Special Debates — Quality of Life for Ageing New Zealanders

Members, we come now to debate on the quality of life for ageing New Zealanders, arranged by the Business Committee under Standing Order 80. Would some honourable member care to move that the House take note of the quality of life for ageing New Zealanders?

Mr Speaker, I so note, and it is an honour to be able to stand and speak in the first speech on the quality of life for ageing New Zealanders. This is absolutely something that all members of this House, and across New Zealand, will be interested in making sure that we get right, because we all have loved ones that are elderly. We, ourselves, will, hopefully, be elderly one day. It’s in everyone’s best interest that we can act in a bipartisan manner to make sure people of age live with dignity and respect, and in a way that’s also manageable and sustainable for the Government.

I was reflecting, as I was thinking about this—if you bear me some minor indulgence, Mr Speaker—that I’m going into a Christmas with ageing parents, an ageing father. He’s in a retirement village, and I want to make sure that I spend as much time as I can with him over these coming holidays, because you never know when they may not be there anymore.

Look, the Government is very serious about making sure that New Zealanders age well, and you’ve seen a number of announcements in this space recently. We want an integrated approach to reforming the aged-care system. The recent announcement of a ministerial advisory group will take a non-political, independent approach to making sure that we can develop mechanisms to best address and best suit what is needed. There are three key areas that the ministerial advisory group will look at: firstly, the funding model to support sustainable services and the sustainable supply of aged-care beds; also, how the cost of providing aged care can be reasonably shared between those receiving the care, and the Government; and, thirdly, the changes needed to support cohesion and integration between aged-care services and health services, and between aged-care services and the disability sector.

Ensuring a sustainable supply of aged-care beds is critical to ensuring that all New Zealanders have the care they need as they age. The recommendations from the expert ministerial advisory group are expected in mid-2026, with changes to the funding model to be implemented in 2027. They’re significant policy implications and considerations, and they will shape future Governments’ recommendations.

We also need a system that responds and recognises that most New Zealanders do want to age at home, if they can, where feasible. To enable that to happen and to move between the different layers of care as they need—it is essential to ensuring that we can fulfil that. We have had a lot of challenges regarding, you know, we have an ageing demographic. There is no way to get past the fact that we have a significantly higher proportion of New Zealanders over 65 years of age, and that is expected to continue or will continue into the future, and with a relatively low proportion of New Zealanders of working age. The implications to the State are going to be considerable. With advances in healthcare and nutrition, people are also living longer, which adds a further dimension. We are also seeing a number of additional New Zealanders living with dementia, which places more complex needs on our aged-care system.

But around those funding improvements: there was a recent announcement that the aged residential care sector would receive a 4 percent uplift. That will see a total uplift or increase of $96 million this year, coupled with an additional $44 million for the home community and support services—so bringing in additional funding of $140 million. This is on top of the $129 million from the previous year, so, all up, very close to $270 million over that two-year period. These funding increases are aimed at relieving pressure that’s on the sector and improving care services for New Zealanders in the short term, while we work on those longer-term pieces that will come through that ministerial advisory group’s recommendations. Essentially, fixing the basics and building the future—that is something that we are very focused to do.

There’s also been an announcement of a case mix model in the South Island that will be rolled out throughout the South Island, which we believe is a move away from task-based providers paid by the hour for specific tasks to more flexible care arrangements that are more responsive to the needs that people face. We believe that this new service model will deliver better care, with a focus on keeping people independent as long as possible.

We have heard a lot about the number of people living in retirement villages. I have a father who lives in one with his partner, and I was there recently and they have a very good quality of life there. But it’s fair to say that not all New Zealanders enjoy that quality of life. We know that there are a number of New Zealanders who reach the age of 65 with very limited superannuation savings. They may not have a property that they own. They are then out of the workforce, with a number of years left to sustain themselves and not necessarily the means to do so. We need to address a lot of those issues—that there are some significant long-term structural challenges for New Zealand to face in that regard.

We have heard a lot of concerns from people living in retirement villages around the conditions there, or the inequities or the unfairness. There was a recent announcement by Ministers Casey Costello and Tama Potaka in reviewing the Retirement Villages Act, which was a coalition agreement between New Zealand First and the National Party. Some of the key improvements that came out of that are a process for former residents to apply for early access to funds in specific circumstances; interest being paid after six months if a unit remains unlicensed; repayment of funds no later than 12 months when a unit is vacated—and we heard some stories from very distressed family members, where a loved one had left a retirement village and the unit was not sold for a number of years—people want closure in these circumstances, in their estate, and their families want to move on; also, stopping the quite insidious practice of charging fees and deductions to a resident who is no longer with us and no longer at the village.

This bill is expected to be taken to Parliament mid - next year, and then we’ll go through the select committee process. I also want to make mention of the work the Health Committee did—the inquiry into the aged-care sector’s current and future capacity to provide support services for people experiencing neurological cognitive disorders. I can see a number of members from the committee here across the House: thank you all for your participation. It was wonderful that we had a report that we were able to bring back to the House that had unanimous support. Thank you to everyone for your contributions to that.

We made a number of visits up and down the country to a variety of aged-care facilities, and we came out with 14 recommendations. Some of the key ones were around increasing the transparency of funding; looking at a range of incentives to ensure that providers can build or are able to build or are incentivised to build the facilities that are required; the development of more dementia beds, where there’s currently some real financial struggles for providers around providing those; changes to encourage flexibility in the home community and support services contracting, so they can perform a range of tasks, with a holistic view to keeping people out of hospital and keeping them well; and, also, looking at some of the longer-term contracting and national consistency in the Home and Community Support Services provider framework; and setting up a regular respite care programme. There are a number of recommendations there, and I believe the Government will consider them duly—and, obviously, there’s funding challenges and other considerations that need to take place. But I just want to, once again, acknowledge the Health Committee members from around the House for their participation in that.

Look, I’ve covered all the major pieces that I want to, but I just want to reiterate how important it is that we take a long-term, bipartisan approach to this—that we fix what’s in front of us right now, and that we are able to build the systems that we need for the future to enable all New Zealanders to age with dignity and respect, appreciating that there will be cultural variances and challenges throughout New Zealand that also need to be factored in and addressed. But we can do this in a bipartisan and collegial manner, and make sure that we deliver for the long-term challenges that we have in this area. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Now, I understand this is a five-minute split call.

There was a headline from my own electorate of Taieri published by the Otago Daily Times on 31 August, and that headline said everything we need to know about this broad debate: quality of life for ageing New Zealanders. The headline said, “Quality of life dropping for Otago seniors: survey”. That wasn’t a slogan; that was a warning. The survey found that about two-thirds of Otago seniors reported a clear decline in their quality of life, and that decline was caused by the cost of living, health costs, and mobility costs. Most concerning was that almost one in three said they had delayed seeking medical care because of money—one in three.

Now, that is not a failure of personal responsibility; that is a failure of policy. What is happening in Otago is not an outlier. It is the same story being told right round the country. Too often, seniors are being treated as a challenge to be managed rather than an opportunity—an opportunity to honour people who raised families, who paid taxes, who built communities, who served in our defence forces, and, in many cases, are raising grandkids and caring for others. People who now themselves are asking whether they can afford to eat properly, whether they can heat their home, or whether many, like in my electorate, are choosing to stay in bed longer because it’s warmer and cheaper.

To those people, especially in Taieri—perhaps watching this debate—I want to say, “Kia ora, I see you. Labour sees you. This speech is for you.” It is a privilege to stand here as Labour’s spokesperson for seniors, a group far too often invisible in political decision-making. I work with seniors’ organisations across the country, and what I hear is consistent and clear: older New Zealanders are being asked to carry the heaviest burden in a cost of living crisis they did not create.

I feel now like I’m channelling the late, great Jo Miller from Grey Power—from my electorate as well—may she rest in peace. If she was here, she would be saying costs are rising, support is shrinking, decisions are being made about seniors not with them, and the result is a steady erosion of independence, dignity, and security.

Quality of life is not an abstract concept—it is about groceries, it is about power bills, it is about transport, and it is about healthcare. It is about seeing a GP when you need one, whether you can get to hospital safely, whether you can stay connected to your community instead of becoming isolated. Too often, what I hear from seniors is anxiety. Transport, healthcare, and income security are not side issues; they are the foundations of ageing well, and that is why Government choices matter. That is why the choices of this Government matter.

Under Christopher Luxon, every day, life has become harder for seniors—harder and more expensive. Food costs more, power bills keep rising, transport is less affordable, healthcare is harder to access, and rates are going through the roof. These are not inconveniences; they are barriers to independence.

While seniors lie awake at night worrying about rising insurance premiums and whether they will be forced to sell the homes that they worked their entire lives to save for, this Government talks up the trickle-down economics. Well, how well has that gone down for them? Yesterday’s financial report card shows that unless you are a multinational, a big tobacco company, or a large digital platform, their economic policies are not working. Councils have been thrown under the bus regarding water reform and, meanwhile, it is seniors who are picking up the tab.

Then, just yesterday, the Government made life even harder, cutting discounted public transport for disabled New Zealanders and doing that during a cost of living crisis. How out of touch is that? Many seniors are disabled, and this directly affects them. Under Christopher Luxon, disabled people, including seniors, will now pay more just to get to their healthcare appointments. Labour has an alternative: we will ring-fence every cent of the targeted capital gains tax for health, delivering a Medicare card and three free GP visits.

I want to briefly respond to points raised by Sam Uffindell regarding the retirement villages changes that his Government has made. In effect, they are short term. They create a two-tier system, and they make people still wait for up to 12 months for their capital repayment. That is why I have a member’s bill that fixes that, and I was pleased that earlier this year Mr Uffindell supported my bill.

This debate is about what kind of country we want to be—

Sam Uffindell: Point of order. The member has incorrectly asserted a statement to me: I did not support her bill. I said we’d take good ideas wherever they may come from—and there were some good ideas—but I did not support her bill.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O’Connor): A genuine debating point, Mr Uffindell, and you may even like to mention that to one of your fellow speakers.

INGRID LEARY: Point of order, Mr Speaker. May I have the last 20 seconds of my speech, given that the clock wasn’t stopped?

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O’Connor): Given that the member has read her speech, no, I won’t. She’s an experienced member, and I can encourage others who are going to be participate in this debate: please don’t read speeches. But you can have 10 seconds.

INGRID LEARY: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Labour sees you, seniors. We respect you. We want you to have great lives.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. When we talk about the quality of life of older people in New Zealand, we are talking about respect—respect for people who built this country, who paid their taxes, who raised families, and who have contributed to their community over decades. What we are seeing from Christopher Luxon’s Government is not respect; it is neglect. Christopher Luxon promised to fix the economy, but, instead, it has gone backwards. As we heard yesterday, the financial situation is dire because of their unfunded tax cuts. Let’s remember, how much did older New Zealanders get out of those tax cuts? How much were the tax cuts worth to a superannuitant? Three dollars. It’s not even enough for a loaf of bread in Christopher Luxon’s economy. What has the price of those tax cuts been to New Zealanders? Well, it has been cuts to services and cuts that have sent our economy backwards, and it has meant that the services seniors need and deserve are harder than ever to reach. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the health system. Just today, in the paper—in information the Government didn’t want you to know, released to me in written parliamentary questions—there will be another $510 million of cuts to health services up and down the country. These cuts are making it harder to access care and, in particular, general practice care.

Visiting a GP is harder now than ever. Here is what a superannuitant wrote to me: “My doctor’s fees has increased to $75. I have cancelled three appointments, in the last month because I cannot afford to see the doctor. I am a 73-year-old retired grandma with asthma, diabetes, and high blood pressure. I desperately need the coalition to do something about the health system, or else myself and more people will die before our time.” When you cannot access a general practitioner or your same general practitioner, your continuity of care suffers. At that stage of life, in your latter years, when many people do have multiple conditions, general practice care is exactly what you need. Failing to provide this is not good medicine, and it is not good government. It is the same story across the country and across multiple health services. Ambulance call outs, a lifeline for many seniors, have gone up from $100 to $125 in the last year. Hospice services are being scaled back, for example, in Northland. Access to home support is being scaled back, and people are getting less care that they need to live independently. Aged-care facilities, as our committee has heard, are crying out for more resources and more staff.

This is what happens when a weak Government panders to big tobacco rather than the people who need them to care for them. Our country is going backwards under Christopher Luxon. He is making it harder and more expensive to see a doctor or a nurse, to get ambulance care, scans, and X-rays. Labour has a plan to fix this for everyone. In a country where everyone can get ahead and afford the basics, including good healthcare, we will provide every New Zealander with a Medicare card that will give them access to three free general practice visits. That is the basis of excellent healthcare, and every strong health system in the country has strong access to primary care as its foundation. That is the alternative. Make no mistake, this election is make or break for our health system.

Hon James Meager: You ruined it.

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: The people jeering over there better pay attention because everyone knows that the National Party has cut and cut and cut. It is our seniors who are struggling and paying the price. They don’t like to hear this over there. They don’t like to hear this, but it’s the truth.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O’Connor): Ms Verrall, in your time left, could you just come back to the elderly part of this, please.

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: Of course, access to care is of considerable significance to older New Zealanders. They face greater barriers when accessing healthcare because of the price and their fixed incomes. Labour makes no apologies for siding with older New Zealanders and those struggling with the cost of living, and making sure healthcare is accessible to all.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The issue of seniors is a serious one, and I tautoko with what all previous speakers have said. This is something that we should look at carefully and seriously and with a long-term goal that is non-partisan—this is what we heard this morning from the Retirement Commissioner.

The reason for that is simple. We are seeing a drastic increase in our senior population. By 2050, the number of over-65s will increase by 50 percent. We’re currently sitting at roughly 900,000 people over the age of 65. The number of people who are over the age of 85 will also drastically increase. In the latest report by the Retirement Commissioner, we see that 44 percent are feeling exposed in terms of their daily living, and 16.8 percent over the age of 65 are in poverty, which is higher than the OECD average of 14.2 percent. We see homeownership going down from 83 percent to 71 percent currently, and the number of people over the age of 65 with mortgages is 13 percent. And 13 percent of our elderly are currently renting, and this is projected to go up to 40 percent or 600,000 in 2040. This is a serious concern, and this is a concern that should be shared by everyone.

We are seeing some changes, and we’re seeing movement. We’ve seen the creation of the New Zealand Super Fund and of KiwiSaver, which has helped this drastically, and that was something that was supported by all parties and the parties in Government at the time unanimously. It is the sort of vision that we should be having if we want to address this issue. This issue is not isolated to Aotearoa New Zealand; it is a global issue that we’re facing.

However, I will say that it is disappointing to see in the latest report that subsidies for seniors for public transport have been reduced from 75 percent to 65 percent. The rationale given was that we didn’t anticipate the usage and the number of people, but I thought that that would have been a good thing. The point is that any Government should be able to look at this and say it’s a good thing that disabled people and seniors are using our public transport, because the ability to get around, the freedom of movement, is a fundamental right for anyone, and that includes our disabled whānau and our senior whānau. I would ask the Government to seriously consider reverting that reduction.

We are also seeing in the work and retirement studies that a third of older people living in a community are at risk of malnutrition, and that number is 50 percent for older Māori. Ninetythree percent of those entering aged residential care were malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. We are seeing that 28 percent of over-65s are buying less food; 28 percent are putting off medical treatment. We are seeing that the rejection rate for hardship food grants by the Ministry of Social Development for those over 65 is rising, tripling from 3 percent to a peak of 10.2 percent from December 2024. These are serious concerns.

What we are seeing here is that people over the age of 65 are unable to meet the very basic human right to housing, to health, and to nutritious food. There are obviously other things, and a previous speaker—Sam Uffindell, the chair of the Health Committee—also mentioned the residential care sector, the retirement village sector, the home care sector, and there simply isn’t enough time in five minutes to address the concerns there.

Seniors thrive, in all their diversity, with dignity and autonomy in vibrant intergenerational communities. That is the vision that the Green Party has for seniors. This is why in our Green Party Budget we see free GP visits—not just three visits—in general, free dental care, and scaled-up dedicated funding for care, and also scaled-up public housing supply with universal design. These are the things our future communities, the future generations of seniors—over-65s and over-85s—will need, and we are asking for your support on this.

It’s a real pleasure to rise this morning on behalf of the ACT Party to take a call on this debate on the quality of life of ageing New Zealanders. I must firstly acknowledge the irony of being the youngest ACT member, and the youngest member of Cabinet, and talking about ageing New Zealanders. I’ve been in this place for eight years now, and, as far as I’m aware, I’m yet to discover a grey hair on my head—so it’s not about me, but it is about other people around the country.

I’ll tell you how I meet quite a few people who are ageing in our community, and that’s by being the MP for Tāmaki. I go around our community a lot, and I encounter so many wonderful older New Zealanders who have a huge wealth of knowledge and respect for our community, and I really thank them for the support that they give me personally as well. I’ve encountered many of our older members of the Tāmaki community who have called me, in some ways, their surrogate granddaughter. It’s been very, very, sweet, and I know it’s meant with a lot of love and respect. I’ve met some remarkable Kiwis—people who are at Holocaust memorial events wanting to dedicate the past, people at retirement villages engaging in political debate, people who have been at dementia care units, as well as people who have given up 20 years of service as Justices of the Peace in their community. It’s really wonderful.

I believe it is one of the best times ever to be an ageing New Zealander. It is better than in so many years of the past, because we have people who are living longer than ever. We have so many new, exciting medicines constantly being innovated. We have access to new technology and new modes of transport. We have really exciting technological advances happening in things like dementia care, where I’ve talked to people who are looking at studying eye movements—just the shuddering around an eye—to determine whether or not they are overmedicating people who have dementia, because they can actually undermedicate now, or get the specifications right, because the new technology is allowing these people to have more information about how to genuinely care for rather than medicate people in dementia care. It’s really exciting stuff. For family, we’ve got video calls; in the past, when you didn’t have access to new forms of technology, you were more isolated from some members of the community. In some instances, there are some forms of loneliness in the community. I put on a lot of community events in Tāmaki to ensure that people have access to knowledge, learning, and political debate.

There are good things that this Government is doing to ensure that people in our communities who are older have even better lives. We’ve brought on new planning and development reforms for granny flats so that people don’t have to be isolated in old age; they can actually live right by their family, just next door, in the back yard. I think that’s wonderful. We’ve seen this Government invest more than ever in modern medicines. We’ve seen the breast cancer screening age increase to 74 so that older Kiwis have more access to treatment and care.

There are some areas, though, where I think we’re going to see even more exciting progress, with innovation on the way, so that as people are losing the ability to walk as much as they may have done in the past, we’re seeing new artificial intelligence, and we’re seeing new automated movement devices that will allow people to continue walking. I think this is really, really quite astounding. We don’t have to be like the Opposition, which is all doom and gloom about what the future looks like. The future is exciting—

Reuben Davidson: Not with you in it.

Hon BROOKE VAN VELDEN: —it’s so exciting. People can age well—

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Don’t bring the Speaker into the debate, Mr Davidson.

Hon BROOKE VAN VELDEN: —in their own homes with modern technology, age well in retirement villages, and age well in granny flats. There is still some more that we can do, though. We know that for some more vulnerable members of the community, it is confusing for them to read the contracts that they’re signing when they’re going into retirement villages. I think some of the work that this Government is doing to try to streamline the rights for people in retirement villages is really exciting, because we know that there are some more vulnerable people who do need a little bit more help there. We can get the settings right for development, we can keep investing in technology, we can keep investing in Pharmac, and we can make sure that we’ve got all of our Government settings right so that there is the ability for new, exciting technology and innovation for ageing New Zealanders. Thank you.

I am absolutely thrilled to be able to take a call as a New Zealand First member and on behalf of my party, who has an unrivalled record of delivering a better quality of life for older New Zealanders. We have introduced, and will continue to introduce, the practical solutions that ensure that our older New Zealanders live a great life as they age and that they continue to ensure that New Zealand is a wonderful place to grow older.

First and foremost, protecting the age of superannuation is a bottom-line position for New Zealand First and part of our coalition agreement. We are increasingly put under pressure to raise the age of superannuation entitlement, but the reality is that we spend approximately 5 percent of our GDP on superannuation, and that is considerably less than the OECD average of 98 percent. That sum ensures that every single New Zealander is guaranteed a minimum income in their age. That is a simple, relatively straightforward system that is internationally revered as a good solution for the system that we have in New Zealand. Of course, that is a blunt measure, GDP percentage and quota, because it doesn’t actually reflect what that number does in terms of the contribution that our older New Zealanders make to our society as a whole.

We have to acknowledge that many over-65s continue in employment because they choose to, not because they have to. They own businesses, they drive our sports clubs, they deliver voluntary services, they support our working parents by looking after their grandchildren, they mentor, they coach, they inspire, they create. That is what our over-65s deliver for New Zealand. They are not a problem we need to solve; they are an opportunity for us to be a better country.

But it’s not just superannuation that New Zealand First has delivered on. As part of this Government, we have increased the Rates Rebate Scheme for all SuperGold card holders. Again, a token towards the cost of living pressures. The select committee inquiry, which has been a really important process to really delve into our system and what it needs. We have expanded housing opportunities to give better solutions, not just anecdotes and narratives but actually something practical around the 70 square metre subsidiary dwellings to support multi-generational living, to support the utopia that the Green Party was talking about—that I’m not quite sure how we’re going to pay for, because no worker is going to be able to retire with the taxes they’re going to have to pay to meet that system.

We have launched the Better Later Life Action Plan. The action plan is important, because it delivers all of those supporting functions that allows New Zealanders to live well. It is about connecting societies better. It is about legal protections. It is about housing solutions. It is about how we ensure that there is a quality of life.

Let’s not forget what this Government has done for law and order, because if you want to age with quality and dignity in New Zealand, you need to feel safe and secure. I know only too well that when you’re an older person, as a victim of crime, those impacts are devastating. It isolates you from society. It’s sometimes even estranges you from your own home.

We are going to continue to live. We have an ageing population, as I said, of about 900,000 over-65s in New Zealand. But the reality is, despite this narrative, over 85 percent of that 900,000 actually are not dependent on the health system. They are living independently, and they are living well. This is the point that we need to make. We are living longer, but we are living well.

We have also introduced the ministerial advisory group to ensure that we have a review of the aged-care system. Not as Labour did, just appoint an aged-care commissioner, but actually redesign the system, actually ensure we have a sustainable system in the future.

The reality is, in this country, we all sit underneath the shade of a tree planted by someone who lived before us, and we owe that dignity. New Zealand First will ensure that we protect the family so that we can have strong families, so that we can be accountable to our own futures. We can also be accountable to the people we owe our life too. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Tēnā koe e te Pīka. I rise today in honour of our kaumātua, our elderly—those grandparents who we were fortunate to have raise us; who were part of intergenerational living, certainly in my village where I’ve come from; the aunties and uncles who are part of our everyday life—and the way that they were able to look after not only us as a whānau but the extended whānau and the wider community. I mihi to all of those volunteers out there who would make sure that the church would look good, that the marae would look good, that the gardens of everyone who couldn’t garden would look great, and that, at the sports clubs, the coaching, the refereeing, the judging would always be happening. You take for granted that type of dignity and the way they are forever giving to us.

We’ve looked at this report and the detail that it brings out, and it would be great to say that all have future-proofed themselves to be able to live with the dignity that they deserve—with the private health insurances and the asset base they need—but that isn’t the case for every kaumatua, because many spent their lives not only working and paying taxes but actually contributing to the society that we live in today. I want to also mihi that there is an obligation, not that they put on me but that I feel—an obligation not only to what they contributed to making us who we are today but how we have that reciprocated love to look after the next generation in the same way that they did with us.

So when we see a report that says not all of our elderly—in fact, nearly four in 10 said their quality of life has declined in just the past two years. One in four seniors in this country are now living with poor quality of life, and the biggest pressure is not luxuries, is not the fact that they want to eat fish once a week or that they’d like to have a piece of steak; it is the cost of living, the healthcare costs, healthcare access, housing, and financial security. This is on all of us—this is on all of us—to acknowledge that this isn’t a personal failure; this is a policy failure. When the report shows that 41 percent of our kaumātua say that the health and aged-care system is not at all culturally fit for them, this, again, is on all of us to decide, indeed, what the opportunities are and how we make this phase of their life something that doesn’t make them feel like a burden on society but, in fact, a taonga. I was raised in a culture where our kaumātua are indeed taonga, just as our mokopuna are. I think we have to talk about equity and how we dismantle and remove the barriers for our kaumātua—for our elderly—and how we make sure that it is done in a way that doesn’t make the kaumātua, the elderly, or their families feel that the burden has been shifted on to them.

There has been some really good research and ideas for us all to consider about what that could look like. It could look like us being able to scale up community support—whether that be marae, whether than be Whānau Ora, or whether that be community-led in-home care models. Some of the research has shown that we need to pay whānau carers properly. It is indeed an honour to look after kaumātua, but it also has a financial obligation that we could be doing more to address. Unpaid care is popping up in broken systems. I think that retrofitting homes for safety and to make sure that accessibility and investment for elderly people to be able to live well is something that we could be talking about and creating policy around. I think, also, that fixing healthcare access for seniors—they’re guaranteed free primary care and prescriptions for over-65s, yes—with equity weighting, and reducing wait times and investing in workforce is important. I know this isn’t new to many of us in the House, but public capacity, not privatisation, should be a priority. I think tackling loneliness as an infrastructure is something that was really hard to read, and I have seen that in my own community. How we fund community connectors—whether that be transport, whether that be churches, whether that be marae, we should treat transport and digital access and social participation as health determinants.

These are some ideas. What I would hate for us to do is to debate the opportunities and the solutions, because we do have an ageing population, and they deserve for us to work together, in dignity and with respect, which they have bestowed into all of us. I do hope that we are looking at our elderly and kaumātua who are not good at asking for charity and that we front-foot with what solid policy as a nation that looks after all its citizens—particularly its kaumātua, its elderly—would look like. Kia ora rā.

It is an absolute honour to rise and speak in this debate. I do just want to acknowledge the speech that just preceded me and the thoughtfulness that it was delivered with, because ageing well is not something that’s political; it is something that we should have a bipartisan approach to.

Growing old is a privilege. Some of us won’t make old bones, and we think of those loved ones who haven’t made it to old age, and we acknowledge their passing early. Luckily, of course, age and life expectancy is increasing here in New Zealand. For Māori, it’s gone up 3.1 years; for non-Māori, between 1.5 and 1.6 years. I do just want to acknowledge all the great medical researchers up and down this country that are contributing to that and helping that happen.

Living longer is also about living better. We’ve heard that not every one of the 900,000 persons over 65 is dependent on the healthcare system. I think, as I move around my electorate, of the many great interactions that I have with that age group. It’s about living well. It’s about living better. It’s about living with independence, dignity, connection, and real choice about how and where we live. This matters to all of us and to all our families. We all probably have parents, maybe even grandparents—and I’ll acknowledge my parents in their mid-80s that may be considered in this category.

Of course, it is something that New Zealand does have to face. We are an ageing nation. As has already been mentioned, there’s 900,000 people over the age of 65 now. That’s projected to be over 2 million by the year 2070. But the good news is that many of those New Zealanders are still very active, engaged, and contributing enormously to their families, their communities, and, of course, our economy. I love visiting the older communities in the Ilam electorate, whether it’s at Holly Lea, Russley Village, Summerset at Avonhead, Bellevue, Bupa Parkstone—always have very good interactions there. The lived experience that people can tell, the stories they can tell; they are well read, they are well educated, and they keep you on your toes.

But it isn’t just about retirement villages and aged care. I also recently had a visit to Bishopdale Menzshed. Of course, men’s sheds help reduce social isolation, improve mental wellbeing, and foster a sense of purpose and belonging—something that’s very important in the 65-plus, especially for us males, who may tend not to be overly social. They’re doing amazing work in the community, building things for local community groups, local schools, and it is a way that men can get together and still be productive.

But the average does hide some hard truths. For many older New Zealanders, ageing is accompanied by insecure housing, fragmented healthcare, and uncertainty about their rights, particularly as they move into retirement living. If we want people to age well, the evidence is clear. Three things matter most. First, connection—and research and work of organisations like Age Concern consistently show that social isolation and loneliness are amongst the strongest predictors of poor health and poor outcomes. Loneliness is not just about being sad; it increases the risk of hospitalisation, cognitive decline, and early death. Ageing well means engaging with local services: volunteering, working with clubs, maraes, libraries, and places where older people can be visible, valued, and connected.

Secondly, it’s health span; not just lifespan. Ageing well is about prevention: preventing falls, strength and balance programmes, medication reviews, hearing and vision support, and timely access to primary healthcare. That is why I’m so proud of this Government’s work to increase access to primary healthcare, whether it be through telehealth or training further healthcare workers to make sure we can get there.

Thirdly, it is about home and place. That is why we have been working very hard to make sure more New Zealanders can get into housing. The highest level of first-home buyers in the last couple of months have been able to access housing. This is going to have a huge impact when this generation gets older.

So we are delivering what matters to older New Zealanders. We’re helping keep prices down. We saw an increase of inflation of over 25 percent under the previous Government, yet in the last three months, we’ve seen a month-on-month decrease in food pricing. We are working on what matters, fixing the basics, and building the future.

Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare, otirā tēnā tātou katoa. As we head into Christmas and, of course, the new year, it’s a time of joy. It is also a time of reflection and sadness that I will not have my parents and that my nieces and nephews and the mokos won’t have their nanny and pāpā. It’s also a time to reflect on the fact that I did have my great-grandmother until she was 101 years old, and I was raised by the village with so many, many pakeke to shape and mould me, so it brings me great joy to hear that, across the House, we all agree that protecting and encouraging a quality of life for our pakeke, our elderly, is something that we must unite on and pursue together as a Parliament.

In Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, this is a very pertinent topic. In Te Wairoa Hōpūpū Hōnengenenge Mātangi Rau, there is no aged care available. Since Cyclone Gabrielle, the community has been rallying around to look at options. In other areas across Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, there is less in-home care, less aged care, and a lot of our whānau are actually being forced into hospital care. I do appreciate everyone across Aotearoa who is taking care of our pakeke. They are repositories of knowledge, and where would we be without the sage advice of our kuia and koroua, whether we ask for it or not?

For those who do have the option to move into aged care, I think we need to think about what that means for the whānau and what that means for the community, because often that is not a choice made lightly. Often, it’s a choice made out of absolute necessity because they do not have access to the healthcare in rural Aotearoa where they live and where they are from and where they are an essential part of our community and our tikanga. When people move into aged care, they are often deprived of seeing their mokopuna every day, and communities like ours are deprived of the intellectual property they take with them to sit in homes in urban areas. It’s actually really, really sad. I know I sound selfish, but that’s a major taonga to extract from a community and a family.

Let’s talk about living well. Absolutely. I agree. Like I said, I had my nan until she was 101. She was sharp to the end and physically active to the end. Often the vision we’d see, when we’d drive up and cross her cattle stop, was that Nan would be sitting in her garden on her beer crate, active to the end in spite of her arthritic fingers. I did not inherit her green thumb.

Anyway, living well in rural communities is a whole other consideration that I hope we will continue to consider as a united Parliament. As I said, our whānau barely have access to quality healthcare, let alone aged care, let alone programmes to keep them active and programmes for interactivity. When someone goes from being a stalwart at the marae, which is an absolutely crucial contribution to our communities and our society, to sitting alone in an aged-care facility, that’s not living well.

How can we work together to ensure, no matter where in Aotearoa you live, you can live well? We talked about flexible care, and I hope we can work on that because voluntary care of whānau has been mentioned. Often, whānau cannot be remunerated for that, and yet they are with their whānau 24/7, learning skills no son or daughter should have to learn, but they want to care for their parent or their nanny and pāpā, and they want to keep them at home.

Papa kāinga developments are another option we should look at. I’m so passionate about this; I could talk about it forever. But in closing, there are many people doing great work around Aotearoa, but I do want to give a shout-out to Turanga Health, one of the best kaumātua programmes in Aotearoa. It’s such a vibe, with over 100 pakeke getting together and enjoying themselves. To the rest of us, just remember: never resist growing old. It’s a privilege many are denied. Tēnā tātou.

I just want to begin by acknowledging our seniors, the people who give a lifetime of contribution to this country we proudly call home. New Zealand wouldn’t be the beautiful nation that it is today without their hard work, sacrifice, and resilience. For that, we thank you. They are truly the best of the best, and they deserve nothing but the best in return. The question we must ask ourselves is: in the past 20 years, have we done enough for them? Have we done enough to ensure that their later years are lived with quality, dignity, and security? Unfortunately, for many seniors across our country, the answer is no. Life can be extremely challenging for our seniors. Many face complex health issues, growing financial pressure, long wait times for aged-care services, loneliness, and, in some cases, elder abuse. These challenges should concern every one of us because how we treat our seniors reflects who we are as a society.

Today, I just want to focus on two key issues: the financial burden and loneliness. During a visit to a retirement village and full conversations with seniors, one reality became very clear: how much you have saved often determines the quality of your retirement life. Financial stress should not be a defining feature of old age, but yet, for many, it is. This is why I’m very pleased about the National Party’s recent announcement proposing to lift the KiwiSaver contribution rate. This is a positive and necessary step. These changes will help ensure New Zealanders are more financially secure in retirement. Those extra savings may seem small at the beginning, but they can make a huge difference—the difference between struggling and living with dignity, independence, and peace of mind in later life.

The second major issue, repeatedly raised by seniors, is loneliness. Loneliness can be just as damaging as physical illness. It affects mental health, emotional wellbeing, and even life expectancy. Many seniors live alone, separated from families, or feel disconnected from our communities. No one who has contributed so much to our country should feel forgotten and invisible. We must do more to foster connection, full community programmes, accessible services, and age-friendly environments that encourage participation and belonging.

I also want to use this opportunity to speak out to our ethnic communities. During a recent hearing, it was mentioned that the ethnic communities appear to have a lower demand for aged-care services due to strong family bonds and cultural traditions of caring for elders at home. It is true that Asian and ethnic families deeply value caring for elders, but I want to make it very clear that that does not mean that we don’t need the aged-care services. The real issue is that many existing services do not meet our cultural needs. Language barriers, food preference, cultural practice, and expectations around the family’s involvement are often overlooked. As a result, seniors and family may hesitate to access services that simply do not feel appropriate or welcoming. Aged-cared services must be culturally appropriate, inclusive, and responsive to the diverse communities that make up modern New Zealand. Supporting ethnic seniors is not a special request; it is part of delivering effective care for all. It is time for us to act now, to do better, and to be better for our seniors so they can live the quality of life they deserve.

As I conclude, Christmas is just around the corner. This is a time of reflection, gratitude, and connection. I urge every single one of you here to spend time with your loved ones, especially our seniors, our elders. Show them the love, the respect, and the care they deserve. Don’t wait until it is too late to say thank you. To all our seniors: we see you, we value you, and we owe you more. I wish every single one of you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s great to be able to rise and raise some issues in this special debate on the quality of life for ageing New Zealanders. It is the last day of sitting for this House for the year, but, hopefully, that doesn’t mean that this is the lowest priority, because it absolutely—as the previous speaker, Carlos Cheung, alluded to at the end of his contribution then—should be a priority for all New Zealanders, especially, but not limited to, this time of year, when it’s an opportunity to reconnect with our families.

Now, at the heart of the quality of life for ageing New Zealanders is digital inclusion, because it should be a right, not a privilege, for all New Zealanders. We have the potential for a very exciting digital future in New Zealand. AI—artificial intelligence—offers huge opportunities for increased productivity but also for better, more targeted, and more specific access to screening and services for New Zealanders. We are also in the midst of a debate in New Zealand around a social media age restriction, which, in fact, has highlighted a number of issues around how online services can be better targeted, better tailored, and better designed to be safer for New Zealanders of all ages.

We also, in the Labour Party, have talked about the proactive steps we’re taking to address needs in the primary healthcare sector to relieve pressure in our hospital sector, which we know is struggling to keep up. We would have the addition of a Medicard, which allows New Zealanders to have a much better record of the medical services they are entitled to and the medical screenings and services that they’ve already had, and we would make sure that it’s a Medicard that New Zealanders take out of their pocket when they go to the doctor, not a credit card.

But while we’re on the subject of credit cards, we do know that digital devices cost money and that connectivity to the services that digital devices provide access to also costs money. It’s summed up very well by the message from Access Matters Aotearoa’s Kōrero for Change, where they said, “Technology has the power to connect, empower, and transform lives—but only if it is designed with everyone in mind.” That is the risk that we see from having a Government whose main drive seems to be about cuts and cost cutting, and trying to pull money out of very, very important places like our health sector. That design, fuelled by that, risks leaving people behind.

Some speakers from the other side of the House have raised the issue of social isolation and exclusion. A very real concern for our older New Zealanders is that either they do not have access to those services or, if they do have access to those services, that’s at the expense of their engagement and their inclusion in community activities and in community conversations, which are so important to address those issues of social isolation and exclusion.

The call to the Government is simple. Our senior sector and our ageing New Zealanders need to be actively involved in the design and development of the platforms of the tools for the potentially fantastic opportunities that technology provides, but if we do not involve our older New Zealanders and our ageing New Zealanders in the design and development of those products and services, we absolutely risk excluding them from the benefits.

Digital inclusion is key. Data security and transparency is absolutely vital, as well. Trust needs to be central to the services that are provided for our ageing New Zealanders and for all New Zealanders on those digital platforms.

The good news is that there are many experts that the Government can work with in this space, and I’m going to name some but not all of them here: Katoa Connect, the Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa, Moana Connect, the incredible team at Fibre Fale, and the Digital Equity Coalition Aotearoa. Also a shout-out especially to SeniorNet in New Brighton, and to Phyllis and the amazing team there, who ensure that some of the older members of our community are still connected, because as technology advances, our community can only advance if we leave no one behind.

Motion agreed to.