General Debate

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

Tomorrow, when the Government’s Budget is read, there will of course be lots of numbers, as the Government has already indicated, but there are two numbers that New Zealanders should keep in mind in tomorrow’s Budget. The first of those is $250—$250 a fortnight is what Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon promised the average New Zealand family in tax cuts. Up and down the country, they said that the average New Zealand family would be $250 a fortnight better off as a result of their tax cuts. So that’s the first number.

The second number they should keep in mind is $2.9 billion—$2.9 billion is the cost of the tax breaks that the Government has chosen to prioritise for landlords. Keep in mind that it is probably going to be one of the single biggest line items in tomorrow’s Budget in terms of changes. So every time Nicola Willis says, “We’ve had to make tough choices.”, “We can’t fund this.”, or “We’ve cut that.”, keep in mind that that is because they prioritised $2.9 billion in tax cuts for landlords.

The things that New Zealanders will be looking for from the Budget tomorrow include answers to the real financial pressures they face right now, and that was set out in pretty stark terms by the Reserve Bank this week. What are the things that are really hurting Kiwi household budgets right now? What are the reasons that inflation is staying higher for longer? They are: (1) increased rents; (2) increased insurance; (3) increased rates.

What are the Government’s answers to those three things? New Zealanders will want to see that in the Budget tomorrow, because until the Government addresses those three issues—increased rents, increased insurance, and increased rates—interest rates are going to stay higher for longer. The Reserve Bank has been very clear about that.

So what is the Government doing to address the cost of living pressures New Zealand faces? Well, we know that they’re going to be hiking up public transport costs, we know that they’re going to be taking away free prescriptions, we know that they’re going to be making cuts to the disability sector, we know that they are going to be halving the value of the school lunches programme—it’s kind of gone from a free and healthy school lunch programme to a slightly less healthy snack programme in schools as a result of the Government’s changes—and, of course, we know that they are going to rob a whole generation of New Zealanders of the dream of homeownership by doing something that none of them said they were going to do before the election, in cutting the first-home buyer grant scheme.

I want to pay tribute to the hard-working New Zealanders who are being thrown on the economic scrap heap by this Government, and here’s a surprising thing: it is not just public sector workers who are finding themselves in that situation. Up and down the country, we’re hearing reports from those working in infrastructure and in the building and construction sector where those sectors have had the bottom fall out since this Government was elected because the Government had decided on coming into office that they’d stop all the school rebuild projects and the school upgrade projects, they’d slow down or stop the hospital rebuild projects, they’d grind the transport infrastructure projects to a halt, and they’d stop investment in water infrastructure, among other things, and the thousands of people working in those sectors have suddenly found that their work has dried up. Those are private sector jobs, but it is the Government’s decision making that has actually taken those jobs away from those workers.

The cuts that the Government is making to supposedly back-office services highlight just what a farce the notion of the back-office/front-line distinction is. Cutting people who work on child exploitation is a cut to a front-line service. Cutting people who prevent online scams is a cut to a front-line service. Cutting the people who work at our border to stop drugs coming into the country and to stop biosecurity incursions—that is a cut to a front-line service. We’ve seen the results of that before in the form of Mycoplasma bovis, among other things—a disease that cost hundreds of millions of dollars for New Zealand to eradicate.

I think that the Government have a lot of choices in this year’s Budget. The evidence so far suggests that the choices they have made have been the wrong choices. The $250 a fortnight that they’ve promised to families—will they get it? Probably not, because $2.9 billion in tax breaks for landlords is a higher priority for them.

E tukituki ana te iwi Māori i ēnei mahi raweke o te Kāwanatanga ki runga i te iwi Māori. Ināianei, e kite ana te iwi Māori i ēnei mahi, e rongo ana te iwi Māori i ēnei mahi, e kōkiri ana te iwi Māori i tēnei rangi tonu.

[The Māori people are offended due to the meddlesome actions of the Government on the Māori people. The Māori people can see what is being done, they hear what is happening, consequently the Māori people are marching on this very day.]

He Whakaputanga 1835 was a declaration to the world of our independence. And Te Tiriti o Waitangi, some five years later, provided the pathway for our mahi tahi. Te Tiriti o Waitangi established this Kāwanatanga that we stand in today. And yet when will we see an honourable Kāwanatanga that will genuinely uphold its obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi? We have a Crown who has prioritised its coalition agreement above its obligations to te iwi Māori e tātou mā—no consultation with te iwi Māori for these widespread changes to legislation that hit us under urgency. There is a duty to act in good faith, and yet the Government fails its obligations to te iwi Māori.

Let me tell you about te mere whakakopa. In 1845, Hone Heke took a mere pounamu, to Kawiti, smeared in human tūtae, in human excrement. That pounamu represents te rangatiratanga o te iwi Māori. The tūtae, the human excrement, is a representation of the obliteration and the undermining of rangatiratanga of Pākehā on our people in 1845. And, I say to you, this has not changed. We are watching the recolonisation of Aotearoa New Zealand. As this Government seeks to erase its obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, undermining the sacred covenant that our tūpuna signed.

Kāwanatanga was enabled through Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Let’s look at the laws: Te Aka Whai Ora, smoke-free legislation, te reo Māori, threats on the Māori and Pacific admission scheme and also on the Waitangi Tribunal, 7AA, gang laws, the laws around tenancy and also for our whānau in rental accommodation, fast-track legislation, the removal of accountability for Te Mana o te Wai yesterday in this House, the removal of clauses relating to Te Tiriti in corrections, the funding freeze on marine and coastal area takutai moana claims, the full-scale review of Te Tiriti clauses within our legislation, and, of course, the Treaty principles bill.

Te iwi Māori feel embattled by these continued attacks by te Kāwanatanga in our communities. And, as I refer to Nicki Wakefield, who was a kaikōrero on behalf of Ngāti Kahu o Torongare in the fast-track hearing, she shared, “We participate in this process under duress, in opposition to these processes which impact on our tino rangatiratanga.” Te iwi Māori have continued our affirmations of mana motuhake through the generations. Our people mobilise tomorrow. Te iwi Māori meets at Ōmahu Marae for the hui taumata. Undermining tangata whenua rights is a rupture to the social fabric of Aotearoa New Zealand. Social cohesion is at risk—

Rt Hon Winston Peters: Who wrote this rubbish?

HŪHANA LYNDON: —as this Government moves to erase its accountability to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and te iwi Māori.

Let’s talk about Māori wards, Matua Winston. Let’s talk about it. The Waitangi Tribunal has called out this Government. It is a breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi that you will take out Māori wards. Last week, Far North District Council stood, and they provided a motion of tautoko to Local Government New Zealand. Councillor Tāmati Rākena stood, and he said, “When Māori councillors fight for better roads, better housing, better water infrastructure, we aren’t voting for Māori alone. We fight for clean drinking water and for better roads for the entire Far North community. I oppose any attempts to undermine or dilute our voices”. E mihi ana ki a koe, Tāmati.

Tonight at 11.59, submissions close on Māori wards, and I invite the people of New Zealand to unite with us in upholding Te Tiriti o Waitangi and providing the important voice of Māori at the decision-making table in local government. The Green Party will stand in solidarity with te iwi Māori as we look to protect the papa pounamu of He Whakaputanga me Te Tiriti o Waitangi and seek to uphold those things that are important to us, Matua Winston. Kia ora.

Fourteen years—14 years—since the tax thresholds have been changed in this country. We’ve had 40 percent inflation since 2010 and that has forced people into higher tax brackets, with a result that for people on the median income their average tax rate has gone from 15 percent to 21 percent, and that takes a lot of money out of the pockets of average-income-earning New Zealanders because of inflation. And so it’s 2010—and tomorrow in the Budget, we’re going to be changing that and restoring some realism to the tax brackets that we’ve had no changes to for 14 years. You’ve got to go back to 2010 since they were last dealt with. Look, 2010 is a different era entirely, think about it: Lorde was still at school on the tennis courts—she hadn’t written “Royals” in 2010; Netflix hadn’t been streamed in New Zealand for another five years—it would be five years; Phil Goff—Phil Goff was the future of the Labour Party in 2010, and Shane Jones was a member of the Labour Party in 2010. It was a different world. Since that time, since 2010, we still haven’t had any changes to the tax thresholds.

That’s going to change in the Budget because the help is on its way. And why? Because Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis have that fundamental core principle of the National Party and all the parties across our coalition, which is reward for effort. The New Zealanders who are working hard day in, day out to look after themselves and their family—opening their businesses, running their retail shops, trying to find a living—deserve some relief from the ever-increased tax take that has flowed from inflation, and that’s why we’re going to change it. That’s why there’s a sharp division across this House, because on one side of the House, we want to reward hard-working New Zealanders by letting them keep more of their own money so that they can afford to deal with the increasing, rising costs of living, to be able to buy the groceries that they need for their consumption, be able to fill their car with petrol to get around and do their stuff. This side of the House are about putting extra money in the hands of New Zealanders that they have earned. On that side of the House, they will fight tooth and nail never—never—to yield a cent of tax revenue, and that’s what we saw from Chris Hipkins; it’s what we’re seeing.

It’s an interesting period, of course—everybody out there is like peacocks trying to stand up for the next contest for the leadership of the Labour Party. We’ve got Willie Jackson even going to Oxford in order to strut around in order to increase his credentials as potential leader of the Labour Party. We’ve got Megan Woods, I think she’d be good; her only response to any issue is to tax more—it’s a wealth tax, it’s a capital gains tax. Even the doyen of tax policy over on the Labour side David Parker, who always looks a little bit dishevelled, but David “Piketty” Parker is the guy that sends all the thinking over at the Labour Party about yet more taxes to the solution.

Now the problem is—the problem is—that ultimately it’s all about spending, because tax policy follows spending policy. And what we saw over the last six years was an 80 percent increase in spending. I defy anybody in this country anywhere to be able to point towards an 80 percent improvement in the delivery from the Government over the six years under Labour. That is why this side of the House spent six months going through every department trying to get some discipline back into spending. In my areas, in justice, and all areas that we’ve been looking at, we’re trying to restore some discipline to spending because, ultimately, it’s New Zealanders that have to pay. And it’s been made much worse by the fact that the previous guy—Grant Robertson—concealed a lot of the size of the deficit because they refused to actually fund a whole lot of things past one or two years, and so we’re having to deal with that in the Budget. So it looked like we’re in deficit, but, actually, we’re in a much worse deficit because things like basic pharmaceutical funding hadn’t been funded into the future, and we had to find that extra money.

So, in this Government, it’s about rebuilding the economy, restoring some discipline to spending, as well as the key areas that we’re also focused on for New Zealand, which is restoring law and order, and actually delivering top-quality healthcare and education—those are the core things that will make a difference to New Zealanders’ lives. Tomorrow, New Zealanders will have some hope again. They’ll have some hope that the Government is not all about taking more and more from their pockets and using the sneaky little tax of inflation to take more money out of their pockets, but actually to give some money back to New Zealanders so that they can spend it on the things that they want to spend it on for themselves and their family. That will make a real difference to New Zealanders tomorrow. It’s about helping the squeezed middle get back on track. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Look, it’s a real privilege to rise as the proud member of Parliament for Waimakariri. I’ve been in this role 10 years now and I don’t take that responsibility lightly. So that’s why it’s so good to be part of a coalition Government that will deliver the Woodend Bypass. We’ll start construction at our first term. That Labour Government came in in 2017 and cancelled the former National Government’s commitment to the Woodend Bypass, and it’s brilliant to be part of a coalition Government that will reinstate that commitment and start construction in its first term.

It’s also a privilege to be New Zealand’s first mental health Minister. In my first announcement, we talked about rolling out peer-support, lived-experience workers in emergency departments. That was a service we can roll out by delivering uncommitted funds in the Vote Health budget. Then with Gumboot Friday, we announced through a coalition agreement in Budget 2024, we’re going to fund I Am Hope Foundation $24 million—$6 million a year over four years—that will deliver much-needed mental health counselling services to young people aged five to 25. That service will connect mental health professionals to young people in less than one week.

What we know is we’re facing increased demand for our mental health services, specifically with our young people, and this investment announcement will go a long way to ensure our young people get the timely mental health and addiction support they need. So when the Labour Opposition wants to attack that announcement—focus on the contracting, even though we’ve said it’s compliant with Government procurement rules—what they’re trying to deflect from is the Auditor-General report that came out last month that said even despite the $1.9 billion, wait times for specialist mental health services for young people had grown in the last six years. Only that Government could spend that amount of money for waiting times to go up. The Auditor-General also said he could not identify any value for money for taxpayers out of that funding announcement by that last Labour Government.

Then we had the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission that said despite the announcement of $1.9 billion—that, to be frank, most New Zealanders are still looking for—it made no material improvement. What we’ve got is a Government now that’s been very clear that we will save money in the back office of the public services and focus that on the front line. We’ll get money out of the Beehive to grassroots organisations who are already delivering so they can scale up and respond to the need. That’s why it was brilliant to stand with the coalition Government, the Deputy Prime Minister, to announce $24 million that will provide support to an extra 15,000 young people a year who need that valuable support.

It was also a privilege to stand with the Prime Minister and the transport Minister, Simeon Brown, to announce $63 million towards Coastguard and Surf Life Saving—$19 million for Coastguard, $44 million for Surf Life Saving. Our New Zealand search and rescue delivers thousands of lifesaving rescues every year, directly attributable last year to saving 161 lives. We got that money from the back office and we’ve put it into the front line so many New Zealanders, when they go to the beach, when they go on the water, they can feel safer.

That’s what you’ve got in this coalition Government: a Government that is very prepared to get into the back office to save some money; get it to the front line. That’s what we’ll find with Budget 2024. We’ve got one more sleep to go. What you’re going to see is a Budget 2024 that will prioritise investment into public services. It will deliver personal tax reduction and deliver savings to get this country’s books back on track; a Government that I’m proud to be part of, that will invest more into front-line services.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. We’re on the eve of the Budget, and for the last couple of weeks I have been asking questions of the Minister for Children about the cuts to, as we have just heard, the back office, to redirect to the front line. But I will just say that when it comes to Oranga Tamariki, the Minister of Finance promised, before the election, that Oranga Tamariki, along with a few other agencies, would be specifically excluded from this fiscal savings initiative. That was the promise before the election. But then, after the election, she broke her promise and she asked the Minister for Children to go and find 6.5 percent savings within Oranga Tamariki, the organisation that is tasked with looking after our most vulnerable and at-risk children—“Go and find 6.5 percent from your back office and redirect that to the front line.”

What we have seen in the Minister of Finance’s requirement of the Minister for Children, because of the Minister of Finance’s incompetence to make her plan stack up, is that they have gone through a restructuring proposal, and in that proposal they are proposing to cut 447 jobs from Oranga Tamariki—jobs they believe are back-office jobs. That is 9 percent of the organisation. This is all because the Minister of Finance could not make her plan add up. She’s now including an organisation she said would specifically be excluded and requiring it to find this money—this 6.5 percent; these 447 jobs. Questions I have asked in the House have demonstrated—and I agree with Chris Hipkins—that this definition of “back office” and “front line” is farcical. We are talking about the International Child Protection Unit, responsible for child trafficking, sexual exploitation, worker exploitation, and so on. It includes the records team who hold the records on behalf of those who are in State care. It includes the child safety and harm team for those who have been harmed in State care. It also includes the lawyers, who the Minister recently said are not considered front-line workers, despite the work they do in the courts on behalf of Oranga Tamariki.

And it gets even more absurd than that. The Minister, in answer to written question No. 11262, in 2024, said that the chief executive of Oranga Tamariki is not a front-line role. Anyone who thinks that a Government agency can run without a chief executive needs a 101 on how our Government works. But worse than that, the chief executive of Oranga Tamariki is responsible for the 7,000 children who are in care and protection under the chief executive. The chief executive is their legal guardian—essentially, their parent—and to say that he is not front line is just absurd. I am worried about the impact that these cuts of 447 back-office—which I dispute—jobs are going to have on our most at-risk and vulnerable children. That number actually makes up 25 to 30 percent of the back office. It is going to bring the front-line services to their knees, and what impact will that have on our most vulnerable children?

In the minute that I have remaining, I want to talk about what I am worried about for our children in terms of tomorrow’s Budget. We have seen the cuts to the organisation and those that provide the services to them, but we are going to see tomorrow the cuts to the services and the contracts that are provided to them and those services in the community. Those service providers are going to hear at the eleventh hour whether they are going to have funding beyond the end of June. They are the ones who are delivering front-line services to our tamariki in the community. How many of their contracts are going to be cut? How many of those services are going to be impacted because this Government is finding those tax savings and cost cutting here to give $2.9 billion to landlords? They are prioritising landlords over our most vulnerable children. This is about choices and this Government has got its priorities wrong.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Agriculture has been the backbone of New Zealand for the last hundred-plus years. Our Minister of Agriculture, Todd McClay, often reminds us that when farming does well, New Zealand does well. And to use a word much loved by my friend and colleague Mark Cameron, the “counterfactual” is also true. The previous Government spent six years undermining the future of farming with a raft of unnecessary, often conflicting, rules and regulations that were bad for farmers and rural communities. So many businesses, large and small, so many livelihoods across the mighty Rangitīkei and indeed across New Zealand are dependent on a buoyant agriculture sector.

The mighty Rangitīkei represents heartland rural and provincial New Zealand at its best. Despite recent challenges, excellence shines through. I want to take this opportunity to talk about Jack Jordan from Taumarunui, New Zealand’s top axeman, who just last week competed in Italy against 15 of the best from around the world and won the Stihl Timbersports World Trophy for the third year in a row, breaking his own world record in the process. And senior constable Conrad Smith from National Park, who was awarded a gold medal at the New Zealand Search and Rescue Awards held at Parliament last week for his outstanding service and commitment to search and rescue. And James and Debbie Stewart, farming at Dairylands near Fielding, who won the 2024 Fonterra Responsible Dairying Award at the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards and are also the Ballance Farm Environment Award supreme winners for the Horizons region.

Our farmers are indeed guardians of the land. We walk the talk. Kaitiakitanga is what we do; it’s how we farm. A recent report from the University of Canterbury revealed 24 percent of New Zealand’s native vegetation—approximately 2.4 million hectares—is on sheep and beef farms. This represents the largest amount of native vegetation outside of public conservation land, and it plays a vital, unheralded role in supporting biodiversity. National in this Government backs our farmers. Sixteen National MPs turned up to Gisborne in force last weekend for a fund-raising sports fixture. It was Federated Farmers versus the politicians to support the cyclone recovery and raise money for much-needed fencing. Minister of Agriculture Todd McClay proved fast on his feet down the wing. Local MP Dana Kirkpatrick did a magnificent job of organising. We won the rugby, lost the netball, happy to call it a draw. But the winners on the day were the farmers and rural communities on the East Coast, with over $300,000 raised.

Farming is the engine room of this great country. I am a proud farmer, and I’m proud to be part of a Government that gets it; a Government that’s committed to letting our farmers get back to doing what they do best: farm; to reducing red tape, cutting unnecessary compliance costs; a Government that’s determined to get New Zealand back on track. We have a plan to grow the economy and backing our farmers to succeed is a huge part of that. Parts of Rangitīkei and indeed New Zealand are suffering the effects of a significant drought. We can’t fix the weather, but changes to the Resource Management Act mean we don’t have to worry about more red tape slowing us down, about ridiculous rules and compliance costs getting in the way.

Market access—let’s talk about that. We can’t get rich as a nation selling stuff to ourselves. We need to sell to the world, and we need to go to the world, and that’s what this Government has focused on. In six months, the Prime Minister and Minister for Trade Todd McClay have focused on opening up new markets and solidifying our place in new ones. This Government is ambitious for New Zealand, with a plan to double agricultural exports over the next 10 years.

A Federated Farmers survey last year found over 70 percent of farmers’ mental health and wellbeing was being adversely affected just by doing their job. This Government is doing something about it. We have Matt Doocey, New Zealand’s first ever Minister for Mental Health, and we’re funding the Gumboot Friday initiative $24 million over four years as part of tomorrow’s Budget. Across there, the message hasn’t changed. Even in Opposition, they’re attacking farmers. They don’t get farmers, they don’t get rural New Zealand; we do and we’re proving it. I’m proud to be part of the solution. This Government’s relentless focus on reducing red tape and allowing our farmers to get back to what they do best: farm.

Tēnā koe e te Pīka. As the party with the largest Māori mandate and Māori electorates, I feel extremely confident in being able to stand and say that we have heard our people’s call that they have reached the absolute point of intolerance. They are extremely intolerant of everything that they have had to endure with the dismantling of policies, of kaupapa, of passion, that have been put here to advance our people.

In the words of some of our constituents, this is a Government that has unleashed an unholy or ruthless assault on Māori. I am extremely grateful because you have woken us up, and while it is not my intent to be in this House to teach how to be honourable or to practise tikanga, what I will do is use this Kāwanatanga space to wānanga rangatiratanga and speak to our own people. I will use this time and debate to speak to the 80 percent of our whānau who were not raised in kōhanga reo, who were not encouraged to think about rangatiratanga, who, in fact, believed there was only one source of truth when it came to the empowerment of whānau, who were raised not knowing how it is to be generation Te Tiriti, but instead fought for them. That includes people like myself, who were raised in the rangatiratanga and actually battled for these kaupapa.

I want to talk about our whānau and our whenua and how important it is and remind that nothing that has been achieved today to bring generation Te Tiriti was won through not having to fight—nothing. Despite many parties saying they were responsible for the kōhanga movement, the kura kaupapa movement, in fact, it was our own people who did that battle. We must remember that in this place all the time. Pari’aka, Kīngitanga, Rātana—they were all enactments of rangatiratanga. Pūmau te reo, the kura kaupapa, the kōhanga movement—all enactments of Māori rangatiratanga. Neither needed the Kāwanatanga’s budget or permission.

We have let the Kāwanatanga think that it has more power than it deserves, whānau mā. Kāwanatanga sees us transactionally and we often fall into that plight. They see us more transactionally than they do us being part of anything that is about growing us, about our transformation, and they use this control in the Kāwanatanga space to domesticate us. This place thinks that it understands and practises and upholds our tikanga without respect to w’akapapa and without respect to kawa that comes from w’akapapa.

I want us to remind ourselves, that 80 percent who sit on the fence, who sometimes are really troubled, while the 20 percent of those were growing the tangata Tiriti, the tangata whenua, the kura kaupapa, the kōhanga movement, our generation Tiriti who have grown up, who understand their rights to be sovereign—I want to remind us that when the strongest power within Aotearoa stands up and says that you are not able to strike, that puts the fear and uses the forked tongue to frighten you, to say that you do not understand what that means. I want to remind you of your own rights and your own sovereign enshrined in Te Tiriti. I want to remind you of your own tino rangatiratanga which means we must always stand up and protect our mokopuna.

I want to remind you of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act, the Human Rights Act, and all the aspects that mean that we cannot be sacked because of our race or our politics. I want to remind you of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which protects our right for self-determination. A singular absence is not fair ground to be dismissed, and, in fact, would raise issues of discrimination. Bad be it on a leader who would use the media to set and sic themselves on people who would be scared and not as unapologetic as the 80 percent of those of us who have been raised in believing that the Kāwanatanga is necessary to give us permission to practise and, indeed, assert our rangatiratanga.

We have been and always have asserted our rangatiratanga. It existed for thousands of years before the unnatural interruption. I want to remind you: do not be imprisoned by those uncles that don’t believe in rangatiratanga. Tomorrow, turn up. Tomorrow, we will greet you, we will meet you, we will welcome you, and you will be heard and seen. To those who don’t believe in your rangatiratanga, kei te pai. We will cover you. We will always look after you. But those of our mokopuna and our younger generation who do believe in rangatiratanga, who have been raised to fight for rangatiratanga, follow us tomorrow and listen for the kōrero on Friday, because you will welcome it. Kia ora rā.

What we’ve heard is the chorus of victimhood. We’ve not heard from the Māori Party; we’ve heard from a party of radical extremists—so motivated in their commitment that they couldn’t even file their own question today. That’s how diligent they are. That’s why there’s 11 questions and not 12 there—because they’re so motivated protesting, they can’t even do their job. They don’t want democracy; they want anarchy. They purport to represent Māori even though the vast majority of Māori don’t vote for them. They deliberately attack individual Ministers with childish schoolboy slurs—

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Who voted for you? Kore—kore.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —that are only designed to stoke racial division. You see? She hasn’t finished her speech, has she? Here she is in a most un-Māori way—

Hon Nicole McKee: Point of order, Mr Speaker. I can’t hear a thing. There’s just constant yelling from my right side here. I would really like to hear the Hon Winston Peters’ speech.

SPEAKER: I think it’s noticeable that the speech delivered by the previous speaker, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, was heard respectfully in silence and this one will be too.

Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: They actively call the Government a Pākehā Government with Pākehā laws when two of the three leaders of the coalition are Māori and there are a record number of Māori in Cabinet—far more than they’ll ever have or they’ve ever had. Now, they personally attack Māori Ministers for not growing up Māori enough, for being sell-outs, for wanting to exterminate Māori, for being white supremacists, for being racist, for wanting everybody to be white. These are quotes from the Māori Party recently. And this kind of garbage in the New Zealand Herald on the 24th of this month? [Holds up newspaper clipping] Absolute drivel.

Who trains these people? Who educated them? And where were they when the crisis of Māoridom was happening so many times in the last century? Never saw any of them. The only Māori they acknowledge and want to represent are the minority who think like them. If you are Māori and don’t think like them, then you’re not a real Māori. See how convenient it is? The sooner the media realises that, then the sooner will we see the blatant racist rhetoric they use as their weapon of choice—blatant racist rhetoric. Their rhetoric belongs in the gutter and should be called out by the media for what it is and would be in a nanosecond if the racial roles were reversed—would be in a nanosecond if the racial roles were reversed.

We know some of your backgrounds. Don’t come walking in here and tell me, from Ngāti Wai, “I don’t know your background.” or where you weren’t when we were fighting for Māori. They’re now calling for a revolution, promoting images of guns on social media. They are calling for protests. They’re calling for protests to disrupt and block our streets by stoking racial division. Make no mistake. Racial division is exactly what they want, not unity. They actively promote wanting a separate Parliament. They want separate laws. They want separate land. They want separate constitutions. We should never accept this ignorant extremist rhetoric as a new kind of political discourse in our country. It’ll damage our country beyond repair.

The Māori Party pales in comparison to the great past Māori leaders such as Carroll, Ngata, Pomare, and Buck. They wouldn’t be even qualified as to policy issues—so much so that they never ever mention those four men—never! Never mention Whina Cooper, because she said we signed the Treaty to become one people, and that’s the last thing they want. They’re racist and they’re separatists. Now, these great Māori leaders all wanted unity for everyone in New Zealand, not separatism, as did Dame Whina Cooper.

Our Government can fix the economy, infrastructure, law and order, and the education and health systems. But if we don’t fix this separatist agenda from the extreme corners of our political system, all of that will be for nought. We will be on a pathway to becoming the next Venezuela or like the former apartheid South Africa. And let me tell you, some of you: we’re not listening to you. You show me one thing you’ve ever done for your people. Show me one thing you’ve ever done for your people. Over here, we’ve got people with a magnificent record, decades and decades of work, great court cases, won all on a risk, using our own money. What’s their sacrifice? On the taxpayer’s teat all their life and they’ve come in here and they’re going to lecture to us. You’ve come to the wrong marae here—make no mistake. Our Government intends to fix all of these things for New Zealand, to lift every New Zealander, Māori and non-Māori, together as one. That is the only way our country will succeed.

And by the way, when you spend $350,000 of taxpayers’ charity money illegally on an election campaign, they should be called out. Why isn’t the media screaming from the rafters now? They did it all the time about the Serious Fraud Office and we smashed the Serious Fraud Office three times. But these people are guilty.

The Māori people are a smart people, and they can see right through politics. When it comes to a Budget, the saying and the expression is true: money talks, and Warriors bandwagon fans walk. Māori are up front about it: on Budget day, money talks. From the other side of the House, we hear these grand gestures of equity. One need only look at the data to show where funding needs to go in order to make sure that equity is achieved. So, in order to help some of the members who weren’t here at least year’s Budget, on the other side of the House, I’m going to paint a wee picture for them. The total Māori package at last year’s Budget was just over $825 million.

Hon Member: Well, why are you in Opposition, then?

Hon PEENI HENARE: I want to run through a few of those initiatives that got outcomes to close the equity gap that that member lambasts so much about.

In Budget 2023, $200 million was invested through the Whai Kāinga Whai Oranga programme. I hear members on the other side of the House say, “Well, what did it achieve?” Let me tell that member what it achieved: it approved and contracted well over a thousand homes, enabled 1,700 infrastructure sites to see more green sites to allow building, it also supported 415 repairs to existing homes, and, just as importantly, it also offered first-home buyer grants to Māori, to Pākehā, to Pacific peoples, to people right across this country to allow them to get into their first home; first-home loan grants. Guess who’s getting rid of that in this upcoming Budget!

Let me take members on the other side of the House through another little journey. “This Government”—and this was myself last year—“backs Whānau Ora and has committed a further $168.1 million over four years”. Whānau Ora has already been applauded by this current Government for doing good work into our communities. We will be watching with a very keen eye on whether or not this Government will continue to support Whānau Ora. One of those kaupapa is a kaupapa dear to my heart and the heart of my colleague here the Hon Willow-Jean Prime, that’s Ngā Tini Whetū—that’s to stop our tamariki from entering into the Oranga Tamariki system, supporting families to make sure that they can achieve their aspirations and now, more importantly, our tamariki can be well supported. The increase I just mentioned in the Whānau Ora budget under the Labour Government was an increase of 145 percent in funding. What that did was achieve more outcomes for Māori and non-Māori right across this country.

In health—we hear about equitable funding in health. Well, that side of the House, like everyone in this House knows, that health outcomes for Māori are the poorest in the country. So, in order to get equity, you’ve got to be able to fund it to make sure that equitable outcomes are borne out. I can tell that side of the House that, in last year’s Budget, $132 million was put forward for Māori health. That was to support providers for cheaper access to primary care for Māori and for rural communities. That side of the House talked about “We’re here to support the farmers, rural communities.”, this funding right here supported Māori and rural communities, and this Government is getting rid of it. I heard Dr Shane Reti in this House say, “The way forward for Māori health is the Iwi-Māori Partnership Boards.” Well, money talks, and that’s what the Labour Government did last year. They put money towards the Iwi-Māori Partnership Boards. So we’ll be making sure to keep an eye on this current health Minister to see whether or not he backs up his talk with a bit of money.

Into education—education, that investment of $225 million directly into Māori education. Paying kōhanga reo teachers what they are worth, making sure that they were paid to give the services of language to our young people for the future. It helped a further 25,000 students, and a further 325 schools and kura across this country. There was so much good news in last year’s Budget. Te Matatini is a fantastic kaupapa that’s seen the investment of significant dollars to make sure that we can continue to support Te Matatini—$34 million over two years, and we’ve seen that particular funding do well.

Sam Uffindell: Come on, Peeni, say something inspiring.

Hon PEENI HENARE: Those members went to Te Matatini and saw how big it was. That is because money talks. This National-led Government, when it comes to money, they’re not very good at it. This Budget is going to come down to two things for this Government: broken promises, and choices—choices to support landlords instead of the people who need it the most.

Talofa lava. Happy Samoan Language Week. This is my first contribution to the general debate in this House, and I would like to use this opportunity to thank the people of Mt Roskill for their trust and support in electing me as the first National MP for Mt Roskill. People in Mt Roskill are the reason why I’m here today. Because I care about them, I want the best of them, and I want to create opportunities for them for a brighter future. As their local MP, it is my job to bring their voices to the Parliament. Since being elected, I’ve been actively engaging with my constituents from all corners of the Mt Roskill electorate, across different industries, professions, religions, ethnicities, and needs. I’m committed to listen to their voices and be a strong advocate. I hear their voices.

People in Mt Roskill tell me that every day they struggle with the cost of living. Families are having to work extra hours and pick up a second job just to meet their needs. But no matter how hard they work, there is nothing left in their bank account at the end of the week. Families with young children are struggling to afford the rising cost of childcare fees. I hear you and we respond. This is why this Government is going to give you a tax relief in this year’s Budget. The tax thresholds haven’t been adjusted for 14 years—14 years. Increases to the current income tax threshold will allow hard-working New Zealanders to keep what they earn. Our tax relief packages will increase the take-home income of 83 percent of New Zealanders over the age of 15 and 94 percent of households. We’ll also deliver FamilyBoost policy to support our hard-working families. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported with a tax rebate of up to $75 per week.

People in Mt Roskill are also concerned about crime. Under the previous Government—their soft-on-crime approach—crime is out of control and people in Mt Roskill don’t feel safe anymore. I hear them and we respond. That’s why, earlier this month, I organised a public meeting with police to give Mt Roskill residents the opportunity to share their concerns and feedback with the police. We are committed to making Mt Roskill a safer community for all. This is why this Government will deliver 500 more front-line police on the beat. This Government will also invest $1.9 million in more front-line Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity. We have a target to reduce youth crime by 15 percent to make our streets safer.

People in Mt Roskill also value education. I’m proud to report to the House that I have visited every single school in my electorate, including primary, intermediate, and secondary schools and specialty schools. Principals are telling me that they struggle with teacher recruitment. We hear them and we respond. We will invest $52.6 million to attract, train, and retain our teachers workforce as part of getting our education system back on track. This Government is also delivering a more efficient healthy school lunches programme, extending it to 10,000 early childhood kids and saving taxpayer money and $107 million.

People in Mt Roskill are also concerned about the broken mental health system. We hear them. This is why we have the first ever Minister for Mental Health, the Hon Matt Doocey, and we are investing $24 million into Gumboot Friday to include their counselling pool and provide 160,000 free counselling sessions for New Zealanders aged between five and 25.

Tomorrow will be a great day for Mt Roskill and a great day for New Zealand because we will deliver a Budget which will help our working class. Our Budget will rebuild the economy, restore law and order, and deliver on public services like health and education. Budget—

The member’s time has expired.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. In the last few weeks, I have been quite concerned. I have been concerned because of the comments that I hear from that side of the House. I have been concerned because of the phrases that I hear in the speeches that are being made from that side of the House. This is because in those phrases, in those comments, what I see is prominence given to a particular race: the Māori race. And not just that, it is about putting Māori against Pākehā. It’s about Māori versus Pākehā. And in all this, I want to ask a question. It’s a daunting question but I want to ask this question: where do I sit? Where is my place in all this? When I say this “my place”, I don’t mean me per se here; I mean migrant communities. Where do migrant communities sit?

If you look at our statistics, by the end of this year—that is 2024—we will have around 880,000 Asian people in New Zealand. If you look at migrants—those who have come from different countries around the world to New Zealand to make New Zealand their home—that population is quite significant. People have been here from Europe for a number of years, we have people from the Middle East, we have people from Africa, and so many countries that there’s a significant population. And if we look at the numbers in the census that are released today, 29 percent of New Zealanders identify as ethnicities that are not Pākehā or Māori, and this number is only going to grow. So my question is: where do these migrant communities sit? As an immigrant, I’m really proud of the migrant communities for the contribution they make. I’m really proud of the migrant communities for the wealth of experience they bring to New Zealand to enrich our country.

In all this, what I also notice is that that side—this is, Labour, Greens, and Te Pāti Māori—when they go out to public functions, they look really passionate towards those communities. But as soon as they come in the House, it becomes only about Māori and Pākehā. This is New Zealand’s Parliament, this is the 21st century. And I have gone around and spoken to many, many families and they have told me that based on what they have been seeing in this House, they are reminded of what their forefathers went through when they came to New Zealand in late 1800s and early 1900s. They went through discrimination, prejudice, struggle, hardship. They said to me that they don’t want to be reminded of all that. They have said that the road to be where we are today hasn’t been easy. It’s because of their courage, it’s because of their struggles we have been able to come to this stage where New Zealand has become such a welcoming country to all migrants, and that’s how we want to keep it.

I would say that, yes, I don’t look like all those migrants, I don’t sound like all those migrants, but I do understand their frustration. And I want to say to migrant communities, don’t let anyone else choose your place in your home country. I said to migrant communities that you have the right to thrive here just like anyone else. And I said to migrant communities, “Don’t let the voice of division and hate let you doubt your place in your own home country, New Zealand.” In New Zealand, our communities have come from all parts of the world, and that is what makes New Zealand.

I want to also say this to migrant communities: “Stand tall, stand proud, this is your home country. You have sacrificed to be here and you are making the contribution to make this country a great country that New Zealand is.” I want to say to migrant communities: “Be where diversity is valued. Be where unity is celebrated. Be where equality is recognised.” And that is the ACT Party. I also want to say this to migrant communities that the ACT Party really recognises the new face of New Zealand, the new New Zealand, the multicultural New Zealand. That side wants to take New Zealand back to the 1800s, but the ACT Party will not let that happen. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed in 1840, and that is why I am able to stand in this House, because I am welcome in this place. That is the reason that Dr Parmjeet Parmar, the previous speaker, is able to stand in this House and is welcome in this place and in this land. It is because of that agreement and because of the welcome of the indigenous people of this land.

I just want to talk briefly about nature, and nature is our national asset here. Nature, though, has the potential to be a train wreck. If we look at this Government’s so-called Fast-track Approvals Bill, it has the potential to take New Zealand backwards. We listen and look at the submissions coming through, and there are the challenges that people are showing in terms of this attack on nature and on our natural environment. We on this side of the House are doing what we can and we did what we could in the previous Government to ensure that, yes, we can farm; yes, we can look after; yes, we can develop; and, yes, we can ensure that we have good quality infrastructure. But not at the cost of nature, because when it’s gone, when we kill even one of those 4,000 species of endangered flora and fauna, it is gone for ever—for ever—and I’m not going to stand here and let that happen.

This is about the choices that this Government is making to run roughshod over so many pieces of legislation that have been put in place over the years, even taking it back to 1953 in terms of the Wildlife Act. It’s just throwing caution into the wind for the sake of development. As we’ve heard today in this House—and we’ve looked at the report from the Auditor-General on the concerns around procurement and the concerns around some of the weaknesses and some of vital parts of transparency—we need to ensure that this House and this Government are squeaky clean.

Currently, there are challenges and there are cracks. We’ve heard that in question time today, and we’ve seen that over recent weeks. Whether it’s the procurement of mental health or whether it’s text messages being sent to organise people to head up boards and infrastructure, we need to make sure that we hold this Government to account in order to ensure that the voting public get what was on the box, because, at the moment, I think what’s in the tin isn’t on the cover of the box.

In our select committee process, we have heard from less than 40 percent of individual submissions on the Fast-track Approvals Bill, and I just say that that is a crass override of democracy. When we had more than 27,000 submissions come in, with thousands upon thousands of individuals wanting to have their voices heard in this democratic system, less than 40 percent will have the opportunity to make an oral submission, and that is outrageous and that is wrong. This Government is taking New Zealand backwards.

This Government is making choices that are not around the protection of nature or our native species, but they’re making choices to disregard our endangered ecosystem. Whether it’s Archey’s frogs; whether it’s our native kiwi, which we’re so proud of; or whether it’s the “hysteria” around climate change—a comment that a Minister in this Government threw out in this House—these comments are unhelpful and wrong.

These comments are running roughshod over 2.7 million hectares of stewardship land that we want to protect because it is managed for its natural and historical purposes—and the Government members can laugh at that. They can laugh at the protection of native species. They can laugh at the historical importance of pā sites. They can laugh at the fact that they are running roughshod over things like wetlands. But we on this side of the House are fighting for nature. We are standing up for nature. We are making sure that our environment is protected and that the procurement systems and how that Government goes about doing its business—they’re held accountable for that, because we need to know that they are doing right by the voters.

In closing, we want to make a stand, and we want to stand with the people of Aotearoa to make sure that we march for nature. On Saturday, 8 June, I’ll be in Auckland supporting tens of thousands of New Zealanders, many of whom weren’t able to speak in the select committee process. I’ll be protesting—yes, on a Saturday—because we need to make sure that we march for nature. We need to ensure that we protect nature.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.

I declare the House in committee for consideration of the McLean Institute (Trust Variation) Bill.