General Debate

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

This is a Government that is committed to tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand, and make no mistake, there are plenty of them. The legacy of nine long years of a National Government is a long list of social, environmental, and economic challenges that were ignored for far too long.

I am proud to belong to the Jacinda Ardern - led Labour, New Zealand First, and Green Party Government that is investing in fixing these long-term challenges. We are creating jobs, we are lifting wages, we are investing in our schools, and we are cleaning up our rivers. On this side of the House, we are not prepared to put the hard issues in the too-hard basket. We are getting on and fixing the problems we’ve inherited, and that is no more so true than in the area that I’m responsible for: the area of health in New Zealand.

I won’t talk today at length about the rot, the mould, and the sewage in the walls of our hospitals, but, suffice to say, when it comes to looking at our health facilities, in nine Budgets—in nine Budgets—that National Government invested less over the whole nine Budgets than we have invested in the most recent Budget alone in our health facilities. So it’s no surprise that many of our hospitals are not fit for purpose, leaving aside the rot, the mould, and the sewage in the walls of our hospitals.

I’m not going to dwell today on the workforce shortages that we’ve inherited. I’m not going to dwell today on the underfunding of our district health boards over nine long years. Instead, I want to talk about one of the biggest long-term challenges we face as a nation: mental health and addiction.

This Government, since day one, has taken mental health and addiction seriously. We are getting on with addressing that long-term challenge. In our first year, we rolled out mental health support to Canterbury and Kaikōura schools through the Mana Ake programme; we’ve delivered free mental health services to Wellington and the Wairarapa with the Piki programme for 18- to 24-year-olds; we’re investing in new drug and alcohol detoxification beds in Auckland and specialist services for our most vulnerable mental health patients; we’ve extended the nurses in schools programme in decile 1 to 4 schools, and now we’re rolling it out to decile 5 schools; we’ve cut the cost of visiting a doctor for around 600,000 New Zealanders—all of these initiatives were under way even before we received He Ara Oranga, the report into mental health and addiction. We’ve been getting on with addressing the issues we’ve inherited.

That report will shape our responses for many, many years to come, and let’s be clear: it will take years to tackle these issues. But we’re building on what we’ve already done in Budget 2019. We’re going to deliver a whole new front-line health workforce to support those wrestling with mild to moderate mental health needs—the missing middle. We’re building on existing services and developing new services that will get to those who are unable to access services currently. We’re investing in suicide prevention, including free counselling for bereaved families. We’re investing in enhanced drug and alcohol services, digital and telehealth services, and services targeted to vulnerable parents. We’re also investing in our workforce, with $80 million going to existing staff and with peer support folks getting additional training, and we’re investing $200 million into mental health and addiction facilities directly.

That’s just some of the work under way in mental health. We’ll have further announcements in coming weeks, including announcements around a suicide prevention strategy, details around the suicide prevention office, and, indeed, announcements around the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.

Before I finish, I want to touch briefly on cancer care and control. As the Prime Minister has said, she will be announcing—and I will stand alongside her—our response with our cancer action plan, which will be released on Sunday. I’m not about to get ahead of the Prime Minister on those announcements—that would not be career-enhancing—but what I can say is it is a comprehensive plan, and it’s backed up by real action. We are going across the full spectrum of cancer care and control, from screening and prevention to treatment and palliative care. We’ll ensure we have strong, central leadership on cancer and consistent standards nationwide. We’ll build on our announcement of 12 new linear accelerators in Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki, and Northland. Hundreds more people will not have to travel so far, because they’ll be able to get their radiation treatment closer to home. That’s what real action on cancer care looks like. We are getting stuck in and tackling the long-term challenges facing New Zealand.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It was interesting to hear a speech from the Minister of Health, who regards the amount of money that you spend purely on health as all that you need to worry about. You spend a lot more money and that’s success, and you get a big clap. Meantime, they have no targets for increasing the amount of elective surgery that they’re doing. I mean, there’s lots more money but, actually, fewer surgeries being taken out under this Government.

This week, we released in the National Party the economy discussion document, which is a detailed document outlining the National Party’s plan to grow the economy and provide opportunities for New Zealanders to get ahead, look after their families, and do what they want to do. It’s timely because this is a moment when there’s widespread concern around the state of the economy—a great deal of worry throughout the households and the businesses of New Zealand about the state of this economy, where it’s slowing down. It’s slowing down. Confidence is through the floor, back to global financial crisis periods. So instead of being an economy that was clipping along nicely in the 3 percents, up almost to 4 percent, we’re now scratching around closer to 2 percent. That means fewer opportunities for New Zealanders to get good, meaningful work to be able to provide for their families and to do a good job.

So what’s driving that? It’s simple, really. It’s that this Government over here, this group—people like Paul Eagle and that guy there, David Clark—keep adding on costs to business every week, making it more difficult for businesses to succeed. They create so much uncertainty with all the working groups, where they’ve tossed everything up into the air and everybody’s waiting to see what comes down. Thirdly, they’ve demonstrated incompetence—incompetence on a colossal scale, this Government—about how they’ve handled KiwiBuild: “We’re going to build 10,000 houses a year, but it might only be 73, or 24, or 128.” I can’t remember what the number is, but it’s not a good number.

Then, alongside KiwiBuild, on the transport side, what have they done? Well, all they’ve done is cancelled a lot of projects that were ready to go and they’ve replaced them with a whole lot of projects that aren’t ready to go and won’t be ready to go for a long time. We were at an infrastructure conference last week in Rotorua; the air was filthy—filthy. They were angry because they’ve got no pipeline of work. They had a pipeline and it disappeared, and they’ve got nothing to do.

The third area of incompetence is that nobody can get workers anymore because it takes six months, three months, five months for Immigration New Zealand to handle any basic sort of indications about what’s happening.

We’ve come up with a coherent plan to build the economy, which is partly about our tax policy, which is as low as possible so that New Zealanders can keep as much money as they want. We’ve got sustainable views, unlike the Prime Minister, who said that the superannuation age was the great Zimmer frame in the room and she was going to do something about it. She’s changed her mind entirely. She stuck her own head into the sand, ignoring the Zimmer frame and doing nothing about that. We’re going to be responsible about that.

We’ve got a big focus on building a more productive and competitive economy that will provide the jobs and opportunities for New Zealanders. It’s about investing in infrastructure; it’s about having a decent skills pipeline; it’s about actually using our natural resources as a country and making a living, which is a useful thing to do. At the same time, we’re focused on reducing costs for New Zealand families.

Every New Zealander right now who’s going and filling up their car at the gas station and noticing how much it’s costing to do that is reminded every time of this Government and the taxes that they’ve piled on to New Zealanders trying to get around—24c a litre. They’ve added 24c a litre in Auckland to the cost of petrol, and the Prime Minister has the temerity to go around talking about being fleeced at the petrol pump. The “Fleecer in Chief”, as we all know, is the Prime Minister when it comes to transport.

They also are aware that we need to reduce the cost of building new houses. This Government has talked about it for ages—what have they done? After 20 months, they’ve figured out that they have to have a working group to decide what they’re going to do about the Resource Management Act. That’s rapid progress!

We’ve got a different outlook. We are focused on reducing costs for New Zealand households. We are focused on building the productivity of this country so that we can earn more and have the opportunities to look after ourselves and our families, and we are going to be careful with your money out there—to the people of New Zealand, not you, Mr Speaker—because we understand—

💬 SPEAKER: You can be careful of mine too if you want to.

—that the bottom line is you. So our focus is to restore confidence—

💬 SPEAKER: It might’ve been all right.

—in this great economy, to revive our economy to make a living, and to lift our aspirations as New Zealanders both in terms of what we can earn but also about the social challenges that we can overcome—and we will. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, what a misery guts. Here we are, having the longest period of economic growth for years—in almost living memory; since records began—and there they are. International headwinds, and we’re making great progress into them, and that’s what we get. We’re here. At last, we’ve got a Government that’s looking out to the long term.

But what I really want to talk about is our rivers. Do you know what? Over the last nine years, in Canterbury, I have watched our rivers slowly degrade and watched the Government stand by, notwithstanding the protestations of the people of Canterbury and around the country. The only green we’ve got in New Zealand is the algae flowing down the Selwyn River. Shame—shameful—an absolutely parlous state. But, you know, now is the time to do something. Here we are taking steps. It’s going to be a big job, but those rivers are going to get cleaned up under the leadership of Jacinda Ardern and her excellent Minister David Parker, who’s taking steps right now—taking steps.

Can I just say that farmers are absolutely on board. They are relieved that, at last, they’ve got leadership here. They’ve got a Government that’s standing behind them doing what they want to do and supporting them in it—fencing those rivers, managing those nitrates, making sure there are on-farm systems that can absolutely organise, arrange, and measure nitrates and keep those nitrates out of our waterways, because that’s what’s doing the damage.

I want to make it clear that the farmers are absolutely essential to New Zealand’s great economic outcome, and this is a Government that’s standing right behind them with a Provincial Growth Fund and with Damien O’Connor, a fantastic Minister of Agriculture, looking after them and helping them on this journey.

You’ve heard Damien O’Connor and David Parker talking about winter grazing. Now, we’ve seen that down south. It’s a practice which no honest, decent farmer would embark upon. One who cares for the animals, cares for the land, and cares for the waterways wouldn’t contemplate it. So to say to those farmers that are misbehaving, “That’s enough. Stop now.” is exactly what’s needed, and that’s what we’re doing.

So we are right behind preserving our waterways and streams, and we’ve seen a whole lot of action, like the announcement in respect of the Kaipara—the biggest estuary in New Zealand, which is in a woeful state. The land around has time and again been streaming out into that waterway. That’s going to stop now because we know that when we stop the pollution upstream, we don’t have to go clean it; it’ll clean itself. Nature will do its job. A great announcement for the Waikato River—a real treasure that river, and yet it’s been let to go to rack and ruin over the past nine years.

We’re not going to solve it straight away, but we’re sure as anything going to start right now. Look, it’s not about doing everything at once. It’s not about radical change. It’s about taking a balanced approach, taking an approach which brings people along with us and gives them the tools to make those changes that are necessary.

It isn’t complicated. This isn’t a hard question. But I’ll tell you what: every New Zealander deserves to be able to go down to their local river and stream—not to put their foot in, not to put their toes in, and not just wade in it; to actually swim in it—to have a good, old-fashioned swim, put your head under, come up for air, and not get sick. And you know what? That has been becoming more and more rare over the years when the Opposition were in Government. We’re absolutely going to change that, because I want to be able to take them down to my local river—whether it be the Waimakariri, the Selwyn, the Rangitata—and let them go for it. Don’t let them worry about whether they’re going to get sick or not. I want to have a New Zealand we can be proud of again.

So, look, it’s not going to be solved overnight, but we’re going to start on it now. We’re not going to sit on our hands like the last Government did. There are some simple steps. Farmers are onside. City folks have got work to do as well. We can’t deny the fact that there’s water coming off of our brake pads, and we’re absolutely going to do our part as well. But what I want to see, as we progress, is rivers we can swim in, farmers that are looking after the land like they love to do, and a productive economy. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This afternoon, I would like to talk, on behalf of the National Party, directly to the 23,000 farming families in New Zealand who are right now on their farms calving, assisting with lambing, laying down the crops for their kiwifruit and wine, and working incredibly hard and having a listen to that nonsense from the other side.

Can I first acknowledge those families for the tremendous effort they do for producing food and fibre for this country that underpins this economy. Thank you very much for your effort. Can I also acknowledge the extraordinary efforts that you all have made to look at your farms and look at ways to minimise your environmental impact. There won’t be a person on the other side of the House, the Government of this country, who will acknowledge you and will thank you for your efforts today, despite the fact that last year the Land, Air, Water Aotearoa report said that across five of the six water-quality metrics that we test in this country, over 500 sites, five out of the six metrics there were more improving than deteriorating. That does never get mentioned, because it doesn’t fit their narrative. Instead, what we have from the other side of the House is constant attack on you, your lifestyle, and your opportunity to see prosperity in the future. This side of the House rejects that, and we will front for farmers for ever and, in particular, from next week, when we look at the water-quality freshwater responses that come out.

Despite the fact that we have solid prices, a benign climate this winter, and low interest rates, the rural sector of this country have never been so pessimistic of their families’ opportunity that sits in front of them. That’s not me; that’s the ANZ survey of a week or two ago—minus 80 percent outlook. It is appalling, and the reason it is so negative is the policies of this Government. Let me just give you a sense: despite their appalling economic management, which is slowing this economy down materially from 4 percent growth down to just over 2 percent, for the primary industries of this country, they have got a zero carbon bill coming, which, if James Shaw has his way, has a minus 47 percent reduction in methane despite the fact there are no tools to do it, despite the fact no other country has the food production system that we do. That’s coming. New Zealand First has signed off and apparently is comfortable with agriculture going into the emissions trading scheme. That’s coming, and then next week we will have what we understand are extremely onerous water quality targets and extremely onerous national environment standards, which are going to impact farmers’ equity immediately.

Do you know what? The other side don’t understand that. They do not understand balance sheets. They do not understand that the banking sector is backing away from rural New Zealand. They don’t understand that if they pass policies here that make water quality that onerous, they take choices off farmers, there’s no opportunity for land use flexibility, and farmers’ equity goes backwards. That is the reality in primary industry today. They’re all looking down, because, with the exception of Damien O’Connor, who boasts of his farming record and has about four or five sheep, hardly anyone else, apart from perhaps driving past as they rush from Christchurch Central to the airport—Duncan Webb—has any idea of what actually goes on on a farm. They do not understand the relentlessness of the day-to-day challenges of farming, which can be a joy when you see opportunity, when you see a pathway to prosperity, but can be immensely challenging—immensely challenging—when you don’t see that, when you get a sense of a country not understanding or valuing what you do.

When I look across to the Government here, I see a Government that is obsessed with ideology, obsessed with the opportunity to drive a particular outcome regardless of what the data says—regardless of what the data says. I look forward to them acknowledging the farming sector, but it’s not going to happen. But, rural New Zealand, you can be assured that this party, the National Party, will never forget, or will never stop acknowledging, what you do day in, day out on behalf of this economy, on behalf of this country, on behalf of this community, and we will stand strong to ensure that your interests are protected.

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Tonight, we are going to be launching a cross-party mental health and addictions wellbeing group. It’s a group that is part of the 40 recommendations that the inquiry into mental health and addictions proposed to the Government, and the Government accepted in principle that recommendation. So I want to acknowledge colleagues Chlöe Swarbrick, Matt Doocey, David Seymour, and Jenny Marcroft; the nearly 40 MPs who will attend an event in our Grand Hall tonight; and the over 40 MPs who have sent apologies because they are doing service based on their portfolios—can I say, many, many Ministers.

The focus for us on mental health and addictions wellbeing is one of those long-term issues. It’s an issue that we’ve had to confront recently because 685 New Zealanders suicided. That means they weren’t receiving the help and support they got when they were in their darkest days. So one of the priorities for us was to initiate that specific inquiry, and we did that because we realised we had a problem. I want to acknowledge the process that we went through and the leadership, particularly, of Professor Ron Paterson, who chaired that inquiry team. They went around the country and spoke to over 2,000 New Zealanders. They had over 400 meetings in 26 locations, and the whole intention was whakarongo mai—it was to listen and to hear the voices of tangata whaiora, of whānau, of the public, of the Ministry of Health and other providers, of iwi, of community organisations, and of academics.

I want to acknowledge Marion Blake, who’s the CEO of Platform. The reason I’ve chosen to acknowledge her specifically is because their organisation, along with others, made the recommendation that we as parliamentarians need to come together across this very important issue of mental health and addictions wellbeing. We can’t continue to have New Zealanders’ needs unmet.

I do want to focus, as the chair of the Health Committee, on some of the changes that we’ve made to ensure that people who have addictions actually get the support they want, which is the whole philosophical change we have led with the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Bill. We’re really clear: there’s over a thousand New Zealanders in our prisons because they have drug and alcohol issues, and our first response should never have been to send them to prison. Our first response should always have been to address those addiction issues, and there begs the question: why are people so addicted to substances that do them so much harm? So the investment that we’ve made in this area, the $1.384 billion over four years, will see the initiatives identified in He Ara Oranga rolled out.

One of the issues I want to highlight in terms of our commitment has been the Mana Ake - Stronger for Tomorrow programme. It was an initiative that we prioritised because it was about addressing the legacy of the earthquakes in Christchurch and in Kaikōura. Our young people went through trauma, individually and collectively. So we prioritised a response, a systemic response involving the education system, our health system, the police, and community organisations, because we knew that our children and young people had experienced trauma. So we’ve wrapped around them and created, I guess, spaces for them to be able to talk about what it was like going through those earthquakes.

The whole intention of that programme was to build resilience. It’s to build resilience in our young people, our children who we know were traumatised so that they, later in life, hopefully, don’t use drugs and alcohol to self-moderate because they’re traumatised or they have anxiety issues. I see that initiative, actually, as having currency not just when we have traumatic events like the earthquakes, and I think that the learnings we’re going to get from Mana Ake mean that we should be rolling this out throughout the country. Because, fundamentally, our role is to provide services and opportunities for our young people always to stand strong, to know who they are, to be able to communicate when they’re in trouble, and for us to listen and give them the support they need, because one suicide, as our Prime Minister has said, is too many. Kia ora.

Mr Speaker, thank you very much. As we sit here considering the headwinds of a slowing economy; as business confidence is at levels almost as low as we saw during the global financial crisis; when the Prime Minister has said that she doesn’t pay a lot of attention to business confidence, she looks more closely at consumer confidence—we’ve also seen consumer confidence start to fall in New Zealand—and when respected commentators, analysts, and economists are talking about concern around the economy, the Government just does not have a plan.

The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research today have come out and said that, actually, businesses are finding it almost impossible to pass on costs in the economy; these costs have been generated by Government policy over the last two years. We have ANZ coming out and talking about lower growth rates in our economy, and the many, many challenges that we start to face. With all of those things going on, as Kiwi businesses are doing it tough—they’re having to go to work and work out how they continue to employ people, how they find the workers they need to make sure their businesses can grow when there are opportunities to grow—the Government does not have a plan. Indeed, the questions today from my colleague Stuart Smith to the Minister of Immigration about how visas are being processed so that tourists can visit New Zealand in a timely fashion, or so that workers can be employed by businesses that need their skills, and otherwise, were rarely met with any understanding from the Government of the great hardship and problems that their lack of policies, and lack of a plan is causing for New Zealand businesses.

On Monday, the National Party launched our economic discussion document—more than 40 pages looking at the New Zealand economy and looking at areas that we can make changes in that will support New Zealand business, will help New Zealanders into work and those working to earn more, and to help grow the economy. The reason that we need to grow the economy is so that more can be provided by the Government for New Zealanders—the things that they demand and they deserve. Of course, we’ve heard a lot from the Government about wellbeing. Wellbeing is important to the degree that it makes people feel better, but unless we have a strong economy and growing GDP, it’s not possible for the Government to spend money on the things that New Zealanders demand and deserve. In a number of areas in this document we have laid out areas of commitments—for example, to legislate to index tax thresholds to the cost of living. The reason we’ve said that is Kiwis work very, very hard. They deserve to keep more of the money that they earn than the Government would get. Legislating the index of the tax thresholds to the cost of living means that New Zealanders will get to keep much more of what they earn. We will progress work on the overhaul of the Resource Management Act—an area of policy that holds back so many Kiwis and businesses, and just ramps up cost. Actually, what New Zealand needs at the moment is a Government that is looking for ways to reduce costs and bring them down, not to increase costs on them.

One of the things we’ve committed to is to light a regulations bonfire—to go out and to find regulations that are not needed, that, actually, are not working, that are putting costs upon New Zealand businesses and everyday New Zealanders, and to get rid of them. We’ve said that in the first six months in office we would get rid of a hundred. At the same time, we would look to change, across the public sector, their view of regulations. Actually, when there’s a problem, more rules and more regulations won’t necessarily fix that. Until that culture has changed, we have said for every new regulation that’s brought forward two need to be taken away. Here’s an example of a few that actually make no sense—the owners of a bus depot structure that has no walls are forced to install four exit signs just in case people can’t find their way out of that bus stop. Well, there you have it—a regulation that costs a lot more and that, actually, is not needed. The owner of a rural property had to spend $30,000 putting in a driveway and a water tank to meet fire requirements. The tank was at the back of the house, when the house caught fire the fire chief would not drive his truck past the house to the tank in case it caught fire.

There are many reasons to have regulations—to make sure people are safe and to make sure laws that are adopted by Parliament work. But there are so very many regulations that are unneeded. In fact, it’s not possible to be told exactly how many regulations there are in New Zealand. We have said that to help businesses large and small, we will focus on regulation. We want less regulation, not more. We want better regulation, not just more regulation, and we will light a regulations bonfire.

Order! The member’s time has expired.

A regulation we do need in this country is greater restrictions around foreign donations to political parties. Yesterday, we saw in the New Zealand Herald a very good example of how the current rules around donations do not work for our democracy. I don’t need to go into depth around that particular donation, but what it does highlight is how our current laws around donations are wrong. It’s true—I was one of the sources for that story. It’s true—I was able to outline for the journalists my phone records and email records and contacts around that particular donation, because at the time I was asked by someone who held ministerial office to collect the donation. I did so because I wasn’t “OIA-able”; the person that asked me to do so was subject to the Official Information Act (OIA).

The issue that that donation highlights is that our current laws do not adequately restrict the ability for foreigners to make donations to political parties. It is true that that donation in the New Zealand Herald yesterday was lawful. It is true no laws were broken, but we’re in the business of making laws and fixing laws where they are wrong. It is wrong, in my view, for a foreigner who has interests in New Zealand, who wants to donate to a political party, to be able to utilise a New Zealand - based company. It is wrong for an individual who has no other links to New Zealand other than business through a company to be able to make a donation, and have influence by making that donation to a political party.

Our laws are wrong. In my view, if you are unable to influence an election by voting, you should be unable to influence an election or our democracy by making a donation. It’s a fairly simple concept, and it’s one that we should be looking at in this House. Correct, the donation was not unlawful; our law is wrong and needs to be changed.

When we talk about foreign interference, it’s very easy to look at donations, and look at the way in which we interact with people that have connections to foreign States, and just dismiss what might be going on. But when we look at it very clearly and carefully, when we try and understand the connections and the influences that people from offshore are trying to have on our democracy, it can be very chilling. Does anyone really believe that a Mongolian oligarch wants to, out of the goodness of his heart, make six-figure donations to a political party after meeting the person who has responsibility for the very policy that he’s interested in, when it comes to the exporting of livestock? I don’t think he did so out of the goodness of his heart. I don’t think any laws were broken, but I think we need to fix the system. We need to ensure our democracy is safe from foreign influences, and ensure that we tighten up the rules.

I’ve heard that there is a lot of support in the House for banning foreign donations. That’s great, but simply lowering the threshold from $1,500 down to zero will do nothing, because any foreigner, at any point in time that they wish, can set up a New Zealand company or use an existing one to make a large donation. We have politicians in this House, and those seeking election, that have a lot of connections to people that have offshore influences and offshore interests. We should ensure our democracy and our electoral laws are much tighter.

There is a foreign interference inquiry under way, through the Justice Committee. Unfortunately, that inquiry is going very slow. Unfortunately, the committee that is looking at that inquiry may report back too late for us to make changes to our electoral law. It’s important we move now and we move swiftly because election year is very close. That same committee is also looking at the Electoral Amendment Bill right now. Unfortunately, that Electoral Amendment Bill is too tight and does not allow the committee to consider foreign donations or consider donation laws at all. The very same people sitting on the inquiry are also considering that bill. It’s my view that the House should give that committee the power to look at donations; give those same people doing the inquiry around foreign interference and around elections the power to make recommendations around amendments to the Electoral Act, with regards to donations. We need to move on this. Election year is not far away. There is a very good example out there, and there will be many others, that foreigners—and we heard directly from the spy agencies yesterday at the select committee, in both an open session and then in much more detail in a secret session about—

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

—influences in our democracy, and we need to take them seriously.

I’m going to seek leave in a second to have a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) in my name—SOP 324—which does seek to make some changes referred to the Justice Committee.

I seek leave for Supplementary Order Paper 324 in my name to be referred to the Justice Committee, and for the committee to, in its consideration of the Electoral Amendment Bill, have the power to consider, and if it thinks fit, adopt the amendment set out on SOP 324 or any other amendments relating to electoral donations.

Is there any objection to that process? There is objection.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First this afternoon. Unfortunately, the topic is the National Party—and I apologise to those on this side of the House. I don’t often get up. I love to talk about the good work that this Government is doing. But it just so happens that everything seems to have come to a point in the debate, where the National Party needs to be held to account. And so I begin with the shadow spokesperson on finance, Mr Goldsmith, the man who has written tomes, books, on the history of—what is it?—tax and economics in New Zealand. And yet just yesterday or the day before—

💬 Chris Bishop: One day, he’ll write the history of this crap Government.

—he releases a document, Mr Bishop, that could best be described as a beer coaster or a pamphlet. In fact, it was Richard Harman in his publication Politik, who spoke about the lack of depth in this policy publication and the lack of a conversation on macroeconomic policy.

And so here we are today, after a morning of contradiction from the shadow spokesperson on finance, and the Leader of the Opposition, who can’t quite decide what good debt looks like in a Government, don’t understand—

💬 Clayton Mitchell: Confused.

They can’t come to a conclusion; they are confused, as Mr Mitchell has pointed out. What their pamphlet shows us is that the National Party has a vision for the future of this country that, sadly, draws on the failed past of National Party politics, and especially from the reigns of Key and English.

In fact, it was quite wonderful to hear the words of former Minister McClay, in his contribution to the House this afternoon, where he borrowed from another foreign source—I think that foreign source was the former British Prime Minister Cameron—when he used the metaphor of a bonfire. He spoke about a bonfire of legislation and—what?—regulation. The irony—the irony—of that call of a bonfire, by the National Party is that what they would burn mainly comes from one of the biggest pieces of legislation that came through this House in the last term of that Government, in the health and safety legislation. They were on this side of the House and insisted that they were there to save lives and that this legislation would save lives.

And yet, for the past two years, members on that side of the House, through the ability of members’ bills, have come through the House with members’ bills to unwind the very legislation that they introduced to this House, because it was the biggest burden—and I put it to the House—the biggest burden on small business, in particular, that this country has seen in its modern history. And that is exactly what the National Party introduced to small business and business in New Zealand and they are going to put it on a bonfire—an unfortunate metaphor—and what they are going to do to stoke the heart of that bonfire with their legislation that they brought to this House.

The National Party has lost its way. Actually, just as an aside on that pamphlet, there’s no conversation about the regions. The only statement about the regions from the National Party is “She’ll be right. She’ll be right.”

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Hands off.

Yeah, hands off. That was their approach before and what did that achieve? Nothing. And that’s why I’m so proud to be part of the Provincial Growth Fund and the work that we’re doing there.

So confusion reigns between Goldsmith and Bridges. In fact, what they want to do in their pamphlet is—they’ve said they want to push the retirement age out. They want to take away from retirees. They want to make it harder to retire. That’s the solution to the problem according to National and they want to take away the—well, let’s put it this way with the limited time I have left. I have so many points in the limited time I have left: more tax cuts and give it to the rich and cut facilities and services to the New Zealand public. Unbelievable. Thank you.

For a healthy society where communities feel connected to each other, where all people can live good lives, we need to in this House reduce inequality. We need to reject too much wealth in too few hands. Inequality, as we know, is much bigger than just wealth and income, but incomes are a good measure of what sort of country we live in and the gap between incomes is a good measure of what sort of messages and what values we stand for.

Now the Greens know that connectedness between communities and between groups of people suffers when we allow for some people to thrive and far many more to struggle. We all do better when we realise that all work has value, when we realise that all people have value no matter what the circumstances. We all want some pretty basic things: to be able to pay our rent, pay our mortgage, have proper, healthy kai, pay our bills—pretty basic things. But for too long, politicians have put up barriers to prosperity for working people and this is why the Greens are disappointed with the outcome of the review into MP pay announced just yesterday

The plan that was announced is that we are going to revert back to an older system for setting MP pay and put it back to the Remuneration Authority. And while this should prevent some of the massive increases in MP pay that we have seen recently, for us it is still not good enough and we need to send a clear signal that everyone deserves to live good lives, that politicians are in some way connected to ordinary people, that we are not the only hard workers in society, and I do absolutely uphold that each of us here work hard to do our constituencies and our communities the absolute best.

In saying that all work has value, the Greens want MP salary increases to be tagged to the dollar amount of median wage increases. So, for example, in 2014, where MPs’ base salary rose by about 2.2 percent, $3,000, a year, the median income rose by only $780 and that is the nominal, the dollar amount, increase that we would have seen as acceptable. In the context of the barriers to prosperity that politicians are responsible for, we’ve got plenty around us: people lining up outside my local Work and Income office in Manurewa because housing costs are incredibly unaffordable for people receiving a social security income but also for people who work in paid employment.

I’ve been hearing from unions that their members are paying up to 80 percent of their income. That is not acceptable, 65 percent is not acceptable, but when people are paying any more than 50 percent it’s hard. It’s a struggle to make ends meet. Wagamama staff just here in Wellington have had to fight for their wages, holiday pay, and entitlements. That is theft of their wages and we have got ordinary people having to fight for what they are already owed while we in this House are comfortable with the massive pay increases that we are likely to get with the system that we have announced today.

The mental health stresses of people just trying to get by—just trying to get by—again come back to the prosperity that politicians can be responsible for, can make a difference in. When societies are more equal, we will not see the rate of suicide that we are seeing in our country. When societies are more equal, we will not see the ridiculous, the shameful level of homelessness that we are seeing in our beautiful country. When societies are more equal, we will have less mental health illness and people seeking mental health services in our communities.

We had an opportunity here for New Zealanders to feel more connected to what MPs do and to our whole entire political system by not moving MP salaries so far away from what the rest of working New Zealanders have come to expect. And I want to acknowledge that the Greens have been putting up this fight since at least 2014 with former Green Party co-leader Russel Norman announcing that this is what the Greens stand for—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

It’s a pleasure to rise and take a first call in the year of 2019 in the general debate and I want to take time to amplify some of the concerns that I’m hearing in Northcote and also throughout New Zealand. It’s actually about New Zealanders. It’s not about, as the New Zealand First Party would say, National; it’s not about MPs’ pay; it’s about the concerns and aspirations of New Zealanders.

The feedback that I’m getting is loud and clear. The people of New Zealand are not confident with this Labour-led Government. They’re not confident especially when it comes to the economy. Business confidence is down according to ANZ’s latest business confidence index. The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence survey indicates that consumers are at their lowest level of confidence this year. And we just learnt that farmer confidence, farms—I’ve got no farms in Northcote but farmers are hurting: a negative 80 percent confidence rate in farmers under this Labour led Government.

It’s important to raise this because there’s a strong link between confidence and economic performance. When businesses can’t hire—when they don’t feel confident, they don’t hire, they don’t invest. Banks don’t lend, consumers don’t spend, and farmers don’t invest. But don’t take my word. Take the word of the Reserve Bank, which also says that there’s a strong link, and I’ll quote this from the Reserve Bank: “We show that better nowcasts of the current state of the labour market are obtained by using …”—guess what?—“business confidence data,”. And New Zealand Institute of Economic Research forecasts released today indicate that—that the economy is forecast to slow, partly for overseas factors, but also partly because of the lack of business confidence in this Labour-led Government. That is why business confidence is important. It’s important for New Zealanders and I’m hearing it loud and clear right throughout Northcote and in wider New Zealand.

So why is business confidence down? Is it because there is no plan under this Government for the economy besides taxing more, borrowing more, and spending more? Is that it, perhaps? Or is it the number of working groups that are—I don’t know how many working groups there are; over 300 working groups, I think. Or is it the fact that this Government’s rolled back employment legislation under this Government and hurting small business? Or is it the unsustainable minimum wage increases that we’re seeing in this Labour-led Government? Or is it the policies of this Labour-led Government that are causing fewer economic opportunities—the policies around the Provincial Growth Fund and extra money for uni students? And let’s not forget KiwiBuild, which this Government doesn’t really like to talk about much.

So, yes, confidence matters. Confidence is translating into a lower state of economic performance, and that is why I joined the National Party: because I believe that the National Party strongly supports a growing economy because that is the way we improve the prosperity of New Zealanders. I saw this very much in my own life, growing up, having had a chance to get ahead and improve my own life through a butcher’s apprenticeship and working in the private sector. I also see it in my community every day: start-up companies and businesses that are growing and taking on that extra worker, giving these people an opportunity to improve their condition in life.

That is why National has this week announced the release of our economy discussion document. I’ve got a nice copy here. This document is a great opportunity for New Zealanders to have a say in the next National Government’s policies around increasing productivity and employment growth, around reducing the cost of living for New Zealanders, and around improving the sustainable financial management of our country. That is how you improve confidence in New Zealand. That is how you improve economic performance and how you improve prosperity in this great nation, and it is my pleasure to advance this document, and please provide input into our next National Government’s platform. Thank you.

After nine long years of neglect, I am absolutely proud to be part of a Government that is rebuilding our health system. What I want to do today is just talk about some of the consequences of that neglect and also what we’re doing to get on and fix it. I think we’ve all heard those stories about the mould, the raw sewage, and the rot in the walls of some of our largest hospitals. The question is: “Well, how did we get there? How did it get like that?” And, thinking back on being at a DHB and the consequences of nine long years of underfunding, also where you’ve also dropped the ball is in our housing crisis. Where you have not invested in primary care and where your A & E departments are absolutely overflowing with patients with acute needs, what do you do?

What you do is you actually look after those patients, but where you cut the corners is you don’t actually go on and do the maintenance on your buildings, you don’t do the capital investment, because you’ve got to prioritise. And the problem we’ve got now, as a Government, is what we’ve inherited: a whole hospital infrastructure where we’ve got hospitals at the end of their life. We’ve got hospitals where they haven’t addressed the earthquake-prone issues, and we’ve got mould in the walls. But we can get on and fix that, and we are.

What upsets me most, though, is that we’ve got a whole generation of children and young people now carrying permanent and invisible scars as a result of that underfunding. What we’ve got is children who have grown up and they’ve got bronchiectasis, which is permanent lung scarring that’s resulted from living in crappy, cold, damp houses and then not being able to afford to go to the GP to get the antibiotics they need. We’ve got kids carrying around the scars of rheumatic fever on their heart valves, and what we’ve also got are families where we’ve got permanent scarring because their young people couldn’t access the mental health services that they needed.

So what I’m really proud of is to be part of a Government that’s getting on and starting to address all of those issues. And so, in Budget 2019, we’ve put aside $1.7 billion over the next two years just to get on and do that basic infrastructure spending. We will be fixing up that mould, that rot, etc., in the walls, but we’ll also be using some of that money to get on and build some mental health services, addiction service facilities, and we’ll also be starting that rebuild on Dunedin Hospital. So there’s a lot of stuff we’re going to be doing in that infrastructure spend, and that’s on top of the $750 million that we’ve spent in last year’s Budget to get on and make a beginning.

The other thing we’re doing is the most massive increase in mental health spending that we’ve seen—$1.9 billion into a mental health package—and what that means is that, once this is built up and we’ve trained that workforce, people will be able to turn up to their GP via primary care. They’ll be able to say, “Yes, I am struggling. I am doing it tough and I need to see somebody.” And what we’re going to be having in those primary care practices is mental health workers who can sit down and say, “OK. These are the options. You can stay with me and I will provide that support you need. Or if you need to have a referral, I’ll arrange that. I can be that broker that navigates you through those mental health services.” We’re also talking about putting some of those intensive wraparound services around those who are at risk of suicide, because, again, what we see in our communities, and in communities all around the country, are, particularly, young people absolutely struggling in terms of getting the services they need. So we’ll be looking at that. We’ll also be looking at those that are with corrections being able to access the mental health and addiction services that they need as well.

One of the other things, though, that we’ve seen in the context of those overflowing A & E departments is that a lot of people are coming in with conditions that are considered to be ambulatory sensitive. What that means is conditions where, if you’d actually got in and treated them early in primary care, you could have prevented a hospital admission—so things like an early skin infection. Go to your GP, get some antibiotics, and you don’t end up in hospital needing intravenous antibiotics for five days. So what we’ve done, again, is we’ve made significant investments in primary care. We’ve extended very low-cost access to GP visits to anybody with a community services card. So what that means is that, if their practice is a participating practice—and most of the GP practices and primary health organisations in the country are part of this—people can turn up and pay much, much less to see their doctor than they previously would have. And so, again, that’s an area where the previous Government completely dropped the ball in terms of the affordability of access to primary care. It just declined over the term of the previous Government. We’re getting in and we’re investing in making sure people can access the services they need.

I haven’t got time to go on, in terms of talking about the cancer funding, although I can mention our 12 new linear accelerators that we’ve just announced. I’m proud to be part of a Government that is getting on and, basically, reinvesting in our hospitals.

The member’s time has expired.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. A quick search of the news headlines surrounding the 2019 Budget earlier this year revealed an array of disparaging headlines, ranging from groups like the Child Poverty Action Group to the unions—the very groups that would normally be supportive of this Labour Government. Perhaps the most stunning and hard-hitting headline ran: “Government just doesn’t get it.”

Here’s what this Government doesn’t get: it doesn’t get that a tsunami of taxes hurts.

💬 Matt Doocey: That’s right.

That’s right; it hurts families, it hurts businesses, and it affects our communities. And what an array of taxes we have. What a tsunami of taxes we have before us. Not only did this Labour Government cancel National’s tax relief, they introduced three fuel taxes. That’s right—three. They introduced the regional fuel tax, extended the brightline test, ring-fenced losses on rental properties, introduced the Amazon tax—I don’t actually have time to carry on this list, but the list is ongoing.

I ran a small business in the manufacturing and retail sector for 17 years. It takes grit and determination and resilience to last five years, let alone 17. At the same time, I was a working mother raising five children and, during this time as well, I got myself a tertiary degree. And I came from humble beginnings. That has given me some insight into what is required; I do get it. All social delivery starts from your ability to generate resources that enable you to look after yourself, to look after your family, and to support the community you live in.

A strong successful economy enables businesses to thrive and become successful. Strong thriving businesses employ mums and dads, our kids, our loved ones, and enable them to attend to the wellbeing of those around them in their homes and in their communities. Wellbeing does not come from a distant Government; it comes from those that love you, those that support you, and those who are part of your community. The more we empower people to take charge of their own lives, to shrug off the shackles of a burdensome Government and prosper, the better off we all are, and empowerment starts with the education of our children, with housing for our families, and with jobs where prosperity and opportunities come from. And what have we got instead?

For 18 months, this Government has run the country—if setting up hundreds of working groups is indeed running a country. This Labour Government has talked about wellbeing as though it is the first Government ever to consider it as an idea for a Budget. Well, let’s have a look at what their wellbeing has resulted in. Increased numbers of people have gone on to job seeker support—and we all know this number; it’s been traversed in this House: 14,000 extra people in the last year on the job seekers’ benefit—an increase of people applying for hardship grants; an increase in the cost of living; more taxes.

And what about business confidence? I’ve been up and down the country meeting businesses, talking to small-business owners. These business owners are expressing sheer frustration at how they’ve been treated by this Government pitting business owners against employers. They feel that this Government doesn’t care and doesn’t want to listen as they lay more burdens on small businesses. They’re struggling to find staff. They’re unsure whether to invest further in their businesses. More compliance has been piled on. This Government’s failure to progress much-needed roading infrastructure is literally choking business productivity. It affects productivity when you can’t move your resources, your stock, your raw materials around the country.

I met with a small-business owner recently, Selina Rako from Libra Woodwork in East Tāmaki, a small family business that makes custom furniture components. In the space of one year, the delivery costs to get timber from one part of Auckland to the other side of Auckland, where they are, have gone up 114 percent. That is a big hit for a small business. I feel for these businesses. They are drowning in a tsunami of taxes and compliance. They are not feeling the love from this Government, and I echo the statement that I made earlier: this Government just doesn’t get it.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.