General Debate

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

Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. It’s always a pleasure to rise in this general debate. Well, my goodness! What an interesting afternoon we’ve had. We’ve had a Minister come to the House and tell us all that he takes full responsibility for reading a file about a convicted drug dealer who was refused parole and who was associated with the Hell’s Angels gangs—he is someone who is clearly quite a dangerous person—and he has taken full responsibility for not spending any more than 45 minutes reading the file and coming to a conclusion that he has now overturned.

Well, 45 minutes. Gee, we’ve spent more time on the debate than what that Minister spent on that file—more time. We’ve spent over an hour, and he now tells us he spent less than 45 minutes. Could have been 15, could have been 10—who’s to know? What we do know is that for some reason he granted Mr Sroubek, or whatever other name he’s using these days, permanent residency, even though he hadn’t even asked for it.

As an electorate MP, I, like many others, am constantly putting in requests for residency for people who are genuine but who have at some stage overstayed, or there’s some other particular reason—because of their age or whatever—that they’re not wanted by the Department of Immigration. These genuine people look askance and they ask us, “What do we have to do?” The best advice, obviously, is to become an international drug dealer, to be connected to the Hell’s Angels, to get yourself imprisoned, and to find a soft touch like Iain Lees-Galloway. That’s pretty much it, really, and I say that with all cynicism, because, frankly, that’s pretty much it. I am appalled by that.

Having said that, I’m also appalled by the nonsense that is KiwiBuild—the ridiculous situation where, in the Marfell suburb of New Plymouth, a community housing group wants to build houses and make them available at just over $300,000 to people on pretty low incomes so that they have a rent-to-buy scheme to help people to become homeowners themselves. I would have thought that’s something we would all want to see. I’ve seen these schemes operating elsewhere, and they do work. They take quite a lot of management. They take quite a lot of wraparound service, but they do work.

Instead, what we’re told is Housing New Zealand’s rejected all of that. Instead, they want to have houses built for over $400,000 to sell them to middle-income earners or quite high-income earners for over $400,000. What has gone wrong here when a Government that says—and it should be—it’s for the people, full of kindness and everything, rejects an opportunity for community housing to come in to help people to get their little stake of New Zealand that is theirs and that they can leave to their children? What is wrong?

Then we have what’s happening up North with the meningococcal outbreak—and I say that because it’s very hard to say, I have to say. Particularly even after just a glass of water, it’s very hard to say. But what we do know: one of the things I can say that the National-led Government, in the last nine years, did really well was focusing on immunisations. I particularly remember the work that was done in the Counties Manukau district around immunisations, particularly for populations that were under-represented in immunisations at that stage. I well remember that we refused to have different target rates for different people. We decided that every population group should be treated the same and every population group should have the same target, which was around 100 percent. Then we published those targets and we published those results, and we ended up with almost all children—some of the highest immunisation rates were with Māori and Pasifika children, who had previously been at the lowest end.

That’s what we need in Northland. We need a National-led Government again. We need to acknowledge the great work, for Dr Shane Reti, that he has been doing in bringing this issue to the House, and the total lack of commitment from the Government to those young people, those children and families, when they knew about this situation for months and they’ve only now told the families what’s happening and they’re only now getting the vaccines in. We can give $10 million to Papua New Guinea for vaccinations—and I do support that—but how about we start at home? Northland would be a great place to start with vaccinations. And, by the way, let’s tell people what’s going on in their community. Instead of just telling the health professionals, tell the people who likely or possibly will become infected. Let’s look after them first.

It is a good day to be in Government. Today is a very good day to be in Government. This is a Government focused firmly on fixing the mess that we have inherited around this country’s longer-term problems: the housing crisis and the under-investment in our social sector and in health and education.

I want to canvass a few things that I’ve seen over the recess in the media, just to see what people out there are saying about the progress of the Government and what we have ahead of us. It is good news. I’ve had a wonderful recess, with the opportunity to announce some of the Government’s cornerstone investments in our health system—in the buildings in our health system. Good news—to repair, after a decade of under-investment in our health services.

I’ll return to that during my speech, but first I want to dwell for a second on comments I read in a transcript from an economic commentator who said, “I think we can all agree”—and this was this week—“there’s serious momentum there”—there is serious, serious momentum there. This commentator was commenting on the New Zealand economy: “whether it’s the high employment, the low unemployment, the GDP”—it was serious momentum. That comment was repeated later in that interview. Then the commentator went on to say, “Frankly, we’re in a situation where almost anyone who wants a job today can get [one]”. That praise for this economy, of course, was coming from that commentator that we all know in this House, Simon Bridges. On this side of the House we’re all hoping, of course, that he can keep up some serious momentum himself so that he can lead that Opposition into the next election and the one after. That commentator singing the praises of the economy—well, we agree with him on that. This is an economy with serious momentum. Simon Bridges is absolutely right on this point.

But it’s not just the economy where we’ve got serious momentum. We’re making huge progress in housing, in education, and in health. We’re making a real difference to people’s lives. We’ve lifted the incomes of over 350,000 families with the Families Package, provided Best Start support in a child’s early years, provided the winter energy payments for those on benefits or super, and increased the minimum wage.

We’ve got a strong focus on the economy because we want to see a shared prosperity. We want the economy to grow so we can share the benefits of the growth in our economy with all New Zealanders. We’ll keep that focus, because we believe in the value of a strong economy and we have a plan for growing that strong economy.

That strong economic growth allows us to do things like fund the meningococcal W vaccine we announced this week—10,000 doses. This is a news announcement. No press release has been put out. It’s delightful, in a general debate speech, to be able to make this kind of announcement: 10,000 doses are already in New Zealand. It’s less than a month since it was decided that we actually had an outbreak in New Zealand by the expert panel. We’ve got the doses in New Zealand, and, within a month, we will have injections in children’s arms to immunise against this, in a situation where around the world there’s a competition for this vaccine. The district health board (DHB), Pharmac, and the Ministry of Health have worked together to quickly bring this in to make sure we have a ready response, and we can afford to do that because we had serious momentum in our economy. We can move when we need to move. Simon Bridges is right: that serious momentum’s there, and we are going to make sure New Zealanders get the healthcare they need.

On top of that, of course, in the past week I’ve been able to announce more spending for Counties Manukau—$80 million dollars—to address the rot and mould in the walls that we inherited as a Government as a legacy of under-investment in maintenance in the DHBs. We’ve also announced previously that we put $275 million into the Auckland DHB to address significant infrastructure challenges. We’ve put money into the North Shore Hospital—$200 million—for elective surgery capacity. I could go on. We’ve made loads of investments in our capital assets, and we can do that because of the serious momentum in the economy.

Finally, I want to cover off the fact that we saw an industrial settlement announced this week that will lift the wages of some of our lowest-paid workers. It is a real pleasure to see the new multi-employer collective agreement agreed between DHBs and E tū will see many public hospital service workers get pay rises of up to 40 percent over the next three years. These are those who are paid the least but do some of the most important jobs in our hospitals. As Sam Jones from the E tū put it, “This is a fantastic outcome for members who have struggled with costs rising faster than their low wages,” and, “It’ll be easier for people to pay the bills and feed their families properly [so] they’re healthier and happier.” Serious momentum in our economy—it’s a good day to be in Government. We’re investing in New Zealanders.

It’s an absolute pleasure and, actually, slightly unexpectedly that I rise to speak on behalf of New Zealand First. What a contrast we have seen in the two contributions to date. We saw, leading off for the Opposition, the Hon Judith Collins—normally their strongest debater, their most enthusiastic, spirited advocate. What did we hear? Virtually nothing—a dispirited, flat contribution in contrast to Dr Clark’s enthusiasm and the message that he had to bring.

It all comes from the top, of course. Simon Bridges, as leader, is struggling. After $100,000, going around on the taxpayer dime introducing himself to New Zealanders, they just do not like him. They’ve had another six months, and in every poll that comes out they like him less and less. The National Party are struggling badly.

In fact, in the latest Hamish Rutherford piece—no ideas. No new taxes, I think, was the promise, but we’ve heard that before, haven’t we? We heard that from John Key, but, of course, then he went and raised GST—a particularly regressive tax. He looked after the big end of town and threw the little guys under the bus. There were rises in tobacco taxes on a regular basis, as there was on the fuel excise taxes. There was a brightline test, which sounds suspiciously like a capital gains tax, but, apparently, it’s not. But that was the extent of their imagination, and that’s the extent of the new ideas that are coming forward from the National Party: that they won’t raise any taxes. But we’ve heard it all before in this House.

They also did things like stop the super fund contributions. That cost us something like about $20 billion in opportunity cost. Then they had the temerity to claim that they are good economic managers. They flogged off many of our State assets, often at fire-sale prices—short-term thinking for long-term pain. They’ve starved our public services. Our hospitals—Dr Clark at Middlemore during the week, having to—mould and sewerage in the walls. Absolutely third-world stuff. That is what under-investment did. The nurses, the teachers, and the police—they’re all lining up now because they know that they’ve got a Government that will appreciate them and won’t be screwing them into the ground, and we are looking to get fair and equitable outcomes for those valued public servants. The running down of our rail system and that core infrastructure—we’re out there at the moment, Matua Shane in the Manawatū last week, investing again in our rail service. And we can, because we’ve got a $5.5 billion record surplus that we’ve just delivered, 3.9 percent unemployment, and an economy that grew at 1 per cent of GDP in the last quarter. So we have got this economy absolutely flowing.

I see the Minister of Agriculture come in here, and what a great story we’ve got to tell in agriculture at the minute as our exports are going gangbusters. And, of course, we’ve got 17-year-low interest rates as well, so it’s a great time to invest, and that’s what we’re seeing: businesses out there investing. We heard today that equipment sales are up nearly 8 percent, and that is businesses out there investing. That is real money. These are businesses investing in themselves, as opposed to the confidence surveys that the Opposition likes to throw up—but all the real data points to this Government performing strongly in this economy, going very well.

Of course, we’re back in the regions, and while Dr Clark is still here, kudos for the investment in the Buller hospital: $20 million. That was a facility that was in serious decline. Matua Shane and the Prime Minister will be on the West Coast tomorrow announcing a significant contribution from the Provincial Growth Fund to that West Coast region that, like so many other regions—like Kiritapu’s region on the East Coast—have been neglected by successive Governments. In this Government, we’re back out there in those regions with significant funds, investing alongside the local citizens, businesses, and civic leaders. So this Government has an absolutely fantastic story to tell. We look forward, I would say, judging by the polls, to telling it for a very long time into the future, and New Zealand First looks forward to being an absolutely core part of that team. And what a good team it’s been.

We saw that Opposition was looking for us to fall apart over the employment relations stuff, and look how we pulled that together. We talked, took our differences, brought them together, and we came out of it with a great package, indicative of a great MMP Government. Thank you.

Before I take the next call, can I just remind the speakers to use members’ full names. And, for the record, I’m pretty sure “Matua Shane” means the Hon Shane Jones that the member was speaking of, just for the record. I call—

I raise a point of order, Mr Assistant Speaker.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): A point of order, Mark Patterson. I hope you’re not going to relitigate my ruling.

Yeah, I probably was.

Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā, tēnā koutou e Te Whare. Today is 125 years since the women of Aotearoa voted for the first time. In my contribution this afternoon, I’d like to talk a little bit about that event and some of our history that I’ve been learning over the last few years, and particularly this year.

I grew up having this idea of a linear sense of history, moving forward towards more and more rights for women. But it’s been over the last few years that, actually, I’ve been learning that’s not exactly true and that the history of suffrage in this country and women gaining the vote is not exactly a simple story, particularly for Māori women. So that’s what I want to share in this contribution today, because I think it’s important that we understand our history, and I want to acknowledge, for me as a Pākehā woman, that I actually haven’t understood our history properly in this area, and I think it’s something worth sharing.

I recently visited my local art gallery, Pātaka—I live in Porirua—and in there there’s an amazing suffrage exhibition that I’d encourage anyone in this area to go and visit. In the exhibition, the first three stories are of local women that were really active in the 1700s and the early 1800s, who were powerful Māori women leaders.

I just want to share the story briefly of Waitohi, Te Rauparaha’s sister, to put the suffrage debate into context today. So she was an important rangatira and trusted strategist and peacemaker of this area, invaluable to Ngāti Toa rangatira in those early 1800s. When a Waikato war party was seen on its way to attack Ngāti Toa, Waitohi recognised some of her relatives and pleaded with them for peace. Her words were heeded and the attackers returned. Waitohi journeyed south to Porirua with her brother Te Rauparaha to settle on Kāpiti Island.

It was Waitohi who persuaded Ngāti Raukawa and other iwi kin to join Ngāti Toa there, settling on Kāpiti. The leaders of those iwi noted that they came because Waitohi invited them; that if Te Rauparaha had called, they would not have come. This woman, she used her diplomacy and intelligence to apportion the land to these iwi who had arrived from the north. Such was her power that this was not about a vote that then invested power in other men to make decisions; this was a supreme leader over multiple peoples and countries, in effect, who was a Māori woman in power in the early 1800s. So for Māori women, gaining the vote in the late 1800s must really be put in the perspective of what had been taken from them in those intervening years, that the right to invest a man with the power to make decisions for all the people in this country was a pretty sad recompense, actually, for what was taken away.

I also want to finally acknowledge that today, while we celebrate that first vote for what it was, it was for mostly non-Māori women who cast their vote on this day, and most Māori women first got to cast their vote on 20 December, though it was split and it was decided that half-castes could vote on the general role on this day, but Māori who had no other lineage had to wait until 20 December. That was for Māori seats, and those votes weren’t even private. They were in both languages, and this history—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. Today, I’m sad and angry for the meningitis outbreak in Northland. I’ll be able to salve that sadness by doing everything I can and, hopefully, joining others from around the House to work with Northland District Health Board (DHB) to get a good outcome. Here and now I’ll salve my anger by holding this Government to account.

I want to start that by setting the framework of incompetence that feeds through, that is symptomatic of the management of this outbreak, with what we just heard from the Minister. He said, “Today, Northlanders will be pleased that they will get meningitis vaccines in their arms.” He also said the same in oral questions: “Very shortly, Northlanders will be able to see the meningitis vaccine in their arms.” Here’s the problem: you don’t give it in the arm for young children; you put it in the thigh. If the Minister had bothered to know his own immunisation schedule and read his own immunisation handbook, he would know that, in young children, you don’t put it in the arm—vastus lateralis. So, please, Minister, don’t encourage vaccination for young children in the arms of Northlanders; you will make them more ill.

Now, there’s two parts I want to talk about. I want to talk about the missed response, and then I want to talk about the poor response. I contend that this outbreak was actually known many months ago—at least 6 months ago, right back through to May—and I’d make that case on several grounds.

Firstly, looking at the ministry’s own public health surveillance information shows us several things. First of all, in January this year, there were four cases of meningitis. That doubled a month later—in February, 10 cases. It doubled again a month later—in March 2018, 22 cases; in fact, two died in that month. In April, another 10 cases—up to 29. And in May—which is when I stopped looking, because that’s when I believe the ministry knew—there were 39 cases of meningitis on the ministry’s own site; their information.

Now, initially, at the beginning of the year, it was general strains of meningitis. We’re interested in meningococcal W. Well, in April the ministry was first flagging that 50 percent of their cases in April were actually meningococcal W, and the following month it was 100 percent. So way back in May, the Minister and the ministry knew that there was an outbreak for meningitis in Northland and in New Zealand. In fact, the first two deaths occurred at least as early as March.

We shouldn’t be surprised then that the microbiologists from Northland DHB in May—about the time, I believe, the ministry knew there was an outbreak—also said to his staff, be it right or wrong, “I’m concerned. I suggest you vaccinate.” Back in May, the Minister and the ministry knew—or they didn’t know, which is their fault—there was information that there was an outbreak of meningitis in Northland. The Prime Minister agrees, from her statement yesterday when the question was raised, “If the microbiologist was advising staff, do you think the ministry should have done something?” She said this: “on the face of it, it should be a trigger to speak to the ministry about a public message.” So there were others also saying the red flags were clear and something should have been done.

I think really the icing on the cake is the CEO from Northland DHB writing to his board members on Monday saying, “We have been strongly encouraging the Ministry of Health for some months”—not some weeks or a few hours; I picked up the phone yesterday—“to approve this campaign as it’s the only truly effective preventative measure for our population,”. This ministry and this Minister had the information as far back in May that there was a meningococcal outbreak in Northland, that it was meningococcal W. They also know—which is what we’re not hearing—the other areas that have some involvement. For example, we should have concerns for our neighbouring DHBs to Northland, particularly the South Auckland DHBs. I know how many of you per month developed meningitis in Counties Manukau, Waitematā, and Canterbury have also had cases. None of that is being discussed here.

So there are several things with the proposed solution. Minister, not all schools are going to get the vaccine. Which ones are going to be selected? Who’s going to make it? Who’s not going to make it? And what are we going to do for our people at risk—particularly Māori and Pasifika—in South Auckland? Do something, Minister. This needs to be a wider response.

If ever there was a speech in this House that characterises the hypocrisy that this Government has had to sort out, it’s that from a pious GP from the Opposition standing up and preaching to us about healthcare, when he sat on his hands and said nothing while his mates ran down the health system, took away houses from poor, young New Zealanders, from the infants, and ran down the system so that now, the Minister of Health is not only having to come in and fix up hospitals, but actually lay out some basic healthcare services.

It’s a great time for us to be in Government. We’re prepared to take on the challenges left to us by the previous Government and the people that sat on their hands while they ran down the health system, the education system, the housing stock in this country, and even across the primary sectors.

There’s a survey been put out recently that said 68 per cent of sheep and beef farmers are very, very positive about the future for their sector. This is not a sector that’s traditionally Labour, so they’re not saying that because they support the Government. They have some concerns. In fact, 32 percent of them, obviously, have a serious problem. They think things are negative. Well, I’d suggest that’s about the right number, and the same number that end up going to National Party meetings in the rural sector. So if they stopped going to the National Party meetings, they might feel a little more cheery.

In fact, as I go around the country—and I had last week in Southland and I’ve just been up to the Waikato—I have to say that farmers are generally in a very positive frame of mind. Next year they will, hopefully, collectively produce about $43.8 billion of export revenue for this country. Thank you each and every one of you for that as farmers. We appreciate that. But there are some challenges—and they’ve said there’s some uncertainty. Yes, there is. We live in a world of uncertainty, but what we have attempted to do as a Government is to give them some certainty. They don’t like all of it. It’s a new phenomenon for some. And we said, “Yes, we want clean water. We want clean rivers. We have an international obligation to meet our emissions target, and we’re going to get on and do that, and we will help you with that.”, unlike the previous Government that simply put its head in the sand and tried to kid its mates in agriculture that there was no need to change anything.

The reality is that our customers—who appreciate the high-quality produce that most companies produce in this country—want to know that we’ve got the best systems in the world, and indeed, for the most part, we have. But, actually, we’ve got to ensure that we’re not dragged down by the lowest common denominator. The 25 farmers supplying Mataura Valley Milk are doing so on the basis that they don’t supply palm kernel expeller to their cows, and that nutrition will go into the top end of the China market and others. The $100 million development at Darfield that Fonterra’s put in to create cream cheese to go into the high-value markets in China—they too have assurance systems that say “We’ve got to produce this in the way that protects the environment, the way that looks after the animals, and the way that pays our staff properly.” That’s a new paradigm, and one that the National Government failed to implement and encourage and support their farmers to do.

I have to say that yesterday at the KPMG - BNZ forum in Karapiro, farmers were asking about certainty, about where we’re heading, and they were told that, actually, our customers demand the high standards, and they want to know what Government’s doing. Well, we are doing a lot. We’re going to roll out an extension system within the Ministry of Primary Industries. We’re going to assist them with a planning process that means they can have a template and get on and do the things that they need to do to be able to continue to farm. The previous National Government let down their rural constituency. They misled them, and it’s up to us, in an honest and upfront and forthright way, to say “This is what we need to do to continue to survive and make a profit, and we will get in there and help you.”

In the rural sector, with the thanks to my colleagues across the three parties, we’re getting out there in an honest way and helping them to a better future—one that’s more profitable; one that encourages more young people into agriculture, because under the previous National Government, we saw a rapid decline in the number of Kiwis interested in agriculture. That’s not sustainable. It’s not good for our country. We’re going to change that, and we’re getting out to work with farmers and the rural communities to make a better life for each and every one of them. Kia ora.

I’m angry, I’m gutted, I’m in complete disbelief over the latest statistics around the meningococcal W outbreak in Northland—24 cases nationwide, or so they would like us to believe, but it’s more than that, as my colleague Dr Shane Reti has outlined in his speech today. There have been six deaths, half of those in Northland—and one in particular, our youngest, 7-year-old Alexis Albert—so why didn’t the Northland District Health Board (DHB) tell the rest of the Northland population about this outbreak when it sent an internal memo to its staff? Why didn’t they say something? Why does it take the death of people, of a gorgeous little girl like Alexis Albert, to actually bring this disease to the head of everything that this Government is not doing for Māori?

Alexis Albert had her whole life ahead of her. She had a beautiful life ahead of her. She was one of the lead people and won a number of athletic competition prizes. She had a beautiful life ahead of her, and it was cut short. It was cut short because those that have the knowledge, those that have the power, those that have access to the resources to have helped this little girl did not come forward early enough with the vaccination treatment.

It is because of this—and, I might add, for Māori health and also for Pasifika health under this Government—we find Māori are always last on the list. We’re at the bottom of cancer treatment, we’re at the bottom of vaccinations; you name it, we’re right at the bottom. And it takes a big-mouth, steely person like myself to actually stand up to such horrible and misinformed information that comes out of our DHBs.

When the Labour Government was last in power, my mother needed to have a hip operation. I went to the district health board and asked the district health board why she wasn’t higher up on their list. Did you know, all the Māori patients that were supposed to have hip operations at this district health board weren’t even on the list? So I had to fight to get her on the list to get that operation, and a number of her kaumātua friends missed out until she got it and then they came on the list. That was under the previous Labour-led Government.

What is up with Dr Lance O’Sullivan? Why is he so concerned? Why is he calling for a Minister for Māori Health? Why is he making moves to iwi, asking them for $5 million a head to set up the Māori unit? It’s because he is so disillusioned with the way this Government is treating Māori families in this country. Education and health—they are really key to our survival, and those are the two main areas in which this Government is letting Māori down.

I can tell you now, for each Māori life lost goes the richness of Aotearoa and the culture that we have here—every Māori life that is lost because of the inability of this Government to actually service them. We have lost that culture. If international communities actually recognise and support Māori culture, then why doesn’t this Government? Why doesn’t it recognise the beauty and the richness that Māori bring?

Northland has the largest Māori population in this country. The next one is the East Coast of the North Island, and third is Lakes District. So why hasn’t there been more investment of health dollars from this Government in those areas to combat these diseases? Today might be the first day that women were able to vote in Aotearoa New Zealand, and yet our babies are dying. They are dying from diseases that if they had access to those medications they would be alive today.

Are Māori lives not worth saving? This is the question that I ask this Government. This is the question that I ask this Minister. This is the question that I lay on the floor in this House for everybody within the Government to respond to. Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker.

Well, the Opposition is having a hard day over there. They’re having a hard time, and they are angry, and they are sad. They are trying to put it on this side of the House for being woeful and neglectful for X, Y, and Z, but I have to say that it is because of their own incompetence for nine long years of having absolute disregard for the people of communities like mine, Tai Rāwhiti, where that fine member that just spoke prior, Jo Hayes, says she is proudly from.

Well, Te Tai Rāwhiti is the first place in the world to see the sun, but the sun didn’t shine while the previous Government was in. But you know what they’re saying out there on the streets in Gisborne? They are saying that they feel like there is a real sense of partnership. I heard that from a paid-up Tory party member. He came to me and he said, “I had no idea that this is what true partnership”—and he’s a real community leader up there in Gisborne—“and absolute partnership feels like when a Government hears you and when they work alongside you.”

As we can demonstrate, the $153 million announcement—that came as a consequence of what we refer to as the “coalition Bible”, our coalition agreement. In that coalition agreement, what does it say? What did it do? It said that we will prioritise the regions through 3 billion bucks. The “First Citizen of the Province”, the Hon Shane Jones—not to be known as “Matua Shane” but as the Hon Shane Jones—is going out there and listening to people along this side of the House and that side of the House. The leaders in our communities—they’re feeling heard and they’re feeling seen. So that takes us to our next point.

There’s a real momentum. There’s a momentum out there, guys. There’s a momentum. You know how we know that? It’s because it’s not just our own that are saying that—it ain’t just our own; it’s your fullas’ guys. It’s the old hashtag—the right honourable Simon Bridges. Save Simon; he’s a fantastic leader. I couldn’t applaud him more, because his analysis is spot on. There is a real momentum that is coming from this side of the House and our Government—kudos to him. So where is that momentum? That momentum, as I’ve said, is being felt out there in the regions. When we came in, there was a -2.9 percent of the proportion of the total economic output for the regions. Right now, like I said, 3 billion bucks is being invested all throughout those places that didn’t feel the sunshine. But where else is it being felt?

Now, the member opposite me right now, she’s a fantastic woman, Barbara Kuriger. She will know this, because she is a leader within her community out there in the regions. Now, she will know that in the primary sector, there is a real warmth and there is a momentum for what this side of the House is doing in the primary industries. Now, there was a commitment when we came in, and that was right in quite a tumultuous time. It was the seeds of an outbreak, a biosecurity outbreak, the causes of which we don’t need to go into. But what there was was that for many families up and down this country, they were enduring an outbreak of M. bovis, and what did this side of the House have to do? Very, very quickly, it had to sit down alongside a lot of folks who didn’t really believe that we were going to walk alongside them as communities, and we did just that—leaders within the industries; we walked alongside families out there in the streets. You had the Prime Minister and you had Ministers out there meeting with families to ensure that we could come up with a regime that would ensure that we got through that M. bovis outbreak, and that was one of the most tumultuous things that we could’ve come into straight away.

What else have we been doing out there in the primary industries? Well, we’ve launched the Sustainable Food & Fibre Futures programme. That has been received exceptionally well across both sides of the House, and I know that the member across the pathway, Barbara Kuriger, knows that as well. I mean, it’s got to be said: probably the biggest achievement that we can say on this side of the House, when we’re looking at economic growth in this year, when we’re looking at a 3.7 percent unemployment rate, and we look at the kids that are going into new industries like forestry because we’re planting 1 billion trees over the next decade—and I think we’re up to about 70 million or something like that. The tree-counter is on. The sun is shining and there is momentum on the streets. Hear, hear!

Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. I’ll change it down a couple of pegs from the previous speaker, Kiritapu Allan.

As the Northland MP, I read in the news about the meningitis outbreak in Northland before the Government actually told us so. Actually, just out of interest, I had a survivor of meningitis in my office today—this morning, actually: Horowhenua District councillor Victoria Kaye-Simmons. Now, she was lucky enough to be diagnosed early and receive treatment, but nationwide this year, we started off in January with four, then it went up to 10 in February, 22 in March, and we had two deaths. It got up to 29 in April and 39 in May. This is serious stuff.

We have children in Northland dying from preventable diseases, and the Northland District Health Board (DHB) asked the Ministry of Health about a vaccination programme. They pleaded with them months ago, and the Government only launched an urgent programme on Monday of this week, and they only ordered the vaccines two weeks ago, give or take. It’s just not good enough—not enough vaccines and only selected schools.

So who wins and who loses in this process? We have three dead Northland kids. Take the teenage boy from Kerikeri—I won’t say his name, but he’s widely known and loved in our community. He goes to the same school as my daughter, and he is the same age as my daughter, and he died a little over a month ago from this deadly disease. Now, this Government says it responded swiftly to this outbreak, but I don’t think so. Sorry, but they haven’t. I know that the DHB chief, Dr Nick Chamberlain said—and I quote—“We have been strongly encouraging the Ministry of Health for some months to approve this campaign as it’s the only truly preventative measure for our population.” The Ministry of Health apparently have been discussing with him for some months now. They only came up with a plan in late October, and only now are the wheels in motion. What does it take to get some action on this? This delay is totally unacceptable when we’re talking about our children. It’s going to cost our DHB close to a million dollars. Our budget is stretched in Northland; this needs to come directly from Government.

The Northland DHB have been warning since May, and you would think this would have stirred this Government into action. The DHB advised their own colleagues to get their children vaccinated. Surely—surely—this information should’ve been made public, but the Government only warned us in Northland on 6 November. This is not OK. This Government claims to be the people’s saviour. They claim to be the messiah from heaven, but they can’t even get the basics right. They made big promises to the public prior to the election: 100,000 houses—that ain’t going to happen. One billion trees—I hear that all the time. That’s a laugh. Every child out of poverty—well, let’s start by saving their lives.

But what about Northland—what about Northland? We are at the bottom of the pile. Our stats are the poorest in the country, and if you don’t believe me, come north and speak to our people. I do every day, and I hear it endlessly. Our children are paying the price. When our people call, this Government needs to answer our SOS. This Government talked a big game. They have talked a big game, and they continue to talk a big game, this Government. For every child’s sake, they should deliver on what they promised. Thank you.

It’s a terrible thing when you wake in the morning and hope that everything’s gone wrong because it’s the only hope you have in your life. I heard a commentator, and I understood how close he is—I’m talking about Mr Michael Hosking—to the National Party, because the Hon Mark Mitchell, in the previous debate, talked about speaking with him on air. He told him to do something, and he said in this House that he went and did it. That’s how close he is.

Actually, Mr Hosking was speaking to a commentator, and he said that the headline had been “Stocks are down” and there was some quite bad economic news, and the glee in his voice was—“The rubber’s hitting the road” was the expression he used. This was good because it was bad news, but, unfortunately, the correspondent he had on said, “Actually, no. That’s overseas news. The New Zealand news is good.”, and he went through the corresponding bond prices, the stock prices, etc., for New Zealand. The gloom that entered Mr Hosking’s voice by the end of the interview—he’d moved on.

I had a conversation with a very rabid National Party supporter later that day, who actually said the same thing: “I’m waiting for everything to go bad just so I can prove how bad you are.” This is what permeates, so it’s a terrible thing.

So those opposite—there are some good people over there, intelligent people, but it’s a terrible place to be where you’re hoping and you’re looking and you say, “Ah! Petrol prices—ha, ha! We’ve got you there—whoops! I think I paid $2.02 for a litre of petrol last week.”, because what we do in New Zealand, that’s nothing to do with it. Petrol prices are coming down, and that’s taken away a lot of their debate. Oh, that’s stymied. “Oh, hold on, we’ll move on to crime figures. They’ll get—oh no! Victimisation figures are down. We’ll move on. There’ll be something—there’ll be something we can find.”, and then it goes through the doom and the gloom. The news just gets worse over there, because economic growth—“Oh, we’ll get them on that. Oh no, economic growth figures are good: 3 percent, 3.5 percent. They’re coming through. Interest rates stable.” That’s the Hon Amy Adams over there, every day.

But she’s got one—she’s got one. Every day, it’s “Business confidence—we’ll get ’em on this.”, and I see it over there. I’m sitting quite high up the back, and I can look down on them. They say, “Business confidence”, because there’s nothing else. There used to be other things written on the bit of paper, but all she’s got “Business confidence”—that’s the only thing they’ve got. Sad news—sad news—because the businessmen I know, now, are getting it. They’re starting to understand that we’re in good, and so even that one—the last hope that they had over there—is actually being taken away from them.

But then there are always farmers. The old farmers—farmers. They’ll be gloomy. They hate Labour. They hate anything—well, in most of those rural electorates, you could put an old goat up with a blue ribbon around it and they’d vote for it. They’ll be right. Bad news—bad news for the Opposition, sorry. Business confidence: 68 percent of sheep and beef farmers said that they were confident about business in the future—sorry. So that light at the end of the tunnel—they thought the light at the end of the tunnel was going to be farmers and the rural sector, who were going to be on their side. No, the light at the end of the tunnel—

💬 Matt King: Stuart Nash, put us out of our misery, please!

—sorry, Mr Matt King—it’s the train coming the other way. You haven’t even got that one.

But, all levity aside, can I just start to have a look at—when you just remember, many of the other side do represent electorates. But all this hope you have, all this dream you have, all this negativity, going around meetings, saying how bad and how terrible things are—actually, you’re talking about real people in your own electorates. They should get just a little more positive, because the things that we are doing—KiwiBuild and all those things—are going to be things that are going to be good for those in your electorates. So don’t just listen to those few, those ones who pay for your elections, the ones who put in $14,999 and you get it back—don’t listen to them. Listen to the people actually out there who are benefiting from this, and the people that are benefiting from this are going to be in your electorate, as well.

So don’t wake up tomorrow morning gleefully hoping there’s some bad news that we can throw here. Actually, think about your own people. Think about the people you actually represent out there, the vast majority of whom are actually doing very well under this coalition Government, like it or not. So just get on with it.

I mean, I know that it’s lovely to wake up and think that everything’s crashed, but it isn’t going to happen, because what you’ve got on this side of the House are people who are determined, firstly, to make sure we have a good economy. We understand that you need a good economy and we understand you need business on board, but we understand too that there is no such thing as trickle-down. Trickle-down is simply—as I think someone a lot smarter than me said—those with money urinating on those without money, and so we can’t actually have it that way. It’s only good Government policy that will allow many of yours and ours in our electorates to actually—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

Well, with a contribution like that from the member for Ōhāriu, it is clear that he is auditioning for a career in the drama world, because that was an appalling speech by the member for Ōhāriu. But I’m here because school is clearly out and it seems like everybody is on strike.

We have had rolling strikes from people in the primary school industry. The secondary school teachers have announced that they’re going to be going on strike later on next year. We’ve had nurses go on strike, bus drivers, train workers, junior doctors, Ministry of Justice workers, St John Ambulance workers, Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and IRD workers, anaesthetic technician workers, midwives. The police have wanted to strike but they can’t, and now a court strike—court staff want to strike. Have I missed anybody? I’m sure I have, because under this Government, we’ve got a lot more strikes than under the previous nine years of the National Government.

Now, the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, Iain Lees-Galloway, won’t be up front on how many people have striked under this Government, but our estimates put it at anywhere up above 65,000, with far more to come under this Government and under the changes that they are proposing in the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. This bill is payback for Labour’s union mates. It aims to grow union membership and strengthen union power—everything for unions in this bill, but nothing for the workers of New Zealand. This bill does everything for the 17 percent of New Zealand workers that are part of a union, but nothing for the 83 percent of New Zealand workers that are not.

New Zealand First will sit here and say, “Well, hang on a minute. We got some concessions from this bill and some concessions that are going to make this far better for businesses in New Zealand.” The truth is they got diddly-squat. Let me run you through the changes that they got as part of the bill. Firstly, they’ve got a small delay in the introduction, and they got a delay in the way union reps can access the workplace, and those changes just favour the unions.

What else can I just run you through? We’ve got some things that the New Zealand First Party has trumpeted—for example, stuff that’s around giving access to unions in the workplace for those on collective agreements, but we know that if you’re on a collective agreement and if your employer is under a collective agreement, then of course the multi-employer collective agreement still applies to you and you cannot opt out of that. You’ve got a lot of other cosmetic changes in this bill and, in summary, the New Zealand First Party got diddly-squat from their employment relations changes.

We fundamentally oppose the purpose of the Employment Relations Amendment Bill. We rank fifth in the world, according to the World Economic Forum, for labour market efficiency. We rank sixth in the world for the cooperation between labour and employment relations. Why mess with a good labour market system which has already produced fantastic results and results that this Government is trumpeting: 3.9 percent unemployment and high labour-force participation rates. Strengthening the aggressive, combative unions is not the answer. Unions do not represent the workers of New Zealand, with less than 17 percent signed up to unions, and that’s down from 34 percent in 1991.

These changes are going to hurt New Zealand businesses, they’re going to destroy jobs, and they’re going to harm our economy. We here in the National Party want a future where our labour market is flexible, where we give Kiwis the opportunity to work where they want, when they want, and how they want. We want an employment framework that is simple and worker-centric, not union-centric. We oppose the employment relations changes. Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. Well, I think, after that depressing speech, it’s time for a bit of cheer. It is my pleasure to take a call in this general debate this afternoon for a number of reasons, but at the top of my list of reasons is the fact that this has been a tremendous year of relentless positivity, relentless compassion and kindness, and relentless hard work.

While we’re a couple of days shy of 1 December, I thought this may be my only opportunity to talk more broadly in the spirit of Christmas. My contribution this afternoon I’ve named “Twelve Achievements of Christmas: The Auspicious Government Remix”. So here goes. I’ll try to get through as many days as I can in the time that I’ve got, and I’m really sorry to disappoint you, but I won’t be singing.

On the first day of Christmas, our Government gave to Kiwis the first 18 KiwiBuild homes and a cute little citrus tree.

On the second day of Christmas, our Government gave to Kiwis an extension of paid parental leave, 18 KiwiBuild homes, and a commitment to give children the best start in life.

On the third day of Christmas, our Government gave to Kiwis the guarantee of a healthy home, an extension of paid parental leave, the first KiwiBuild homes, and a commitment to making sure all rentals are warm, dry, and affordable. Why? Because every New Zealander deserves a healthy home to live in at Christmastime, let alone all year round.

On the fourth day of Christmas, our Government gave to Kiwis first-year fees-free post-secondary school study, the guarantee of a healthy home, an extension of paid parental leave, the first KiwiBuild homes, and a commitment to making education more affordable and accessible.

💬 Chris Bishop: What happened on the fifth day?

But wait there’s more, Mr Bishop. On the fifth day of Christmas, our Government gave to Kiwis $3 billion of investment in the regions through the Provincial Growth Fund, first-year free study, the guarantee of a healthy home, an extension of paid parental leave, the first KiwiBuild homes, and a commitment to grow and support productivity in our regions.

On the sixth day of Christmas, our Government gave to Kiwis a restart of super fund contributions, a $3 billion investment in our regions from the Provincial Growth Fund, a year’s fees-free study, the guarantee of a healthy home, an extension of paid parental leave, the first KiwiBuild homes, and a commitment to investing responsibly to enhance the long-term well-being of Kiwis.

💬 Chris Bishop: What happened on the seventh day?

On the seventh day, Mr Bishop, our Government gave to Kiwis $1.5 billion to regenerate and revitalise Porirua, restart super fund contributions, $3 billion investment in the regions through the Provincial Growth Fund, first-year free study, the guarantee of a healthy home, an extension of paid parental leave, the first KiwiBuild homes, and a commitment to working alongside iwi and community to support healthier, safer, and connected communities.

On the eighth day of Christmas, our Government gave to Kiwis 3.9 percent unemployment, $1.5 billion to regenerate and revitalise Porirua, restarted super fund contributions, a $3 billion investment in the regions through the Provincial Growth Fund, first-year fees-free study, the guarantee of a healthy home, an extension of paid parental leave, the first KiwiBuild homes, and a commitment to supporting young people into education, employment, or training, particularly through programmes like our Mana in Mahi initiative.

On the ninth day of Christmas, our Government gave to Kiwis an $80 million investment to fix one of our major hospitals, 3.9 percent unemployment, $1.5 billion to regenerate and revitalise Porirua, restarted super fund contributions, $3 billion investment into the regions through the Provincial Growth Fund, first-year free study, a guarantee of a healthy home, an extension of paid parental leave, the first KiwiBuild homes, and a commitment to improving access to high-quality health services and providing world-class facilities in our hospital.

I think I’m going to run out of days, unfortunately, because my time is just about up. I know you’re really, really disappointed, but, you know, I can send it to you.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, our Government gave to Kiwis a renewed sense of hope, aspiration, ambition, and an opportunity for them to realise their worth and to live out their vision, supported by a Government that governs from a place of integrity, compassion, and kindness.

I am going to remind members about disorderly behaviour and especially disorderly behaviour for people who call people by their first names.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.