General Debate

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

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’ll just hold up the Mānawatia a Matariki again. [Applause] Thank you, thank you.

There are only 11 weeks until the House rises for the election, and tomorrow the Minister of Finance delivers his sixth Budget. Even in the difficult circumstances that the country faces, he will be able to deliver a Budget that is appropriate for the circumstances and the times. On this side of the House, we look forward to the delivery of that Budget with some anticipation.

But compare that to the negativity that emanates from the other side of the House. That negativity started in 2017 under Simon Bridges, it ramped up under Judith Collins, and it’s just continued on under the negative National Party’s current manager. Negative Chris Luxon constantly talks down New Zealand. You see, he called beneficiaries “bottom feeders”. What a term to use to describe New Zealanders who are having difficulties. He heads over to the UK to some right-wing thinktank and talks to businesses over there, and he says that New Zealand’s businesses are soft. His social media is always attacking others.

I’d just say, lighten up, Chris—lighten up. Things are tough at the moment, but we will get through this time by being pragmatic and by being focused. And I just say, bro, your negativity is dragging you down, and then tell that to all your other negative National sidekicks over there. Even on a sunny Wellington day like today, a dark cloud just hovers over the top of them. It just hangs there. I hear they have even set up their own civil defence emergency management group to deal with the flood of negativity that emanates from their party.

On this side of the House, though, we aren’t wasting time complaining; we’re getting on with the job, supporting Kiwis today and building for tomorrow. While the “coalition of cuts” over there plots to slash our public services and send New Zealand backwards, we’re investing in Kiwis through things like our cyclone recovery package, which will fix roads, it will rebuild schools, and it’ll support our mental health in cyclone-impacted regions.

And while the “coalition of cuts” sticks their heads in the sand over climate change, we’re taking action through things like the Clean Car Discount. You know, they go on about the utes—having to pay more for those high-polluting things—and yet, at the same time, they complain about the cost to farmers when the farm gets washed out, when the fences get flooded, and all that sort of stuff. But they complain about the things that we’re doing to mitigate climate change. We’re also phasing out things like coal boilers in schools and partnering with businesses to stop burning fossil fuels.

As New Zealand heads towards a general election, it couldn’t be clearer what is at stake. And what is at stake is equity, what is at stake is investment in wellbeing, and what’s at stake is the focus on supporting New Zealanders, not tearing them down. We’ve supported low-income New Zealanders and families and brought 77,000 children out of poverty. We heard both the Minister of Finance and the Prime Minister talk about the raft of things that we have done to help New Zealanders. We’ve built more public housing, as the Minister of Housing, Megan Woods, said. We’re building new hospitals and we’re building more schools, as the Minister of Education has told us. We’ve introduced fair pay agreements and pay equity. Imagine that, pay equity: paying people what they’re worth. We’ve introduced that legislation to make sure Kiwis get a fair pay for a fair day’s work. We’ve introduced the first uniquely—let me find it again—New Zealand public holiday in Matariki; and, again, look at the negativity that emanated from the other side of the House towards something that is so positive and so inclusive. It’s a holiday, and they’re upset about having a day off—well, mind you, maybe between a holiday and a day at work, they can’t tell the difference.

So these projects are all at stake under a Government led by the “coalition of cuts”. We don’t know what National’s financial plan looks like; we’d like to know what National’s financial plan looks like. But if it’s anything like ACT’s, it’ll include a plan to slash taxes for the rich while cutting essential services which everyday Kiwis rely on. Also what’s going to go is Te Puni Kōkiri, Te Arawhiti, the Ministry for Women, the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, and the Human Rights Commission. It’s disgraceful what’s at stake with the “coalition of cuts” over there.

What if Aotearoa was a country where we held up housing as a human right, as a place for people to put down roots, to live in as homes, and not just a way to make a few uber-wealthy? What if Aotearoa committed to upholding the mana of all people, the way that all people deserve? What if we had a country where people could access the healthcare they need, the housing they need, the incomes they need, the education that will uplift everyone? What if that was the Aotearoa that we would all commit to in this House?

I want to offer my aroha ki ngā mate kua haere ki te pō [compassion to the casualties that have passed on into the night]. Those who lost their lives and wellbeing at Loafers Lodge yesterday; those who are connected to those people whose lives were lost; those who helped to try and save, and did indeed rescue, and now also have their own trauma, loss, and grief to deal with, including the first responders and also the broader community.

The loss of lives and wellbeing from yesterday could have been prevented. And that’s what I want to say clearly today. These are about political choices that led us to the situation yesterday, which is tragic, unacceptable, and did not need to happen. Political choices have prevented us all from having the Aotearoa that I laid out at the start—an Aotearoa that we all deserve. Political will—and lack of it—has been in the way of something that isn’t that radical, if we have a think about it; some decent, dignified lives for everybody and not just for the few. Collective responsibility should be here to be able to change all of that.

The tragedy yesterday asks—and begs us to ask—what do we value the most? What are the choices where people can have housing as a human right, where we have a comprehensive warrant of fitness, a health system that works for everyone, rent controls, things that are for the public good, income support for people who really need it, better wages and conditions? Those are public-good concepts. Those will do us all well. And where first responders, including firefighters, have what they need to do what they want to do, which is to care for everyone and save all of the lives they can.

The problems, many of them, which resulted in yesterday also include boarding houses and accommodation that had been unsafe and unacceptable before one of the houses burnt down yesterday. So many of us—and I mihi to my Green Party colleagues—have been highlighting this before the house burnt down and took lives yesterday. We will continue to raise that space in here about who and what do we value the most. The Greens are constantly asking for a warrant of fitness; scaling-up public council housing, public housing, State housing, community housing—affordable, good housing. Not a radical ask, I would think—especially in this place.

The profit off misery—the profit off misery—that this place has allowed to happen is completely scandalous. The way that we have over 40 years—over 40 years, at least—in this House led an economic model that is today seeing people profit off misery. The people who have so little choice. Would any of us be content with any of our whānau—people we love and care for—living with such little choice? The people without the resources and power and influence to be able to stand in this place.

This place is supposed to be a House of Representatives. Just today, we have had more information; this place is not representative. Not all of us own multiple houses and are going to make rules to change the system, are going to make the choices so that everyone can have a good place to live. How can we trust this House when it is not representative? I would like to think, no matter how many houses people owned, we could still come to a contractual agreement for social good; for public good.

Yesterday was unacceptable. We have solutions here that the Greens have been laying out for decades and I urge us all to pick those up and value people who have long been asking to be valued, who have long been accepting unacceptable standards as if that’s all they deserve. We can do better. We’ve got the solutions here. It’s political will. It’s political choice. I urge people to pay responsibility to everyone having dignity and not just building up the wealth for the few. Kia ora.

I too want to express my sympathies to those affected by the fire in Loafers Lodge in Newtown. When I was a junior doctor, it was my neighbourhood. I made a point of living two minutes from the emergency department, and living there and working there, I saw some of the people with complex conditions who came and went from the hospital; who were also the familiar faces we’d see on the streets of Newtown. Sadly, one of those is among those reported as unaccounted for from the fire. I want to express my deepest thanks to the first responders, including paramedics and those who cared and those who continue to care for people affected by the fire in the emergency department.

In reflecting on this urgent debate today, I want to say what an important and great opportunity we have through our reformed health system to create a truly equitable, high-quality, and patient-centred system. We know that our system has not been fair for everyone. It was too complex and fragmented, it was orientated around the convenience of providers rather than that of patients, and healthcare became dependent on where you live. On this side of the House, we believe that that’s not good enough. We are focused on reforms to create a more equitable system, where all people and whānau and their communities are supported in their health and wellbeing aspirations. So I see this opportunity as the greatest in a generation, but the difficulty and complexity of our task cannot be overestimated.

Transformational change like this doesn’t happen overnight, and it will take time for deeper issues, like resourcing and inequality, to start to improve. But I want to talk about the way that we are doing it, and one example is through our winter plan, where we are using the power of our one national health system to commission services closer to people’s homes, and where we are making the best use of our talented professionals to mean that pharmacists and general practitioners and others can practise at the top of their scope and be empowered to help people in their communities more.

Our health sector needs a change to do more like this, and I am determined to support it to do so. Services need to work for everyone and for the wellbeing of their communities, and there is a positive vision of our health system that we can realise through the reforms. But what do we hear from the other side of the House? Nothing but constant negativity, white-anting, and the failed policies of the 1990s that got us into this mess. New Zealanders need to know that a vote for the Opposition is a vote that puts their health services at risk. It’s clear that National’s tax plan—tax cuts for the highest-earning New Zealanders—means massive cuts to health, to education, to housing, and to all the social services.

National will try and tell New Zealanders they won’t make cuts, but without cuts their tax plan does not add up. A National-ACT coalition will cut taxes, but that means cuts to essential services, whereas we have increased funding to Pharmac by 51 percent since 2017, which has enabled them to purchase drugs like Trikafta for cystic fibrosis. A vote for the Opposition puts that at risk. We have increased the base rate for registered nurses by 43 percent since 2017, and we remain committed to settling pay equity claims. A vote for the Opposition puts that at risk.

We have funded and developed services like Decide, the national free abortion telehealth service. A vote for the Opposition puts that service at risk. We have created the Māori Health Authority. We are supporting by Māori, for Māori services to reduce the life expectancy gap. A vote for the Opposition puts that progress at risk. We have funded the roll-out of primary mental health services that are available in communities up and down the country. A vote for the Opposition puts that at risk.

Under this Government, health infrastructure spending has increased substantially since 2017, compared to the many years of austerity with no funding of health capital infrastructure under National. That has allowed us to get on and build improved services across the country, fixing and building hospitals. That is at risk with a vote for the Opposition.

There is too much at risk in this election—too much at stake—and we cannot afford to go backwards. There is no doubt we are living in challenging times, but we have a plan to create a more equitable health system that’s focused on the needs of New Zealanders, and we’re getting on with the job.

New Zealand is going backwards under Labour, and it is causing great fear for many Kiwis.

I spoke to a woman in Birkenhead recently who said to me, with tears in her eyes and anguish on her face, “How will I convince my daughter to stay here in New Zealand when it is getting so much harder to get ahead; when the cost of living is so high; when people feel unsafe; when there are ram raids every day; when the health system is falling apart, with longer waiting lists; when education standards are falling?” She said to me, “They all want to leave for Australia, because it looks better over there right now, doesn’t it? The Government books are in surplus. The economy grew last year, at the end, while ours shrank. They’re delivering tax cuts to middle-income earners. There are lower interest rates. What I want is a Government that will fight to keep New Zealanders here at home, that will fight to show them that this is a country that can deliver them a better future, a country where there will be a lower cost of living, where a Government will bring discipline to spending, where it will let people keep more of what they earn, and where it will grow the economy.”

But the members opposite have given up on that. They have completely and utterly given up, and it is deeply sad to see that not only has Labour given up on giving people reasons to stay here in New Zealand; they are now actively encouraging New Zealanders to stay in Australia and not come home. I’m holding, in my hand, two advertisements that the New Zealand Labour Party has paid for with $10,000 of taxpayer money—advertisements paid for by Parliamentary Service and authorised by Chris Hipkins. What these ads do is target some of those bright, talented, hard-working New Zealanders currently living in Australia and they say to them, “Here’s how you become an Australian citizen.” Well, I find it sad. Because here is the news, if you’ll stop and listen: it is not your job to convince people to leave; it’s your job to convince them to come home. So what kind of a Government prioritises using $10,000 of taxpayers’ money—hard-earned—to advertise to Kiwis that they should stay away, they should become Australian citizens? That is how upside-down things have got in that Labour Government, and Chris Hipkins has signed off on it. As if the current brain drain isn’t enough; as if it isn’t enough that we’ve got 4,000 nurses short in our hospitals; as if it isn’t enough that New Zealanders feel so oppressed by inflation, by rising interest rates, by their wages falling behind, the Labour Government says, “Well, actually, we’re going to use your money that we’ve been overtaxing you with, to tell the Kiwis who have jumped the Ditch to stay right there.”

That is how badly Labour has given up, and you can see it. You can see it when Grant Robertson is sitting here in this Parliament making excuses for why New Zealanders should simply tolerate the fact that their real wages have gone backwards; they should simply tolerate the fact that the Government is spending at record levels and yet isn’t delivering better outcomes; they should simply tolerate paying more tax, paying higher prices, paying higher interest rates—because, in the finance Minister’s world, it’s all too hard!

Well, I say it is time for a National Government, who will have, as a driving mission, our desire to make this a country that more New Zealanders want to stay in. We want to say to that mother, “We’ll give your daughter a reason to stay here, because she will see a growing economy where she can get ahead, with safer communities, with better health services, and with education standards that are climbing not falling.”

This country is better than Australia. The only people who don’t think that are the members opposite, who are telling New Zealanders that they should make their life there. Well, I’ll tell you the difference between Chris Hipkins and Chris Luxon: Chris Luxon won’t be advertising to New Zealanders telling them to leave; he will be giving them reasons to stay.

If that is not the most negative speech I have almost ever heard—it’s almost anti - New Zealand, what we just heard from negative Nicola. Now, I’m not sure what the rumours are up in those Auckland chambers of commerce, but we might have just heard from somebody believed to be New Zealand’s next Prime Minister. My goodness me, New Zealand, if this negative vision for Aotearoa is what’s on offer, then this country is in trouble.

But fear not—fear not, New Zealand—because we have at the helm Christopher Hipkins, aka Chippy. This is a man that is focused on the bread and butter issues. He’s out there on the streets, born and raised in Upper Hutt. He has worked diligently for a New Zealand that we can all be proud of. On top of that, he’s just been named as one of the best dressers in the world. Kudos to Barkers.

But that aside, I want to talk about what we have done. This Government has invested in our regions. Just last week, I traipsed up and down the East Coast region looking at the people we had invested in, looking at the roads that we had invested in, looking at the businesses up and down. All throughout Aotearoa, our regions are filled with New Zealanders committed to staying in their regions, because our Government has invested in this place here.

Now, though, we’ve heard from the Opposition. We’ve heard that they want to bring about cut, cut, cut, cut. They want a “coalition of cuts”—that’s all we’ve heard. I just want to remind New Zealand of the last time that the National and the ACT Party—the “coalition of cuts”—were in and what they did to New Zealand’s justice system. If you remember, they closed police stations. They didn’t fund the police. They froze the police budget year on year—that’s right. They tried and they failed to get firearms prohibition—

Hon Mark Mitchell: New Zealand was much safer.

Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: —orders over the line. Well, if Mr Mitchell thought New Zealand was safer then, either (a) his memory’s a little foggy, or (b) he just doesn’t read the stats. New Zealand was not safer back then, but he can plead all he likes.

One thing, though: whilst we’re on a little bit of history reflection, let’s reflect on the ghosts of the past. Oh, that’s right. One thing about this current iteration of the National Party: they clearly aren’t the party that was the John Key and Bill English Government—I’ll tell you that. That was with a Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance that denounced prisons as a moral and fiscal failure. That was a Government that said, “We know that a key to reducing crime in the long term is to stop young people entering the justice system in the first place.” This approach is also a central principle of New Zealand and international laws and guidelines—steering young people away from a life of crime and ensuring they don’t get caught up in the justice system increases the chance that they will reach their full potential.

Now, that was the basis of the John Key, of the Bill English, justice policy. However, the “coalition of cuts” is now promoting a half-a-billion - dollar investment. That is what the National Party is supporting: a half-a-billion - dollar investment into kiddie prisons—kiddie prisons. This is the one thing that I think the “coalition of cuts” has done that the Mongrel Mob will actually like. You are literally creating a kiddie kindergarten for criminals and gangs. That’s a half-a-billion-dollar investment. That is the National-ACT justice policy.

On this side of the House, we take an evidence-based approach. The things that we do: we put an extra 1,600 police on the front lines. That’s what this Government has done; one that takes law and order seriously. We’ve increased the police budget every single year. Now, how’s the “coalition of cuts” going to pay for extra police? No, no—that’s right. They’re going to find some more money to invest in kiddie prisons—kindergarten prisons. This is a Government focused on New Zealand, and we are so proud of the work we have done.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is a pleasure to be talking today, and I just want to start out by saying that I listened to the deputy leader of the Labour Party, the Hon Kelvin Davis, talk about something really, really important today: Matariki. Basically, we were talking about another holiday, and I thought that that was the most important thing that the Minister could talk about with all the goings on in New Zealand at the moment.

Firstly, I want to talk about something that I think is actually much more important. I want to talk about the business community, the lifeblood of New Zealand in terms of driving this economy forward, funding the wasteful spending that that Government has embarked upon over the last six years. What I wanted to bring to the attention of the House is a raft of very important surveys that have come out—three very important surveys—and what they paint is a poor picture. They paint a dreadful picture of the ordinary mum and dad out there who are trying to live, trying to create a business, and trying to earn a wage, who are supporting their employees and working alongside them, and how difficult things have become.

But don’t worry, we’ve got the saviour, we’ve got the business specialists, we’ve got the business owner—not. We have got the new Minister for Small Business, the Hon Ginny Andersen, because I know she’s absolutely razor-focused on this issue. I just did notice, though, that since she has become the Minister, she’s issued two press releases—one relating to fog cannons and one relating to the flood victims—but she has taken no Cabinet papers at all since she’s become the Minister for Small Business.

Look, these surveys paint a dreadful picture, as I said: 70 percent of business owners now believe that the economy is going to get worse—70 percent; that’s a staggering amount of people—and a lot of it’s due to slowing sales. That means—read another term—there is a cost of living crisis, which means that anyone on New Zealand has less money now to go out and buy stuff in the shops and go and buy things for their family, because they have less money.

Of course, this is all leading to this dramatic loss in business confidence. Again, 70 percent believe that things are going to get worse, and that is really bad metrics, because when business owners lose confidence, what do they do? They stop investing, they stop new buying new plant, and they stop hiring new people. Worse than that, if they think it’s going to get worse—which they will under Labour—they will start firing staff, and that is the worst outcome that we could have in New Zealand.

Of course, what are the issues that they highlight? Well, a shortage of skilled staff—of course, we’ve heard about that. In every business I go to, what is the issue? The first issue is, “I can’t get enough staff.” But, of course, it’s rising inflation, it’s rising fuel and transport costs, and it’s rising interest costs. Why has that happened? Why are our interest rates going up? It’s because we’ve had a Government that just loves spending money and wasting money, and, of course, the Reserve Bank Governor, who has said it outright, explicitly—he’s had to raise the official cash rate, the Reserve Bank rate, because the Government can’t control itself.

So what does all this mean going forward? It is a time where business owners have had to now stretch deep into their own pockets to fund their own businesses, and, of course, many of them are now turning to their credit cards. This is one of the things that came out in the surveys. Of course, credit cards are really expensive. Forty percent of small and medium-sized enterprises have said that they have been unsuccessful in getting further credit from their banks over the last 12 months—that’s a staggeringly high figure—and so they are financially strained. That is the worst thing, and with interest rates driving up, that’s when you need money, because your interest cost on your debt is going to mean that you’ve got to find more revenue to cover those costs.

All of that means that we have got a problem in our business sector, and it’s not surprising that 40 percent, or two out of five business owners have said that they have got mental illness, and a staggering one out of five have self-diagnosed that they’ve been depressed at some point in time. That’s not the country that we want. That’s not the environment we want for our business owners, because they’re the lifeblood force of our economy.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. Well, look, when we think about it, we’ve got a big decision coming up this year and people are going to be out there shopping for policies, and I want to think about where they’re going to shop. Because on this side of the House—think of us like a supermarket—we’ve got “Labour Mart”, we’ve got a good supermarket. The car park might not be full, but that’s because a lot of people would’ve walked there, would’ve caught the bus, would’ve caught the train.

Then you’ve got another supermarket. It’s called the “National/ACT Mart”—the “NACT Mart”, the “Nick-knack Mart” because they nick off the poor to give it to the rich. You know what that supermarket looks like? The car park’s crammed—crammed full of flash cars—but you know what? There’s no access ramp to get into it. If you go to Labour Mart, you get some good policies, good policies which are addressing the meaty issues. We put a “steak” in the ground on what matters. But what do you get if you go to NACT Mart? They’re off their trolley. Their policies are a basket case. They’re whipped into a frenzy, like Mr Bayly was, but, you know, they’ve got no answers.

You go to the fruit and vegetable section, and “lettuce” tell you what you see there. You see politicians who turn up, turn up to do the mahi, to attack the big problems. Go to the delicatessen at NACT Mart, what do you get? Cuts. Lots of fine delicatessen cuts: tax cuts, service cuts, cuts to nurses, cuts to teachers. You get a problem. You get an economy that would be in a tailspin as they give tax cuts to the rich in an inflationary manner, and yet here we are in a situation where we are today when we’ve got to address the cost of living. Over in NACT Mart, you’ve got some real problems. You’ve got a “cereal” failure in the breakfast aisle, I’ll tell you that. Their policies, frankly, are dog tucker.

So, look, what we need to do is address the big issues that we’ve got. In just a “Jif”, you know, Mr Bayly over there needs to think about what he’s saying about business confidence, because he’s not “Handy Andy” when it comes to how business confidence really works. A Government needs to work on the economy as a whole, and the spending that we’re doing in things like infrastructure, the huge amount we’ve put into rail—and I know we put a huge amount in disaster response into the Hawke’s Bay, and you’ll hear about that soon, because we can’t hang people out to dry. That’s not what this Government is about.

So use your noodle. Think about what we’re going to do here. We’ve really got to get into—while you’re scrambling around, we’re going to crack the big issues with some “egg-cellent” policies—you’ll be hearing those tomorrow—and we’ll keep doing the hard work here today.

So when you think about it, in terms of supermarkets, we’ve got no beef with their profits, but a competitive market is a rare thing well done. So that’s why we’re addressing those supermarket issues, and, in my portfolio, I’m very, very proud to do that, because what matters to New Zealanders is what happens at the checkout, and what have we got from them? Nothing. What we would see is falling wages. Every time we have put the minimum wage up—I’m very proud of our policy on minimum wage and living wage. What would we hear from them? Suppressed wages. What would suppressing wages do? It would flatten the economy. So it’s all very nice to, say, give tax cuts to your mates, in service cuts to the public sector, but all that would happen would be a problem in the economy where the wealthy have lots to spend and there are people on the streets.

We are putting funding into housing, police, schools, nursing, mental health. We’re addressing those big, long-term issues. We’ve made more progress on climate change than the National Government did in nine years. What did they do in nine years? Nothing. What policies do they have now? None.

The only policies the National Party’s got are the ones David Seymour gives them. Yeah, so think about that. I’m yet to hear a National Party policy. David Seymour at least is upfront about his crazy policies. Good on him—I give him credit for that. He wants to deregulate everything, but at least he’s honest and has the decency to stand up and tell us what his policies are, whereas the National Party is going to be told by their new Minister of Finance, David Seymour—should they ever get into Government—what to do. And what are the chances of that? Very, very slim. October 14—

Order! The member’s time has expired.

Many times in this House, I have seen a hapless member fail to fill a 10-minute slot, but Duncan Webb couldn’t fill five minutes, and I feel truly sorry for the people of Christchurch Central, who have to have him as a representative. But there are more serious matters than Duncan Webb to be discussed this week, because it’s Budget week.

In particular, this week, we have seen some really interesting political theatre. We’ve seen Grant Robertson, the finance Minister, say he would cut spending by $4 billion, and people said, “Wow!”—except they forgot it’s $4 billion over four years; it’s only $1 billion a year. People forgot that Grant Robertson has increased Government spending by $49 billion a year. So his $1 billion a year saving is really 2 percent of all the extra spending that Grant Robertson does over and above his predecessor. What he’s really saying is that he’s going to keep going with 98 percent of the new spending he’s introduced. In other words, there is no change.

Along comes the National Party, and they don’t say how much they’d reduce wasteful spending by, but they do say they will give you a letter to tell you how much wasteful spending has happened and how much tax you’ve paid for it—an idea that, ironically, ACT introduced in 1997, when people still relied on letters to get information, before the internet became commonplace, and even then the National Party vetoed it, stopping it from happening when it was more relevant.

ACT, on the other hand, has produced an alternative budget—A Time For Truth—the only fully costed alternative budget that is produced in this Parliament year in, year out by ACT, showing New Zealanders the real choice for real change, not Tweedledee-Tweedledum; the same policies, different slogans; because New Zealand has had enough of that. This country is in a state of decline. We must choose on a spectrum between Australia and Fiji. Is New Zealand going to become a big Fiji—a nice place to visit but without the First World healthcare and education and transport infrastructure and services that people expect? Well, that is the trajectory this country is on when we have two parties that don’t give you a real choice. A Time For Truth is about telling the truth about where this country is up to and taking action to make it better.

This alternative budget—and people can download it from ACT’s website and go through it—reduces wasteful spending by $38 billion in four years, or around $8.5 billion a year. What that means is that we don’t touch a single front-line service—not one cop, one nurse, one teacher. Actually, we’re going to pay the teachers $5,000 more each. Actually, we’re going to bring defence spending up by 2 percent, to 2 percent of GDP. Actually, we are going to make 200 secure beds for youth offenders, so the police don’t play tag-and-release and so that the worst, most-hardened youth criminals get the mental health support, the education, the physical safety, the nutrition, and the discipline and security that they’ve never had in their life. We’re not going to touch any services; we’re actually going to boost Government services where they need to be, and we’re going to do that by reducing Government waste by the billion that has grown up under this Government.

Once we have boosted security to make the streets safe, defence to keep the South Pacific safe, and doctors fees so that you can actually get into your GP, and once we have shared half the GST with the local councils so that you can afford the infrastructure to build new homes—once we’ve solved those problems—we still have room to reduce your taxes, so that someone on $70,000 a year would keep just about $50 a week extra.

In fact, every single earner would be better off under ACT’s alternative budget. Everybody would get a tax cut or a credit, meaning they would take home more money because the Government would be wasting less, and yet, in the areas where we really need it, we would spend more on a Government that needs to deliver the security, the healthcare, the education, and the infrastructure for Kiwis to live good lives. That is the difference. The ACT Party provides the real choice and tells the truth in our alternative budget. It is a time for truth. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Negative Chris Luxon constantly talks down New Zealand, negative Nicola constantly talks down New Zealand, negative National constantly talks down New Zealand, and now David Seymour delivers us a fanciful plan to cut taxes for the wealthiest New Zealanders but keep delivering all of the services we love—just look away at the numbers.

It’s not believable, because when we speak negatively about our country, we discount all of the hard work; that New Zealanders have been going through some of these toughest times. Because these are tough times, but I know that we can get through them by working together and by being pragmatic—and tomorrow we’ll see a pragmatic Budget which does the things that we need to do well and makes an impact on people’s lives.

You know, I’m backing Aotearoa, and I’m backing the South Aucklanders who put me here. Negative Chris Luxon says that South Aucklanders are cooking up crimes in their South Auckland garages. He’s calling my people “beneficiaries” and “bottom feeders”. He could not tell me more clearly who he’s for, which is the wealthiest New Zealanders who do not look like me, who do not live in my community, who do not get up every day to work hard to put food on the family dinner table, who don’t go to work to serve their communities, who don’t go to church on a Sunday to make their lives better, who don’t send their kids to education because they want more. These are people who are working hard in our communities, and Labour is the Government that will be delivering for those people.

I ask those people to watch what’s being said today here, to watch the ACT Party deliver a speech today in this House where they don’t talk about National and ACT’s cuts that will benefit the wealthiest New Zealanders by thousands of dollars a year and, in some cases, would mean the CEO of Air New Zealand would get over $100,000 a year in tax cuts. The gumption of the leader of the ACT Party to say that everyone would be better off when minimum wage earners in my electorate will be a whole 39c better off per week. Shame. Approximately $20 better off per year, but they would lose those advances in their healthcare, their advances in their education.

We’re at a really important moment in our history. My generation is at a precipice where the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed Governments around the world, and our Government too, to invest in transformational change in our healthcare systems. There is so much momentum at this moment right now, where the New Zealand Government has made a change that we have never seen in my lifetime: Māori healthcare is improving at a rate which it never has. We have a say in our healthcare system which will mean that the lives of Māori people will change, that people who have always been left out of a health system which has not addressed their needs will be able to get the care that they need on a daily basis, that primary health care is for the first time designed for them. It’s so important that we continue that work.

It’s so important that we continue the work of this Government on our climate. And I don’t mean big, high-level ideas about climate change around the world; I mean our local streams, our local ngahere. The way that New Zealanders experience our environment will change in my lifetime in a way that it hasn’t for any other New Zealanders who have ever lived before. This is the time that the Government must invest in the way that we reduce emissions and that we live our lives so that we have stopbanks which stop the flooding in our towns—people in Manurewa and in Māngere are still out of their houses since the Auckland floods. We must invest now to make sure that we are properly protected and that we have adapted to the climate change which is barrelling down at us faster than any other Government around the world has managed to take on.

This is our challenges of a generation now. We are making progress. Labour has always been the Government of progress for the people. We have the ideas which are needed now to address these huge challenges that the world is facing. We are the party of change for the better.

People have a choice now. People have a choice later this year about whether one of the most regressive—regressive—Governments is elected with a “coalition of cuts” that makes cuts to education, our health, our public services, core public spending, those police officers that we have on the ground now looking after our people; or a Government that has advanced more than any other Government before it with priorities around climate change, around looking after our people, around our people, around our local streams, our ngahere, and our health. That’s the choice.

There are those of us who are focused on supporting each other, on backing each other, and helping each other. When the going gets tough, the tough keep it together and keep working together. Never have we seen that more than in Hawke’s Bay over the past 12 weeks—it’s only been 12 weeks; it can feel like a year sometimes. But in 12 weeks, we have seen such an incredible amount of spirit, grit, and determination from our region to work together. It is times like this that we see the best in people, where people dig deep and support and work together.

And yet, right now, all I have heard from that other side of this House for the last three-quarters of an hour are negative stories; negative pulling down of people over and over again. We’ve heard negative National Party Nicola Willis go on and on and on about how terrible it is in New Zealand, dragging down—dragging down—the economy, where, back on this side of the House, in Government, we fight. We fight for the people of New Zealand, we fight for the people of Hawke’s Bay—we back the people of Hawke’s Bay and we back this country to go forward and be proud.

The only thing that’s going up in the National Party right now is the pension age. That’s right, they want to raise the pension age—pension age is going up from 65 to 67. That’s what the National Party want to do—not on this side of the House—and so does the ACT Party. They want to make hard-working New Zealanders who pay their taxes for years and years and years—when you get to 65, when you get to 66 under the National Party and the ACT Party, they’re going to cut it from you. They’re going to cut your super. You’ve heard it here: the National Party—the only thing they’re going up on is the pension age. Everything else—everything else—they have no plan. They don’t want to help New Zealand. They don’t want to help Hawke’s Bay either. I can tell you that the National Party has shown absolutely nothing that they would give to Hawke’s Bay—not like this side of the House.

Here’s where we’re delivering: in the last 12 weeks, this Government has provided $230 million to Hawke’s Bay as part of our recovery response. That’s $10.15 million to clean up the slash. That’s $133 million to clean up debris and silt. That’s $3.25 million for mental health. That’s $31.2 million to help businesses in their immediate response and recovery. I can go on and on around the amount of investment and backing that this Government is supporting and helping Hawke’s Bay with. We’ve seen over $50 million going into our immediate response to getting roads open. We’ve had Bailey bridges been built. And, yes, the thing I can commit to here, right now, is we will continue to back business, we will back our horticultural industry.

We are in this for a partnership—a partnership with Hawke’s Bay. That’s what’s wanted: where people work together. People need to work together, stand together, and be united. That’s how we get through this. That’s what you see on this side of the Government—a Government who cares, and a Government that will continue to work and back the Bay, through and through.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Today, there is only one more sleep until Budget 2023. It’s going to be a comprehensive Budget; a forward-looking Budget. It’s our plan that sets the stage for New Zealand’s continued progress and prosperity. This Budget will be a testament to the dedication and vision of our Government, which has tirelessly worked to address the challenges facing our nation to create a brighter future for all. I know that Budget 2023 is going to be testament to the Government’s commitment to building a resilient and inclusive society. It prioritises investments into skills, into science, and into infrastructure—all of which are critical for driving economic growth and improving the wellbeing of our citizens. With a focus on sustainable practices and forward-thinking policies, this Budget sets us on a path towards a greener, fairer, and more prosperous future.

On the other hand, let us not forget the Opposition—specifically the National Party. While they might present themselves as an alternative, their track record in similar circumstances raises questions about their ability to effectively govern and to address the needs of New Zealanders. The National Party struggles to present a cohesive vision for the future, and their policies often lack the innovative and progressive approaches needed to navigate the challenges of the modern world.

I’ve got a confession to make. I didn’t write that speech; ChatGPT wrote that speech. Even ChatGPT knows the negativity and the fact that National is not fit to govern. All the negativity that we’ve heard from the other side of this “coalition of cuts” has come through online. It’s come through to the fact that even an AI generic robot knows that they don’t have a vision for New Zealand.

I am so proud of the track record of our Government. I’m so proud of the fundamental investment we’ve done to make sure people, like myself, my generation, people from my background—who are children of migrant families—get the support to have a chance at thriving here in New Zealand. We stare down two very different futures for New Zealand at the coming election.

We know that there is one side of the House—our Government—making sure that we truly invest in every single New Zealander, and making sure that everyone who comes on to this land has equal opportunities to thrive in life. I’m so proud of making sure that we have given investment into our mothers; into children, through our paid parental leave. I’m so proud of making sure that we’ve raised the wages of teachers, nurses, and all healthcare workers. I’m so proud of the fact that our Government has prioritised those who are on the lowest wages to make sure that their work actually earns them a dignified living.

There is huge contrast to be made with the other side of the House. Those on the other side, the National Party, have been talking about the people who live in South Auckland garages. Those are human beings. Those are people who have a dream and have multiple talents. When I was meeting with the decision makers of Auckland City a couple of weeks back, I was telling a member, “Do you know who are the up-and-coming talent in our classical music world, our opera, our orchestras?” Those are the South Auckland kids who were given a chance. They were taken by buses to come into Auckland City to listen to those classical music performances, to be truly believers that they can make something of their lives and to make something of their talents. Those are the people that our Government will continually support. We’re not going to talk them down.

One of the privileges of being able to visit some of the businesses around New Zealand is to see the young entrepreneurs. This Government backs them. We’ve started more business loans. We’ve started our Business Payment Practices Bill, to make sure that those who are actually growing our economy—and not just the large businesses that negative Nicola is meeting with every day—have their voices heard.

So there is one more sleep until Budget day. We all know that this is going to be a great, back to basics, bread and butter Budget to truly look after every single New Zealander, and I know I’ll be proud of it.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. It’s an absolute pleasure to rise in this general debate to talk about a topic that we have not heard much about today, have we ladies and gentlemen? That is the topic of increasing economic growth. For those on the other side of the House that require a translation of what those words mean—because I do expect and understand that many on that side of the House would not have a clue what we mean when we say “increasing economic growth”—I’m going to give a little bit of a lesson around where we need to be focused as a country.

One of the areas that you are not going to hear much from that side of the House on tomorrow is what actually drives this country; pays for our education and health services; and makes us—and should make us—the envy of the world in terms of a place to live, raise a family, retire, and that is around the elements that drive economic growth. Infrastructure investment drives economic growth. You hardly ever hear conversations around infrastructure from that side of the House unless we are dealing with the tidy up following a natural disaster.

Before the natural disasters that we saw this year, did you ever hear of any announcements from that side of the House around large-scale infrastructure investment programmes that they would undertake to increase economic growth, increase jobs, and increase productivity? The answer is no, because they do not understand the reality of what is required in this country to get us to turn around the situation which faces us right now and get us back on track and get us successful in this world.

One of the issues around infrastructure investment is the need for certainty. The private sector requires certainty of pipeline, of what are those large infrastructure projects that the Government will partner with local government and the private sector to invest in over the next 10, 20, 30 years, and beyond. These infrastructure projects are critical in order to unlock the economic growth and potential within our regions, our provinces, and our cities.

Right now, this country is stuck at the stoplights, at the traffic lights, stuck on a red light, and it’s a red light from that side of the House that means this country is not going ahead. We need real leadership, leadership that understands the fundamentals—that economic growth is our pathway in this country to drive us from where we are today to where we need to be in the future. It beggars belief that on this side of the House there is a complete understanding of that, yet on the other side of the House they simply do not understand.

Recently we put out, at the beginning of this year, the National Party’s policy around “local water done well”—

Anna Lorck: They don’t like that anymore!

SIMON WATTS: —our solution in regards to long-term infrastructure investment in water across this country. And you hear the member from Hawke’s Bay, yapping on on the other side, because their plan will not deliver sustainable change for her communities, and her communities will tell her that on 14 October and it’s lights out, time for a new MP in that region. Rightly so, because this Government has failed to take the action required to turn this ship around and we are now, under this Labour Government, destined for that ship becoming grounded, and grounded pretty swiftly.

We need to unlock that economic potential through infrastructure growth. We need to get on and start building this country back. We need to start giving certainty to our private sector, to employ the workforce, to train apprentices, to get people out there and start building this country. That is the certainty that comes with long-term infrastructure investment. That is what’s not happening from the other side of this House. That is what is going to change 154 days from now. I am looking forward—under a Christopher Luxon - led National Government—that we are going to turn this country around, get this country back on track, and that is critical for New Zealand success and I’m looking forward to being part of that.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.