—great app, that one—and saw questions to the Hon Nikki Kaye, Minister of Education, talking about the decile system and getting rid of it. I have a bit of knowledge about our decile system. I know that I have taught in a decile 10 school where there was a pocket of decile 1 Māori students who were more at risk because they were in that school than they would have been had they been down the road in a decile 1 school. Why? Because if you had a population of less than 10 percent Māori in your school, no matter what decile it was, you had less of a chance of succeeding in that school, whether it was decile 10 or decile 1. In fact, you would have had a better chance of succeeding in a school that was decile 1 where the population of Māori was greater than 30 percent.

That was a few years ago, and things have shifted on, thanks to the former Minister Hekia Parata. We are changing the decile system, and I say that it is fantastic that the pūtea follows the child. You might have some decile 1 students in your decile 10 school—that is something that everybody understands—and the money will follow them, not the environment that they live in or the neighbourhood that they come from. We had a decile 1 school where all of a sudden, with new statistics, the environment around it and the neighbourhood around it meant that we got changed to decile 2. We had to go back to the Ministry of Education and challenge that, because the students were being bussed in from all over the place to come to our kura.

So let us come to the predictive risk modelling. If we are looking only at what homes they come from, if we are looking only at whether they have shoes, if we are looking only at whether or not they can afford to have lunch that day, we are looking at the wrong things. If you go to a school that does not support your language, culture, and identity you are just as at risk of failing than for any other reason.

In fact, you can go to Rakaumangamanga in Huntly, which had the highest pass rates in this country bar no other school, and it is a lower decile school with some of the worst problems that face a community, but they have one thing—well, they have a few things. They have language, they have culture, they have identity, and they have overcome the stigma of the social deprivation and they have succeeded. Why? Because they put those things first. So if this predictive risk modelling does not include who is standing in front of that student, what school they are going to, whether they are mainstream or Māori-medium, then it is not good enough. We continue to blame the families for the failures of the system, and our children have been under-served by this system. They have not failed in this system on their own; the system of education in this country has under-served them.

And that is what I want to talk about. If we make Te Reo Māori a core subject in this country, then we will just be doing for the rising generation what they are already doing for themselves. They see that as value-add to this nation, they see that as value-add to their own knowledge, and they see that as value-add to part of being a Kiwi. And for those parties that believe that Te Reo Māori should not be spoken in this House, I say “Shame on you.”, because it is the way of the future.

So I want to say to the Labour Party: good move. Good move. You took a risk and it is the best tactical move that you have made to date in 3 years. That is what I think; that is a good move. But, to those who say we need to step up our game if we want to be in a coalition with possibly a left-wing Government, I say to you: “Mate, we are a party of the future. Come and join us on our bus.” We put our hand out to you, because you will not be coming with us. We will be coming together for this nation. All of us need to be on the same bus.

Order! The member’s time has expired.

A week is a very long time in politics, and the next 50-plus days are going to be an even longer time for the members opposite in the National Government. I have a useful piece of history for them that was pointed out to me this morning.

Bob Hawke became the leader of the Australian Labor Party 1 month ahead of a general election that he won by a landslide. If he can do that in 1 month and we have the luxury of having 7½ weeks to do that, we are going to make the most of every single day that we can do that. Bob Hawke, a lot like my good friend and colleague Jacinda Ardern, was in touch with the mood of the nation—in touch with the people he sought to govern. He did not desperately try to pretend he was relevant by putting spaghetti on pizza, or try to be a person of the people, or enter the Fight for Life to prove that he was tough, or do a bizarre America’s Cup video like the one Bill English did where he kind of looked like he was having some kind of seizure.

Unlike that, Jacinda genuinely is in touch with the mood of the nation, and it already shows in the very warm reception that she has received since she became the leader yesterday, and I am looking forward to campaigning alongside Jacinda in the next 7½ weeks to secure a change of Government, because let us be absolutely clear—Jacinda Ardern and Kelvin Davis represent something that Bill English and National will never represent, and that is change and hope.

Bill English’s message to New Zealand—and it is one message—is that this is as good as it gets. Jacinda Ardern’s message to New Zealand is: we can be so much better. And I think that is absolutely the right message to put in front of the voters, because New Zealand should be a country of opportunity, security, and fairness for everybody, not just those at the top whom the National Government seeks to represent.

Kiwis at heart fundamentally believe that we are all in this together. The National Government has spent the last 9 years trying to convince them that it is everyone for themselves, and at this election they will have that choice. They can have the extra $20 or $30 a week in tax cuts while housing continues to become unaffordable for more and more New Zealanders, while rental accommodation becomes available to fewer and fewer New Zealanders who need it, while our education system continues to be run down because of lack of investment, while people are being denied the healthcare they need because National has starved the health system of the funding it needs, and while climate change continues to be overlooked by this National Government; or they can choose a future where we tackle those things together, as a country. And that is the promise of the incoming Labour Government. That is the promise that Labour will be taking to this year’s general election. I think that is what New Zealanders have been crying out for, and that is what they will hear from us.

You can see the look of hope draining out of the faces of the National members opposite, because they know that they represent the past and not the future. They know that Bill English has only one mode: doom and gloom. And try as he might to read the lines that the focus group researchers are giving him, he simply cannot pull off positivity and a vision for the future. We know that they are already in panic mode, because Gerry Brownlee has already let slip that they are worried about the level of positive reaction that there has been to Jacinda Ardern’s leadership. He gave Paddy Gower a set of pompoms, because he thought Paddy Gower was too positive about Jacinda Ardern. Well, there is one thing that you could never confuse Gerry Brownlee with being, and that is a cheerleader. Gerry Brownlee will never be a cheerleader for anybody.

Then, of course, you have got “Mr Doom and Gloom No. 2”, Steven Joyce, who stood up in the House and tried to bore everybody into submission with his contribution. The best that Amy Adams could then offer was the strong and stable leadership line that worked so well for Theresa May in the United Kingdom. And, of course, we have yet to hear from Maggie Barry, Parliament’s own cross between Hyacinth Bucket and Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous. I am sure that she has got a contribution to make in this debate that will be equally full of hollow clichés, hollow rhetoric with no real hope for the future, and, of course, a good lashing of nastiness, as only Maggie Barry can deliver.

Over here we are feeling positive and optimistic and upbeat about the future, and we are looking forward to the next 50 days on the campaign trail.

Thank you very much, Mr Assistant Speaker, for the opportunity to speak. Can I not only congratulate Jacinda Ardern but also acknowledge Andrew Little, who for the last two campaigns contested very strongly against me. I have noticed very few comments about him from the other side, and I think that is not a good thing.

If I was a gullible New Zealander listening to the relentless negativity coming from the Opposition benches, I would nearly think Statistics New Zealand was on its own brand of happy pills, because a week ago it said that most New Zealanders say they are highly comfortable with their lives. These are the people who are statisticians, gatherers of data; they are the gurus of granular information. These are the people who sit behind computers and analyse such detail to present to us megatrends. This is what they say.

Yes, you can go down deeper into its report and get more precise breakdowns of the information, but it said that around 83 percent of people rated their overall life satisfaction 7 or above on a 0 to 10 scale, and it said the result was similar in 2014. Is that not amazing! You would not believe that if you listened to these people. All you would hear from the Opposition is doom and gloom. All you hear is heartache and heartbreak. And, look, we know there are people whom we need to reach out to, and I believe Minister Anne Tolley attributed comments towards them, and that is the purpose of Government—to lift up those who need lifting up. We desire to help and to deliver for all New Zealanders.

I come from one of the most positive places in New Zealand, and that is the great city of New Plymouth in the wonderful region and province of Taranaki. We make our own luck there, even though we are said by the ASB regional report to be the lowest in terms of regional growth because of the drop in oil price and the drop in dairy price. Yet you go to our place and, as you know, Barbara Kuriger, you know the vibe that is in Taranaki. There are positive people; relentlessly positive people come from Taranaki. We also have the highest GDP per capita still in that place. But if you went around the town and asked them: “Do you have enough money?”, probably a lot of people would say: “Well, I could always do with a bit more.”

Statistics New Zealand said this: back in 2008, 13 percent said they had more than enough money to meet their everyday needs. Today that figure has grown to 18 percent. And this is very interesting: back in 2008, 15.4 percent said they did not have enough money, and in 2016 that figure had shrunk to 10.9 percent. Statistics New Zealand said that, generally, New Zealanders think their financial well-being has improved. This is not a party political broadcast. This has not come from the Government. This has not come from National Party headquarters. This has come from Statistics New Zealand a week and a half ago. It went through its General Social Survey of 9,000 participants, and this is what it says about how New Zealanders fare at the moment. So after coming through a global financial crisis and the $18 billion cost of the Canterbury earthquakes New Zealanders are having a growing sense of optimism about their futures. This does not just happen. It is like turning a great ocean liner around; it takes times to turn an economy.

When we became the Government in 2008 Treasury said we had before us a decade of deficits. Instead, today we are the envy of the world. We are first in prosperity. We are first in ease of doing business. We are first-equal in anti-corruption. We are second in terms of quality of Government. We are even top of the international list of places to retire to. Is that not fantastic, Minister Barry?

💬 Hon Maggie Barry: It is.

During this period of time, when we have seen incomes increase, we have reached out to those on lower incomes. We have increased the accommodation supplement as part of our $2 billion families package. We lifted the incomes of beneficiaries by $25 a week last year. It was the first real increase in more than 40 years. Listen to this: New Zealand’s superannuation rate for married couples has gone up 37 percent since 2008, and the single rate up by 36 percent, or by $104. We are looking after New Zealand. We are delivering for all New Zealanders. Thank you.

Well—what a week. Everyone is fixated. They are talking about it up and down the country. Will the Crusaders beat the Lions on Sunday morning, in Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg in South Africa? I must say, as a proud, born and bred Cantabrian, that I am looking forward to us winning the Super Rugby title again. Since 2008 we have been waiting to win this title again. We are the best rugby region in the world, and I am looking forward to us reclaiming the title early on Sunday morning, in New Zealand time. That will give the momentum for Cantabrians to claim and expect a world-class international rugby stadium to be built in the centre of Christchurch, returning us, rightly, as the home of rugby in New Zealand. I am looking forward to that being built as part of our regeneration—the jewel in the crown.

This Government is delivering for New Zealanders. We are delivering a strong, growing country. We are delivering a strong, growing economy. Ultimately, what we are doing is shaping globalisation for the benefit of New Zealanders. Every year there are thousands of young New Zealanders who head off on their OE. They travel to many countries and they quickly learn that in a globalised world, countries that are competitive and have a developed economy are the countries that improve the well-being and living standards of their people and protect their environment. Countries that are not competitive and do not have a developed economy do not. It is as stark as that. It is a choice, and that is why on this side of the House this National Government is choosing to have a developed economy that is improving the well-being of its people.

Look at any metric: a surplus of $2.7 billion, forecasted to grow to $7.2 billion; 3 percent GDP growth, which is the envy of all other OECD countries; an unemployment rate announced today of 4.8 percent—in my electorate of Waimakariri we are tracking at just under 3 percent; and the highest workforce participation rate this country has ever seen. What we are doing is backing hard-working Kiwis. We are the working people’s party, backing hard-working people. We have created over 200,000 jobs in the last 2 years, and we will go on to create over 200,000 jobs by 2021.

Not only that, but we are looking to reduce our core Crown debt by GDP to 10 to 15 percent. Some countries are 60, 80, or over 100 percent; we are ambitious and aiming for 10 to 15 percent by 2025.

What we are is the party of infrastructure. We are delivering $32 billion worth of infrastructure over the next 4 years. What we are doing through our strong management of a growing country—a growing economy—is resulting in direct investment into my electorate of Waimakariri. This term we opened up the new Rangiora Health Hub. That is the health hub that Annette King campaigned on with Clayton Cosgrove 3 years ago and said was never going to happen. Well—over $10 million of local health investment into infrastructure—it has opened. Not only is it opening but we are relocating the Hagley Outpatients building out to Rangiora, so constituents in my electorate can have their first specialist appointment—delivering first-class health care to the doorstep of rural communities. That is all happening because we are building a new public hospital in Christchurch, as well as the recently opened hospital in Burwood—$1 billion worth of investment into Greater Christchurch for health infrastructure.

But it does not stop there. I have got $400 million going into two new motorway projects: the Western Belfast Bypass and the Christchurch Northern Corridor, bringing reliable travel times and uncongested roads to frustrated Waimakariri commuters.

Ultimately, the jewel in the crown is that this year we have got 10 schools opening new, modern learning environments—first-class, 21st century technology, empowering our young people. They can go on to achieve their full potential and achieve in a globalised world. Thank you.

In my contribution this afternoon, I would like to talk about how we are delivering for New Zealanders, through the lens of my community in Papamoa. Firstly, I would like to start by reflecting on the population growth that has occurred in my community over the last few years. It is quite significant. It is now in the top four in the country and, indeed, a 74 percent increase in our population is expected through to 2023. As you would expect, the job opportunities in my community have spiked. It is quite extraordinary, the number of jobs that we have created in the community over the last year—in the Tauranga area, over 4,000—and we expect that number to increase over the next 12 months.

Not only are those jobs coming, it is the nature of them, from manual labour, which is critical to supporting a kiwifruit industry that has recovered beyond people’s expectations, all the way through to applied manufacturing, IT, and professional services. We have GDP growth at just on 5 percent. We have employment growth of 5 percent. It is a community that is performing exceedingly well.

What I would like to do this afternoon is to tip beyond those high-level numbers—which, of course, are very positive and reflect the collective effort of our community to deliver on those—and actually talk to the work that has been done by the Government, local government, and the community to ensure that that momentum is maintained.

Firstly, we have anticipated where the people will live. We have a mechanism called Smart Growth, which has identified that Ōmokoroa, Tauriko, and Papamoa are the communities of the future. They are where the growth is going to occur. Through this Government we have enabled 11 special housing areas to be established, the most per capita in the country and the most successful in terms of a local government application of that opportunity that exists across the country.

Two weeks ago we announced the Government’s contribution to securing that future growth pipeline for our community—$230 million worth of infrastructure that is going to facilitate that growth; interest-free, to underpin infrastructure for wastewater; through to enabling another 4,700 houses to be built in the short term in Papamoa. Accessible Properties has taken over from Housing New Zealand. It has over 1,100 houses, it has clear plans to build in the short and medium term, and the resistance that the community initially expressed has all but dissipated, as they can see the values and focus on service that that company is delivering.

On top of that, the Government’s contribution to the housing pressures in our community is 220 emergency housing places for the Bay of Plenty. Already, there is a number under way and being welcomed by the community. But we are building enabling infrastructure to be able to support that growth. We have completed ultra-fast fibre. We were one of the first areas to get it completed. We now have the highest uptake in the country, and that has seen a remarkable pull for businesses and talent and people to our community.

In terms of our infrastructure and roading, we have opened the Tauranga Eastern Link. We have committed half a billion dollars to the Tauranga Northern Link, which starts next year and which my communities are going to be hugely supportive of, particularly those on the western side of my electorate.

We have announced two new schools to be built in the next 18 months in my electorate, one in Papamoa and one in Pyes Pā, and, of course, a huge number of classrooms, as Matt Doocey has talked to, which is going to facilitate the appropriate modern learning environment that we need as a community.

But on top of that, we are ensuring that this economic momentum, which is significant, is supported. As someone who has lived in the community for 40 years, I have seen some booms before, but this is quite different. It is not just retirees moving from Hamilton and Auckland down to Tauranga; it is a complete mix of families and skills and people with ambition and excitement, and it is a great place to be, but we cannot just assume it is going to stay that way. That is why we have a regional growth strategy, which is very clear in terms of the sectors that we believe need support.

We know that there are specific areas in respect of education that we are focused on. We have got Toi Ohomai being established with the merging of Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and Waiariki Institute of Technology. We have got the university CBD development in the city of Tauranga. It is a city that is significantly different from the one I can recall from when I grew up, and we are playing a key part.

It is wrong for me to stand here and say it is just the Government, for it is not, but we are a key part of it because we have got a very clear plan that will continue the delivery of that momentum and will continue to have families and their success and their aspiration at the heart of what we do. It is why I am so proud to be able to take this record to my community over the next few months. Thank you very much.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.