General Debate

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

It is a happy day for New Zealand. Today marks the day that this Government broke the back of the inflation beast. After 3½ years, in which New Zealanders have suffered a cost of living crisis, with prices surging, with inflation out of control, today Stats NZ confirmed that inflation is back in band. It is 2.2 percent.

And, members, the good news doesn’t stop there, because the Reserve Bank has already moved to reduce interest rates by 75 basis points across its last two announcements. That is real money in real people’s bank accounts. The Reserve Bank, in reducing those interest rates, has spelt good news for mortgage holders, good news for those business owners who want to invest more, who want to hire more people. We are seeing the green shoots of economic recovery. After multiple increases in interest rates and a sustained period of out-of-control inflation under the last Government, good economic management is back, and the results are coming through.

Now, I want to remind the Leader of the Opposition of his words. Here is his Budget speech this year, in which he said, “Well, this is a Government that is fuelling inflation through tax cuts rather than helping to get inflation back down and interest rates back down again.” So the question is: will he eat those words? Who’s going to ask Mr Hipkins whether he was right? The answer is that he was wrong, because we have delivered the tax relief that the National Party campaigned on, we have delivered lower inflation, and we have delivered dropping interest rates. Next time members of the Opposition cry that the sky is falling and tell New Zealanders that bad times are ahead and that the Government has got it wrong, just remember what Chris Hipkins told you. He said, “This Government is choosing to prioritise tax cuts that are going to lead to higher inflation for longer.” Well, he was wrong then, and he’s wrong now.

It wasn’t just Chris Hipkins, of course. We also had “The Sage”, the finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds, who was very strong and clear in her conviction that “The Government is continuing to talk about tax cuts. That will only drive up inflation.” Well, Barbara Edmonds should know this. What tax relief has actually done is put more money in the bank accounts of 3.5 million New Zealanders. What tax relief has actually done is ensure that families up and down the country have a bit more money for their groceries, for their school uniforms, and for the bills they have to pay. What tax relief has actually done is ensure that some small businesses are seeing shoppers shop a bit more at their shops; some restaurants are seeing a few more people coming in through the doors, and all of this has been achieved with inflation coming down.

That really matters, because what New Zealanders had to get used to over these past 3½ years was that, every time they went to the supermarket, they found that the prices had gone up and up. Inflation got as high as 7 percent under Labour. Instead of doing what every orthodox economist was telling them to do—“Rein in your spending. Get it under control.”—what did they do? They poured fuel on the inflation fire: money for cycleway bridges, money for three waters that no one wanted, money for light rail projects that went nowhere, money for more policy analysts in more departments. And they didn’t deliver results; they delivered inflation. Then what was the Reserve Bank left to do? The Reserve Bank was left to crank and crank and crank those interest rates higher, putting real pressure on mums and dads, real pressure on people who had just bought their first home, creating real hardship in our community.

Barbara said it; she said we should heed her warnings. Well, I’d say, based on her accuracy of forecasting, she should never be trusted in what she claims will happen in this economy again. We are the ones that have delivered what we said we will, and it’s a great day for New Zealanders.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I start by congratulating the finance Minister in stewarding inflation down to 2.2 percent, that absolutely vital component in turning our economy around. Of course, it is this week that we celebrate one year since the election and a return from those dark, dark days when New Zealand First was not represented in this House. And, boy, could we see it from the mess that we came back to.

There was a Labour Party that was adrift, bereft of ideas, an economy in ruins, inflation rampant, a revolving door of Ministers. Even their own Prime Minister had abandoned ship on them! As evidenced, not much has changed in the last 12 months—although, I must say, Carmel Sepuloni has been quite entertaining on Celebrity Treasure Island—indeed, it might be contagious. The Greens have also had a shocking year, a revolving door of MPs, and, in fact, if we could hook a turbine up to it, it could be one of the largest renewable energy projects in the country, and they’ve been far too weak and indecisive to eject a member from their own party. God help us if they end up in power at some stage in the future. But enough of them.

We’ve had our sleeves rolled up. Our leader, the Rt Hon Winston Peters, has been out re-engaging New Zealand in the world, particularly with our neighbours in the Pacific and rebuilding our relationships with our foreign partners and allies in these very difficult geopolitical times. Casey Costello is busy delivering in the 500 extra police we won in the coalition agreement. For our seniors—Customs, he’s got them purring; massive hauls of drugs at the border and, yes, delivering sensible smoking cessation policies. Shane Jones and, to a more modest degree and more self-effacing degree, myself have been out in the regions. We are delivering the gospel of growth, with our sleeves rolled up at regional growth summits up and down the country. In fact, the matua is in Gisborne today preparing for tomorrow’s summits.

We’re not going to bow to the naysayers, the “can’t do” attitude that had prevailed, the red and green tape—we’re sweeping away the impediments to growth, jobs, and investment. This fast-track legislation that we have been instrumental in encouraging our coalition partners to bring forward will be the single most significant piece of legislation that we bring forward in this House. These 149 projects, the 58,000 homes, the 43 infrastructure projects—

Scott Willis: Are they signed off, then?

Hon MARK PATTERSON: —22, Scott Willis, renewable energy projects, 11 mining projects, and, yes, we do need mining and extraction in this country, and we are not afraid to back that industry. Eight quarries—how can you build roads and infrastructure if you don’t have quarries? That is our big, big push to develop regional New Zealand and kick-start this regional and national economy.

The Regional Infrastructure Fund, the $1.2 billion regional development fund, energy, water storage, wharves, and renewable energy—we will be delivering those projects. We will be co-investing and enabling projects and, once again, kick-starting this economy. You can see the lens and the influence that we have had on this Government, and it does build on our proud history of the Provincial Growth Fund, that $3 billion fund that we had in our last term here in Parliament, the 52nd Parliament. It’s just delivered everything from the largest mussel farm in the world to that deprived region up in Ōpōtiki—jobs, growth, hope up there for once—to actually reinstating the Hillside workshops that have been closed down as we support a return to engineering and manufacturing in its heartland of south Dunedin.

We have taken our country back in this last 12 months, back to basics—reading, writing, and maths at school; back to growth; back to an economy that can deliver First World jobs, First World education, and First World healthcare. We are only one year in. There’s much to do, but we’re well on the way and we will deliver on our promises from 12 months ago. Thank you.

Mr Speaker, thank you. Well, it is an absolute pleasure to rise and take a call today. What a day, what a chance to talk about the amazing work that this coalition Government has achieved in just 10 months—oh, sorry, one year of Government. We are well back in the target range of inflation at just 2.2 percent. Take a bow, finance Minister Nicola Willis, for all of the hard work, alongside her colleagues, that she has put into helping drive down inflation in this country. New Zealanders have worked incredibly hard under an incredibly long period of duress and they are now starting to see and benefit from the green shoots of this recovering economy. That is what can be achieved in just one year of careful fiscal management. Imagine what else we can achieve in the coming years of this parliamentary term and beyond.

As the Minister for Women, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the women out there who are helping us to rebuild this economy. Women are, without doubt, the backbone of the New Zealand economy, and often their work goes unacknowledged, unpaid, or underpaid, so I want every woman in this country to know we see you, we hear you, and better times are ahead. Thank you so much for the work you are doing—especially to the mums raising their kids to be strong and independent and setting them up for the future, the grandparents taking their children to school to spend a day focused on reading and writing and on maths. The female CEOs breaking glass ceilings and paving the way for the future leaders to come on behind them. The rural women who just do the books, which actually means they’re the accountant, the auditor, the HR manager, the legal adviser, the farm environment planner, the nutrient budgeter, the stock agent liaison, the calf rearer, the cook, the cleaner, and everything else in between that goes on on a farm; or the many other rural women who are heading up our industry bodies and all of the hard work that they do to contribute to that $53 billion food and fibre sector. You are incredible. You are incredible in your own right and you were rightly acknowledged yesterday on the International Day of Rural Women.

The women of New Zealand need to hear that the Government has their back. I want all women and girls in this country to have economic freedom. I want them to have access to world-class education. I want them to be protected from violence, and, of course, to have better health outcomes. I want to list a few things that this Government is doing towards achieving those aspirations. We’re building the economy that will, in turn, give prosperity to women. We’re increasing paid parental leave by 6 percent. We’re introducing FamilyBoost payments to help with the early childhood education cost, which has even been acknowledged just today as being a part of the factors driving down the cost of living. One of my big key priorities as the Minister for Women is bringing down that very, very stubborn gender pay gap. I’m going to be announcing the work that we’re going to be doing on that very, very shortly, and we’re looking forward to seeing women of this country being remunerated fairly.

Our Government is doing things that are actual and are tangible to changing and improving the lives of women and girls in this country. We are deliberately putting money back into the hands of parents. We are not a Government that is spraying a fire hose of cash across this economy—which caused the Reserve Bank to ratchet up interest rates harder and faster than many of us have seen in our lifetime. We’re helping to restore health inequalities in the health system. We’re extending breast screening to women aged 70 to 74. At the outset, that should save about 22 lives a year, and at its full implementation, about 65 lives a year. What a difference that makes to families across New Zealand.

It’s also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I’d like to inform the House. I want to give a shout-out to the women who have battled and are battling breast cancer, and that, of course, includes some of our parliamentary colleagues, so our thoughts are very much with them at the moment.

We also want to improve the safety of women. We’ve made significant changes to law and order in this country. We are putting more cops back on the beat, keeping our people safe. We are taking a tough stance on criminals and we are looking to improve the laws around stalking, for women as well.

We know families have been bearing the brunt of the economic mismanagement of the previous Labour Government for six long years, and parents and families and women have been forced to make some really, really difficult decisions, but we want them to know things are getting better. We are not going to take our foot off the pedal; we are going to keep working towards giving them more choice and more freedom to live great lives in the best little country on planet Earth.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to speak this afternoon. I want to talk to the announcement that the Auditor-General will inquire into the procurement processes for the contracting of services under Oranga Tamariki. The Minister welcomes the inquiry, yet yesterday she could not answer to me in the House that she was confident that the things that are being investigated by the Auditor-General—that she is confident in her organisation that those things have occurred. Yet when I look at the series of questions that we have had in the House, when I look at interviews in the media about this—and there have been numerous interviews on this—the Minister being unable to express her confidence yesterday, yet all throughout the months of questioning absolutely standing by the decisions, the processes, saying what her expectations were and that she had no concerns—yet, yesterday, she welcomed the inquiry.

On 2 May, I asked the first question of the Minister about the contracts that were coming up for expiry, and she said in the answer, “I expect that these reviews will prioritise the outcomes for children. [And] Some of these decisions are still Budget-sensitive, and we will find out more when the Budget is announced.” Later in May, when the Budget was announced, I waited to hear the details about the very things that I have been questioning. However, there were no such details to come.

Then, our select committee had the opportunity to scrutinise the Minister and the organisation on 17 June—2 May; 17 June. On 17 June, the chief executive was asked, “will you know by the 1st of July?”, the day after all of these contracts had expired. The answer was “Yes.” Then the question was asked, “And then will it be made public?” The answer was: “What we’ll do by the 1st of July is work with all the providers to finalise those agreements, [and] to vary them.” We waited and we waited and we waited for this information that the Minister promised us would be available at the Budget, then wasn’t available when all the contracts expired on 30 June. We were told it would be out by 1 July, and yet still, today, it is not finalised.

The Minister refuses to be accountable to the process and the decisions and has not provided the information through written questions, through parliamentary oral questions, through Official Information Act requests, claiming that they cannot do this because the process hasn’t yet been completed. This is about something that was supposed to have been done by 30 June, that we were promised by the Budget, by 1 July, and the goalposts just keep shifting. It has been an absolutely shambolic process, so I welcome the Auditor-General’s inquiry into this process. But, as this House is aware, it is not just the Auditor-General who is concerned; we also have the Independent Children’s Monitor who has expressed concern and asked questions, and when they didn’t get the information, used the provisions in legislation to require that information to be given. We also have the Children’s Commissioner who is concerned and has asked questions.

The Minister continued to stand in this House and claim that there was nothing wrong with what was happening and then turned on the social service providers themselves. She attacked them, calling them “cash cows”, and that they were disgruntled. She even confirmed on 8 August that the final decisions had been made a couple of days beforehand—well over a month after 30 June—and yet we still can’t get that information because, apparently, final decisions haven’t actually been made and the process hasn’t actually yet been completed. We are many, many months past that deadline and we are seeing the devastating impact for our social service providers, but, more importantly, the vulnerable children and families who they serve, who are in absolute disarray because of this Minister’s cruel cuts that are absolutely front-line services to our most vulnerable children and tamariki. I too welcome the Auditor-General’s inquiry into these procurement processes. Kia ora.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. When the Prime Minister decided that the climate change Minister needed to be in caucus, was it for the purpose of staying informed on what is happening in adaptation to climate impacts? I would hope so, but, on the evidence, it appears that that has been an abject failure. I’m interested in hearing from this Government about the recent flooding events in Ōtepoti—Dunedin—because I want to know what this Government is actually doing to reduce risk to whānau in South Dunedin and in the vulnerable communities around the motu, because the planet’s on fire and all we’re hearing from this Government is lukewarm, lame excuses.

The 2015 floods highlighted the social and economic cost of continuing to pour oil and gas on the climate fire, and it’s only getting worse. By 2050, more than 10,000 homes of whānau in our biggest cities will become uninsurable. When are we going to get past photo ops? When will we get any meaningful work on adaptation, or will we simply get more oil, gas, coalmines, and Ford Rangers pouring more gas on the climate fire, putting more people at greater risk, and turning up the heat on climate impacts like flooding, fires, slips, and damage to homes and families?

Will this Government finally pull their heads out of the coal-pit? Members opposite surely know that sniffing fossil fuels damages brain cells. Addiction to fossil fuels is dangerous, and I can see droopy heads opposite, but back in September 2023, Christopher Luxon said that climate change was an incredibly important portfolio. Fast-forward to 2024, the PM has only visited Dunedin once, on 7 October, on a flying visit that seems to have been mostly spent dodging local residents—local residents who wanted answers to the Government’s long list of broken promises.

When the PM says, “I’m wealthy and I’m sorted”, we get the clear message that this Government just doesn’t care. I can inform members opposite that most people in South Dunedin are not wealthy and are not sorted—certainly not now—but they do care about each other. When the PM says he’s unaware about Dunedin’s request for partnership and support, we can only assume significant dysfunction in the caucus, because why did the Government reject the Dunedin City Council’s plea for $132.5 million to help the city cope with climate impacts earlier this year? Was the PM briefed on this, and, if not, why not? Was the Prime Minister briefed on the meeting we had on 2 May with the Dunedin mayor; the Dunedin City CEO, Sandy Graham; and South Dunedin Future programme leader, Jonathan Rowe; along with the Minister of Climate Change, Simon Watts; Minister Mark Patterson; and Ingrid Leary MP; and, if not, why not?

I live in the Greater Dunedin area, and in the 2006 floods, I was rowing across paddocks rescuing drowning sheep while the rest of the wider Dunedin area was under water, and there have been many flood events since. Sandbagging helps, but we recognise—all of us recognise—that we need to do so much more. There were workshops that I led in 2019, I think—Our City, Our Climate workshops—and those floods also inspired the South Dunedin Future work programme.

This is localism in practices, and when our co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick was able to visit Ōtepoti recently, we met with those who had been flooded and those who had lost stock and had had homes damaged. We met with community leaders. We met with artist Aroha Lowe, who said, “Listen to mana whenua. Listen to tangata whenua. Listen to the whenua, and it’s telling you what to do.”, because, for eff’s sake, there are so many other priorities that we need to be thinking about, rather than putting pseudoephedrine back on the shelves.

When will the Minister of Climate Change actually visit South Dunedin? When will this Government listen? The climate is changing, so why aren’t we? We need to act now. The climate is not going to wait for politics to catch up. This is a choice that we have, and all we’ve heard from the Government is that it will look to develop a national climate change adaptation framework by some time next year. It is pathetic.

Charles Dickens once wrote: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. I’d like to just start out by acknowledging those who are doing it tough and those for whom it is, in fact, the worst of times: those people who have lost a job, those businesses who are struggling, and those households who are struggling through a cost of living crisis. My message to them is that better times are ahead.

We’ve talked a lot today about green shoots—blue shoots—and there are some really good things to celebrate for those who are struggling. On cost of living: we’ve had it announced that inflation is down to a record 2.2 percent, interest rates 4.75 percent.

Shanan Halbert: Talk about Northcote.

DAN BIDOIS: Business confidence is the highest in nearly a decade. Those who are struggling, particularly in Northcote, are thankful that we’ve got income tax relief and FamilyBoost for those who are like me and who have young ones that will be going to an early learning centre. We’ve got green shoots on law and order, with respect to the tougher approach. I want to thank those in the police force for bringing to justice 40 Comancheros, and that is having positive ripples throughout our country. We’ve had a 22 percent reduction in serious assaults in Auckland. But there’s more to celebrate. Around cutting waste: we have cut waste from the previous Government. We’ve axed wasteful spending projects like light rail, three waters, Let’s Get Wellington Moving, Lake Onslow, contracts and consultants, and back-office staff, which has saved taxpayers billions of dollars.

We’ve gone back to basics on things like education. I want to acknowledge the passion that our Minister has for making sure we’ve got a better, brighter future for those future Kiwis. We’ve gone back to basics in infrastructure: making sure we’re actually getting things built in this country and getting things moving, but we know there is a lot for us to do. Our plan is: working to improve the quality of life and improve the economic prosperity of this country, because that is, of course, the underlying thing that we must focus on as a country to improve the next generation of New Zealanders. Like our education system: making sure that our kids and our grandkids have a best education, whether you’re Māori, Pacific, or any ethnicity.

Making sure that we have an attractive arrangement for foreign investment—I’d like to acknowledge the recent initiatives that will oversee an overhaul of the Overseas Investment Act. Making sure we actually deliver infrastructure in this country—that is what the Fast-track Approvals Bill is all about. If the opposite side was keen on seeing stuff built in this country, they’d come on board and support our fast-track legislation. But there’s other good things around foreign connections. I want to acknowledge our trade Minister Todd McClay for getting together and signing a deal with the UAE. That is actually fantastic—in record time—that will make a real, substantial, and tangible difference to those who wish to expand overseas.

The last area in our economic plan is around the innovation, science, and technology space. We’ve got a fantastic Minister in Judith Collins, who’s very passionate about improving the productive and innovative capacity in New Zealand. There are so many good things and good reasons to be optimistic, but we know there’s a lot for us to do. The coalition is paving the way for a strong and prosperous future for our nation. That’s the kaupapa that we live by and we will not wait for it. So we are focused, our plan is working, and we’re working hard to get our country back on track.

Before I call the member Shanan Halbert—

Shanan Halbert: Mr Speaker—perfect timing after—

SPEAKER: No, wait on. No, no—hang on. I was actually saying something then. I was saying before I call the member Shanan Halbert, I just want to make it clear that I made a slight mistake in the order of things. I apologise to Dan Bidois and to Shanan Halbert, and I’ve given Shanan Halbert—if he looks at the clock—a small compensation for the interruption that he’s suffered. I’m sure that’ll be hard on the rest of us, but, none the less, we’ll put up with it!

Mr Speaker, it’s actually perfect timing, and it won’t be hard on you at all. Over the next five minutes or so, I’m talking about the past year, since Scar took over this kingdom and the darkness invaded our lives and communities in Tāmaki-makau-rau, and, in fact, in Northcote, because the MP for Northcote, just down the road from me, didn’t mention anything about our local community. He didn’t talk about the fact that he’s cancelled local classroom buildings, he’s closing North Shore Women’s Centre, he’s cancelled the counselling services at the Salvation Army, he’s reduced our police numbers, he’s cut funding to Kaipātiki projects, and he’s cut jobs, so it was perfect timing that I am now in this particular position.

This is a Government that is choosing to spend $2 million for landlords and $216 million for tobacco companies. They are taking New Zealand backwards and taking us back decades on the environment and on issues pertaining to Te Tiriti. They’re not thinking of the future. They’re putting themselves and commercial interests ahead of our people and ahead of our New Zealand communities.

Front-line cuts are going too far and too fast—border workers, a hiring pause in hospitals, kids’ classrooms on hold, hundreds of front-line providers seeing their funding cut or reduced, the shameful Whaikaha attack on support for disabled Kiwis. The list just continues and continues, and each day, I wake up to this Government, and I think, what next? More and more cuts are made against the communities in our country.

In particular, today, I’m going to speak to the transport issues that we have in Tāmaki-makau-rau Auckland, in my Auckland-issues portfolio. The Government has cut $564 million from the next three years of Auckland’s long-term plan in the National Land Transport Programme 2024 to 2027—that’s $564 million, for the chair of the Transport and Infrastructure Committee. That includes street maintenance, including footpaths, along with cycleways, safety, and bus services. They are all losers under this Government. The impact of these cuts will be large. They’ll be widespread. Road safety funding cuts will increase. They will increase, for Simeon Brown’s ears. They will increase deaths and serious injuries for Aucklanders.

Road harm costs Auckland an estimated $2 billion annually. Fewer people were dying on Auckland’s roads according to new figures compiled by Auckland Transport. In the year ending July 2024, 27 deaths were recorded in the year, down from six fatalities in the previous 12 months, and the Minister for Auckland ignores these statistics. He believes they don’t happen, and he’s cut their funding, but it’s important for Aucklanders to understand how many of us are less likely to make it home because of reduced road safety initiatives. Alongside that, what about our kids? The original road safety budget for Auckland involved a $70 million - odd contribution from the Government, but they’ve only given a mere six.

The Government’s view of Auckland Council’s cuts should include, under the official planned street maintenance and renewals, that they’ll lose $107 million over three years. Time-of-use charging, which they promised, will be cut by 77 percent, and road safety by 36 percent. The road safety cuts will affect education work and projects to make our roads are safer. Cycleways will lose about $90 million, or 35 percent of their funding. Electrification of ferries will have $89 million deferred, and buses will get $59 million less, both part of a three-year cut to spending—an attack on public transport in Auckland by $213 million.

Now, I asked the questions of the Minister of Auckland, Simeon Brown: what are you doing? What is your plan for Auckland? In fact, there are no answers, because there haven’t been any Cabinet papers that have been taken up, and there hasn’t been any work done. In fact, the Minister for Auckland isn’t advocating for Aucklanders, he doesn’t have a plan, and he’s only making more and more cuts.

It is an absolute privilege to stand in the “Pride Lands” and follow “Zazu” in his kōrero today. “Simba” has arrived.

Hei aha rawa te takaroa

Whakaponotia

Whakarongo ake, ngā iwi o te motu e

Ki te karere o te hepara pai e

Hei aha rawa te takaroa

Whakaponotia

Te Tiriti o Waitangi

Te huarahi mana Māori motuhake

Te iwi e, he mea hipokina a Ihoa

Hei aha rawa te takaroa

Whakaponotia

[Do not delay

Believe

Listen, the people of the nation

To the messenger of the good shepherd

Do not delay

Believe

The Treaty of Waitangi

The path of Māori autonomy

To the people, sheltered by God

Do not delay

Believe]

Kia ora tātou. “Hei aha rawa te”—[Members applaud] Thank you, thank you; you’re taking up my time.

“Hei aha rawa te takaroa, whakaponotia” [“Do not delay, believe”] is the call to our people. We can no longer wait. We must believe in ourselves, believe in our solutions, sit comfortably in our rangatiratanga. We are tangata whenua, we are the sovereign, we are our own solutions.

E taku Māori e [To my Māori people], we can no longer wait. Hei aha te takaroa [Do not delay] for Pākehā to fix our problems and dysfunction that they have created for our people. We have now become impatient—very impatient—and angry, and so we should. Righteous anger is our right and we need to channel it into our own solutions and wellbeing.

Hei aha rawa te takaroa, whakaponotia [Do not delay, believe]—believe, and know who are. We have for too long been over-investigated, over-convicted, over-policed, over-stereotyped, over-incarcerated, overlooked, over-regulated, undereducated, undervalued, under-classed, assimilated, and subjugated in a racist and white supremacist system to make tangata whenua more like settlers. Like Europeans, like Pākehā—just second-class ones.

Our goal is to ensure that this is a one-term Government—everything the light touches is our kingdom, except that shadowy part over there—and ensure we grow more members who are unapologetic, unfettered, unbridled, and unceded Māori political voices here in this Kāwanatanga space. Hei aha rawa te takaroa, whakaponotia. [Do not delay, believe.]

Being the only tangata whenua movement in this House means that the weight of our Māori nation sits solely on the shoulders of the six people that sit here, in this part of the House. One of the easiest ways we can do that is that we need more of our people to enrol on to the Māori roll. For the first time, Māori on the Māori roll now out-populate Māori on the general roll—congratulations to our people. This is showing the new breed of Māori coming through.

The kōhanga reo generation has arrived—70 percent of our people are 40 years and younger. If we are 20 percent of the population, that would translate into more seats in this House if all of our people were on the Māori roll—18 to 20 seats. But because we have people still on the general roll—Māori people on the general roll—we get half of what we should be getting, which is seven Māori seats, when, in actual fact, it should be 14 if all Māori were on the Māori roll. That was at 16 percent. Now we’re at 20 percent, it will increase.

Andy Foster: They’re voting where they want to vote.

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: You’re not Māori.

RAWIRI WAITITI: Yes, be quiet. This is about us using this democratic process to our advantage. E hika mā [My friends], get on the Māori roll, ensure that we have more on the Māori roll to ensure we have more Māori seats for more Māori voices. E hika mā [My friends], this is our kōrero today. Kia ora tātou.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’m taking this call to talk about a pressing issue in our tertiary education system, particularly our universities. When students go through our universities, what do we expect? We expect that students will be able to think independently, that they will be able to think critically, and they will have an innovative mind-set so that they can go out and solve the problems of this ever-evolving world, but this confidence and this trust that we have in our universities is recently becoming a bit shaky.

We have seen Times Higher Education world university rankings released recently, and none of our universities have risen in their rankings. We have seen some universities have dropped in their rankings, so, overall, we can say that we have experienced a drop. If I just pick one university, a top university—University of Auckland—it is no longer in the top 150 universities. It’s quite disappointing to see that we don’t have any universities in the top 150, and that the University of Auckland is no longer in the top 150.

What is more concerning is that, because of the direction some of the universities are taking, the rankings might suffer even more. I can talk about many, many issues, but I’ll pick one example: the University of Auckland has announced that they are going to introduce a compulsory course to teach the Treaty of Waitangi and Māori world view. This is a compulsory course worth 15 points for all undergraduate degrees—for all undergraduate degrees. I ask why is this course needed for all undergraduate degrees and why is it needed that this course should be compulsory?

This is going to create a lot of suffering for students because, at the end of the day, students are going to suffer, and, in the long run, our country is going to suffer.

Hon Member: How? How will it create suffering?

Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: Yes, I’m going to explain that, because this course is—all students will have to study. If somebody wants to study science—for example, somebody wants to do a Bachelor of Science (BSc)—that student is wanting to do a BSc because the student is really passionate about science. Now, this course is going to be enforced on that student, so if the student doesn’t like this course, of course the grades won’t be what overall we would like to see, and the overall grades of that student will suffer.

Moreover, we know that, for any degree programme, there are some compulsory components that students have to do. For a BSc, there have to be some compulsory science components to be completed so that they can achieve a BSc degree, which is equivalent to BScs around the world, with the universities that we compare ourselves with. Now, because of this space that is going to be created for this compulsory Treaty of Waitangi and Māori world view course, other components will be pushed on to the rest of the time that is left for that degree and that is going to create more pressure on students. So who is going to suffer? Students. And, in the long run, our country is going to suffer.

Going back to our international rankings, yes, members out there might want to dismiss our lowering international rankings, but I say this: it’s really important that we improve our international rankings. One thing which is to be noted is that all our universities have dropped in one area: that is the international outlook. Universities, our universities, have lost credibility in international outlook.

I know that; I have done two degrees overseas. I did my BSc and Master of Science from India; I did my PhD from the University of Auckland. I have seen how the tertiary education system works in two very different parts of the world, and when students are looking around to study, they do look at international rankings. Top students are definitely looking at international rankings when they apply to study at any university around the world.

Also, the academics—if you want to attract brilliant people to come and teach and to do research in our universities, we have to improve our ranking because these people, when they’re looking for a change, they definitely look for university ranking. I’m calling on the University of Auckland to be inclusive and be forward-looking in their approach. I would like to see that they create the environment where all perspectives are respected, not just a one-sided view enforced on students. I’m calling on the University of Auckland to pause, to rethink, and to drop this paper that they want to introduce from next year, because students deserve choice. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I just texted my mother and told her that I was going to be speaking in the House, and she said to me, “Whatever you do, don’t sing.” So I won’t sing. I can’t sing anywhere near like that, so I won’t be singing.

Look, when I listened to the wonderful Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, and I see the way that our Cabinet is pulling together to turn this country around, it makes me proud to be part of this Government. Our Government inherited a complete shemozzle, rivalled only by the woes of Wellington City Council right now—inflation at a high; interest rates, high; and the only solution, it seemed, was for the previous Government to throw some more money at it, run for the hills, and hope that it might go away. Well, guess what! That was never going to work and it didn’t work. Thankfully, the people of this beautiful country are way more astute than some on the other side give them credit for and they voted for change, and the coalition Government has served up a good dose of change.

We have turned the dial towards a better future for our children. We have focused on accountability for taxpayer money, pragmatic changes to get things done, removing red and green tape, policy settings that will drive productivity, and a novel thing: a sensible and intelligent approach to managing the economy. Today’s Stats New Zealand announcement that the Consumers Price Index is back to 2.2 percent from its high of 7 percent in 2022 is indeed great news. What a relief to be in a country with a Government that knows how to get this under control, and the future once again looks bright. Tax cuts have been delivered into our homes, FamilyBoost is helping families, and interest rates are now down by 75 basis points, which is all contributing to our more rosy future.

Sometimes, people don’t understand the benefit that lower interest rates have for us. Lower interest rates mean families get to keep more of their money and maybe do something extra with their children at the weekend or buy the new sports uniform or the shoes that the kids need. That little bit more money goes into the economy. They spend it at the cafes, the dairies, and the retailers. It helps keep the businesses ticking over. Lower interest rates mean people have the confidence to develop properties, to build houses, to grow their businesses, and to increase the opportunities for businesses to invest, innovate, and expand. Lower interest rates mean that the new car you need to get to work is more affordable. And, of course, you can fix your rates at a lower cost.

All of this, coupled with the work being done to reduce the cost of compliance for our farmers to get projects fast tracked, to get the country back moving, bring back some pride, and instil a work ethic, is critical to our economic performance. If we can create more jobs, then we can get more people off the benefit, into work—that brings more to people’s self-worth than we might imagine. It brings them a new community, a sense of achievement, and a future. It teaches their kids that it’s good to get up and get going in the morning. Instead, these people would be now on the payroll, contributing to better health and education outcomes for their family and their whānau. It means, therefore, as a country, we can afford better health, better education, infrastructure, police services, and mental health and social support systems for those who really need it.

I know people are still doing it hard out there. In my electorate, we are seeing some of the worst indicators biting very hard right now. I see that at the coalface every week. It’s been a tough year, following the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle and the recovery phases which are now continuing. It’s ironic that in the recent economic growth statistics and report, Tairāwhiti was leading the country in economic growth.

Dan Bidois: No way.

DANA KIRKPATRICK: It was. I’m sorry to tell you that that is money largely being spent in the construction sector on fixing up Tairāwhiti after the cyclone.

We are not there yet, but we know the turn-around is real and it is happening. I am stopped constantly in the streets, in my electorate, by people telling me to keep going—“Tell Chris and Nicola and the team, they’re doing a great job.” I’m grateful because it comes, sometimes, from people who I just wouldn’t expect it from. Just today, I received this letter in my inbox: “Hi Dana, I felt compelled to write and let you know how wonderful it feels to have a responsible group of people running our country. I am very proud of our Government and of all the partners. It feels like the grownups are in charge. And I fully support Chris Luxon. I think he’s the right man for the job. We’re lucky to have him working for us. I used to worry about our future, but that has gone now. Feeling quietly confident. Thank you.”

It is as important now as it has ever been to find new ways of paying for infrastructure, for finding new investment, for relieving costs where we can, and to exercise fiscal responsibility, because New Zealand is getting back on track.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to take a call in the general debate today, and I’m going to be talking about how this Government is taking workers in New Zealand backwards. But, before I start, I just want to respond to one of our colleagues across the House who was complaining about doing a course on Te Tiriti o Waitangi at Auckland University.

I can say I took a compulsory course on Te Tiriti o Waitangi when I was a university student in my 20s, and I have used that information and knowledge every single day that I have been working in New Zealand since that date. It is absolutely unfounded to say that that information is not useful, and I challenge that member to take that course. Personal challenge: take that course and tell me after you’ve finished it if you don’t think of it and your mind doesn’t turn to it every single day when we talk about the important things affecting this country around our constitutional arrangements and the important place that Te Tiriti o Waitangi has in our Parliament and also in our country.

What I want to mainly talk about today is the Government’s actions towards working people. We’ve heard it so many times from those on the other side of the House, claiming to be the party of working people. We’ve heard it from the Prime Minister. We’ve heard it from the Deputy Prime Minister. We’ve heard it from New Zealand First. I say to those parties: show me that you are the party of working people by your actions. When I look over them, all I see is the biggest attack on workers’ rights since 30 years ago, when the Employment Contracts Act came in.

I’d like to go through some of these attacks on workers that this Government has made. First of all, scrapping fair pay agreements—agreements that would have led to higher wages and better conditions for some of our most vulnerable workers: bus drivers, cleaners, early childhood education teachers, supermarket workers, security guards—reinstating 90-day trials, getting rid of protections for people so they’ve got no rights at all within the first 90 days. I guarantee there is someone sitting in the House today who has received an email from a constituent who has been unfairly dismissed because of that policy—

Glen Bennett: Read that email out.

CAMILLA BELICH: I know I certainly have. “Read that email out.”—yeah, that’s exactly right, Glen Bennett, good point. Effective cut to the minimum wage—these are the poorest people in New Zealand, and this Government has, effectively, cut the minimum wage, meaning that they earn less despite official advice to the opposite—cutting the Pay Equity Task force. We’ve seen recently the public sector gender pay gap has risen. And how has this Government responded? They say they’re the best party for women, much better than the last Government. Well, show me by your actions. Cutting the Pay Equity Taskforce shows me that you’re taking New Zealand backwards.

Then we heard during the election campaign a reassuring word from the now Prime Minister: “We are going to not be reducing sick pay.”, he said. And what do we see when we see this Government come in? We see one of the proposals is to reduce sick pay for part-time workers. Now, who are part-time workers in New Zealand? Let me tell you. Almost 70 percent of them are women; a lot of them are carers. These are people who need sick leave. There is no justification for this broken election promise to cut sick leave for part-time workers.

There’s so many things—modern slavery. The Prime Minister said he would march in the street for modern slavery, but what do we see this Government doing? Nothing.

Then we have pay transparency—very important for people to be able to see where there are gaps and when there is unfair pay going to certain groups of people, especially Māori and Pasifika women. We see all work on that stop—shocking.

I just want to note, in relation to modern slavery, the Global Slavery Index says, on even any given day, 8,000 people in New Zealand are living in modern slavery. We need to take action now, and we need to do that also under our international obligations, under free-trade agreements that we have with the UK and Europe as well.

There are so many other things. I have 12 things to read out; I’m not sure if I can get through them all in the last five minutes—I probably can’t. I’ll have to come back and do another general debate speech because there are just too many attacks on workers for me to get through. I want to say, when the Labour Government is re-elected in 2026, you will know us by our actions, because we are the true party of working people. We will be reinstating all of these policies that have been cruelly taken away from New Zealand workers by this Government, which has been cruelly attacking them.

I want also to note that we are fighting back against this. I’ve done five public meetings around New Zealand on workers’ rights with the Hon Willie Jackson; I’ve got another two more. Then, on 23 October, workers around New Zealand, under a Council of Trade Unions initiative, will be gathering to fight back, not only on the cuts against workers but on the other unfair attacks by this Government—against Māori, against women, against people with disabilities. We are not taking this lying down; we are fighting back and we will be back in 2026.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, inflation today, Stats NZ, the number is out: 2.2 percent. What a win for New Zealanders. This is a great day for New Zealand households, a great day for New Zealand businesses. I remember, when I came into Parliament about 2½ years ago, we were sitting at over 7 percent, and then it was 5.6 percent last year, and here we are with a National-led Government in charge: 2.2 percent. It is within band. This is excellent.

There have been some good changes lately. We’ve seen some tax relief back to hard-working Kiwis. We’ve seen FamilyBoost payments. Families are now clearly better off than they were a year ago, and with the decrease in inflation, the Reserve Bank, in New Zealand, is moving to cut interest rates. We have seen 75 basis points already. They are talking about, potentially, that in the November review that they do, and the good news is that most households out there, roughly half of them, are on very short fixed-terms of six months. This is going to translate and flow very quickly into the New Zealand economy. The green shoots—or, as we say on this side of the House, the “blue” shoots—are reemerging in the New Zealand economy. The Mood of the Boardroom survey recently had confidence in the economy at 3.23 out of five. That’s the highest it has been since 2016, when, funnily enough, National was last in Government. You compare that to where the Mood of the Boardroom was last year, at 1.82 over 5. This Government is putting the books back on a credible path back to fiscal sustainability.

There is some other good news, and we’ve heard it talked about a little bit today—fast-track—and what a great thing fast-track is. The Infrastructure Commission estimates that every year we spend $1.3 billion on the time taken to get a resource consent, and that has nearly doubled in the last five years. Thank you, Labour! Well, what we’re doing is we’re putting through the Fast-track Approvals Bill. We’re going to rebuild our economy, and we’re going to grow and boost productivity. This is a one-stop fast-track consenting regime for national and regional projects of significance. It will cut red and green tape and make it easier to get things done. It will revitalise the New Zealand economy, and it will revitalise the Tauranga economy. I’m very proud that, in the Bay of Plenty, we have got 12 projects included on that schedule.

The Port of Tauranga is an absolutely crucial one, and that has been going on for six years—that has been going through the courts—and many people there find it extremely frustrating. The Port of Tauranga CEO has come out and said that it should have been built by now. It’s unacceptable to spend six years in a consenting process for something that was included in the Regional Coastal Environment Plan 30 years ago. We need to double our exports. We have a big plan to do that, but if we don’t have that gateway to the world, it isn’t possible. Another reality is that the container ships that are now being built are significantly larger, and if we don’t make the Port of Tauranga and the navigation channels fit for purpose and wider and deeper, those big ships are not going to come here. They simply will leave New Zealand off the map, and we will have to move our stuff to Australia to get it out there to the world. That would be a travesty for New Zealand businesses.

We’ve got a few significant roads included in there. Takitimu North Link Stage 2 probably should have been under way by now if the previous Government hadn’t cancelled it. Good news: it’s on the fast-track schedule. That will provide a four-lane median-divided highway to Ōmokoroa. Then we’ve got the State Highway 29 Tauriko network, a very important link in the “golden triangle” between Auckland, Hamilton, and Tauranga, and, crucially, the Port of Tauranga. We’ve got a number of housing projects: the Bell Road Limited Partnership in Wairakei South is going to add 2,000 to 3,000 new homes. We’ve got the Tauriko West housing and land development. There’s another 1,250 homes. We’ve got the Tara Road development; that’s 605 residential allotments. And there’s a whole bunch of industrial and commercial projects off the back of that. Now, we look at the fast-track and we have got 58 housing and land development projects; opening up 55,000 homes—I’ve already mentioned those in my patch—43 infrastructure projects; and, for those on the other side of the House, you’ve got 22 renewable energy projects.

This is a successful Government. Governments cannot live beyond their means for long periods of time without damaging the future prospects of their people. Just like any household, we are going to continue to drive more value from this economy. Inflation is back within band. This is a fantastic day for New Zealand. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.