General Debate

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

Well, the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, has today been asked by the media in Australia about a travel bubble with New Zealand, because Australia now has fewer cases of COVID-19 than New Zealand. This is what he said, and I’m going to say this verbatim: “Well, that’s a matter for the New Zealand Government. … If the New Zealand Government doesn’t wish Australians to visit New Zealand and spend money in Queenstown … that’s a matter for them. … I’m happy for them to open it up as soon as the Prime Minister would like to do that. … Australia is open to New Zealand and has been for some time … That is benefiting our economy. … But if Australians can’t go to Queenstown, I’m hoping they’ll go to Cairns.”

So we’ve heard today from the Prime Minister of New Zealand that it’s just not safe to do this; it is very dangerous to do this—it is outrageously dangerous! And yet seven out of eight states in Australia have not had a community case in over 37 days—37 days. Let’s just run through some of these. So we all know that Victoria had its issues, 12 days since they last had a case; 37 for Western Australia; 52 for New South Wales; Queensland, 54; 76 for South Australia; Tasmania, 211; 221 in the Northern Territory; 243 in the Australian Capital Territory; and how many in New Zealand? Eleven—11 days. We’re the worst performing against the Australian states, of any of them, and this Government says we’re not allowed to have the Australians here.

Why would we want the Australians here? Well, it’s this thing called tourism. And I know that Stuart Nash doesn’t care about tourism. He’s been up to tourist operators. He’s told them they just have to pivot. Well, pivot where? They’re not going to be able to “pivot” in Franz Josef Glacier, they’re not going to be able to pivot on the West Coast, and they’re not going to pivot in Queenstown. Where’s this pivoting going? It is now no less safe for people to come from Sydney to Queenstown than it is for us Aucklanders to go to Queenstown, and this Government won’t accept it.

And how much money do these pesky Australians spend on tourism? They spend $60 billion—$60 billion. That’s almost as much as the debt that this Government’s already racked up. It’s $60 billion. And how much is the New Zealand tourism industry worth? Well, not much at the moment. What was it before COVID-19? It was $17 billion—just $17 billion. Imagine if we could get some of that $60 billion to New Zealand, keep Queenstown going, keep the West Coast going, keep Franz Josef going, keep these people in work; isn’t that what we need—isn’t that what we need? We hear from the West Coast that 80 percent of businesses are closing. That’s what they’re looking at.

And Stuart Nash, who loves to have a big swag around the place, telling people what he’s going to do—what’s he actually done? He’s told them to go and pivot. Well, pivot yourself, Stuart Nash. Think about the fact there are people who are trying to actually get this job. Just pivot; pivot and get out.

💬 Hon Members: Ha, ha!

We hear from tourist operators all over the country that they are actually closing their businesses, and the Labour Party might laugh, because we all know they don’t like businesses, but actually how about thinking about their staff? How about thinking of the fact that these people are losing jobs? How about that? And with those jobs, often their homes.

We’ve already got a Minister of Housing who is starting to make Phil Twyford look like a genius, absolute genius, and that is clearly not the answer. She likes doing videos, but she can’t get a progressive home scheme through. This party, this Opposition, will hold the Government to account on this. Open the borders, let people in, because sure as hell we’re losing them to Australia. We’re losing them, and this Government has no answers for being able to grow the economy. All they’re relying on these days, and I love the irony of it, are the farmers—the farmers! The only people that this country can rely on to bring in the export dollars, and this Government does everything it can to bash them around. Thank goodness for the farmers, because the tourist industry needs a new Minister.

There is the speech that launched Chris Luxon’s leadership campaign—right there, ladies and gentlemen. I ask members to picture the scene: National list MP Chris Bishop wakes up in his Hutt Valley compound. He’s fully clothed, surrounded by empty curry containers and handwritten affirmation notes: “You are a good person, Chris Bishop”, “My colleagues value my knowledge, even if they don’t say so.” He opens up the curtains; the sun is shining. “Exactly as I predicted last week,” Chris Bishop says. “Now, I’m not saying God doesn’t have any original ideas, but that was my idea first.” He looks at the clock as it ticks from 6.59 to 7 a.m. “Only yesterday I was saying 7 a.m. would follow from 6.59, and here it is happening today.” At this point, I do want to interrupt the story to thank Julie Anne Genter for introducing me to the word “epiphenomenalism”. This is a word that, essentially, is based on the kind of metaphor that the foam of the ocean thinks it’s responsible for the movement of the waves. Chris Bishop—epiphenomenalist.

Now, returning to our story, Chris Bishop starts scrolling through his text messages as he wakes up: Nicola W, Nicola W, Nicola W, Des Gorman, Nicola W. He opens the latest message from Nicola Willis: “Fancy a plot—I mean coffee?” Chris Bishop thinks, “Just yesterday I thought ‘Fancy a plot—I mean coffee with Nicola Willis.’ ” He then looks at the next text message: Peter Goodfellow, National Party President—something fishy here. The message reads, “Talofa, Chris. You’re invited to a select viewing of the National Party’s election review, working title ‘Nightmare on Ponsonby Road’. It’s R rated, so please don’t bring Simeon Brown. Fair warning, Chris: you feature quite a bit, staring into the abyss, quietly wondering where your future has gone. Kind regards, Peter. PS: Do you think ‘Night of the Electoral Dead’ is a better title?”

I’ve actually been given the warning label for the review, which is on top of the sole copy available for reading in the National Party’s caucus room, and it reads this way: “Viewers may find some content offensive or accurate. Contains images of political death spiral, disunity, leaks, awkward walkabouts, $4 billion holes, multiple leaders, policy on the hoof, policy flip-flops, calls for open borders, calls for closed borders, relentless negativity, Denise Lee being hung out to dry, and a 25 percent result.” Nothing says alternative Government like disunity, leaks, and poor behaviour, and that is apparently what the National Party review document said.

Although who would know? Because the most open and transparent Opposition in New Zealand’s political history won’t even let their MPs have a copy. Now, Judith Collins said today, “I think the fact that MPs are allowed to read it is a great concession.” That’s what the Opposition of New Zealand is currently telling the public. Judith Collins this morning said that the report included both honest mistakes and deliberate mistakes. So the question we have on this side of the House is: who made the honest mistakes and who made the deliberate mistakes? I think you’ll find it’s those who get to read it are the people Judith Collins views as making honest mistakes, and those who made the deliberate ones don’t. It’s a high-trust environment over in the National Party right now—desperate, divided, and disunified.

On this side of the House, you’ve got a united, focused, and compassionate Government. On this side of the House, we’re focused on the issue of keeping New Zealanders safe from COVID. This week, we made the announcement that all New Zealanders would get the Pfizer vaccine—every New Zealander—for free. That is the leadership that this Government can provide. We are also focused on growing the economy, making sure that we lift not just our primary sector but our manufacturing sector; that we invest in the economy of the future. Mr Bayly likes to laugh at the idea that we actually might have 100 percent renewable electricity in this country sometime soon. That’s the 21st century, Mr Bayly. That’s what growing an economy is about. But it’s also a compassionate Government, and I want to thank all members on this side of the House for their role in supporting initiatives like food in schools, like making sure period products are provided. This is a Government that includes everybody.

I remember a time when this Government used to talk about mental health. Question No. 1 to the Prime Minister today: what actions and policies does she stand beside? Not one mention of mental health. And do you know what is cynical about a Government? It’s when they sit on a report for months—a progress report that was critical of their mental health presentation. And do you know when they released it? On Friday. The day of the tsunami warnings and the level 3 lockdown announcements—the progress report of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission that was set up to scrutinise this Government. And let’s not forget, this Government, they rode into power in 2017 on the back of many people’s pain, on mental health, and they promised a lot and they raised expectation, and they’ve failed to deliver.

Even the chair of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, Hayden Wano, said the recently released mental health progress report stated “People in the community and on the frontline are concerned at the lack of a visible plan and worry [Government] investment is ad hoc, too slow, and not targeted in the right areas.” The mental health community was quoted in this report saying, “You announce money, our communities are thankful for money, but money’s still not gone out. And they keep saying to us, ‘Well you’ve got the money’. We’ve got no money.”

So it’s about time this Government owned up that all they’re doing is announcing money; $1.9 billion they announced in Budget 2019—$883 million of that was for Vote Health for mental health services. How much has that Government spent to date? Two hundred million dollars of that. Not only did they fail to deliver, they can’t even spend the money—announcing new services that they can’t deliver. And what we heard today in the select committee with the annual review of the Ministry of Health: skyrocketing waiting lists for child and adolescent mental health services across the country. Here we have underspends of hundreds of millions of dollars while they sit and watch waiting lists for mental health services skyrocket.

There we have a Government that raised expectations and failed to deliver to the people of New Zealand. This Government rode into power on the back of pain and mental health for many New Zealanders—promised big, raised expectations, initiated a $6.5 million inquiry. Thousands of New Zealanders attended those sessions and told their heartfelt stories—38 recommendations. You know how many of them have been implemented?

💬 Hon Scott Simpson: How many?

Five—five. And do you know what those five are? An office, a commission, a strategy, a group, and a working group. That’s the five that have been completed. Where are the new services that you raised expectation for and you promised New Zealanders? The flagship front-line mental health service—$455 million, the roll out—where are we two years later? Thirteen percent of GP practices. The GPs are crying out for this service, but what do we have? Announcements of funding but failure to deliver. Hundreds of millions of dollars are underspent while waiting lists are skyrocketing.

Yet, when they get their first progress report from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission that was criticising their progress, the Minister sits on it for months and, on a day when we had the tsunami warning, a day where Auckland was coming out of level 3 lockdown, they push out that report quietly. Where are the patsies on mental health this week? No; crickets—silence. That’s why their heads are down, because they know they’ve promised a lot and delivered very little in mental health. Shame on them for promising vulnerable New Zealanders, politicising mental health, and now when you look, like the track record, again you’ve failed to deliver.

You know that it’s an Opposition in trouble when we’re seeing the very characteristics that are being displayed on the other side of the House. We know; we’ve been there. And we’ve said many times, we all know the National Party scene—“Let’s all go to the cafe and pretend we’re united.” I remember that very well. So expect to see great swaths of them walking around the building together.

We had the release, or not the release, yesterday of the National Party review into its election campaign. As my colleague the Hon Grant Robertson talked about, we’ve had the fact that there is a PG rated version of this—there needs to be parental guidance for any of its MPs to read it. But this morning, the leader of the National Party, Judith Collins, went even further and turned it into a whodunit when she said that there are MPs who behaved badly and who are still in the caucus. So the question becomes: who are those badly behaved MPs that are still walking the halls of the National Party? One of the other things she did say was “We wouldn’t have the copy sent out, because it’s not written for that.” It’s one of those reports that is written not for reading! I’m not sure what it was written for—just to look at but not for reading? That’s it.

But let’s get back to this whodunit. Who are these badly behaved MPs that consigned the National Party to a shadow of its former self and are sitting on the opposite side? Are they sitting amongst us in this Chamber at this very time? I think that this whodunit calls for a Nancy Drew - type figure to come in to solve this. We need that kind of super-sleuthing, supernatural power that will get to the bottom of this. There are many contenders. Will it be Louise Upston? Will she be the Nancy Drew of the National Party? Will it be Nicola Willis? No. Will it be Nick Smith? Will he be the Nancy Drew? I’ve given this some long and hard thought, and I think there is only one person to be the great mate of the Hardy Boys when it comes to getting to the bottom of who it is who consigned the National Party to the position that it’s in now—and that is the real Leader of the Opposition.

💬 Hon Member: David Seymour.

That’s right—David Seymour. He is the man for the job—to be the Nancy Drew for the National Party. He’s the person who will understand who it is that caused the trouble, caused the rot, on the other side. And while he’s at it, he might like to have a chat to Andrew Bayly about his obsession with shovel-ready stuff. I can’t work out whether it’s because he’s desperately trying to dig himself out of the positon that the National Party finds itself in or that he’s just so accustomed to the holes that National seems to keep digging for themselves. But he does seem awfully obsessed with shovels! Two days in a row he’s come to this House and he’s gone on and on about shovel-ready projects. I think Mr Bayly has a shovel at the ready. But what we do see, all joking aside, is an Opposition that is showing all the signs of being obsessed by the sideshows, obsessed by itself—which, of course, could be a sideshow—and not focusing on the issues that are important to New Zealanders.

What we have on this side of the House is a Government that is united and is focused on the things that matter to New Zealand. It’s focused on keeping COVID at the border, not letting it in, unlike the Opposition, who can’t decide whether they want to open the border, shut the border, open the border, or shut the border and are continuing to play that game. What we have is a Government that is focused on making sure that we are building back our economy, and we are seeing the fruits of that. We’re seeing the ratings agencies upping our credit rating. We’re seeing unemployment not anywhere near the levels that commentators were predicting as we went into lockdown nearly a year ago. We are seeing success, and we’re also seeing a Government that is determined to get on with addressing the big issues that we are facing—issues like child poverty—and we’re seeing that the work we put in in our very first days in office in 2017 is starting to improve the indicators around child poverty.

We are addressing the big issues like how we decarbonise our economy, and, what is more, we are making sure we’re looking out for New Zealanders. We’re not obsessed with ourselves. We’re not obsessed with sideshows. We allow people to read reports and we’re getting on with the job, because this is what New Zealanders need as we come out of one of the worst epidemics that we have seen in our world.

I’d like to draw members’ attention to some upcoming events—there are two of them, really; they’re hot on the calendars of responsible firearm owners. The first one is the roar, which is nearly upon us. As the weather starts to cool between March and May, we have an estimated 190,000 hunters that go into the Ngāhere, looking for those elusive stags. And, second of all, we have coming up: duck-shooting season. On 1 May, just that weekend alone, we have an estimated 100,000 hunters that will go out for opening day. Both are great recreational and outdoor sports. Both are a part of New Zealand’s heritage.

There are great benefits to hunting—the obvious ones, of course, are that we can get lean and fresh meat, good food, and, of course, we have people out there exercising. The elderly are supported because there is an abundance of meat that’s often given to them by other hunters for their freezers. And, of course, there are the mental health benefits of being outdoors, as well as controlling the pests.

But we’ve got a problem this year. New Zealand Police have advised the firearms communities that they have extensive delays in licensing, and those delays are bigger than the individuals themselves had realised. There are 9,800 firearms licence applications and renewals in backlog. The delays are totally out of control. We were told back in December 2020 that the backlog was there and that there was a promise to fix it, but the complaints are still coming in. Police have advised that it is going to take four to six months to process a firearms licence application, when once upon a time it took four weeks. What we are being told now by members of the community who are getting in touch with us is that it is taking well over six months for an application to be processed, and many more are telling us that it has been over 12 months for their applications to be processed.

Police will blame COVID; they’ve also blamed the changes in legislation. Those, of course, were foreseeable problems. The reality is many people missed out on the roar last year. They missed out because we went into COVID lockdown. This year, many more are going to miss out, not because of COVID but because of the incompetency of its administrative agency. Fish & Game will, from tomorrow, start selling game bird licences. And, on 28 March, people can start erecting their maimai and start putting out the pegs and their stands. While some game bird areas are open for months, there are a few that are actually only open for weeks. People have to now decide whether or not they go about purchasing a permit for a day, whether they purchase a permit for a season, whether they go out there and peg their maimai or not, whether they extend an annual invite to friends and to their family.

I mean, simply, there is an unknown remedy to the delays or the concerns. One really would have to question whether this Government is only concerned with protecting the mallards of this country! [Interruption] But wait there’s more—

💬 SPEAKER: It’s all right—it’s all right. It first happened to me in 1983; Mike Minogue did it. I’m used to it.

There are also dealers out there that are trying to bring in components that are needed for these people to be able to go outside and take part in their activities, and they are struggling to get the newly required permits to bring this stuff in. So not only have we got the delay in the licences, we’ve got the delay in the components as well. These delays are totally unacceptable. We’ve got businesses and families being repeatedly affected.

What this boils down to is we’ve got a broken firearms licensing system, and it needs to be fixed. So ACT challenges this Government to fulfil their promise. I quote the Hon Stuart Nash’s release of 16 June 2020, where he says—and I quote—that “[We] agreed to establish an independent entity to take over firearms licensing and administration.” It is needed, and we are still waiting. Thank you.

Mr Speaker, you’ve heard today from Government members who are united and focused on getting on with the job of guiding Aotearoa through an unprecedented time in our history, because this Government has managed the books carefully prior to COVID-19, and, thanks to the efforts of the team of 5 million, our COVID-19 response has cushioned the blow to New Zealand and put us in the strongest position possible to build back. That unity and steadfastness, that has put the Government in a position to offer leadership in what has been one of the most trying times in New Zealand’s history, is exactly what has been exemplified by our communities in Aotearoa during the alert level changes. And, you know, it’s particularly shown in those communities of South Auckland that have been at the heart of the most recent outbreak of COVID-19.

South Auckland is a buffer zone for New Zealand’s border. Its people work at the port, the airport, in managed isolation and quarantine facilities, and in supporting services like laundries and kitchens which make them work. More than 100,000 travellers have come through MIQ in the past year, not to mention other risks managed at our border in that time, and it’s South Aucklanders working hard to make that happen for all of us. Further, I want to congratulate everyone in South Auckland who has stepped up to beat this virus. It’s taken a lot for the team of 5 million who have supported their friends and neighbours and workmates to get through this and keep going. Kia kaha koutou e te whānau o South Auckland.

[Be strong, all the families of South Auckland.]

Just this week, we announced that we’ve secured enough Pfizer vaccines for every New Zealander and laid out details of our vaccine roll-out plan. We’ve also opened New Zealand’s first large-scale vaccination clinic in South Auckland. The clinic will look after contacts of our border workers, and it’s great to see the next step in our strategy to protect all New Zealanders being taken in South Auckland. I’m so proud of our local South Auckland healthcare workers for rising to the challenge of rolling out the largest and most intensive vaccination programme that the healthcare sector has ever embarked on, and particularly for helping us to ensure that whānau are at the centre of the strategy.

So where is this Government taking its cues? It’s from people like the community-spirited leaders in the Pacific community, like David Letele, or Buttabean. He’s been a professional boxer who’s been reaching out to South Auckland communities, specifically the Pacific community, with humorous videos to spread the healthcare messages that we most need those communities to hear. He’s been backing up that work by reaching out to local businesses like the Manukau Pak ’N Save to back his food bank to deliver more than $10,000 worth of assistance to families in need in South Auckland, and I commend that community spirit. It’s from the steadfastness in the commitment to neighbours supporting neighbours of places like that Rawiri Community House in Manurewa, which has empowered local people to reach out to the people who live on their street to support them with face-to-face interactions and the kind of solidarity that comes with recognising where there is need and where cooperation can be lent.

This Government has taken its cues from the Kiwi number eight wire attitude of the Clendon Pride Project, who had 72 families come to them in need in the last lockdown, has reached out to every single one of those families to provide not only the immediate support they needed but also the support they needed to break down some of the toxic stress factors that they are seeing in those whānau. And it’s from the whānau-centred approach of the Manurewa Marae, who are using their local kūmara vine to identify those kaumātua in our communities who are most at risk and the family who supports them, because it’s not just about those kaumātua who need to be vaccinated, it’s about making sure that their whānau can support them and are well and healthy to be able to do that.

I want to mihi to all of those community leaders. From them, this Government has taken our cues of kindness, our cues of community-minded leadership, and the kind of leadership which is needed to get through this health crisis.

We’re always working hard to support New Zealanders who are working and running businesses as well as families and communities, and, of course, there’s more to do, but I want to highlight that our strong response in protecting community jobs and businesses is about accelerating our recovery and putting us on the track to building back better. It’s so important for those communities, especially in South Auckland, and I commend the efforts of those people working on it today.

I call Eugenie Sage.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker.

💬 SPEAKER: The Hon Eugenie Sage—I apologise.

Pardon?

💬 SPEAKER: I dropped the honorific—the Hon Eugenie Sage. We’ll start again.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. So, in just over 45 minutes, the first of the races between Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand’s Te Rehutai starts. I’m not known in this House for following sports, but these magnificent boats I do watch, because these foiling monohulls, they fly, and also because of the commitment of the Team New Zealand team to an improvement in the health of Tīkapa Moana / Te Moananui-ā-Toi—the Hauraki Gulf: the leadership of Blair Tuke and Peter Burling in establishing the Live Ocean foundation to really champion an improvement in marine management, oceans management, not just around Aotearoa but internationally as well.

As a very good programme by TVNZ’s Sunday showed last weekend, while the television screens, when they’re focusing on the boats, show the magnificence of Rangitoto and the sparkling waters of the Waitematā Harbour, underneath the waterline, it’s a very different story. If anyone hasn’t watched “Troubled Waters”, I do encourage you to, because the gulf does look stunning to those international audiences, but now, it supports less than 45 percent of the fish biomass that it did in 2025. Crayfish are functionally extinct. We have lost all of our big snapper. It means that there are expanses of kina barrens, because the snapper that would have eaten the kina, that were big enough to, aren’t there any more.

As successive reports on the state of the gulf from the Hauraki Gulf Forum have shown, there’s been a continuing decline in fish. Trevally numbers are now 86 percent of their historical levels, snapper are 83 percent, and sharks, which are a key, top predator, are 86 percent of their original biomass. We’ve got problems of sediment from subdivision, but we’ve also got historically huge overfishing, both by the commercial sector and the increasing pressure from an increasing population of recreational fishers being able, with things like jet-skis, to access parts of the gulf that they couldn’t before.

We’ve got all of this pressure on the gulf, and yet 0.3 percent of this 1.2 million hectares in Tīkapa Moana is protected in no-take marine reserves. So I was very interested in the response that the Hon Kiritapu Allan gave to Chlöe Swarbrick’s question when the Minister said that the release of the proposals and the Government response to Sea Change would include significant marine protection in the Hauraki Gulf. It needs to be significant. It needs to build on the efforts of community organisations. It needs to build on the efforts of iwi. The rāhui that Ngāti Pāoa are proposing around Waiheke Island going out to 1 nautical mile is closing that area to the takes of tipa, or scallops; kūtai, or mussels; kōura, or crayfish; and pāua. Stocks of those shellfish and of crayfish have declined markedly, and the rāhui by Ngāti Pāoa is an effort to restore the health of the gulf there.

The Government response to Tai Timu Tai Pare, the first marine spatial plan—Sea Change—that was launched in 2016, needs to be comprehensive. It needs to follow that objective of the Hauraki Gulf Forum to protect 30 percent of the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. It needs to overhaul fisheries management so that we see stocks being allowed to restore. It needs to outlaw bottom-contact methods like bottom trawling and like dredging, so that the seabed can recover. The Green Party strongly supports that goal of the Hauraki Gulf Forum and also its ambition to restore 100,000 hectares of shellfish beds so that their filtering capacity can restore the clarity and the clean water in the gulf.

There have been significant efforts by people like the Neureuter family, the Noises Trust, working alongside Ngāti Manuhiri, the Auckland Museum, Ngāti Pāoa, Ngāti Whatua, and others. The abundance that you see on Otata, one of our first predator-free islands—wētāpunga; large numbers of skinks and geckos—and yet underwater, you’ve got the kina barrens.

The proposals that come out in response to Sea Change need to include a protected area around the Noises, around Hauturu—a nature reserve at Little Barrier—to recognise that, on land, we’ve invested so much in restoration, protection, and the elimination of predators that biodiversity flourishes but we need to invest that same commitment in what happens in the marine space underwater. The Sea Change proposals were a start. I really look forward to the response.

I appreciate that most of the eyes of the country won’t be fixed on this House at this point in time, but I do want to acknowledge Team New Zealand and their efforts to bring back the America’s Cup, to keep it here with us—and I want to acknowledge you, sir, as well as the late Rt Hon Mike Moore, the first Minister for the America’s Cup—and who, as noted by my colleague the Hon Eugenie Sage, currently sail out on the waters in front of his place. Can I acknowledge his whānau, because I recall it was around Waitangi week that we lost the Rt Hon Mike Moore, which wasn’t that long ago, and we remember him and his whānau during this time.

These are interesting times. I want to turn now, with your indulgence, to te reo Māori so that this particular message is aimed at the heart of my people. E te Māngai o te Whare, ka tahuri atu ahau ki roto i te reo Māori. Ka tiro atu ahau ki te mate korona kua pā ki a Aotearoa i roto i ngā tau, ki roto i te tau kua pahure ake nei, ki roto i ngā marama 12 kua pahure ake nei.

Mai i te herenga ki te wā kāinga i te tau kua pahure ake nei, kua pakari nei mātou o te Kāwanatanga i ngā mahi a ngā ratonga hapori puta noa i te motu whānui. Ki roto i a au o Tāmaki Makaurau, ko Whānau Ora tēnā. I te rā nei ki roto i te wāhanga uiui i kōrero atu ahau mo te rahi o te pūtea hei tautoko ake i ngā mahi o ngā ratonga Whānau Ora. Ka mutu i whakaritehia e mātou o te Kāwanatanga i ētahi pūtea hei tautoko ake i ngā ratonga hauora Māori i roto i te motu whānui.

Koinā te āhuatanga ki roto i te tau kua pahure ake nei, nā, ka tahuri mai ki tēnei wā tonu. Ko te aronga nui o te ao Māori ana ki te rongoā o tēnei mate arā te mate urutā. I tēnei wā tonu i te rā nei, i kōrerohia mātou, i whāki mātou o te Kāwanatanga i te āhuatanga o te mahi wero rongoā, o te mahi haukoti i te mate urutā ki roto i ngā marama e tū mai nei. Arā ko te rongoā e kōrerotia nei ko te vaccine. I te rā nei i kōrero mai te Minita mō te wāhanga tuatahi, arā te hunga kei te mura o te ahi. Rātou kei te mura o te ahi e mahi ana ki roto i ngā wāhi papa rererangi, i ngā wāhi taunga waka.

Nā i tēnei wā tonu ko te aronga kei te wāhanga tuarua. Ki roto i te wāhanga tuarua e meangia ai e te Minita i te rā nei, ko au anō tētahi e tautoko atu ana i tōna pāpāhotanga, anā ko te aronga nui ko te Tonga o Tāmaki-makau-rau, ko wā tātou kaumātua kuia, ko wā tātou tāngata kua pā wētahi mate hauora ki roto i ngā tau, arā ko te mate hukahuka, arā ko te mate manawa. I tēnei wā tonu e tautoko atu ana mātou o tēnei Kāwanatanga i a tātou ki roto i te wāhanga tuarua. Anā ko ā tātou kaumātua kuia, anā ko te hunga kei te Tonga o Tāmaki-makau-rau, anā ko te hunga kua pā tētahi mate, arā pērā i te mate hukahuka, i te mate manawa. Nō reira ka kapohia e mātou i te tini o tāua te Māori i roto i Tāmaki-makau-rau, kia kaupare ake ai i te mate urutā ki roto i ngā marama me ngā tau kei mua i a tātou.

Ka mutu ko te aronga ki roto i te wāhanga tuatoru, i te hāwhe tuarua o tēnei tau, anā ki te rahi o Aotearoa e tauwhanga mai ana. Nō reira koirā te aronga nui i tēnei wā tonu.

Ka kite atu ahau i roto i te mineti whakamutunga o taku kauhau mō te rā nei—e aro pū atu tēnei kōrero ki te hunga kua rangahau i ā rātou kōrero i runga i te Pukamata, ki runga i ngā taumata kōrero hē kua kitea, arā ko te hunga e meingia ana te iwi Pākehā, “anti-vax”. Ko tāku atu ki te iwi Māori: tiakina ō koutou whānau, tiakina ō koutou whakapapa, whāki atu i ngā kōrero tika ki tēnā, ki tēnā, ki tēnā o tātou ki roto i ō tātou hāpori. Kaua e whakamataku i te tangata. Me tukuna atu i ngā rangahau tika a te hunga kei roto i te ao hauora ki wā tātou whānau.

Ka noho ahau ki te taha o taku kuia, ā, taihoa ake nei. Ko tāku atu ki a ia, anei te tikanga o tēnei rongoā. “Anei te pai o tēnei rongoā. Ko te mahi o tō whānau kia tiakina i te whakapapa kua whakaritehia nei e koe.”

I roto i ngā hēkona whakamutunga, ka kī atu ahau ki ngā whānau, tiakina ō koutou whānau, tiakina ō koutou whakapapa, tiakina Te Ao Māori.

[To the Speaker, allow me to speak in the Māori language. As I reflect on the coronavirus that has afflicted New Zealand in recent times, in the year that has passed, that is the last 12 months.

From the confines of my home base in the past year, we of the Government have strengthened the services within the community throughout the entire country. In my electorate of Tāmaki Makaurau, Whānau Ora is one. Today during question time I spoke about the large amount of money that has gone into supporting the provision of Whānau Ora services. The Government also invested money to support Māori health services across the whole country.

That was the situation last year. Now let me bring us back to today. The major focus of the Māori world is the pandemic vaccine. At this very time, today, in fact, the Government announced the details of the vaccine roll-out, to end the pandemic in the coming months. Yes, I am talking about the vaccine. Today the Minister announced the first phase, the roll-out for front-line workers. This includes people working at airports and ports.

Currently, we are concentrating on phase two. Today, according to the Minister, whose announcement I support, the focal point is South Auckland, our elderly men and women, and those who have been afflicted by serious illness in the past, such as diabetes and cardiac-related issues. At this time the Government stands by everything we are doing in phase two. This includes supporting our elderly, the people of South Auckland, and those who have chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart-related conditions. Accordingly, this is how we will gather up thousands of Māori who reside in Auckland, thereby warding off the pandemic in the coming months and the years ahead.

Finally, the focus of the third phase that will take place in the second half of this year is for the rest of all New Zealanders. That is the focus at this time.

Let me note, in the final minutes of my address today—this message is firmly directed at those who conduct their research on Facebook and other false sources, that is the cohort known by Pākehā as “anti-vaxxers”. My message to the Māori people is this: take care of your families, take care of your genealogy, and provide correct information to everyone in our communities. Do not scare people, but instead direct our families to the informed research of the health experts.

I will sit with my grandmother very soon. I will inform her what this vaccine is all about. “Here are the benefits. Your whānau is tasked with protecting the genealogy that you created.”

In the last seconds, I wish to plead to the families to care for their families, to care for their genealogy, and to care for the Māori world.]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This Government has made a very conscious decision to constrain the space in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ), thereby having to juggle returning Kiwis, emergency returnees, critical workers, and split migrant families, but it is has been their absolute inability to manage these competing interests that has seen film stars’ nannies, bands, and children’s entertainers manage to jump ahead of the queue that everyone else is having to wait in, and that’s causing so many problems. This logjam at the border is further exacerbated by the glacial pace that this Government has taken on opening up the trans-Tasman border that would see 40 percent of our rooms in MIQ opened up—that’s 1,800 rooms that could be used, and all we’ve had from the Prime Minister is a tease: “Oh, we’re opening it, we’re not. We’re opening it, we’re not.” All we want to do is what Australia has done, and just get on with it.

All of these issues at MIQ are significant because we have a crisis that is unfolding in New Zealand, in our own backyard. Migrants who have given up absolutely everything to be here have been separated from their partners and their children for a year due to the border closure and the plagued MIQ system. They are here because we need them. They are our skilled maths teachers, they are our nurses, our engineers, our tech experts, and our construction workers. And we invited them to come here. In 2019, this Government spent $600,000 marketing to them to say, “Hey, come to New Zealand because we need you.” But the message now is all very different, despite our Prime Minister stating in May last year that she would make it a priority to get these split migrant families back with their families. Nothing has been said and nothing has been done. The Government’s deafening silence rings so very loudly in these migrants’ ears. It says, “We do not want you; we do not value you. Go home.” That’s what this Government is saying to them.

The Minister of Immigration, Kris Faafoi, had the perfect opportunity to start this process of reunification in June last year. We know this because he was briefed multiple times by his officials on the heart-breaking anomaly where our migrant nurses who came to New Zealand just prior to lockdown were unable to bring their families to join them whereas the 500 nurses who have come in since the borders closed have been able to bring their loved ones here. So, for nine months, he has wilfully ignored the desperate pleas of these nurses who have not been able to hold their babies, for up to 15 months in some cases.

And, while this is an unbearable situation for those nurses, this is not a great situation for New Zealand either. We are critically short of nurses. In fact, my colleague Simon Watts tells me, in the annual review today for the Counties Manukau District Health Board, they said they are 150 nurses short. That’s just one DHB; that’s not the entire aged care sector as well. We are hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands, of nurses short in this country, and we are also, on top of that, about to head into the largest vaccination programme in our nation’s history, which we will be likely to have to repeat year on year.

Now, more than ever, we need a strong health workforce. If these migrant workers leave, which they are starting to do, we will have to replace them with more migrant nurses, who can bring their families and who will be out of action for 12 weeks while they complete their registration course. It makes sense to keep the migrant nurses in New Zealand. Reunite them with their families. Not only is it good for New Zealand, it’s the right thing to do. And the Minister knows all of this. He’s chosen to ignore the problem, and it’s not until pressure from the media—and the Prime Minister, embarrassingly, having to step in over the top of him and direct him to find a solution—that he does anything. And my guess is, true to form, this Government will do the very least that they possibly can. They will select a very small subgroup of nurses, the smallest one they can find, grant them and their families some visas to travel, and then proclaim that as some job well done by our kind and generous Prime Minister. But anything less than a solution for all of the migrant nurses trapped in this horrific situation will be a failure.

Migrant workers in New Zealand who are torn apart from their families have been waiting patiently on this Government, on Ardern’s promise, for a year, but, in the last 12 months, there has been nothing. There is no plan for the next 12 months, and, while that maths teacher from the Hutt stands in front of his students this week, he will be thinking of his own two boys that he has not seen in a year. The migrant nurse who works in NICU for the Waikato DHB, who cares for our prem babies, goes home each night and cries for her two children, aged three and five—or two and four when she left. The Prime Minister regularly calls out other countries for their treatment of migrants. She cares desperately for the child of a terrorist. But, for those migrants who are here contributing in New Zealand whose children are suffering, she does and says nothing. As it turns out, kindness doesn’t extend to everybody.

I’m not sure the other side are very aware of what their situation is over the borders. One moment they want them closed; one moment they want them open. They sound very confused. It must be very confusing for the public of this country to hear their arguments over there, and also their lack of complete awareness around the pressures that are being put on managed isolation and quarantine. Maybe they need to do some better research or find some better research than what they currently have.

In a week that started with a wonderful International Women’s Day celebration, I’m absolutely delighted to be able to stand here and contribute to this general debate as part of a Government that has put us in a strong position in our COVID-19 economic recovery and rebuild. We have always said as a Government that the strongest economic rebuild will come from a strong public health response, and we are so seeing that in what is happening now. We moved very quickly. We moved quickly, just over a year ago, to put in supports for over 1.8 million workers in this country with the wage subsidy, and we also invested billions in the economy through infrastructure, training, and creating jobs. Thanks to our team of 5 million, we have been put into a good place, and we are in a better place than most other countries in this world.

But, as Minister for Women, I want to also focus and make sure that women are part of that recovery and have a strong focus in that recovery. Our New Zealand women have been absolutely amazing throughout our response to the pandemic. We have seen women who have led the charge: women scientists, healthcare workers, people at the front lines in essential working positions, innovators, and community organisers—the majority of whom have actually been women who have stood up and faced this pandemic head-on.

We also know that, for those women, many of them have had a disproportionate burden that has been put on them by taking on a disproportionate load with childcare and home responsibilities, domestic chore responsibilities. For all of those women in this country, I say a huge thank you for everything that they have done. Quite a lot, their work has gone unnoticed, or their work has been undervalued in the past, and I think it’s about time that we stand up and say thank you and we value everything that they have done for this country.

We know that women who already face barriers are more severely impacted by this pandemic, but these trends are not new. They have been well recognised in the past. We know that in past labour market shocks—such as the global financial crisis or the Christchurch earthquakes—women have been disproportionately impacted. This Government is not shying away from that. We want to focus on putting women back at the centre, and we are delivering for women.

We have passed, through the last term of Government, equal pay legislation that delivers record pay settlements for female-dominated workforces to ensure that women are being paid fairly. We have extended paid parental leave from 18 to 20 weeks. Recently, I was excited and proud to acknowledge and announce free period products into schools. This Government has proved that the gender pay gap can be narrowed and, in fact, get to the point where we can completely close it. We have, through the Gender Pay Gap Action Plan, delivered the biggest drop in public service gender pay gap in 17 years, and now it’s at its lowest ever recorded of 9.6 percent.

But we realise and know that there is more to do. In that, I want to acknowledge my predecessor, the Hon Julie Anne Genter, for the work that she did to achieve that. We know that there is far more work to do in this space, but we are making sure that we are putting women front and centre. Our strong health response and economic response has put us in the position to do just that. Making sure women are more economically resilient will be an important factor in this commitment to building back better.

This Government can give New Zealanders confidence that we will remain safe from COVID-19. It’s confidence built under our elimination strategy, drawing on our decisive early action and our continuing efforts to keep it out and to stamp it out. That’s why we have proven ourselves to be one of the safest countries of the world with respect to COVID and why we’ve been able to sustain high economic performance in the face of a global pandemic when many other countries have suffered.

In the last week, we’ve announced two important parts of our continuing plan to keep New Zealanders safe. We have secured access for all New Zealanders to the highly effective Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and today we have announced our plan for the vaccine roll-out. Today I want to talk about how these vaccines keep us safe, how we have sequenced our vaccination roll-out plan, and what we can anticipate in the future. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has consistently shown strong results in clinical trials. We knew from the first clinical trial that it offered really strong protection against hospitalisation. This is really important. Look around the countries with large outbreaks and you see hospitals getting overwhelmed. We know that, by access to this vaccine, we can prevent a crisis in our health system.

But there are also other threads of evidence that are important to think about as well. We’re seeing early signs in the evidence that the Pfizer vaccine protects against infection and, therefore, reduces a person’s ability to transmit the virus. This is a hard-to-measure part of the vaccine, but there are a variety of different pieces of evidence coming in. For example, initial evidence from the UK found that there was an 86 percent reduction in infection for recipients of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. Similarly, early published but not peer-reviewed results from Israel show an 89 percent reduction in infection. Both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases were measured. These sorts of results suggest that the vaccine recipients may not be able to transmit the virus, and it gives us the sense that it may be possible to achieve herd immunity through use of the vaccines.

Another point about the Pfizer vaccine is that we had a number of good vaccines to choose from, but I’m particularly pleased we chose the Pfizer vaccine. It has shown consistent high efficacy. The other vaccines that we had choices from are also good but some have had to address questions about their efficacy in the elderly. I can reassure seniors in New Zealand that this has performed consistently well. For example, Public Health England reported that, for people over the age of 80, there is an 89 percent vaccine efficacy for the Pfizer vaccine.

Today we announced our sequencing plan. It is a balanced plan. It uses the vaccine strategically to block the virus’s entry into the country by vaccinating first border workers and their families, then healthcare workers. Next we move on to those at high risk of catching COVID because they work or live in high-risk settings like aged residential care or other congregate settings.

I also want to talk about the practicalities of our roll-out of this, the largest vaccination programme in history. We know when we embark on this roll-out that there are groups that our health system has traditionally under-served. It would be a tragedy if we got to the end of our programme and we hadn’t addressed their needs. I want to acknowledge the work of my colleagues Minister Henare and Minister Sio in making sure we think carefully about how we reach them. I note that we’re rolling out the vaccine using Māori and Pacific providers early on in the sequencing framework to make sure that we are addressing the needs of older people from Māori and Pacific communities who are less likely to be in aged residential care. We’ll be using a variety of settings: GPs, workplaces, community testing centres, and will complement this with top-shelf information technology for the vaccine register and stock management.

There are threats when it comes to this virus, but we now have a picture of a hopeful way out of it. Yes, there are uncertainties ahead. I think a lot about the risk of emerging variants, but I, like the Prime Minister, share the hope that we will get to a situation where managing this virus will be like the flu. In doing so, we’ll also lead our community’s collective efforts to fight COVID, and I ask my fellow New Zealanders to recommit to our fight to unite against COVID by getting a vaccine.

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata—what is the most important thing in this world? It is people, it is people, it is people. I’m so grateful that, under the leadership of our Prime Minister and our Deputy Prime Minister, they have kept people at the centre of our COVID recovery plan.

Today I want to acknowledge Aucklanders, my community, people of Northcote, who have suffered in the last couple of lockdowns. They’ve had to stay home, stay in their bubbles, look after their family, and teach their kids. It’s not easy for those families but they understand that we do it because we need to keep safe and keep our families safe from COVID-19.

It is not a time for us to be complacent. It is not a time for us to decide whether we want to open the borders or whether we don’t want to open the borders. We need to ensure that we have a strong, stable plan in place. That’s what this Government has, and that is what they are rolling out.

Fifty thousand people—our border workers, our managed isolation and quarantine workers, their households, and their whānau—are under way with immunisation, and this will finish by the end of this month. Four hundred and eighty thousand front-line health workers—my partner, an immunologist, somebody who is at high risk amongst all of their colleagues in Auckland—will also be rolling out soon. That is no small feat. That is important work. But I do say to all of our people at home, to my community, to our people of Tāmaki-makau-rau, in Auckland: listen to our experts, go to trusted sources, and challenge misinformation that is out there.

I want to acknowledge Northcote’s very own Dr Dale Bramley, who has been appointed by our Minister to the new advisory group for COVID-19. We are very, very proud of him on the North Shore.

As we go through this one-in-100-year event, this pandemic, it presents us with the opportunity not just to recover but to build back better. I’m so proud that myself, Vanushi Walters in Upper Harbour, and possibly my friend across the room Simon Watts, present fresh faces in the North Shore—MPs that are able to get on with the work and demonstrate work that has people at the centre and invests in our community. Northcote is a shining example of the things that we’re doing.

Our housing developments—and we’ve waited so long in Northcote, since the Clark Government, to push through the Northcote housing development. So my colleague here who grew up in our local community Barb Edmonds, talks about Taurus Crescent. Last week, nine families recently moved into our public homes—their warm, dry homes in our most deprived area on the North Shore. That is part of a housing development in the Northcote electorate of over 1,500 homes—public homes, affordable homes, and those at market sale. Now, that’s very, very important. Part of our job under Labour in this Government was protecting those public houses—not selling them off—protecting the planned stock, and even increasing the number of public houses to 475. On Taurus Crescent, by the end of the month, I’m going to be there opening another 20 houses alongside our Minister. So one of the important things for the Northcote electorate and across our community is building back better.

I’ll also go into transport, because under the National Government there was a $5.9 billion hole in Auckland’s transport infrastructure. As the chair of Labour’s transport and infrastructure caucus committee, I ask: where was the investment during the last National Government? They question us on a whole bunch of stuff, but the reality is a $28 billion package in Auckland’s transport plan—that is under this Government, that’s about building back better, and for people on the North Shore, that’s about the northern expressway and getting more people on public transport to address our climate change priorities.

Those are the things that matter, that’s why they voted for Shanan and why they voted for Vanushi Walters, because they want people at the centre and that’s what we’re going to do. So we’re going to build—

Order! Order! Order! The member’s time has expired.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.