General Debate

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

It’s a privilege to stand today in the general debate, particularly given the report that we received and were able to publicly release today around the way in which the Families Package has reached so many New Zealanders. We made a commitment right at the beginning that we wanted New Zealand to be the best place in the world to raise a child, and for everyone who is able to be earning, learning, caring, or volunteering. And the actions to date—the report released to date—on the progress with the Families Package prove that we are well on our way to achieving our objectives.

By the time the Families Package is fully rolled out in 2020-21, 385,000 families with children will be better off by, on average, $75 per week. That is something that we are proud of on this side of the House. The Families Package is part of the Government’s wider plan to lift the wellbeing of all New Zealanders. We have been engaged across Government to achieve this goal. We’ve made it free for every child under the age of 14 to go to the doctor. We’ve increased school funding so parents don’t have to pay for school donations, which will help 416,000 families, I heard. We are building more State houses than any Governments since the 1970s, and, of course, we should be proud of that on this side of the House.

What we have seen with the Families Package is that it has boosted incomes across the country. We’ve seen it with the roll-out of the Working for Families tax credit changes that we made. We’ve seen it with respect to the Best Start payment that we’ve introduced, increasing paid parental leave. We’re helping older New Zealanders. We’re helping New Zealanders who are on the main benefit keep their homes warm during the winter months with the winter energy payment. We’ve seen increases to financial help for carers by increasing the rate of the orphans benefit, the unsupported child’s benefit, and the foster care allowance, and we increased the accommodation supplement and benefit.

The reports that were released today on the Families Package actually show that the modelling that we had when we put that Families Package into place was absolutely on the ball. More than one million New Zealanders have benefited from the winter energy payment, and can I say that’s a lot of New Zealanders. When I’m out and about, it’s the number one thing that people come up to me about to thank this Government for. I heard too many stories of senior citizens who were staying in one bedroom in their house during the winter months, who were sometimes not even getting out of bed because they could not afford to heat their homes, and so we’ve received a lot of positive feedback from superannuitants and also main beneficiaries on the difference that that has made for them and their families.

Thirty-six thousand families have banked the Best Start payment in the first year, and that doesn’t even count the New Zealanders who may want to wait till the end of the tax year to actually claim that. The difference that has made to families with new babies is huge—$60 goes a long way to helping towards those costs in the first years. It doesn’t just show that we were willing to make an investment in low to middle income New Zealanders but it also shows that this Government is committed to families, that we do support New Zealanders who are raising children, that we do value children, and that we do value those early years. Six thousand more families received the family tax credit, and also the families getting family tax credits are getting more. As was said in the House today, this is the most significant lift in Working for Families and the family tax credit since 2005. So we’re proud of that on this side of the House.

We saw the lifts to the accommodation supplement. That was necessary. We also saw the new clothing allowance for carers go to 13,500 carers. That is something we can be proud of. The main thing is, as I’ve said earlier today in the House, and as our Prime Minister has said, we are on track to lift 50,000 to 74,000 children out of poverty, and that is an absolute objective that all of us should share—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

One of New Zealand’s greatest strengths is our low level of corruption. We on this side of the House are proud that in 2017, New Zealand had the number one spot as the least corrupt country of nearly 200 in the world. This reputation must be jealously guarded, and that is why every one of us should be concerned about the revelations going on with New Zealand First. It is déjà vu of the events of 2008, but even more serious.

You see, the 2017 election was unusual in that it was the first where the party with the most seats did not form the Government, and the party that was pivotal to that outcome was New Zealand First. The reports of it being in serious breach of our electoral laws cut to the bone of the integrity of our democracy. The public has a right to know who the financial backers are for the party that determined the outcome of the election and which is having a pivotal role in Government’s decisions for our country every single day.

Let’s summarise the facts that we know. New Zealand First has a foundation headed up by its founding president, Doug Woolerton, and a political lobbyist and Winston Peters’ personal lawyer Brian Henry. They’re the only two trustees. We know the foundation received over $500,000 in secret donations. We also know the foundation loaned hundreds of thousands to New Zealand First and that in election 2017, it paid substantive electioneering costs like campaign offices, like websites, like campaign expenses and conference speakers. This is a rort with a capital “R”.

But it gets worse. We know that there are about 70 donations that were declared at the last election. Every party in this Parliament declared—23 from Labour, 19 from National. The only party not to declare a single donation was New Zealand First. Does anybody seriously believe that New Zealand First did not receive a single contribution of more than $15,000? Then we come to the issue of anonymous donations: 85 percent, $342,000, of anonymous donations was for New Zealand First, and that $340,000 is on top of the $500,000 being hidden through the foundation. We even have the president of New Zealand First and its treasurer resigning in recent weeks over moral issues of its finances.

We should be in no doubt how serious this is. Our electoral law makes it a corrupt practice for political parties to organise their affairs to try and avoid disclosure—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! The member will resume his seat. I’m going to refer the member to Speakers’ ruling 28/1. I probably should’ve done it earlier in his speech when he used the word corruption. It’s a very good combination of Speakers’ rulings that go back to Statham, reinforced by David Carter, former Speaker, and what it says, very clearly, is that members must not make veiled suggestions of corruption during the course of debate. The member will cease.

💬 Hon Michael Woodhouse: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Without wanting to challenge your ruling, Mr Speaker, I would point out that Speakers’ ruling 28/1 refers to allegations of corruption by a member of another member, and I’m not sure that it could be automatically inferred from the comments made by Dr Smith that that was what he was saying.

💬 SPEAKER: Well, I took it very directly to be that, because he talked about the members who helped form the Government. It couldn’t be anyone else—couldn’t be anyone else.

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.

💬 SPEAKER: If it’s a matter of relitigation, I’m not going to hear it. If the member has a new point of order, I will.

My point of order is: is the sentence I used, “Our electoral law makes it a corrupt practice for political parties to organise their affairs to … avoid [such] disclosure”—is the Speaker saying that that is out of order?

💬 SPEAKER: The answer, given what had happened before in the context: yes.

The stench of this whole sorry affair is doing huge reputational risk to the Government and to our country. The Deputy Prime Minister is in the thick of this mess, and far from the promise of being the most open and transparent Government, no one has been prepared to front up and answer the very real questions.

💬 Hon David Bennett: Lock him up.

I’ve never seen anything as ugly—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! David Bennett will stand, withdraw, and apologise.

💬 Hon David Bennett: I withdraw and apologise.

💬 SPEAKER: The member will have slightly less time because I’m not giving him time for that.

—as when a reporter asked a Minister a question—to call them a psycho in areas of such important public interest. We have the Prime Minister ducking for cover. She is totally compromised. The only way she became Prime Minister was because of a political party that is now alleged of being involved in very serious, illegal election activity. National says these matters must be independently and thoroughly investigated.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. On a very different note, I suspect that we all in this House, along with most other New Zealanders, know what it’s like to be ignored, left out, or bullied for being different. I have a very vivid memory of myself sitting under a tree, crying by myself after being bullied as a kid. I also have really clear memories of seeing other kids being bullied for being different and really wanting to do whatever I could not to be like them so that I could protect myself from further bullying. That was one of the reasons that, for me, it took me so long to come out as a lesbian, even to myself.

After, first, invisibility and then years of public debate about lesbians and gays being mentally unwell, a threat to children, and a danger to our society, I couldn’t even begin to imagine that I might be one of them. This took a toll, not just in my slow coming into myself and all the acting out that came along the way with that, but also years of quite significant mental distress and suicidality, and that was because that experience was backed up by a history and a contemporary reality of State violence against people like me. The impact of that was profound, and I recognise that many people in this House will have had that similar experience from a range of different perspectives. I talk about that today because today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance, the day when we remember and honour the lives of trans and non-binary people who have been murdered or harmed through discrimination and hate.

We know that this country, as well as many other countries across the Pacific, has had a history of inclusion of people who don’t fit the traditional roles of men and women, yet the Human Rights Commission found in their seminal report of 2006 that being trans is not a lifestyle choice, but it’s simply one dimension of the rich diversity that is humanity—they are us; we are them. But they showed the profound impact and prevalence of discrimination in our society and that that threatened the person’s safety and wellbeing of that community and those people in our country. This has been recently backed up by a survey through the Waikato University research of around 1,200 trans and non-binary people that, shockingly, showed that over half of those people had seriously considered suicide in the last 12 months, that the rates of discrimination against those people are twice that of the general population, and that those who experienced that discrimination were twice as likely to have attempted suicide in the last 12 months.

Mr Speaker, my colleagues, we need to do better, and I would ask every member in this House and members of the public to reflect on what we can do to celebrate our rich diversity and improve the lives of our trans and non-binary constituents and friends and families. For me, a good starting point is “Do unto others” when it comes to challenging discrimination, and I really hope that if more of us pick up that motto, we might just save some lives and create a society where all of us have the ability to flourish.

It feels like 2008 all over again. I worked here in 2008, and I remember question time every day: Taito Phillip Field, the Electoral Finance Bill, questions around trusts, and I remember the election when Helen Clark said, “This election’s about trust.” I remember the Spencer Trust and I remember the last year of that Government being dogged by questions around Mr Peters and New Zealand First, and it feels like déjà vu. It feels like it’s starting again, just two years into this Government’s time in office.

I want to talk about the Provincial Growth Fund and the application from Future Forest Products Ltd, because, let me tell you, we have not heard the last of this. There is more to come. We know a Provincial Growth Fund application was made from March 2019 onwards. They wanted a $15 million loan for a feasibility study—$15 million. Now, look, you might think that there’s not much wrong with that. The Provincial Growth Fund has funded a lot of feasibility studies around the country, and they’re very expensive as well, except for the fact that this application came from a company that recently registered a director, Brian Henry—who, we all know, is a personal lawyer for Winston Peters and a New Zealand First judicial officer—his son, and Jan Trotman, who was added as a director in August.

We know there was back and forth with the officials. We know that there were videoconferences, there were meetings, and there was email correspondence, and a critical question that we will be investigating in this House is: how much involvement did Ministers have in that process? How much awareness did Ministers have during that process?

We know that there was some back and forth and there was some correspondence. On 21 September, a Mr Henry emailed Shane Jones’ office and sent on an article that would be of interest in relation to forestry investment. That was sent to his senior private secretary and later forwarded on to the Minister.

What did we learn yesterday? Yesterday, we learnt that on 4 November, responsibility for decision making around the application for the Provincial Growth Fund was transferred to David Clark—the responsibility for answering it was transferred on 4 November.

Multiple questions arise: firstly, when did Mr Jones, the responsible Minister, know about the application? When did he know—

💬 Darroch Ball: You asked the questions in the House today.

—because Mr Parker was very careful—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order! I didn’t ask the questions.

Mr Parker was very careful in the House today to say that when he became aware an application was going to Ministers—which was in October—he, therefore, recused himself. The critical question, which we will keep asking, is when he was aware an application was being made.

💬 Darroch Ball: Oh, come on.

Mr Ball laughs and scoffs. A lot turns on this—a lot turns on this.

That’s the first one. Secondly, why did the Minister wait until October to realise the conflict and declare it properly? Thirdly, why was that transfer only made on 4 November, remembering that just three days later the application was declined? A remarkably quick turn-around when the application was first made in March this year.

There are further questions for Mr Peters and for the Prime Minister herself. Who else declared a conflict? Mr Peters stood in Parliament yesterday and made reference to more than one Minister declaring a conflict. Who was the other Minister? Who was it? Was it Mr Peters himself? Was it Fletcher Tabuteau, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development? When were those conflicts declared? Why did Mr Peters say—as he did yesterday in relation to the application—that it never went to Ministers? Mr Peters said in question time yesterday that the application was declined by the independent managers who run the Provincial Growth Fund, but yet we had David Clark yesterday, and then Mr Parker on behalf of Shane Jones today, saying that it was Ministers that declined at the regional economic development Ministers’ meeting. Mr Peters said yesterday that one Minister knew nothing. Is that really true? We will ask these questions. This is a very murky picture. We will continue to get to the bottom of it in Opposition.

When people speak, I try to interpret what they say in pictures, and as those two National members speak, I see pictures of farm animals—a pig, maybe a dog—rolling in their own faeces—

💬 SPEAKER: No, no. I mean, that that might be an appropriate view; it might be what the member truly believes, but I think it doesn’t add to the decorum of the House. I don’t think it helps the images for the rest of us.

The point I’m making is that trying to throw dirt in the hope that it sticks with people in this House doesn’t do them well, particularly when they brand themselves as the moral right in this House. Well, it’s disappointing. It is disappointing. When I hear Jan Logie speak, I hear and see pictures of kindness, of a hand out in support of others.

Tonight, on a brighter note, let me just acknowledge, first and foremost, the number of community organisations who are working hard on the ground in our communities right across New Zealand: the Salvation Army, community groups, the number of groups that are on the ground dealing with the day-to-day issues that many families are facing. I want to acknowledge them because I understand their impatience. I understand the important work of the advocacy that they are doing on behalf of so many families, and the fact that they have had to work under the previous Government for nine long years, where they were squeezed continually, where the previous Government refused to acknowledge the number of crises that these groups are having to deal with. I’m saying to them: “Look, we’ve started the work.” I know and sense their impatience. We’ve started the work looking long term, looking to how we tackle the long-term challenges that our families and communities are facing.

I want to acknowledge the leadership of the Prime Minister, the leadership of New Zealand First, and the leadership of the Green Party. Once upon a time, they were laughing. We weren’t going to get along together. But these three parties are working hard on behalf of all New Zealanders, having to fix the mess that we inherited under that lot. They did not care one iota. So I am proud to say—even when I hear the Hon Carmel Sepuloni being questioned day in, day out, by the very group that left the mess, pretending as if they care. They don’t care. But with the leadership of our Ministers here, we are on track to ensure that New Zealand is the best country to raise a child, is the best country to raise a family. We’re on track to deliver up to 74,000 children out of poverty. We’ve delivered the Families Package and we’re on track. When it’s fully rolled out in 2021, 335 families with children will be far better off by $75 a week on average. That is far better than their focus on giving only their corporate mates—high income - bracket lot—a tax cut.

We’ve delivered more houses than any other Government since the 1970s. We have raised the minimum wage, lifting the income of those at the very bottom, and we are on track to deliver $20 per hour by the year 2021. We’re delivering more funding to schools so that parents don’t have to pay for school donations. We’re delivering cheaper doctor visits for 540,000 community services card holders. We are delivering new cancer treatment equipment and new cancer drugs, more people are in work today, more people are working full-time, and they are making higher wages, in only two years since we came into office—far better than that lot in the nine years that they had the administration.

We are delivering support to the Pacific region under our Pacific Reset policy. We have looked out to Samoa under our Treaty of Friendship, supporting the measles crisis that they are experiencing at this time. Why? Because they are family. They are family. And in their hour of need, we come to the need. We are delivering far more for Māori and Pacific than that Government has ever done in their five years. Sure, there is still much more to be done. We ask all of our communities to continue to advocate, but be patient with us. We are working hard. We’ve got it started, but we’re still a long way from completing the work.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I don’t know about that last contribution, because the other night I was at an event where I caught up with a number of Māori leaders. One of the questions they said to me was “What’s happening with Whānau Ora?” I said, “Well, I, like you, am quite interested, and wondering what’s happening with Whānau Ora.” To be told in their conversations with Government Ministers over Whānau Ora that only half of that $80 million set aside in that Budget would go to the Whānau Ora commissioning agencies that would eventually end up with whānau providers absolutely shocked me. I thought, “What on earth is going on?” Why has the Minister been so quiet about Whānau Ora and the delivery of the Whānau Ora budget that was held this year in the 2019 Budget? There was a lot of hoopla around this Budget for Māori and Whānau Ora. To find out that half of that fund is going into Government agencies is an absolute shock to me, and it will be a shock to a number of Whānau Ora providers out in the community today.

How can $40 million into a Government agency deliver Whānau Ora down to the services on the ground? How can a Government agency manage that from their desk? I say they cannot. Just today, in the Māori Affairs Committee, we heard from a Whānau Ora commissioning agency about the work of their 58 navigators covering a whole region. We found out about the trials and tribulations of a lack of funding to actually support the navigators. We heard around the role of the navigators and how many lives they have affected and been able to save. To this particular Whānau Ora commissioning agency, for them to learn that only $40 million across the four-year period that this Government has put aside for Whānau Ora will only be going to the Whānau Ora commissioning agencies is a shame. It is a lost opportunity.

I am disappointed that this Government can stand up and say “We have delivered this, this and this.”, and yet, many hundreds of Māori whānau go begging because they have not received the support within the Whānau Ora commissioning agencies because of a lack of funding. I am disappointed. I’m disappointed that Māori Ministers can let the delivery of funds and services to Māori go on the back-burner in favour of Government agencies. To be able to give funding into Corrections, that has a lot of money, from the Whānau Ora budget is shameful. It’s absolutely shameful. People say, “Oh, but they need to have Whānau Ora inside the prisons.” Well, that’s what Corrections are funded for. That should be part and parcel of their rehabilitation programme, and they should fund it. That funding should not come out of the Whānau Ora budget. That funding for Whānau Ora should go to the people on the ground, to the families that it was designed to target. I, on this side, along with my colleagues, am astounded that this Government can do that to the very people who actually put them over there on those benches.

I am also very disappointed in the fact that the Minister has not come out and enlightened the Whānau Ora community about what he is doing for Whānau Ora. It is very disappointing for him to sit there and for me to actually keep saying to him that we need to know, they need to know.

This is a Government that is not delivering to Māori whānau; it hasn’t been ever since it got into Government. Ever since it got into Government, it promised big things for Māori, and it has failed every which way. In many ways the contributions in this House today for general debate have been about accountability for funding and have been about accountability for services. This Government cannot and should not hold its head up high, because it has failed, failed, failed in the delivery of services—failed to account for the very funds that these taxpayers in New Zealand provide so services can be delivered.

All I want to say to the many whānau out there is that on this side of the House, when we take the Government benches in 2020, we will make sure that Whānau Ora funds are invested into whānau on the ground and that Government agencies will just have to manage with the funds that they currently have, because they get a lot of money—I know Te Puni Kōkiri got $10 million from that funding in May, and what have they done for it? I am disappointed. My heart breaks for the whānau of New Zealand. This Government should vacate those seats because they do not deliver services.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This afternoon, we had the privilege and pleasure—as we often do—of having children in the gallery to witness question time. When the children come through the door, they immediately gravitate to the Prime Minister’s chair. The children often come—oh, and to you, Mr Speaker, of course. Perhaps, just an aside, Mr Speaker, I do want to thank the Parliament for the delivery of that playground to make our Parliament much more accessible to the people of New Zealand—and I think there is a photo on social media that might have yourself sliding down that slide, but I couldn’t possibly comment on that. But what I do want to say is that children come to Parliament and they want to see our Prime Minister because they know that the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern is there for them. Before I became a member of Parliament, I worked with Jacinda Ardern in her role as spokesperson for children, and I completely believe and understand just how strong her commitment to children is.

I want to start with that premise—that children are important and that this Government is committed to making New Zealand the best place to be a child. That’s really important, it’s the focus of our work, it’s why we have an agenda that is about wellbeing, and it’s why we have also worked alongside Treasury to deliver the Living Standards Framework. What this is about is ensuring that all of the work of Government is delivered around five key priorities, and one of the most important priorities is our children. Now, that’s, you know, really sensible because it’s about our future and we want our children to do well. But more than that, we want them to thrive. There are many, many parts of our Families Package, in particular, that deliver specifically to children.

I want to talk about how we look at building the income in a family. So not only is that looking at raising the minimum wage and looking to ensure that Government employees and contractors move to the living wage but that’s also about supporting people at the most difficult time of a family’s life, and that’s when a new baby comes into the house—how stressful that is. This Government has taken a universal approach to say that we know this is a difficult time for families, so we’re going to support you by making sure that you have an extra $60 in your pocket to make sure that you attend to baby’s needs—whether that’s formula or nappies or all those little things that you might need. Babies can be really expensive, and we say that, actually, we know that it’s important for every family to be supported in that way.

We also want to create healthy environments for our children. I’m particularly proud—and I don’t mind how often I say this, because it impacts the children in my area, in my city, and in my region—of the work that we are doing in Mana Ake to support children who experience trauma, particularly post-earthquake. I’m also proud of the work that we’re doing with young people, in terms of Piki, to support their mental health. Children are fragile and when things happen they need support to recover and restore them from trauma. So I’m enormously proud of the work that we’re doing in that area.

But it’s more than that; we’re also looking at their education. So we have, in this term of Parliament, paid teachers more and we’ve paid early childhood educators more because we recognise that quality education comes from teachers who feel rewarded. Now, we know that early childhood educators are also being rewarded for their work, but we know that there is much more that we can do in that space. We encourage our colleagues to make sure that they keep telling us about the issues and the pressures that we face, because we have started on this journey, we’ve got much more to do, but we don’t always know the impact of our work until we’re reminded by our friends and colleagues. So we encourage people to keep telling us about what more there is to be done.

You know, school lunches are going to be free, and I often reflect on my grandson and what it means for him, just like I reflect on what it means for other children to be well supported right at the beginning stages of their lives, to have a great education, to be supported when things don’t go well, and, when they’re at school, to have the best education from the best teachers. And, also, if things aren’t going so well at home, that you’ve got support from nurses in schools, that you’ve got support from Mana Ake, and, sometimes, when families aren’t doing so well, that we can actually make sure that children are fed so that they have the opportunity to learn.

I am proud of this Government and I am proud of our Prime Minister.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Naturally Together – A Call to Action, on the West Coast on Sunday, where we got close to 4,000 locals turning up; 120 MPs were invited, six turned up—five from National. It was respectful, it was showcasing the very best of the Coast, and it talked about how Government policy is affecting locals. Speakers from the affected industries—timber, mining, tourism, farming, forestry, and electricity—as well as Ngāti Waewae and two of our local mayors were all speaking.

It was in 2017 when we first heard the policy announcement in the Speech from the Throne: no new mining on conservation land. The public was going to be consulted. Two years later, this Government still has not delivered the consultation document—the discussion document that we’ve been waiting on. Two years of uncertainty, and failing and falling business confidence. Not knowing is sometimes worse than actually knowing and being able to make a decision and get on with life, because we don’t know how to plan for our futures.

I can tell you this: the no-new-mining announcement may as well be policy, because that is exactly how the land is being administered right now. It is not national park, it is not Schedule 4 land; it’s old forestry blocks covered in gorse and flax, most of it cut over and a lot of it already mined. It’s just a place that had no place to go in the changes of 1989; land that is not virgin, native, mature forest.

That land used to provide up to 1,500 jobs; they in turn support other jobs in our schools, our supermarkets, our cafes, our retail, and our other trades, but also support other things like sports clubs, volunteer organisations—like your Rotaries and Lions club, St John, and your school committees etc., etc. We help heat dairy and timber factories, meat-processing plants, horticulture, hospitals, and schools all across New Zealand. There are alternatives that need to come along to fill the gaps that have been created.

If we are to stop our industries—and it’s not unlike the stopping of the oil and gas exploration—we need this Government to deliver the pathway for this just transition. We’re not making a case there for open slather on our stewardship land. In fact, all we want is a case by case analysis, an assessment, because we believe that’s the best approach. It’s worked well for us for decades, and it gives us, I believe, the best of both worlds. It is not mining or the environment; it is mining and the environment—that’s how we’ve always treated it, and that’s why our backyard is still pristine.

But it’s not only mining that’s been affected in this Government’s policy decisions. We’ve been feeling the impacts with whitebaiting, the freshwater policies, the national policy statement, the biodiversity, native timber, running roughshod over our private property rights with more proposed significant natural areas, the pounamu, the moss, but the last straw was to turn down the Waitaha run-of-river hydro scheme, a clean renewable energy project. I believe this is unbelievable politics at play.

Now, the irony that we see on the Coast is that it’s the birthplace of the Labour Party, and their mission was to look after workers’ rights, to look after their conditions and fight for the eight-hour day and working conditions. Yeah right. I argue that they have yet to find their new purpose, relevant purpose, for existing. Coasters are heartland New Zealand, real people, and proud hard workers. So we are stunned when we are criticised for being vocal about how fearful we are for our futures. It’s the speed of change. It’s the amount of change happening all at once. Communities need time to adjust to change. So where is this just transition that the Government keeps talking about and not delivering?

But to be told by the very person who is elected to take his community’s views back to Wellington that we are too resistant to change, to get our head out of the sand, or to tell others just to get over it speaks to me of a person who has lost touch with his electorate and has stopped listening. As the new spokesperson for West Coast issues, I can assure the Coasters we will stick, naturally, together. As the new spokesperson, I will have their back, not stab them in it.

Kia ora e Te Mana Whakawā. It’s an absolute privilege to speak on today’s general debate as speaker number seven. I don’t agree with Simon Bridges about his description of that member’s abilities—I don’t agree with it. I’m not going to say it, because I’m better than that.

New Zealand is doing better under this Government than in the previous nine years of neglect left to us by the National Government. Why do I say that? Well, I want to echo what the Hon Poto Williams has said about the playground—your leadership in terms of the playground outside. I promise that I will do live selfies with the safety in mind of the other children around me. But I want to, with all jokes aside, thank you. Thank you for your leadership. It’s now starting to look like a New Zealand Parliament for all.

Earlier this afternoon, the Rt Hon Jacinda Arden, who I am privileged to be in the leadership of, and the Hon Carmel Sepuloni spoke about the report of how thousands of children are doing better under this Government. Why do I say that? The reports say that 385 families with children will be better off by an average $75 a week. So when I say New Zealanders are doing well under this Government, I wanted to talk to you about Ezekiel Robson. Now, Ezekiel Robson stopped me on the streets of Papakura and he said to me, “Anahila, I would like you to extend to”—and I quote—“Jacinda and the Labour caucus my thankfulness.” He’s a first-time parent—a first-time parent. Seventy five dollars a week has enabled them, he said, to buy a little something for their newly born son. And what touched my heart? He said, “And we can put a little bit away for his education.” The look on Ezekiel Robson’s face and heart—actually, it was so warm that I had to take a selfie and send it to the Prime Minister to say thank you.

So that’s what I mean. New Zealanders are doing well under this Government. One million New Zealanders were warmed by the winter energy payment. I was stopped at the Hon Aupito William Sio’s streets in Māngere, where they said to me, and I quote, “Anahila, tell Jacinda thank you for the winter energy payment.” I said, “Why?” “Because my dad said we can turn the heater on this winter.”—my dad said we can turn the heater on this winter. When I say New Zealanders are doing better under this Government, it is actually the ordinary person on the street who actually feels the sunshine. It’s summer. Let’s brighten it up. It’s summer. Let’s brighten up our day.

I was at the SunPix awards, where SunPix acknowledges leaders in the Pacific community for their input, for enriching Aotearoa New Zealand. The person that won the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Pacific Enterprise Award, her name was Lisa Taouma. Now, Lisa Taouma is the Coconet founder. There’s a programme here on TV2 that’s called Fresh—she’s the founder of Fresh on TVNZ. She said when she received her award, “I want to extend a thanks to the Government, to this coalition Government, for their investment, after 10 years, into the Pacific arts and broadcasting—never have done that before in the last 10 years.” She said that in her thank-you speech to say thank you—thank you—and she actually mentioned two Ministers: thank you to the Prime Minister and also the Hon Carmel Sepuloni and the Hon Jenny Salesa.

Now that is a demonstrator, is evidence, of ordinary New Zealanders, whether they are parenting for the first time; whether they are still at home as an adult with their parents, who still control how the electricity is supplied in their home; or whether they are being acknowledged for their leadership in New Zealand—people are saying thank you. People are saying thank you. For that, it warms my heart. It warms my heart because I know that’s evidence that New Zealanders are doing better.

One note—we now have our programme in terms of rolling out nurses in schools. Earlier, last month, the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern and I were at Rosehill College—and that’s leadership. One thing is to design something on paper, but there is another thing to actually visit schools and see how those designs come out. Thank you, Rosehill College in Papakura for hosting the Prime Minister, for showing that you have 2½ nurses who are there to respond to the physical health needs of students, but also taking their mental health seriously and providing—[Time expired]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, it’s an interesting week, and I think this place often ends up that way, but we can start by looking at what we’re hearing in the news about New Zealand First’s funding streams. They have always had some unique funding avenues, and I think it just highlights some of the unique characteristics this Government has. Whilst they might claim on that side that they are delivering for New Zealanders, I think we need to ask: are New Zealanders actually feeling better off under this Government? Quite clearly, in the Waikato, the answer is no. They have been let down time and again by this Government failing to deliver. Broken promises left, right, and centre—all over the show, they have failed to help New Zealanders.

We heard just before about ordinary New Zealanders. Well, I’m not entirely sure what an ordinary New Zealander is, but in the Waikato, we have thousands of extraordinary New Zealanders who are going above and beyond every day to make the best they can in their jobs, in their communities, and for their families, and they are feeling let down by this Government—extraordinary New Zealanders every day trying to be better off. Business owners, employees, people participating in community activities—whatever it may be, they are feeling they are not better off under this Government. You can look at some of the basic stats: the number of people on benefits have increased significantly, homeless numbers have increased, rent costs have gone up as well. Actually, even in strong rural areas like the Waikato, some of those aspects impact on us and our provincial rural towns—towns like Matamata, towns like Morrinsville. When I talk to constituents throughout those towns, I ask them how they’re doing. “How’s business going? Are you feeling better off under this Government?”

💬 Kieran McAnulty: The member asks them like that?

And the resounding answer is clearly no. Mr McAnulty might make fun of talking to constituents, and perhaps, I guess, he doesn’t understand that since he has none, but I would encourage him to get out and try talking to people in the electorates. It’s a novel approach. This Government should try it a bit more. We’ve seen far too often they are curtailing what we would expect as a standard democratic process. You can look at any number of pieces of legislation that have gone through this House that have had a curtailed select committee process. The typical attitude from this Government is that they know best. The arrogance of it, to assume they know more than people throughout New Zealand—those extraordinary New Zealanders who are every day doing their best in their particular fields of interest are being let down time and again, and this Government needs to wake up and smell the roses.

We’re seeing huge uncertainty in the business sector, and I hear that around my electorate. Businesses that are employing tens of staff, hundreds of staff throughout our communities—a massive contribution they make to the economic wealth and benefit and prosperity within our regions. They’re saying “Well, actually, I don’t feel confident under this Government.”, and we see that in the business confidence stats. So they’re not making investment decisions, they’re not making hiring decisions—some of those considerations that this Government just doesn’t seem to get when they think about trying to make people better off: “everyday New Zealanders”, whatever that term is.

It’s the same in the farming sector. We saw just last week, out on the forecourt here at Parliament, a massive protest led by the 50 Shades Of Green movement. Farmers from around the country—and there were farmers from the Waikato that had travelled down, which shows how passionate they are to represent their industry and express their concerns with the policy settings this Government is putting forward. Far too many aspects within that are focused on the farming sector negatively. Everyone would agree there needs to be change and improvement; the farming sector accepts that. But, actually, it’s not just a farming issue. This is for all of New Zealand to improve, and these policies are letting farmers down. Despite prices being at very good levels, interest rates being at very low levels, and, actually, weather conditions being pretty good—the three factors that typically underpin farming confidence, it is the lowest it has been in decades. That is clearly driven by the uncertainty this Government is stoking into the sector, and the rhetoric that comes out from this Labour-led Government and their New Zealand First supporters.

It’s not good enough, and sadly we’re seeing that play out in a range of areas. We just talked yesterday about the mental health commission being set up, and I do commend them on that, because that is a great piece of work. There are far too many New Zealanders suffering from mental health. Sadly, in rural New Zealand we’ve seen that increasing in terms of suicide rates; that has gone up. Urban New Zealand is trending down, which is fantastic. In rural New Zealand that’s not the case. So we need to see more front-line services and we need to see it sooner. A significant increase in investment there is fantastic, but it needs to be playing out in front-line services.

That’s before we even get on to some of the transport issues, which I want to touch on briefly before we finish. So a whole range of areas that were feeling let down, broken promises, and a failure to deliver. And I would just reiterate the letters I wrote to the Prime Minister and transport Minister. Road safety is critical. Karapiro School, that intersection, I want to see the Ministers there to fix it.

Order! The member’s time has expired.

E Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe. Me tīmata taku kōrero pea ki te tuku mihi ki a koe, nāu i whakapuare te papa tākaro ki waho i Te Whare Pāremata i tēnei rā. Ā, kua ū koe ki ō kupu ki taku māmā, kua whakapuare i te papa tākaro i tēnei rā. Nō reira, e Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe.

Tēnā hoki tātou i tēnei rā mō ngā tamariki, he rā whakanui i ngā tamariki puta noa i te ao. He tohu pai tēnā i waho i tēnei Whare Pāremata, he tohu pai anō i roto i tēnei Whare Pāremata. I tēnei rā i tae mai tētahi kura nō Te Tai Tokerau, arā Te Kura o Waikare. E tino whakahīhī ana ahau te whakaatu atu ki a rātou tēnei Whare o tātou. Ā, ō mahi, e Te Māngai o Te Whare, me Te Pirīmia anō hoki. I haere mai a Jacinda Ardern ki te tūtaki i ēnei taitamariki ki te kōrero, ki te whakautu i ō rātou pātai i te wā o te tina.

E mihi ana ahau ki a ia. E mōhio ana ahau ko te mea nui ki a ia ko te oranga o ngā tamariki. Kua kī ia tērā kōrero i ngā rā o mua. Kua kite i roto i ngā mahi kua tutuki i a mātou, Te Kāwanatanga, i roto i te rua tau.

Ko te ture tuatahi i whakatau i roto i tēnei Whare i te wā i tīmata mātou hei Kāwanatanga ko te whakaroa ake i ngā wiki ka hoatu ki ngā mātua o tētahi pēpi kātahi anō ka whānau mai, ki te tautoko i a rātou te whānau i taua wā. Kua whakaroa ake ki te 26 wiki. Koirā te tūmanako, koirā te whakatau.

Kātahi anō ka puta mai tētahi rīpoata i te rā tonu nei. Ko tēnei te rīpoata tuatahi i kite au i te ata nei, ka tino hari, ka tino koa ahau. Ko te kōrero i roto i taua rīpoata e whakaatu atu ana e mahi tika ana mātou, tō mātou kaupapa, mō te kaupapa o ngā whānau, te tahua pūtea mō ngā whānau, arā Te Families Package. Kua tonoa atu neke atu i te rima me te hāwhe piriona tāra ki ngā whānau maha puta noa i Aotearoa ki te hiki i te taimahatanga ki runga i a rātou. E tū whakahīhī ana ahau i tērā mahi nā te mea e whakapono ana ahau, e kite ana ahau i roto i Te Tai Tokerau, ētahi atu wāhi anō hoki, ā, ko tēnei pūtea e tohatoha ana ki ēnei whānau, e hiki ana, e piki ana, ā, e hiki ana i ngā taimahatanga ki runga i a rātou.

E tautoko ana hoki i ngā whānau i te tau kotahi ā muri mai i te whānautanga o ngā pēpi. Ka toha atu ki a rātou tata ki te $60 ia wiki ki te āwhina i a rātou i tērā wā e mōhio nei tātou ka piki ake ngā utu mō te tiaki pēpi i taua tau. Tata ki te 36,000 whānau kua whakawhiwhia i tērā pūtea hei tiaki i a rātou i taua wā.

Ā, kua rongo koutou i te kōrero i roto i tēnei Whare i tēnei ahiahi, mō te kotahi miriona tāngata kua whakawhiwhia te moni i te wā o te hōtoke, arā te wā o te makariri. Ka taea e rātou te whakamahana ake ō rātou whare. He painga tērā mō te tokomaha o ngā tāngata.

E Te Māngai o Te Whare, kua rongo pea koutou, te ao, i te wero i Te Pirīmia, kia whakaputa i te rua miniti ngā mea katoa kua tutuki i tēnei Kāwanatanga, engari kore taea e ia. He nui kē atu ngā mahi kua tutuki i a mātou i te rua tau, tē taea te whakaputa i te rua miniti. Nō reira, e mihi ana ki a ia e whakarārangi ana ngā mahi kua tutuki, engari ko ia kei te kī, kātahi anō mātou ka tīmata, he nui tonu ngā mahi kei mua i te aroaro.

Kua rongo i roto i tēnei Whare anō hoki ko te whakakore i ngā koha a ngā mātua ki ngā kura hei tiaki i ngā pūtea o te kura. Kua whakakore ināianei i raro i tēnei Kāwanatanga, kua rongo, neke atu i te 90 percent ngā kura i Te Tai Tokerau kua whakakorea tērā tūāhuatanga. Ā, me te utu i ngā whakamātautau. He taimahatanga tēnā mō ngā whānau, mō ngā taitamariki, mō tō rātou NCEA. Kua whakakore tērā āhuatanga.

I te mutunga ko taku kōrero, ko te piko o te māhuri, tērā te tupu o te rākau. Ko ngā tamariki ngā taonga tuku iho. Tēnā koe.

[To the Speaker, greetings. I should perhaps start my speech by congratulating you for opening the playground outside Parliament today. And you have stuck to your words to my mother, and opened the playground today. Therefore, to the Speaker, congratulations.

Greetings to all of us on this day for the children, a day to celebrate children throughout the world. There are good signs outside of this House of Parliament; there are also good signs inside of Parliament House. Today a school from Northland came, namely Te Kura o Waikare. I was really proud to show them this House of ours. And, your work, Mr Speaker, and also the Prime Minister—Jacinda Ardern came to meet these youth to speak and to answer their questions at lunchtime.

I thank her for that. I know that the most important thing to her is the wellbeing of children. She has said that in the past. It is also visible in the actions we, the Government, have taken within two years.

The first law that was passed in this House when we began as Government was to extend the weeks given to the parents of a baby who had just been born, to support the family at that time. It has been extended to 26 weeks. That was the hope; that was the decision.

A report has just come out on this very day. This is the first report I saw this morning, and I was happy, very happy. The content of that report showed that we are doing the right thing with our initiative on the matter of families, the budget for families—that is, the Families Package. Over $5.5 billion has been distributed to many families throughout New Zealand to lessen the pressures on them. I stand proud of that because I believe, and I see in Northland, and other places too, that this fund which is being distributed to these families is raising, is increasing, is lessening the burdens that are on them.

We are also supporting families in the first year after the birth of babies. They are given approximately $60 each week to help them at that time, when we know the costs increase for looking after a baby for that year. Close to 36,000 families have been given that money to take care of them at that time.

And you have heard what has been said in this House this afternoon about the 1 million people who have been given money this winter—that is in the cold season. They can increase the warmth in their houses. That is beneficial for many people.

To the Speaker, you have perhaps heard, as has the world, the challenge to the Prime Minister to express in two minutes the things which have been achieved by this Government; however, it was not possible for her. So many more things have been achieved by us within two years that it is not possible to express them in two minutes. Therefore, I acknowledge her for her listing of the actions which have been achieved, but it was she who said that we have just started; there is still much work in front of us.

We have also heard in this House the abolishment of parental donations to schools to support the schools’ funds. That has now been abolished under this Government, we’ve heard, over 90 percent of the schools in Northland have abolished that practice. And, paying for exams. That is a pressure for families, for youth, and for their NCEA. That element has been abolished.

To end my speech, the way in which a young sapling is nurtured determines how the tree will grow. The children are treasures passed down to us. Thank you.]

It is a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First, a party that I might say is in its 27th year of existence. I’m proud to be associated with its fine contribution to New Zealand politics. From time to time during that period we have had to weather the odd political hit job, and now is just a time. In all cases, I might say, we have always been exonerated. Of course, there’s the media frenzy that surrounds this sort of thing and the stone throwing from the National Party as they mount their moral high horse. But what they forget is their moral high horse is tethered firmly in the middle of a glass house. There is only one party in this Parliament that is being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office for political donations, and those allegations, concerningly, include that some of this money may have come from foreign origins, something that has no place in New Zealand politics.

But New Zealand First, of course, has not been distracted. This has actually been a great week for us. Two longstanding pieces of legislation coming before the House: the Farm Debt Mediation Bill (No 2), which, of course, had its origins with New Zealand First back as long ago as 1999. Tonight, that will go into legislation, and we are very proud of that. Of course, Minister Parker yesterday announced another delivery of a coalition promise, which is to add a national interest test to the Overseas Investment Office—long overdue. Now the Government will have some levers. When these key strategic assets come up for sale, sometimes under duress, we will now have the ability to have a helicopter-level view as to whether this will be in the national interest. I commend Minister Parker and I commend—in terms of our party this has been longstanding New Zealand First policy.

I was going to go into those things more, but I had to pick up on the contribution from Maureen Pugh, because I too was at that Naturally Together rally in Greymouth on Sunday. I would say that New Zealand First, and I in particular, spend quite a lot of time over there and have some sympathy for the issues that they were bringing forward. They do live in unique circumstances. Eighty-five percent of the coast is under Department of Conservation (DOC) control, and there is pressure on their legacy industries. They do not have a thousand years to transition. But if I would critique that rally, there was no balance to it. When we talk about a just transition, as Maureen Pugh did, there was no effort on that day to balance the ledger. What does a just transition look like? I can tell you that a just transition looks like this Government and the Provincial Growth Fund investing $90 million—so far—on the West Coast into things like port infrastructure, rail infrastructure, tourism infrastructure—

💬 Maureen Pugh: What about jobs?

—and, Maureen Pugh, even a mine, a garnet mine, just south of Hokitika, and you should know really well. And we did try to throw a financial lifeline to the Westland dairy co-op so it wouldn’t have to go into foreign control. But what else have we done over there? We’ve spent $35 million bailing out the local polytech. We’re building two new hospitals over there. We have gone into the Pike River mine. We have not walked away, as the previous Government did. We have honoured the families of the Pike River 29, which could be the biggest crime scene in New Zealand history.

This Government is actually pretty proud of what we’re doing over there. There is more to do, and we will look at things like the whitebait legislation that is coming forward. I know my colleague Jenny Marcroft is working very carefully with Minister Sage to make sure we do balance out recreational interests in terms of that iconic West Coast pastime. I myself am spending a lot of time over there on the water debates, because they do have some unique attributes over there in terms of their water issues that may not fit the one-size-fits-all model that is being mooted at this stage. But that is a discussion document that we are fully engaged in.

So all these things mount up to New Zealand First and this coalition Government actually being very, very active on the Coast, looking to transition it into a 21st century future, not a 19th century future, as Maureen Pugh seems to expect. I stand completely by our record on the West Coast.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.