General Debate

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

Well, today, we have seen four years of failure in a housing market made worse by that Government. We’ve had the Minister say, “No, the State houses are not being bought up from the private sector.”—yes they are, right through our electorates, going anything under $1 million, that’s how much they spend now. They are now setting the market, making it harder for first-home buyers and harder for the private sector to be able to provide housing. Four long years of failure. And we heard from the Prime Minister today that apparently it’s all our fault—well, who has been in charge for the last four years?

They promised to get 100,000 children out of child poverty, and somehow they’ve managed to make it worse. They said it was terrible that National had some families, who needed emergency housing, living in motels; they’ve got 4,000 kids now growing up in motels. They can’t tell a gang member from a family member, they’re now saying things like, “We asked the gang members whether or not they’re gang members.” Aww, is that before they get the koha?

We now have a generation of kids growing up whose name is going to be, unfortunately, “the motel generation”. The Minister today, Carmel Sepuloni—I used to think she was one of their better Ministers, but I’ve now rephrased that one; mind you, Kris Faafoi once looked OK too, didn’t he, team? I mean, my goodness, what a mess—she said today that she’s heard nothing about a problem in the regions with gangs. Has she not even listened to “red radio”? Radio New Zealand’s been out reporting what’s been going on and apparently this Minister doesn’t want to listen to it.

What’s happened to house prices, up $300,000 under this Government? What’s happened to rents, up $100 a week? Their answer has been to attack the private landlords, attack the people who actually provide housing, attack the community providers and take all the money off them. They need to know that they have to do everything better from the Government. All they’ve done is to make it worse. How many houses did they say no to when they cancelled out the Ihumātao issue, was it 480 houses? How many built? Zero. Not one; zero. How many started? Zero. Not one; zero.

We have a Government here who has blamed everyone. Remember when it was people with Chinese-sounding names? That was their fault. That was Rob Salmond from the Prime Minister’s office. He ran that one. We also had Phil Twyford running that and he’s now in charge of disarmament. But given what they’re doing to the military these days, there won’t be anything to disarm. We have, in fact, records being broken. What they’ve done, too, is that they have blamed speculators. So who are these speculators? Speculators, apparently, are mums and dads who have saved up, paid off their own mortgage, and bought a second property to rent out so they can keep themselves in a good situation in their retirement. They’ve picked on them, gone after them, and at the same time they have failed to produce the houses that needed to be produced. They’ve cut out the private market, made it harder.

And now this interest deduction, which is a normal cost of business, has been removed by this Government—this Government. Ten thousand people have signed a petition today, we’re presenting it to Parliament—15,000, sorry—that shows just how seriously people take this. And the answer to it—what happens with it—is that the prices go up, not down. There is a basic part of economics and theory of economics and principle that we know works all the time, it is supply and demand. More supply is what the Government needs in housing—more supply. Yet they’ve arrogantly refused to ever actually adopt all of our ideas about getting more houses built. Instead, in the middle of a pandemic, what’s their answer? Pay the nurses more? No. Help the doctors? No. Keep them in New Zealand? No. What they want to do is restructure everything and have another bureaucracy. Half a billion dollars in bureaucracy instead of to the nurses tells you everything they care about.

They want to centralise everything. For them, they think the Government is the only one who can perform. Actually, if it’s in housing, if it’s in health, if it’s in transport, whatever it’s in, the Government is the only one that can never perform, and that’s their problem. Whether it’s in transport—I heard today from Michael Wood, how about the Eastern Busway? How about that, 3,000 people would be using that? He’s put that on slow for a cycleway.

It was absolutely evident during that contribution that the person most enjoying themselves on the opposite side was one Christopher Luxon, because, when the caucus starts chanting no after everything the leader says, you know that it’s all on. And when it comes right before a three-week parliamentary recess, you know that the knives will be out.

Judith Collins chose to start her contribution today talking about housing, just a day after her housing spokesperson said that she would stick to the State house building programme of the current Government, but Judith Collins just this morning, asked about that, said the opposite, and said, “Well, I could tell you how many, but I think it is certainly not at this stage.” Not quite sure exactly what that means, but it clearly means that they’re not talking to each other—but, of course, that’s not unusual in the National Party caucus.

So Christopher Luxon thoroughly enjoyed himself. I understand he’s using the three-week parliamentary recess to begin his reconnecting-with-the-provinces tour around New Zealand. He’s going to start in Kaitāia, Whakatāne, Whanganui, Masterton, Kāpiti, Westport, and Wānaka, and all of the other places where he cut their air services whilst he was the chief executive in Air New Zealand, and start with an apology to those communities.

It is, in fact, a great time to be a part of this Government—a Government that is united and focused, making real progress for New Zealand as we continue to lay the foundations of recovery and tackle the long-term challenges that have been facing our country, including the housing crisis that we inherited from the last Government, and shame on them for ignoring that for nine long years. We are keeping New Zealanders safe from COVID-19, working on accelerating our recovery, and making progress on those big, long-term challenges that we face as a country.

Aren’t our economic figures stacking up pretty well compared to the rest of the world at the moment? The Opposition, while they try and talk down the New Zealand economy, should get out and about a bit more and see the fact that New Zealand has actually been incredibly resilient through this global pandemic. New Zealanders are doing the hard yards to make sure that we are rebounding and recovering from what has been an unprecedented economic shock. It has been the hard work of New Zealanders that has delivered that rebound for New Zealand. We are seeing unemployment decreasing—one of the lowest unemployment rates, despite the challenges that we have at the moment. We are seeing numbers of people leaving main benefits and going into work every week now because of the work that we have been doing to ensure that New Zealand is rebounding from this economic shock.

We have good news on the vaccine front today. I want to mention the number 150,000 twice today, in fact: 150,000 Pfizer vaccines arrived in New Zealand this week—the biggest delivery that we’ve received to date, which happened to coincide with 150,000 New Zealanders safely arriving back in New Zealand through our managed isolation facilities without bringing COVID-19 into the community with them, because of the hard work of the people working at our border to keep us safe. I would, of course, remind the members opposite that the only disruptions that we have had to the trans-Tasman bubble since it opened have not been in New Zealand. The team working in our border to keep COVID-19 out of our community have been incredibly effective. They have been working very hard, and they deserve our thanks. When we look at how difficult it is around the rest of the world, it only underscores just how good they have been and just how much we owe them a great debt of thanks. And so I want to say that on behalf of all New Zealanders to our border workers: thank you for what you have been doing to keep the country safe and for the sacrifices you are making for the rest of us.

Half a million New Zealanders are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, three-quarters of a million New Zealanders have had at least their first dose of vaccine. We have approved a new vaccine today. Medsafe has approved a new vaccine today that gives us further choices, should we need them, around our vaccine roll-out, and we are seeing the number of vaccine doses delivered into New Zealanders’ arms continuing to increase as bigger quantities of the vaccine arrive in New Zealand over the coming month. And, again, I want to thank our front-line health workers for the work that they are doing to get vaccines out of the freezer and into peoples’ arms as fast as they are arriving in the country—that is a huge tribute to our health workers. I think they deserve our thanks, and I think that people should stop running down their efforts and actually thank them for the contribution that they’ve been making.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to thank the member Chris Hipkins, who has resumed his seat, for resuming his seat, because I think if we could un-hear the last five minutes, New Zealand would be a more enlightened place. I want to bring some facts to this debate and focus on some of the failures of this Government to deliver. In fact, there are so many broken promises that it really is a menu of targets, but I’m going to focus first of all on health.

Labour doesn’t care about older people. We know this from the Budget a few months ago, where, callously, the free over-65s GP visit and eye check was cancelled. Clearly, the Government wants everyone to be like them: not well and with no vision. This $185 million of funding for older people cancelled wasn’t even in the Speech from the Throne, and yet older people were cast aside for a cycle bridge over Auckland harbour. Labour doesn’t care about older people.

Another broken Labour Party promise is around dental care. Labour doesn’t care about young people’s teeth. Last year, on the campaign trail, the Prime Minister promised 20 mobile dental units this year, and yet not one—not one—will be delivered, nor did the Budget appropriate any funding for those 20 mobile dental units—a clearly broken promise. Not one. Labour doesn’t care about young people.

So we’ve got the old people who aren’t being looked after, we’ve got the young people, but the group in between are also suffering under this Government, because what we can tell from the document that fell off the back of the lorry as a draft health budget is that the ministry and the Minister are looking to reduce funding in three key ways: first of all, cutting specialist services to provincial hospitals; reducing the eligibility for the aged residential care subsidy; and reducing eligibility for disability—all of this to pay for $486 million of health restructuring, layers and layers and layers of bureaucracy from Wellington.

Now, the draft health budget somewhat fell off the back of a lorry into our hands. It’s kind of dangerous to walk around Lambton Quay, there’s so much falling off the back of a lorry these days, and I think, really, the Minister of Transport needs to do some work around restraining dangerous loads, which leads me to Willie Jackson. When we’re talking about dangerous loads, let’s talk about He Puapua, which fell off the back of a lorry, unredacted, and into our hands. Willie Jackson, here’s some advice: you’re being hung out on He Puapua. Who was standing beside you on Thursday when you made the announcement? It wasn’t the Prime Minister. A centre point for this Government—she wasn’t there. Was she in the South Island, maybe? No, she was only two or three hours up the road in Northland. Kia tūpato: you are being hung out on He Puapua, Willie Jackson.

What we do know about He Puapua is that it was developed under stealth from about 2019. Even Andrew Little said he didn’t know anything about it. This is the Minister involved with justice and Treaty settlements. What Willie did cough up was that he’d been having discussions on He Puapua with the Prime Minister.

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

What he did suggest was that he was having conversations—

💬 SPEAKER: No, “Mr Willie Jackson”.

Oh, Mr Willie Jackson was having conversations with the Prime Minister, and I can imagine how that went. As they came to Cabinet, I’m sure he said, “Well, Prime Minister, we’ve kept He Puapua secret for nearly two years. We’re two weeks away from taking it to Cabinet. I need to know, is the plan to show or no-show?”, and I think the Prime Minister said to Mr Willie Jackson, “No-show.” But here’s the problem with this conversation, because, you see, other Cabinet members were walking past when the Prime Minister said to Mr Willie Jackson “No-show.”, but they all heard different versions of that. You see, Andrew Little was walking past, and instead of “No-show.”, he heard “Veto.”, and thought, “Ooh, I need to put a veto into the health document.”, so duly wrote in a veto. Marama Davidson was also walking past, but instead of “No-show.”, she heard “Let’s visit the bros.” “Oh, I need to go to a gang pad—I must go to a gang pad.” And, finally, David Clark was also in earshot, but he correctly heard “No-show.”, and so he hasn’t.

This whole Government is a no-show—no-show on housing, no-show on transport, no-show on child poverty. It’s just a no-show Government. They should go home. Thank you.

Mānawa maiea te putanga o Matariki. Mānawa maiea te ariki o te rangi. Mānawa maiea te mātahi o te tau. Mr Speaker, tēnā koe, otirā ki a koutou katoa, tēnei te mihi ki a koutou.

[I acknowledge the rising of Matariki. I acknowledge the sovereign of the heavens. I acknowledge the first day of the year. Mr Speaker, thank you, indeed to all of you. This is my greeting to all of you.]

Whilst we’re still in the time where Tangaroa rules the moon, it is a time to reflect, and, admittedly, I’ve had a little bit more time to reflect than some in this House, as I’ve had the opportunity to take a few months out and I want to acknowledge the House for the support that has been provided. I must say that during that time of reflecting, can I just say how exceptionally excited I felt to be a part of a Government that is united, that is focused, and that is getting down to the real business. We are making progress for our country that we love, Aotearoa, and I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge my colleague the Hon Christopher Hipkins, who has been working like a mule to make sure that we are indeed keeping New Zealanders safe, that this Government is keeping New Zealanders safe, with 150,000 vaccines that have landed in this country.

I have felt incredibly proud reflecting during this period of Matariki. This period of Matariki does make me think about a couple of things. We have plenty of time to reflect. On this side of the House, it’s our 105th birthday today and, gosh, we’re doing all right.

But I too have had a little bit of time to think about how the opposite side of the House are going, and I don’t know if it’s all true, but from what I have been seeing on the wee box in the evenings at 6 p.m., it looks a little bit chaotic. A few things have changed since I have been away from the Chamber. My mate Nick Smith, replaced by the stellar queen here, Rachel Boyack, the member for Nelson—he’s gone. It seems that there’s been a few leaks in the Whare and—well, I don’t know, but he’s gone. He’s cleared out.

My mate Todd Muller—he’s a mate. He’s a good guy, but I think he was taken out by his own team. I don’t know what happened there, but he’s gone, and now I’ve just heard a rumour that my other mate Mark Mitchell—I think he’s running for mayor, or something like that. Anyway, I don’t know what’s going on.

But I will say this: I am very proud to see my relation—my whanaunga—Harete Hipango back here in this House, and aren’t we glad, team? [Interruption] Yes, we’re glad.

Now, Matariki is a time when we reflect on the nine stars. Waitī: Waitī is aligned with our fresh water and our environment, and I want to acknowledge my colleague the Hon David Parker for the incredible progress that he is making, and our Government is making, to restore the health of our freshwater ways.

Waitā: this is a time when we acknowledge the oceans and the coast, and acknowledge the work that we are doing to tackle the challenges there, too. In particular, whilst I was away, I want to acknowledge my colleagues Dr Ayesha Verrall and the Hon David Parker for the announcements that they’ve made in terms of the restoration of the Hauraki Gulf, and all of the hapū, the iwi, and whānau there that have been working incredibly hard.

Now, Waipuna-ā-rangi: this is a time when we look to the winter skies and winter in all of its forms. I was going to make a little joke here about the leaks, but I’ve already done that, but that was directed to that side of the House.

Tupuānuku: plants—now, I could take a pot-shot at their position, but I’ve done enough of that, so, no; I’ll take a leaf out of the agriculture Minister’s book. This is a time when we acknowledge the plants and make hay while the sun shines, even if it has to be done in managed isolation. So to the Hon Damien O’Connor: thinking of you, buddy.

Tupuārangi: this is something that falls squarely within my delegations in the conservation portfolio. I want to acknowledge the thousands of men, women, people across the country that are out there being kaitiaki to our whenua, to our forests—that are out there in Jobs for Nature. We have got thousands of people out there, across the country, doing an immeasurable amount of work to restore the mana and the mauri of the whenua, as that Jobs for Nature programme is rolled out.

I turn to the star of Ururangi: the four winds. The winds of change appear to be blowing hard from across the Opposition benches, and I have been looking up and I’ve been looking for the Leader of the Opposition. Is it, or is it David Seymour? I don’t know—I don’t know. We’ll take a poll later on as to who the new Leader of the Opposition will be, but anyway. The winds are a changing, and that’s something that happens in this House.

Pōhutukawa: this is a time when we reflect on those that have passed. I want to acknowledge that over the past year, we have been afflicted by COVID and that we have lost many lives. I also too, just briefly, mention Hiwa-i-te-rangi, and the time that we look forward, cast our dreams and aspirations to the future. And it’s going to be a great year ahead with Jacinda Ardern at the helm. Tēnā koe.

I’d just like to acknowledge and welcome back to the Whare Kiritapu Allan. It’s really great to hear your voice, although I would say, even though you referred to the Hon Chris Hipkins as “working like a mule”, I might say rather working like an arse. But there you go.

💬 SPEAKER: I think the member means “an ass”.

Sorry.

I’d like to do my general debate today on firearms administration issues. Look, I do need to speak about this; I’ve spoken about it before. I need to bring it up again, because the last time I spoke of this was a few months ago at the beginning of the year. Quite frankly, nothing has changed since we brought some issues to the House and, at this rate, my inbox is filling quite dramatically and very quickly with incident reports from firearm owners.

They’re talking about concerns with excessive delays in processing applications, calls to police being ignored, and messages not even being returned, no responses to emails, inconsistencies with application of the new firearm laws, dealers being unable to work, museums closing their doors, aggressive interviewing styles by police vetters, demands for private information—including home layout, where alarms and cameras are located—being detailed on files that many within the community do not trust police to securely hold. These incidents all relate back to the new laws, the laws that Government rushed through without thinking of the consequences. Well, I think the consequences are coming home to roost.

I’m really glad ACT is in the House and able to expose the realities of what this Government has done to the people of this nation, those who were once respected as police-approved, fit and proper, licensed people. The royal commission inquiry showed that the police failed New Zealand—it’s not this country’s legitimate firearm owners, but it is the firearms owners that bear the consequences of that agency’s inability to implement old law, let alone fast-tracked new law. ACT suggests that the Government needs to leave police to do their core business, which is policing, because administrating via the firearms group is continuing to fail.

They know this. They can see it themselves. They actually changed their name from Arms Act Service Delivery group to—removing the words “service delivery”—just calling themselves Arms Safety and Control. New Zealand Police also refer to themselves as regulators now; they’re not even administrators any more. So it’s well overdue to implement the new independent firearms authority promised to New Zealand in the last term of this Government.

Why is this urgent? Well, here’s some examples. Let’s talk about the licensing. An application that a person pays a Government agency to be considered for: in April this year, those that had been waiting for weeks or more totalled 8,179. In July, it’s 7,913. That’s only a difference of 266. In April, those that had been waiting eight months totalled 3,601. In July, it’s 3,654. Oh dear, it’s going up—it’s not going down. In April this year, those that had been waiting for 12 months were 1,382; it’s now risen to 1,611 that are waiting for 12 months and 523 people have been waiting 18 months, and they’ll soon be joining, I expect, the 271 people who have been waiting more than two years. The Minister advised us in this House earlier this year that the delays were being addressed, but a written parliamentary question (WPQ) answer that I received yesterday actually indicated that police are just getting recruitment under way now. I have to ask: why is it just now that this is happening? Perhaps it’s all the WPQs I’ve been asking.

Dealers are complaining that the processing time is taking so long that they’re unable to go through with their business. Museum curators have been told that they need a dealer’s licence to operate, but haven’t been told this expensive annual licence is only required if they operate a business, and then there are the police themselves advertising images in local papers showing firearms in unsafe conditions for securing.

It’s really important that ACT continues to stand up for the rights of not only licence holders but those New Zealanders who have been affected by rushed law, such as the farmers, the small-business owners, the landlords, and the nurses. We are there for them to help make good policy for New Zealand. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I want to start by saying just how happy we are on this side of the House to have our mate Kiritapu Allan back in the House.

I want to speak today about one of the elements of this Government’s massive work programme. It’s designed to keep Kiwis safe and navigate this country through the economic recovery, and, most importantly, to build back better. The Government’s economic plan involves a managed transition away from a low-wage, low-productivity economic model, a model this country has embraced for decades and, at its heart, it has had consistently high net migration figures. This effort that is already under way, led by Minister Kris Faafoi, continues even as we try to recover from the pandemic, and the border closure has given us an opportunity to accelerate the work we started before COVID, focused on tilting the profile of migrants who’ve come to, and stay in, New Zealand towards more highly skilled workers.

As a small and, until very recently, a very open economy, migrants will always, always play an important role in New Zealand society. We simply can’t provide and generate the skills that we need right across the economy, and migrants, as our friends, colleagues, family, and community leaders make an incredibly positive contribution to New Zealand. But even prior to the pandemic, it was becoming increasingly clear that we needed to re-evaluate the immigration settings. Migration levels grew over the last 10 years, prior to the border closure, as the previous National Government focused on growing GDP through the immigration system, rather than by addressing the structural impediments to wage and productivity growth. This led to New Zealand having the highest share of temporary migrants as a proportion of our labour force of any OECD country and an entrenched low-wage, low-productivity economic model that we inherited when we came into Government in 2017.

This Government is rebalancing our approach to immigration. There will always be a place in this country for temporary workers and new residents, particularly those who are highly skilled and can do technical and specialised work that we need. But we cannot and must not let the immigration system act as a kind of fall-back for failing to train Kiwis and build the workforce that we need for the new economy. We cannot allow the immigration system to inhibit the investment and innovation that will result in higher productivity, higher wages, and more wellbeing in our community.

Now, this is going to take work right across the system of Government, not just in immigration. That’s why Minister Chris Hipkins is rebuilding a 21st century trade and vocational training system, a polytech for the entire country. For too long, in this country, we’ve failed to give Kiwis the opportunities to get the skills they need. We’re going to have industry transformation plans, regional skills leadership groups, workforce development councils, and a skills and training system that delivers what the regions, business, and employers need.

We’re also investing across the board in raising productivity. In our industry transformation plans in sectors like biotech, digital, high-value processing of food and beverage, we’re working with employers and the workforce to grow these industries, to lift productivity. We’ve got tax incentives for R & D, and an investment attraction strategy that’s designed to bring high-quality investors here to grow businesses and grow the industries that we need.

This Government is working hard to build a high-wage, high-productivity economy. It’s the opposite of what National stands for; they say they want to raise incomes, but every time in this House they oppose any effort to raise wages. Fair pay agreements, raising the minimum wage—you name it, their business is actually keeping labour costs low. On this side of the House, we stand for building a high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy, and reforming the immigration system, as Kris Faafoi is beginning to do, will make a very important contribution.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. It’s an absolute pleasure of mine today to speak in the House during this general debate. I guess, the general theme of this debate is around the foundation of our recovery, and what I interpret this to mean is recovery from nine years of a National Government which severely underfunded everything, from housing to health.

Today, we celebrate 105 years of the Labour Party and, just last week, I celebrated my own 34th birthday, and what a way to celebrate: the Labour-led Government has given the best birthday present anybody could ever ask for. On 1 July, a raft of initiatives kicked in to support New Zealand’s economic recovery from COVID, which also addressed child poverty, housing, and climate change.

These include a main benefit increase, after tax, by $20 per adult, per week. In addition to this, the training incentive allowance will support high-level study for sole parents on benefits, and carers and disabled people on supported living payment. We also extended the unsupported child’s benefit and orphans benefit to short-term caregivers of children who are unable to live with their parents. We increased the paid parental leave rates, established a ministry of ethnic affairs, and started a new migrant exploitation protection visa to protect migrants and help them leave exploitative situations. We’ve started a new rebate for electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, and my favourite one is around the healthy home standard, which means many of our communities will get to live in a dry, warm home for the first time in their lives.

The list is exhaustive, but it would be a disservice to not mention the incredible work this Government has done in the most beautiful city in the country, which, as you know, is Hamilton, or rather the Hamilton West electorate, where you used to be the member of Parliament, Mr Speaker. The biggest challenge for me is just—

💬 SPEAKER: I left.

Well, I think it probably got the award after you left—sorry.

💬 SPEAKER: Oh!

The biggest challenge for me is to choose just a few of these projects from an exhaustive list. I want to, first of all, start talking about the incentives that the Government gave during the COVID pandemic. I used to be a front-line healthcare worker—you know, swabbing patients on the front line—and, at that point, the Government gave $853 million to 129,000 people, followed by $156 million to another 36,000, and $17 million to another 16,000 in resurgence. That’s $1 billion given out to people for wage subsidy during this time.

Before I finish the rest of my speech, I just want to go on a bit of a side-line story. At the medical practice I used to work at, there was a worker there, and well before COVID they got in touch with me one time and they said, “You know, your Government”—I was still a candidate then—“is hell-bent on giving away money to people, and people who apparently don’t want to improve their situation.” We had quite a long conversation around supporting people who need help, and because of various reasons they end up in those situations. Well, during COVID, this person pretty much got fired on the phone line by their boss without any notice, without following the contract that should have been followed, and the Government did help them with the wage subsidy. The same person got back to me and said, “For the first time in my life, I realised that people do need a helping hand when they are in trouble, and often the situation isn’t in people’s own control.” He’s really appreciative of the help that the Government gave him at that point and has changed his whole view on providing help to people.

But, anyway, coming back to the great work the Government’s done in Waikato, especially in health: $106 million as part of the health capital funding has been allocated, $32 million for increased capacity around speciality services, and $100 million for a new acute mental health facility. In transport, we launched Te Huia train service from Hamilton to Papakura, which received $85.8 million funding, and $8.2 million has been invested in the Hamilton to Cambridge section of Te Awa cycleway. This year alone, $500 million from Waka Kotahi will go towards 398 kilometres of State highway being maintained, resealed, and repaired in Hamilton. That’s a lot of investment by the Government in Hamilton.

As part of the shovel-ready project, $23.8 million towards Waikato Regional Council—that’s part of the climate resilience package—$1.64 million to help eight Pasifika churches, $13.9 million for 53 maraes, and creating 363 jobs. I’m also looking forward to the new alcohol and drug rehab court which was recently opened by Minister Faafoi and the Hon Aupito William Sio. Thank you.

It’s a pleasure to take a call in the general debate today as the member for the real most beautiful electorate in Aotearoa: Nelson. Although I know that my colleague here—Anna Lorck—would like to claim that the Hawke’s Bay has beauty that surpasses Nelson. But I know that my colleague across the House Chris Baillie from the ACT Party will support me on this—that Nelson is the centre of Aotearoa, as well as being the most beautiful electorate in this country. I’m proud to represent it here.

Today, I want to talk about being part of a Government that is laying the foundations for our recovery and tackling New Zealand’s long-term challenges. Because of the hard work of our team of 5 million over the last 18 months, we are now well positioned to recover and rebuild from COVID-19. The Government’s books last week show that the New Zealand economy is continuing to display resilience in the face of the ongoing impact of COVID, and this Government has introduced a range of measures across Budget 2020 and Budget 2021 to help lay the foundations for our recovery.

Jobs for Nature is just one example in my electorate of Nelson of a project that is helping to create jobs, support our economic recovery, and protect and restore our environment. I want to acknowledge the return of our colleague the Hon Kiritapu Allan and the work she has done on this project. Over 100 new jobs have been created through Jobs for Nature projects across Nelson. They range from projects aimed at maintaining the health of our taonga, the Maitai River, to supporting the restoration of the Waimea Inlet, which is the largest semi-enclosed estuary in the South Island, and my personal favourite: supporting the improvement and water quality in the Wakapuaka catchment at Paremata Flats.

These projects are not only supporting people and Nelson with jobs but will also pay dividends for future generations by restoring and preserving our environment. This Government is committed to looking after nature and people’s livelihoods. It was designed specifically to respond to the impact of COVID-19, and the funding enables iwi, businesses, and councils working with Government agencies like the Department of Conservation to employ thousands of people across Aotearoa to look after our natural landscapes.

I am personally delighted that more New Zealanders are moving into trades. Over 100,000 learners have signed up for free vocational training since we introduced the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund in July 2020. We know that, as a result of COVID, many New Zealanders are looking to retrain and gain new skills, and employers in key sectors will need more skilled people. The Nelson Mail reported in May this year that over 1,100 students have begun vocational training at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) under the Targeted Training and Apprenticeship Fund. NMIT have said that they have 4,041 domestic students currently enrolled, compared to 3,299 in March 2020—an increase of 22 percent, with demand across all programmes. They’ve even said that the increase in domestic funding will compensate for the loss of international fees.

There’s a particular policy that I am extremely proud of, which is the reintroduction of the training incentive allowance which came back into effect last week. I was student president at NMIT when the previous National Government cut the training incentive allowance in 2009. That cut took away hope for a number of current and future students. Our office had to support students who were told they weren’t eligible, when they were. The irony was that the Minister who cut the training incentive allowance used it twice when she was a sole parent, and then admitted she was wrong to cut it. On this side of the House, we don’t rip the ladder up after us.

Last week, I hosted Minister Sepuloni and Minister Nash in Nelson, and it was clear from the number of people we spoke to that the Nelson-Tasman region is in good heart. From the investment into training and jobs in our environment to the outstanding leadership shown by organisations like Wakatu Inc. and the intergenerational strategy and the Nelson Regional Development Agency and Chamber of Commerce’s work with councils and iwi to develop our economic blueprint for the region, Project Kōkiri, through to the world-leading research led by Nelson’s Cawthron Institute into algae research, we have the ideas and the people ready to make a significant difference to the Nelson-Tasman region. It is an exciting time to be part of a Government that is putting—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

E te Māngai, tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. While we’re all talking about beautiful electorates, I’d like to turn the House’s attention to Auckland Central, and to the Hauraki Gulf in particular, and ask that all eyes are on Pūtiki Bay, Kennedy Point. I think all of us in this House and many of those who are watching at home are probably aware of the fact that the law isn’t this thing that is deified, created by the gods. It isn’t this natural phenomena; the law is man-made. It is something that we here create in this House, and it is something that we often acknowledge we get wrong when we end up changing the law. That recognition of wrongdoing is often, actually, also reflected in the likes of Te Tiriti settlements.

That is why I, as Auckland Central MP, and the Greens are asking for all eyes on Pūtiki Bay. Five years ago, there was a resource consent granted for development of what is now known as Kennedy Point Marina. That development started a few months ago. Today and this past week, we have seen aggressions flaring. We have seen around that development that there has been an increase in the risk to the health and safety of occupiers and those working on the ground and the ancestral moana of Ngāti Pāoa around Waiheke Island. One can’t help but reflect on the kind of kōrero that we were having in this country nearly 20 years ago around the foreshore and seabed, where we heard from, particularly, conservative, separatist politicians who trotted out this line of “Iwi versus Kiwi”, which, might I add, is inherently ironic because the very word “Kiwi” is te reo Māori, and therefore an inherent recognition of the cultural value of Te Ao Māori and tikanga. But I digress.

It so clearly turns out inherently in this occupation at Pūtiki that it is iwi Māori who are doing the protection of our moana and our whenua for future generations. We’ve had leading kororā or little blue penguin expert Professor John Cockrem out on the island at Waiheke, who issued an interim report about a week ago asking for an immediate stopwork, and we expect that his final report will be issued shortly. But, in the meantime, he has made comments about concern that perhaps some of the 127 resource consent conditions may be being breached. Tomorrow, Ngati Paoa Trust Board will take their case for an urgent injunction on that basis. Multiple courts, I might add, had already to this point acknowledged that there has not been thorough engagement with iwi Māori when it comes to this development.

At moments like this in our history, in this ivory tower, it may seem miles away, that occupation that’s occurring at Pūtiki. But I think it is really important that we reflect on the unsanitised reality of activism and advocacy that protects these places and spaces for future generations.

In 1976, the Government at that point in time announced that it would be selling off Bastion Point in Auckland to the highest-bidding developer. Two days before the development was due to start, we saw Ōrākei Māori Committee Action Committee, led by Joe Hawke, begin an occupation. During the cold and the wet of winter, the crowds dwindled to a mere handful of people at that occupation, but whenever there was a threat by the Prime Minister at the time—Muldoon—we saw those crowds swell. We saw people turn up and turn out, and after 506 days, the Government of the time issued hundreds of police officers and the New Zealand Army to take away those occupiers and those protesters, and it arrested 222 people. But, 10 years thereafter, that land was returned through settlements to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, who, in turn, turned around and provided access to the people of Tāmaki Makaurau.

I just really want to the House to reflect on that, because, after putting their bodies on the line for a year and a half, after holding space and gathering some criminal convictions—

💬 Hon Paul Goldsmith: “Professor Swarbrick”.

CHLÖE SWARBRICK: Profit was never the point—Paul Goldsmith—but the point was to ensure that this space was available for all future generations. That is kaitiaki. That is koha. Honour Te Tiriti—protect Pūtiki.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a great day to be positive. It’s an excellent day to be positive, and although some “Bah, humbug!” started this debate earlier on, it’s a special treat to be here today in particular, because we got to see and we got to witness our colleague the formidable Kiritapu Allan doing what she does best in this House, and that’s brushing away any kind of negativity and just putting a smile on our face. So I thank her for that.

What Kiritapu also mentioned was the fact that we’re united and we’re focused. All of that positivity reminds me of a couple of my favourite things—namely, the beautiful Banks Peninsula electorate, and science and innovation. I like it even more so when I can combine the two things, as recently happened when Minister Megan Woods came down and recently confirmed a special joint venture between Kaitōrete Ltd, Taumutu Rūnanga, Wairewa Rūnanga, and the Crown: a space-launching site to be developed on Kaitōrete Spit, which will be supported by additional research and development facilities also.

Now, the project will create sustainable education and training opportunities and unlock jobs—good jobs, particularly in science and advanced manufacturing. An important focus of the joint venture is the protection and the rejuvenation of the cultural interests and the unique biodiversity of the area. It’s an incredibly exciting opportunity for the Banks Peninsula. The Māori Crown partnership has been hailed for its emphasis on co-design and co-development, and I’m very proud of it.

Speaking of biodiversity, the release of the Predator Free 2050 five-year progress report illustrates that New Zealand’s recovery extends well beyond just our strong economic performance. Becoming predator free by 2050 is an ambitious target, but it’s fantastic to see that pest suppression is exceeding the 2025 targets already. That statistic alone illustrates the hard work and commitment of all the people involved to date.

It would be remiss of me not to point out that Banks Peninsula was singled out in the report for its collaborative and local focus. The Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust was lauded for empowering locals to lead local conservation efforts for three decades, and Pest Free Banks Peninsula was held up as an example for its engagement efforts, particularly because it incorporated Ngāi Tahu principles into its strategy and partnered with locals to implement pest control measures. Again, that’s something I feel very proud of.

Talking of all of this science and innovation, R & D, science, and infrastructure, obviously, are significant priorities for this Labour Government, and the Scott Base Redevelopment combines all three of these. It’s not only of great benefit, really, to all of our scientific aspirations in Antarctica but it’s also of great benefit to the economy of the Mainland—particularly Canterbury—with 700 jobs expected to be created over six years. Christchurch is the gateway to Antarctica. The airport in Ilam provides aviation support, and the port of Lyttelton, as scenic as it is strategic, in the wonderful electorate of Banks Peninsula, provides a maritime base for all things Antarctic.

All of this positivity, and I also would like to acknowledge colleagues who have spoken before me, each one focusing on different areas that they think are important but each one never running out of positive things to say. It creates a little bit of warm and fuzzy, but it’s a timely reminder that many South Islanders woke up to snow last week. Even at the higher parts of my electorate, the Banks Peninsula electorate, had a little bit of a dusting. It’s a timely reminder that New Zealanders—particularly our most vulnerable—often require a little bit of extra help to keep their homes warm in the winter months. That’s exactly why this Labour Government is providing for that. Last year, we doubled the winter energy payment, and this year the payment is available again, and we’ve also committed to making 47,700 more Kiwi homes warmer and more energy efficient through our funding of insulation and heating retrofits as part of Budget 2021.

I’d like to thank all of my colleagues, as I said, for highlighting other important parts of this positive feel that we all have here today, and reiterate that we are united, we’re focused, and we’re making real progress for Kiwis.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. While everyone’s on the topic this afternoon of their favourite electorate, we can’t let this afternoon go by without mentioning the wonderful electorate of Taranaki - King Country. It is where a large percentage of our GDP comes from in terms of agriculture. But I can’t leave out Waitomo at this point in time, because, as a result of COVID, the tourism business there is very sad right now. I’m pleased for the New Zealanders who do support it when they can come to that beautiful part of the country.

There’s been a lot of talk about positivity on the other side of the House today, but all I can see from the angle that I look from is four years of failure, and four long years of failure. Because the only thing that this Government has delivered in its four years is bad legislation. I want to talk for a bit about rural, because I don’t think this Government cares about rural. In fact, in the main, I don’t honestly know that this Government even knows—and many of the Ministers—where rural is.

I want to quote a piece out of Minister Wood’s recent transport consultation discussion document: “good cycling networks can link rural neighbourhoods and destinations, serving both the community and the tourists.” That just gives me an indication that the Minister and his Government have no idea how rural New Zealand operates. Yes, we all like to go for a bike ride on a lovely sunny day. That’s fine. But thinking about rural communities going around their businesses on cycles—imagine a large bale. You know, this Government’s trying to take the services of people who have utes away in a large way. Let’s attack the ute owners. Let’s put everyone on bicycles and build some cycleways in New Zealand—that’ll work! Rural New Zealand will run really well on bicycles!

If it wasn’t bad enough, when the protest happened on the Auckland Harbour Bridge and the Government made that announcement about the Auckland cycling bridge, which has gone down like a lead balloon, it looked like a very strong reaction to a protest. Even being generous in my thoughts around this, if it had been planned for some time, it was a very tone-deaf announcement to do it at that time, when the Ashburton bridge was out because of floods, and people were struggling to get where they needed to go because of those awful floods that hit Canterbury.

So in terms of our rural roads, there are cones, cones, and more cones everywhere. But, sadly, we seem to be driving through cones, and the roads are not getting any better, because this Government’s solution to rural roads seems to be to slow them down—don’t fix them; slow them down.

Now, recently, we had what is normally the biggest agricultural event in the Southern Hemisphere. This year, Fieldays would have been probably the largest agricultural event in the world over a two-year period. And while trade is important, it was interesting that the Minister of Agriculture chose, at that time, to go overseas and do his trade talks. There must have been a window around which he could have done that, which didn’t include not coming to Fieldays. After all, if you were the agriculture and the rural communities Minister, would you not take the opportunity to go out and talk to farmers as much as possible? Unless, of course, one didn’t want to talk to farmers, and one didn’t want to front up to the announcement that this Government has made about utes, because, actually, utes were the talk of the Fieldays. It was really interesting that post-Fieldays, the Prime Minister actually had to go to Canterbury to front up for some extra funding for the flood, and who turned up in a ute but the Prime Minister? It’s just as well the Prime Minister did turn up in a ute, because had she not turned up in a four-wheel drive ute, she might have still been stuck and never made her way back to Parliament. So thank heavens for the ute.

Also thanks to Grant Robertson, who is one person, at least, over the other side of the House, that does get where the money is delivered from in this country. So we want to bring attention to rural. We want the Government to know where it is. It’s very important, because without rural—without agriculture—in this COVID environment, this country would be in a far worse state than it currently is. Thank you.

I rise as the final speaker in this general debate, to talk about the absolute proudly provincial, rural MPs that are on this side of the House. We are a very, very strong bunch. And I can tell you a really good reason about why these provincial regions are doing so well. It comes down to teamwork. It comes to strong working relationships, positive attitudes, drive, and passion for the region. Building partnerships: Labour Government with local and regional council, iwi and private sector, business, industry, and, of course, our people. We are all working together, striving for a strong economy locally and nationally.

As we do, I would like to take this opportunity first to acknowledge Rex Graham. Rex Graham is the outgoing Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chairman who resigned from his position in early June due to his cancer return. Rex has been described by former Tukituki MP Rick Barker as the “Best chairman [of the] regional council … in 30 years.” The biggest change Rex has brought about was a passion for building a strong relationship with mana whenua and his environmental efforts. Over the years, Rex and I have worked together supporting and opposing each other on local issues. We’ve had feisty conversations, but I know we have a mutual respect for each other. He works hard, he’s passionate, and Hawke’s Bay runs through his veins. And now his loyal deputy, Rick Barker, has stepped up to serve as chair of Hawke’s Bay Regional Council.

Leadership—this is what Hawke’s Bay is achieving by working together, uniting a region to grow and build a bright and sustainable future for all generations. When you look at the Tukituki electorate with Hastings at our heart, we know that, as we continue to build these excellent, strong working relationships, it’s absolutely critical to our ongoing success. It’s how we get things done.

We are in a transformational time, with our can-do attitude, entrepreneurial talent, leadership and innovation, growing jobs, and bringing our people with us. As the local MP for Hastings Tukituki electorate, I would like to report that our city and district is absolutely going for it. Hastings is becoming an absolute success story of the region. We are the engine room for Hawke’s Bay, and we were once called “The fruit bowl of New Zealand”; now we’re called “The food capital of this country”. And we are celebrating our success; working hard and building on our strengths. Record investment into local industry; leading locally and exporting to the world.

We’re creating a food innovation hub called foodeast, and this Government is getting right behind us, investing $12 million to help get this project under way. It will be the place of innovation and connection, designed to add value to our region’s food, beverage, and agritech businesses. We’re backing growers. We’re investing and growing jobs. We’ve got everything going in Hawke’s Bay—

💬 Shanan Halbert: Go Wattie’s.

—and that’s why—yes, that’s right. Let’s go Wattie’s. Thank you, Mr Shanan, over here, for saying that. He’s local too. He comes from Hawke’s Bay.

Now, this food innovation hub, this is forecast to add another $100 million to the region’s GPD and bring $100 million—yes—and 500 new full-time jobs to Hawke’s Bay over the next 15 years. All driven by local passion, innovation, entrepreneurship, working together, maximising every opportunity for Hawke’s Bay’s growth and productivity. And it shows a Government who’s prepared to work alongside, invest with locals, where we need it. This is real evidence of foundations for rebuilding our future. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.