Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement

It is a fantastic time to be a New Zealander. Unemployment is at near-decade lows of only 4 percent; wage growth is at near-decade highs at 2.6 percent; stronger growth than most other OECD countries; strong investment in our core public assets like schools, like hospitals, like roads, like railways; a record investment in the public health system, most notably a huge investment in mental health; and, of course, New Zealanders have a leader who they know and trust, in Jacinda Ardern. It is a great time to be a New Zealander.

The members opposite, I’ve got one message for them: for goodness’ sake, cheer up. While they busily try and talk down the country, they seem to be working on the assumption that New Zealanders have very bad memories. Well, let me take them on a little trip down memory lane, back to 2017, when two-thirds of people in New Zealand got a pay rise that was less than the rate of inflation. Across the OECD, New Zealanders had one of the lowest shares of economic growth going to wage and salary earners.

That’s why this Government has proudly increased the minimum wage. We are investing in apprenticeships and on-the-job training so that we can get people earning higher incomes. We’ve invested in a Families Package to boost family incomes, particularly for those who have been struggling with the costs of raising their children, and what has that resulted in? Near-record low unemployment, and wage growth near-record highs. So the members opposite really do need to cheer up.

Let’s go back. Let’s remind ourselves of what we inherited in health—$2.3 billion worth of health services cut, or spending on health cut, over National’s nine years in Government. The cost of going to visit the doctor increased by 44 percent during National’s time in Government. South Auckland’s largest hospital, Middlemore Hospital, had mould and sewage loose in its walls when we became the Government, such was the state of neglect that we inherited from the last Government. So this Government is making progress.

We’ve made doctors visits $20 to $30 cheaper, or, in fact, entirely free for almost 600,000 New Zealanders. We are getting serious about home heating and making sure that every New Zealander has a warm, dry place to call home, and they want to get rid of that. We have hired 1,500 more nurses, 600 more doctors, and 500 other medical professionals, and, as I have already mentioned, we’ve made the biggest ever investment in mental health in this country. I don’t meet many New Zealanders who don’t know someone or who aren’t related to someone who has at some point struggled with mental health. New Zealanders want to see us taking this seriously, and in this Government, after nine years of that problem being ignored, we are doing something about it.

We are fixing up the hospitals that were for so long neglected under the last Government. Up and down the country, hospitals are finally seeing the much-needed capital injection that they have been crying out for.

What about in education? Let’s go down memory lane when it comes to education. When we came into Government, we had 214 overcrowded schools and 488 more schools at risk of becoming overcrowded. Kids were learning in gymnasiums and libraries because the last Government had put planning for growth on the never-never. We have taken action and we have been dealing with that. We saw a 40 percent reduction in the number of people who were training to be a teacher, and that is the reason that we are currently experiencing a teacher shortage. Parents were being asked every day, every week, to put their hands in their pockets to subsidise the shortfall in Government funding. When we came into Government, $146 million worth of supposedly voluntary donations were going into schools from parents, and we are taking action to deal with that.

We’re taking action to deal with all of those problems, in fact. We have already built 726 new classrooms up and down the country to get ahead of that roll growth and to deal with that overcrowding, and we have a fully funded plan—a fully funded plan—to deal with population growth in our school sector. Unlike the last Government, who kind of vaguely thought that maybe they should build some more classrooms but didn’t have any money for it and thought that they could put it on the never-never, we have a plan and we have funded it.

We have also fast tracked $400,000 investments—or pro rata, based on the school’s roll size—for all State schools, all up and down the country, so that they can get ahead of those upgrade needs that we know they so desperately need. We are already working and making progress on recruiting more people into teacher training, and it’s plugging those teacher shortages that we inherited from the last Government, and we know that there is more work to be done.

We have introduced extra funding. We have given schools extra funding so they don’t have to rely on parents for donations. I am very pleased to say that over 90 percent of the schools that were eligible for that have taken that extra funding up, and they are not asking their parents for donations this year.

We have made NCEA and scholarship free for all New Zealand students because cost should not be a barrier. Inability to pay should not be a barrier to someone being able to obtain their school qualifications, as it has been. That is a problem that we have fixed.

Let’s go to housing, because this Government is proud to be taking action to tackle the housing crisis. Under that last Government, house prices increased by 10 percent a year in National’s last term in Government. House prices were exploding, and what was their solution? To sell off 6,000 State houses—that was National’s answer to the housing crisis, and look at where that ended up. Then, they suddenly realised there was a housing crisis—remember?—and we got Nick Smith’s magical mystery bus tour of the places where he was going to build extra houses, which included cemeteries and substations.

Unlike that Government, we’re taking that seriously. One of the first things we did—and it’s had an impact—was ban overseas speculators buying up houses, and that’s something the other side want to do away with. They think that wealthy overseas speculators should be at the front of the queue, ahead of New Zealand homeowners, when it comes to buying houses in New Zealand. That says everything about their priorities when it comes to housing.

I stand by that policy completely. Banning overseas speculators from buying houses has helped to bring down house price inflation in New Zealand, and it means that New Zealanders are getting their way back to the front of the queue to buy houses in New Zealand.

We are building thousands of State houses to replace the ones the National Government sold, bearing in mind—as has now been well documented in this House—that we would not have had a waiting list for State housing if the last Government had continued to build at the rate they should have. Instead, they sold State houses, they demolished State houses, and they reduced the number of State houses, and the result is we’ve now got burgeoning wait lists for State housing. We are getting on top of that and we are dealing with that.

Let’s talk about transport. A fully funded transport plan to start the year—that’s what we saw on this side. Not the promises on the never-never, which the last Government were so keen on making when they said, “We’ll do these roads sometime in the next 10 years and we’re not quite sure how we’re going to pay for them and we haven’t really done any of the planning and the design and the consenting work, but we’ll just go out there and promise them anyway”. Oh no, under this Government you’ll get a fully funded plan.

We know that the last Government’s efforts were pretty haphazard, and do you know why? I drove from Auckland to Waitangi just a few weeks ago, and I thought, “This is great. I’m going to drive on this new Pūhoi to Wellsford expressway that National promised back in 2009.” I thought that would be a fantastic trip because it was going to be a nice, fast trip. Well, do you know what? Not one section of that road has opened—not one section of that road has opened. They only got as far as planning and funding it to Warkworth, and that still hasn’t been done, 11 years after they promised that it was going to be there. The second half of the road was on the never-never. Maybe one day they would have got around to it, and I thought, “That’s all right, because at least I’ll be able to drive over the 10 bridges that Simon Bridges promised the people of Northland.” No, no—yet another case of a promise on the never-never from the National Party.

What people get under this Government is that when we promise something, we will deliver it in roading. When we stand up in front of people and say that we will deliver a roading project, we’ll put the funding aside to do it.

It’s about time that the Opposition cheered up and realised that New Zealanders are confident. New Zealanders are looking ahead to the future, and they don’t want to be dragged back by the National Party.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It was very reassuring to hear that speech from Mr Hipkins. I couldn’t follow all of it, but I’m sure he’s trying to bolster what are very lagging and flat feelings across the other side of the House. I see them all; this is the most dysfunctional Government in recent history.

It was interesting, remember, when we learnt that Winston Peters, the Deputy Prime Minister, had not spoken to the State Services Commissioner, the most senior public servant, in the two years that he had been in Government, because he was suing him and a whole lot of other Government departments. I thought to myself, “That is a perfect encapsulation of a dysfunctional Government”. I wonder exactly what conversations are going on—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member will resume his seat. That is a matter which is currently before a court, and the member will not refer to it again.

Quite right. My apologies, Mr Speaker.

So I wonder what the conversations between the Deputy Prime Minister and the Prime Minister are about at the moment in relation to taking pictures all around the place and in relation to the transparency around funding, and, of course, we’ve heard that the Prime Minister is too busy to talk to the Deputy Prime Minister about all these things. She’s very focused on a whole lot of other things, including visiting Mr Elton John. She might well want to get an answer out of Mr Elton John as to who is the horny-backed toad in the Government. My suggestion is that it might be somewhat closer to her in the seating arrangements. Some of Elton’s designs certainly line up nicely, I think, for Winston Peters.

You know you can’t hold me forever

I didn’t sign up with you

I’m not a present for your friends to open

This boy’s too young to be singing the blues

These are the messages that she’ll be getting through.

So here we are. This is a Government of missed opportunities—of missed opportunities—and of slow growth. This is a Government that inherited an economy that was growing at well over 3 percent—nearly 4 percent per annum—under the National Government; it’s now slowed to an astonishing 1.6 percent last year, according to the predictions of the Reserve Bank.

We see Mr Faafoi is very tired. He’s so exhausted after being in Government for 2½ years that he needs to step down from being a list MP up in Mana. You just relax. You just rest, Mr Faafoi. You’ll get your time.

So we slowed down to 1.6 percent, which is slower than the actual rate of population growth, so New Zealanders got poorer—

💬 Hon Kris Faafoi: Why are you so boring?

—last year. Why is that? It’s because this Government has been complacent about growth.

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order! It’s because it’s part of my job, but it shouldn’t be referred to from there.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This was supposed to be a Government that was about kindness, but that wasn’t a very kind observation at all. I’m shocked.

So the growth was slowed, and that means fewer opportunities for Kiwis to get ahead, get a job—a satisfying and exciting job—to be able to look after themselves and their families, to be able to prepare for their retirement, to have that financial stability that they need. That’s why a strong, growing economy is so important.

We’ve also seen no progress on housing. We’ve seen the number of people staying in motels increasing rapidly, we’ve seen the number of food parcels going out from Auckland City Council going up very substantially, and we’ve seen rents climbing more than $50 a week—and that’s putting real pressure on New Zealand households. This is notwithstanding the fact that this Government came in and promised that they were going to fix it all with KiwiBuild. Right now, right here, Prime Minister Ardern’s bumbling intervention in Ihumātao has meant that more houses have been stopped from being built there than the entire $2 billion KiwiBuild project has delivered so far for this country.

Nobody could believe that level of incompetence was possible, but that’s what has been delivered by this Government in the last two years. Then, if we think of infrastructure, this Government started this year with a big hiss and a roar.

💬 Hon Shane Jones: Yes, infrastructure Government—

We had Shane Jones quite clearly talking in Parliament about pork—and we all know he’s eaten a bit of it over the years—and here we have infrastructure, where they’ve announced $12 billion, but what they’ve effectively announced is that they have abandoned their transport policy.

For two years, the transport policy of this Government was to come in, stop all the roads that National was building and shift away from reducing congestion to mode shift—and New Zealanders tuning in on their crystal sets will be wondering what on earth mode shift is, but that is the focus of transport policy under this Government, which is to get people out of one mode of transport, which is their cars, and get them into another mode of transport, which is walking, or cycling, or going on a bus. So if that is the goal of your transport policy—mode shift—then, in a certain weird and wonderful logic that anybody who’s been trying to get around Auckland CBD in recent times will know, having cones everywhere and congestion, chaos, trouble, and strife is actually quite a good thing from the point of view of the transport planners, because that encourages people to mode shift out of their car and on to public transport, out of sheer frustration that they can’t get anywhere.

The transport policy of this Government for the first two years was to stop building all the roads that we were building and to fluff about trying to decide what to do about a light rail project that they promised, and, two years later, they still haven’t worked out what the purpose of it is: whether it’s to go to the airport or to be an urban transport renewal thing through Dominion Road. After two years, they realised that that transport policy was a completely and utterly hopeless and unpopular transport policy, and they’ve abandoned it and they’ve adopted our transport policy.

But the only problem is that they’ve wasted 2½ years in the process, and it’s a little bit like the old lawnmower back home—very easy to turn off, but a devil of a thing to start again. So they’ve turned off all those infrastructure programmes. They said: “We can’t do that. We’re not going to do this. We’re not going to build the road north out of Tauranga. We’re not going to build a road. We’re going to put it all off for 10, 15 years.” And suddenly, two years later, they decided, “Oh, actually, maybe we will. OK, yes, we will. We are going to do it after all. We’ve changed our mind. We’ve realised that the Greens are nutters. We shouldn’t be following them. We’re going to do all the National Party roads.”

But the problem is that many of the people that were going to build the roads have subsequently gone elsewhere. They’ve got so frustrated after two years of mucking around that they’ve focused on Australia where there’s hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure being spent, and so, yep, we’ll get them all back again, but it will take a long time. There’ll be a lot of fluffing around and there’ll be a high level of scepticism in the infrastructure space. So that’s what they’ve done. They’ve achieved a slower economy. They’ve made no progress on housing. In fact, they’ve gone backwards: more houses lost, more houses lost at Ihumātao than have been built under KiwiBuild, and they’ve gone nowhere on transport. So I guess that’s why they call it the blues, as Mr Elton would say.

Then on top of that, we’re going to be back in deficit this year. Can you believe that? So a Government that inherited massive surpluses after a prudent Government led by John Key and Bill English, and Steven Joyce—big surpluses, billions of dollars. So they’ve been unable to increase Government spending by 8 percent last year, four times the rate of inflation, and yet within three years they are projected to be back in deficit. That, frankly, is a disgrace, but it also is a real concern for New Zealanders because, you know, we’re all just seeing right here right now the potential impacts of something like coronavirus, which is having a real impact on particularly the tourism sector, but also forestry, also international education. These are the things that you can’t predict. Nobody would have predicted this would have been something we were talking about this month. But it comes out of left field. That’s why you have a surplus. That’s why you have some flexibility in the financial account—so you can handle things that you’re not expecting.

Drought is the other one. All our friends up in Northland and Auckland and the Waikato are really short of water at the moment. The farming community—the production is dropping. Production is dropping. There’s been all sorts of announcements from the Provincial Growth Fund about all sorts of things. The only problem with the Provincial Growth Fund is that Shane Jones is great at making announcements, and he’s world class at putting out press statements, but the money doesn’t flow very quickly and there’s lots of faffing around.

💬 Hon Shane Jones: That’s changing.

That’s changing? Well, it would be good to know if we can get before the end of the three-year term whether they will have made any progress at all, and I doubt it very much.

So we’ve got those short-term challenges around coronavirus and drought and that is why any good, prudent economic manager would have a decent surplus available so that they could do what they need to do to get New Zealanders through.

Yesterday, we had Simon Bridges announcing our economic plan, which is a very robust and strong one, with a focus on getting New Zealand’s growth rate per person back to the top half of the OECD, and, in fact, the top 10. We’re going to be reducing that income gap between Australia and New Zealand so that more New Zealanders feel that they can reach their potential at home rather than going overseas, and one of things that people quite often forget about is when the previous National Government came in, we were losing the equivalent of a Westpac Stadium of New Zealanders to Australia every year. We managed to turn that around within nine years—nine years of great progress—so that more Aussies were coming back here than going the other way around. Sadly, those figures are turned around again, and that is one of the simplest measures of the success of a Government.

We’ve gone from a successful, prosperous, outward-looking, dynamic economy to one that’s sputtering along, when we’ve got so many opportunities before us. We need a decent Government to do that job, and we’ll get that in seven months’ time. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, thank you very much. What a sad and miserable exhibition that was. That’s as good as it gets from the National Party. From a leader that can’t get his tax right, he’s not going to get his facts right; I can tell you that.

We are a positive Government, focused on tackling the long-term issues and challenges for this country. After nine years of neglect we have a big job ahead of us. We are two years into a journey that will take us, I’m guessing, about 15 years probably, or 18 years, to sort out what the National Government took nine years to destroy.

We have committed a huge amount of money to mental health. That is an issue that affects each and every New Zealander. When I go into rural New Zealand on a regular basis, those people are asking how they can ensure that they get access to that support from central government. They’ve acknowledged the great commitment that this Government has put in place.

We are starting to work with farmers to improve the waterways in this country, the vast majority of which are in good order, but we have to ensure that we have a story of environmental management that backs up our claim to not only “100% Pure”, but to the best, finest food and protein for the world’s most discerning customers.

We’ve put money into education. Parents don’t have to pay for NCEA fees. They don’t have to make school donations in what should, effectively, be a free education system.

We’ve put money through the Provincial Growth Fund. The criticism is that it’s a bit slow. Well, I say—and Mr Jones will back this up—it’s better to be cautious and spend that money wisely than to throw it around, as the previous National Government did in its Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) application to agriculture.

We’ve got regions like Buller, for example. This is a small district in my electorate that lost hundreds of jobs because the previous National Government destroyed Solid Energy—hundreds of high-paid jobs. Now, we have a local rural economy that is booming and, in fact, the mayor and the community leaders of that district of Buller are now praising the Government for its commitment to regional New Zealand and the things we are doing for them.

Roads—the previous Government sweated the assets. We are tipping billions of dollars into a better roading network to support New Zealand, and rail and hospitals. We’re building new hospitals so that New Zealanders can be assured of their healthcare, and, of course, as I’ve said before, putting money into education, which is our future.

I have to talk about biosecurity. It has been identified consistently as the number one issue across agribusiness and, indeed, across New Zealand—those who are concerned about kauri dieback; those who are concerned about the issues that we’ve had up and down through M. bovis, which directly affects livestock farmers. We’ve had a fruit fly incursion in Auckland that affects Aucklanders, but would have a devastating effect on horticulture should it get out.

Yesterday, I went to the Wairarapa to celebrate what is a world first, and that is the eradication of the pea weevil disease. This is a small insect that destroys pea crops, would have eliminated the possibility of growing and exporting peas from this country, and we have got rid of it. Thank you to Biosecurity New Zealand, thank you to the farmers for their cooperation, thank you to the local community leaders for their cooperation.

We’ve got to continue that level of collaboration when it comes to Mycoplasma bovis. We were handed that challenge when we came into Government. We’ve picked it up; we’re running with it hard. We’ve committed to eradication, and we are spending literally hundreds of millions of dollars—a lot of that taxpayer funding—and the farming sector is grateful for that commitment through this Government.

I’ve said we’ve got rid of the fruit fly. We’re making changes to the National Animal Identification and Tracing system—a traceability system for animals, for livestock in this country that should have been put in place five or six years ago, but, again, was neglected by the previous Government. We’ll make changes to the 26-year-old Biosecurity Act, an Act that has hampered us in incursion management, but we’re going through that very, very carefully to make sure that we have laws and systems that are fit for the future.

We’ve boosted biosecurity spending—we’re well over $20 million. We’ve put in place X-ray technology, we’re committed to getting rid of wilding conifers up and down this country, and we’re focused on keeping out the brown marmorated stink bug and African swine fever, too—two of many, many diseases that threaten our economy and agricultural systems.

Mr Bridges may have forgotten about the farmers, but we haven’t. We’re committed to working with the sector in this country that has consistently carried us forward into the future. There’s lots of noise. Lots of noise comes from the traditional party of farmers, but no longer, I have to say—no longer. They have a leader who ignores farmers, who’s not up to speed with the challenges, and the previous Government ignored the real challenges facing us as food producers into the future.

We are a Government of reform. We have been in the 1930s, we have been in the 1950s, right through the 1980s—doing things that are necessary. As the KPMG agribusiness report in 2015 said, in fact, it’s time to do the hard stuff. It’s time to do the hard stuff, because the National Government liked to do all the easy stuff.

But there are some challenges facing us into the future, and that’s why we’re going to futureproof our farmers and their sectors. We’re going to make changes to the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act to ensure that our international champion Fonterra is fit for the future. We’ve got in place now a Farm Debt Mediation Bill, because the fair-weather friends of farmers—the banks—are now looking to exit in some areas. We need protection for farmers, and now we have some.

We’ve had a skills working group. The agribusiness sector was crying out for skilled people for years and years. We’ve stepped in and we’re addressing that through the reform of vocational education. We’re looking to make sure that we have a system that is fit for purpose and delivers skilled, enthusiastic young New Zealanders into the agribusiness and land-use sectors.

We’ve moved to protect our highly productive soils. Literally, thousands of hectares have disappeared close to Mr Mark Mitchell—close to him in Pukekohe—and they’ve disappeared for houses. We are going to protect the highly productive soils. We’ve committed $40 million a year to the Sustainable Food & Fibre Futures fund. The previous National Government made a lot of noise about its PGP, with $35 million a year. We’ve got $400 million over 10 years to support our innovative primary sectors.

We’ve set a vision through the Primary Sector Council that will be delivered soon, and we have come up with a world first, He Waka Eke Noa, that is a collaboration between Government and between industry to commit to reduce our emissions from agriculture. There’s been a bit of talk of it around the world. We will be the first country to bring in agriculture, and to work with our farmers and land users to make sure that we reduce our emissions and do our part to reduce climate change, and keep global warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

We are helping farmers be the best farmers for the world, not just the best farmers in the world. The list goes on: the extension service model; upping our efforts in animal welfare to ensure—particularly in Europe—that we can assure those consumers that we have the highest standards of animal welfare.

There are some environmental challenges ahead of us. We have an intensive system of agriculture that has put pressure on some of the soils and some of the water, and we’re working through with farmers in a collaborative way to make sure that they continue to make profits but we continue to make progress, because without a story of integrity around land use, around environmental management and animal welfare, we will not be able to attract and expect to retain the premiums that we need out in the international market.

I am proud to be part of a Government that is taking on the hard challenges, that is leading us all into a better future, and that is committed to making opportunities available not just for the 1 percent at the top—not just for those who want to wheel and deal in houses—but for each and every New Zealander who wants to live in one of the most wonderful countries in the world and who has got here because of the hard work and the commitment of our ancestors, but should not be exploited by the 1 percent that the National Government was happy to entertain over the last nine years. We will do what is necessary to deliver a better New Zealand for future generations.

Well, thank goodness. I was waiting for the bell to finally call, but, thankfully, that member gave up before it was needed, because it was the most boring rendition of nonsense that I think we’ve ever had.

Well, we’re supposed to believe that this Government cares about farmers—what a joke. Day in, day out, we hear from that Government over that side and their Green and New Zealand First people bagging farmers and provincial New Zealand—day in, day out. The New Zealand First answer to farmers is to plant their land with dirty, disgusting pine trees that, actually, you get turpentine from and which can actually poison waterways when those pine needles get into them. That’s their answer to farmers: ruining the New Zealand economy but also the agricultural communities that this country has been very proud to have embraced and that many of us have been part of for many years and, certainly, I grew up in.

It’s great to see that the Prime Minister is so intent on listening to everything we have to say today. I think it’s amazing the way she’s so good with people in their seventies. First, it’s Elton John; next, it’s Winston Peters—all people with, let’s say, a pension but also, let’s say, people who like to dress up smartly and have the odd sequin. I think it’s good that the Prime Minister is so good with these people.

What she isn’t good at doing is turning up and fronting up on the hard questions. This is a Government that couldn’t even be trusted to put in place immunisations for measles, and now we’re expected to believe that they could possibly deal with any of the big headwinds that the world is about to face when it comes to a virus that’s come out of China and which has had, and will have, quite devastating effects on parts of our economy, whether it’s in tourism, whether it’s agriculture, and whether, especially, it’s in the international education sector, which are big sectors of our economy.

We’ve got a Government, we heard today, where the Minister of Housing wants to say blame National—National—for the problems they’ve got in the State housing sector. When National left office a mere 2½ years ago, there were around 5,000 families waiting on the State house waiting list.

💬 Simeon Brown: How many now?

There are now 15,000 families—15,000 families. I heard today the Minister of Housing—and many of you will have heard it—saying, “Oh, that’s National’s fault.” Well, no, it’s not us. They weren’t like that when we were in Government, and what’s happened to the people.

Remember Phil Twyford and Jacinda Ardern banging on about how we’re not going to have anybody sleeping in cars any more, and saying that that wasn’t right for the people in New Zealand, this wonderful country? Except there are more now—there are more. There are more people now sleeping in cars. Remember how it was terrible that motels were being filled up by people who couldn’t get housing accommodation? Oh well, no, no, there are more now. There are more now.

What’s happened with rents, and all the measures that the Government has taken attacking landlords, against landlords, helping tenants’ rights—what’s happened? There are fewer places now available to rent, and guess what? The rental prices have gone up an average of over $50 a week—$50 a week for a house—

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Sell them to foreigners—that’s the secret. Open them up to foreign speculation.

That MP over there, that list MP, doesn’t understand that that’s a lot of money for a lot of people—particularly in Whanganui. Whanganui has just had this big increase in some of the rental properties. I’ve just been speaking with the MP for Whanganui, Harete Hipango, and what we know is this: rental properties have not just gone up in one particular block of flats by $50 a week—no, no, no—but by $150 a week, and what’s happened? The private tenants have moved out and the tenants who are being funded through Work and Income have moved in at that rate. That’s what’s happening.

We’re seeing a Government and Government agencies that are happy—happy—to push out people who are trying to get ahead themselves, pay their own rent, buy their own houses. As we’ve heard today, Kāinga Ora—the new name for Housing New Zealand—is going around taking houses that first-home buyers had signed up to buy. That’s what’s happening under this Government, and they’re sitting around saying, “Oh, everything’s going well. Anyway, it was National’s fault.” No, it did not happen under National, did not happen under nine years of sensible Government that got us through the global financial crisis, and this lot over there can’t even sort out measles. That’s how bad they are, and we’re supposed to believe they can do anything with the gangs that they were so keen on.

Well, remember the 501s? Remember Kelvin Davis going on and on about his little 501s that he wanted to go and hug in Australia—just hug them to him—and how mean those Australians were to want to get rid of them? Oh, they were such meanie Aussies. Well, what’s happened? This lot have been in Government for 2½ years, and what’s happened to all those New Zealand Australians being sent back to New Zealand? Oh, I know, there are more of them, and they’re badder—they’re worse. Let’s use Kelvin’s language: “badder”—I think, actually, that’s the Prime Minister’s language, isn’t it, really, to be frank. They’ve just got worse.

Now, we’ve got Tauranga full of gang warfare, we’ve got Hawke’s Bay the same, and this Government over here that said “Oh, those mean Australians are being mean to those little 501ers.”, they’re finally working it out—that’s exactly what happened.

💬 Greg O’Connor: Who was going to stop the Rebels setting up?

Oh, that would be the New Zealand Police Association, when that guy was the president. Did nothing. All Greg O’Connor did was to crawl around the Labour Party and he was going to do something about it. Twenty-five years getting paid the salary of a superintendent when he was only ever a sergeant—says it all, really, doesn’t it—and now he’s come into his retirement job. Great to see that—great to see that. Never achieved a thing. Having said that, I think it’s great. I think it’s great. What’s happened to all those extra police?

💬 Greg O’Connor: Who was going to stop it from happening?

What’s happened to all those extra police?

💬 Greg O’Connor: Who was going to stop it from happening?

What’s happened to all those extra police?

💬 Greg O’Connor: Who was the Minister of Police who was going to stop the Rebels setting up?

What’s happened to—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! This is not getting us anywhere. Carry on.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. What’s happened to all those extra police? Well, they’re probably all down in Tauranga, all carrying the firearms that, by the way, our Government gave them. Our Government did that. We got the funding for the firearms, we got the lock boxes in for them, we got them the tasers, and who was against it? Oh, them. Them, them, them—they’re all against it. Why? Why? I remember the Green Party banging on about the tasers. Remember? We were going to have police going round tasering people forever. Well, it’s just been very nice to have the odd taser every now and again, to be able to sort out a few. But I’ve always found that argument is a better response than violence, Mr O’Connor.

Let’s have a look at corrections. Remember, this was a Government that didn’t like us building all those prisons and those cells. Well, I bet they wish they had them now. Bet they wish they had them now. Their answer to it is legalise drugs and let everybody out. So I think we have some very interesting times coming up over the next seven months, if this Government lasts this long. I actually doubt whether this Government’s going to last seven months. My take is we’ll end up with an early election because the Greens are going to work out that it is extraordinarily bad for them to be in the same boat with this lot over here. They’re going to sit around and think, “Wow, what’s going to happen? We’re going to get tarnished with them.” Very hard to say how good they are when they’re hanging out with this lot over here.

Then we have—what have we got? Food parcels. Remember food parcels? Oh, yes. They were going to stop all that. What’s happened? We’re hearing from the city missions all over the country—that’s right—that food poverty has got worse, not better. Worse, not better. Well, it would, you see, if people have to pay an extra $50 or sometimes $150 a week extra in their rent. That’s what happens. All that’s happened is costs have gone up and incomes have not kept pace with it. Every time a fuel tax goes on, as it has in Auckland—every time the price of fuel goes up, food prices go up. That means supermarkets become more expensive.

💬 Priyanca Radhakrishnan: Food prices have been static for a long time. Check your facts.

It means that New Zealanders who cannot afford to feed their families on the quality of food they want have to make do with what they have or turn up for food bags. I see that other list MP over there from the Labour Party calling out and saying that food prices are stable. She clearly hasn’t been to a supermarket frequently. I’d say this to her: that’s why food banks’ work has increased. It’s not because of a National Government; it’s all because of her Government. Labour has failed. They need to go, and so should all those with them. They need to go. We need National back. Thank you very much.

I understand this is a split call.

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Ngā mihi o te tau hou Pāremata ki a koutou katoa.

E hiahia ana ahau ki te hoki muri ki te kōrero e pā ana ki te kōrero o Te Pirīmia i puta mai i tērā wiki. Ki te kōrero hoki e pā ana ki a Waitangi me āna kōrero mō te wiki o Waitangi. Ehara ko te rā anake. Ko tērā te wiki pai rawa atu mōku mō te tau tōrangapū.

Nā, i runga i te paepae, i te taumata i rongo Te Pirīmia i tētahi kōrero. Hei ko tāna “Waihō mā o mahi e kōrero.” E tika ana tērā kōrero. Waiho mō o mahi e kōrero. E kōrero ana wā mātou mahi mō wā mātou kaupapa katoa kua tutuki i a mātou i te tau kua pahure ake nei.

Nā, i te tīmatanga o tēnei tau ka puta tētahi kaupapa mō te waihanga mō Aotearoa whānui. He tohatoha pūtea ki te whakapaipai ake i ngā kura, he tohatoha pūtea mō ngā hōhipere, mō ngā rori, ara tereina, wērā mea katoa.

I roto i Te Tai Tokerau, puta te kōrero, neke atu i te kotahi rau o ngā kura ka whiwhi i ētahi atu pūtea hei whakapaipai ake i o rātou kura. Tino harikoa ahau nātemea ko ā tātou tamariki tērā ka whiwhi i ngā painga o tērā pūtea.

Tuarua, i puta te kōrero ka hoatu $10 miriona ki te hōhipere i roto i Kaitāia ki te whakatikatika i tērā o ngā hōhipere, ā, ka tāpiri atu tērā ki te $24 miriona ka hoatu ki a Whangārei, te hōhipere i Whangārei, me te $7 miriona ki te hōhipere i Te Pēwhairangi.

Ka puta tētahi atu kōrero mō te rori matua. Mai i Whangārei ki te tauranga waka ki Marsden, ki Port Marsden. Neke—

💬 Hon Shane Jones: Āe, āe, Ruakākā wāpu—Marsden Point.

Āe. Neke atu i te $692 miriona ki te hanga i tērā o ngā rori e whā ngā ara, nā, kua tohatoha tērā pūtea ki te hanga i tērā ara.

I reira hoki māua ko te matua, ko Shane, mō te whakataunga, mō te tohatoha i ngā pūtea mō te ara tereina, ngā rerewai; kātahi te harikoa o te minenga o Whangārei ki te rongo i te kōrero ka timata anō te ara tereina mai i Whangārei ki Ōtīria ki tōku hau kāinga i roto i Moerewa. Ka hoko anō hoki i ētahi whenua, ka tāpiri atu tērā ara tereina ki Te Tauranga Waka i Whangārei, he mea nui tērā mō Te Tai Tokerau.

I te wiki o Waitangi i whakaputa te kōrero neke atu i te $6 miriona i tohatoha ki ngā whenua Māori, e whitu ngā kaupapa kua whiwhi i a rātou, neke atu i te $6 miriona. Nā Te Minita Shane Jones tēnā, me Nanaia Mahuta anō hoki.

I puta te kōrero e pā ana ki ngā reiti Māori i runga i ngā whenua Māori. Ko Te Tai Tokerau tētahi kei raro e putu ana e pā ana ki te reiti Māori.

I tētahi pākoko mō Whina Cooper i Pāngaru, he rā tino ātaahua tēnā hei whakanui i te whaea o te motu, anā, ko Dame Whina Cooper.

Ko Te Rau Aroha he whare maumahara, he whare pupuri taonga mō ngā hōia o 28th me wērā atu o ngā pakanga o te ao. I tohatoha ētahi o ngā pūtea o Te Provincial Growth Fund kia hanga tērā whare maumahara mō tātou katoa.

Arā noa atu ngā kaupapa i kōrero Te Pirīmia mō te ara whiti.

E whakawhiti ana ngā mema Māori i roto i tēnei Whare Pāremata i tērā arawhiti ia rā, ia rā, engari i te rā o Waitangi, i kite tātou i whiti a Anaru Iti i tērā arawhiti, i whai kōrero ia i roto i Te Reo Māori; he tohu tēnā e hiahia ana mātou te tohu ki te ao e whakawhiti ana i tērā arawhiti. Hei aha? Hei painga mō tātou katoa.

Kua pau te wā engari he rārangi roa tonu ahau e hiahia au te kōrero. Kua tīmata ngā mahi engari he mahi nui kei mua i te aroaro i tēnei tau. Engari waihō mā o mātou mahi e kōrero. Kia ora.

[Greetings, Madam Speaker. Greetings to you all for the new parliamentary year.

I would like to go back to a speech that the Prime Minister delivered last week. I would also like to talk about Waitangi and her remarks from the entire week in Waitangi, rather than just the one day. That week is always my favourite week of the political year.

Now, on the paepae, the Prime Minister heard one of the leaders remark on her speech. He said, “Let your work do the talking.” That is spot on. Let your work do the talking. Our work in recent years has done the talking for us.

At the beginning of this year, we announced an infrastructure initiative for wider New Zealand. It was a distribution of funds to repair schools, for hospitals, for roading, for rail and for other things.

Talking specifically of the North, announcements were made, more than 100 schools received funding for repairs. This makes me really happy because that means our children are receiving the benefits of that funding.

Secondly, there was an announcement to distribute $10 million in Kaitāia to repair the hospital, add to that the $24 million that was given to Whangārei, the hospital in Whangārei, and the $7 million that was given to the hospital in Te Pēwhairangi.

There was also an announcement about the State highway from Whangārei to the Port of Marsden, in Port Marsden.

💬 Hon Shane Jones: Yes, yes, Ruakākā wharf—Marsden Point.

Yes. There was more than $692 million to build a four-lane highway; now, that funding has been distributed to build the road.

My venerable elder Shane and I were present at the launch, where funding was allocated for the rail track, and the railways; the crowd in Whangārei were elated to hear that there would once again be rail from Whangārei to Ōtīria to my hometown of Moerewa. Some land will be purchased and the railway track will be added to the Port of Whangārei; that is massive for the North.

During Waitangi week there was an announcement that more than $6 million would be distributed for Māori land, whereby seven initiatives will benefit to the tune of $6 million. That was Minister Shane Jones’ work, along with Nanaia Mahuta.

There was an announcement regarding rates on Māori land. The North is one area that is thwarted by rates on Māori.

The occasion to unveil the statue of Whina Cooper in Pāngaru was a beautiful day where we celebrated the mother of the nation, Dame Whina Cooper.

Te Rau Aroha is a house of remembrance, a house of treasures for the soldiers of the 28th Māori Battalion and other wars. Funding was provided by the Provincial Growth Fund to build that museum for all of us.

There was also an announcement by the Prime Minister about a bridge.

Māori members of Parliament in this House of Parliament cross the divide every day, but on Waitangi Day, we all saw Andrew Little cross that divide when he delivered his speech in Māori; that is a sign that we want more of the world to cross that divide. For what purpose? For the benefit of one and all.

I have run out of time, but the list is so long that I could go on. The work in front of us this year has only just begun. We will let our work do the talking. Thank you.]

Thank you, Madam Speaker. As I sat last week in this House, listening to the Prime Minister’s statement, I was filled with incredible pride and joy, all of which was dispelled as I sat listening to the previous National members speak.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Weren’t they bitter?

They were incredibly bitter and talked about neglect. But actually, the National Party member who resumed her seat just before we rose, in her capacity as the Minister for Ethnic Communities, did absolutely nothing that was noteworthy for our diverse communities. There was not one Cabinet paper in five years in that portfolio, and that gives us an indication of how much our diverse ethnic communities were neglected under the previous Government, regardless of the rhetoric that we hear from that side of the House.

However, what I wanted to start with was that regardless of where we might come from—whether we were born here in Aotearoa New Zealand, whether we’ve been here for three to four generations or we’ve migrated here—I think we can all agree on the fact that we want New Zealand to be the best place to live. That, when I think about it and reflect on it, is the role of the Government, and that’s how I look at what this Government has done over the last two and a bit years since the Government took office and the vision that we have for New Zealand’s progress. That’s why I’m proud. I look at it in terms of the facts of looking after our people, the fact that we have a responsibility to look after the environment and to ensure that we have sustainable economic growth as well.

A huge part of looking after our people is to ensure that we reduce the cost of living. I want to address that, because the previous speaker, the Hon Judith Collins, touched upon it and claimed that not enough is being done in that space, and yet wages have increased 4.4 percent. We’ve increased significantly the minimum wage, which has seen a boost of about 200,000 people.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: They’re going to stop that.

That’s right. That’s right—they want to stop that. Then, I think about the elderly Indian woman I met some months back who had worked for a company for 26 years, and in all those years, she had been on the minimum wage. How do people like that survive if we don’t significantly boost the minimum wage?

Reducing the cost of living through cheaper doctors visits for about 540,000 New Zealanders—people are actually picking up prescriptions because it’s cheaper to see their doctor. They’re not having to make decisions like “Do we see the doctor or put food on the table?”—basic decisions that should be the right of all New Zealanders as well. We’ve scrapped NCEA fees and increased funding to schools so that the pressure on parents has been decreased as well.

💬 Housing: Housing First places have increased, and that sits alongside a massive increase in the number of State houses that have been built. We stopped the State house sell-off. That party, when they were in Government, had actually decided to sell off all our State houses when we were in the middle of a housing crisis. How does that make any sense?

Looking after the environment: phasing out single-use plastic bags. We’ve started investing in cleaning up our waterways, working on standards to improve the health of our waterways and stop degradation, and passed the historic zero carbon bill. We have an historic agreement with our primary sector to make sure that collectively we address emissions.

Looking after the economy: the economy is strong. It’s resilient. Our fiscal position remains stronger than countries we often compare ourselves to. Our economy is growing faster than the economies of Australia, the UK, and the EU. As I mentioned, unemployment is at an 11-year low, at under 4.4 percent.

Infrastructure spending: we’re boosting infrastructure spending by $12 billion to upgrade New Zealand investment in road, rail, schools, and hospitals.

Finally, I want to touch on the changes to the Office of Ethnic Communities, where the fund, which was static—started in the last Labour Government at $500,000, increased by the National Government by $20,000—has now gone up to $4.2 million per year for our communities to access. It’s open all year round, and it shows that we have a Government that truly believes that diversity is our strength and that all our communities have a right to feel safe, to feel valued, and to be able to thrive.

I want to acknowledge Minister Salesa, the Minister for Ethnic Communities, now. I have seen her bat for our communities day in, day out, and get the wins that we’ve wanted to see to see our communities thrive, and that’s been acknowledged by our communities. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

If there was ever a really clear example of the difference between the lofty rhetoric of this Government and the hardbitten reality of what’s actually happening out there, it’s in the health sector. The previous speaker just finished by applauding and lauding the Minister for Disability Issues, when the people and the clients of the Laura Fergusson Trust are scrambling to find new accommodation because they can’t keep their doors open. That’s the hardbitten reality of this heartless Government.

Now, there are always challenges in the health sector, but for successive years, through a global economic recession, Vote Health received twice the rate of inflation every year, and services were going up and up and up and waiting times were going down. It was the most benign industrial relations environment in generations. The Minister of Health when in Opposition was apoplectic about a proposed $90 million combined deficit in DHBs in 2017, and two years later—put aside the Holidays Act; put aside the IT write-offs—the deficits of DHBs are approaching $600 million. I ask the Minister when is he going to get off his horse and change the record of “Nine years of neglect!” and look in the mirror to find the reason for the problem that had been created solely by this Government.

Now, the other speakers—and, indeed, the Prime Minister’s speech—crow about things like cheaper GP visits: 540,000 extra, cheaper GP visits. What they don’t say is that the Labour Party in the 2017 election campaign campaigned on cheaper GP visits for everyone. They said, “This is what the National Government is promising. We’re going to promise more.”, only they broke that promise.

Māori and Pasifika health is mentioned in the Prime Minister’s statement. This is an outrage, that they should even mention Māori and Pasifika community health, who cannot pay salaries to their nurses because DHBs are keeping money and funding increases of up to 15 to 16 percent and throwing crumbs at Māori and Pasifika health providers. Pharmac is mentioned. Extra cancer drugs are mentioned. What’s not mentioned is the $114 million they took out of hospital-based medicines funding, and the DHBs are still scrambling on it. The 12 linear accelerators are mentioned. What’s not mentioned is that that’s business as usual. The previous Government funded 10 of them over a three-year period because that’s the normal capital replacement programme that is necessary to keep our DHBs and our public hospitals going.

Now, I will acknowledge there was a quite big dollop of money for mental health in Budget 2018 and that was necessary and appropriate. The problem with that is it’s not getting spent. It’s not getting spent, and it’s certainly not getting spent in the areas that the Government said it was going to be spent in or, indeed, in the areas of most need.

But what’s most ubiquitous and just terrible about Budget 2019—

💬 Hon Shane Jones: Oh, “just terrible”? Oh!

Stand by, Mr Jones. He might be a grandfather at one point, but I hope he can find a midwife for his tamariki, because independent midwives have been treated scandalously by this Government. They were given a co-designed report that the previous Government had agreed to as a way of avoiding the litigation that was emerging, and these guys have tucked it in the bottom drawer and pretended it doesn’t exist.

The Ministry of Health had to apologise to the College of Midwives for their failure to even prepare a Budget bid in 2018. In fact, it should have been the Minister and the Government that apologised. The response? Nothing in Budget 2019. Apparently, they’ve been told there will be a solution in 2020. We’ll see, because, actually, if there is anything that the Government has to deal with, it’s the deficits now, before they even start with new money, and I would hate to be in Grant Robertson’s shoes when it comes to Vote Health 2020.

They’ve said a lot about capital projects, and I cannot believe they continue to perpetuate the myth of sewage down the walls of Middlemore Hospital. That did not happen. But the other fiction in that section of the Prime Minister’s statement is this—

💬 Hon Grant Robertson: You put no money into capital at all.

Oh, no capital at all? That’s exactly what this speech says. The Minister of Finance interjects. In the paragraph on page 3, for example, in 2016, no new money was put aside for health capital expenditure, only I’ve got Vote Health 2016 here. Capital expenditure: $2.7 billion—$300 million in another category of capital expenditure. In 2017: several hundred million dollars. It’s a myth. It’s a fiction, and we can go through the hospitals that were upgraded on the previous Government’s watch: Middlemore Hospital clinical services building; North Shore Hospital inpatient, emergency department (ED), mental health; Waitakere Hospital ED, radiology, theatres. We could go on: Taranaki, Hutt Valley, Wairau, Greymouth, Christchurch, Burwood, and Dunedin Hospital, and I’m not talking about the rebuild of Dunedin Hospital—

💬 Hon Grant Robertson: Which you never committed to.

—I’m talking about—we’ll come to that, Mr Robertson—the remedying of the neglect of the Clark Government, who would not upgrade the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), whose staff were working in disgraceful conditions. The paediatric ward at Dunedin Hospital was a million years old. They needed extra funding. They didn’t get it from the Clark Government. The NICU, the children’s ward, the mental health acute block, and the emergency department were all extended on this Government’s watch.

The Minister of Finance is wrong. He knows he’s wrong, because the Dunedin Hospital rebuild was committed to in 2017 by the English National Government—the end. They crow about $2.5 billion in the Prime Minister’s speech, but $1.6 billion of that was on projects that were already committed to by the previous Government.

Now, in my list I was careful not to attribute the sorts of capital projects that were approved by the Clark Government and yet completed here—Wellington Hospital is a very good example of it—but no such courtesy is extended by this Government to the previous Government. The fact is that capital projects occur all the time, and all the arm waving and “Aren’t we great?” when they actually approve something is completely unnecessary. In fact, I wish they would—I wish they would—approve the funding through Treasury for the detailed business case for Dunedin Hospital, because my sources are telling me that that is a huge hurdle that Treasury have not allowed—

💬 Hon Grant Robertson: Just you wait.

—to get over. Oh, he says, “Just wait and see.” We are waiting to see whether we’re going to get half a pyramid—that’s what we’re waiting to see, half a pyramid; you may recall the old insurance ad—because it sounds to me like the lofty rhetoric and the hardbitten reality are going to be two different things.

Now, all of this financial stress could be accepted and tolerated if, indeed, we’re seeing more coming out the other end, but actually we’re not. We’re seeing lower levels of elective surgery, longer cancer treatment waiting times, emergency department waiting times—out—smoking cessation rates are lower than they certainly were and where they need to be to get to smoke-free 2025.

💬 Harete Hipango: Vaccinations—

But the biggest scandal—exactly, Ms Hipango—is vaccination rates. When we came to office in 2008, they were a scandalously low 63 percent, and through hard work and clear expectations by the Government on the DHBs, they got to 92 to 93 percent. They are backsliding because this Government doesn’t believe health targets are important, and what is the consequence of that? A meningococcal outbreak in Northland, a measles epidemic across the country that we exported to Samoa, and what are we seeing now? Well, I think it’s a lead-footed response to a global pandemic that may not have come to our shores yet but could well do, in the coronavirus outbreak. I think it’s incumbent on the Government to reassure the public that they have a plan, they’re executing a plan, and they’re communicating a plan. They have been slow out of the blocks.

So that’s the hardbitten reality. Forget the lofty rhetoric, forget the criticisms of the previous Government, and look at the data—the throughput data; the improvements in New Zealanders’ health—because that’s not what’s being delivered to New Zealanders right now. It’s absolutely consistent with the theme of non-delivery of this Government. All we see in this speech is “Job not yet done.”, and that would be fine if the job had even started. But the New Zealand First coalition agreement has about five things, or six things in health—Mr Jones knows five of them haven’t even been started—not delivered. It’s not good enough. It’s non-delivery. New Zealanders deserve better.

I move, That this debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to.