General Debate

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

Today in the House we heard another example of the depth of the programmes that the Government has put forward to support businesses. The Hon Chris Hipkins this morning, along with the Prime Minister and others, announced that 18,000 employers around New Zealand will now have the confidence to keep their apprentices on and to take on new apprentices. On this side of the House, many of us remember what happened after the global financial crisis, when another Government decided that they would let the market rule—they wouldn’t support companies to keep apprentices on. What happened? Those apprentices lost their roles. When the recovery came, there was not the skilled workforce that was needed to build the houses and to support the industry of New Zealand.

Well, this Government will not let that happen, and that is why in that announcement today is some nearly $400 million worth of investment going into businesses to support them to keep young people and, for Mr Reti’s benefit, older people on who take up apprenticeships as well. This is part of the $1.6 billion commitment in Budget 2020 to trades training and to apprenticeships. We have free apprenticeships in New Zealand today as a result of what has been done in that Budget.

That commitment, not only to people taking on workers through apprentices but also to investment in the construction sector through our housing programme, through infrastructure—all of it is about jobs. It is about keeping New Zealanders in jobs, and it is about supporting employers to take on new workers and grow jobs in New Zealand. All of this is part of a Government whose resolute focus is on what we can do to support New Zealanders through this one in 100 year shock. It requires a Government who knows how to invest. It requires—if I can speak briefly on behalf of my own party along with our two support parties—the spirit of a Labour Government to do it.

It was interesting to note Mr Muller in his speech on Sunday found his inspiration about what to do in the face of a crisis from Michael Joseph Savage—from the Labour Party. So Mr Muller, not content—not content—with wanting to join the Labour Party, as he did in the middle of his speech, also acknowledged the very point that we on this side of the House know: it is Labour Governments that build New Zealand, it is Labour Governments that will rebuild New Zealand, and that is what we have learnt.

That wasn’t Mr Muller’s only problem, because, obviously, the upside-down flag—which we’ve learnt was perhaps not his direct responsibility—is known as the international signal of distress, and that was placed behind him. It was a sign. It was a message to him. But he didn’t really seem to pick it up all that well. We’ve actually discovered that if you turn the National Party logo upside down, it looks exactly the same as well, so they’re in a constant state of distress.

But Mr Muller has struggled for his period of time as a leader to bring his caucus together. He said the Government deserved credit for the way that we’d handled the response phase; today, Melissa Lee said it was luck. So he’s struggling to bring that together. Pulitzer Prize - winning author Christopher Penk has been out there putting his words out. He’s been advised to, quote, “Shut up.” So it’s going well, drawing together everybody who’s involved.

But, in the political equivalent of your mother being too embarrassed to show up to your rugby game, Mike Hosking has turned—he’s turned on Todd Muller. What he has told us today is reasonably extraordinary. I’ll just pick out one of many good quotes in the article—respected political commentator Mike Hosking, I might say. And he says—talking about Mr Muller—it’s OK if he’s got his act together by August, “But the key is, does he have an act to get together?” They’re the friends of the National Party, getting right there in behind their leader.

What’s needed right now in New Zealand is the kind of strong leadership being offered by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. What we don’t want are risky people without experience coming along. This is not the party of John Key or Bill English over there; it’s the party of inexperience. It’s the party of risk. When we come, in three months’ time, to the election, New Zealanders know that they can back a Government that’s had their back through COVID-19 and will continue to do so.

What does it take for this Prime Minister to acknowledge incompetence and actually sack a Minister? What does it actually take? Does it take biking in the middle of lockdown not once but twice? Does it take moving your house? Or does it take, actually, in this country, with its borders closed, with the whole country looking towards this ability of this Government to manage the border safely, a Minister that is derelict, a Minister who has overseen the most appalling, shambolic response in this Government over the last 24 hours?

Let me just step through elements of it for you. So two people who arrived in this country, who were supposed to be tested upon arrival, were not tested. They then asked if they could go on bereavement leave; they were not tested. And now they have moved around the country—far beyond the understanding of the Minister—and he is completely unaware of it. He wasn’t briefed. When I asked the Prime Minister this afternoon: “Have you got clarity that there is no other New Zealander who should have been tested?”, she did not know. She obfuscated. She looked the other way. She has no idea.

The stakes could not be higher. We need to reflect as a country what we’ve been through over the last three months, what we have asked of ourselves—people who haven’t been at their dear ones’ funerals; people who haven’t been at their dear one’s arrival into this world. We have had an economic impact that is yet to crystallise in this country: 40,000 people have lost their jobs in the month of April; 80,000 are expected to lose their jobs by the election time—as many as 120,000 by Christmas. The level of debt at a level we have never seen before. The economic impact is enormous, and the country looks to the Government to say, “Have you got your borders under control?”, and the answer is no. It is shambolic, it is hopeless.

The Minister looks at the floor and says, “It’s not my problem; it’s the officials’ problem. We’re going to bring in the army to assure it.” Well, why don’t you bring in a National Government and get the job done properly? It was our party that said right at the start that you need to test before you arrive, you need to test when you get here, you need to test after 14 days, and you need to check and you need to audit. Every one of our Ministers would be driving that with everything we’ve got, not a part-time Minister who’s more comfortable on his mountain bike as opposed to his Minister’s office. Front up, Prime Minister. He should be sacked. You should send a signal. The country is furious, and the Prime Minister knows it.

When you look at what sits in front of this country over the last 24 hours, there’s something else that’s occurred in this process as well. There’s something more than just the anger that has sat at the core of the New Zealand response. We have collectively given so much, and we had some hope that there would be a secure border, and it has been proven today that it is not. It is a deep understanding that is flooding back for this country that when push comes to shove, that is a Government that cannot deliver. What they have reminded, through the last 24 hours, is it’s one thing to have a face in front of the camera in a moment of crisis but it’s a very different thing when you’ve got to run a Government in the middle of a recovery.

That is what has been exposed. The country has seen again that this is not just a single individual that’s running this country; it is a Government that is completely out of its depth. Willie Jackson: what a remarkable effort today. He doesn’t know who qualifies and who doesn’t—18 to 24; oh, suddenly it’s more than that—incompetent. Kelvin Davis, tourism: he hasn’t met a tourist operator that doesn’t think he should resign—incompetent. David Clark: not only his role in this; his mental health contribution is unbelievable—$1.9 billion announced; only $20 million actually spent. That is absolutely outrageous. We can go through one after the other after the other. They are incompetent. They do not have an ability to deliver under pressure—and this side does.

What this side brings is a deep understanding of the communities of this country—a deep understanding of the economy that is based in your community. Your marae, your main street, your business, your family—that is the National Party’s lived experience. We understand it, we live it, and we breathe it. We will bring the best of it to this country in September, and this shambolic nonsense can be sent back home.

Thank you, Mr Speaker—[Interruption]

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order! It’s a general debate.

As the National Party stand on their feet, I just want to say farewell to a few of you. I don’t think some of you will be back next term, and it’s a real shame. I apologise. Goodbye. Bye. Goodbye. Farewell.

We’ve come through a difficult period. You know, the word “COVID” has come to mean lots of things to lots of people. I’m actually going to be positive. I’m going to make a positive contribution today. How unusual for the National Party to actually listen to something positive. So during COVID, we came up with a couple of new terms. Some of you may know “COVID kilos”—COVID kilos.

💬 Chris Bishop: Ayesha might take your job.

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member will resume his seat. Mr Bishop, I resisted the first time. I’m not going to be in the Cabinet, and I think the member should stop making those suggestions.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Now, let’s get back to COVID kilos. Do we know what they are? I mean, many of us tried out some recipes during the COVID period. One of my favourite try-out recipes was the pretend KFC recipe. My family really like that. The other term we got used to was the term “lockdown”. I always like to mention my lockdown baby, little baby Fletcher, that was born in our family, I think just as we were going into level 2—one of many babies that were born during lockdown. Actually, for some of us it was a difficult time, and for others of us it was actually a really enjoyable time to be with family.

But one of the most positive things, one of the most positive aspects of COVID, was the fact that we were part of the team of 5 million. I felt amazingly positive about that. I actually felt like I was contributing to our elimination of COVID. I felt like the people next door to me were doing that, the people down the road, and the people in other neighbourhoods were contributing to this. You know, when we were out doing our afternoon walks, there would be people who had their phones with them who were listening to the Prime Minister and Ashley Bloomfield doing their 1 o’clock updates. We were engaged in the process of elimination of COVID, and it was powerful because, by and large, we were all doing this together, and we were getting the reassurance from our Government and our local leaders. They were staying in touch—constant, consistent messaging that was powerful; a Government that was nimble, responsive, and comforting. What was the result of that? We had—how many days was it that we had—24 days of no new cases, but 48 days since community transmission. So we had done a fantastic job as the team of 5 million, and all of us need to be proud of that.

There is a crucial part of this that hasn’t been celebrated and acknowledged enough, in my view. That is the volunteers who stepped up from day one, actually saw the gaps that were occurring and filled them, and responded in an amazing way. They delivered food. They delivered medications. They supported, they looked after, the kids of essential workers so that they could go to work. They also looked after the children of single parents so they could go and get their shopping done. Simple things that volunteers did up and down this country. I would like to celebrate volunteers because next week is National Volunteer Week, and I’d encourage each and every one of us to thank the volunteer groups in our communities for what they’ve done. You know, they supported the older people from being isolated in their homes. They made sure that we were fed. They made sure that we were looked after. They made sure that supplies got to us.

There’s one woman, in particular, I want to mention: Vicki-Anne Parker from Christchurch. We had one chap who messaged me and said he was living in a caravan and he needed gas canisters for his burner. Of course, during level 4, you couldn’t transport those dangerous goods. She actually did a bit of a rally around. Some people looked in their garages and got some gas canisters together, and they were able to deliver sufficient to him so that he was able to cook his food during level 4 until he was able to get out to the shops himself and purchase that. That’s the kind of stuff that volunteers do. So I encourage each and every one of us next week to thank a volunteer. Go to your volunteer organisations, tell them what a marvellous job they’re doing, and thank them heartily for helping the team of 5 million to get through this.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Now, wasn’t that a lovely contribution from the member who has resumed her seat, Poto Williams. I thought it was lovely. I thought, she’s so nice she could be in the National Party. She made some very nice comments and I want to echo them, around some of the things that people did during the lockdown.

I’d also say to the member and to the House that, actually, other people experienced loss during the lockdown, lost family members. My little dog, Holly, I think many people know, had a massive stroke and ended up having to go to doggy heaven during the lockdown. We had a family member who was found to have cancer during the lockdown and couldn’t receive any treatment because it was new treatment, hadn’t already been started—found out about his diagnosis of stage 3 cancer on the phone. These are some of the issues that many families went through, and many had even worse situations, with a parent or a family member dying and not being able to be with that family member. That’s why to find out that the quarantine of two women was so slack that they were allowed, with this COVID-19 virus, to get into a car and to drive to Wellington from Auckland—we are told from the Minister David Clark, the Minister who was lax and not present during so much of the COVID-19 lockdown, that we are supposed to believe that they didn’t stop for petrol or fuel on the way. We are told that they didn’t use any toilet facilities on the way. We on this side are told by a member of the public who knows of these people that they got lost on the way, that they called for help for someone they knew to come and get them on the right track, and that they greeted that person with a kiss and a hug.

What is really damning is that these people should have been tested on day three and day 12 of their quarantine, and they weren’t. They were setting off in a car, a borrowed car, to go all the way from Auckland to Wellington. Now, if we think about the fact that one of them is reported to have had COVID-19 symptoms and was allowed to do all of this, we’d have to say, “Well, what’s happened to the rest of the quarantine?” So these people who we are now told today in the media, not from the Minister but in the media, have had 320—320—close contacts.

This virus that the rest of us have followed all the rules about, have gone without for, have missed family situations for, events, have dealt with all sorts of difficulties, and the rest of the country has followed the rules—it now turns out that the Ministry of Health—the Ministry of Health—overseeing this quarantine couldn’t get it right. I’ve got no problem with compassionate leave if the rules are followed and people are kept safe. The purpose of these rules is to keep the public safe. It doesn’t really matter what the rules are, as long as they work. In this case, the rules were there, they weren’t followed, and the public is now not safe.

So these women were allowed to attend an event in Wellington—320 close contacts, all of whom now have to be found, all of whom now have to be checked. Presumably, all will have to be in a form of isolation. And who is going to come to the rescue of the Ministry of Health? The army, and I don’t even know whether or not they’re going to have any masks or gloves or testing themselves. This Minister of Health has let the country down. He’s let every family down. He’s let everyone down who’s had to endure anything during that COVID-19 lockdown that stopped them earning a living, that stopped them being with a family member who was dying, and that stopped them getting their cancer treatment. He’s let down all these people because he didn’t make sure that the job was done. He should go. If he can’t make it work, if he can’t keep two people quarantined, what hope for anyone?

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. One of the most humbling and, I think, good things about such a difficult time in our country’s history is how well the community has come together and how much strength they’ve shown. I’m really proud to have been part of a Government that works so closely with community at a time when they’ve needed it the most. I’ve seen so many local examples where Government has provided extra support, whether that be through trade training, whether that be through the wage subsidy in round one or round two, or whether that be through providing interest-free loans for those small businesses that need that extra help. I have seen so many examples of Government and community working hand in hand to be able to make sure our people are well looked after. I’m proud of that, because it’s underpinned by the Prime Minister’s message of being kind, and that is what drives me to be in this place today. That is what drives me to make sure that we have a country where people look after each other.

What we’ve seen locally is food banks working together with the extra support provided through Government to enable those meals to be delivered during lockdown. One example in particular is we have a place out in Waiwhetū called the ReMakery, or Common Unity Project. They delivered 13,000 meals over lockdown to our community to make sure people were fed who were either in short-term accommodation or in situations where they were unable to be able to provide for themselves. They worked, they utilised funding, and they were able to feed those people who needed it.

Another one: in Wainuiōmata we have Kōkiri Marae, who worked to feed over 11,600 families, and they worked hand in hand with a range of different agencies. I went in there to see them loading up their van and being able to deliver it round to each house and each family. Apart from the fact that they did that, they also talked about how they connected into those families that previously they wouldn’t understand—some of the problems and issues. So by having a social worker along with them that was funded to go inside and deliver the food, they got a closer understanding of some of those issues that we strive to make sure New Zealand becomes stronger through fixing.

We have responded to COVID-19, and now is the time to recover and rebuild, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen today with today’s announcement to make sure that the Government is providing businesses up to $16,000 to help pay the cost of each apprentice for the first two years. That’s jobs. That’s young people in training, and that’s also people who may have lost their jobs to continue to retrain and make sure we are utilising the strength of our country, which is our people. Those people will be utilised in jobs through the rebuild project, through the funding that we’ve seen right across New Zealand and the $12 billion New Zealand Upgrade Programme.

Just in my space, we’ve seen the funding of Melling Interchange to make sure that there will be opportunities for local businesses and apprentices and workers—to make sure that’s fully funded and going ahead. Only earlier in the week, we saw also the announcement of a very popular cycleway and walkway between Pētone and Ngauranga, which will enable electric bikes, bikes, and walkers to make use of a really good space, to be fit and to get outside of your car and to reduce emissions and to be healthy. Again, that will be fast tracked under this Government, and it will provide more jobs and more opportunities for local people to be able to continue to be employed.

Because what we want is our local businesses to feel strong and supported at a time when we know it is difficult. I’ve spent time over the last month to walk around every single shop in Lower Hutt and meet each of the businesses and talk to them about the experiences they’re going through. And yes, there are some tough stories out there, but every single one I spoke to had taken the wage subsidy. Every single one of them said, “Thank you so much for being able to pay my staff, to pay myself, to be able to keep living.”, at a time when previously they thought it was not possible. For many of those hard-working people, it was the first time they’d actually had help from the Government in their lives, and they were appreciative to be able to keep their door open once we moved into level 3 and to continue trading.

I’m proud to see that we keep supporting people, whether they be in trade training or in businesses, to make sure our economy and our wheels keep turning; that people have money in their pockets to feed their families but also to spend at their local shops. This has been a very hard time, but I am proud to be part of a team that is dedicated to not only responding to COVID-19 but recovering and rebuilding.

I am deeply concerned by what we are starting to see in our communities and in our families. The economic wave of COVID-19 is starting to hit New Zealanders up and down this country. We all justifiably feel pride in how this country came through the immediate health crisis, how we came together and locked down and were able to prevent deaths on the scale, and illness on the scale, that was seen in some other countries. But we have not escaped COVID-19, because today we are experiencing unemployment at incredibly high levels.

Forty thousand jobs were lost in April. That’s 40,000 people: their families, their hopes, their purpose taken, their incomes reduced, their lives altered for ever. Tens of thousands more New Zealanders are predicted to lose their jobs in the coming months—tens of thousands more. Billions are predicted to be wiped from our economy. Those billions represent the hopes and aspirations of entrepreneurs, of small-business people, of young people entering the workforce for the first time, of families who may have wanted to do something extra—take on a mortgage, buy a first home—but will no longer be able to do it.

More than half of the building projects that were planned pre - COVID-19 are now in jeopardy. We are seeing literally billions of dollars’ worth of construction and development facing delay or at risk of stopping completely. The Government’s answer to that today is that they’re going to run an apprenticeship programme. We here in the National side say, well, we absolutely support apprenticeship programmes, but we’d suggest to you that you have a major problem in front of you if half the construction industry is at risk of failure. Who is going to hire the apprentices in the face of that reality?

It’s not just the big businesses. It’s the local butcher here in Kelburn, who just couldn’t make it through COVID-19 and will shut his doors after nine years. It’s the bubble tea cafe in inner city Wellington who relied on the students who came for international education, who no longer darken the doors. It’s the shoe repair shop that has succeeded through generations of a family business that’s now at risk. The realities of the COVID-19 economic crisis are really biting in our communities. So what we need is a Government that can give people certainty, confidence that it has the ability to deliver, that it can manage well, and that it can deliver.

Instead, what do we have? Today, we have the ridiculous situation where a Government that promised us it could manage the border well, it could manage quarantine well, that it would ensure that it kept COVID-19 out, instead has broken every one of its own rules. In fact, it appears it didn’t even know what the rules were. Instead of a Prime Minister who’s prepared to stand up and say, “Not on my watch—that Minister must go.”, we have the spectre of her defending him in this House. And I’ll tell you why it matters. It matters not just because of the health crisis that we face and New Zealanders’ ready expectation that this be managed well, but it also speaks to this Government’s ability to get us through what are going to be some very tough months and years ahead. We need a Government that has attention to detail and that can deliver.

Instead, we have a Government that built 395 KiwiBuild houses when it promised 10,000; that when it said it would provide shovel-ready projects to get us out of this crisis, instead released a list of reheated press releases of projects they promised two or three years ago—like the Unitec housing development that Phil Twyford first announced more than 800 days ago, and that when asked in this House about it, the Prime Minister said it couldn’t happen because of Resource Management Act (RMA) delays. Well, Prime Minister, we offered you the chance to work with us on RMA reform, and you didn’t. This is a clumsy, incompetent Government that does not have what it takes to give New Zealanders the confidence and certainty we need to rebuild our economy. It’s time the adults took charge again. It’s time for a National-led Government that can deliver.

Order! The member’s time has expired.

Normally, when I get up to do a general debate speech, I always, always have a specific topic in mind, and then—and then. So what I want to say to the New Zealanders that are listening is you already know what a National Government would do in a crisis not quite as bad as this one. You already know. Go back and have a look at what a National Government did after the global financial crisis. Go back and have a look at how they stripped out money from the public services that the New Zealand public needed to ride through the global financial crisis. Go and have a look, because that is what you would be looking at again with a National Government.

But go back somewhere else. Go back to the 1990s and have a look what a National Government did in the 1990s. Remember what it was like, New Zealand. Remember what it was like, because that is what a National Government will give you. The very reason there is a coalition Government sitting on this side of the House today, which everybody should be incredibly grateful for after a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, and a pandemic, is because New Zealand First refused to have the solutions provided by a previous National Government put into place for this nation. We knew we would have to invest in this nation. We did not know at the time we created the coalition Government that it would be on this level. Certainly, we could not have predicted a pandemic. But what I can tell you, New Zealand, is go to history and have a look at what you will get if you get a National Government. And I can tell you: you do not want it, because it is not a pretty picture. If you have to have one, you need New Zealand First there. If you have to have a Labour Government, you need New Zealand First there. Because only New Zealand First continues to remember how both those major parties decided to strip out investment from their citizens to try and make the books balance while at the same time opening the borders to try and bring back some income, rather than truly setting the foundations for a future by investing in the education of their people.

We just heard Ms Willis argue that, oh, it’s all very good and, yes, of course the National Party supports apprentices but we would rather you took that money and put it into business. Again, a National Party MP stands up and says, “Don’t invest in your citizens. What are you doing?” Why would you be giving money to your citizens so that they could find employment? And, strangely enough, they seem to miss the whole point around small and medium sized enterprises that need that exact investment so that they can employ their neighbour’s son or daughter as an apprentice, so that they can expand their business, so that they can recover from COVID. This is a tired message, New Zealand. This is a National Party grasping at straws, with a new leader who’s come out of the gate somewhat faulted, and they are trying to convince you to not look back at history—but look at history.

Now, I was going to talk about pornography.

💬 Brett Hudson: Really? Whatever turns you on, Tracey!

💬 Hon David Bennett: Leave that speech to Shane, he’ll do it! Shane’ll tell you all about it!

💬 Hon Michael Woodhouse: Whatever floats your boat! Mark Patterson doesn’t know where to look!

And now we can hear male members of the Opposition shouting out about a topic that is incredibly serious, that is affecting our young people in this country—

💬 Hon David Bennett: Give Jonesy a go!

That is David Bennett. Just so you know that’s David Bennett, because I want that on the record. Our young people are being bombarded by pornography, but one of the things that the Department of Internal Affairs has put into play, because we notice both the addiction to gambling and the addiction to pornography rising—

💬 Brett Hudson: It’s Patricia Bartlett! I thought Patricia Bartlett had died!

And that’s Brett Hudson, everybody, just so you know. The two guys over there making fun of this topic that is affecting your children and your young people—

💬 Brett Hudson: We’re making fun of you, Tracey!

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

—are David Bennett and Brett Hudson, just so you know. So I want to point out to the parents out there about the Keep It Real Online safety campaign. Please go to www.keepitrealonline.govt.nz—it’s trending across the world—so that you can have a look at how you can sit down and talk to your children about the effects of cyber-bullying and the effects of pornography on children and young people in New Zealand. Kia ora.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. When the news of two further COVID-19 cases broke yesterday, I was reasonably concerned, obviously, but not alarmed, because we were told by the Director-General of Health that we could expect further cases and they would come across the border and that they would sprout up like weeds on a lawn. Well, the more we found out about this, the more alarmed I got, and I have been overwhelmed with messages of absolute horror, anger, and frustration at the fact that the team of 5 million have done their bit and the Government is asleep at the wheel when it comes to keeping this virus out.

Late last night, I received a message from a reliable but confidential source that informed me that the story of the non-stop trip by this pair from Auckland to Wellington was not all as it seems, and that is that they did become disoriented and lost their way coming out of Auckland and needed help to get on to the right road. They called on acquaintances who they were in close contact with, and that was rewarded with even more close contact: a kiss and a cuddle.

Now, the car was borrowed, and my question is how was that obtained—how did they pick it up? They don’t live in Auckland. Therefore, it must have been through another exchange of contact with somebody in order to commence the journey, and, of course, did they stop at all along the way for petrol, comfort, or food? Plausible questions for an implausible scenario.

Now, I’m not getting at them, but I do think the director-general—and the Minister must call on the director-general to further explain and inquire about whether or not we know all there is to know about this case, because the public need to know. They have done their bit. They are aghast that this could happen in the ham-fisted manner that it has.

I’d like to be able to say that it’s an isolated case. Unfortunately, many more correspondences have been received into my office in the last 24 hours, and I’ll remind members about what the director-general did say about testing for people in managed isolation. He said a few days ago—I think it was on 9 June—“everyone in managed isolation will be tested twice” during that period, whether they have symptoms or not, at “around day three and around day 12”.

Well, I’ll give you just a sample of the messages that have come into my office that say that that is not happening. From Grant—a friend—“Four days after flying in from Dubai, no COVID test yet. Today asked to fill in a form for a test, but found that it was purely voluntary.”

Another one: on day four in isolation at Rydges in Auckland, she is saying, “There is no effort by the staff to separate people from the first week of isolation into the second week, thereby making it ineffective.” When she raised concerns to the nurse about the people coughing on the bus—no one was wearing masks—she was asked to provide names, but, obviously, how would she know their names?

“Testing is optional at day three and day 12 and encouraged, but not mandatory.”, and I go back to Dr Bloomfield’s comment that everyone in isolation will be tested. Well, that is not happening, and, in fact, what’s happening in these managed isolation facilities is that they could well become the very vector that we’re trying to avoid, because the Government—remember—could not manage self-isolation. They could not contact the people who decided to self-isolate, so they put them all under quarantine. They can’t manage quarantine. What do they do? They call in the army. I mean, this is as ham-fisted as it gets, led by a Minister of Health that is completely disinterested in his portfolio and completely overwhelmed by it, but out of his depth.

I must say that when a very measured and somewhat mild-mannered reporter in the form of Collette Devlin from the Dominion Post writes what she wrote yesterday, we know we’ve got a problem. She said, “Incompetence was shining through. He was unable to answer questions”—this was at a release which he was meant to control, on Sunday, and he should have been across the issues. He shifted questions on the announcement to a hospital staffer, and “To top it all off he managed to misquote the budget allocation” which the funds were coming from.

The Leader of the Opposition said it in his call: how much incompetence does there need to be in order for this Prime Minister to fire a Minister? Well, clearly, a heap, because it cannot get more incompetent than the Minister of Health. He should go.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. What a time. What a time to be in the New Zealand Government. What a time to be a New Zealander. All eyes are on us from all around the world because of this pandemic that we’ve been struck with. Not only has this Government had to, as my colleague Tracey Martin said, deal with the fallout from an eruption, Whakaari / White Island, but also the terrible, tragic incident that happened in Christchurch—that was also something this Government’s had to deal with, not least the pandemic. All eyes are on us, and how we’ve behaved is actually something that gives me heart.

I was out and about in my electorate last week, and I was constantly having conversations with the Māori constituents that I represent, and what they were talking to me about was the partnerships that happened during the COVID crisis. They talked about the partnerships between the DHBs and our iwi and Māori health providers. They talked about the partnerships between the police and some of our local community iwi—community safety checks that were happening all around New Zealand. They were also talking to me about Whānau Ora and about the funding that the Government had given to Whānau Ora to be able to do the community outreach into really hard-to-reach communities to make sure that they were looked after. The partnership between our Māori communities, our remote Māori communities, and also our civil defence—who, basically, had their phone line open, and people that were struggling were able to call the phone line and get help pretty quickly. So I commend this Government for the work that we did in making sure that we honoured our Treaty partnership and worked together with our Māori communities during the COVID crisis.

But, actually, the biggest partnership was our team of 5 million, because it was our team of 5 million that all took some personal responsibility. We all stayed home. We all stayed safe. We kept in our bubbles. We looked after ourselves to make sure that, actually, we’re now in a stage where we’re at level 1. There were a lot of jubilant people that I was talking to saying how great that we are at level 1.

I want to acknowledge the work of the Prime Minister in this, because she said, and she has said all throughout this—since we’ve been in level 1—she said we will have new cases. This will not be the end for New Zealand. There will be new cases. She was honest about that, and she owned that, just like today, as she took her press conference and stood up there and owned this conversation. The Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, he owned his part in this as well. It’s a tragic thing to happen to our country, but, actually, it was the Opposition who were saying, “Let’s get those borders open—let’s get them open. Let’s start the planes coming in from overseas.” So, actually, there’s a couple of stories going on here, and, actually, I want to, again, acknowledge the Prime Minister. She said from the start that we will have new cases here in New Zealand.

The system that we’ve got is as good as we can be, but we’re human, and, actually, humans make mistakes. The Opposition saying that they are infallible and they never make mistakes—well, actually, they’re wrong. They’re wrong, because we know from the last nine years that they had in Government that, actually, they did lots wrong. They dropped the ball on so many issues that this Government has had to pick up. So I want to acknowledge that.

Our country is in a state of responding to the crisis, recovering and also rebuilding, and it’s going to take a while. This isn’t a silver bullet that’s going to fix all of this. There’s going to have to be a range of initiatives, and a few of the things that give me heart—because when I think about the fallout from this, I think about unemployment. I think about my Māori communities that I represent. I think about how the Māori unemployment rate is generally twice what the general unemployment rate is. So I fear for those communities and for those whānau where they’re going to have people that have lost their jobs and the impact that they’re going to have.

But I’m heartened at some of the stuff that our Government is doing—not least, actually, apprenticeships: making sure that if we want to take some of our workers who have found themselves unemployed and redirect them back into an apprenticeship to get themselves a trade, to get back on to the employment ladder, then let that be so. It’s our Government that have scrapped fees from 1 July so that that can happen.

The investment in Budget 2020 for Mana in Mahi and He Poutama Rangatahi are things to make sure that we’ve got transitions for our people that have found themselves without work, but not least in tourism. I represent a significant amount of tourism operators in my electorate, and they are hurting right now. But we’ve got some plans in place. We’ve got the tourism strategic partnership, the strategic assets partnership, and we’ve already had some information dropped on that. It’s going to be a long road, but we’re getting there. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Today, I sought to raise questions with the police Minister, on behalf of law-abiding firearms owners across New Zealand. That isn’t a throwaway term. Actually, I’d like to pay some credit to the police officials and officers over both of the firearms bills—the one back in April of last year and the Arms Legislation Bill, which is still progressing through Parliament. They were at great pains to tell us that the vast majority of firearms owners are law abiding. We’re not talking, as I said, about a simple throwaway term. These are people who willingly comply with the laws that Parliament has made, and may yet make, that govern and regulate their recreation, their sport, and, to many of them, their way of life. They do so willingly—not always without question and not always without concern, but these are people who know what it is to obey the law and to do the right thing.

The police Minister on occasion has spoken words similarly, but today gives me and, I think, the firearms community reason for great pause, because I asked him about a report which comes from, I believe, a former member of police, that there may have been or believed to have been discrepancies against the standard procedure in how the Christchurch terrorist’s firearms application was handled. The Minister, instead of addressing that with the seriousness it deserves, sought to blame the firearms community for making up a story. Well, that’s deeply offensive to them, and it should be deeply offensive to members in this House.

This latest report is not the only one. A very well respected former member of police, Joe Green—a very senior member of the unit that control firearms administration in the police, he used to be; very, very well respected across the firearms community—raised similar issues last year, particularly as the Arms Legislation Bill was going through its submission process. Concerns like this deserve to be heard and treated with respect. Well, I don’t believe that’s what the Minister showed today. He did at least reference that the royal commission of inquiry is looking into matters that should, and we all believe do, include how the shooter may have obtained that firearms licence. That’s why I asked him if, in his opinion, it was important that they do that, because if he truly believes it’s important, then the right action for him to be advocating and for the Government to be taking is to pause that Arms Legislation Bill, which makes quite substantial changes to firearms licences for law-abiding people, until the report from the royal commission is released, which may well include findings which warrant amendment in that bill, which is before Parliament, to ensure that we get not only our vetting process but our entire licensing process and regime correct.

Instead, my view is that he was extremely dismissive. Now, we’re all strong enough in this House to take that. It’s like water off a duck’s back. But we stand here as—sorry, Mr Speaker; it’s no personal reflection. We stand here as representatives of New Zealanders and, in this case, the firearms community, and they deserve to be heard and to have their concerns treated with more respect. Because what are they weathering still? A bill before the House that in their view, and a view that I share, is focused almost exclusively on more rules, regulation, and costs on those people that already follow the law, and virtually nothing on genuine criminals and gangs.

The police Minister tried last night to defend it, saying—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! I’ve been quite lenient with the member, but the member is anticipating a debate. It’s a matter which was up today, and if the normal procedures for the Order Papers occur will be up tomorrow, and, therefore, one is not meant to be debating a bill which is currently otherwise being debated in the House as part of a further debate, including this one. So I think the member can properly talk about the questions, but not start arguing about the bill.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I wasn’t intending to talk about what might happen but rather to reflect on what was debated last night, because there were positions put such as that it would keep guns out of the hands of criminals. It won’t. Why? Because criminals don’t have licences. They certainly don’t have licences for the sorts of firearms they use. So we have the firearms community wanting to do the right thing, who traditionally have done the right thing, but who feel that the Government, and particularly their old friends New Zealand First, have simply abandoned them. They deserve to be treated with more respect—more respect, in my view, than the Minister showed today in question time.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I worry about my family on the other side of the world. Like in many other countries, the Netherlands still sees many new COVID-19 cases every day—143 yesterday. They’ve also had more than 6,000 people die in the Netherlands. My parents are elderly and vulnerable and, like many others, they are stuck in their homes—they can’t go out; they don’t feel safe to go anywhere else.

Now, contrast that with New Zealand’s low infection and mortality rates. I get messages from my family all the time, full of admiration of how our Prime Minister has led our team of 5 million to go hard and go early and have a response that, basically, saw us in a place where we can now start to reboot and get our economy moving again, much faster than many other countries have managed to do. So I get up every morning, relentlessly positive because it is such a privilege to be living in a country like Aotearoa New Zealand, where we have had a response to COVID-19 that is, basically, the envy of the whole world.

We said from the start that the best economic response would be a strong health response. So we went hard to cushion that economic blow, started with the wage subsidy that saved tens of thousands of jobs and helped businesses grow. Budget 2020 built further on that, focusing on jobs and on growth. We’ve heard from a couple of my colleagues earlier in their speeches that as recent as this morning the Government has announced schemes that will support that.

The Apprenticeship Boost—an apprenticeship support scheme that will give confidence to businesses to keep their apprentices but also to take new ones on, because we are paying $16,000 for every apprenticeship for the first two years. So that will provide New Zealand with the skills that we need to be rebuilding our country.

The other thing we announced is the Mana in Mahi - Strength in Work programme, so it’s a boost that will provide opportunities for our vulnerable, at-risk rangatahi so they can get into secure and rewarding employment.

We’ve already heard from the other side of the House—Nicola Willis was one of them—with criticism about these programmes. It is unfortunate to see, because there was a promise that they wouldn’t do opposition for the sake of opposition, but that is what we are seeing.

Another clear example of that was then they voted against a bill that provided temporary support for people who lost their jobs. It was a 12-week temporary payment so that people can job search, can retrain, and, basically, get back on their feet after they had the significant blow of losing their jobs. Now, the fact that National voted against such a bill—a temporary support for people losing their jobs—shows again their disdain for working people and for families that have lost their breadwinners. It’s exactly the same as what we’ve seen over three consecutive National Governments, basically, putting the boot into working people and undermining working people and their families.

It’s their criticism of the wage subsidy scheme, again, that, basically, shows they don’t care about workers. The comment that they made where they said “Oh, the wage subsidy is something that went to businesses and not to workers” clearly shows that the National Party sees workers as some kind of a liability. They couldn’t care less if those workers had lost their jobs. But our Government took immediate action, put the wage subsidy scheme in place, and has now supported more than 1.7 million workers, up to $11 billion paid out to see them through and get businesses to work through their options to see how they can remain viable and keep workers in business.

In the Budget, our Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, mentioned the glimmer of silver lining on the darkest of clouds. I thought that was very beautiful, because it actually tells us that we can rebuild better, and it is so important, because we certainly didn’t have an equitable pre-COVID economy. So, whatever we do, we’re going to make sure we’re coming out of this on top and in a better place. The legacy that the National Government left us after three consecutive terms is, basically, social deficits in health, housing, and education. We have started to make significant improvements in all of those areas.

So we would like to celebrate Budget 2020, which is all about rebuilding together. We are creating new jobs. We are training people for the jobs that we have available and so that they can all together, as a team, help us rebuild New Zealand. I am very proud of a Government that cares and a Prime Minister who unites and leads our country time after time through crisis, through rough times, showing kindness and compassion. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I want to start by telling the tale of a former Opposition health spokesperson—and many an MP in this Chamber who was here in the 51st Parliament will remember one Dr David Clark as the Opposition health spokesperson, who used to sit on the Opposition front bench. He was known for shouting out one phrase every question time, what he used to say to the former health Minister: “The worst health Minister in 50 years.” Well, how ironic. That phrase now will be becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, because this health Minister is incompetent, and today I’m going to outline clearly one area of his portfolio that he has failed to deliver on, one of the most important areas of health: mental health.

This was a quote from the health Minister last sitting week in question time, when he was questioned about the flagship $455 million new front-line mental health service. The health Minister said, “It’s quite impressive how quickly these things have rolled out.”—in reference to where the roll-out is for that new front-line health service. It’s interesting he uses the words “quite impressive how quickly”, because, let’s remind ourselves, out of $455 million that was allocated to that service in Budget 2019, $20 million has been spent on that to date. The allocation for the first-year roll-out was $48 million, and the Minister has managed to spend only $20 million of that. And he thinks that’s impressive and quick! Currently that new flagship front-line mental health service is operating from 40 sites. What’s interesting about those 40 sites is that 22 of them were existing before the Government’s announcement in Budget 2019. So that means, to date, the health Minister has delivered only 18 new sites. OK, let’s give him the 22 pilot sites; add the 18 new sites. That’s 40 sites this new front-line mental health service is operating from. And it’s interesting he used the words “quickly” and “impressive” when 40 sites is less than 2 percent of general practices.

So you have a flagship policy that’s spent only $20 million out of the $455 million, you’ve got only 40 sites of delivery in the first year, which is 2 percent of general practices—because, of course, this new service is meant to be rolled out in general practices—and this Minister is calling it “quite impressive” and a “quick” roll-out. This Government talked a big game for mental health, in Opposition. They have come in, they had an inquiry, kicked the can down the road for another 12 months, and here we land, three years in, and they have made no real change in mental health. Their own inquiry clearly outlined that, currently, New Zealand provides mental health services to 7 percent of the population. We need to increase that to 20 percent to capture the mild to moderate. You add on top of that the increased demand as a result of COVID-19. The Epidemic Response Committee heard from a range of experts, who clearly outlined they are concerned at the wave of mental distress cause by COVID-19 that’s going to pitch up to our GP practices. Sir Peter Gluckman forecasted 10 percent of those who lose their jobs or incomes will develop post-traumatic stress disorder. If that number is 200,000 to 300,000 in that cohort, that’s tens of thousands of New Zealanders that will develop serious mental illness.

So, in a time when New Zealanders needed the Government the most in the area of mental health, we have a Minister that seems disinterested, not over his brief, and incompetent. Because here we are, one year in, and the Minister is struggling to spend the money allocated—$20 million out of the $455 million. He’s rolled the service out to less than 2 percent of general practices. Clearly, this Minister has failed mental health and has failed New Zealand.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.