General Debate

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

Kia orana. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Today I want to say, very clearly, that everyone needs a home and that we need to move away from housing as a commodity, towards a home and thriving communities—

💬 Hon Member: What about that land by the airport?

—as a fundamental human right instead of a privilege. We need to forge a whole new approach to delivering housing—in particular, understanding that housing was always supposed to be a core public good, a core responsibility of provision from the Crown, just like healthcare, education, and transport.

It has always been naive and irresponsible, in fact, to expect that a market-driven approach will prioritise anything other than profit, when we need houses and communities to address social and environmental concerns for people and our planet; for the needs of people, especially, moving into a world and a society that has to address climate change and inequality.

The communities that we design today need to respond and need to address a zero-carbon world. We need to be aiming for the highest standard of energy efficiency—like passive housing, where we can minimise the need for artificial heating through things like triple-glazed windows, through things like smart ventilation systems, and through things like maximum airtight build. This would benefit our people. This would benefit our community design. This would benefit our planet. We will need Government support to get a New Zealand - based, a locally based industry to the point where we are able to have these energy-efficient builds as a standard approach to the way that we have to live in our country and, indeed, the world.

The worst way that we can design communities is to undermine the justice and dispute issues at the heart of any particular land that proposes to be developed upon—I refer directly to Ihumātao, given the shouts coming from that side of the House. That is the worst way to design communities. So the communities that we do design need to be with people. They need to be connected to where we live, work, and play. They need to be with our schools, our efficient and affordable public transport systems, where we work, and where we play—our green places—and co-housing as a way of being able to address better use of land and also better use and understanding of how communities operate.

I cannot put up a housing vision without addressing public housing. I celebrate, with this Government, that we have built the most public houses that this country has actually seen for at least two decades. I want an Aotearoa where public houses also are built to a minimum energy-efficiency design, and co-house-type and papakāinga-type choices and arrangements as another standard way for us to use the land, and building better.

I spoke at our AGM in Dunedin in the weekend about one of our flagship policies of a rent-to-own, Government-backed initiative as part of a massive lever to address the housing crisis issues that we are facing today, where we target low to middle income families—families who are nowhere near being able to save a deposit but are paying a rent—that we have a Government build scheme that allows that rent in the first, say, five years, to go towards building equity in owning their own home. This will allow more families to put down roots in their communities, to not have to worry about shifting their children’s schools, looking for other jobs, or leaving their neighbourhoods and friends.

A strong public housing programme, a rent-to-own policy, secure renters’ rights, and addressing homelessness—these are parts of the new ways of forging a better approach to ending the housing crisis. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This Government has played fast and loose on housing. Six months ago, the Government announced it would have a KiwiBuild reset in a few weeks. Fast and loose. It wasn’t in April, it wasn’t in the Budget. It was going to be in July—no, July’s gone. We’re now in August; apparently it’s going to be in September. We wait and we wait.

In August, last year, Phil Twyford said that he was going to redo all of the residential tenancy rules and have a look at the whole thing; there would be a review. What’s happened? Nothing. Fast and loose again. He said if landlords don’t like it, well, then, they can take their money elsewhere—that’s what he said. What has happened is that landlords have taken their money elsewhere.

They are now, in this Government, overseeing the worst State housing crisis that this country has ever seen. We now have 12,000 families waiting on the State house waiting register—12,000 families—up from 6,000 families when the National Government left office almost two years ago. When the Government changed, Labour said they were going to fix what they had described as “the housing crisis”, and what they’ve done now is build more tents.

We’ve heard from the Green member Marama Davidson, who talks about a rent-to-buy scheme using State housing. These are the same people who opposed every attempt that National had to get people who are State tenants into owning their own home.

What we have seen is the State house waiting list double. We have seen in the Speech from the Throne that there would be a rent-to-buy scheme introduced. Nothing has been delivered. In two years, we’ve just seen people given promises; promises made and, then, not delivered on. Again, it’s a fast and loose Government on housing.

Phil Twyford liked to walk around with tears in his little eyes, saying, “We’ve now got a housing Minister who acknowledges we have a housing crisis.” Well, he’s just made it worse, and that’s the problem. Many New Zealanders have to rent—or choose to rent, depending on their circumstances—and the one thing that they need is a house, not a tent, but that’s what we’re getting under this Government.

💬 Remember: we were going to have no more people living in cars in the winter. Now, actually, that number has gone up. Where’s the media? Oh, I don’t know, maybe no longer talking to Labour as they were. The Labour Party had nine years in Opposition to work with the National Party—and the then Government—on Resource Management Act (RMA) reform. They refused every single—every single—overture to work with us to bring forward really good RMA reform to free up housing land, to free up the cost of houses, to free up getting more houses built. Instead, what we now have is that Phil Twyford’s admitted we need major housing reform, and I see the new State housing Minister, Kris Faafoi, overseeing the worst housing crisis in State housing we’ve ever seen

KiwiBuild was always a farce. And what we’ve seen is all these houses promised under KiwiBuild—remember, it was 1,000 in the first year; we’ve got 83. Well, 83 is OK; it’s not 1,000, though. In Canterbury there’s an underwrite—a promise, a guarantee, a price—of 70 houses that were already under construction anyway. Six of those have been sold. Almost two years in and six of them have been sold.

We’re going to have to as a Parliament appropriate money for 64 houses in Canterbury off the same developer in just a few weeks. In that time almost nothing has happened. We in Government had nine years and we brought in all sorts things like the HomeStart scheme. We got 70,000 families or young couples into their first home, and this Government has done almost nothing. They’ve promised big. They’ve talked big, they’ve had a little cry; what they haven’t done is actually deliver for New Zealanders. They’ve been very fast and loose with the truth about what they could deliver—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order!

—and what they needed to actually do. They’ve been very fast and loose with housing, Mr Speaker, and they haven’t been able to deliver on their promises. When this Government announces its reset in some more weeks’ or possibly months’ time, it’s going to reset back to the National Party policy that actually delivered—a party that delivered nine years of progress.

Like someone like someone who has just had an eye operation, that member can see—and she sees a housing crisis. She doesn’t, of course, refer to the 585 houses in the Wairarapa, which they sold in a sweetheart deal to one of their mates for $20,000 each—an absolute and utter scandal. She doesn’t refer to the fact that we have the highest housing build ratio at the moment since 1973. No, she’s blind to all that and then blames, of all people, the Labour Party and, dare I say it, New Zealand First for not getting the Resource Management Act reformed. She had a majority and now she’s blaming this side for nine years of total utter inertia and inaction.

Now, I’m not here to argue that. I’m here to call out a guy called Hamish Walker who when I left to go overseas just recently decided when I was gone that he would attack me. Now, let me tell “Junior from the Deep South” he made one serious mistake doing that because we don’t attack people when they’re not here. We usually have enough courage to do it when they are here. But no, no—

💬 SPEAKER: We’re not going to reflect on members’ courage are we?

No, I’m not going to do that, no—not when he hadn’t got any.

💬 SPEAKER: It sounded like the member was heading in that direction. I just wanted to cut him off at the pass.

I was not going to take that detour. I just mentioned the fact that you should attack a member when he is here, when he can respond. For example, he took a piece of information from The AM Show, which was itself based on a falsity, and then said that I’d broken my word. Now, when I was on The AM Show they mentioned the KiwiSaver legislation where foster children were concerned and they claimed that they had the legislation already drafted. And when I was on that show his amendment hadn’t yet been submitted to the House—go and look at the chronology; hadn’t even been submitted the House—so how could I have known about it? Do you see the fraud? Do you hear what I’m talking about? Well, that’s what he did.

Now, can I say he went on to then complain about us, but he never mentioned, for example, that when there was the Child, Youth and Family department in this country there were a large number of children, that is foster children, who were on KiwiSaver—a large number—until of course the National Party removed the $1,000 kick-start payment in 2015. Where is this guy who deserves the “h” word now?

💬 Hon Member: What a disgrace.

What a disgrace. There he is. There are hundreds on KiwiSaver as a result of the previous department and along comes National—so supportive of savings they remove their $1,000 kick-start payment. And then he gets up here like some virtuous clown from the deep South and starts saying what a brilliant idea this is—what a brilliant idea this is.

Now, my word to him and Duncan Garner is: if you want to attack me, you get your darn facts right. Don’t just have me on the show, claim that there’s a piece of law which is there and it doesn’t exist, and say, “You respond to that.” Go and look at the chronology of when he tabled his Supplementary Order Paper—hours after I was on the show. You get my point here?

Now, I want some of these senior members here to show some leadership for a change, show some principles, show some standards. I know it’s a bit hard for me to demand that of them, but please don’t think you’re going to get away with this thoroughly disreputable behaviour—deceitful in the extreme. Now, we all know that over there you’ve got a bunch of people who are all fighting amongst themselves. Guess why—because they haven’t got a leader. They haven’t got a leader. Gerry thinks he’s a leader.

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Mr Brownlee.

And we’ve got the guy from up Rodney. He thinks he’s a leader. And then you’ve got all sorts of people putting their names forward. They can’t even rate 1 percent in the polls but they still think they’re leaders. They’re fractious. They’re falling apart.

💬 Brett Hudson: It’s about New Zealand First.

Oh, don’t look at New Zealand First—or, dare I say it, this Government. This Government has got leaders. In fact, it’s got a whole lot of potential leaders. It’s got talent and skill, but over there you got all these tired old, very old-looking people like Mr Smith—tired and old; use-by date gone decades ago, decades ago. And then you’ve got “Myrtle Rust”—“Myrtle Rust”, who’s leading the charge and loses every battle.

💬 Hon Maggie Barry: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I take offence and exception to what that member has just described me as and would like an apology.

💬 SPEAKER: Well, I have a problem here because there was a description used. No member was actually referred to.

💬 Hon Maggie Barry: Speaking to the point of order—

💬 SPEAKER: Well, speaking to the point of order, if—no, I am going to say that this appears to be a reference to the member, who has taken offence, and I will ask the Deputy Prime Minister to withdraw.

I withdraw and apologise. I really am so sorry that I’ve offended some person. I mean, when you get—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! I’m going to ask the member to sit down, to withdraw and—I didn’t even require him to apologise. If he wants to, he can. He will withdraw, but then he won’t comment on the ruling or on the matter any further.

I withdraw. Can I get back to my subject matter, though. Over there is this leaderless rabble, and they’ve got a man called Simon Bridges, who thinks he will follow the Crosby/Textor narrative and throw out a whole lot of fake news and he’s going to win. I want these members to know right now that we’re going to fight fire with fire, we’re going to fight water with water, and we’re going to drown out that deceit in the next few months as we go to the next election. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. What is going on in the New Zealand First Party? What is going on? What is going on?

Earlier today, we had the extraordinary spectacle of the New Zealand First Party MPs taking, I think, eight different positions on whether or not there’ll be a referendum on abortion. Tracey Martin went on Morning Report and said, “I don’t believe we talked about that. It’s nothing to do with me. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Clayton Mitchell, you know, was happy to provide comment down on the tiles on a Tuesday, but on a Wednesday, he was straight through with “Nothing to see here. Move along.”, and I think he went out the back way.

Mr Peters, the Deputy Prime Minister, suddenly does what I think we’d call a “doing an Andrew Little”—dropping a bombshell on the Minister of Justice. What I want to know is what did Andrew Little do to the Deputy Prime Minister in a past life? It seems like every year the Minister of Justice proposes an idea—last year, it was three strikes; this year, it’s having abortion law reform—and then the Deputy Prime Minister comes along and says, “Oh, I don’t think so, actually.”

“Oh, I’ve got a new idea.” Last year it was—no, that never went to Cabinet: “We’re not in support of that.” This year, it’s “Oh, I’ve suddenly got this grand idea. We’ll have a referendum.” He forgot to tell his caucus.

He forgot to tell his colleagues, and poor old Tracey Martin, the former deputy leader of New Zealand First, was hung out to dry on Morning Report, and now Clayton Mitchell, I understand, is making a run for the deputy leadership. He’s getting rid of his good mate Fletcher—he’s getting rid of Fletcher—and matua Shane, the caretaker, the chiropractor, of the provinces, is sitting there. He’s just biding his time. He knows good things come to those who wait—good things come to those who have loud voices and can go around and sprinkle the pixie dust around the provinces.

So what’s going on in New Zealand First? Well, no one knows. But let’s talk about the Green Party. What’s going on in the Green Party? All I have to say there is how the mighty have fallen. How the mighty have fallen. They signed up to this coalition agreement—or, sorry, I shouldn’t say “coalition” because that only refers to New Zealand First and the Labour Party. They signed up to a confidence and supply agreement with the Labour Party, and what does it say? It says that the Greens and the Labour Party will strengthen democracy by increasing transparency around official information. They will “Strengthen … transparency around official information.”

Once upon a time, the Green Party used to stand up here all the time and hector us, actually, about the Official Information Act, and colleagues and Ministers in the last Government will remember the sanctimony from the Green Party. “You need to release this. You can’t wear different hats.”, and, you know, “Oh, John Key shouldn’t be the National Party leader and also the Prime Minister. You can’t do all that, you secretive, corrupt Government.”—all those sorts of allegations and all those claims.

Well, what do we find now? Well, now we find Julie Anne Genter, the Associate Minister of Transport, dancing on the head of a pin so tiny in question time in order to not release the secret letter that she sent to Minister Phil Twyford. Now, people out there listening might say, “Well, why does this matter? It’s just a letter.” Well, actually, it does matter because the second Mount Victoria tunnel is critical for Wellington and critical for the Hutt Valley, and we need to know—the Parliament deserves to know and Wellingtonians deserve to know and the people of New Zealand deserve to know—what was in that letter.

We believe that that letter had a substantive impact on the Let’s Get Wellington Moving final package. In fact, the Minister has even accepted that it had some influence. We know that the second Mount Victoria tunnel was all lined up for 2024, for 2029. Now, it’s on the never-never, and we believe it’s because of that secret letter. It should be released, right? It absolutely should be released.

What are Minister Julie Anne Genter’s excuses? “Well, the Ombudsman says I don’t have to.”, except if you go and read the Ombudsman’s opinion, as I have done, it relates to an email, or emails—plural—from the Green Party to the Government, OK? There is a case to be made that emails between political parties around consultation should not be released. That is not what we are talking about here. This is not an email from the Green Party to the Government; this is a letter written on ministerial letterhead, as we found out yesterday; signed by the Minister as “Julie Anne Genter, Associate Minister of Transport”, as we found out today; and sent to her senior colleague, the Minister of Transport. So the Ombudsman’s opinion provides no factual foundation for the defence.

What else have we heard? The second defence is that it wasn’t sent in her capacity as a Minister, except the problem for her there is that Minister Phil Twyford says—as we found out today—that he received a letter from the Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter. It was signed as Associate Minister, it was sent on letterhead, and she’s answered oral and written questions about it for the last two weeks as the Associate Minister.

The truth will out in the end, and Wellingtonians will find out just what influence the Green Party’s had on Labour Party transport policy.

Nobody’s interested in Mr Bishop’s stupid letter. No one’s interested in Mr Bishop’s stupid letter. They’re interested in Ginny Andersen and in Ginny Andersen taking his seat. We already know that. There’s a lot of support for Ginny. Ginny sticks to the issues, and the issues, Mr Bishop, are jobs.

Yesterday, the National Party were waiting. They were waiting for terrible and negative news, and salivating because all their economist mates had told them the sky was going to fall in. The roofs were going to cave in. Everything was going to come to an end. Everything was over because the coalition Government had dared to put up the minimum wage, had dared to treat workers with a bit of equity, with a bit of support, and with a bit of respect. That’s right—a bit of respect.

How dare the coalition Government treat workers with respect? And because of that, the great patriots on the other side wanted the economy to drop, to go through the floor. They wanted record unemployment. This is what the Opposition wanted. They were praying for it. They were praying for negativity. They’re great patriots for you, aren’t they? Fancy wanting all that negativity. But what happened? They were salivating, waiting. Three point nine percent—3.9 percent in terms of unemployment, record unemployment—the best in 10 years.

💬 Hon Member: Ōpōtiki.

We’ll get to Ōpōtiki. Māori unemployment is down to 7.7 percent. I mean, things are just getting better and better. I wonder how that happened? Oh, we invested in the people—we invested in the people. Shane Jones went to the regions. We invested in young people. When we go to the regions, they say to us, “National didn’t want to know about us. They just gave us baseline—baseline funding.” That’s what the National Party did. They didn’t want to go over the limit. They just wanted to give them peanuts. So in the regions we have heroes, unsung heroes, who never got an opportunity under the previous Government—Jack Johnson in the North, Peeni Henare’s whanaunga up there, who’s investing in young people, going into the forests, getting upskilled, helping with Shane Jones’ projects. We have a mana wahine team in the North, all run by Jack Johnson. It’s touching when we go there and they say to us, “We love you. We embrace you. The last Government forgot about us—didn’t want to know about us.”

We go down to the Ngāti Kahungunu and we meet with the mayor, Sandra Hazlehurst. Sandra cried when we gave her funding—she cried. She said, again, National—well, she didn’t actually say that; we said that. But we said, “National never gave you anything, did they, Sandra?” And she said, of course, “No. I’m just so overwhelmed because I have an opportunity to invest in young people through your scheme, He Poutama Rangatahi.” This is the Mayor of Hastings, someone the Opposition doesn’t care about—although Lawrence Yule was there, and I say congratulations to Lawrence. He put politics to the side, and I apologise to him for calling him a disgrace to Ngāti Kahungunu when I was in the House, because he put the politics aside and he came and supported the kaupapa down there—Sandra Hazlehurst.

In Ōpōtiki, you would have seen the story on the TVNZ news the other night—an opportunity again. We’ve made more than $1.7 million in investments in Ōpōtiki with our He Poutama Rangatahi programme, connecting our young people with trade. Then we have the pathways to trades in Tauranga and in Rotorua, giving our people opportunity. We’re so happy to be able to invest and support our people through He Poutama Rangatahi, through Mana in Mahi, giving people an opportunity. We get the dopey lot on the other side saying to us, “Oh, you’ve had a 30 percent drop-off in Mana in Mahi.” We’re proud of that. It’s a 70 percent success rate with kids and whānau. Some of their fathers never work. Some of them come from drug backgrounds. Please tell them: stop asking idiotic and stupid questions about Mana in Mahi. Mana in Mahi is a success. This Government is a success.

So we congratulate Grant Robertson. We congratulate Shane Jones. We’re well on the way to success, and I think I’ll congratulate myself, too, as the Minister of Employment. We’re on track. We’re successful. Get positive, National.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to follow my humble colleague Willie Jackson. On Monday night when Simon Bridges was preparing to go to bed, he asked for two simple things. He needed two numbers to go his way. He prayed for unemployment to go up, because that’s what he needs, and he prayed for his preferred Prime Minister polling to go up. None of those things happened, and that’s the cold, hard reality of the negative National Party at the moment. They don’t want the best for the country. Even when unemployment goes down, they get upset and angry, because they don’t have a positive vision for New Zealand after wasting the opportunity of nine years on this side of the House.

I noticed a difference today in the National Party when the Hon Judith Collins led off the general debate. When I watch the general debate from this side of the House and Mr Bridges leads off, I see a phenomenon which I call the general debate grin. The members opposite don’t notice it because they can’t see it, but it’s almost like watching people getting on a roller coaster that they don’t want to be on. Just minutes before the thing takes off, they get on, they’re locked in, they can’t get out, and they’re smiling nervously, wondering what the hell is about to happen. But today, when the Hon Judith Collins led off the debate, they were happy. They felt enthusiastic. All the messages were wrong, but you could see the uplift in the National Party caucus.

When I see the general debate grin on the other side, I feel sorry for the National Party, because it’s all in proximity to the leader. If you’re the deputy leader, you have to have the biggest grin, and we see that in Paula Bennett. If you’re in the whip’s chair—and I’m sorry to single you out, Matt—you also have to have a big grin. But then when you get out to the periphery of the Chamber and the seats in the House, those who are worried about the polling of the National Party, the grin turns into a grimace, and they know that the more that Mr Bridges speaks in this House—or, actually, the more he speaks—the chances of some of those members on the periphery making their way back to the Chamber after the 2020 election go south very fast.

I want to use one example of Mr Bridges’ musings last week. I wasn’t in the country. I was visiting my parents’ island nation of Tokelau. The one message I would want to give to Mr Bridges is if you’re going to have a crack at Tokelauans, then you’d better be ready for the pushback. There are only 8,000 Tokelauans in New Zealand, but what I’m really looking forward to is having 8,000 more door-knockers and delivery people at the next election. They will respect this side of the House and the pride in the fact that they are New Zealanders, and are everyday New Zealanders, and the fact that this Government respects that, and that our Prime Minister will visit their tiny atoll nations and their atolls, because they’re dealing with everyday long-term issues like climate change.

So Mr Bridges, next time we have Tokelau Language Week in this House, I want you to think long and hard before you take a gift from the Tokelau community, because you can’t go dissing them and then taking their gifts. We’re very happy and humble and noble people, but, Mr Bridges, don’t go dissing them when they have the huge privilege of their Prime Minister visiting their country.

Now, enough about them and their doom and gloom, because there is a lot of good stuff happening on this side of the House. I’ve already mentioned Willie Jackson’s 3.9 percent unemployment rate—heading south like, as I said, Simon Bridges’ preferred Prime Minister polling. The other side of the House said, “You can’t have low unemployment when you’re lifting wages.” Well, we’ve made liars of them. It is possible to make sure that people can have a decent income and create jobs. That’s the cold, hard reality.

So my message to the people of New Zealand is you’ve got a Government that cares about the things that matter to you, not letterheads, but jobs, incomes, health, and education, and making sure that you stick up for the little people in the world as well. So I’m very proud to sit on this side of the House, where we are dealing with the long-term issues, and getting on with the issues that that previous Government never attended to. So I’m looking forward to next Wednesday when we all watch that general debate grin on the other side of the House.

Kia orana, Madam Speaker. Can I just say, following on from the general debate grin, grimace, grin, grimace thing going on on the Opposition side, that we’ve figured it out. We’ve figured out the strategy of the Opposition: obfuscation by association. It’s characterised like this: I think somewhere between yesterday and today, a comment was made that “One person’s misinformation is another person’s facts.”—One person’s misinformation is another person’s facts.

Now, this is what’s going on. Mr Bridges will say one thing, and we know that one of the other members like Ms Collins will say another thing. One person’s misinformation is one person’s facts. So we can figure this out in terms of what’s going on. It’s an interesting tag-team approach to ensure that the Opposition is continually confusing the facts. The facts are this: when we came into Government, unemployment was up. When we came into Government, there were more young people not in education, employment, and training. When we came into Government, there were poor health outcomes and poor educational achievement amongst a lot of New Zealanders.

But here’s the thing, we came into Government with a plan. We weren’t satisfied with the status quo. We needed to know that by being a coalition - confidence and supply Government people would feel differently about where the investments we would make would fundamentally make a difference.

It’s like this: we said we would invest in the regions. The Provincial Growth Fund has delivered so much to our regions. We can go anywhere throughout the country and it’s started a different conversation: local government talking with the business community, the business community talking with the private sector, the private sector talking with employment, education, and training providers. Overall, a whole different vibe’s going on, and those are the facts.

The regional economy is growing in such a way that we then fall to the second priority that this Government had, which was to ensure that people would benefit—that the prosperity would be shared. The employment statistics, I think, are very positive. And I want to commend my colleague Willie Jackson, because we can say that Māori unemployment has dropped from 9.4 percent to 7.7 percent comparative to this time last year. That’s huge. And what we can say about that is that more Māori are participating in the economy and more Māori are seeing the opportunity to contribute to a regional economy that is serving them.

But unemployment generally has dropped to 3.9 percent. That’s huge. That is huge. So that just shows that the investments of this Government are really getting cut-through. And then here’s the other thing, because we know, underpinning a productive regional economy, we’ve got to address the issues of productivity. So it’s about lifting the minimum wage and ensuring that we don’t maintain a low-wage economy approach—ensuring that we’re looking to productivity and we’re looking to raise wages. People see a purposeful opportunity in the way that we’re resetting our investments to grow the regional economy so that more people can benefit.

But I want to come back to young people, because, really, when I came into Parliament it was all about young people. How do they see themselves in the future if led by a Government who has values and wants to make sure that they’re a part of the next wave of ambition for who we are as a country? I am very, very proud about some of the investments that my colleague Willie Jackson is leading, especially for young people. I think about cadetships, and I look across at some of the really good examples: getting our young people back into planting. Yes, there’s the billion trees initiative, but, also, restoration of our waterways helps the environmental outcomes. There are so many good things happening. The cadetships that we have throughout the regions, where employers are able to take on young people and track them through to more permanent employment opportunities, alongside apprenticeships, are all the things that build the aspirations of our young people, and that is fantastic.

Here’s the thing, and I’m sure young people will get it. There’s a saying: “To have hope is to have wings.” Young people now, under this Government, have hope, because they can see the real, practical benefits on the ground of a Government who is investing in the regional economy, ensuring that they’re investing in the skills of our young people, the next generation, to take up the opportunities of employment and training and a long-term sustainable pathway for the future. At the end of the day, they want to contribute to the New Zealand we’re building here on this side of the House.

We’re not confusing things. The facts are that we know where the priorities are. We’re investing in the issues that really matter for many more New Zealanders so that prosperity can be shared around. We know we can’t change everything all at once, but we’re going to give it a damn good try, because our young people and the rest of New Zealand deserve that kind of vision.

That member, the Hon Nanaia Mahuta, was playing fast and loose with the facts, and forgetting to tell New Zealanders that there are 15,000 more people on the dole today then what there was with the change of Government.

But I want to talk about how the Government is playing fast and loose with referendum and electoral law. A year from today the writs will be served for the 2020 election, and we don’t know how many electorates there will be. We don’t know how many Māori seats there will be. We don’t know what referenda there will be. We don’t even know the rules under which that election will be held, and that situation is unprecedented.

This mess is part product of straight Government incompetence, it’s part product of each of the parties in Government trying to screw an electoral advantage out of our democratic system, and it’s part plain arrogance on the part of the Government where power has gone to their head. That is no better illustrated than by members opposite grabbing for Cabinet the exclusive right to decide what referenda will be held at the next election and what the wording of those referenda will be.

💬 Brett Hudson: Anti-democratic.

That is unprecedented, I’d say to my colleague—unprecedented since 1856. We’ve had 52 elections since then. Twenty of those have involved a referendum, and Parliament and the public have had a say in every single one of those.

Then let’s talk about the Government speaking out of different sides of its mouth about the referendum. The Prime Minister says, “Oh, the decisions on referendum are nothing to do with me.” Well, that’s a bit of a problem, Prime Minister, when you’ve just introduced a bill to the House to take the power away from Parliament and give it to Cabinet that you happen to share. Then we come to the Deputy Prime Minister. I read on Stuff the headline in the last five minutes with Winston Peters saying there will be a referendum on abortion at the next election. Then the Minister of Justice says there won’t be, and then Tracey Martin also repeats that line.

Can we think of a bigger mess around that? Here’s the granddaddy of them: Tracey Martin came to Parliament last night and said you can’t trust Parliament—oh, you can trust Cabinet; you can’t trust Parliament. Now, what sort of disrespect is that for this institution which is at the heart of our democracy? Here’s the bit I love: but you can trust Winston and Tracey on referendum, with them, on the same day she says she can’t trust Parliament, saying opposite things on whether we will have a referendum. It’s comical. It’s a train wreck. New Zealanders deserve much better.

Then we look at the incompetence of the Justice Committee. Do you know the inquiry into the election is now on to its sixth chair? Six chairpeople have been rotated through that role. Do members realise they didn’t start the election inquiry until 12 months, and now they’ve got themselves into an awful mess.

Then we come to the dodginess around electoral law. You see, Andrew Little and members opposite should read their speeches from when they were in Opposition, and I’d particularly invite the Greens to do so. They said electoral law changes should only be made after the Justice Committee. They said, on electoral law changes, there should be consultation with Opposition parties. I acknowledge Amy Adams, the former Minister of Justice, who consulted extensively with Opposition parties on every bill. Then members opposite say there should be a full select committee process on every electoral law.

Here’s the problem: not once, not twice, but three times, the Government—New Zealand First and Labour—have completely contradicted those rules. They are playing fast and loose on New Zealand’s democratic conventions. They are putting the integrity of the next election in this country at risk. If there’s anything that is important in this Parliament, it is that we respect our democratic tradition, and those who say Parliament can’t be trusted should be booted out of office.

Kia orana. Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. It’s such a joy to have the privilege to take a call in this general debate because, obviously, there is so much that we have to celebrate. It’s very obvious that we are a Government that’s tackling the big, long-term issues facing New Zealand. What I’d like to start off with—I know we have already heard it from a couple of our speakers, but there is so much good news to share. We’ve had the biggest pay rise for workers that we’ve seen in a decade: 4.4 percent. We have unemployment at the lowest we’ve seen in a decade, actually under 4 percent now at 3.9 percent. We’ve also seen Māori unemployment at the lowest since 2008 at 7.7 percent.

Now we have more jobs, we have higher wages, but still the Opposition sees this as a glass half empty instead of what should be a glass half full. They try and continue to talk the economy down and down and down. There’s so much to celebrate, like I said, but the National Party doesn’t like the direction that our country is heading in. They’re ignoring the facts of more jobs, record unemployment, and record wage growth. In fact, I heard something this morning on Morning Report. It was Simon Bridges, and he said, “one person’s misinformation is another person’s fact.” That actually makes very clear that that’s how the National Party operates. They are desperate, they’re in denial, and with whatever they’re saying, they’re trying to just rewrite history.

When talking down the economy, they also use information from the business confidence surveys, and they keep repeating, “Oh, business confidence is falling.” This is the graph. It’s very clear, actually, from historic data here that business confidence and GDP are not at all connected the way the National Party would like us to believe. If you would like to look at this graph and maybe just have a good look at the figures—because these are facts—it shows that business confidence, which is the blue line, continues to fall at times of very strong GDP growth, which is the line in red. Now, that was during the Clark Government. Then, very strangely, from May 2009 at the end of the recession and coinciding with the start of a John Key - National-led Government, it stayed high despite the fact that GDP in that period was actually lower than it was in the previous decade.

💬 Hon Dr Nick Smith: So what’s the member’s point?

My point, Mr Nick Smith, is that this business confidence survey and the assertions there are nothing else than an opinion poll by business leaders. It’s an opinion poll, and it should not be used to talk the economy down. The facts are positive, and assertions by business executives are really just assertions.

There’s a lot to celebrate. Did I mention that this Government is tackling the big, long-term challenges that are facing New Zealand? I think I might have said it already, but we did hear from Minister Willie Jackson before that he is leading some really great programmes for our young people, like, for example, Mana in Mahi. This Government is not a Government that has given up on our young people. We are doing everything we can to get them into meaningful, well-paid jobs.

Also, what we see in the regions—Minister Mahuta mentioned it previously. A lot of businesses are doing exactly the same, because there is a different kind of vibe, I think the Minister mentioned, in the regions, where there are opportunities for our young rangatahi. I’d like to name one particular example that I know Minister Willie Jackson opened a couple of months ago in Northland. This is Northpower. It’s a private business together with People Potential, a private training organisation, and the Ministry of Social Development. They got together to help young people get into highly skilled employment. This initiative helps prepare learners to enter the workforce. It keeps them safe. It gives them access to jobs and opportunities that in the past they would never have had. This kind of regional initiative is what we’re seeing all over the place. It’s positive. It’s glass half full, getting our NEETs into well-paid, meaningful work, together with, obviously, all the other really great Government policies that we’ve seen.

We know there is a lot to do. We know also that we cannot fix all of that stuff overnight, but under the leadership of our brilliant Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, we’ve started with the job, we’re getting on, and we’re doing all this, because we know there are big, long-term challenges facing New Zealand that we are committed to fix. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Well, this Government’s playing fast and loose—playing fast and loose—with the economy. We’re growing now at just a fraction over 2 percent. In the first quarter of this year, there was negative job growth—negative job growth. Their mates in the Council of Trade Unions are saying that inflation is rising faster than wages. People are worse off because this Government’s playing fast and loose, and, meanwhile, they’re undoing the great work, the nine years of achievement, of the previous National Government, where the economy was growing at around 4 percent, where a net new 10,000 jobs were being created every month, and where, consistently, wages were growing at twice the rate of inflation. They’ve undone all that good work. By playing fast and loose, not only are they failing to deliver their promise of building a vibrant economy but they’ve undone all that good work in less than two years—less than two years. That’s a record in itself.

They’re playing fast and loose in expenditure as well. They’ve got a $3 billion slush fund for Shane Jones to dispense around the country, $2.8 billion committed to fees-free to get fewer students than we had before them, and as a result of that, health boards are in record deficits. Teachers and other public services have been on strike, because, fast and loose with expenditure, they’ve not been able to get their priorities right, and the Public Service is going backwards. They’re undoing the good work, the nine years of achievement, under National, with our Better Public Services targets, which saw our health services delivering quality services where New Zealanders didn’t have to go to Australia for cancer treatment, where they were getting the drugs they needed, and where our public servants didn’t feel they needed to go on strike for better working conditions. They’ve undone that good work as well.

Well, now they want to play fast and loose on public safety—fast and loose on public safety. They’ve got a little coalition agreement for hundreds, if not thousands, of cowboy cops—cowboy cops—roaming around the countryside pretending like they’re real police officers, putting public safety at risk, and putting their own safety at risk. Their advisers, the police force, are telling this Government—in fact, they told them a long time ago—that if they went ahead with the cowboy cops, they’d put the public safety at risk, they’d put the safety of those volunteers at risk, and they would be doing policing on the cheap. How do we know that the police said that? Well, because, finally, the document has been released—the document of police telling the Minister of Police precisely that.

In the release of that document, they’ve shown how the Government’s played fast and loose on openness and transparency. The Prime Minister, in the Speech from the Throne, said this was going to be the most open and transparent Government New Zealand has ever seen. When did the Minister of Police receive the advice from police that cowboy cops would be a bad idea—when? In February—February 2018. In February 2018, the police gave a briefing to the Minister that the cowboy cops was a supremely bad idea, and he’s held on to it for 16 months—kept it a secret for 16 months. Even Ron Mark didn’t know until yesterday that the police force had told the Minister that it was an extremely bad idea. Sixteen months—that is what openness and transparency looks like to this Government. Well, they failed to deliver on that promise as well.

Meanwhile, what the advice does say—what the advice does say—is not only does it put public safety at risk, not only does it cheapen policing in New Zealand, but it would detract focus from the promised but not yet delivered 1,800 new police. Well, where are they with that? Well, that’s worth keeping an eye on. They promised 1,800 new police in three years. We’re halfway through the term, and they’ve only delivered one-third of that number. We not only promised but funded 1,125 new police staff in Budget 2017, and 880 of those were front-line officers. They haven’t even delivered the 880. That’s how far behind they are. They simply can’t deliver on the promises they make. They are a weak and ineffective Government, but next year is an opportunity to change all that.

I am proud. I am proud to be part of a fast and furious Government—fast and furious because we’re a Government of action. Fast and furious, and we cannot and will not apologise with the pace in which we are addressing the long-term issues this country faces—the long-term issues this country is facing—and we proudly, on the side, take up that challenge.

I’m proud that we are part of a Government that’s looking 30 years ahead, not three, and that we are taking on the big issues. One of those big issues is the housing crisis. How have we dealt with the housing crisis? We’ve stopped the State housing sell-off. We are investing in more State houses, and we continue to work with local authorities and iwis around the country to build more affordable homes. Our hospitals and our schools were falling around us because that side did not invest in them, and we’re turning that around. We’re investing in our hospitals and our schools. Of course, family wellbeing suffered under that last Government, but we have invested through our Families Package, which on average gives $75 dollars to each family—that extra boost at this time.

But that’s not all. We’re addressing climate change. As we heard in this House today, we have the lowest unemployment: 3.9 percent—the lowest in 11 years. They call us here the fast and furious Government because that’s what we are. We are about delivering results, and 3.9 percent unemployment is unprecedented in the last 11 years. But more so, I am proud of the co-chair of the Māori caucus the Hon Willie Jackson, Minister of Employment, for his commitment to reducing Māori unemployment to 7.7 percent. That is 6,400 fewer Māori on the unemployment rate. Let’s celebrate that, because in my neck of the woods that’s hugely important for 6,400 Māori families that are no longer dependent on a benefit. That is something that this side want to celebrate.

And, of course, we heard from the Minister for Trade and Export Growth, who said that in the first six months of this year we had $31 billion in export growth, which talks to the heart of what this Government’s about: sharing the gains that we receive in this country from the exporters to the factory floors. And that’s why this Government is—what? Fast and furious. Fast and furious, because that’s what we’re about: we’re about bringing gains to all New Zealanders, addressing the large issues, but also producing results.

I want to say, as the proud member for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, I want to turn the attention to the love that we’re feeling from this coalition Government: $137 million into the Tai Rāwhiti roading package—that’s right. Thank you, Mr Jones, for your investment into our roads up in the East Coast. There’s up to $20 million in the purposely built mental health addiction facility in the Tai Rāwhiti.

But there’s more. We opened the KiwiRail line from Napier to Wairoa, and we’re pleased that we now have a line that goes between our two great cities. And, of course, $60 million was recently invested in the Central Hawke’s Bay area around water storage.

We understand that there is more to do in this country, but, by goodness, this is a start from a fast and furious Government, and we are going to be here for the long haul, we are going to take all those large issues, and we are not afraid to do that. Of course, I shouldn’t overlook the recent announcement by the Minister of Health, bringing cancer analysis closer to the needs in the regions with the recent announcement of the machine that Hawke’s Bay people are going to benefit by. This Government’s investing in the regions. It’s important that we have this facility so that our people don’t have to leave this district.

So I am proud that we have delivered, after 20 months, a fast and furious programme. There’s more to come—there is absolutely more to come. There is more to come, and, of course, we are going to see the emergence of our polytechs in this country. We hope that it comes to Hawke’s Bay. Kia ora.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Fast and furious? Not even close. Last and spurious is much more likely. Last to the party and spurious in their decision making—that’s what we have with this Government. Finally, the last speaker, Meka Whaitiri, dared to address the toxic-for-them polytechnic reforms, and I want to acknowledge the member who’s just resumed her seat for daring to go to those issues which are absolutely deadly for this coalition Government.

I want to talk to the devastating polytechnic reforms that will damage vocational education for many years to come. I want to talk about the impacts of the reforms on the number of learners, regional autonomy, jobs, financial implication, and their own assessment of the likelihood of success. So I don’t want to use any of our data; let’s just use what have come out as official documents, and with their own information they will hang themselves on their own bollards.

The key to the polytechnic reforms as announced by this Government are two things: first of all, apprentices moved to polytechnics—all 45,000 to 50,000 of them moved to polytechnics. The second main strategic objective is that polytechnics are amalgamated. So let’s then look at the impacts of those policies across a range of areas.

First of all, what are the impacts on vocational learners? Again, don’t look at our data. Go to page 53 of the programme business case, table 21. What it shows here is that in the short term and the medium term there are 20,000 less learners under these reforms. Be very clear, the narrative says under these reforms there will be—it actually says—at least 18,000. It’s not that we can blame the economy, because the economy does have an influence on the number of learners. It specifically says under these reforms there will be nearly 18,000 less learners. That is the impact in the short and medium term of these damaging polytechnic reforms. And remember, at election year, Chris Hipkins said, “I’m going to increase vocational learners by 15 percent.” Really? Actually, by your own documents, you’re going to decrease them by between 18,000 to 20,000.

Let’s look at the impacts of the polytechnic reforms on regional autonomy. The one mega-polytechnic will decide what you teach, where you teach it, and how you teach it. They talk about how they will decide whether you will use online learning. How can that be? How can one universal mega-polytechnic know better than the regions as to how you should deliver a course?

Secondly, what they’ll do is they’ll take your cash assets. And we know what those cash assets are. Yes, they will go up and be ring-fenced into regional community assets—and, as New Zealand First correctly says, they will be spent back in the regions—but who has the decision making about how to spend them? The regions? No; the one mega polytechnic. And this is a big number for a number of polytechnics, and I challenge—

💬 Hon Andrew Little: How are NorthTec’s spending decisions?

That’s a very good question. NorthTec will actually give up $3.684 million to the one polytechnic because you think you know better than NorthTec. I’ve got news for you: you don’t know better than NorthTec. The people of NorthTec know better than NorthTec, and, in fact, the people in the regions know better than this one mega polytechnic. I could go through all the cash assets, but let’s keep moving.

What about job losses? We came out around about 13 February and said there’d be at least a thousand jobs lost in these reforms. Well, we know there are a lot more. We know there could be up to 1,300 lost as the industry training organisations are disestablished, and we knew there was at least another thousand in the polytechnic sector. Well, now we can confirm it with the documents that were released, where they describe that the efficiencies will be made from management team savings—$130 million in management team savings. Which management teams are going to go? Are they coming from NorthTec? Are they going from Christchurch? There are at least a thousand jobs in the management team savings. There are significant job losses in this.

If we have a look at how they’re going to fund this—a number of things. Here is the message: fees-free needs to continue to fail to fund the polytechnic reforms. It needs to continue to fail to fund the polytechnic reforms. I know why Willie Jackson is so sad and angry these days. The Prime Minister promised 4,000 Mana in Mahi apprentices. That’s been peeled back in Budget 2019 to 2,000—and I know why. Because Cabinet signed off that the Minister of Employment will pay for the regional leadership groups under these reforms, and the document shows it’s $100 million. He’s got every reason to be unhappy.

And then let’s look at the assessment of this whole devastating reform—their own assessment, the Tertiary Education Commission. Will there be workforce disruption? Almost certain. Will the needs of industry and employers not be met? Almost certain. Will the needs of regions not be met? Almost certain. And will the new model not achieve desired outcomes? Likely, and the impact is extreme. These reforms are devastating. They will damage the New Zealand economy.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.