General Debate

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

Well, we’ve had a lot of noise out of the beltway this week, but do you want to know one thing that I know New Zealanders are saying?

💬 Hon Judith Collins: What’s that, Amy?

The cost of living is going up under this Government. Under this Government, it is getting harder and harder for New Zealand families to get ahead, and isn’t this the Government who, in the election campaign, told us they were all about families? They were all about the lowest-income families, and what have we seen since they’ve been in Government? They have put in place fuel taxes that are meaning that the lowest-income families are having to choose between putting food on the table or filling their car to get to work or to get the kids to school or to get to sport. That’s what this Government has prioritised. They have prioritised petrol taxes that hit the hardest, the most, over the needs of those families to put food on the table.

We’ve just seen this week, actually, Statistics New Zealand come out and say that we’ve seen one of the steepest rises in the cost of living for some time—far steeper, actually, than the market was expecting. The biggest single rise, really, of the household costs is the 19 percent increase—19 percent increase—in the cost of petrol over the last year, and we have a Government that wants to dodge and weave and hide its impact on that. For all of the nonsense we’ve heard from the Prime Minister that taxes are only 6-something cents, the public know the truth. The public know that thanks to this Government’s fuel taxes, it is costing them more and more to fill their cars. The average household in Auckland is paying $324 a year more in taxes—not just to fuel their cars but more in taxes—because of the Labour Government that they thought had their back.

And you want to talk about rents? Well, because the Government doesn’t understand that if you drive landlords out of the market, rents go up—

💬 Hon Shane Jones: What about if you drive members out?

Those same families are paying rents $20 a week higher, Mr Jones, under the Government that you’re supporting than they previously paid—$20 a week higher on average every week in rent cost because of a Government that doesn’t understand the relationship between what it does and the market.

We heard today in the House from the Minister of Finance that the Government is unapologetic about imposing these new costs and is unapologetic about putting in place bans that mean their energy costs are going to go up, their fuel costs are going up, their housing costs are going up, and their food costs are going up. They may get advice that tells them that, but they simply choose not to agree with it. What incredible arrogance—what incredible arrogance—to simply say, “We are unapologetic. We’re ignoring all of the advice that tells us this is hurting Kiwi pockets.” This is hurting the governance of the people of New Zealand. And what’s it for? Well, the Prime Minister tries to tell us it’s going to improve congestion in Auckland.

Look, that would be a wonderful thing, but here’s the truth: those fuel taxes are paying for a trolley through the Prime Minister’s electorate. They’re paying for a trolley service up Dominion Road and through Mr Twyford’s electorate. So $5 billion has come out of the State highway budget to pay for a trolley in Jacinda Ardern’s own electorate and in Phil Twyford’s own electorate. In Selwyn and in the South Island and in the East Coast and in Coromandel and in Northland, hard-working families are paying petrol taxes brought in by this Government to pay for a trolley service up Dominion Road that isn’t going to do a damned thing for congestion in Auckland.

Let’s talk about energy costs—let’s talk about energy costs—because this Government, again, came out and announced an oil and gas ban without any consultation, without any Cabinet process, and without any good analysis that told them it was a good idea, and today we’ve got industry experts saying that we have an energy system that is, and I quote, “creaking and groaning” under pressure and that is an immediate threat to this economy—an immediate threat to the economy. The guys on that side of the House have no idea how to run an economy that actually benefits New Zealanders.

I’ll give them a clue: New Zealanders do better when they can get ahead. New Zealanders do better when there are opportunities and a Government that backs them, not a Government that’s imposing more taxes, that’s putting up the cost of fuel, that’s putting up the cost of housing, that’s seeing their electricity costs go up, their food costs go up, and their jobs go down. The people of New Zealand can feel incredibly let down by this Government in its first 12 months. Every day when they go the petrol pumps, they know that this Government is taking more money out of their pockets because they can’t control their own spending.

That was audition number one. Out of 10: one. The next will be worst, of course, and this speech is for the National Party’s backbench, because their front bench is moribund, defunct. They are not going to last if they want to be anywhere and have shape in the 2020 election.

Can I just say, this has been a most blistering week. It’s been very hard to focus on one’s work or to get one’s colleagues focused on one’s work, because the moment we’re trying to be positive and get on with running the country, we are sidetracked by constant media questions as to: what do they think it all means? What it really means is doughnuts for National—that’s what it really means. Here’s the point though, you know: yesterday, you saw the National Party about to invoke the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act—about to invoke the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Act. Just three weeks ago, who said this: “It is an affront to New Zealand’s core values of freedom of speech, of respect for democracy, and of tolerance of dissent.”, “a blunt tool to nail dissenters.”? Guess who said that? [Interruption] No—the master of cant, duplicity, and doubletalk, Nick Smith.

And then, three weeks ago, this is what David Carter said in sharing his conscience with the country. He said he “wouldn’t want to stay in [the] National Party … if my conscience … was curtailed”. He went further: “It is … a sad day for … democracy”. Chris Bishop, never to be left out, of course, said it was anti-democratic, and then Mr Brownlee, who was so pleased that his contest for the job is gone, said it was a travesty, and yet yesterday—yesterday—

💬 Hon Christopher Finlayson: You were thrown out—you were thrown out.

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order! [Speaker gestures to himself]

💬 Hon Christopher Finlayson: Oh, you were thrown out on plenty of occasions.

💬 SPEAKER: And if it wasn’t so funny, so would you be.

💬 Hon Christopher Finlayson: I’m going anyway; I can’t stand too much more.

Yeah, we know you’re going—in fact, you’re gone and have been for a long time.

Can I just say, as the Good Book says, by their deeds you will know them. So, yesterday, someone challenged the veracity of the leader of the National Party—and he said things far, far worse, and they’ll be on those tapes—and instead of saying, “Let’s find out what the evidence says.”, no, they rushed to yet dispel someone who’s asking legitimate questions about whether the law’s been broken, and much, much more. And then, of course, Paula Bennett decided to get down into the trench with trolls and started being personal with family allegations. I would’ve thought, with the greatest respect to her, she’s the last person to make those allegations. Make no bones about it. She would be the last person to make allegations like that. But I don’t want to get personal.

Can I just say that Simon Bridges is a goner. His No. 1 achievement has been to become New Zealand’s No. 1 blame-thrower. He blames everybody but himself. He went out and faced the country with all that money, and the further that he went the more we loved it, because the more they saw and perceived what he was like. In fact, his negativity polling was 16 just about three weeks ago; now, I’m told, by their internal polling it’s past 25. That’s irrecoverable territory. But here’s the point: you can’t trust what this man says. He said on 14 August—to what I might call RNZ’s “Reporter B”—that “he might never get to the bottom of who leaked the information before it was due to be published but … it was not his caucus.”—not in his caucus.

The other characteristic of this brilliant leader is he can’t go anywhere without a support crowd. Now, we all know that features of leadership are grit, self-belief, and determination. A lot of my colleagues have got it, on this side of the House. A lot of my colleagues, they evince it, but no, not this man. He can’t go anywhere without a morale support crowd. [Holds up photo of Hon Simon Bridges holding a press conference] Excepting this bunch behind me, I’d have a mirror in front of me to make sure I can see over my shoulders. Now, would you feel assured by the “Crusher” behind you? I wouldn’t.

But here comes the point: they’re all going to take over in a contest to be the next leader, and not one of them rates more than 2 percent.

Mr Speaker—

💬 Hon Members: Judith! Judith!

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

Isn’t that lovely of them. They’re always cheering every time I stand up. See, I think it’s a lovely place to work, here in Parliament. I think that the Rt Hon Winston Peters, who’s resumed his seat, made one true comment in that. He said that wherever he goes he has a mirror. I think—and he nods; he nods to accept that. Some people would say be a bit careful when you’re crossing the road, Mr Peters, with that mirror in front of your face—it may not work that well.

Well, look, I thought we would talk about something important, so we’re not going to talk about him. We’re going to talk about the cost of living and the cost of living to New Zealanders. No matter what we want to talk about—and some people might want to talk about people with some sort of attention-seeking behaviours—what we’re going to talk about is what matters.

Let’s have a look at rental housing. We saw some issues today in rental housing from the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army are not known to be big supporters of the National Party or National Party Governments; however, they are coming out today with a long-term Labour Party activist representing the Salvation Army, saying that actually the rental housing market has got worse. In fact, what is the report that they’re talking about? It’s called Beyond Renting: Responding to the decline in private rental housing. Some people might think that’s not very important. Well, I think it’s very important, and I know on this side of the House we believe it is.

Every single announcement on rental housing from the Labour-led Government from Phil Twyford has been about actually decreasing the number of private rental houses available. The Salvation Army—certainly not people connected to the National Party—have come out today and said that’s absolutely right. What they’re saying and what Statistics New Zealand have said and what MBIE—the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment—are saying is that it’s around a $25 a week increase in the last year for a rental house under this Government, this Labour-led Government. They have actually overseen enormous cost increases.

Let’s have a look at petrol tax. In an electorate like Papakura, that I represent, it’s a big issue for people there. It’s a big issue for carpenters, big issue for people working on building sites, big issue for people who carry tools who have to go from site to site during the day—they’re not going to sit around waiting for public transport. You can’t take your building tools on public transport. You can’t do that. What we’ve got is a Government that turns their—we heard today saying things like, “Oh, it’s about $2 a week more.” What a load of rubbish. What a total load of rubbish. The further out people live from the building sites or from the worksites, the more they pay. Most people do not get the opportunity to have an electric vehicle.

Let’s just talk about electric vehicles for a moment. An appalling performance, yet again, from David Parker, representing the Minister of Energy and Resources—an appalling performance. He said wind turbines are so renewable. Well, actually, wind is; the turbines themselves, not so much. There is three tonnes of copper in every single wind turbine, all having to be taken out of the ground—three tonnes of copper. Then you have the concrete. Then you have the steel—massive amounts of steel. Guess what? You need to have iron. Steel is made from iron and coal. Why is it coal? Because it’s carbonated iron—that’s what steel is. So you’ve got wind, which may be well renewable—certainly, from that side of the House it’s very renewable—but the turbines themselves, not so much. And then there are the birds that they kill.

So 4 percent of our electricity generation is from wind turbines at the moment; 63 percent from the hydro—the same dams that what was the Green Party or the Values Party were campaigning against in the 1970s; those hydro dams. We’ve got a Government that is happy to sit by and let more coal be burnt so that Jacinda Ardern can virtue signal on the world stage and say she doesn’t want any more natural gas. We’ve got six years supply of natural gas in this country. It’s 16 percent explored and able to be guaranteed. We have 16 percent of our electricity generation from natural gas—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

Well, for audition No. 2, I don’t think that was a very flash performance. I think we might have expected better from Judith Collins, a longstanding member and former Minister of that Government. I’ve never seen the National Party embracing the Salvation Army so warmly as we’ve seen tonight, and I’ve never seen a Minister who so misunderstands energy and what is actually happening and the challenge that we face and that this Government, along with the rest of the world, is facing up to on climate change.

I am very proud to be part of a Government that is facing up to the many challenges confronting our country and, indeed, the rest of the world. Fifty weeks on from being sworn in—356 days on—we have an impressive list of achievements that we can refer to. We have now under way the most comprehensive building programme of residential housing that we have seen in 80 years, and members opposite keep talking about “Look what’s happening to rental housing.” They thought nothing of the massive concentration of more and more houses in fewer and fewer hands. That’s all they cared about. Never mind about young couples—young professional couples, young low-income couples—wanting to chase the Kiwi dream of owning their own home. They didn’t care. They don’t care now. They are pushing buttons, and they don’t actually care.

We saw the largest programme of income support that we have seen in many, many years, with the Families Package income support, Working for Families—those things that actually put more dollars in the back pockets of working families and actually make a difference.

We’ve seen one of the biggest regional economic stimulation programmes that we’ve seen in more than a generation, with the Provincial Growth Fund in the hands of the Hon Shane Jones, who is doing a terrific job. We’re seeing massive investment in the regions, huge opportunities, amazing innovation. I look at what’s happening in Taranaki, and you see the new ideas emerging there: hydrogen development, new manufacturing development on the cusp—great ideas. People there are brimming with new ideas and wanting to do new stuff. That’s what a Government serious about the challenges facing this country does. It embraces new energy, embraces new ideas, and takes on new people and backs them to the hilt. That’s what we’re doing.

We are seeing record investment—record investment—in health. It was the poor cousin of the previous Government for nine years—run down. Hospitals were run down. People couldn’t get surgery, people were getting surgery in theatres that leaked and weren’t properly equipped, and now we’ve seen a Government committed to good healthcare for all New Zealanders.

What about the long-overdue positive changes in education? At last, an education Minister serious about the job of educating and preparing our next generation of working people and thinkers and leaders and innovators for the challenges that lie ahead in the 21st century. Getting rid of national standards, getting rid of the burdensome load that that creates for teachers and that gets in the way of good, creative, innovative learning for young people—that’s what a Government stepping up to the challenges of the 21st century actually does, and we’re doing it. Modern learning environments, training new teachers—what about the dearth of investment in training new teachers by the previous Government? Not us—not on our watch. We are focused on the future, and we’re doing the stuff that matters.

Then there’s restoring balance to the workplace relations, lifting productivity, lifting wages, and giving more opportunities for work through Mana in Mahi, the great work that the Hon Willie Jackson is seeing through. We are getting more people who have been shut out of the labour market for far too long and giving them a chance.

Then you’ve only got to look at the economy. Look at the numbers coming through: a surplus of $5.5 billion—a record surplus—because this is a Government focused on the bottom line. We’re managing the books carefully and making sure that we’re making investment where it counts.

Fifteen out of 16 sectors experienced real growth—real growth and development. That’s what happens when you get a Government working alongside communities and working alongside business, serious about taking this country forward but doing it in a way that everybody gets to share in the gains and the benefits. Those are the challenges that this Government set itself to face up to. Less than one year on, we’re well under way. We’re doing amazing stuff, and New Zealanders are feeling better for it as a result.

I have to say this: as I get around New Zealand, the number of New Zealanders telling me how proud they now feel to be a New Zealander. They see Jacinda Ardern on the world stage there in New York, selling the message about New Zealand, selling the message about New Zealand values. They see us confronting the ignominy of the criminal justice system, where people were just left to rot. Hundreds and hundreds of people—billions of dollars spent on locking people up. New Zealanders are feeling proud again thanks to this Labour and coalition Government.

I would have been far prouder, as a Kiwi, of our Prime Minister visiting the UN if she’d gone up there and said that our New Zealand Defence Force deployed to South Sudan on a very difficult peacekeeping mission were actually getting the support that they need from New York and the United Nations. I would’ve been far prouder if that had been on the top of her agenda and she actually addressed issues like that.

This coalition Government is in big trouble, because what’s happening is—

💬 Hon Members: Ha, ha!

You might think it’s funny. What’s happening is that you’re not listening. You’re actually not listening, and let me give you a clear example of that.

I’m very proud that as an electorate MP for my electorate of Rodney, I hold constituent clinics, and I want to share some observations in terms of the type of constituent meetings I’ve been having over the last three or four weeks. I’ve had three business people come in and see me that I would never have seen come to the office when we were in Government. They wanted to come and see me—they have no political affiliation. They’re small to medium sized - business people, and they’re very concerned about the policies and the uncertainty that this Government is signalling. These are people that actually have to take a punt sometimes. Their main concern in life is cash flow and being able to make payroll every week or every fortnight, and they’re very, very concerned about the signals that are coming from this Government around industrial relations, and around some of the policies that they’ve already passed that transfers the risk from the Government back into their businesses. That is going to have an effect. So this is a Government that is not listening. They’re not listening to this sort of feedback.

I went and visited Wentworth College, a college in my electorate, the other day—year 9 students.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: This speech isn’t going to do it.

Go and fact-check this if you want to—go and fact-check this if you want. The first thing they raised with me was the regional fuel tax. Do you know why? And this is the arrogance of this Government, because they will not listen to the actual people that their policies are affecting.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Can you wait for Jami-Lee to finish—just listening to him at the moment.

So you want to get out there, Mr McAnulty, and you actually need to start talking to people and you need to start listening, because you’re—

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

Sorry, Mr Speaker. The policies of this Government are starting to have a negative impact on the people that you’re meant to be governing for. So I had year 9 students at a college raising the issues around regional fuel tax, and then I had a delegation of senior Kiwis, older ladies, that came in and said that, actually, the regional fuel tax and the cost of fuel are starting to severely impact on what they’re doing. They live in an area that doesn’t have a strong public transport system. They’re all older. They’re senior, retired Kiwis, and they’re having to carpool and they’re having to find other ways of getting around, because the cost of fuel is starting to bite. This is happening.

I had the trucking companies and transport companies gather in my electorate in Silverdale to actually protest, to drive—

Chlöe Swarbrick: Are you proposing a fuel subsidy?

I’m not proposing a fuel subsidy; what I’m proposing is this. Actually, the Greens—you should be lobbying, because if you’re coming to this House to advocate for the people that you say you support, then go and talk to your coalition partners and tell them that the one thing that they can do, the one thing that they can do to make a difference in people’s lives, is remove the regional fuel tax. I acknowledge that the Government doesn’t control the price of oil. It does have a little bit of control when you see our dollar starting to drop, because the weakness in the dollar reflects the lack of confidence in the economy, but these are actually the things that they do control.

I had a constituent of mine come to me before the election. Her husband is a proud serving officer in the New Zealand Defence Force. She has a rare disease and she was seeking more funding. She’d gone to the Labour Party, Mr Clark, who had given her a commitment—someone in the Labour Party had given her a commitment. She came back to me. She’d been a strong National supporter. She said, “I’m going to have to give my support to Labour because they’re going to invest money into rare diseases through Pharmac.” That’s what she was told. Guess what she’s got?

💬 Kieran McAnulty: He’s just finishing up.

Guess what she’s got, Mr McAnulty: nothing—zero from you. That’s your proud result that you can stand on. I’d say to Mr Clark: put the $200 million back into Pharmac and start funding some medication for rare diseases. That’s what I’d say on behalf of my constituent, because you pulled the wool over her eyes, and that was a cruel thing to do to a young mum who was actually trying to find the money and the funding to be able to keep her going and support her family. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I need at the outset just to correct something the previous member, Mark Mitchell, has said. There’s been no $200 million pulled out of Pharmac. It’s a line that continues to be repeated by that Opposition. We have a record combined pharmaceutical budget this year—a record combined pharmaceutical budget. This is a Government that cares about healthcare. We are investing in our healthcare services after nine long years of neglect under that former Government opposite, who stripped billions—stripped billions—out of our health system.

Let’s talk about leaks for a minute—let’s talk about leaks. In our hospitals we had leaks—we had leaks in our hospitals. That should never be allowed to happen, but it did under that Government’s watch. We had rot and mould in our hospital walls. That happened under that Government’s watch. So it’s a little bit rich to get lectures from that member opposite about investing in health services. This is a Government that’s finally doing that. This is a Government that’s finally recognised the stress and strain that our health system’s been under, that looks at the buildings that need maintenance, that is investing in capital—the biggest capital injection in a decade into our health services. This is a Government that is investing more than they ever did in our health system year in, and it will be year out.

In order to make that investment, we have a strong and cohesive Government that is supporting a strong economy and running a strong surplus, and that requires strong leadership on the issues that matter to New Zealand. This is a cohesive Government running a strong surplus. If people don’t take anything else home from this speech today, that is my message, because we are determined—we are determined—to continue to run an economy that is sustainable and that is inclusive of all New Zealanders, so the benefits of productivity are shared with all New Zealanders. That’s what this side of the House represents.

We want a fair economy because that’s also a strong economy. We know when we invest in New Zealanders that they are more productive and we are all better off. If kids go to school hungry, they don’t learn properly. That’s why this Government is investing $5.5 billion in the Families Package. Those families with young children, 384,000 families in New Zealand when this package is rolled out, will be $75 a week better off. That’s investing where it’s most needed: the parents with young families who are doing it tough. This Government is convinced about, and committed to, making sure that the benefits of the strong economy are spread fairly across the economy to make sure that kids don’t go to school hungry, that they are learning when they’re at school.

We want to make sure of course that we are doing the infrastructure spending that is needed. That’s why we are saving for a rainy day. That’s why we are paying down debt, managing a debt situation. Of course Moody’s has just reaffirmed New Zealand’s Aaa rating—the best you can get—because Moody’s recognises not only that we have got strong economic growth in our future, higher than most countries we would like to compare ourselves with, not only that we have strong growth, strong fundamentals in the economy thanks to Minister Robertson who’s not in the House today—thanks to the Minister of Finance’s strong and stable leadership under this Government we continue to grow surpluses—but also that we are committed to paying down debt. [Interruption] I might also note, because I can hear members of the Opposition shouting out, that that National Party opposite, when they were in Government, borrowed more in nominal terms than any other Government in New Zealand history. They borrowed more than any other Government in New Zealand history. So it’s a bit rich for them to shout out about these issues.

Now, we’re paying down the debt. We’re running a strong surplus, and that’s of course the track record of Governments that have a Labour flavour in them. The last Labour-led Government ran nine surpluses in nine years and left money for a rainy day. Of course we’re prepared, should another rainy day come along. That is part of why we are managing debt, because we believe it’s responsible, should there be another earthquake or external shock—and there are storm clouds on the global horizon. We are managing the economy strongly and carefully so that if there is that kind of shock, New Zealand will be prepared.

We believe in running a strong economy. That’s why we’ve stuck to our Budget responsibility rules, but we’ve seen the economic growth figures: a 1 percent growth in the quarter to June 2018—that’s just in the quarter—the largest quarterly rise in two years. Growth is broad and reported across 15 out of 16 industries. This is a strong and cohesive Government that is supporting a strong economy and running a strong surplus.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Look, the Government is hurting working New Zealanders. I know it, my constituents know it, and New Zealanders know it as well, and I suspect even those on the Labour-led Government benches know it too, but they’re blinded as we’ve heard in the contributions today by their own ideologies and special interests. They spend where they shouldn’t, they’re cutting where they shouldn’t, and they tax everywhere they can. It’s incredibly disappointing because as an electorate MP—and I know that’s probably a bit of a novel concept to the members on the other side—I know they’re not happy.

The members of Tāmaki are not happy. They are paying more for their fuel, they are seeing their rents going up, and they are being hit by the threat of more and more taxes. No one in the good place of Tāmaki has not worked out already that this Government is looking to tax more and more into the future. They begin of course to mock the good people of Tāmaki because they think it’s just a bunch of people who sit in the wealthy suburbs. Well, one, actually they are the people who work jolly hard and pay the most taxes; secondly, they involve also the great people of Glen Innes who are some of the poorest people of New Zealand and who are paying more and more now because of the fuel taxes and otherwise, because of this Labour Government. I’m predicting that come the next election my vote and the vote of National will go up in the likes of Glen Innes because they will begin to see the duplicity that comes out of this Government.

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

Actually, that’s a very good point and I withdraw.

What we are seeing though is an increase of costs—I’ve obviously prefigured taxes. The fuel tax is the most obvious. It’s been said in recent days that the Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and others don’t seem to understand that. They seem to have glibly ignored it. It’s a real cost. In fact, we have seen in Auckland in particular that their friend the Mayor of Auckland, Phil Goff, who’s Labour to his heart and core, has also put a tax on Aucklanders who are paying substantially more for their petrol now increasing the cost day to day of every activity, and it probably doesn’t register in the minds of the Government that all those costs are passed on. When they increase the minimum wage, when they threaten to increase it even further, when they threaten capital gains taxes, that all puts greater uncertainty and cost into business which is why, while the taxes are going up, the confidence is declining.

The other side we’ve got to is of course wrong priorities. That’s a cost to this Government as well and to this country. Actually, it’s not a cost to the Government; the Government’s got no idea. Actually, while I think about it, one of the problems that we’ve got from the Prime Minister—you know, it’s only a few extra cents in tax. Well, that’s all well and good when you are on half a million dollars a year, same with the Ministers on quarter of a million. They don’t necessarily know what the costs are; they don’t care.

But also we’ve got wrong priorities. We have all this talk, particularly during the election campaign about how the Labour Party really cares about the workers. Well, why is it that we’ve got more rolling strikes anticipated with the teachers? The costs to New Zealand are actually involved with wrong priorities. So we are more interested, it appears, to be setting up an embassy in Stockholm—and no offence to the good people there—but why do we need to set up a new embassy in Stockholm instead of paying our teachers more?

💬 Kieran McAnulty: The member’s getting worse.

I don’t hear anything coming from the other side apart from Kieran McAnulty, but no one’s ever quite understood what he’s had to say. But that’s a wrong priority as well, perhaps sitting right there—right there—wrong priorities.

Look, in fact, even when we think—we just had the Minister of Health speak. We found out the other day that actually there’s almost unlimited funding going to go to gender reassignment surgeries but where’s the money for cochlear implants, where’s the money for grommets for children, where’s the money for these women protesting and petitioning outside the Parliament yesterday for Ibrance? Those are just a few of the health cases—wrong priorities of this Government, which are more obsessed with virtue signalling, even to almost empty halls at the UN.

The final element really is what I would call the costs of unhealthy obsessions—unhealthy obsessions. This particularly comes from the Green Party. They’re obsessed with legalising drugs—the likes of cannabis and other products. Even in recent days when the psychoactive substances have been in the headlines and people dying, we had the likes of the Drug Foundation and the Green Party supporting it. Why is that a cost? Why is that a cost? It’s because it’s a belief that everybody should do whatever they want but everyone else will pay the consequences. Everyone else will pay the consequences. The cost is never in personal responsibility; it’s that everybody else has to pay for it. And the irony too is it comes, ultimately, from those people—

Chlöe Swarbrick: Your actions are costing lives.

—and there’s one of them yelling in the House at the moment—whose life experience is such that they have never really understood the cost of the people that they heard.

Chlöe Swarbrick: Look at the evidence.

They talk about evidence when really again the life experience is the best.

Fakalofa lahi atu, Mr Speaker—in acknowledgment of Niue Language Week. It’s an absolute pleasure to rise and take a call in this general debate, particularly after the member who has just resumed his seat, Simon O’Connor, bleated on about wrong priorities and the regional fuel tax, both of which I’ll address in my speech today.

When I was thinking about what I wanted to talk about today, I reflected on my first general debate speech, which was pretty much on the cusp of the Budget announcement in May this year where we talked on this side of the House about our vision for what we wanted to do in Government, the acknowledgment that we had to build strong foundations first, and that that meant absolutely building a strong economy so that the benefits of that growth and that generation of wealth could be shared more fairly, which was the point that all of us made on this side of the House—the point that none of us actually saw under the nine years of the previous Government.

We talked about the crisis we’d inherited back then, because, of course, any time we measure progress we have to do it from a baseline and that was the baseline we inherited, and we talked about fixing that. Now, of course, arguably, we could have said even then—at that point—that in the first 100 days of this Government we achieved more than the other lot did over nine years. But now it hasn’t even been a year that this Government has been at the helm and yet there’s so much that has been done already to ensure that that economic growth is maintained and that it’s shared more fairly as well, and that’s what I want to focus on, because those are the issues that matter to New Zealanders.

Now, in terms of economic growth, we’ve seen growth in the last quarter to June 2018. We’ve seen that that growth has been broad—that it’s been across 15 out of 16 industries—which is excellent. We’ve already demonstrated good economic stewardship, but indulge me as I explain how we’ve done that or what some of the indicators are that show we have done that. Growth has been faster than some of the other strong comparable economies internationally. Moody’s has given New Zealand a big tick—an Aaa credit rating again—and they’ve said: “Overall the economy is doing very well and financial markets are viewing New Zealand very favourably,”. Internationally, there’s confidence in the future of our economy.

Now, how have we shared it? In so many different ways that I won’t be able to go into all of them in the two minutes I have left.

💬 Hon Peeni Henare: Well, that’s a shame.

Yes, but I’ll focus on some that I feel particularly strongly about. The previous speaker, Simon O’Connor, talked about wrong priorities. I challenge him on that because one of the first things that this Government did was cancel the tax cuts that that side of the House would have put into place if they had been re-elected—

💬 Hon Peeni Henare: The top 10 percent.

Yes, the top 10 percent of income earners—it would have gone into the pockets of all of us. Instead, what have we done on this side of the House? We’ve cancelled that and reinvested it into the pockets of the families who need it the most, and frozen our pay rises instead. That, I would argue, is indeed one of the best priorities that this Government could have invested in.

So we’ve invested in the social, economic, and infrastructure foundations of this country. That benefits everyone. We’ve invested in the Families Package, which includes Working for Families, the Best Start payment, and the winter energy payment that will see about 384,000 families with children better off on average by $75 a week, and that is huge. For the family that was thinking about whether they take their children to the doctor or put food on the table, that is huge. We’ve invested in housing. We’ve ensured that the minimum wage has increased. We’re addressing pay equity issues, specifically for workers in female-dominated industries who for so long have languished on the minimum wage. Recently, I met a woman who was working and had been working, on the minimum wage, for 26 years. For 26 years she had never seen a pay increase. Those are the people that this Government is prioritising.

We are investing in housing. Housing is a huge part—and given that I’m running out of time I’ll keep it at this. We are addressing the housing crisis at every point of the spectrum: addressing homelessness; building more State houses; stopping the sell-off of State houses; affordable housing for my generation, which was locked out of it; and increasing renters’ rights while balancing protections for landlords. We are addressing every part of it. This is a Government that’s strong, that’s cohesive, and absolutely investing in the right priorities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, and it’s a pleasure to speak in the general debate, continuing with the theme of this side of the House—the cost of living—and I’ll be majoring on the fuel tax. Now, for those on the other side who might think that this is merely a matter of economics—as though that’s not important enough—let me assure them it is also a matter of politics. There is an inverse proportion between the fuel prices and the Government’s support in my electorate. And if they don’t know that now and aren’t prepared for that shock, then that’s the real oil shock that they’ll be facing in 2020.

These things do matter. And I’m going to have to say, for the edification of members opposite, explained in very simple terms using the Micawber principle, “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery.” These things do matter. While it might be rightly said that money can’t buy you happiness, it can ensure a more pleasant form of misery.

So these things are important to people up and down the land. They’re certainly important to the good people of Helensville. They are watching these matters carefully—the extra costs that are being imposed upon them by this Government. The numbers do matter, and often it’s the marginal increases that hurt the most—it’s the marginal increases. So I shake my head when I hear members on the Government side and their supporters saying, “Well, sure we’re increasing the fuel prices by way of excise and by way of fuel tax, but you increased it during your time in Government as well.” Well, I’d have some respect for that position if they’d repealed our increases and replaced them with their own, but they’re adding them on top. So they’re claiming the one and adding the other. So it makes no sense whatsoever for these crocodile tears to be shed about previous increases to which they are now adding further increases.

It’s not the first straw that breaks the camel’s back; it’s the last one, as the axiom goes, and the straws are being piled on thick and fast by the Government in their rush to achieve various aims, they say, which I’m dubious about in any case. Certainly, for the people I represent, there’s nothing much on the horizon in terms of the transport improvements that one might expect as a result of the fuel tax. We’re getting the pain but not getting the gain as yet.

In the context of politics generally, and certainly in the area of taxation, the other side of the House talks a lot about progressive taxes or progressive politics. It’s the idea that there can be an unequal application of a thing because the circumstances of people are different. Well, I respect and understand that as far as it goes. It makes sense in some situations. It might be possible to have different philosophical understandings of fairness—such that equality of taxation is on one measure fair and on another measure different. Well, that’s fine; we can have that argument all day long, but I’d actually like to bring a geographical analysis to the idea of progressive taxation, particularly with regard to the people I represent in the electorate of Helensville—namely, the west coast and the rural north-west of Auckland.

It is an electorate within Auckland that I represent. The electorate is therefore subject to the regional fuel tax that this Government has introduced, but the tyranny of geography is very important for two reasons. The reason that the impacts on my electorate are outsized compared with others—even within the Auckland region, and certainly compared to those without—is that my people have a lot further distance to travel, both within the electorate and also to the CBD and other areas where employment and other opportunities exist, more so in my area. So the extra fuel tax is actually impacting upon those people going about their daily lives in ways that they can’t very readily avoid, such as going to work, which is an activity we want to encourage and not discourage. And so that’s the first aspect: the greater distances to be travelled within areas of Auckland which are still subject to the tax but which require a greater expenditure of fuel.

The second element goes to the aspect of competition. Much has been made of the importance of competition in the fuel market. Of course, that’s true as far it goes—that competition is important—but in areas that are more rural, more remote, there are, naturally, fewer fuel stations. There’s less ability for competition. So it’s all very well for the Prime Minister to talk about “the Gull effect”, as though that were something that could be sprinkled about like so much fairy dust or, indeed, stardust, but it’s actually not understanding the geographical realities of areas of Auckland—specifically my area, but others too, such as the electorate of Andrew Bayly—that don’t have access to these ways of keeping the cost of living down, and that’s a real shame.

Faakalofa lahi atu. E Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe. I want to acknowledge those who have spoken before me and the emphasis that they’ve put on things that we have been doing recently as a Government—announcements that we’ve made, some of the emphasis that we’ve put on how strong our economy is, and how well we are doing in the ratings in terms of that performance—but, actually, this is the first time that I have the opportunity to speak in the House, and I wanted to speak about just how proud I am of our Prime Minister showing leadership on the world stage at the United National General Assembly in New York. As the news feeds were coming in, I was absolutely glued to the screen and so proud, my heart bursting with pride to see Jacinda representing New Zealand—

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

—the Prime Minister—sorry—representing Aotearoa New Zealand on the world stage. She demonstrated compassionate, value-driven leadership. She made history by being the first world leader to take her baby to the General Assembly, along with the support of Clarke Gayford. She set a shining example of what women can achieve in leadership roles. Her progressive politics made her and, by association, Aotearoa New Zealand a global sensation. I am sure that this is going to result in a boost to our tourism and more visitors coming to New Zealand. The media coverage: the NBC’s Today, the BBC, Fox, the New York Times, The Guardian, Quartz, Metro, Elle magazine—the list goes on.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Twitter’s been pretty active, too.

Ha, ha! She made history with baby Neve at the UN General Assembly. As I said, she is the first world leader to attend the UN General Assembly with her baby in tow, and is only the second leader in the world to have a baby while in office. She made a comment—and I quote—“she hopes one day [it] will be the norm for all women wanting to balance a career and parenting. If I can do one thing, and that is change the way we think about these things, then I will be pleased we have achieved something.” CNN’s headline was “Taking baby into UN can inspire change”.

There were opportunities to speak—for example, at UNICEF’s social good summit, restating her commitment to ending child poverty and making New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child. How proud I was to hear her on the world stage, talking about things that are so important to us—like child poverty—and making Aotearoa New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child.

She talked about climate change, but I want to talk about that UN speech, where there were messages of kindness and equality. In fact, the audience broke the convention that delegates and world leaders are told not to respond to speeches. They are not to clap and not to show any kind of emotion, but this was broken when our Prime Minister spoke about the Me Too movement, saying that Me Too needs to become “We Too”, and the General Assembly floor erupted into applause. Her point was that we are all in it together.

Her speech called for equality, equality for women, action on climate change, and a recommitment to multilateralism. I was also proud that in her opening, she spoke in Te Reo—not just a few words, but several sentences in Te Reo—and she was holding a heru that was gifted to her by the people of Ngāti Rēhia from Northland, from a recent visit where she and several other Ministers made announcements in my region that I know are already making such a change.

So I was proud of our Prime Minister representing New Zealand on the world stage and focusing on and encouraging and sharing our progressive politics in a world where we are not actually seeing much of that. I couldn’t be prouder. Kia ora.

It’s easy to sit in this House on the first day back of a four-week sitting and forget where we’ve come from. What I’ve heard today reminds me that this Government is big on ideology and big on working parties—and no real action yet. In fact, on water last week they announced three new working parties and, basically, said “We’ll carry on with the National Government’s plan.” In my own electorate of Tukituk, which I’m proud to represent, and Mr McAnulty will probably know this as well—

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Tukituki.

In Tukituki, which I’m proud to represent, the sole sum gain of this Government so far, in just over 12 months, is six new houses. Not a single change on water. The working group that was set up to look at a new school in Havelock North, I was advised by the Minister in a written question last week, won’t even report until early next year. The same Minister was in my electorate in the election campaign saying we’ve got to do something urgently. Nothing has happened.

The Minister for the Environment was in my electorate saying water quality in the Tukituki River was a disgrace. That’s what he said. Here we are, just over one year later, and not one single thing has changed. So, in my view—in the Hawke’s Bay economy we now have low unemployment, we have strong economic growth and exports—not one single part of that is as a result of this Government or any value that it’s added. All this Government has done is add to the cost of living—19 percent increase in the cost of fuel. If you go and look at my local newspaper, every Saturday they publish anonymous texts from people in the community. This week, they are full—full of people complaining about fuel taxes and, interestingly enough, not even one criticism of me this week, which is quite different! Every other text was by normal hard-working people in my electorate talking about the price of fuel.

On Friday, I attended the Gisborne show. I talked to transport operators. They have already lifted the price of freight by 5 percent. I came back to Hawke’s Bay—all of them have done it. One company said to me he lost $20,000 in a month, so he increased the price of fuel. What do you think that does, members of the other side? The cost of every single commodity that you use or purchase is going up and through the roof—sorry, that we use and purchase; my apologies, Mr Speaker.

The rental house market—in my electorate, what’s happening? All the landlords are getting out of it. It has become too hard—the compliance cost and the risk involved. A whole lot of those rental houses are now being sold, and this Government is buying up more and more motels as emergency housing—the same Government that when they were in Opposition, criticised this side of the House.

The thing that really upsets me, though, is that while the price of fuel has gone up like it has, the people in my electorate have lost a $400 million expressway, they are now paying the shifted cost of the Auckland fuel tax across New Zealand, and they’re getting nothing for it.

The worst one of all, while I’ve got some time, is this Government signed off a prison contract to build rapid deployment prisons for the increasing prison population. A firm in my electorate tendered for the first part and missed out. In February of this year, the same Government said we need to build another 600 cells. An expression of interest was sought, yet no tender was ever let. So a $125 million contract was let to an Australian-based company using Chinese cells, and people in my electorate or New Zealand were not even allowed to tender. In my view, it’s a complete disgrace, and it lets down the people in my electorate. There were 120 jobs involved in that.

So don’t tell me that this Government cares for our regions and Willie Jackson’s doing great things. The Hon Carmel Sepuloni came to Hawke’s Bay last week and commented on some great work that’s been done. It was work that was done by National. In my view, my district is being shafted by this Government. It’s losing infrastructure spending. It’s not even able to access contracts. I think it’s a disgrace.

Fakalofa lahi atu, Mr Speaker. I’m just sitting here freaking out a little bit at Judith Collins’ speech today, where she stood up and put up this new air of concern about people struggling with living costs and people struggling with being able to afford to pay their way and live their ordinary lives. I wonder where that concern was back in 2016—well, pretty much the whole time she spent in Government, actually—when she, actually, said publicly that the cause of child poverty was bad parenting. So I don’t know where this change—well, I do know where this change has come from. She needs to say something, doesn’t she?

So I really need to be upfront and state that, because she also asked a question today seemingly in support of the Salvation Army’s suggestion around equity share and some solutions to encouraging more people to be able to own their own homes. We’re currently at the lowest rate of homeownership that we have seen in a long, long time. She used the guise of concern for homeownership and concern for people struggling with living costs when she is really known for actually just slamming people—just blaming the individual and blaming parents for people being in struggling situations, the causes of which are systemic and were able to be fixed the whole time that she had access to power and resources while she was in Government and didn’t do a darn blinking thing about. And she, in fact, exasperated the issue for the families who were struggling the very most, particularly in cutting strong employment laws and employee protection laws—slashing all of those—keeping people in low-wage, precarious work situations. Those are the very people who she was calling out for being bad parents.

I did want to genuinely and authentically support the direction and the approach of the Salvation Army and a rent-to-own and progressive homeownership model, which, of course, is in the Green Party’s confidence and supply agreement with Labour, and we are working really well with Minister Phil Twyford to push that through and to come up with a model. We’ve done it before, too, in this very country, and, actually, those progressive homeownership models have had generational positive impacts, actually. We’ve seen what can happen, and we are again finally a Government who will also put something in place with that. So we’re working through what that could look like, and all that the Salvation Army were suggesting and highlighting today is that there are community, iwi, and hapū examples of partnerships where we can actually work together to enable more people to actually own their own homes.

That’s why I’m not too worried about some of those homeowners who might actually sell off some of their investment in speculation properties, because that’s fine. We want to assist more people into owning their own homes. We also want to make sure our rental properties are strong and healthy and affordable, and we also want to make sure that the balance of rights to protect tenants in this market, where too often—actually, there’s 60,000 people who are on the precipice, on the edge, of being pushed into a situation of severe homelessness: living in streets, cars, garages, and so forth. And so we really do want to sharpen up all along our housing continuum, and I am pleased to be at the forefront of working on those issues with the Minister Phil Twyford.

So I really just wanted to make it very clear that while I am on one level in agreement with Judith Collins, her record is a shocker. So she doesn’t actually mean it. Her reputation on how much she actually cares about people who are homeless, people who are struggling, and people who are not yet owning their own homes is a shocker. How dare she stand up and pretend to genuinely care about that.

I’m really proud to stand up and put our longstanding Green Party political positions and ideas that have existed, that we have campaigned long and hard on, again at the forefront of the work that we want to do. There’s a whole lot of stuff happening here in Parliament at the moment. We are continuing to put what people are actually experiencing and the job that we have to get on and do at the forefront. Those are bold, progressive policies. That is why I’m really proud to be the co-leader. The work that we have to do, working with our confidence and supply and Government partners to turn around the direction that that National Party had so much time to fix and so many resources—we will do it. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.