General Debate

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

Two years into the term of this Government, it is now abundantly clear that all they have to offer New Zealanders is blame, excuses, and anger. Haven’t we seen that this week—how angry they have looked this week? An opportunity comes along every day for the Government to tell New Zealanders how things are getting better, how they are improving the conditions in this country, and all this Government could do this week was look angry and talk about the Opposition. I can tell you from past experience: when the Government spends its whole week talking about the Opposition, it’s a sure sign that things are in trouble on the other side of the House.

New Zealanders are looking to this Government for a sense that things will get better; that New Zealand can be a place where our kids want to stay, where they see a future, and where opportunities abound; where, if you work hard, if you play by the rules, if you take pride in your work, you’ll see the rewards that flow from that hard work; that you’ll have a sense of security; that you’ll be able to make life better for yourself and for your families; that you’ll be able to access healthcare when you need it; that you’ll have a place that you can call home, where you can be secure and you can be part of a community; and, most importantly of all, where you have hope for a better future.

New Zealanders elected this Government on the basis that they thought they had a plan for the future. It is now abundantly clear they don’t have a plan now, and they never had one—because we can see that, under this Government, for two years, things have been going backwards. Our economy has been shrinking. Jobs have been disappearing. Unemployment is increasing. The number of people lining up for a jobseeker benefit continues to climb. The cost of living, far from being fixed, continues to go up. Homelessness is increasing; more people living rough on the streets. Kids living in poverty—that number is going up, as well. The number of businesses going broke continues to climb. New Zealanders are voting with their feet; record numbers of New Zealanders are simply giving up and leaving the country.

As a parent of young New Zealanders, this is something that I spend a lot of time thinking about. When I speak to other parents outside the school gate or at kids’ birthday parties, one of the questions that is front of mind for all of them is: when our kids reach the age when they enter into the workforce, are they going to stay? When they go off and do their OE, are they going to come back? Because we all know far too many examples of people who are leaving—young New Zealanders, in particular; talented, bright, the future of our country, giving up and leaving with no intention of coming back. Instead of giving those young New Zealanders hope, we have a Government that describes New Zealand as “wet, whiny and miserable”, that calls New Zealanders “bottom-feeders”, and that says that our emerging businesses—those who are creating the jobs of the future—are “C-listers” and unworthy of Government support.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can have a future that is made in New Zealand, by New Zealanders, for New Zealanders. We can back ourselves. We can invest in ourselves. While this Government offers asset sales, we on this side of the House say we should be investing in assets. We should be investing in a better future for New Zealanders. While that Government over there wants to sell off what’s left, we want to leave a better legacy for the next generation of New Zealanders. While they wait for foreign billionaires to come and save us, we say we should be backing ourselves. We should be backing Kiwi businesses to create jobs, to keep talented New Zealanders in this country, and to create the future that New Zealanders deserve.

A future fund that uses our existing asset base to grow opportunities and grow jobs for New Zealand—a Government that backs innovation here in New Zealand is what the Labour Party stands for. The Game Development Sector Rebate that’s created jobs, that’s seen the gaming development sector grow by nearly 80 percent during the 2½ years that that rebate has been in place—they want it expanded. This Government said no. We say yes on this side of the House, because we want to back our innovators. We want to back those people who go to work every day to create jobs and create opportunity. Where that Government says no, no, no, when they offer cut, cut, cut, we say yes, yes, yes, and we will invest, invest, invest in the future of this country.

Two years—14 October marked two years. What’s the job of the Opposition? To come up with policies—[Interruption]

SPEAKER: Hang on. Take your seat. If you’re leaving the House, leave quietly. The Hon Louise Upston, start again.

Hon LOUISE UPSTON: One job—they’ve got one job: come up with some policies to actually back up their words. They’ve got lots of words, but nothing to back it up.

There was a bit of anticipation. After the two-year mark, what were New Zealanders waiting for? They were waiting for some policy—waiting for some policy. What did we get? They were so patient, waiting for a policy, waiting for a plan, waiting for something from the Opposition. What did we get?

Unfortunately, what we heard on Monday took us right back to the horror show of October 2023, where New Zealanders voted out a Government who was taxing more, spending more, and who was reckless with their tax money. What did they come up with? Well, actually, nobody seems to know what they were actually talking about.

Eleven pages; no detail. I think there was one figure. Oh, and there was a photo of Chris Hipkins—that’s meant to fill in the blanks of the detail of this future fund. They don’t even understand how Temasek works: when you buy assets, you then sell assets for ones that have better returns. That’s basic economics, basic trading, basic investment. Unfortunately, New Zealanders would have been really disappointed by—well, actually, probably not surprised, really, in terms of the stupid, illiterate nonsense that we got served up. But don’t take it from my words. It was described as a flop; vague; lacking in any meaningful costings, asset listings, or clarity.

What we heard was the Leader of the Opposition saying one thing; the finance spokesperson saying something else. I mean, aren’t they meant to be hand in glove? Aren’t they meant to be in alignment? But we saw none of that—again—which is an absolute disaster for the Labour Party, and it’s high time that they actually recognised that when you’re going to announce a policy, you should have the detail, you should have your two lead people who are spokespersons for it who actually understand and are on the same page.

What did we see? Less than 24 hours later, another major policy announcement that the leader didn’t even know about. How was that look—how was that look—of absolute shock and horror about a policy that had been announced earlier in the day that he didn’t seem to know anything about? When you think about what’s happening over the other side two years in, I think they’re living their own horror show over there. Their financial and economic credibility continues to be in the grave, and, unfortunately, it’s a pattern. We see policy roll-outs that no one’s been briefed on, half-baked economic proposals, and they live in a fantasy land.

New Zealanders deserve better than that—they deserve better than that. That is why our side of the Chamber is absolutely focused on delivering for them. If you just think this week: roads of national significance. We’ve already got a programme of roads that are being rolled out as we speak, and those that were announced by Chris Bishop this week show the next pipeline of significant roads of national significance that are game-changers for our cities, for our regions, and for our communities. Yes, they create jobs, but, yes, they provide really critical infrastructure. Actually, on this side of the House, when we plan infrastructure, we’ve actually got a plan for how we’re paying for that project; unlike the economically illiterate on the other side of the Chamber.

We heard earlier from the Minister of Justice about the progress we’re making on violent crime reduction, aimed at ensuring that there are 20,000 fewer victims of crime. And on youth offending, we’re also well on track with our targets.

Just this week, we’ve introduced two more non-financial sanctions for those on welfare, and it’s very much focused on job seekers who are not playing their part. We want to see a welfare system that is far more active and responsive and where people are preparing and doing their bit. It’s great to see the number of people exiting the jobseeker benefit for employment.

If we look at inflation: inflation has stayed within the band of 1 percent to 3 percent. From a high of 7.3 percent—eight official cash rate drops. That is incredibly significant. That comes from fiscal discipline. It comes from understanding economic levers. It comes from understanding that you have to reduce wasteful spending and focus on getting outcomes and results. In terms of economic growth, we are seeing progress in tourism, in dairy, in red meat, and in gaming. Our side of the House is delivering. We’re not a horror show, like the other side.

SPEAKER: Just before I call the next member, there was quite a bit of ongoing commentary during that last speech. I have noticed voices like that over question time and other days, as well. I didn’t see where it was coming from because there was a glass that was obscuring that head from which it was emitting. But, with fewer people in the House, it’s now clear where it was coming from. I suggest it should just stop.

Well, it’s finally happened: Labour have announced a policy. And I have to disagree somewhat with my National colleague, because we do think it has some merit. We do believe in New Zealand ownership of our assets. Our main issue is it’s one of our policies, one that the Rt Hon Winston Peters announced some 14 months ago at our 2024 convention. They’re like a cheap tribute band. I see them more as Cliff Richard and the Shadows, and I see us as a bit more like The Rolling Stones. It’s so lacking in originality in terms of a policy platform, and after two years of policy seances, that’s the best they could come up with: a pale, cheap rip-off of our $100 billion sovereign wealth fund, announced some 14 months ago. But I will give it something; at least Chris Hipkins knew that this policy was being announced.

Look, it is a tepid toe in the water; it is lacking the grunt of the New Zealand First original. It is not big, it is not transformational, and it is not nation building like the policies we’ll be taking to the election. New Zealand First has a track record: the fast-track legislation that we proposed and brought in through this coalition agreement. We’d been proponents of the fast track and proponents of the regional infrastructure fund, and its predecessor, the provincial growth fund. We’d been champions, through Hon Shane Jones, of mining, aquaculture, and energy, through the supercritical geothermal—big, nation-building things; jobs, growth in our regions. My favourite is the efforts we’re putting in to reviving the New Zealand wool industry. Wool is coming back.

We are witnessing the revival of this great fibre. We have a massive heritage in wool, and New Zealand has been literally built off the sheep’s back. The turn-around is on: strong wool—I should have told the Prime Minister this; he could have quoted it earlier—up 32 percent this year; fine wool: up 34 percent; and mid-micron wool up 41 percent.

Nine-year highs, most of that in the last few weeks; a surge in demand for New Zealand wool, and a strong tailwind in a return to natural fibres. It’s biodegradable, it’s flame retardant, it’s moisture absorbent, it’s anti-allergenic, it’s carbon negative. There are no microplastics and it doesn’t need treating with toxic Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—for ever chemicals.

Hon Todd McClay: Tastes good. Oh, wait.

Hon MARK PATTERSON: The Hon Todd McClay wants to eat it, it’s that good. It’s a miracle fibre with which synthetics can’t compete.

This revival hasn’t happened by accident. There has been strong leadership from the Government, and the sector is rallying; it is uniting. This famously disparate industry is coming together. We are consulting with farmers on a wool alliance, with some groups aligned with wool coming together for the promotion, advocacy, skills development, and R&D—an industry-good body which we haven’t seen for over a decade and a half.

The Government has put its money where its mouth is: New Zealand First and National in a coalition agreement to put wool back into Government buildings. Yes, that drives demand, but it’s an important market signal and one that has been picked up not just domestically but internationally. If we’re not prepared to use wool in our own buildings, how can we ask anyone else? We’ve invested in innovation, developing higher-value end uses. It will not only be more carpets and insulation, it’ll be air filtration; sanitary, medicinal products; breaking into component parts, pigments, particles, powders; bio-agents for dyes; and nutraceuticals. That’s transformation; that’s a $100-a-kilo opportunity. We’re not only changing the game, we’re moving on to a whole new playing field.

We’re shortening supply chains and strengthening links between global suppliers and our growers, right here in rural New Zealand. It gets even better: investment is coming to onshore manufacturing, not just exporting the raw materials, adding value for New Zealand in New Zealand and creating jobs in our regions. I’m determined that wool will be one of the great comeback stories of New Zealand agriculture, adding to its storied heritage, restoring pride for our growers and wool harvesters, and much needed profitability, back for our hard-working hill country farmers. Our sector is determined to play our part and make our contribution to doubling New Zealand’s exports.

Thank you, Mr Speaker—and that is how you do a general debate speech when you are in Government: you talk about the policies that you are undertaking; you talk about the sectors you are backing; and you also talk about all the other ideas that you actually back, as well, such as the Labour Party’s future fund. To the member’s point: you can say that Labour copied you—however, the problem is, I couldn’t find any detail on your particular policy to be able to copy. Nevertheless, I absolutely applaud your support for the Labour Party future fund and look forward to working with you on improving the future fund for the benefit of all New Zealanders.

I just want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of my father-in-law, Bill Harris Edmonds. Bill Harris Edmonds, my father-in-law, passed away in the last September recess. He was my father-in-law for 27 years; he was the grandfather of 25 mokopuna, and so I want to say ia manuia lau malaga, Papa. You’re an amazing man, and we love you for it.

The important reason I wanted to talk about Bill is because his story is a very Kiwi story. Their family owned a family farm in Kaikohe, in the regions; his parents joined a number of Māori who left the regions and came to the city—the urban migration—because there were jobs in the city post - World War II. His parents came to Auckland City to take up jobs. Bill and his beautiful wife, Memory, established their family in South Auckland, and it was from those roots that their family was able to keep going back to their papa kāinga in Kaikohe, to be able to support the farm up there, but also to be able to work here. It was a generational decision; it was a decision about what other decisions we need to make today as parents to enable our children to have better opportunities.

Unfortunately, that story is no longer possible. We can’t have the regional shifts to the urban areas—we can’t have that any more, because what’s happening now is that there are no more opportunities, both in the cities and rurally. We look at all the different factories across our country that have had to close down quite recently—in Tokoroa, in Ruapehu, in all the different regional areas. Migration to urban areas is no longer possible; with high unemployment in the different city areas, people are going offshore. Two hundred people every day—a plane load every day—are now going offshore because they can no longer find the opportunities for them, for their children, and for their families. That’s why—a plane load a day!—we should never ever take for granted how many people that is per day, with record migration.

The problem for me is that this Government has no plan for that, to stem that brain-drain. The fact that we are losing almost the size of Napier City in the last year should be concerning every single one of those Government backbenchers, because Kiwis vote with their feet. If they’re not offshore, they’ll be here, and if they can’t see a future for their children, for their families, for their friends—bye-bye. That’s exactly what these Kiwis across the country are having to do right now, and it’s because this Government’s plan of “growth, growth, growth”, well, it’s not growing for them. The only thing that seems to be growing is growing unemployment, growing joblessness. There’s going to be growing migration, growing business liquidations. Every single time the public hears the phrase, “We’re going to grow the country.”—“Grow it for who?”, Kiwis are asking. Because right now, time and time again, people are saying, “We can’t afford bread.”, “We can’t afford milk.”, “We can’t afford cheese.”, “We can’t afford mince.” That’s not the Kiwi society that our children should be growing up in and that future generations should be growing up in.

Labour has a plan for that—Labour has a plan. In the same way that Minister Bishop kept referencing the Super Fund, it is the same way that those decisions that Sir Michael Cullen thought about—about the future generational costs. That is why Labour is proposing to set up a future fund—a future fund that backs Kiwis—

Tim Costley: What’s going in it?

Hon BARBARA EDMONDS: —that backs the investment. Tim Costley from Kāpiti asks, “What’s going in it?” Read the plan. Just read it for yourselves. Maybe you should copy it. Maybe you should copy it so you actually have a plan other than house prices rising and growing record migration to Australia.

Labour wants to back New Zealand to make a New Zealand for ourselves, because we know we have the skills and talent; we know we have the ideas. What they lack is backing, and Labour is going to back Kiwi businesses to help grow our country and make sure our children stay onshore.

The best speech today in this debate, far and away, so far—with the exception, probably, of Louise Upston’s, and let’s see, perhaps mine—was Mark Patterson’s. Because not only did he say that, actually, the idea that the Labour leader remembered to talk about this week was that of New Zealand First; he got them to say that there was no detail in the New Zealand First policy, which isn’t true. This just goes to show that when Chris Hipkins stood up there to use someone else’s homework, he didn’t read to the end of the document. Because if he would have, he would have been able to answer the very, very many questions that were asked of him.

We’ve heard other speakers in the debate say that when you give a speech in this and you’re in Government, you should be talking about what you’ve been doing. Well, I’ve done a quick scan of the newspapers and their reaction to Chris Hipkins, after two years, coming up with something that isn’t a policy, it isn’t a plan—it’s a sound bite with no detail at all that says to New Zealanders, “If we chuck the word ‘future’ in it, hopefully you’ll think we have an idea for the future.”

Actually, here’s a list for you. On the economy: in the last two years, this Government has reduced inflation, got it down from record levels to one now that businesses have confidence to invest. Finally, New Zealanders understand the harm that’s done when a Government borrows money, taxes money, and spends it on things that are not productive. We’ve got interest rates down: that is saving money for every single household in New Zealand that has a mortgage, and businesses that actually have debt run up because that Labour Government kept us in lockdown far too long compared to most countries in the world, and businesses are failing. We’ve stopped the wasteful spending. By comparison, the headline says, “Labour’s future fund promises everything—and nothing” and “Labour’s Future Fund: a shaky policy debut”.

In education: we’ve improved student achievement already, something that they should have been doing: one hour reading, writing, and maths every single day for students in New Zealand, with record investment in school buildings that will help students learn—not just the sound bite—and what did we see from the media about Chris Hipkins’ announcement of something in the future he called a fund: “ ‘Drivel’ vs ‘lazy’ ” and “Future Fund or future flop?”

In trade and export: two trade deals done already—the EU deal is in place much sooner than we were told was going to be the case. And we have seen a trade negotiation start with India, when that Government, Labour, said it was not a priority for them: $12 billion of extra exports. And what do we say here in the media: “hits the buzzwords, but the rationale is hard to follow”. And, actually, this is one of my favourites: “Chris Hipkins’ policy, after two years, given 3 out of 10 by the business community”.

On law and order: we’ve banned gangs wearing patches and they’ve stopped doing it—police have record efforts upon the gangs. We have reduced ram raids from records high all over the country, when New Zealanders were just expecting when they got out of bed there would be another ram raid in their community to, now, a level so low that we hardly hear about them. We’ve got on top of violent crime—and let me see, another one. Here’s the best one: “What, exactly, will Labour’s new Future Fund achieve?”—with the biggest question mark I’ve seen in a newspaper. And here’s one from this morning: “After two years of waiting for some policy, Chris Hipkins sitting there quietly saying the policies are coming, we’ve been doing our work.” I think Labour knows how bad this policy idea is.

Final one, because Mark Patterson was talking about our farmers. You know, actually, farmers are the backbone of this country and of the economy. Anybody who doesn’t know that really just has to understand that 80 percent of all our goods exports that go overseas come from the primary sector. When Mark Patterson and I sat down before the Government was formed to talk about how to support farmers and wool, he said that he wanted to take the responsibility on. And we have started to see confidence in wool farmers, the use of wool going up, and the price starting to go up, because we back farmers. That’s what you do in Government. You don’t come up with a slogan and put the word “future” in it. Mark Patterson and I didn’t say, “We’re going to have a ‘future fund’ for farmers who grow wool.” We said, “We’re going to put our heads down and work very, very hard.” He’s done that all over New Zealand, and he is delivering for those farmers.

One small word of advice to Mr Hipkins, who doesn’t take advice well: read to the end of the policy. If you’re going to steal it from somebody else, swot on all the things and when you get asked a question by the media and the first time you can’t answer it, go and get the answers. Don’t keep saying “I will tell you later.”, because later is far too late.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Kia ora. I wanted to reflect on the birth of Te Pāti Māori. Recently, having seen the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) (Customary Marine Title) Amendment Bill and what it was, to crossing the floor—crossing the floor was as much about crossing a line that had been drawn against our people for generations—a line that marginalised Māori, that kept the margins of power and Te Tiriti in the footnotes in the history of this place. And, actually, it was a line that was drawn when Labour forgot about Te Tiriti o Waitangi, hapū, and iwi who never surrendered their foreshore and seabed. This isn’t a dig at Labour; this is actually a differentiation of Te Pāti Māori and the genesis of who we are.

Our starting point and centre point have always been about Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and our kaupapa deeply entrenched in the belief of constitutional transformation. Our whole purpose, I guess, has been about making sure that we are here to make people uncomfortable, and we will never accept the status quo and we will bring issues to the front. Sometimes, people prefer silence on some of those issues, whether it be about inequity and inequality, racism, Treaty breaches, and colonisation in practice.

I mean, we won’t whisper about the political environment that we are in today. That has been shaped by right-wing influence, with billionaires at these think tanks and media owned by those who fear Māori self-determination, those donors who fund the outrage machines that attack Māori politicians for daring to believe and promote an Aotearoa hou. In fact, I think without Te Pāti Māori this Parliament would risk slipping back into a comfort where Te Tiriti is a decoration, and justice of Te Tiriti is delayed for generations.

I want to talk about an environment where every Māori voice that challenges the colonial construct today becomes a target of the same hands that profit from the inequality that is shaping the public opinion of Māori, whether that be through the news and whether it be through any other media. The opinions that we see on Māori are extremely hypocritical. What we have heard—and I’m going to say this straight up for everyone to hear—is that nothing that is going on in Te Pāti Māori is as rotten as some of the things that we have gone and seen in other parties. We have seen ex-presidents with paedophilia convictions. We have seen the rolling of four party leaders in six months. We have seen MPs resigning for sexting, and another stood down for being investigated for past misconduct with fake online profiles. And dare I mention Jami-Lee Ross?

The biggest hypocrisy that we see going on in Aotearoa is its inability to confront its own honesty. Then, yesterday, we saw the biggest land grab be heightened by another grab from this Government that has taken us back 20 years. In fact, what we want to do is acknowledge the fact that people in Aotearoa are leaving in droves.

I want talk about our solutions, because one of the things we never hear from any party in this place is the fact and the size of the tax evasion that goes on in Aotearoa. In fact, the sad part of it is that only 1 percent is actually welfare fraud, $80 million. We have a $629.4 billion fraud that goes on in this country, and this country does nothing about it. Te Pāti Māori intends to. In fact, what we believe 2026 will be is the tightening of and the changing of the guard—thank goodness—and the reclaiming of a pen to reshape the laws that this country needs to have. We need to redistribute wealth—

Hon Member: Uh, oh!

DEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER: —once and for all. Well, uh, oh to some of the things that we’ve seen come out of this, because people will be coming home and not leaving in droves like we see. The GDP will not be shrunk like we see this Government doing.

We need to tax the wealthy. We need to tax those who are making all the biggest noises with the mass homeownership. We need to tax ghost houses. We need to tax and pursue tax evasion. We need to then be able to redistribute that money. In our estimation, that will help make sure that we can look after all New Zealanders in this country, because right now, the way that it’s going, it is only a nation and a Government that looks after the super elite. We want to be able to confront and make this a country where every New Zealander gets looked after and gets seen and gets heard and we leave no one behind, which is what we see this Government has been doing shamelessly—shamelessly. When we sit there, we can actually have a country where we bring people into it and they like who we are; they actually like tangata whenua.

That is who Te Pāti Māori is. That is what we will intend to do when we get that pen and we reshape it and we make sure that we never have the shame of the nation that has turned its back on its own rangatahi, its 18- to 19-year-olds. Kia ora rā.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Yesterday, the Leader of the Opposition was caught eyes wide and eyebrows raised when asked about what his health spokesperson had unveiled in a New Zealand Doctor article: a new policy on GP fees and funding. It was a moment of genuine surprise caught on camera, destined for memes, and yet the policy landed with a bit of a thud. There was a polite wait and see from most, but not from me—oh no, not from me. My response is neither muted nor polite, because what we saw wasn’t bold or visionary; it was recycled, it was uninspired, it was lazy, and, worst of all, it merely reflected what is actually happening already.

If people thought that the future fund was bad, this is even worse. Maybe they’re saving up their best stuff for next year, for the election. But if that was an appetiser, then I’m not hungry for any more.

This wasn’t the first time that Labour has made promises about GP fees. In 2017, they pledged to reduce fees and review funding, but once in Government, that promise vanished. What followed were working groups, consultations, and, ultimately, abandonment. Instead of fixing GP funding, they chose to upend the entire health system.

I remember those years vividly. I was working as a GP in the system. I saw the confusion, the disruption, the chaos, the reports written, and then recommendations made and ignored. The result was a textbook example of how not to do change management. They couldn’t organise a bun fight in a bakery.

In 2022, Minister Little quietly commissioned a Sapere report on health funding. It revealed what many of us already knew: general practice had been underfunded for decades.

Rima Nakhle: Decades.

Dr VANESSA WEENINK: Decades. The report called for a significant uplift of up to 231 percent for very low-cost access practices. It also recommended reforming the capitation formula for funding to reflect age, ethnicity, morbidity, and gender. Sound familiar? Yes, well, that’s because the Moodie report commissioned by the previous National Government in 2015 had proposed exactly the same.

Labour had the evidence and they had the recommendations, but they failed to act. Now, under National, we are delivering. A new capitation model will be in place by July 2026. We’ve implemented the largest increase to baseline funding since capitation began. We’re not just talking; we’re doing.

I’ve sat on the PHO Services Agreement Amendment Protocol forum, or PSAAP. I’ve seen how GP fees are set—effectively, by an independent economist. The annual statement of reasonable fee increases, or ASFRI process, is apolitical. It’s often retrospective. It’s not perfect. It misses major cost shifts like nurse pay parity, but getting an annual recommendation from Sapere is basically what Dr Verrall called for in her opinion piece—exactly what is already happening now through the ASFRI at PSAAP. What Labour is proposing isn’t new; it’s how the system already works.

Camilla Belich: Why does GenPro like it so much, then?

Dr VANESSA WEENINK: Well, they like it because you’re saying that you might hold yourselves to it, which is never going to happen.

What Labour proposes isn’t new; it’s just not anything interesting, and yet Dr Verrall’s article presents it as a fresh idea. It’s painful to read. It’s like watching someone reinvent the wheel, only they’ve made it square. Obligating the Government to fund externally recommended levels while capping fees is fiscally risky. Mr Hipkins has called the policy “minor”. That’s only true if they don’t commit to any of it, which they won’t.

Of course, it’s not just about money; it’s about people. Our Government is also increasing the funding for GP trainees so that they’re on a par with other specialist trainees and have their fees and exam costs funded for the duration of their training. We’ve increased the number of medical school places, and we’re also very excited to be starting building work on a new medical school that will focus on rural and community health. This is badly needed.

This isn’t just about policy. It’s about trust, it’s about competence, and it’s about valuing our GPs—the backbone of our health system. I say to this House and to every New Zealander listening: reject recycled ideas, reject superficial fixes, and demand better. Let us be bold. Let us be principled. Let us be relentless in our pursuit of a health system that works for everyone, because when we get primary care right, we build the foundation for a healthier, stronger New Zealand. Together, let’s deliver the change our communities deserve.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Today, I want to talk about online harm and the digital landscape facing our young people. There are genuine concerns around online safety and rising issues around cyber-bullying, online exploitation, AI chatbots, AI girlfriends—all of these types of technology that our young people are using—and they leave people feeling quite powerless at times. We know that they are causing harm out there. We know that our young people are having AI chatbot girlfriends and being told, potentially, to kill themselves. There is serious, serious harm. I hear from parents, principals, and teachers all the time about their concerns. They struggle with their children in this fast-paced world that we’re growing. I think this is something that we are facing as a society. It is something that we should have seen coming but we haven’t, and now it is here and it’s faster than we could even imagine.

There’s a growing temptation in politics to do something about this, but often we focus on blanket bans. It feels like we’ve moved away from cancel culture and we’re now heading towards ban culture, and that is a dangerous place to be. We need to do something about these issues, but we need sophisticated solutions. We can’t just go out there and say, “We’re going to ban the internet.” It’s just not practical and it’s not the world we live in, particularly not for our young people. We’ve seen countries like the UK and their Online Safety Act struggle to deal effectively with the issues that have become, instead, bureaucratic nightmares. There are concerns about data sovereignty and data breaches, and it’s a real scary thing to consider. But also, on the positive side, New Zealand can watch and we can learn and we can see what is happening in these countries in order to make none of the same mistakes and take all of the good things from that.

My colleague Dr Parmjeet Parmar has successfully called for the select committee inquiry to define the actual problems and hear from the experts that work in this field. I was able to submit to this inquiry and talk about my experiences, what people have said to me, and what they’re telling me that they are feeling about being a parent and being concerned, but what I want to say today, as well, is that the Government is doing our part. We are looking into these issues and we’re trying to come up with solutions.

But, parents, wake up—you guys need to get online yourselves or check out what your children are viewing online. There are a lot of advocacy groups out there doing a lot of work. They’re calling for regulation, and there may be a case for that, but parents need to take some responsibility. It is not that hard to find out what your kids are doing online. There are apps available right now where you—

Hon Karen Chhour: Yeah—free apps.

LAURA McCLURE: They’re free—“free apps”, I heard someone say. There are free apps where you can monitor your child’s online activity and you can do things like screen time, for example. You can block websites. You can control the apps and things that they’re on. Because I can tell you right now that the things that they are seeing online are extremely damaging and harmful. If you haven’t done it already, you need to do it. You need to take some responsibility there.

Instead of trying to fix everything that we can about the internet, we could actually fix things and issues that we know are real right now and we know would be an easy win. One of those would be deepfakes. It’s been four months since I put my member’s bill into the tin, and it could sit there for ever. At the time, I shared the stories of those that had been traumatised by this form of digital harm, but what I didn’t expect was the global exposure this would get and the flurries of further concerns that came through into my inbox.

We’re not talking about a bit of fun, or a bit of a joke; we’re talking about young individuals, nearly always female, that are finding themselves abused by this kind of behaviour. Having your image taken and turned into some kind of pornography is so damaging. One of the survivors of this has found herself unable to get a job, for example, because her potential employer googled her and found pornography that wasn’t even her. Dropping out of high school, dropping out of university—these are serious things.

While I’ve got, particularly, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke in the House, I just want to say thank you so much for supporting this bill. I know that when I came to Parliament, I wanted to make a difference, and it really, really upsets me and it kind of annoys me that senior leadership of the other parties could do something about this. We could actually debate this on the next member’s day. This doesn’t have to be a political issue, but instead we are making it a political issue.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. New Zealand has amazing talent and some of the smartest ideas in the world, but the bit we don’t have right now is the backing to take those ideas, to make sure they stay ours, and for them to work for us smarter. We’ve got a problem in New Zealand, and I’ve seen it right since the early 2000s when I first started getting involved in politics and looking at the economy. Back then, it was companies like Navman or 42BELOW vodka. Since then, we’ve seen companies like TradeMe, Tip Top, Pic’s Peanut Butter, PGG Wrightson Seeds—the list goes on and on.

These are all Kiwi ideas, Kiwi ingenuity, and Kiwi businesses that grow to a certain size and get picked off and taken offshore. When that happens, not only do the jobs go, but the opportunities go. They go because it stops us from having stronger communities that benefit from that knowledge and that benefit from those opportunities. I think probably the hardest thing is the fact that our kids don’t see that they have opportunities here in New Zealand when those companies go offshore.

What does that mean for New Zealanders each day when they’re going to pay for their groceries or trying to make ends meet? What that means is that there aren’t enough jobs in New Zealand right now, that people don’t have the higher wages that we do in Australia in other companies, and that we don’t have the same opportunities to rise up within companies, because our businesses just don’t grow that big here in New Zealand.

It doesn’t have to be that way. We can have a different future if we choose to, and we in Labour choose to build that future by having the first step in that direction, and that is the future fund. We know that if we own our future and we keep it here and we sustain those New Zealand companies to grow bigger and provide greater opportunities, not only does that grow our economy but that also makes our community stronger, it gives our people more money in their pockets, and it makes our country better. We believe in that future, but what do we see from the alternative? What is the alternative model we’ve been offered so far? We’ve seen that we can sell things off. I think National’s next plan is to sell off our State assets. In Labour, we’d like to keep them, put some in a future fund, and make them work smarter for us and for our people, not sell them off.

The other option we’ve heard is trickle-down, where those people at the top were going to be so loaded that the wealth is just going to eventually trickle down to those at the bottom. We’ve heard the Prime Minister himself say that this is a two-stage recovery. One stage is for him and his mates, and the rest is for the rest of the country who are still waiting for the trickle-down to hit them. It never does. Foreign investment is a third idea we’ve heard: “Open up the floodgates. Let them in.” We’ve had a massive summit which has resulted in $1 million being spent, and the only offers are that two of those have said that they might open an office in the future. That’s it. There’s nothing in that at all.

We have so much potential here in New Zealand—so much potential. I’d just like to point to the video game development announcement. That rebate introduced over two years ago kept jobs here, but not only did it keep jobs here, it grew them even more. That industry has increased by 80 percent over the past two years. We know that that’s smart jobs. For every dollar of taxpayers’ money invested in that sector, the return was nearly $5. That’s smart. It’s not only more money in our economy; it’s opportunities for our young people. They can look ahead and see a future here for themselves, a well-paying job in New Zealand, and that’s the future that we want to look for. We know, in New Zealand, that we are smart. We know that we should back ourselves more, but we can’t sit back and wait for that to happen, which is National’s plan. We want to have the ability to back ourselves and to grow our future, because we know that we can build a future that serves us all, an economy that works for all of us—not just one stage for them and a second stage for the rest of us.

That’s what Labour offers that is different: making sure we build an economy from the ground up that works for everybody. We are small, but we are strong and mighty, and we can be so much better if we stick together and back ourselves. We want a future here in New Zealand where our children can look ahead and see a future for themselves here. Right now, we don’t have that. We have 200 people a day on a plane heading overseas. We know that if we build our future fund and if we continue to grow a New Zealand that works for everybody, then that gives the opportunity for our kids to be here. I believe that’s a future worth fighting for.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Spring has sprung, the grass is growing, the calves and lambs are being raised on farms, and the flowers are blooming.

Ryan Hamilton: Especially in the Waikato.

TIM VAN DE MOLEN: In the mighty Waikato, of course—the heartland of rural New Zealand—we see that aplenty. It’s always comforting to have that after the dreariness of winter, and the last Government was an apt metaphor for winter—the dreariness; the dull, long, rainy days. People just want it over with, and, thankfully, this Government is like spring. Just as that new season growth, with calves thriving on farms, signals the arrival of spring, so does infrastructure, ambition, and delivery signal the arrival of a National Government. It’s fantastic to see this Government delivering yet again, with a great announcement just this week on the roads of national significance.

Ambition abounds. Opportunity presents itself. This Government is absolutely driving that for the prosperity and the opportunity of New Zealanders around the country. Nowhere has that been seen more than in the mighty Waikato, where we are expecting to see two-thirds of all population growth over the next 30 years in our region.

So it is absolutely fitting that we have seen $100 million committed towards the Southern Links project just this week, to explore, design, do site investigations and consenting to ensure that project can link up—because, unfortunately, we are already seeing massive congestion in the Tamahere region. That is directly off the back of the Hamilton section of the Waikato Expressway opening, which is a great thing, of course, but we saw a 50 percent increase in traffic on State Highway 21 and 1 at that Tamahere interchange, off the back of that great piece of road opening, because everyone wants to use it. So, of course, now the next step is Southern Links to help join State Highway 3 to State Highway 1 and to cut across the bottom of Hamilton City. So it’s a fantastic opportunity to do that.

Hon Damien O’Connor: Just fix the potholes—that would be a start.

TIM VAN DE MOLEN: The member across the House talks about potholes. Well, thank goodness that this Government has come up with a plan and we are delivering those. Potholes on State highways across the country—95 percent of them have been repaired within 48 hours. What a magnificent achievement—far and away from what we saw under the last Government, where you were driving in trenches all over the show.

So thank goodness this announcement has come this week. It’s a welcome delivery for the people of the Waikato and it comes off the back of the previous announcement to extend the Waikato Expressway down to the intersection of State Highway 1 and 29 at Piarere, a natural terminal point for that next stage of the expressway—23,000 vehicle movements a day along that piece of road. It just makes sense. We’re going to see dirt being turned there within the next 12 months, and I am very excited about that. Ultimately, we want to see four lanes all the way through to the mighty Bay of Plenty, through to Tauranga; ideally, through a tunnel through the Kaimai Range—that will be a game-changer for the region. It would unlock economic potential, it would improve safety, reduce emissions, improve our social connection—massive benefits. These are the sorts of things that we are looking at, we want to drive, to ensure that New Zealanders can get ahead.

But wait, there’s more: a third medical school. Ms Weenink talked about that before. That has been put forward by this Government, and we’ll be turning dirt before Christmas. It’s well overdue. We are extremely excited in the Waikato region to have that one shaping up for us, as well.

As I said, the golden triangle is where the growth is happening. We are very ambitious. This Government is ensuring that we get the infrastructure in place to enable us to ride the wave of that growth opportunity and not be left treading water in its wake.

All of these fantastic things that I’ve talked about—none of them would have happened under the last Government. The last Government cancelled the extension of the expressway down to Piarere. They cancelled Southern Links. They opposed the third medical school. They lacked ambition. They did not support growth in our regions, particularly the Waikato. So thank goodness we have a Government that sees the opportunity in our regions; it sees the opportunity, frankly, for all of New Zealand. In the mighty Waikato, we are very excited about the potential that will be delivered under this Government for those infrastructure projects.

The last Government couldn’t do it, and we’ve seen, even now, that they still can’t deliver. All we’ve heard are empty promises, and some vague pieces of paper this week on potential policy. Infrastructure couldn’t get up and running under the last Government. Where was light rail? Nowhere to be seen. Fake bridges. New Zealand needs a National Government to ensure that the renewal of spring turns into a glorious, long summer. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’m standing proudly in solidarity with our workers, including 100,000-plus workers who will be striking tomorrow across the country to send a clear message that they are not being valued by this Government and directly impacted by the decisions of this Government. These are workers who are in our communities, in our hospitals—particularly in our healthcare services—caring for us, for our tamariki, for our communities. Healthcare is a human right and should be a core public good and public service, and these workers are essential workers.

The situation right now is that this Government is not valuing them. Pay and conditions—safe working conditions—that’s not really a lot to ask, one would think, especially for these services and these workers who are putting themselves out there for the love of people and community and want to care for people in their communities. Instead, they are working in chronic understaffing and unsafe working conditions. This is having an impact on them as workers and an impact on patients and the people that they want to provide proper care for. This puts the system under incredible burden and stress. We end up seeing chronic and more complicated illnesses and diagnoses, including in our emergency wards, where they are incredibly under stress. Stress is not the care that they want to deliver; they want to care properly. That, unfortunately, is often leading to tragic and irreversible loss.

I want to remind us that—I think it was in 2023—a coroner ruled that the preventable death, in 2023, of a woman at Waikato Hospital’s emergency department occurred while the ED was five nurses short. Just today, in question time, we put to the Prime Minister, and to the Minister of Health, whether they agreed and are taking on board the feedback from the very nurses and health workers themselves who are saying that they are not in safe working conditions. The Prime Minister had the gall to completely dismiss what they are saying when the evidence is clear—sadly, very clear. The Minister of Health had the gall to stand there and say, “Yes, you are, nurses. I’m sorry, but we do not believe you; we will not listen to you telling us about trying to care for patients—including, for example, those who have soiled themselves.”

Ryan Hamilton: Oh!

Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: These were the stories that we put—am I hearing mocking of the stories that we are hearing on this side of the House, the stories directly from the nurses at the front line? They want to deliver better care, but 90 percent of the shifts are understaffed. Those are political choices. While this Government has chosen to fund wealthy landlords, has chosen to fund tobacco companies, has chosen to find all these billions for all of them, plus fossil fuel barons—these are the choices—

Sam Uffindell: Point of order.

Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: —that this Government has made. The strikes are a direct consequence of the choices.

Sam Uffindell: Point of order, Mr Speaker. Look, I understand that the member is quite energised about this, but it’s not correct to say that we are funding wealthy tobacco companies and wealthy landlords. That is not a correct assertion.

Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: Finding the tax breaks—

SPEAKER: Wait on a moment.

Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: Finding the tax breaks—

SPEAKER: Excuse me. Sit down. I need to address the point of order that has been made. This is a general debate, and people will say things in a general debate that others will not agree with. It is a matter of perception. There has always been a degree of latitude around the absurdity of saying that a tax cut is an expense against revenue. These are the sorts of things that do get debated in the House, so while I would suggest that the speaker does speak as factually as possible, it’s not going to be ruled out of order.

Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The other side of the House are far more outraged about my choice of words than they are about the actual situation that is happening in our healthcare system right now.

I’ve put on the floor the real human stories and impacts from workers and from patients about the underinvestment in the public health system. That is a choice of this Government when, yes, they manage to find tax breaks and other ways of supporting wealthy landlords, tobacco companies, and fossil fuel barons—I hope that was OK, thank you very much. Those are political choices. The Greens, instead, would choose to properly invest in public health systems, ensuring that our GP visits are free; that our nursing visits are free; that our dental care is free; that we provide vans in our rural areas and communities; diagnostic abilities; and, also, properly fund community and healthcare providers. Those are the choices that the Green Party would make.

I am pleased to see that the public are supporting the people and the workers striking, because they are seeing through the gaslighting and the minimising of workers on the front line, when this Government, Prime Minister, and Minister of Health are saying, “We don’t believe that you are telling us the truth. When you tell us that patients are not getting care, we don’t believe you.”

Well, I was going to start with my quote of the week. I had quite a good one lined up ready to go, but we’ve had a couple just in the last hour during this general debate, and maybe I can touch on them as I go. I just have to make a special mention of Chris Hipkins at the start saying that “We don’t want to have any more blame and excuses.” I just wonder if someone could wind the clock back for him 24 hours to when he was being asked, “Well, why is there no detail in your policy and why did it not mention the right number?”—“Oh, no, no, no, that was someone else’s fault.” “Well, why didn’t you know about the health policy you’re announcing?”—“Oh, that was someone else’s fault.”

I have to hand out the silver medal to Barbara Edmonds, who actually had the temerity to stand here, to look at Mark Patterson and say, “Oh, well, we couldn’t really copy the New Zealand First policy about the future fund, because there wasn’t enough detail in it.” One, of course they were copying it—they just changed the cover page—but, two, they were criticising the detail in it when what detail is in theirs? I think that what happened was that they got their one, ripped off the cover page, stuck a Labour one on, fed it into AI and said, “Take out the detail and put in some jargon.”, and that’s pretty much what came out the other side.

We’ve gone through bronze and silver. I think I’m going to keep my gold medal quote of the week to where I was going to start, and that also goes to Mr Chris Hipkins, who yesterday said that he couldn’t “hand-on-heart promise” that Labour would build any roads. No kidding that he can’t hand-on-heart promise that, because what happened last time they were in Government? They all got cancelled.

People in Levin still remember 2018, when the expressway that National were going to build from Ōtaki to the north of Levin got cancelled—outright cancelled. They remember 2020, when Julie Anne Genter said, “Well, we’ll let you bring it back if it’s just two lanes, but we want two lanes that are just for public transport between Levin and Ōtaki.”, which sounds—well, it doesn’t actually sound that good, but there is no public transport between Levin and Ōtaki, so I think, hand on heart—hand on heart—he can’t promise to deliver anything. Yep, I thought that was pretty good. After six years in Government and then two years in Opposition, I thought they might be able to promise something, but all we got was the same old blame and excuses.

As I looked along the rest of the front bench and I saw Willow-Jean Prime—she needs to check a few more of her emails. She was asking the Minister of Education, the same one that she refused to collaborate with and then complain about not enough collaboration, why she would not go to the protest that’s been cancelled. Why was she going to the roadshow instead? Why wouldn’t she meet with educators? That was her question this afternoon. Well, guess who’s at the roadshow? It’s our teachers, it’s our principals, and it’s educators. This is the person that Labour have got in charge of the education policy.

Next in line, we’ve just heard from Ginny Andersen. She won’t back the gang patch ban, even though she’s acknowledged that it actually works pretty well; she won’t back the law to stop protesting outside private residences, even though it kind of works, and they don’t think it’s right; and I’m yet to hear her call out the Greens, who want to defund the police.

Ryan Hamilton: Who’s next, Tim?

TIM COSTLEY: Well, we may as well bring up the renowned Dunedin MP Damien O’Connor, who’s just openly opposing this great defence workforce bill that would back our service people in uniform. I’d like to see that position turn around. Stop siding with your union mates and actually come and support some people in uniform.

Now, Mr Hipkins talked a lot about people leaving the country. He doesn’t have to look too far. He could look to his left and see Megan Woods; he could look just behind him and look at Duncan Webb—all jumping ship, because they can see what the future holds. The only thing that’s clear to me is that they’re going to need some friends in a couple of years, and I can see the Green Party licking the kombucha off their lips. They are excited: $88.8 billion of new taxes, and tens of billions dollars more in debt. Their only plan to save money is to defund the police. But, don’t worry, everyone’s going to get $395. We just heard it from Marama Davidson: “Don’t worry, everything’s free.”, and the cry went out: “Who is going to pay for it?”—“Yeah, we don’t need to pay for it. It’ll be free. It’ll be provided by that magical person.”

They’re also going to need “Ngā Pāti Māori”—I think that’s what they are now—who have had the great reset. Then they came in and we had the first speech, and it went a little bit too long, but that’s OK. It’s like Monty Python with the Spanish Inquisition: “We’ll come in again. We’ve reset sectarian muhasasa power-sharing system.” They’ve come back in, they throw each other under the bus. I don’t know who’s driving it—probably John Tamihere. “Oh, no, no, no—we’ll come in again.”, and then they’re burning stuff outside Parliament. I think they’ve reset again.

All we have is spend, spend, spend and tax, tax, tax. “Ngā Pāti Māori” can’t agree on one word to say three times. What we’re all about is affordability, decent healthcare and education, and safe communities.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.