General Debate

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

For too long, politics in this country has been driven by grievance and guilt. Too many politicians have tried to build New Zealand up by tearing New Zealanders down, telling us we’re either villains or victims and that the only way forward is to pit one group against another. With ACT in Government, that has changed. The corrosive idea that you’re not responsible for the crimes you committed last week yet are somehow to blame for what happened generations before you were born is being stripped away. We’re saying what you do and where you’re going is important. Look forward; learn your past, but don’t live in it.

Take the new history curriculum. It will create citizens who know where they’re from but also understand the world across the seas. No longer will it indoctrinate young people for political purposes. History education will be for the benefit of children, not ideology. We’ve also ended the education culture wars. The scrapping of section 127 means schools will no longer be legally required to give effect to the Treaty in every subject. Boards will still be able to teach te reo, tikanga, and mātauranga Māori as they wish, but it should be the parents’ choice, not Wellington’s command. Education will once again be about achievement, not activism. Thanks to ACT’s—to Dr Parmjeet Parmar’s—advocacy, students at the University of Auckland have finally won back their right to choose. Students will no longer be forced to take compulsory Treaty papers that add nothing to their degree. It’s a victory for freedom, for fairness, and for common sense.

We have proven that Government can solve problems without dividing people by race and resentment. David Seymour’s rule of two for medicines means fewer Kiwis will have to leave the country to get treatment easily available elsewhere or suffer because they can’t afford to. Brooke van Velden’s fix to the Holidays Act succeeded where years of Government failed, creating a system better for both workers and businesses—even welcomed by the unions. We’re cracking down on organised crime, taking the money gangs make from meth and using it to fight meth addiction, stopping people from starting, and starting people to stop—a welcome change from the dark days when Labour literally gave it all back to those who created the problem in the first place.

ACT has also been vindicated on some of the big calls. When ACT alone opposed the Building (Earthquake-prone Buildings) Amendment Act 2016, we said it was emotion over evidence, a triumph of populism over reason. Nine years and billions of wasted dollars later, we were proven right. The law has now been fixed, saving billions, restoring confidence, and breathing life back into our town centres. When ACT stood alone against the zero carbon Act and its unscientific methane targets, we did so because science matters more than symbolism. Now those targets have been halved, and farmers can finally breathe again. ACT stood alone for licensed firearm owners, even when every other party in this House turned their back on them.

Time and again, this House has responded to tragedy with virtue signals. ACT responds with reason, because what New Zealand needs most in times of crisis isn’t emotion; it’s calm logic and courage. Inch by inch, we’re seeing parties shift closer and closer to the positions ACT has always held. Just yesterday, I announced the complete rewrite of the Arms Act 1983, the most significant win for licensed firearm owners in over 40 years, while also improving public safety. The reform delivers 90 percent of what I and firearm owners fought for: easier compliance, fewer dumb rules, faster licensing, trust, and respect. I didn’t get everything that I wanted. I fought hard on the registry and for a narrow sports exemption. But in MMP, if your partners won’t agree, you just don’t get everything across the line. What we have achieved is a law that restores fairness and common sense, and lays a strong foundation for more progress in the future.

Through the Regulatory Standards Bill, ACT is making sure every future law is tested for logic, for fairness, and for consequences, so never again will Kiwis pay the price for rushed, emotional lawmaking. We’re making it easy to easier to employ people, to build, to invest, and to live your own life on your own terms. As other parties reluctantly shift towards ACT’s long-held positions on regulation, education, farming, and—I even dare say it—firearms, my message to them is simple: this is just the beginning.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I first want to acknowledge the Day of Reflection and add my voice to the ministerial statement and the steps being taken to address and redress this very important matter.

Last night I had the privilege, with the Governor-General’s company, as we acknowledged this year’s Royal Society of New Zealand recipients. But before I revisit that, I want to place this in the context of what are the biggest reforms of the science sector in 30 years. What we’re trying to do here is we’re trying to solve how we can improve the impact of our science spend so that more New Zealanders feel tangible benefit from science and technology.

Science and technology is one of the five pillars in Going for Growth, and, carrying on the work from my colleague Minister Collins, I want to briefly describe what we’ve achieved in science this year. There are five big items. First of all: consolidate the seven Crown research institutes into three public research organisations—done. There is Bioeconomy Science, Earth Science, and Public Health and Forensic Science—the results of that piece of work—and I want to thank all of those who have been able to bring those large Crown entities into the public research organisations. It is a hard job to bring large Government entities together, and I want to put it as a proposal that this is actually a template for what that might look like.

We’ve all lived through DHBs merging into Health New Zealand—that wasn’t fun. We’ve lived through polytechs merging into Te Pūkenga. People haven’t enjoyed that, either. But I’d have to say the main actors in the amalgamations of these Crown research institutes have done a very good job, and I’m excited by their collaboration and by their opportunities.

The second thing was to establish a new public research institute, the National Institute of Advanced Technology—done. We have done that, and we’ve also made two major announcements. Robinson Research Institute has been given $70 million, with a focus on materials, metals, and superconducting magnets as the first spoke, and, of course, the artificial intelligence platform as the second.

The third was to establish Prime Minister’s Science, Innovation, and Technology Advisory Council—done, also. The advisory group are very accomplished individuals who are guiding the science sector strategy.

The fourth was a national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy—again, done. We were one of the few countries in the world not to have a national AI strategy, and now we can start developing operational imperatives around that national strategy, and, of course, Minister Collins leads the allofGovernment approach to artificial intelligence, and the two together will work hand in hand.

The fifth and one of the last objectives is the business research and development tax incentive. The review of that was done and was well received by the sector. I believe, for every dollar from the Crown, I think there’s about $1.40 of benefit, and that’s being retained, as well.

All of these actions will underpin economic growth, but it’s also supported by science funding, including the following: $42 million for a new biodiscovery platform. This will create real opportunities, I’d have to say particularly for Māori researchers who have a head start with indigenous knowledge. In those 80,000 indigenous species, of which we only scientifically describe 35,000—I believe that the next new cancer drug is in that mix. I believe that the next new nutraceutical is in that mix. So I’m very excited about that opportunity.

There is $70 million for artificial intelligence, and the sector and industry are currently responding to the request for proposal, and I’m looking forward to seeing what solutions industry may have in that space.

I’ve mentioned $70 million for future materials and magnet superconduction through Robinson Research; $46 million for the Endeavour Fund’s “Smart Ideas”; $183 million for Endeavour major research programmes, including $10 million for the Deep Heat project, a project that’s dear to the heart of my colleague to my right, around supercritical geothermal in the Taupō volcanic zone. The sum of $80 million was recently announced for Marsden funding, and last week I announced $75 million for the infectious diseases platform at Public Health and Forensic Science. Not only have we set the structure; we’ve also started to put some money beside it.

At the Royal Society awards with the Governor-General last night, some of our brightest and best were acknowledged, and I want to highlight a few of them. The Rutherford Medal went to distinguished Professor Wickliffe Abraham from the University of Otago, and he was awarded the Rutherford Medal for breakthrough advances in understanding neural mechanisms of memory. “Plasticity” is a word that he created. The Hutton Medal was awarded to Dr Dennis Gordon, an emeritus researcher at Earth Sciences New Zealand, for two significant bodies of work. The first was about an organism called Bryozoa, and he has described 758 new species in the genre and 34 new families. He also instigated, designed, and edited the New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity, describing everything from bacteria to blue whales—another substantial body of work, and this gentleman is retired. He is in his latter years, and he still gets excitement from science.

I’m excited for science. I’m excited for what we can do, and I agree with media—science is back.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This Government was elected on a platform of fixing the economy. It’s clear, after two years of slogans, of bluster, and of blame, they have utterly failed to do so. If that speech is anything to go by, they’ve now decided that their pathway back into Government is to try and bore people into submission. Instead of fixing the economy, this Government has made things worse.

We have seen unemployment going up. There are now more New Zealanders unemployed than at any time since 1994, and that has happened under this Government’s watch. Far from getting people off the jobseeker benefit, we have seen significant increases in it, and New Zealanders are voting with their feet. Kiwis who can’t find work here are giving up and leaving the country in record numbers. Two hundred Kiwis, every day, are giving up and permanently leaving the country under this Government’s leadership. Today, what did we hear from the Government in response to that? Young New Zealanders should simply abandon the regions and move to where the jobs are. When this Government sees 78 percent more people unemployed in places like Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, Christopher Luxon says they should move to where the jobs are. Regional families, hearing that now, have just heard the Prime Minister say to their kids: give up and leave. Unfortunately for those families, those kids are giving up and leaving. They’re leaving the country, and they’re not intending to come back.

We also heard him say to 44-year-olds, where unemployment has doubled in that age cohort, that it’s because they don’t want to work. Those New Zealanders want jobs. They can’t find them under Christopher Luxon’s economy. The parents of 18- and 19-year-olds, by contrast, are being told they should work less, because this boneheaded Government have come up with a welfare policy that says to parents of 18- and 19-year-olds who are on low incomes that if they work less, their family will get more support. That requires a degree of incompetence that’s hard to fathom—the Government developing a welfare policy that says if you’re a parent of an 18- and 19-year-old and you’re already on a low income, work less and the Government will give you more money. How do they come up with that? That’s just purely incompetent in a cost of living crisis, which the Government promised they were going to fix.

We’ve seen food prices go up, electricity prices go up, going to the doctor go up, and businesses closing in record numbers. The liquidators are salivating in the paper, saying, “It’s going get worse before it gets better.” Despite what Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon are saying about “green shoots” and how “the economy’s turned the corner, and we’re in recovery”, the liquidators are saying, “We’ve never been busier and, in fact, we’re expecting to get even busier as businesses go to the wall under this Government’s economic mismanagement.” All Kiwis are feeling it. They’ve seen their KiwiSaver being cut, they’ve seen women’s pay being cut, they’ve seen jobs being cut, they’ve seen health services being cut, and they’ve seen education services being cut. Kiwis know that this Government, far from fixing things, are making everything worse. Who is winning, though? Landlords are winning, tobacco companies are winning, and the tech giants like Facebook and Google are winning under this Government. Everyday, working Kiwis are not winning under this Government.

There is an alternative. We can invest in ourselves as a country—a future made in New Zealand by New Zealanders for New Zealanders. But to have that, New Zealanders need a Government that’s going to back that, not a Government that’s going to sell everything off, return to that failed idea that if we just hock everything off, things will somehow, miraculously, correct themselves. Instead, we need a Government that’s going to invest in New Zealand’s future, a Government that’s going to get New Zealanders back to work, not a Government that’s going to talk about productivity and talk about fixing our infrastructure and then, actually, do the opposite of those things. We need a Government that’s going to build things. I remember sitting on the other side when they were saying we weren’t building enough and we weren’t building it fast enough. We were building a hell of a lot more than this Government’s building, because they have ground everything to a halt. But don’t take my word for it. Just go and ask any one of the 20,000 New Zealanders working in construction that have lost their jobs under this Government. They’re not fixing anything; they are making everything worse.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Look, we’ve had some fantastic news coming out recently, and it’s about our wonderful kiwifruit sector: they are thriving. It’s a good thing, because it means that our economy is getting back. We are growing and there is good news—those green shoots, those blue shoots coming back into New Zealand.

What you get from economic growth is that you have the opportunity to support families; you have the opportunity to build new health facilities, to build new schools, to invest more in health and education, to invest more in our police and customs, and to do all of the things that New Zealanders expect us to be able to do.

Shanan Halbert: All the things.

SAM UFFINDELL: More housing. More roading infrastructure. There’s plenty there, Shanan, if you want to go back through my transcript. We are focused on economic growth, because it’s through economic growth that we get to be able to afford the things that New Zealanders need.

We have good news: for the second year in a row, Zespri has reported the biggest kiwifruit season in history. This is good news. This is great news. It’s great news for the people of Tauranga, it’s great news for the Bay of Plenty, and it’s great news for New Zealand. Our primary sector is dragging New Zealand up again.

Kiwifruit is our largest support sector in export, returning over $3 billion in direct payments to growers—over $3 billion in direct payments. Do you know where that goes? It goes into our economy. Those people go out there—those growers and those Zespri shareholders go out there and they spend it. That is fantastic. That drives economic growth. That drives jobs. It drives people down there at your cafes and at your hospitality and retail settings. It reverberates through the economy.

Zespri is 100 percent owned by New Zealand kiwifruit growers. That is a fantastic thing. What a success story, and we should all celebrate that. The workforce employs 10,000 permanent employees. There’s another 24,500 jobs over that harvesting time, that three to four months. I’d like to make a special mention to those Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme workers, who contribute enormously, with a workforce that’s made up 37 percent of RSEs, and the positive impact that has on our community and back in the Pacifics, as well.

I want to congratulate Zespri for the great job that they’ve done opening up new markets. Hopefully, India comes on board soon. I was in Vietnam a couple of months ago and I saw Zespri products on the shelves there, and it was a fantastic thing to be able to see that. We know that economy is booming. It’s grown 30 percent in the past four years. It is really going well. All of that booming middle class are going to want New Zealand kiwifruit.

It’s a high-quality brand. It’s being led by the markets. It’s a sustainable brand. It’s responding to consumer trends. They’re doing a great job on managing their costs. They are the number one fruit brand across 15 core markets, reaching more than 100 million households. What a fantastic achievement. They are a highly trusted leader in health and nutrition.

There is more work to do, and we could make it even better. I think one of the key things we need to do is upgrade the Port of Tauranga. I’ve said that here many times. But many people in the industry are calling it out—that the inability to provide for those berth expansions is going to restrict larger, low-emission vehicles, and low-emissions fuel production plants in the Port of Tauranga, our largest export port.

Zespri and the industry support more resourcing for the labour inspectorate, and we certainly don’t want bad actors in our horticulture sector ruining it for others. I have a clear message for people out there: if you are acting improperly, we don’t want you in the sector; you are a blight on the rest of it.

I want to say thank you, as well, to all of the hard-working growers. I appreciate it. My wife’s family is a kiwifruit family and have been since the early 1980s. How hard these people work—they’re working seven days a week, dawn till dusk. They go out there, and you see them, and they work incredibly hard to get ahead. They do eventually get ahead and they succeed. They are a real success story. It’s been phenomenal to watch the growth of kiwifruit. Zespri is a true success story. But, ultimately, it’s off the back of all of our hard-working growers.

The good news for us, as I said at the start, is that all that money—that $3 billion in direct payment to growers—most of that will go straight through into regional economies. It will reverberate around New Zealand. We’re seeing the green shoots coming up. Kiwifruit is leading the way. Other key primary sectors are leading the way. We are very, incredibly lucky to have them. Thank you to our growers.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. If someone has to lie to make their point, do they really have a point? That is a question that many New Zealanders have been reflecting on as they see the desperation seep from the National Party over the last two weeks. They are trying to tell New Zealanders that three free GP visits is a bad idea and they’re trying to tell New Zealanders that free cervical screening is a bad idea. How are they going about it? They know New Zealanders want free access to their GPs; they know New Zealanders need it desperately. They also know that New Zealanders need free access to cervical screening. So what do they do? They scaremonger and they make things up.

We’ve seen it all over the show. They have been telling people that a capital gains tax, as proposed by the Labour Party, is a tax on business. Is it? No. They’ve been telling people that it is a tax on KiwiSaver. Is it? No. Why do they have to make things up to make their point? Why can’t they just put forward their arguments and let it sit on their merits? Because they have no argument and it has no merits. If they come out to Kiwis and look them in the eye and say that they don’t think Kiwis should get access to primary healthcare, they know they’re going to lose the argument. If they told New Zealanders that the National Party doesn’t think that they should have free access to cervical screening, they would lose the argument. But they’re also losing the argument because Kiwis can see through a fib and they can see through this like glass, and the National Party have no leg to stand on.

If you’ve got the finance Minister feeling the need to comment on Labour Party and Labour Party MPs’ Facebook pages, things must be bad. You’re the finance spokesperson, you’ve made a mess of the economy, you’re promising New Zealanders that you will create jobs, and that she will fix the cost of living, but she’s got time to go on to Facebook and try and argue with some commenters. Things are not well over there. That is a sign of desperation, and it is a sign that they know things are not going well.

Let’s clear this up. Let’s cut straight to the chase. The family home is exempt under the capital gains tax that we’ve proposed. KiwiSaver, farms, shares, businesses—they are also exempt. Nothing applies until after 1 July 2027. All the things that people have been saying—that people’s investment for their retirement is going to be taxed—it is not true, they know it’s not true, and they’re only doing it because they know that their back’s against the wall and they can see that their polling is dropping through the floor.

See this? [Member holds up a card] This is a promise to New Zealanders that when Labour get into Government next year, they will get three free GP visits and free cervical screening. The Labour Party’s promise to New Zealand is this. The National Party’s promise to New Zealand is this: a finger. When New Zealanders expect this Government to give them a say in the laws that they are passing, when New Zealanders expect the Government to be open and upfront and clear about what they’re doing and follow parliamentary process and give people a chance to have a say in select committee, they give them the middle finger. When New Zealanders expect the Government to provide an answer on why unemployment’s gone up and why costs have gone up and why businesses are failing and why record numbers of people are leaving the country, they get a finger pointed in every single direction except towards themselves. All they have is blame. All they have is excuses. If they really want to point a finger, go and stand in front of a mirror, because that is the only direction that their finger should be pointing.

They made promises that they have not kept. They have made it harder for New Zealanders, and here’s the thing: New Zealanders know it. Why else would they be polling considerably lower than what they were on election night? Because there’s one thing New Zealanders don’t like, and that’s someone misleading them and someone saying that it’s someone else’s fault when it’s actually theirs. They don’t like being misled. They don’t like insincere people, and when they look across these benches, they see 63 of them.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is regrettable and disappointing that we’re seeing Te Tiriti o Waitangi under attack in our education system. It is disappointing and regrettable that we’re seeing a Government that pits Te Tiriti against student outcomes, framing it as a way that you can only have one or the other. It’s also important for us to think about the holistic nature of what Te Tiriti o Waitangi means within the education system. I thought I’d use this opportunity to give a few examples and breakdown some tangible aspects of Te Tiriti in education.

If we were looking at Te Tiriti o Waitangi—particularly if we were looking at article 2—article 2 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi serves everyone in Aotearoa but particularly addresses the cultural needs and the taonga of tangata whenua and of mana whenua. What it means for students is that it allows for students to have agency in the way that they work, for students to have flexibility in the way they work, for students to be able to know the kind of mana that they have when they are in a school environment. We are all often saying that we want to see people work smarter but not harder. But when we see students working smarter and not harder by knowing what they have to do to get to where they want to be, we pull the rug from underneath them.

We’ve seen some of the programmes, such as Creatives in Schools, that we heard from this morning at the Education and Workforce Committee—that it allows a holistic view of education that not only helps with truancy, brings students in, makes students interested in what they’re learning, and makes students understand what they’re learning, but it also helps with things like literacy and numeracy, but that has been removed as part of the Government programme.

When I went to visit Ōpōtiki College a few weeks ago, we heard about local solutions on what it means for them in education and how they uphold and interpret Te Tiriti o Waitangi as a school. We’ve seen schools with a really, really low attendance being able to tap into what the students want by looking at trade, by looking at construction—where the Eastern Bay Trades Academy, for example, now has an excellent over 90 percent attendance rate, because they know what the students want. This is a school solution, not a top-down approach.

Article 3 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi talks about equality and talks about everyone being treated equally. It’s hard for me to understand how they would say that removing to Te Tiriti o Waitangi is about everyone being given equal opportunity. Those people who have had the strongest outcry against the inclusion of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in our school board objectives are the same people who have stayed silent while our Māori students, our Pasifika students, and our migrant students have the highest rate of school bullying in the country. That’s not equality, and it’s not them addressing equality.

Te Tiriti should provide a baseline, united understanding of how each school should work. By removing it, we’re going back to what we’ve saw for the 150 years after the signing of the Te Tiriti o Waitangi, where Te Tiriti wasn’t taught, when schools weren’t equitable, and when schools didn’t have that baseline understanding of what it means for our students. Of course, our teachers are also at the centre of this, and all they’re asking for is to be heard, is to be respected, is to have a transparent process and co-create a world-leading curriculum, but we’re not seeing that, particularly if Te Tiriti o Waitangi is removed under attack. The Green Party is committed to the vision and direction of Te Mātaiaho as implemented in 2023, specifically placing Te Tiriti at the centre of Te Mātaiaho and at the centre of education in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Supporting economic growth is so important to driving growth, jobs, and opportunity across our whole country. When you have a Government supporting infrastructure, primary industries, and tourism in the regions, we see New Zealand and Hawke’s Bay, the fruit bowl of New Zealand, growing and doing well. Wow, has it been a week for Hawke’s Bay this week, with substantial progress in health and infrastructure.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of opening the newly upgraded radiology department at Hawke’s Bay Hospital alongside our amazing Minister of Health. This is a major development—actually, the biggest development that we’ve seen at the Hawke’s Bay Hospital in years. The radiology department had lost its accreditation under the Labour Government, but under our Government, we have worked hard to deliver a state-of-the-art facility delivered on budget and on time, which is the beating heart of our hospital.

For our community, this upgrade is not just about bricks and mortar; it’s about faster diagnosis, faster treatment, and better patient care for thousands of families across Hawke’s Bay. It will double scanning capacity and deliver more than 10,000 additional scans each year, ensuring that people get the care they need, when they need it. It will take some pressure off the emergency department.

Look, I can speak firsthand, because a few weeks ago as a mum, I got the call that no mum wants to receive from school that my little 10-year-old had fallen off the monkey bars and broken her arm. We have spent the last few weeks in and out of X-rays and surgery, which I appreciate and understand can be a very stressful time for families and patients. Speeding up the radiology process and investing in modern facilities is vital to better healthcare and patient outcomes.

Cutting the ribbon on that radiology department at Hawke’s Bay Hospital is such a milestone for our community. It was so wonderful to be there yesterday with the radiology team at the Hawke’s Bay Hospital, who do such a wonderful job, and see the smiles and positivity around the hospital there. They were so upbeat and they were so excited about working in this modern facility, because they know how important this is. For too long, patients have been waiting in the corridors, and now they have a modern space.

This new infrastructure shows our Government commitment to providing better healthcare in the regions. This is on top of the already announced 28-bed inpatient unit that will be built next year and also the linear accelerator cancer treatment machine, which is going to mean so much for our Hawke’s Bay families.

Our focus is on delivery in healthcare in Hawke’s Bay, and this week we also are going to be delivering on infrastructure, roading that four-lane expressway that has been talked about for such a long time. This is going to stop the congestion and the delays that we’re seeing across Hawke’s Bay, and it shows real action by this Government. We’ve got shovels on the ground, hard hats, hi-vis vests, and diggers. This is a Government of action. We are delivering, and this, of course, is going to be creating a lot of jobs across Hawke’s Bay in that construction and contracting space.

Of course, this expressway is more than just a road; it’s a lifeline for our exporters, our commuters, getting our product to the port—you know, our amazing fruit from Hawke’s Bay and our red meat, of course, which are experiencing record prices, and we’re seeing global demand across the world for our products from Hawke’s Bay. This road is going to be significant for Hawke’s Bay in terms of getting that produce off to the market a lot faster and a lot more efficiently.

Of course, things are looking optimistic in the regions and in Hawke’s Bay in our fruit sector, because we’re seeing record exports in the fruit sector—driven, obviously, by kiwifruit, which we’ve already heard about today, but also apples. Apples have reached over $1 billion in exports, which is an incredible achievement. We’re seeing more planting, we’re seeing more innovation, and we are seeing more opportunity and jobs in the region driven by this Government.

It pains me to be, yet again, here speaking in defence of this Government’s commitment to getting to New Zealand’s smoke-free target, but it seems, given that the Leader of the Opposition still believes that budgeting for a reduction in excise collection when people quit smoking is deemed to be a tax break, that we have to revisit this narrative.

We have to respond to today’s nonsensical headline about New Zealand’s global ranking and interference by the tobacco industry. This highlights the ideological capture of a certain Radio New Zealand journalist and public health lobbyists, who don’t seem to care about New Zealand’s success in supporting people to stop smoking. Instead of looking at the facts—our smoking rate is at 6.9 percent, one of the lowest in the world—we have the Cancer Society’s reckonings around hysteria and misinformation. Rather than looking critically at other countries that took the reduced access, limited supply approach, which this Government repealed, they have chosen to add more of a dark shadow over the success that New Zealand has achieved—and why do this, when they know that reduced access has resulted in organised crime and illicit tobacco trade having a significantly negative impact, which is where we would have been had we not repealed?

The report released by the Cancer Society is focused on the tobacco industry interference and clutches at straws to build an implication of corruption across Government and our staff. To be clear, the controls in place in 2023—when we were ranked second in the world—are exactly the same as they are now. There has been no change. Innuendo and suggestion is not fact.

Ludicrously, the report even makes comment about the tobacco industry meeting with the Customs Service, who collect excise from the tobacco industry, and yet that is deemed to be a questionable activity. The report goes even further with an inference that individuals and companies should not even be allowed to make submissions to select committees, and so democracy in itself is now deemed to be some level of influence by the industry. The report criticises engagement with BusinessNZ and Retail NZ, and, ludicrously, anyone that works for the Taxpayers’ Union or even the New Zealand Initiative is tainted. The fact is that the tobacco industry has no involvement whatsoever in our smokefree policies, and when you just focus on the report, it is expanded to impugn the reputations of other elective representatives and staff.

I could go on about how objectively ridiculous this assessment is, but I think that the real evidence is in the countries ranked ahead of us in this report—the likes of Ethiopia, Iran, Mongolia, Chad, and Myanmar. Taking one look at those countries’ rankings in the Global Corruption Index tells us how irrational and unhinged this ranking is. Brunei was ranked No. 1 in 2023, and again in 2025. Apparently, one of the key aspects as to why they are ranked so high is because they don’t have a domestic tobacco industry, and yet they have a 17 percent smoking rate. Those countries that apparently have less interference from the tobacco industry than us—well, let’s just compare them to our 6.9 percent smoking rate: Mongolia has a 28 percent smoking rate, Myanmar has a 44 percent smoking rate, and Vietnam has a 23 percent smoking rate.

As has been the case since this Government was formed, we remain committed to actually stopping people smoking. We have an ambitious target to get to Smokefree 2025, and that requires listening to experts who understand how to reach smokers. But this report doesn’t draw any comment about how many times I’ve met with quit-smoking providers or how closely I’ve engaged with the frontline workers—no, it is just full of innuendo. Apparently, the New Zealand First manifesto aligned with comments from the tobacco industry, ignoring that it also aligns with comments and commitments from ASH.

If the Cancer Society and the public health lobby actually cared about stopping people smoking, which I would have thought would have been their primary concern—

The member’s time has expired.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Te Rohe a Tokerau—look north. Yes, it is time to look north. It is time to travel up State Highway 1, over the Brynderwyns, to the beauty of Northland. To help make that trip safer and faster, it is time—and this Government is doing it—to develop a four-lane expressway as part of our roads of national significance programme. This Government understands the importance of the roads of national significance to the regions, and it recently committed to the Northland Expressway $187 million to progress design, consenting, and route protection, with priority given to the Brynderwyn section.

It is time to come and enjoy all the amazing attractions in the North. From Tāne Mahuta in the west, to Cape Reinga in the north, and the history and significance of Waitangi, tourism is back. It is back in Northland. Bookings are increasing. Sales have increased over the last couple of months. To quote a leading restaurateur, “The laughter is back. The vibe is back. Something that has been missing for the last five years.” Great news.

In 2024, tourism contributed an estimated $570 million to Northland’s GDP. Tourism accounted for 6,751 jobs—or 8.2 percent of our regional employment. Accommodation and food services contributed 4,800-plus jobs. Under this Government, this will continue to grow. This Government has said yes to tourism. We have said yes to the international visitor levy to help grow our visitor experiences. We have said yes to a $70 million events fund to help turbocharge this sector, and the sector is responding.

In Northland, we aren’t resting on our laurels; we are creating our own events. A great example of this was recently completed in the North, called Savour Northland. I recommend, next year, you all come along and enjoy it. It was developed and led by Northland Inc., our development agency. It was a great success. The event explored a curated programme of locally inspired dishes, special one-off events, culinary collaborations, and immersive workshops all over the North—all served with our warm Northland manaakitanga and some of the best views in the world.

On Monday, we had the awards evening for this spectacular event. The evening was a celebration, starting at Charlotte’s Kitchen in Paihia, then heading to Hone’s Garden in Russell, before enjoying the breathtaking location that is Eagles Nest. I recommend, if you ever get the chance, go and enjoy it. It’s unbelievable. We then concluded the evening at the legendary Duke of Marlborough—some say that is my second home, but, no, I wouldn’t care to comment. There were numerous awards. Two of my favourites involved using local produce to produce the best dish. The first was using Kaipara kūmara. The winning dish involved cooking the kūmara in a hāngī; the kūmara was then turned into ice cream by mixing it with Bella Vacca jersey milk from Kawakawa, which was then put into a Yorkshire pudding base, and then we took macadamia nuts from Ruakākā, and these were turned into a brittle, and this was topped with foraged watercress, which was turned into toffee gravy. It was delicious.

Ryan Hamilton: Michelin star.

GRANT McCALLUM: Absolutely. The winning chef was Tama. Then there was the Haku Kingfish dish, using kingfish from the Ruakākā Kingfish Farm. This was turned into a crudo with kaffir lime sorbet, and matched with local wines. The winning chef was Tito from Charlotte’s Kitchen, who is the son of Tama. So quite a competition. The signature award was for the perfect pairing, and this went to Kai Mata Restaurant in Kerikeri. Congratulations to all that participated and to the winners.

To reinforce all this, this Government recently announced $6.3 million to encourage the Michelin star opportunities across New Zealand. I am going to lobby hard to get one to turn up in Northland at some stage—that would be great.

Events like this symbolise the returning growth in our economy. This Government has focused on getting inflation under control, which led to reduction in interest rates. This means, for the average Kiwi, a saving of $10,000 per year in mortgage repayments. This creates more opportunities for families to travel and enjoy what the North and the rest of New Zealand has to offer. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Otirā, e te Whare, tēnā koutou katoa. On Monday, the Minister of Housing made the announcement around Christchurch city being granted exemption from city-wide housing intensification. In some of his comments, he spoke about a fastgrowing city and that Christchurch needed more homes in the right places to keep up with the growth. It’s not just Christchurch that’s actually growing; it’s also the sub-region. Currently, Greater Christchurch has a population of roughly 420,000 people, yet the population is expected to be around 700,000 by 2050, and, within 60 years, 1 million people.

Actual growth is faster than what is predicted. In Selwyn and Waimakariri, the growth rates are at the highest. You only have to look at aerial maps over the last decade or so to have a look at what’s happening out there. Rolleston is becoming bigger and bigger, getting closer to Lincoln as that becomes bigger and bigger, getting closer to Prebbleton as that becomes bigger and bigger, getting closer to Halswell. We’re becoming one massive big city.

But it’s not just the population that is growing. The number of cars on Ōtautahi’s roads has grown by 65 percent since 2001, and we now have the distinction of having New Zealand’s slowest commute. In just 10 years, there will be 32,000 more people in Ōtautahi alone, and with the amount of cars that will bring, it will bring the city to a halt.

Transport and urban development need to be done together. We have seen how difficult it has been to retrofit decent public transport infrastructure into a busy Auckland city. We have the opportunity in Ōtautahi to get in front of that by prioritising public transport and mass rapid transit now.

Canterbury has 13 percent of New Zealand’s population and contributes 14 percent of the money into the National Land Transport Fund, yet we only get 5 percent reinvested into our region. The current Government appears to be focused mainly on really expensive motorways, and even with that obsession, the funding is unfairly skewed to the North Island. The recent announcement of $1.2 billion on road funding saw only 6 percent go to the South Island, and we’ve seen benefit-to-cost ratio standards change to justify the roads of national significance. I can only imagine what that will do for cycleway infrastructure, when you look at the cycleways in Christchurch that are already at 13 to one.

We know that if we want to have good urban development, we need good transport investment—investment that doesn’t encourage people to sprawl like it does now; investment that encourages reductions in emissions, unlike building more motorways. What we have been seeing from this Government is a lack of investment in transport modes like walking, cycling, and public transport. These are the modes that will actually encourage sustainable living, less congestion, more productivity, less emissions, and better health outcomes—modes that truly work in tandem with good urban development.

While Canterbury and the South Island continue to be short-changed with transport investment, New Zealand cities, towns, and communities are missing out on transport investment that encourages this type of transport choice. Roughly 50 percent of car journeys are less than 5 kilometres, yet the Government is wanting to invest over $50 billion on 17 roads that most people will not use. If the Minister of Housing wants good urban development outcomes, then the Minister of Transport himself needs to ensure that the transport investment is structured to enable modal shift instead of making sure it goes into car dependency. The Ministry of Transport’s emission reduction plan called for fewer vehicle kilometres travelled, not more, but what have we seen? Just roads—just roads.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I hope this Government has started packing, because Aotearoa has had it up to here. Aotearoa has had enough of a tone-deaf Government rushing through legislation with less than 1 percent support from submitters. Aotearoa has had enough of the anti-Māori, anti-worker rhetoric, and they’ve had enough of the struggle.

The cost of living is up, and so is unemployment. Today, in response to a question about unemployment, we heard the Prime Minister say, “This Government have ambition for young people, and we want to get them connected to training and employment.” Yet here we are—unemployment in Aotearoa is at a nine-year high at 5.3 percent. It’s worse for Māori and Pasifika, but the worst statistic of all is that of Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay, who have an astronomical increase in unemployment of 78 percent. It’s a beautiful part of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, renowned for its contribution to primary industries. These are not just statistics. These represent whānau already decimated by Cyclone Gabrielle being further decimated by the inaction of this Government. It’s not young people at home on PlayStations, as this out-of-touch Government would have you believe. These are people once gainfully employed, supporting their whānau and their local economy, now being forced to look for opportunities abroad, leaving their whānau and their whenua.

When whānau move overseas, leaving their whenua, it not only has a financial impact. It can cause an interruption to the connection future generations have with their reo, their customs, their marae, and their extended whānau. But this Government have demonstrated that they don’t care about that. Instead of fulfilling their promises and dealing with what whānau repeatedly tell us matters to them—getting ahead through their own hard mahi, having access to quality healthcare, having a roof over their heads—this Government prioritises rushing through backward bills like the Education and Training Amendment Bill to remove Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

On this side of the House, we listen, and Labour has a plan—a plan for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, a plan for Aotearoa. Labour will back innovation, create jobs, and allow people to stay right here in Aotearoa and build a future.

Grant McCallum: It’s a tax plan. Tax, tax, tax.

CUSHLA TANGAERE-MANUEL: Even in Northland, of course, Grant. We care about Northland too. Our targeted capital gains tax will boost health, with every dollar ring-fenced for your hauora, paying for three free doctors visits for everyone in Aotearoa, because health is wealth.

Don’t believe the rūpahu you hear from that side, whānau. Your whānau home, your whenua Māori, your farm, your KiwiSaver, and your business assets will not be affected by this. Your health will. Let’s get back to building an Aotearoa by us, for us; an Aotearoa where people can live where they’re from, where they want to be. Let’s build an Aotearoa that embraces our unique Māori identity and the greater role it will have in boosting our morale, our kotahitanga, and our economy.

I look forward to heading to the centre of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti tomorrow to celebrate our reo and identity at Toitū Te Reo. Heretaunga will be alive with pride at an event that celebrates Māoridom and has a massive impact on the local economy. Who would have known!

Aotearoa, if you’re sick and tired of a tone-deaf Government, if you’re sick and tired of anti-Māori, anti-worker rhetoric, and you’re sick of the struggle, take the power into your hands. You must enrol and you must vote to make sure we have a future-looking Government, a Government that embraces all of us, our unique identity as Aotearoa—everyone, manuhiri and tangata whenua alike. Enrol, vote, look forward to the future, and keep your eye on the prize, and that is ensuring that this tone-deaf, backward-looking Government is a one-term one.

I’m so pleased that I get this opportunity, which is quite rare in the greater scheme of things, to share some thoughts on the time that has just passed in the last couple of months since I last had this opportunity.

I’d like to start off by saying happy Diwali to all my neighbours in Takanini, in South Auckland, in East Auckland, and all around Aotearoa New Zealand. Our Indian community and our South-east Asian communities that celebrate Diwali give so much to our beautiful country, and I’m so grateful for the work that they do in enriching our land. I’m so grateful that I was invited to, and enjoyed attending, the third Pōkeno Diwali celebration—thank you to Prince and his team—the New Zealand Diwali 2025 in Barry Curtis Park, in my beautiful electorate, in Flatbush. There was also the South East Auckland Senior Citizens’ Association Diwali celebration; the Kiwi Tamil Samoogam Diwali celebrations; the Auckland Tamil Association; the inaugural Annakut and Diwali celebrations right here in Wellington, with the newly opened BAPS, where the Prime Minister and other Ministers also attended; the Bihar Jharkhand Association of New Zealand, that colourful celebration only a couple of weeks ago; and not to mention New Zealand Telugu Association, as well, amongst many others. Happy Diwali, and may the festivity of this season continue to enrich your lives until the next season and beyond.

It’s really great that during celebrations and all types of events, I get to speak to people that are in my community. We talk about all things—happy things and quite depressing things, as well. It’s no secret that people are doing it tough. They’re doing it really tough, and these conversations come to my ears on the doorsteps of Takanini and at events like this, as well. They’re doing it tough, and my heart goes out for them. They’re doing it tough, and they know that things will not turn around in the less than two years that we’ve been in Government. They’re doing it tough, but they’re not angry at me; they’re angry at the six years before we came into Government. What happened then?

Shall we have a bit of a friendly reminder about what happened in the last six years before we were given the privilege and the responsibility to take taxpayers’ money into our hands and work with it carefully? Tell us about that Auckland light rail, Mr Dan Bidois. What happened there? Almost $230 million was spent, and not a metre of track was laid. Money went everywhere, except on the ground. What about three waters? Oh my goodness! A staggering, eye-watering over $1 billion was spent on something that would have taken assets away from local communities. We scrapped it because it was rubbish. What about that Auckland Harbour cycle walking bridge? Shall we get a memory about how much was spent there? Over $51 million on a bridge that actually never left the drawing room. What about that public media merger of TVNZ and RNZ? Nearly $20 million was spent on a merger that no one got to watch. What about those health reforms in the middle of a pandemic? In their infinite wisdom on the other side, they decided to thrust us into a health reform. What does that say about how they treat taxpayer money? What about the $2.75 million that was given to the Mongrel Mob so the Mongrel Mob can teach others how to avoid meth? That is the biggest oxymoron of the century.

I am proud—I am proud—of the fact that there is so much going on in New Zealand and we are going to feel the tides turn very soon, because we are setting the foundations for this economic growth that we’ve been working on since before we actually got into Government. I’m proud of the fact that one of those is Mill Road in my beautiful electorate of Takanini. I’m proud of the fact that with Family Boost, we’ve expanded it so many more families in Takanini can utilise that. So much more is coming, not to mention the fast tracking of getting Costco built in the Hon Judith Collins’ electorate. That’s going to cause competition and bring prices down. I can’t wait for this growth to continue. Here, on this side, we’ve got competence, not people that waste taxpayers’ money. Thank you very much.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.