Special Debates — Local Issues

Members, we now come to the debate about local issues, arranged by the Business Committee under Standing Order 80. Can I just let members know that there’s no particular order, but times have been allocated per party.

I move, That the House take note of local issues.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. It’s a great pleasure to rise in this debate. It is my very first time to talk about local issues, and I’d like to talk about the Mt Albert electorate, which was in fact the former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s electorate. She’s no longer there, and since then, as the list MP who looks after the Mt Albert area from the National Party, a lot of the community have been in touch, more so than normal. One of the biggest issues that they contact me about is actually law and order and the victimisation in our suburbs, and I’m sure that my colleague Helen White probably also hears about this. The issue of victimisation in the Waitematā area has actually gone up tremendously, as well as in Auckland City.

I had the Hon Mark Mitchell in the electorate last Friday for a law and order public meeting, which was well advertised, and the room at the Mt Albert Senior Citizens Hall was pretty full and there were people who wanted to discuss issues. One of the stories that a father brought to the meeting was actually really, really moving and touching. He was very emotional, actually, because he was away overseas, and his wife and his daughter had been held up in a home invasion by people with hammers who were threatening them. When he got back, he felt helpless and powerless, and he raised this issue with the police, who were there—and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the area commander, Alisse Robertson, who came to the meeting to address the meeting and answer questions about the police actions on this lawlessness.

We have had quadruple the number of ram raids in New Zealand. Apparently, there has been a 465 percent increase in the last two years, and the majority of those caught doing these actions—70 percent of them—are under the age of 18 years old. The Government has actually spent $6 million on crime prevention, on fog cannons and bollards, but it seems nothing is actually working—well, not effectively, anyway.

Retail crime costs this country more than $1 billion a year, and I have to say that when the Minister of Police, Ginny Andersen, earlier answered a question that Mark Mitchell asked her, she said the police are more resourced than ever before. That might be true statistically, but I’d like to urge the Minister to reconsider her answer, considering the fact that front-line police actually feel the brunt of these increases in ram raids and lawlessness in our country, and in every shift of police that I meet with, they are short staffed. They have police, front-line officers, who are away because of stress and because of mental health issues as a result of this lawlessness that they have to actually face day in, day out.

The thing is that this Government doesn’t seem to be dealing with it. The majority of the complaints, apart from the sheer amount of lawlessness that we face in Mt Albert—I mean, we’re talking about the local dairies, or the local coffee shop. There’s Handpicked Coffee Roasters, for example, on New North Road; Stewart Dawsons at St Lukes, the murder of Lena Zhang Harrap in Mount Albert itself, and, obviously, Janak Patel in Sandringham last year, in November.

Hon Scott Simpson: Labour is soft on crime.

MELISSA LEE: I mean, we are facing softness in our justice system. “Labour is soft on crime.” is what I’m hearing from the people in Mt Albert, and I’m sure Helen White is actually getting that from the constituents as well, because they feel that we’re not doing enough. They feel that there are not enough police to actually come to their aid. The justice system, they feel, is actually hitting the offenders with a wet bus ticket instead of being harsh so that they understand that they are not supposed to do these actions. The victims are the biggest worry that I have, because when people are victims of home invasion or they’re victims of ram raids, it lasts a long, long time for them to actually get over the crime, and I think this Government needs to do more in this space.

Before I give the next call, I just want to remind members that this is a local issues debate. It shouldn’t venture off too far into general policy areas, and I’ll be listening very carefully to this.

I stand today to speak on a very local issue, although, saying that, it is something that vicariously members in this House will be involved in. As they fly home tonight to their various locations, I invite them to look out the window as your plane crosses the wonderful Ōhāriu electorate, and the wise among you will have noticed that there’s been a change in flight track. A flight that used to go straight up the harbour now turns left and goes across Khandallah, Johnsonville, and Broadmeadows, bringing with it new issues, not least of all is new noise. This, of course, has been the result of changes—operational changes—that are impacting directly on the electorate.

Now, Wellington is a wonderful city, it has an airport really very close to its centre, and, of course, there are always going to be issues with airport noise. Having previously lived in the eastern suburbs, I understand that it’s something that many people in different suburbs around airports in New Zealand live with. However, this issue is a change. Recently, Airways have introduced a new flight path and it’s around the DMAPS system. The DMAPS is the Wellington Divergent Missed Approach Protection System. Again, for members who often land at Wellington Airport, when flights currently land, there is a four-mile gap between the flight taking off and the flight landing. That distance being reduced means there is an increased chance, on a missed approach, that the missing plane will actually connect with one that has just taken off. Therefore, a new flight path has been created, and that now goes left so that the planes are on different flight paths, and this is the issue I wish to speak about today.

As a local MP, it’s always a little bit of an issue. There’s often a displacement issue involved here, because when noise moves to one part of the city, often it comes from another. However, in this case, the flights were further over the harbour under the old approach. Under the new approach, they are actually now hitting land much lower and much more closely causing this issue. Now, the decision was made by Airways to bring this approach in, and more importantly a decision was made not to consult with locals. One monitor was put in place that did pick up what was thought to be acceptable noise. However, it was introduced on 1 December 2022. No notification was made. The first notification was when Wellington Airport put on their public site that this was actually occurring. But until the complaints started coming in, and considerably more noise was noticed by residents, only then was it seemingly noticed that this change needed to be addressed.

A local group of residents known as Plane Sense have done an excellent job of coming together and now looking at what has happened, and there will be a public meeting on this shortly. The main issue—and this is an issue that, while it is very much a local issue, all should be aware of—is that when an operational change is brought about like this for purely operational reasons, if some sort of template had been put over the rationale, it would have instantly become obvious that there was going to be some kickback from locals. Now, I don’t want any other Wellingtonians or anyone else to say this is a group of nimbies. It is not. These are people that directly—literally, their houses now, in many cases, are shaking with the effect of these new flight paths. So it has actually brought about considerable change to the lives of many people in this area.

It’s not going to be a simple matter of just reprogramming the computer to put this back to the old way. What’s going to happen now is that, as a result of pressure by myself and the local group, there will be monitoring stations put in place, four of them in Johnsonville, Broadmeadows, and Khandallah, and it is very likely that—and I’m confident, as are many in this group and many in my electorate—the noise level results that will be monitored will be considerably higher than were predicted. In this case, there will be need for Airways and Wellington Airport to get back to the drawing board and actually start ensuring that, if you’re going to bring in these operational changes, however well intentioned, there needs to be consultation with the local community, so at least, if nothing else, they can be prepared for this and some sort of mediation, some sort of remedial action, can be taken. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to this, to what is, I believe, a very, very local issue. Thank you.

I understand Dr James McDowall would like a four-minute call.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Anyone who travels to Wellington by road knows that Transmission Gully delivers a safer and more reliable journey time than the old State highway did. Not only was the old highway heavily congested at the best of times, it was often closed by waves breaking across the road and by, unfortunately, head-on collisions resulting in severe injuries and fatalities. The 15,000 trucks and cars that used to crawl along the vulnerable two-lane coastal road now travel on a four- and six-lane highway separated by concrete barriers. With that traffic redirected to a new, safe road—much nicer road—the lovely coastal towns on the Kāpiti Coast can become destinations rather than just another set in a series of traffic lights on a State highway. This shows how good infrastructure can deliver social, economic, and environmental benefits. So, then, why have the sponsors of Let’s Get Wellington Moving, a behemoth $7.4 billion road-to-nowhere project, failed to look up the road and learn some lessons from Transmission Gully?

For Let’s Get Wellington Moving’s total $100 million spend, all they have managed to tangibly produce is a $2.4 million pedestrian crossing near Wellington Airport. A slightly old joke about how to make a small fortune: in this case, take a large fortune and give it to Let’s Get Wellington Moving. I go to Wellington Airport quite a bit, and I haven’t seen a single person using that pedestrian crossing, which is probably a good thing, because it’s in the middle of a busy thoroughfare which is congested enough. It is the most shameful waste of public money on a transport project since the now-cancelled Auckland bike bridge. As my colleague Simon Court, ACT’s transport spokesperson, said recently, “If spending money was a medal-winning achievement, then Waka Kotahi, the Greater Wellington Regional Council, and Wellington City Council would share the podium.”

ACT would cancel this project and go back to basics. The Basin Reserve flyover project—declined by a planning committee or tribunal—was meant to unlock traffic congestion and enable efficient public transport between the city and the eastern suburbs, which includes the airport. Instead, Let’s Get Wellington Moving pretends that a light rail to the south coast and sterilising the “golden mile” with a parade of buses is somehow going to help the long-suffering citizens of Wellington get to where they need to be. The “golden mile” aspect of this project will result in more than a decade of construction work and disruption for local businesses, especially retail, and they will become less accessible as a result—just like the retail businesses affected in Auckland by the City Rail Link. Wellingtonians should be asking what they’re getting for the “golden mile” project. They can already walk these routes. They can bike. They can take buses if they choose to do so. All this project will do is take away the most flexible point-to-point option that is using a private vehicle.

Then there’s the safety element: people leaving bars on Courtenay Place late at night, for instance, all of a sudden can’t get a taxi or an Uber just outside the entrance, and, presuming the bus isn’t going anywhere where they need it to go, the only option is to walk down a potentially dodgy, dimly lit side street to try and find a more useful transport option. This project is based on ideology that would be embraced by the likes of the Restore Passenger Rail protestors who glue themselves to roads and motorways in Wellington, causing chaos and frustration for motorists and bus users alike. The priorities are all wrong. They should be getting Wellingtonians to and from places that they need to work and to take their families with them, but instead they’ve focused on delivering the Government’s carbon reduction agenda. That is the same Government that can’t even electrify its own fleet.

ACT agrees with the seven councillors now who have no confidence in this multibillion-dollar transport plan. It’s an outrageous waste of public money. The wheels have fallen off, and it needs to go. Sadly, what we have is a green activist dream. It’s got nothing to do with getting Wellington moving; in fact, it is completely the opposite. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I rise in this local debate as the member of Parliament for Coromandel to speak on behalf of the people who live in the Coromandel, who do business in the Coromandel, and who visit the Coromandel, to talk about the fact that we are now into nearly 5½ months of the main arterial Coromandel Peninsula Road, State Highway 25A, remaining closed and causing enormous heartache, inconvenience, and grief to all those people who love the Coromandel.

Now, it was just yesterday that we finally, after 5½ months, had confirmation of the commercial consortium that is going to be engaged to build the bridge that will span the chasm, which was the drop out in the highway that closed that road back in January of this year, following wet weather and heavy weather damage caused by Cyclone Hale and then, subsequently, by Cyclone Gabrielle. So, since that period of time, the good people of Coromandel have been left in very uncertain circumstances. Their day-to-day lives are inconvenienced; cost and time is added to any and all travel across the peninsula to and from the eastern seaboard. Visitors have stopped coming in the large numbers that they would normally do. In fact, just last weekend, on the King’s Birthday weekend, it was noticeable how few people were actually in the Coromandel spending time and money in an economy that so desperately relies on people coming and spending their hard-earned dollars in our patch.

But it’s not just across the Coromandel peninsula, in my electorate, that has been bruised, battered, but not beaten; further south from the peninsula, just last week, more homes were inundated and flooded by heavy weather at Waihī Beach, and my thoughts and condolences go to those people who’ve had their lives and their homes impacted so negatively. Then, further south again, close towards Ōmokoroa and Katikati, at the southern end of my beautiful electorate, traffic and roading issues are again causing enormous delays and frustration and lost productivity to people travelling on State Highway 2, who are impacted by the construction of a cycleway on the Wairoa Bridge just north of Bethlehem in Tauranga. So, for weeks now—indeed, it’s been a month or more—there have been incredibly long peak-hour traffic delays, leading to massive inconvenience to people in Ōmokoroa, Katikati, and anyone travelling on that piece of State Highway 25. So these are issues that in my electorate—roading, weather, access to infrastructure—are crucial matters.

For nearly 5½ months, we have been told that it would be early 2024 before State Highway 25 was reopened. I have been consistently saying that that road needs to be opened sooner than that. It needs to be opened before Christmas. The people of the Coromandel need to have certainty so they can plan their lives, so they can plan their businesses, so they can organise matters that are so important to them—and we don’t have that certainty. Now, the Government has been saying it will be early 2024 before that road was reopened. Well, I want to tell this House that I think we have been led down a merry path by the current Government, because, in response to a written question, we find out that—and this is question No. 14088, which was answered by the Minister of Transport; well, the then Minister of Transport, the Hon Michael Wood. He says that, of the options that are being considered for the road—and he gives some time frames: the bridge option has an estimated duration of 12 to 14 months before completion; 12 to 14 months. By my calculations, that takes us well into at least this time next year, June next year, 2024, or possibly into August, September, or even October of next year.

For the good people of the Coromandel, that is simply unacceptable, and I want to encourage this Government, the New Zealand Transport Agency, and, indeed, our local Thames-Coromandel District Council to apply more pressure for an urgent solution to the roading problems and hassles and disruptions that are causing such grief to the people that live in, love, and enjoy the beautiful Coromandel.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’m delighted to tell you about the Hillside railway workshops and how they are transforming South Dunedin, but, perhaps more importantly, what economic benefits they open up for the region. In doing so, I’d just like to acknowledge the late Jim Kelly from the Rail and Maritime Transport Union—which I am a member of—who worked so tirelessly for the revitalisation of the workshops, and I also acknowledge my predecessor the Hon Claire Curran.

In 2012, the previous National Government said that they were going to, effectively, close down Hillside, and 90 jobs were lost. That was quite a different feeling from the days of 1935, when there were 800 workers working in the workshops to help build train carriages. Many of my constituents are descendants of those workers, so there was a real sense of pessimism and depression in the area. But thanks to investment by our Government of $105 million over several Budgets, the wagon assembly will be revitalised, and now we can see the visible difference on the skyscape in South Dunedin. We can see buildings going up.

I was walking through there recently with the Minister of Finance, the Hon Grant Robertson, and then again with the Prime Minister, and there is just a great sense of excitement. There are men and women construction workers. There are about 200 construction jobs happening to make the workshops come to fruition, and the lead contractor, I’m very proud to say, is Calder Stewart, based in my electorate, in Milton, who have got a fantastic track record for doing this type of work. When Hillside is up and running, the locomotive mechanical workshop will be able to work on 21 locomotives at one time, and it will be able to assemble 1,500 wagons over three years. There will be 45 new jobs, 10 percent of which will be through apprenticeships or trainees, and when the office block is finished, there’ll be 170 staff on site. So the future is looking bright, and parts of Hillside will be operational next year.

But what I think is so exciting is that this speaks to the revitalisation of rail generally. I am hoping it means that we will eventually see a strategy around port and rail that will see the South Island able to act autonomously, so if we get border closures such as through events like COVID, we will be able to have alternative ports and rail for New Zealand to be able to continue those supply chains. My dream for my electorate is to have an inland port, such as what we’ve seen in Hamilton with the work that my colleague Jamie Strange did there to help get that investment happening. That is a real game-changer. It means we can get trucks off the road. At the moment, we’ve got trucks coming into Dunedin at the rate of about one every eight minutes, I’m told by one of the unions. The port is creaking with the logs that are there, and we are seeing excavation happening in the port as the big ships come in to try and move those logs off.

In order for this to happen, I do think there will be need to be a streamlining of consenting, because there is a willingness across the electorate to have some kind of inland port, but there’s a number of consents that have to be gone through, and when people have a vested interest—such as Dunedin City Council or the Invercargill City Council—in having a port, they may not necessarily support an inland port, which is a great proposition. So I think, perhaps, in the future, we could look at economic development, and at streamlining that so that electorates like mine can take advantage of it.

The other element to all of this is just rail and the part that Hillside in particular has played in the history of South Dunedin. We have a fantastic industrial heritage story, and I’m really proud that KiwiRail has committed to keeping one of the buildings. It’s using what’s called, I think, the “1920 building”—but it was actually built in the 1870s—as a storage site. That’s fantastic. There is another managers’ building that’s being used by the unions, which has got a little bit of a question mark over it, and negotiations are ongoing with a local group about whether that building, or parts of it, can be saved. I’m really keen that the story of that building is kept alive and well, and I’m really grateful to KiwiRail for the engagement that they’ve had with the local community. It’s just all a great-news story. Hillside Workshops are transforming South Dunedin.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’m really pleased to see the Mt Albert electorate getting a bit of love today, and rightfully so, because the electorate is a network of communities, each with their identity. We’ve got so many families who have long, deep roots in the community and who are deeply invested in the changing electorate.

Indeed, it is an electorate that is changing, with housing developments and young families raising children changing the landscape. This is why it’s so important that we all get behind supporting the many schools and organisations who are calling for the Inner West Projects to be resumed. It is a project that has a seven-year - plus history, receiving commitment and funding from both National and Labour Governments, yet Auckland Transport hasn’t gotten on board with actually doing what is needed. It’s a project that will deliver improved cycleways in areas such as Grey Lynn, Westmere, and Point Chev. It was due to start last year but, unfortunately, it was recently paused and is now in peril of actually not going ahead in the way that was planned.

The problem, though, is that as our schools, communities, and other advocates are calling for improved transport infrastructure, the project stalled at a time when 34 mature trees were felled—at a time when we know the importance of tree protection in our communities and the importance that good transport infrastructure and tree protection plays in protecting our communities from flooding events, which Mt Albert saw at the beginning of the year. So now our communities are faced with the challenge of having mature trees being felled for the project. Yet, without the cycleways—that would have actually given greater safety for the children of Mt Albert, who in a great proportion walk or cycle to school. The children themselves who cycle to school and the young adults who cycle to school have spoken out in favour of this project and how important it is for them to be safe.

I did want to quote a Mt Albert local, Radha Patel, who studied at Western Springs College, who talked about the need to move on quickly with this project to prevent further tragedies and for young people to not be injured on their way to school. They talked about the fact that “We can’t wait for a tragedy to happen before we start valuing and prioritising the lives of students in our community.” Back then, when she was advocating on this project, she delivered a petition with several thousand signatures to her local board. This project has support from schools such as the Newton Central School, Grey Lynn School, Westmere School, Western Springs College, Pasadena Intermediate School, and Point Chevalier School. It just shows that there’s a deep level of investment from our communities for council to move on in partnership with central government, alongside local businesses and communities, to provide decent transport infrastructure.

This is important. Having a connected city and a connected Mt Albert electorate is important, particularly when there are housing projects that will bring new families into the area, with places like Carrington Road seeing greater density of housing, which will be good for the climate and good for the people. Yet, without the transport infrastructure in place, it actually risks not creating the cohesive communities that we need. It is more important now than ever that we all rally behind improved infrastructure projects. In relation to the housing projects nearby, it is really important that, as we build greater density, central government also provides funding for community venues to go alongside it. Often with Kāinga Ora projects, what is happening is that there’s commercial spaces to go alongside the public housing projects and then communities have to compete with commercial entities to be able to provide the social services and goods to create thriving, cohesive communities.

Those are key solutions to the general feedback that people just want safe communities around them. As other members may want to talk about whistle-blowing comments on crime and justice, it’s the good infrastructure and safe communities and listening to the young adults, the children, and the schools who are calling for this that we all have to listen to, and we will continue—hopefully, all of us—advocating for decent infrastructure in Mt Albert.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a real privilege to take a call in this local debate. I want to talk about two particular orchards. I want to talk about Ngāi Tukairangi Trust and Wī Pere Trust. These two orchards, despite being devastated through both Hale and Gabrielle, are finalists in this year’s Ahuwhenua horticultural awards, which are on tomorrow evening in Tauranga.

I want to talk particularly about Ngāi Tukairangi Trust: it’s 106 hectares, mainly kiwifruits and apples, in Ōmahu, and if people had watched Gabrielle and the devastation, Ōmahu was one of those images we saw on televisions where the banks came over and the marae and the urupā were completely flooded out. Well, this particular orchard is just up the road from the devastation of that river. They also called for volunteers because it was their first cropping of kiwifruit, and they called for local volunteers because their crops were deemed to be unusable. This was their first crop of beautiful kiwifruit, and I answered the call, like many, to go there and help to take the fruit off the trees. It was devastating, because there were millions and millions of dollars that we were picking to drop on the ground. I’m really proud that they are one of the finalists in this year’s Ahuwhenua awards, so I want to mihi out to Ratahi Cross and to all the owners and the chairs of this particular orchard: 106 hectares in Ōmahu.

The other orchard I want to mention is Wī Pere, which is a 79-hectare mixed-hort operation in Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa flat areas. It has kiwifruit, persimmons, citrus, blueberries, and apples. Again, another one of our great orchards throughout my electorate devastated through recent flooding, but they still find themselves being classed as a finalist in one of the longest-running horticultural pastoral awards in this country. Can I just acknowledge that Ahuwhenua was created by Sir Apirana Ngata and Lord Bledisloe back in 1933, so it is New Zealand’s oldest continuous horticultural and pastoral awards system. So I wanted to stand up and acknowledge these particular orchards that are in the final. But I also want to pay a tribute to Whiritoa Orchards, which is located in Te Teko, because they’re the third finalists.

It’s important that when we are talking about local issues—particularly as we’re trying to deal with the aftermath of Gabrielle—we still have some gems that come through. These two local gems are mine, which is why I want to draw attention to that and say that, despite some of our challenges in our electorate of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, we’ve got these amazing operations that employ local people, that are on whenua Māori, and that operate in a very Māori kaupapa way, and they should be celebrated.

I also want to talk about the young growers who are also nominated for tomorrow’s award. I want to acknowledge Alix Te Kere, Erica Henare, and Grace Rehu. The reason why I want to acknowledge all of them is because Alix is Ngāti Kuhungunu, Ngāti Tu, Ngāti Maru, Ngāti Maniapoto; Erica Henare is Ngāti Kuhungunu, Ngāti Maniapoto; and Grace Rehu is from Rangitāne. So these people whakapapa to my electorate of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, which is why it makes it especially pleasing for me to stand and put a spotlight on the positivity, despite some of the challenges of the people throughout Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, but I particularly draw our attention, and this House’s attention, to our ability to grow good things. I come from an area that grows great food and grows great people.

So it has been a delight to acknowledge Ngāi Tukairangi Trust, Whiritoa Orchards, and, of course, Wī Pere, as the shared 2023 Ahuwhenua horticultural finalists for this year, and our young Alix Te Kere, Erica Henare, and Grace Rehu. Despite our challenges, we have these gems amongst us, and it’s important that this House takes the time, like I have done, to acknowledge them. Tēnā koutou katoa.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I want to talk about the electorate of Rongotai, here in Wellington, and who can’t talk about it when the incumbent has a majority of 19,207 votes? But can I just divert for a minute and acknowledge those five vulnerable citizens who died in the blaze at Loafers Lodge on Tuesday, 16 March, and I know that on the 15th of this month at St Paul’s, at 5.30 p.m., there will be a memorial service there. Can I thank all of my colleagues for the mahi and for the compassion that you have put in for those people.

Today, I want to talk about the best part of the electorate. Wellington’s south-east? No, it’s Rēkohu, Wharekauri, the Chatham Islands, and I too want to start with an acknowledgment, to Mrs Raana Tuuta, who was the recipient of a Queen’s Service Medal in the recent King’s Honours List. I want to acknowledge her work of more than 60 years.

For those who land on the Chathams at the Inia Wiremu Tuuta Memorial Airport, you will see her smiling face, and—she won’t mind me saying this—at 85, she’s still working there. She’ll probably make you a cup of tea if the plane’s a bit late. But none the less, she’s wired to serve, and, certainly, she’s been on the Chatham Islands County Council, on that Department of Conservation conservation board, she’s taught kapa haka at Te One School there, but, most of all, I think she runs a farm still and looks after the golden oldies. So, if any of you get down there for lunch, the mutton’s in the oven, the blue cod and the crayfish are out, and it’ll be Raana Tuuta who is serving you. So you are truly deserving.

I digressed for a minute there, but I want to now talk about the four entities on the island, and they are the Chatham Islands Council, the Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust, Hokotehi Moriori Trust, and Ngāti Mutunga O Wharekauri Iwi Trust. They are the four entities who make up the Chatham Islands and provide that on-island leadership. It’s been demonstrated through an investment strategy—a mechanism produced and led by them to say, “These are the bread and butter things that we need for Chatham Islanders.”, and the first thing—and I want to thank all of those four stakeholders for their mahi—is the broadband. Many of you won’t know that, up until 18 months ago, you couldn’t make a cellphone call on that island. They didn’t have a broadband network—the basics. They couldn’t make calls from their farms out on the coast, out on the water, or just everyday life—the basic things that we take for granted. That’s been put in place for $11 million.

The key thing, though, is that the Chatham Islands are now in the jet age. Thanks to that runway extension put in there by the Ministry of Works all those years ago, and thanks to the enterprise trust for their leadership, there’ll be a jet plane about to land on that island. So that’s a significant thing, too.

But I say that the biggest thing is the renewable energy: $10 million to ensure that they can decarbonise the island. But, more than that, this is about making sure that their power bills, which are some of the highest in the world, are cut in half or slashed even further. I want to just read out something from one of the islanders. She said, “When power is so expensive per unit, those on fixed income, be it sickness, superannuation, or similar—something has to go. Whānau here are paying up to $800 for their power in winter. We have a wood-range fire with a wetback, a wood fire in the lounge, a gas range for cooking, no electric water, and still our power bill is roughly $400 to $500.”

These are some of the costs that are affecting our people—New Zealanders living 800 kilometres offshore—and those that tried to save power had damp homes, leading to deteriorating health. “Heating the stars” is their favourite saying, as housing repairs for many are needed. These are the things that are really making a difference for everyday New Zealanders.

Can I finish by acknowledging Owen Pickles, the retiring chief executive of the Chatham Islands Council, with 53 years of local government service and 21 years as the chief executive. He was sent there to sort the council out, close it down, or look at another option. What he did was he came up with a viable alternative through a Crown appropriation. We’re all paying for the council to operate, but it’s the right thing to do because they want to govern themselves, and so they should. All the best to you, Owen, and your wife, Lynette. Kia ora.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I rise to take a call in this local issues debate as the member of Parliament for the National Party based in Te Tai Hauāuru. Te Tai Hauāuru is the Western Māori seat, that has an extensive history, and I have tūpuna whose photographs are in the hallway for having been the first member of Parliament for Western Māori, Paetahi Takarangi Mete Kīngi. So I stand in this local issues debate in the context of being local, with w’akapapa to Te Tai Hauāuru, and also as issue, as uri, as a descendant of my forebears who have been members of Parliament in this House for Western Māori formerly, now Te Tai Hauāuru. So I stand to take a call in this local issues debate.

Te Tai Hauāuru is a Māori seat. It is the second-largest of the seven Māori seats, which encompasses nine to 10 general seat electorates. The geography of Te Tai Hauāuru, to give context in terms of the local issues—and the Rt Hon Adrian Rurawhe is the member of Parliament elected as the representative for Te Tai Hauāuru. So, in speaking to this House as a Māori member of the National Party, and as Māori standing in a Māori seat in the upcoming elections, we always reference and connect with w’akapapa, our genealogical, ancestral ties. I am uri, I am issue, of many of the tribes, and there are some 42 tribal entities within this vast electorate, to give context to the scale and the size.

I also whanaungatanga—I have relationships, I network, I have those connections which are important right throughout the electorate, which starts at the bottom end of Te Ika-a-Māui, the North Island, in Mana-Porirua. Then, it stretches up, weaves through the western coast; Te Tai Hauāuru, encompassing Whanganui, Taranaki, up to Southern Waikato. So it extends as far as Waikato to Putāruru, and Tīrau is the upper point and reach, and then it weaves its way back down through Tīrau, Putāruru, Tokoroa, Mangakino, the western reach of the Taupō lake, through to Waiōuru, Taumarunui, encompassing Te Kūiti—

Barbara Kuriger: Kia ora!

HARETE HIPANGO: —down through to Taihape—with my colleague Barbara Kuriger, MP for Taranaki - King Country—Marton, Rangitīkei, and again connecting Palmerston North, Manawatū, down through, swerving Paraparaumu, the Kāpiti coastline, and then rejoins in Mana-Porirua.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Great. If the member can come now to the local issue. Now that we’ve got the geographical picture, come now to the local issue. Thank you.

HARETE HIPANGO: That is a local issue, and it is about sharing that with members of the public listening in, because the expanse of our electorates in Māori seats is huge, as are the local issues. So my two colleagues who spoke in the House before—the Ahuwhenua awards. There are many of those—trusts, Māori entities—within that vast electorate of Te Tai Hauāuru who will be present there; w’akapapa relationships.

The local issues that are impacting on that vast geography and vast demography of our communities: our people are labouring under this Labour Government. Cost of living: our whānau are trying to feed each other. Cost of living: our whānau are struggling to pay the bills. Access to health services has deteriorated and worsened. Mental health: I was in the local hospital of Whanganui, supporting one of our locals in terms of being able to access those services. Hospital care also has worsened under this Government. W’akapapa and relationships are so important, and these are issues that are impacting on those 10 general seat electorates encompassed within the one Māori seat. We know that Māori struggle and that the challenges are greater. I heard my colleague talking about the cost of power bills. This is the reality. Our whānau are struggling.

The relationships are extensive, the issues are extensive, in terms of how it’s affecting our whānau to be able to put kai on the table, to feed and to be nourished. So, in addressing that, I say, importantly, that an advocate for our communities must be bold, must be brave, and must challenge this Government.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is a pleasure to stand up and talk about local issues; it’s been a while since I last spoke to this issue. At the time, the issue was around chip seal on roads, and that seemed to be one of the biggest issues in my area. But, unfortunately, when I’m going around the streets now, talking to people in the shops and in public meetings, the number one concern when I ask, “What would you like us to be speaking about to make sure that we’re actually representing what’s on your mind?” is crime. Crime is on the minds of the people in Upper Harbour, on the North Shore side of Auckland.

We’ve had lots of incidents at the moment where people are actually telling me they’re scared to walk the streets at night; they’re not sure if they’re going to be safe. I’m hearing from parents that are scared to send their kids to their after-school jobs in the supermarkets in concern about whether they’re going to come home having been assaulted, or whether they’re going to come home having been verbally assaulted to the point where they’re actually in tears, not wanting to go to work the next day. This is all in the beautiful area of North Shore. I’ve heard stories even in my backyard about cars getting stolen, tools getting stolen to the point where fathers are waking up at the littlest sound because they can’t get to sleep at night. They’re scared for their families, and their mental health is deteriorating. These are the stories I’m hearing in my local area.

Probably the biggest crime is around ram raids on the North Shore, and the fear this is causing for the staff and even for people visiting these areas. We’ve had Albany mall with a daytime ram raid, we’ve had Glenfield Mall with a daytime ram raid, and we’ve had ram raids in Takapuna just down the road from a local police station. People are saying, “Why is this happening? Why are we not safe in our streets on the North Shore of Auckland at the moment?” I’ve also heard stories from staff where they’re scared to actually confront the issues in a retail space. And these are young people and they shouldn’t have to be dealing with this, and they’re talking about working at the front end of a retail store. They may have someone that comes in and decides to shoplift or comes in and decides to verbally abuse them. When they do stand up to this kind of behaviour, one staff member told me that the person came back and sought revenge and actually followed one of the staff members into a bathroom and beat them up—actually sought revenge for a staff member just doing their job.

This is what’s happening on the North Shore in Auckland, and it’s actually really sad. I’d like to see us go back to the place where we just feel safe and feel like we’re all looking after one another.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Happy World Oceans Day, everybody. It’s important to think global but also act local, and that thought came to me when I was visiting up north. Like many urban-born Ngāpuhi, I like to go up north to remind my relatives what I look like. I think some of them can’t forget me fast enough, but I had the privilege of going up there and hanging out with one of my whanaunga, Reina Penney. She took me for a bit of a tiki tour around the Hokianga and Northland. If you’re looking for a good Green voice to represent you in this place, check out my whanaunga Reina—good heart for the environment, good heart for the community—and also my other whanaunga standing for Te Tai Tokerau, Hūhana Lyndon, my whanaunga there from Pehiāwiri Marae.

We went for a bit of a wander around and we actually stopped at the Kohukohu Pub—a very classic pub, a very nostalgic pub. It was like the hotel in “Hotel California”—you can check out any time you like, but if you don’t leave, you might miss the ferry to Rāwene! The locals there were so passionate about the area; they were so passionate about the harbour. I was chatting to one guy; he was rocking his Red Bands, and I’d like to have Red Bands myself, but I’m waiting for the green bands to come in so I can stay on point and stay on brand! But they were talking about all the sediment that has been going into the harbour. They were talking about the environmental impact and damage done through the years, through the decades—the human sewage that has been going into the harbour; really heart-breaking stuff.

We went and visited people and they continue to talk about this stuff. It reminded me that, actually, a few years back, I was in Waitangi with the locals that organised the hīkoi on Waitangi Day to protest, to push back, and to raise awareness about it—to raise awareness about all this tūtae and tiko going into the Hokianga Harbour. Going into the Hokianga Harbour—it’s disgraceful. It’s disgraceful because it tramples on tikanga Māori. It tramples on the history of that place, because there’s a really deep, deep, meaningful history in the Hokianga. It is the place where Nukutawhiti came with the Ngātokimatawhaorua. It’s the place where Ruānui came with the Māmari waka. It’s the place where the Hokianga got its name—Hokianga Whakapau Karakia. We’re exhausted with karakia because of the situation that was happening there—so very, very deep, deep history there.

Also, it is one of the places where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, where people gathered together to sign that founding document of our country. So there’s a rich history there; there’s a rich culture there. Then, of course, there’s the people themselves—the people that love that place, that love that area, that have been pushing for, I understand, more than 40 years to stop the practice of putting human sewage or putting sewage into the wai. Places like the Hokianga are like pātaka kai. They are like food baskets for the area, and to have human sewage in there is just not acceptable. So I would encourage all the councils—the Far North District Council, the Northland Regional Council body—to sort it out and to sort it out now. People have been waiting for long enough to get this situation sorted out.

Having said that, I do think that there is a role here for central government—there is a role here for central government. We can’t just leave it for the affordable water services stuff to roll out and to maybe land and happen. There’s something that must be done now. There must be something to do within that transitional phase. You can’t just kick the can down to the affordable water services processes when we don’t know how the dice are going to end up in October—right? So, between now and then, it is important that the Government stump up some support to help the transition, because they’re doing other stuff in other places around Northland and looking at other strategies around finding land-based solutions but also other ways of dealing with waste water within the short term as well, while you get to that place.

So I would like, once again, to acknowledge all of the work of the people of the community up in Hokianga, and also right across the north there as well, people that have been holding e mauri o te wai, i te mea ko tērā te āhua o tātou. Kia pai te mauri o te wai, e pai ana te mauri o te moana, e ora ana te mauri o te tangata. Nō reira Hokianga Whakapau Karakia, anei ngā Kākāriki e mihi ana ki a koutou katoa. Tēnā tātou e te Whare.

[people that have been holding te mauri o te wai, because that is how we are. When the life force of the water is good, the life force of the ocean is good, and the life force of humanity is healthy. So Hokianga Whakapau Karakia, here are the Greens greeting all of you. Greetings to all of us in the House.]

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a real pleasure to take a call on this special debate on local matters. Last night, I was given the opportunity to make a contribution to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Exemption for Race Meetings) Amendment Bill, and I do want to acknowledge the member Ian McKelvie. But this is about local matters, and I wanted to report to the House with regards to alcohol in our local community. It’s really just to highlight where we’ve come.

I’m going to roll back a bit: in 2012, the then National Government passed the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012. Basically, what that meant was that businesses could come into our local area and consumers were able to come into their shops and purchase alcohol and take it off the licensed premises. Well, back in 2013, a shop called—oh, it escapes me now. But anyway, they set up shop across from one of our local high schools, Southern Cross Campus—straight across from the school gate. Now, the issue of alcohol in our area of Māngere at that time in 2013—there were just far too many issues with regards to alcohol. One of the issues for our community was that our young people, who were actually probably 14, 15, 16 at the time, actually looked about 21, 22, 23. So they were able to purchase under age, but we couldn’t prove it at the time.

Long story short, the new Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 enabled businesses to do that, so there was nothing illegal about that activity. I just wanted to highlight that, in the community, we were able to collaborate; we were able to work as a partnership. And, as a resilient community, individuals and community leaders came together and they worked with the then local council board people and mobilised, and, basically, they got involved when there were new licences and, because of the legislation, were able to object to those new licences.

I wanted to highlight that there is a good news story, and it is about participation as a community. It is about education that there is a place for alcohol, but it’s just that if there are far too many licences and it is far too accessible for our young people, then sometimes our young people don’t have the maturity to make good decisions. So I wanted to report that, as a result of the community leaders, as a result of parents who wanted to mobilise and object, the process that was under the district licensing Act enabled the community to be empowered, to come together, and be able to participate to give their lived-experience voices for why it is not a good thing to have an alcohol shop across from a school gate.

So what I wanted to bring to the House was that I have really been involved in the process, like our member Aupito William Sio. We have appreciated the Government’s assistance by way of the police, by way of Te Whatu Ora, by way of also Minister of Justice Kiri Allan, who has come to our community, who has listened to the issues, and who has helped the community to understand the legislation.

I just want to end off by acknowledging the individuals in our community who have led the charge in terms of educating the community, when they’re not happy with an off-licence in our community, about what they can do as a community. I want to acknowledge the Communities Against Alcohol Harm. I want to acknowledge papa Trevor, nana Glenn—who actually comes to the hearings in her walking frame, but she is a very vibrant and educated nana who has helped the community object to the too many liquor licences. But understanding the legislation and collecting better evidence has enabled the community to come together in Māngere and be able to put their case forward as to why they would object to those off-licences. So, just as I end off, I wanted to thank all the locals that are involved in this process and thank them and acknowledge them. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I’m very pleased to talk about the local issues in the great and proud seat of Tāmaki. It’s an amazing community, wonderful suburbs, incredibly vibrant—it doesn’t matter if it’s Glenn Innes to Ōrākei, Glendowie to Mission Bay and everything in between—a wonderful community. One of the things I find most striking about the good people of Tāmaki is that I never go to sleep wondering what they think! They are always very clear and explicit. So I just want to take the short time I have here today to raise what are several of the local issues, if you will, and then a few of the wider community issues, if I might.

First and foremost on people’s minds of late is, unfortunately, crime, but there’s a negative and a positive story to this. The negative is the likes of our shops on Melanesia Road. Three of them were hit recently—a bakery, a cafe, and a fish and chip shop; the owners have been there 37 years—and this is absolutely terrible. A jewellers store has been hit recently as well, and those are only four examples of over 45—45—that I know of that I proudly—not proudly; sadly—have to go and visit.

Why I wanted to share this is not simply because crime is a prevalent and major issue to the people of Tāmaki but because the local community is stepping up. Now, we’d much prefer that the Government did, but the local community is stepping up with the formation of our Eastern Bays community patrol, which I had the pleasure of being part of—I want to stress that—and helping to set up. I want to just acknowledge the likes of Bayleys, La Vista, Siri Thai, Kawa Dojo, and most recently the Pigeon—locals will know what I’m referring to; the famous Pigeon Racing Club there in St Heliers—who all have been donating money to assist the community patrol to operate. That’s been really, really important.

Around crime has also been the issue of all these dirt bikes. I actually want to say thank you to the police who did the operation over the weekend. Granted, it was out Ōtara way, but those who live in and enjoy the likes of Tamaki Drive know the scourge that these motorcycles are. I’d just like to say in this local issues debate that I’d like to see further and more police operations, including in my electorate.

Locals, too, are very pleased with National’s recent changes around housing intensification. It’s been one of those pieces of policy which I, obviously as a party member, have mentioned in the community. The community in turn has been very clear to me that having three-storey houses right up to the boundary was not something that they wanted. We in Tāmaki already see a lot of intensification which is under the Unitary Plan, and that’s having an impact itself without going further. So locals are very pleased with that change, and I’m pleased to have played my part there.

The other aspects are around roading. If you’re a local and you’re, like me, going down Elstree Avenue or Apirana Avenue or, God forbid, you’re trying to go through the new roading change in Mission Bay, it’s a nightmare. So this is a plea to Auckland Transport and others to get their act in order. We as locals are tired of the endless cones, the endless disruptions that just go and on and on. We want to see that change.

In my last minute, I just want to turn to a couple of our local communities, just to acknowledge them. I’ll have to move quickly because we only have a minute and a half left. I was very pleased to work with our local New Zealand Chinese community. I joined them on Sunday night to acknowledge the massacre in Tiananmen Square. These are very strong, proud people who came out to speak for freedom and democracy, and I just want to thank them. Our local Iranian community in Tāmaki held some of their biggest protests in Mission Bay to continue the solidarity—I know that goes across the House; many MPs are involved—and to continue to call out what is happening there. I want to also acknowledge our Afghan community. I’ve had a lot to do with them, particularly during the evacuation out of Kabul, for various reasons. There are quite a number of them all through the electorate, but quite a wonderful grouping in Glen Innes, and I just want to acknowledge them and say they are not forgotten, particularly around their need for visas.

That segues me on to both the Ukrainian and Uyghur communities. I had the pleasure, actually, over the weekend to meet Abduweli. He is one of the foremost linguists in the Uyghur language and a great activist who is here in New Zealand. It was a real pleasure to meet him. For both our Ukrainian and Uyghur communities, for me, opening up the visa categories to allow those groups and families in is a no-brainer, in the same way it should be, actually, for Hong Kong people, many of whom continue to reach out to me with my work with the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. These are no-brainers to me and something that New Zealand should do, and I can certainly say, as the MP for Tāmaki, we would welcome more people. But I say to those communities that not only do I represent the people of Tāmaki but I’m pleased to represent as best I can their voices as well.

Mr Speaker, thank you. I just want to address an issue that has been brought to my attention by my community in the Waimakariri electorate, and that is youth vaping. School principals, concerned parents, and even children from local schools have contacted me to express their concerns around the growing problem around vaping, particularly with young people, and rightly so. There was an outcry within my community of Woodend when a specialist vape retailer just opened across from the school. And to make matters worse—I took the kids out during recess on their bikes; we went down Petries Road, across Main North Road, State Highway 1, to the local park there—littered throughout the bark were disposable vapes. There was a whole lot of kids playing there—you know, three-year-olds—and there was the risk there that young toddlers would pick up the disposable vapes, try and emulate what they had seen from their siblings, or maybe their parents, and they could use it, particularly because there’s no safety mechanism on there. That kind of really resonated with me at the time.

Let me be clear: this is not about preventing people that smoke to come off—you know, to take up vaping as a mechanism to quit. It’s all about preventing young people from taking up the habit from scratch and becoming addicted lifelong to vapes. Of concern, in 2021, 26 percent of students from years 9 to 13 had tried vaping, and then in 2022, 18.2 percent of year 10 were actually vaping on a regular basis. I mean, even beyond these stats, you just ask any school principal out there, not just in my community but probably any community, and they will tell you that it’s actually becoming a huge issue.

The rise in specialist vape retailers in our community is a driving trend. We’re seeing more vape stores open, and more dairies and gas stations are also selling vapes. Just in 2022 alone, there was a 40 percent increase in the number of speciality vape stores. It’s a huge issue because it may be that it’s harmless in comparison to smoking, but they are highly addictive and there’s actually more nicotine in a vape than there is in a cigarette. Myself, I gave up smoking back when I was a young soldier in 2005—

Simon O’Connor: Can’t be that long ago.

DAN ROSEWARNE: It can’t be that long ago. But, you know, that was some time ago. Even now, sometimes I’ll wake up feeling gutted with myself because I started smoking. I’d actually just dreamt about having a cigarette, and it just shows how addictive nicotine can be—and that was a cigarette. Some vape products actually have twice the amount of nicotine in them. So that can have a huge impact on actually pulling out of that addictive habit.

Vapes can also have a huge impact on cardiovascular health. It also means that young people will get into it. There was a bit of a trend there where people say, “Hey, it’s not as bad as smoking.” But we actually don’t know about the long-term health implications that vapes have, and we’ve heard things about popcorn lung, and particularly with flavours where we actually don’t know what chemicals are inside them.

I have children around about that age where some of their friends are starting to vape. I was actually very impressed with Woodend School in particular, who decided to run a petition and get out there in the community and raise concerns with the local MPs. Just quickly, what I’ll bring up is this map here, and that there is Kaiapoi central, and in Waimakariri there are currently nine vape retailers, of which eight have opened up in the last two years. You’ll see that the location is near schools, and the red area on this map has a deprivation index level of 10.

It seems like there’s an overall strategy among the companies behind these vape retailers: they’re actually switching lanes from tobacco products and opening up in vulnerable areas. This is something of particular concern in Waimakariri. I’m particularly proud of the announcement that Labour and the Government have released about those boundaries around schools, and I’m really looking forward to hearing back from the community with their thoughts on the new policy and continuing this push to prevent it in our communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Despite what anyone says, Nelson is the sunniest place in New Zealand. It’s got the best beaches, skiing is an hour away, and there are rivers to kayak in. We’ve got apples, kiwifruit, but, most importantly, we’ve got hops that grow abundantly and help this country’s economy tick along.

Those industries have done it tough over the last five years. Like small businesses, they’ve had to deal with unprecedented increased costs and have found employing workers more and more difficult. It’s sad to see so many retail and hospitality businesses close despite huge efforts from their owners. They need to know that we tried to provide some sanity, and we’re as frustrated as them. We also have a council that increased rates on some commercial businesses up to 52 percent in the middle of a pandemic—just no idea. But Nelson business owners are tough, and I’m sure the vibrant city I grew up in will return.

Like all of New Zealand, crime is rising in Nelson. Police do a fantastic job keeping it under control in difficult and increasingly difficult circumstances, but there is an ever-growing underbelly that threatens to disrupt the idyllic and traditionally safe lifestyle of Nelsonians. In April 2017, there were 56 gang members in the Tasman region. Police knew who they were and generally what they got up to. Now, there are 196. That’s a 250 percent increase in gang members in the Tasman District in the last six years, while police numbers have increased 12 percent. At the last count, there were eight differing gangs in Nelson, and we’re seeing them more and more, riding the streets like they own the place. Why? Because they can.

I was a general duties constable when community stations started to be shut down, when police hierarchy consulted with front-line officers who told them it could only end badly. The police’s definition of consultation is “to fairly inform”, which is the same definition that the current Government uses. I worked out of Stoke community station, a suburb five kilometres out of Nelson. We knew the bad guys, whatever their age, their tags on walls, the school they went to, the cars they drove, and who made up their family. Any new crime wave, burglaries, or cars stolen, the first thing we would ask is “Who is new in town?” All offences were dealt with; no matter how small, there were consequences for that offending. Offenders were held accountable. Police numbers are important, but police knowledge is more important, and experienced members are not appreciated enough—and the public felt safe.

I’d like to talk about Nelson’s fantastic schools or the great, mighty Tasman Mako. But I’ll just end with: Nelson is the best little city in New Zealand, and we need to keep it that way by voting ACT on 14 October.

Kia ora, Madam Speaker. I just want to remind the previous speaker, Chris Baillie, that New Plymouth is actually the sunniest city in New Zealand—I hate to bring it up, but it is—for the second year in a row. Nelson, I think, hasn’t been for a long time.

We’re talking local issues this afternoon, and bringing it into my electorate of New Plymouth, I often sort of think more about the local possibilities and the issues that arise but also the possibilities that come with that. So I want to talk this afternoon around branching out to a low-carbon economy.

In our rural sector in Taranaki, it’s about looking at ways and means to do things differently. Taranaki is an awesome place to live, to work, to play, and to create. It’s a place where our economy and our businesses thrive and grow, and as we have to work and shift to a low-carbon economy and shift to a low-emissions future, we need to be at the ready and at the forefront. That is the issue, but that is the possibility that we have for our region.

Now, as part of the Taranaki 2050 Roadmap, we were looking at how we co-design with our local people for our local region. There were some key things that came out of that for us to explore, and I’m grateful that as a Government we’ve taken note of that and we’re implementing them. I’ll shortly mention the Hon Damien O’Connor and the work he’s done for our region, and continues to do, but those key themes were things such as a strong and sustainable environment. They were around education options that move and flow with our changing world. They were about attractive jobs, around the lifestyle that we love, in the sunniest place in New Zealand, and also about leading the way in sustainable low-emissions energy, and a region that looks out for each other and cares for its people—those were things that we as a community said were important as we move forward. We have the issue of decarbonisation, we have the issue of looking at how we diversify our agricultural sector, and we are on the game and moving forward with our Taranaki 2050 Roadmap.

Now, Branching Out has been a big part of that, and I was really grateful back in 2020 for the Hon Damien O’Connor, the Minister of Agriculture, to put some money into our region and to look at what Branching Out could do—how do we look at our food and fibre sector and its future, and how do we diversify it? Currently, we have such fertile and wonderful land, but so often it’s only in just one thing, and that’s our dairy industry, so we looked at ways and at the opportunities, and what we could do to diversify that. It’s saying yes to our agriculture, yes to our farmers, but also yes to how we can look at different ways of using the lands that they have. We engaged catchment communities, funding more than 200 of them around Aotearoa, but also in our own region, ensuring that we had support from catchment communities, and where they could share ideas, they can innovate, they can improve their waterways, and they could continue to build their communities.

The aim of the Branching Out project—and we’ve now honed it down; we were grateful at the last Fieldays, last November, to have the Minister of Agriculture, Damien O’Connor, again put another $2.17 million of funding into Branching Out, looking at what the challenges and issues are, to say, “Look, how can we find possible opportunities to move forward?” So we’re focusing on hemp fibre, on medical ingredients, on indigenous ingredients, on hops, on gin botanicals, and on high-value fruit crops.

It’s exciting when I get out and about and I talk to farmers and I talk to industry and I talk to those who are developing new ways of utilising their land, new ways of developing their businesses—whether it be around trees, whether it be about using sheep for dairy, whether it be about developing avocado or kiwifruit on dairy farms, and whether it be about grains and legumes and vegetables or hemp fibres—we’ve got our wonderful industries like Shining Peak Brewing, like Juno Gin, who are all part of this plan to take an issue, which is decarbonising, take an issue which is a challenge for us, but then to find a possibility and a way forward.

We have fair-trade agreements in place. As a Government, we have four new agreements in the last five years, and three upgrades. We need to be competitive. We need to be competitive on the international market, and they are demanding green and sustainable products, and green and sustainable farming practices.

That’s why I am encouraged and grateful to be the MP for New Plymouth who has seen an issue and a challenge and is now embracing the possibilities of the future. We are branching out to a low-carbon economy, and I am excited.

E mihi ana ki a Kīngi Tiare, ki a Kīngi Tūheitia hoki. [I greet King Charles and King Tūheitia.]

Hamilton West is best. We’re moving off Surf Highway 45 and back to State Highway 1. The people of suburbs like Frankton, Saint Andrews, Temple View, and The Lake are proud Kiwis and Hamiltonians. This weekend, our country’s finest Super Rugby team, the Chiefs, host the Reds at FMG Stadium Waikato for the quarter-final. Anyone in this Chamber, including folks from Taranaki, are welcome to come to Kirikiriroa to support our tourism sector, DMac, Clayton McMillan, and that fantastic team.

Whānau, we’ve got a lot of big challenges in Hamilton West. Why don’t I start with Waikato Base hospital? Right now, the holistic health and wellbeing of the whānau in Hamilton West communities is under extreme pressure. Waikato Base hospital is in Hamilton West—it’s under severe pressure. Wait times at the Waikato Base hospital: way up; A & E wait times have dramatically ballooned over the past couple of years. The Base hospital has been left off Labour’s emergency department hotspot and winter preparedness plan despite ongoing reports of serious staff shortages: nurses shooting through to Brisbane and the Gold Coast; ambulance ramping and ambulance diversions to sibling electorates like Tauranga. Our hospital and our health need help. Our pharmacies aren’t even part of the minor winter ailments plan—outrageous. Every major health decision that’s been made at the moment is making it harder for the Waikato Base hospital to do the job it needs to do. We need more surgical precision and timing for Hamilton West, and less decisions based on us playing the Operation board game.

Crime: Hamilton West is known as the ram raid capital of New Zealand. Ram raids, aggravated violence, and crime—both in homes and businesses—are at a rate higher than nearly everywhere else in Aotearoa. Children feel unsafe, parents feel unsafe, communities feel unsafe, seniors and superannuitants feel unsafe, and businesses feel unsafe. Like Puneet Singh down in Frankton, the Irvine Street dairy. Just before Christmas last year, his dairy worker—fog cannon aside; there was a fog cannon in there—had his hand chopped off by a machete. Absolutely outrageous. A week later, his wife had a miscarriage. Kei te aroha ki a rātou. [Condolences to them.] We need real action and real change to re-instil safety in all our neighbourhoods in Hamilton West, and not just Chamber talk. In Waikato, gang numbers have far outstripped police numbers.

The cost of living, again, in Hamilton West: phenomenal rise in mortgage payments for the average mortgage holder—$380 per week. Financial hardship has been normalised in Hamilton West. Some young people—I caught up with them recently down on Primrose Street in Dinsdale; two young ladies—paying $500 a week between them for a two-bedroom unit; struggling to live but keen to work, play, pray in Hamilton West. They wanted to stay in Hamilton—as many reasonable people like to do—but, with costs and rent going up, Australia’s starting look really appealing. The cost of living is actually made even harder by Countdown Nawton shutting down in August. Countdown is shutting down a store in Hamilton West, making it harder for people to get there to buy their food, to buy vegetables, to buy their meat, to actually live their lives. Now they have to drive all the way over to Dinsdale or into Te Rapa or into town to get their basic needs.

We’ve got some outstanding schools in Hamilton West: Nga Taiatea, Melville High School, Te Kōpuku High, and also Fraser High School—many primary schools. These schools have challenges, like Melville High School—it’s still in prefabs from the 1960s, and we’re waiting for the Government to come and say, “Yes, we are going to replace those prefabs as you join up to make a composite school with Melville Intermediate.” It’s little wonder, for me, while we’ve seen a system that’s spent $1 billion extra a year and hired 1,400 extra public servants, there is no change to the educational output and outcome in Hamilton West. In fact, putting Hamilton Girls’ High School aside, the university entrance achievement rate for all the secondary schools in Hamilton West is between 15 and 23 percent: 15 and 23 percent of students in Hamilton West—Hamilton Girls’ aside—get university entrance. That is outrageous.

Emergency housing: when you come to the game this weekend, you’ll see everything that you need to see down on Ulster Street. Again, the highest amount of emergency housing—emergency motels—across the country is in Hamilton West. I met a young lady called Everest the other day. She’d been living at eight motels with her four kids over two years. She’d finally made it to transitional housing—fantastic. Eight motels in two years—that’s the life that people in Hamilton West lead. It’s a motel battleground.

Hamilton West has hope, but it’s not in the current administration. That hope has faded as people have faced the cost of living crisis, the law and order issues, and a crumbling education and health system. But we’ve still got the rugby. All hail the Chiefs and Chiefs Manawa. Kia ora.

We have two more calls left, and that’s divided in two between the National Party and the Labour Party.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Thank you. I want to speak on a matter that’s very dear to my heart, and that is the disastrous impact of centralisation and the creation of the mega-merger of the polytechnics and Industry Training Organisations, Te Pūkenga, on the Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) in my electorate, Invercargill. I want to talk about four things that are impacting on them, particularly the zero-fees scheme which was put in place in 2001 and is in jeopardy through Te Pūkenga, the impact on international students, on accommodation, and also on the community of SIT.

So, firstly, the zero-fees scheme was brought in in 2001. It is under jeopardy because of Te Pūkenga’s decision making around this—so, not Southland, not Invercargill, not SIT making this decision but rather Te Pūkenga making a decision. In 2000, $7.25 million of community funding was put into SIT to enable the zero-fees scheme; that came from philanthropic entities, from the local authorities, and from businesses and families in Invercargill to enable the zero-fees scheme to be put in place. It took the size of SIT from just around 1,400 fulltime-equivalent students up to over 4,000 fulltime-equivalent domestic students. The impact on Invercargill, the businesses in Invercargill, and the community of Invercargill was significant, and the financial impact of that was also significant in terms of the millions of dollars that were then circulating in the Southland community.

The second point is the impact of Te Pūkenga on international students, and that has been a diminishing of the number of international students that SIT is able to attract, because Te Pūkenga is making decisions about what fees will have to be charged so that they are uniform right across the country. So SIT cannot take advantage of a lower cost of living in Southland, and SIT cannot promote itself with any cheaper fees; it must have the same fees as throughout the country. That is meaning reduced numbers of international students, and that is impacting on our domestic students, who are not getting exposed to students from across the world and preparing them much better for a global economy when they graduate. It’s also hurting our community in terms of those students were out working in our healthcare facilities: they were out working in our retail outlets, and so our whole community is suffering from that.

We at SIT were about to build 33 apartments just when the change or the mega-merger occurred. SIT had the funding, the consents, the land, the plans, the specifications, all the money there to spend $23 million on building these apartments, and that was stopped by Te Pūkenga. So they added to the shortage of rental accommodation in Southland.

Our community has suffered: our Stags, our Steel, our Sharks were all sponsored by SIT; Te Pūkenga has not allowed that sponsorship to continue, again hurting our community. Te Pūkenga has damaged our community. It is a centralisation that does not help Southland.

It’s a pleasure to rise and take a call this afternoon about one of the biggest and most important projects in Nelson, and that is the new Nelson Hospital.

Growing up in provincial New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s, I spent a lot of time at provincial hospitals. Thankfully, it wasn’t because I was sick; it was because my father, Jonathan, held senior management roles at New Zealand hospitals throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s. He finished his career in New Zealand as the chief executive of the Manawatu-Wanganui Area Health Board before moving to the UK to take up senior roles in Birmingham. As a young girl, I would spend time visiting has offices, attending marae for consultation with iwi about Māori health initiatives, and going to what I thought at the time were very boring openings of new buildings. In fact, I look back with great pride now on a photograph of myself aged eight, alongside my father and Sir Paul and Lady Beverley Reeves, at the opening of a new building at Wanganui Hospital.

My family aren’t known for our medical prowess. My father wasn’t a doctor; he has accounting qualifications. My mother is a doctor, but definitely not the kind you would want to call on in a health scare—sorry, Mum. What my family is known for is getting things done. We take great pride in making projects, stories, and events happen. My formative years as that young girl, observing people like my dad and then health Minister Helen Clark getting things done for the people of New Zealand, definitely stirred in me a desire to get things done for our community.

As the MP for Nelson, the biggest project I have on my list of things to do is the rebuild of Nelson Hospital. It’s the biggest capital project in a generation, and we’ve been waiting decades for it. We are approaching one of the biggest milestones for this project: the final stage in the project’s approval process. The programme business case is going through the Te Whatu Ora board for approval, and then to Cabinet within the next two months.

Nelson is at the top of the list, across New Zealand, for a new hospital, and I want to acknowledge one of our former health Ministers, David Clark, for the groundwork he laid to make this project happen. David Clark commissioned a study of all hospitals across New Zealand, and it was found that Nelson Hospital was in the worst condition of all of them. That has helped us make the case for this important funding. The George Manson building—most of it will come down. The Percy Brunette building will be refurbished. I’m really proud that, prior to the Budget, James Shaw announced that all coal burners at New Zealand hospitals will be replaced by 2025. I know that Nelson Hospital is working very steadily towards a new energy centre in 2024 as part of our rebuild.

I spoke to a former member of the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board who said to me how important it was that we don’t cut corners on this project—that, in previous years, funding was given but it was not enough for what was needed to ensure that Nelson had the best facility possible. I’m really proud, as the local MP, to have secured the first funding for this important project in Budget 2022 after decades of waiting for it. Very shortly, we will have the full story in place. I hope my dad will be proud of me when we get to turn that first sod for our amazing new hospital. But, most importantly, I know that Nelsonians will benefit from having the best facility possible and will celebrate when the first baby is born in our new hospital, when the first surgery is performed, and when the first patient walks through the new emergency department.

Labour is the party that builds hospitals, and I’m proud to be the local MP that has secured the first round of funding for the most important project that our community will see in a generation.

The time for this debate has expired.