General Debate

I move, That the House take note of miscellaneous business.

Mr Speaker—[Interruption]

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order! No, we are going to start again and members who are on their feet and leaving the Chamber or members who are on their feet are not going to interject.

It has been amazing to get around the length and breadth of this country over the last couple of months, from Gore in the South to Kerikeri in the North, to talk with thousands and thousands and thousands of New Zealanders from all walks of life. The poor man’s Donald Trump over there—I can tell him that they never raised changing the Australian flag with me. That was weird by even his standards. They never raised the tweets from Donald Trump with me and whether it was him or someone else that did them. But I tell you what they did raise. They did raise the economy; they were worried about it. They did raise the environment; they were worried about what’s happening. They did raise health. They did raise education. They did raise welfare. They raised all of these issues and they were worried about the direction that this Government is taking them in—absolutely worried.

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: And the polls?

“Mr 2 Percent” wants to know about the polls—“Mr 2 Percent” over there. Actually, I think his personal ratings are lower than that. I was talking about his party rating. He wants to know about public meetings. Well, we both had one about the same time in Invercargill. Mine got 500, I think he scraped in about 90—and he’s the Prime Minister.

People were worried about the economy. They see what’s happening to business confidence and they listen to Iain Lees-Galloway who says that the business groups are scaremongering about that. They hear all that, but are they scaremongering when services are down, when construction figures are down, when GDP per capita is down, when the only things that we see going up are beneficiary numbers under Carmel Sepuloni and New Zealanders—young New Zealanders—leaving for Australia up 2,000 already under this Government.

You can’t slash oil and gas. You can’t muck around with industrial law and take it back to the 1970s when only Winston Peters was in our Parliament. You can’t have incoherent immigration policies. You can’t do those things. You can’t talk down the farmers each and every day of this week. You can’t try and ban all of the mining and then say that you’ve got a strong economy where New Zealanders have jobs and options in this country.

They’re also talking about law and order, and they think what Andrew Little is doing in law and order is a naive disgrace. That’s what they think. They think it’s entirely naive. Everyone knows—no one wants to build more prison beds, but to have no plan to reduce offending and to simply soften up our bail laws, our sentencing laws, and our parole laws—that’ll make Kiwis less safe. That came through at every single meeting of the 70, amongst the many, many thousands I talked to, Andrew Little, all around New Zealand.

Welfare came up, and I was able to tell New Zealanders what a tragedy it is to see 4,000 more people on the jobseeker benefits at the moment—4,000 more. While, on the other side of it, Carmel Sepuloni and Jacinda Ardern are saying, “Don’t worry about the sanctions; don’t worry about the penalties.” Well, I know that New Zealanders are a fair-minded people, Winston Peters, and they say, “Fair go.”—fair go to the taxpayers who get up every morning and do the work, and fair go to the beneficiaries, actually, who will do better if they’re not languishing on the dole queues, who are out there going for a job, in terms of their esteem, their purpose, and their life outcomes. That’s the way we’ll go. On this side we stand for a fair go not a free ride, Winston Peters. We stand for a fair go and not a free ride on this side, and that’s what we want to see. I will ensure—National will ensure, on this side—reasonable obligations for Kiwis all around this country. That’s the right thing to do.

Finally, can I say, on medicinal cannabis, how proud I am of the National Party. When this side wouldn’t do the work, we did the work of Government. I want to say what an amazing job Shane Reti, Michael Woodhouse, and Chris Bishop did on that. They have provided positive solutions, because we listen to New Zealanders, even if that Government is incoherent, incompetent, and doesn’t know what it’s doing, on this side of the House we’re ready to govern in the interests of New Zealanders.

It’s a pleasure to rise to take the call after that speech from the Leader of the Opposition with regards to positive solutions, particularly on the topic of cannabis. I just want to lay out, in this general debate speech here, how we got here and what issues we’re actually talking about when we speak to the issue of cannabis. I want to demarcate, for the public out there that may be listening, the two separate issues of recreational and medicinal cannabis. I think this is really important, because so often they end up conflated in the public discussion.

The issue of recreational cannabis is one that will be dealt with in the context of our commitment negotiated in the confidence and supply agreement between the Green Party and the Labour Party, with a referendum on adult recreational use on or by 2020, which I’m very proud to be working on with the Minister of Justice, Andrew Little. He’s demonstrated his incredible responsiveness on a number of proposals that we’ve put forward with regard to its design, including the likes of citizen juries.

So, today, the predominant focus of this call that I’m taking will be on medicinal cannabis. Alleviating the pain and suffering of patients and their whānau denied access to legal medicinal cannabis requires urgent, open, and collaborative cross-party action. That’s because patients deserve a guarantee of access—affordable, consistent supply. We’re talking here about people’s lives, not just facts and figures on statistical sheets.

I want to read some of the thousands—literally thousands—of stories that have come through my office in the past few months. One is from Jasmine: “My name is Jasmine. I am 28 years old and I am my father’s caregiver. My dad sustained a neurotoxic brain injury via his occupation in 2001 and has a degenerative spinal condition. He suffers from a range of medical problems, including severe mental illness, nerve damage, and inability to walk or stand unaided for more than a few minutes. He spends most of his life confined to a bed and will soon require a wheelchair. Cannabis allows my father many benefits that cannot be obtained with the use of any other single drug without the risk of heavy addiction or chemical interactions with his other medications. This man is a pensioner who contributed 30 years of his life to the workforce, raised two children, was permanently injured and made to fight for rightful compensation, had his wife taken by cancer, and, due to current legislation, is a criminal who will face two years’ minimum prison sentence should the police ever wish to search our property. My father wants nothing more from what life he has left than peace and quiet and to be left alone.”

Yesterday, the New Zealand Drug Foundation’s annual poll was released, demonstrating that in the last 12 months there’s been a near - 10 percentage point increase in public support. Eighty-seven percent of New Zealanders support growing and/or using cannabis for any medical reason, such as to alleviate pain. Look, I know that correlation does not imply causation, but the most deeply related event that has occurred in the last year is, absolutely, the public debate that occurred around my medicinal cannabis member’s bill in January, which attracted support from diverse quarters, such as past Prime Minister Helen Clark and, of course, the likes of Grey Power. This member’s bill was, however, voted down. On the night, I said that we had not won the battle but that we were winning the war—the war that is so crucial for patients, for people who are suffering under a demonstrably unfit for purpose status quo.

The Government’s more restrictive bill did, however, pass with unanimous support. Today, the Health Committee has reported it back to the House, and it does not, unfortunately, recommend the changes asked for by submitters. The Greens will continue to push for those changes, for the patient voice to be central, which brings me to the National Party member’s bill introduced today. I am stoked that they have come around to the idea of a comprehensive, common-sense medicinal cannabis framework, but, to be honest, I’m still quite perplexed that they voted down the similar scope that was before the House six months ago. All the while, patients have been suffering and in pain. We do, however, wholeheartedly invite the seeming change in tune for a progressive medicinal cannabis scheme, and we look forward to continuing to work across the House, collaboratively, for the betterment of patients.

And they call themselves a Government. What a dishevelled, disorganised bunch that we look out across today, led by a group who have never had a new idea since they were in their student union days—free this, free that, sock the rich, smack the businesses; they’re still caught back in the 1990s—supported by a grumpy curmudgeon who spends most of his time polishing his baubles of power to see his reflection in them, supported by a small individual who enjoys playing planes and ships in the bath, but, more importantly I think, supported by an individual who saunters around regional New Zealand—sort of John Wayne without the horse and the saddle and the gun.

And then, of course, over on the other side, is the Green Party. They are split to the core, because they have not reconciled the fact that they have accountability now that they are part of a Government. Most of them still see the role of MP as being a perpetual protest, day after day, going from one protest movement to the other.

Meanwhile in New Zealand, out of the Wellington bubble, we have families who are working very hard every day, despite the worst efforts of this Government, and they are the communities that leader Simon Bridges has been connected with over the last 3 months. I have been in one of those meetings, and Simon was right when he spoke before of the issues that were raised. There is huge concern over the way that this Government has taken an economy that was seen as one of the best performers in the OECD and is already putting the handbrake on it through a deliberate effort to target those who create wealth and put impediments in front of them. How many of this lot have actually gone out and talked to a small-business owner? How many of you have actually fronted and said, “Here’s our plan for 90-day repeal. Here’s our plan to lift the minimum wage. Here’s our plan to make your business harder.”? None of them have; they are caught in the bubble of Wellington. They are too scared to get out and front the people who create the wealth and opportunities in this country. That was an absolute key feedback.

And on law and order—they cannot help it. They are predominantly motivated by looking after the interests of those who commit the crimes as opposed to the victims. It is in their DNA. And that is why, over there, the New Zealand First Party look down at the floor. They know this is true—that their marriage of convenience means they have to swallow rat after rat after rat every week, and they’re starting to get a bit belchy, aren’t they Mr Jones? It’s quite a challenge for New Zealanders, as you see when you get out amongst our communities and listen to them.

I will give you a specific example of an area where this Government is letting communities down and there is a lack of focus on infrastructure.

💬 Hon Members: Ha, ha!

They laugh; of course they do. Let me tell you a story about a community in Ōmokoroa—6,000 people, grown from 3,000. A huge number of that growth in affordable homes is because the previous Government said that it is critical that we get housing at the right price point. The Western Bay of Plenty District Council said, “Yes, we’ll facilitate fast-track consents.” The New Zealand Transport Agency said, “Because the Government had provided us with the funding in the Budget, we will build the road that goes from Ōmokoroa to Tauranga and we will start with the tender process.” It has started. The Budget has committed. The tender process is already out there and this lot come along and cancel it because they want trams in Auckland. It’s outrageous. It’s the fastest-growing city in the country, it absolutely demands infrastructure, and Phil Twyford wouldn’t know Tauranga if he tripped over on a map. It’s ridiculous. It’s absolutely ridiculous for a community that is growing, that is part of the future of this country—and infrastructure is critical for our communities of Ōmokoroa and Te Puna—[Interruption] And they all laugh. So I can tell everyone who is back at home in this community and is watching, that the response from the Government, when I look across the House, is laughter and sneering and saying, “Your interests aren’t important. We prioritise Auckland. We do not prioritise Ōmokoroa. We do not prioritise Te Puna. We do not prioritise Tauranga. In fact, we do not prioritise small businesses, families, and people who are making a living in this country on behalf of this wider community.” The performance of this Government thus far, 10 months in, is a disgrace.

Well, that was certainly a better contribution from Todd Muller than we got from the so-called Leader of the Opposition, Simon Bridges. Simon Bridges came to the House and said, “Give me a fair go, please.” It was a plea to his caucus colleagues: “Please give me a fair go, just one more week, one more month as leader. I promise I can turn it around, guys.” Then you get Mr Todd Muller stand up and give an excellent dissertation like that. I say to Mr Muller, “Pace yourself, sunshine, pace yourself, because I don’t think you want to take over the leadership of the National Party right now.” And honestly, as good as it was—well, it was better than Simon Bridges—it was just more relentless negativity from the fogies in the National Party. I get it—it’s tough.

Simon Bridges has been—what’s was his name? Simon Bridges. Simon Bridges has been up and down the country and the people have seen him and his popularity has gone down. It’s getting tough for Simon out there. He’s been all across the country. People have seen and they don’t like it. They don’t like what they see. What he is up against is a positive, stable Government—one Government, three parties, and considerably more stable than that one party with five factions over there. We are one Government, three parties, stable, focused on the things that matter: running surpluses, paying off the debt that was accumulated under the previous Government, and getting down to focusing on the critical issues that people want Governments to work on, and those issues are health, education, housing, and police. We are making sure that those things are fit for purpose now and that they are here for future generations.

People know that we’ve got a big mess to fix up. Nine years of neglect does take time to fix, but this is a Government of action. We have been relentlessly and positively focused on making sure that we deal with the cost of living pressures that New Zealanders are facing. We increased the minimum wage to $16.50 an hour, and there will be further increases in the future so that people on the minimum wage have enough money to make ends meet. We’ve got an employment relations bill before the House right now that is designed to put working people into a stronger bargaining position so that people can get a fair share of a prosperous economy. We are focusing on the things that will make our economy more productive, because, goodness knows, we have inherited a huge mess from the previous Government.

The Global Innovation Index says that New Zealand has gone from, in 2012, the 13th most innovative economy in the world to, in 2017, the 22nd most innovative economy in the world. The innovation and productivity in New Zealand are plummeting, and that is what drives wages. That is how we will get people’s incomes up, that is how we will deal with the cost of living, and that is why this Government needs to fix up the mistakes of the previous lot. We are going to reintroduce R & D tax credits so that our innovative businesses have a chance to get ahead. We need to turn around some of these issues that the National Government created. The number of locally generated patents per billion dollars of GDP fell to 6.1—it was 13.1 when National took over, and it fell to 6.1 under their watch. Productivity and innovation have gone backwards—that is why this Government is focused on productivity and driving wages up.

Of course, we also need to make sure that those who are in greatest need get support from the Government as well. The Families Package will see 384,000 families with children better off by an average of $75 per week when it is fully implemented. The Best Start payments have begun: people with new babies are getting $60 a week in the first year, and people on low and moderate incomes will be getting that money for years two and three as well. The winter energy payment has arrived. It’s freezing out there. We all know how cold it is in New Zealand right now. It’s fantastic that people on benefits and superannuitants are getting more money in their pockets so that they can keep their homes warm and dry. We’ve expanded Working for Families. We’ve extended paid parental leave so that people—working families—have the money in their pockets, the money in their bank accounts, to meet the cost of living.

And, of course, we need to focus on driving down the cost of living. That’s why we are focused on building 100,000 affordable homes over the next 10 years. And congratulations to Phil Twyford for the amazing progress that he’s making on that front. We’re removing pressure on the rental market. We’re increasing the number of State houses. In my electorate of Palmerston North, we had the first new purpose-built State house in 25 years so that people on low incomes can have a warm, dry home to live in.

This is a Government of action. This is a Government of positivity, and it’s no wonder the National Party is flailing.

New Zealanders who were watching that performance may be surprised to hear that that was the Minister for ACC, and I mention that because I think he said more about the National Party than he did about his portfolio in the last eight months. He has never mentioned any of the significant challenges. Today he’s got medical specialists out on strike—he said nothing. They were out on strike last week. They’re going to be again next week—and two more to come after that.

It’s part of a pattern of strike action that we are seeing under this particular Government, whether it’s the nurses—the teachers are rearing to go—Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) staff, or IRD. We’ve got strikes all over the country because they are fed up with a Government that promised so much at the polls and is now consistently failing to deliver.

Last night, I spoke in the Estimates debate in the House and I focused on the inept and abusive performance that we were treated to at the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee by the current Minister of Foreign Affairs. It truly was an appalling performance—an embarrassing insult to New Zealanders, and particularly to those of our partners overseas who rely on us to be good partners in important strategic matters.

Today, we have seen more of the same from that man, now masquerading as the Prime Minister of this country. And wasn’t his performance at question time appalling? The Leader of the Opposition today put serious questions to him over a very important initiative that the National Party has worked on for a long time, done all the detailed work, and had today been proud to deliver. I was at that press conference today and so proud to see the Leader of the Opposition and, in particular, Dr Shane Reti, who has done such a great job, and Michael Woodhouse, Chris Bishop, and others—I salute them all, because this is an important issue. It was interesting to hear Chlöe Swarbrick. I presume she was indicating that the Green Party will support that bill.

Back home in my fine city, which you know well, I had the privilege of being the patron of the Epilepsy Waikato Charitable Trust, and I know that members of that fine organisation will be delighted to hear the announcement that Dr Reti and the Leader of the Opposition made today.

The Leader of the Opposition has, as he’s just mentioned, completed approximately 70 public meetings right from the Far North down to Invercargill, and I want to commend him not only on his stamina but also on the great crowds that he drew and the tremendous connection that he made with those who attended. It was approximately 10,000 people who turned out, and one of the best attended meetings was in Hamilton. I have to say that just about everybody from Hamilton was there that day, apart, sadly, from the two electorate members, because unfortunately the MP for Hamilton East and I flew up, flew over, this very extraordinary phenomenon of fog, which we hardly ever see in Hamilton, which was unfortunately present that day. We could see the airport, but as the pilot attempted to land, he couldn’t. He had to take off, and we were taken back to Wellington. So we missed it, but, fortunately, everybody else in Hamilton was there, and he did incredibly well.

What people were telling him was that they are not happy with this Government. They do not like the way that it was put together. They do not like the way that it is irresponsibly splashing the cash in unstructured and at times totally inappropriate ways. They particularly dislike the slush fund that the Minister for Regional Economic Development is going around the country—well, actually, he’s not; he’s really just going around Northland and making the odd visit outside Northland thinking, “Oh well, I suppose if I’ve given $100 million here, I’d better give $5 somewhere else outside Northland.”

They do not like the fact that this particular Government has far more to say about what they think should be happening than actual policies to deliver. And what you see is a group of parties in Government who are fundamentally underprepared to come into Government. They didn’t expect to be there—it’s only because Winston Peters decided that he would put them there that they are—and now they’ve got “review-itis”, as they’ve got more committees than I’ve had hot dinners going around on every potential conceivable topic, trying to figure out what they should be doing. They’re spending a fortune on reviews, but they’re not spending it on the really important areas that they promised that they would deliver on, and that’s why they’ve got the nurses out on strike. That’s why MBIE and IRD and the teachers are all planning to strike as well—because they are, fundamentally, letting down the people who put them there.

And today, from the Minister for Social Development, we’ve seen a classic example of their muddled thinking, as she refused to answer legitimate questions, important questions, about a sanction regime that should apply when people who could work refuse to meet their obligations. In the National Party we will always support a compassionate welfare system, but we will not support those who ignore their obligations.

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Tuatahi māku, e te pāpā e Shane Jones, e mihi atu ana au ki a koe e mau nei i te kākahu taratara mō te rirotanga atu o tō pāpā, tōku tupuna, ki tua o te ārai. Nō reira, nau hoki mai koe ki roto i te ao mārama. E mihi atu ana au ki a koe e te toa o ngā rohe puta noa.

[Greetings, Mr Speaker. Firstly, I would like to acknowledge my senior Shane Jones; you who wear a cloak of mourning at the passing of your father, my elder. Let me welcome you back to the world of light. Champion of the regions, I offer you my compliments.]

First of all, I just wanted to acknowledge my colleague and uncle, the Hon Shane Jones, and welcome him back into the House after the farewelling of his beloved father and leader of the community and family. I welcome him back not only as the provincial champion, but I think I’ve also heard the phrase “the lion of the regions”.

I think they’re quite apt descriptions because, as the other side of the House talked about the Leader of the Opposition going around the country, I heard from Kerikeri: “Well, I didn’t hear of any Simon Bridges’ shows in Moerewa or Kaikohe or Kaitāia or Te Kao.”, or any of the other regions that actually need the attention from this Government. I’m proud to say that on this side of the House, this Government—led strongly not only by our Prime Minister but, of course, by my colleague the Hon Shane Jones—are actually representing the views of those regions and finally delivering for them.

💬 Hon Shane Jones: Modestly—modestly.

💬 SPEAKER: Stop misleading the House!

Can I thank Tim Macindoe, the previous speaker, too, for pointing out that the seat in Hamilton is a marginal seat. Now that’s given a focal point for this side of the House, and I say to that member to be careful. Mr Jamie Strange—while he can perform on stage, I’m sure he will also perform on the biggest stage of all, at election time, when it comes around.

Because that side is so gloomy, I want to bring a bit of sunshine into the House and say happy birthday, New Zealand First. I think it’s absolutely fantastic that we have a Government that is representing the views of our country. We know how MMP works. We work together. We bring multiple views to the leadership of this country, not this single-minded view of an Opposition who can’t count and who don’t know how MMP works. So I want to say to New Zealand First and my colleagues on this side of the House: happy birthday.

In another piece of goodwill and sunshine in this House, that’s often brought clouds by the Opposition, I want to say to our Prime Minister, who is currently on leave—can I say happy birthday for tomorrow. She is doing a fantastic job leading this country and leading this Government into the land of optimism and positivity, and we are delivering on that.

We are delivering in Māngere, where we are building homes for the people who need it the most—homes that are affordable; a mixture of homes that will allow people into good State homes. We are allowing young families to purchase their first home and allowing multiple sectors within Tāmaki Makaurau to actually live there and to work there. How often over the past nine years did we hear of the failure of the last Government to allow teachers to work in Tāmaki Makaurau? They were priced out. They were priced out of my electorate, and I’m glad that on this side of the House, we have an answer. Build homes. Simple—build homes. Let them come into Tāmaki Makaurau and serve the children and the schoolkids of Tāmaki Makaurau by giving them the opportunity to be here. I think that’s a fantastic, fantastic move by this Government, and I’m proud.

I’m proud to stand here to say that not only are we delivering homes; we are also delivering a social security system that doesn’t beat beneficiaries with a stick, but actually gives them a carrot of optimism and incentive. It doesn’t have the punitive view that the country was given a glimpse of during question time, but it actually says, “No. Let’s encourage, help, and support these people into opportunities.” So we marry the opportunities that are being created by the Hon Shane Jones in our regions to the kind of optimism and incentives that we are providing in the social security system, and voila! You’ve got prosperity—something that that side of the House has been missing for far too long.

In the final closing seconds of my contribution, I do want to acknowledge all of my colleagues. They are working tirelessly across the country, and while that side of the House might say that Simon Bridges has toured the country, I can say to that side that we’ve been doing that for many, many years. My colleagues, right across this country, are working hard to deliver not just in the regions but, of course, in the cities, and I’m proud to be on this side of the House with this Government, providing prosperity for this country.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. For 150 years, Coasters have been working the land on the West Coast. They’ve been farming, they’ve been mining, and they’ve been involved in forestry, and we’ve managed the land and we’ve protected 85 percent of it. But in 1987, that Government over there—that Labour Government—realised that there were more votes to be won in Auckland than there were on the West Coast. So they rode in on that white steed of theirs to save us Coasters from ourselves and, in a stroke of a pen, a significant and highly regarded sustainable native timber forestry industry was lost, the livelihoods of many people were decimated, and communities were gutted.

The Coast feels like it’s experiencing déjà vu at the moment because this new Labour-led Government has come back in to save us from ourselves again and wants to close down our mining industry. This is the birthplace of the Labour Party, but what do they care? It’s not their grassroots miners that they’re representing now; it is their latte-drinking greenie friends in the cities, and the person the electorate should be looking to for support, who’s occupied his role for 25 years and delivered absolutely nothing to the Coast—nothing to protect the existing industries or to diversify—has been completely absent and we feel extremely let down by him. Thank God for National.

Now, there’s a popular misconception that Coasters rape and pillage the land, and that misconception is fed by the garbage and fearmongering that we hear from the green spin doctors. I can tell you, there is no greater conservationist than a person who lives on the land and who is surrounded by their native forest and their clean-running rivers. That’s a West Coaster. So what to do? Well, that was the question.

So a celebration last weekend saw the official opening of the Taramakau Bridge to replace an old road-rail bridge. It was a grand achievement and one of many investments made on the Coast—

💬 Hon Member: By National.

—by the National Government, and paid for by hard-working Kiwis—thank you. Now, communities up and down the West Coast used the bridge opening to demonstrate to this Government, and in a very dignified way, that we will not give up another industry. So 5,000 people—one-sixth of the population of the West Coast—turned out to the protest. And one of the most funny things I saw was this: a Labour Party electorate MP post on Facebook—“Opening the Taramakau Bridge, supported by thousands of Coasters.” Well, I can tell you, Mr O’Connor: they were not there to support you. And then some of the feed on that Facebook post, I can quote: “We were not there to support you. We were there to show our disgust towards you and your Government on proposed policies attempting to shut down the Coast.” Or this one: “Someone has been at the pub one hour too many.” Or how about: “The high-vis jackets are certainly not supporting you, Damien O’Connor MP.” So we’ll do our best to educate this Government over here on how important it is to maintain the mining on the West Coast. But the minds have to be open to common sense, and that’s my challenge. So let’s hope that we are not let down again by idealism.

Now, I just want the gallery and the Government here to think about a life where all you have available to you are grown products—so things like timber and plants and hand-spun products like flax and wool, or edibles. Everything else in our modern lives is a product of mining, is a product of the extractive industries—every single electrical device; every bit of plastic, metal, concrete, tarseal, fuel; everything we take for granted a life’s essentials these days. These are components that we get from mining. Now, the bridge that was opened on mining took 860 tonnes of coal to make the steel in that bridge, and we are blessed with some of the highest-value coking coal in the world, but we also have the strictest environmental controls. So a message very quickly to New Zealand First and their slush fund manager: we don’t need more feasibility studies, and we don’t need you to tell us, a couple of days out, how sympathetic you are. Get you head out of the clouds and support what is already working.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As a Chinese-born member of Parliament, I am very proud to be part of this coalition Government, delivering for our people—no matter what they are, no matter what colour they are, no matter where they are from. As a new New Zealander myself—not that new now—I’m very grateful to the tangata whenua for, as other migrants say, our “home away from home”. Once here in New Zealand, we ask ourselves what we should do for our country, and what kind of a role we should play in this collective nation-building process.

From observing the activities the National Opposition engaged in in the ethnic communities, Kiwis should worry. They are full of misleading messages, scaremongering, and alienation. During the last election, for example, National activists launched a Chinese social media appeal for Chinese voters to give their party vote to National and, among other things, they released the so-called five-point statements, and they likened, among other things, refugees to terrorists. They asked, “Do we need New Zealand to become the sort of country like Europe and have constant bomb explosions?”

Concerned community leaders have told us that these comments do not reflect Kiwi values, and some are calling them a kind of cultural revolution in Auckland, with the Red Guards—or, in the National case, the “Blue Guards”, should I say—chanting abusive slogans. I feel saddened because that type of activity was not competition but an abuse of democratic process. That type of attack has since continued. They have attacked the leader of New Zealand First, the Rt Hon Winston Peters. They have attacked the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern. And they’re all personal attacks. Some community leaders told me that they wondered whether National, as a party, ever knew what was going on in the Chinese community. Many community members would rely on translated material to understand what is going on in the community, and the community could risk being alienated further should the members be fed up with that type of negative rhetoric.

What has incrementally emerged is also a significant level of misunderstanding between concepts such as investment and speculation. But the good news is that this Government is building the foundation for our future. This Government is building the foundation for our business and for our people. In fact, the policy initiatives introduced by this coalition Government in terms of, for instance, the foreign ownership of residential properties, are not that different from the laws or regulations in Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong. In Beijing, for example, the local authorities do not allow non-local residents to purchase their residential properties unless they are going to stay there for five or more years to qualify as a local tax resident. In Hong Kong, the local authorities have implemented harsh laws to ease tension within the housing market, with stamp duty and double stamp duty.

There is a great deal of difference between speculation and investment. As someone close to the business sector, I am very proud that it was the previous Labour Government that negotiated the signing of the free-trade agreement with China, making China our largest trading partner, largest source of international students, and the second-largest source of overseas tourists. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the signing of the free-trade agreement, without which our exporters wouldn’t be able to get that direct and more effective access to those important markets.

Also, I’m very pleased to report that more and more Chinese developers and business people are getting involved in KiwiBuild projects. KiwiBuild projects will become a very powerful brand, not only to help ease the tension—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

Oh, thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s an absolute pleasure to rise and take a call in this debate, in support of our fantastic leader. Let’s face it, it would be career limiting not to, but I know that my colleague sitting beside me here, my colleague and friend Mr Matt Doocey, who is our whip, will certainly pass on the message that I am a supporter.

No matter where you sit, you can certainly not deny the fact that Simon Bridges has got a mammoth work ethic. The fact that he completed over 70 meetings, from Kaitāia through to Bluff, over the period of a couple of months certainly goes directly to the heart of that. I watched him in action in Invercargill and in Bluff, back in May, and all I can say—and I hope that he doesn’t mind, but he certainly is very John Key - esque. He’s approachable, he’s down to earth, and he’s inspiring. The fact that he could speak to the business people of Invercargill and then go to the Bluff Oyster and Food Festival and talk to tourists and to “Bluffees” and enjoy himself certainly goes towards the man’s appealability to a range of different New Zealanders, and he will lead us forward and in good stead. Certainly, when you look at the polls, we are in very good heart.

I want to detail a little bit more about those meetings, and certainly I would start with the business sector in Invercargill, where we had a packed out crowd to the Kelvin Hotel. About 150 business people came to lunch to hear from our leader, to talk about the economy, and to talk about the so-called Government that calls itself one of the most open and transparent of all time but is certainly failing in this respect. And when you look at its failure, it’s because of—well, it’s because of a number of things, but it’s also because the decision-making process is made on a whim. There’s no consideration as to the ramifications or the unforeseen consequences of policy that is made on the hoof, and this is purely because it was a lazy Opposition of nine years that did no work back in that time and found itself in Government because of, again, another whim, of the Rt Hon Winston Peters, who signed up to this three-headed monster. Now they find themselves in Government having to make policy on the hoof.

Uncertainty in the business community is right at the forefront for New Zealanders. If you look at our business confidence surveys, while in Australia they’re at a 20-year high, we’re at one of our lowest with respect to business confidence, and it’s because of all these mooted changes and industrial reforms—the abandonment of the 90-day trial, this forced unionism, and all of these changes that are taking us back to the 1970s. Employers simply don’t know where they’re at. I can tell you, in Invercargill with a very low unemployment rate, when we are scraping the bottom of the barrel to get good workers, that 90-day trial goes a long way to testing out somebody that may have come off benefit and wants a hand up but also those second-chance people that have entered into a career and no longer want to be in that career; they want to try something new. The 90-day trial gives employers the opportunity to test that person out and give them a fresh start in a new area in which, perhaps, they don’t necessarily have specific skills but transferable skills to work in that industry. So what you see is that employers now, because of that uncertainty, are not taking on that extra person. They’re not taking the chance, and, therefore, business confidence is plummeting.

Simon then went on to a public meeting that had about 300-odd people—350—in the Windsor Community Church. It was a fantastic meeting. He got asked about many different things, from the economy to law and order, there was some shark cage diving in there, and, obviously, welfare. He was able to answer the breadth of those questions very easily and articulate our vision for New Zealand in the 2020s—and it certainly isn’t one of deficit. It certainly is one of thinking about policy and the ramifications of that, because we want all New Zealanders to succeed. We want people that are beneficiaries, if they are able, to get off benefit and into work, and we want all people to succeed in education and in environment.

The speaker who has just resumed her seat, Sarah Dowie, comes from the Roaring Forties. It is hard to believe a more irrelevant, timid, ill-prepared speaker could come from such an area that boasts gales of wind, gusts of power.

I must not be distracted, because she has endeavoured to make a believer of herself in terms of their leader. In order for me to demonstrate how she has failed: [Holds up article] “Simon Bridges’ national roadshow a fail”. Now, why am I saying that Simon Bridges has failed and will not lead that party to the next election? Well, let me start. If you eat a Mars bar and smoke a Moro—apparently this is national news—you do not go to jail. Simon Bridges, you need to bear in mind that the Moro and the Mars sits next to the Kit Kat, and the Kit Kat is something that is covered in caramel and wafer-thin—reflective, I think, of the man’s political personage, but he’s worth a go.

I think it was sad today that he dragged into a debate—a very emotional debate about what we’re going to do with marijuana—the case of a family that’s obviously suffering. You know a politician is in the straits of desperation when they reach out into private information and weave it into their speech or questions in the House. That is a no-no. Now, he may or may not know those people, but we’ve learnt the hard way, those of us who have been around for a while, that under no circumstances whatsoever, Mr Simon Bridges, should you seek to politically benefit from the suffering of a family and what they may or may not feel about such an emotional and moral issue.

Let me continue on why he will not lead the party going into the next election. I have gone, with characteristic bashfulness, around the four winds of Aotearoa. Now, I have been under instruction from my rangatira: “Shane, look into your spirit and find humility and modesty.” I have said to him, “A spirit is hard to grasp.” But I think the important thing that that side of the House are seeking to do every time they attack us is—we did rise to the challenge. I share with Kiwis that it is a big challenge and there are risks associated when you allocate up to $3 billion, but we are picking up the unfinished business of the last Government. They did not want to fund the infrastructure.

I hear Todd Muller, who has completely and utterly confused his colleagues as to whether or not they like climate change or they don’t like climate change. Initially, they did like the reform of marijuana law; now they’ve changed their mind. See, when you play desperate politics so far out from an election, what it tells you is those desperate politics are driven by the leader of the party. He’s trying to appeal to his own caucus, but the caucus have already made their mind up. Now, Judith Collins doesn’t need to either touch marijuana or talk about marijuana to have a crazy impact on her leader, and I make a prediction that he will not lead that party into the next election.

Anyhow, let me continue about our provincial efforts. They are not disconnected from what my colleagues are doing. My colleagues are working on State sector reform. Largely, my contribution has been from the sidelines, about improving the balance between conservation and the mineral extractive sector, and, from time to time, it behoves me to clear my throat. That shouldn’t be misconstrued by the other side of the House as being somehow an act of disunity; it shows how willing we are to champion all of the issues in the regions. But the sad fact of the matter is, for that side of the House—never mind how many stories and scaremongering tactics they engage in—he did not capture the hearts and minds of ordinary Kiwis up and down the regions. At a time when the most popular politician in recent history is actually out taking personal leave, he should have been in the cities. He should not have been talking to the diminishing number of local electorate committee members and those who have been unwilling to accept that MMP has thrust forward a new Government—a Government that is going to be a very robust advocate on all interests, including provincial wealth.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise on behalf of the ACT Party in this general debate, infrequent as these calls are. I want to reflect on a couple of themes during the debate that we’ve already heard, from various members—one of them being the National Party’s proposed medical marijuana bill.

I want to say that ACT supports that bill, with one condition: that it be made an omnibus bill to also amend the Constitution Act, so that members of Parliament cannot speak, vote, or make laws unless they have a clear test showing that they are not affected by any kind of drug. It’s been a critical condition for 800 years, since Magna Carta, that if we make laws in a Parliament or if a Government is to rule, then it too must be subject to the laws that it makes for everybody else. When we debate, in this general debate today, the idea that people should be liable to have a drug test to receive a benefit or not, when we talk about health and safety in the workplace and the very real dangers that people face from drug consumption in the workplace—sawmills, all sorts of places where you can get very nasty injuries from people abusing drugs—it seems to me only fair that people in charge of an organisation with as much potential to do damage as a Government should have the same impositions put on them to check that they are up to it.

If anybody doubts the necessity of this drug testing for politicians, let me give some recent examples of questionable decisions, which I’m not saying are a result of drug impairment, but one has to wonder. Take Chris Hipkins, the Minister of Education, and his management of charter schools. He got on TV this morning and he said that he’d spent the last year trying to reform charter schools, in order that they teach the New Zealand curriculum and have registered teachers. Well, guess what, Chris Hipkins? They already had them. A whole year of back and forth, messing with the futures of 1,500 kids, to deliver exactly what he already had, perhaps with less accountability.

Or what about Stuart Nash, who presides over a police force that is spending its time running around looking for drunk old people in bowling clubs and challenging their licensing decisions. That is the kind of decision making and presiding over a Government I’m talking about that may benefit from tests.

What about James Shaw, the Minister of Statistics, who introduced a new electronic census and then went overseas while we had the lowest turnout for a census in decades. He introduced a new electronic census without doing the very obvious thing: keep the old paper system while you introduce the electronic one so you have a cross-reference. We now have no idea how accurate this year’s census was, and that is as a result of James Shaw.

What about Andrew Little, the Minister of Justice, who is actually reforming the electoral laws. He wants to ensure that the leader of a party can, effectively, expel a member of Parliament from this House. Well, there are three other countries that have that feature in their electoral law and they are Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, and Pakistan. Now, I think a Minister of Justice who is trying to bring New Zealand into line with Sierra Leone, Pakistan, and Zimbabwe possibly needs to be tested.

But then there’s Winston Peters, who says that ending benefit sanctions, no longer requiring people to be looking for work and showing up with a clean drug test, prepared to actually go and do what every other New Zealander does paying tax to fund them—Winston Peters thinks that reducing benefit sanctions has no effect whatsoever on the fact that we’ve had the first increase in jobseeker support numbers in a decade, or at least since 2010. That is a fail. We could go on. There are a number of other Ministers from whom I’ve heard nothing at all. It’s possible that they are suffering from a lack of motivation and have not done anything. They perhaps should be tested too.

So I put it to you, Mr Speaker, the ACT Party is quite happy to support the Government’s medicinal marijuana bill; we’re quite happy to support the National Party’s bill. But we humbly submit that a minor improvement could be made by ensuring that the bill also amends the Constitution Act and perhaps the Electoral Act so that members of Parliament before they make dopey decisions have to pass a clean bill of drug-testing health before they do it. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

The member’s time has expired, and I will advise members that we are having trouble with the clocks. We have to go back to the old-fashioned system of getting a one-minute signal and getting interrupted.

Can I thank the member from the ACT Party for his contribution to this debate. I found it one of the more uplifting from the Opposition’s side, and I appreciate the fact that he actually put some ideas on the table rather than the tirade of relentless negativity that we have heard from the other Opposition members. I now understand better why ACT and National have fallen out so much: because David Seymour continues to promote challenging and different ideas while the National Party does not.

What I found really interesting about the National Party contribution this afternoon, what I heard with every National Party speaker, and, I’ve got to be honest, what I recognised from every National Party speech was that every single member got up and supported their current leader. Every single one of those members got up and said, “I support the Hon Simon Bridges as leader.” How many were there, four? Four? Four members.

💬 Hon Chris Hipkins: Five. Five.

Five. Well, some of them did it with a little less sincerity and a little less credibility and didn’t use very expansive adjectives to describe how strongly they felt of him, but the script was really clear: back up the leader, say something nice and positive about the leader, and then continue the rest of the four minutes and 30 seconds of a five-minute speech with the relentless negativity that has become the brand of the National Party.

I think it’s time for the National Party to cheer up. I think it’s time for the National Party to get over the grievance that they feel about being dislodged from their natural place of being the Government and look at the contribution that is being made to improve New Zealand society. That once-proud party has now descended into a depressed and depressing group of people who are interested in their own future, in their own promotion. They’re sharpening their elbows, nudging each other out of the way to get promoted up the ranks of the National Party. What they have been elected to this Parliament to do is make a contribution to making New Zealand a better place.

In the meantime, on this side of the House, we have three parties who are working together. We have different perspectives, different priorities. We are working together to build strong foundations for a better future for New Zealand and New Zealanders. That’s important. That’s what I think we were elected to do. We’re fixing the long-term problems. Nine years of neglect we’ve been left with—nine years of underfunding in health and housing, in education, in investment in infrastructure, and in supporting families. The National Party has the audacity to say, “You’ve had one Budget; why haven’t you fixed it already?” We have nine years of neglect to fix, but this Budget this year laid a very strong foundation for our future. We are running surpluses. We are paying off debt, and alongside that we are investing in health, we’re investing in housing, we’re investing in education, and we’re investing in police.

We want to leave our country better for future generations not worse. We don’t want the neglect that we’ve seen from the National-led Government in the past transferred to our children and grandchildren. It’s our responsibility to improve the lives of future generations. We have a clear plan. The 100-day plan of action was put into force. I actually thought it was too ambitious. I was really nervous that that 100-day plan was not going to be delivered, but every single policy in that 100-day plan was delivered within that 100 days. That’s fantastic, and every day we see more policies for improving the lives of ordinary New Zealanders, working families, being delivered by this Government.

We know there’s been huge pressure on families with the cost of living. This Government won’t stand by while ordinary New Zealanders struggle to get by day after day, struggle to pay the rent or struggle to pay the mortgage, turn off the heaters because they can’t afford a power bill, and work hard every day and get a pittance in their wage packet. This Government won’t accept that as being good enough for New Zealanders, so we are improving the foundations for New Zealand. We will leave New Zealand and New Zealanders better off in the future.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.