Imprest Supply (Second for 2023/24) Bill

Members, before we went on the dinner break, we were debating the third reading of the Appropriation (2023/24 Estimates) Bill and the second reading of the Imprest Supply (Second for 2023/24) Bill. Tim van de Molen has five minutes and 38 seconds left, if he would like to take the call. I call on Rachel Boyack.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is a pleasure to take a call on the Budget from 2023, another outstanding wellbeing Budget from our aspirational Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson. I’m proud to be a member of the team on the Labour side of the House, delivering for New Zealanders, especially during what are incredibly tough times for our country and for people around the globe. I want to make some points tonight specifically about the Budget and some of the initiatives that I know are benefiting the people in my community of Nelson but also across New Zealand.

I said in the House last week how much I love public transport, and I’m excited that I can share a little bit more information tonight about the incredible improvements we’ve made to public transport in Nelson and Tasman. It’s well-known that we have an area that does have congestion at those highdemand times of the day, and because of our geography, it’s not a case of just adding more roads, because all you’d do then is add more cars and you’d end up in a situation where we’d all just converge at the same point. We’d just move that congestion from one part of the city to the other. As I said in my maiden speech, one of the travesties for transport in Nelson was the removal of our railway, which would right now have given us a transport corridor to transport goods and people throughout our region.

So what I am so excited about is that our changes in Budget 2023 to support people through the cost of living and to reduce the price of public transport have come along at the exact same time that we have doubled the frequency of buses in Nelson, and they now go to places like Motueka. I can actually take a bus to go and visit my colleague Damien O’Connor in the neighbouring electorate, and we can get on a bus out to Wakefield. We have an airport bus.

The buses are electric buses, so we’re reducing emissions, and at the exact same time we’ve introduced free public transport for under-13s from Budget 2023, we’ve introduced half-price public transport for people aged under 26, and we continue to have free off-peak travel for our seniors and half-price transport for people on the community services card. So you can get from Nelson to Richmond in my electorate for two bucks if you’re using your Bee Card, and if you’re one of those people getting half-price public transport, it’s only a dollar to get the bus around Nelson. In the first week, we had a 44 percent increase in the usage of our bus services, and at the weekend, it was a 200 percent increase. It was a classic case of “Build it, and they will come”, and the feedback I am getting from people around my electorate is that this is an investment that the Government has made that is making a real difference for people in Nelson. There are people able to get out and about who otherwise wouldn’t have in the past because there wasn’t a bus going near their place, and for many of those people, they can get on that bus for free or for only $1, thanks to our Government.

The other amazing change that we made in the Budget which is making a real difference for people in my community is the removal of the $5 co-payment for prescriptions. Like many MPs across this House, I am sure we’ve all visited pharmacies and seen the piles of unclaimed medicines sitting on the shelves. I know that for many people, being able to know that they can go to the doctor and then go to the pharmacy and collect that prescription without having to pay for it means they are much more likely to take that medication and they are far less likely to end up in hospital.

We have seen the data now that 900,000 New Zealanders have collected 3 million prescriptions since we made this change, and I know that for many people, they’ve turned up expecting to pay, worried about what that might mean for their budget—because just remember, for people on low incomes, if you’re getting two or three prescriptions, 15 bucks can be a huge cost. It can be the difference between buying bread and milk for the week. So we have made this change, and it’s making a real difference for people.

Another initiative in this Budget that I absolutely love and that will deliver for people in Nelson is our commitment to building another 3,000 more State houses, and that’s on top of our delivery of 13,000 public homes since Labour came into office. I know that in my electorate, we have a number of people who struggle to find affordable housing. We had no addition of State housing and only six more community homes built during the term of the National Government, and during that time the National Government claimed there wasn’t a housing crisis. They claimed that the people in Nelson didn’t need affordable housing. But I know that they do, because they come and see me in my electorate office every single week, and I know many of these people by name.

I am so proud of what we have begun in Nelson. Earlier this year, we opened the first 14 Habitat for Humanity homes as part of our Progressive Home Ownership scheme. We have another five opening in Richmond soon, and another five being built in Stoke. We also have added a number of community homes through the fantastic provider that is the Nelson Tasman Housing Trust, and they have received support through the council and through our Government to build affordable rentals and also public homes that people who are on the housing waiting list can move into. These are warm, dry homes.

What I’m also really excited about is the work that Kāinga Ora are doing in my region. We are starting to see an absolute ramp up of the building of State housing in Nelson, and it is so exciting. Just this year, we’ve had homes built in Richmond that have opened, another round of homes being built in Richmond that are due to open soon, and another round of homes in Nelson’s CBD that are due to start being built very, very soon.

We have a partnership with the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology where apprentices—so our fantastic construction apprentices—are building State houses that are due to be moved very, very soon to the community of Nelson South. That is another area where we’re planning to build nearly 50 new homes in my community—where I live—of Nelson South, and this is a piece of work that we have been waiting on in Nelson for decades to lift up the number of affordable homes, because we are one of the most unaffordable regions in New Zealand when you compare wages against house prices. It’s cheaper to buy a home in Christchurch, but you could earn more money.

So my commitment and our Government’s commitment for Nelson is to ensure that those people on the waiting list won’t have to be waiting too much longer, because we are building homes for them, and that is because we believe in the Labour Government—unlike the previous National Government, who sold these houses off, we believe that the State has a role to play in housing our people. It is our job to ensure that every New Zealander has a warm, dry, safe, affordable home, and I will not rest and we will not rest until we know that every New Zealander can go to sleep at night knowing they have the security of an affordable, warm home.

But on the other side, we have the coalition of cuts. Where we are investing on this side of the House, that lot over there have plans to cut many of the policies that I know are making a real difference for our people. We can expect no more winter energy payment for everyone who needs it. They’ve said already that they will remove the free prescriptions for many, many people, which will make a terrible difference to people. I’ve heard no commitment from anyone on that side of the House for the Nelson Hospital, which we are rebuilding and that we have committed $1 billion to, and I’m so proud of our Government’s commitment to health infrastructure so that we can ensure we have hospitals being built up and down this country to ensure that our communities get the healthcare they deserve.

One of my biggest concerns is their plan to remove fair pay agreements, because on this side of the House we know that one of the best ways we can address the cost of living challenges that we face in New Zealand is to lift the incomes of the lowest-paid people. That side of the House is offering them two bucks a week. They want to give $1,000 a week in tax cuts to the wealthiest New Zealanders, and yet they’re somehow promising that they can reduce revenue but increase spending. It is just bizarre. Their economic triangle that involves also, somehow, paying debt down faster when, again, they’re reducing revenue—it just does not add up.

On this side of the House, we are committed to ensuring that we are investing for New Zealand. We are committed, as a Government, to supporting people through these difficult times. We will continue to invest in our lowest-paid workers. We will continue to build State houses. We will continue to build more hospitals. We will continue to make public transport more affordable. But the coalition of cuts will deliver nothing but pain and devastation to our country.

E te Māngai o te Whare, tēnā koe. Otirā, e ngā mema katoa o te Whare nei, tēnā tātou katoa. I’m pleased to take a call on the Appropriation (2023/24 Estimates) Bill on behalf of Te Paati Māori. As is our custom, it’s important that I acknowledge a dear kaumātua by the name Heemi Kara, from the marae of the Prime Minister, at Ōrongomai Marae in Upper Hutt, who, sadly, passed away over this weekend.

So, e te rangatira kua whetūrangitia, haere, haere, moe mai rā.

[So, oh esteemed one who has passed away, rest in peace.]

In taking this call on this bill, I just want to acknowledge that this week was the 17year anniversary of Kīngi Tūheitia’s reign. I mention that because, on the paepae, he mentioned change was important. In fact, one of the speakers from the pae addressed the fact that only 2 percent of Treaty settlements that are settled with iwi across this country amounts to 2 percent of what was actually lost, which then equated to the further statement that 98 percent was goodwill—98 percent was goodwill.

So let’s look at this Budget. It will come as no surprise that Te Paati Māori and I will be voting against it, simply because our tax system is doing exactly what it was designed to do: take money from the poor and give it to the rich. The richest 10 percent now own half the wealth in this country, while the poorest owns a mere 2 percent. On top of that, average people in Aotearoa pay 20.2 percent in tax, while the wealthy only pay 9.4 percent. It is time, Madam Speaker, we rectify this imbalance. We’ve all seen the growing wealth inequality in our country. This Government’s inaction on housing and response to COVID-19 has seen a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary people to the richest in our society. This is on top of the entrenched poverty that our people have been experiencing for generations. It is unacceptable that over 2 million people in Aotearoa earn less than $30,000 per year. Nearly 50 percent of our working population do not earn enough money to survive, let alone thrive.

Te Paati Māori’s vision is simple, yet profound: to shift the burden of tax from the poor to the wealthy, and to restore fairness and economic justice. We believe in an Aotearoa hou, where ordinary people don’t have to subsidise the extravagant lifestyles of the rich. No one should go hungry while supermarkets are making record profits. No one should be homeless when there are enough vacant houses to house everybody. Whānau should not have to choose between paying their bills on time or taking their babies to the doctor. We will no longer accept any excuses from the two major parties, who are fighting to keep people poor.

We are putting our pou in the ground. Now is the time for radical change, just like Kīngi Tūheitia said yesterday. Our tamariki are literally hungry for it. Te Paati Māori has a plan which would see 4.2 million people paying less tax in Aotearoa. That means more kai on the table. It means whānau being able to afford their own homes instead of being forced to pay off someone else’s mortgage in rent. It means reinvesting into those who need it the most. It’s time for the wealthy to start pulling their weight.

We hear a lot of talk about unprecedented times, but we aren’t seeing any unprecedented solutions. We stand on the precipice of an Aotearoa hou, a new era of Aotearoa, one where economic justice shouldn’t be just a dream but becomes a reality. What does an Aotearoa hou look like? Let me remind you. It looks like how we treat you on our marae: we will welcome you, we will feed you, we will house you, we will love you. Unfortunately, this government has lacked the vision to usher in the Aotearoa hou that our people deserve. No one should be hungry, no one should be homeless, and no one should have to feel unsafe. We envisage an Aotearoa hou where every whānau is thriving.

It’s time for transformative solutions to redistribute wealth, to restore economic justice, and bring an end to poverty. And we can do this by removing GST from all kai and regulating the ability of supermarkets to hike prices. We can do it by removing income tax for low-income whānau. We can do it by increasing income tax on those earning more than $200,000. We can do it by increasing the corporate tax rate from 28 percent to 33 percent.

But we go further. We talk about the wealth tax that I’ve just outlined, but there’s also taxes on foreign companies who earn their earnings in Aotearoa and transfer them overseas. They should be made to pay. There’s much land that is banked in this country, sitting idle. It should be forced to pay tax. And, of course, there are many vacant houses, that if we were to tax them and bring them back on the market, we wouldn’t have the homelessness that we currently have.

I’ve touched on a few policies that Te Paati Māori are putting up in this year’s election that are going to rebalance an unfair and unjust tax system. This is what we were looking for in this bill; we didn’t see it. This is why we are voting against it. Like Tūheitia said, it is time for change. And as Te Paati Māori says: he Aotearoa hou—by Māori, for all. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. This is a good Budget and it’s a privilege to speak on it today.

But I’ve joined the House after a quick trip to Manurewa High School, and I wish to reflect on that visit because it was very important to me to be able to start my week in Parliament in that way. After caucus committees this morning, I went to Auckland and met with the Rt Hon Dame Jacinda Ardern at a high school which is special to her in Manurewa. It was a really special moment to be welcomed into the school hall by the students to celebrate their performing arts of the school, particularly the Māori performing arts.

They have a student-led production about Ngā Maunga Whakahii o Manurewa, the two mountains that have been almost quarried away to nothing—Matukurua—and it tells that story. That is a celebration of New Zealand histories and schools, given life by this art that the students put together today. It’s on Monday, 6 o’clock at the Due Drop Centre if you’d like to check it out. We were also treated to a performance by the hip-hop group and by the choir—who, for the first time, are in the finals of The Big Sing on Saturday.

This is a Budget which invests in the future of those kids. This is a Budget which also addresses the things which matter most to them right now. As the two head prefects, Lolo and Paige, said to me this morning, “Keep going.” There is so much more that this Government has to do to address the things which matter most to them.

Because these kids are affected by the global economic situation right now. Inflation affects them in a way that many of us in here will never experience and have never experienced in our lives. The effect of their parents struggling to put food on the table. The effect on their education when there’s pressure on them to—like many of their friends in school—go out and get a second job. The effect of them not being able to play sports on the weekends or, as Lolo has been able to do, to sing in the choir because he will need to be another earner in their household.

That is why this Labour Government is razor-focused on a cost of living package that delivers for these families. That’s why things like the scrapping the costs of a prescription make a real difference in South Auckland. Because though for these kids it’s free to pick up their prescriptions, for their parents it was not. That meant that their mums, their dads, their kuia kaumātua didn’t have the same access to medicines that they did. That meant a continuous cycle of being sick, of not going to go to school, of not being able to go to work. By removing that co-payment, we’ve made a difference in these families’ lives and we’ve made it better to be a South Aucklander.

The changes that we’ve made by introducing free public transport for kids and young people makes a difference to them. It means that they can get to school for free; that they can travel to Auckland. Some of these kids in Manurewa High School, they’ve never seen the Sky Tower. It is so important to our kids that we give them a mobility and a sense of their place in our city. Can I mention that this Budget also funded an $18 million package of transport investment into Manurewa through the Better Travel Choices package.

But on Browns Road, the bike lane that is protected, that goes to Manurewa High School, where young people travel every day on their bikes—and there’s a thriving bicycle club at that school—was rejected by the Manurewa Local Board that is held by a majority of National Party members. It is a shame that this Government has invested in local transport solutions—that our high school students are asking for—that our local members have rejected purely on ideological reasons.

It’s also making a difference to these kids that we’re investing to make their energy bills cheaper and to keep their kuia kaumātua—their nans and pops—warm in the winter. It means that these kids will have their grandparents around for longer. It means that they’re able to visit and it will be warm and it will be dry and it will be good to be in their homes. It’s so important for so many South Auckland families that we have those intergenerational connections, and I’m really proud that this Government has invested in superannuation and invested in care for our kuia kaumātua; for our older people. It’s important to these kids too.

It was an emotional morning for me at the school because these kids also got to talk about those choices that they saw a Government make that was for them. The care that Dame Jacinda Ardern had shown to South Auckland and the decisions about the COVID19 pandemic meant so much to these kids, who are deeply involved in the community organising around vaccinating the communities. These kids got on the phones, they called their peers, they called the families of people in the high school to make sure that they got vaccinated. These kids were leaders during that time, and their service to the community cannot be undersold.

I’m so proud of Manurewa High School that feeds 2,000 people in our community every day because of their free school lunches programmes. It is so important that this Government continues to support the work of that school community and I commend this bill, which does so much for them; so much for the school; so much for the kids; so much for the school leaders in the community; so much for Principal Pete Jones, who I’m very, very proud of; and Manurewa High School. Madam Speaker, thank you for the opportunity for me to speak on this bill.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

The Imprest Supply (Second for 2023/24) Bill is set down for third reading immediately.