General Debate

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

This Government, in the last five years, has faced some of the biggest challenges that any Government, in any time in our history, has faced. If we think about dealing with our end of a global pandemic, that has been challenging enough. When we think about dealing with a terrorist attack on a minority in part of New Zealand, that has been challenging enough. When we think about dealing with a national tragedy like Whakaari / White Island, that has been challenging enough. If we think about dealing with the growing frequency of serious weather events that are causing major damage and trauma to many of our communities, that is challenging enough.

But nothing has been as challenging as dealing with the utter mess this country was left in by the previous Government that we’ve had to step up and deal with. When we think about a health system suffering from years of underinvestment and struggling to be consistent but, most importantly, equitable across our country. When we think about a mental health system that was just literally ignored and neglected because we had a Government that did not care about people who needed that help. We think about an education system that was struggling to do its job of consistent education, good literacy, good training, and a good environment for our children across the country. Classrooms that were leaking—classrooms and facilities that were desperately short of what was needed to keep our children in a good environment. We think about regions that were desperate for investment, desperate to keep their people, desperate to keep their businesses. We think about a police force that was understaffed and under-resourced, and a former police Minister who signed off on a reduction in the police force in 2016. We think about a social support system that had been set up to punish and stigmatise rather than support and transform, which is what we have now. And we think about a drinking water, a waste water, and a stormwater system that was struggling to cope, has been underinvested in for far too long, and to which the previous Government simply turned a blind eye. Everywhere you looked, everywhere we looked, we saw neglect, we saw cans being kicked down the road, and a Government that just gave up.

But then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern turned up with this Government and it all changed, and it has all changed. We’ve got on with dealing with those hard, intractable, nearly impossible issues. All those issues we’ve been dealing with: health, education, welfare, all those things. What have we done? We’ve lifted incomes. We’ve got people who were on benefits working. We’ve lifted incomes in the last year alone, on average, 8.8 percent—that’s the lift in incomes that New Zealanders have enjoyed. We’ve lifted tens of thousands of children out of poverty through better income support and through the school lunches programme. That’s a testament to Ministers like the Hon Carmel Sepuloni, the Hon Chris Hipkins, and, of course, our Prime Minister in her capacity as Minister for dealing with child poverty. We’ve got more young people in apprenticeships than ever before—more than 50,000 young people in apprenticeships. That’s thanks not only to people like Carmel Sepuloni, again, but to Willie Jackson, with his Mana in Mahi programme and He Poutama Rangatahi programme. We’ve got more police—1,600 more of them. And what we now know is that more crime is being resolved; people who commit crimes now have a better chance of getting caught than ever before. And, of course, we have the huge challenge of waste water, of drinking water and stormwater, because we’re not kicking the can down the road anymore. I pay tribute to our colleague the Hon Nanaia Mahuta for the incredible work that she has done to face up to that challenge and actually do something about it. Because, on this side of the House, we have a Government with Ministers who are focused on the task.

Forget about the noise. Forget about the people opposite with no plan, with no idea, with nothing but chipping away. This is a Government that is getting on with the business. A stable Government with stable Ministers focused on the task at hand, knowing what New Zealanders need, and delivering on that promise. And we’re doing all that stuff, looking after New Zealanders, while also responding to a global pandemic that has seen billions of people around the world shut in their homes and shut in their cities. We’ve done this because this is a Government that has given priority to the stuff that matters to New Zealanders.

ACT believes New Zealanders should have hope about our future, even though 2022’s been a tough year with the cost of living crisis, crime out of control in our cities, and the sense that the Government is trading away New Zealanders’ property rights and freshwater rights to a privileged few. However, the things that matter to New Zealanders have actually changed very little over the last 50 years: that if you work hard, save hard, you can build or buy a family home, you can raise a family or even a dog; that the natural environment and those special places that are important to New Zealanders should be protected; and that we have safe and efficient transport options to get around our cities, to get between our regions and our ports and markets, and even catch a bus—if it arrives on time.

When I was an engineering student in the 1990s, I fully expected that New Zealand would continue to get better. We would solve problems around waste and pollution, fresh water, and biodiversity. Our cities would grow into modern, fun metros like Sydney or Melbourne, and there would be affordable homes and lifestyles for people of all ages and stages of life. We would be able to get around on safe and fast freeways, linking cities, regions, ports, and actually have decent public transport which turned up on time.

But since the high-water mark of personal freedom and private property rights in the 1990s, things have not progressed that way for New Zealand. More and more rules limit how people can use their own land, which makes housing less affordable and delivers fewer housing options for younger people starting their careers; more rules which make building vital infrastructure slow and expensive but do little to enhance the environment; more people and groups with special interests are allowed to object to vital projects like upgrading ports and building the electricity transmission lines we need to transition to a renewable energy future. Labour has proposed challenges in resource management and planning laws which will actually make these problems worse and slow down progress just at the time when we need to accelerate.

That is why ACT proposes practical and sensible solutions for building New Zealand and conserving nature. We released this policy last week to give hope to young New Zealanders and the people who build New Zealand that we can be better, when New Zealanders are free to make the best possible use of their property and our shared environment so we can live our best lives. ACT believes we can improve biodiversity by incentivising landowners to carry out private conservation rather than imposing blanket planning rules on private land. By adopting environmental limits and allowing water users to trade water in a market-based system, fresh water can be more fairly allocated to the environment and for people. Where more water is needed to respond to climate change, ACT would make building water storage a permitted activity under a new environmental protection Act. A new Urban Development Act would encourage vibrant, mixed-use communities with cafes, corner stores, and childcare centres a permitted activity you can build as of right.

Landowners who see benefits in building up would be able to vote to increase development potential above existing council limits. ACT believes that only people directly affected by development should have the right to object, and rather than spending years in Environment Court begging for consents, a planning disputes tribunal would be a much fairer way to determine compensation.

When it comes to infrastructure, New Zealand has fallen far behind countries we like to compare ourselves to. ACT believes the fairest way to fund infrastructure and to build it faster and to get more built is a user-pays system. Road pricing is much fairer than fuel taxes and would provide a dedicated funding stream for transport network operators. Smart networks in the US and Singapore actually price road use by the minute. That’s how we manage down demand in other countries and provide reliable journey times.

ACT believes Kiwis and especially young people should have hope as we head into Christmas and 2023. There will be a change of Government next year and, with ACT playing a major role, a real change in the way we build our cities and conserve nature.

The Government has charted a steady ship through the choppy waters of the pandemic. And now as we emerge from the emergency phase of the pandemic, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to continue our strengthening of our health system to build a modern and high quality system that cares for people. We know the problems with our health system; they have been well traversed in this House. It was not fair for everyone; in fact, you might say that 15 percent of our population was not thought of in its planning. It was fragmented, it was complex, its institutions were unsustainable, they were perpetually burdened by debt. Healthcare had become dependent on where you lived, there were multiple DHBs in which critical specialties like dermatology were just unavailable to people. People who did need to be sent to tertiary referral centres were tracked with a complex series of payments between DHBs that meant clinicians couldn’t make effective and fast decisions in order to look after people. It was not right.

This Government, led by my colleague Minister Andrew Little, has been changing it. This has been a long hard piece of work to create a more equitable system, but we are making excellent progress, re-orientating the entire systems towards Pae Ora - Healthy Futures for all. We are doing this because all people, all whānau, and all communities should be supported to achieve good health and wellbeing. It’s the biggest change to health in a generation. We have created Te Whatu Ora, a national entity that can drive consistency of access across the country. We have a New Zealand health plan that outlines priorities for investment. Finally, the health system can think ahead of one-year cycles and we can tackle the big problems that have plagued our health system for too long. We have had no systematic workforce planning because we couldn’t think beyond the one-year cycle. DHBs were not able to set planning beyond their annual one-year budget cycle—we’re moving that out to two- and three-year cycles so that we can address the underlying problems that have stopped New Zealanders from realising the good health that they deserve.

For too long, Māori had been denied a seat at the table in terms of health decision-making. We are changing that. We’ve created a Māori Health Authority and iwi-Māori partnership boards. And yes, while we have brought to the centre the planning and delivery and addressing of our health infrastructure and our health planning, we are creating greater opportunities for local engagement through the localities prototypes, where communities do get to work with health and social services providers to make sure that everyone gets the care they need. I’ve been particularly proud to be able to re-orientate our system towards prevention. That’s why we’re bringing our smokefree bill through the House as well, and we’ve been investing properly in women’s health screening and making tremendous progress there.

Transformational change does not happen overnight, but we have been courageous and determined in addressing the big issues around resourcing and inequities. We have looked at the infrastructure that supports our health system, be that digital or be that buildings. We have turned around the fact that the party opposite for two years did not fund capital investment at all in our health system, starving our health system of the ability to care for a growing population. Our health system needs choice and quality services, and this Government is seeing to that.

So when New Zealanders head to the polls, they should know that a vote for the Opposition is a vote that puts their health services at risk. It’s clear that the National Party’s plan is tax cuts for the highest earning New Zealanders, and that means massive cuts to health and other social services. It does not add up. We have ambitious goals of making New Zealand smokefree, of ending HIV transmission, of ending hepatitis C. A vote for the Opposition puts that at risk. Some 31,000 children in healthier homes—a vote for the Opposition puts that at risk. The DECIDE abortion service for telehealth abortion—a vote for the Opposition puts that at risk. Our reforms are ongoing and we will chart our way through difficult economic times to make sure that we continue to provide New Zealanders with the services that they need and deserve.

After five years of this Government, this Labour Government is in total disarray. They’re tired, they’re divided, they’re arrogant, and they’re out of ideas. The Prime Minister will be coming up at the end of January, and she’ll be turning up and announcing the election date for next year. I’d advise her to announce it for February so that the country can get on with it and get back and have a Government that knows how to actually implement things, rather than just to stand and announce and think that the announcement of spending is all that’s required, because that’s what this Government seems to believe and what Jacinda Ardern seems to believe.

So if we start with the entrenchment debate, I mean it’s an extraordinary set of circumstances. We have David Parker pointing out and making sure that we’re fully aware of the Cabinet note which said that Cabinet decided not to entrench the three-waters bill. The Government had been thinking about it because they know the three-waters legislation is unpopular. People don’t like it and they don’t want it. They don’t believe that putting everything together in one big monopoly, like the Unitecs and like the hospitals, is going to lead to better outcomes. They don’t believe it, and so they’re not liking it. They don’t like the co-governance provisions. They believe that all New Zealanders should have an equal say in who affects them and what their decisions are about water and basic things like that.

They don’t like the co-governance, so the Government wanted to entrench part of the legislation. Cabinet disagreed, and then, lo and behold, it gets in front of the Parliament and the Minister of Local Government, Nanaia Mahuta, slips it through with the Greens. They kept their heads down quietly for a little while, and then Duncan Webb said, when they were caught out—they were caught out, and then they panicked for a little bit. Duncan Webb said, “I was just following the Labour caucus’s orders.”—so what does that mean? So Cabinet had decided no, Duncan Webb says that the caucus had said, “Yes, let’s do it.”, Nanaia Mahuta says nothing, the Prime Minister says, “It’s nothing to do with me. Oh yes, we made a mistake.”

The only mistake that they made was that a political mistake that they got caught. That was the only mistake they made—they got caught. They slipped it through, hoped that nobody would notice, and now they’ve undone it. So that doesn’t convince people that they know what they’re doing.

The problem is that, actually, it does matter if the Government is coherent and predictable and capable. It does matter to a country, and New Zealanders look and they think that they have no idea where things are going, and when it comes to the issues of the constitution, they’re rightly concerned. They’re rightly concerned that this is a Government that no longer believes in equal voting rights.

That’s a fairly fundamental issue that most New Zealanders would be concerned about, but in terms of local government, or the Canterbury bill, they’ve done away with equal voting rights. The same Minister—Mahuta—is keen to extend that provision right across local government, and once they’ve gone through local government, they’ll probably go into central government, and all of a sudden we’re in a country that no longer believes in equal voting rights.

So people are suspicious around the constitutional tinkering, and when the Government of the day tries to entrench its legislation so that future Governments can’t have a different policy and can’t go to the electorate and say, “Actually, we don’t agree with three waters. We don’t support it and we want to change it.”—it now tries to meddle with it so that future Governments can’t do their job. What a disgrace, and it shows what a divided Government it is.

Then we have Michael Wood—Michael Wood bringing pork-barrel politics from Mt Roskill—trying to write to local Labour Party members of Parliament and saying, “Why don’t you come up with some ideas for new bus stops and bus lanes?”, but he doesn’t write to anybody else. He doesn’t write to the ACT MPs and he doesn’t write to the National MPs, but he’s only concerned with his own. Then he stands up and says, “You can be sure I wouldn’t engage in any untoward businesses.” Well, he’s been caught red-handed with pork-barrel politics, and he should be thrown out.

Then we’ve got Willie Jackson—Willie Jackson. Willie Jackson goes on the TV and says, “I believe in media independence.”, and then says, “But I also believe in my right to attempt to bully a journalist live on TV and to try and get him to shut up and leave me alone because he’s being too mean.” So I think that he’s sent a slightly conflicting message on that one—

💬 Hon Stuart Nash: Come on, you’ve got 45 more seconds—go hard.

—and there he goes.

💬 Andrew Bayly: What did Nash do?

Well, I don’t know what Nash did. What did he do, but he looks like Max Bradford to me.

Surprisingly, you’ve got the Minister responsible for this $300 million merger of Radio New Zealand and TVNZ that nobody—I have yet to meet anybody, including the Minister, who understands what the point of it all is. Nobody understands it.

You’ve got a Prime Minister saying that Radio New Zealand is going to go down the gurgler unless we do something, but then she is reminded that, actually, taxpayers fund Radio New Zealand. They’re not going to go down the gurgler. You can’t possibly go down the gurgler when the taxpayer is funding you, so it doesn’t matter. So that was a bizarre twist earlier in the week.

Then, when we finally come to—oh my goodness, I’ve run out of time. But this Government is soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime.

Kia orana, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise as the local MP for Palmerston North and make a contribution in today’s general debate. And can I just say that the previous contribution from the previous member, Paul Goldsmith, was nothing more than a time filler. It was a good example of all talk, no substance, no plans, no good news to share on that side of the House—no good news full stop. On this side of the House we are far from that. We are full of good news, full of excitement, reared up and ready to go.

I am proud to be part of a strong and stable Government that is absolutely delivering for my community of Palmerston North. There is no easy fix for the cost of living, but we are taking a range of actions to relieve the pressure. And when I reflect on the steps and actions that this Government have taken, I think about that short-term cost of living payment that benefits so many people in my community of Palmerston North. I think about the winter energy payment—the continuation, the active and deliberate decision of this Government to continue that through winter, through tough times, through cold months, to support people in my electorate. I think of the work that Dr David Clark is leading in terms of tackling the monopoly that supermarkets have in this country to provide equitable and easier access to food items and the rest.

Then, of course, we recently took the next step, which is providing support to a majority of Kiwi families from 1 April next year by opening up the eligibility for subsidised childcare support. More than 50 percent of whānau with children will be eligible. And when I reflect on what that means for my community, it means that Māori and Pasifika women will just clear another barrier that is in their way to provide equitable and equity assistance for them as well.

I reflect on the last couple of weeks—actually, the last week. On Friday, I spent time visiting a couple of kindergartens in my electorate—Somerset and Tākoro kindergartens—and I spent time with the teaching staff, with the support staff, and with the tamariki as well, to learn about what it means for them, the various aspects of my community and the support. And I want to acknowledge that they’re doing in that early childhood education and kindergarten space. But also, just on Monday, I spent time at Cloverlea Primary School, talking with the principal and the staff—a great school—[Interruption] Thank you, Ms Boyack—talking about and seeing the investment that this Government has made in infrastructure: their school investment package, the Astroturf, the new teaching and learning spaces, making a difference for classrooms that have been underfunded for significant periods of time, for members on the opposite of the House. We’re not about that here—we are prepared to front up with the resource to support our teachers, to support schools, to support communities to deliver for their whānau.

I also spent time visiting Palmerston North Girls’ High School in the last few weeks and then, on Friday, visiting Freyberg High School, looking at their healthy lunches in schools programme. In between visiting Tākoro Kindergarten and Freyberg, I stopped into Ellesmere Crescent to see two-bedroom homes for Kāinga Ora that have been built in my city, in my electorate—in over 20 years. Those folk on the Opposition benches were far more focused on hocking off, selling Kāinga Ora State houses than building anything in my electorate—an absolutely shameful indictment on the actions of previous Governments. You can’t shy away from that. Members cannot shy away from the fact that if I think of Palmerston North, for the first time in many, many years, we are building warm, dry, secure homes for whānaus and families. So it was a pleasure to be able to see what they were doing in that particular space as well.

I want to congratulate some young folk in my electorate—those members of the Amanaki STEM Academy for their success. They were celebrating that over the weekend. I’m proud of the fact that this is a Government, in Labour, that has invested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programmes, has provided resourcing, has provided funding to tackle the support of innovation, of science, of technology, of engineering, of mathematics. You know, that is such a rich area of expertise and resource and I’m proud of the fact that I’m part of a Government and part of a Labour team that is investing in the future of our community, investing in the future of Palmerston North. I’m also proud of the fact that we are continuing to invest in apprenticeships. We heard Minister Little talk about the fact that we have had huge numbers of apprenticeships up and down the country. I reflect on the two-bedroom houses that Kāinga Ora had built in my city. They were actually developed and built and constructed by WelTec, and I know that that’s another example of apprenticeships working.

So I am proud to be part of a stable, strong Government in Labour that is delivering for communities up and down the country and in particular it is delivering for the people of Palmerston North.

Members, the next call is to the Māori Paati. The Māori Paati are not present. What I intend to do is go straight to the next speaker. It means there will be a spare slot. I’ll invite each party to give me a name of a member who they would like to fill the No. 12 slot and I will choose a member. So if you can just approach me with a name on a piece of paper, it will be a surprise to one in four members in the House. In the meantime, can we go to Angela Roberts.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s been wonderful hearing from my colleagues about the significant investment in our people and our economy and our future—health, education, the list goes on. But wait, there’s more. Despite all of the challenges that we have faced as a country in recent years and, actually, the challenges that face us today—cost of living, rising interest rates—we have sustained a strong and stable economy. And what this means is that we have been able to ensure that not only are we surviving but we have the space and, actually, business has the confidence to invest in people, and research and development, and to build a future that is a wonderful one for our people. Our response: not just more jobs but more training and more apprenticeships; not just record exports but more and better free-trade agreements.

As our Prime Minister and Kiwi exporters went out and reconnected across the world with markets—Japan, Singapore, the United States, and Australia—we see the demand for what we have to offer. It’s a really, really great place for us to be. The test—we know in economics—is about the strength of an economy, and is the confidence that businesses have to invest in their future.

When we went to Fieldays last week, it was great because we could see on the ground the results of that significant investment—the partnering that this Government has done to make sure that our food and fibre sector and our exports remain the best in the world. And there were so many—I just want to pick a couple. Let’s just stick to Taranaki for now, shall we? So I was really excited to see the announcement last week of the partnership between Fonterra and Nestlé—as they go down to Taranaki, the wonderful Whanganui electorate of Steph Lewis—and the project that they’ve got about making a commercially viable net-zero carbon emissions dairy farm. It’s great to speak to young leaders like Jason Rolfe, who runs the demonstration farm down there, and the excitement about making sure that we are best placed to lead the world in milk. They’re going to be working really hard to make sure that this project is about being good for the farmer, good for the cow, and good for the milk as well. And so if you’re ever in South Taranaki, which I’m sure you’ll all be doing your best to do, you need to go down and hear more about it. It’s a really exciting, global, leading project that we’re happy to support.

The other project that I think that is really great—another one that came through at Fieldays—was the continuation of partnership with Venture Taranaki and the businesses that they are supporting around Taranaki to ensure a just transition for our land use, diversification, sustainability, and a bright future for our farmers and growers in Taranaki. So right back in 2020, we supported Venture Taranaki with an amazing project called Branching Out. You know, what else can you grow in Taranaki besides grass for cows? Well, apparently there’s a lot, and it was really great to see the announcement this week of an additional $975,000 for phase two of this project. So for those of you who like a little gin, we are doing our best to make sure that Taranaki becomes a great place to grow our botanicals. Hemp fibre, which we know has so many uses—from building and construction to medicinal uses. Again, this is something that’s being invested in to ensure that we don’t just talk about it but actually we have action, and it means that we are ready to not just weather the storm that has been predicted globally as far as economies go, but we are ready to really drive into it with confidence and make sure that we are really well prepared to continue to be world-class exporters.

Sustainable land use: we know our farmers really want their children to be confident and proud farmers in the future, and that’s what this will deliver. I’m really pleased to be able to reflect on the action this Government takes for our economy.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I don’t know which Fieldays that member was at last week, but there weren’t that many people oozing with confidence, there weren’t that many people who were talking about Labour’s strong economic management and how excited they were about the future, and there definitely weren’t many people who were interested in or excited about their interest rates doubling thanks to the cost of living crisis that this Government has overseen.

But I’ll tell you who is the hardest hit with the cost of living crisis, and that is those who are on low and fixed incomes. And so I want to look at some of the causes of the cost of living crisis, and we know there are multiple; but if we look at domestic inflation alone, what is one of the biggest drivers? It is the labour shortage. Combine a labour shortage—where there are businesses everywhere desperate for staff—with ineffective welfare policies and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. So it’s the labour shortages that are constraining the economy right now. Auckland Airport are talking about shortages over Christmas, delays over Christmas, because they’ve got 1,600 vacancies they can’t fill. There are 30,000 vacancies in hospitality; 20,000 in construction—but how many people are on the job seeker benefit? It’s 170,000, and 104,000 who have been on the job seeker benefit for more than a year, so they’re long-term. So why is it that we have these two things happening? I’ll say it again: a contributing factor to the cost of living crisis is labour shortages and ineffective welfare policies.

So let me give you some local examples about how that is impacting businesses and how they are definitely not excited about a strong and growing economy. Hotels and motels in my electorate in Taupō have a “no vacancy” sign out during the week. That’s not because they are full; that is because they cannot find enough staff to turn their rooms over during the week. So these are not skilled jobs that we are talking about. Cafes that used to open seven days are now open four days, or five, because they don’t have enough staff. So how many job seekers are on the job seeker benefit in Taupō? Over 1,200. And when I held “Into Work” workshops recently, there were a lot of service organisations who were very prepared and able to support job seekers who had a few challenges—because we know some do. But guess what! They weren’t being referred, they weren’t being connected; there are businesses desperate for workers—oh, but then I get an email yesterday from a father who is really concerned about his young person, his son, who’s been on the unemployment benefit for a couple of years with next to nil follow up from Work and Income. He was really worried about his son being left to rot on welfare.

That is why National has been very clear about our “Welfare that works” policy, because we are not willing to accept high numbers of young people, when now, under Labour, a young person who goes on to a benefit under the age of 20 will spend 19.7 years on welfare; nearly twice their age on welfare—oh, they’re pretty quiet now—they don’t like that, because that is a figure that’s come out of their own department—19.7 years is an absolute disgrace when there are businesses everywhere today looking for staff.

So I’ll come back to the cost of living crisis, and it is hurting low and middle income New Zealanders; it’s hurting those on fixed incomes the most, and that includes those on benefits. So let’s look at the Prime Minister’s pet project of child poverty. There are one in five children being raised today in a benefit-dependant home; 35,000 more than five years ago. So when Ardern promised, in 2017, to lift 100,000 children out of poverty—

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Could we use full names or titles, please.

When Jacinda Ardern promised, in 2017, to lift 100,000 children out of poverty—guess what! There are more now than there were then. Yet another broken promise. So Merry Christmas to the children who are living in poverty this Christmas, because they have a Prime Minister who has abandoned them—who has overseen a cost of living crisis—and their lives are going to get harder, not better, and they’re destined to a life on welfare.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise and take a call in this general debate today. I want to speak about the stability that Labour Governments bring to South Auckland, and the economic prosperity—

💬 Hon Louise Upston: You’re dreaming.

—that those Governments bring. Let me give you an example; in the global financial crisis which members opposite who are heckling me now oversaw, 15 percent of Māori lost their jobs. If you look like me, if you’re a Māori woman, it was 25 percent, and if you lived where I do in South Auckland it was even more; it was almost 30 percent. You find three Māori women who were my age in the global financial crisis that that Government oversaw, one of them would have been out of a job.

Now, in August, in a far deeper crisis that this Government has overseen, Māori unemployment is at record lows. That didn’t happen by mistake; that happened because this Government made choices which kept our people in work. It meant stability for South Auckland households who would have otherwise borne the brunt of the economic impacts of a global pandemic. It meant that people have remained in work. It means that people have been able to balance their household budgets at the end of the week. It means that families will be able to invite each other over for Christmas. It means that in February when mums think about buying the stationery and the school uniforms, they will be able to do that. It’s a very real impact for South Auckland and it’s one that this Government has made choices to implement.

I want to talk about what’s at stake in the election for those families. Labour has promised to make childcare more affordable for families and that means choices for families in South Auckland. It reverses the freeze on the income thresholds that National implemented in 2010. We’re fixing that by extending the subsidy to 10,000 additional children. That means if you’re a family with two parents and, say, 40 hours each, and you’re on $26, say, and you have two children under five, like mine—well, mine has turned five recently; happy birthday, Tem. But if you have two children who are not in school you would not be eligible for the subsidy at the moment, but we’re changing that, and from April next year you will be eligible for $252 per week. That’s a really big change. It gives families choices, it gives women choices, and it’s a big deal for the South Auckland economy because when that member talks about workforce shortages we’re talking about teachers, women in healthcare roles like nurses and aged-care workers—exactly the kind of people in South Auckland who look like me, who make choices about whether they can afford to have their toddlers in childcare or whether they cannot.

I’ll give you an example. When I had my first baby we set up a playgroup with a lot of mums, and I want to shout out to them today, people like Carla, Tamara, Ash, Caroline, Harshna, Isabelle, both of the Megans, and Mel. These were women who were all faced with a choice of paying between $300 and $500 in our area for full-time childcare per child, or going back to work. And if you were on $26 an hour and working 40 hours a week, you would be earning about $760 after tax. That doesn’t add up. In fact, if you have two children at childcare at one of the cheapest centres in that area, you would be paying for the privilege to work because of the choices that the Government made. When you value work and when you value women’s contribution to work—when you are committed to giving women choices to work—you don’t make those trade-offs, and it was a trade-off made in 2010 when that Government extended tax cuts to the wealthiest New Zealanders.

I am proud to be a part of this Government which is giving stability to an economy in South Auckland which would have borne the brunt of the global pandemic, and I’m proud to be a part of a Government that is giving women choice.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’d have said a prayer if I could remember it before I started this speech. And having listened to the last speaker, Arena Williams, I’d like to remind her that if she looks like me and she’s got one of these [Holds up a SuperGold card], she ain’t too well off under this Government. Ha, ha! In fact, I don’t recall having had any rise with one of these. And, Mr Speaker, I’m not going to bring you into this, because I realise you’re not far from it. Ha, ha!

I came today to speak about an issue that I think is of extreme concern to New Zealand. And I want to speak briefly, before I get on to the topic, about the emissions trading scheme (ETS) and the challenges that we’re facing with respect to climate change, with respect to the environment, and with respect to agriculture in New Zealand. And I want to again urge the Government—and I’ve done this before and I’m not going to make any excuses for previous Governments of New Zealand, but I think it’s most important that we get some consensus around these issues, because right now, aside from all the other challenges that we face as a country, the challenge that I think will have the most effect on our future relates to the way we deal with the emissions trading scheme, the way we deal with the environmental challenges that our agriculture sector and other sectors in New Zealand face. And if we don’t get some consensus around this, I think we’re going to get into some serious trouble long term, not only with the economy but with our population as well.

So I think we’re seeing some trends in New Zealand right now as a result of—and I’m fully supportive of the ETS and the way we go about these things; I’m just not supportive of some of the outcomes we’re achieving at the moment. We need to pay attention to this very quickly. And it’s going to need a consensus across this Parliament to achieve this. I’d urge the Government to talk to all parties in this Parliament about changes that might be required to achieve some of the outcomes we need to achieve with respect to where we’re going in the future. We don’t want to make decisions now that long term have a serious impact on our ability to both produce food and make a living as a country, and also perhaps negatively impact on what we’re trying to achieve with respect to climate change initiatives and our environmental challenges that we face.

But having said that, what I want to address today is an issue that I think is seriously impacting applicants wishing to register native and exotic plantations in the ETS. And I’ll quote some facts on this. On Tuesday, 18 October, the Ministry for Primary Industries sent out an email which said, “Applications to register native and exotic forests in the ETS after 25 October 2022 are highly unlikely to be processed in 2022. Applications received after this date would be registered in 2023.” Now, that sounds fine, except that there were 1,271 applications outstanding at that time, and those 1,271 applications as a result of that decision don’t qualify to enter the ETS until the next five-year span.

So what, effectively, happens is that we registered in a five-year mandatory emissions return period, and because they missed that date, they get pushed into the next emissions return period, costing those 1,271 applicants a significant amount of carbon units, costing the country, actually, the potential for any of those carbon units that might have been traded to have been part of the solution to the emissions trading scheme. It is a serious issue for New Zealand, it’s a very serious issue for those foresters concerned with this, and I think it’s unacceptable that Government departments who know these walls of work are coming at them—they’ve had five or six years to prepare for this—are unable to handle it when the rush comes. And it’s certainly unacceptable from New Zealand’s perspective, and it’s unacceptable for those applicants who are awaiting approval or to enter the emissions trading scheme.

So to return to the issue that I started with—and we’ve pushed legislation through this House at a great rate, and I’m not being any more critical of this Government than I am of previous Governments, because we’ve looked at this whole emissions trading scheme and we’ve looked at the environmental challenges we face as an industry, and we’ve never collectively got a solid way forward. Right now I think there are two bills related to the emissions trading scheme in the Parliament right as we speak. There are numerous items out there for consultation. None of it has been clearly dealt with, and the way forward isn’t always clearly known. So I urge the Government to get this sorted out. I urge them to take all parties into discussion as to where we go in the future. I think it’s one of the most important issues facing the future of New Zealand. There are plenty of current issues, but this is an issue that might not have a real impact for 20-odd years. And if we don’t get this right, it’s going to seriously impact on our ability as a country to go where we want to go in the future. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Emily Henderson. Can I indicate that the last speaker, if it is not taken by another party, will be by Simon Watts.

Kia ora e te Māngai o te Whare. As I’ve been listening to the debate today, I’ve been reflecting on the fact that we live in scary and unstable times—when you look overseas. When you look to the horizon, the waves are pretty big, and you cannot ignore the fact that we are a pretty small boat on this very big ocean—and the storm is coming in.

You don’t achieve stability, however—if you’re any kind of sailor, even a very small boat sailor, you know you don’t achieve stability by staying still. You achieve stability by putting in the effort to keep moving, and that has been the policy of this Government through all the successive crises-tsunamis that we have faced over the last five years. You don’t achieve stability for our people—the sort of stability that Arena Williams was talking about a minute ago, with her mum friends back in Manurewa, where my mum grew up—you don’t achieve the stability they need to be able to buy their kids Christmas presents or put food on their table by standing still. This Government doesn’t stand still.

There is, of course, another way to look at stability, so let’s do a little compare and contrast. There is stability by putting in the work to keep yourselves stable, to keep moving, to keep balance. But there’s another sort, because stability can also mean stasis. It can mean being frozen, say, oh I don’t know, like those benefit levels that, again, Ms Williams was talking about, or perhaps those dental grant levels that Minister Sepuloni spoke about earlier that have stayed stuck since 1996, and what huge injustice that did to our people.

But let’s take, at random—you know, purely at random—say, the freezing of Government investment in, I don’t know, health infrastructure, say for, oh, I don’t know, two years, perhaps, say, oh, let’s take it at random, 2015 to 2016. You know, it’s terribly stable, of course, doing nothing, but the actual impacts are profound instability. If you don’t stably—if you stably refuse to—invest in, oh I don’t know, let’s take an example, Whangārei Hospital, for example, the impact is literal instability. I’m talking cracks in walls, I’m talking leaks in ceilings, I’m talking windows that actually fall out of surgeries during surgery, or—in a recent celebrated example—I’m talking pipes that burst and literally shower excrement down hospital walls. That sort of stability is what was offered by the previous National Government in Whangārei. It literally meant my community watching its hospital falling apart.

And while the previous Government stood still, Whangārei did not. We grew; we are one of the most fast-growing areas in the country. We continued to be deprived. We continued to suffer the impacts of a lack of investment in the basics that any society should be given. It was the stability of no new ideas, no answers, no solutions; a plan, now we hear, that consists of reversing virtually every forward-stabilising step this Government is taking.

But, therefore, it was wonderful to stand in Whangārei not long ago with Minister Little and confirm that we are going to be funding stage one of the new hospital: an acute services building, a child health unit, and an emergency department (ED) that is going to be three times the present size, aimed at what we’re going to need for 2040 at least. Compare this to the current ED—cracks in the walls, low ceilings, can’t put a respiratory system in place because the ceilings are too low, oh yeah, and did I mention the leaks?—which is only 40 percent of what it should be. We’ve confirmed a $759 million investment. And then, because there is always more, we are a Ginsu-knives Government: we have committed to $200-plus million to build ourselves another 159 beds in a new ward tower. Now, that equates not just to the stability that my community is going to need for its own health; it also equates to a steady supply of work in these unstable times, with more than 500 jobs anticipated. I know my local contractors are already saying, “That. That’s the stability we need. That’s what’s going to lead us through.”

There’s stability that is investing wisely or there’s stasis and drift to disaster in our little boat of New Zealand. I know which one I seriously suggest New Zealanders choose.

Inflation and economic doom and gloom have been in the headlines and it’s not surprising if people are feeling worried and anxious about their future. The Reserve Bank recently admitted that it is engineering a recession in the misguided belief that it’s necessary to reduce the rising cost of living. Some bank economists in New Zealand have said we need 50,000 or more people—workers—to lose their jobs in order to combat inflation, and yet it’s totally unfair to ask those on the front lines or those who are on low incomes to suffer even more to stop inflation when they have been the ones who are suffering from the high cost of living in the first place.

If we look overseas, we see a lot of economists suggesting there is an alternative approach. Even the World Bank has said countries should be focused on increasing production, not reducing demand. It is not clear how making those who are the most vulnerable in our communities struggle to make ends meet even more is going to help boost production. As Elizabeth Warren recently said, “Do you know what’s worse than high prices and a strong economy? It’s high prices and millions of people out of work.” In the New Zealand context, that is tens of thousands more people out of work.

Now, more than ever, we need to change the system that is leaving too many people insecure and unable to afford the basics while a tiny a number of people are amassing personal fortunes. We can have an economy that works for ordinary people, not against them. But for the last few decades, economic orthodoxy has increased inequality.

What does that look like in Aotearoa New Zealand? It’s the wealthiest 10 percent owning over 60 percent of the assets while the poorest half, 50 percent of New Zealanders, own only 2 percent. It is generations of entrenched poverty, starting with child poverty, resulting in lifelong inequality, not just of income and wealth but of health outcomes. Ultimately, it’s a huge cost to all of us. It looks like front-line workers struggling to make ends meet as rents rise, living in cold, damp, unhealthy homes, if they don’t live in cars; and essential workers, who made sure the rest of us could eat and get healthcare during a pandemic, being paid a minimum wage, maybe working multiple jobs, having to choose between heating their crappy rental to a healthy temperature or putting food on the table, and potentially being laid off in the coming year in order to combat inflation.

Meanwhile, the Fletcher Building chief executive made over $6,580,000 last year. The leader of the National Party in his final year as chief executive for Air New Zealand made over $4 million in one year. The four largest banks, all almost entirely foreign owned, are now making record profits, and they’re returning the lion’s share of that to overseas shareholders. What happens when interest rates rise? Ordinary people have to pay more for the mortgage, rents keep going up, and the banks’ profit margin on the interest rate increases.

Now, the bank CEOs’ pay looks modest compared to the Fletcher chief executive or Mr Luxon at Air New Zealand—it’s only between $1 million and $2 million a year in the past year. But it would take workers on a median hourly wage just over 25 years—that’s quarter of a century—to earn what the big bank chief executives got paid just last year. So that’s median hourly earnings: $29.66 an hour, just over $61,000 a year.

It’s the same with the big power companies and the gentailers. They’re returning huge dividends to shareholders rather than investing in renewable electricity that would bring down prices, and they’re paying their chief executives enormous salaries.

Now, things don’t have to be like this—things don’t have to be like this. We don’t have to put up with the same old tired excuses. Right now, inflation rules the headlines, we’re hearing that next year’s going to be a tough year—but not for everyone. A small number of wealthy people have made a killing. Supermarkets, banks, and petrol and power companies have raked in billions in excess profit while millions struggle to cope with the rising cost of living. It doesn’t have to be that way. It’s time to rip up the failed playbook. It’s time for a guaranteed minimum income, free public transport, rent controls—we can—[Time expired]

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to take the final call in this general debate this afternoon. And how timely it is to be able to take a call when tomorrow at 9 a.m., the Government are going to table and take us through the third reading—the third and final reading—of the Water Services Entities Bill, “three waters”.

What a saga. What a saga that has led us to the point in which tomorrow, this House will go through a period and debate a bill that has failed from the start. Today in the House, we had the answers to questions which were categorical in regards to whether there was an understanding around a Cabinet minute that was undertaken by Government on 30 May. That Cabinet minute said, “The bill should not entrench the privatisation provisions in the bill.” It was referring to the Water Services Entities Bill. And the Prime Minister particularly noted today in the House that the Minister has not acted against the instructions of Cabinet. Well, well, well.

How do you reconcile those two statements? I ask: how do you reconcile those two statements? Because the Cabinet minute says, “The bill should not entrench the privatisation provisions in the bill.” That’s quite specific, right? I don’t think that’s too unclear, it’s not too murky—it’s pretty black and white.

So how did the bill go from the committee of the whole House stage back to the House with a privatisation entrenchment provision within it? And that did not breach the Cabinet instructions?

💬 Andrew Bayly: I know, I know.

I mean, call me old-fashioned, Andrew Bayly—normally a simple man from the Waikato, originally. You know, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just drawing a little bit too much into that.

But Kiwis can see through that. And that side of the House is sitting silent. They’re sitting with their heads down because they know—they know—that tricky business is at play here. Tricky business at play, and not everyone can be right in regards to the statements that have been made.

But tomorrow morning, we will go through the third reading of this bill and we will articulate and feed back the concerns and issues and huge amount of feedback that came from across this country—more than 88,000 people made submissions in regard to this bill. This is a bill that’s one of the most controversial bills that has been in this House in the past two years that I’ve been a member of Parliament; a bill that is wholeheartedly opposed by hard-working Kiwis across this country, because at its core, this bill confiscates assets that should be retained and maintained in local ownership. It centralises assets; it’s mega entities, which have no democratic accountability.

And we have seen that the Minister, under urgency, has attempted to put in an entrenchment clause into that legislation which goes to the heart of attacking our democracy. That is completely unprecedented. Never in the history of this House has a Government attempted to put an entrenchment provision in for public policy.

But the reality is recorded in history. The reality is recorded and this Government have said they made a mistake. But a “mistake” assumes that you didn’t know what was going on. I think, as has been articulated by the Cabinet minute that was very clear around the entrenchment provision and the fact that there was no support for that entrenchment of the privatisation submission, then something else is at play here. And I think at the end of the day, Kiwis will be judged on that.

Tomorrow, National will reinforce our position that when we are in Government, we will repeal three waters and we will repeal the Water Services Entities Bill. And that is because that is what this country is calling for and what this country deserves.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.