General Debate

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

I want to begin today by offering my heartfelt condolences to all of those affected by the eruption at Whakaari / White Island. As we heard in the House yesterday, both from the Government and from the Opposition, this Parliament is united in expressing not only our grief for those people but also our support for their friends and families. This is an unimaginable horror for people, particularly those who were on holiday. They were no doubt enjoying themselves, no doubt part of an excursion that they had been looking forward to, in some cases for years. To find themselves caught up in such a horrific situation makes this even worse. We think, particularly, of the families of those who are deceased and those who are unaccounted for. We also think of those who are in hospital, 25 of whom are in a critical condition, as the Minister of Police said today.

The experience, as has been outlined again by the Minister of Police, for those who are exposed to volcanic ash, is a horrendous one, and, at this time, I want to make a special note of the incredible work of burns specialists around the hospitals of New Zealand. Every major hospital in New Zealand mobilised its burns specialists within hours and was able to receive people within hours from Whakatāne. It has been a heroic effort once again by our medical professionals.

Alongside that, I want to make a special acknowledgement of all of the emergency services—police, Fire and Emergency New Zealand, the ambulance staff, the National Emergency Management Agency, and the local civil defence—and the members of the public, who have rallied round in a way that every single New Zealander can be incredibly proud of. This is an evolving situation, and it is challenging when we can’t be completely certain or provide that certainty. But we know that our emergency services are working towards that as fast as they possibly can.

Today, I was very proud to announce the Government’s $12 billion capital investment, lifting New Zealand’s capital investment to its highest level in more than 20 years. We took this step today to futureproof the New Zealand economy. We also took this step today because we inherited an infrastructure deficit. Every member of this House would be able to give an example of a hospital or a school or a rail line or a road that was left to rot under the last Government. But, if you want to know what an infrastructure deficit looks like, it looks like this. [Holds up graph showing net capital spending over time] It looks like years of low capital investment, years of failing to invest in what is needed. It is no different to any household. If you defer the maintenance, the problem gets worse. That is what we inherited, and that is why we are investing $50 billion in capital over the next five years. When we came into office, that was scheduled to be $30 billion. So we have nearly doubled that, and we are proud of that record, because in New Zealand there is a significant need for these projects.

But, beyond that, we have some of the lowest interest rates that we’ve seen in the world, and we also have an economy that is well positioned to be able to take on the additional borrowing that is required to be able to put these projects into place.

I am very pleased that we’re doing this. It builds on two Budgets of strong and consistent capital investment: $1.7 billion in our hospitals, $1.4 billion in our schools, $1 billion into KiwiRail, and the $17.7 billion that has been input into the National Land Transport Fund. And now we add to that. Not only does it benefit our economy overall; it gives certainty to our construction industry. Our $400 million going into schools—that’s the local tradies who benefit out of that. The big horizontal infrastructure projects—the pipeline is now there: $6.8 billion for new transport projects and money to decarbonise parts of the public sector, such as schools and hospitals who have those coal-fired boilers that we need to turn around.

This is the package of a Government that has its eye on the long-term wellbeing of New Zealanders. We are futureproofing our economy, and we are actually putting our money where our mouth is. No more ghost roads; these are the projects that will futureproof the New Zealand economy, and I am extremely proud of a Government that is being able to put this programme of work on top of what we have already done, in contrast to the previous Government. The negativity opposite is in contrast to the positive views of this side of the House.

I want to start by also acknowledging the families who have suffered great loss on White Island in the dreadful events. I want to acknowledge the hard work of all those working to save their lives in hospitals around the country and wish them all the very, very best.

How is it possible that we could go from a country that was growing quickly, which had surpluses as far as the eye could see, and in two short years—two short years—to take that to an economy which is growing slowly on a per person basis, in fact, hardly growing at all, and in deficit? Unbelievable incompetence to go from that situation two years ago to where we find ourselves today, in deficit. It will be the first of many deficits that this Government will deliver if they get any more chance, because we all know that they haven’t ever found a problem that they can’t solve by more spending.

Why is the economy slowing? So we’ve seen the half-yearly update released today. It was going to be 3 percent; now 2.2 percent on per person level—that’s only about 0.5 percent. Why are we slowing? Because this Government has got one hand dragging down the economy by adding costs, by creating massive policy uncertainty wherever you look, and so that the natural reaction of people who would invest to grow the economy is to keep their hands in their pocket and wait to figure out what this Government is doing.

Then we’ve seen all the incompetence through KiwiBuild and, in particular, in infrastructure. It’s amazing the gall that we have of the Minister of Finance to turn up and say, “We are the infrastructure party.” They’ve done nothing for two years. The only thing they did in infrastructure in this Government for two years has been to cancel all the roading projects that National had on the go because Julie Anne Genter believes that she should never give in to the car fascists, and because Phil Twyford thinks that we’ve over-invested in roads.

So they cancelled them all for ideological reasons—have done nothing. They’ve severed the infrastructure pipeline. People are heading off overseas, the builders. And now they come in and say they’re going to spend up big. Well, we don’t trust them and we don’t believe them. Why don’t we believe them? Because they haven’t delivered in the past and they won’t deliver now. The Prime Minister seems to think that announcing something is all you need to do, and that’s the same as delivering.

The Faafoi defence perfectly encapsulates how this Government operates. He says, “Don’t worry, I’m on to it, bro. I’ve got a plan, but I’ve done absolutely nothing.” And that’s how this Government operates. That perfectly encapsulates how this Government operates—big talk, no action. That’s why New Zealanders will be looking at this big number—$12 billion they are going to spend over the next 10 years or however long it is—and they have no confidence that anything will be delivered, because they can’t deliver.

What’s happened with infrastructure? What have they done? Well, they’ve cancelled a whole lot of projects and then they’ve talked about the slow tram down Dominion Road. We still don’t know—two years after this Government has started—what the purpose of this slow tram is. Is it to go to the airport quickly or is it some urban regeneration project? Don’t know. Two years—they still haven’t worked out what the project is.

And then, of course, we’ve got big talk around the ports from Shane Jones. What a disgrace to go about a massive infrastructure question—which is an important question, one that we should be considering, but which would have impact and consequences for decades to come—and have that driven by some kind of backroom deal between Shane Jones and a Prime Minister determined to announce something. That is no way to make major infrastructure decisions, and we need to take these things far more seriously.

Now, if KiwiBuild is anything to go by, all the announcements that have been made today, as vague as they are, won’t lead to the results that New Zealanders need to see and want to see in terms of providing the opportunity for this economy to start growing again. What do we need to see? We need to see a Government—a National Government—that restores confidence so that people will invest and that revives the economy so that we can lift our aspirations as to what we can achieve in this country, because right here, right now, the export prices that we’re receiving are at historically high levels.

We’ve heard nothing but “Global headwinds, it’s Donald Trump’s fault, it’s President Xi’s fault—the world is all bad, bad, bad, and that’s why it’s slowing down.” What a load of nonsense. The terms of trade are at full throttle. New Zealand should be booming right now. Yes, there’s all sorts of uncertainty out there. But the prices we’re getting are very strong. We should be going well and we’re being held back by a Government that doesn’t know what it’s doing.

The only thing about horizontal infrastructure that we’re seeing from this Government is that they’re lying flat on their backs doing nothing. As Mr Faafoi said, “I’m on to it, bro. I’m on to it. I’ve got a plan, but actually I can hold my head high and say with all honesty that I did absolutely nothing.” And that’s what we’re going to get from this Government.

Mr Speaker, thank you for this opportunity. First, if the House will indulge me, a few words of farewell to those who have passed.

Nō reira, koutou kua ngaro atu ki te pō ki roto i te pahū nui ki runga o Whakaari, tēnei te tangi atu ki a koutou, haere, haere, haere. Ka whakahokia mai waku kōrero ki a tātou te hunga ora, tēnā koutou.

[Therefore, to you who have departed to the underworld in the great eruption on Whakaari / White Island, farewell, farewell, farewell. My thoughts return to us the living, greetings to you all.]

I want to, in my contribution, speak to some of the events that have unfolded over the past few days. If I can, I would like to start down on the West Coast. In the past week, the West Coast was hammered by large rainfall, which saw significant damage to the infrastructure throughout the West Coast. It saw up to a thousand tourists trapped in Franz Josef; it saw communities isolated across the West Coast.

This isn’t anything new to the people of the West Coast, but it does continue to provide an ongoing challenge for the people of the West Coast. In that vein, I want to acknowledge their resilience—the resilience of the people of the West Coast to get on with life, to make sure that whatever the weather that impacts upon them, they have a rather optimistic attitude towards what goes on. I want to commend them also for wrapping their support around the many tourists who found themselves stuck throughout the West Coast. I want to acknowledge, also, the patience of those tourists as we looked to support them to continue their travels and explore the beauty that is our country.

In our recent package and announcement by the Prime Minister, we committed to $100,000 to go towards supporting both the West Coast and South Canterbury, who have been affected by the heavy rains.

I can confirm today that now there are only approximately 32 tourists in Franz Josef. Many of the tourists have gone on to continue their vacation here in Aotearoa New Zealand, to explore how beautiful our country is. With that beauty they acknowledge that there are many challenges, in particular when a significant weather event hits. So can I just thank the councils and all of the local people for the work that they did to ensure that the West Coast can continue to be the beautiful place that it is.

I now turn to Whakaari, to White Island, and to Whakatāne. Over the past two days, I have spent time amongst the people and I want to acknowledge a few of them in my contribution today. Can I start close to home. I would like to acknowledge the Prime Minister for her compassion and leadership in what is a truly tragic event for the community, not just in Whakatāne but internationally. I would also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge my colleagues, Tamati Coffey and also Kiritapu Allan—and I want to acknowledge the Hon Anne Tolley—for the work that they did in their community to make sure that that community felt supported, and that community knew that we were there to support them and awhi them through what was a challenging time.

I also now want to turn to my contribution to the local civil defence emergency management group, who alongside first responders, many volunteers, DHBs, health professionals, and the community at large worked particularly hard in the aftermath of the volcanic eruption. The Prime Minister has already spoken about the bravery, the selflessness, and the attributes of a community that cares about people. I was fortunate to be there firsthand to witness the people in motion, the people who hadn’t slept for nearly 48 hours, all because they were driven to make sure that those who were affected by the significant event were supported. The local government and particularly the local mayor and mayors in surrounding districts who came to support—I want to acknowledge them.

I want to acknowledge the police. I want to acknowledge the Defence Force. I want to acknowledge the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I also want to acknowledge the Immigration Service and the ACC service, who have worked hard with tour operators, with families, with community, and with people travelling from afar and those travelling nearby. They did an exceptional job and every person in this country should hold their head high in the way that our agencies, local and central, come together to support people through such a challenging time.

I apologise for the sombre note of my contribution. But I feel today and on behalf of everyone here as the Minister of Civil Defence, a big acknowledgment to all of those people involved. And I say to them all: kia kaha, kia māia, kia manawanui [be strong, be brave, be steadfast].

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can I echo the sentiments relayed by my colleague and friend the Hon Peeni Henare in light of what has been a tragic situation back home in our region. The Eastern Bay of Plenty is a beautiful place. Whakaari itself, White Island, always casts a shadow over the water whenever you look out from the Eastern Bay beaches, and for a long time there’s been a history with the iwi around there. Te Whānau a Apanui, Te Whakatōhea, and Ngāti Awa—Ngāi Tūhoe as well—back in the day would take turns heading out the island to collect tītī or mutton bird, because that was where they went and they would all take it in turn to go out there and collect it. It’s had a long history.

There have been deaths on the island before. Once upon a time in the island’s history, it was mined for its sulphur. And actually, I think it was in 1914, there was an accident that happened there. It was an avalanche and a lot of men lost their lives. So I acknowledge that.

On Monday, I got a phone call and the phone call was basically to say, “Don’t go to Wellington. The volcano has erupted. Whakaari has erupted. I think you’d better head there.” So I jumped straight into the car. I went over to the eastern part of my electorate and I jumped out of the car. And what I realised was that I was standing at White Island Tours with a bunch of people there. I had no idea when I pulled up that actually they were people who had come straight off the boat, that had been rescued by the boats, and had been put back to safety there. They were dazed. They were confused. They didn’t know what was going on. And they had seen things that they weren’t obviously ready to share. It was a very poignant moment. But from that point on, I made sure that I was part of this to support those people that needed support.

As we’ve already heard, a lot of the people involved in this came off the cruise ships, and I want to acknowledge the role that the cruise ships have actually played in this in terms of releasing their information, working proactively with our all-of-Government approach. And it’s been brilliant to see NEMA, our National Emergency Management Agency, civil defence, the Whakatāne District Council, the New Zealand Police, Immigration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, GNS Science—everybody coming together—and Te Puni Kōkiri coming together to try and provide an all-of-Government response to something that hasn’t been seen in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Can I also acknowledge the role that our Māori communities play in emergency disasters such as this. I take my mind back to when we had the terrorist killings earlier this year in Christchurch. As a Māori community, back in Rotorua, the word was put out, because nobody quite knew how to cope with that situation. So what we decided to do was to get everybody together at the marae. We put the call out. It wasn’t exclusive, but we just wanted to get together and feel that solidarity.

It happened in 2017 in Edgecumbe, where marae opened up their doors. Rautahi Marae opened up their doors to host the civil defence emergency centre. And it happened again yesterday when we held a hui at Te Mānuka Tūtahi Marae in Whakatāne. The iwi hosted it. We got inside and they said, “There is no media in here, but there is also no agenda in here as well. We want to be able to look after our people that are suffering through this. We want to acknowledge our workers who have colleagues that have been wrapped up in this this awful, awful tragedy.” And for a good couple of hours we sang songs, spoke, and showed solidarity. We heard from some members of the whānau who were waiting to hear back, and I understand that those families are still waiting. So my thoughts go out to them at this time.

One story that I want to recount is the story of a boy who only recently started working for White Island Tours. In fact, he was studying to be a teacher and he was well on his way to becoming a trained teacher. He only had his diploma in teaching to go, but he decided to take a bit of a side road and he decided to take up a job at White Island Tours. I spoke with his grandmother and I spoke with his girlfriend; they are, obviously, still waiting. I will forever have the words of his grandmother sitting in my head, the optimism in her voice, saying, “My boy, he’s a fighter—he’s a fighter—and I know that despite everything that would have been going on, I bet he would have found a cave and I bet he’s still probably sitting in that cave just waiting for somebody to come and find him.”

So to all of the whānau that are waiting for those answers, I acknowledge you and I acknowledge everybody that’s pulled together to make this tragedy the best situation that it can be in light of the circumstances. Kia ora tātou.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I rise to give my contribution to the debate, I too will add my sincere condolences to the families who have been caught up in this dreadful tragedy of having to live with the pain of loss and the pain of not yet quite knowing the scale of the loss. That is an incredibly difficult situation that people—in many cases, visitors to our country—have found themselves in. I acknowledge all those who are part of the comfort that the collective Aotearoa are wrapping around these people—thank you for your efforts.

Can I also make a small comment to the community of Whakatāne. I come from Papamoa, Tauranga, and I know that you will have been deeply impacted by this, because Whakaari / White Island is as precious a jewel for you as Mauao, Mount Maunganui, is for us. So when something like this happens on your special taonga, it really does cut quite deep, and I just want to acknowledge that.

The general debate is a time where you critique a Government, and I do wish to do that on behalf of the 23,000 farming families that as the National Party spokesperson for agriculture I have a great privilege to seek to represent. The Prime Minister, at the start of the year, said that this was going to be the year of delivery. Well, for those 23,000 farmers, it feels like the year of the kick in the guts.

You step through the policy framework and the policy solutions that this Government put on the table, with a particular focus on rural New Zealand, during the course of this year. First up was the capital gains tax. Now, yes, eventually that got put back in the box, but you look at what was in that document. There was a capital gains tax, a water tax, a fertiliser tax, a nutrient tax. It was a clear direction of travel; a clear view around where this Government frames and puts rural New Zealand in terms of its import, and it is way down the bottom of the list.

Following that, we then had these significant impacts and changes around how we approach climate change from an agriculture perspective. This Government trumpets the fact that they have reached agreement with the sector leaders around climate change. The way they frame it up is that success in that context is that they’ve co-designed a tax that they can tax the most emissions-efficient food producers in the world, that somehow if they reach that position in 2025, that’s a success. Well, that is a complete failure from our perspective. It is weak public policy thinking. The actual way you make a difference is to work with the sector to firstly measure it, then manage it, invest in innovation and technology to come up with tools to mitigate, and then—from our perspective—you will see the market respond as it always does, with farmers responding to the tools that they have at their disposal. But to think that the future in terms of climate change adaptation is a function of tax talks to the narrowness that this Government brings to these critical debates.

And then you move on to the fundamental issue that is confronting rural New Zealand at the moment, and this is significant land use change from pasture to forestry; huge numbers. The Government doesn’t have the data; they only have the overseas investment data. They’ve opened the door to foreign investment and closed it to every other aspect of rural New Zealand, unless you want to buy a farm to put into forests or you want to buy a forest. It is a distortion and it’s creating massive challenges in rural New Zealand.

Then you look at the water reforms. No economic analysis. No social analysis. They put the—in their mind—leading scientists in a room, and say, “Your job is simply to come up with what you think water quality looks like from a set of values, and that’s what we will take to the country.” No sense at all of the doability of it. No partnership with farmers. No actually sitting with communities who have to grapple with the trade-off of values between economic, social ambition, and environmental outcomes—none of that put was in the paper at all. It was just a David Parker blunt instrument to really make a signal that they see, from this Government’s perspective, that they believe the agriculture industries have their best days behind them. It has been a theme that has stuck with the Labour Government for 20 or 30 years. They want to diversify the economy rapidly away from agribusiness. Well, on this side of the House, we understand farmers, we understand the struggles they do every day to deliver for their family, deliver for their community, deliver for the country, and deliver for the environment. It’s about time that was celebrated as opposed to constantly condemned by that lot on the other side.

As the Minister of Finance noted, this is a Government which has a long-term eye on the wellbeing of New Zealanders. We care about people and planet, and that’s why we want to turn around New Zealand’s rubbish record on waste.

I’d like to share with the House part of a letter I received from nine-year-old Hugh of Te Puke. It highlights why what we’re doing as a Government to tackle our waste issues is so important. Here’s what Hugh said: “I am worried about all the rubbish on our wonderful planet. I am worried that all the animals both on land and sea and the birds that fly are dying because there is a lot of plastic around where they live, and they think it is food and eat it. When they eat plastic, it can cause them to choke and die or get very sick. I do not want to see all animals die. Our family loves animals, and, except for pests, we want to enjoy animals. The beach and our ocean are not places for rubbish.” Hugh is right. There is too much rubbish and too much plastic ending up in our streams and in our oceans and going to landfill.

So we are confronting our waste problem, and with the Greens at the heart of Government we are making a difference. We are tackling an issue that past Governments, particularly the National Government, neglected for far too long. So in the two years since we’ve been in Government, we have banned microplastics, we have banned single-use plastic shopping bags, we are designing a container return scheme for beverage bottles and cans, and that will significantly increase the recovery of those beverage bottles and cans—the recovery of materials that they’re made of, like plastic and aluminium—and that will reduce litter and waste. We’ve set out the consultation and done the criteria for product stewardship schemes to deal with challenging products like e-waste, like tyres, and like batteries so that we design waste out of our system from the get go. We make the economy more efficient by recovering more materials, creating jobs in the process.

In response to China’s ban on dealing with the world’s waste, we are redesigning, with local councils, kerbside recycling, wanting to have a more consistent system, and mapping our waste and reprocessing infrastructure across New Zealand. We’ve got a major plan to expand the landfill levy so that we get revenue to establish more resource recovery centres, more reprocessing facilities in New Zealand for materials that would end up in landfill: construction and demolition materials, metals, plastics, particularly the high-value plastics. And we’ve got a major initiative to get more data on waste to better understand where material flows. And, of course, we’ve got the $40 million from the Provincial Growth Fund, which has been set aside to turn plastic and other waste into useful material for businesses and consumers.

Last weekend, the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, Professor Juliet Gerrard, released a fantastic report called Rethinking Plastics in Aotearoa New Zealand. I really want to thank Professor Gerrard and her team for the inspirational examples in this report and its recommendations on how we can really rethink plastic and redesign the systems. On Sunday, the Prime Minister and I announced the Government’s plan to respond to this report. We are building into our ambitious plan on waste many of the recommendations from this report. We want to shift away from low-value plastics, hard-to-recycle plastics like polystyrene and PVC, to using instead ones like HDPE and PET, the 1 and 2 plastics. We want to phase out things like polystyrene meat trays and Styrofoam cups. We want to ensure that we can reprocess the materials that those things are currently made of. We want to phase out single-use plastic items like plastic cutlery—some of the issues around that and the fact that they end up in the oceans. We want to stimulate innovation and development in terms of soft plastics, and we’ve got a lot of work under way with local government. We want to develop a labelling scheme for plastics, and there’s already work under way with industry on that.

As Professor Gerrard says, there is no silver bullet. We need a systems change. This Government has got an ambitious plan, and we are getting on and doing it. Instead of the constant negativity that we have on that side of the House, I’d encourage them to read this report—all of the inspiring examples of businesses, communities, councils, and others getting on and thinking about how we can redesign our system, how we can get rid of unnecessary waste going to landfill, and how we can change the way we see plastics. Thank you.

Before I make my remarks, I too, like others, would like to extend our thoughts and support to families who right now are grieving and in uncertainty, and also express our thanks and admiration to the first responders and to the community of the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Whakatāne, and other areas who are supporting the people surrounded by these events. Our thoughts go out to them.

The previous speaker, the Hon Eugenie Sage, talked about policies that aim for the long-term wellbeing of New Zealand. I guess that’s what every Government wants to do, but I would have to say, when I look at the beautiful region of Taranaki, that some of those policies aren’t working out and the environment is paying a price and the economy is taking a hit. I would call this a failed social, environmental, and economic experiment in terms of what this Government is doing.

When I think about the unemployment figures that came out on 30 September this year, which put Taranaki as the worst in the country, at 6 percent, I look back at one year prior to that, when it was only 4.1 percent—and prior to that, one year prior, 4.9 percent. We had come through, two years ago, a slump in commodity prices internationally around dairy produce and, of course, the price of petrochemicals. We had been coming through it, from 4.9 down to 4.1, and then bang, we’re at 6 percent. I wondered why that was, because there’s a lot of vibrancy in the region where I live. You know, construction is quite busy. There are lots of other things that people are turning their hearts and minds towards, but as I talked to businesses, they said that uncertainty has been rife in our region because of Government policy and Government decisions.

I know the Hon Megan Woods, in an opinion piece in response to my criticism of the Government’s agenda, applauded the people of Taranaki for leading the transition in this country. I’d have to say that Taranaki did not choose to do that; it was forced upon them. Many people still disagree. There was no consultation with the people of Taranaki. They received a phone call the night before—whether that was industry, civic leaders, iwi groups, community groups, or whatever. So the transition, which I think we have been undertaking in terms of energy transition for decades now, being one of the best countries in the world for renewable primary and electricity generation, came as a great surprise. We had the promise, “Don’t worry; this will be fine. This is not going to happen for decades to come.” Well, we understand, we who live in that city and in that region, that businesses stopped employing, people who were applying for citizenship and had owned homes left the country, and companies left. There is now uncertainty right across the sectors, not just in agriculture and petroleum exploration but in all the service sectors that support them.

We get criticised by the Government for being negative. Well, actually, we are just attached and connected to our constituencies. We just say what’s going on. And, by the way, the Green Party will be disappointed to know that there’s been a significant reduction—well, they might be happy at this—in the use of natural gas for electricity generation, but in the meantime we’ve had to rely on more coal, which is twice the emission level. In fact, we are now burning double the amount this year than we did last year, and I would say that is a failed environmental experiment. Not only have this Government’s policies created higher levels of unemployment and uncertainty, fewer people getting jobs, more young people not knowing whether their future exists in Taranaki or not, but now we actually have more environmental issues to face as well. Because of that, we see the wholesale price of electricity increase by 50 percent over the last 15 months because it actually has a reliance—natural gas underpins this. So we see, actually, a failed economic experiment as well, and it’s all gone backwards.

I just wish this Government had listened to people, but they don’t and they box on and they push ahead. They think they are right—

💬 Hon Maggie Barry: Arrogant.

They are arrogant, and, unfortunately, arrogance only breeds ignorance—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired.

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai, kei te tū au ināianei i tēnei wā tino taumaha mō a mātou ngā iwi o te waka o Mātaatua, mai i te tino, te, i tēnei wā, he tino taumaha te āhua i runga i a mātou.

Ā, ka huri aku whakaaro ki ngā tāngata kua wehe atu. Kua huri aku whakaaro ki te motu o Whakaari, ki ngā iwi o Ngāti Awa, mai i te maunga tapu o Pūtauaki, mai i te awa o Te Rangitāiki, mō ngā tāngata kei reira, mō ngā tāngata kua mate i tēnei wiki, i ēnei rā, ā, mō ngā tāngata kei reira e tū ana, ngā tāngata ora. Ka huri aku whakaaro ki a rātou ngā tino pukukaimahi e tū ana ki te awhia i a rātou.

[Greetings Mr Speaker, I am standing now at this troubled time for us, the tribes of the Mātaatua canoe, because at this time there is a real heaviness upon us.

And my thoughts turn to the people who have passed. My thoughts go to Whakaari / White Island, to the tribes of Ngāti Awa, from the sacred mountain of Pūtauaki and the Rangitāiki River, for the people there, for the people who have died this week, in these days, and, for the people who are standing there, the living. My thoughts turn to those who are working so hard and standing up to help them.]

Whilst I’m here ā-tinana, in person, my thoughts, my heart, and my mind are all at home with the people in Whakatāne. The events that occurred on Monday for our community—we are a small community in Whakatāne. As the mayor described, we’re big enough to kind of get things done, but we’re small enough to know everybody. Right now, my thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones, but they’re also with every single person on that Monday. We all know many, many of those who, literally, dropped their tools—whether they be builders, teachers, lawyers. It didn’t matter who people were; when they got that siren and that alarm went, they dropped tools and they ran to those organisations that many of our community are a part of—that they are volunteers of—whether that be the fire services, whether that be the coastguard, St John. The response from those first responders on that day, just a couple of days ago now, I cannot but take my hat off and acknowledge every single person and those families that supported those individuals to go out and participate in the tragic events that occurred in our home town on Monday. I cannot but say thank you—thank you once, twice, and thrice—and our community is so proud of the way that those individuals responded.

I’ve just gotten off the phone, literally only a few minutes ago, to one of the gentlemen who of his own volition—he’s a pilot for one of our local carriers. Of his own volition and the volition of him and his friends—they know Whakaari well. They, like everybody, got the news that she was blowing. They and all their mates jumped into their helicopters and they rushed over to that island and they did what they did, what only heroes can do, which those locals will do and have done. Basically, they lifted and carried and pulled and risked their own lives to ensure that the lives of many others were saved that day, and we as a community know that many lives were saved because of their heroic actions.

In particular, I want to acknowledge that those first responders—particularly some of these guys that just jumped into the helicopters and went over—they were mates with a lot of the tourist guides and the operators that were in a spot of bother, who were also doing all they could do to save lives that day. In particular, I’m thinking of Mark, who was really good mates with another guy called Mark. Mark saw his mate Mark and saw that he wasn’t in a good way. He pulled him into a better place so that he might have a better chance of survival. Now, we don’t know where Mark Inman is at the moment, but we do know that his mate Mark did all he could to put him in the best chance of survival. But my thoughts right now are with Hayden and with all of his family and his brother, Mark. They are an incredibly strong local family, and I know that our whole town is grieving for them, as we are for Tīpene and the boys up the coast.

The other component to this tragedy has been the number of people that have been affected from different places, from other countries—a lot from Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Malaysia, and China. I want to put on record just our gratitude to the operators of Royal Caribbean International, from that ship, for the work that they have done to work alongside us to ensure that those victims from that day were looked after. So I just wanted to say thank you to our town for everything they did for the Whakaari recovery.

I want to talk about the handling of the Lumsden Maternity Centre, which has been an unsafe, life-threatening, unethical, and failed social experiment on Southland mums and babies, which this Government is not prepared to own or fix. There has simply been no accountability, no solution for the mums and babies of Southland. I just want to outline the series of events, and this time line demonstrates the level of incompetence by those who are supposed to be responsible for delivering safe healthcare across Southland.

In early March 2018, the Lumsden Maternity Centre directors were informed about the closure of their much loved maternity centre. Now, this maternity centre covers an area the same size as Tasman or 1.25 times larger than the size of Taranaki. The closure of this maternity unit puts lives at risk. You only need to look across the Ditch at Queensland when they closed 40 rural maternity unit seven years ago. The Minister this year has reopened them because the infant death rate has increased from six per 1,000 infants to 23 per 1,000. That’s because mothers and babies are dying, especially babies, while trying to get to a maternity birthing unit.

In mid-April this year, the maternity centre was closed. Now, the much promised maternity hubs were supposed to have critical lifesaving equipment. They simply didn’t. In late May, I wrote to the Minister of Health outlining my grave concerns, saying the community was being left in limbo, that should a baby be born on the side of the road or even the unimaginable happen, it would be blood on the Government’s hands. That’s because basic infrastructure, basic lifesaving equipment was missing. Only a few weeks later, what do you know, a baby was born on the side of the road and the response from the Government the following week: “We are satisfied with the level of maternity services in Southland and mothers need to plan their births better.” Well, the so-called Wellbeing Government is satisfied that mums in Southland are giving birth in degrading, unsafe, life-threatening circumstances.

There have been several other births since then. One of those was a mother travelling from Queenstown to Invercargill. Her midwife had to break into Lumsden as the district health board hadn’t given her instructions on how to get in there. Another mother was forced to be driven at 120 to 130 kph to the closest primary birthing unit because basic drugs were not available. A father had to break the law for the pure survival of his unborn child and the mother of the child’s life. It was minus two degrees, and when they got to the primary birthing centre, that mother was on all fours in the back seat.

Not only has this Government disregarded the safety of rural mothers and babies, I just want to talk about the social experiment and especially the unethical behaviour conducting this social experiment. The Government’s own list MP Liz Craig, two days after the closure emailed one of her constituent’s concerns that “Despite the DHB announcing that the Lumsden child and maternal hub is operational, unfortunately it’s not.” It goes on to say, “The medical centre have phoned me and told me that the hub does not exist here yet. Nothing has been signed. There’s no access arrangements for any of the midwives. And how are they supposed to access the hub when there is an emergency?”

Now, what’s really interesting is that during my petition to the Health Committee to reinstate services, the DHB fronted up and said they knew nothing about these concerns. According to them, it was all operational. Now, if it was operational, why is the Government’s own list MP emailing in these concerns? The Health Minister doesn’t even listen to his own list MP’s concerns. What on earth is the point of him not even listening to that? Now what’s even worse—the select committee, we got to my petition. There were eight people on the select committee: four National, three Labour, one New Zealand First. Now all National MPs voted for an independent investigation. What did the Government MPs do, especially two list MPs from down that way—Liz Craig and Mark Patterson? They voted against it. Now, if they had the interests of the people at heart, they would have voted for an independent investigation and for services at Lumsden to be reinstated. Now, they voted against that. What on earth is the point of being here when you vote against a petition that’s going to hold a DHB to account and you’re basically voting against your own people?

National backs rural New Zealand. That’s why we’ve announced if we get back into Government next year, if re-elected, we will reinstate full services at Lumsden Maternity Centre because we’re not going to put the lives of rural Southland mothers at risk for the sake of a few hundred thousand dollars. We will reinstate Lumsden Maternity Centre because we value the lives and put the safety of rural mothers and babies at top of mind.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Anyone who was watching Q+A on Monday night would have been quite astonished. In fact, you would have had quite a giggle. I refer to the interview between Paul Goldsmith and Jack Tame. And it was really enlightening because what did we see? Well, Jack Tame, quite cleverly actually, opened the conversation by telling the public that the Prime Minister had put a line in the sand and that Auckland port was going to move—Ports of Auckland was going to move. And he turned the question straight back to Mr Goldsmith and said, basically, “But where does the Opposition stand, Paul Goldsmith? Can you do the same?” An interesting reply: “Well, I don’t think we’re in a position to say that right now. We’re open to discussion. If you’re looking ahead, probably a good chance. If you looked out far enough ahead, maybe the port will shift, but there’s a big question and needs an answer.”

Tame comes in again, “Why aren’t we in a position to answer yet?” This is Paul Goldsmith: “Well we haven’t seen the business case. It’s not a small decision.” He said, “It’s not a small decision.” He’s actually quite correct. It’s not a small decision. It takes people with courage to make big decisions. But he goes on. Jack Tame comes in again: “So was John Key wrong?” The answer is “He’s a very smart character, but even John Key is not infallible.” “Then is Nikki Kaye wrong?”—“Oh.” “Then is Judith Collins wrong?”

You say, what we had was the man who acts like the little fox terrier worrying the sheep in the paddock, running around here, attacking my colleague Shane Jones, and asking all these really big questions. But he’s really not so much of an Opposition spokesman; he’s more like a worry-wart. He’s not capable of making the big decisions. And he doesn’t seem to understand that for a Government to lead, they have to be bold. They have to be courageous. They have to have vision. A Government needs to look forward. It can’t sit there and say, “Oh, even though my past leader thought it was a good idea, it’s too big a decision.” You’ve got to have that courage.

And what are we seeing from this Government? Well, we’re actually seeing that adventure. We’re actually seeing something that I thought the National Party would be chock-a-block full of: it’s entrepreneurialism, an ability to look ahead and take some risks in order to deliver to the New Zealanders of the future. And this is a Government that actually understands something. It understands you have to be prosperous to meet those infrastructural needs. It understands one has to earn money. This Government understands that the three-legged stool upon which the prosperity of this nation sits is foreign policy, trade, and defence.

And what has this Government done? Well, it’s invested massively: $740-odd million in new money pumped into foreign affairs. And look at the results. We have the most proactive Minister of Foreign Affairs this country’s ever seen and the most diligent Minister for Trade and Export Growth working in tandem. And I am fortunate enough as the Minister of Defence to work in parallel with them advancing defence diplomacy, underpinning foreign policy, and actually underpinning trade adventurism and trade policy. And what are the results? Well, we’ve already surpassed the last Government’s nine years with enhanced trade agreements and we’ve got more coming. Watch this space.

And how do I justify all those statements? Well, look at what we have achieved. Take defence—record defence expenditure in terms of operational funding and capital expenditure: P-8s, $2.3 billion. I’ve heard some people say, “How does that help New Zealand?” Well, apart from the foreign policy stuff and how that enhances our trade engagements, actually when one looks at the $2.34 billion worth of investment in P-8s, half of that is being invested back into the economy. The Manawatū economy will be better off for $400 million pumped back into its economy. Actually, it’s about $1.2 billion is going to be invested in New Zealand, but Manawatū is going to benefit directly: 300 extra labourers; extra people working on site; a $65 million contract given out already to Fulton Hogan; a $200 million contract coming down the line to build all the infrastructure, the hangars, the facilities, everything that goes with it. And I haven’t even talked about the $103 million for Manawanui and the NH90s and the frigate systems upgrade and the protected mobility and Oryx. I’m yet to talk about the Hercs.

This Government is going to go down in history, despite Mr Goldsmith’s worry-wart behaviour, as having invested massively in the future of New Zealand through massive infrastructure and benefits, through massive defence expenditure and budgets. And I think that is the sort of entrepreneurialism, that’s the sort of leadership, that’s the sort of vision that will carry this country forward as opposed to what we witnessed over the last nine years.

For those of us that live in the Bay of Plenty and those of us that live by the sea, Whakaari is a part of who we are. When you get up in the morning, you look out the window, you have a look to see how much smoke’s coming from it. It is just a part of our lives and it changes every day. It is an active volcano and she never lets you forget that. And there’s no doubt that over the last few days in the Bay of Plenty, we’ve come to realise how much of our being is related to that volcano. So when she let us know with no doubt on Monday afternoon that she was active, it took us all by surprise and shocked us at the violence of it because she talks to us all the time.

But this was different, and so I want to take this opportunity today to acknowledge some outstanding people in the community who made extraordinary efforts at the risk of their own lives: a couple of helicopter pilots who knew that they were taking themselves into an area that was full of fumes, full of ash, and that their lives would be at risk, but they went in anyway to make sure that they got as many people off that were they were able to do so. Skippers of a couple of the boats from White Island Tours and the passengers that were on one of those, who had already left and were safe, made the decision to go back in order to get people off. A helicopter pilot who was on the island said to his passengers, “We’re going to jump in the sea. Follow me.” and jumped in the sea. Only two of his passengers did that, and, of course, the blast went over the top of their heads. The other two who were perhaps slower or were questioning it didn’t, and, of course, suffered the consequences. So those are extraordinary heroes and should be recognised as such.

But there were many, many more in the community that deserve to be acknowledged as heroes. There were the staff of White Island Tours themselves who helped those survivors off the boats, had to deal with just horrific injuries to people, and dealt with them with kindness and concern and care, despite knowing that they had lost some of their own. The survivors on the boats who agreed to go back—but also then we’re hearing stories of how they helped some of those that were in terrible, terrible circumstances while they were being taken back to shore.

The St Johns Ambulance Service people who gathered from all around the Bay of Plenty and all around the area, and, of course, the Whakatāne Hospital staff. It has been described as a war zone—they are just a provincial hospital, they do not have the specialists there that may well be used to seeing some of these injuries. The staff, again, dealt with those people with care and kindness and aroha—is the best way to describe it—and did an extraordinary job. The Whakatāne District Council and the staff there—unfortunately, they are so used to dealing with emergencies, they swung into action. In fact, just a week ago they lodged, with our civil defence, a plan as to what to do if there had been a volcanic eruption, and so they were able to swing straight into action. They’re a well-oiled team, having honed their skills through several disasters over the last decade. Lastly, but by no means least, we must acknowledge Ngāti Awa. What an amazing iwi they are. They just opened their arms, opened their marae, and they encircled visitors, locals, and families with that love and concern and service that only an iwi like that can bring. They deserve to be acknowledged for that.

Mr Speaker, sitting in the seat there today—I know that the Speaker can’t be brought into the debate, but so many of my colleagues across the House have expressed their concern for the three local MPs and for the people of the Bay of Plenty that have suffered—losing faith, a little bit, in that fantastic Whakaari and suffering through the tragedy—and I thank them all for that. Kia ora tātou.

We’d normally have one more speech now but those who have indicated that they were going to speak have all spoken, and, therefore, I propose to conclude the general debate now. I also want to acknowledge and place on record my thanks for the four members who have been in the area and have made a contribution to this debate today, both for what they have done up there—which has been absolutely fantastic, it’s been reported back to me—and for their contributions to letting members know privately on things which would not be appropriate to share, and their contributions to the House today. Thank you all.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.