General Debate

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

Malo ni tau huhuga a te Takitaki Fono. We here have great privilege in this House. We have the honour of standing in this place and representing the values and aspirations of our communities—our communities that put faith and trust in us to govern. And this Parliament has, sadly, let people down. [Interruption] I’m thinking of young New Zealanders growing up in Manurewa, Morrinsville, or Motueka who are watching on today and becoming angry and disillusioned by our conduct here—including the conduct here right now, particularly coming from across that bench there. I’m thinking of women on minimum working wage, trying to raise their families. I’m thinking of our migrant communities who are a part of our society and have made Aotearoa their home.

So the Green Party is calling for a sea change in how we do things here in this place. We have long called for this sea change, because, collectively, we are the people’s representatives, and as their representatives, we have the duty to work together and solve those big challenges of our time. But we are seeing our politics being dragged into the gutter. We must own up to this toxic environment and we must change it. New Zealand values have had a bit of a spotlight on them of late, and as a country we are asking: how do we truly value diversity? How do we truly value democracy? How do we ensure strong, true relationships between communities and us as politicians? And this is why we have to act: because the trust and confidence in our politicians is at risk. And we rely on that. We need that confidence to do our work. Our democracy is at risk. Our relevance is at risk. So the Green Party is calling for the extreme adversarial politics of this place to come to an end. We need a politics of partnership—

💬 Hon David Bennett: Give her a hug, Chris.

—that builds consensus on those very issues that—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order! Mr Bennett, your interjections are far too frequent and, frankly, given the context of recent times are just offensive. They will stop.

Mr Speaker, a case in point. Mr Bennett, we actually—

💬 SPEAKER: No, no. Sorry. I’ve just dealt with the member. You can’t deal with it again.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would urge all the members being quite vocal in the House here today that we’ve actually got to get on and do the real work in this place: climate change, poverty, equity of outcomes for women, for Māori and Pacific, for migrant people, for people with a disability, and for people on low incomes. The Green Party is renewing its calls for all MPs to agree—how about this—to a code of conduct of our behaviour, as we have in the past: a code of conduct for right here, for how we behave in the House today; not 20 years ago, but today. And the Green Party will be calling for our MMP democracy to be strengthened in line with the recommendations of the 2012 Electoral Commission review and we will be calling for major reform, as I have been doing this week, of political donations so we can get big money out of politics and restore the balance of power in our democracy.

We know that these issues have long been a problem in our politics, recently coming to light with searing, searing detail, and we cannot go back to that as business as usual. That is not an option. We have to change. New Zealanders are calling for that change.

To those listening, I wouldn’t blame people for being put off this system. I totally get that, but I’m asking people to not switch off, because it is the powers that are relying on people to turn off in order to continue to get away with the bad behaviour in this place. So turning away will only keep the abuse of that power strong. This country is worth more than that. It’s worth more than gutter politics. There is a way that we can bring integrity back into this House in the way that we work and behave. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

National has just had its toughest week in a very long time, but today it’s the Government that’s on the ropes. They come down here. They make policy on the hoof. They don’t know their numbers. They’re not sure what they’re doing. They can’t help themselves. They’re hopeless.

It started this morning. I went on television. I made it quite clear: a regional fuel tax, I’ve been told it’s coming in Wellington. And then surprise, surprise. A spokesman came on for Wellington: “That’s right. That’s exactly what’s happening.” And then who do we hear from? Phil Twyford and the mayor: “No, no, no, no, no.” Well, I know who I believe, Grant Robertson, and it isn’t Phil Twyford.

Then we heard in Parliament from the Prime Minister. Now, granted she didn’t know how much petrol prices are at the moment. It’s an inconvenient detail. She didn’t know that petrol prices in this country under her watch have gone up, every time someone fills up, $25. But on the hoof—under pressure from myself, she’s made policy on the hoof. She’s made it quite clear there’ll be no regional fuel tax coming.

I’ve got a couple of questions for the Prime Minister. Maybe Grant Robertson can answer me this: why, then, did they legislate for regional fuel taxes from 2021? Maybe they don’t know what they’re doing. Maybe they’re not remotely competent and up to a Government that New Zealand deserves and expects in this country. And why doesn’t she follow the logic of what she said today and axe the regional fuel tax in Auckland, Grant Robertson? Why doesn’t she do that in the three excise taxes that we know are coming?

I just say to this House that over the last few days what have we seen from this Government? We’ve seen petrol prices rise at an unprecedented rate in the history of New Zealand. People filling up for the long weekend who can’t afford it are doing it tough. We’ve seen bus strikes—the 15th transport strike this year. That’s more than we had in a decade. And why is that? It’s because Iain Lees-Galloway knows that the unions in this country are emboldened.

💬 Hon Paul Goldsmith: He’s revving them up.

He’s revving them up. They’ve got militant because they know that Grant Robertson is going to pay the piper, and that’s what we’ve got right there.

If this is what they can do in just a week—petrol prices, unprecedented strikes—don’t you imagine what they can do over three years? The damage that those parties—and there was a poll last night, and it made quite clear, in the eye of the storm, that, actually, we’re remarkably strong on this side of the House. We are remarkably strong. It showed something else, Grant Robertson. It showed something else: that New Zealanders are the most pessimistic about the economy and the outlook of this country, while Grant Robertson is finance Minister, than they’ve been, look, at least since the global financial crisis. I say shame, Grant Robertson.

Here’s what we know he does. He goes “Oh, it’s the international conditions, what’s going on internationally.” Well, why, Grant Robertson, has it happened here first? I’ll tell you why it’s unprecedented industrial unrest. It’s more taxes, and Cameron Bagrie is exactly right: small and medium sized businesses, Shane Jones, are doing it tough in our regions, despite you throwing the money around. It’s wasteful spending on an unprecedented scale—$20,000 to set up some tables, Andrew Little. Well, I’ve got news for the Government. Mark Mitchell, Kanwaljit Bakshi, and Chris Bishop—they’ll do it for free. Just ask them.

We’ve got a Government that loves tax, that loves spending. New Zealanders need National right now. They need a party that will hold this hopeless, incompetent Government to account, and we’ve shown our worth today and we’ll keep on showing it. We’re for the people of this country. We’re united, we’re strong, we are holding this Government to account.

I’ve got some advice for the temporary Leader of the Opposition, and it’s this: if you have to give a speech which says twice “We’re united; we’re strong”, that means you aren’t, OK. That’s actually what that means. I’m quite surprised the Leader of the Opposition decided to refer to any aspect of last night’s poll when he referred to the economic conditions, because there was one very significant number in that poll: 7 percent. And there was another very significant number which emerged in the TVNZ graphic from the ground up, which was Judith Collins on 5 percent. So 7 percent; 5 percent: they’re the numbers that Mr Bridges should be focusing on from last night’s poll.

What I want to focus on today is the fact that one year ago, a very significant event occurred: that was a Government coming together from three parties with different traditions but shared values for this country, to form a coalition Government that I am extremely proud to be a member of. At the outset today I want to thank our New Zealand First colleagues for their contribution to this Government, for giving us a focus on the regions of New Zealand, for making the biggest investment New Zealand has seen in more than two or three generations in the provinces of our country: a billion dollars rolling out to lift the incomes and the spirits of those people.

I want to credit the Green Party of Aotearoa / New Zealand for their role in the Government, making sure that that focus on our long-term environmental vision is kept. I want to thank Eugenie Sage for her work in conservation, overseeing the biggest boost to conservation that we have seen in a decade in this country. This is a Government that has shared values about making sure that every New Zealander gets to share in our success. It wasn’t so much Married at First Sight; it was actually quite a long courtship, the coalition negotiations. More like a big, long chaperoned date that Annette King was part of. But, at the end of that, that enduring relationship we have forged after one year has delivered so much to New Zealand.

If we just pick off the big issues of that election campaign last year: the worry that New Zealanders had that not all New Zealanders were benefiting from economic growth. Well, we turned that around in the first 100 days. We said no to tax cuts that favoured the wealthiest New Zealanders and turned that back to being low and middle income New Zealanders actually getting a fair share.

This is not just about dollars and cents; this is about how New Zealanders feel. As one person who wrote to the Prime Minister said, “I just want to write to thank you. Thank you for giving me hope that the children of New Zealand are thought about. I work as a nanny for two young children and I constantly worry about what our world and our country will be like by the time they have grown up. Under a National Government, I am OK. Under a National Government, the children I know are OK. But under a National Government, the children that need us are not OK.” That’s what we have turned around. We are here for all of the children on New Zealand. We are making sure every single one of them gets the best start in life.

But it also ranges from the big picture of the Families Package to things that every day New Zealanders will not think about, but they are proud of. I want to acknowledge the role of Andrew Little and his work on the Pike River Recovery Agency. I saw on TV the other night Anna Osborne saying, “For once, we’ve got a Government that’s listening to us. For once, we’ve got a Government that’s truly committed to righting a wrong. For once, we have a Government that understands the true New Zealand values of kindness, of looking out for one another, of making sure that when we can set something right, we will.” And that’s what we’re doing at Pike River.

And it runs right across every portfolio: in housing, in health, in education. We are making sure that every New Zealander gets the chance to fulfil their potential. We know that there’s a lot to do. We can’t solve everything in one year, but what we have is a Government that understands that it is future generations that matter. It is the well-being of future generations that matter. That’s why next year’s Budget will be the first well-being Budget that New Zealand has ever seen, where we make sure that our fiscal position is strong, but we don’t think that’s the end of the story; where we make sure alongside that strong fiscal positon that we’re protecting and enhancing our environment; where we’re building the human capital—the people of New Zealand—so that they’re healthy and well-educated and feel secure, and that we are building strong communities that will provide the foundation for every New Zealander to succeed. One year on, I’m proud of what we have achieved, and there’s so much more to come.

Now, Mr Speaker, what you didn’t hear in that summary of one year on, and when we reflect back to the election campaign, that member, now the Minister of Finance, was out there saying, “No new taxes.” Well, lo and behold, today, what a boomerang we have and a real back-down. The Prime Minister has ruled out any further regional fuel taxes anywhere under her watch. And then we had the stand-in Minister of Finance, Shane Jones, when he was asked when he found out by Paul Goldsmith today—well, lo and behold, he just found out then, just a couple of minutes ago. And I’ll tell you why that occurred, it is because UMR Insight, the polling agency that Labour uses, had been telling them that fuel taxes have been a massive issue. The polling has been picking up that the cost of living has gone up. It’s the highest cost of living in the last quarter, and it’s all because this coalition Government have been heaping on more taxes. They stood there in their election campaign and said, “No new taxes.”

Well, here we have a regional fuel tax rolled out in Auckland, secretly. And I’m not sure how secretly it was. We had Wellington City Council officials meeting the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to talk about how they could get a slice of the pie. They needed to start the work before 2021 so that it was all ready to go, because there’s a plan in place and it’s called Let’s Get Wellington Moving. We know it’s going to cost $3 billion to $4 billion, and we know that they were sitting there hoping that they could get a regional fuel tax. This is a great day for any voter in the Wellington region, because now they know there won’t be a Wellington regional fuel tax—all the councils were lining up.

It was really interesting this morning—because I saw Simon Bridges on Newshub. I thought he gave a fantastic interview. He let this information out today, and it needed to come out. Then what did we have? We had a Wellington official—probably a person working in the communications unit of the Wellington City Council—say, “Yes, we have been in discussion.”

Then what happened? Phil Twyford monstered that official, so did Justin Lester. I’ll tell you what will happen. I bet your bottom dollar that when we put in the Official Information Act request, we’ll find out what’s been going on, and the truth will hurt. There have already been a lot of discussions happening about the regional fuel tax.

What is also fascinating is that New Zealanders are hurting. The Prime Minister has stood up today and, effectively, said, “I will axe the regional fuel tax.” What about the excise tax? Why doesn’t the Prime Minister, who wants to be seen as caring and compassionate, rule out the excise tax and the further excise taxes for the next couple of years? Why doesn’t she rule out the Auckland regional tax? The reality is she won’t.

Their polling has been picking up that this is a massive issue for New Zealanders. If they want to be seen to be caring and compassionate, you would’ve thought they shouldn’t be ruling out the regional fuel tax from 2021 and beyond; they should be ruling out the excise taxes—the one that’s just come in and the future ones. They could do that. They could save motorists 25 bucks every time they fill up, and yet when you look at the fuel pricing—and I know it’s 20c different in my electorate down here to the capital city of New Zealand.

This whole market study with the Commerce Commission—

💬 Matt King: Twelve months away.

—well, that’s going to take ages. My colleague Matt King said it will take 12 months. It’ll actually take longer than that. I’ve been through how the Commerce Commission does things. It’s very thorough. It’s robust. They will put a heap of officials into it. And we’re worried about the political influence of this. Yes, we support it, but it should always be signed off by Ministers, because you could just have, at a whim, as we saw, the Prime Minister saying that the oil companies are fleecing motorists. Well, where is the evidence? So yes, we will back the Commerce Commission to have a look, but that’s not going to impact on people’s back pockets now; that’s going to take another 12 to 18 months.

So I summarise by saying this is an amazing revelation by the Prime Minister today, to come in and indicate that their polling is picking up that fuel taxes are hurting New Zealanders, to rule out future fuel taxes, and then for Ministers to stand up and say there weren’t detailed discussions going on between the Government and the Wellington council.

Mr Speaker, malo ni. Fakafetai lahi lele. It’s a pleasure to take a call in the general debate this afternoon. I’d like to, first of all, commend our Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern, for her leadership of our Government. We’ve been in Government now for 12 months. I would also like to thank New Zealand First, as well as the Green Party, for working with us.

We have done a tremendous amount of work. We came in with a plan and we are focused on what matters for New Zealanders. Housing is an issue that is number one not just for members of Parliament from South Auckland but for many of our members of Parliament right across Aotearoa. For so long now, we have been told by a lot of our constituents that many of them cannot afford the rent for houses. Many of them are now homeless, living in cars and in garages, and we as a Government are committed to ensuring that we build the houses that our people need to live in.

As a Government, we came in and we promised that we would build 6,400 public houses. One of the things we’ve done as a Government is we came in and stopped the sell-off of State houses, because we know that when we are experiencing the highest level of homelessness when compared to other OECD countries, this is something we need to do. In order to solve that issue, we need to build more houses. We’ve also banned foreign speculators, and we’ve clarified the landlord-tenant obligations in protecting our renters.

One of the other things that we’ve done as a Government of action concerns the 800-odd families who were wrongly evicted from Housing New Zealand State houses under the National Government’s meth-test hysteria—we are addressing that. We’ve also opened up a new Ministry of Housing and Urban Development to help us build our way out of this national housing crisis, and overall, over a period of 10 years, we will be building 100,000 affordable KiwiBuild homes.

The other thing that we’ve done as a Government is ensure that there is a coordinated, coherent construction skills action plan. For the first time, we have nine Ministers that are focused on ensuring that we have skilled people, because when we came into Government, we were confronted with the fact that we are short by 30,000 skilled people in building and construction. Before we can build the houses, we know that, long term, this is an issue we need to focus on, and as a Government it is taking us nine Ministers to ensure that we move in the right direction.

When we talk about health, this is also an area of responsibility and priority for our Government. We are determined to ensure that we improve the well-being of all New Zealanders. One of the things that we have implemented as a Government over our last Budget is to ensure that doctors visits are cheaper—either free or cheaper for at least 600,000 New Zealanders. But we’re also looking at fixing up our hospitals. In our last Budget, we put aside $850 million, compared to $150 million under the previous Government, because we know that a lot of our hospital buildings do need to be fixed. Just last week, for instance, the right honourable Prime Minister and the Minister of Health announced a $224 million investment which will provide 120 additional elective surgery beds for four new operating theatres at the North Shore Hospital and, in addition, some new facilities at the Whangarei Hospital. For our seniors, we have resumed the contributions to the Superannuation Fund to help safeguard the provision of universal superannuation at age 65.

In the area of education, our Government has an ambitious goal of building the best education system in the world. I would like to acknowledge the honourable Minister of Education, the Hon Chris Hipkins, because he is doing a whole lot of heavy lifting in this area. We’re also listening to our people. The honourable Minister had two summits, one held in Christchurch and one in Auckland, and the Ministry of Education opened up an online survey. Over 25,000 New Zealanders have let us know what it is that they value in the education sector.

In addition to those surveys, I’ve gone out as the Associate Minister of Education to seek additional voices from ethnic communities as well as specific communities, because we are very focused on ensuring that we get the voices of our ethnic communities and Pacific communities heard as we look at the education system moving forward. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to participate in this general debate. It’s my pleasure to follow the Hon Jenny Salesa, whom I respect as the Minister for Ethnic Communities, and I do appreciate her presence at a number of occasions.

It was a very good speech, but I don’t agree with a lot of facts that she has proposed in her speech. First of all, she mentioned that they promised 6,400 houses. I think the promise was 10,000 houses. What have we got in the first year? We’ve got just 18 houses, and those 18 houses were consented and started construction during National’s reign. So I totally disagree with what the Minister is trying to claim.

The last point which the Minister picked up on was about ethnic communities and language. Here I would like to make a request to her. The point is that we have got a private member’s bill by the Hon Nikki Kaye which gives opportunities for primary and intermediate schools to opt for a second language. We know, because we are in Opposition, that we don’t have a majority. I request her to support that bill of the Hon Nikki Kaye, to make sure—because she is consulting, but we are proposing a bill which will ensure that a second language can be an option for primary and intermediate schools. I hope she will listen to it.

Further, she mentioned about championing South Auckland. I would like to share some figures with her which are very important. If we compare the waiting list for housing in December 2017, the waiting list was 58 in Howick; today, it is 100. In 2017, in Māngere-Ōtāhuhu the waiting list was 271; now it is 431. In Manurewa, it was 278; today, it is 377. If we total up all the areas in South Auckland, the total waiting list in December 2017 was 1,008, and today it is 1,546. The point which the Minister brought up—that people are sleeping in cars and parks and garages—I agree with, but nothing has improved under this Government, who claim that they are the champions for the people and they are looking after the people.

Another point which I would like to touch upon is the increasing living cost, which is the biggest issue in South Auckland. When I go out and about, people are talking about how much costs are increasing: rents are increasing, petrol prices are increasing, and a number of others. If they go do the groceries, where earlier they used to spend a certain amount, today they are spending more than that. For the benefit of some of the Government benches, the petrol price—I would like to share that if you filled up a petrol tank of 50 litres last year, it was approximately $90. Today, it is $120 approximately—not exactly but approximately. That shows that there has been a substantial increase in petrol prices. When this side of the House asks questions about it, none of the Ministers have that answer. I hope that this will clarify to them what the price is right now.

Another point which I would like to touch upon is that the Hon Grant Robertson mentioned the poll yesterday, but he did not mention a very important point: that business confidence is going down. Forty-one percent of people surveyed said they don’t have any confidence in this Government; the businesses will be doing worse than what they are doing today. Grant Robertson did not touch on that point because it did not benefit him. He could not answer why we are losing business confidence.

Another thing which we need to understand is that because of the loss of this business confidence, the dollar is dropping. That is why the petrol price is increasing. That increases the GST also, and this Government is not committing at all to reduce either GST or excise, which is really hurting the back pocket of the ordinary Kiwi and which is hurting the families.

We know that in this country we have—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

I’ve been to a few first birthday parties in my life; this is the sixth most significant. The five others have been my daughters’; this is the sixth most significant first birthday party I have been to. And you know what? The country is celebrating. We’re part of a united, strong, and focused Government, and I am never more proud in my life to be part of this team.

What we have on the other side—firstly, I’d like to thank New Zealand First Deputy Prime Minister Mr Peters for his part in bringing this Government together, and the Greens for being part of a strong coalition Government. On the other side of the House—it’s hard to explain them. It’s a group of people that you would think don’t still have a bad taste of post-election blues; they still are a case of post-election blues—a bad case. There’s a front bench there of wannabes—people who, like when in Government, were happier to burn bridges than to build them, and we came in facing huge challenges across every sector of our society.

I have to say that I have been very, very proud to be part of a Government that’s shown the way in housing; that is getting on and putting the money in place to build houses and to offer security to New Zealanders. This is a Government that’s committed $75, on average, to over 300,000 families in this country who need that money, because we accept that wages have been driven too low under the previous National Government and we have to lift them. We’re committed to a living wage for all core Government-sector employees, and I am proud of that. But in my areas, in particular, in terms of the primary sectors, we have 65 percent of sheep and beef farmers—not a traditional area of our supporters—who are optimistic about the future under a coalition Government of New Zealand First, the Greens, and Labour. I’m very proud of that.

What we’ve done is show leadership where it’s counted. We’ve gone out, formed the Primary Sector Council, and said that we must establish a vision for the primary sectors in this country because the previous Government had none—no idea where we were going. We say we need to know where we are going, not just to encourage farmers to do more but to get more for what they do. That’s the key difference between the previous Government and this Government.

We accept there are environmental limits. We accept that we have to pay people more for their efforts. We accept that we want to produce the finest goods in the world, and there must be a plan to do that. The previous Government just said to farmers, “Get on and export more, and we’ll all be better off.”

Mānuka honey standards—something the previous Government had completely ignored, to the point where our reputation internationally was at risk. We’ve gone in, we’ve established a standard, and we’re now saying to those people exporting, “Adhere to this standard or we’ll come down hard on you.”

We’ve put more money—

💬 Hon Mark Mitchell: Health.

—$5 million into OVERSEER. Oh, health—I’ll leave that to my other colleagues, for the hundreds of millions of dollars that we’re committing to health. In my own electorate, a Grey Base Hospital rebuild—complete chaos; a plan that did not have space for people to run administration. That’s how chaotic it was. We’ve had to step in and commit the money to complete that rebuild—one of many, many projects across health.

Across education—in my electorate, a $33 million cheque to Tai Poutini Polytechnic. Why? Because nine years of National Government oversight had almost destroyed that polytech for my region. My colleague the Hon Chris Hipkins—I have to thank him for that—was prepared to front up, write a cheque for $33 million, and get in there and sort out what is a crucial institution for the future of our region. That story is repeated time and time again around this country, where every time we tip over a rock we find some dirty National Party turd there that they tried to hide from the rest of the country.

We are committed to building a better, fairer Government; a place where every New Zealander has an opportunity. We’re doing it in conjunction with two parties that are committed to that better future as well, New Zealand First and the Green Party. Finding the right balance between sound environmental protection, regional economic development—putting a billion dollars a year to grow and support the population that drives the economies of this country. That’s why the country always does better when we’re in Government. They are a sad, sad case of post-election blues—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. You may remember the song, the old song, “Another Day Over and Deeper in Debt”. Well, it’s been 365-odd days—a very long year—and we have gone deeper and deeper into debt. We left them awash with cash. What have they done? They have taxed and spent and borrowed. This is typical of core Labour values.

When we look at the roll call of dubious achievements in that year it makes for very chilling reading, so we are spoilt for choice as to what is the worst. I’ve been looking through the archives trying to figure out, is it the falling dollar? Is it the rising fuel prices and the ill-thought-through policies? They’re all driving up the cost of living for hard-working Kiwi families. These things are all bad enough.

But let’s try and be fair to the Government, just for a moment. There have been a number of dramatic increases under their watch. The cost of living is rising, much faster than wages in the last quarter. Rents are higher, rising around $20 each week, on average. And there’s been a 9,000 increase in the number of people on benefits. Aren’t these remarkable achievements, and isn’t that typical core Labour—cradle to the grave dependency? Keep them on the benefit, keep them dependent, take away their mana and their self-respect, and they’ll keep voting for you. I think that’s the old logic—used to be, back in the day—and it doesn’t seem to have changed the refrain of this Government.

Working groups galore—it’s hard to keep track. I did look it up though: 185 to date.

💬 Simon O'Connor: How many?

185, and at around a million dollars each, that’s $185 million that could be better spent on making life better for New Zealanders—creating work, making jobs, making the economy more stable—but instead of that, they continue to spend.

I guess, when you look at the number of people on strike, that is another thing that’s really biting hard. In Auckland there was chaos yesterday, and in Hamilton; tomorrow is Wellington’s turn. So the bus drivers are out on strike. The transport unions are having a lovely old time of it, again harking back to the day when there were wage rounds. In the mid-1980s, when I was a presenter on Morning Report, Geoff Robinson and I would toss a coin as to who was the lucky one to get the wage round, industrial union strife interview done for that day, and the cycle is repeating itself again. The same old problems are emerging with a Government—as we heard Iain Lees-Galloway bellowing today—very happy that people are going on strike, because at last they’re being listened to and paid attention to. Teachers, nurses—people who are feeling now that the opportunities are there for them, and if they’re there for one group, why not for the other. So there is a growing momentum around all of this.

Apparently, we New Zealanders just need to get used to it. The reality is that more people are going on strikes this year than at any other time in the last 30 years. You have to go back to 1989 to find a bumper selection of strikes like the ones we have been experiencing. So the unions are clearly running the show over there. It’s payback time, and they’re gearing up for a bumper year next year.

We are spoilt for choice, but which one of the very many taxes and the very many increases that this Government has brought in should we highlight the most? Well, for my part of the world, in the North Shore, it has to be the fuel tax. We’ve seen petrol prices up 19 percent in the past year. In most parts of the country, petrol has gone up 10 percent a litre; in Auckland, that’s 20 cents a litre and climbing. People come in to my Takapuna electorate office and they say, “How are we going to do business? How are we going to manage to keep our trucks on the road?” How are the people who are doing the trading, the building, all of these things—these are very difficult times. You could ask them to catch a bus, but oh dear—that’s right, the buses are on strike. No use for that—and the seniors who are carpooling, who could not afford to fill their tanks to go away at Labour Day weekend to visit their families because of the additional charges.

The regions are feeling the pain as well. I was in Taranaki and New Plymouth last Monday and they were absolutely astonished. We talked about evidence-based decisions that are made. We know from our Official Information Act requests that there were no Cabinet papers, there was no advice on this Taranaki oil and gas ban—they just did it. It was a nice soundbite overseas. Who knows about the motivation? What I know is the reality of what’s happening in the regions and what people are saying to us. All of our National MPs are hearing the same refrain: they cannot afford to do business and to keep their local, regional, and community economies working. It’s just too hard under this Government.

When we look at job creation, which we did very well at—up to 10,000 a month; it’s now down to 4,000 and decreasing. These are dark days for New Zealand. One year on, we are deeper in debt, more despondent than ever and there needs to be hope. That Government, on the other side of the House, is not giving it to anybody.

Order! The member’s time has expired.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, and what a grim speech to follow. I think it’s completely in contrast to the mood last night when many of us got together to celebrate our one year in Government, because it’s been a stunning year full of absolutely brilliant achievements. Somebody asked me—

💬 Hon Member: Is that why you will look so hung-over?

💬 SPEAKER: Order! The member will not reflect on me in that way.

—to write a piece reflecting back, as a new MP, on what surprised me the most about our first year in Government. I think the key theme that I was thinking about was, (1), escaping Groundhog Day—and I’ll explain a bit about that in a minute—but, secondly, just how quickly a Government can move on the things that it decides are important.

I think many of us know that I got into Parliament because I was interested in addressing the issues around child poverty. You know, we were seeing high child-poverty rates, thousands of kids getting into hospital with poverty-related diseases. When the global financial crisis hit, back in 2008, we were thinking we were going to be having these huge rises in unemployment. A lot of us got quite concerned and we set up this thing called the Child Poverty Monitor. What we said is that we would monitor the well-being of children every year until their economic position improved.

I think what came to pass is something a bit like Groundhog Day. So, every year we would update that monitor and every year the findings would be exactly the same. We had high child poverty rates. We had thousands of sick kids coming into hospital for poverty-related diseases. As a group of child health advocates, we got together and we always advocated for exactly the same three things. We wanted measures to address child poverty to improve family incomes, we wanted measures to improve cold, damp, crappy housing, and we wanted kids to have better access to GPs and primary care. Every year, we would say those same three things, and every year, there would be a huge outpouring of public concern, but what happened was, once the media coverage abated, nothing happened. The same old, same old, and we turned up and did it all over again.

I think what surprised me the most, coming in as a new MP, was just how quickly the new Government acted on measures to address child poverty. We got into Government in October, and by Christmas, sitting in the House, we were passing that legislation. So what the Families Package did was it put 60 bucks extra a week into the back pockets of families of newborn babies, and that extended right out into the third year for low and middle income earners. We increased the accommodation supplement. We increased Working for Families. For families on benefits, we gave them an winter energy payment so that they could turn the heater on, so kids could be warm in winter and not get respiratory infections. So we did a whole lot of things immediately upon entering Government, including extending paid parental leave so parents could stay home and care for their kids that little bit longer.

So, for me, it was quite an emotional moment. I remember sitting as the Families Package passed, probably just over there at the back of the House, and looking down at that bill and thinking of all the stuff we’d been advocating for over those 10 years. It all, at the time, seemed really, really hard, but all of a sudden, it was so simple. It was just in law.

Then we went over Christmas and had a bit of time just to reflect, but coming back, the first thing up was the Child Poverty Reduction Bill. I remember sitting, again, listening to the debates in the House under the previous Government about how hard it was to actually measure child poverty—how we couldn’t do it—but within that first 100 days in Government, we had the legislation in saying, “We will measure and monitor child poverty, we will ensure that Governments are held to account on their performance on child poverty, and we will make sure that strategies and plans are in place to address it.” So, for me, just thinking through—as an advocate, it seemed so hard and so many of us fought for so long, and yet coming in, when the new Government made up its mind to do those things and to move on those things, it was just so simple.

But the problem is that I actually also live in a community, and I’m also very aware that some things are easy to legislate for but that others will take time. Down our way, we’ve sold off so many of our State houses, it’s going to take time to rebuild them. We’ve got this huge shortage and an acute emergency in social housing. It’s going to take time to rebuild. Many of our families have been living on low incomes for many, many years. Their reserves are gone and they’re in debt, and as those incomes rise, it’s going to take time for those reserves to build back up. We’ve put massive investments into health and into education, but, again, it’s going to take time to filter through so that those workforce pressures and other things start to ease.

But, irrespective of the hard journey ahead, I’m absolutely proud to be part of this Government and of our first year and what we’ve achieved. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. That last speaker, Dr Liz Craig, I think, typifies this Government: it’s all about slogans. Yes, talking about child poverty—talking about it doesn’t address it. How about the 9,000 extra people who are on a benefit this year? How about the 10,000 jobs a month being cut to 4,000? Talk about poverty—they’re the drivers. Get people off benefits and into work. Don’t give us a lecture on slogans. Tell us what’s happening out in the real world, and in the real world, people are hurting.

Then we had the Hon Damien O’Connor. He—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order!

Sorry?

💬 SPEAKER: No, sorry. I’m just trying to draw the attention of the Minister who’s been standing in an inappropriate manner for some time.

Then we had the Hon Damien O’Connor refer to their first year of tenure as a kids’ party. In fact, that’s exactly what it feels like: immature decisions—and impulsive—with total disregard of who’s going to pay for it. And who’s going to pay for it? The taxpayer—the taxpayer is bankrolling this Government’s poor policy decisions.

Look at the fees-free policy.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Great idea.

What an embarrassment. What an embarrassment, and Kieran McAnulty yells out—

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Sit down.

—“Great idea.” “Great idea.” is what he yelled out, and there he goes. He knows that his Government’s got reports that a third of tertiary students drop out after their first year. A third of that money is wasted, and the poor taxpayers are bankrolling their bad policy. Mr McAnulty will sit there, and he’ll call out “Sit down.” and “Stand up.”, but the reality is that he knows. Yes, in his first election, he didn’t win and he’ll be thinking, “Hmm, they probably won’t stick with me for the second one if I don’t win in my seat.”, and it’s policies like that that frustrate the voter, because if you go out and talk to them now, what are they frustrated about?

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Simon.

Fuel tax. Fuel tax, that’s—and see, here we go. He carries on about beltway issues. He’s in the bubble. He’s got no idea what’s frustrating taxpayers at the moment, because the reality is that after one year, what’s been shown by this Government? They actually don’t care about hard-working Kiwis. They don’t care about hard-working Kiwis, because if they did, they would axe the Auckland regional fuel tax. They’re stubbornly denying it because, as we’ve seen, with that Auckland regional tax, the flow-on effect is driving up—

💬 Dr Duncan Webb: Are you from Auckland?

—petrol prices across New Zealand. Here we have Duncan Webb yelling out, as well. He will know, because I know he’s an MP on the ground. He will know. He’s getting feedback—

💬 Dr Duncan Webb: Talk about Christchurch, Matt.

Sorry?

💬 Dr Duncan Webb: What about your people?

Yes, what about my people, Duncan Webb? I’ll tell you what they’re upset about. It’s you cancelling the Belfast to Pegasus motorway, and do you know why? Because you’ve stripped $5 billion out of the State regional funding. The New Zealand Transport Agency turned up to the Woodend residents’ AGM a couple of weeks ago and said that the Woodend bypass is now off the table because the new Government has new priorities for prioritising funding for Auckland public transport projects.

You challenged me on the people I represent—what’s on their minds? Why are they paying money into the Government coffers to pay for a tram in Auckland when you’re cancelling a motorway that’s much needed in a high-growth area of Waimakariri—that’s what my constituents are saying.

After one year, you tell me who cares for hard-working Kiwi families. I’ll tell you what; it’s the National Party, for standing up for them and for making sure that you guys are held to account, and where did we see that today? Question time. If it wasn’t for Simon Bridges, the leader of the National Party, holding the Prime Minister to account, we would have had a flip-flop on your regional tax, because, I’ll tell you what—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

Beltway issue—beltway issue? Well, I’ll tell you what, 93 percent of New Zealanders don’t think it’s a beltway issue. It might be a belt issue, but not a beltway issue.

Now, look, I’ll tell you what: I’m disappointed with you, Mr Doocey, because you’re a decent bloke, and the only thing you can talk about—

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

—for your constituents is another—

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

—motorway.

💬 SPEAKER: Me.

Sorry, Mr Speaker.

💬 SPEAKER: Just get it right.

All Mr Doocey can speak about is his motorway. Well, I’ll tell you what: there’s $176 million going into Canterbury transport projects, but it’s not just about cars across to “Waimak” bridge. It’s $17 million into public transport in Canterbury. That’s what we need—some new thinking, Mr Doocey, not the old, stagnant, stilted thinking. You know, I know you feel for your constituents, and I feel sorry for you because in the last Government, do you know what? [Speaker puts his head in his hands] Nothing happened for Christchurch—sorry, Mr Speaker. Nothing happened for Christchurch, Mr Doocey, and you had to stand by and watch. Things have changed.

In Christchurch, there has been a sea change. Whilst all of those anchor projects in my electorate were stalled because that lot couldn’t get on with it, all of a sudden, things have changed. The first thing that happened was that concrete got poured on the convention centre. Seventy-five million dollars was trimmed off the budget for the Metro Sports Facility—that’s under way. Congratulations to the Christchurch City Council—$5 million to Tūranga, the city library. All of a sudden, these anchor projects—all of which were supposed to be complete before we assumed Government—have now, finally, got under way.

I’m excited about being able to go to the town hall next year—another project that was languishing whilst the National Government ignored Christchurch. And look at what else has gone on: if you look at the wider projects that have all of a sudden been stimulated, even Hoyts Cinemas has now got the confidence to build in the inner city—opened recently. The Christchurch inner city has been given a vibrancy that it lacked under that Government, and that is all within a year—not six years, not seven years; in one year, things have changed.

And what’s more, we’re looking now much more closely at the heartbreak that genuine hard-working New Zealanders have suffered through the Earthquake Commission (EQC) debacle under the last Minister. The current Minister has taken that by the throat and given it a good shake, and all of the statistics have changed: 46 percent of the claims that were open in May have been closed.

💬 Hon Member: How many?

46 percent. You know, that’s amazing. You’re absolutely right. Claims are being closed 33 percent faster than they were before. And you know what? One hundred and sixty three claims a week are being closed now—that’s up 40 percent. That was hopeless before. Why? Poor and broken leadership—stalled, backlogged, and gridlocked. Things have changed.

Now, six years later than it should be, we’re getting an earthquake tribunal—a tribunal that will look after ordinary homeowners and their claims. This is something that’s been needed a long time; this Government’s doing it. We even had to save the Residential Advisory Service—not an expensive service, but one that National thought was no longer needed, notwithstanding all the claims that were still out there. What’s more, it’s being beefed up. It’s being turned into the Greater Christchurch Claims Resolution Service—EQC and Southern Response insurers coming together, putting a system together, and getting on with the job. This is a huge change.

But it’s not all about earthquakes. There’s a whole lot more going on in Christchurch and elsewhere, looking after our rangatahi—mental health for every schoolchild in Christchurch. That is absolutely needed—something that we have been needing for a long time—and it’s going to be rolled out more widely. We know—we absolutely know—that this is a huge issue across the country. Access to primary mental health care is something that’s been needed for a long, long time. All of a sudden, what we have is critical mass. What we have is leadership. We’ve reached a tipping point in Christchurch and across the country. What we have is a sense of optimism, a sense of the future, and the fact that we’re going to get on with the job, start working, and keep going. I’m proud: in one year, things have changed. Things are going to keep going, keep changing and changing and changing for the better.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The great thing about speaking last in the general debate is you get to hear an awful lot of nonsense in the course of a day. I want to start with a couple of pearls of nonsense I’ve heard today. One is from Minister Jones, about the great job he’s done increasing the regional population in New Zealand. That population statistic that he was claiming, of course, was to the beginning of June or the end of June this year, and that, clearly, was as a result of the last nine years of very strong policy, not as a result of a bit of cash he sprayed around in the short time he’s been the Minister.

The next thing I want to touch on was the Minister of primary industries—the Minister of Agriculture, I think he’s called now—who spent two minutes talking about everything but his own sector. So he took exactly one minute and 43 seconds, actually, to get on to primary industries at all, and when he did he claimed what a great success he’d made of the sheep and beef sector in his six or eight months of dealing with us. Of course, the ram went out before he became the Minister, but we’ll put that aside too. So whilst he was right about the fact that that sector is doing extremely well, it’s also propping up the Government’s tax take, so that’s a great piece of news for rural New Zealand.

I just want to get back to the regional population stuff for a minute and talk about Ruapehu alpine lifts in the north of the Rangitīkei electorate, where we’ve seen an extraordinarily good ski season—thanks to the weather, to some extent, but also thanks to a very good organisation that’s putting in place some very strong regional strategy. And, of course, we’ve seen populations in those areas increase because there’s a whole lot of opportunity being created there in the last few years that has suddenly come to fruition.

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to go to the Massey University agricultural awards at Massey University in Palmerston North on Friday night and to see the young people coming through in that sector as a result of, I guess, the change in fortune of agriculture in New Zealand and the primary industries doing really well. It’s very exciting—a whole lot of young people coming through in that sector that I think—really exciting for us.

This is a Government that’s full of surprises—expensive surprises—and I want to talk about two or three of them. One I came across today. I found this map in my travels today, and I just thought it was, obviously, a map of the blue voters in the Rangitīkei electorate, because it’s pretty much covered in blue—my electorate. And I thought that’s pretty encouraging, until I found out it was the new trees the Minister is proposing to plant in the Rangitīkei electorate. So instead of having a few sheep dotted around my electorate, we’re going to have a whole lot of trees and no people at all, and they’ll all exit the Rangitīkei electorate—off to Auckland they’ll go. This is the sort of danger we run with policy—I’m not going to say made on the hoof, because it’s been around for a little while—that doesn’t give a whole lot of thought to the outcomes. And I think that’s a great concern when you see electorates like the Rangitīkei pretty much covered in trees. Rangitīkei, of course, currently is the biggest sheep-breeding electorate in New Zealand. That’s a talent for us.

The next thing I want to touch on was the oil and gas decision. I, of course, live very close to Palmerston North, a city that’s pretty much built its infrastructure on gas supply. It was one of the first cities in New Zealand to have a gas pipeline to it, and, as a consequence of that, they undertook to deal with a whole lot of gas in that city. Very encouraging, and you’ve got to wonder—and there’s a lot of businesses wondering—about their future as a result of that oil and gas decision.

The third thing I want to talk about is the working-party issue. I hear there’s some 180 of those working parties. Well, the one, interestingly, that’s just reported back to Parliament is the one I want to deal with, and that’s the Messara report, which deals with the racing industry—an industry which is certainly dear to my heart. I was virtually brought up in it, I guess. There’s no question that that industry does need restructure, and we in the National Party understand the need for that restructure, and we certainly support parts of that report.

However, there’s some great challenges in that report as well—also from a regional perspective—and so, whilst we’ve got the Minister who proclaims he’s the regional champion on the other side of the House, we have his party as well looking at perhaps the potential to undermine a whole lot of regional infrastructure that deals to the racing industry, that provides entertainment for those communities, and that builds the spirit of those communities, and things like that. Part three of the Messara report deals with that infrastructure in regional New Zealand, and it certainly needs to be considered in a much different manner than that report has put forward. I think that that issue will clearly be debated as the result of this report moves its way into legislation. It’s an issue that we’re very interested in and will be very concerned about.

In that case, the report also appears to have picked up some very good work the industry undertook, but, unfortunately, it’s introduced it into the report in a manner that won’t last.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.