Special Debates — Local Issues

Members, we now come to the debate reflecting on local issues, arranged by the Business Committee under Standing Order 80.

I move, That the House take note of local issues.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. What a privilege it is to speak to this local issues debate on the final day of the House sitting in 2025. It has been a whirlwind year on the East Coast, and there’s been a lot on. I want to speak about what has been achieved by this Government in the East Coast electorate and what announcements we’ve made to address some of the key issues we faced as an East Coast community. Also, as a number of small and isolated rural communities across a vast and diverse landscape, we forget too easily what has been done, and I think it’s time to reflect on a great year of work.

I did a quick add-up of the money spent, announced in and around the electorate, and it runs into hundreds of millions of dollars, possibly billions. This is good news, of course, for the regions of Tairāwhiti and the Eastern Bay of Plenty. The real question is: what does it add? What does it usefully bring? Does it bring solutions that enable productivity and growth? Will it create jobs? Will it support communities and whānau?

Firstly, I want to acknowledge all of the social sector agencies across the East Cape—well, it will be the East Cape electorate next year—who deliver essential support throughout the region. They do very challenging and difficult work across there, and it’s wonderful to see them always smiling and happy.

But also infrastructure is the backbone of our regional economy. Roading projects aren’t just about safer roads and cyclone recovery; they’re about unlocking growth. When freight routes are resilient and efficient, forestry and farming exports move faster, costs drop, and productivity rises. On State Highway 35 and on State Highway 2, there are many, many projects, big and small, running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. I want to acknowledge all those local contractors who’ve contributed to the work and have gained valuable experience and capability by doing so. That strengthens their own businesses going forward. A small group of people have lobbied hard to ensure that local businesses are used wherever possible—none more so than the inimitable Willie Te Aho.

The work on the roads in Tairāwhiti and in the Eastern Bay of Plenty include the Hikuwai Bridge, a $50 million project; the Mangahauini Gorge, $50 million; Rototahe raising; the Nesbitt’s Dip; the Coates Corner projects, 170 drop-out sites and culverts fixed at a cost of $90 million; Tiniroto Bypass, $45 million; and bridge replacements, $107 million. If you add into that the Waikare Gorge—which is not really in my electorate; it’s in the good electorate of my colleague Katie Nimon, MP for Napier—but it is the one route south for anyone from Tairāwhiti: $400 million, bringing that total to almost $1 billion spent in roading and infrastructure. We also have to add in the Eastern Bay projects: the Matekerepu roundabout, $10 million; the Ōhiwa Beach Road, State Highway 2 intersection, $10 million; and the Pekatahi Bridge, the greatest project released this week, $69 million. Every dollar we invest today in these infrastructure projects creates jobs, strengthens supply chains, and builds a future where prosperity is shared across Tairāwhiti and the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

One of the real challenges in my community has been housing: high rents, short supply of quality housing available for rent and social housing, and a growing concern about homelessness. That’s shared across the country. There’ve been a number of housing projects already completed in the last two years in Whakatāne, Ōpōtiki, and Tairāwhiti. But, in May, the Government announced $49 million of funding into a partnership with all the local iwi. It is in total an $80 million project, to build 150 homes—a much-needed Crown and iwi project which made all of us very proud to be there that day.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Minister Chris Bishop announced a further large investment into housing in the electorate. It’s clear, he said, that the East Coast has widespread unmet housing needs, with more than 700 people on the housing register, one of the highest in the country. Good work coming for Kawerau, Whakatāne, Ōpōtiki, and Gisborne, where between 210 and 230 social houses and affordable rentals will be delivered in Gisborne and the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Critical to cultural support on the East Coast has been a project that we’ve been very proud to do this year: $50 million to shift five marae out of flood zones on to safer and higher ground. We all know the contribution that marae bring, particularly in times of crisis. We only need to look at the work of the small community of Kutarere near Ōpōtiki, in the Ōpōtiki flooding just recently. These marae to be shifted—two of which I have connections to: Takipu and Rangatira at Te Karaka—and the others, Mangatuna, Puketawa, and Ōkuri were inundated in Cyclone Gabrielle. They’ve all been shifted and will continue to be the heart of their local communities, as a result.

The Rangatira Marae Trust just had an interment ceremony at the weekend to honour their whare Te Whakahau, their whenua, and their tīpuna. Sadly, I missed it because I was still on the way home from urgency, but I understand it was a wonderful ceremony and I congratulate them on that.

Health and access to health services have always been an issue in isolated and remote communities and I acknowledge the work being done in places like Kawerau, Murupara, Ōpōtiki, and Te Kaha, including Omaio and Waiho Bay, for the undying commitment to delivering high-quality health services. I think we still have a way to go for rural and isolated rural health, but I’m pleased that Te Whatu Ora is working with those communities to understand how they can help them better. I’d just like to also note that, in the last year, we stood the urgent and emergency care facility at Puhi Kai Iti in Gisborne to help with after-hours care, to take some pressure off the emergency department at Tairāwhiti Hospital.

In the Eastern Bay of Plenty, the priority has been the return of secondary maternity services, which is expected in April next year. In Whakatane, this year, we supported the Waiariki Whanau Mentoring Resilience cafe to deliver extended services to help with mental health conversations, a much-supported kaupapa in Whakatāne, as it supports people in times of need and it gets things done.

I have so much respect for the people who work at Waiariki Whanau Mentoring. I have admiration for the whānau there, their personal life experiences which are sometimes harrowing, and their resilience and ability to change not only their lives for the better but therefore help others change their own lives is one of the most incredible things to watch.

In terms of economic productivity, there are two other investments I want to mention: firstly, our regional airlines—Air Chathams and Sunair—which provide lifelines across our remote region, will receive assistance from the Regional Infrastructure Fund in the form of $30 million in loan availability. We all know that reliable air services are critical for the East Coast economy and regional connectivity. None of us want to see further cuts to flights or, worse than that, total withdrawal of services. I’d like to thank the good Minister the Hon James Meager for his assistance.

He also helped in the other investment: the $5 million into Eastland Port to provide container shipping capability at the port in Gisborne. This is transformational for the economic sectors in Tairāwhiti, including wood processing, kiwifruit, and produce exports, and it provides the ability for investors to bring new innovation and development into the region. Every investment that we make in bridges, ports, and airlines strengthens the heartbeat that helps our producers get goods to market faster and more efficiently. When freight routes like State Highway 2 and State Highway 35—when ports and airlines are resilient, producers spend less on transport, more on growth and innovation. It means higher productivity, stronger margins, more jobs in our communities.

Our farmers and orchardists are world class, they produce food and fibre that feed families here and overseas, and we have backed them with modern infrastructure, reduction in red and green tape, and smart regional planning. We’re ensuring their success for generations to come, fixing the basics, and building the future. There are so many projects to list, I couldn’t fit them all in this speech. I did a little flow chart thing, here [holds up a chart]. There were way too many to get into this speech, so we had to put that over there. There are so many projects but I couldn’t fit them all. I’m pleased that by combining many, many million dollars of investment—hundreds of millions—in housing, infrastructure, cultural heritage, and trade, these initiatives are creating thousands of jobs, enhancing safety, and laying the groundwork for a much more prosperous future for our community.

Finally, so many people, as well as organisations I wanted to mention here, but just not enough time to give due credibility. Please know that all of those organisations I have visited over this year remain an important part of the advocacy work and the work of a good electoral representative MP. There is nothing more important than taking the front-line issues and making sure our people across the region are heard. I want to make a special mention of those people who do not get a break over Christmas: the emergency workers, Hato Hone St John, firemen, police officers, doctors, nurses, crisis workers; you are all in our thoughts this holiday season. Thank you for your service and commitment to our people.

One more mention to those particularly wonderful volunteers in Ōpōtiki and Matatā who deliver fatigue stops on New Year’s Day when the rest of us are all suffering at home, for all of those young people—and some not so young—travelling from Gisborne’s Rhythm & Vines to further parts of the country. It is a commendable task and I know those who stop off are extremely grateful.

The greatest gift you can give at Christmas time is time. If everybody gives someone who needs it a little bit of time, it goes a very long way to supporting them and making Christmas a better place for everybody. I commend everybody who would like to possibly do that for someone they maybe have never met before. It makes a big difference. Thanks to the businesses and the whānau in my community. It’s been a wonderful year, and bring on 2026.

Thank you. Now, the Labour Party have indicated this is a split call. I call on the Hon Carmel Sepuloni.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I just wanted to start off by acknowledging all of our NGOs across the country that are working hard at this time of year with the many families that are struggling to make ends meet, with the many families that wouldn’t otherwise be able to put food on the table over the Christmas period, that wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford presents for their children.

I particularly want to acknowledge one of these NGOs that I was able to go and visit with some other Labour MPs on Monday, an NGO that has worked really well across different administrations with National Governments, with Labour Governments, with different political parties, and that organisation is Visionwest in Glen Eden. They put on a Christmas From the Heart event each year. This year, they will be giving out a thousand packages to whānau, which includes not only a ready-packed food package but the ability for them to choose some of the items off the shelf themselves, and also includes the ability to be able to select presents off the shelf for their children. The vast majority of what they have has been donated by the New Zealand Food Network, by companies and organisations and businesses, and also from the local schools who, like my son who is at intermediate in that area, did a drive to take Christmas presents along to contribute to that particular Christmas From the Heart effort.

Despite the fact that I want to acknowledge all of their efforts, I primarily want to acknowledge how tough families are doing it right now. When we were there, they talked to us about the fact that there are so many working families that are coming through the door now, households that have two working parents, that can barely pay the rent let alone the electricity bill, and that struggle to put food on the table and wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford anything else for their children at this time.

Reflecting on that, I have to say to that side of the House that there is a high level of disappointment that you have not delivered on the promise that you made before the last election, and that was to alleviate the pressure on these families with the cost of living. What we’ve seen is that inflation has continued to go up, that their incomes have not gone up to the same extent. We’ve got a Government that has made the decision two years in a row—or was it three years in a row?—to not even lift the minimum wage to keep up with inflation. So some responsibility has to be taken from that side of the House for the struggles that these families are going through.

It’s not just families with children; there’s an increasing number of senior citizens who are struggling to be able to pay for the basics, who are reliant on organisations like Visionwest, to support at this time of year. I want us all to reflect on that.

Do you know what I don’t think? I do not think that any politician in this House is heartless. I do believe that we care about those living in poverty and that there will be families out there that have very little to celebrate at this time of year. But what I also think is that, unfortunately, we’ve got a Government who have chosen to prioritise the wrong thing, and it’s not those families who are experiencing hardship across the course of the year, and particularly at this time of year.

We’ve also got a Government who is out of touch with that experience. Now, I want to recognise that on all sides of the House, there will be MPs who grew up across the course of their life and probably experienced some hardship themselves, but, sadly, what we know is that there are people who seem to forget what that feels like and forget that they have a responsibility to put the ladder out for others, to give back, and to ensure that the next generation has a better experience than what some of us in this House may have had.

So, today, I’m talking about Visionwest in Glen Eden, in my electorate, but I’m acknowledging every single NGO that is doing it tough themselves, with very little funding, looking after whānau who are doing it incredibly tough with the cost of living, and I want to acknowledge them and their volunteers and all those making an effort to make this a better time of year for those whānau than it otherwise would have been.

I want to start my contribution to the local debate, given that this is the last opportunity that I’ll be speaking this year, to acknowledge everyone who works here at Parliament that enables us to be able to do what we need to do. Their roles are vast and there are many of them and they all work incredibly hard. I wanted to acknowledge their contribution to what is an essential part of our democracy.

Now, of course, one of the challenges with a local debate is to identify one thing to talk about. You’ve got five minutes, and there are a lot of things that are facing our regions at the moment. I’m conscious of the community of Ashurst, which has struggled since the Government pulled their school bus services to get their kids to school in Palmerston North; and I’m looking at those that are working tirelessly to help those in Masterton that have found themselves homeless, and the numbers continue to grow under this Government. But the one thing that I really want to focus on today is Wairarapa Hospital. The situation that the Government has put that hospital in, and our region in, is, frankly, nothing short of a scandal.

Now, a brief history before I continue. Wairarapa Hospital was deemed to be structurally unsound, it is not fit for purpose, and it is so bad that Health New Zealand sought $90 million in damages to completely replace the hospital. The only course of action they had available to them was to sue the Masterton District Council, who was, essentially, the last person standing in this. The contractors and everybody else involved weren’t able to be joined into that action. They settled out of court. I’ve never once sought to find out how much that settlement was, but it is clear from the course of action that Health New Zealand has taken that Masterton Hospital is not safe, it is not large enough to meet the needs of our region, and it needs to be fixed.

Health New Zealand settled out of court, and we have spent the last year and a bit trying to find out from the Minister where that money has gone. We accept that the settlement is confidential, but one facet of democracy that this Government has not lived up to is transparency and integrity. It is a basic question to ask of Ministers—where have they spent the money?

Simeon Brown has refused at every opportunity to answer that question. We have long suspected it’s because he’s taken that money and he has used it to fill the hole in his health budget. We complained to the Ombudsman; they looked into it and they finally agreed and forced Health New Zealand to answer that question. Now, we know for a fact why Simeon Brown refused to answer it, because that’s exactly what they did. They took the money.

We wanted to know how much of that settlement, which was for the sole purpose of fixing our hospital, would be ring-fenced for Masterton Hospital, and the answer is none of it—absolutely none of it. Here we are in Wairarapa Hospital with incredibly hard-working staff who are understaffed and overworked. The last estimate was that we are 14 nurses short and they are not allowed to hire. Not only are they overworked but they are working in unsafe conditions that this Government got money to fix and they took it—they took it to fill the hole in their Budget.

It is shameful, it is deceitful, and it is a genuine scandal. They try and make noise, but they have nothing to make noise about, because everything I’ve said is a fact. They have taken the money. They have taken the money that would have given Wairarapa patients a safe and effective hospital to attend and would have given our nurses and our doctors and our health professionals a safe working environment. Filling the Budget and trying to plug the holes was more important to them than keeping our patients and our health professionals safe.

As they work over Christmas and they treat those who need their help, they know that they will continue to do so next year in a hospital that isn’t structurally sound, isn’t fit for purpose, and isn’t safe. That is on Simeon Brown, that is on Health New Zealand, and, actually, it is on Mike Butterick. The local MP has said nothing—has said nothing—not a peep, not a single word about this. He has had constituents get in touch with him; he’s ignored them. He has asked no questions; he has made no representations on behalf of Wairarapa.

It is a disgrace, and it is on each and every single one of them for voting for a Budget that had a billion-dollar hole in their health budget that they had to steal our money for our hospital for their purposes.

E te Māngai, tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. Almost a decade ago now, I fell down a rabbit hole that led me to this place. Almost a decade ago, I was working at Neck of the Woods on Karangahape Road, I was in the midst of opening a little art gallery and coffee shop in order to support our young local creatives, and I was on 95bFM, the number one alternative radio station in Auckland. I spent a long time—years, in fact—interviewing politicians that I simply could not understand. I could not understand the disconnect between the things that they were saying and doing and the very clearly expressed needs of our communities. So, challenged by my then producer, I ended up throwing my hat into the ring and ultimately landing in this place.

Auckland Central is a place that is not wanting for talent, for creativity, for innovation, nor for care. Our communities deeply and profoundly care about each other, especially in the face of the issues that have been exacerbated by this Government’s intentional decisions. Those structural barriers to people achieving their aims, their vision, their desire for contributing to our communities and living a good life looks like the kinds of so-called difficult choices that this Government has made.

Difficult choices like tax cuts for landlords on their seventh rental property while choosing to push more people into poverty and homelessness. We have consistently challenged the Prime Minister to come to the streets of Auckland Central to meet the people, including the children who his Government’s decisions have made homeless. Thus far, those calls for him to confront the consequences of his actions have fallen on deaf ears, and now we hear that the Government is moving to criminalise the consequences of its own actions.

Difficult choices like the Government choosing to freeze hiring for the health sector at the front line, which they still continue to say is not happening. Yet if you are to listen to the very nurses and the doctors and those involved in the healthcare system, it very clearly reflects their experience, namely at the likes of Auckland City Hospital, just across the bridge from that very Karangahape Road that I was referring to earlier.

Those difficult choices to freeze those front-line hires contrasted quite strongly with the Government’s decision to find $12 billion down the back of the couch for new military spending at the behest of none other than Donald Trump. Then, this Government has the gall to speak about hard work being rewarded as they make decisions to create the rules of an economy that reward speculation and they sell this country off for parts. My question to members of the Government is: have any of you actually worked hospo? That, indeed, is an incredibly, incredibly difficult job to do and if you want to talk about hard work, you should support those who are doing that incredibly challenging work.

When I talk to my small businesses in Auckland Central, they will consistently raise the challenges with people’s lack of discretionary income, which again comes as a result of this Government’s intentional decisions to punch down on hard-working regular people. Then, this Government’s response to all of that is to make those small businesses internalise the cost of payWave instead of the commercial banks, who are consistently making record profit.

The point that I am making here is that all of these decisions which are about our country ultimately end up impacting all of us locally. We need to build the power at a grassroots level to build up towards that political change at a central government level. This is why it is so important for New Zealanders from Auckland Central to across Aotearoa to understand that the power rests in their hands and that they should not let the people who are laughing their way to the bank, screwing those hard-working New Zealanders over, define the terms of what is possible in our politics.

Back to those fundamental ingredients in Auckland Central of the care and the compassion and the creativity and the innovation. Those could be unleashed if we decided as a House of Parliament to create the rules that enabled them to flourish, instead of punching down on them, as this Government’s decisions so consistently do.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Local body elections don’t always get the attention like general elections do. They don’t dominate the radio; they don’t clog up the news coverage. But, in 2025, what happened in local government matters more than many people think, because councils have a growing influence over the cost of living, local infrastructure, and our daily lives.

I want to thank the people who this year put themselves forward to stand for local bodies. Standing for council is not always glamorous; standing for council is demanding. It involves real personal sacrifice, family commitment. Yet across the country, good people—business owners, parents, professionals, farmers, and community leaders—have stepped forward because they care deeply about their community.

A strong democracy relies on people who are prepared to serve and, whether they win or lose, those candidates who stood deserve our respect for putting their names forward and engaging with the democratic process. At this year’s local election, for the first time, ACT made the deliberate and organised effort to contest local government through the ACT Local campaign. That decision was driven by a simple belief: local government should focus on the basics, spend ratepayers’ money carefully, and be accountable to the people who fund it.

ACT local candidates stood on clear principles. They argued that councils should concentrate on core services like roads, water, and waste; stick to essential infrastructure rather than expanding into areas better handled by community organisations or that are the purview of central government. ACT local candidates stood for lower rates; fiscal restraint; transparency; and back to basics, common-sense decision-making. Importantly, ACT local candidates didn’t pretend that local government is apolitical. Councils make real choices about spending, regulation, and the way our future and our communities and our cities will be decided. ACT believes voters deserve clarity about the values and the ideas that councils bring to these decisions.

In 2025, ACT Local succeeded in electing representatives across the country. These new elected councillors are carrying out the responsibility of delivering on those promises, standing up for ratepayers, asking tough questions of the council, refocusing the council on what really matters. Their presence has already shifted the tone of the local debate, bringing stronger scrutiny and clearer accountability to council chambers.

But while there is much to be encouraged by, particularly the quality of candidates—not just in ACT Local but around the country—and the ideas on offer, there is one issue that lingers and it is large and, regardless of politics, we should be paying attention to it, it deserves our consideration, and that is voter turnout. Once again, participation in local government elections has been concerningly low. In many parts of the country, little more than a third of eligible voters took part, and, in some communities, turnout was even lower than that. That means decisions affecting entire cities and districts are being made with a minority mandate. This isn’t a new problem, but it’s a pattern which must improve.

When turnout is low, it’s a warning that councils have become disconnected from the communities they serve, and good people may decide it’s simply not worth standing in future elections. Democracy becomes weaker, not because of bad intentions but because of disengagement. Engagement is crucial at local government because this is the level of government that affects our daily lives. We are a self-governing society and partaking in the democratic process is what is the cornerstone of that system. Councils decide how much we pay in rates, they decide where the roads are maintained, where the water infrastructure is upgraded. They control how quickly a consent is issued and how, as I say, our towns and cities will grow. That is why turnout must improve.

New Zealanders say again and again that we want councils that focus on core services, that respect ratepayer money, and know the value of that dollar, and this must be delivered. Voting isn’t just a formality; it’s how we signal what we expect from those who govern locally. In the 2025 local elections, there was a call for good candidates who stood up. ACT Local showed that good ideas and principles matter at the local level.

Now, the challenge is for our system to prove its responsiveness, to prove why there is value in voters being engaged. This country is made up of neighbours and neighbourhoods, living together and advancing New Zealand. Local democracy is a pillar of how we do this. Thank you.

Madam Speaker, I’m delighted that you’re in the Chair, because I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak, as a list MP, about one of my recent visits to the West Coast. It’s a place, Madam Speaker, as you would know—I see the big smile there—

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Yeah.

ANDY FOSTER: —of wonderful people, of strong communities, of rich and often tragic history, and of deep connection to a place which is utterly beautiful.

The West Coast, Madam Speaker, was the scene, as you know, of many bloody battles. I visited Māwhera, a part of the Pounamu Pathway, which I think was supported by the Provincial Growth Fund, and saw the confronting interpretation of Ngāi Tahu’s repeated brutal invasions and ultimate eradication of the local iwi—it’s pretty confronting stuff. Then, for a while in the 19th century, the West Coast was home to more than 10 percent of New Zealand’s entire population. What was the reason for both of those? It was mining: pounamu and gold.

Mining was also a big part of my visit. I was told that one mining job on the coast creates more than three across the whole community, and it’s also by far the highest value per capita of any job in any sector. I visited Endura’s gold mine on the Snowy River, near Reefton. They started in 2020 and already they’ve drilled 12 kilometres of tunnel. It looks really, really promising in terms of—in fact, they’re really certain of the resource that’s down there, and they’re now about to start investing $80 million in a processing plant. Now, Labour often bemoans losing construction jobs—and, I suspect, mining jobs—to Australia. But what did I see there? Australians coming back and working in the Snowy River mine. One other thing I did note there was that the key investor in the mine was the super fund—the Australian super fund.

I visited Reefton as well. I love this town. When we had the flag referendum on, I saw one Kyle Lockwood flag in the street and the rest was festooned with New Zealand flags; I thought, “This is a great place.” But Reefton’s not only proud of being a New Zealand town; it’s also proud of being the first town in the Southern Hemisphere to have electrified streetlights. I also visited the Powerhouse Charitable Trust, which has restored some of that power system that ran it and is now selling 1.8 megawatts of energy back to the grid.

Then there was Blackball. Now, here’s a town that was down on its luck—a mining town, again. It was a community that was really struggling, but it was turned around with a bit of support, including from Internal Affairs. The community has led that restoration. They’ve focused on celebrating their history and telling the fascinating stories of that place. The first project that the community decided it wanted to embark on was restoring a mining chimney, and they’ve also restored a community hall, heritage buildings, and erected a replica of an aerial cableway pylon that used to take the coal, and some of the kids hopped on the coal and told those stories—

Hon Mark Patterson: Coal! Coal!

ANDY FOSTER: Coal, yes. So they’re telling the stories of those places. There was an outdoor museum display interpreting the birth place of the Labour Party out of the strike action originally in 1908. I’ve got to say, they’re not feeling a whole lot of love from the Labour Party over recent years. It also reflected on the Pike River disaster.

Blackball is clearly a town which is recovering. It’s attracting new residents and businesses, and you can see and feel the pride and care for the town, its buildings, and its structures. It’s a great example, I think, of supporting and empowering a community to get on and develop their own future.

Then there was West Coast mineral sands. Now, they are mining mineral sands near Westport, and they’ve got consented plans for another site south of Hokitika. They started with a paddock; first soil turned just three years ago, December 2022; first exports mid-2023; and they’re now exporting 120,000 tons of product a year. We often talk about value-add; they’re looking to add very significant value by separating those mineral sands, so it’s not just treated as low-value construction sand. What do they produce there? Zircon, that’s used in ceramics, mouldings for factories, etc. Titanium, used in medical products, jet engines, and paint. Garnet—water-jet cutting, and it can also be used on roadways and airport runways to add grip and life for road surfaces and road paint. Then there’s all those rare earths used in magnets essential for electric vehicles, wind turbines, and touch phones, so a clear example where mining is actually helping us to become more sustainable. Their vision is to become an intergenerational business. They’ve got about 70 staff at the moment—the aim is 200 to 300 in the Buller; and then Hokitika, another 70-odd.

But I want to touch, finally, on one last thing, but before I do, also say that Development West Coast, who I spend a lot of time with, are doing an absolute fantastic job, both supporting development on the coast but also building the fund that they got, which was $92 million back in 2012 and it’s now worth $150 million, plus all the investment they’ve made.

But it’s the future of the Landcorp site there, which the West Coast mineral sands are doing a lot of their mining on—there’s been some talk about selling Landcorp. We obviously don’t support that at all, but that site is really, really important, not only for West Coast mineral sands but also, potentially, for the future of Westport and the potential of any relocation. It’s really essential that we don’t sacrifice those opportunities.

I think we need to stand alongside the West Coast community. Both our Government agencies and New Zealand First, certainly, stands alongside the West Coast and its potentially prosperous future.

Today marks my 70th day as the member of Parliament for Tāmaki Makaurau, and I’ve been saving this kaupapa kōrero for this very moment. It’s my gift to the House before it rises for 2025, and, in presenting this gift, I honour Takutai. You see, it was Takutai who started this hīkoi for Te Pāti Māori, and it is with her in mind that I stand here proudly to give rise to the voices of our rangatahi. Specifically, I give rise to the most vulnerable rangatahi in Tāmaki Makaurau, who are living with real, genuine fear from not knowing where they’re going to sleep tonight, tomorrow night, or even on Christmas day next Thursday. Housing remains the most urgent, pressing issue in Tāmaki-makau-rau, but homelessness is the gift that keeps on giving. The numbers have gone up, not down, and the latest figures tell us that more than 112,000 people across Aotearoa are without shelter and are seriously deprived of a stable home right now.

Just the other day, the Salvation Army reported that homelessness has more than doubled in Tāmaki Makaurau in the past year alone, rising from 426 to 940 people. How is it possible that the richest city in our country also carries the shame of the worst homelessness crisis? What’s worse is that 50 percent of all of those who are homeless right now are under the age of 25. That’s too close to home for me: my mātāmua, my eldest child, is 25. For any māmā and kuia out there, it’s gut-wrenching and heartbreaking to see tamariki suffer. It is as if they’re our own babies: that’s just how us Māori māmā tick—that when one of our babies suffers, we all do. Our babies belong to the village, and, in this context, when we speak to homelessness, the village is Aotearoa. The recent More Than a Home report, commissioned by Mā Te Huruhuru in collaboration with Manaaki Rangatahi, tells us that the urgency of taitamariki homelessness is no longer just a crisis; it is a generational failure. We have to do better.

During my by-election campaign, I saw things I cannot unsee. I saw a mum pushing a newborn baby in a trolley at 7 a.m. along the Papatoetoe streets. It’s become normalised; Māori Wardens deal with it every day. I also saw a kuia who had made a makeshift home out of a bus stop on Robertson Road in Māngere. I saw parents with young children sleeping in their cars across the road from some of our most prominent malls and washing up in public toilets. There are kids who are not going to school—not because they choose not to or because their parents simply don’t want them to go to school, but because they can’t afford a roof over their heads.

What I didn’t see is rangatahi homelessness, and I’ll tell you why: it’s not as obvious. It’s invisible, and it is growing in silence. It’s growing because $79 million was cut from housing support programmes in the last year. It’s growing because it’s a lot harder for whānau to access emergency housing. It’s growing because there is no real investment in mental health and rehabilitation services and addiction services. It’s growing because this coalition believes that punishment is better than prevention. It’s growing because not one Government policy has been designed specifically with rangatahi in mind, and that is the gift that I bring to this Whare right now—a strong, solid solution that seeks to solve a longstanding struggle. It aims to break cycles. Today, I deliver my Youth Homelessness Prevention Bill into the member’s bill ballot.

It’s not about the crisis; it’s about the cure. Prevention is priority, and this bill seeks to create a legal duty to assist, and it ensures that not one rangatahi falls through the gaps. It places onus on agencies and mandates transparent reporting. It is not a radical approach; it is a responsible bill. Wales and Canada have done it; they reduced youth homelessness while saving public money. My bill is not ideological; it is evidence-based, rangatahi-centred, and community-led. It provides real transformation, but it does require courage, leadership, and collaboration.

This Government is proof that the unthinkable is thinkable. This Government is proof that the unimaginable can become reality. I implore everyone in this House, while they go away for Christmas break and celebrate the festive season, to hold in their minds and hearts the future of our nation. It does require rangatira, and rangatira must be raised by the village of Aotearoa. Rangatira become who they are by rangatahi. Kia ora.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Last night, this House had the first readings of three pieces of legislation that will have transformational effects in my electorate of Banks Peninsula. The planning, natural environment, and the earthquake-prone building bills will have profound impacts in not only Christchurch in the South Island but also the whole of New Zealand. In some ways, I feel really deeply connected to all of these pieces of legislation because of my prior experiences before coming to Parliament.

Last night, I talked about how during the earthquakes I was at the Pyne Gould building. I led the triage team there, and while everybody who came to our triage tent actually survived, there were many other people who perished in that building. I know that all of the other first responders who were in that building also hold those memories of those images of that place, and the emotional impact of that earthquake on everybody who was in Christchurch has been huge. The physical devastation was just almost unimaginable. But every person who was there in Christchurch has got a connection to how we responded as well. I think it’s difficult to understand if you haven’t been in an emergency situation, if you haven’t lived through a crisis and responded. I know others who have been involved in cyclones and other things know what it’s like to have a community response.

When I stood next to that building that was concertinaed—collapsed building off the back spine of the elevator and stairway shaft at the back—it was pretty hard to imagine what it must have been like to have had to have been in that building after the first lot of earthquakes, because in September that building had been checked in the previous year when we had our first lot of earthquakes, and it had been checked and deemed safe enough for people to go back into. For the families of those victims and those survivors, and also the families from the devastating loss of the big smoking pile of rubble that was the CTV building, to go through the later response and then the royal commission of inquiry into the buildings and what needed to happen, was both re-traumatising but also, I think, somewhat affirming in the findings and the recommendations that came out of it.

At the time, I remember feeling such a huge sense of relief that this Parliament had responded and agreed to all of the findings of that royal commission. But when we get 15 years down the track, we see that, actually, in some ways, we’re faced with a triage situation. In medicine, when you have a mass casualty situation, you have to triage. You have to do what you can for the most to get the best survival outlook. What our earthquake-prone buildings legislation is doing is, essentially, taking what is thousands of buildings across the country that would have been deemed unsafe and not able to be used, and finding a practical way to be able to make safe as many of those as possible, in a way that is pragmatic and means that it actually gets done.

To the families of all of those who lost their lives, I want them to be assured that this is not about the money. I’m not talking about the money. You’ll notice that deliberately, although it is billions of dollars. Because, actually, when it comes down to it, this is a pragmatic Government that is taking the steps that we need to do.

Now, one of those buildings in my electorate is actually the Princess Margaret Hospital. That is something that we need to do something about. Yes, absolutely, and I think that the earthquake-prone building as well as the planning and environments bills will help go some ways to getting there. We need to be able to come up with some—many people have asked me what we’re going to do with that. The answer is, we don’t know yet. I want to take the electorate along with me on that journey to figure out and help to advocate for what will be the best outcome. The worst outcome would be if it sat as a mouldering pile of bricks attracting adventurers and vandals and rats. I hope that we can use those to move forward for Banks Peninsula.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. I’d like to use my call today to talk about homelessness in the Hutt Valley.

Mark is 47. Mark grew up in Naenae and he went to Hutt Valley High School. He worked for many years as a builder in a small firm. When that firm folded after the recent downturn in construction work, he took up work as a casual labourer. He sustained a back injury and then received ACC support for some time. When ACC stopped, he used his savings up pretty quickly and he then went on jobseeker. But the jobseeker amount was insufficient to be able to pay for his rent and for food, so he moved in with his sister in Wainuiōmata and slept on her couch. The house was already pretty crowded with four or five children in there already.

He felt like he was a burden on that family and so he decided to move on. He initially slept in his car and moved around the Hutt Valley to find places to sleep. But with a back injury, he was in a lot of pain sleeping in his car. He got a tent and camped in some areas in and around the Hutt Valley in industrial spaces he found, but he felt unsafe, so some nights he just stayed awake in order to feel more safe. Mark isn’t on the street because of drugs or crime. He’s there because rent went up faster than his income, his injury took away steady work, and he could not access emergency housing at all.

In this very House, we have been told numerous times by the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, by the Minister of Housing, Christopher Bishop, and by the Associate Minister of Housing, Tama Potaka, that if people need housing support, it is there for them. Mark is one of many examples right across New Zealand where that is not true and people cannot access the help and the support they need.

People might remember a recent Radio New Zealand article about the Hutt Valley again, someone living in their car, this time on the Petone foreshore. His name was Dylan Holdaway and he was renowned for that because he was living off tinned chicken in his car. He was working as a vinyl layer and working and living in his car. I think he struck a chord with many Kiwis because he said that a working man should be able to afford a steak after a day’s work—“I should be able to buy a steak.” He could not afford to put decent food into his body and was getting sick as a consequence.

Only when that story broke on Radio New Zealand—and when it was picked up on social media and it got fed around and went pretty hard out in the Hutt—did Christopher Bishop make a contract be signed for a wraparound support enabling some of those homelessness prevention services to have adequate funding to help people in that area. That’s when action was taken. When media stories hit, it was only then that our homelessness prevention service received adequate funding to be able to get in and help people like Mark and like Dylan.

That same provider told me that they had to fight with the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) for living in a garage to be a criteria to access homelessness support. Previously, if you were living in a garage, that was OK; that was a house. That provider, who had already gone in and fought hard for that funding to be secured to help these people, had to fight for living in a garage to be added as a criteria to access that support.

I’m told that if you are a mum with kids, you need an eviction notice and that the homelessness prevention service in the Hutt Valley in MSD will be able to provide support to that family once they have an eviction notice. I see them laughing on the other side at their phones; I’m pleased someone thinks that’s funny.

Five people a week in the Hutt become homeless—five people a week—and that’s going to go up over the Christmas period as more pressure comes on families. In the meantime, our social housing build has been cancelled in the Hutt Valley. People deserve to have jobs, health, and homes. Jobs give people dignity and purpose, health services get people back on their feet, and homes provide the foundation that makes everything possible.

We are serious about addressing homelessness. We will give people secure work that they can rely on, accessible healthcare when things go wrong, and also affordable homes in the communities they live in. When people have a job, when people have their health, and people have a place to call home, they don’t just survive; they have a future. That’s what the Labour Party stands for.

Thank you, Madam Speaker, for this opportunity to speak at the end of what has been another year of this Government working for provincial and regional New Zealand so that we can fix the basics and build the future. We’ve heard the Opposition rant and rave about challenges that existed when they left office and, unfortunately, for New Zealand, they did not fix.

Let me talk about three things that have affected my electorate in recent times—the wonderful Whanganui electorate—that have been a direct result of work this Government and, dare I say it, this MP have done in my wonderful, wonderful electorate of Whanganui. Firstly, the earthquake-prone building work: The Post had a headline recently, and it said, “New earthquake regulations ensure ‘survival of rural New Zealand’ ”. You see, it is easy to rant and rave; it is more difficult to actually do practical, implementable changes that solve the problem.

The Whanganui Chronicle, on 2 April 2024, said, “The balancing act involved with earthquake strengthening and protecting heritage buildings was on the agenda when Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk visited Whanganui [the day prior].” Penk said, at that time, that he will make them more realistic so people could have the practical ability to do the work that was required. Again, it is easy to get lost in the technicalities and the story—the things that we’ve done, like removing the New Building Standard ratings from the system, removing Auckland, Northland, and the Chatham Islands. What we often miss in the process is the reality of the impact of the changes on people and on our communities, on the building owners, and on cities like Whanganui.

The changes to earthquake strengthening—the Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Bill—are about having and ensuring a proportionate and risk-based regulatory system. There’s a significant impact when it comes to the dollars and, in Whanganui alone, it will have a reduction of savings estimated at about $24 million. For Stratford, a building owner said, in The Post, again, that simplifying of the earthquake-prone building system will take pressure off owners and make selling properties much easier.

The projected savings for the Wairarapa—a place that work got done by the local MP to support the bill being progressed and coming into this House; something that the prior member who ranted and raved earlier in this debate didn’t achieve—is $68 million for Dannevirke, $82 million for Masterton, and $17 million for Carterton. I just want to do a shout-out to Mike Butterick, MP for Wairarapa. He’s doing a great job there and deserves the support of that region.

As we talk about heritage buildings, it’s a nice segue into the Regional Events Promotion Fund, because in January, we will be having Vintage Weekend—17 and 18 January—which is an opportunity to just highlight the backdrop of the heritage buildings we have in Whanganui that benefit from everything I have just spoken about, along with other events in our region during January: the Goat Adventure Run, the Cooks Classics athletics event, and the Cemetery Circuit, all supported by the Regional Events Promotion Fund.

I want to jump on to, finally, the thing that I was referring to. Much is said in this House and around the country of rural and provincial connectivity. I spoke about it in my maiden speech. Well, this Friday, less than two years after my maiden speech, I stand here excited for Christmas in Pātea because this Friday, we are turning on the tower. Unlike the Opposition, who often focus on the amount of money the Government is or isn’t spending on something, thinking that dollars always solve the problem, this tower is being turned on because of the hard work of the local MP, Bronwyn Wattrus and Jacq Dwyer from the local community board, Mayor Phil Nixon, and Deputy Mayor Rob Northcott. Without a dollar of Government money, on Friday, we will be turning on the tower in Pātea, turning on mobile connectivity, and celebrating connection in our electorate. Madam Speaker, I wish you a very merry Christmas.

Thank you. I want to talk about two different bills and things that are before my electorate at the moment. I represent, and I’m very honoured to represent, the area of Mt Albert. It is, at the present time, subject to a council plan change called Plan Change 120. I have just prepared my submission on that, and submissions are due by the end of the week. But it is also going to be impacted by the Planning Bill and the two are actually interrelated, so I want to talk about that too.

The first thing I want to say is that I totally support affordable housing close to the city. I have found that most residents in my area see why that is so necessary. I’d just like to refer to the Hon Ginny Andersen’s speech about homelessness, because there is a direct correlation between unaffordable housing and homelessness. There are a lot of myths out there about what makes people homeless, and that is the number one correlating factor. We absolutely need affordable housing. I’ve lived in the area for 35 years and I strongly support the majority of you that we need to have that housing built. I have prepared a submission, and I will make sure that people in my electorate see it, because it’s based on what came back as feedback. That will go in on Plan Change 120.

But today, I want to address my concern about the Planning Bill. Now, we’re supporting the Planning Bill at this stage through to the select committee, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t be keeping a close eye and we don’t have serious questions to ask, and that I don’t have those questions to ask on behalf of my community.

One thing I’m concerned about is that we have had a plan change that already erodes the character housing protections in my area. The new Act looks at those character houses and landscape protections in quite a different way. It basically means, from what I can see, that those plan change protections are going to go, and that, in fact, there is no protection around most of that land.

So my question will be: what is the interrelationship between them? Do people who think that they are in a plan change process, which will secure a lot of those areas in terms of the housing that’s there, have that security or is that gone? In fact, are those areas now going to be demolished as a result of the plan change? What will be protected under this new law? From what I can see, there needs to be an outstanding natural feature or landscape or a significant historic heritage to allow protection under our national law under this Act. A lot of the areas that people are concerned about in my area are places like an area called Burnley Terrace. It’s a street full of character houses, but probably none of them would reach that standard, so I think it is a very big concern.

The second part is of more concern to me, because there’s a chilling effect in this law. It looks like what has to happen under this law is that if the council wants to protect something, it will have to compensate the developers to the extent of what they’re losing. Now, that actually really concerns me. Does it mean that places like Ferndale House, which are historic buildings, if the council wishes to protect them, if the trust wants to develop that area into high-rise, does it mean that the council would have to pay out in that situation to the extent of a development of a high-rise building? If that’s the case, councils won’t do it. It will be a chilling effect on any protection of things that the community values.

Now, we live in a democracy and local democracy is a protection of our communities, so it is very important that our communities get to say what’s important. I get very concerned about what I see as the potential of an erosion of the commons—basically, the things we all get a say in and the democratic right to participate and to shape your community versus private ownership. I’m worried that this might be an erosion of the commons and, actually, an attachment to private property owners and new rights that they’ve never had before—new property rights. Thank you. I’ll be looking closely at this legislation.

Motion agreed to.

Members, I’d just like to acknowledge the contributions in the local issues debate. I found them very informative and, at times, very heartfelt. So congratulations, but the time has come for this debate to end. The House stands adjourned until 2 p.m.

The House adjourned at 12.36 p.m. (Wednesday)