General Debate

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

In challenging times—like a cold winter—you have a moment to reflect on the origins of our country and who we truly are. This country is a nation of migrants. If there’s one thing that in all our differences we have in common, it is that each of us are either people or descendants of people who made brave sacrifices to be here on these islands. That simple fact about our origin story should tell us something about the New Zealand spirit. We’re a nation of pioneers, and that should tell us about how we overcome our problems. It should not be a question of asking the Government to solve them. It should be a question of a people who do not accept things as they are but seek to change them through their actions. We have a Government that I’m proud to be part of that believes in and reinforces that spirit and, though its policies, is making it easier to build a home, a career, and a life on these islands. We’re delivering a smaller, more efficient Government so that people can be enabled by quality services to actually build the life that they want.

If you think of those groups of farmers, think of the farmers—well, thank God for the farmers, the people who are holding the export receipts up and feeding eight times our population. This Government is partnering with farmers to get rid of significant natural areas, to give a Resource Management Act that allows people to use their own property, and introducing a sensible approach to emissions so the most efficient farmers in the world aren’t driven out of business so those who emit more can take their place.

You think about the students and the teachers. This Government has a revolutionary idea: a knowledgeable adult with a rich curriculum standing at the front of one classroom of students teaching knowledge that will be tested by an exam with all the knowledge in it. It sounds revolutionary. Actually, it’s obvious and necessary, and I’m proud to be in a Government with Erica Stanford, who is making it happen. But we’re also giving the choice of charters. We’re going through early childhood education and ripping off the barnacles of a calcified regulatory and funding system so that people in early childhood can get back to doing what the parents want them to do—help young New Zealanders reach their potential.

Well, what about landlords and tenants? This Government has taken away the crazy changes to mortgage interest deductibility so that landlords pay tax like everybody else. We’ve simplified the Residential Tenancies Act so landlords can take a chance on someone that they might not if it was impossible to get your property rights back. What has happened as a result? Well, actually, I forgot to mention even pets are getting a better run, with pet bonds under this Government, but rents are going down.

What about employers and employees? Brooke van Velden, our Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, is making WorkSafe a friend and ally in being safe, not a punitive organisation that people fear will come round and cost them a packet. People are safer, but they’re also going to get their holiday pay in a simple, timely, and fair way, without all the confusion. Pay equity will be focused on gender equity, and we’re going to see a workplace where people have red tape cut across the board.

What about doctors, nurses, and patients? We’ve actually put in place some targets and said it doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white or public or private, so long as the patient gets seen. We’ve had a record investment in medicines for New Zealanders. We’re turning around the culture of Pharmac and making sure that if a drug is available in two other developed countries, it should be available here within 30 days.

Then you get to builders and first-home buyers. Simon Court and Chris Bishop are the dream team when it comes to replacing the Resource Management Act so we can actually get things built in this beautiful country. Chris Penk is improving and developing the building material laws so that we can build at the same price as those in the rest of the world.

You’ll notice that farmers and shoppers, students and teachers, landlords and tenants, employers and employees, doctors, nurses, and patients, builders and first-home buyers—these are not people who should be set against each other. In our pioneering spirit we also have a partnering spirit that together we can create the conditions where people just like our forebears who moved to these islands chose to do. People can make a difference in their own lives with a Government that makes laws that enables and empowers them instead of dividing and punishing them. That is how I look to our pioneering spirit and why I’m proud to be part of this Government that believes in it and enables it so we can all live better in New Zealand. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Last week, the Treasury issued a very important document relevant for the problems we are enduring as an economy and as a country today. It’s a report into the long-term insights briefing, and, specifically, it’s about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is perhaps unsurprising that we’ve just learned this afternoon that Chris Hipkins and Ayesha Verrall and Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern are refusing to front up to the COVID-19 royal commission and answer public questions about the economic response to COVID. Why are they refusing to do that? Because they are ashamed of their record, and they know that, held up to the light, the decisions they made in 2020 and 2021 and 2022 have led us into the problems we are enduring today.

Barbara Edmonds says, “Oh, the Government was operating in difficult times.” No one disputes that. But, actually, it was really clear from the second-half of 2020 and into 2021 that further stimulus of the New Zealand economy was not only not required; it was counter-productive. The Treasury makes the point: 36 percent of spending for the COVID response occurred after June 2021. Why is this date important? It’s important because at that point GDP had already returned to its pre-pandemic levels and inflation was already outside the band and approaching 7.3 percent. Thirty-six percent of spending occurred after June 2021. From financial year 2015 to 2019, core Crown debt was actually flat—it actually went down a bit. But from 2019 to 2023, net core Crown debt increased by 169 percent to $155 billion.

Hon David Seymour: What did we get for it?

Hon CHRIS BISHOP: David Seymour, the Deputy Prime Minister, says, “What do we have to show for that?” It’s a very good question. Our health system is not 169 percent better off. Our education system is absolutely not 169 percent better off. Our economy is not 169 percent better off. That is the debt disaster this Government inherited. That is the inflation disaster this Government inherited. That is the cause of the recession this Government inherited.

Faced with an environment in which the Government and Governments all around the world were pulling back, the Labour Government did the opposite. They put the pedal to the metal on the spending accelerator. Budget 2022 was a nadir—$6 billion dollars in the operating allowance of new spending, and, on top of that, the cost of living payment counted outside the allowances according to rules made up by Grant Robertson at the time. Remember the cost of living payment? That was the payment that went to French backpackers who hadn’t worked in New Zealand for 10 years, dead people, investment bankers in London who lived here five years ago who happened to have an IRD account. This was reckless, wanton spending. Labour were in Government at a time when they could use the excuse of COVID to follow every fiscal fantasy they’d ever wanted to indulge—hence why we ended up with the Jobs for Nature programme, hence why we ended up with welfare increases, hence why we ended up with alleged shovel-ready projects, some of which are still being built five years later.

Labour was in Government at a time when they had an excuse to point to massively increased spending. The problem is all New Zealanders have had to pay the price. We paid the price through higher debt that my kid and his kids will have to repay. We are paying the price through years of inflation and high interest rates to get inflation back within the band that has crunched the economy and put New Zealand into recession. It is this Government, as David Seymour says, that is making the tough choices after years of fiscal fantasies. The country can’t afford Labour. We are taking the hard decisions to get this country back on track.

Tēnā koe e te Pika. At the end of June this year, we lost a valued member of our whānau—Takutai—and it was actually one of the worst experiences that I’ve ever had in my life. Not only did we lose her; the day after we buried her, we had to come back to Wellington, Rawiri, wind up her grieving team, close her Tāmaki Makaurau office, and deal with all the things that come with that of a leader who was so passionate about her region in Tāmaki Makaurau.

One of the things that we quickly had to do before we even had the chance to wipe off our tears is pivoting from the discussion of losing someone—so unexpected—and then moving into what a byelection would look like. That’s not what my kōrero is about. Takutai was someone who, just as the previous speaker highlighted, stood up for what really mattered to people. She was always worried and concerned about those that Governments often leave behind and forget about.

One of the things that we remember well about Takutai is when she was with us during COVID. During COVID, we had to deal with many things, and I found myself almost nodding at some of the things that Chris Bishop said, because we dealt with a one-size-fits-all COVID response for Māori. Takutai was on the front line, as she was helping with welfare packs. Takutai was on the front line; she was sitting there and using her Whānau Ora kaupapa to go out and talk into the depths of those communities who had been forgotten during the public health response. She was there and learnt how to do the vaccine, and when the Government at the time ignored the advice of experts to come up with a Māori vaccine roll-out, she—with many of us others—stood out there and never forgot her community.

She was there when the lockdowns, the bubbles, confused and harmed whānau. She was there picking up rangatahi who were made homeless, who were forgotten about, because their families weren’t safe. She advocated for Tāmaki Makaurau in a humble way and she contributed to those communities in a way that only a wahine who had struggled could understand. She was an unapologetic voice in Tāmaki Makaurau. She never once backed down, when even the pressure was on her, on the way that we did things—so tikanga-led, so staunch on manaaki-led, so staunch on what we think should be right.

She was so staunch on the fact that she belonged to a party that would sit there and put in a wealth tax. She was staunch to a party that, despite the Government at the time and today’s Government, were opposed to seabed mining. She was staunch to making sure that when people were trying to legislate the likes of rongoā and kaupapa, we were fighting against it, because she believed in the weight of being unapologetically Māori. Those sorts of voices really matter in this place.

So, when we lost Takutai’s voice as an unapologetic wahine Māori in this place, we lost more than a seat. I think one of the things for Takutai is that as a wahine, she truly took hits. She was a wahine that used and valued her culture. She wore moko kauae. She would wear ridicule, but she would still wear it with pride for the world to see how proud she was of her culture. She was absolutely uncompromising in that humble little body of hers. She was from a whānau who knew the cycle of poverty. She knew the cycle in her whānau of having to break from having no reo intergenerationally to having the reo. She was a woman who was an independent māmā. She knew what it was like to struggle and bring up your children on your own, with multiple baby daddies. She took pride in what it was to be that māmā.

She believed in our movement because she wanted us to be transformational. Those are the kind of identities that this place misses and this place needs. I think when we talk about the lived experiences that we have, that often outweighs the political, ministerial, parliamentary experience. We need more people in here who have lived experience and who don’t have to sit there and say, “I’ve been around for this long time; therefore, I am more important or I know more.”

Takutai would want to see and make sure that we hold voices up like that in this place, and she would want to make sure that we never forget what she stood for. Time and time again, we see wāhine leaders like her, like Kiri, like Oriini, that are out there making sure they do their weight for te ao Māori. Kia ora rā.

We got a clear illustration of the priorities that that side of the House have with regards to leading the country today. Just during this time that the House has been sitting over the course of the day, we had a senior member of the coalition wanting to take up the time of this House debating whether or not we should be using the term Aotearoa or only New Zealand. We have a Minister of Education who thinks she is a success because she finally got rid of this book for new entrant children that had six Māori words in it. That was going to be the demise of their literacy, and she is successful for doing that!

That Government is clearly—when we just look at those two particular issues—out of touch with what New Zealanders care about. Instead of coming to this House and speaking about jobs, health, homes, and the cost of living crisis that so many New Zealanders are faced with, we hear a debate about Aotearoa versus New Zealand. We hear a discussion about this book for new entrant children that has six Māori words in it that is so dangerous! They are out of touch with what New Zealanders are feeling and experiencing.

I wanted to discuss today in the House, and highlight, the important work of the people’s select committee that has started this week. I want to acknowledge all of the members: Nanaia Mahuta, Lianne Dalziel, Steve Chadwick, Lyn Pillay, Sue Bradford, Ria Bond, Jo Hayes, Jackie Blue, Belinda Vernon, and Marilyn Waring. I want to acknowledge those women for their courage, for their principled stance, the way in which they are advocating for women, and sticking up for what is absolutely the right thing to do, and that is to fight back against the agenda of this Government and the moves that they have made against pay equity. It is embarrassing for the women on that side of the House that a former National MP whose term began in 1975—50 years ago—would be more progressive on pay equity and advocating for women than what they are.

New Zealand has a long-held reputation for being progressive for women, going back to New Zealand being the first country where women won the right to vote. Before this Government came in, we’d also reached that milestone of having 50 percent representation of women in this Parliament. Many of the female MPs on that side of the House stand up proudly at international events talking about these achievements. But what is the point when those very same women are not representing the women of New Zealand? What makes the pill even harder to swallow is that two of the key people involved with changing the pay equity landscape, taking away pay equity from women, are women. We have a Minister of Finance who is a woman. We have a Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety who is a woman. Surely, they have to take some blame here.

In saying that, it is so important that we have male allies, and I’m disappointed that Luxon, Christopher Luxon, couldn’t be that ally for women in New Zealand. At the point that Nicola Willis proposed scrapping pay equity as a way of saving her Budget, as a way of paying for tax cuts that were unaffordable, as a way of giving tax breaks to landlords and tobacco companies, he should have stood up and said that throwing women under the bus to save the Budget was not an option. But did he do that? Instead, this week what we saw was Christopher Luxon stating that he had no regrets and no intention of reversing the changes. As he said, “… the system had become too broad, too loose, and, frankly, unworkable.” Now, the only thing that is too loose and, frankly, unworkable is Christopher Luxon’s leadership and the coalition that he is failing to lead. My question to Christopher Luxon is: how does undermining pay equity and consequentially undercutting New Zealand women make life better for New Zealanders? How does it make it better?

Rima Nakhle: Six years, Carmel—six years!

Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Well, the answer to that—to the member that is rattling on, on the other side—is that it doesn’t. It makes life worse. Life has got worse under that Government. Life has got worse under Christopher Luxon.

We are a Government that is aspirational for our children. It’s very rich for the member opposite to get up and say we’re out of touch, because I’ll tell you what’s out of touch: in 2018, under that Government’s watch, when they knew that 40 percent of kids were at curriculum for mathematics and 26 percent of Māori kids were at curriculum by the time they went to high school, what did they do? Absolutely nothing. That’s out of touch. Sending those kids into high school to not get qualifications when they knew, in year 5, that they were failing and chose to do nothing—that’s embarrassing. That’s doing nothing.

We are not a Government that is going to sit by and watch those kinds of decline points on a graph and sit there and do absolutely nothing about it. When I came into office, the Ministry of Education’s briefing to an incoming Minister, after six years of that Government, said that we are not providing excellent or equitable outcomes—after six years of that Government. We are not prepared to sit by and watch decline happen.

That’s why we as a Government have come in and undertaken transformational change in the education sector. A brand-new, year-by-year, knowledge-rich, internationally benchmarked curriculum in English and maths that has been widely accepted and celebrated by primary and intermediate schoolteachers. We have a maths action plan—twenty thousand teachers have been trained in it. Thirty thousand maths books and textbooks have gone out to children. Structured literacy: we are the first country in the world to mandate it for every single child learning to read in this country—thirty thousand teachers have been trained. We have twice-yearly assessments that are coming in this year to make sure that we are measuring progress for our children and reporting it to parents, who want to know how their children are doing.

We are setting our youngest learners up for success so that by the time they go to high school, they can achieve a qualification that means something, and that’s why we have now turned our eyes to a national qualification. Why did we have to do that? Well, again, there was an embarrassment. When I came into being a Minister, the previous Government had undertaken an NCEA change programme that was completely dysfunctional and a total and utter disaster. The Education Review Office report shows that 70 percent of teachers were not ready for it. The warning signs were flashing. The Minister of Education at the time was warned, “Do not do this. Pull up, pull up. You need to delay.” Guess what they did? In the face of 70 percent of the teachers who were going to implement this, they kept going. They kept going, despite the fact—now we know—that 60 percent of teachers for that new level 1 that they implemented do not think that the qualification is worthwhile. That level 1 qualification that they put in place, 70 percent of employers don’t value it, 50 percent of parents don’t understand it, and two out of five kids don’t understand it.

Now, if Chris Hipkins can come along and say that he understood the problems and they were working on it, then why did he put in place a half-baked plan right before the election that 70 percent of teachers weren’t ready for? That meant that the sector wasn’t able to deliver the new level 1. Either he didn’t understand the problem or he understood it but he didn’t know what the solutions were. We are a Government that knows what the solutions are when it comes to NCEA.

We are making sure that there are not going to be three years of high-stakes exams—[Interruption] You should listen, because you might learn something! We won’t have three years of high-stakes assessments, like most of the people we compare ourselves to. We’re going to have a whole year in year 11, where right the way through the year—all four terms—students will be learning a knowledge-rich curriculum that goes all the way through the year, gearing them up for success in year 12, when they are proposed to be sitting the New Zealand Certificate of Education, and, in year 13, the Advanced Certificate of Education. The key difference is that they will learn the whole curriculum.

Here’s one statistic I want to leave this House with before I finish: with the new level 1 that the previous Government put in place, only 11 percent of students were sitting all four maths standards—11 percent. How can you experience success at high school when you move from year to year, when only 11 percent of students are sitting the whole curriculum? What a failure. This new qualification will ensure that all children learn from a knowledge-rich curriculum throughout the whole year. We are keeping the best of NCEA. We are making sure there will be internal assessments and externals; amazing vocational pathways that will set children up for success in the trades. This is the cloak that we will be wrapping our kids in—education that will set them up for success. We are no longer going to sit by and do nothing. This is what transformational change looks like.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Tāmaki-makau-rau is the beating heart of our nation’s economy, but its pulse is strongest when its people are thriving, when every whānau has the tools and opportunities to succeed. Its pulse is always strongest when businesses feel supported, when they know that despite global headwinds, there is hope, there is aspiration. We know that when communities are equipped with the skills and the opportunities, they not only contribute to our city’s growth but also strengthen the mana of their families for generations to come. It only takes one small decision in a family to lift it out of intergenerational poverty and give it the hope that it deserves for the future.

However, too many of our people, too many of our communities, still face barriers that stop them from reaching their full potential. We must remove those barriers and invest in pathways that lift them up. Too many of our businesses feel that they are battling headwinds alone. Too many of our communities are looking for leadership and for hope in places where, for far too long, hope does not exist. In acknowledging those barriers, we must come together, not in political rhetoric, but to look towards how we can grow our economy, where everybody succeeds and everybody does well.

Tāmaki-makau-rau’s growth must be inclusive. The benefits of progress should be felt from Māngere to the leafy suburbs of the inner city, from the bustling of downtown to the calm country areas in the east and in the west. But we know that for far too many, this has escaped them. We know that some are doing better than others. Our future, however, lies in backing local leadership for community solutions—for those that understand the challenges and the aspirations, who are supported to deliver for those who mean the most to them, whether it’s their families, whether it’s their community, whether it’s their business or their colleagues. We know that when you back local leadership, success will come. The pulse we speak of will be stronger than ever, and the heartbeat will be a heartbeat that, of course, extends across the country, for Auckland truly is the heartbeat of this beautiful country of ours.

The city is diverse. We know what its strengths are. Its strengths are its diversity. We know that its strengths are also in its Māori community. We know that its strengths stem from every part of Tāmaki-makau-rau that has the opportunity to do well. We know, of course, when Māori do well, Tāmaki-makau-rau does well. For many Māori, though, in Tāmaki-makau-rau, this is not the case. We must make sure that the benefits that are extended to all in Tāmaki-makau-rau are inclusive for a stronger Tāmaki-makau-rau into the future.

We have choices to make, and political leaders across the House and, indeed, in local government have choices that they must make. Those choices are important. Those choices must be informed, and those choices must recognise that they must connect to the places where it needs it the most—and that’s in our community and in our homes. We have a choice to let growth leave people behind or to ensure that every person, every family, and every community has the chance to stand tall and to live well.

The challenge for each and every one of us, from the halls of Parliament to the streets around the country: let’s build a future for Tāmaki-makau-rau where opportunity is not determined by your postcode but by your potential. Let’s build a future for Tāmaki-makau-rau where communities are brimming with hope and aspiration. Let’s build a future for Tāmaki-makau-rau where businesses continue to thrive and show the opportunity for training and meaningful income into the future. We do have choices to make, and we want to make sure that the leadership of this country makes the choices that will continue to support our hopes and aspiration. For if Tāmaki-makau-rau thrives, so too does Aotearoa New Zealand. I encourage all of us to heed these words, to look towards our common good and not simply fight in the trenches.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This Government is making it easier and more affordable to build so that we can deliver the infrastructure this country desperately needs and to put a roof over the heads of every Kiwi family. Simply put, building in New Zealand takes far too long. The regulatory burden is too heavy, costs are too high, and productivity hasn’t improved since the mid-1980s. We know that to grow the building sector, we must make the system more efficient, reduce costs, and give the private sector the certainty it needs. This is an exercise in improving productivity, improving cost of living outcomes, and promoting economic growth. It will also result in a better quality of life for Kiwis: warm, dry homes; classrooms for our kids; roads that move freight and get people home on time; hospitals to meet the needs of our population; and jobs, jobs, jobs—driven by $6 billion worth of Government infrastructure projects with shovels in the ground before Christmas this year.

The changes that we have announced so far include: (1) removing barriers to overseas building products to boost competition and lower prices; (2) making it easier for Kiwis to build garages, sheds, and sleepouts—shedding red tape, if you will—and exempting granny flats up to 70 square metres from consenting rules; (3) allowing trusted building companies to build without a consent if they meet homeowner protection criteria and enabling plumbers and drainlayers to self-certify, as electricians and gasfitters already can; (4) extending deadlines for earthquake-prone building remediation to give owners certainty while the system is being reviewed; (5) changing installation rules to increase flexibility and cut building costs by up to $15,000 per new home without reducing energy efficiency outcomes; (6) backing building consent authorities to boost competition, with the first private building consent authority now in operation; (7) providing certainty to the construction sector by stopping the rolling maul of building code system changes and moving to a predictable three-year update cycle; (8) cutting delays by requiring 80 percent of building inspections to be completed within three working days.

Hon Member: There’s more?

Hon CHRIS PENK: I’ll pause for breath, Mr Speaker, and reassure my colleagues and friends there is more—much, much more. For example: (9) fast-tracking residential solar by halving consent processing times from 20 to 10 working days for buildings with solar panels.

Supporting trusted tradies—this is (10) for those following along—by strengthening registration and licensing to hold cowboys accountable; (11) reviewing fire safety rules so that we can better protect people and their properties; (12) increasing remote inspections, with improved guidance to reduce delays; (13) lucky for some, cutting the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s building determination processing time by 80 percent; (14) exempting small building projects like home renovations from paying the building levy, increasing the threshold of payment up to $65,000; (15) streamlining building consents by defining minor variations so that builders can make small changes like swapping comparable products or simple design changes without formal amendments; (16) boosting competition by allowing designers to specify alternative building products on a consent; (17) enabling customisation of multi-proof designs, which are pre-consented building consents, with a fast-track approval process; (18) highlighting delays by publishing quarterly building consent and inspection data; (19) cutting “dam” red tape, so that small-dam owners are freed from burdensome regulations; and (20) reducing compliance costs for councils by cutting the frequency of competence assessments for building control officers.

Sir, with one minute to go, I can reassure you and colleagues that there is more, much more that we are still yet to do. For example, this Government is committed also to improving consistency in the consenting system around the country, fairer liability settings, and practical reforms to the earthquake-prone building system rules so that we don’t have buildings left derelict and abandoned. These are all big wins for New Zealand. They’re not ideological; they’re just plain common sense.

Mark Cameron: Common sense.

Hon CHRIS PENK: That’s right—common sense, as my friend and colleague Mark Cameron points out. This Government is working hard to cut the red tape to let tradies get on with the job of building a better New Zealand, or, as we say on this side of the House, getting New Zealand back on track.

The Government projects are an important piece of the puzzle as well, and I do want to mention in particular the defence estate’s procurement we’re doing, and my colleague and friend the Minister of defence is pleased to support that. That work in the defence estate across the country, up and down this land, supporting our sailors, soldiers, and aviators, is benefiting from our increased investment. They deserve it. We need it for national security. We need it for economic security. We’re helping them to build. We’re helping us to build. We’re getting New Zealand back on track.

In 2015, in France, millions and millions of people rallied—including world leaders, including Benjamin Netanyahu—against the, yes, deplorable killings of journalists and cartoonists working at Charlie Hebdo. Millions and millions rallied, standing up for freedom of speech. Since October 2023 in Gaza, between 192 and 270 journalists have been killed for trying to express what is happening in Gaza, 90 journalists have been imprisoned, 132 journalists have been injured for trying to relay an issue of global importance to all of us: the truth—for trying to express not just freedom of speech but the truth. In the context of Israel not permitting or allowing any journalists into the region, who covers up? What do those actions spell, when a State won’t allow any journalists to see what they are doing—the inhumanity and the atrocities that Israel is committing and has been committing for so long.

Right now, mokopuna in Gaza need all of us in this House to find a backbone. Mokopuna in Gaza need everyone in this House to find their courage to stand up and demand that our Government play its role in defending humanity. What kind of world are we bringing our mokopuna into if we don’t use every mite of our decency and responsibility and do our jobs to call Israel’s violence and genocide to account, like many the world over are already doing, including the traditional allies and countries that we are supposed to align with? Where are our backbones for standing up? I cannot desire a world for my own mokopuna where it is passable for a State to murder anyone else’s mokopuna; that is offensive to my own mokopuna, to whānau everywhere.

So, no, we will not be apologising for the language that we use in this House to hold this Government to account. We are proud of standing up and using our voice and our platform.

People are exhausted. Every week around the world for at least the past two years, activists on the ground—that is where the backbone and leadership is. They are the millions around the world from all levels of communities who have been calling power to account. How can we let this pass, their murderous agenda? How can we let them just feel like they have a right to murder journalists for trying to express and share this truth? More journalists have been killed in the Gaza war than in the US Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan combined. That is appalling, but that is exactly the indication of Israel wanting to keep a lid on their savage murder, on their genocide.

We will not apologise for asking for every MP to show some backbone, and we will continue to call for sanctions against a country who are destroying humanity for all of us, in every single country, in every single community across the entire planet, because of the pass that they are receiving. If we allow this to go unanswered for, we are endangering the humanity of the globe down to our very own communities, for every single one of us. I am proud of my colleague Chlöe Swarbrick for sticking to her truth, to our truth, to the truth of activists all around the world, for the truth of the genocide that is happening in Gaza.

Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. This Government is not focused on the things that matter most to New Zealanders. They have broken their promises. They are out of touch. New Zealanders tell us the most important things to them are jobs, health, homes, and real action on the cost of living, and we have seen none of that and no credible plan from this Government to address those things.

They would rather do things like cut books that have, apparently, too many Māori words in them for our tamariki. Six Māori words are too many words according to the Minister of Education and this Government. It was described as just one book, but we find out today, through documents, that actually it was many more books than that.

This Government is obsessed with attacking Māori and te reo Māori, right down to the books that all of our tamariki have access to. It might sound like just a small thing, just a few books, just a few Māori words, but this is on top of the pile-on that this Government has done on te reo Māori. They have insisted—insisted—that our Government departments be referred to by their English names—like, what’s that about? This Minister cut $30 million from Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, which was professional learning development for all teachers to increase their proficiency and expertise in te reo Māori to be able to use in their classrooms. Nope—$30 million gone, to be put into maths books. Why does it have to be one or the other? This Government has also cut resource teachers Māori and resource teachers literacy. This Government has also cut things like Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. I could go on and on and on.

I want to say that this was described by those education experts, those in the sector, saying that this is an act of racism. Literacy experts say there is no problem with Māori words in books for learner readers.

Today, we find out that this was not the ministry suggesting that this should happen but, in fact, the Minister insisting that this should happen. It was the Minister who directed that these books containing these Māori words be cut. The words are marae, karanga, kai, karakia, wharenui, koro, and hongi—something Christopher Luxon either doesn’t know how to do or didn’t want to do with a visiting Prime Minister.

The author of the book says that when they designed this book, it was written because they were thinking about all of the children that we have got out there. Even though they are not learning in te reo Māori, they still have a really unique relationship with it, because this is Aotearoa: te reo Māori is one of our official languages.

The Better Start Literacy Approach founder, Gail Gillon, said, “There is absolutely no evidence to suggest children are finding this reader confusing. And in fact, our data would suggest otherwise.” Māori Principals’ Association described these changes as racist and white supremacist.

Also, the Minister has defended it and doubled down on it and rejected all of these claims.

I asked the Minister this question: where is the rest of the curriculum? Where is Te Mātaiaho, the framework that had been developed and agreed—and replaced with something knowledge rich, which nobody in the ministry can properly define, to provide a framework.

Who are the expert voices that this Minister is taking advice from? Her officials certainly were not recommending this happen, in terms of these books. We need to see the curriculum before we are asked to agree to the assessment framework. Kia ora, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s no secret what matters to my neighbours in Takanini: the cost of living, law and order, safety, education, health, and Mill Road. It’s also no secret that I like to engage in doorknocking very often to make sure that I stay in touch with the mood of my neighbours in south and east Auckland.

When I doorknocked recently in an area that, to be honest, isn’t always very forgiving to the National Party, I can hand on heart say that every person who gave me feedback did so with gratitude for the progress that our Government is making—particularly in law and order and in bringing down interest rates—and encouragement, saying, “Keep going.” Almost every neighbour also referenced the mess that we inherited and told me that they understand it will take a long time to turn the ship of economic recovery around. One beautiful, older, and wiser lady took my arm and, honestly, said to me, “Please, please keep doing what you are all doing. Stick to your plan.” Two people on the same day said to me, “Thank you for making us feel safe again.”—optimum word “again”.

Most Kiwis know it’s tough. We know it’s tough, and most Kiwis that I speak to in South and East Auckland know that our Government inherited a decimated economy and know that our Government is working tirelessly to heal it. Our people, like my neighbours in Takanini, are doing it more tough than they ever have because of the reckless, wasteful spending of the former Government, and yet there’s not one tiny notion of remorse from Chris Hipkins and his friends across that side, even in the face of a Treasury report saying that only half of the whopping $66 billion Chris Hipkins oversaw for COVID-19 was actually attributed directly to the pandemic. The other half? Kiwis can take a wild guess. I don’t know, those French backpackers—in heaven. There are a lot of people accumulating a lot of money because of what happened with the other half.

Our Government is not applying band-aids to the bleeding caused by Labour’s wasteful spending but is actually trying to heal the wound from within, and this takes courage. This takes a spine to do. It takes a spine to adjust tax brackets so that the lowest-income earners can keep more of their wages. For the first time in 14 years, our Government had a spine to do this. It takes spine to really, truly put victims first.

Hon Members: Ha, ha!

RIMA NAKHLE: Well, the others are laughing—no remorse, no care, and no accountability to put victims first and to crack down on gangs, who plant and cultivate misery in our communities. It takes a spine to ban gang insignia in public so that my neighbours in Takanini can feel safer. It takes a spine to admit that our country is grappling with a real problem with youth offending, and our Government actually stood up and created a category called the young serious offender category.

It takes a spine to recognise that the education system is so broken that we’ve failed another generation of tamariki and rangatahi. It takes a spine to say, “Do you know what? We’re turning things around.” We’re making game-changing changes in maths, in English, and in literacy. It takes a spine to be honest about NCEA and say how in many respects it wasn’t preparing our youth for the future. It takes a spine to look at our health system and recognise that it had lost its rightful vision and that patients should come first.

It takes a spine for this Lebanese wahine to be civil in the face of political props that are brandished in my face every day, reminding me of the massacres that took place in Lebanon, where my whānau and my extended whānau were killed mercilessly. That’s what it takes, and we have spine on this side of the House.

The economic recovery of New Zealand is here and it’s actually here on the doorsteps of the West Coast. The West Coast is where I visited in my last recess. I had the opportunity to go there with the Hon Mark Patterson about 10 months ago, and now I’ve returned and, gosh, that place is booming.

Hon Mark Patterson: Gold!

JAMIE ARBUCKLE: Yes. And I can tell this House, the coasters, they want mining. They want it and they want it now and they are into it. To see what is happening on the ground there on the West Coast is absolutely an eye opener.

I had the opportunity to go with Development West Coast and look at a number of different projects. It was the first time I got to go to Blackball. I’ve got to say, since the Hon Shane Jones has been there with his megaphone, it must be the new heart, it must be the new place of the New Zealand First Party, because the support there in Blackball is definitely there for the New Zealand First Party.

Hon Mark Patterson: It’s not Labour any more.

JAMIE ARBUCKLE: It’s not Labour—it’s swung. I can tell you, they are coming there for us.

But Federation Mining, I went there and saw the Provincial Growth Fund—we had put money into Federation Mining to open up that mine. What is great to see is the success. They’re talking about up to 20 years’ worth of mining just in that one mine. They’re talking about entry-level jobs of six figures—they’re nearly $100,000 jobs just for entry-level workers. The core samples—I got to see those—they are off the chart, the amount of gold, the reefs of gold that they’ve found in that mine.

The disappointing thing, and something I’ve already vowed to talk to the super fund about here, is the New Zealand Superannuation Fund—they need to get in on these opportunities of the mining on the West Coast. They can’t be hesitant; they can’t be listening to these no sayers. The opportunity is there for the super fund to come in behind some of these projects.

Also the Westland Mineral Sands—I went there with my environmental hat on, the portfolio I hold for the New Zealand First Party. They’re talking about 50-plus years of sand mining. They’re talking about titanium, they’re talking about taking out the garnet, but it’s environmentally friendly. The farmers want it. It recontours the land and it allows the land to be flat so new pasture can be grown. The farmers on the West Coast want to see this; the dairy farmers want to see it. The farmers are saying their paddocks, once the mining’s gone through, are the best paddocks on their farm. It’s great to see in the tourism industries around the West Coast, they’ve seen that waterways, for instance, they’re actually linking up with these mining companies and making partnerships.

What a tragedy we’re seeing on the Bathurst Stockton Mine, where you’ve got protesters there up in coal buckets.

Hon Mark Patterson: Disgraceful.

JAMIE ARBUCKLE: It’s just disgraceful, outside the ANZ bank, stopping the consented mining operations. This nonsense needs to be stopped. The police need to go in with trespass notices and get rid of these people out of these places.

During the trip, I also got to see the development around housing in the Ball Developments that’s happening on the outskirts of Greymouth. They’re talking hundreds of new homes and new commercial activity happening there. We’ve had investment on the coast through New Zealand First in the port facilities with the slipways and new fishing jobs. Great to see the Westport Deep Sea Fishing School while I was there—seeing that vocational way of getting people into the fishing industry, more jobs. The mayors: Helen Lash, Tania Gibson, Jamie Cleine; the regional council: Peter Haddock—they are positive. They are talking up New Zealand First. Our policies on the ground, on the West Coast, are making a difference. The economic change on the coast, it is going to lead the recovery.

We are talking about a lot of debt that this past Government has wrapped up, but the West Coast are going to be the first ones that will come up and help pay some of that back. It is great to see it on the ground. The coast is alive with economic activity. New Zealand First policies are working on the ground, and I can’t wait to see what that is going to deliver in the next couple of years. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise as the member of Parliament for Southland to speak in this general debate. We have heard a lot of negative things over the last year or so, and there’s a lot of social media that people watch, and things look tough. What we need to do is put this in frame.

In New Zealand, we have faced the deepest recession since 1991. It’s the deepest recession for 34 years. The Treasury released a report last week saying the last Government spent too much, against official advice, harming the economy. There’s no question that money needed to be spent during the pandemic, but they spent too much, against the official advice, harming the economy. This Government came into power, facing the deepest recession since 1991, and it’s had that job to fix, which is a very difficult one.

But hope is coming. In the South Island, we are outperforming the North at the moment. I don’t say this to say anything against the North. The North is a very important part of New Zealand. But hope—turn your eyes towards the South, and, in fact, turn your eyes to the bottom of the South, toward Otago, toward Southland. Our economy—the most recent Kiwibank regional data showed that we are growing very strongly. Why is that? It is the primary sector. We have got high prices for our primary products, for our farmers, for our agricultural sector; for milk; for dairy; for sheep and beef; for our viticulture, our ag, and horticulture sector.

Then, in the South Island, we have an incredibly strong conservation sector. This is important for two reasons. This is important for biodiversity, and this is important for the economy. A big reason why New Zealand does so well in the tourism market is because people want to come here because of our incredible region, but we need money to be able to take care of that. How do we do that? We get visitors coming to New Zealand to spend foreign exchange in New Zealand with our people. We have a conservation Minister who is working to move the concessions framework to make it easier to do that so we can spend more money on that incredibly important part of our community.

Not only that—in tourism, if you look at Queenstown Lakes District and Mackenzie Country and our neighbours in Wānaka, my neighbour Miles Anderson, our numbers are well ahead of pre-pandemic numbers. We have grown incredibly strongly. That is another great economic opportunity that’s coming out of our region. A great indicator. With that does come some challenge. New infrastructure is needed to make it a great place for locals to live and for visitors to come to.

The first place in the South Island that has had a regional deal confirmed that is going to be negotiated with this Government is the Central Otago Lakes region. So it is a fantastic opportunity for our region so that we can address those challenges, we can get all the players in the room, we can get the central government and the local government working well together to address those issues—to address the transport, the health, the electrification, value capture that’s going to really turn the dial, and some really creative solutions are on the table for that.

We also have some really exciting things happening. If you look at Great South, they have a regional opportunities snapshot of some of the things that are being proposed across Southland—agriculture, aquaculture, tourism, space opportunities. Not many people think of space opportunities when they think of the South, but, like our great space Minister, Judith Collins, knows, we have a very strong ground space presence in Southland. So there’s incredible opportunities. There are inland ports which are being proposed to be built—significant money being expended because of the opportunities that are being seen there. There’s incredible opportunity in agriculture. In energy, we have a lot of energy, but we have a lot of opportunity to create more energy. There’s one of the biggest energy providers in the country. There’s people looking at data centres, wind farms, and a whole lot more to add to our existing strengths in the aquaculture, tourism, horticulture, and much more.

I’ll just touch on the Otago Central Lakes. The current population is 80,000; its visitor population can be the same on a busy day, so our peak day population is 170,000. This is a place that is growing up. It is becoming the newest potential city in New Zealand, with a projected population of over 300,000 by 2054. It’s a place of huge opportunity. We’re growing and we want to spread that through the country. Eyes to the South to look to the future.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.