General Debate

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

I want New Zealanders to know our country can be better than this. These past five years, it’s lost its way, but National has a plan to get it back on track, and our plan is built on values. They are National Party values, and they are what we stand for.

One of those values is equal opportunity, and we know that education is the great equaliser. We owe it to every New Zealand child that they have a good education, but truancy is our national disease, and there is no equal opportunity, there can be no equal opportunity, while two out of five of our children are attending school regularly and three are not. No more excuses. The National Party will not bow down to the soft bigotry of low expectations. We will expect every child, every school, and every parent to work to get our kids back in the classroom, because we stand for equal opportunity.

We stand for personal responsibility. We will not stand by while another shop owner every day is ram raided by youths who don’t respect the law and do not respect the idea of personal responsibility and consequences. On our watch, they will be held accountable for their offending, with the sentencing needed to send them the message that they are responsible.

We stand for reward for effort and achievement. We know that, when New Zealanders get up in the morning and they toil and they sacrifice through their day, they don’t expect the Government to solve every problem for them, but they do expect the Government to be disciplined about its own spending, so that they can hold on to a little bit more of their own money. And, because we believe in reward for effort and we believe in reward for achievement, we will deliver that. We know that money does not grow on trees—that, no matter how beautifully our opponents divide the pie, their division will not make New Zealand grow stronger. Instead, we stand for competitive enterprise.

We stand for our farmers, our small-business owners. We stand up for the people who get up in the morning and work hard to create value, to create growth. We stand for them, and we stand for limited Government, because we know that red tape and rules and intervention and centralisation and bureaucracy will not solve our nation’s problems. These are not the answers. Even if they hire 14,000 more public servants, our problems will not be solved by that, because it’s not a Government department that gets it done; it’s strong families, it’s strong communities, and National stands for them.

We also stand for individual freedom and individual choice. We do not stand for a Government that is overbearing, that gets itself involved in matters that belong with families and belong with communities. We value the Treaty of Waitangi as this nation’s founding document, and we stand for the premise within it—the premise of equal citizenship. We know that, under equal citizenship, there is one vote for one person. We will be loyal to that democratic principle, because that is a founding value of this country and of our party.

There are two other things that National stands for that New Zealand needs right now, and they’re two things that you will never hear uttered by the members opposite, and they are ambition and success—ambition for this great country and the lives of every New Zealander who resides in it. And we will back them to be successful. We will not tolerate the pattern of failure, the inability to deliver, that has become customary and expected under these past five years of Labour leadership.

We know this country can be successful again, and we will do it by bringing National Party values to bear on our country: equal opportunity, personal responsibility, reward for effort and achievement, competitive enterprise, limited Government, strong families, caring communities, equal citizenship. New Zealand is in a bad way, but hope is on its way.

I know focus groups are expensive, but when you see the deputy leader of the Opposition just run out every line they’ve tested for the last three months you know that this is a National Party bereft of policy. All we are hearing is trotted out clichés in a speech from Nicola Willis that quite frankly could have been 25 years ago. Where are the 21st century ideas from the Opposition?

This week the world has gathered to further action on climate change at COP27. And what do we have happening here in New Zealand? Well, we have ambition and we have success from the Government: 97 percent renewable energy generation last week, and just today we announced a package of Government-funded, innovative projects to cut transport emissions and costs including, for the first time, in the marine sector. But what have we seen from the National Party? What we have seen is the National Party falling into the abyss of their carbon black hole. They are no longer content with wallowing in their fiscal Bermuda Triangle, they’ve now gone a’tunnelling, and they’re tunnelling down into a carbon black hole—to the tune of 23.92 million tonnes of carbon that the National Party now has to stand up and account to. They are the party of “No”, they are telling us what they won’t do to cut emissions, they’ve signed up to carbon budgets, they’ve said they’re all in—Christopher Luxon said it’s one if his key priorities. So tell us what you’re going to do. You’ve told us what you’re not going to do, you’re not going to cut transport emissions, you’re not going to help industry cut their emissions, so stump up and tell us where you’re going to find 23 million tonnes worth of carbon cuts. Let’s put that in context: that is more than two times Auckland’s total emissions; that is 1.2 million cars that will have to be taken off the roads by 2030 if they’re not going to come through with what they are actually going to do.

So what have we seen? We’ve seen Christopher Luxon is in a mess over their climate policy, despite saying it’s one of his key priorities and all afresh from greenwashing it in New Zealand, he comes in and says that he’s going to lead the National Party into a bright future, a carbon future. Well, all we’ve seen is U-turn on U-turn on U-turn from Mr Luxon. I suggest the leader of the National Party, Christopher Luxon, is suffering from a sustained loss of traction. He better worry because “Crusher Collins” will be coming for him. We know what she likes to do. Don’t lose—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! Sorry, I’m going to interrupt you. Members should not refer to other members by nicknames. Full names, thank you.

Apologies, Mr Speaker. Mr Luxon should be careful because Judith Collins will be coming for him. But, I suggest that Mr Luxon also start putting together a new calendar, one that is round, one that has no dates, one that has no detail. And I think what we do is we update the Gregorian calendar with the Luxonian calendar—you just spin it round and round, you don’t give any details, you don’t give any dates, and you don’t say what you’re going to do.

Because that is what we are seeing from the National Party. All they can come up with—they’ve said, “Look, we’re going to leave it to the emissions trading scheme (ETS). The ETS can do this alone.” New Zealanders need to understand what that means, if we leave all this to the emissions trading scheme. This has been laid out really clearly. So their “We’re not going to do anything” hands off, go round and round in circles approach is going to mean that if we’re going to remove transport emissions with things other than innovative projects like our Government has put forward—and they’ve just said no for—we will need to see a carbon price of around $575 a tonne to achieve the kind of cuts we need. This will mean an extra $1.30 at the pump for every litre of petrol if we leave this to the ETS alone—

💬 SPEAKER: Order! The member’s time has expired.

What New Zealanders need to be aware of is that under this Government we’re importing three times more dirty Indonesian coal into New Zealand. When Grant Robertson gets up and speaks in the House, we can smell the coal on his breath. It’s the same with Megan Woods. And by the way, when most countries are actually trying to transition into cleaner fuels using gas, what have we done? We’ve done it using Indonesian coal—we’ve done it using Indonesian coal. Well done, Government! And she’s got the gall to stand up in this House and start challenging us on what we want to do and the fact that we want to use the emissions trading scheme (ETS).

By the way, the ETS has been very effective. It’s already been adopted through many sectors and actually—surprise, surprise—a lot of businesses and industries in New Zealand take climate change seriously. They are making positive steps to try and reduce emissions, and maybe this Government should actually trust them a bit more and work with them a bit more closely; unlike what they’ve done with the primary industries, where they came up with He Waka Eke Noa, which was a very good proposal; they’re taking it seriously. What does the Government do? What does the Minister do? What does the Minister do on the Mike Hosking show? She turns around and when I said, “Why don’t you just adopt and work with what the primary industries are saying?”, she said to me, “That’s why you shouldn’t be in Government.” An arrogant Government that thinks that they are the only ones that have got the good ideas. They think that they’re the only ones that can make the decisions. An arrogant Government already, in its second term. Actually, it was arrogant in its first term.

I just want to get back to crime in this country, because I have never seen crime and lawlessness at the levels at which we are currently seeing in New Zealand. It is serious, and then there’s a big human toll attached to this. The one thing that I’m really disappointed about is that during question time, my friend Paul Goldsmith asked the Minister of Justice why we don’t hear about victims much any more—what are they actually doing to put victims at the heart of our criminal justice system, which is where they should be. In her reply, she said, “We don’t control the sentencing. We don’t control the consequences. That sits with the judges.” Yes, that does sit with the judges. I acknowledge that and I accept that. But the one piece of legislation that we actually had on our books was the three strikes legislation. That was the one bit of legislation that actually removed the bit of discretion from the judges. It was actually the voice of the people and the voice of the victims that said, “Actually, you’re going to apply some proper consequences.” And what did they do? They rushed into this House, before anything else—so the only bit of legislation that victims’ advocacy and support groups have come to the select committee and made submissions on, saying, “Please don’t get rid of it.”, where the victims’ voices to this Government were saying, “Please do not get rid of this legislation.”, what did they do? They rushed it through the House. It was their priority.

So don’t come into this House crying crocodile tears on the other side of the House and say that you take victims seriously. You don’t. You don’t listen to them. You rejected their submissions and you got rid of the one bit of legislation that actually meant that there was some proper tough sentencing, in this House. And you can give me all the puzzled looks you want—you can give me all the puzzled looks you want. You know exactly what I’m talking about.

And now we’re dealing with a tsunami of youth and juvenile offending. One ram raid every 15 hours—a 500 percent increase in ram raids since 2018. Get your head around that one. A 500 percent increase. There have been more ram raids in 2022 than there were in 2018, 2019, and 2020 combined. When I’m doing public safety meetings around the country, of which I’ve done 15—standing room only—if there’s South Africans in the room, they’ll come up to me and they’ll say, “We came to New Zealand 20 years ago because this was a safe country and we wanted to raise our families in a safe country.” And they said “The things that we see now in this country with ram raid after ram raid, with carjackings, with the rise in violent crime, if we don’t get on top of it, then we’re going to look like South Africa in another 10 or 15 years.”

That is a warning that we need to heed and we need to respond to. We need to get behind our police force. I’m sick of these guys saying they have to work faster and work harder. They’re dealing with a tsunami of crime that’s stretching them, that’s stretched our brave blue line, which means that they’re having to prioritise now. They can have up to 60 or 70 jobs waiting in a queue to be attended, and they can have two police units. So just think about that. The Police Commissioner said last week there’s been a 60 percent increase in family crime, family harm incidents, and mental health incidents, whilst there’s been a 20 increase in numbers. Just think about that.

So when these guys stand and say “You’re going to move faster”—

Order! Your time has expired.

The doom and gloom and woe of those people on that side of the House just would make you think that the sun isn’t shining, but go the Black Ferns. They won the Rugby World Cup, and communities big and small, families of all types, women and girls saw, in the Black Ferns, the type of New Zealand that we want for the future. They reflect the true spirit of who New Zealand is becoming—a small and proud nation, bold, confident, ambitious, unafraid to pursue and reflect its true potential. But then there’s Ruby Tui, and didn’t she exemplify the New Zealand that we are becoming when she called everyone from across the stadium in a rousing, raucous roar to sing “Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi”.

Let’s all come together to make this New Zealand the country we all believe in, the country we are becoming, because so many good things are happening. Through our efforts combined, on the sports field, in our communities, through an active Government, we are a different New Zealand than the one that those members on that side of the bench would have us believe. Why? Because the Government are seeking solutions in the hardest of times—COVID, a global pandemic, but what did we do? We put people first, and then we knew that by putting people first, we would secure a resilient economy when it came time to focus on economic recovery.

Then there’s conflict and crisis in another part of the world having a significant impact on inflation in New Zealand, supply chains, the ability to make things happen. This Government didn’t sit back and say, “Oh no, it’s all too hard.” We leaned in and said, “We will not take an austerity approach. We will support businesses when they need it. We will support families when they need it. We will support those on low incomes when they need it.” Because if we do not, then we are being irresponsible, and that is not the pathway of this Government.

And then there’s climate change. At a time when many members on that side of the House would say, “Oh, no—oh, no, don’t do anything in the climate change space.”, we know that moving to a low-carbon economy is a must and a necessity at this time. We’re working with international partners on a global response to this most significant challenge, the existential challenge in the Pacific, because we know that it must happen so that our kids, their kids can secure a future that will secure them a longevity at a time when our environment is under threat.

This is not a Government that leans back at a time when we need leadership. We are lucky to have a leader in the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern who is engaging with the world as we speak, saying that New Zealand may be small, but just like the Black Ferns, we believe in ourselves. We will present ourselves to the world on the most difficult of issues at a time when we still need to secure support from many, many partners, opening up our trade avenues, ensuring that we are standing for those values that represent the very best of who New Zealand is—optimistic, forward looking, ensuring that we have an economic resilience that will build itself based on our investment in our people and what we take to market in our differentiation. We’re confident about that. But no, you get voices from that side of the House that are doom and gloom, no solutions, kicking the can down the road.

I’m so proud about many of the announcements that we’ve made just recently: unbundling the resource management system in a way that we can underpin growth throughout our region; making sure that we have cheaper, faster, better resource management law to ensure that we can build houses, homes for people, ensuring that the regions will continue to grow; ensuring that we can work with all stakeholders—business, industry, and our communities—to underpin what is essential to their growth. That’s what unbundling the resource management system will deliver.

This is a Government that leans forward in the hardest of times, not back, saying, “Oh, it’s everybody else’s problem.”, which is what members on that side of the House are saying. Because it’s too hard, they kick hard issues down the road, they kick the things that matter most to people. They’re going to give tax cuts to the rich rather than supporting those families who need it most at a time when we need responsible Government with ideas and solutions that are going to continue to lean forward and lead, just like the Black Ferns did.

Two years ago, an ex-teaching colleague sent me an abusive email and said, “It’s all about the money; you obviously don’t care about your kids.”, and why else would I join ACT. This was an experienced teacher who has been influencing young people for the last three or four decades, and the email ended with, “You really must hate this Government.” It got me thinking: I didn’t hate the Government, I really just wasn’t happy with the way things were heading with business, education, and police—and I’ve decided to do something about it. It also reminded me how divisive politics can be.

Being the most divisive Government in New Zealand history is how this Government will be remembered. You name it, farmers against townies; landlords against tenants; vilifying licensed firearm-owners; men versus women; New Zealand Rugby, the scheduling blunder with the All Blacks and the Black Ferns games couldn’t be just an innocent mistake—couldn’t just be an innocent mistake—it had to be avoidable and disgraceful. It’s just so divisive. Everything is divisive. Then, we have employers against employees. The attempt to demonise people who have put their future on the line starting or buying a business to build a better life for themselves and provide employment for hundreds and thousands of other New Zealanders is despicable, and the ignorance of this Government about what actually happens in New Zealand businesses is really quite astounding. The divisive fair pay agreements, or industrial awards, will hurt hard-working employees. While the gallery had many supporters during the third reading, it could have been filled to overflowing with those employees against it—except they were out working.

The saddest thing I’ve had to do in the last two years, since I came into this place was, one month after joining, I had to add a race relations folder to my laptop. I really didn’t expect that everything this Government would do would revolve around race. They don’t understand that most New Zealanders don’t look at each other through their lens. There are thousands of clubs and sports teams around the country—rugby, netball, you name it—that have played together for years, loving each other’s company while accepting we’re all different. But, now, they wonder what’s happened to the country they knew. The ignorant attacks on our fantastic police by irresponsible politicians and media have even convinced police hierarchy that there’s a race problem. The multi-million dollar enquiry will show that there isn’t.

But the most disgraceful example of what this Government is doing to this country is the division it is intentionally creating in our young people, openly promoting it through our education system. Two weeks ago, I spoke to an ex-student of mine who recently returned with her husband after seven years in Australia. She said she didn’t recognise her country anymore after their son came home from school and asked “Why does the teacher want to know if I’m Māori?” They’re heading back to Australia where they’re just treated like hard-working members of society. I know a highly skilled, wonderful relief teacher who recently walked into a classroom to be greeted by a year 9 boy with “Great, another old white woman who stole our land.” I happen to know the boy’s family and they are as privileged as Willie Jackson and Kelvin Davis. This is the vision that this Government has created.

This morning, I heard a member of the House refer to anyone who doesn’t agree with them as having “white fragility”, and it made me feel sick. Universities are openly advertising for Māori and Pasifika quotas. Managers actually think it’s acceptable to cut staff based on ethnicity. And the scary thing is that they don’t even think that it’s wrong.

ACT will put a stop to this divisive nonsense and promote New Zealand as the modern, multi-ethnic, liberal democracy that it is. The Ministry of Education will be in for a big shake up: the woke agendas that are causing so much harm to our kids will end; students will be able to fulfil their potential and not be labelled victim or villain, depending on who their grandparents were; and we’ll have a history curriculum that doesn’t leave out major parts of this great country. Schools will be held accountable. Teachers will be appreciated. Front-line police will be supported and given the resources and assurance that the Government has their backs. Youth aid will be properly funded. Younger violent offenders will be held accountable. Businesses will be encouraged to make a profit, not have continual costs and legislation put on them—costs that discourage growth and make it impossible to look after those employees who work hard and appreciate their job.

We’ve get a big job ahead to undo the damage caused by the most divisive Government in the history of New Zealand, and New Zealanders can’t wait for us to start. Thank you.

I want to start by paying acknowledgments through a Māori lens, and that is to the wonderful, great New Zealander Tā Harawira Gardiner. There was a wonderful rā whakamaumaharatanga, remembrance service, for that distinguished New Zealander rangatira, and that is the work and that is the legacy that he has laid down, and I’m really disappointed by the ACT member in terms of taking us back to way into the last century with his views in terms of race relations in Aotearoa. Tā Harawira Gardiner was an outstanding servant of the public service, he had a distinguished military career, and he laid a legacy.

💬 Hon Michael Woodhouse: And the National Party.

And even though he was partial to the blue side of the House—

💬 Hon Michael Woodhouse: Partial? He bled blue.

We note that, but we pay that respect, and that’s what we do in Māori.

Āpiti hono, tātai hono. Rātou te hunga wairua ki a rātou. Āpiti hono, tātai hono. Ko tātou te hunga ora ki a tātou. Tēnā tātou katoa.

[The lines are unbroken. Let the dead rest with the dead. The lines are unbroken. Let us, the living, be with the living. Greetings one and all.]

Now, with that out of the way, to the business at hand. I’m delighted to be a member of this Government. What a wonderful, unified team that we have. We have an economic plan which is actually achieving results for New Zealand in spite of the global turmoil and difficult circumstances that the world is facing at the moment.

I want to acknowledge our Prime Minister, Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern; our Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson; and Stuart Nash, our Minister for Economic and Regional Development. We have an economic plan, and it is delivering for New Zealand because our economy is growing: tourism is back and it’s up; goods exports in our term of Government have been going up every year. We are delivering for New Zealand in two particular areas too: the lowest unemployment rate for Māori and Pasifika we have achieved as a Government, and also the highest employment rate for women, for wāhine, across Aotearoa. We have achieved that through our management of the economy in spite of the difficult and challenging global situation that we’re in.

And as part of our economic plan, we are strengthening those foundational elements to our economy, and I want to acknowledge the Hon David Parker, Minister for the Environment, and his associate the Hon Kiritapu Allan for their work in introducing—we’re getting rid of the Resource Management Act (RMA), and we have two new pieces of legislation which will make it cheaper, faster, and better for resource management processes and resource management law—long overdue, long overdue. This is something the Opposition could never deliver. Even with their nine years of power, they could never deliver what we have achieved in these landmark pieces of legislation. So I commend them for their work, the work of this Government—including dealing with difficult issues around Māori issues, infrastructure, local government, all of those issues. To be able to bring forward that legislation is a really great achievement that we are doing.

So our economy is doing well. We are making foundational changes through the RMA. And I want to talk about the strengthening that we are doing in our international connections. As we’ve heard during question time today, we have achieved more in terms of free-trade relationships and free-trade agreements than the last Government when they were in power: the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, upgrades to the China FTA. We’ve just heard about the recent Association of South-east Asian Nations FTA. We are doing so much work, and our Prime Minister is currently over at APEC meetings and the East Asia Summit, leading business delegations. We are doing the work in terms of reconnecting with the world to ensure that we can have those important agreements in place which can support our exporters and which can bring forward greater revenues and greater returns to all of New Zealand. That’s a hallmark of our trade-for-all agenda, and we are excelling in terms of the achievement that we are making on the international stage. So I’m really proud of the achievements that we are doing, but we know that there is a lot more work to do, and that’s why we’re working hard as a team to ensure that we can continue to build the foundations for a strong economy to ensure that it can deliver for all New Zealanders.

One final shout-out, again, to the Minister for Economic and Regional Development for his economic plan that he has put out and he is championing for New Zealand and that is delivering for us all. Kia ora tātou.

When the regions are strong, New Zealand is strong, and no stronger than in Hawke’s Bay, where we have had the strongest regional growth of any region in the country, on pre-pandemic levels, of 8.7 percent. We are growing good jobs, and we are growing the regions, where Hastings, in the heart of the Tukituki electorate, is absolutely booming. Strong regional growth, with a Government economic and regional economic plan developed through the pandemic, has focused on supporting local businesses to grow jobs and wages.

In Tukituki, we are an outstanding example of this Government’s working together with local government, with local business, and with iwi, and that’s what is happening right on the home front in Hastings. By collaboration and working together, we are enabling more and more opportunities to keep the region growing now and into the future, and that’s how we keep this region, and the regions of New Zealand, going. Our Government is delivering on our housing build programme in Hastings, growing more jobs and more jobs. This is getting people into warm and affordable, dry homes, all the while backing building, civil, trades, and service businesses and training up a future workforce.

We are seeing record investment, record Government investment, into Hawke’s Bay: $300 million worth of Government investment into projects; $34 million of civil works for housing development right in Hastings; $15 million worth for jobs and roading projects right in Hastings; $30 million worth of drinking water and water storage to grow our region; $37 million into sporting facilities, where we have seen one of the best, game-changing Olympic swimming aquatic centres for the world delivered right in Hastings. Mr Speaker, you had the opportunity to see that—

💬 SPEAKER: Don’t bring me into the debate.

—building right from the ground up. That is what we do in Hastings and for Hawke’s Bay.

Another exciting investment: $12 million for Foodeast in Hastings, an innovation park to grow added value to the primary sector. The primary sector can have absolute confidence because their seasonable labour—19,000 more Recognised Seasonal Employer workers coming in to help harvest the crops. And land security, to protect our region’s vital soil for growing great food for Kiwis and for the world. Investing in critical infrastructure is how we grow the foundation for growth. It’s infrastructure. Another $18.5 million of infrastructure funding for Hastings to get pipes in the ground and new roads built, to build thousands more houses right across the region. That’s how we grow our region, and that’s how we grow jobs. Yes, we are leading on the home front in Hastings, building houses and building infrastructure.

Now, National neglected the regions. That’s a reminder of what they do: they neglect the regions. And, if you want an example of how National neglected Hastings, sold out Hastings, how many houses did they build in their nine years in Government for Hastings? Six—six. That’s all they built, and they sold down 190. Not this Government—317 homes built: social, transitional, and papakāinga houses, and another 287 on the way. Multimillion-dollar investment compared to the National Party of neglect, who sold down Hastings for only six houses over nine years. But we are building back stronger. We are the Government that takes the regions with us—stronger regions, stronger for New Zealand. We are going to keep backing Hastings, keep backing the regions. Go, the regions. And go, go, Hawke’s Bay.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. That was so exciting I nearly forgot to stand up. It almost makes me want to live in Tukituki, but, of course, Ilam is the best electorate.

In preparing for this speech, I googled “inflation Australia”, and I learnt that the Australian inflation has reached 7.3 percent. The second hit when I googled “inflation Australia” was the question “Why Is Australia’s Inflation Rate So High?” And I’ll bite, Forbes; I’ll bite. Australia, apparently, according to Forbes, “is experiencing record levels of inflation as a result of”—in bold type—“knock on effects from the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and strong consumer demand.” Curious, I carried on searching. The UK is, according to the BBC, experiencing a rate of inflation of 10.096 percent. The cited main cause quoted by the BBC: cost of energy related to the war in Ukraine, amongst other causes. Pasta is up in the UK by 60 percent and tea, appallingly for any English person, is up by 46 percent. And yet average wages in the UK—there is a point to this—are not keeping up. The cost of living is up 10.1 percent, but wages have only risen by 5.7 percent. Times are tough in the UK. Times are tough in Australia. Times are tough here. Times are tough across the world.

But what was the UK’s response to those inflation rises? It was tax cuts for the wealthy—sound familiar? Shall I tell you what happened when a Tory Government cut taxes for the rich? Chaos. Chaos is what happened. Thirty billion pounds—that’s $60 billion—were added to the already colossal fiscal hole that was caused by unexpectedly bad economic conditions of £30 billion already there; £60 billion. Now, these are eye-watering sums of money, and I can’t get my head around billions. It’s just too much. So I did some sums and I worked it out. That’s $3,669 on the hour, every hour since Jesus was a lad—on the hour, every hour. One policy decision nearly collapsed the British economy. It caused the abrupt resignation of the Prime Minister and an even more abrupt reversal of that policy, which now has to be paid for by increasing taxes by stealth on an already overwhelmed population by a Tory Government.

But Labour won’t be doing that. Labour will not be responding to a global economic volatility and cost of living crisis by giving money to our richest people. Labour will continue to put people first. We are investing in our people. Unemployment is at a near-historic low of 3.3 percent. Annual earnings are up by 7.9 percent, which is, unlike the UK, keeping above the rate of inflation, lower than Australia’s at 7.2 percent—Australia at 7.3. We know that people are doing it tough. Times are very hard and comparing our economy to others isn’t always what people are doing when they are struggling. Of course they aren’t.

Labour knows this and that’s why we are putting money in the pockets of those who need it the most; why we have increased the minimum wage again and again and again, opposed by our National colleagues; why we introduced the winter energy payment, which they promise they will remove should they go into Government with ACT next year; why we have supported countless businesses with COVID wage subsidy; why we are supporting those who supported us through the COVID crisis, our cleaners, our bus drivers, with fair pay agreements; and why we have increased Working for Families tax credits; on childcare eligibility, we’ve reversed a freeze that National put in place in 2010; why we are removing barriers to women who want to work; why we have reinstated the training incentive allowance—and I could go on and on and on, but my time is limited.

Yes, people are doing it tough. Labour has their backs, putting people first. It is not time to give tax cuts for the rich; it’s time to continue to invest in our people.

Tēnā koe. It is a great pleasure to use my first time in a general debate to acknowledge that we are in Transgender Awareness Week. Ngā mihi atu ki ngā takatāpui, irawhiti, whakawāhine, tangata ira tāne, [I acknowledge our whole homosexual, transgender, and non-binary community] all our trans and non-binary whānau from Māori and Pasifika communities, but also for our migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking people.

I want to acknowledge those we have lost. There are many issues facing our trans and non-binary whānau. In particular, I want to mihi to the memories of Carmen, Chrissy Witoko, Jennifer “Miss Lee” Edwards, and, even though she’s not Māori, I want to acknowledge Dana de Milo, because she was a long-time member of the Māori Women’s Welfare League and we absolutely welcomed her into our communities.

Now, if anybody wants to know more about trans and non-binary people, I refer them to this amazing, amazing report. This is Counting Ourselves: The health and wellbeing of trans and non-binary people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Ngā mihi to the research team that did this work, an incredible amount of work with almost 12,000 people who answered the first survey about this. Now, this includes issues around gender-affirming care, provider knowledge and competency, healthcare access barriers, mental health and wellbeing, substance use, school, sport, discrimination, safety and violence, identity documents, material hardship, family-whānau, community connectedness, and demographic group differences. The great news is this is available to anybody; you can get this online.

Right now, the Counting Ourselves team—they launched their survey in Parliament; they hosted that event earlier this year—have opened up a second survey, and so I want to take this opportunity to encourage anybody who is trans - non-binary to take part in that because the nature of this kind of research is something that directly informs our work in the community and in this House. This is part of the work that when we had the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act, we referred to this kind of research. It’s a comprehensive anonymous survey on the health and wellbeing of trans and non-binary people living in Aotearoa. You can fill this out online or in hard copy if you are 18 years or older.

I just want to acknowledge that many people don’t naturally associate with the terms “trans” and “non-binary”; they’re not always sure if it covers them, so I just want to acknowledge the range of terms that our people use in all of the different languages and nations of people who are in our country. So, for example: trans, transgender, transsexual, takatāpui, irawhiti, trans woman, transfeminine, whakawahine, fa’afafine, fakaleiti or leiti, fakafifine, akava’ine, vakasalewalewa, trans man, transmasculine, tangata ira tāne, fa’atama, akatāne, non-binary, tāhine, genderqueer, irakē, gender fluid, irahuri, gender diverse, irahuhua, cross-dresser, bi-gender, pangender, demi-gender, agender, and also trans people who just identify as a woman or as a man. The deadline for this is 30 November, if you know somebody that would fit into this.

Know that those stories are so important to tell for the rest of us. The goal of this is to help improve the health of trans and non-binary people in Aotearoa. As a cisgender ally, I am really, really proud to do that shout-out for them today.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the legendary Georgina Beyer. She was the first transgender woman in a Parliament anywhere in the world. That was from 1999 to 2007—15 years ago. I challenge my party and all of the parties in this House to see who is going to elect the next trans - non-binary person into this House. Kia ora.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s investing in our people that is a key part of our COVID economic recovery plan. It’s great to see more people supported into work, young people set up for bright futures, and more people move into jobs through successful initiatives, like the Flexi-wage, Mana in Mahi, and Apprenticeship Boost programmes. Apprenticeship Boost supports businesses with access to the skilled workers they need. The programme was launched just over two years ago, and, in that time, they have supported businesses to train their workers—18,000 Kiwi businesses have taken on more than 50,000 apprentices.

Now, recently, I had the real pleasure of having the Minister the Hon Jan Tinetti coming up for a visit to Kaipara ki Mahurangi, and she was very pleased to see local businesses in Rodney supporting young women into apprenticeships, like builders, electricians, painters, and spray-painters. We also visited eight schools in the Rodney area, in her role as Associate Minister of Education. In light of some of the comments of the Leader of the Opposition this morning, picking principals as the next group to put the boot into, I want to take this opportunity to put on the record a massive thanks for the amazing mahi done by schools, principals, and senior leadership teams in the role they have played in keeping our kids connected to schools and keeping them safe all through the lockdowns and through the tough times that have been following.

The issues that we are facing are complex. There’s a lot of work to do and there’s just no easy fix. Being relentlessly negative, and tax cuts for the wealthy, aren’t going to solve any of those.

We have a lot to be optimistic about. The last figures show that unemployment has remained at the near-record low of 3.3 percent. I remember when COVID first hit and the Treasury forecast was that unemployment could rise as high as 10 percent, and our finance Minister, the Hon Grant Robertson, said that he would not let that happen. Our following Budgets were put together in very difficult circumstances but they helped New Zealanders get through COVID.

I’m proud of our record, as a country, with one of the lowest death rates in the world, but also the country with one of the strongest economies in the world. New Zealand’s economy is set to recover faster from the pandemic than it did from the global financial crisis. As well as that near-record low unemployment, incomes are growing at the highest rate since records began, and my colleague Sarah Pallett was talking about that previously. Our agriculture exports have reached a massive $53 billion, and tourists are returning. More homes have been built last year than since records began, as our economy grows stronger. We’re getting a cheaper, faster, and better resource management law. It’s also important to note that our debt remains low and it’s among the lowest in the OECD.

It’s not to say that times aren’t tough for many Kiwis—and, no doubt, global increases in inflation are hurting New Zealanders. But while there’s no easy fix for the cost of living, we’ve taken a range of actions to ease the pressure. That is, from rolling out our cost of living package and winter energy payments, to the boost to superannuation, making sure we keep public transport cheaper, and the action we’re taking so that New Zealanders are paying fair prices at the checkout. All of those things are designed to help make a difference as we come through a really tough global environment.

Since the day that we came into Government, we’ve worked hard to lift wages and reduce cost pressures on Kiwis, through methods like cheaper doctor visits, free lunches in schools, and the family tax credit. Recently, of course, the next step we announced, at that fantastic Labour conference, was easing the cost of living pressures for the majority of New Zealand families by improving access to childcare assistance. So, from 1 April next year, 54 percent of all families with children will be eligible for subsidised childcare assistance.

We are continuing the work to ensure that Kiwis get a fair go. We want to ensure that hard-working Kiwis get paid a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. That’s why, as has been mentioned previously, since 2017, we have boosted the minimum wage, bringing it to $21.20 per hour now. The minimum wage boost since 2017 has meant that full-time minimum wage workers are now earning an extra $218 a week. We are also implementing fair pay agreements to improve the wages and the conditions of our workers and to support our economic recovery. We are supporting families and businesses and it results in more people in work with higher wages, making both families and our economy stronger.

Our Government inherited a lot of issues to deal with. But we’ve tackled big issues like COVID-19 well, and made progress on things like child poverty, social housing, and climate change. Now it is time to accelerate progress on the things that matter most. It’s not time for relentless negativity. It’s not time for the silly ideas of the Opposition, like tax cuts for the wealthiest. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Te Pūkenga, the mega-polytechnic and industry training organisation (ITO) brainchild of Chris Hipkins and Labour’s centralisation ideology has so many problems. Where to start? The mess Chris Hipkins has made of our vocational education sector used to make me angry, but now I am just heartbroken at the waste: waste of good staff, waste of community and industry engagement, waste of credibility with international students, waste of money, and, most importantly, waste of what used to be a world-class vocational education and training for our students.

The Minister has stated that the financial situation of the polytech sector was why he embarked on this failed reform. He harks back to financial projections that were manufactured to support his ideological pathway. They were never peer reviewed or supported by those experienced and knowledgeable in the sector. They were a work of fiction to suit his narrative.

He points to the bailouts of a handful of polytechnics that were in financial trouble. Well, I would say to him: why did he just throw money at them to bail them out? That was irresponsible with public money. He should have undertaken specific remedial action to get them to known ratios, like staff to students, staff to teaching hours, teaching hours to programme, and then he should have peer reviewed their support services costs against like institutions, and then he should have looked at alternative operating models for them. All the information is there to do it, but of course he couldn’t do it because he knew nothing about how to run a successful polytechnic or ITO, and he refused to listen to those who did, or offered to work with them. In his naivety, he simply thought he knew best.

We know he received a business case from Te Pūkenga in October and it told him that Te Pūkenga needed an additional almost $1 billion to operate—that’s right, almost $1 billion—because he brought everything together with these entities, but they can’t combine or operate centrally because they all have different IT systems, different student management, different finance, different HR, different online delivery. Anyone with an ounce of experience and common sense would have seen that problem before they started.

We’ve already seen the fiasco of a chief executive leaving or being pushed out because he wasn’t achieving the unachievable set by the Minister, and a chief financial officer leaving after less than three months because he realised the Minister was asking for the impossible. Then we had the acting chief executive and chair going out on a consultation roadshow in August-September of this year, saying to staff, “Nothing to be concerned about with your job, only the chief executives will be impacted. You’ll be lifted and shifted to Te Pūkenga at 1 January next year.” Bad luck with that. The next layer of staff—the HR managers and chief information officers—are getting their marching orders as we speak, but, hey, they are being consulted on it.

Every polytechnic has been told to wind back expenditure by 3 percent, regardless of whether they are operating efficiently or are in financial trouble. Fair or sensible? No, of course not, and how about recruiting international students into Te Pūkenga? The Associate Minister of Education talked about co-governance also, and said that that hadn’t been discussed—whoops! That has been advertised in the last couple of weeks. And the international student numbers? Australia is doing well, but not us. Closed borders, visa fiascos, immigration policies not supportive of students, and, of course, Te Pūkenga, are all causing us problems.

International agents and partner institutions don’t even know what Te Pūkenga is. Other countries market universities, institutes of technology, colleges, and polytechnics. They’re all internationally known entities, and we market Te Pūkenga. What is it? What does it do?

This Labour Government have made a colossal mess of our vocational education sector. National will disestablish Te Pūkenga. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. I’d love to ask that previous speaker Penny Simmonds how much money they’re going to spend to dismantle Te Pūkenga.

This afternoon, I want to say how hopeful I am, how invigorated I am, and how excited I am about what is going on in this nation, and I take Te Pūkenga for an example. Just recently in Taranaki, who was the first cab off the rank to support the future of Te Pūkenga? We celebrated 50 years of our polytechnic here in Taranaki, in our region. We not only celebrated 50 years of what has been, 50 years of what has happened, 50 years of the successes, and 50 years of the challenges, but we looked hopefully into the future, and we were hopeful as hundreds of people gathered to celebrate Te Pūkenga and its future at our polytechnic in Taranaki to say that we are moving forward, we are going places, and it is exciting. Our future is exciting.

Then again, I’ll come back to two weeks ago. I was on a panel with energy futures Aotearoa talking about our oil and gas industry, and the future and the skills challenges that we face not only in our energy sector but in many of our sectors around Aotearoa New Zealand. I was super impressed as I participated, as I listened, and as I learnt. One of the representatives from Te Pūkenga was there and talked about the ability that we have now, as a nationwide organisation, to move and change with the times, to bring people from Christchurch and Otago and to bring people down from Waikato in terms of filling our skills gaps and making sure that the courses and the programmes are in place to be fit and ready for our clean energy future—not only in Taranaki, but in New Zealand and around the world.

I’m hopeful and I’m excited about what’s going on, and—as was said earlier by our Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and as was said by our Minister of Energy and Resources—last week, 97 percent of renewable energy was used. I looked it up. I checked online to make sure they got their numbers right, and I knew that they would have, but then I noticed that on Friday morning it was 99 percent. That’s right: 99 percent of our energy was renewable energy that was powering the nation. We can do better. We’ve got more work to do and, on this side of the House, we are hopeful and we’re committed to making that happen.

Now, again, a couple of weeks ago, I was in Taranaki and I was able to attend the launch of a new offshore wind farm for South Taranaki. Now this is exciting: South Taranaki—as you know, Mr Speaker—many years ago had challenges in terms of freezing works closing down and in terms of challenges for jobs and unemployment. But as we move in this just transition space, we see the potential of jobs, jobs, jobs in a town in Taranaki that, like Pātea, had had the guts ripped out of it many, many years ago. It has the potential of becoming the new lead in terms of the clean-energy sector in our region. The fact is that they’re going to be using spaces out of there to build offshore wind, and when we talk about that, we’re talking about this decade.

I’m glad that, as a Government, in this year’s Budget we committed $18 million for the development of a comprehensive strategy not only in energy, a hydrogen road map, but for making sure that we have the regulatory framework in place to ensure that we have the offshore wind capacity to ensure that we not only hit 97 percent and 99 percent but that we become the clean-energy capital of the world when it comes to our energy creation as we move forward.

Finally, as I say, I’m hopeful and I’m happy and I’m optimistic about what’s moving forward. Last night, I was back home at the Taranaki Regional Council Environmental Awards. We as a Government are committed to our environment and we as a Government are committed to our climate, and so I was so excited to be there to see the winners not only of business and not only of educators, but of our tamariki. I noticed that Matapu preschool was one of the winners. These are preschoolers who are learning and being empowered to take action to protect the resource of our environment, taking action to protect our climate, taking action, as three-, four- and five-year-olds, to make sure that they live in a hopeful place that is prosperous—not only for us and when it comes to our bank balances but also when it comes to our people and also when it comes to our planet.

Our planet is the only one we have. I am committed as a member of the Labour Party to ensure that we protect our people, to ensure that we protect our planet, and to ensure that we protect the hope of our future, which is our tamariki.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.