General Debate

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

Yesterday was a proud day for this Government. Our first Budget passed through the parliamentary process, and what that Budget has done is lay the foundations for a New Zealand that will leave behind the neglect of the last nine years and the failures of an economic model that left too many people behind. One of the critical areas of investment in that Budget was in education, and it is important to note today the first across-the-board funding increase for early childhood education in a decade in this Budget. There are 1,500 new teachers in this Budget, a tripling of the amount of new money for learning support for special education in this Budget, and, alongside that, the pay equity announcement from yesterday for the very people who support the most vulnerable in our education system—finally starting to be paid what they deserve.

I want to congratulate Minister Chris Hipkins for the work that he is leading in the education sector. I also want to congratulate Minister Hipkins and the Prime Minister for fronting up on the forecourt of Parliament today to say to teachers, “We hear your concerns. We want to work with you, as we are, to build this education system up so that our children have the very best opportunities, and we will keep working with you to do that.” I congratulate the Minister on fronting up. Where was the National Party today? Where was the National Party today? Standing up in this House crying crocodile tears for the teachers of New Zealand, and not one National Party member fronted up to the teachers. What that tells me is that they know where the blame lies: it lies with them. It lies with nine years of disrespecting teachers, underfunding education to the point that the offer on the table today, as Chris Hipkins has told the House, is double—more than double—what the National Party offered throughout their term in Government. We are getting on with the job of rectifying nine years of neglect. We will keep working with teachers to make sure every child in this country gets the opportunities that they deserve.

The Budget that passed yesterday has a lot of detail and important funding in it, but I want to talk briefly about a couple of the big-picture things that this Government is trying to do, because what this Government has done in coming together with the three parties in it is acknowledge that it is time to transform this country—transform this country to one where we face the future of work with confidence, where programmes like Mana in Mahi - Strength in Work deliver to our young people opportunities for apprenticeships. It’s a Government that’s prepared to face up to the fact that we can’t go on pretending climate change is not happening, that we’re actually going to not only address those issues but find the opportunities for good jobs that actually protect the environment and make sure that we’re growing the economy, just like the work on the billion trees programme, just like the work on the Green Investment Fund.

Then, thirdly, there is the big-picture issue facing New Zealand of reducing inequality. We cannot go on in a country claiming success about growth rates when we are leaving too many people behind. That’s why this Budget prioritised putting money into the pockets of low and middle income families. That’s why the minimum wage is growing, and it’s why we’re backing Iain Lees-Galloway and the employment relations bill, because it’s about fairness and growing wages. No amount of scaremongering from the other side of the House will get past the fact that we are putting in place a framework where employers and employees actually work together, where we value not just freedom of speech but freedom of association as well, where we actually have a Government that recognises that workplace law and working together is the way to go.

I’ve got one piece of advice that I want to leave the Opposition with, and it’s this: if you’re going to call on a retired District Court judge every time someone leaks from your caucus, David Parker’s going to have to grow the judiciary, because there won’t be enough people to do that. So I say this to the National Party: it’s time to stop looking in the rear-vision mirror. It’s time to get on board with a Government that’s actually making sure that we’re going to restore some fairness in this country, that we’re going to grow the economy sustainably, and that we’re actually going to be prepared for a future of work and the rapid change in that.

We are optimistic, we’re confident, we’re working together—I just wish the National Party could do a few of those things.

It’s so nice to be able to tell the people of New Zealand who are listening that that was not Michael Cullen, because at least he could count. He’s had to be brought in to try and fix up the mess that Grant Robertson’s already making. I’m really pleased to hear that Parliament is today—[Interruption] my goodness, they don’t like it, do they?—now going to respect family members. Oh my goodness! I’m looking forward to a few apologies coming over, but I’ve noticed they never have. My goodness, this new Government, they’re good at throwing dirt, aren’t they? But they don’t like a little bit of it back.

Let’s have a look at it. If the teachers are so valued by Labour, as Grant Robertson says, then tell me this: why are they striking? Why are they striking, not under a National-led Government of nine only very short years really—it should have been another nine. But why is it that, after nine months of Labour, they’re striking? Why is it that we heard Grant Robertson say today that the National Party should have been down when the teachers came to protest against the Government? Has he forgotten, we’re not the Government, unfortunately? He even wants us to do his job for him.

Because actually, this man, this finance Minister, would have to be the least qualified Minister of Finance that I can remember in my short life to date—the least qualified. He is now starting to make me think that pretty much—that nice person, Luxton: she could be the finance Minister. Michael Wood would be an excellent Minister of Finance compared to Grant Robertson—because he at least knows how to count—

💬 Hon Member: Darroch Ball.

💬 Hon Member: No, not Darroch, but Rino!

—which is significantly better than Grant Robertson. Even Rino—Rino—is the man for it!

Why this is important is business confidence. I know that we’ve just heard today from the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Education that, basically, the teachers should be happy. They should all be happy. We’ve heard from Iain Lees-Galloway—the Minister of, I’d call it “Unemployment”; Employment, whatever it is—that everyone should just be happy and be grateful. Well, how come they’re striking everywhere? Business can’t strike. Business has mortgages, it has loans, it has staff, and it has to keep things going. Yet business is now being told by this Minister of Finance and this Government on the other side of the House in Parliament that they should all just be happy. Don’t worry, be happy, it’s all going to work out well—that’s what they’re saying. Why is it that business confidence is so low? Why has it dropped to the lowest end of the OECD from being right at the top end? Why is that? Let me tell you.

💬 Simeon Brown: Good question; tell us why.

I think it’s a very good question. It’s because they look at this Government and they do not have not a clue as to which direction they’re going, other than it’s going to be more costs on business—whether it’s more rules around employment, whether it’s having union thugs coming bowling into their offices and taking over. How come if I or any other member of Parliament goes into a business, we have to have a health and safety induction, but not these guys? Oh, no, no—they’re taking over the business. Why is that? Why is it that they see a Government destroy, overnight, the oil and gas industry? Why is it they do that? The officials found out about it at 7 o’clock the night before the announcement, and why was that?

That’s why business confidence starts to drop. They look at a Government that’s spending and spending and spending like there’s no tomorrow; a Government that doesn’t seem to understand that the more that they spend, the more pressure that puts on interest rates—the Government that is actually borrowing more. When I heard, during the election campaign, that we have this $11 billion fiscal hole from Labour, we were pooh-poohed all over the place—all the media commentaries and these so-called economists. Guess what? It’s going to be that plus more—more like about $18 billion—all paid for by New Zealand taxpayers, all paid for by people who have got mortgages who are now going to have to pay more interest because of this Government.

It’s a Government of fools, it’s a Government of inexperience, and it’s a Government that will just say anything to anybody just to get them off the front doorstep of Parliament. That’s what we saw today. If Grant Robertson is so keen on teachers, how come they’re striking? If Chris Hipkins is so keen on teachers, how come they’re striking? They never did it with us. And the reason for that is because they knew that when we told them these things, they were right.

Order! The member’s time has expired.

I’ve got to tell you, I’m excited. We’ve got an old-fashioned whodunit. We’ve got an old-fashioned whodunit: “Limogate”. [Holds up picture of limousine] That was dubbed by TV3, but I don’t want to perform copyright. We’ve got a whodunit, and what I saw on the New Zealand Herald today was “Expenses-leak probe deepens”. The first paragraph actually involved you, Mr Speaker: “Parliament’s Speaker Trevor Mallard will consider whether a further forensic examination is needed”. Well, go no further, sir; we have completed just that forensic investigation and we have got a list of suspects.

Before I go into that list of suspects, a little advice for Mr Bridges [Holds up picture of Hyundai]: Hyundai Accent. Three months, every single day: $3,000. Not $85,000 that he cost the taxpayer. There’s a little bit of a saving there, but we don’t want the Opposition leader to go around in a four-star safety-rated vehicle. Let’s even go for the big car. Let’s go for the luxury vehicle. Let’s go for the fancy Holden [Holds up picture of Holden]—three months, every single day: $13,000. The most expensive: $13,000. Why did the National Party leader take a limo and think that he could be driven around the country, costing the taxpayer $85,000? That’s because he thinks that he should, he thinks that he can, and so he did. He had no concept of what mahi actually meant, and he’s got no concept of what the taxpayer was putting into him.

We’ve narrowed down the suspects. We’ve got a forensic investigation. Look no further [Holds up picture of National Party caucus]: the entire National Party caucus. But we narrowed it down a little bit. The first suspect [Holds up picture of Maureen Pugh]: Maureen Pugh. Who is Maureen Pugh, I hear you ask? Exactly—perhaps it was the perfect crime. Suspect number two—now, this suspect was [Holds up picture of the Rt Hon Sir John Key] Sir John Key. But despite that, where he was the first primary suspect, he had quite a strong alibi, and he was working very hard—despite the confidence surveys and what the National Party says—making record profits with ANZ. The second suspect [Holds up picture of the Hon Steven Joyce]: Steven Joyce. Apparently he’s still sour about the leadership race, but he also had a solid alibi: knocking on every door of every single New Zealand economist in the country, still wanting to find someone who will agree with him about the $11.7 billion fiscal hole.

The third one [Holds up picture of the Rt Hon Bill English]: Bill English—the Rt Hon Bill English—for no other reason but just by association with the other two. Alibi: he was last seen doing some famous walk-runs. But now we’re getting a bit serious [Holds up picture of the Hon Judith Collins]: Judith Collins. Surely not—surely not Judith Collins. No, we’ll keep going. Now, here we’re talking [Holds up picture of David Seymour]: David Seymour—David “I don’t know what my policies are” Seymour; David “I spend my entire life attacking New Zealand First and Winston Peters and end up stealing their policies anyway” Seymour. But look what we found—this is probably the most promising. It’s not the first and primary suspect, but it’s one of the most promising [Holds up picture of the Hon Mark Mitchell]: Mark Mitchell. You know, and we saw this logo, too—the new leader of the New Conservative Party, apparently. The knives are out.

But here’s what we’ve come to a conclusion with: the number one prime suspect. It’s a little bit outside the box, but we found out who did it. We found out who leaked Simon Bridges’ expenses [Holds up picture of the Hon Simon Bridges]: it was Simon Bridges himself. You see, it actually makes sense in the end, because he’s in single digits with his popularity. It’s a false-flag operation—a false-flag operation. On this side of the House, we’ve got the popcorn out; on that side of the House, they’ve got the knives out. We’re looking forward not only to the rest of this year, but I think it’s going to happen even sooner than that.

Well, we know that the primary school teachers are on strike today. What we didn’t know was that the primary school students from New Zealand First were in the House today. That show and tell stuff—it was only last week that the very venerable Audrey Young from the New Zealand Herald acknowledged her 30 years of contribution to the New Zealand Herald, and I think most of that served in this press gallery. I heard her on the radio and she was asked what was the highlight of her career to date, in terms of the 30 years, and she said she remembered well breaking the story of the time that Winston Peters stood in this House and put up the sign “No”, and then she broke the story that proved it to be “Yes”. So to Darroch Ball, I say that when a New Zealand First MP stands up in this House and holds up cue cards like that, it doesn’t usually end well. It doesn’t usually end well, and it won’t for Darroch Ball and it won’t for New Zealand First.

Strikes, strikes, and more strikes. We’ve heard today in question time that there have been some 60,000 New Zealanders taking strike action in the short 10 months of this administration—

💬 Simeon Brown: How many?

—60,000—and we heard that the records show that over the entire nine years of the last National Government, only 30,000 people went on strike. So, today, we’ve had the teachers marching here on Parliament and around the country, and we were told yesterday that about 1,300 primary school are affected, with parents who are stressed and having to cope with it. I’ve noticed that some of my colleagues have got their children busy around the Parliament here today.

But what we know from this Government is that they have empowered and emboldened the trade union movement in a way that we haven’t seen, frankly, since before the 1970s. They feel like they are owed a debt by this Government, because never forget the political, the historical, and the financial links that exist between the trade union movement and the Labour Party. They are deep, long, and strong.

So one of the first pieces of legislation that was introduced into this House back in January was something that the Labour Party had ready to pull off the shelf, that was prepared probably well in advance of an election at some stage. As soon as they got into the Beehive, they pulled this piece of legislation off the shelf, and it’s designed entirely to give strength, new members, and new money to the trade union movement. So what we are seeing is a contagion of strikes throughout the country. It is not just in the public sector but has now “contagioned” into—if that’s a word—contaminated the private sector, as well. What are the chances of there being more? Well, there are going to be lots more strikes.

Business confidence is tanking. My colleague the Hon Judith Collins has just made reference to the fact that only a year or so ago, we were amongst OECD nations privileged and quite proud of the fact that we had the second-highest level of business confidence in the OECD, and now, what is it this year? We have the second-lowest level of business confidence.

Now on the other side of the House, they say, “Oh, this is just junk. This has no bearing at all.” Well, I can tell the House that, in fact, business understands this stuff. Business knows that with the level of economic uncertainty and the level of legislative uncertainty posed by this Government, the economy is sliding, and that’s sad. That’s sad for New Zealand jobs, that’s sad for New Zealand businesses, and that’s sad for us as a nation, because this is a Government that doesn’t have any visible, coherent, or logical plan for economic growth, for a stable economy, or for a country that is focused on a direction that is going forward rather than backwards. What we find at every turn from this Government is uncertainty—uncertainty that creates a lack of confidence in the business sector but also, actually, out into the rest of the society as well.

So we’ve seen in this short 10 months that the first thing that the new Labour-led Government has done is provide a legislative payback to the unions, and we’re seeing that in the piece of legislation that’s going through the House now. But that’s just the beginning. That’s just part of a suite of legislative initiatives that will be bad for business and bad for employers and, of course, ultimately bad for employees. There will be no doubt that business levels will drop. So, 10 months in: chaos, strikes, strikes, and more strikes.

Thank you so much, Madam Deputy Speaker, for this call in the general debate. I’d like to first of all congratulate the Minister of Finance, the Hon Grant Robertson, for Budget 2018 that has just been passed.

One of the earlier speakers from the opposite side of the House said that we are, apparently, a “don’t worry, be happy” Government. I absolutely refute that we are a “don’t worry, be happy” Government. We are absolutely doing a lot. The do-nothing approach—especially to housing—was what the previous Government did. They just sat on the side, did nothing, and hoped that the market would somehow fix the housing crisis. We are a Government that is moving at great pace to address a whole lot of issues that we inherited.

In terms of housing, we came in and we inherited a national housing crisis. We are building houses. We are going to be building 6,400 State houses over the next four years. One of the first things we did over the first few months of our Government was we stopped the sell-off of State houses. During the middle of a housing crisis, the previous Government kept on selling off State houses. It makes absolutely no sense to keep on selling off State houses. They sold off over 6,000 State houses in the middle of a housing crisis. We came in and we found out that we are not just short of a few thousand but we are short of 71,000 houses—

💬 Hon Peeni Henare: How many?

—in all of Aotearoa New Zealand. We are short of 71,000 houses. We’re short in Auckland—our largest city—of 45,000 houses. It doesn’t take just nine or 10 months to build up 71,000 houses. So we stopped that right away, within our first few months. Aotearoa New Zealand, according to the OECD—another thing we inherited from the previous Government—is No. 1 in the rate of homelessness when compared to the other OECD countries, thanks to the previous Government.

So instead of selling off State houses, we’re building State houses. In the last Budget, we put aside $234 million to build 6,400 extra State houses. We also put aside for the winter payment $100 million. The sad thing is that because we have such a high rate of homelessness, there are things that we need to do in terms of emergency housing and transitional housing before we can actually put all of these thousands of our families and thousands of our whānau into houses.

We are a country that is caring and compassionate. Everyone has a right to have a roof over their heads, and I’m glad to say that I’m in a Government that has housing as one of our No. 1 priorities. We put aside $169 million for transitional houses—that’s 2,155 transitional housing places. KiwiBuild homes: we are in a country where, 60 years ago, in terms of homeownership, if you had a professional job—say, you were a teacher married to a nurse, for instance—and were working full-time, you would be able to afford to buy a house. You could save and then actually make a deposit on a house and move—not you, Madam Deputy Speaker, I am sorry, but professional folks out there. But the reality is that in 60 years we’re now at the lowest rate of homeownership. That is one of the reasons why we as a Government are not a do-nothing Government that hopes that the housing market somehow will right itself. No, we’ve come in and we’ve said, “We need to address this.” We’ve put aside over $2 billion for KiwiBuild homes and we’ll be building a thousand KiwiBuild homes this year, 5,000 next year, and 10,000 the year after.

The other thing that we also inherited from the previous Government was a lack of skilled people. When we came in, we know now, we were short by 30,000 skilled people in building and construction. But this is an issue that industry and Auckland Council sat down and talked about in 2011 and 2012. They actually came up with a detailed report, presented it to the Minister at the time, and they said, “We predict that if you do nothing you are going to be short by 32,000 skilled people by 2018.” Guess what? We are short by 30,000 skilled people today. As a Government we are doing something about that: nine Ministers with nine ministries. We’re actually making sure that we train up our own people so that we can build up our own houses in Aotearoa New Zealand. In the short term, we’re looking at overseas skilled people, but in the long term we must train our own to build up our own country. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Madam Deputy Speaker, that was a speech that would give warmth to every single Labour backbencher in the House today. I think I can see Willow-Jean Prime’s eyes lighting up at that, because that was from the Minister who talks about doing nothing and yet as Associate Minister of Health has done nothing. When I asked her in written questions how many briefings, how many aides-mémoire, and how many papers she has received or taken in the seven months to the end of June, the answer was zero.

💬 Hon Members: How many?

Zero. That’s what a do-nothing Minister looks like, and that will give encouragement to every single backbencher over there. There’s a reshuffle coming, and I look forward to seeing who is on that list.

But I want to also continue the theme of industrial relations, because we did see a big gathering in the grounds of Parliament today, and I must say that Dr David Clark must be back at his office thinking thank goodness for Chris Hipkins. Because he was the one that was under pressure from a nurses strike that seemed never ending, and then along came Mr Hipkins and gave us the teachers. But remember, it’s only the primary teachers. We haven’t got to the early childhood educators yet. We certainly haven’t got to the New Zealand Post Primary Teachers Association, so there’s plenty more where that came from.

Actually, David Clark should not be complacent either, because he’s the one, as Minister of Health, and with the Minister of Finance, who’s written the cheque that the Government cannot cash. They have promised, and they’re not going to be able to deliver. The nurses: very grumpy with their 12 to 15 percent increase. The midwives: very grumpy with their 9 percent bump. In fact, there was a review of the section 88 notices, and the report has not been released. It’s being hidden somewhere—we don’t know why—but the midwives continue to leave in droves. We haven’t got to the doctors. We haven’t got to the junior doctors. We haven’t got to the allied health professionals. Watch this space. Mr Hipkins and Dr Clark are going to be providing cover for each other for months to come, and that’s before we get to the Public Service Association. We have the IRD workers striking already. We have a number of others. This is the winter of industrial discontent that seems to have no end.

I give credit to Cameron Bagrie, albeit that he came to his revelation 11 months too late, because last week he said not only was the $11.7 billion fiscal hole real; it was probably bigger. Now, he should have said that in October/September last year, when he joined a number of economists that got a bit confused about a simple message. That was this: in order for the Labour Party to commit to their promises they would need to spend $11.7 billion more than they said they would, and he was right. He finally got to that, and I can tell you that the cheque is going to be written.

But despite that the Minister of Finance gloats about the Budget that was passed in the third reading speech yesterday. In that he said that he wanted to particularly note the major investments being made in the provinces and regions of New Zealand that will make the biggest difference of any single investment. Well, I didn’t hear them saying that in Lumsden this week, and I didn’t hear them saying that in Te Ānau or Whitianga or Rotorua or Roxburgh, where health services and social services are being cut by this high talking, well-meaning Government. Yet they cannot keep a small maternity hospital open in that very beautiful part of the country in northern Southland.

Not only that, at the same time that they closed down a primary maternity hospital in Lumsden, they take away the air ambulance that would take those expectant mums the 150-odd kilometres from Te Ānau to the nearest birthing unit—and the ambulance is being taken away. What kind of heartless Government is this who blamed us for overseeing the most benign industrial relations climate in a generation, where public sector and private sector pay went up by twice the rate of inflation and industrial disputes were at record lows? They had the audacity to come into this House and say that that strike action and that march on Parliament today is somehow the National Party’s fault. Give me a break. They need to own their issues. They need to take responsibility for the terrible industrial relations climate, for the incredibly unhappy regions around Southland, on the Coromandel, and in Rotorua for the promises that they broke and the complete derogation of those obligations for health in those regions and explain to them why they talk big and did nothing.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the signing of the free-trade agreement between New Zealand and China. China has become New Zealand’s largest trading partner, largest source of international fee-paying students, and second-largest source of international tourists. Over the last few weeks, I have attended many functions in the Chinese community celebrating the achievements and gearing up for 2019, the China - New Zealand Year of Tourism.

During the last general debate, I reported to the House the good news that more and more Chinese developers, builders, and financial providers have expressed a strong interest in—and indeed have since joined—the KiwiBuild project. This is a fantastically great idea. Instead of applying an ostrich approach, as the last National Government did, this Government has a positive plan to build a better New Zealand. If our teachers cannot afford a home in Auckland, if our nurses and police officers cannot afford Auckland, then there is a problem for us all, particularly affecting our future generations.

We’re looking forward to the third reading of the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill, introduced by the honourable Minister David Parker. I shall give a big thumbs up to Minister Parker. Minister Parker has delivered. This bill will help ensure that a greater proportion of foreign direct investment will be directed into productive assets where the benefits of free capital flows will be the greatest.

There is a big difference between investment and speculation. The test is a simple one, and this is really relevant to the ethnic community. For those who genuinely regard themselves as Kiwis, no matter how long they have lived here, either as a citizen or as a resident, they are more inclined to support the policy initiatives. But for those, again no matter how long they have been living here, who still adopt that foreign mentality and do not treat New Zealand as their home but as a safe island where they can leave their elderly parents or children here to enjoy our free health and education system, then, of course, that would be a different story.

What I can say is that the policy initiatives under that particular bill are no more different from the policy initiatives in places such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, or Singapore. Needless to say, this is an issue of supply and demand, not race. Of course, I heard some noises that the statistics collected in this space should be used to counter-argue the policy initiatives. I say that’s a nonsense because the statistics collected in this space were incomplete, and even the National Minister at that time admitted that the stats collected were incomplete and should not be regarded as a foreign purchase register. The stats were collected only after the introduction of the IRD disclosure rule. It missed the higher end of the market. They did not include the trusts or business purchases.

Now, let me give an analogy. To gauge the level of traffic congestion, we can simply monitor the movements on our motorways. But there is a big difference between different timings—for instance, the traffic situation at 3 p.m. or 3 a.m. In the view of the National Party, they relied on some data collected at 3 a.m. on motorways and then declared there is no traffic congestion in Auckland at all. In a similar vein, they declared that there is no housing crisis and have since made a mockery of the KiwiBuild and other policy initiatives designed to clear up the mess left over by that party over the last nine years.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. What a great pleasure to follow that contribution from Raymond Huo, the Labour member, as he pitched before the Labour caucus and the Prime Minister for a ministerial position in the next reshuffle, which is not far away. But he got it wrong: he started his speech by talking about the benefits of free trade. He forgot that the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, and the Minister of Finance spent the last nine years in Opposition opposing free trade. We have the Minister for Trade and Export Growth who opposed free trade. We have the Deputy Prime Minister who voted against the Chinese free-trade agreement 10 years ago, which the member now celebrates.

But I just want to talk and congratulate the Prime Minister on returning from maternity leave and tell her that she is now finding out that running a Government is a lot different to student politics. While Chris Hipkins may well not have moved on from the student union, what the Prime Minister is now finding is that this is not about student politics; this is serious, and the performance of her and her Government at this stage is amateurish, and the scorecard is mounting, and it doesn’t tell a good picture.

We heard at the start of question time today about industrial relations—60,000 people on strike in the last nine months compared with 30,000 on strike through the whole of the nine years of the National-led Government. It is hard to believe those figures, but the reason they are occurring is because, in Opposition, Labour and New Zealand First went out and overpromised. They went to the teachers and said, “Vote for us and we’ll look after you.” They went to the nurses and said, “Vote for us; we’ll look after you.” Now they’re in Government and they’ve got to deliver, but they haven’t got the money because they spent $2.8 billion on free tertiary for first-year students and have seen a decline in student numbers of 900. It is hard to believe.

Then you look at business confidence, and this Government wonders why business confidence has continued to decline. It should look in the mirror. The Deputy Prime Minister is good at looking in the mirror. What he needs to do is get the Prime Minister beside him and they both need to look in the mirror and see why business confidence continues to decline. And Darroch Ball shakes his head. He’s the same as the Hon David Parker, who thinks all these surveys are “junk”. Well, I’ll give you one to watch, Darroch Ball. Look at the exchange rate—72c to the American dollar at the time of the last election. Now it’s 65c, and if he thinks that’s affected by anything other than the lack of confidence in this current Government and its policy settings, if he thinks it’s anything else, that member is dreaming. It is an international market where the people who trade currency look at the future of this country under a Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government and realise it’s all downhill, and that exchange rate should tell a story to anybody who wants to follow it. If he’s not prepared to accept that, look at the Treasury downgrades of their forecast. If he’s not prepared to look at that, Darroch Ball, go and talk to Adrian Orr, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, who, at the select committee on Thursday last week, pointed out that they have revised downwards their growth figures.

But if you want any other indication as to how amateurish this Government is, look at no other issue than Wally Haumaha. I’d never heard of this man earlier. He was appointed to be the Deputy Police Commissioner, and now, six weeks later, his name is on the front page of the paper day after day after day. And the Prime Minister comes back from maternity leave and says she’s frustrated. Has she done anything about it? Let me tell Darroch Ball, because he’s probably also a mate of Wally Haumaha, like the Deputy Prime Minister is, like the Rt Hon Winston Peters is—they’re mates; we know that. Let me tell Darroch Ball something: Wally Haumaha is a goner. He will not survive, and anybody who had any ability to govern and thinks it’s more than student politics would have stepped in and sorted it out by now. To let this fester and fester and fester for the last six weeks shows how amateurish this Government is, and if we’ve got to put up with it for another two years, God help us all.

I’ve just been sitting here in the backbenches listening to the inconsistencies of the other side’s debate just washing over me. They say we’re spending too much, we’re spending too little, we’re going too fast, we’re going too slow, we’re too hands-on, we’re too hands-off. And I think the thing is that it is really easy to criticise somebody that’s got a plan and is moving on it than to criticise something that doesn’t actually exist. What I want to do today is just briefly talk about a little story I used to share back in 2014 when I was on the campaign trail. I was trying to talk down south about the consequences of the previous Government’s hands-off approach, inaction, and no plan in our own community.

I think the thing is that ignoring the housing crisis and not increasing district health board budgets—just to account for the basics, cost pressures, and population growth—were having huge impacts. The story I used was just talking about how in my old day job I used to get really, really busy. So what I used to do—and we all do it—is work from a job list. And when you get really, really busy, what you do is you let that stuff that’s not that important slip below the bottom of the job list. Some things you shouldn’t let slip off the bottom of that job list—like spay the cat. I think the problem I had was that while I was getting really, really busy, my cat Tūī was making friends with the neighbour’s cat. And so on Labour Day a few years back I was presented with this litter of tiny kittens in the middle of my bed.

I think the story I used to tell was the fact that if you do nothing, it’s not like nothing happens. It’s like, the consequences can amplify. I think the problem that we’ve got is that by 2017, those little kittens had turned into feral cats and they were terrorising the neighbourhood. What was happening in health and in housing was we were seeing real consequences.

I think the problem we had in my own area in Invercargill was that we are suffering a housing crisis, and what the previous Government had done in that housing crisis was they’d sold off our State houses. Between 2012 and 2017 we lost 69 State houses. So at the moment our housing providers are at capacity, they’re struggling to house people, and we’ve only got 350-odd State houses to house everybody.

The other problem was that the previous Government just ignored the fact that our rental housing stock is really rundown and we don’t have decent rental standards. A lot of people are trying to find homes, but they’re mouldy, they’re cold, and they’re damp, and their kids are getting sick. And so having that whole hands-off approach has not done us any favours down south. We talk about Auckland, but it’s right around the country.

I’m proud to be part of a Government that’s actually got an active plan, and it’s turning the situation around. So in Budget 2018 what we’re doing is we’re going to be building 6,400 new State social houses over the next four years. We’ve said that down in Invercargill and everywhere else we’re not selling off any more of our State houses; we’re going to be building new ones.

The other thing we’re going to be doing—and it came through as such a privilege to sit and watch the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill No. 2 pass just before Christmas—is we’re going to be getting decent rental standards for our homes, and that’s going to make a huge impact down in Invercargill, where I see people struggling because there are hardly any rental homes and the ones they can afford are cold, they’re damp, and they’re mouldy; there’s all sorts of mould. People are talking to me about gaps in the walls and having to tape them up and the heating costs. And so as a Government we’re putting in place those rental standards so that people can be guaranteed a warm dry home. But also for pensioners and beneficiaries, having the extra winter energy payment so that they can be able to turn on the heater over the winter, and that’ll have huge impacts for families with kids. So, for us, we’re not just taking that hands-off approach; we’re actively doing things.

The other area I’d like to talk about is child poverty, and this is what got me involved in politics because, year after year, my job was to put the annual rates of child poverty out and report them to the sector—in terms of the health sector. What frustrated me, again, was that lack of plan, but our Government has got a plan, and what we’re going to be doing is putting in place transparent monitoring and targets for child poverty. We’re directing Government agencies to develop up strategies to address the well-being of children, but we’re also, with the Best Start payment, making sure that for babies in the first year of life, their families have enough income.

We’re looking at Working for Families, getting more money back into families’ pockets, and we’re increasing the minimum wage so that families going out to work have got enough to put food on the table. So I’m proud of Budget 2018. I’m proud of our Government’s hands-on—not hands-off—approach to achieving all those things that we need to do for our families to make sure people can get decent services and decent housing and can go to hospital when they need it. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

I want to take a moment to remind the members opposite about what is happening today in New Zealand, because today in New Zealand, for the first time in 24 years, primary teachers and principals are striking. So up and down this country, from the very north to the very south, there are families whose lives have been disrupted. There are parents who have had to get the day off work—and, yes, granted, some employers have been very good about that, but some have been less able to do so. There are mums and dads who are stressed out, and there are mums and dads who have had to call for help from family members, who have had to spend the money that was meant for a new pair of shoes on after-school care or a babysitter.

What we are supposed to do in this House today according the members opposite is ignore that disruption. Well, I want to take a moment to say thank you to teachers for what you do, because I know that that’s the sentiment parents have today. They’re not sitting at home saying this is the fault of teachers—no. They appreciate—we appreciate—the work that teachers do for our children. We appreciate the effort they put in for them, and we appreciate the value they provide our country.

But what do members opposite want us to do? Well, first of all, we have had the utter disgrace of a Government that had the Minister of Finance, at the beginning of this debate—what did he see fit to do? He asked the members of the House to congratulate the Minister of Education—to congratulate! And there was a round of applause. They all burst into clapping. Why did they do that? Oh, because there’s a strike? Great! I’ll tell you what, members opposite: parents in this country, teachers in this country, weren’t joining you in the round of applause for the Minister of Education. No, they were not, and they also weren’t wanting two minutes to talk about cats being spayed and people forgetting their to-do lists.

Then we had the Minister of Education deciding that it was an opportune moment to list his achievements. What did he start by listing? Oh, well, there were some very significant achievements. There was the fact that he had renamed the Education Council the Teaching Council. And no, no, no, but he’s done more than that: he’s changed the way that people are appointed to the Teaching Council. You know what? If he yells that from the rooftops, the teachers will say, “You know what, Chris Hipkins? You’re right. We should be applauding too! And, actually, we’re going to think twice about the strike now, because now you’ve renamed the Teaching Council we can see that, actually, you’re in the right here and we should just put our heads down.” Well, it’s not good enough.

We also had the Minister of Education decide that today was the day that he would show the young people of New Zealand—he’d show the children of New Zealand—how you should react when you have an opponent. The way he chose to react was to describe that opponent as a barnyard animal, and I think that’s not a very good example. Here is a Government that is more interested in playing—

💬 Hon Chris Hipkins: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I know the member is a new member. When the Speaker has made a ruling on a matter and required a member to withdraw and apologise for it, there can be no further debate or discussion in the House on the matter.

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member is correct.

This is a Government that doesn’t want to talk about the strike outside, and when they do talk about it, they want to play the blame game. What they are asking New Zealanders to believe is that the Opposition is to blame for their failure to reach a settlement, that somehow the Opposition is responsible for the instructions to the negotiators sitting at the table. Well, I want to take a moment to educate the Ministers and educate the members opposite about what powers you have as a Government, because here are a few of the powers that you have: actually, you’re a Government—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Don’t bring me—don’t bring me.

Sorry. I apologise, Madam Deputy Speaker, but this is a Government that has inherited the best financial books that they could possibly hope for. This is a Government whose very own finance Minister talks day after day about the strong economic foundations that he is working from. This is a Government that has the power to budget and prioritise the biggest revenues in our country’s history, that’s taxing more and that’s borrowing more.

And despite this largesse, despite these great books, this great financial position, what do they choose to prioritise? That is the business of Government: it is about prioritising the things that matter, and the things that matter to this Government are $2.8 billion for free fees, hundreds of millions of dollars for diplomats and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and billions of dollars for a slush fund for Shane Jones. These are the things that this Government prioritises, and it’s not good enough to say to the teachers that there isn’t enough money. The teachers are brave; they won’t have the wool pulled over their eyes. They know that what they are asking for pales in comparison to the student promise that the members opposite said was their priority and signed up to in the campaign.

Here we are: the lowest business confidence since the global financial crisis, and teachers striking. Take some responsibility.

It’s truly bizarre to stand up and follow that speech, as if the last nine years never happened. I was on the forecourt of Parliament today, listening to the teachers, alongside members of this Government. For me, if there was ever any evidence of the irresponsible nature of the last Government, it was listening to those speeches today, alongside listening to the stories of our nurses ahead of their strike talking about being stuck with people they were caring for for three hours, experiencing assaults, because there were not enough staff to come to their aid, because of the nine years of neglect of that previous Government. Today, to hear from the teachers that they are having to take second jobs and that they are going to food banks to feed their families because of the nine years of neglect of that Government puts you to shame, not this side of the House.

I want to acknowledge that this Government is listening and does understand, and that is what we saw on the steps of Parliament today: that this Government has taken action in the Budget with 1,500 more teachers, increase in support for students with additional learning needs, abolishing National Standards and offering to pay twice the average of the offers under the previous National Government. All of that comes from this side of the House, so it makes no sense what I heard from Nicola Willis, the previous speaker. But still, despite that action, the teachers are striking. It’s not because they’re greedy, and it’s not because everything is fixed yet; it’s because they are exhausted and stressed and worried about the depth of the crisis within our education system, and they are trying to prevent a further crisis.

There’s been a 40 percent drop in the number of people entering teaching in the last eight years—that is a crisis. They want us to value their work, because they want the best for their students. They care. They do that. They buy resources. They work their weekends. They work 12-hour days because they care, and they want that to be properly valued. And we may not be there yet—in the Greens we get to say that from our position of confidence and supply. We may not be there yet, but I want to make sure that they know that this Government is listening, and the Greens hear them, and we thank them for their efforts to defend the integrity of our education system that was so profoundly undermined by the last Government, to the point where a principal in Manurewa was struggling to find a teacher, to look for staff, to build the complement in their school. He finally found a brilliant young teacher who came to Auckland from Palmerston North, who loves her job and loves her kids, but she can’t afford to live in Auckland on the teacher’s income that she’s getting. So they are pleading to us, to this House, to take more action.

I recognise that in 1979 backbench MPs were paid the same as teachers now. We are roughly paid twice as much as teachers at the top of their pay scale—at the top of their pay scale. I’ve been a teacher, so I know how out of whack that is. MPs’ pays have been benchmarked against other people who are on top salaries, so our pay goes up, whereas so many people, like teachers and nurses and social workers and bus drivers, seem to have to convince us that they’re worth a pay increase.

Well, I and the Green Party are listening to the teachers. We see this as an opportunity to transform our society, and we really appreciate that it’s so much better under this Government, who are taking on the education system, and addressing poverty, family violence, housing inequality, and climate change. We are doing this; we’re not just blaming teachers. But we also are listening to that call for transformation, and the Green Party is happy to stand with the teachers for that society where we value the work that counts.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Well, that was a very interesting speech from the Green Party where they tried to come up with a whole lot of excuses, but they forget that they’re actually part of this Government and need to actually take some responsibility for what this Government does. But they are trying to make excuses by saying, “Well, we’re part of this confidence and supply agreement, so we don’t have to take responsibility.” Well, I’m sorry, but you’re the party which has brought this Government into power, so take some responsibility and answer the question: why are the teachers striking?

So what we have seen today up and down this country is something which is historic. For the first time in 24 years, we have seen primary school teachers and principals take to the streets, close the schools, and strike. There are schools in my electorate which have closed, and I just want to recognise and acknowledge—

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Didn’t the member go there last year?

—all of the teachers and all the principals who have made that decision.

💬 Matt Doocey: He’s got the day off school. Leave him alone.

Yes, that’s right. I’ve had today off school myself just to make this speech! Now, can you please be quiet in the cheap seats over the other side of the House.

So let me get back to where I was at. So it’s understandable why these teachers are striking, and I want to acknowledge the good work that they are doing. But what we have to also recognise is that they are striking because of the arrogance of this Government and the rhetoric that we are getting from the Minister of Education, which absolutely does show that they are not listening, they are not listening to teachers, and they are not listening to their needs.

The Minister of Education went outside Parliament today and what he said was “We are hearing your concerns and so we are getting rid of charter schools.”—we are hearing your concerns and so we’re getting rid of charter schools. We are hearing your concerns and we are changing the name of the Teaching Council. Well, that shows a Government which wants to distract themselves, they are out of touch, and they don’t want to talk about the real issues and the real things.

So this comes back to the real issue here. We’ve got the Green Party on one hand saying, “Well, we’re not really part of this Government, but we are.” And the reason why they’ve got this issue with the teacher pay and the teacher strikes is because all of the money’s been spent. This is a Government which has the wrong priorities and which has spent all the money. I’ve talked to teachers. I visit schools in my electorate all the time, and they understand. They understand that there has got to be priorities from this Government. They understand the need for Governments to prioritise, but they also understand that this Government has the wrong priorities. They’ve spent $2.8 billion on free fees for university students—$2.8 billion. And how many more students have we seen go to university?

💬 Hon Member: Less.

About the same. $2.8 billion—$2.8 billion, Mr Ball, $2.8 billion. And how much have we seen spent on diplomats? About $1 billion on diplomats. And how much money have we seen spent on Shane Jones’ slush fund? A billion dollars a year on the slush fund. So who’s got all the power in this coalition? It’s the New Zealand First Party which has all the power in this coalition, and the Green Party is sitting on the side having to complain.

Chlöe Swarbrick: We are in confidence and supply, Simeon.

And, yes, Chlöe Swarbrick says, “We’re in confidence and supply.” Well, you’re still part of the Government, so stop propping it up and do something. Take some action if that’s what you going to say. Take some action and take responsibility. The Green Party is all care, no responsibility; that’s what they’re all about—all care, no responsibility.

Well, I’d like to touch on a couple of last comments and this is in regards to some of the issues that we are facing. We do acknowledge that teachers need to be paid more and we do acknowledge that we need to attract more teachers to teach in our schools. Well, what message does it send to young people who are thinking of teaching that we have to have strikes to get a pay rise? For nine years when we were in Government there were no strikes from teachers. They didn’t have to strike, they negotiated, they sat around the table, and they nutted the details out around the table where it should be.

Now we’ve got a Labour Government and they’re striking outside because the incompetence of the Minister of Education and the incompetence of this Government. They can’t sit down around the table and make these decisions and actually get a deal done so that we don’t have to have strikes from a core public service up and down our country—the inconvenience for parents and families and the disruption to our children’s learning. What have we heard today? Now they’re talking about a second strike. And how long with this one go for? Two days. They had a one-day strike today; now they’re talking about a two-day strike. So Mr Hipkins needs to gets the message: sort this out. Sort out teacher pay so we don’t have to disrupt our children’s learning.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.