General Debate

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

I want to begin today with a shout-out to all New Zealanders. The last 18 months have been difficult and tough and uncertain, and New Zealanders have overwhelmingly risen to the challenge that has been in front of us. We have stamped out COVID-19 time and again, we have made the sacrifices as a country that we need to make that have seen us enjoy some of the lowest levels of restrictions of any country in the world over the last 18 months, and that’s been the hard work and dedication of all New Zealanders that has achieved that.

I want to particularly say thank you to Auckland. Auckland has been at the forefront of our COVID-19 response. They’ve done it tougher than many other New Zealanders, and I say this as a proud Wellingtonian: I take my hat off to Aucklanders and I say thank you on behalf of the rest of the country for the sacrifices that they have made for our COVID-19 response and recovery.

I want to thank all of our front-line workers. Whether they’re at our border, whether they’re in our managed isolation and quarantine facilities, or whether they are out there day and night vaccinating New Zealanders to keep us safe, thank you to everybody that has been involved in all of those efforts.

I think New Zealand is well placed. We are well placed as Auckland goes from level 4 to level 3 to continue to stamp out COVID-19. Elimination of the virus is still within our reach, and that is what we will continue to drive towards. It is also possible that we could achieve one of the highest vaccination rates in the world in a relatively short space of time if New Zealanders continue to come forward and receive vaccination at the rate that they have been over the last eight weeks, and I fully encourage them to do so.

In these times, politicians have an opportunity to lead or to mislead, and I stand firmly on the side of those who are showing leadership through this global pandemic, because there’s been a lot of information that’s been shared lately, but it will have left New Zealanders confused and concerned unnecessarily. We saw more examples of that today, including the irresponsible claim that was put out there just today that mutations of the virus are becoming less deadly and fewer people are getting severely affected by it. Those claims by the Leader of the Opposition are simply irresponsible.

Thousands of people every day around the world continue to die from COVID-19. The last thing responsible leaders in New Zealand should be doing at the moment is saying “Don’t worry, it’s not so bad. It’s getting better.” at a time when we are saying to our most vulnerable communities, where our vaccination rates are the lowest, “Please come forward and protect yourselves and protect your whānau.” from what we know is a deadly virus. The last thing political leaders in New Zealand should be doing is saying, “Don’t worry, it’s all going to get better. The virus isn’t that bad after all.”, which is what we are hearing, unfortunately, from the Leader of the Opposition.

Then, of course, we’ve got the COVID-19 response spokesperson for the Opposition, who can’t quite decide whether he’s “Nostradamus” or “Captain Hindsight”, because in the “Nostradamus” stakes, almost every prediction that he has made has proven to be wrong. His prediction that people weren’t getting the full dose of vaccine because we were getting too many doses out of the vial—wrong. The prediction that we were going to run out of syringes to do the vaccine—wrong. The prediction that there were vaccines just sitting there in fridges waiting for someone because we were giving them to people in a timely manner—wrong. The prediction that the booking system and the inventory system was going to fail and it was all going to be a debacle—wrong. “Debacle” and “shambles” are words that he uses quite a lot lately. I suspect, sitting in the National Party caucus, they’re words that immediately spring to mind, but it is no way to describe the vaccine roll-out, which has been incredibly successful.

So when his predictions of the future fail, he then starts to adopt the “Captain Hindsight” persona, where he looks backwards, knowing what we know now, and tries to point out things that we should have done differently. When we look back in hindsight, there are undoubtedly going to be things that we could have done differently. We make the best decisions that we can make at the time with the evidence and the information that’s available at the time. Chris Bishop’s crystal ball today said that we should have just bought enough Pfizer to vaccinate everybody right from the beginning, despite the fact that the Opposition at the time were claiming that we should have put all of our eggs in the AstraZeneca basket. I recall answering questions in the House about why we hadn’t and why we were too slow in doing that. That was their ultimate answer.

Whether he’s being “Nostradamus” or “Captain Hindsight”, the Opposition spokesperson has been consistently wrong, as have the Opposition.

Today I want to speak about the “C” word. Don’t worry, Mr Speaker—I’m not going to be talking about my favourite “C” word. I want to talk about capitalism and how it’s failing us. Capitalism, I think people forget, is not a given. It’s not inherent in our political or economic system. It’s a decision to have an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit. Free-market capitalism is an economic system that maximises supply and demand forces and minimises Government oversight, regulation, and intervention.

Capitalism sucks. And this pandemic and our housing, biodiversity, and climate crises have really brought that into sharp focus for many people in this country. We know that right now, there are people all around our country, but particularly in Auckland, who are living in really precarious and, frankly, desperate situations. Too many people in casualised and minimum-hour contract jobs, who have locked down for the wellbeing of all of us, have had to battle their bosses to try to get paid enough to keep a roof over their heads and be able to go to the supermarket. This is not an uncommon situation. Two out of five employees in this country work in jobs with hours that vary to suit their employer, not them. This is common in hospitality and also in community and personal services.

FIRST Union, being proactive and knowing what might happen, did a TikTok to reach their audience about their employment rights. They were overwhelmed—700,000 people seeing and responding to that. They had to employ more than two new staff members to answer the phone calls of, particularly, young people in this country calling to say, “You’ve told me my rights, but I don’t know how to access them.” What we’ve heard from multiple unions around this country is examples of employers who should know better, because the law is absolutely clear, and they have no excuse for ignorance, telling employees that they should be taking annual leave instead of being paid by their employer during lockdown. That is illegal.

But the chances for the staff members to fight back against that are really to have a conversation with them, worry about losing their job, pissing their boss off, getting fewer hours, or going through the Employment Court, which has a six- to 12-month resolution time frame. It’s not going to pay your rent in that time frame, which is what people are concerned about. Things are so out of balance, and our welfare system, which forces people to choose between the precariousness of that employment or a guarantee of poverty, is not helping. It shows the myth of employee power as exactly that.

Wages have been going up since we’ve had a change of Government—thank goodness—but it hasn’t been keeping pace with the cost of living. This really shows, and it’s driven by the fact that most of our essential services, like housing and electricity and transport and childcare, and a lot of our food, are part of the private, the free, market. They’re driven by the drive for profit and not our shared responsibility to each other.

We have to remember that while people are struggling at this time—and this is what we care about, in part—there are people who are doing really, really well. While our essential workers are putting their bodies on the line for minimum wage, or better than that wages, none of them are coming close to earning as much as an empty house just sitting there earning over $200,000 a year, just to feed that free market and individual wealth.

These imbalances aren’t just hurting our people. The free market is also hurting our environment, to the point where externalising of costs through businesses has led to 4,000 of our endemic species being at risk and our emissions going up. This is a global problem, but the tide is turning. Over 80 percent of Britons in the UK recognise the housing crisis as a fault of capitalism. We can change it.

I briefly want to endorse the work of teams of people around New Zealand and in particular in Auckland who are testing and vaccinating so that we can keep our communities safe. In particular, for those in Mangatangi and Kaiawa, I want to acknowledge the work of Te Korowai Hauora o Hauraki, who have risen to the challenge of ensuring that that particular community and those whānau can be tested and move towards vaccination. Securing our recovery means that we need to focus on the issues right in front of us, and that is COVID-19. As the Prime Minister has said, we need to ensure that every whānau within all our communities uphold the opportunity that they have to keep them safe and vaccinate.

But I also want to focus on the longer-term challenges, because we cannot drop our eye on the ball of some of the most challenging things in front of us. In my particular case, it’s the issue of water. Now, there are two programmes of work that we have in front of us. One has been going through the House, and that’s the Water Services Bill, and the other is a longer piece of work, which is our three waters reform. In reality, for most folk, whether we drink it, swim in it, gather kai from it, water is an important resource. It’s a taonga, and that’s why the changes that I’m seeking are going to make a difference now and into the future. The three waters work programme is set up to ensure that our waters infrastructure is fit for purpose, ensuring that we have safe drinking water, better environmental outcomes, and can ensure that the investment in infrastructure over the long term delivers real benefits to households and communities. What we know is that it’s important to meet the challenges ahead of us, because the cost of meeting higher standards will bear significantly upon councils.

We’re starting to hear opposition to what we’re trying to achieve, and at this late stage, three years after we’ve identified the complexity of the challenge, several campaigns have been initiated to try and undermine a simple fact. That simple fact is the status quo is simply not feasible. It is not financially sustainable. We have an inefficient investment strategy around infrastructure; communities, several of them throughout the country, on boil drinking water notices; 34,000 people get sick every year from drinking water; and during heavy weather events, we have stormwater outflows sludging up on our streets and into our waterways. This cannot continue.

Coming from the Waikato, I know how important it is to look after our waterways. We have the Waikato River there. It’s what sustains and grows us and contributes to the economic opportunities within our region. But we can do more and we should do more. So these programmes of action around three waters are put together to ensure that we meet this challenge and we simply do not say to communities, “Oh, it’s OK, if you don’t want it, you don’t have to have it.” It’s a serious challenge; it needs to be addressed, and that’s why I’m hopeful that the Water Services Bill, that will enable Taumata Arowai to undertake its role as a dedicated regulator, will work with communities and councils around safe drinking-water supply.

I want to thank the Federated Farmers and Irrigation New Zealand for their involvement in helping us to ensure that the workability of the bill is able to be achieved, ensuring that all aspects must be tailored according to the scale, complexity, and risk profile of suppliers. We’ve had really good input from those two groups as to how that can be achieved for rural community. This means that we are not applying a one-size-fits-all approach and there will be different arrangements for small and rural suppliers than for council suppliers in cities and towns. We’re going to have a debate later on in the week, but I wanted to send a signal that without the valuable input of communities who in practice understand what we’re trying to achieve and are looking for practical solutions—I’m mindful that their contribution to improving the Water Services Bill has been invaluable.

Let me come briefly to the Three Waters Reform Programme. The sector is at a very difficult juncture. To do nothing would be unacceptable. To expect rates to pay for infrastructure investment with the scale that will be required coming down the track is going to be a very difficult task for several councils, and that is the challenge. The decisions ahead of councils will take courage, but it’s what’s best for the nation and what’s best for councils that we need to be focused on, and, importantly, what’s best for the next generation. I’m hopeful, as people have an informed debate based on good information rather than disinformation, we’ll be able to get there.

Just before I call the Hon David Bennett, I know that there are some members who are in the House this week who haven’t been here for the last couple, but I want to remind members when they’re wearing masks that they should keep them on in the House and if they’re having private conversations they shouldn’t remove their masks in order to do so. If they can’t hear each other, they should leave the Chamber and have their conversation outside.

Yesterday, the Government introduced the Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill which, effectively, is a tax on middle New Zealand, it is a tax break for the wealthy in New Zealand, and it is an attack on the most vulnerable New Zealanders. That is the net impact of a bill which gives a discount to somebody that is paying for an electric vehicle (EV). It charges somebody that is buying any other type of vehicle, and it really does create a distortion in the New Zealand vehicle market that will lead to only one major consequence, and that is the retention by vulnerable, ordinary New Zealanders of high-emission vehicles that are unsafe and will actually hurt our environmental prospects as a country.

It is bad law that is doomed to failure. It is law that is based on some premise of an understanding of the market that the Government does not have. It is a law that is based on some kind of perception of how people will actually act. It is a law that is not based on any concept of reality of what the supply of electric vehicles is, what the opportunity is for New Zealanders to get electric vehicles, and how New Zealanders will actually react in practice.

New Zealanders live in a country which is very diverse. It is a spread-out population. It is not a country which is solely part of one major city or two major cities; it is a diverse and spread-out country that relies on its transport networks. It relies on people having a vehicle to get around. It relies on people having a vehicle to do their job. A tradie and a farmer can’t catch a bus to do their job. They’re not going to be able to put their tools on the back of a cycle and cycle down the road to do their job. A farmer is not going to be able to feed their stock on the back of a cycle. We are living in a country in which the reality is that we need vehicles. This legislation will be an artificial constraint on the market, it will distort the market, and it will lead to perverse outcomes.

Most New Zealanders have a very limited income compared with the rest of the world. That is why we have a huge amount of second-hand used imports into this country. Those vehicles, now, will have a huge cost on them, and that will put it out of the reach many Kiwis that would be reinventing their vehicle by getting a newer vehicle every so often. That will force them to hold those older vehicles. There will be more and more repairs done on gas-guzzling vehicles that will not achieve environmental outcomes. Most tradies and farmers have no option for an EV because there are none actually being built, and most consumers that want to buy a vehicle under $80,000 will actually not find there is an EV because they’re going to have to compete with the Australians for those same EVs on the world market. Guess what! In Japan—which is the type of market where our vehicles come from—only 0.6 percent of that market is actually EV vehicles. So there’s, virtually, very constrained and limited supply of EV vehicles anyway.

It can only lead to one solution: New Zealanders will look at that Government legislation and determine their only option is to keep the vehicle they’re in now or they’re going to have to pay a tax to this Government. Either way, that’s the cost of living going up for New Zealanders. Ordinary New Zealanders—the most vulnerable New Zealanders—won’t be able to get the benefit of having an EV with lower costs of running their vehicle. They’ll be paying higher petrol taxes under this Government, they’ll be paying more daily to actually run those older vehicles. The dream that this Government has that we will suddenly all transition to electric vehicles—

💬 Hon Member: Run by coal!

—and that will all be perfect, and they’ll be run by coal coming out of Huntly, is the massive dream that they’ve got; it will not become the reality you will see in this country.

The Motor Industry Association have bagged this Government like you’ve never seen before—under this Government—in their press release, and there’s an interesting part of that as well. The actual protocol that this Government has determined to evaluate a vehicle is, actually, a European protocol, whereas all vehicles basically coming to New Zealand are from an Australian protocol which doesn’t use that protocol—an Australian approach. So their policy is ineffective, inefficient, it is a tax on New Zealanders, and will hurt the most vulnerable New Zealanders.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I join my colleagues on this side of the House in thanking the team of 5 million for the work that they’ve done through the most recent lockdown, in particular my own electorate, Tāmaki-makau-rau. Tāmaki-makau-rau have come together over the past five weeks to do their best to stamp out COVID-19. We have seen record vaccination numbers. We have seen record testing numbers. We have seen innovation. We have seen buses delivering vaccines, and today I want to acknowledge Ngāti Whātua, who are in the driver’s seat of one particular bus, and they’ve named their bus Shot Doy. “Shot Doy”—now, that must be one of those Boot Hill Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei nuances in their language, but it’s certainly working, and they’re getting out amongst their community to do the mahi. The bus yesterday, led by Manurewa Marae, is called Shot Cuz, and Shot Cuz was parked outside the Pak ’N Save in Clendon, where there is a large Māori and Pacific population. This is our Māori health providers and our health providers across this country doing what it takes to recognise the seriousness of the situation and vaccinate our population—not spread misinformation, not spread lies, and not bicker about things, actually, in a time when we want our country to be combined as a team of 5 million to get us through this particularly hard time.

I’ve talked about the innovation amongst our Māori health providers. Yesterday, I announced $36 million to continue to support that work. While we focus on vaccination and testing, which are hugely important, we also know that some of our, in particular, hard-to-reach rural communities are struggling just for normal healthcare services. Of the money we announced yesterday, $14 million will help Māori health providers provide those services to rural areas. We know some of them are access to pharmacies, access to medicines—medicines that they would take normally but can’t access because of the challenges we’ve had with the lockdown. I want to acknowledge our Māori health providers who have come to us and have told us about the challenges they’re facing, and I can tell them and this country that this Government is listening. The announcement yesterday will continue to support the work that they’re doing.

Another important part is the $3 million I mentioned earlier in the sitting of this House to support psychosocial support. We know there are a lot of challenges for our whānau out there. In fact, I hear it regularly, as I’m sure many members of this House have, that whānau are struggling with their mental wellbeing during these times. Staying home, looking after the tamariki, making sure that they can connect with their loved ones during a time where it’s difficult to connect has certainly taken its toll on our people. The $3 million announced yesterday I know will help one particular kaupapa that will look to support those with alcohol and drug addictions who have particularly struggled during the time of the Delta lockdown. And furthermore, we know that with huge amounts of alcohol sales during this most recent lockdown, there have been a number of challenges that have arisen in our communities and in our families. We want to be able to support the good work that community providers do on the ground to support them.

I want to tip my hat to businesses in this country. We know that the Government can do what it can do, we know that health providers can do what they can do, but we know that the private sector has a job and a role to play. Vodafone yesterday announced incentives to make sure that we can bring people forward for the vaccine. Waipapa Pine in Te Tai Tokerau has made the vaccine available to all of its staff, knowing full well that 70 to 78 percent of their staff are Māori. They have brought the vaccine centre into their workplace to continue to encourage their kaimahi to be able to receive the vaccine. Why is that important? Because we need our economy to continue. We need our economy to be strong and resilient. And these private sector organisations, they recognise that, and they are doing their part as a team of 5 million to make sure that we can get on with life as normal.

Last week was Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, and, as a passionate te reo Māori speaker, I’m encouraged by the work of millions across Aotearoa who have done a fantastic job to promote Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. Just a little friendly reminder for our friends on the other side of the House: Te Wiki o te Reo Māori starts on Manei, or Monday, not on Wenerei, Wednesday. It was a little while before the National Party actually clicked on that it was Māori Language Week, but they got there in the end, which is encouraging, but still disappointing in the week of the Māori language. I said, in my last contribution in the House, the beauty about being bilingual is the play between Māori and English, and I used a particular kōrero last time, which was, “Be a doer, and not a hua.” That’s about receiving the vaccine. The one I want to leave with the House today is, “Don’t be a tero, and get the wero.”

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to acknowledge the last Minister’s acknowledgment of rural New Zealand, and that’s where the acknowledgment is going to stop, because Labour has an insatiable appetite for amalgamation. We’ve seen the centralised and controlled agenda with planning and resourcing management, with vocational education and training, and with healthcare in terms of centralising or planning to centralise the DHBs. We’re now seeing it with the three waters reform, which the Government must dump.

The four regional water entities that the Government has proposed would strip power from our communities. These are assets that ratepayers have paid to own over decades. These would be surrendered from council control and bundled into new entities, with virtually no accountability—four entities where people don’t even realise or have any affinity to the geographical boundaries that are being suggested. And then what would councils have left to do when their water assets are taken out of their power? Tangi Utikere might understand this as a former councillor before he came to Parliament. If the water is taken away, what else would councils have left to do? Oh, I know, that’s part of the plan to grab something else and centralise further. We can see it coming. So what is a better, more accessible system: water assets controlled by your council whose meetings one can turn up to, or by a mega entity spanning hundreds of kilometres and multiple layers of decision makers? I know what the National Party prefer, and we prefer those people in local areas to have local control. This Government grabs everything it can, and what they can’t grab, they tie up in red tape.

We talk about centralisation on one hand, and then we go to the Water Services Bill, which we were debating last night. The Water Services Bill again emphasis how deeply out of touch Labour are with rural New Zealand, and that is why I commended the last speaker for mentioning rural New Zealand. But this is not just a rural New Zealand issue, because it affects marae, it affects bach owners; it doesn’t just affect farmers. The worst thing about it is that this bill is not an isolated new hurdle for farmers; it’s the latest in a flood of regulations that are being rained down on our rural communities.

Christopher Luxon and I started a petition. We were supposed to debate the Water Services Bill on the first Wednesday that we came back into Parliament but we were locked down in the interim, so it didn’t happen. So instead we started a petition and we did some live streaming and we ended up doing Zooms, talking to people, and today that milestone of that petition has just jumped over 15,000 signatures—15,000 people who do not want this Water Services Bill to happen. I acknowledge Christopher Luxon who is not with us today. He is Auckland due to COVID lockdown—

💬 Stuart Smith: Restrictions.

—restrictions—thank you, Stuart. So he wasn’t able to speak on the bill last night but he has been absolutely instrumental in putting this petition together. I really acknowledge that he can’t be here to speak on it but he has put a Supplementary Order Paper together, and he has put that together to ask that we restrict the regulations around the Water Services Bill to those who service more than 30 water source points. That is sensible because lots of people supply other people with water, and I can see those water pipes being withdrawn pretty carefully and pretty strategically before any of this is implemented, so that they don’t have to go through this red-tape strangulation—more of what this Government is trying to push our communities in.

We used to be number eight wire people, and now all we get is strangulation by red tape. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I’m going to pick up the wero and not be a tero, as put down by our colleague the Hon Peeni Henare. In particular, I want to talk today and use this contribution to talk about the vaccinations. I want to acknowledge that there are many of our whānau at home that are still feeling a little bit scared. One of my relations put up a post on social media recently, and she said, “You know, look, some of us are still pretty scared about the vaccination. Don’t make us feel stink about it. Some of us probably have a lot of other things going on in our lives, and try to listen to us, and listen with wisdom, without judgment.”

My relation and I, we had a conversation about her post, and she said, “Cuz, there’s just so much information flying around online. One of my cousins is scared about maybe if they get the vaccination, it will cause heart attacks;”—that’s been some of the information online—“if they get the vaccination, they’ll become magnetic.”—we’ve seen spoons on the internet sticking to people’s arms. Sometimes we have a bit of a giggle about that, but the reality is that for some of our whānau, this is very, very real. So I will pick up Peeni Henare’s challenge to us all to pick up the wero and try and put my case as to why it is so important that our whānau right now get vaccinated.

Right now in Aotearoa, Māori vaccination rates are around about just over 50 percent, comparatively to the rest of the population at just over 70 percent—about 74 percent today. In 1918, the Māori death rate from the Spanish flu, as it was called then, was around seven times that of non-Māori. In 1956, the pandemic that it was then—it was called the Asian flu pandemic—our Māori death rates were around six times that of non-Māori.

I look up my coast, in my electorate of the East Coast, Te Whānau-ā-Apanui. Thirteen hapū that litter that coastline—13 mass graves of people that were buried during that 1916 flu pandemic. I look to Te Whānau-ā-Apanui because they are a tribe that has looked to their history in terms of—those mass graves are so much a part, woven into the story, of the remembrance of the people up that coastline right now. They have shown incredible leadership to destigmatise the impacts of the vaccination. They have this wonderful doctor there, Dr Rachel Thomson, who has built the trust over many years, working alongside the hapū up there. Their iwi tribal leadership have gone around, talked to the whānau, delivered crayfish, and whatnot. They will have one of the highest vaccination rates in Aotearoa per population because that 1916 memory is so alive in their DNA, wiping out almost a generation.

We only have to cast our eyes overseas. In particular I’m thinking of just last year at the start of the pandemic when things were really rearing their head—our relations over in North America, the Diné population of the Navajo Nation. The COVID-19 pandemic ravaged through that nation, unvaccinated at that time. The death rates were immeasurable. I was looking at a report earlier today, and it was called COVID-19—The Results by Colour or something like that. It was published in March this year. Again, if we look across the ocean to our relations in North America, those that have died the most: Native Americans; the second, African Americans; the third, Pacific Island Americans.

It would be wrong if we were to stand here in this House and not deeply be concerned about the impacts of COVID-19 on our whānau, and that is why you see so many people on this side of the House pleading for our whānau to go and get vaccinated. The brother talked about the buses and the whatnot. We’re thinking about everything we can do, because we are fearful that the misinformation being spread amongst our communities will prohibit our whānau from being vaccinated.

So with the very brief moments that I have left, my plea to our whānau is that our vaccinations protect us and they save lives. The polio pandemic that killed so many people—300 million people in the world—99 percent of that has been eradicated because of vaccination. Please, whānau, get vaccinated.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Two dozen daffodils bloomed on my desk just this week, and it’s hard not to smile when you’re looking at daffodils. They are beautiful. They’re beautiful flowers. They spring up at just the right time to let us know that it’s time to turn off the electric blankets, that it’s time to place our running shoes closer to the front door for that little bit of motivation for summer, and it’s time to start dusting off the barbecue for friends and family to come around and spend some time in the sun together. They represent new life, new hope, and resilience for a long winter that’s just past. But these particular daffodils, even though they’re beautiful, are hard to look at, and it’s because they’re different. I was outside of Parliament last week and I saw flower growers who were sharing their story of the struggle that they have faced not being able to sell their flowers under the alert level restrictions.

There are hundreds of thousands of flowers that have been dumped up and down New Zealand and have continued to do so in Auckland because they are the only primary sector producer and grower that is unable to sell their goods under level 4 conditions. They are really, really struggling, and that’s because they’re not considered an essential service. That’s a little bit hard for these people to stomach, especially when people are able to get ice creams and chocolate croissants delivered straight to their door. There are a whole range of different services, but these particular people have not been deemed essential.

We’ve heard from many other types of businesses that have been struggling because they’ve been forced to shut or they’ve been under restricted conditions up and down New Zealand, and they’re asking for more certainty and more logical rules for what is allowed to open and operate and under what alert levels. We’ve heard from butchers who are frustrated that people can go to their local dairy, pick up some goods, but they can’t pop just next door and pick up meat at the same time. They have to drive further distances, stand in line with more people at large supermarkets while these businesses suffer. And that’s just not right. It’s also surprising that the Government is not allowing these types of businesses to operate at the same time that they have an enquiry saying that there is not enough competition against the big supermarket chains. It does make you pause and question.

We’ve also heard from cafe owners who are struggling with the last minute changes that they had to alert level 2. Even though they can operate, the changes make it unprofitable even to do so with the minimum and maximum restrictions on how many people you can have. It appears that the Government just does not understand how businesses work and how they operate. The Government can print billions of dollars if it wants to, but companies and small businesses can’t do that. We know that there are a number of small businesses that took out loans in the last lockdown and don’t have the ability even now to pay those back. Their banks won’t allow them another loan.

The rules are illogical. How is it possible that you can send wine to somebody special under alert level 4, but you can’t send them flowers? Not only is it unromantic, it is illogical. We need to have a better wellbeing approach for small businesses. We need to have it set out that businesses that can operate safely can do so, not just using a blunt description of what is essential. The Government also knew about Delta months ago. They should have planned accordingly and not changed the rules at the last minute for businesses. They need to have these plans out in place earlier so businesses can plan their own business accordingly.

These daffodils, while a sad story, show a blunt problem for business. What does the future look like? Hope and resilience can so quickly turn into withering on a compost heap.

Kia ora. Thank you, Mr Speaker, and I think it is fair to say, as the last speaker pointed out, that the burden of COVID-19 in this Delta outbreak certainly doesn’t fall evenly. We need to be cognisant of that, recognising, for example, that our friends and colleagues in Auckland are doing it particularly tough and that some businesses are hit a lot harder. Some are able to work remotely; some are essential services, but others indeed struggle much more. There is a lot being done in that space with wage subsidies, with resurgence support payments, and I know that this Government won’t stop looking at how to help so that New Zealand has a strong and resilient recovery.

I know here in Christchurch we’re lucky. The rest of the country outside of Auckland and Waikato are fortunate that we’re emerging from this outbreak, but even then I do want to recognise that some of those businesses are still struggling. I’ve been speaking in Christchurch Central to cafes like Belle Cafe in New Regent Street, which is doing its very best to adhere to all the rules, and that’s how we get on top of it—and the theatres. Little Andromeda theatre, a great little theatre—but it is difficult. Good Times Comedy Club—again, a great little business in the centre of Christchurch. But I do also want to shout out to the Cashel Street pharmacy where not only are they managing to run a small business but they’re delivering vaccines as well, and Anabel Turley there is doing a great job running that pharmacy. And to all of those people who are delivering vaccines, I know how hard they’re working because I’ve heard from them personally. I know that they go home exhausted at night. I know that they’re at the front, the very forefront, of the battle against COVID-19.

But look, the daffodils are absolutely up in Christchurch. Hagley Park is looking glorious. And it’s great that people now, because we have stuck together and followed the rules, can get out and enjoy all of Christchurch and all of what’s going on there. So look, an absolute shout-out to those vaccinators. Vaccination absolutely is the key. There are so many good reasons to vaccinate. I was contacting some of my constituents, asking them for their stories, and I must say, I got a few cheeky ones about who people would like to be spending more time with. But ultimately, you know, first and foremost, we’re vaccinating for ourselves because COVID is a horrific disease, and to suggest that it’s getting in some way less deadly or less virulent is truly pernicious. We need to make the message very clear that this disease kills people. It kills people from all walks of life, from all ethnicities and all ages, and we need to address that. And the best way to address that is through vaccinations, but also for our whānau and our families and for our extended communities, we, by vaccinating, protect them.

So even if people have some hesitancy and for themselves wouldn’t make that choice, they should be doing it for the ones that they love so that we can get together and so that we can do things like go to funerals, go to weddings and so on. And a shout-out to Sam and Dayna, who got married recently. It was their third attempt, not third marriage, but third attempt of getting married to each other—twice cancelled. Third time they had a very modest wedding with 50 people strictly following those rules. But that’s the sort of thing where it would be great, if we’re all vaccinated, we can have those huge celebrations that we love so much. And of course, so we can travel, so that we can open up our borders, so that we can get people from overseas who we love to see and, of course, our fantastic tourism industry.

So, you know, what I say is: if you’ve got a hesitant friend, have a chat to them. And can I just say, don’t argue with them. It’s not about having an argument; it’s about engaging. It’s about listening. It’s not just about telling and preaching. It’s about listening and hearing concerns and addressing them, but with facts, not with falsehoods. And also, look to experts, not the internet. We need to make sure that our sources of information are trusted and not alarmist, because there is a problem out there, and each of us in this House need to be advocates to make sure that the misinformation is not spread, to ensure that those people who are persuadable, who might be wavering, who might be listening to the wrong people, are talked to and that that is addressed. But also, let’s just show compassion to others as well, compassion to those who are working so hard, compassion to some of those people who do things a bit differently. Some of our disabled community do feel under siege and I want to say: let’s make sure that they looked out for. But most of all, let’s get vaccinated.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’d just like to carry on a bit of a theme from this afternoon about doing a little bit of myth-busting, and bring a little story of hope to the room. It’s great to hear the focus on securing our recovery, and vaccinations are a significant part of the plan, but we also need to have a look at the challenge. There’s been some suggestion the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund has gone to projects unrelated to COVID. The PM reminded us today that the fund is to help with economic recovery and create jobs. I just want to take you to a fabulous little Taranaki - King Country place called Ōtorohanga and show you how this fund, this investment, is helping not only with the recovery and creating jobs but helping us build back better our environment, our tourism industry, the development of our people, and our small towns. Significant aspects of funding are Jobs for Nature funding, the Strategic Tourism Assets Protection Programme, apprenticeship support, the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs, and infrastructure funds.

It isn’t just the funding, though. It isn’t just the cash. It takes people, relationships, and communities to make the most of the opportunities, to be ambitious and to dream. So at Ōtorohanga Kiwi House—fabulous little place, been around for 50 years, so many of us may have visited—they are embracing all of the opportunities. They’re supporting a range of new staff. They’ve got two extra trainee keepers. They’ve got an apprentice carpenter—so a big shout-out to Hayze; he’s doing some amazing work up there as they go to rebuild their Kiwi House. It isn’t just support for wages, for tools, for getting these young people to get their driver’s licences, but the mentoring needed to make sure that they don’t just get a job but they stay there and they become really great contributing citizens in the future.

They’re also providing training to Jobs for Nature workers from other projects, so they’re helping to lift our capacity and our capability as we rise to the challenge of improving our biodiversity and our environment. They’re helping to retain people in our local communities who may have had to leave as a result of the challenges on sectors such as tourism in Taranaki - King Country. They’re building the capacity of our critical conservation workforce.

The Ōtorohanga Kiwi House has used the significant funding to help them with the recovery, their conservation work that they do. Traditionally, this has been funded through visitors to the centre, so they’ve been able to carry on and actually grow their conservation programmes. They support seven recovery programmes, including breeding North Island brown kiwi, whio, tuatara, pāteke, North Island kākā, and the Mahoenui giant wētā—a fabulous beast, if you ever get to meet one. Communities around the country—local communities, farmers, backyard volunteers who are trying to restore the biodiversity and grow our predator-free landscape—are really, really grateful for the significant national contribution that the Kiwi House is able to sustain because of the support of this Government.

They have also been able to take on a commitment to a significant rebuild and extension of their physical spaces because of the capital investment and support from the local district council but the country as a whole. This will ensure 190 jobs as they do the rebuild, and they are going to literally build back better. These are amazing, ambitious people. They have undertaken a globally ambitious project of not only rebuilding and extending the Kiwi House but to participate and be the first zoo on the planet to get their accreditation for the Living Building Challenge, a truly ambitious green project. They are reimagining our tourism sector. They are building a quality visitor experience, education experience, and the provision of breeding and support for our biodiversity and predator-free projects around the North Island. I just need to shout out to them. They’re doing amazing work. This isn’t about centralisation. This is about supporting local people to be able to be nimble and effective in their responses. I think they’re amazing and admirable in the way that they have been ambitious and they can see a future, a bold and bright one, for our people, for our kiwi, and for our little towns. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I wish to start by acknowledging the hard work of New Zealanders in the first lockdown and in this current lockdown. There’s something special about this country. The teamwork that the people of New Zealand have shown to get through this and to get to the point where we are now, where we have a genuine chance of eliminating COVID yet again must be acknowledged. At the forefront of that team are our frontline health workers. I want to acknowledge those that are working particularly hard in Auckland and those that are in Auckland that have done it so tough. But as the MP for Wairarapa, I wish to acknowledge the frontline health workers in my electorate, in Central Hawke’s Bay, in the Tararua district, and in Wairarapa. Wairarapa is leading the country in the rates of full vaccination and it is down to the commitment of those workers and it is down to the teamwork of the people that live there. That, I believe, needs to be commended.

We in Wairarapa know that whilst we are small, we are not immune. We were the first region to have community transmission in the country, but we were the first region to eliminate COVID at the last lockdown and we have not had a community case since then. That, I think, stands New Zealand out. But I think it is a shame that the Leader of the Opposition chooses to undermine that teamwork by coming out with, I believe, some outrageous statements today. It is utterly irresponsible for the Leader of the Opposition to suggest that there are new mutations of COVID that are less deadly. It is utterly irresponsible to suggest, in my view, that there should be no more lockdowns. What has stood New Zealand out from those overseas is that we have stuck together as a team. We have not protested in large numbers. We have recognised what needs to be done and just got on with it. What if half of the 6 percent of New Zealanders that want Judith Collins to be Prime Minister take this seriously and refuse to comply with the regulations? That is a not insignificant proportion of the country that could ruin it for the rest of us because they are listening to what she has to say. No wonder she has refused to attend Morning Report this morning. No wonder they have banned National MPs from talking to the media before coming to question time, because those comments and those views are utterly irresponsible and they cannot be defended.

I thought it was the reason to come down to Parliament. I thought the reason why they demanded to come here, to travel down from level 4 to come to Parliament, was to be able to have the opportunity to front up in front of the media. And today they refused their MPs and denied the opportunity to do so. I wonder if that’s because they polled 21 percent. I actually think it’s because they realise that their comments today are indefensible, that they undermine the COVID response, that they undermine the teamwork and hard work of so many New Zealanders. It was because of that teamwork and the lockdown and the elimination strategy that got New Zealand to the point where we had the largest economic growth in the OECD. It was because of that that got New Zealand to the point of having the lowest unemployment rate.

They say they stand up for business, but it is the strong health response of this Government that has delivered for business. It is their calls to loosen restrictions—and let’s not forget, they called for us to open up to China. They called for us to open up to Australia way earlier than it was safe. They even called for us to open up to Fiji, although I note they haven’t said that one for a while. All of those things would have undermined the achievements that the team of 5 million worked so hard to do. And I say that is why no one is listening to them, because when they are listened to, they say the indefensible, they undermine our COVID response. What if New Zealand legitimately needed to go into lockdown yet again because of their attitude, people say, “Oh well, this isn’t going to work.”? That completely unravels the teamwork and the structure that this country has built over so many months. We have an opportunity to eliminate COVID if people stick to the guidelines. But listening to that rot, people may consider that it is not worth it. And I say to the people of New Zealand: it is worth it, the guidelines have worked so far. Stick to it, get vaccinated. We will get back through this again. We’ll be in level 1 if you follow the guidelines and ignore the rubbish that that side is telling you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, I’d like to start by actually acknowledging the great work—that Labour have finally come to the realisation that vaccinations are important. It may be nine months too late—certainly hope it’s not too late. It’s certainly nine months later than it should have been. They were slow to order the vaccines, slow to get it approved, and then they delayed the roll-out of the vaccine.

💬 Kieran McAnulty: Not true!

It is absolutely true, and it’s a shame—it’s a shame. But, look, they’ve come to it now, and good on Peeni Henare and Kiritapu Allan for encouraging whānau to get out there and get vaccinated. I think that’s a very good message and one that we have been promoting for nine months at least. But I want to go into another matter, which I know you’ll be very concerned about.

Four weeks ago—just when we came back to Parliament—the Hon James Shaw said that he wouldn’t come to Parliament because “It would literally put lives at risk.” Then, a week later, he said he was going to the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow. Now, COP26 is a very important meeting—mind you, all those COPs are important—but he’s taking nine officials with him offshore.

💬 David Seymour: How many?

Nine. That’s from here. He’s also taking five from overseas, but there will be 10 people going over there. Isn’t that going to put lives at risk as well?

For your information, Mr Speaker—I know you’ll be interested in this—yesterday Scotland had 2,870 cases of COVID. That’s a hundred times more cases than we had four weeks ago, when James Shaw made that statement. So these two things don’t match up. That’s about the same size population—they’ve got about 400,000 or 500,000 more people than we do in their population. You would think that’s a hundred times more dangerous. James Shaw doesn’t think that’s important; I think it is. Now, maybe he knows something I don’t. But he hasn’t old us that. All in this interim time, was he actually advocating for a Zoom component of that COP meeting? It’s a really important meeting. Maybe the lives weren’t at risk. If they were, then his first statement was, shall we say, not fulsome with the truth.

💬 SPEAKER: Order!

Yes, I heard you, Mr Speaker.

💬 SPEAKER: No, I think the member will withdraw.

I withdraw and apologise. He told Newshub yesterday morning that he was 15,000 on the list for a managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) space—15,000, right? And we know that, when it was opened up, there were 25,000 people in the queue for 3,000 spaces. So does Mr Shaw seriously expect us to believe that he’s planning a huge trip to COP in Glasgow and he’s relying on the lottery to get spaces in MIQ for him and for the other nine officials that are going over with them? I don’t think so. That is ridiculous. And then, of course, in the gallery presser before question time yesterday, the Prime Minister dropped him completely in it, because she was asked about this and she said, “Well, no, the delegation will get priority through the national interest criteria.” Did James Shaw not know about this? Did the other nine officials not know about this? I don’t think so.

And then, when you look—not you, Mr Speaker, as I’m sure you will later on, go and have a look on the website, the MIQ website—that national special interest criteria is very strict. It’s a minimum group of 20 people. So is James Shaw again not being fulsome? Are there actually going to be 20 people going to COP from here? Or is he just going to have 20 rooms? I don’t know. But I know every other electorate MP in this House, and, I’m sure, list MPs as well, are getting emails from people desperate to get back to New Zealand, desperate to get back to New Zealand for family reasons, for compassionate reasons—deaths in families, serious illnesses. People whose visas have run out are stuck overseas and they can’t get back in; they can’t get MIQ spaces. There are no spaces for them and yet James Shaw and nine officials, and perhaps another 10, are going to take up valuable MIQ spaces that those people could have.

I don’t think that’s good enough. I don’t think he’s thought about this. I think it’s disrespectful to the people of New Zealand, particularly those overseas with really heartrending stories—and I know; I have people sobbing on the other end of the phone trying to get an MIQ space. I think it’s just disgraceful, and he has to rethink his position—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.