Sittings of the House

In accordance with a determination of the Business Committee, the motion for the adjournment and for the sitting programme of 2024 may be moved.

on behalf of the Prime Minister: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Merry Christmas. I move, That the sitting programme for 2024 be:

January 30 and 31;

February 1, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, and 29;

March 5, 6, 7, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, and 28;

April 9, 10, 11, and 30;

May 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, and 30;

June 25, 26, and 27;

July 23, 24, 25, 30, and 31;

August 1, 6, 7, 8, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, and 29;

September 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, and 26;

October 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, and 24;

November 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, and 21;

December 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, and 19;

and that the scrutiny weeks for 2024 under Standing Order 338C be:

June 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21;

December 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6;

and that the House do now adjourn until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, 30 January 2024.

Mr Speaker, as the most senior MP named Chris on this side of the House who was available to take this call, I do so on behalf of National. First, I want to wish you and all a very merry Christmas. I congratulate you again on your new role. Clearly, you’re a man of experience, and it shows in a way that is very helpful. It’s not your first ro-day-o, or indeed your first rodeo—which reminds me, sir, to acknowledge and thank our coalition partners of New Zealand First and, of course, the ACT Party. Some returning colleagues and friends, and some new ones alike—we are enjoying the opportunity to walk together in a way that reflects the election result for the good of New Zealand.

Sir, you haven’t yet thrown anyone out of the House. If you choose to do that to me today, I’ll be able to get home a bit earlier and avoid some of that Wellington traffic that we’re going to hope to get Wellington moving again—

💬 SPEAKER: You can go voluntarily.

OK. I’ll move on, and if I finish before the 10 minutes, that will be the reason; not because I haven’t prepared sufficiently well for this, sir.

I do want to say, as we’re concluding the whole of the parliamentary year, that your predecessor Adrian Rurawhe is to be acknowledged for his good humour and judgment. Our right honourable friend earned the respect of the House throughout the period in which he held that role, and, again, we thank him for it.

We acknowledge your presiding officer colleagues. Barbara Kuriger, Maureen Pugh, Greg O’Connor, and Teanau Tuiono—thank you very much. Please consider this to be the last closure motion that we will see, at least for now.

We’re well served in this place, sir, as indeed you are personally, by the Clerk of the House and the Office of the Clerk team. We are grateful for the important functions that they fulfil in this place.

We’re supported too by the grounds and buildings staff in this place. To colleagues who are finding out for the first time the difficulty of putting rectangular furniture into a round building—a good problem to have. I hope that they don’t find that too much of a metaphorical experience—square pegs and round holes, and all that.

I also wish to thank Bellamy’s and other catering staff in this place. They do their job sometimes too well. Parliament runs on the will of the people, democratic institutions’ strength, and, of course, coffee.

I want to thank as well, on our behalf, the security teams who are approachable, but not too approachable, as is appropriate for their role, including wearing the new black; the messengers; the Parliamentary Library team; and, of course, IST—I’d like to thank them for their service to me, and I hope they’ve got my telegram of thanks; the VIP team and all the other drivers who get us to and from Parliament—I’d especially like to thank those who get us from Parliament; the travel office, likewise; so too the cleaners; the pay office; and also the education services in this place. They play a vital role in assisting our democracy flourish in a way that New Zealanders can understand what’s going on here. I think it’s appropriate this place has some mystique, but not complete mystery. And, of course, I thank all those others who help fulfil the role of the House of Representatives playing its part in our functional democracy.

I also want to thank, on that note, the press gallery. We acknowledge that the fourth estate has an important role in our vibrant democracy.

In terms of the year, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the events of earlier this year with Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe emergency weather events, both before that in terms of Auckland anniversary floods, and since that time too, all across New Zealand. I want to thank the first responders and all who worked hard to improve that situation in terms of response, recovery, and so forth. I also want to than our New Zealand Defence Force personnel who are serving overseas this Christmas.

New Zealanders voted for change this year, and change they will get. Change is not our right, but our responsibility to deliver. We have that mandate and indeed we have that responsibility. Six years ago, a new Labour Government came in and they had finally caught that passing car at which they had been barking at for nine long years. They made a mistake, I think, in not seeing that they had any mandate for change and working to effect that. But for us, we will be working over working groups, and we will favour mahi over mihi.

Our 100-day plan is being rolled out. We’ve seen it over the last three weeks. We will see it more indeed in the year to come.

Our coalition Government is purposeful, and, again, I acknowledge our coalition partners. We will manage the economy well so New Zealanders get ahead. We will restore law and order. We will deliver public services in health, education, and every other way that New Zealanders rely on the Government—including they rely on the Government not interfering with their lives beyond a reasonable measure of necessity.

From a National Party perspective, I thank all our team, including the chief of staff, Cameron Burrows, who the Prime Minister has generously acknowledged that he deserves a long holiday. He’s less generously stated that, I think, he’s going to get a short one, but that’s appropriate, of course. We’re going to be back in the new year, hitting the ground running, of course.

Other leaders from the National team, from the leader’s office, the Prime Minister’s Office, our team of whips—I’d like to personally thank especially the Hon Scott Simpson for relieving me of that role in more than one sense of the phrase, along with Suze Redmayne, our House team, and all the MPs’ support teams, including in our electorate and community offices, who are no less than anyone else a part of the work that is done in this place for the people of New Zealand.

I want to acknowledge not only our leader, the Prime Minister, but also Nicola Willis in terms of her role as deputy and that finance gig; the Leader of the House, Chris Bishop; and to all my National Party caucus colleagues, congratulations for being here. Thank you for your hard work already, and we look forward to proceeding with such exciting times in the new year. We’ll see many more constructive bills and work programmes of the Government.

On that note, I also wish to thank every member of the Parliament—all the very best for the new year. It has been a frenetic resumption of play in terms of the Parliament. The maiden speeches across the House have been a particular highlight. They reflect some very good decisions of the people of New Zealand voting in the general election, particularly those who voted for parties on this side of the House, of course. But in the genuine spirit of acknowledging and thanking those who have stepped up to the plate in public service and have been successful, who are now in this place, but also those who put themselves forward for public office, took that risk, put themselves and their families through that, we thank them too for their commitment and their service to democracy.

On that note: to all, a very merry Christmas. May you have a blue Christmas, and to those, particularly, who got the Elvis Presley reference, I say, thank you, thank you very much.

If ever we needed more proof—if these last few weeks haven’t given us plenty of proof—that this Government simply can’t live up to their own expectations, that was it. This was the Government that said that we’re going to be sitting right through to Christmas and we’re going to be back on 15 January, and yet most of the Government seem to have gone home for Christmas already. And, of course, we’re not coming back on 15 January; it appears we’re coming back on 30 January—about what we do every year.

So in keeping with the summer barbecue tradition, I would say that they are all sizzle and no sausage, but I believe that that particular currency has been somewhat devalued in the last 24 hours, so I’ll stick with an adage that the Deputy Prime Minister will be much more familiar with: they’re all hat and no horse.

But actually, speaking of the Deputy Prime Minister, there seemed to be a transfer in the Cheshire grin that Christopher Luxon had after election day on the day the special votes came out, from Christopher Luxon to Winston Peters, where it has remained ever since, although, well, except perhaps when he’s dealing with the New Zealand media. Never has a Deputy Prime Minister been so bitter in victory as Winston Peters appears to be following this year’s general election.

But what we have heard from this Government over the last few weeks is a plan, unambiguously, to take New Zealand backwards—not a plan to lead New Zealand forward to the promised land, but a promise to repeal this, cancel that, stop this, not do that, and cut this. No plan to actually take New Zealand forward.

That is something that I hope they will spend a little bit of time as they are lying on their beach towels over the summer holidays thinking about—how they are actually going to lead New Zealand forward, rather than simply dial back to 2017, as if the world was a perfect place in 2017, before the last Government took office.

But we’ve also seen from this Government that their priorities are confused and they are wrong. This is a Government that’s decided to prioritise mega-landlords over renters and first-home buyers. It’s a Government that’s decided to prioritise the tobacco lobby over the health and wellbeing of all New Zealanders, a Government that has decided to prioritise oil and gas companies over our environment, to prioritise millionaires instead of salary and wage earners, and a Government that has chosen to accept conspiracy theories instead of policy based on facts, evidence, and science. And we’ve just seen—and we’ve just seen—more evidence of that now, where they repealed legislation that would have done nothing more than produce an evidence base for better policy making in the future.

But what we’ve also seen from this Government is that they are adhering to that great children’s game called Simon Says—do as I say, not as I do. They are quite happy to use taxpayer funding for their own te reo Māori lessons, but when it comes to other New Zealanders, that’s got to stop. They’re happy to claim the Clean Car Discount for themselves, but when it comes to other New Zealanders, that has to stop. They’re quite happy to criticise others who use air force planes to travel internationally, but when it comes to themselves, oh, actually that has to keep going. The list of that could go on. It is a Simon Says Government. Be careful to listen to what they say, because what they do is entirely different.

With all of the twists and turns this Government has done in the last few weeks, it has felt like a pilot episode for the New Zealand version of The Office. There is no question who is assuming the role of David Brent on that side of the House, although I have it from the TV company that a second season is highly unlikely.

New Zealanders did vote for change at the last election, and we on this side of the House do respect that, but I don’t think that this was the change that they had in mind. I don’t think they voted for more Kiwi kids taking up smoking, for dialling back the work that we had been doing as a Government to cut down on vaping—something that they criticised us for not doing enough of, and now they want to stop the work that we were actually doing. I don’t think that Kiwis voted for the change that they are getting.

I want to acknowledge that for many New Zealanders, 2023 has been a difficult year, and I want to take a moment, politics aside for a moment, and acknowledge that the first thing that I did as Prime Minister was to travel to Auckland after the flooding on 27 January this year, followed shortly after by travel across the Tairāwhiti, Hawke’s Bay, and Wairarapa regions to inspect the cyclone damage in those areas.

I can say with sincerity that the pictures on the TV news of the damage done by those natural weather events actually understated the damage; it was actually worse on the ground than the pretty dreadful images that we saw on the TV news. We saw some of the worst of what mother nature can throw at us, but we also saw some of the best of the resilience of the Kiwi human spirit.

I met people who were going out of their way to support others in their time of need. I’ve spoken of some examples of that. I’m thinking of the nurse who I met who was seeing patients in a pub, because that was the nearest available building to see people who had health issues caused by the cyclone. When I asked her how she was doing, she burst into tears, because she’d been working for about 36 hours and it was the first moment that she had had to reflect on the fact that she had lost everything—her home, all of her possessions—and had gone straight to work. I think that just highlights how amazing New Zealanders are when they are confronted with some of the most difficult circumstances we can imagine.

So on behalf of the previous Government, I do want to acknowledge all those whose lives were turned upside down by those weather events. I also want to say that we dealt with some of the most difficult decisions that we have dealt with during the brief period that I had as Prime Minister as a result of those natural weather events. I want to thank my colleagues, particularly the Hon Grant Robertson, for the leadership that they showed in all of that.

Over the summer, I hope that all New Zealanders get a good, long, and uninterrupted summer. It feels like it’s been a wee while since we’ve had one of those, with a global pandemic, with severe weather events, with other things. I think New Zealanders are well and truly due a decent summer. I hope they get to spend plenty of time with their loved ones, plenty of time at the beach, plenty of time over the barbecue, and enjoying the best of what Aotearoa New Zealand has to offer.

As is tradition, I want to take a moment to thank all of the people who make this place possible to operate: the team at the Parliamentary Service, and our past ministerial staff, who have had a pretty difficult couple of months. One of the things about democracy is it’s actually hardest on many of the people who don’t get a voice in that process. So to our past ministerial staff, a very warm thankyou and a very merry Christmas to all of you.

To the Chamber and gallery staff, to the interpreters, the cleaners, the buildings team, the Bellamy’s and Copperfields staff, who I want to thank for keeping a healthy stock of sausage rolls in their cabinets, to all of our security guards who keep us safe, to all of our electorate staff across the House and the many, many volunteers and supporters who also help to make the democratic process function, a very warm thankyou to all of you. Thank you to the parliamentary press gallery for keeping us all honest.

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: What?

I want to—well, maybe not all of us, Mr Peters, but I do want to thank them. Come rain or shine, they were there during the election campaign, asking us the difficult questions and making sure that New Zealanders had the information that they needed to make informed decisions.

I want to take a moment to thank the whānau, the families, the loved ones of all MPs and Ministers, past and present. Without their love and support, we would not be able to do the jobs that we do, and they make a lot of sacrifices that go unnoticed, and those sacrifices can go on for a long period of time. So I want to really take a moment to thank them. I know that they will be looking forward to having us back over the summer break. By the end of the summer break, I’m sure they’ll be happy for us all to come back to work again, but I do want to take a moment to thank them for all of the love and support they give to everybody.

And of course, to you, Mr Speaker, thank you for the essential role that you play or are starting to play in this Parliament. Can I wish you and your family a very merry Christmas, and to all the staff who work for you, the Office of the Clerk, and the Parliamentary Service, thank you for everything that you do to keep this place operating. And to all members, a very merry Christmas.

Firstly, meri Kirihimete to the members opposite. I know that some of them may not have understood what I just said, but I’m sure they understood the spirit with which I intended it.

Mr Speaker, I do wish you a very restful summer break, and I actually have not yet had the opportunity to congratulate you on your elevation to the role of Speaker.

💬 SPEAKER: Oh, take your time.

Well, I’ve got nine minutes and 34 seconds on the clock, so I’ll give it a go. I would like to say that it might not be the job that you most wanted, but it does seem to be the job that you were really born into. So if the last few weeks have shown us anything, it is that you’re going to be a terrific Speaker, and we’re looking forward to working with you over the course of the coming three years as we continue to hold the “Coalition of Chaos” to account. For a group of parties that spent the election campaign trying to terrify New Zealanders what a kind of three-headed demon of a Government might look like, they’re doing a pretty good job of illustrating exactly what it was that they were warning us all about what might happen.

I have to say that it’s tempting to focus on the leaked Cabinet papers that started appearing largely before the ink was even dry, or the classic moment when the Hon Shane Jones waited until the Prime Minister and the climate change Minister were out of the country so that he could put nature on notice that he was going to dig it all up and burn it and do whatever the hell else he wanted as long as there was a buck in it—that that was the policy of this Government and, of course, without the right of reply of the actual Prime Minister at the time. I would have thought also, of course, that the Prime Minister—who used to run an airline—would have been in a clearer position about how he was going to fly to Australia, but there we go. The games of Truth or Dare that are currently playing out in the Cabinet room really are something to behold.

I do want to acknowledge the former Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins, for his service to the country as Prime Minister over the course of what has been a challenging year. And I do want to acknowledge what a remarkable year it has been—in fact, the last several years.

Three hundred and thirty thousand people trusted the Green Party enough with their votes this year, and I want to thank every single one of them, as well as 8,000 volunteers who were the lifeblood of our campaign. I have not yet had an opportunity to put that on the record since the election—that the support that they have shown us has elected the largest Green caucus ever in our history, and we still carry their hopes for a better Aotearoa into this House every single day. Our constituents, the New Zealanders that we are here to represent, do deserve a Government that puts its best foot forward for the interests of everybody in this country, not just a few, not just those who have inherited their position. And they deserve an Opposition that rises to that with constructive and also honest challenges, and that is the role that we intend to take.

The things that we fought the campaign on are as relevant now as they were before the election: warm, dry, affordable homes for everyone in this country—

💬 Rt Hon Winston Peters: All talk.

—rivers that are clean enough to swim in for everybody in this country; wages that are enough for life’s essentials and a decent celebration with friends and whānau over the holidays; the hope for a safe climate for their children and for their grandchildren, First Deputy Prime Minister.

At the beginning of this year, and the former Prime Minister acknowledged this, Parliament opened when there were two regions in the country that were in a national state of emergency and half the regions in the country were in a regional state of emergency. Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary Day floods brought the reality of climate change into our homes and into our doorsteps—in fact, over the thresholds of our doorsteps and into the homes of many thousands of New Zealanders. And in response to those crises, communities stepped up—communities stepped up, neighbours helped neighbours, marae opened their doors once again to provide food and shelter for everybody who was affected, and I want to acknowledge that there are still thousands of people in this country who are displaced from their homes as a result of those. It should not take the worst of times to bring out the best in us, and yet in those worst of times the best of us is demonstrated time and time again.

There were two parties that used the word “back” or “backwards” in the election campaign, and we can certainly see how that’s playing out now that they’re in Government, where the more backwards component is clearly steering the waka on this occasion.

Communities know that when people have enough to get by, everyone does better. That’s what we know: when everybody has enough to get by, we all do well. The fact that we have created a society over the course of the last few decades which favours a few over the many—that is not a sustainable route for a society to go down, and the Green Party will continue to work towards a better New Zealand for all of us. Aotearoa, we believe, will get better, despite rather than because of this Government. In this House, we will do everything that we can to hold this Government to account day in and day out, even when they want to go home early for Christmas, despite the fact that it was because of their bills that they put on the Order Paper.

💬 Grant McCallum: Do you want to stay?

I live here, buddy. So I’ll tell you what, if you want to moan about the fact that it’s taking a little bit of time for the House to get through your business that you put on the Order Paper and tried to jam through under urgency, then Merry Christmas to you, because that’s your problem to solve, not mine.

When they backtrack on policies that are designed to tackle climate pollution, we will speak out. The Green Party of Aotearoa will speak out. When they raid the Climate Emergency Response Fund, whilst squeezing social support for those who need it the most, we will hold them to account. For a Government that campaigned primarily on reducing the cost of living, they haven’t yet done a single thing over the course of this Government that will actually help to reduce the cost of living. If anything, they’ve made things more expensive, more precarious, for the New Zealanders who need that support the most. They have overturned the basic protections for working people. They’ve signalled that next year the cost of public transport is going to go up, child support is going to go up. All of those things that New Zealanders actually depend on are going to become more expensive as a result. I do want to acknowledge that people are feeling anxious, therefore, about the direction. The people who actually wanted to plan to make their wages go further to keep their rents lower instead got a gift-wrapped carton of cigarettes from the Marlborough man.

Amongst the people—I mean, they have been acknowledged as well, and I do want to add the Green Party’s voice to this. As this year comes to a close, I do want to acknowledge, on our behalf, the people who make this place tick: the library researchers, the security guards, cleaners, the Copperfields team, drivers, the maintenance team, the travel team, IST, messengers, Chamber staff, the House Office, the Office of the Clerk, the finance, payroll, HR—all of those people who make this place tick, and many of whom are in a more precarious position at the end of this year than they were at the beginning of this year. I do want to acknowledge those people. I want to thank them for their service, as we always do, and to acknowledge any anxiety that they may be feeling going into this Christmas.

I do also want to acknowledge the press gallery and the work that they do to hold all of us to account and to the standards that we ought to observe. From Marama and myself, from our larger-than-ever Green Party caucus, we do wish you all a very restful Christmas. I do want to acknowledge the Green Party team that support us every day.

To our colleagues in the House, please do have a good break. We will be working alongside you next year as we try to work on behalf of all New Zealanders here in the green city of Pōneke next year. Merry Christmas.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I listened to the last two speeches from Labour and the Greens, I couldn’t help but have a few thoughts. That speech by James Shaw sounded like a speech by a man who’s resigned already. He’s just forgotten to actually leave. He was phoning it in. The energy, the conviction, it just was not there. And we wish him well; he’s nearly free.

There was the speech from Chris Hipkins, and it could easily have been given by Grant Robertson. Now, here’s the most dangerous thing that the Opposition, particularly the Labour Party, could do to the Government—the most dangerous thing they could do. You see, they in Government presided over a time when we had record inflation. The economy is having three-quarters of negative growth in one year. That’s their legacy. In terms of social division, they had fires on the lawns of Parliament. They have a crime epidemic that has terrorised people just trying to run a shop. So what’s the most dangerous thing that the Labour Party could do to the Government? They could actually start to admit they made some mistakes and say they’re going to change, but they’re not doing anything like that. They are totally unrepentant. They would have you think that they were somehow a perfect Government that did nothing wrong and, if only they were back, then actually everything would be fine. Now, the problem for Labour is nobody believes that. Nobody. You know, the country under them had people starting off by saying that the country is going in the right direction and finished off saying it’s going in the wrong direction. Until the Labour Party actually start to do some penitence for the enormous damage their policies did to New Zealand, they are no danger. They have a plan to be in Opposition for at least nine years—or, as Winston Peters suggested today, 25.

I couldn’t help but notice that, listening to their speeches, but I also just say to you, Mr Speaker, congratulations on your election, and thank you to the many staff in Parliament that you effectively lead—those in the Office of the Clerk, the House Office, the cleaners, the travel office, the library. I want to say IST, but we’d particularly like to give a shout-out to someone—I don’t know his full name. He’s known to us only as Super Tom, who, as people who have had help from Tom know, is the most extraordinary, helpful person in an IST department—possibly the only one in the world. We’re very grateful for Super Tom.

I want to thank the security, looking smart and a lot tougher these days, and I think that makes us all feel good; the caterers; but also those in Government departments. Those that I’ve been responsible for—in education, health, and Treasury, Pharmac—we’re very grateful for the work that they’re already doing to support us, and that goes right across Government, including the official who seems to think that they were in communications with Minister van Velden’s Cabinet paper. We’d like to thank them. We’ve got a lot of good policies if they want to help us get them out there. Well, I tell you what, it hasn’t worked out too well for them now, has it? I also want to thank those staff in the ACT office, ably led by Andrew Ketels. We’re lucky to have extraordinary people who come and work for us and stay. To have a happy and productive workplace is something I’m extremely proud of and grateful for the people there.

And that goes also for ACT’s MPs. We’re proud we’ve had a record year. We’re grateful for the quarter million - odd New Zealanders who have trusted ACT with their party vote. Those voters, my neighbours in Epsom, who have returned me to this place for a fourth term—I’m very grateful for that. And our neighbours next door in the Tāmaki electorate, who now have a brilliant, new, young, and dynamic member of Parliament—we’re very grateful for the trust that they’ve placed in us. But also in the quality of those MPs that have been elected in that record result, we’re very proud to have five new MPs, six returning MPs. We have an extraordinary team, and people who trusted us with their party vote can see that they have had real quality.

I want to also acknowledge our other parties in Government. Te Pāti Māori—I was thrilled today to see that Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has opened the Standing Orders and could even quote one. I’ve got to tell her, the one that she was looking for was actually 396, “Content of replies”, but that will require her to turn over another few chapters, because if you’re going to talk about tikanga, it’s about time that Te Pāti Māori respected the tikanga of this particular party as well.

I particularly want to acknowledge the Green Party, and I want to acknowledge the significant work that they’ve done on climate change and installing a policy that looks to be ongoing. I think they should be congratulated on that, and we wish them a very merry Christmas. To the Labour Party, we wish you, too, a very merry Christmas. Opposition is important work, and we look forward to our exchanges, including areas where I hope we can build consensus on policies for the long-term future of New Zealand.

To my colleague the Rt Hon Winston Peters and the New Zealand First Party, a very merry Christmas to you. You know what? I never quite believed when they said that politics makes strange bedfellows, until I got into bed with you guys. But none the less, in contrast to what the Opposition would say—they have this kind of binary argument against this Government: one is that we can’t work together, and the other that we’re working so effectively that we’re rapidly doing all these terrible things. And they’re going to have to work out which one it is. Is the Government being ineffective and divided, or is it being too effective? They’re going to have to work out which one it is pretty soon.

I heard James Shaw say that we play some sort of game—I think Simon Says—in the Cabinet room. Unfortunately, imagining what happens in Cabinet is as close as James Shaw will ever get, because I can tell him that we have a very united Government working effectively to deliver. And that goes for my friends and colleagues in the National Party—Chris Luxon, Nicola Willis. Up and down the country, to see new blue MPs joining us in Parliament is a fabulous thing, and we look forward over the coming years to tackling in a deep and substantial way the serious challenges that New Zealand faces.

This country has more land than most, fewer people than most, and yet a massive shortage of places for people to live. That is a real failure. It’s a failure that can be fixed, and I have great confidence that with Chris Bishop leading in that area, we are going to make enormous progress at making sure that this is a place where, once again, the Kiwi Dream of a property-owning democracy can be a reality.

We got news this week that in the third term of this year, fewer than half of kids regularly attended school. And that’s just kids that are enrolled. This is the size of the challenge that we face, but I’m confident that along with Erica Stanford, I, as Associate Minister of Education, am going to make a major contribution as part of this Government to finally get kids engaged in learning and have a school system that has the flexibility to deliver and the accountability for delivering it—the opposite of what they’ve had for the last six years.

We face serious challenges with crime after the previous Government tried the experiment of being nice to criminals to see if they’d be nice back. Unfortunately, too many victims know how that experiment ended, but, luckily, we know that the experiment is over, and this Government will be locking up the bad people and rehabilitating them. Rather than putting the criminal at the centre of the criminal system, we will be putting the victim at the centre of the criminal system.

And we are going to ensure that we have a Government that makes careful use of taxpayer money, because the previous Government’s record—a 30 percent increase in expenditure per person after inflation, with worse results in every sector, from safety to health to education. That is a disastrous legacy, and that’s why the Opposition over Christmas need to actually do some repenting and reflecting on what went wrong in New Zealand under their leadership and policies, which they have not changed.

But this Government has already, in just a few weeks, found how we can save $7.5 billion dollars from the previous Government’s spending plans. James Shaw says, “They haven’t done anything that will improve the cost of living.” I can tell James Shaw saving money and stopping Government waste takes pressure off inflation. That helps the cost of living. I can tell him. That is exactly how we are going to do it.

So, Mr Speaker, I finish by wishing you, again, a very merry Christmas. I wish you, my fellow parliamentary colleagues and your families, a very merry Christmas. To all of those who have supported us, volunteered, campaigned, and voted for us, we thank you for your support, and we look forward to 2024, when we will continue to deliver on the real change you ask for. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, as Parliament draws to a close, New Zealand First wishes to express our thanks to you and your staff. We may not always agree, Mr Speaker, but we’ve enjoyed the calm and the humour you have brought to the House. We must also thank the Rt Hon Adrian Rurawhe for having served in the Speaker’s role for the majority of this year, and for bringing a certain independence and professionalism that could be observed as being widely respected by parliamentarians.

To the cleaners, caterers, security staff, drivers, library, and Hansard staff; to the real workers, as well as to the many office staff from the precinct, we thank you for your exemplary service. This building would not function without you, and I wish you a happy and safe festive season.

I must also acknowledge all of the first responders and essential services—our policemen and women, firefighters, paramedics, doctors, nurses, corrections officers, and all those other front-line professionals and volunteers trying to keep our country safe and running this year. We all thank you and also have a special message of gratitude to those who cannot go on holiday, cannot have a break, and must run essential services right over Christmas. So pay some thought to them and remember them when you’re having your holiday.

To my colleagues in New Zealand First, our caucus has come together quickly and well. So thanks for your support and excellent work to begin the term, alongside all of our parliamentary and ministerial staff and alongside our coalition colleagues.

Mind you, we got our Christmas present on 14 October. That was election day. A lot of people couldn’t read the polls, but it was 14 October and we had a team that went out, Cinderella-ised and marginalised, despite everything that they say at the moment. Maybe my eyesight is failing me, but I couldn’t see those people at those meetings we were having, but they tell me they were there.

The reality is that politics is about reporting every angle, every side, and one of the most amazing things about politics—whether it be on the far left or the far right, right around the world—is that numbers and packed halls usually mean something. It means potential market share, but it didn’t happen, and I just want to remind those who were congratulating the media today to have a good look at the details of the journalism interest fund. Have a look at what its terms were and have a look the clause that says if you don’t obey this, pay the money back. It’s all there, clear as daylight, and I hope we never see that again in our country, because the fourth estate is critical to a sound democracy. I hope they go away and reflect on that before they come back next year.

I do thank my party members around the country who worked so hard to bring about the result, and I also want to reciprocate the words that David Seymour has expressed, and I’m sure so would Mr Luxon do if he was here as well. We have put together, I think, a very sound coalition Government that can go forward, and the fact is that if we all agreed with each other, we would not be in our different parties—that’s the essence of it. If we all agreed and had consensus, we wouldn’t be in different parties. We’ve all got something to contribute, and what we’ve got to do is rebuild a country that was, in a very short space of time, rapidly destroyed.

Please don’t talk about the Labour Government of 2017. I can recall just that before 1 October 2017, a Talbot Mills poll came out, and they were on 20 percent. We’d risen to 19 percent and we thought, “Good heavens! This is bad timing for us. There’s going to be a collapse in the Labour Party.”, and there was. Jacinda Ardern got chosen on 1 August, and 54 days later, she becomes the Prime Minister, because we are not biased. We’re fair: we give people a fair go and give them a break. But the reality is they want to now say that that was them—no, it wasn’t.

There was a handbrake at the time. Remember light rail? It started off at $1.9 billion, then $8 billion, then $14 billion to $16 billion, and then $29 billion, and some party stopped it, because we didn’t think it was ever feasible in the first place. But here we go, we got programme after programme, but look at their advertising in 2020: everything we did was in their campaign advertising.

I’m reminding them about that, because that’s the reason why they’re going to be in the wilderness a long, long time, and I’ll tell you what their problem is now. They haven’t got a leader, and it showed in the lack of lack of intensity and in the repetitiveness of the attack today. With the greatest respect, this is not the Labour Party I once studied, and if they’re going to make a change, the best thing they can do is start remembering who they are meant to represent, for in the end, it’s the numbers that matter.

💬 Hon Kieran McAnulty: Who? The tobacco lobbyists, or forestry, and all that sort of stuff?

Oh, here we go—tobacco. This is the outfit, you see, that were happily changing the tobacco rules so that from 2011 to now, they have taken $24 billion off these users—cigarette smokers and what have you—and of those, one-third are Māori. So $8 billion has been taken off Māori. Are you going to the Waitangi Tribunal about that? No. That’s more than all the Waitangi settlements put together, because of their woke signalling to the Māori people.

Education will change that. As a famous man called Pōmare, the first Māori Minister of Health, said all those years ago, education and training changes that, not the imposition of woke taxes—$8 billion has been taken off Māori. And they’re not too happy now, are they, when they’re outside there, throwing flags around, and saying what they should be doing. We’re want to change Māori and give Māori a chance to have freedom and education and information to make the changes themselves. But back to the—

💬 Darleen Tana: Honour Te Tiriti.

Oh, honour the Treaty—really? Which Treaty are you talking about? Which Treaty are you talking about? Are you talking about the one that you are writing every day because you don’t know anything about the history of this country, or the one that great—[Interruption] Oh, not more than me. No, no, you won’t. Excuse me, I was there a long time before you were, right there—[Interruption] No, right there with Whina Cooper when you weren’t—right there when all these great causes like kōhanga reo were started, and you weren’t. I can speak to you all day about things that I’ve done, and all we’ve seen from people like you is noise, noise, noise. All talk—all hui and no do-ey.

We’re not having that going forward, and I hope that member goes home and thinks at Christmas-time on the fact there were people in the past Māori world with far more knowledge, far more intelligence, far more integrity, and far more respect than this person shouting out today. Have you ever seen a Māori on a marae behave like that? Do you ever see a Māori, male or female, on a marae behaving like that? Uh-uh, no you don’t.

Here it comes—this new version of Māori behaviour. They come in here, not prepared to hear the other side of the story, and let me ask you this one question: what on earth have you ever done for Māori? Any of you—give me the list. I tell you what, I could put it on the back of stamp with a carpenter’s pencil and there’d be room left over. That’s what you’ve done for Māori. In our case, we’ve done it and we’ve meant it, and we’re proud of it.

But, as Shane Jones would say, the kūmara never says—he asked me to do this, so I’m not going on boasting about it. All right? But let me tell you, I know what’s happened here. Out in the Māori world, using the radicalisation of a few elite—people who know nothing about the Māori world, really—and in this case, Te Wai Pounamu. Half of the mining in the South Island is on their chest right now. The greenstone is all there, huge, almost pulling their necks down—because if they were real, you wouldn’t need to wear that, would you? All imagery, all show—no action.

Can I just say that this time, over Christmas, there are going to be a lot of people around the barbecue highly relieved that there is a change of Government. I feel it; I see it. You can see it in their eyes when you walk down a street. They’re saying they’re so pleased that there was a change of Government. If you learn to read a room and watch people, there’s a new breath of relief and a fresh confidence, and our job is to take that on to rebuilding the country we once were with the principles that we once had but with the policies that understand that it’s sound common sense, sound commercial policies, that put a businessman and woman alongside a businessman’s and woman’s workers and their staff, and they are both of equal value—they are critical. We understand that. We’re not here as a party just arguing one side of the story; we want everybody to realise that our future is best as a country going forward together, in a country that has always been known—and it was known at time of the Treaty of Waitangi—as New Zealand. None of the chiefs—

💬 Hon Kieran McAnulty: Listen up—he was there.

“Listen up”, he says—I was there. No, but my chiefly ancestor was, and he’s a whole lot more brighter than you. He’s a genius compared to you. I respect this ancestor and I respect all those chiefs back then, who knew what they were doing, and not one in the whole breadth of the country ever called the country Aotearoa. Have a happy Christmas.

Tēnā koe e te Pīka. Tēnā tātou e te Whare. Hā ki roto, hā ki waho, waerea mai.

[Breathe in, breathe out, clearing.]

Last night we finished at midnight. I think we must have done about 15, 16 hours and I was feeling a little bit sorry for myself. I got down to the ground floor and I saw our whānau, our Pasifika sisters, and they were all getting ready to come in and clean this building. It made me humble myself, remember my place, and remember that every day we walk in and the pixies have done their thing—now, not the same pixies that Shane Jones simply refers to, but the real pixies around here, the real fairies that are here, being real agents of change every day in our daily lives. They are cleaning up after us. They are correcting our spaces and places. They whakanoa—I don’t know how they whakanoa this space, but they do. Every day, we come in and it all looks perfect—the caterers, the Parliamentary Service. The same goes on when we go out into our supermarkets, our schools, our hospitals, our buses, the motels, the restaurants. But in this particular building, I want to mihi first and foremost to all of those who behind the scenes make everything happen for us.

I know at times the whole world or the whole of Aotearoa thinks that we are “it”; we’re certainly not. So I want to mihi to the people we don’t see, who we don’t hear. I want to humble myself to you for every day what you do to make this possible, and I really love the cleaner who’s got the Xmas caddy, because sometimes we walk out of here and you feel like you’ve just been shot in the stomach and in the back, and you’re limping up the stairs and you see her with her little caddy. I don’t know if you’ve all seen it, but it’s brilliant. It’s just brilliant for us to have around—to actually have staff who show their character in this place, because in institutions at times it’s really hard to see their character.

I think it’s really important that we continue to stay humble in this place, and it being my second term, what I have seen is waves of red fill the place and really assert themselves really confidently and be really proud. And then I’ve seen them quietly leave with all their hopes and their passions and their boxes. We’ve had to sit in the corridor and watch a whole corridor empty out. I want to remind ourselves this year—and I congratulate our Government; I truly do. You worked hard and you’ll continue to work hard to stay together. But those of us who campaigned—and you have taught me the true meaning of what goes on in campaign, stays in campaign. But in all sincerity, I think it’s really important to remember that we are replaceable. Most of us politicians are indeed forgettable, and not many of us are going to end up in bronze statues, and not all of us will become dames and sirs or Winston Peters. Those are unique politicians—and I pay respect—but we also need to stay humble and remember our egos in this place and remember the people that we’re performing in front of.

I also I want to mihi to our Pīka, who knows that I started, first and foremost, by trying to bring in my whanaunga from Te Tai Hauāuru; I’ve never seen him move so fast in his life to decline the offer. But we have enjoyed your wisdom. I know that you have some long-term relationships in here, and even though our ACT leader has gone, I’m enjoying getting to know and having some space and some colleagues now with us to be able to understand the tikanga of the House. And I ask for the patience and enjoy listening to you all, old and new—breaths of fresh air or old air. It’s important for us to all understand and to learn that Governments are not the vessels of change as much as we think we are. We’ve had some brilliant maiden speeches this year, but we rise and fall with the tide and the will of our people. I’ll keep reminding that there are two Cinderellas in Parliament this year. We have experienced what it’s like to leave here and to not be voted back in. I think it’s really important to remember ourselves, to be humble.

We find ourselves as Māori, Pasifika, tangata Tiriti in a really unique situation where 83 percent of us didn’t support this Government. I’ll say this, and it’s not to takahi: 1 percent voted for ACT, 4 percent voted for New Zealand First, 5 percent of Māori voted for National. My tono to you, even though that’s the case, is that you don’t leave tangata whenua behind. I get where you’re going, but I also want you to see and hear our people and who we are today. Because even though we didn’t vote for this Government, we are various peoples of privilege and how we use that privilege is really important and how we check ourselves—and having privilege doesn’t mean that we haven’t had hardship. Having privilege means that there are certain times when people have an unearned benefit or advantage.

I really ask for our mana hauā, for our tāngata hauā, for our rainbow communities, for our Māori and Pasifika communities that we stay focused on what it is that you’re needing to do. But please, please don’t make them expendable as you’re asserting your style of politics in Aotearoa in this very small, short time, because history has shown us that things often change very quickly. Te Tiriti had 500 rangatira; the Treaty had 50 rangatira. That’s just facts, and I’ll leave that there.

We are a young nation. We’re the last of the islands to be colonised. We’re known as a nation of progress. We are acknowledged for how we made decisions in the past—how we’ve done it with women’s votes, how we’ve done it with our nuclear-free moments, how we’ve done it with our tangata whenua, and how the Treaty is seen. So I acknowledge today that we’ve reached a point in our political environment and our moment in time where we have, as tangata whenua, progressed so far that it’s created fear. And somehow it’s been viewed that we are putting a certain sector of people who are used to a certain type of superiority and power at risk. These are just my views to offer in the adjournment debate.

I’m not quite sure what we do with this knowledge as a nation. What I am really clear on is that I’m a politician for a culture and a group of society where 70 percent of our population are under the age of 40 and 25 percent of our population are under the age of 21. I invite us to see who some of these mokopuna are and who they belong to. So they belong to some of the largest employers in Aotearoa. They belong to some of the largest landowners and providers of milk to Fonterra. They belong to some of the largest fishing industries. They belong to some of those with the largest fishing quota. They belong to some of those who have the largest infrastructure and tourism spaces. They belong to some of those who have the largest blueberries and the largest horticulture sectors. They are shareholders here in Taranaki of those who have the Government Crown leases. They belong to shareholders of perpetual funds that actually perform better than local and regional government perpetual funds.

So my hope is that we go away and have a good break, because everyone deserves it. It was a vicious campaign and people worked really, really hard to get their points across and to get to where they are today. But peace and goodwill is the theme that I intend to lead from our party for the season and that we use this period to be more tolerant, perhaps, to use our opportunities and relationships to give guidance, to fix where we have extreme views. I acknowledge that at times it will be seen as us having an extreme, opposing view. Also, I urge that we continue to behave with decorum and to be held accountable at times when we don’t.

To our own people who are out there, I want to thank you for your support, through the polls and the media—we don’t have a great relationship with the media. In fact, I often use Jason as part of my TikTok content. I hope he gets the good spirit that’s intended in.

But I also I want to remind our people that we must be persistent. We must be patient. I am not the end game. You are not the end game. The end game is still being born. Their end game is still being born. We must stay focused on what matters. We must remember our tūpunas’ lessons to be smarter, to be peaceful, to not be degrading ourselves, to act with dignity, and also oranga whānau, oranga whenua, toitū Te Tiriti.

I hope also that we take this time to remember those that are suffering, that are in pain, to look after the elderly, to make sure that we take time out for them. Don’t do the phone calls; if you can, get around and see them. Not everyone is having a happy Christmas. Not everyone has something under their tree. So please take time to help in whatever way that you can, with whatever generosity and charity that you have.

I hope also that we do all we can do to a ceasefire and to stop the violence that we see going on to children and innocent civilians, and we use all our sphere of influence, no matter what side you sit on, to make sure we spend this time to stop the world from being as cruel and harsh as it is to peoples, and we try and build a better, peaceful, dignified world for all to be able to live in.

I wish you all a merry Christmas, especially you, e te Pīka. I cannot promise that Rawiri Waititi won’t get booted out in the next term, but I certainly think will be five others that will be happy to fill that out for him as well. So all the blessings to you all. Kia ora rā.

I want to acknowledge the last speaker for that beautiful speech. It was just such a lovely tone. I can’t guarantee that mine will be of the same manner. So we were told that we would be kept here until Christmas. We’re here, and then we come to the House and we find out the most senior person from the National Government is Chris Penk—here on the last day. I’m really proud of the fact that we’ve lasted till the last minute, and it just goes to show how seriously we take this place, how seriously we take our representation, and that even though we may not have won the election, we are up for the fight.

We came back after the election to urgency, and what did we come back to in terms of what the Government perceived as being urgent? The repeal of fair pay agreements, the repeal of the Resource Management Act, the repeal of the Clean Car Discount, and then the extension of the 90-day bill. This is what they prioritised in their first two weeks—legislation that doesn’t serve to actually help New Zealanders but actually takes away from them. And that is indicative of what we can expect for the next three years under that Government. They are mean-spirited, they are the Christmas Grinch, they are the Scrooge, Negative Nelly, and now we’ve just heard in the House today that someone was at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi even.

I feel for New Zealand. I don’t think they actually knew what they signed up to. Gracious in defeat—we lost the election, and we are gracious in defeat and we absolutely accept that. But I don’t think they know what they signed up for. How could they know what they had signed up for when we were hit immediately with the repeal of smoke-free legislation? No one knew that was coming. Cuts for the tax cuts is what we got. And, actually, tax cuts where we don’t even know when they will arrive, what they will look like, how they will be delivered, or how much they will cost.

I will add too, “Sorry but not sorry.”, said the Government when during the campaign they said, “Oh, we’ll just do the proposed changes for Working for Families that Labour said that they’re going to do.”, and then they get into Government and then they say, “Oh no, sorry, New Zealand—can’t do that now.”

New Zealand had no idea what they were signing up to when they voted in that side of the House. I think it’s very fair to say there’s been a bit of a cringe fest watching this three-headed demon, watching this very awkward three-way political relationship going on over there. And lots of people are saying “How long will this last?” And many people are saying, “Give it 18 months.” Because, actually, when the head cowboy has to give up the ranch to the nephew cowboy from Northland, as well, then I think we’re going to see a few problems. We all thought that the person inheriting the ranch would be Shane Jones, but it turns out it’s that it’s Rawiri Seymour, and let’s see how that goes at the 18-month mark.

I do want to end on a positive note, even though that wasn’t that negative really. So I’ll move away from the three-ring circus, the awkward political three-way, the three-headed beast, over to my thanks for the many wonderful people that do work in this place, and they have been named. I want to apologise to the people that work in this place that will no longer get access to the fair pay agreement—our security guards, our cleaners—and I apologise on behalf of the Government for the fact that that will no longer happen.

I acknowledge that it has been a really tough year for New Zealand, actually, and I was there in Auckland on Auckland Anniversary Day when Auckland was hit by the worst flooding that I think we’ve ever seen. At the same time, my house, along with many others, was flooding too, and I want to acknowledge that there were so many not just Aucklanders but New Zealanders that were impacted by those weather events. I also want to reiterate what James Shaw said earlier. It was the first real wake-up call for many people that climate change is real.

I want to wish everyone in this House a good Christmas. It has been a hard year. I want to wish the general public a good Christmas and please, please God let the weather be better than what it was last year.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Notwithstanding that last contribution, I want to thank and congratulate members who have participated in this adjournment debate, because we have come to the end of what has been a very long year, both in terms of real terms and in terms of Parliament. And I want to acknowledge all of those people that you oversee who make this place run on our behalf—who serve and provide us with the services and the ability to do the jobs that we do—on behalf of us all.

So it has been a long, hard year, and none more so than for those who were impacted by the weather that occurred, first in Cyclone Hale and then in Cyclone Gabrielle, and I know that all too well for people who live in my own beautiful Coromandel electorate, but in other parts of the country that has been the case as well. But here we are, nearly at the end of the year, on the cusp of the prospect of a new year of new hope, new vision, and new direction for the country. And it can’t come soon enough, because if ever there was a symbol of how out of touch and how tone-deaf the Labour Party had become, it was that last speech. They were out of touch, disconnected, and remote from the people of New Zealand. They no longer shared the reflective views, aspirations, and hopes of so many New Zealanders that put them on the Opposition benches for those reasons, and there they will stay for a very long period of time.

But we are ultimately a participatory democracy. It involves people participating, and as my late mother used to often say, “The world would be a very boring place if we all had the same views and opinions.” This is a robust debating chamber. It is a Chamber where strong views and strong opinions should be strongly argued, and that’s right and proper in a functioning democracy. But it couldn’t happen—none of us could be here without the help and support of the volunteers that put us here from our various parties. And I want to acknowledge in this final contribution this year those people from every political party—whether they are parties that we agree or disagree with—that make democracy in our country work. They are the people who put up the hoardings, deliver the pamphlets, knock on doors, make phone calls, and have the commitment of their views and opinions and then the commitment to actually go out and do something about it. And those are the people who, I think, are the heroes of our democracy. The people who frankly get up my nose are the ones who say, “I don’t care, it doesn’t matter, it’s not important.” But it is important, they should care, and it does matter. So to all the volunteers from every political party, whether they’re candidates, doorknockers, pamphleteers, phone ringers or whatever, I say thank you on behalf of our democracy.

Every three years, we have a general election. We can be proud of that in New Zealand. We have a peaceful, easy transition of power. That doesn’t actually happen in every country, as we all know so well. So, I want to acknowledge the respectful, professional way that the outgoing Government transferred power. As I say, that doesn’t necessarily happen in every country. We as Kiwis, I think, can be proud of that process. We may not like the result—many people—but we get on with it and we do it and we accept it. Then we have the ongoing, robust debate, as we should. Nothing wrong with that; that’s exactly as it should be.

So, in conclusion, on behalf of my National Party colleagues, National Party supporters, volunteers, and members up and down the countryside, ACT and New Zealand First members, parties, supporters, volunteers, Te Pāti Māori, Green Party, Labour Party—all those people, I want to say: thank you for your contribution to our functioning, participatory democracy. I want to wish you all a safe, peaceful, happy, contented Christmas.

Finally, it would be remiss of me, as the humble but hard-working member of the Coromandel, not to invite you all to come to the beautiful Coromandel and spend some time, and more importantly, some money in my electorate. Mr Speaker, thank you very much, merry Christmas, kia ora.

This is the one time of year that the Speaker gets to make a speech. I’m tempted to spend some time talking about the challenges that come with the joy, the disappointments, the exhilaration of the year, etc.—all that the country has been through, but, like many of you who are still here, I’ve got a taxi waiting. So I simply want to acknowledge my fellow presiding officers: Barbara Kuriger, Teanau Tuiono, Maureen Pugh, and Greg O’Connor. They certainly are doing a good job, and I’m sure that you all appreciate that.

I want to particularly acknowledge the Rt Hon Adrian Rurawhe, who might have been here and giving you much longer and more learned speech, had it not been for different circumstances changing all of that. Sir, I said it a couple of weeks ago, you brought a calm and a dignity to this House that was very much appreciated. I think the way in which the House has been substantially self-managing, in a way, over the last three weeks—no, well, by and large it has. It is in no small way due to the legacy that you have left, and I thank you very much for that, and wish you personally all the best for the Christmas season and the new year. Thank you.

Could I acknowledge the Clerk, David Wilson, and his staff—there are hundreds of them; they do a great job keeping us all on track; the Parliamentary Service CEO, Raf Gonzalez-Montero, and the nearly 700 staff, I think, both in Parliament and out of Parliament, that keep us working as well.

To all the groups that have been mentioned by the previous speakers. There’ve been lots of thankyous, lots of salutations—I simply stand by all of that.

So all I need now do is thank my own staff, Felicity Cuzens in Christchurch, Laree Taula here, and all the families of all the MPs, for all that they have to give up in order for all of us to be able to do the job that we’re elected to. My sincere thanks. Again, I echo the sentiments expressed by many other previous speakers.

Finally, can I just wish all members of Parliament a very happy Christmas, a happy New Year, and all the best for whatever their wishes are in 2024.

Motion to adjourn House and sitting days agreed to.

The House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. Tuesday, 30 January 2024.

The House adjourned at 5 p.m. (Thursday)