General Debate

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

Tēnā koe e te Pīka. It’s hard to comprehend where this current Government thinks it’s leading our country to. What’s the destination, where are we headed, where’s the map? And what matters most to who, and why? There are some simple questions that most struggle to garner any clarity around, but what we are clear about is that this is the Christopher Luxon - led National coalition Government of 2023, and what happens as a consequence of his leadership will be his legacy.

It’s clear to see that there is a significant knowledge and capacity gap in this Government when it comes to issues of a constitutional nature. This is also true of the vast majority of MPs and staff in Parliament. This gives rise to particular problems—hand brakes, we might call them—slowing the waka of development down. When you mention “constitution” in this House, everyone runs for cover. This House seems allergic to constitutional discussion or debate, unless, of course, they are defining the terms of engagement themselves with no regard to the history or evidence.

When you mention constitution in Aotearoa, you cannot ignore Te Tiriti o Waitangi, for it is the bedrock of the modern constitution. Nor can you ignore He Whakaputanga—[Interruption]

SPEAKER: We’ll just confine some of our remarks, thank you.

TĀKUTA FERRIS: —the Declaration of Independence—it is the first formal constitution of this country upon which Te Tiriti o Waitangi rests. These two documents are now firmly embedded in the nation’s psyche when it comes to contemplating constitutional arrangements, although many seem hell-bent on keeping their heads in the sand and behaving as if it was 1924.

We understand this has all transpired in a relatively short period of time and that adjusting is hard for some. What took the colonialists 160 years to build has been unwound—with clear intent—over the last 40 years. This rise of understanding has been put in overdrive in recent decades, largely because of the tireless efforts of unsung Māori leaders. Also, the tireless efforts of many non-Māori leaders who understand the nature of our constitutional arrangements and the history of our country and are deeply hopeful for a better future for all who call Aotearoa home. They, too, are unsung, and, unfortunately, their efforts are all too often forgotten, brushed under the carpet so that self-serving individuals and small pockets of the population can continue to rort the system and bask in stolen privileges that they do not deserve.

A knowledge gap is a dangerous thing. It allows lies to be presented as truths. Politicians call this obfuscation—the art of making something unclear, intentionally vague, ambiguous, to conceal or obscure the truth, to confuse others. Lies, in other words. Many in this House are masters of it, and it is a disservice to those who voted you into your positions. Unless, of course—

Rt Hon Winston Peters: Point of order, Mr Speaker. It is simply not acceptable for someone, inexperienced as he is, to nevertheless accuse other MPs—

TĀKUTA FERRIS: E noho.

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi: That’s not a point of order.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: Keep quiet while I make a point of order—right?

Mariameno Kapa-Kingi: That’s hardly a point of order.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: Keep quiet when I’m making a point of order.

SPEAKER: Yeah, good. Make your point of order.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: That’s number one.

TĀKUTA FERRIS: E noho.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: See, Mr Speaker?

SPEAKER: Well, I would advise the member just to sit quietly while we hear a point of order. That’s what the Standing Orders require.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: He made the allegation that members of this Parliament are liars, and he should have been stopped in his tracks right then.

SPEAKER: My apologies, I didn’t quite pick that up, but if that is what the member said, then he should withdraw and apologise. I’d also make it very clear to the member that reading speeches is not part of the tikanga of the House either. The member may wish to continue, but if he has made that statement—we’ll obviously check the Hansard later—then he should withdraw and apologise as quickly as possible.

TĀKUTA FERRIS: I haven’t made that statement.

SPEAKER: Oh, well—

Hon Shane Jones: Point of order—point of order.

SPEAKER: No, hang on—wait on, wait on. We can’t go back and hear what was said inside this House, but we will check it and I do hope the member hasn’t misled the House with that particular claim. Resume the speech.

TĀKUTA FERRIS: Haere mai, haere mai, haere mai. We must move Parliament in a direction that sees the knowledge gap close to disable those who seek to exploit it. There must be prerequisite understandings for becoming an MP. This is in the interest of all who call Aotearoa home. Many who suffer from this knowledge gap have naturally spent a lot of time away from Aotearoa, lived outside of Aotearoa. In my professional life, I’ve encountered many of them—people who spend a long time away and then return home—and they’re astounded at the level of influence that Māori now have. I’ve had it described to me as, “Wow, what happened?” But what happened is progress, and ignorance is no excuse for wanting to halt progress.

I recall a moment like this in 2021, when newly crowned leader of the Opposition Christopher Luxon was being questioned on the news about his views on Te Tiriti o Waitangi. He was visibly uncomfortable, clearly out of his depth, and said, “Well, Māori ceded sovereignty.” I recall thinking to myself, “Gee, we could be in trouble here. This fella could become Prime Minister.”, and here we are, six urgent hearings of the Waitangi Tribunal in as many months—unprecedented, never in our history; the tribunal is usually lucky to have one a year, and now they’ve got six, seven, eight, and who knows how many will come—and peaceful protests from Te Rerenga to the Bluff. The legacy is emerging, and all because the 6 and 8 percent want to keep their heads in the sand and ignore the constitutional arrangements of our country.

Well, we’re not going anywhere and neither is the debate, and when you’re ready to have it with te iwi Māori—an open debate—the invitation is here, and we’ll be waiting.

Point of order, Mr Speaker. My point of order relates to the fact that the way in which the House has evolved, it’s sought to embrace a greater dimension of what it means to be Māori, but there are the traditions of the House, and I appeal to you: if a member is incapable of giving a five-minute speech without relying on a computer or written notes, that is grossly inconsistent with every tradition I’ve seen observed in this House since the time that I arrived, right back to the days of Parekura Horomia. I would ask that you return to the House and lay it down, is that actually the standard or not? Or are we going to have a different standard just because it’s from a minority party who believe they’re full of piety?

Well, notwithstanding the last bit, I will come back to you on that.

Point of order, Mr Speaker. Ka pai. Speaking to that point of order, certainly, I am thoroughly pleased that—to be able to use my notes as a new MP has been hugely important and I’m grateful. I’m glad for that privilege, and I thank the Speaker for enabling that to happen. I just wanted to speak to that point of order.

No, no, that’s very presumptuous—I haven’t enabled anything. I did suggest to the previous speaker that he consider the Standing Order which says you do not read a speech; you deliver a speech. People will use notes—nothing wrong with that—but setting up a screen in front of you and reading from it is not part of the deal. I will come back with something on that tomorrow.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. When Kiwis voted for our Government last year, we knew we were in for a mission, a rescue mission for this country. Labour had spent money like a teenager with their first credit card, and by the time we were sworn in, the cupboards were as empty as Labour’s promises. Education, law and order, health, everything was going backwards. We were on a sinking ship, and I can say it’s been quite the mission turning it around. But voters are getting what they wanted. We’re restoring fiscal discipline back to the Government’s books. We’re restoring law and order. We’re delivering better public services in health and education.

What is the alternative? Well, what has the Opposition leader been up to? Well, New Zealanders are learning the words “Au revoir”, “Bonjour”, “Bon voyage”, “Haere rā.” The Leader of the Opposition is on his great trip to the United Kingdom, and he’s over there for a couple of weeks just as his popularity levels drop to their record lowest levels. Well, he blamed it on his “lower profile”. I’ll tell you what. In the last two weeks, he’s had more interviews than he’s had all year and his numbers have dropped to the lowest and have been ever since.

The Hon Willie Jackson—and I must read this, Mr Speaker, because it’s quite the quote. He came to Chris Hipkins’ defence and said, “It might be time we have to talk about our internals, because our internals have been consistent in terms of—can’t say too much because Chippy is quite—he strategises around this, but our internals tell us we’re there or thereabouts. We haven’t dropped down to 24 or 25 percent anyway.” So it’s 26 percent? That’s what their internals say—26 percent; that’s the number. There must be some restless backbenchers over there. You can see Glen Bennett, Shanan Halbert, Kieran McAnulty getting very nervous and all for that small bunch of Auckland MPs. What looked like a bloodbath in 2023 is only getting worse.

So who will the next Leader of the Opposition be? Who will take the reins while Hipkins is away on his trip? Carmel Sepuloni? Well, her time on deserted Treasure Island doing whatever it takes to undermine, dispose of her colleague was a perfect work experience for the Labour leadership, wasn’t it? Will it be David Parker? Well, he has been travelling the country, talking to small groups, very small groups of Labour Party members, undermining Chris Hipkins through the media and undermining the finance spokesperson and, of course, the very excellent revenue spokesperson of the Labour Party, trying to cook up extra taxes—well, David Parker, he’s on the case. And then there’s the cabal behind David Parker, the ones who back his wealth tax, as well as Hipkins’ capital gains tax. Just like the election, it’ll be a group of Aucklanders who depose Chris Hipkins for the second time: Phil Twyford from out west, Arena Williams from down south, Helen White from central Auckland, and Ingrid Leary from Waiheke Island.

Let’s not forget about the ghosts from Governments past. If you’re in the Auckland area and you see down the back of the Labour Party meetings, you’ll see following around behind Phil Twyford Michael Wood—Michael Wood. Well, Hipkins is probably rueing the day a few weeks ago when he said about Michael Wood, “He needs to rebuild his relationship with the party, the electorate, and the country, ultimately, if he wants to be an MP again.” Well, I know he’s trying—he’s trying—and he’s got his eyes on the ball. Well, the good news is the more people in Mt Roskill who meet Dr Carlos Cheung, the more they like him and the more they will be now saying “Au revoir, bonjour, see you later.” to Michael Wood for ever. Well, whoever it is, the way things are going with Labour, many people around New Zealand actually think Chlöe Swarbrick is the Leader of the Opposition these days.

What has Labour been doing to try and pretend that they are getting ready for the next election? Well, they’re committed to slapping Kiwis with more taxes. Businesses, their KiwiSaver, capital gains tax, wealth tax, everything is back on the table. Kieran McAnulty—well, he’s still mum about whether Labour supports four lanes to the plains, a project that Wellingtonians are buzzing about more than when Deborah Russell hears about a new tax. They’re committed to piling on more debt after increasing Government expenditure by 80 percent, and Chris Hipkins—well, he wants to walk back the cellphone ban on our classrooms, which is working so well in our classrooms, when in all seriousness New Zealanders know that Labour has learnt nothing in the last nine months. They don’t care who the leader is because they know that the Labour Party doesn’t care about the interests that New Zealanders care about.

Ko te mihi tuatahi ki te Atua, ko te mihi tuarua ki te Whare e tū nei. He mihi mahana ki a koe, e te Māngai o te Whare.

[First acknowledgment is to the Almighty, the second is to this standing House. And a warm, convivial greetings to you, Mr Speaker.]

This week, the Government got delivered its report card. We had the report come in on the man who for months—nay, years—had stood there banging his desk about “outcomes”, and what did that report card show? What it showed is a Government that is taking New Zealand backwards.

Let’s go through that report card. Violent crime: something that this Government said it was going to come in and—it had the solutions—it was going to it fix overnight. It was going to make things better, and what did we see? Instead of violent crime going down, we have seen it increase on this Government’s watch. This Government now has the task of not only meeting its 20,000 fewer instances of violent crime—because it went up 30,000—it now has the task of reducing it by 50,000. That is a clear fail on that measure this Government had set itself. Then the report card also showed in a great turn and twist of irony that it was in jeopardy of hitting its education targets as well. These are at risk. They’re not a slam dunk. The report’s showing “could do better” on that one.

Then the Government said that under their watch what we were going to see was fewer people on benefits, so we’re going to reduce people on jobseeker. What did we see? We saw those numbers go up as well. Then there were the great promises in health. What this Government was going to do to fix health straight away, and what have we seen? We’re seeing people waiting longer for elective surgeries—more people waiting longer. Instead of increasing access, they are taking the country backwards, as they are on so many cases.

What kind of verdict should we issue to the student who for many years has sat in class and beat his desk yelling “outcomes” across the classroom at everyone. Well, I have some suggestions for that report card. One is that he is not demonstrating responsibility and needs to be constantly reminded of how to perform daily tasks, would be one such comment that might come on a report card like that. The other thing that I think would be most apt for this student is that he needs to listen to directions fully so that he can learn to work independently. He seems to be influenced by two other boys in the class and seems to be exhibiting behaviours that are not all of his own making, although he will not take responsibility for them himself.

We have a clear report on a Government that is going backwards. It is shambolic, it is incompetent, and it is divided. So not only the report cards; the soap opera of this Government rolls on. You have Shane Jones, a Cabinet Minister, calling a judge a communist. The Attorney-General, Judith Collins, told him off. Jones’ own party leader, Winston Peters, told him off. But Christopher Luxon has yet to do so. In fact, he implicitly supported Jones’ comments and described them as “merely descriptive”. We now have a Minister tearing up the Cabinet Manual right in front of his boss, and the only person that’s unwilling to chastise him is the Prime Minister. This sounds like a synopsis of a 1980s soap opera that I’m reading out, and this is the kind of chaotic, dystopic mess that is taking New Zealand back so fast.

Then we have Winston Peters, who clearly thinks that he doesn’t need to go through the finance Minister with his Budget bid. Instead, he’ll go around that and go straight to the Prime Minister so he doesn’t need to discuss his Budget bids during the normal processes. That doesn’t bode well for future Budgets. Just FYI, for any other Minister thinking that their time is going to come next year: it won’t.

What have we seen? We have seen money stripped out of climate action. We have seen money stripped out of health. We have seen these so-called tax cuts for New Zealanders that are delivering for so many people I represent single-digit amounts in their bank that have been eaten up by cost of living increases imposed by this Government, and what for? To deliver a $2.9 billion tax cut to landlords. That is taking New Zealand backwards.

That from the person who agreed secretly to close down one of the three big industries in this country, namely Marsden Point—never told the workers, never told the unions, never told anybody up north. No—covertly did that.

Hon Dr Megan Woods: This is a privately owned company.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: And she laughs. This critical componentry, she laughs about. And then she accuses me of going secretly to the Prime Minister. No, all 20 Cabinet Ministers were required to write to the Prime Minister with their ideas. That’s what I did, so don’t believe the media crap and hype that somehow we did something special. And isn’t it appalling; the Deputy Prime Minister has been caught talking to the Prime Minister! Only Labour could think there’s something wrong with that.

Let me tell you this: what we saw today was a speech from Tākuta Ferris. Now, tākuta means “doctor”. There are some doctors that make you well, and there are some that make you sick. In this case, he’s not even a doctor. And then he got up and he gave a speech from a laptop. This is a man who poses at being Māori. The very idea of oratory and of getting up and being able to speak off the cuff never occurs to him. As he says, he’s got a better bit of Māori quantum than the rest of us! This is arrogance of the worst sort. And he did it today; can’t make a speech without a laptop.

Helen White: Your MPs do it too.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Forget about Mt Albert. I can see why a 90,000 majority was almost lost there last time. Every time she opens her mouth—

Helen White: Oh, terrible.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Yeah, look, she opens her mouth to let the wind blow her tongue around, and she’s doing it again now. If I was that useless, I would keep my mouth shut.

Now, Steve Maharey, who was a Labour MP who knew something about this House, wrote a marvellous article for the New Zealand Herald on 6 May. He talked about the standards of this House and how they’re being corroded. He said, in the article, “politics has been likened to war without guns” and why rules in politics still matter. I suggest his colleagues, not so much Labour but the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori, read this article for goodness’ sake, because what we’ve got here is people walking in in T-shirts, sneakers, bare feet—lack of respect for the House, lack of respect for the country, and utter contempt. Walking in here with T-shirts on, all sorts of hats, so to speak, and then think, if we don’t like it, it’s too bad.

In the space of just three years, the standards of this House have massively decayed. The Māori Party and Greens don’t know the Standing Orders. It was proven today. This is what he said when he was challenged—this is what he said—“Politicians call this obfuscation—the art of making something unclear, intentionally vague, ambiguous, to conceal or obscure the truth, to confuse others. Lies, in other words. Many of us in this House are masters of it,” yet when he was challenged in the House today, he got up and, barefaced, said he didn’t say it. That’s the recording. That’s the transcript already. You see what I mean? Here he comes in this House, arrogant to the extreme, slinging insults and gutter school type of behaviour.

And, by the way, the Greens had a question today under Chlöe Swarbrick. She decides she’s going to be speaking in the reo, so to speak. Go and have a look at her question—she can’t even spell it properly. It had to be corrected by the Speaker’s office. But, no, this is posing, as they do all the time. And when are these people in the gallery going to actually do something about reporting accurately what’s going on in this Parliament? There it is—it’s all there. I’ve got the transcript. I’ve got it here. I thought I’d better come down and show Parliament, just in case you want—see what I mean? Can’t even spell the darned thing right. Never even had the decency, of course, to go and ask the Māori members in her caucus maybe whether she got it right. You see what’s going on here? It’s posing all the time.

The standards of this House have fallen in just three short years, and we’re on a slippery slope of endangering and losing further what used to be in this Parliament. Look, Maharey was right when he said that. He said that standards mean that people are usually going to conform to them and behave themselves better. But I’ve never seen this Parliament in such a state of decay. And, no, I wasn’t here at the beginning of it, but I’ve been here for a bit of the time! But I’ve never seen it in such a bad state, because people are walking around here with absolute contempt for the prior standards that this Parliament once had and the standards that about 85 percent of the Parliament is maintaining, and the rest have got no regard for that at all. If we had our way, we’d been saying, “You either dress up and put a tie on or you don’t get in this House, and if you want to wear a hat, you take it off when you get in this House.” You don’t spend all your time talking about the colonials and how bad the colonists were whilst you’re sitting there with all the sort of colonist gear on, so to speak. And it happens day in, day out.

Let me tell Te Pāti Māori that out there in the real world, where Māori work sometimes two or three jobs, they won’t be voting for you at the next election—be as certain as that—because out there they want the real things that people want in this country regardless of race: decent houses, a health system that delivers, education escalators, and First World jobs. And that’s what this Government is setting out to do.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, I’d like to know who it was that sent Chris Hipkins overseas. Who sent him away?

Hon Member: Kieran McAnulty.

Hon MARK MITCHELL: Kieran McAnulty. I can see it a million miles away. Look at the look on his face—look at the look of guilt.

Do you know what? I actually really like Kieran McAnulty, and I play with him on the Parliamentary Rugby Team. But when he gets that glint in his eye when he’s out there hawking on the wing, waiting for the ball to come, to dive across the line—he’s got that look in his eye right now. That’s right; it’s him. It’s him that made the bookings.

Megan Woods got up, and do you know what? Megan Woods is smart. She’s learnt from Ginny Andersen: don’t get up and actually present any numbers—don’t put any numbers out there. She immediately started talking about the Government’s failures and she used violent crime as an example, and I’ll come to that shortly, but Megan Woods doesn’t understand how the victims of crime survey works. It’s got a two-year lag. Most of the numbers are back from 2022-23, when that party now in Opposition was in power. We’re cleaning up the mess. We’ve got to clean up the mess and it’s a big job. I want to acknowledge our outstanding police service and the work they’re doing.

Then she went on to give us an example of why this Government’s failing, and I thought, “OK, this will be interesting. Let’s hear an intelligent, in-depth analysis of why this Government’s failing.” The reason why the Government’s failing is because, apparently, Shane Jones used some of his expressive language. That’s why the Government’s failing! It’s ridiculous.

Megan attacked our tax cuts. They hate tax cuts, and we know that. They hate the fact that we want to trust hard-working Kiwis with their own money. They hate it, they don’t like it, and they’re going to keep attacking it, but then they turn around and they send out an email to their supporters and they say, “Would you mind donating National’s tax cuts to us because we need them?” So, you know, work out exactly what it is you want there, Labour.

Transitional fuel: let’s talk about the previous Government’s fuel policies. They’ve been a wrecking ball for us as a country, and, of course, all of our hard-working businesses in our commercial sector have suffered majorly for that over the last couple of months quite simply because our transition fuel is—what? It’s Indonesian coal, and it should be natural gas.

I do want to refer to Megan Woods raising crime in this country. Yes, as the incoming Government, we inherited a bonfire in terms of violent crime in our country, whether it be gang members carrying firearms, whether it be boy racers taking over provincial and rural roads and causing damage and havoc, or whether it be youth and juvenile offenders that now don’t think twice about committing violent aggravated robberies and being prepared to put a hammer through a hard-working shopkeeper’s head. We know that we’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re determined that we’re going to return our country to the country that it should be, and that’s one of the safest countries in the world.

To do that you need a world-class police service. We have a world-class police service, and we’ve had no better example of that than in the recent weeks, with the very successful operations that have led to the arrest and the taking down of the entire Comanchero gang in New Zealand, and, by the way, the Comancheros are very symptomatic of the fact that we have had this awful 501 policy. They came to this country, they’re a lot more sophisticated, they introduced a new level of violence, and they’ve got big global criminal networks that they operate in.

I want to acknowledge our outstanding police force and the work that they’ve done. It’s quite simply a continuation of my instructions through my letter of expectations, as the incoming Government, that we are not going to tolerate violent, intimidatory gang behaviour in this country any more. Part of the work that we’re going to do is to make sure that they’ve got additional powers so that the public can clearly see that our police officers control our streets and not the gangs.

Gang members are not above the law. In the last six years, they’ve been operating in a very permissive environment where they thought they could operate with impunity, and that’s why we’re seeing an explosion in the type of violence and violent crime that Megan Woods refers to. But that is changing—that is changing, make no mistake. We’ve got a focused, well-equipped, highly trained, professional police service that is going after our gangs, and if you think that you’ve seen the pressure come on them now, you wait until this new legislation comes out in November and a clear message is sent to the gangs. Our police control our streets, towns, and rural communities, not the gangs. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Tēnā koe e te Pīka. Ka tū ake tēnei ki te mihi atu ki a tātou katoa e te Whare ki runga i ngā āhautanga o Te Wiki o te reo Māori. Te Whakanui i te wiki o te reo Māori me te aro anō o taku nei whakaaro ki te Kaupapa o tēnei tau. Ko ake ake ake. He reo anō tērā mō te ake ake ake tonu atu.

Nō reira me mihi atu au ki ngā mātua, ki ngā kaumātua e hāpai ana tērā ngā āhuatanga mō tātou katoa. Hoki aku nei mahara ki tērā o ngā whakatauki rongonui. Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro nōna te ngahere, ko te manu kai ana te mātauranga nōna te ao. Nō reira he pāpā tēnei e hari āna tamariki ki te kura kaupapa. Nō reira i au e whakaaro ana ki tērā o ngā whakatauki. Ko tātou anō ngā mātua e kaha ki te whakatupu ō tātou nei manu pīpī ō tātou nei tamariki. Ēnei kākano tino Māori mana motuhake kia tupu ake ā tātou nei tamariki ki runga ngā wawata, ki runga ngā moemoea ō tātou nei mātua tīpuna.

Me mihi atu au ki te hunga e whiri ana tēnei ara reo Māori, nā te mea ehara tēnei ara reo Māori i te ara māmā mō te hunga pēnei mai ki taku whānau e hiahia te whakarauora te reo ki roto i taku whānau ake ki roto i taku hapori, heoi i kite au ki roto i ngā tau ngā hua, i kite au ki roto i ngā tau te tupu o te wairua ki roto i tōku whānau ake. Hei tauira, ehara i te mea i au e whakaaro ake ana ki ngā kura auraki ka haere te mātua i tupono ana āna tamariki ki te waka o te kēti, ka hūro peka anō ki te waka, hoki ana ki te kāinga. Heoi anō mena he mātua koe mō te kura kaupapa me haere tō katoa ki roto i taua kura, me haere ā whānau. Ko te katoa o te whānau e hāpai ana tērā o ngā kaupapa.

He momo kaupapa waka, ia hapori, ia whānau heoi anō e haere ngātahi ana ki tērā o ngā ara reo Māori e pari ana ki ērā atu anō o ngā whānau e haere atu ana ki tō rātou haerenga o tērā ara reo Māori. I kite au ki roto i ngā tau te piki ake, te wairua me te tūāpapa o te tuakiritanga ō tātou nei tamariki. Mena kei te mōhio te Māori ko wai ia, he aha te hītori kei raro ōna rekereke, he aha ōna whakapapa, pēhea ōna hononga ki te taiao, awa, maunga te wao, ērā āhuatanga katoa he oranga anō tērā nō te ngākau o te tamaiti. He oranga anō tērā nō te ngākau o te whānau.

E pērā ana taku nei wawata mō ngā tamariki katoa puta noa o Aotearoa. Kei te whakaaro anō hoki ki tērā o ngā āhuatanga engari i te mea kei te whakaaro au ki ō tātou nei matua tūpuna. Taku nei whakaaro, i moemoea i wawatia e rātou mō tō tātou reo. I whakaarohia ki a tātou, mena kei te tupu Māori mai ō tātou nei whānau, kei te tupu Māori mai ō tātou nei tamariki mokopuna, ka ahei rātou ki te haere ki te ao.

Ko tetahi mea rerekē o Aotearoa nei ki au. I au e tipi haere ana i te ao. Ko Aotearoa tētahi o ngā whenua ko te nuinga he reo tahi noa iho kei a rātou. Mena kei te haere koe ki Ūropi, te maha hoki o rātou he reo rua, he reo toru he reo whā. Engari tātou ki Aotearoa Kotahi noa iho te reo. Ko te reo Pākehā. Mena kei te haere koe ki Rānana maha ngā reo e rangona ngā taringa. Nō reira he nui ngā akoranga mō te hunga reo rua, reo toru reo whā rānei. Me kaha te pūnaha o te mātauranga ki te hāpai tērā o ngā tuakiritanga.

Hoi ko te tuatahitanga ko te reo Māori, te reo i tupu taketake mai ki Aotearoa nei. He reo e whakapapa ana ki te katoa o Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. I a tātou nei tangata katoa haere nei ki wiwi ki wawa ki te Olympics rānei, rātou whakapuaki nei tō tātou nei reo. Ka Mārama te tangata, “Ana, tērā tangata nō Aotearoa.”, tērā tangata Niu Tireni mai i tū ohorere, poho kererū ana ki runga i te atamira o te ao, nō reira tāku nei ki a tātou, kia kaha te kōrero Māori, kia kaha te reo Māori. Ehara mō tēnei rā noa iho, ēngari mō ake ake ake.

[Thank you, Mr Speaker. I stand to acknowledge to us all, the House, in accordance with the Māori Language Week. To acknowledge the Māori language week and, in my opinion, the main event of the year. For ever and ever and ever. That is another statement, for ever and ever and ever.

And so I would like to acknowledge the parents, the elders who have supported this event for us all. I reminisce to the famous proverb which states that the bird that feast on the miro berry will gain the forest; the bird that feast on knowledge will gain the world. And so I am a father who takes my children to kura kaupapa. And so, as I think about that proverb, we are the parents who raise our little birds, our children. These seeds of ours that we shall raise in accordance with the aspirations and dreams of our ancestors.

I need to acknowledge those who have chosen the Māori language as a pathway, because this pathway is not an easy pathway for the likes of me and my family who want to revitalise the language within my family and my community. However, I have seen in the years the fruits, I have seen in the years the self-growth within my own family. For example, when I think to mainstream schools, the parents drop the kids off at the gates, maybe they farewell each other, and then they return to their car and go back home. However, if you are a parent of kura kaupapa, you give your all to that school, you go as a family. The whole family are there to support that school.

It is like a canoe. Everyone and every family paddle on the same canoe in regards to the Māori language, and are all similar to those other families who are on that same canoe of the Māori language. I have seen in the years how it has developed the spirit and the identity of our children. If the Māori knows who he is, and his history, his genealogy, and his connection to the environment, the river the mountain and the forest—those aspects are all a development for the wellbeing of the child, and a wellbeing as well for the families.

That is my hope for all the children of New Zealand. That is how I think because I think back to my ancestors. In my opinion, these were their aspirations for our language. They thought about us; if our families are growing in their Māori world, our children and grandchildren will then grow within their Māori world where they can be proud in this world.

One difference I have seen here in Aotearoa as I travel the world is that. Aotearoa is one of the countries where the majority of the population speak one language. If you go to Europe, there are many who speak two, three, and even four languages. But us in Aotearoa, only one language, the English language. If you go to London, there are many languages that the ears hear. And so there are a lot of lessons for bilingual speakers, trilingual, and speakers of four languages. The education system needs to be more diligent in supporting that aspect.

However, firstly it’s the Māori language, the language of this land, Aotearoa. A language that descends from all the Pacific. As we travel to there and beyond, and to the Olympics as well, and they speak the Māori language. The people can see, “Ah, that person is from New Zealand.”, and that person from New Zealand stood strong and proud on the platform of the world. So what I say to us all, honour the Māori language, and speak the Māori language. Not only for this day but for ever and ever and ever.]

Mr Speaker, ka kōrero Māori ahau. Tuatahi kei te korikori te Kīngi, a Tūheitia, ki runga i te pae o mahara i tēnei wā tonu. Ko te rangi ki a ia, anā ko te whenua ki tana kōtiro, ki Te Arikinui, ki te Kuīni Nga wai hono i te po. Koia ko tana ingoa i runga i te taumata kōrero o Ngā Manu Kōrero. Koia te ingoa ki runga i ngā ngutu o ā tātou tamariki mokopuna, ki roto i ngā whāinga katoa o tēnei wā tonu.

Kei te whakanui ake ahau i a ia, me tōna e arahi nei i tō tātou iwi Māori, anō hoki wā tātou tamariki mokopuna, ki te āpōpō. Kaua ki ngā whakawhiu me ngā kōrero harawene me ngā take nui o te ao porotiki, engari ki te āpōpō e wawatahia nei e ō tātou mātua, e ō tātou tūpuna.

Ka tiki atu ahau i te kōrero a tōku tupuna e mea ana, “Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori”. Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori. Mehemea kei te Māori tōna ake reo, kei te ora mārika tōna mauri me tōna mana Māori. Mehemea kei te Māori tōna ake arero Māori, kāore e kore ka tū pakari ki roto i te ao ahakoa ngā whakawhiu o te wā.

Nō reira ko tāku e mea atu ana, ki te tautoko ake i tēnei kaupapa kua whakaritehia mō te Wiki o te Reo Māori i tēnei tau tonu, ko te reo Māori āke, āke, āke.

Heoi anō tāku. Ka tiro atu ahau ki te hunga e wehi nei i tō tātou reo Māori, e mataku nei i tō tātou reo Māori, he aha te take i mataku ai te tangata i te reo Māori? Kīhai te reo Māori i tūkino i tētahi atu. Kīhai te reo Māori i takahi i te mana o tētahi atu. Koinā tāku, e toko ake ana te pātai he aha te hē o te reo Māori ki tētahi atu, koinā te take i mataku ai i te reo Māori?

Heoi anō tāku, ahakoa ngā whakawhiu o te wā, me ngā kōrero tūkino o tōku reo Māori, ko tāku e mea atu ana ki ngā mema o tēnei Whare, me te hapori kei waho atu rā i ngā pātū o tō tātou Whare e tū nei: kaua e mataku. Haere mai ki te reo Māori. Haere mai ki te reo o tēnei whenua. Haere mai ki te reo kīhai i tūkino i tētahi atu reo, kīhai i tūkino i tētahi atu tangata. Haere mai ki te reo Māori kia rongo atu koe i te mauri o te mana Māori i whakataukītia ai e tōku matua tupuna, a Tā Hēmi Hēnare, i ōna ra.

Koinā tāku e mea atu ana ki tēnei motu whānui: kaua e mataku. He reo ataahua te reo Māori. He reo nō tēnei whenua te reo Māori. He reo ka tuitui i wō tātou hononga mai i ngā iwi o te motu ki te iwi Māori e noho mai nei. Kaua e mataku, e te hunga kei roto i tēnei Whare. Kaua e mataku, e te hunga kei waho atu rā i tēnei Whare.

Kāti, ko aku whakaaro kei ngā kōrero o ngā toa reo Māori, reo Pākehā anō hoki i tū i runga i te taumata kōrero o ngā whakataetae ā-motu, Ngā Manu Kōrero, i tū ki roto o Tāmaki Makaurau. Koinā tāku e manawanui ai ki ngā kōrero a wā tātou rangatahi. Kei a rātou te āpōpō.

Me te kī atu ki te Kāwanatanga me ngā tāngata katoa o tēnei motu, tēnei tangata te Māori e kore e taea e koutou te whakaueue, e kore e taea e koutou te whakanekeneke. Ko tēnei te tangata, te tangata Māori, ka ū tonu ko ōna pakiaka ki roto i a Papatūānuku. Ka tū mārō nei tōna tinana ahakoa ngā whakawhiu o te wā. Ko ōna manga ka toro atu ki a Ranginui e tū iho nei hei tāwharau i te iwi Māori, hei tāwharau i a Aotearoa whānui, hei tāwharau anō hoki i ngā kaupapa e wawatahia ana e ā tātou tamariki mokopuna ki roto i te āpōpō.

Nō reira e ōku rangatira o tēnei Whare, te hunga e mau nei i te pine e whakanui ana i te Wiki o te Reo Māori, aua e tukuna kia waikura noa. Kaua e tukuna kia waikura noa. Titia ki te manawa kia rongo atu ai te motu whānui i te kare ā-roto o tō koutou hiahia, ō koutou wawata, ō koutou manako ki tōku reo Māori e pūāwai mai nei. E te Māngai o te Whare, tēnā koe. Kia ora tātou.

[Mr Speaker, I will speak in Māori. Firstly, the King, Tūheitia, is moving in the realm of memory at this very moment. The sky is for him, and the land for his daughter, the Queen Nga wai hono i te po. It is her name that is spoken at the orators’ stage of Ngā Manu Kōrero. It is her name on the lips of our children and grandchildren in all the aspirations of this very time.

I honour her, and her leadership of our Māori people, as well as our children and grandchildren, towards the future. Not focusing on the afflictions, jealous talk, and political issues of today, but on the future envisioned by our forebears and ancestors.

I recall the words of my ancestor who said, “Language is the life-force of Māori identity.” Language is the life-force of Māori identity. If Māori have their own language, their life-force and their Māori identity are truly alive. If Māori have their own Māori tongue, without a doubt, they will stand strong in the world despite the challenges of the times.

Therefore, what I am saying is to support this initiative that was developed for this year’s Māori Language Week, the Māori language for ever and ever.

That’s what I’m doing. I now turn to those who fear our Māori language, who are afraid of our Māori language. Why would anyone fear the Māori language? The Māori language has not harmed anyone. The Māori language has not trampled on anyone’s dignity. That’s why I ask, what has the Māori language done wrong that makes people afraid of it?

That is what I would say, despite the challenges of today and the denigration of my Māori language, I say to the members of this House and the community outside the walls of this House: do not be afraid. You are welcome to the Māori language. Welcome to the language of this land. Welcome to the language that has not harmed any other language, that has not harmed any other person. Welcome to the Māori language so you can feel the life-force of Māori identity, as my ancestor Sir Hēmi Hēnare proclaimed in his time.

That is what I say to this whole country: do not be afraid. The Māori language is a beautiful language. The Māori language belongs to this land. It is a language that binds our connections between the people of this land and the Māori people who reside here. Do not be afraid, those of you in this House. Do not be afraid, those of you outside this House.

Well, my thoughts are with the speeches of the champions of the Māori and English languages who stood on stage at the national competition Ngā Manu Kōrero, held in Auckland. That is what strengthens me, hearing the words of our youth. The future is theirs.

And I say to the Government and all the people of this land, you cannot shake the Māori people, you cannot move the Māori people. This people, the Māori people, their roots remain firmly in Papatūānuku. Their body stands strong despite the challenges of the times. Their branches stretch out to Ranginui above, as a shelter for the Māori people, as a shelter for all of New Zealand, and as a shelter for the aspirations of our children and grandchildren for the future.

Therefore, to my esteemed leaders of this House, those of you wearing the pin celebrating Māori Language Week, do not let it rust. Do not let it rust. Pin it to your heart so that the whole nation can feel the emotions of your desire, your dreams, and your hopes for my flourishing Māori language. Mr Speaker, thank you. Kia ora to us all.]

I feel like I am the bearer of good news, so I want to talk about what we are doing in our region and in our country, specifically on law and order. I’m also going to talk about a few other things that are really important to me.

Look, Hawke’s Bay has a bad reputation for gang activity; it is a hive of activity. We are well known for sort of punching above our weight on gang numbers, and do you know what? We’ve got a Government that’s going to bring law and order back to the front of our minds.

Let’s talk about what we’re going to do about it. We’ve got a Government led by Prime Minister Chris Luxon; we’ve got the Minister of Police and Minister of Corrections, Mark Mitchell; we’ve got the Minister of Justice, Paul Goldsmith—and what a team. It’s a team that is focused on restoring law and order, and, I say, relentlessly; boy, the Justice Committee has been busy.

Rima Nakhle: We’ve been busy.

KATIE NIMON: We’ve got to keep them busy. My great colleague Rima Nakhle, you are doing an amazing job.

Let me talk about some of the things that we’re going to do and we have already started doing. The National Gang Unit—this is something that is going to make such a difference in places like Hawke’s Bay. District-level gang disruption units are what we’re going to see, and that is fantastic. And, look, this is focusing on gang members that are involved in criminal activity, and that is a really important thing for me to mention. The work that we’re doing is also giving those units enhanced powers: dispersal notices, preventing gang gatherings, enforcing the upcoming ban—and I am excited—on gang patches in public spaces.

I tell you, I see people getting back in their car and driving off when they see members of gangs wearing their patches inside cafes, supermarkets, restaurants, you name it—the only reason they’re wearing them is to intimidate, and, I can tell you, they have told me that. This is very important to us. Like I said, Hawke’s Bay’s got one of the highest gang rates in the country. This is going to send a very, very clear message.

The other thing I might share is the firearms prohibition orders. We need to give the police the tools and the powers to do something about it. We have seen some very, very tragic gun-related violence—gang gun-related violence, I might just add—that could easily be solved by a lot of the work that we are doing.

The other thing that I am thrilled to hear is happening, and we campaigned very hard on this last year, is the new legislation that’ll cap sentence discounts of 40 percent—the slippery, slippery slope that ends up giving people every discount under the sun, that ends up with them walking back out on to the street to further intimidate and terrorise our communities.

Now, might I just say we have talked a lot about prioritising victims. Now, this is very important: I have talked to so many people who are absolutely at the centre of what is going on in our communities and they are being terrorised. They are afraid to be alone in their homes. They are afraid to go out in the community at night. These are the people we are working hard for. The ministerial advisory group, I will talk about—to target retail crime and protect retailers in their places of work, and also protect those in the community that are going about their day-to-day lives. I have talked to dairy owners in my community—I will mention the Manna Family Mart—who do not know whether the next person that walks in will be a good person or a bad person, and we have to do something about that and it’s about time we listen to them.

Look, we’ve got to do a lot in education to work with people at the other end of this. I just want to mention something. This week, I have just been to visit Napier Intermediate School, and I just want to take the moment to acknowledge the passing of Benita Mareikura, a long-long-time serving teacher at Napier Intermediate. They had a tragic loss in losing her earlier this week.

Napier Intermediate have shared the issue that they are having with relief teachers. Might I just come with some more good news: the Minister of Education has announced work that is going to be done to get more relief teachers back into the classroom. If you have let your registration lapse for some time, you’ve decided to retire and go on to something else, you can get a limited authority to teach. It is not costly—and that is a preventative issue here. The other thing, as well, is making sure that we are making this more available to people to get those teachers back into the classroom.

Let’s just take the last 20 seconds to talk about the FamilyBoost: money into the back pockets of everyday Kiwis who are working hard to rebuild our economy. We want to support them, so it’s up to $150 a fortnight. That opened yesterday, and the first payment will come from 1 October; three-monthly invoices is all that they need. I am so excited to share that with the House today.

Darleen Tana—sorry, Ms Tana, I didn’t see you back there.

Kei te pai. Apparently, not many people see me back here!

Ko Ranginui i runga rawa e

Ko Papatūānuku kei raro nei e

Me ngā tāngata kei waenganui e

[Ranginui is above

Papatūānuku is below

And the people are in between]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Mine is a very simple view of the world, informed, I guess, by the reality that we whakapapa to Ranginui—Sky Father—and Papatūānuku—Earth Mother. As a mokopuna, our job is to protect and nourish those generations who are coming through and ensure that we uphold the mana and the tapu and rejuvenate the mauri of our ancestral land and skies hei oranga mō ngā reanga whakatupu [as sustenance for the future generations].

In this week, Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, I am loving it. It’s a far cry to my own experiences of growing up, when it was not cool to be or to look or to sound Māori. I’m loving it because learning the reo me ōna tikanga [and its customs] brings us that bit closer to unlocking what I call the real Earth oratory. My thanks to colleagues here in the House who might indulge me as I flick between te reo Māori and English at this time.

The reo—R-E-O—real Earth oratory. For me, it’s one about whakapapa. I was out on Aotea—Great Barrier Island—this weekend, working with Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea. As a demonstration of whakapapa, we looked at the maramataka, we looked at the tohu, the signs in the sky; we looked at the tohu, the signs on the land; and we looked at the tohu, the signs in the moana. We saw the kūmarahou, a plant which is a rongoā—it’s a medicinal plant—prized, especially if you’re kumi, or asthmatic, among Māori. But we saw that in full-flush flower. That, for us, was a sign to know that the kina out in the oceans were fat.

The reo—the real Earth oratory—it’s also one of whanaungatanga: roles and responsibilities. We are, each of us, all exactly where we are meant to be at any point in time, but what are we doing to step into our roles, into our responsibilities, to rejuvenate mauri, to uphold mana, and to respect tapu?

In these full-beam, high-energy marama of Ōturu, Rākaunui, what are we showing to our rangatahi? I see quite a few come in. When they visit us in the House each day or when they see us on television, what do they see, what do they hear—and ka aroha, I’ve got Nanny Whina Cooper coming through—what do they feel?

I ngā kōrero whakahirahira a Kīngi Tūheitia mō te kotahitanga. I kī ia, kia kaua tātou e whakakotahi hei whakahē i te Kāwanatanga, engari kia tū kotahi tātou me te Kāwanatanga hei oranga mō ngā iwi katoa, mō te taiao hoki. Kei te wā tātou ki te kōkiri whakamua ki te eke tahi i te waka o te oranga, te māramatanga me te aroha. Me ngāwari ō tātou aho katoa, kia taea ai te raranga i tētahi whāriki kaha, tētahi whāriki kia taea e te katoa te tū ki runga. Mā te mahi ngātahi, mā te kotahitanga ka whiria ngā aho o te whakaaro o te whakapono me te whanaungatanga hei tūāpapa mō ngā uri whakatupu. Kia Kotahi rā tātou kia eke panuku ai mō te hunga āpōpō.

[As said about unity by the great King Tūheitia. He said, let us not unite to abase the Government, but let us stand united with the Government as sustenance for us all, and for the environment as well. In time we will paddle together in wellbeing, in wisdom and in love. All our threads need to be smooth in order to weave a strong mat, a mat that all can stand on. Through collaboration, through unity, we will thread the string of through, the string of faith, and the string of unity as a foundation for the following generations. Let us unite to be stronger for the future generations.]

As I said, mine is a very simple view of the world. I look out at the deplorable state of the mauri of our moana, I see the rapidity with which our soils are disappearing, within which we can grow kai; I look at the degrading state of our waterways, and I worry.

I want to just take these last few minutes, please, to mihi to our kaitiaki—those who are out there on the whenua, in the oceans, who are doing all the mahi, leading out from a tikanga Māori lens to make sure that our taiao is there for our mokopuna in the days and years to come. Kia ora tātou.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I recall back in 2023, when I was campaigning with my ACT colleagues around the country, one of the campaign modules I was looking after was, of course, law and order, and we went around the country asking people what they thought about law and order, and we heard them. They spoke to us about the need to restore law and order within our country, their concerns about victimisations around New Zealand, and wondering how did the Mongrel Mob get given $2.75 million while victims were still struggling to come to terms with our justice system.

We talked about sentencing and their concerns also around section 27 cultural reports and why people were being hit on the hand with a wet bus ticket instead of being made accountable for their actions. They were concerned about the prison reduction targets and also the amount of retail crime that was being experienced from one end of the country to the other. They saw violence going up, they saw gang numbers going up, they saw youth crime going up, ram raids going up, victimisation going up. They saw utter disrespect for society, for systems, for communities, and even for whānau.

What has this Government done in its first 12 months? Well, we haven’t even got to 12 months yet, but I’ll let you know what it is that we have done. The first thing that we did as part of the ACT coalition agreement was abolish Labour’s prison reduction targets. The second thing we have done as part of our ACT coalition agreement is bring back the three-strikes legislation, and that is being heard by the Justice Committee now. We’ve also stopped the paying of the cottage industry that became the section 27 cultural reports that went from $3,000 taxpayer dollars per month to $6 million per annum. That has stopped. These are all ACT policies, because we listened, we heard, and we have implemented.

What else have we done? Well, we’ve just introduced the firearms prohibition orders into legislation, giving police the ability to search those in illegal possession of firearms to make sure that we get those firearms away from those that should not have them. We have prioritised victims by making sure that the Courts (Remote Participation) Amendment Bill, which is now an Act, allows victims to be heard either by audio or audiovisual, instead of having to be retraumatised every time they go into the court. We’ve also today introduced the MAG—the Ministerial Advisory Group for victims of retail crime—headed by Sunny Kaushal, with the bright people of Ash, Lindsay, and also having Michael and Carolyn on board.

We’re doing more there, so much more. We’re changing the Sentencing Act to ensure that repeat sentencing discounts stops. We’re making sure—another ACT policy—that those sole charge workers who have their home and business where they work, we’ll make sure that they, if attacked, have it as an aggravating factor at sentencing. We want to make sure that the victims are looked after and that their interests are taken into account when sentencing occurs.

There are going to be more aggravating factors as well. Children who are used to offend by adults—we’ll make sure that adults have that as an aggravating factor against them. Not only that, those criminals that use these devices to go about filming themselves while they commit crimes, that will be an aggravating factor, if indeed they put that up on social media, too.

There’s other legislation that’s going through this House. Restricting the sentencing discounts to a maximum of 40 percent only, and—another ACT policy—making sure that a member of a gang is an aggravating factor at sentencing. We are delivering, and there’s so much more that we’re going to do; 12 months, we’ve got 24 left to go.

Te Māngai, ngā tāngata e noho mai ki runga i tēnei Whare, tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.

[Mr Speaker, everybody sitting in the House today, greetings to you all, once, twice, and thrice.]

I’d just like to start by talking about Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, “Ake, ake, ake”, and the fact that one of my biggest regrets in my life is not being able to become fluent in te reo. It is a language that I’m incredibly proud of. It’s obviously a culture that is part of my background, and it’s just one of those things that my career hasn’t provided me the opportunity perhaps to immerse myself in the environment to, what they call, get my plane flying with regards to the language that I so much would love to. That doesn’t mean that I don’t keep trying with regards to my journey in that space. Hearing Teanau Tuiono and Peeni Henare in te reo, it does make me proud. I’m so pleased that we have it accommodated as an official language, but also spoken in this Whare that we enjoy today.

I want to change from a want of mine—of having my te reo—to a worry of mine, and that is about energy. When I talk about energy, there are all sorts of forms of energy that we have in New Zealand here, but the significant one that we talk increasingly about is electricity. We’ve got an increasing demand for electricity as we “Electrify NZ”, as they say, but I am incredibly worried about where we are going to answer what we call the energy trilemma. What is the energy trilemma? That is ensuring that we have energy security that means that we have a reliability of supply with minimal disruption. It’s also talking about the energy equity that is making sure that we have affordable energy and an abundance of energy so that when we want to use it we can go through and do that. The last one of the trilemma is energy sustainability. That’s mitigating the potential effects on the environment but also climate change impacts that come from the different methods of generating electricity.

If I talk about the province which I’m from—I’m the MP for New Plymouth and I come from the very proud province of Taranaki—Taranaki is also known for being the energy province of New Zealand. Look back to where it began. Believe it or not, it’s nearly 160 years ago that the very first well was successfully found for oil. It was the Alpha well. It was found down by where Port Taranaki sits today, and that was back in 1865 that that very first well was found. Believe it or not, it’s thought to be the first well in the Commonwealth, and, actually, potentially one of the first wells in the world to actually find oil and start producing. Now, after 160 years, it’s a proud history of being able to explore for oil and gas—and gas is a very dominant conversation today as well—that Taranaki has been able to produce in a relatively harmless way. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t had its potential harms on the environment from time to time, but, in general, it’s actually done that in a very successful manner.

Where are we heading into the future? When I spoke about the energy trilemma, that affordability—the price of electricity, the price of the gas that many people afford in the North Island in particular—it is so important. Industry is reliant on affordable, reliable electricity and gas and other energy sources. If we don’t get this right, we are at risk as a country. What I mean by that is that we are an exporting nation. We successfully export because we can produce products very efficiently and export it halfway around the world and still be very, very competitive. A big part of that is energy itself—the affordability element of it. We’re talking about LNG—liquified natural gas. The only reason we’re talking about that is because we have lost the confidence in New Zealand, particularly the investors, to find the natural gas that we need for our future transition to the greenest possible state that we can be, particularly by that magic date of 2050.

My message today is that I implore everybody in this House, including the Opposition, to take this matter very seriously. Sovereign risk is a very, very important part that we’ve got to get right. I ask the Opposition to make sure that you can come to the table and look at what’s right for New Zealand as a whole. We rely on a successful outcome for a long-term strategy. Thank you.

Ah, I call on—sorry—Rachel Boyack.

A mighty member of the “Rachel B caucus” in the Labour Party. E te Māngai o te Whare—

SPEAKER: Well, there’s such a similarity.

RACHEL BOYACK: —tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Hari te Wiki o Te Reo. As the previous speaker mentioned, it is Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, Māori Language Week, and this year’s theme is “Ake, ake, ake”. The theme is that te reo Māori is a forever language in Aotearoa. As such, it is on all of us to uphold te reo Māori, to champion te reo Māori, to do our best to practise te reo Māori, and also, as some of my colleagues have called out, to fund te reo Māori and to champion it. So it’s wonderful to be able to celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori in the Parliament this week.

This Government is taking my electorate of Nelson and New Zealand backwards, and I’ve got a number of examples to share with the House this afternoon. The first area I want to touch on is around health, and we are seeing health go backwards under this Government. The recently appointed commissioner, who we understand is only working a couple of days a week, has recently asked Health New Zealand to make $1.4 billion in savings and we are seeing the cuts that are coming from that. They are going to gut the plans to rebuild Nelson Hospital, which is disappointing the Nelson region considerably. We have very concerned constituents who are very worried now about that project.

Just yesterday, we heard that they are going to gut Dunedin Hospital and put in a phased approach for Dunedin Hospital also. I stand with my colleagues in the South Island that this Government needs to do better for health in the South Island. Just yesterday, my colleague Ayesha Verrall accepted a petition from George Mulholland about the fact that this Government can’t even staff Buller Hospital properly. The hospitals in the regions and the provinces of the South Island are going backwards under this Government.

Under one of my written questions to Dr Shane Reti, I’ve discovered he hasn’t even taken a paper to Cabinet about Nelson Hospital, yet he is coming to Nelson and making announcements about announcements, but without any Cabinet agreement for what he is wanting to do to the Nelson Hospital project. It is chaos, it is a shambles, and to discover he hasn’t even bothered to talk to his Cabinet colleagues about the most important capital expenditure in a generation in my electorate, after many questions from the local community, frankly, is a disgrace.

The other area where we’re seeing so much going backwards in my region and in the South Island is in transport. In my electorate, the Hope Bypass—a critical project—has been delayed and may possibly be tolled, just like the new road from Palmerston North, my other hometown, across to the Wairarapa is going to be tolled, which, frankly, we’ve already paid for. It is a disgrace to put that on the people of the Manawatū, of the Rangitīkei, and of the Wairarapa communities. That’s where my whānau still live, and they are disgusted. It is just another example of how this Government is all talk but actually no action when it comes to transport.

They have scrapped the Rocks Road project in Nelson, so every time we have a weather event, the road closes our State highway, and that side is going to do absolutely nothing—

Hon Member: And you did nothing for the last six years.

RACHEL BOYACK: —about it. Oh, yes, we did. Come and have a look. The other thing they’ve done—

Sam Uffindell: The only thing you built was debt.

RACHEL BOYACK: —all talk—was to scrap free and cheap public transport. Now, we started our new public transport system in Nelson last year, and guess what we’ve seen since that change! The number of young people in Nelson using the bus has gone down. It is a disgrace.

The other thing I’ve just discovered this week is that the new school in Berryfields has been delayed. Our biggest growth area in Tasman that needs a new school is being delayed and the Minister couldn’t even bother to tell me about that until I asked her this week. It is a disgrace. Not to mention the cutting of funding to Family Start Nelson, who provide the most amazing wraparound support to vulnerable families in my community of Nelson.

There are so many cuts, and what for? For $2 a week for our superannuitants. They are calling out to me consistently that that $2 a week is not worth a cut to Nelson Hospital, a cut to transport projects in Nelson, a cut to Family Start, and the failure to build a new school in Berryfields. Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker.

The time for this debate has expired.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.