General Debate

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

One year ago today, the Government launched the COVID-19 response package—a $12 billion response to what is arguably the largest global and economic shock any of us will have seen in our lifetimes. Mr Speaker—Madam Speaker now. That was a very quick shift, Madam Speaker! A year ago, we were facing very, very uncertain times. Nobody knew what the true extent of the scope of the COVID-19 economic shock was going to be, but we did know one thing, and that was that, as a Government, we wanted to back New Zealanders through it. We wanted to keep Kiwis in work. We wanted to get them back to work. We wanted to make sure that people weren’t put out of work as a result of COVID19. And that is what our response was based on. We wanted to make sure that we kept COVID, and we drove COVID-19, out of New Zealand and we kept it out of New Zealand, and that is what we have been focused on. We made the decision as a Government that we were not going to make the problem worse by trying to cut our way out of it, which was the course of action pursued by the last Government after the global financial crisis. We made a decision that we were going to take a different path, and the results speak for themselves.

New Zealand is bouncing back faster because of the actions of this Government. Manufacturing is up relative to what it was before COVID-19. Building and construction is up relative to what it was before COVID-19. To quote the International Monetary Fund (IMF) divisional chief Harald Finger, who said, “New Zealanders had a very successful response to the COVID crisis and a better recovery than most other advanced economies.”—that’s the IMF saying that about New Zealand, and other countries are looking on and wishing that they were in the position that we are. The latest Crown accounts show that our books are in much better shape than had been forecast, and that is something that we can all be proud of. Our credit rating has been upgraded. New Zealand is doing well in our response.

But I want to highlight something that I am particularly proud of, and that is the work that we have been doing to keep people in work and to get them back into work, and particularly in the areas where we have skills shortages. After the global financial crisis, the number of people in apprenticeships and in on-job training and training through our polytechs plunged, and we suffered for a decade—for a decade—because of the skills shortages that created. We were determined, going into this economic shock, that we were not going to repeat that mistake. That is why we launched the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund to provide fees-free training that has seen over 100,000 New Zealanders training in those areas where we have skills shortages. It’s why we launched the Apprenticeship Boost, because we know, when the economic going gets a bit tougher, apprentices are often the first ones to find themselves out of work, and we did not want to see that happen. As a result of the Apprenticeship Boost, not only have we kept people in apprenticeships, apprenticeship numbers have grown. In the second half of the year last year, we signed up roughly double the number of apprentices as in the second half of the year prior to that. That is a sign that our Apprenticeship Boost scheme is working. Contrast that with the global financial crisis, when the last Government were quite content to sit back and bank the savings from having fewer apprentices.

That is one of the things that is holding back New Zealand—and the fact that we do not have the skilled workers to meet the needs of business throughout New Zealand. Their answer, on the other side, was simply to answer all of those problems through migration. We need to do a better job of training our own, training the people that we have in New Zealand to fill the jobs that we’ve got available. That is what we have been focused on as a Government, and the results are starting to show. Yes, we still have some skills shortages that we rely on people coming through the border to fill in the short term. We’ve seen 4,000-plus essential health workers coming through the border to help out our health system in a time of crisis, and we will continue to make sure that those we need to come through the border for our economic recovery are able to do so. But it is also important that we don’t simply use that as the easy way out—that we make sure we’re providing training opportunities for Kiwis so that they can get back into work, so that young Kiwis can train in skills for the jobs of the future. That is what our Government is focused on. We are absolutely committed to supporting New Zealanders through the recovery, to building back better, and to keeping COVID-19 out of New Zealand so that our economy can thrive where so many others are suffering.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I don’t doubt for a second that this Government and our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, seriously want more families living in warm, dry, affordable homes and want more stability for New Zealanders that rent. I don’t doubt that the Minister of Housing, Megan Woods, or the Minister before her, Phil Twyford, have warm intentions when it comes to wanting to build more homes. It’s good that our politics is kind and civilised, and we can acknowledge that. But we still have to be honest with each other when the results don’t come in—and the results haven’t come in.

The Government’s policies are failing New Zealanders. KiwiBuild, the flagship policy, didn’t deliver a single home in January—not one. The Government has spent $30 million from the Land for Housing Programme on a deal at Ihumātao. That deal doesn’t say houses have to be built; it says they may be built. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development said that there may be other uses more suitable for the land. So we’ve spent $30 million of taxpayers’ money that was supposed to be set aside for homes for our families and not a single home might be built—not a single home. In the meantime, Fletcher Building has stopped the development they were meant to start in 2019 to build almost 500 homes. We’ve actually gone backwards.

This Government was elected to make housing affordable. Over three years later, the median house price has risen astronomically. Reports show not only that housing in New Zealand is unaffordable by international standards and getting worse, but also the reason why. We are not building enough homes. This shortage and price inflation had to filter through to the rental market, and it has. The Government’s policy is to impose higher standards on rentals. So another well-intended policy has pushed rents up and led to an even greater shortage of houses available for families to rent, as landlords sell up. This affects students struggling to find affordable accommodation at this time of year, and young professionals and families who were struggling before and are struggling even more now.

Here is a simple, practical example of why the Government’s policies haven’t helped: heat pumps. A new law requires the installation of larger heat pumps in many rentals. Bigger sounds better and warmer except that larger heat pumps are more costly to run and, as a result, they’re less likely to be turned on to heat rooms, especially when there’s just enough money coming in to pay rent and feed the kids. That’s not to mention the initial cost. But if landlords don’t install an oversized heat pump, they can’t rent it out. It’s the law. This is just one small example of how the Government, with the best will in the world, makes things worse. We need an honest conversation about housing. Kindness doesn’t help much when you’re homeless, when you’re forced to make hard and painful life decisions. Sadly, that’s the reality for more and more people in this country. The Government’s policies on housing haven’t seen results. They haven’t even stopped things getting worse.

Last week I met an adoring father to a bubbly, beautiful one-year-old girl. He’d love to give her a sibling to share a bond with and grow with. But he and his wife had to make that hard call to stop at one child. Most of their weekly income goes on rent and they couldn’t afford to save any money for a house to provide stability for their little girl with a second child to feed and clothe. Every rental price increase makes it harder for a person making a plan to leave an abusive or threatening relationship. Higher rents make it harder to get out safely with the kids and find an affordable long-term rental on one income. New Zealanders shouldn’t be forced to choose between their safety, the wellbeing of their children, or children at all, just to put a roof over their heads.

Over the last two years, the rental cost of a three-bedroom home has increased 40 percent in Highbury in Palmerston North. None of the Government’s policies on housing has fixed this. If the Government really wants to end child poverty, end people living in cars and garages and motels, and ensure more people have access to warm, dry homes, it needs to act. It needs to get to the root of the problem—too few homes. It needs to make it easier to build, and that is what this Government should care about. If they need solutions, they’re welcome to head to the ACT Party website and read our solutions in full. They might find it enlightening. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I look around the House today and I want to thank the team of 5 million. One year ago, we were all in lockdown, facing unprecedented, uncharted waters because of a global pandemic. And the way that the Government acted—we went hard and we went early. We ensured that we were going to take an evidence-based response to get New Zealanders through. Why? Because we put people first. And under the leadership of our Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, she maintained that the best economic response is a strong health response, and that approach remains true to this day. It has worked. Countries all around the world have looked towards not only the way in which New Zealand’s approach has worked for our situation but what they can learn from us.

Now, we don’t profess to have all the answers, but we do know that when you put people first, and when you take decisions that actually try and cushion the economic impacts of your people, then things can go in a very different path, unlike after the global financial crisis, taking a pathway of austerity. We would not accept that that would be the pathway.

I too want to acknowledge that while these were unprecedented and uncharted times, the Government was not going to sit idly back and say we have no opportunity here to try and make things better. We leaned in and we sent all the signals that needed to be sent and made the necessary decisions to ensure, alongside a strong health response, we were going to ensure that we would have skilled people prepared for the future of work and the investment in there, and also making decisions in terms of the Government’s role in infrastructure to ensure that we were going to partner into the long-term resilience of our economy.

But let me come back a bit, because at the end of the day we all represent people and communities. And the things that made a difference absolutely, alongside the health response, was the way in which we tried to cushion the impact of closed borders on our economy. I think about the wage subsidy. I think about the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme and the businesses that we were able to help, benefiting around about 100,000 businesses, and how grateful they were, because they were contemplating folding during a very difficult time when they really couldn’t see too far down the pathway. I think about the way in which we were able to support self-employed workers—the leave support scheme, the Resurgence Support Payment, again, the wage subsidy and its extension. And all through this process, while we didn’t have a rulebook, we knew we had to act and act with haste, because there was a very real prospect that we could be in a worse off position than we are today.

New Zealand’s credit rating is triple A. No other country around the world has received that credit rating, and I want to acknowledge our finance Minister. It positions us well to build the long-term resilience that we’re committed to, to create the new normal. And that new normal is not about doing the things that we’ve always done; that new normal is leaning into the very real challenge of climate change. That new normal is leaning into the very real challenge of trying to restore equity.

And we don’t have quick-fix solutions to challenges that have been systemic, such as housing. Nine years of the previous Government made the situation absolutely challenging, because they pulled away from the commitment to invest in public housing. We’ve reversed that. We continue to not only address the very critical and real issues of homelessness, transitional housing, building the public stock, but actually ensuring that homeownership is a very real prospect. We will continue along this pathway.

What I’m most proud about, though, is that in imploring on the efforts of the 5 million that we have in our country to respond to COVID, it will take that same effort to ensure that our commitment to strengthen our people, our communities, and our business all will continue. And what that will mean is, as we undertake the vaccination roll-out this year, as we prepare for borders to open, then we will need all people to be able to support the next steps going forward—very proud about this, very proud about the international recognition, the trust and confidence that has been put in our hands as a Government because of the decisions we’ve been making, and we don’t say that glibly. We know that we are making a difference for the future of New Zealand.

Thank you. Well, I thought I might talk about COVID and what’s been happening over the last year.

💬 Todd Muller: That’ll be something different.

Yes, slightly different. Of course, since the announcement was made this time 12 months ago, we’ve spent a cool $40 billion—I think that some of us forget that. But I think what is happening now is: this concept about a team of 5 million, slogans like “Building Back Better”, I think they are just fraying at the edges a little bit.

I’ll tell you what, Madam Speaker, I know you are from the South Island, but if you’d been in Auckland last week—or the week before, actually, when we had our third lockdown, it was a debacle. It was an absolute debacle in the sense that we had a Government that once again made residents very, very concerned about what was happening with potential infections, sent us into a lockdown for a week, and not one new case came to light. And then we had that ridiculous sham—that ridiculous sham—of the Prime Minister delaying the announcement, even though the decision had been made on the Friday, until the next morning, and she expected cafes, hoteliers, and all those sorts of people, to be able to ring up their staff and have them there within half an hour for lunch and to get all the supplies on a Saturday morning. It was a sham, shambles, and outrageous. What did that cost the country? Oh, I don’t know; maybe a cool $300 million; maybe $400 million—$400 million is what this Government has only been prepared to give to the tourism industry, even though it has spent 40 billion bucks over the last 12 months. We have got places all around the country that are suffering incredibly, but this Government can’t give any support—any real support—to those companies, particularly in the tourism industry, that really need a hand—really need a hand.

Then we hear today the Hon David Bennett asking, “What about helping our agriculture sector?” We heard, “Oh yes, we’ve opened up the scheme to allow immigrants to come in from Niue, but we won’t open it up to places like Vanuatu. We won’t open to places like Samoa that don’t have COVID, who rely on New Zealand, who were prepared to come here and help our industries.” No, no, no, no; it’s all about innovation. How long does it take to put innovation in place? How long? How long, if you are running a business, does it take to put innovation in place?

I’ll give you an example of innovation. Under this Government, they put up and gave, as part of an innovation grant, $3 million to a firm. This has happened over the last 12 months. It’s all about a specific recycling business. One of the people there is an immigrant, and because this Government won’t allow his family to come to New Zealand, that one operator—and he is a very, very specialised operator—as soon as he can, will be leaving this country because he cannot get his family here. I think that is really, really insensitive.

We have also had my good colleague Erica Stanford talking about what it means for nurses. We need 2,000 nurses to do the vaccination—2,000 nurses. We’ve got a lot of international nurses working in New Zealand and, of course, because the Government won’t let their families in, they will disappear overnight as soon as they get the opportunity to do it.

Now, a smart Government might have said, “Let’s go to the private sector. Let’s have a discussion with the private sector because they might be able to help that.” But, of course, this Government knows all! It doesn’t know how to engage with businesses. We’ve already heard the CEOs say to the Government, “Lay out your plan. Lay out your economic plan. Lay out your vaccination plan. Lay out your health plan.” Nothing. There is no plan. You only react—sorry, Madam Speaker—this Government only reacts to pressure from this Opposition and from the media—and from the media. What does it look like in the polls? This is costing us a lot of money.

Why don’t you open up New Zealand to Australia—the bubble with Australia? Why don’t we have some of those Australian supporters who wanted to come and see our good netball team beat them here, the cricketers come and get beaten by the New Zealand teams? We should be allowing them in. Why don’t you like Australians?

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’m intrigued by the member who’s just resumed his seat, Andrew Bayly, whose complaint seems to be, about the lockdown in Auckland most recently, that “Look—they took action because there was something wrong, and it worked.” That’s his complaint. I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. It did the right thing. It stopped the infection spreading. That’s why we do those lockdowns, and, fortunately, we’re so good at it we can limit it to level 3. People have to stay in their homes, there’s a limited amount of business that can be transacted, but we can very quickly get out of it and go into level 2 and then down to level 1, which is what happened. That’s actually good management of COVID-19 and the risk associated with it.

I remember this time last year, when the precautions were starting, we were being told to wash our hands. I remember being at the WOMAD event, the last big mass event before lockdown happened, and we were told we weren’t allowed to shake hands. We had to do this thing with our feet that made the whole thing look like a rendition of Riverdance. We had to sort of bump our elbows. But that was the start of taking precautions to keep New Zealand and New Zealanders safe.

I’d like to acknowledge the work of some real heroes during this time. The Ministry of Health, who really had to pull out all stops, and so many officials from the Ministry of Health and so many people from our health sector who had to get on board and do new stuff, do extra stuff, do stuff we’d never heard about or planned for before and get stuck in. In that respect, I acknowledge the director-general, Ashley Bloomfield; the Director of Public Health, Dr Caroline McElnay; and the incredible work they did in laying out the strategy, giving confidence to people, communicating to New Zealanders every day, along with the Prime Minister and other Ministers, to give people confidence to get through what were very, very difficult days.

I want to acknowledge the nurses and the doctors and all those healthcare workers who had to suddenly change what they were doing, make sure patients were safe, make sure that the hospitals were ready in case there was a surge and that we were all prepared and ready to go, make sure that we got our personal protective equipment out and that those on the front line were kept safe. I want to acknowledge those who’ve been working in our managed isolation and quarantine facilities, the extra staff that have been brought in, the defence personnel, the health personnel who have had to work there as well. I want to acknowledge our amazing Minister for COVID-19 Response, Chris Hipkins, who has really, you know, grabbed the nettle by the horns—does a nettle have horns? Anyway, grabbed the nettle, grabbed the bull by the horns—grabbed both of them, if necessary—and really worked since July to manage intensively all the necessary responses as we’ve relaxed the lockout procedures, had to beef up what we do on the borders.

That’s been tough stuff, because it hasn’t all been plain sailing. It hasn’t all happened in a straight line. Things have gone wrong and there’ve had to be responses, and we’ve had to work up new ways of responding as well—so making sure the contact tracing is in place, making sure the COVID-19 app is working and functioning and new functions are added to it, making sure that—would you believe, you know, when everybody’s describing us as being up that proverbial creek, that we’re actually testing the waste water, and we’ve been doing that? Who gets to do that job? Not many people in that queue for that job, but we’ve been doing that. All that stuff is helping us get information, get data—that is all about helping to keep us safe. That is about New Zealand and New Zealanders rising to the challenge. And it has been tough; those members opposite are right. It has been tough on businesses because they’ve been thrown into uncertainty and a sense of insecurity, but that’s why the Government’s impetus and investment regime has been so important. That’s what’s giving certainty. The wage subsidy package that came out—$14 billion, as the Minister of Finance has talked about today—that’s actually what’s helped keep so many businesses together.

Then there’s the other stuff we’ve had to do, the ongoing investment in social support as well, in education—and we heard my colleague the Hon Aupito William Sio talking about the extra support that was given to keep Pasifika students in our schools focused and learning, because if that disruption continued for too much longer, if they didn’t have that extra support, that affects their life chances. I know in health more money went into supporting folks through this very anxiety-ridden time, this time that has caused more people to feel less happy, to feel a little depressed. So we put more money into mental health, made mental health and talk therapies available through 1737 and other 0800 numbers so that that was there.

All of this has been done, I might say—the step up by our health ministry and health sector—after years and years of underfunding by the previous Government, and they’ve really had to pull out all stops, not only to keep business as usual going, keeping everybody healthy and safe, but actually to step up to this new challenge of this new pandemic in a way we’ve never seen before. So I take my hat off to our health practitioners, mental health practitioners—all those across the board who’ve done such a terrific job in trying times.

Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. In today’s Dominion Post there’s a letter to an editor, “Will I ever own a home?” from Hudson Todd, age 12. “With the large nationwide increase in house prices,” he writes, “I’m worried I’ll never be able to buy my own home. There is an extreme housing shortage”. The Government needs to take action. “The Government has to do something about this before parents get stuck with their kids forever!”

I can understand the concern of that 12-year-old, but with the extreme increase in house prices we’ve seen over the past year, it’s not just the next generation who are still living with their parents. I know a 38-year-old builder, who is an incredibly hard worker. He and his wife have both been self-employed for a long time. She’s taken the last year off because they had their first child. They live with her parents in a rental in Johnsonville. They’ve been saving up for a deposit so they could buy their own place, and maybe even build his own place. But with the median house price increasing at such a rate, $50,000 across the country in just February alone, $100,000 in Auckland. If you live in Auckland, that’s an additional $20,000 in one month that you would need for a deposit on a first home. No one on a normal income can save $20,000 in one month. In fact, many people in New Zealand on the median income would be lucky to save that in a year.

That builder’s my brother, by the way. He’s a real person, and there are so many like him that have been locked out of the housing market. I know that the Government has every intention to address this crisis, but the reality is that this was a crisis several years ago, and now, in the last year, it has gotten so much worse. I have a little graph here, just to show you. [Holds up graph] This is data from Bernard Hickey at The Kākā, and it shows realised capital gains by New Zealand landlords over the last period of time. You can see it was going up. It was going up. Look at what’s happened just in 2020. That was before the most recent increase that we’ve seen over the past few months.

So the Green Party has put forward constructive solutions. We have a four-point plan that we announced today. Firstly, remove the cap from the brightline test. This is a simple action that could be taken. It doesn’t mean introducing a new tax. It is entirely fair. We already have a law that if you’re investing primarily for the purpose of capital gains, you should pay tax on that capital gain when you get the income. But having a five-year limit on that brightline test, or even if that’s extended to 10 years, can have perverse incentives and cause people to hold on to properties longer. Just get rid of it. If you’re buying a home not to live in, you should pay tax on the profit that home makes when you sell it.

Secondly, we think there are a bunch of tools that can be given to the Reserve Bank, and I know some of them have been investigated. One is ending interest-only mortgages for investors. That is incredibly important for the financial stability of the country as well. Put in debt-to-income ratios for investors, and we also think we should look at limiting it to cash deposits for investors, or at least limiting the amount of equity they can take out of their existing home. While we’re in this state of increasing house prices, what happens is those who already own property have even more equity which they can then use to buy up more properties and bid up the price of more properties, while those who don’t own property are left further and further behind, unable to save up that deposit. Those are some tools we’d like to see the Reserve Bank get ASAP. There is no time to waste.

Thirdly, the Government has to take responsibility for its role in stimulating the economy. The Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, listed a lot of nice things they did last year—slightly increasing benefits, increasing benefits for those who were particularly affected by COVID-19—but that is insufficient. Reserve Bank has said that they’re continuing their monetary stimulus because the Government’s not pulling enough fiscal levers. This is the time to raise income support. This is the time to implement the recommendations of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group report to end child poverty. We could do it. We could do it in this three-year term. There is no excuse for this Government not to do that right now. And the best, most direct way to stimulate the economy is to give money to people who don’t have enough.

Finally, and I wanted to talk about this a lot but I’ll run out of time, using Kāinga Ora to build affordable homes, not just houses out in the suburbs, it has to be quality—density done well. Let’s scale it up: 5,000 homes a year, either State houses or community, papakāinga housing around public transport.

I want to cast my mind back to a year ago today. A year ago today, my husband and I were frantically trying to arrange an airfare home for our 18-year-old daughter who was in the United Kingdom on what was supposed to be her gap year. I remember it very clearly. About 4 o’clock, this time a year ago, we got the news that we had a flight for her, and the next morning, she was on a flight home.

We got her home safe to New Zealand, where she has been safe ever since—safe from this virus that is creating enormous hardship and misery around the world with an astonishing death toll. But here in New Zealand, we have been very much safe from this virus, and that has been because of the stunning and superb response to the virus by this Government, a response that has been lauded around the world.

A year ago today, we also had the announcement of the emergency response package. We knew that we would need to support New Zealanders through the pandemic, through what was becoming a very worrying situation. We knew that we would need to support businesses. We knew that we would need to support people to remain in their jobs. That was what inspired the wage subsidy, to keep people attached to their jobs and to help businesses to keep going. We had the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme, all sorts of measures to help businesses. But all along we knew that the best economic response was to have an excellent health response in the first place so that we could keep going. And that response has been acknowledged around the world.

But, of course, we have had to keep on using those tools of lockdown, and most recently in Auckland, which was locked down in level 3 again for a week. I was there during the lockdown. Actually, I was out of town the day that the lockdown was announced, but I knew I had to get back to my own electorate. So I went back to Auckland so that I could be there, as all of us MPs were, to support our constituents.

We did all of that support work as best we could. But last week and earlier this week, I went out and door-knocked our businesses in Avondale, actually, in Auckland. So we’ve had previous speakers here talking today about the feeling in Auckland and how people got through it. Here’s what people told me.

So, Sok and Theara, who run a cafe in Avondale, were very grateful for the support they got from the Government. They had to close their doors entirely for that week three; they didn’t particularly do the takeaway business. But they were grateful for the resurgence payment and for the wage subsidy that has helped them to get through this last most recent lockdown. Nainesh, who runs the dairy just along from my electorate office, his turnover was well down. He could stay open, but, nevertheless, because people weren’t on the street, his turnover was well down. But he was able to get the resurgence payment and the wage subsidy, and that has helped him to keep going.

That was the story that I got from the business people on the streets in my electorate. And I suppose that’s the first bit of news that came out from it. They were very, very grateful for the resurgence payment and for the wage subsidy. It made a real difference to them. We know that something like about 37,000 businesses in this country have accessed the wage subsidy or the resurgence payment or both.

The second thing was that most of them actually found the IRD website to claim the resurgence payment and the wage subsidy pretty easy to navigate. So the payment was available to them and it was easy for them to access.

But the third thing I found from my local businesses was a sense of nervousness, a sense of worry that the virus would get in again. They were grateful for the borders that were being kept very, very tightly controlled. They wanted the virus kept out. They wanted to make sure that our borders were very tightly controlled so that they would stay safe, so that we could continue to live fairly much as usual, within New Zealand itself. So they had a strong sense of nervousness about that. But they knew that the Government would do their best to help them get through. Amongst that gratefulness was a sense of reassurance that the Government was on their side and doing the best we could to help our local businesses.

That’s what we need to do: keep on doing our bit to keep all of us safe, to keep us going, to keep New Zealand COVID-free and successful.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I’m going to turn my attention to the tourism sector in my general debate contribution today. I know that there is a lot of people that say that some places are doing really well and domestic tourism has filled the gap for a lot of tourism destinations around this country. But there are other places in New Zealand—the hard-to-reach places, the places that have evolved and developed over time to cater for the international visitor. Now, we’ve got to keep this in context and remember that tourism was New Zealand’s biggest earner pre-COVID, so this is a significant part of the New Zealand economy and, boy, are they suffering now.

We have an example in Jackson Bay, and probably a lot of you won’t know where that is—south of Haast on the West Coast. Now, there is a husband and wife team that run a jet boat operation down there. They would take three or four trips a day. Now they’re lucky if it’s one or two trips a week. And now they’re supplementing their own income by having to go out and get other work, which is lucky that they’ve been able to do that. But the other example is the Scenic Hotel Group. Now, what a brave but selfless decision that they made to close four of their big hotels down there for at least a year to 18 months so that the capacity could be filled by the small operators, the motel owners in those glacier towns and in Haast so that they can stay afloat, and so they’re hoping that that oversupply from their beds will flow over into these other businesses. But the Development West Coast agency on the coast has mentioned to the Minister of Tourism that we are going to suffer the loss of 400 jobs, and that’s over half of the population of the Glacier Country because of these businesses closing down, and we can expect another 16 businesses to close their doors soon, because the season is basically over and there is no hope on the horizon in terms of the tourism industry rebounding.

But what people may not realise is that in these small towns that have developed for the international tourism market, it has reached a capacity to maintain a school, to maintain their volunteer organisations like St John, like the fire brigade. And what we’re seeing now is the depopulation of those towns, which means that all of those other services, support services, are now suffering—where you can’t have a fireman go out on his own to respond to a road accident. St John are under pressure because their volunteers are disappearing. Another impact on the coast, of course, is KiwiRail. It used to deliver 400 passengers a day into Greymouth. They reduced it back to four days a week; they’re now in the process of making a decision to run that down to two over the winter. That is a huge impact on these small towns.

But what I would like to move on to is the Minister of Tourism, the Hon Stuart Nash. He turned up in Franz, shamed into visiting there because he had been absent. In fact, when I went down to visit the tourist operators in Franz with the Hon Todd McClay, they told us it was the first time since National was last in Government that a tourism Minister had visited one of the most iconic tourist destinations in this country. So Minister Nash turned up down there and he repeated his mantra, and I quote, “It is time to have that very difficult discussion with your bankers, your employers, your creditors and your community, because we cannot save every business.” Well, he could give $5 million to the likes of AJ Hackett and good luck to him. So you know what the community said about Mr Nash’s visit: the meeting was a complete waste of time—and it was.

The solution is so easy: open up the travel bubble with Australia. We resume up to 70 percent of our international tourist numbers. It is supported by business. It’s supported by Australia. It is supported by people like Professor Michael Baker, a health expert. Please open up the bubble. They are gasping for breath on the West Coast in those small tourist destinations. Open up the border with Australia before they breathe their last breath.

Kia ora koutou. It’s a pleasure to rise and speak in the general debate today. I want to start by acknowledging the impact of COVID-19 on other countries around the world, with more than 2.5 million deaths worldwide and countries including the US, Brazil, India, Russia, and the UK and France suffering hugely in terms of loss of life. I also want to reflect on some words that Nobel Prize - winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote back late last year when referring to New Zealand’s response. He said “It’s a country in which competent Government relied on science and expertise to make decisions, a country where there is a high level of social solidarity. Citizens recognise that their behaviour affects others.” He goes on to say “New Zealand has managed to bring the disease under control and is working to re-deploy some underused resources to build the kind of economy that should make the post-pandemic world one that is greener and more knowledge-based, with even greater equality, trust, and solidarity.”

I want to focus purely on the point here that New Zealand people recognise that their behaviour affects others, and I just want to take a moment to say how proud I am of Aucklanders, who stuck to their bubbles in level 3, who remained vigilant in terms of keeping social distance in level 2, and who now, at level 1, can be proud of the fact that our collective action has allowed us to return safely to level 1. We know that this hasn’t been an easy period for many, that many businesses have been creative in their responses, but our economy is bouncing back faster than many others around the world. Many have spoken to me about valuing the Government supports provided during this time. They talk about things like the support they have received through the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme, which has benefited over 100,000 businesses so far. They talk about helping businesses pay workers, including self-employed workers told to self-isolate because of COVID-19, through the COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme. They talk about the new Resurgence Support Payment, and they also talk about the wage subsidy scheme. But there’s more. People also talk to me about how we’re supporting our emerging workforce. It was really exciting to see that over 100,000 people have benefited from free trades training since it was launched just last year, in July. I was also really excited to see that we recently announced a $5.5 million funding boost for Māori trades and training—just fantastic.

I ran Zui for people in Upper Harbour while we were at level 2 to respond to some of the questions about the Government supports available as well as answer other questions. There were so many conversations I’ve had with constituents where people have recognised the importance of protecting all of us here in New Zealand, taking a strong health response, and continuing to do so while the vaccine is rolled out. There is a real sense from many people I’ve spoken to about the strong position we’re now in compared to many countries around the world. In terms of the vaccine, I’m hearing a lot of positivity from people about choosing to take the vaccine when it’s available to the broader public, but I must admit that I’ve also been concerned to hear the echoes of misinformation that do exist. Misinformation isn’t something new. However, when it threatens people’s very lives and our collective health, there’s a particular call on all of us to highlight how to identify false information and, most importantly, how to locate accurate information. Because of this, we now have a new obligation in terms of social solidarity. In addition to being vigilant about hand-washing, scanning, and wearing masks where required, we need to all seek out, hold, and pass on information responsibly about the vaccine. The best source of information is the Government’s COVID website, and I’d encourage all New Zealanders to add the website covid19.govt.nz to your favourites so you can quickly check in on the facts as the vaccine roll-out continues. Kia ora tātou.

Order! Before I take the next call, can I just encourage the House, particularly new members who are reading off prepared speeches—I encourage you members to break away from the prepared speech and speak directly to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’d like to begin my contribution this afternoon by saying a thankyou. I want to say thank you to all our health workers, all our managed isolation and quarantine facility (MIQ) workers, all our essential workers, who have been on the front line since the beginning of this pandemic here in New Zealand. Sometimes I think we don’t give them enough thanks and acknowledge them enough. So that’s how I wanted to begin my contribution.

I for one am extremely grateful and relieved to be living here in New Zealand, and as Dr Deborah Russell mentioned earlier, a year ago with her daughter having been overseas, my daughter was also overseas, and she only just came home in December. So that whole entire time of her being away has been an extremely stressful and anxious time for our family. To have her home here in New Zealand, where it is safe, so safe compared to other countries, has been a huge relief to us as a family, and she herself, upon coming home, has acknowledged—and is quite astounded now as she’s experiencing it firsthand—the freedoms that we have here in New Zealand and that we are living relatively normal lives albeit with a few lockdowns here and there over the time we’ve been in this really lucky position.

I have a friend who’s living in Scotland and has had to home-school her children for almost a year. So, actually, we are very, very lucky here in New Zealand. Andrew Bayly brought up the fact that $40 billion has been spent so far. Well, I would rather spend $40 billion and take on some debt than suffer the loss of tens of thousands of Kiwis’ lives, as was modelled at the very beginning of this pandemic here in New Zealand.

I’d like to move on to something a little bit more localised and in my electorate—some of the great initiatives that this Government has been putting into place to help support communities around New Zealand. I want to talk about the free school lunch package that this Government has initiated. I want to pay tribute to the 1,211 free school lunches that are going out to our children around Timaru. Because of this recent initiative and the growth in the initiative of free school lunches now including the secondary schools, 13 jobs have been created in Timaru, and 12 of those 13 have been women. Of those women, the majority are mothers, and these mothers are appreciating the opportunity to be either back in the workforce or to be able to undertake work after having lost their job through COVID. We know that women have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, many of them being parents as well as having to take on extra work or even being a front-line worker. Actually, a lot of our women have been essential workers on those front lines—nurses, MIQ staff—so we know that women have been disproportionately affected here.

But what I want to say is that there is a woman—the operations manager, Mataia. I just want to quote something that she has said with regard to the additional roll-out of free school lunches. She has said, “There’s less child absenteeism, more positive behaviour, better mental health, and they have more energy in the afternoons.” That, to my mind, is a very, very good thing and money very well spent.

I just want to quickly touch on the regional apprenticeship initiative fund that Venture Timaru has been administering on behalf of the Government though mid, south, and north Canterbury. All 100 apprenticeships have now been filled, and Nigel Davenport says, “This is a real success story of targeted support that really hits the spot.” So there are 100 new apprentices throughout north, south, and mid-Canterbury, which is a win, and once again I am so grateful and feel lucky to live in New Zealand.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’m proud to rise as the member of Parliament for Southland. It’s a regional economic powerhouse with two of the key industries that underpin the New Zealand economy: farming and tourism. But I want to speak this afternoon to tourism, a sector which is under incredible stress in my region, and, in particular, to two places: Te Ānau and Queenstown. Now, Te Ānau: I have photographs of 11 shops that have closed since roughly this time last year due to the loss of international tourism to the region. In Queenstown, a third of businesses in downtown Queenstown estimate that they won’t survive winter—i.e., roughly the next three months. So we’re talking about 60 businesses.

Now, I want to stress that this is not just about business. We’re talking about mostly small to medium sized businesses, and businesses are about people, and people are about communities. So if we have businesses who can’t employ staff, that’s people who lose their jobs. That’s also the business owners who lose their income, and their family lose their income. I’ve spoken to a number of business owners who have been hanging on for just short of 12 months now, since the borders closed on 24 March last year, and they have been borrowing against the equity in their homes to keep their businesses going and keep their staff employed. They can’t keep doing that for much longer.

That’s what we’re seeing, unfortunately, in Te Ānau, an amazing town on the lake. That’s on the way to Milford Sound, one of the iconic destinations for people who think of New Zealand and come to this country. They’ve already been devastated. I’m pleased to say there are still operators who are hanging on in Te Ānau and providing experiences, providing meals at restaurants, providing opportunities for people to go and see the surrounding region on various amazing trips, but they are under huge stress at the moment. The same thing is happening in Queenstown for the tourism operators.

When I say “tourism”, we’re talking about a broad swathe of industries. We’re not just talking about those offering experiences for people. We’re talking about restaurants, we’re talking about cafes, and we’re talking about accommodation providers, and they are under huge stress. It has been described to me that the tourism sector is experiencing its version of an economic earthquake, and they are crying out for help and support from this Government. A lady from Queenstown wrote to the Minister this week, expressing a view that’s been expressed to me many times, in fact, by local people in the industry. They feel they have been abandoned by the Government, and they are calling for the Government to do something, to do anything—more specifically, to provide a plan for them so that they can determine what their future is and how long they can hang on for.

We have called, as the National Party, for opening the trans-Tasman bubble with Australia. I’m pleased to say that a number of experts have come out in support of that call, including the respected epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker, who has said that New Zealand and Australia are ready for a two-way bubble. He said we should embrace the traffic light system, as it is now known. We have a green zone with most states in Australia, a number of Pacific Island countries and New Zealand are already very good at managing this risk, and there is now a very low risk, he has said, of infection from all of Australia most of the time, and we are ready to open up for quarantine-free travel. There’s a huge benefit to us in getting this right, and it will make a huge difference to people’s lives in Te Ānau, in Queenstown, in Milford Sound, on the West Coast, in Wānaka, and in the Mackenzie Country. I’ve seen calls from the North Island as well, from operators there who are under huge stress.

People in our communities need this from the Government. If the Government isn’t going to open up the travel bubble with Australia, they need to tell us and tell our communities and tell our businesses and our employees what the plan is and when support is coming for our businesses who are fighting to stay afloat to support the economy in one of our biggest industries. We need this Government to step up.

Thank you, Madam Speaker, and can I begin by wishing colleagues a happy St Patrick’s Day. As members can see, I have spared no expense on business attire today to acknowledge our Irish roots, and I see Louisa Wall has also covered herself in a beautiful emerald green. I saw Rino Tirikatene wearing a bright green tie. Clearly, Tirikatene is part of Irish whakapapa; in fact, Ngāi Tahu has plenty of Irish ancestry, as well.

I was fascinated by Jo Luxton’s comments in relation to COVID, saying how lucky we have been—how lucky we have been. Not how well the Government has done, but her emphasis was on how lucky we had been. I think that I would agree with that. We have, in many respects, had the luck of the Irish, with the number of outbreaks that we have seen—particularly in the last six months—that have not led to a more widespread outbreak. There is a strong element of luck.

I would also—and perhaps she was referring to this—refer to, I guess, the natural advantages that New Zealand has had in respect of when the COVID outbreak occurred. It was the winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The countries that were hit the hardest had very densely and heavily populated countries, often in dwellings where three or four generations were living in the same houses. We don’t have the sort of mass transit that became the vector for the spread of COVID in places like New York and the north of Italy and in London.

So we have had natural advantages, we’ve had luck, and, actually, we’ve had a Government that, by and large, has done a very good job. But so too must the Opposition, in keeping the Government’s feet to the flames on a number of issues, and we are marking this as some kind of anniversary—the first anniversary of when Budget measures were brought to the House on 17 March 2020. Well, the matter started much earlier than that, when I was raising this issue with the media on 26 January, and the Government was still on holiday.

It was, I think, because of the attention that was drawn to it by the Opposition that, at least in part, the Government was forced to respond, and the Opposition will continue to do that in two major areas. The first is in the vaccine. Now, I see the Minister for COVID19 Response will recall his comments last year, in that capacity, that “We are at the front of the queue for vaccines.” But two short months later, the message had changed to “Oh well, there are countries that need it more than we do.”, and that “We’ll just have to wait our turn.” Well, I might remind the Minister and the Prime Minister, and his and her colleagues, that they are Ministers for one country and one country only, and their first and primary responsibility is to keep—

💬 Hon Chris Hipkins: It’s not true—that’s actually not true.

—Kiwis safe. Oh, if you take it over, well, and the Realm countries—

💬 Hon Chris Hipkins: That’s right, so don’t forget about them.

True. Touché—a technicality that I’d thank the member for reminding me. But it is not Sweden and it is not Italy and it’s not the Middle East. The Ministers are Ministers with a responsibility to keep this country safe, and what disappointed me about the announcement on the vaccines last week—apparently we have a plan now. I’ve gone and had a look at the plan and I’m none the wiser about when I’m going to get the vaccine at all. But if I go on the Australian website and key in similar attributes with any geographical location, I will know the date, the week, I’m going to get the vaccine, if I was the same person in Australia.

💬 Hon Chris Hipkins: That’s right—targeted 4 million by now; they’ve done 200,000.

The Minister can rabbit on all he likes, but it was a rushed attempt to try and portray a plan that does not exist, and why is that so important? Because, by his own admission, the trans-Tasman bubble, the Pacific bubble, will be safest to open when there is a widespread vaccine in New Zealand.

So we will continue to keep the Government’s feet to the flames on those two crucial issues. The petition that the Opposition has launched only yesterday had 22,000 signatures by this morning, and that number is growing. The country wants the Government to act, the country is imploring the Government to act, and we support those calls.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.