General Debate

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

To start my contribution today, I want to say, “Up the Wahs!” As a true-blue Warriors fan, and as a true league fan in this country, what I know about league fans and what I know about Warriors fans is they’ve got a keen eye and they’re super smart. They can tell a pretender amongst their midst. They know when there’s a pretender saying a half-hearted “Up the Wahs”.

Warriors supporters are really sharp. Warriors are also sharp and I tell you what: they, like every other Kiwi, are sharp-minded and have a good, hard look at who represents them in this House. I can tell them that what they hate being called is the “squeezed middle”. What I actually know is that they are hard-working Kiwis; they are die-hard Warriors fans. They man our streets, they work in our streets, they work in our buildings, they work for this country and they are not the “squeezed middle”; they are hard-working Kiwis.

So these hard-working Kiwis always know when there’s a pretender amongst their midst, and I can tell you that these hard-working Kiwis are saying, “Do National and ACT actually truly represent who I am?” “No!” is the answer, and if they look across that other side and that other side keep calling them the “squeezed middle”, they’re saying, “Hold on. I’m a hard-working Kiwi and I just want a fair go.” So this side of the House, and this Government, has given them a fair go, but we know that there’s lots more work to be done.

When it comes to the cost of living on that side of the House, they continue to call them the “squeezed middle”, while on this side of the House, we call them “whānau”. What we do to support them will make sure that they can push through the challenges that we have with the cost of living crisis. On this side of the House, I can name a number of those—and there’s so much more, but I’m going to name some of them.

Earlier this year, we boosted our cost of living package by providing over 1.4 million New Zealanders with more support. These are big shifts that demonstrate Labour’s commitment to supporting New Zealanders to supporting Kiwis. They don’t like being called the “squeezed middle”; they are Kiwis that need our help and we are here to deliver for them. Over 1 million New Zealanders are receiving cost of living relief with the winter energy payment. On that side of the House, they’re prepared to scrap that. I can tell you our constituents are saying, “This is awesome. We are warm during these cold winter days.” What we know is that’s at risk. We know that on that side of the House, when it comes to the cost of living, they might talk about the “squeezed middle” but they have never delivered for our people in this country.

On this side of the House, we’ve progressed matters such as making sure we lift the minimum wage. On that side of the House, they didn’t do that. In fact, they went so far as to vote against a number of the provisions that this side has pushed to support Kiwi families right around the country. I’m really proud of the Minister of Finance and our Prime Minister. They’ve done a fantastic job to steer our economy through some very difficult times. Once again, another credit agency continues to believe that our leadership, and this Government’s leadership, through these hard times has proven to be the best leadership in the world—once again confirming our strong rating. I want to acknowledge both the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance to make sure that our Government books look good and we are able to continue to support our whānau.

Another one of the important kaupapa that our people look towards is actually transport. We know that transport is important to get our country moving. What we have done is we have boosted our regional economies by upgrading roads, rail, bridges, ports around the country, making sure that we can support local economies.

I want to be very clear: on the other side of the House, we have had—over the years I’ve been in Parliament—ghost bridges. We’ve had promises of bridges. We’ve had plans that were never funded. Hot off the press: the latest National Party policy on transport is Mr Simeon Brown standing there with gumboots and a clean shovel. That is not going to deliver the outcomes our people need to fix the potholes in this country. We have a funded plan, a well thought out plan that will continue to keep our country moving.

In the last 30 seconds, I want to briefly touch on education. Why? Because there is an amazing man in the gallery, Dr Richard Benton, who has led the revitalisation of te reo Māori and tikanga Māori across our education sector. What we’ve heard today in question time, on that side of the House, is they want to get rid of those things—the things that the likes of Dr Richard Benton and so many others have fought for in this country. Finally, two final things. One, “Up the Wahs!” and two, “We’re in it for you.”

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Well, that was a fantastic speech by the Hon Peeni Henare. It’s an absolute pleasure to rise today to talk in the last of the general debates we’ll have before we rise and head out on to the campaign trail—and what a campaign it will be, because there are some very clear choices for New Zealand today. There are some very clear choices in terms of the type of future we want, and what we’ve seen today from National is smoke and mirrors: it’s unfunded tax cuts, they’re trying to tell people what they want but taking away some of the basic rights of workers. That’s what we stand for here: fair pay agreements and raising the wages of workers. That’s the way you fix peoples’ squeezed middle, that’s the way you deal with it—not by making up smoke and mirrors, distractions that try and look like tax cuts but actually, when you go through it line by line, there’s no money there.

So let’s have a look—let’s have a look at what the track record is right now for this Government. Record-low unemployment—post-pandemic record-low unemployment. We have not only Kiwis in work but Kiwis in training with apprenticeships right across New Zealand—60,000 young people who are getting opportunities to learn and earn and to take up a career. That’s changed lives, and that delivers more than what the others are offering. We’ve seen the biggest growth in housing in generations. In the Hutt Valley alone, we stood and watched as houses were torn down by the previous National Government and land was left vacant; people had nowhere to live. In that same land now in Ēpuni, we’ve seen new, warm, dry homes built: 160 units on that land alone. That school has got two extra classrooms, the local community veggie garden grows veggies for the lunches—that is a thriving community that this Government has delivered, and that’s why we’ll keep on fighting.

Also what we’ve done is deliver more police officers, with 1,800 extra police on the front line, and we know that as part of those 1,800 extra police, there will be 700 specifically dedicated to organised crime, because we’re smart in the way that we tackle crime in this country. By having those people involved in following the money, disabling organised criminal groups, and also operations like Cobalt that successfully prosecute gang members and hold them to account—we know that’s how we get outcomes in this Government.

I know there’s more work to be done, but let’s look at the good stuff that we’ve done already. The 50 percent increase in terms of funding our police—a 50 percent increase. And the scary thing is, when we see those unfunded tax cuts—and then there’s sort of this talk about “it won’t come off the front line”, well, the justice system works as a whole and if you’re going to cut the back office, if you’re going to cut the courts, you’re going to cut public servants, well, that’s directly on the front line. So you will see cuts in those front lines if there’s big cuts to our public service.

And who knows what ACT’s going to do? ACT’s strapline is “We have no bottom lines.” They just say that. They just say, “Oh yeah, we’ve got no bottom lines, we’ll do anything.” And National’s proposed coalition with ACT means that anything is on the table to be taken away from New Zealanders, and they should be fearful of that.

Let’s have a look at what else we’ve done in terms of the law and order space. We’ve introduced new search warrant powers to be able to make sure that when there’s intergang conflict, police can search vehicles, they can seize weapons, and they can make sure that that conflict is shut down quickly, and that’s happened twice since that legislation has been introduced.

What else are we doing? Guns—this is an interesting one for those members opposite, because they seem to be at odds about guns. So we’ve introduced a firearms registry, and we know that 82 percent of New Zealanders want that because they know it’ll make New Zealanders safer by taking illegal guns out of the hands of criminals and gang members. But over here, in ACT, they’re saying they’ll scrap it, and National’s not quite so sure. So who knows what’s going to happen with that—that one’s up in the air. Even though 82 percent of New Zealanders actually want a firearms registry, that’s at stake this election as well. We’re also setting up new firearm prohibition orders. National talked about that for nine years. They talked a big game; never delivered. Now, firearm prohibition orders are in order and able to be utilised.

There is so much to talk about in terms of what this Government will continue to do, but New Zealanders can rest assured that there won’t be smoke and mirrors. There won’t be empty, hollow promises—or that behind the scenes they’re closing police stations, they’re reducing wages, and they’re reducing workers’ rights. What you get with a Labour Government is people who are able to earn a decent wage; have a warm, dry home; have a good doctor and get access to health care: that’s what we deliver in this country—not cheap smoke and mirrors tax cuts that are a promise and a good look, but, underneath, there’s nothing there.

Today, I want to talk about the people that this Government has forgotten—the forgotten people in the squeezed middle of New Zealand who work hard for a living. They juggle multiple responsibilities, sometimes multiple jobs, family obligations. They do their best every day, and yet, under this Government, they are falling behind and they cannot get ahead. Every day, they are pummelled by the cost of living crisis. When they go to pay for their groceries, when they go to fill up their tank, when they go to pay their rent or their mortgage it just costs more and more.

My message to those people, those forgotten people in the squeezed middle, is that if you’re doing it tough, that’s because it is tough. It is not your fault that this Government has mismanaged the economy so badly that interest rates have doubled in just two years. It is not your fault that the Government has mismanaged the economy so badly that price increases are shrinking your paycheque every fortnight. It is not your fault that the Government has mismanaged the economy so badly that you can’t keep up with your bills. The person you have to look to, the person you have to blame, is the Labour Government.

I know that too many New Zealanders feel completely taken for granted by this Government. They get up, they work hard, they pay their tax, and all they hear from the Government is they’re too rich to deserve tax relief—they don’t deserve tax relief because the Government needs to spend it, maybe on a farewell party for a Government department, maybe for some more sausage rolls, maybe for some more consultancy reports about a cycling bridge over the harbour, or maybe for some refurbishment of the IRD’s offices. That’s more important to this Government than tax relief for working people in the squeezed middle.

I’m talking about people like Anna, who said to me, “We struggle to make ends meet and keep food on the table for our kids due to the increasing cost of food and petrol. We earn too much for any assistance, but not enough to get by. I don’t want my kids to miss out.”, and Sarah who said, “We are living week by week. As a middle-class family, we have never done this before.” Some of the stories are gut-wrenching, and they are ignored by this Government, who refused to give these people the tax relief they are owed.

I challenge the members opposite to tell Ben why he doesn’t deserve tax relief. Ben says that he and his partner got married last year: “We haven’t really been able to enjoy the first six months of marriage yet because we are stressed about money. Rent is expensive, food is expensive, fuel is expensive. No matter how many hours we work, we are constantly dipping into our savings. It’s only going to get worse.”

What the members opposite say is that Ben and his partner, they don’t deserve tax reduction, because Grant Robertson thinks he can spend Ben’s money better than Ben can. Well, on this side of the House, we disagree, and we will spend New Zealanders money wisely and responsibly so that New Zealanders can keep more of what they earn—so that a household on the average income, squeezed by the cost of living, can have $100 more a fortnight, and so that a worker on the median wage who is an electrician, a plumber, or a nurse can have an additional $50 per fortnight, because that is more meaningful than having another Government strategy document. It’s more meaningful than another visualisation of light rail on the front page of the paper. It’s more meaningful than the smoke, mirrors, and failed promises of the members opposite.

I want to talk about Jay, finally. He said, “By the time I pay my rent, utilities, phone, internet, insurance, fuel, pet food, and groceries, I have literally nothing left about two days after I’m paid. I feel like I’m bashing my head against a wall.” Jay, hope is coming for you, and it comes in the form of a National Government.

Labour has delivered a cost of living crisis. With us, there’s no smoke, there’s no mirrors; there’s cold hard cash for you.

That speech was incredibly telling. Not one mention of wages, not one mention of investing in working people and giving them a wage and a job with conditions that they deserve. We’ve heard a lot from the Opposition comparing ourselves to Australia, saying that we are losing our best—but opposing absolutely every measure to try and bridge that gap, to try and improve conditions at work and continue to increase wages. Because, of course, it’s not just in the wages of our professionals this Government has invested in, it’s in wages at the lower end as well. Every single time this Government has increased the minimum wage, that lot have opposed it. And then they cry crocodile tears because they worry about the better conditions in Australia. And what we find today, after months of saying that we should be competitive with our neighbours, is they are going to bring a tax on to those skilled workers that we need in this country. And what they will do is they will look around the world and they’ll look at Australia and they’ll look at the UK and they’ll look at Ireland and Canada and they’ll say it’s easier to go and work there. They are taxing the skilled workers we need to give tax cuts to their mates.

I thought it was bold from the previous speaker, Nicola Willis, to bring out a couple of examples of people that are renting, people that want to have the dream of buying a home. What was interesting that was omitted in that speech was the declaration today that the National Party would let overseas speculators back into this country and back into our property market, rising house prices across the board to pay for tax cuts for their mates. Bringing in overseas investors, $5 billion investment into our housing market, for the sake of $750 million tax cuts for landlords makes absolutely no sense. That tax cut will mean that property investors and property speculators will be up against each other, driving house prices up on existing prices.

If they don’t believe me, I’ll spell it out real easy: the current situation with the brightline test and interest deductibility means that people are not buying houses and flicking them off for profit real quick. And they mean that if investors want to get interest deductibility, they build a new home. That’s what we need in this country, we need more houses. And it’s working. We’re seeing the proportion of first-home buyers is increasing and house building in this country is at record numbers. They want to reverse that. They want to take away those provisions, give tax cuts to landlords and speculators so that they can drive up the prices of existing stock. We can expect to see house build numbers fall. We can expect to see the first-home buyers numbers fall, all for the sake of what they described as “tax relief”. But at what cost? Because what we were not told today was what has to be cut.

We’ve heard some very high level promises, but we still haven’t heard how they’re going to fill the $10 billion hole in their budget. And we’ve been here before with the National Party. This Government has a plan that is fully costed and is transparent and is continuing to invest in front-line services—front-line services that New Zealanders rely on. Kāinga Ora, you can expect to be cut, just like last time. Those thousands of houses that this Government has built, that has put a roof over New Zealanders’ heads that had no hope under the National Government and are now in a warm, dry, healthy home with their whanau where they should have always been.

We are not going to try to pull the wool over New Zealanders’ eyes. Firstly, because that’s wrong; and secondly, because we know that New Zealanders are not fools. They won’t be tricked by today’s announcement. They will not be lured by the sake of some smoke and mirror exercise that claims to give them tax cuts but takes much more away—giving with one hand and punching them in the guts with the other. New Zealanders will not fall for this trick. We have seen it before, every single time a National-led Government comes in power, they frame it up to be all good. They take away money for maintenance on roads, they take away money for housing, they take money from health, they take money from education—they take money from the things that New Zealanders need and value, and the only Government that stands up for them is the Labour Government.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is a privilege to serve as a member of Parliament in this House, and it has been a privilege to serve as the member of Parliament for Northcote, because this side of the House, our Government, is committed, and we’re in it for working families. We’re in it for supporting New Zealanders and Aucklanders through some of the most difficult times. We’re in it for the delivery of 2,250 new classrooms in our schools. We’re in it for fewer kids going hungry, with 100 million school lunches being delivered. We’re in it for lifting school attendance. We’re in it for the 60,000 apprentices earning and learning on our construction sites. We’re in it for 3 million free prescriptions that have gone out the door already. We’re in it for our mental health programmes that are serving 1 million New Zealanders. We are in it for cheaper public transport. We’re in it for closing the gender pay gap, a 14.5 percent pay rise for our teachers, a pay rise for our nurses.

I’m in it for Northcote, I’m in it for lowering emissions, and I’m in it for doing the mahi and demonstrating the leadership that this country needs. You won’t find a prouder MP than the MP for Northcote, because, under this Government, I’ve worked incredibly hard on the key things that matter to my North Shore community, the key things that weren’t delivered in the 15 years that National held this particular seat in Northcote. When I look at our local schools and I see the investment in every single school in the Northcote electorate, when I see the classrooms built in Birkenhead Primary, when I see the investment of $60 million in Northcote College, when I see our lowest-decile school, Onepoto Primary, redeveloped and opened for that community, those are the things that my community sees. That is the mahi that they recognise is delivered.

My community looks towards the additional police that we have on the beat, the expanded community police officers that are serving the North Shore under this Government. On the North Shore, those were the police numbers that were cut. That was the Beach Haven community police station that was closed under a National Government. My community, I believe, will see those things as we walk into the election on 14 October.

My community sees the 150 elective surgery beds that will open in January at North Shore Hospital. Those are the things that matter in education, in health, and, of course, Northcote has one of the best housing stories in this country. We’re on track to deliver 1,700 warm, dry homes, both public homes but, more importantly—just as importantly—homes for first-home buyers.

When I look back to campaigning for the seat of Northcote in 2017, my community was very clear. They wanted a future Government to end foreign speculation. They wanted to ensure that the houses that we built on Auckland’s North Shore were available for their children and their grandchildren to live in. I’m very clear about the work that this Government has delivered. My community in Northcote and in North Shore understand the tangible outcomes that have been delivered to our community.

Lastly, I touched on public transport: free for under-13s, half-price for under-24s. My electorate has the second-highest patronage of public transport in Auckland, and those are the things that are going to count. I’m proud of the work that we’ve done to extend the Northern Busway, one of the most successful pieces of transport infrastructure in this country. I’m proud of the work that we’ve done to push forward and bring into this decade the additional harbour crossing across the Waitematā, an actual bold plan that is full of leadership and demonstrates the needs of a lined-up, integrated transport network from one end of Auckland to the other.

It isn’t over yet; there is more mahi to do, and I’m committed as the MP for Northcote to keep delivering in the areas of health, education, housing, transport, and the cost of living for my community.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This is the last week of Parliament for the term, and it is the last week that this Government has to rush through laws. Change is on its way. Change cannot come soon enough, because I’ve been out in the community of Tāmaki; I have been doing street corner meetings, door knocking, public meetings, going and talking to people on their doorsteps, and what I have been doing is listening. I’m here to bring the people of Tāmaki’s voice to Parliament. What I have heard are their concerns and their hopes, and they are ready for change. But I’m not just meaning a change of Government; they are ready for a change locally too.

What is on the minds of people in Tāmaki, and why are they looking for change? Well, the cost of everything is going up. I’m talking petrol, mortgages, rents, clothing, childcare, food, and even when people I meet are not struggling themselves, they know that their neighbours are, and they’re worried for their neighbours’ futures as well. They see that Government spending is going up and yet we’re not getting any more value for the money that this Government is spending. Why is it that we keep increasing and increasing and increasing spending, but it’s not actually delivering more value? People are asking that question. We know that the local shops and businesses are being terrorised by criminals. It feels like the criminals are running our community. People feel afraid to even walk to the supermarket in broad daylight. People don’t want to send their kids out on their bikes to the local parks. When I was out in Glen Innes doing my street corner meetings, someone was shot the night before in the local community. People do not feel safe raising their kids around this lawlessness, and that has to stop.

People talk about going to Australia. I hear so many people threatening to leave, and their kids are threatening to leave too. We’ve got to turn that around. I’m hearing about division. People are over division being forced on us by this Government, and we want to live in a society that’s united, where everybody feels welcome no matter if your family came here 15 generations ago or one. We are all welcome, we are all equal, and we all have the same vote. That’s what we need here in this Parliament. I’ve heard from parents who are worried about the politicisation of their kids’ classrooms and just want us to get back to basics: stop doing so much poorly and just focus on the basics and do them well. I’ve heard about people wanting proper local voice, and people don’t say it as publicly as they may wish to, but they’re saying it on their doorsteps: that they haven’t felt like they’ve had democracy in Tāmaki for years. I have met so many people who have said, “I have lived here for decades and I’ve never met my local MP. You are the first person who’s knocked on my door and has actually listened.” And that’s what I’m here to deliver. I’m here to bring back common sense and democracy to the people of Tāmaki, and it matters who speaks for you in Wellington.

So this year we have the opportunity of delivering real influence—the real influence of Tāmaki in Parliament—because democracy is important, and together we can deliver that change for the better. There are two votes; there’s the party vote and there’s the electorate vote. If you’re like me and you’re wanting a change of Government, it’s your party vote that will deliver that. But, if you’re also wanting change for the better locally—and I know many neighbours are—it’s your electorate vote that delivers that. It’s only the party vote that delivers a change of Government. Your electorate vote gives you change for the better locally, and I’m asking for your electorate vote for the people of Tāmaki.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ms van Velden, you’re not asking me for anything. Anything goes through me, so just no “you”, please.

BROOKE VAN VELDEN: I’m asking the people of Tāmaki for their electorate vote. Now, if you are sick of division, of costs, of crime, and you are looking for change—

DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, I’m not sick of those.

BROOKE VAN VELDEN: —then it’s a party vote for ACT. Mr Speaker, you may be interested in a party vote for ACT, too! But the people of Tāmaki are looking for a change of Government, and we’re looking for a change locally. I cannot wait to get back out on to the streets and meet more people.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Six years ago the country voted, and they voted for change. National was thrown out of office and Jacinda Ardern ascended to the prime ministership and there was hope and change on the way, according to Prime Minister Ardern. Labour came to Government promising to fix the housing crisis, promising to build light rail in Auckland by 2021, and they promised economic transformation.

After six years, let’s look at Labour’s record. What have we got? Well, the housing crisis that Labour promised to fix has got worse. Rents are up $175 a week since 2017. The social housing wait-list has quintupled and there are now 25,000 families in severe and urgent need of housing. In the last six years, the Government has spent $1.4 billion on emergency housing motels. Front page of The Dominion Post this morning: some motels charging $450 per night for homeless people to live in. One hundred thousand KiwiBuild homes were promised; after six years, 1,800 KiwiBuild homes have been built—1.8 percent of the promised 100,000.

Jacinda Ardern and Phil Twyford and poor old Michael Wood stood in Mount Roskill and said, “We’re going to build light rail by 2021.” Six years later, Simeon Brown’s kids have built more sections of light rail than the Labour Government have. We’re still waiting for the business cases, we’re still waiting for the final sign-off.

And economic transformation, that’s what Grant Robertson used to talk about. What a joke. Well, I’ll tell you what, we have had economic transformation—in the wrong direction. Inflation is treble what it should be. Inflation is 6 percent—we’re in a cost of living crisis that shows no signs of abating. Debt has massively increased. Government spending has increased by 80 percent. And my simple question for you, Mr Speaker, and indeed for the country is: is the country 80 percent better off for an 80 percent increase in spending? And New Zealanders waiting in emergency departments for longer and longer overnight do not think that the health system is 80 percent better. The parents of kids at school who can’t read and write do not think the education system is 80 percent better.

So this is a failed Government, and, ultimately, in 36 days’ or so time, New Zealanders will get to hold that Government to account. A Government that promised a lot—promised transformation, promised transport projects, promised to fix the housing crisis—and has delivered very little.

So where has Labour got to? What have they got? Because they’re going into an election campaign knowing that they have no track record to defend, nothing to campaign on. They’ve got two strategies. The first is to adopt National Party policy and pretend it was theirs all along. So on the roading front, National’s campaigning on new roads of national significance, and six years after cancelling all of National’s projects, Labour now expects the public to believe that they’ve had a road to Damascus conversion and they’re all in favour of roads. So suddenly roads that we were building in 2017, Labour’s said they’re going to build, like Cambridge to Piarere, the further extension of the Auckland Northern Motorway, and a whole series of other things.

We’re expected to believe that Labour is now in favour of a second harbour crossing because Chris Hipkins and David Parker plucked out of nowhere the emerging preferred option out of the business case process and stood next to Auckland Harbour and said, “We’re going to build it.”

On law and order, we’ve had a series of made-up, cooked-up announcements in order to pretend that the Labour Party care about law and order, and now, this week, we hear fiscal reprioritisation is the order of the day. After an 80 percent increase in Government spending, Grant Robertson has decided that it’s time to be Scrooge McDuck in time to save some money. It’s just not credible.

And then the second strategy is just to make stuff up about the National Party. Labour Party MPs opposite and some of their candidates are just going around literally making things up about National Party policy on their social media. It is desperate, it is disgraceful, and it is disreputable. They’ve got nothing. They have no track record, they have no vision, and no plans for the future. All they’ve got is confected culture wars, confected outrage, and endless negativity, and, ultimately, that is why they will be thrown out of office on 14 October.

This side of the House has a vision. We have hope. We have a plan that is going to see New Zealand move and thrive. As the Labour Party, we have our values that define who we are. If it’s about workers’ rights, if it’s about fair wages, if it’s around somewhere to call home, it’s around caring for our people, it’s about caring for our planet—as the Labour Party, we are in it for you and we are doing what we can to make this place a better country in the future, because we are aspirational and looking to see what is possible.

I don’t often reflect back too much, and I often just want to look forward and see what is possible, but we came into office and there was a leak in the roof. There was a leak in the roof, metaphorically, of the previous Government, of the National Party Government. When you ignore that leak in the roof, the leak expands, it starts to rot some of the pillars and the posts and the ceiling, and you don’t see that leak in the roof or experience it unless you’re paying attention, until it starts raining down on you in your lounge or in your bedroom.

So we came into office and there was not just a leak in the roof but there was deep rot—there was deep rot that we have had to spend the last six years working to reform and to rebuild, not just put a patch over, not just to replace the roof but it’s around the beams and the pipes and the ceiling and the walls and the floors, to ensure that people can have a place to call home, that people can have jobs, that people can ensure that the future of our environment and our climate is safe and sound.

I was just listening before—and, of course, we’ve heard it many a time—to the KiwiBuild rhetoric that comes this way. We reset that a long time ago, and I’d rather be aspirational than do nothing at all. But I look at my electorate of New Plymouth and I look back at that rot of that ceiling and the roof and what went on. I look and see, in terms of the nine years that National was in Government, in terms of social housing built in the electorate of New Plymouth, less than six—less than six. I’m glad to say that currently we have more than 45 under construction, and by this time next year, the hope is we’ll have at least 200 social houses built in the electorate of New Plymouth. We are having to deal with the rot that was there and make sure that we build enough houses so that everybody—everybody—can have a place to call home.

I live in Taranaki, the energy province. It’s not just the energy province of the past but it’s also the energy province of the future. I was grateful last night to be in this building with several hundred people from the energy industry, several people from councils, from iwi, from community, from business, from Government to talk about the future of clean energy, to talk about the future of offshore wind. I am glad as a Government we are not ignoring what’s going on but we are looking to the future. We are looking at partnering with industry. We are looking at partnering with iwi. We’re looking at partnering with communities and with councils and with business and with Government to ensure that Taranaki will continue to be the energy province of Aotearoa New Zealand, but it will be the clean energy province where we retain jobs, we retain our environment as we transition to a carbon-neutral future. I’m proud of the Taranaki 2050 Road map. I’m proud of our just transition work.

I was speaking with many of those in industry last night and the conversation came up about the ban that we always get accused of, which actually wasn’t a ban. It was actually no new permits—

Simeon Brown: Sounds like a ban.

GLEN BENNETT: —very clear—and there is still work to be done. But they said to me, Mr Brown, that we can’t even imagine the fact of National coming back into Government and overturning that. They can’t imagine it, because we have moved and the future is clean.

The future is not in dirty oil; the future is in clean hydrogen, in green hydrogen. The future is in offshore wind. The future is in solar. The future is no longer looking at the past. The future is looking to the future, and you know that well. We are committed and industry is committed to moving forward, and we spoke last night about that. There is no way that we would go back now—we’ve come too far. We’re moving forward and we’re looking to ensure that generations to come will benefit from the future of clean energy and will benefit from the future of a low-carbon economy, that our future is for all of us, that our future is for our tamariki, and that the future is for all people of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The question on many New Zealanders’ minds today is: do I feel better off today than I was six years ago? The answer for the vast majority of New Zealanders is that, no, they are worse off today, after six years of this Government, than they were when this Government came to office back in 2017. This Government came to office on the wave of hope and aspiration that there was a better way. This Government was going to say, “Let’s do this.” Well, they have been let down by a Government where the problem is they forgot about the word “do” and they actually managed to not do anything.

So this Government has left the squeezed middle feeling more and more squeezed when it comes to their family budgets. They have got less money in their pockets to pay the bills. They are facing higher and higher rents and interest rates for their mortgages. They are feeling left behind by this Government. They’re not able to pay the bills. That is why the National Party has put forward what I think is an outstanding policy to help give the squeezed middle the tax relief that they need and that they deserve so they can deal with this cost of living crisis this Government has put on them over the last six years.

This comes home to us when we as members of Parliament hear the stories from people in our electorate. When I was told recently by a mother who said, “Well, I’ve just had to refix our mortgage, and we’re now left with $300 a fortnight to pay for the food, the electricity, the internet and the petrol—$300 a fortnight is all that’s left after we pay the mortgage.” That is what many New Zealanders are facing.

What New Zealanders need in times like this is not a Government which keeps changing its policies every three minutes. It needs a Government with a plan and a vision to get New Zealanders through it, and that is exactly what National’s Back Pocket Boost will do for many New Zealanders to help them get through this cost of living crisis and manage to get through and pay the bills that they’re facing.

As this Parliament comes to a close, what we see is a Government which is becoming more and more desperate—more and more desperate by the fact that they have lost their agenda. They don’t have an agenda, they’re going negative against every issue that comes up, and they are forgetting what they’ve campaigned on in the past. We’ve seen it in transport policy, where they came into Government, said they were going to transform New Zealand’s transport system, build light rail, and deliver the transport programme that was going to unlock New Zealand.

Hon Member: What did they do?

SIMEON BROWN: Well, what they did was they cancelled all of the roads of national significance, failed to get light rail built in Auckland and Wellington, and failed to even build a business case. But now, six years later, they’ve said, “Oh no, actually we’re going to build some roads again—we’re going to build some roads again.” When we announced earlier this year that we’re going to reduce the amount on consultants and contractors, the Government said, “That’s a terrible idea—you can’t do that.” Well, this Monday, they said, “Actually, no, we are a bit bloated in the Public Service and we need to reduce the amount we’re spending on consultants and contractors.”

Today, they announced they’re going to roll out the mental health co-response plan, something they cancelled when they came into office six years ago. These examples after examples give New Zealanders the sense this Government has lost its way. They’re not in touch with the reality of New Zealanders’ day-to-day lives and now they are desperately trying to find ways to give the public some idea that they’ve got some ideas for the future, but all they’re doing is going back to the policies they actually cancelled six years ago.

The National Party has a plan. The National Party has the ideas that New Zealand needs for our future, whether it’s in transport, where we’ll build the infrastructure that New Zealanders need; whether it’s ensuring that our Public Service is not bloated, but is actually delivering on outcomes and giving the services that New Zealanders pay for through their own hard-earned taxpayers’ money; or whether it’s giving tax relief on the basis and the principle that, actually, we on this side of the House believe that New Zealanders know best how to spend their own hard-earned money, not the Government.

This Government thinks that fixing the cost of living is by taking that money off New Zealanders and then deciding how we’re going to spray it around, with band-aid economics. We actually think that New Zealanders know best how to spend their own money, and that’s why we’re going to deliver tax relief to hard-working Kiwi families so they can face this cost of living crisis, they can address it, pay the bills, and we’re going to get our country back on track.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The election in 2017 was, with the benefit of hindsight, one of the most critical in modern times. As a country, we had no idea of the challenges we would face or how important who led our country was going to be. We found ourselves facing down a mass shooting, a global pandemic, a volcanic eruption, cyclones, flooding, and our leadership with the then Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, with our current Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, as her Minister for COVID-19 Response—leaders who were unafraid to put compassion at the heart of every decision. Decisions that were hard to make, hard to implement, hard to do, hard for us all pulling together as a country, but in that COVID response we had a result for this hard work of the lowest death rate in the OECD. With the tragedy of 3,300 lives lost in New Zealand completely overshadowed by the predicted 16,000 more if we apply the UK’s death rate to New Zealand.

We had then, as we have now, a Government that puts people first. In the midst of all of that, this Government delivered for the people of Aotearoa New Zealand. We delivered paid parental leave, we extended it from 18 to 26 weeks, and plan to introduce paid partner leave in addition to this, taking nothing from the person who gave birth. We have reinstated the Training Incentive Allowance. We’ve increased the minimum wage from $15.75 to $22.70 per week—a 44 percent increase. We’ve given senior nurses a 59.9 percent pay increase. We’ve expanded bereavement leave to include stillbirth and miscarriage, passed the Accident Compensation (Maternal Birth Injury and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, meaning that 28,000 people every year can access the care that they need. We’ve removed abortion from the Crimes Act. We’ve removed the $5 prescription fee. We’re making huge progress towards eliminating family violence and sexual violence; delivered 100 million free healthy school lunches; delivered 13,000plus—so far, and counting—warm, dry, social houses; free period products; winter energy payments; and more and more.

Yet this could all be taken away if National and ACT form a Government in October. Between the two of them they will stop the winter energy payment, freeze the minimum wage, put interest back on student loans, cancel free school lunches, and bring back the $5 prescription fee, unless you’re a superannuitant—but hey, you’ll have to wait another two or three years to become eligible to be a superannuitant. They will get rid of the Ministry for Women, the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the Ministry of Disabled People, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, the Human Rights Commissioner, and for what? Tax cuts for millionaires. National may try to convince you—not you, Mr Speaker, but I expect they would try to convince you, too. They may try to convince voters that some of these manifesto commitments of theirs are ACT’s and not theirs, but can we trust them?

Remember, National promised not to raise GST and that was precisely what they did. They raised GST five minutes after forming a Government. Does anyone seriously think that if we have a National-ACT Government that Christopher Luxon will be running the show? We have no idea what Christopher Luxon stands for because he changes his mind every time he sees a vote. He said that abortion is murder but that if he was Prime Minister he’d do nothing about that. I don’t believe him, I don’t trust him, and I don’t think that voters of Aotearoa New Zealand should trust him. He will do or say anything for a vote.

But David Seymour is different. He’s been very clear about who he is and what he stands for, the—terrible things that he will say and do for a vote. As Maya Angelou said, “When somebody shows you who they are, believe them.”

This election will be one of the most critical in modern times because we have so much to lose. On the one hand we have the offering of the coalition of cuts, on the other, Labour—a Labour Government, a team that is always in it for you.

Tēnā koe, tēnā koutou e te Whare. I just want to acknowledge that this is probably my last speech in this term in Parliament, and therefore I also acknowledge the honour and privilege of serving my home and community of Auckland Central. I’d just to say we’ve got some unfinished business, so I do hope that I’m returned with that honour and privilege.

As many speeches before me have alluded to, a lot of our attention is turning full steam to the election campaign out there and reflecting on the sentiment and the anger and the anxiety and the exhaustion that New Zealanders are feeling within our communities, and I’ve got to say, it’s incredibly gutting as a result that so many politicians in here are willing to exploit exactly that exhaustion and that fear. New Zealanders deserve a Parliament and a Government that leads with bold vision and values and implements that through evidence-based policy.

I’ve heard a lot of talk this afternoon in this place about this economy, and every political party seems to bring it up as though it was handed to us on these stone tablets by the gods. But this economy is a set of rules created by people in this place, in the past and to this day. We do not live in a game of Monopoly, which, as I’ve said in this place before, was invented by a woman called Elizabeth Magie in the early 1900s to teach children about the dangers of an economy that is premised on land speculation. In the words of Jeanette Fitzsimons, we have an economy that at present exploits both people and the planet, but it doesn’t have to be this way. We can instead put in place rules that recognise the inherent dignity of people and the planet—settings that don’t actually run all of us into the ground in a trickle-down, dog-eat-dog race to the bottom.

Here’s the state of our economy: the Government commissioned advice and published it at the beginning of this year which showed us that the top 311 families in this country hold more wealth combined than the bottom 2.5 million New Zealanders. That is not an accident. It is a logical consequence of a tax system which is set up—and we know it is set up now, by virtue of that reporting—to see that those on the wealthiest end of the spectrum pay an effective tax rate less than half of that of the average New Zealander. What that means is that New Zealanders who, on average, hold a wealth of $276 million pay a lower effective tax rate—less than half the effective tax rate—of our firefighters, of our teachers, of our nurses, and of those who are the supposed average, everyday, hardworking New Zealanders that I’m assuming that the National Party invokes.

Now, we can unlock those resources that we already have here to unleash the potential of every New Zealander, like the Government did in the 1930s and 1940s in response to the Great Depression. Confronted with those crises, it decided to fairly tax those who had profited handsomely during a time of hardship for many, and instituted the public infrastructure which has subsequently been degraded to this day. They instituted public holidays and the 40-hour work week, and they instituted our public healthcare system, but they didn’t quite go far enough in ensuring that everybody had access to free dental care or a guaranteed minimum income, or to ensure that we had a carbon-neutral economy, which are precisely the propositions that the Greens are putting on the table this election.

Now, why is it that we’re hearing nothing from the two legacy parties about the necessary transformation to meet the issues of our time? Well, I’ve got to say that it’s probably got something to do with how there is no incentive for change when you are profiting from the status quo, when you are intent on gridlocking the window—the Overton window—of what is politically possible. That’s what we saw today from the National Party, unfortunately. We saw a tax proposal which sought to offer tinkering, and speculative tinkering at that.

I just think it’s important to put on the record what is on the table here. A retired couple under the National Party’s plan would receive an extra $13 per week from the Nats, but would receive $32 per week from the Greens. A family with two kids at primary school with a combined income of $130,000 would receive $50 per week under the National Party, but would receive $188 per week under the Greens.

They’ve also promised to double the price of public transport for people with low incomes and disabilities. They’ve also promised—kind of—a bit of the climate dividend, but if you read between the lines and get into the detail of their policy document, what you’d find is that, instead, they’re looking to raid the emissions trading scheme revenue raised into the Climate Emergency Response Fund to pay for their tax cuts, which disproportionately benefit those at the top end of town, and that’s not even getting into the heroic assumptions around foreign buyers. They have the gall to tell us that they care about house prices, but they can’t even say they want them to come down.

New Zealand can choose transformation this election, and it looks like a party vote Green.

Look, I’ve heard a lot of discussion in the last few months and accusations of being soft on crime. I want to raise about being soft on poverty and soft on hate and bigotry. And what we have seen is accusations of coalitions of this, this, and this. In fact, I’ve seen a coalition of bloated barons. But anyway, never have I seen such a wasteful use of influence when we have here those who are so lazy and apathetic that they are triggering fear instead of creating policy that could have been transformational and, indeed, provided solutions.

What we have seen amongst the screen of co-governance, He Puapua, Māori separatism, is a complete lack of attention on the white collar crime—the $7 billion in tax evasion that’s gone around safely unattacked and under the radar. We are the only tangata whenua party that has sight of the struggling poor, and saying consciously, Māori are not the problem to be punished, we are the opportunity waiting to happen. That’s why we have said we must continue to be fearless in supporting what we have seen, which is big parties refusing to address the problem of poverty.

We have talked about removing GST from all kai. We have talked about regulating supermarkets and their ability to hike prices, removing income tax for low-income whānau, increasing income tax on those earning more than $200,000, increasing the corporate tax from 28 percent to 33 percent. We will also—unlike what we didn’t see happen today—unlike National, talk about net wealth tax. We would implement a net wealth tax, foreign companies’ tax, land banking tax, vacant house tax. Our tax system is doing exactly what it was designed to do, and that is designed to give privilege to the rich. We’re not anti being wealthy, what we’re anti about is trying to get through a tax system that’s been designed against us.

So now what we have in Aotearoa is the richest 10 percent owning half of the wealth in the country, and on top of that, the average person in Aotearoa paying 20.2 percent in tax while the filthy rich pay 9.4 percent. It’s time that we were transformational. Te Paati Māori needs to be in with this next Government because that’s clearly what is lacking. We’ve seen the growing wealth inequality in our country. It’s unacceptable—totally unacceptable—that over 2 million people in Aotearoa earn less than $30,000 per year. And we’re wondering why we have other social complex issues. Nearly 50 percent of our working population do not earn enough to live. So we’ve got to shift the tax burden from the poor to the wealthy and restore dignity, fairness, and economic justice in Aotearoa—that’s what we stand for.

Instead, here what we have is a New Zealand where we’ve got more houses empty than we have people needing houses. But because we subsidise and don’t tax the extravagant lifestyles of the rich, it’s been normalised. No one should go hungry while supermarkets are making record profits in Aotearoa. No one should be homeless when there are enough vacant houses to house everyone. Whānau should not be having to choose between paying their bills on time or taking their babies to the doctor. And we are no longer accepting excuses from the two major parties who are fighting to keep people poor. We are putting our pou in the ground and now is the time for radical change—our tamariki are literally hungry for it.

Under our tax plan—our tax provision we talked about—4.2 million people will be better off paying less in tax in Aotearoa; that’s 98 percent of our population. We are endearing. Like I said, we must be fearless. And we keep talking about this: we hear a lot of talk about the unprecedented times, but we’re not, sadly, seeing any unprecedented solutions. It means that we have to sit there and be the smallest ones. We will put ourselves on the line for the type of radical change that’s needed.

So we stand at the precipice of an Aotearoa hou, and that’s the slogan that we’ve chosen, because we are the only ones future-focused on what Aotearoa could look like, where we could have economic justice. And it shouldn’t just be a dream; it should be a reality. So we don’t want to continue to be a people who survives, we want and we must go into thrivance. So we want thrivance for all people of Aotearoa. So we envisage an Aotearoa hou where every whānau is thriving. Our policy that we stand for, our values, and our kaupapa is to be the most transformative party supporting those who are truly focused on eradicating poverty, looking after our planet, and making sure that we can have dignity. No more beating up on minorities—that’s detestable. Kia ora rā.

The time for this debate has expired.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.