General Debate

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

I sometimes feel—

Rt Hon Winston Peters: I wish you would!

STEVE ABEL: —that’s very kind!—that the sum of this House is, in fact, inferior to the conscience of the individuals within it.

Hon Todd McClay: Speak more highly of yourself.

STEVE ABEL: I’m speaking of the member opposite, even. I’m saying that if it had been put to this House as a true conscience vote—that is, whether this House would support the nasty Treaty principles bill—I believe that members on the whole would have voted it down overwhelmingly. But, more than that, I even believe that if the motion was put to this House that Māori never ceded sovereignty and it was actually allowed to be voted on as a genuine matter of conscience, even now the House and the members of it would vote in support of that motion.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: That’s drivel. That’s arrogant drivel. That’s arrogant white man’s drivel. What do you know about it?

STEVE ABEL: Well, I would love it if the Deputy Prime Minister would support that motion being put, and let’s see what happens. This Government, and, unfortunately, the expressions from both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister in the last iteration of this question time, is anachronistic. It is behind the times in terms of the feeling that is now embodied in the people of this country. What was manifest in that magnificent hīkoi yesterday that turned up here in its tens of thousands was that the majority of New Zealanders support a principle of unity, of kotahitanga, of standing together in the embodiment and the manifestation of the promise of our founding agreement, Te Tiriti o Waitangi. That indeed will sweep away the hatred and the division embodied by the likes of Hobson’s Pledge. It will sweep it away in a movement of unity that establishes the true promise of Te Tiriti.

What we have here is an unstoppable commitment to the recognition that we as a nation are stronger when we stand together, and that was the promise that was always embodied in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The small-minded selling of snake oil that suggests that somehow Te Tiriti is a threat to equality is exactly that. It is snake oil. Te Tiriti embodies a principle of equality in Article the Third, and what is more, we have the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. We have those things that guarantee equality. In its fundamental sense, Te Tiriti is about relationships, and no one meaningfully wants to have a relationship that does not see self-determination for the other party to that relationship. Who in their hearts wants their children to be raised in a nation where there is not justice for Māori? Not I, and I’m sure that in all of our hearts we do not want to see that.

What we have here is, I believe, the last vestiges of that backward thinking that is embodied in the policies of this Government, not just the Treaty principles bill but the removal of section 7AA in terms of Oranga Tamariki, the backward step in the marine and coastal environment, and the 2004 legislation that began the first large hīkoi. Well, it didn’t begin the first large hīkoi—there were many hīkoi before that, but it was the last time until yesterday that we had a major hīkoi. There was also the revoking of the Māori Health Authority. All of these actions are actually examples of a Government that has got it completely backwards on what the priorities are for most New Zealanders.

In its essence, the Treaty is about our founding relationship. Te Tiriti underpins a just society. It holds diversity as a strength. It honours a simple principle—that the power of our nationhood begins with the bond of respect. It upholds the right to self-determination for Māori, the first New Zealanders. It is a living document that ensures dignity and belonging to all of those who make Aotearoa home. It is—and I will say this time and time again because no one has ever said it better—in the words of Moana Jackson, a profound and visionary base upon which to build a country. From yesterday, we have a movement that will take us to constitutional transformation that will fulfil the obligations and the promise of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

There is currently quite a volume of noise coming from the gallery as people organise to observe what’s happening for the rest of the afternoon. I just ask the people in the gallery to talk in a whisper rather than a loud voice, if that’s OK.

Well, Mr Speaker, thank you very much. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to speak in the general debate, and I note that it is my first opportunity this year. I was reflecting for a moment, whilst not listening to the speech of the last member, Steve Abel, that, ultimately, of all the things I’ve been asked to do in this Parliament—of course, with the exception of being the member of Parliament for Rotorua—the greatest privilege and responsibility I feel is as the Minister of Agriculture, because, every day, I get to come to work as the Minister of Agriculture, supported by every single member from each of the parties in the coalition Government to work hard, to make the lot better for our farmers. Today, on behalf of the Government, I would like to say to the farmers of New Zealand that we understand how hard you work and we’re grateful for the work that you put in and for your significant contribution to New Zealand—not only to our economy but to every part of life in New Zealand.

Our farmers have been doing it hard and, over a period of time, much harder than they need to. Yet, they get out of bed every day, they take risks, they work hard, they care about their animals, they care about the environment, and they deliver for New Zealand. Whenever New Zealand has had problems with the economy, irrespective of the Government, it’s the farmers that dig deep, produce high-quality, safe food and fibre to export to the world, and they rebuild the economy, and they’re helping this Government pay off the huge hole of debt run up by the Labour Party when they were there.

It’s very easy being the Minister of Agriculture in a National - ACT - New Zealand First Government because we are the Government, we are the parties, that understand farmers and how hard they work. We have been working as hard in the last year as they have. I won’t go through the whole list, but these are just some of the things that we’ve been able to do to help them because we trust farmers. We know they care about their land, we know if we set sensible rules, they will work to them, and, in many cases, they’ll do much more than a Government would ask them to do to meet their environmental responsibilities and to grow the economy.

We’ve disbanded He Waka Eke Noa, and even members opposite, in Labour, are pleased we’ve done that, because I don’t think they wanted it in the end either. We’re removing agriculture from the emissions trading scheme. We’re restoring common sense to intensive winter grazing and stock exclusion rules. We’re committed to rebalancing the hierarchy of obligations under Te Mana o te Wai to recognise the rights and responsibilities of all water users. We’ve commenced an independent review of biogenic methane. We launched a select committee report inquiry into banking. We’ve invested more in catchment groups. We’ve invested more in rural support trusts. We’ve introduced pragmatic rules for on-farm water storage. We’ve established a pastoral group to work with the Government—actually in partnership—to find solutions to the challenges of climate change. We’ve begun reforming rules around biotech, we have implemented sensible changes around significant natural areas, and the list goes on, and it goes on and it goes on.

This year, we will hear very soon about agriculture’s contribution to the economy—more than $55 billion worth of exports all over the world; high-quality, safe food that consumers around the world not only want, they are willing to pay more for, and they’re doing that as a result of the reputation of New Zealand producers and New Zealand farmers, and this is a Government that backs them. We’re actually saying we’re not going to leave them alone, that we have their backs, and we’re going to work harder for them to get more money through the farm gate because we want our farmers and growers to earn more this year and next year for their hard work than they have previously. We’re going to reduce costs and get what they earn up.

Already in the area of market access, we’ve got some runs on the board in just 12 months. For instance, we’ve got the EU free-trade agreement (FTA) into place many months sooner than we were told we would, which means that kiwifruit and onion producers got $46 million extra this year in tariff savings that they wouldn’t have otherwise. That New Zealand - UAE FTA, which we negotiated in just 4½ months, gives the best access on day one to that market of any agreement that New Zealand has ever signed. And the conclusion of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) agreement with those Gulf States after 18 years means that our exporters will do better.

I have a prediction for the sheep farmers out there who are doing it harder than anybody else around New Zealand—they will remember the years when, actually, all of our lamb used to go into Iran. I think the GCC and, particularly, Saudi Arabia, who have a great desire for the food that we produce and the lamb that we grow in New Zealand, will actually replace what Iran was, so that we can sell more. The Government is doing that, with the Prime Minister leading, hustling on the world stage, with the Deputy Prime Minister out there bringing down our barriers so that we can have better access, and with me as the trade Minister. We’re doing that so our farmers can earn more and our sheep farmers can do well. The Agreement on Trade and Sustainability—

Very good—the member’s time has well expired.

Tēnā koe e te Pīka. First of all, I’d like to mihi to our people who rose in the last nine to 10 days and arrived here in a huge korowai of love.

Ka nui te mihi aroha o tō tātou Kuīni, Ariki Nga wai hono i te po [Many compassionate acknowledgments of our Queen, Queen Nga wai hono i te po], who saw her people walking, who felt the pain of her people, and led with them. Huge acknowledgment to the communities who dipped into their pockets, who dipped into their w’ānau pockets, and who made sure they supported our whānau.

A huge mihi to Toitū Te Tiriti kaihautū, who, with the experience of the OGs, carried the pouwhenua o Te Rōpū Matakite. You mobilised, you showed, with determination and dignity, that you could care for each other, respect the mana of the whenua you moved through, and the reconciliation and the respect that got you here. We have immense pride in the way you mobilised and arose, and we showed that we are not outnumbered. In fact, we showed we can organise ourselves. You know and I know that there were at least 70,000 to 80,000 there—the police, clearly, left the rangatahi and the children out—but we’ve become used to that narrative from this place, and despite our staff being blocked from being able to give out water and toilet our kaumātua, and being blocked from being able to look after our disabled community, we still looked after you with dignity.

E te iwi, you have every right to rise, every right to be angry and deeply hurt. This Government has betrayed iwi Māori. It has unleashed a wrecking ball through te iwi Māori. The Prime Minister has traded the mana of Te Tiriti. He’s exposed our mokopuna to harm for a bill it doesn’t even intend to support. He thinks so little of te iwi Māori that he has unleashed an unprecedented attack on our mokopuna, which we are forced to defend. Be very clear who the attacker and who the defenders here are, and we will expose to the world the cruelty of this Government.

Te Puea and Tā Apirana collaborated. They strengthened and they joined forces to mobilise an affirmative action to unite and strengthen our people. This was the price of citizenship.

Kōhanga reo was created as a movement of young parents over 40 years ago to mobilise an affirmative action reclaiming te reo tikanga for our babies, and here we have, accumulated over nine days, an affirmative call to action that landed and was realised at Parliament yesterday. Our babies of 40 years ago are leaders today. They are smart, they are savvy, in two worlds ki te ao [in the world], and that threatens those who thrive off a one-world view.

Governments in this House have crossed many, many lines. In the past, they have moved bills to confiscate our whenua. They have moved bills to imprison our tūpuna without trial. They have moved and apologised for the way that they have treated te iwi Māori.

Tino rangatiratanga is not found in David Seymour’s bill. Tino rangatiratanga is not found in Luxon’s coalition agreement. Tino rangatiratanga is not found in that uncle—it’s not found in New Zealand First. Tino rangatiratanga is not determined by the Kāwanatanga.

Tino rangatiratanga is in you. Tino rangatiratanga is in me. Tino rangatiratanga is in our mokopuna. That’s where tino rangatiratanga is, and anyone that tries to silence our mokopuna in this House will see the wrath of te ao Māori and the wrath of our tikanga.

Tino rangatiratanga is about us. It belongs in our homes, in our marae, in our hapū, and in our communities. We are our own rangatiratanga, and I get that not everybody wants to celebrate their rangatiratanga, but we are it, and that’s what’s next, whānau mā. What’s next and what comes next is us asserting our rangatiratanga. “Ko te kokonga o te whare e kitea, engari ko te kokonga o te ngākau kāore e kitea”. [“The corners of a house are clear to see, but the corners of the heart are invisible”.]

There is no aroha for our people in this House. There is no aroha when we sit there and we have to see our staff blocked from being able to manaaki, to give water to everybody, because what the last nine days has been about, whānau mā, is everybody—everybody who fights and wants to have the right to live with peace, and aroha, and dignity.

This is what it’s about, whānau. You are the affirmative action. You are the next step. You have the ability to march and put yourself and register on the Māori roll. That is the only way we’re ever going to clean up this paruwaru. That is the only way you’re going to be able to assert and make sure this Government and future Governments never try to tinker, or tamper, or tutū with our Tiriti and our mokopuna.

E te whānau mā, e te whānau mā, that is the affirmative action. You have it within yourselves. It takes two minutes to go home and to get on and make sure you register to go on to the Māori roll. Do not let them have the last say, e te iwi Māori.

Point of order, Mr Speaker. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Does the requirement for interjections to be rare and reasonable still apply during the general debate?

Probably less so.

Hon Kieran McAnulty: Less so? OK.

SPEAKER: It’s generally a very robust debate, as the member will be well aware, but if I’m being asked to make a statement now about what might be coming, then, you know, it’s obviously a moveable feast.

Hon Kieran McAnulty: No, not at all. No, it’s what has been; not what’s coming.

SPEAKER: OK, right.

Yesterday’s hīkoi wasn’t grassroots; it was—

SPEAKER: Sorry, I have called you, so we’ll stick with that, but it was a Labour call. My apologies. The Rt Hon Winston Peters will start again.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Yesterday’s hīkoi wasn’t grassroots; it was a Māori Party astroturf. What most in the mainstream media are not reporting is that the organiser of the hīkoi is the son of sitting Māori Party MP Kapa-Kingi. He’s employed by the Māori Party and stood as a candidate for the Māori Party before. The company that fund-raised and coordinated the hīkoi was incorporated in September by the wife of Rawiri Waititi and the daughter of the Māori Party president, John Tamihere. This was a total commercial jack-up. Driving and flying to Parliament in their “car-koi” was nothing but a recruitment and fund-raising tool for the Māori Party, and the Labour Party ignorantly joined them at doing it.

The Māori Party just used and manipulated thousands of Māori yesterday for their pointless political stunt. They staged a protest against a piece of legislation that they already knew is not going to pass into law. The faux outrage is obvious for all those who can see it for what it is. Their aim was to gather anyone and everyone, no matter what their cause, including patched gang members. It’s the same reason they conducted a sham haka in the House last week—a disgraceful, pre-planned, and coordinated stunt that served only to intimidate and undermine the running of the House and grab as many headlines as they could.

They are a bunch of extremists and middle New Zealand has had enough. New Zealand is a democracy whether the Māori Party like it or not, and using Māori culture as an excuse for their disgraceful behaviour is an insult to Māoridom. I have never seen this kind of arrogant person in the House like we’ve seen with the Māori Party today. No ordinary Kiwi, Māori or non-Māori, should accept this behaviour and intent of this party of extremists. They don’t want democracy; they want anarchy. They don’t want one country, one people, one law; they want separatism, division, and the laws being based on race the way they see it. They state that specifically, and the Labour Party have fallen over themselves to try and join them in their race to the bottom.

There are some more conservative Labour MPs who know they are coming to a point of no return. Their party has already left middle New Zealand a long time ago, and their party is going to leave them hanging in the wind soon also. They must wake up at night in cold sweats, thinking about how much Labour is now fighting for the space on the woke far left instead of fighting for middle New Zealand. There are too many people there who don’t know what a working day is. They’ve never done a manual job, and they don’t know what poverty smells, tastes, and feels like—

Hon Damien O’Connor: Oh, that’s wrong.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —and it shows all the time. No, no, that member knows. I know he knows. Take a look at his hands and I know he knows, but they don’t know.

Now, since 1867, Māori have been elected to Parliament, with just four winning a general seat until the introduction of MMP, and I’m one of those four. We saw the exponential growth of the number of Māori MPs with MMP. Right now, we have the record number of Māori in Cabinet—

Hon Kieran McAnulty: You can’t make a speech without reading.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —of any Government—more than all the Māori Party MPs combined. Yeah, I’m reading it because I wrote it. Unlike that member, I can write my own speech. I’m not an incoherent, thoughtless twit. I’ve got it out there because it’s going out shortly over the airwaves and I want the language to be as accurate as I planned it.

Here we go. We’ve got a record number, and all the party of extremists wants to do is act with utter contempt and ignorance of the process that has been made thus far in all we’ve accomplished. And what is their record for Māori? They’ve done, over the years, exactly nothing. Some of us can speak for days about what we’ve done, but not them. They are trying to tear down our country along with them. We are not going to concede or yield to these separatists, these people who spew an anthem of hate against other people. We will not be bullied by these cultural elitist extremists.

We stand for one people, one country, one flag, united as one, Māori and non-Māori, and as someone who can remember the Māori Land March—and all its beginnings in a famous court case in 1974 and 1975, over 50 years ago—and Whina Cooper being at a meeting one night in Pataua when we were getting ready to take on the then Labour Party Government and the Whangārei County Council, and she said, “I know what I’ll do. We’ll have a Māori land march.” That’s the background of this sort of behaviour—not this “car-koi” I saw yesterday—where she endeavoured to walk as many kilometres as she could. This is someone I know, not yesterday’s pretence where Te Pāti Māori also stayed at the Sofitel, flew down at the taxpayers’ cost, stayed the Sofitel, then back they go.

We are not going to take it any more. It’s the only way our country will ever succeed, and we will never give up fighting for that. In the words of The Seekers, “the carnival is over”.

It’s my fault that the sequence of the afternoon’s debate has got out of sequence. There will be two Labour speeches consecutively over the next two calls.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s an honour to be able to contribute to this general debate today. I know there are a lot of very important issues going on this week—the hīkoi yesterday, which I participated in; I’m sunburnt and I’ve got blisters from it. I want to acknowledge everyone who turned out yesterday. I also want to acknowledge the reading of a very important, significant bill for the Samoan community that will be coming up too.

What I want to speak about today is the anniversary yesterday of Pike River, which was 14 years ago, and the acknowledgment that the House made yesterday of the loss of those 29 men—acknowledging their families, their friends, acknowledging the people who took part in the rescue and recovery events following that, and still think of those family members every day. I want to acknowledge the House for unanimously remembering that fateful day.

Now, of course, that day changed the health and safety approach that New Zealand had. Since then, we’ve had significant changes to our health and safety legislation and significant changes, I think, to our approach to health and safety. These have largely been things that have had agreement across the House. Health and safety, I think, is an area that doesn’t need to be politicised. We are all of the view as New Zealanders that everyone deserves to go to work and come home safely, and we should all be working towards that objective.

Unfortunately, since our reforms that were undertaken by the then National Government after Pike River, we haven’t seen a significant decrease in the number of workplace fatalities or the number of workplace-related illnesses that people have contracted at work. I think the estimate that WorkSafe has, including illnesses and fatalities, is that around 10,000 people, over 10,000 people, have been killed as a result of those work-related injuries and illnesses. This number is simply too high. We must do better as a country.

It is very difficult to point the finger at one particular reason for this, because we do have very similar regulatory systems to countries that have much better health and safety statistics. What I mean by that is when they send their people out to work, they’ve got a much better chance of coming home safely than they do in New Zealand. Two countries that do have very similar regulatory systems to us are Australia and the United Kingdom, but we have 60 percent higher fatalities than Australia and a massive 500 percent higher fatalities than the United Kingdom. We must do better.

What we know now is that the Government is currently reviewing health and safety in New Zealand. What I would urge the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, and in fact members of the Governing parties, to consider is the fact that this does not need to be a thing that divides us politically. We need to make decisions to invest in health and safety. That’s not just me saying that as someone who is looking for bipartisan consensus to invest in health and safety. This is actually something echoed by the business leaders throughout New Zealand. In fact, 60 businesses recently wrote to the Minister and suggested that there should be more investment and better regulatory reform around health and safety.

Now, I know the Minister is looking at this and has recently concluded an exercise on what changes should be made to health and safety, but what I’m concerned about is the direction this is going in, considering the cuts that the Government has made not only in this particular area but across the public sector. Since last November, WorkSafe, which is our main health and safety regulator, has cut 113 roles and been ordered by Cabinet to find at least $5 million worth of savings. They’ve recently announced a second restructuring process that would look to reduce and change their workforce, and they are looking to change 180 roles. They’ve already lost 15 percent of their staff—an additional 10 percent of their budget through agreements with ACC. We need more investment and we need better regulatory reform in health and safety.

Businesses throughout New Zealand are saying this, they’re doing this, and they’re saying this in conjunction with unions. The reason that this is so important is we now have the same number of health and safety inspectors per head of population that we had during Pike River. We cannot allow another Pike River to happen under our watch. So I urge this House and I urge the Minister to come together to make sure we have the world-leading health and safety regulatory system that keeps our people safe at work so that when we say goodbye to our loved ones in the morning, we know with confidence that they are going to be able to come home safe at the end of the day.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, and can I also acknowledge those who are here in the gallery this afternoon.

Yesterday, we greeted the Hīkoi mō Te Tiriti here on the lawns of Parliament—well, those that could fit on to the lawns of Parliament. We’ve been watching the hīkoi’s progress over the past nine days, winding its way across the country from Muriwhenua and Murihiku and activating large crowds across the motu. In what I believe to be the largest Parliament protest in history, we saw tens of thousands of New Zealanders converge on Parliament to send this Government a message. That message is “Kill the bill”. We don’t need your Treaty principles bill, your divisive, moumou moni, moumou tāima [waste of money, waste of time] bill.

The bill does nothing but take Māori-Crown relationships backwards. It undermines decades of progress we have fought hard for to recognise and compensate for past breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

As Chris Hipkins said, this bill is structured to facilitate anger, hatred, fear, resentment, and division, and the only reason we have this bill is because Christopher Luxon is willing to trade off Māori-Crown relationships, undermine Māori rights, and waste over $4 million simply because he prioritised his deal with David Seymour over the best interests of the New Zealand public.

While we are being deliberately distracted, let’s not forget that in the New Zealand First and National coalition agreement, the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, has agreed to a comprehensive review of all legislation and all references to Treaty principles in legislation, and what they have agreed to is to replace it with specific words—what words; who is deciding what those words are?—or to repeal it entirely. This is all because Christopher Luxon has agreed to this.

This Government has already done so much damage to Māori. They’ve disestablished Te Aka Whai Ora, an entity established to help address significant health disparities that Māori suffer in this country. They have directed Pharmac not to prioritise work on the Treaty, despite obvious health needs for Māori. They’ve downgraded Te Tiriti in our schools and in what we teach our children. They’ve started to rewrite and rebalance Aotearoa histories in schools. They’ve introduced a bill that will repeal the Treaty provisions in the Oranga Tamariki Act—section 7AA. This is the legislation that governs State care, where Māori are disproportionately represented because of our country’s colonial history. They have implemented boot camps, a failed experiment that impacts significantly on rangatahi Māori. All participants are rangatahi Māori. They are removing Māori wards in an attempt to diminish Māori voices. They are amending the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act to make it harder for Māori to exercise their rights.

Today, the lead Minister for the Government’s response to the royal commission could not even say that she accepts the findings that conclude that contributing factors to neglect and abuse in care were the lack of legislation specific to care settings that gave effect to—wait for it—Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Let’s make no mistake, this Government is hell-bent on taking Māori and race relations backwards, as if the only way they can maintain power is to divide us, but yesterday, what we also saw at the hīkoi was a beautiful demonstration of kotahitanga. The Treaty unites us. Don’t use it to divide us.

I want to mihi to all of those who came to Parliament and to all of those who could not be here but were supporting from afar. The message that you brought was powerful. It is one of hope and positivity for our future. I implore this Government to recognise and respect Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Kia ora, Mr Speaker.

Recently, I had the pleasure in Ōtautahi Christchurch of opening the new Mapu Maia Pasifika mental health and addiction service. What a great service Mapu Maia is in the Pasifika community, because for us on this side of the House, what it speaks to is local solutions for local needs. We know that in mental health that is the approach we need. It’s about local communities being supported and empowered to look after themselves—

Hon Carmel Sepuloni: How much money was cut from the Pacific budget this year, Mr Doocey?

Hon MATT DOOCEY: —and Mapu Maia is a good example of that. The Opposition can call out, but what they need to take responsibility for is the dire straits of the health system that they left us after six years. They took a wrecking ball to the health system in the middle of a pandemic. Their own report said to reduce from 20 district health boards to between eight to 10. What did they do? In the middle of a pandemic, they took a wrecking ball to the health system and went down to zero. What they did was centralise.

Let’s look back at that last Government, which was a failed socialist experiment. Their only playbook was to centralise, whether it was the polytech reforms, whether it was three waters—that went down like a cup of cold sick—and, of course, the pae ora health reforms. In their view, Wellington knows best, but in local communities’ view, they know that they know best. That’s exactly what this Government is backing. When you look at the reforms we are bringing into the health system of bringing in regionalisation, of bringing back accountability and local decision making to the front line, that needs to be supported. What we don’t want is money stuck in the beltway of Wellington. We need to get that out into the communities.

That’s why this coalition Government made the decision to fund Gumboot Friday: $24 million to give 15,000 young people the timely mental health support they need. It was great to see in the health survey that got released yesterday the declining rate of unmet need for young people for mental health, because when you look at the issue, it is about timely access. We want to ensure that when young people have a need for mental health support, they can get that need. That’s why we’re proud to fund hundreds of councillors across the motu that can reach out, quite often within 24 or 48 hours, to provide young people with the support they need. That’s why this Government will ensure that we get money out of Wellington to the front line.

We recently started rolling out a new peer support service in emergency departments. That was not new money; that was old money stuck in the beltway because of the last Government. Who would believe with all the need around mental health, the last Government was just sitting on money in Wellington. That’s why we’ve got money out of Wellington to the front line.

Look at the recently announced mental health workforce plan. The Auditor-General came out in a damning report on the last Government: in six years, they hadn’t even put a mental health workforce plan. We put that out in our first year.

On top of that, we’ve committed to doubling the amount of psychologists in New Zealand and increasing the number of psychiatrists training by 50 percent; also, a $1 million fund to train further peer support workers. All of that was done out of baseline. That didn’t need any new funding. There was funding sitting in Wellington that the last Government wouldn’t put out to the front line. They can talk a big game in mental health, but on this side of the House, we know that Wellington doesn’t know best. We know the answer isn’t just centralising. We want to back local communities like the Mapu Maia service in Christchurch, who will provide timely Pasifika mental health and addiction support. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. There is a dichotomy in life. All living creatures come and spring from the same source, meaning each of us is part of the whole. Since the first reproducing life emerged on this planet, we have been on a journey of diversifying into the myriad of species and ways of life that we see on Earth today. We humans have had a truly remarkable impact on this world, to the point that some have proposed a category of this epoch being the Anthropocene, the human era, to describe this time in Earth’s history. Humans in our civilisation have reached great heights of achievement, and have made mistakes along the way.

Zooming in on this country, from the first human arrivals, we have introduced alien species to it and exterminated native ones. This place has changed beyond recognition from the primordial land that glided away into the South Pacific from Gondwana. We must see what has happened, but we must move forward and have a realistic view of the environment. I do not speak in this House today of grand global changes; I speak in this House about the parks, the ranges, the fiords, ngāhere, roto, ngā māunga [forests, lakes, and mountains], as well as the animals that are held within.

It is an interesting question: what gives value to an animal? Many don’t think twice about swatting a fly or trapping a rat. Our Australian cousins shudder at our callous disregard to the life of their humble possum. There are many groups in New Zealand lauded and looked to for their environmental bona fides. In many cases, they do incredible work, but there is a group who has been overlooked. They are a diverse group from all parts of New Zealand and every walk of life, united in their pursuit of both that diversity and unity which is achieved when taking part in the most natural activity: hunting. Hunters are conservationists. Someone who hunts cannot help but care for the unified natural world because they are so much a part of it, and more than any human being could ever hope to be.

To be a hunter you need ecological insight and intuition, and to become a part of the ecosystem at a level that is totally unnecessary without the pursuit of an animal. Whatever game one is looking for, the hunter must understand the plants, the weather, the land, the history, the pursued animal, and the other species in the environment. It is a profound connection with nature. Hunters become part of, and care for, the environment because to be successful you must be a part of it.

To have hunters, there must be the hunted. In this country, these are mostly introduced species, the alien animals brought here by us, but these species have become as much a part of this land as we have. They are valuable. One value is realised in the effect of drawing thousands of Kiwis into the deepest parts of this country again and again, parts that are often only reached because of the animals they hold. To be a hunter, one must be in tune with the environment. The result is the people who see the changes first and in the greatest depths are often the hunters who walk on, crawl on, and sleep on the land as they move through its flora and fauna in the pursuit of those valuable animals.

These animals also have a more material value. Hunter-led groups such as the Sika Foundation harvest these animals and donate literally tonnes of healthy, nutritious meat to charities such as Meat the Need to share this bounty with communities who need it. The Fiordland Wapati Foundation uses their time and experience to run sections of Fiordland for the better management of the whole environment by sustainable harvest and predator control. Hunters for Conservation are educating recreational hunters to be the ethical management tool to sustainably manage ko te ngāhere te taonga—our treasured bush.

Other groups, like the New Zealand Deerstalkers Association and their members, devote great labours and resources to keeping our tracks and huts open so all Kiwis can get out into our treasured natural asset. Hunters and the animals they value should be valued by all of us.

When it comes to conserving our environment, I believe that hunters don’t just deserve a voice at the table, I think that we’d be crazy not to make a place for them. We can all gain from the deep connections, knowledge, and understanding which hunters have. Hunters come from all walks of life and the beauty of what it takes to be a hunter is that it is open to everyone. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

There’s a great line out of the Good Book, and it actually refers to the fact that warmth can’t be generated alone: ki te takoto tahi te tokorua tērā te mahana [we have seen heat but no warmth]. If I’m not mistaken, it’s from the Book of Ecclesiastes, and from the Māori Party we have seen heat but no warmth. There is no warmth emanating out to the broad New Zealand public, there is no warmth associated with people enjoying mutual respect, but there are ongoing accusations, ongoing reprising of historical events as if we live with them and under them as a yoke.

Stop, Māori Party—stop, Māori leadership—condemning New Zealand to live under the shadow of made-up history and threats and exaggerations, and stop coming into this House. To my relations: no, you are not self-appointed; no, you are chattering fools. You may celebrate the hīkoi, but we know it was used as a recruitment device by yourselves, and also the shawl-wearing Green false prophets.

Māoridom know, as my leader has just said, that the carnival is over; now it’s back to the grindstone of life. Put your hands upon the plough. Look after ourselves. Stop all these false expectations that somehow through a hīkoi, somehow through endless debates about the Treaty that work will emerge, investment will flow, security will be widespread. That comes from the sweat of thy brow. I love sounding in this old-fashioned way, because that’s what’s missing from that particular narrative.

I don’t know about you, New Zealanders, but I’ve had a gutsful of the fake feathers, as artificial as the political narrative served up day after day after day, as if the only way forward for New Zealand is to continually turn around and join with a small group of Māori bemoaning our history. We cannot dissolve our history away. Irrespective of whether you regard it as having a bleak colour or a joyful colour, the future lies in front of us. What about that future? One thing: Māori Party, Māori leadership, be quick to listen. Be quick to listen and slow to speak.

I heard some of the speeches at the hīkoi yesterday. They were definitely a non-climax. They were not befitting for such an occasion and they offered no hope, they offered no integration, and they certainly offered no sense of direction.

Of course, New Zealand First will be condemning the Waitangi Tribunal to a haircut. We are sick and tired of what’s been spilling out of those reports, which is driving New Zealanders apart but, more importantly, is not rooted in historical fact. Secondly, we most certainly will be proceeding. We will be proceeding to prune unnecessary references to the Treaty of Waitangi from the statutory foliage—sloppy references to the Treaty—to give focus, meaning, and confidence, because without investment, without growth, without jobs, without confidence, we are going to go continually down on a slippery slope where there is very little opportunity for the growth of our people in the future.

Now, I don’t want to speak ill of the individuals who took time off work, pulled their kids out of school, marched throughout the huarahi, the roads, to come to the head of the fish, but know this from me: a child that is not educated, not well adjusted, is a child condemned to a very miserable existence. Stop believing that numeracy, literacy, and a robust understanding of our broad history is inferior to a day of a hīkoi. Of course people can enjoy their democratic rights, but those rights must be observed in the context of obligations. The coin of reciprocity has duty on one side and rights on the other.

Māori leadership, it’s all very good to celebrate rights but teach our children, teach yourselves, that obligations and an ethic of service outstrips rights. It is time that service was emphasised and the words of dissention were sent to Coventry.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Before I start my contribution this afternoon, I just want to acknowledge those in the gallery who have come here today for the next part of the House’s agenda, the Citizenship (Western Samoa) (Restoration) Amendment Bill. I want to acknowledge the contribution and work of my colleagues Cameron Brewer, Tim Costley, and Tom Rutherford, and members across the House for what will be a historic third reading this afternoon.

What I wanted to speak about in this debate is what delivery looks like; what a Government that is getting this country back on track looks like. From 1 January to 30 September 2023, versus 1 January to 30 September 2024, we have seen ram raids down 61 percent; we’ve seen aggravated robbery down 11 percent; and we’ve seen unlawful entry with intent, burglary, or breaking and entering down by 10 percent.

Tonight the clock is ticking. Tick-tock—tonight, the nightmare this evening will be for the gangs of this country, because despite what the Opposition want to try and convince this country of, it has taken something terrible for each of those members to have those patches. Those patches don’t deserve to be seen in public, they don’t deserve to be seen on the streets of this country, and they don’t deserve to be on the arms of New Zealanders being seen by law-abiding citizens; so tick-tock, tick-tock, because at 12 o’clock tonight, those gang patches will be banned from being seen by the public of this land—as they should be.

The Government has implemented tougher measures to combat gang violence and intimidation, including, as I say, the banning of gang patches in certain public cases, and we have given police powers to disrupt gang gatherings. The free ride for gangs is over when the clock strikes midnight tonight.

We’ve also seen an increase in police numbers. National has delivered on its commitment to boost front-line police numbers. During the campaign last year, I went into stores along Victoria Avenue that hadn’t seen their local MP when the doors had been raided and they wanted to know where the police were. Well, foot patrols have increased by 30 percent; and, as I say, ram raids are down by 60 percent.

I received this text message the other day. It says, “Hello, Carl. I was wondering whether to bother you with the observation that the bobbies are again noticeably on the beat in the CBD.” People are noticing it in the electorate, the wonderful electorate of Whanganui; they are noticing it across the country. They are noticing that National and this Government is delivering on our commitment not only to get this country back on track but to restore law and order to this nation.

We are strengthening sentencing laws and there are new laws that have been introduced. Currently before the hard-working Justice Committee is the Sentencing (Reform) Amendment Bill and the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. We’ve expanded youth crime initiatives, and much has been said on that already this afternoon in this House. They are working and they are delivering. They are aimed at breaking the cycle of crime before it escalates.

I have seen a focus on the support for victims. The Government has expanded support services for the victims of crime, including faster access to counselling and financial assistance, reinforcing a victim-first approach to justice.

As I bring this contribution to a conclusion, I want to acknowledge the contribution of Andrew Foster and welcome the new Police Commissioner, Richard Chambers, who I’m sure will continue to put in this work to see law and order restored across this nation. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Today, in Tokoroa, the Kinleith Mill announced that it is proposing to restructure, and 230 jobs will be lost in the mill if that occurs. The consultation period goes through to about January. Those 230 jobs are not the end of this story, because Tokoroa is a town of 14,000-plus people and it means that things like childcare centres and cafes and retail will all go by the wayside too.

We’ve seen this happen in New Zealand before, where the Government has turned a blind eye to the need to get in boots and all and assist in rural communities to keep their industry afloat. As a result of that—I was there; I remember that happening—little towns took a battering and so did the people in them. When you get entrenched unemployment as a result of Government neglecting its role to lead and nurture our communities, you get entrenched unemployment. That actually, ironically, leads to people going into things like gangs because it is a hopeless situation, and bad stuff happens. I’m not romanticising gangs when I say that, and I’m not excusing them, but bad stuff happens in communities when we neglect them, because poverty is actually a huge, huge part of a problem.

In Tokoroa, we have decent work. We have great jobs in that mill. I’ve been involved—I was actually a lawyer involved in that work for many years—so I know the value of that work and I know that this is an issue—

Rt Hon Winston Peters: What about Mt Albert?

HELEN WHITE: I’m looking at the Hon Winston Peters and I’m thinking that, actually, New Zealand First has a really positive role to play here. It knows the value of Government getting in beside and doing stuff like the regional growth fund. The Provincial Growth Fund could really help in this situation, and it would be a really good thing if New Zealand First would stop worrying so much about battering the Māori Party and get on with helping a place like Kinleith, helping Tokoroa, because it has some bargaining power at the table. I would love to see Shane Jones get in behind a bit of a rescue package here, because manufacturing New Zealand is in trouble. This is the fourth major closure of a manufacturing industry.

What I was concerned to hear was the comments and responses coming from the social development Minister. She was basically saying, in a nutshell, “Oh, you know, we’ll be there to support the unemployed.” She was not saying, “We’ll get in and we’ll make sure that unemployment doesn’t happen and we’ll build an economy and a manufacturing sector. We’ll build it on the basis of what we’ve got here: beautiful access to primary industries.” We have great dairy. We have great timber industries. We have absolutely great wool and meat industries. And guess what’s closing at the moment! We’ve just had one of our major meat works close. We’ve just had this closure: Winston Pulp International. It is a chance to get involved and make our economy one that actually pays off for the people in it.

I don’t want to hear any more about the gang patch issue and the crowing that things are right. I want to hear people saying that they’ll commit to decent jobs in this country, high employment, decent jobs, because once you start a cycle of entrenched unemployment, it isn’t good for New Zealanders, and I think we should know that in this House. That’s the difference between a platitude which comes out as “Oh, we’re so sorry. We’ll get this country back on track.”, and actually something real which is a concrete plan for manufacturing in this country, which brings about some hope for people, which actually produces something. Rather than talking about productivity, let’s get on with it. I suggest that it’s time to actually go up to Tokoroa, find out what’s going wrong, and put some money and some support behind the people there to make sure that we keep our primary sector on track, actually.

Just one final thing I’d like to mention is that all recycling of paper ends if this mill closes. It goes offshore. It is a terrible thing to do to New Zealand.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Before I begin, I’d like to acknowledge, as well, our beautiful members of our Samoan community in the gallery, a number of whom are from my neighbourhood of Takanini: hello and bless you and thank you for coming.

I’d like to begin with just reiterating what Minister Mark Mitchell said earlier this week. He said, “After nearly a year in Government, Kiwis have seen significant change across law and order with promising early results shown across some Police statistics”. In this statement, Minister Mitchell referred to a statement he made back in August of 2023 where the Minister told us Kiwis that if we did not start seeing a change in public safety within one year of his appointment as police Minister, he said—back then—he would resign.

Now, the magnitude of that statement that he made in August 2023 was quite compelling to me, for two reasons. First, because it showed how serious Mr Mitchell—our Minister now—was and is about his laser focus on improving safety for New Zealanders across the motu. Second, because he made this statement right in the crux of South Auckland, in the heart of my electorate of Takanini; he made it in Wattle Downs. The Minister—the MP back then—had come to Takanini to perform a few welfare checks with me on a number of businesses that had been grossly negatively impacted by criminal behaviour, and on that day when he made that statement, we were visiting Uday’s family in Wattle Downs. Uday had been violently attacked a few days beforehand where youths barged into his dairy early morning, bashed him with a bat, smashed up his dairy, and he was in hospital for quite some time afterwards as a result.

On that day, we also visited Stonz in Takanini where they had a smash and grab in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon; Manjinder and Harpreet, their business in Takanini had been ram-raided many times and they shared with the Minister and with me that they dread going to sleep because of that 2 o’clock phone call from police in the morning saying their shop has been ram raided again; Sarith from The Coffee Club, his glass was smashed; 2degrees, where the staff told us that they were being intimidated daily by people demanding free products.

The new stats that have emerged this week have been welcomed greatly in my patch of South Auckland and East Auckland, Takanini, where ram raids, as we know, have gone down by 60 percent. What an achievement—what an achievement.

Speaking of patches, as we heard from my good friend Carl Bates, 12 a.m. tonight is when our Government’s ban on gang patches in public will begin, and with it we will start to feel more safe and a sense of real security across my electorate of Takanini. For too long—for too long—my neighbours have been feeling the most unsafe they have ever felt. When a father in Waiata Shores told me last year that he was too afraid to take his twins out to the local park because of the lack of safety, it shows that we’ve got a problem. When almost every home that I door-knocked that one day in Flat Bush had been a victim to vehicle crime, it shows that we have a problem with safety.

I’m proud of the work that we’re doing on this side of the House to restore law and order and to allow decent Kiwis to feel safe, and I’m privileged, indeed I am, to be part of the hard-working Justice Committee and see this work in action. This week we embrace our 27th bill, which is part of our work that has a focus on justice and putting victims, not criminals, first. We’ve seen a reduction in victimisations across the board. We’ve seen foot patrols increase by 30 percent and everything, all of this, is so that our neighbours in Takanini and across New Zealand can feel safe.

Thank you to our police for the immensely hard work that you’re doing. As we prepare for this gang patch ban, which will begin at 12 a.m. tonight, I know a lot of my neighbours will continue this feeling where they know this Government they voted for is making measures to allow them to feel safe. Mr Speaker, thank you very much.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.