General Debate

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

This is a Government that has failed at every level to deliver for our country, whether it is light rail, whether it is KiwiBuild, or whether it is keeping New Zealanders safe. Five million New Zealanders did their job to keep our country safe, and what we found out is that managed isolation, quarantine, testing, and tracing are all an epic failure. We know this. I stood outside the Stamford Plaza as I spoke to residents who hadn’t been told that they were going to have their facility as managed isolation. Dr Ashley Bloomfield goes on television and says it’s already an isolation facility. Well, it’s not. We then find out that they claim, and the Government claims, that there wasn’t ever any plan for Stamford Plaza. Meanwhile a group of people are landing at Auckland Airport and are diverted to Rotorua. The reality is that whether it’s isolation or quarantine, this is a Government that has failed.

We also know, and we heard from the Prime Minister, that world-leading border security involves border management, testing, and tracing. When it comes to testing, the Prime Minister did a dance when she claimed that we were COVID-free, but when it comes to testing we’ve found out that 51 out of 55 people who left for a special exemption haven’t even been tested. And then in question time today we have found out that only 1,200 out of 2,000 people have been tested in our managed isolation.

The reality is this is a Government that has failed in terms of COVID. We accepted and applauded the flattening of the curve, but at every world-leading response you need to have testing, you need to have traceability, and you need to have decent managed isolation. This Government cannot be trusted to keep New Zealanders safe on border security and they can’t be trusted when it comes to 19 September.

If we look at their other failures—KiwiBuild. They promised us affordable housing. The reality is they promised 100,000 houses. How many were delivered? Three hundred and ninety-three. When it comes to light rail, they promised us that we’d have light rail in Auckland. The reality is the project’s been cancelled as of today. When it comes to infrastructure, they promised us shovel-ready projects, they promised us roading, and what’s happened? Eleven out of 1,900 shovel-ready projects have been agreed by the Government.

This is a Government, as Todd Muller has said, that has 17 empty seats. The reality is that the Prime Minister can have the best public relations campaign in the world, but if her Ministers can’t deliver, then nothing happens. Whether it is our health system and David Clark who should have been sacked, whether it is Phil Twyford, the Minister for Auckland issues prior to the election, who has failed on light rail, whether it is Phil Twyford on KiwiBuild, New Zealanders have got nothing from this Government. The best PR campaign in the world doesn’t ensure delivery.

So it is only a National Government that will be able to deliver on housing. It will only be a National Government that will be able to deliver on transport. And it is only a National Government that can keep New Zealanders safe, because we have a policy which is around testing, tracing, and decent managed isolation. We’ve got an economic plan that will see the country with 150,000 people in jobs. The reality is we are facing the largest economic crisis in a generation and even in the good times Labour couldn’t deliver anything. So why would we leave them in charge of our country in the bad times? They haven’t been able to deliver, with the most significant amount of funding ever anything in housing, transport, infrastructure, or border security.

We will campaign at this election on smart policies that will enable us to recover. That means ensuring that we do some things to keep our small businesses afloat but it also means on border security that we do some basic things well. That means testing. It means traceability. It means managing isolation better. It means quarantine. It actually means that Ministers do their job. This is a party that has a team of people that will be able to deliver on September 19, compared to a row of empty seats, a party that came in with huge aspiration but has ended up not delivering on every single major area. Light rail is a fail, KiwiBuild is a fail, border security is a fail, and ultimately the Prime Minister needs to take responsibility for the fact that her group of people have not delivered for New Zealand in border security, housing, transport, or infrastructure. Bring on a National Government.

There have been a lot of firsts lately, but I never thought I would find myself sitting here thinking, “Actually, Paula Bennett was quite good.” But I did during that contribution from Nikki Kaye.

In New Zealand right now, as humanity around the world finds itself in a very difficult time, it is a fantastic time to be a New Zealander, because our team of 5 million has done something truly remarkable. Through a collective team effort, we managed to squash COVID-19, we managed to stop community transmission in this country, and we are one of the best places to be in the world right now.

I am very proud to be part of the Government that led New Zealand through that process with clear, decisive leadership and with good communication, and managed to get New Zealanders to the point where we understood the risk of COVID-19 and where we made the sacrifices we needed to make voluntarily because we knew that that was the right thing to do. We need to now bring that same focus, that same resolute leadership, to the recovery effort that we brought to fighting the virus in the first place, and that is exactly what the members on this side of the House have to offer, because there is no rulebook here. This is new territory for New Zealand, and the leadership that this Government has shown has brought us this far. We have a plan to see New Zealand through recovery, and we have one of the best-positioned countries in the world to do that.

Let’s compare our Government’s response to COVID-19 with the previous National Government’s response to the global financial crisis. This Government has boosted Government capital spending so that we can keep our economy moving, versus the National Government, who cut capital spending in a time of an economic downturn and made that downturn worse as a result. This Government has boosted apprenticeships and put extra money into keeping apprentices on the job, versus the last Government, who saw thousands and thousands of apprentices lose their jobs during the global financial crisis, and that slowed down the recovery afterwards.

We will not repeat the mistakes that they made after the global financial crisis. This Government is focused on building assets for New Zealand. The last Government sold assets when New Zealand last had an economic downturn. The sound judgment that this Government has shown will help to get us through this very difficult period of time.

Let’s contrast that with what’s on offer on the other side of the House. The new Leader of the Opposition—

💬 Hon Grant Robertson: Who?

—Todd Muller; I know. Todd Muller: if you haven’t heard of him, one of his first declarations as Leader of the Opposition was that he would move with urgency to reopen the border between New Zealand and Australia, and between New Zealand and China. Those were among his first promises as Leader of the Opposition.

He’s then gone on to argue that we should devolve the management of the quarantine of international students coming back to New Zealand to the universities—bear in mind that the universities don’t think the border should be closed in the first place, and they’ve actually put that in writing. The stated position of the universities is that there was no justification for closing the border, and the Opposition wants to hand over management of quarantine to them. They are willing to play Russian roulette at the border and put all of the gains that we have made through the sacrifices of 5 million New Zealanders at risk, and that is not something that this Government is willing to do.

They have flip-flopped around all over the show. First, they wanted more compassion when it came to compassionate leave to go to funerals and tangi and weddings and other things, and then they said, “Oh no, we were too generous, and there shouldn’t have been that.” They cannot make their minds up on anything. They argued that shops, building and construction, and a whole lot of industries should have stayed open during alert level 4 when we know that in the countries that did that, they have not been anywhere near as successful at stamping out COVID-19 as we have been here in New Zealand. And let’s not get on to the ACT Party, National’s junior coalition partner, who want us to be like Sweden, where thousands and thousands of people have died as a result of COVID-19.

New Zealanders have done a remarkable thing in recent months. The hard work and sacrifice of New Zealanders has been worth it. Its position does well for recovery. It came about because New Zealand was incredibly well led during that process, and that’s the sort of leadership that we will bring to the recovery.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, whether it be in the community, the nation, or the world, the women and the men of the New Zealand Defence Force are proving to be, once again, our greatest asset, and continue to demonstrate their value as they support our people here at home and our friends and neighbours abroad, whenever and wherever it matters. It doesn’t matter whether it’s floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions—here at home or abroad—humanitarian assistance, disaster relief operations, search and rescues, they are there 24/7, at the drop of a hat, when necessary. They never go on strike, they never ask for more; they simply focus on delivering loyally and faithfully to the people of New Zealand. I’m proud that this coalition Government has recognised that.

I’m proud that this coalition Government has done something that no other Government has done in the last—crikey—I think we’ve got to go back 40-odd years, and that is invested so heavily in the women and men of our Defence Force who contribute so much in areas people don’t think about. Whether it’s air dropping supplies to Department of Conservation staff in the Kermadecs, whether it’s patrolling the Southern Ocean, keeping an eye on things like whaling operations, keeping an eye on what is happening in our environmentally protected area, keeping an eye on the illegal fisheries operations, or providing surveillance and information and data that enables successful international prosecutions of poachers, that work is done by the women and the men of the New Zealand Defence Force—army, navy, and air force—working collaboratively together.

But these things do not happen by accident; they happen because they’re planned. They happen because people train to the highest levels of professionalism that they possibly can. The only thing they ever ask of a Government is that they be supported—they be supported with the appropriate training, they be supported with the appropriate equipment and platforms that enable them to compete in the international environment with what are proven to be some quite innovative tactics and strategies by those who would deplete our resources, and attack our environment. It is those people who we are the first to deploy when things like tropical cyclone Harold hit and ravage the Pacific Island nations, who are already suffering the effects of climate change on a size and scale that many countries around this world are still not recognising. But there is a group of people who do recognise it, and they are the women and the men in the New Zealand Defence Force. They are the people who deploy, whether it’s a tsunami or a cyclone, and help put people’s lives back together—be it our pilots, be it our engineers, be it our medics, be it any of them.

That’s one of the things that I’m so proud of—the way in which at the same time they’ve been doing all this, the Defence Force has leaned in to support all Government agencies through COVID. Special recognition to Air Commodore Digby Webb, who was already in there providing such amazing assistance and planning, along with a broader team—and I’m thinking of Tony Miller right now—who have been providing the planning and logistics support and advice to other Government agencies. I’m pleased now that that advice and professionalism has been recognised and that Defence has been given a greater role and command and authority, particularly on our borders. I know—I know—that their professionalism will enhance the safety and security of every New Zealander right now and will make sure that the gains that the team of 5 million made are not undermined or destroyed.

There is so much that we could talk about on our Defence Force people, in the 57 seconds that I’ve got left. Where do I start? I’m just going to finish by saying this: the Hercules are often challenged, but people need to remember that our biggest military deployment is Antarctica, and it’s the Hercules that provide the donkey work. They are the heavy lifters that make it possible for our scientists, for our engineers, and for our people who work in Antarctica, who do such valuable work studying climate change and studying the environment. None of that is possible without the women and the men of our Defence Force.

A big thankyou also to those people who have been heavily engaged in repatriating the thousand-odd people back just recently into Vanuatu—job well done, loyally and faithfully serving the people of New Zealand. I congratulate all of the women and men of our Defence Force and thank them very much. And, don’t worry, we’ve got more positive announcements on the way.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. Well, National might have changed its leadership, but it hasn’t changed its negative rant, its negative questioning. Instead of celebrating what this team of 5 million has achieved with the COVID pandemic, instead of celebrating the leadership that our Prime Minister and this Government has shown, it keeps harping on and being negative—undermining the confidence this country has in our recovery. That is typical, because how did National respond to the global financial crisis? It slashed investment. In conservation, it slashed funding. It cut hundreds of jobs. How is this Government responding? With a nature-based recovery—investing in nature; investing so that $1.1 billion can provide 11,000 jobs over the next three to four years. We have an investment in our environment because we recognise that our people won’t survive, our people won’t be healthy, unless we have healthy nature.

I was very proud to stand alongside fisheries Minister Stuart Nash today and announce new measures to protect Hector’s and Māui dolphin—unlike National. When they were in Government, you had a Clayton’s sanctuary. You had Simon Bridges opening up the West Coast North Island Marine Mammal Sanctuary to oil and gas exploration and seismic surveying.

In this Government, we are doubling the area of our marine mammal sanctuaries, extending the west coast North Island sanctuary up to Northland, down to Wellington; the Bank’s Peninsula sanctuary south to Timaru, up to Kaikōura. We are putting in place over 1,300 square kilometres extra of exclusions from set-netting, both recreational and commercial, to better protect this taonga species—to better protect the Māui dolphin, which are down to the last 63 adult dolphins. We are proposing to ban seismic surveying and seabed mining within these sanctuaries so that they are real protection for these dolphins—not like National.

It stood by even when the International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee, Dr Jane Goodall, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature called for greater protection for dolphins. National ignored that. It has taken a Labour - Green - New Zealand First Government to respond to the 15,000 submissions from New Zealanders and the 78,000 people who signed a petition to put in place real measures to protect the dolphins. I pay tribute to all of the school children around Aotearoa who have written in and said that they support better protection for dolphins.

So it’s this Government that is delivering that, in the same way that our response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been to ensure that we eliminate the virus in New Zealand, that we work really hard on that, and that we take measures to ensure that businesses across Aotearoa are supported through the $11 billion that has gone into the wage subsidy, through the major investment that we’re seeing though the Ministry for the Environment, the Department of Conservation, Land Information New Zealand, and the Ministry for Primary Industries in projects like wilding conifer control. This Government is serious about controlling pests and weeds: $100 million is being invested through Budget 2020 and the COVID recovery package to provide people with jobs, to ensure that people who are guiding in Franz Josef—whose jobs have gone, through no fault of their own, through the redundancies that have been associated with the closure of our borders to protect our country and the drop-off in tourism—can work. They’ve moved from Franz to Springfield, Arthur’s Pass and are working now on protecting the landscapes, protecting our tussock grasslands. It is a sign of this Government’s commitment to investing in people, investing in Papatūānuku, so that we have a healthy future.

National should look out, in terms of 19 September. The Hon Nikki Kaye can give a rant in this House. Chlöe Swarbrick is going to give her a run for her money in Central Auckland. She looks forward to ensuring that all those voters in Central Auckland can vote for a member who will represent them to advance people and planet—to ensure that the Greens are a heart of the next Government, continuing to strengthen the protection for our native species and continuing to respond to New Zealanders who want us to care for species like Hector’s and Māui dolphin. This Government is going to be re-elected in September and come back with stronger measures to invest in the environment, to invest in people and planet.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Do you know, the member who’s resumed her seat, Eugenie Sage—she and her party are always consistent. They’re consistently getting done over by New Zealand First, day in, day out, and I see the member from New Zealand First having a quiet smile, enjoying that one, and it’s absolutely true. Light rail, cameras on fishing boats, waka-jumping legislation, commercial leases, the Kermadecs—and Ihumātao is the latest thing I heard. I’ve heard there was a big fight last night about it and an early election was threatened.

💬 Hon Tim Macindoe: Three strikes.

Oh, yes, and three strikes too. But they did the right thing, in that case, New Zealand First, and they supported us on that one.

Out in the electorates, people who are our constituents are wondering why it is that the Government has been so good at putting out press releases and so bad at actually delivering on those. We’ve seen today in the House that the Hon Phil Twyford yet again has a press release in his name, announcing infrastructure projects, but unfortunately, apparently, he’s not responsible for those projects being delivered—or even announced. Come the end of September, what we’re going to be left with, when we take over in Government, is a whole lot of press releases from the previous Government and nothing much else. We’ve got transport, we’ve got light rail, we’ve got roads that have been stopped, roads that have been started again, and then stopped again. We’ve had the East-West Link stopped in Auckland. We’ve had Mill Road stopped, now starting again. We’ve got safety and security around the border. What we know is that, despite the fact that hardly anyone’s coming in across the border, we still can’t keep track of them—or at least the Government can’t.

We have a Prime Minister who loves to talk about kindness, and on our side of the House, we’d actually just like to see some competency. We’d like to see a competent Prime Minister, not one who wants to be kind all the time and talk about “Let’s just be kind.”—being kind and letting people leave their quarantine or managed isolation without being tested for COVID-19, or being tested and not having the results back as they’re put on a road trip to Wellington. We have a Prime Minister who’s OK with people not performing on these very crucial tasks of keeping our border safe, of keeping New Zealanders safe. We have a Prime Minister who is very good at talking about what she’s doing but very bad at getting the jobs for people that they need, and the best way of keeping jobs for people is not just a wage subsidy—which is a good thing but it’s not enough—but actually creating an environment where businesses can survive, businesses can stay in work, not just setting up new businesses but keeping the businesses we have already.

And what I’m hearing in the community is a tremendous amount of anger. People feel that they have not been told the truth about what was happening in those quarantine facilities. They feel that they have not been told that was actually happening to people who have COVID-19 or who could have it coming into New Zealand. People heard about the Prime Minister wanting to have a little dance about this wonderful COVID-19 situation in New Zealand. Well, I don’t see her dancing now. I don’t see her dancing now, and I don’t see the Minister of Health in charge of an issue that he was in charge of. Instead, what I see are 17 empty chairs in Cabinet—17 empty chairs of people who are incapable of doing their jobs, whether it is in immigration or whether it is in health. We’ve got a health Minister ranked No. 20 in Cabinet. That tells the health ministry staff that their Minister is the least influential member of that Cabinet. That tells them they don’t have a Minister. They’ve got someone in the job who is simply keeping the seat warm for Michael Woodhouse when he takes over. That’s what we’ve got at the moment.

People are angry that their Government has been very keen to talk up what they’re going to deliver and then deliver actually nothing. Where are the roads? Where’s the light rail? Where have the jobs gone? Where is the commitment to New Zealanders that we were told was coming? What we’ve seen is a commitment to photo opportunities, a commitment to press releases, and a commitment to nobody—other than staying in power.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. One of the unusual experiences of alert level 4—the lockdown, as we all called it—was queueing up outside the supermarket. I imagine most members of the House would have had to have done it over some point in time, being sent out to do the grocery shopping, bring supplies home, and it was actually—whilst it was an unusual experience—a very good opportunity to catch up with constituents and see what was on their minds. Almost every single time I queued up outside the supermarket, people would just want to say “Thank you”, they’d want to say “Please tell Jacinda how much we appreciate how hard the Government is working to protect us, to save lives, and to make sure that New Zealand gets through this.” What I suppose I’ve found a little bit surprising is that that’s exactly the same sentiment that’s out there right now. You go to the supermarket now and I’m having exactly the same conversations with people—they just want to say how much they appreciate the work that’s being done.

I think every one of us, especially Ministers in the Government, would really appreciate that sentiment, knowing the long hours, the hard work—the effort that’s being put in by public sector officials to produce all the policy papers, to help us make the difficult decisions to get New Zealand through this—is appreciated. But what I always say to every single one of those people who want to express that thanks and gratitude to the Government is that we need to thank the people of New Zealand, the team of 5 million who came together and, through our collective action, have supressed COVID-19 here in New Zealand.

It is easy to forget, given the privileged position that we have all created for ourselves—that everybody working together has created—that when you look around the rest of the world we are seeing 100,000 new cases of COVID-19 every single day; every single day, 100,000 new cases, and people, tragically, are continuing to die with the virus all around the world. It’s no wonder that the number of people wanting to return to New Zealand, or to just come here for the first time, continues to increase. We have to manage and support and facilitate people being able to come to New Zealand, because they see us as a safe, progressive nation where they have the opportunity to thrive—because of the work that the team of 5 million have done.

What they tell me they don’t want to see is a rush to open the borders. They don’t want a bubble with China. They can certainly see the advantages of a bubble with Australia, but only if we get there carefully and cautiously. They certainly don’t want to see universities running quarantine facilities for students—because what people want above everything else is for us to be able to maintain that privileged position, we can move freely around the country, we can socialise with our friends and our family, where our economy is getting moving again and we’re actually creating new jobs.

I had a marvellous opportunity, just on Friday, to go and visit an employer in Palmerston North, my constituency, where they are working with the Ministry of Social Development to employ people who have recently lost their jobs because of COVID-19. I got the opportunity to speak to two people, in particular, who had been in long-term employment and had lost their jobs because of the lockdown—because of the impact of this global pandemic that we are facing. They had to go to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD)—Work and Income—for the first time. And they were not people who were used to having to go to a Government agency and ask for support. And, frankly, they both said that they were nervous about having to do that. But then, they also said how wonderful the staff at MSD were, how supportive and thoughtful they were, and how quick they were to help them redeploy into new work that was available and fitted the skills, and experience, and attributes that they had. I got to go and see them whilst they were in induction in their first week at a new job, still in their hometown of Palmerston North.

That’s the kind of work that people expect from the Government, and that’s what we are delivering—whether it be through support for apprentices; not only providing the apprenticeship for free but also subsidising the employer to take on that apprentice and to pay them as an employee in that role the opportunity to create skills for the future, and that’s what this Government is dedicated to doing. We’ve got through the initial health crisis. Now we have to make sure that people are able to thrive with an economic recovery.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. What a difference a week makes. It was only this time last week when I revealed that the story of the two women who travelled non-stop from Auckland to Wellington may not have been all that we had been told. The Minister was in denial and the ministry denied it, and then several hours later, on the evening of last Wednesday, came the admission: it was true. And even then they spun it. Even then, they were going, “Oh, yes, there was contact, but the contact was brief. It wasn’t a cuddle; it was just an arm around the shoulder.”—I’m not quite sure what the difference is. Then they started throwing people under a bus, and the first person they threw under the bus was the member for Hutt South, my good friend Chris Bishop, when the Hon Chris Hipkins scurrilously accused and inferred—or implied; I’m sure the Speaker will—

💬 SPEAKER: He implied; you inferred.

He implied—I inferred—that he had something to do with the fact that these two were released from isolation without a test. That is an outrageous slur on Mr Bishop’s character. Eugenie Sage says to this House that the Opposition have been playing dirty pool. Mr Hipkins should shake his head in shame. That was a terrible accusation.

But he was only the first of many that had been thrown under the bus.

💬 Hon Chris Hipkins: Tell us about the homeless person.

The member—I will get to that, Mr Hipkins, don’t worry—for Palmerston North speaks so effusively of the officials, only it’s those officials, who have worked so hard in difficult circumstances because this Government hasn’t given them the appropriate rules of engagement at managed isolation facilities, that went under the bus as well—it wasn’t the Minister’s fault. I’m not even sure which Minister Winston Peters was talking about last Thursday. The Minister of Health, the Minister of Housing, the Prime Minister—doesn’t matter. It wasn’t their fault; it was the officials’ fault. It was the staff’s fault. It was the security’s fault. It was the hotel staff’s fault. That is an unacceptable slur on the effort that not only the team of 5 million have put in but their public sector staff have as well.

The big question is: what’s been happening to testing? The media asked the director-general how many people let out of self-isolation between 8 June and 16 June did not have a test—he couldn’t say. The following day: couldn’t say. Nobody could say, and this afternoon the Prime Minister now tells us that of the 2,200 people who were let out of isolation, nearly a thousand of them had no test—none whatsoever. Nearly a thousand, by my maths, and that’s not the worst of it, because of the 55 people who were let out early—the people who were probably most at risk—51 of them didn’t have a test. How do we know that right now? Not because they had any great data-matching service—they had to get Healthline to pick up the phone and call them and say, “Here, it’s Healthline. Did you have a test?”, because they have no knowledge of what testing has been going on.

Now, managed isolation started on, I think, 8 April, and so any positive tests from people in quarantine and managed isolation would’ve been caught up in the case numbers that were announced daily until we got to zero in the third week of May. So what we have is people in isolation being tested, testing positive. From the third week of May to 16 June, nobody tested positive in managed isolation, and then in the last seven days, 12 positive cases, and the public, the team of 5 million, are saying that is completely implausible. That’s why Professor Des Gorman, who is another loyal public servant under the bus today, said the likelihood of community transmission is much higher as a consequence of that failure.

Now, the director-general talked about COVID definitely coming up like weeds on the lawn. What he would not have in his wildest dreams imagined was that the Government was going to throw those weed seeds on the lawn themselves, by their inactions. So we had the Auckland to Wellington incident, we had the Wiri Prison woman who was released after a test was made but before it was confirmed as positive—and by that time, she had got to Palmerston North—and we had an anecdote of a homeless person. And do you know what? Rather than go and find out how many tests were done, this Government spends an inordinate amount of time checking CCTV—

💬 Hon Louise Upston: Witch hunt.

—1,706 records, on a witch hunt; that’s right, Ms Upston. They’re running down rabbit holes before they’re actually doing the right thing, which is keeping New Zealanders safe. It’s scandalous.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’m proud of our country. I’m proud that our team of 5 million banded together. We rallied and we broke the chain of community transmission. We all made those sacrifices, living through the different restriction levels, and we stopped the virus.

I’m proud of our country and I’m proud of our coalition Government. I’m proud of the actions that we have taken, and I’m especially proud of our Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern, with her world-leading leadership that has guided our country through this one-in-100-year global pandemic that is causing havoc right around the globe. I’m proud of the actions that we have taken as a Government to ensure that our people are safe.

Now, the other side, the venom and the vitriol that they’re flinging about—it’s so negative and it’s so desperate. Desperate to try and—I don’t know. They’re trying to fling whatever they can to try and discredit the work that we’ve been doing, but they’re disrespecting the people of Aotearoa—the team of 5 million—that have worked so hard and that have been all committed to ensuring that we beat this virus.

So I want to acknowledge all the people around New Zealand and thank them and acknowledge the sacrifice and the commitment that they’ve all had, as we have been in this united team. I’m proud to be part of that team.

I’m also proud to be a member of this Government with outstanding Ministers. I want to speak as the member for Te Tai Tonga, the largest electorate in Aotearoa—the whole of the South Island, all of Wellington, and many other islands that are flung far and wide—and say that I have been across my electorate and I have heard the acknowledgment and the kudos that we are getting as a Government and the appreciation from the many whānau out there for what we have achieved, not only in terms of the public health response in dealing with COVID but also our response in Budget 2020 in ensuring that we have that springboard for growth.

We have cushioned the blow that has hit our businesses, particularly in affected sectors like tourism and hospitality. Over $11 billion has been paid out in wage subsidies to protect those jobs and to protect those businesses and to ensure that they have those resources in place. We’ve coupled that with our Budget to ensure that not only do we have those supports; we have other small-business measures, and, most importantly, as we are transitioning now, we are wanting to do more emphasis on training, on skills, and on apprenticeships. I’m looking forward to seeing the roll-out of what we have heard today in terms of redeployment of those Kiwis that may have lost their jobs into the much-needed jobs that are required in the dairy sector, right across the rural communities of New Zealand—plenty of jobs going there.

In fact, while the Opposition tries to talk down everything to do with our country, the good news is that our primary sector exports, which are the backbone of our economy, compared to last year, are up—we’re up. In the face of all of this COVID that we have been dealing with, primary sector exports are up across the board by 4 percent. I’m sure Mr McAnulty is very pleased with that, and I acknowledge the great people of the Wairarapa—those real heartland people.

So whilst our Opposition might be all venomous and nasty, the good people of New Zealand are going about their business. Our farmers, our horticulturalists, and our people working right across our service industries, they’re going to work, they’re working hard, and they’re making sure that they’re selling our great products, goods, and services and earning foreign exchange, which is powering our economy. But we know there’s further work to be done, and that’s why our Minister of Finance, the Hon Grant Robertson, and our wider team are ensuring that we have the supports there and that we will be able to cushion the blow and smoothen the road for the many businesses that are affected.

A case in point is the tourism industry. I’m very proud of the support that the Hon Kelvin Davis has given to our iconic Whale Watch Kaikōura business. That business, which actually was started by my uncles and relations of mine, transformed that small town into a global tourism destination, and not one job has been lost at Whale Watch Kaikōura in the face of COVID. Thanks to the support of our wage subsidies and our tourism recovery package, not one job has been lost. There is joy and absolute elation right across that community that they will be reopening their doors come 4 July, and that’s what will be seeing right across our country.

Thank you, sir. I’m proud of our Government and our country.

Mr Speaker, thank you very much. Well, today, the country learnt what we in the National Party have known for weeks and what has been an open secret around this Parliament: light rail is dead. This is an utter humiliation for Phil Twyford and the Government. Let’s be very clear about the significance of this. In 2017, in her first act as Labour Party leader, the putative Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, “We will build light rail to the airport and we will build it from the Auckland CBD to Mount Roskill by 2021.” We’re now in mid-June 2020, 80-odd days out from the election, and where are we? Absolutely nowhere.

In fact, you can mount a plausible argument that light rail has actually gone backwards from where it was in 2017 when the Government changed. This is KiwiBuild 2.0. This is a failure, it is a broken promise, and Government members over the next few days and in the lead-up to the election are going to have to reflect on what they say on the campaign trail about light rail and why it has failed. And they are going to have to explain to Aucklanders why Aucklanders have paid an extra 10c a litre in fuel tax and why the whole country has paid an extra 12c or more a litre in fuel tax to fund a project that doesn’t exist, that in fact has gone absolutely backwards in the last three years.

Let’s also be very clear about whose responsibility this is. It is not the fault of New Zealand First. It is not the fault of the Green Party. It is the responsibility of Phil Twyford as the Minister of Transport. No one forced the Government to take the existing Auckland transport proposal off them and give it to the New Zealand Transport Agency. That was one of the first things they did—February 2018. No one forced them to do that; that was their decision. No one forced the Government to take the proposal from the New Zealand Transport Agency and then put it into this weird twin-track process against the quixotic unsolicited bid from what’s called NZ Infra, which is the Canadian pension fund, and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. No one forced them to do that. No one forced them to be bedazzled by the six PowerPoint slides that got presented and that attracted so much apparent love and adoration from the Government. No one forced them to do that. This is on the Government. The train wreck of the last three years is the responsibility of the Government.

Right from the start, there’s been a lack of clarity about the objectives. What is the purpose of Auckland light rail? Where does it go? Right from the start there has been an uncertainty about what exactly the Government has been trying to achieve. We know that even as late as nine months ago, officials were saying to Ministers, “You actually need to be clear about what you’re trying to achieve.” Just an extraordinary situation.

Questions have abounded the whole way through. What’s the cost? How much is it? Two billion dollars is in the Auckland transport alignment programme, but the latest estimate that’s been made public by the Deputy Prime Minister is that it’s somewhere between $6 billion and $8 billion. There’s no idea about the route. Does it go to the airport or does it not? How many stops are there? Is it a mass transit system in which there are lots of stops along the road or is a rapid one in which there are very few? What even is the rail? Is it heavy rail or is it light rail or is it a combination of the two? Does it go underground? Does it go over ground? We don’t know.

It’s just extraordinary that almost three years into this Government’s time in office, we don’t have any clarity around those questions. Let’s remember, Aucklanders have paid for this. They’re paying for it right now. Every time they top up at the pump, every time they put more petrol into their car, they’re paying extra for a rapid transit system and for a light rail system that they’re not going to get and that the Government says they’re going to take to the election.

Phil Twyford said in October 2017, “If we can do it faster, we will.” If we can do it faster, we will! Well, if this is fast, I’d like to know what slow means. It’s just extraordinary. This is the new KiwiBuild. This is a totemic, emblematic policy for the Government. This is something they campaigned on as their first election promise. And it will be consigned to the history books and emblematic of this Government’s utter ineptitude and total failure to deliver on their promises and in particular, their transport commitments to this country. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

This is my first opportunity to speak in a general debate this year, and can I say I’m immensely proud to be able to speak in this debate on the other side of the COVID-19 health crisis that we have seen the country guided through under the strong, decisive leadership of our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern. I want to also acknowledge the team of 5 million New Zealanders who all made sacrifices in one way or another, who banded together and knuckled down, hunkered down in their homes in isolation to help fight COVID-19. And we have been successful in that, if not the most successful country in the world to date. I want to push back on some of the comments that the Hon Nikki, um—

💬 Hon Chris Hipkins: Kaye.

—Kaye said. She talked about the fact that this Government has failed in terms of COVID. She said isolation and quarantine has been an epic failure. I’m not quite sure she understands what an epic failure is. I’m sorry, but when we can have our businesses reopening, our schools reopening, we can socialise more with our families and our friends, when we’ve got the economy back up and running, that is not an epic failure. An epic failure is sewage in our hospital walls. An epic failure is children living and having to do their homework from a car. An epic failure is people living under a bridge. An epic failure is selling off our State houses when our most vulnerable people need them. So we have been hugely successful. This country of ours, we went hard and we went early and we are seeing the fruits of that and the fruits of the sacrifices that every New Zealander has made in one way or another.

We must remember, as the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern and the Hon Chris Hipkins have mentioned, there is no playbook for this. We have not seen anything the likes of this before. What is most important is, whilst there are bound to be things that crop up from time to time, because there is no playbook—[Interruption] Jacqui Dean, there is no playbook, there is no rulebook, and we are going to see things crop up from time to time. And what is most important about that is how we react to those things that crop up from time to time. We have seen decisive and swift action from this Government to deal with the issues that have cropped up in the last few days.

What we know is that this COVID-19 disease is getting worse overseas, and we are bound to see more cases at our border as Kiwis come home. And why wouldn’t they want to come home? New Zealand is the envy of the world in the face of this disease, absolutely. In fact, I do recall seeing an article recently from—I can’t think where I saw it. I read it online, that we had actors here in New Zealand; I think Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst. They said that they felt very lucky to be in Aotearoa during the COVID-19 pandemic. So we are absolutely the envy of the world.

I just wanted to make mention also of the wage subsidy. That has been a lifesaver. We’ve had members opposite saying, “Oh, you know, the wage subsidy is for the employees, not the employers, not the business owners.” Well, actually, that has allowed the business owners to continue to keep people employed so when we got to the position to be able to get our businesses back open, they were able to have their staff come through those doors and carry on business as usual. There is no point in giving somebody $5,000 when they come to a job and then $5,000 when they stay on a bit longer if there are no jobs left. So by giving the wage subsidy to employers, we have ensured that there are still jobs available for those employees when we were able to come back to work from this crisis. So I commend the Government on its response.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s always a joy to follow a contribution by that member who has just resumed her seat, Jo Luxton, and her impassioned defence of the wage subsidy. Yes, we too did embrace the wage subsidy, but where we part company from that member and that Government is that we confirm our very strong belief that the wage subsidy certainly has allowed employees to stay in their jobs but it has done very little to support businesses. I invite that member to go down to Wānaka, to go down to Queenstown, to go up to Tekapō—go up there and talk to some of the businesses, particularly in hospitality and accommodation, and ask them how they feel about this Government’s support for business. Ask them how they feel about how this Government has responded to their needs post-COVID crisis.

You know, earlier on in this general debate, when the Hon Eugenie Sage got to her feet—the Minister of Conservation—I thought, great. Here is the time where a Minister of some integrity gets to her feet and addresses the burning issue of the day within her portfolio post-COVID. That burning issue has got to be support for concessionaires who undertake their business and their recreation and their commercial activities on the Department of Conservation (DOC) estate with a concession. Did we hear a single word from that Minister about support for business, about support for concessionaires, or about people at all? Not one comment came from that Minister.

💬 Hon Member: Zero.

Yes, my colleague so very finely puts it: zero. Nothing from that Minister about people. I thought it was the people. I thought this was the Government of kindness and transparency. It’s not, because here we have a Green Minister of the Crown getting to her feet and talking about the very worthy issues of species protection and management. Yes, we all agree with that, Minister. But what about the people?

Well, I can tell you this Minister’s track record with the people. On 24 April of this year, the Minister said that there would be financial relief on the way for recreation and tourism businesses operating on public conservation land. What a welcome message that was. Eugenie Sage: “This is a difficult time for all businesses, and, in particular, for tourism businesses.” She went on to say, “I have asked DOC to explore what support can be provided to concessionaires. Officials are assessing a range of potential options, including refunds for concession fees which have been paid in advance, extension to payment terms,”—and so on. Well, what a breath of fresh air coming from this Minister at a time of great need to those people who are doing their business on Department of Conservation land.

Imagine my surprise when, in an answer to a question which I received on 23 June, eight weeks later, the Minister was forced to acknowledge that no concession fees have been waived to date. How is that caring for the people who operate on the DOC estate? How is that caring for the businesses who operate on the DOC estate? I have asked. She says in her answer to my question, the Department of Conservation to explore waiving concession charges for tourism related businesses operating on public conservation land affected by COVID-19—two months later. She’s asking two months later? This Minister has made the usual—the usual—Labour - Greens - New Zealand First Government trick of announcing much and delivering nothing. Furthermore, and the most egregious part of this Minister’s behaviour, is that in a further question, answered on 23 June, eight weeks later, she concedes: “Any instances of financial hardship are considered on a case by case basis.”—well, in this case, none. No businesses have received any financial relief. “Concessionaires can request up to 90 days extension. After this, the department may consider writing off the debt, particularly if the concessionaire is insolvent or no longer operating their business concessions.” Big deal—big fail, this Government.

Kia ora e Te Mana Whakawā. It’s an absolute privilege to be the 12th speaker in today’s general debate. My speech today is going to be full of gratefulness and full of thankfulness. But I want to ask one question: how did we get here? How did we get here that our team of 5 million is COVID-free? How did we get here that COVID-19 is only coming through our borders? How did we get here? I tell you this: the answer relies on leadership. When we’re talking about a Government that is compassionate and that is caring, well, the details of what demonstrates that is what the people receive.

I want to thank the leadership of our Prime Minister and of our Director-General of Health—that we are world leading, where it’s normal to go alert levels 1, 2, 3, and 4. Where did you get that from? I’ll tell you what: the people were at the centre of this health response. It was at the centre of this health response that we needed to go hard and we needed to go early. Levels 1, 2, 3, and 4, that’s so common now, but that came from somewhere. It derived from a place of caring.

In a time where to be informed can save lives, our communities needed to rise up and to recover. This year’s Budget provides our team of 5 million, our community, with opportunities; an opportunity to provide; an opportunity to care; an opportunity to empower our own; an opportunity to recover; and an opportunity to rebuild.

I heard the member for Papakura, the Hon Judith Collins, really giving up—defeat. It was her defeat that she was already commenting on what the next Cabinet would look like—what a Labour Cabinet would like. That is an indication of defeat already. What that side is already starting to say is, “We’ll lose” and they’re starting to say what the next Labour Government is going to look like. That was an indication of defeat. Not once did I hear the voices of the community.

I want to acknowledge that the wage subsidy is so important. To walk the mean streets, the caring streets, of Papakura, I want to acknowledge Alvin, the owner of Aoyama Sushi in Papakura. I like to dine out, supporting our local businesses. I asked him “What do you think of the wage subsidy, did that help?” Arms up, he jumped up and he said, “Tell Jacinda that I said thank you. It saved us.” That itself is a business. I think the member, who just sat down, Jacqui Dean, spoke about what we don’t do for business. Alvin said, “The wage subsidy saved us. The loan to small and medium enterprises saved us. Tell the Prime Minister thank you.” I also spoke to Bun at Satay Noodle House in Papakura, and I asked him about the wage subsidy. He said, “Thank you. Thank you to the Prime Minister. That helped us.” So these are the voices of businesses. When we are talking about businesses, please, the other side of the House, include small to medium enterprises, because they are the people who will make up the majority of what we call businesses in Aotearoa New Zealand.

I did say before that the time of information is important and saved lives in these times. I also want to thank the Hon Phil Twyford, because, in Papakura—nobody actually talked about what’s happening—we’re at full steam ahead with the Papakura to Drury State Highway 1 upgrading. Nobody said thank you. Thank you for that, Phil Twyford. We are full steam ahead with the Papakura to Pukekohe electrification of rail—nobody said that.

I’d like to end this by acknowledging the many thanks from the principal of Papakura High School, John Rohs, and also the principal of Ramarama School, Tania Campbell. The funding that they received for the school infrastructure improvement—there were things that they wanted to do but they couldn’t do, so they asked me to convey their thanks to the Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, for that, because with that they are able to provide a covered outdoor assembly area at Ramarama School and a covered walkway for the students in this time of winter; next year, they’ll be warm and dry. Thank you.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.