General Debate

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

I want to start my comments today by reiterating something I said in the House yesterday about the people of particularly West Auckland who went through the traumatic events related to the terror attack at the LynnMall and the LynnMall Countdown. This, coming on top of being in alert level 4, will have added enormous stress to those communities. I want to say again, on behalf of the Government, that we express not only our sympathies to you, but ask that if there is any help or assistance that is required, particularly around issues to do with mental health, that people do reach out to the services we have. I in particular draw people’s attention to the 1737 service, which you can free text or call in order to get immediate access to speak to somebody who is a trained counsellor.

I also want today to thank the people of Auckland, again, for doing the heavy lifting for New Zealand in alert level 4. As we see alert level 2 roll out around the rest of the country, it can only be hard for those who are in Auckland to see that, and I want to send our thanks, our aroha, and our support to the people of Auckland for what they are doing.

The good news is that alert level 4 is working. We are seeing the number of cases each day steadily coming down, and with a Delta outbreak—the kind of outbreak which we have now, which is so much more transmissible than we have seen in earlier incarnations of the virus—that result is one that shows that having an alert level 4 in our system makes a big difference. So we are asking a lot of Aucklanders, but we also know that what they are doing is making a difference for all New Zealanders.

I also want to acknowledge that times are tough for some businesses, in particular in the Auckland region but also around New Zealand. That is why the Government has stepped up, once again, with the supports that we have—in particular through the wage subsidy scheme, and in total the two schemes have delivered over $1.5 billion of support to 371,224 organisations or individuals. In addition to that, the resurgence support payment has now dispersed over half a billion dollars to businesses around New Zealand. We recognise that these payments do not pay the whole wage bill. These payments do not meet every single cost, but they are the contribution that the Government can make on behalf of taxpayers to support businesses, to support employees to stay attached to those businesses, and to come out the other side of COVID-19.

We know this works. We know this approach works because it’s what we did in the first outbreak, and what we saw as we came out of that first outbreak was the rebound in the New Zealand economy. That means, unlike many other countries in the world, we saw ourselves back with a rate of economic growth comparable to what we had going into COVID-19.

We saw, and we have seen, unemployment peak at just over 5 percent and then settle at 4 percent—again, the rate it was before COVID-19. All of that has been as a result of the fact that New Zealand has been able to stamp out COVID-19 and live lives of normality that other countries are only just now contemplating going into. We have had that period of time where we have been able to operate with relative levels of freedom and with relative levels of economic prosperity that are high compared to the rest of the world. It is that that we are striving for again—to make sure that we get on top of this outbreak and get ourselves back to a stage where businesses can operate and where people and communities can go about what they need to do. It’s tough. It’s hard out there for many businesses.

As the Prime Minister said in the House today, we continue to consider what further support we can provide. For those in the community who are struggling themselves, there are support services available. Please get in touch with Work and Income. Work and Income is processing quickly applications for hardship grants and food support. We’re working in combination with Whānau Ora providers, with Pasifika health and community providers, to make sure that that support reaches the people who are in need.

Fundamentally, we knew from day one in this outbreak that the best economic response is a strong public health response. New Zealand has benefited from that over the last 18 months and I am confident we will do so again. Economic forecasters from banks around New Zealand are expecting that we will see a significant dip in GDP in the September quarter, given the circumstances we’re going through. But they then are forecasting the same kind of rebound that we saw in the wake of the first round of COVID-19 in New Zealand, and that is because the fundamentals of the New Zealand economy are strong. Our businesses are resilient no matter how tough these times are, and the Government is stepping up alongside, once again, to provide the supports that we need to make sure our economy and our society gets through this.

Just today, the Minister of Education has announced further support for hardship funds for students to make sure that any students who are struggling through this period of time can be supported, and they need to contact their tertiary provider. That additional $20 million comes on top of, I think, $30 million that has already been provided through those hardship funds. That is a recognition that for some students, they will find themselves particularly challenged by this situation. I would also remind those who are in that position that employers can apply for casual workers under the wage subsidy. Many students are casual workers, and there is support available if employers are prepared to apply on behalf of those casual workers through that scheme.

The Government continues to stand ready to support New Zealanders through COVID-19, and again, I particularly thank the people of Auckland for the hard work that they are doing on our behalf.

I’d like to begin today with a few shout-outs, and the first, of course, is to the people in Auckland. While the rest of New Zealand woke up this morning to alert level 2, Auckland, of course, remains at alert level 4. I want to acknowledge that through our response to COVID-19, Aucklanders have done an awful lot of the heavy lifting. Auckland, and South Auckland in particular, are, of course, the gateway to New Zealand for most international arrivals, and in the good times that is good for Auckland and they do well out of that. But with regard to COVID-19, it has meant that they are at the front line of our COVID-19 response, and they’ve shouldered a disproportionate burden of the restrictions that have been put in place.

I particularly want to acknowledge everybody who’s stayed at home, who has followed all of the rules, who has done what we have asked of them, and has helped us to stamp out the virus from our community. Nobody wants to see COVID-19 taking off across the country in New Zealand, and we are all in debt to the people of Auckland for the sacrifices they are making to ensure that that doesn’t happen. So thank you to everyone in Auckland.

Thank you in particular to our managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) workers. This is one of the most scrutinised workforces in the country at the current point in time, but the recent survey results that I released this morning show that the people who are coming through our managed isolation and quarantine facilities—and bear in mind we’re talking about around 170,000 people coming into New Zealand through that pathway—have had a very positive experience. They found MIQ to be a very caring place where they are well looked after, and they found it overall a positive experience. I acknowledge that that’s a real accomplishment for our MIQ workforce, because no one particularly likes to be cooped up for two weeks in a hotel room, only able to get out and get fresh air when you are particularly given an allotted time to do that, and only being able to access a very limited range of services from the outside world. So, again, my thankyou to all those who have gone through MIQ, who have followed the rules, and who have behaved towards our MIQ staff with respect.

A particular thanks to our MIQ staff for the contribution that they are making. I know that that has not been without cost for them, and some of them have found some of that quite difficult—some of the personal reflections upon them, they’ve found quite difficult. So I acknowledge the sacrifices that they have been making, and I thank them.

I want to thank our vaccination workforce. Our vaccination programme has perhaps been one of the most scrutinised roll-outs of any programme across Government in recent times. I’ve confidently seen predictions from people that said that the National Immunisation Register was going to be a failure, and it has been a great success. I saw confident predictions that the booking system would be a failure, and it has been a great success. I saw confident predictions that the inventory management system was going to be a failure, and in fact it’s worked so well that we have one of the lowest vaccine wastage rates of any country in the world. As recently as a few weeks ago, there were confident predictions, including by a few members opposite, that we would fail to achieve 50,000 vaccinations a day, which was the target we were aiming for. Not only have we achieved that; we’ve done well above that.

The team who have been working at the front line, despite the fact that they have had people hurling abuse at them, particularly from the members opposite, since before they even started doing the vaccination campaign—we owe them a great degree of thanks. They have exceeded expectations. They have ensured that the vaccine experience is a positive experience for New Zealanders, and they deserve a huge amount of acknowledgment. The team that have built the systems around that deserve credit for building that system almost from scratch and having a system that has operated and provided a very positive vaccination experience to the 2.6 million New Zealanders, I think it is, at last count, who have already had at least one dose of the vaccine.

Four million doses of the vaccine have been delivered so far. The quantities continue to go out at a much higher rate than we had ever envisaged was going to happen, and members opposite said it was never going to be possible. In fact, the people who are doing this work have exceeded expectations, and they deserve full thanks. So to everybody involved in the vaccination campaign, I want to say thank you. They have done sterling work. The criticism that has been levelled at them regularly since before the campaign even started has been wrong. They’ve proven it to be wrong, and they deserve to hold their heads high, knowing that they have delivered an exceptionally successful vaccine roll-out to date, and I know that they’re going to keep doing that.

I now know why we have been caught unprepared for the Delta outbreak. I now know why we have 30,000 people on overdue waiting lists. I now know why we have nursing shortages and pay freezes, and it is revealed in this Treasury document to Andrew Little released a few weeks ago that talks about this year’s health budget. The Treasury document from Treasury to Andrew Little states that the priority for health funding in Budget 2021 is ensuring that the health and disability system has resources. I want to repeat that: the priority for health funding in 2021 is ensuring that the health and disability system—the reforms—have resources. That is why we have been unprepared and where we are today.

The document goes on to say not to increase the minimal viable package for DHBs. It then goes on to say all manifesto commitments that are not highly time sensitive should be deferred in the future. That’s where the 20 mobile dental clinics that were promised this year have gone.

We don’t have enough ICU specialists because this Government made health restructuring the funding priority. We are building negative pressure rooms in the middle of a pandemic because this Government made health restructuring the funding priority. There are not enough nurses because this Government made health restructuring the funding priority. There are 30,000 people on overdue waiting lists because this Government made health restructuring the funding priority. People have been delayed their cancer treatment because this Government has made health restructuring the funding priority. There is no money for Pharmac cancer medicines because this Government has made health restructuring the funding priority. This Government has put all its money on a Hail Mary pass that is health restructuring, and while they’ve been distracted, we have caught coronavirus.

There are actually two answers to why we’re in the situation we are today. The first is that the Government didn’t secure the border and let Delta in. The second is that they have made health restructuring the funding priority. They have squandered money.

Squandered money—and now I want to talk about squandered time. Delta arrived in New Zealand in April this year—five months ago—and from then to now, this Government has squandered the time and we were unprepared. They were too interested in cycle bridges and Mongrel Mob methamphetamine programmes and health restructuring to protect us from Delta. In June, the Government’s own independent Roche report into the Valentine’s Day outbreak made several recommendations, including these three: one, immediately remove the “plus” classification for close and casual contacts because they are too confusing—immediately. What has happened? Have they been removed? No. In fact, another criterion has been added called “high risk”. Immediately in June was what the recommendations were. Not carried out—fail. Second, they were told to increase the number of people at the Auckland Regional Public Health Service by 25 fulltime-equivalents. I challenge the Government to say whether they have done this. Thirdly, the Roche report said increased system capacity and resourcing for an outbreak. The time frame was three months. That three months has passed—clearly a fail.

I want to move to vaccine targets. The Government won’t set a vaccination target, despite many other countries doing so. The Minister for COVID-19 Response tried to take us to task last week for suggesting a 70 percent minimum level might be suitable, saying that we were permissioning the other 30 percent not to have their vaccines. That a fallacious argument. They are target deniers.

I challenge everyone to go to the Ministry of Health web space right now and look up the flu vaccine, and here’s what you’ll see: the goals of the 2021 influenza immunisation programme are to vaccinate 75 percent of the population aged 65 and over. That looks awfully like a target to me for another airborne infectious disease, but it actually gets better. The goal is to improve influenza immunisation uptake for healthcare workers—vaccinate at least 80 percent of DHB healthcare workers. That looks awfully like a health target to me, and yet the Government is saying we won’t set targets for vaccines because the 70 percent you’re suggesting permissions the other 30 percent.

So I’d suggest to the Government, I challenge the Minister and the Prime Minister: come down and say their target of 75 percent to vaccinate for flu those over 65—are they permissioning the other 25 percent not to have the flu vaccine? Are they permissioning the other 20 percent of healthcare workers not to have the flu vaccine? Of course not. That’s a farcical argument and they are simply target deniers. They need to set a target where New Zealand can anticipate we might relax or better understand what the future looks like. Target deniers are what this Government is.

As I so often am when that member Shane Reti resumes his seat, I am completely confused. Now, is that member complaining that we set targets or that we don’t set targets, because I’m just a little bit confused about why he offers examples of both. But what I’m even more confused about is why he, of all members of this House, would want to enter into an argument about comparative funding of the health system between two Governments. If you want to have a look at that member’s party in Government and funding health, it is an absolute disgrace. Barely $1 billion over nine years was put into new facilities and IT for the health system. No wonder why there are buildings now, including in the electorate that that member used to represent, that are literally falling down around health workers’ ears, and an IT system that is struggling to keep up. This Government, on the other hand, in less than four years has committed more than $5.5 billion just in that period alone in new buildings and IT.

Look what they did with mental health: nine years of sheer and utter neglect. They just did not listen to a single New Zealand citizen about the problems with mental health. Not like this Government. We went out there and we listened and we made the investments, and they are yielding good benefits right now.

But I want to take the opportunity now to acknowledge, actually, the healthcare workers of this country, because they are doing an absolutely tremendous job. They have inherited the legacy of the previous Government’s frankly criminal underfunding of the health system. They are wearing the cost of it, and we are doing the best we can to support them for it, but I want to acknowledge right across the health system, right across the motu, the work that our healthcare workers do. Right now in Auckland, of course, they are really under the pump. It is really in Auckland that has been the focus of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreaks for the last 18 months. It’s the Auckland health system that has borne the brunt of that, and Auckland healthcare workers. I hear them when they say it is really tough. It’s not acceptable that so many healthcare workers, when they finish their shift, finish fatigued, exhausted, sometimes distressed and reluctant to come back to work the next day. We are addressing that. There are a number of issues we need to do to address that, but I want to acknowledge that, because it’s their work they do day in, day out. All those healthcare workers at the Auckland metro hospitals Waitematā and Counties Manukau, and at the Auckland District Health Board are the ones who every day know and have to shoulder the risk of COVID-19 in their workplaces, and they’re doing a tremendous job.

So when we have incidents like the one we did have at Middlemore Hospital on the weekend, let’s just understand that particularly at Middlemore Hospital, where they have two COVID wards and where they have treated the largest number of COVID patients in the last 18 months, they know about infection prevention and control. They know what measures are needed. They make those clinical judgments day in, day out, dealing with the hundreds of patients who turn up there. They exercised their judgment on the best information they had on Saturday and Sunday in the weekend just gone. This is a system under pressure, but it is a system under greater pressure because we are still trying to catch up with the years of under-investment.

On the issues of workforce, I’m pleased to report to this House that the negotiations with the nurses on pay equity are now under way, because we know that that is a significant issue nurses have been talking about for many, many years. Actually, it’s been an issue for generations, and this is a Government that is getting on and dealing with it, working with nurses and their representatives to do that. We are working with nurses on reviewing the Safer Staffing Accord that we entered into, lifting numbers so that nurses knew that when they turned up to work, knew that when they were working their shifts they would have the cover and the support that they need. It isn’t working everywhere, and some DHBs have been remiss in not completing the roll-out of it. We need to know why. We need to know what more needs to be done so that working in our hospitals as a nurse is a safe place to be.

We need to continue to work with other clinicians and fill the gaps that we know are there for those other senior clinical roles. We need to work on the long-term issue of developing that future pipeline of health talent. We know that it is there. One of the great benefits of Health NZ, when we come to implement that—and I know Dr Reti is not a fan of it, but, actually, in every meeting I go to with health workers and senior clinicians, they all say, “Can we just have it quickly? Can you bring it on, because this is going to offer us great benefits.” One of the benefits it will offer us is the means and the scope and the heft to actually do that long-term workforce planning, engage with the colleges, engage with the other professional organisations, engage with the training organisations so we can actually start planning in the long term for where we’re going to get that future workforce from.

I salute the New Zealand health system workforce. They are doing a tremendous job under difficult circumstances, and we will continue to work with them to have their back.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. I do want to acknowledge that pretty much everyone in Aotearoa’s mind right now is on the COVID-19 outbreak and the pandemic, and that makes absolute sense. But we also have to consider that climate change is a problem that is not going away, and now is the time that we have to be taking action—not only to keep ourselves safe in the pandemic but to respond to this absolutely urgent climate crisis that is only getting worse year by year.

Yesterday, the Government announced the next three years of spending in the National Land Transport Plan, which is the Government’s budget for transport, excluding things like the New Zealand Upgrade Programme, and excluding the COVID recovery fund. Now, the vision is good. What they want to achieve is good. We want a transport system that enables people and goods to move around New Zealand in a climate-friendly way, and there are opportunities to do that in a way that improves public health and that makes our streets more lively and lovely and safe so that our kids are free and independent to explore their own neighbourhoods, to get around under their own steam.

We have the opportunity to give people and businesses in New Zealand real options, so that they aren’t locked into using a car for every single trip they need to make. The opportunities there are that that’s better for the climate but also that that costs them less. We have a transport system that at the moment where Government, if it’s only investing in roads, it means that people have to have a car to get around, and they have to spend a lot of money on a car. They’ve got to spend a lot of money on fuel, and we have to use up a whole lot of land in our urban areas to park the cars, three-quarters of which is empty at any given time.

So the announcement yesterday from the Government: while it tried to signal a big change in direction and a real commitment to giving people those options and taking action on the climate crisis, unfortunately, it is really not the transformation that we need. If we look at the percentages, a billion dollars over three years is to be spent on active transport improvements. That is a huge increase on previous years, but it’s still insufficient. It is less than 4 percent of the transport budget.

The Road to Zero safety improvements—I’m very proud of those—are $3 billion. That’s 12.5 percent of the budget, and absolutely that needs to happen. There’s $7.2 billion on operations and maintenance of our network—that’s walking, cycling, local roads, regional roads, and State highways. That’s about 30 percent of the budget. Of course we have to continue—that’s a huge amount of money. That’s the amount that we have to spend just to maintain the network that we currently have. But, unfortunately, public transport, at $2.3 billion for infrastructure—that’s less than 10 percent of the budget. Compare that with local, regional, and State highway new roads, which is $6.6 billion, or nearly 30 percent of the budget—that’s 27.5 percent of the budget.

Now, ultimately, adding new roads to our existing road network doesn’t solve our problem with congestion; it adds to it. If we plan all of our new housing just around highways, then the people who live in those new housing developments are going to be stuck in their cars, getting on the existing network, making traffic worse, increasing emissions, increasing cost. So while it absolutely makes sense that a huge percentage should be spent on safety and maintenance of our existing road network, it doesn’t make sense that we should be spending so much more on new roads rather than on new public transport, new active transport, and new rail, which would actually give people and businesses the option to use something different.

Climate-friendly transport options in this are less than 25 percent of the budget. They’re less. They’re less—they’re a minority of the new capital spending. If we break this down by new capital spending—new projects—59 percent of that is on new roads. So it’s simply not going to make the difference, and I’ve heard lots of Opposition members saying, “Oh, tradies can’t use bikes or public transport.” No one is saying they should. If you look around at peak time, at a congested time, the majority of cars will have one person in them. They won’t be moving heavy equipment. Those are the opportunities we have to improve our existing road network for those who need to use cars and trucks.

When we give people real options, we know they use it. They’ve done it in Auckland. We had very high public transport patronage in Wellington before the last Government. The last National Government screwed everything up, which it’s going to take some years to fix, unfortunately.

Ultimately, what’s good for people, what’s good for the planet, is also good for the economy, and this is an area where there shouldn’t be any right-left debate. The Green vision makes the most sense. That’s what we want to see.

Mālō e lelei, Mr Speaker. Can I please start my contribution by acknowledging the community of West Auckland after the attack of last Friday. It was a horrific and horrendous attack, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families and the community, and the emergency service workers who attended to that incident last Friday afternoon. As the Prime Minister has said on Friday and in subsequent opportunities, in terms of an immigration sense, and, as the Minister of Immigration, I say that everything was done, every possibility was looked at, in order to try and detain and deport the individual, but that was frustrated by the process around the appeal of his refugee status. Again, I would like to reinforce the message that the Deputy Prime Minister gave, which was that if anyone from that community or from the whānau and friends of victims needs support, there is support available. He mentioned the 1737 line and also Victim Support. So I would reiterate that that support is there for those who may still be feeling the effects of the events of last Friday.

Can I also acknowledge, as many have, everyone in New Zealand who has pulled together, again, over three difficult weeks to get us to the point where we are. Many colleagues have acknowledged the people of Auckland, who are still living in alert level 4 and bearing the burden of staying home as many other New Zealanders are able to venture out into level 2. Again, to our friends and whānau in Auckland, we thank you for the continued efforts to make sure that we are collectively safe from the ravages of the Delta virus. Can I also acknowledge all those who have worked tirelessly in Auckland, as we speak to them sometimes on a daily basis—the likes of the Auckland Regional Public Health Service and all the health workers who are working extremely hard to make sure that we can contain those numbers.

We are heading in the right direction, and the evidence of that is being seen, because the number of cases is dropping dramatically, and the likes of the number of vaccines that are being administered to New Zealanders is rising rapidly. As the Minister for COVID-19 Response, my colleague Chris Hipkins, mentioned earlier in the general debate, I think it’s just a little over four million doses of the COVID vaccine that have now been administered. I believe, I think, the number was about a little over 2.5 million first doses to New Zealanders in a very short amount of time, and we want to thank everyone who has been contributing to that effort to get New Zealanders vaccinated.

Last night, I saw on Seven Sharp a lovely story about a vaccination centre being run close to Auckland Airport, and it wasn’t just those people who were administering the vaccine who were being hailed as heroes; it was also the people doing the administration, the crowd control, and the car control around that testing station who were making sure that the people who were getting that vaccine in a difficult time were experiencing it in a way that took away the stress of the experience of having to line up and wait. For some of those people getting vaccinated, it was about making sure that they were keeping the kids who were in the back of the car happy, and it’s all those kinds of things that I think are making sure that New Zealanders are taking up the vaccine and having a good experience doing it. So can I take my hat off to all those workers, from the people who meet people at the front gate all the way through to the people who are actually injecting the COVID vaccine into New Zealanders.

Can I also acknowledge all the other people who have worked through alert level 4 settings in the past. It’s the likes of our supermarket workers, who, when we go to alert level 4, have to make sure that we are fed and watered and still continue to work, and I think we shouldn’t underestimate how much more difficult that has been under this level 4, with Delta—and also, as many have said, our health workers, as well. We’ve spoken a lot about those who are working within the COVID vaccine roll-out, but there are also the GPs’ practices that continue to work to make sure that the rather mundane things that get dealt with in alert level 1 continue to get dealt with in alert level 4. I had to go to the GP at alert level 4, and, again, it was a different experience, but, again, it was welcoming for them. So I would like to take my hat off to everyone—

💬 Dr Shane Reti: Pharmacies—shout out to them.

All of those—pharmacies, etc. I’m not sure if I’ve got enough time in my five minutes, but I take my hat off because New Zealanders have again stood up to make sure that we can get through this, and it’s early days yet, but the indications are that we are.

I too would like to join others in thanking our essential workers and all those who have laboured during the level 4 and level 3 restrictions to keep important services going—in particular, the people that went to service stations, and who are working in dairies and in our supermarkets to make sure that the food was there for people to buy and to be fed. A particular heartfelt thanks to all of the nurses and others in the vaccinations centres that have done more than has been asked of them to make sure that New Zealanders could get the vaccinations that they need. I also want to recognise New Zealanders who have sacrificed, done everything this Government has asked of them over the last three weeks, in their homes, with their businesses closed, not going to work, unsure of how long they would be there for. It’s important we recognise that Kiwis, again, have done what the Government has asked of them for the good of all other New Zealanders.

I also want to be very clear there is only one reason that New Zealanders have been asked to sacrifice again, and that’s because of another failure in a system that is meant to keep them safe. That failure this time was not at the border, or it was not at a washing facility to do with the airport; it was at a managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facility in Auckland. I read in the newspaper today that the Government has said, after an exhausting search, they have not been able to find how this got out of MIQ. They know that it did. It didn’t just come over the border from Australia. It was in MIQ—the place, actually, that has been set up to make sure that those who return to New Zealand, who have a right to come back here, actually are free of COVID before they come into the community.

It’s also because of the very slow roll-out of the vaccine. I’m very pleased that actually the Government is about to announce that they have borrowed—they have borrowed—vaccines from other countries so that every New Zealander that wants to be vaccinated can be vaccinated as quickly as they need to be, because there is only one way to make sure New Zealanders are safe, and there is only one way to make sure we don’t have the same wide-ranging restrictions of a level 4 or level 3 lockdown: it is to vaccinate New Zealanders. It has come too slowly and there have been too many excuses.

My responsibilities in this Parliament, as well as to the electorate of Rotorua, are for economic development and small business. Today, businesses continue to do it hard in every part of New Zealand. You see, for everywhere but Auckland, we have had two weeks of level 4 and one week of level 3, and now there’s new level 2 with additional restrictions, where businesses have not been able to trade. They have taken on debt. You have mums and dads who live in our community, that go to work every day, and they go to work to be able to earn a living, to employ others, to provide for their children. They pay all other bills before they pay themselves, and they’ve had to borrow against their houses to get through. In Auckland, they’re into now their fourth week of level 4, with a number of weeks yet to go.

These are hard-working businesses that need help, and the help, whilst there, has in many cases not been fast enough. For Auckland, we feel for them, but it’s not enough for the Government to say, “We feel for them.” A week ago in this Parliament, I asked the Minister of Finance if he would join with us to look at rental support for businesses that are affected because of COVID in level 4 and level 3, and now I ask again in level 2. He said at the time that he would look at it. Sadly, a week later, there is no announcement from the Government, other than the resurgence payment, which is a one-off payment that was there to help for that. Last week, the resurgence payment helped with last week’s rent, but the rent is due again this week and next week, and those bills are piling up.

These business people need the help of the Government throughout the country today. A year and a half ago, in the first lockdown, we made the case for rental support for small businesses and landlords—many of them small businesses themselves. There was no support from the Government, other than an announcement of arbitration services, and there are still no arbitrators, because they couldn’t get them. It wasn’t in place. These businesses have continued to build up debt. They haven’t been able to trade their way out of that debt. The harm was done to them in the last lockdown of last year, or the subsequent restrictions in Auckland, when there was more restrictions put in place because of lapses around MIQ at the border. They desperately need that help today.

When you have in Auckland and other parts of the country hospitality businesses saying they will not pay their GST unless they get help, it’s not because they don’t want to pay their tax—they are taxpayers—it’s because it is a plea to the Government for help before their businesses close. I make this plea to the Government again on behalf of these businesses, who are doing everything asked of them: they need support with rent and other support if you still want them to be there once they come out of the level 2 lockdown.

Mr Speaker, tēnā koe otirā ki a koutou i raro i tēnei tuanui i tēnei ahiahi. Ka nui aku mihi ki a koutou mō tēnei wā o te Mahuru Māori. Tuatahi, ka whiu atu i ōku nei whakaaro ki ngā whānau, hapū, kaimahi, ringa raupā i ngā whānau, hapū katoa kei roto i a Aotearoa i tēnei wā.

Tuarua, ka huri ōku nei whakaaro ki ngā tāngata ki Tāmaki-makau-rau i tēnei wā, ki a koutou e noho haumaru ana i te kāinga mō tēnei wā o te taumata tuawhā. Me titiro mātou ki a koutou i tēnei wā. Ka nui aku mihi ki a koutou mō tō koutou kaha i tēnei wā.

Heoi anō e, me whiu anō i ōku nei whakaaro ki a rātou ki Tāmaki-makau-rau. Kua haramai te ua i te tīmata o te wiki kua eke nei. Kua haramai te waipuketanga. E 78 ngā whānau e kore e hoki ki ō rātou kāinga i tēnei wā. Heoi anō kei a koutou ki Tāmaki-makau-rau i tēnei wā kua kitea e mātou tō koutou kaha i ērā atu wā e tino taumaha, he wā tino taumaha ki a koutou.

[Mr Speaker, greetings to you and to everyone in the House this afternoon. I greet you all during Mahuru Māori. Firstly, my thoughts go out to the families, the subtribes, the workers, the hard workers in all the families and subtribes of Aotearoa at this time.

Secondly, my thoughts turn to the people of Auckland at the moment, to all of you staying safely at home at this time in level 4. We must look to you at this time. I thank you for your strength in the current circumstances.

Again, my thoughts take me to those in Auckland. The rains came at the beginning of the past week causing flooding. There are 78 families unable to return to their homes at the moment. And so, to those of you in Auckland right now, we have seen your strength at other times when you have found yourselves in difficult circumstances.]

I’d like to reiterate the comments of those within this House this afternoon who have started our contributions this afternoon by turning our thoughts to those that are in Tāmaki-makau-rau at this time. Whilst we have, I guess, the liberated freedoms to be here in level 2, our friends and our relations that are doing the heavy lifting for us in Auckland have had to undergo a fair bit in the last week or so. Of course, there was the traumatic time on Friday as those that went to do their shopping had to endure the attack, the unreasonable and irrational attack of hatred, on Friday at the West Auckland mall.

I also too want to acknowledge the 78 families that have been displaced from their homes as a consequence of the flooding just at the outset of the week last week in Auckland. Ordinarily, that would’ve probably preoccupied a lot of the nation’s attention because it was quite a significant event: 78 people out of their homes, either red-stickered or yellow-stickered. I want to acknowledge all of the emergency management teams that have wrapped around those families and will continue to wrap around those families for some time as a consequence of that flooding event.

So, the terrorism, the flooding, and those families that are still in alert level 4—I want to reiterate the commendation of my colleague Minister Little, who recognised and said in this House that the number to call or text for those that need it is 1737, if people are feeling like they need to turn to somebody to have a little talk to.

As we turn as a nation to how we can turn away and come out of the alert level 4 that our friends in Auckland are in, and as those of us in the rest of the country are now enjoying some more freedoms at alert level 2, we know that a fundamental component to turning the tide in terms of our country’s response is ensuring that we get our vaccination rates up. So I want to acknowledge those front-line workers: the vaccinators, the nurses, all of those that are wearing the complete regalia as they entertain us, as they make us feel safe, as they make us feel calm as we go through those vaccination stations. To date, 2.3 million New Zealanders are completely vaccinated—what an immeasurable effort that those at the front line have undertaken. Over 3.5 million doses have been administered throughout the country. Last week, over half a million doses were administered, and I can’t but thank those that were on the front line doing that.

But there are a lot more vaccination rates that need to be lifted. I just want to give a little pop shot to my mate David Seymour—maybe we should see less of those actions trying to takahi on the mana of those trying to get those vaccination rates up. Tēnā koe.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is good to have our Parliament back. To see the people in Government standing on the same carpet as the rest of the Parliament, so that not only the people that have voted for them but all New Zealanders can see their representatives asking questions and sometimes getting answers, is what democratic accountability is all about.

We’ve heard just today that the Government does not know what went on in Middlemore Hospital. They’ve believed the officials that told them it was all ka pai, but they don’t believe the patients who tell them the person was clearly symptomatic.

We’ve heard from people representing businesses up and down this country who are running out of working capital. Having borrowed to get through the last lockdown, they may not get through this one to be there for the recovery, and we’ve heard that the Government is “under consideration” when it comes to extending the resurgence payment for those businesses that are really under pressure, and those business owners have borrowed against their house in order to get this far.

Then we heard that the Government only started taking advice about saliva testing at the border a few weeks ago. They had 18 months—now, the Speaker’s asking Kiritapu Allan if she could put her mask on, I think. Only a few months ago, or a few weeks ago, in fact, the Government started to think about what it might take for saliva testing at the border—only a few weeks ago. They had 18 months—the world’s longest nap. People are enormously frustrated at a Government that had so much time, did so little, and pursued so many other avenues during that time. We’ve heard in questions from Shane Reti about what the Government was doing. It was focused on its restructuring of the healthcare system in the middle of a crisis.

It’s good to have our Parliament back, and we’re going to need representative democracy to solve a lot more problems. This Government was elected on fixing housing. It was elected where there was a real problem with educational inequality and underachievement by all New Zealand students, with our scores going down against our competitors around the world every time there’s an international test for 20 years. That contributes to a major problem with productivity, and low productivity means that we can’t afford the things that people come to the steps of this Parliament and ask for, such as pharmaceuticals for patients in high need.

How has the Government gone on those challenges? Well, about as well as it’s gone in being prepared for a COVID outbreak. Did people hear—this is why it’s so good to have Parliament back—how the Minister for COVID-19 Response really thinks about this issue? If anyone criticises his response, apparently we’re criticising the workers. No, we’re not. We’ve never criticised the hard-working doctors and nurses and essential workers that have saved the Government’s bacon time and again through this COVID saga. But the Minister is now so defensive when he’s dragged down on to the floor of this House like every other representative of every other New Zealander—we get to see their true colours.

We’re going to need to solve these problems of productivity growth, of housing supply, and of declining educational achievement and even educational attendance. Those are the kinds of challenges that New Zealand needs positive, practical solutions for in the months and years to come, and isn’t it great to live in a democracy where every person can elect a representative of their choice—sometimes different from mine—to go and speak for them and ask questions on the floor of this House? That gives me hope that our little country can work through its differences and overcome its challenges. What a wonderful day to live in a parliamentary democracy. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

E te Māngai, tēnā koutou katoa, he mihi mahana ki a koutou.

[Mr Speaker, greetings everyone, warm greetings to you all.]

I’d like to take the opportunity of stating that these are indeed hard times for New Zealand and New Zealanders, but we have never seen us working together as we are right now. That working together comes in many different forms, with people playing their part in different ways. Whether that’s going to get your vaccination, whether that means staying home, whether that means being an essential worker, everyone in New Zealand is currently doing their part, and what we are seeing is community and Government working hand in glove, working closer than we’ve ever seen before, to make sure that the needs of people are met and to make sure that the mahi gets done where it has to be.

I’d like to mention, up front, Auckland right now, Auckland at the front line of our COVID response, and Auckland which has been doing the heavy lifting as part of our response to COVID-19. I’d like to acknowledge that it’s difficult for families who remain in level 4 right now. I can tell you myself that trying in a day to complete home-school learning, cooking, cleaning, working from home, and keeping the household running is no easy feat, either time management - wise, physically, or mentally, and I’d like to acknowledge all of those parents and families in Auckland who continue to do that hard work every single day.

But it’s even harder on New Zealand businesses, and at that point I think it’s important to acknowledge not only all those businesses in level 4 in Auckland but all of those in level 2, such as hospitality, who continue to have to operate but with limited capacity. Again, we have the Government working closely with our community to make sure needs are met when we need them to be. The wage subsidy has been a lifeline, as it was in our previous lockdown, as it is now. I’d like to take the opportunity to make it clear that those businesses outside of level 4 are still eligible to receive the wage subsidy. I know there have been questions in my own area, but just if Wellington region is in level 2, if businesses are able to demonstrate that 40 percent decrease in revenue, they are still eligible for the wage subsidy, and should continue to apply. The resurgence support payment is also in place, and that enables those who have shown a 30 percent decrease in revenue to also receive additional support. On top of that we have the Leave Support Scheme, and also the COVID-19 Short-Term Absence Payment, to help businesses keep running and to keep staff being paid when they need to be.

But where there are still gaps—where there are still gaps in our community that need to be filled—what heartens me the most is how we have networks of people coming together to make sure families are fed, and that’s where I see the real community work being done on a daily basis. Back on 28 August, we saw that the Minister for Social Development and Employment, Carmel Sepuloni, announced a $7 million boost for strengthening food security networks right across the country under level 4. The extra funding helped to distribute food for another 60,000 food parcels and 10,000 wellbeing packets, and those providers and those community networks helped to distribute those to where the need was met.

It was really important to see that lessons were learnt off the back of our last lockdown. Those community groups, whether they be marae, Salvation Army, community providers, or food banks, they had established food networks and worked together in order to distribute to those families where they needed it, and they knew where their people were. So it’s been heartening to see in the Hutt Valley, where I see Kōkiri Marae, we’ve seen Ōrongomai Marae, we’ve seen the Salvation Army, we’ve seen the Lower Hutt food bank, and also fantastic work done by Common Unity in Waiwhetū—the work that they do to provide packages and get those out to people in need. It’s important to note too that we still have families in emergency housing, those in facilities where they do not have cooking abilities, at times, so having those community groups who prepare food and bring it out to people enables families to continue to be fed at times when it’s uncertain what the levels will continue to be.

It is a hard time for New Zealand, but I’m heartened by the level of close community work, hand in hand with the Government, to make sure our people are looked after, to make sure businesses are receiving the support that they need to keep going, and to make sure that people continue to be vaccinated, because that is our way forward from here. Tēnā koutou katoa.

Mr Speaker, thank you very much. Can I first acknowledge the hundreds of thousands of parents around the country who are breathing a sigh of relief that schools will open tomorrow. They’re looking forward to their kids getting back into school.

💬 SPEAKER: Some schools.

Some schools, they are. But there are still hundreds of thousands of parents who are breathing a sigh of relief, and, as you say, Mr Speaker, I also want to acknowledge those still in lockdown and the stress and the anxiety of being in lockdown for an extended period. Research does show that there are elevated levels of distress the longer someone is in lockdown.

Can I also acknowledge our hard-working small business operators and our tourism operators. Recent research in New Zealand showed that 50 percent of our small-business operators had identified mental health concerns, as did 35 percent of our tourism operators, and, of course, I’d like to acknowledge our very hard-working and committed mental health workforce that even through the lockdown is going in and every day providing valuable support, treatment, and therapy to some of our most vulnerable New Zealanders.

So what is stress? Well, for me it’s the ability or inability to deal with the stress and anxiety in your life. Mental health is how you cope with those stresses. Some people have the resilience and some people don’t. So what has this Government done for the last year in mental health since the last lockdown? One thing I can point to is the very well-known and proven All Right? campaign that led a mental health promotion campaign in Canterbury after the earthquakes and was funded to deliver a nationwide mental health promotion campaign in the last lockdown over a year ago. Their funding was cancelled this year, in July.

It is interesting that in response to parliamentary questions the Minister of Health believed that wellbeing had dipped slightly during March and April 2020 in alert level 4 but quickly recovered as alert levels decreased and then returned to pre-COVID levels. Maybe that’s the reason why we haven’t had any increase in mental health support since the lockdown in 2020. Yet the research by Dr Susanna Every-Palmer from Otago University showed that we have still an escalated level of emotional distress in the community even when lockdown levels were reduced and restrictions in place were taken away.

We still have an extremely high level of emotional distress in the community, and the Government comes out in the last 10 days and announces $1 million for young people in Auckland. Well, granted, that’s OK—$1 million for young people in Auckland. How do we know this Government will deliver that $1 million, will spend that $1 million? Of course, they’ve got form in this space. Two years after Budget 2019, they announced a lot of money for mental health. After two years, they’ve underspent that budget by $50 million. They’re sitting on $50 million of mental health funding.

Let’s look at other services they’ve promised. In the front-line mental health service, how do we know that $1 million is going to end up on new services on the ground? The front-line mental health services were trumpeted in 2019—they were putting mental health workers in GP practices. Over 2½ years later, there are still 75 percent of GP practices where there is no mental health support—75 percent after 2½ years. What about the support they were going to offer our most vulnerable transitioning out of mental health in-patient facilities? They promised to support 100 people out of our in-patient facilities. How many did they reach after one year? Three. But it still cost them $1.8 million, and I challenge the Government: where is that money being siphoned off to by the bloated bureaucracy of mental health officials in Wellington?

One year after the lockdown in 2020, here we are again: high rates of emotional distress, but no support from this Government.

I’d like to wish mālō e lelei to our colleague Anahila Kanongata’a-Suisuiki, the personal face of the lockdown. Last year, she lost her mother during level 4, this year she lost her father during level 4, and families throughout New Zealand will all have stories like that, and an inability to grieve in this case. I’m not one to stand here and deny the Opposition their job to oppose, but it does bemuse me that they get up and talk about how difficult it is for people sitting at home, and then spend the rest of their speeches ensuring that they undermine all the efforts to reassure them and to make sure this country remains the best-responding country to COVID, and I think what we really need and require to do for people at home is to give some reassurance that the systems do work.

I’d just like to turn our attention to what happened last week in West Auckland. Many speakers here, commentators, and the media have looked at the actions, particularly, of my ex-colleagues, the police officers who were on the ground there, who within 60 seconds stopped that incident. I have nothing but sympathy for those six people who were badly injured in the meantime, but just consider how bad that incident could have been but for the fact that the system worked.

Now, to take nothing away from my ex-colleagues on the ground there, but really to look for the confidence in this country that the whole system worked—that we had those officers on the ground at that time when that individual chose to grab a knife and go on the offensive. Now, a lot of things had to work for that to happen. For a start, we had to identify this individual. In 2016—and this goes cross-Government—this individual arrived in New Zealand and he was identified. That meant the system worked.

I compare that with the other terrorist in New Zealand who arrived here having been weaponised overseas, having been radicalised overseas, and it was the failure of those agencies to identify that. By the time he was here, he was intent on what he did. Compare that with here—we identified this individual, he then came into the system, and we have now become aware of the fact that he went into prison. He came out, and every part of the State—every action the State could take—was used. He leveraged the very system—the very freedoms that he was seeking to destroy—and that was actually how he ended up needing all the resources of the State to be focused where they were at that particular time.

So we can take confidence that the system did actually work, and that’s a confidence that New Zealanders can take. OK, focus will go on the legal system. Maybe things could have been done, but I think it’s important we actually look at the history, and I’ll acknowledge the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon Judith Collins, who at that stage was the Minister of Justice, and I have some sympathy for her, because we’ve got to remember at the time—I’ll put some names in here: Ahmed Zaoui. Remember the outcry when we tried to do something about that individual and the agencies were put under complete focus?

Remember Operation Eight? Again, without going into details, this was a system where the law clearly showed that preparation wasn’t close enough for the Terrorism Suppression Act to be used. However, it wasn’t fixed because right through the system, we didn’t really have the context—no Government had the context—to be able to do the fix that we’ll now do.

So if I can give some comfort to those six people who were injured—and it will be no small comfort for them and their families. However, we now have the context to ensure that we do put in a fix for this, and the system will do it.

For the same way, I’d like to come back to the COVID system. We do have the best system in the world. How often have we heard ill-informed commentators talking about what’s happening in the UK, what’s happening in Singapore? There were 41,000 cases in the UK yesterday, and 1,200 cases in Singapore last week, and growing. These are the countries that we’re being pointed towards.

So in the time left to me, I’ll say for anyone listening at home, and for those in the Opposition who are going to take the opportunity to undermine the system, to just sit back and think we are lucky to be in a country where it is no accident, firstly, that we had such a very good result last week in West Auckland. We’re having a very good result in our COVID response—the best in the world. Have confidence in our systems. It gives me great confidence to stand here and ask people to take confidence that we are doing this right.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.