General Debate

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

This Government was elected on a promise: a promise to make life easier for hard-working New Zealanders. But today, after months of spin, we now know that that promise has been comprehensively broken.

I stood opposite Christopher Luxon during the leaders’ debates in the last election campaign, where he unequivocally promised New Zealand families with kids that they would be $250 a fortnight better off under this Government. A year and a half in, not one New Zealand family is $250 a fortnight better off under this Government because of their promises. But it gets worse than that, because then they said that 21,000 New Zealand families were going to get help through their FamilyBoost policy, with $150 every fortnight. That was $100 less than what they were told they were going to get during the election campaign, but it was still $150 a fortnight that would mean a lot to New Zealand families struggling with the rising cost of living. So how many of New Zealand’s 5 million people are actually benefiting from that? One hundred and fifty-three. That’s 153 down—4,999,847 still to go. They promised Kiwis they were going to be better off, and yet New Zealanders know that things are getting worse, not better, under this Government. One hundred and fifty-three families; less than 1 percent of those who were promised they were going to be better off under this Government are getting what they were promised.

What we see instead is a Government that distracts, that blames, that spins, that attacks—not a Government that’s focused on actually delivering the things they said they were going to deliver. Number one on their list was tackling the rising cost of living. Let’s be clear about exactly what it was they said—and I have a few quotes. Nicola Willis said, “The first priority should be to respond to the cost of living crisis.”—and yet the cost of living crisis is getting worse. Another comment from Nicola Willis: “my simple message is this: cost of living relief is on the way.” When’s it arriving? New Zealanders are still waiting for the cost of living relief that they were promised.

Christopher Luxon said, “The first thing we’ve got to do is reduce the cost of living.” “Reduce”—note the word “reduce” in there, not “Make it get harder, just a little bit slower than it was before.” He promised that he was going to “reduce” the cost of living, and yet today in the House he was celebrating the fact that the cost of living is still going up, and saying New Zealanders should be grateful for that, when he promised them that the cost of living was going to reduce.

Nicola Willis said, “National will take action to get food prices under control once more.” Yet food prices continue to go up. It has never been more expensive to buy a block of butter in New Zealand. And, you know, I start to wonder. I used to think they were really good at spin, but watching Nicola Willis at question time today, I wondered what had happened to their political radar. Of all the days to be boasting about high international dairy prices, I’m not sure the day after you met with Fonterra to berate them for the fact that the price of butter was too high is the day to be talking about how great it is that we’re getting so much money from selling our butter internationally. What exactly is the Government’s position? Is it that international dairy prices are good for New Zealand, or is it that butter prices are too high? Because they seem to think that they can argue both of those things at the same time. The Government simply don’t have a consistent position on that.

What have the Government been doing in the meantime? It’s been all about the theatre; it’s been all about attacking other people; it’s been all about apportioning blame. But I can tell you that’s not what it’s about for the mother who is skipping meals for the kids. It’s not about that for the pensioners who are turning off their heaters because they cannot afford to pay the power bills. This Government was elected saying they were going to serve. They said they were going to solve those problems for New Zealanders. We are now more than halfway through this parliamentary term and New Zealanders can see the results of this Government. It’s getting worse, not better.

New Zealanders, I think, are a generous people. They gave the Government time, and now they’re looking at this Government and saying that they aren’t getting what they thought they were voting for at the last election. They deserve better.

I’m here to listen to the Opposition. I hear them in question time and in the media, and I feel a little sad that they’ve lost sight of a simple truth that we are 5.3 million people with shared challenges, and what we share in common is much, much greater than anything that divides us. Yet too often, politics overlooks that very basic and obvious fact.

People get much more, or at least they could, out of a contest of ideas than the prejudice of identity, and yet, when I listen to the Opposition, when I listen to politics around the world, in fact, what I hear is too much zero-sum thinking. I hear far too much identity politics. It’s a toxic mix that is the enemy of unity and progress for all people.

This zero-sum thinking—we hear too much of it; we hear it every day. I heard it from one of the Green co-leaders on the TV this morning. She tells her voters that their problems are caused by someone else’s success, and that the solution to their problem is therefore another tax to take their money off them. Well, if we’re to truly solve our problems, then we need the opposite attitude. Every policy question in this House, for any Government in the world, should be: will this policy help create an abundance of wealth for all people? Not only should we cast off the idea that there’s only so much to go round and the way to get ahead is to criticise someone else’s success, as if that caused the problems we might face, actually, we need to get rid of the other side of that toxic mix that is identity politics, that tells us that the differences between New Zealanders—such as when their ancestors arrived on these shores—are greater than the commonalities that we Kiwis all share. Only then do we have a hope of creating the kind of society that makes the progress that we all sorely want to see.

I just so happen to be proud to be part of a Government that gets that, that thinks in terms of positive sum, and that thinks in terms of our shared challenges and identity as Kiwis, rather than zero-sum thinking and the division of identity politics. You only have to look at the array of policies that this Government is putting in place to see that. Take the simple question of: can the next generation afford a house? Doesn’t matter what your background is or your culture, what people want is a pathway to property ownership in a property-owning democracy. For too long, it’s been too hard. I’m proud to be in this Government. Chris Bishop’s here, Simon Court’s here. Together, they’re working together to make a resource management law that says if you own some land, the presumption is you can build a home.

This Government’s also ensuring those pieces of land are connected together with infrastructure that’s properly funded and planned by city and regional partnerships, to see central and local government working together. When you start to do things like that, opportunity starts to open up that people can actually own a place of their own in their own country. That’s not something that you get from zero-sum thinking. It’s not about attacking the landlords or those people or that; it’s about saying how do we build more together, because all of us face the same basic challenges.

I’m proud to be part of a Government that is committed to transferring a knowledge-rich curriculum from one generation to the next, because when people are able to navigate the 21st century and all of its growing technological sophistication by learning real science and real language and truly understanding the future of the century that they’re going to live in, then their own mana and esteem and ability to chart their own path in life is all the greater.

Then I’m proud to be part of a Government that is ensuring everything we do is lighter on the regulatory impact we make on New Zealanders. We’re removing the red tape so people can actually spend more time providing for themselves and their families and the people they care about in their community, and less time filling out forms and being told no by the umbrella people who stand at the building site, watching while other people work in the rain.

That is the vision we need, that it is possible to create more and all of us benefit, rather than ranking New Zealanders by the arrival time of their ancestors. Let’s build more together.

It’s been a great week for infrastructure, jobs, and growth. On Sunday, we announced as a Government that in the next six months there are $6 billion of infrastructure projects starting around the country, and this is just a start. There are many more projects to come.

The response from the Opposition has been instructive, which is basically to say, “Oh yeah, nothing to see here. Move along.” Except for the fact that unlike the last Government, which talked a lot and put out a lot of press releases and set up a lot of working groups, we’re actually getting on with the job. In the answers to the Hon Ginny Andersen in Parliament today, I read out a couple of examples of projects—

Hon Members: Funded by Labour.

Hon CHRIS BISHOP: —which were first appropriated funding all the way back in 2019. Remember the Middlemore Hospital recladding? Remember the Middlemore Hospital? Jacinda Ardern, she made a big thing about it during the election campaign and straight after she said, “Oh, you know, National’s done such a bad job. There’s, like, poo running down the walls at Middlemore.”, and everyone probably assumed they were going to do something about it. That’s partly what the recladding project’s all about. Well, they put money towards it. Well, guess what! Here we are in 2025 and it’s taking a National Government to actually get on with it. We are as a Government building a credible infrastructure pipeline and fixing the mistakes of the past. It’s great to be part of a Government, as the Hon David Seymour says, that is building a brighter future for New Zealanders.

There are a couple of quotes from members opposite that I want to pull out for the House that I think deserve more oxygen and more ventilation. The first is in relation to Barbara Edmonds. Now, there’s quite a bit to talk about the cost of living. Fair enough, times are tough for many Kiwis. Let’s bear in mind that inflation three years ago was 7.3 percent. It’s now back within the band, thanks to the strong fiscal decisions of this Government and sensible economic management. We have got inflation back under control, but that’s not to pretend that life isn’t tough for many people.

The Labour Party’s going on about the cost of living; fair enough, I’d do the same if I was in their situation. But one might think they have some answers about the cost of living. Eventually, a journalist asked Barbara Edmonds this fact and said, “OK, fair enough. You’re moaning on about it. What’s your plan?” What did Barbara Edmonds say? “Oh, I’m not able to identify any specific Labour Party policy that tackles the cost of living.” No policy. No policy whatsoever. One might think, and one might ask, if the Labour Party is going to criticise the Government for the cost of living, that they had a plan. It turns out they have no plan, and to the extent they have a plan—which is based on borrowing, debt, and spending—it would make life worse for New Zealanders. The red tape that they support will make life worse for New Zealanders by driving up costs and flowing through to inflation.

The other quote I want to pull out is from Chris Hipkins, who’s put up a Facebook post or a tweet or something: “Nobody should have to leave the country to build a future.” Fair enough. Sounds reasonable. Slightly rich from the guy who basically stopped New Zealanders returning to New Zealand during the COVID years through the disaster that was the managed isolation and quarantine debacle that he imposed on the country. So a little bit rich, but he’s right. People shouldn’t have to leave the country to build a brighter future. We do want New Zealanders to stay here. But the Labour Party opposes every single thing that this Government is doing to create more economic opportunity.

I’ll give you a fast track. Now, the Labour Party has their own version of fast track, which has currently got some projects going through, but, of course, this Government has legislated for a much brighter and much more fulsome regime. The question for the Labour Party is: what are they going to do about it? Do they support it or do they not? Because a few weeks ago, they put up a Facebook post which said they would repeal it. Interestingly, that Facebook post has now been taken down, so one wonders what the official Labour Party policy is when it comes to fast track. They opposed it and voted against it on the way through.

There are now eight projects before expert panels, including, for example, the expansion of the Port of Auckland. There’s a project going through to expand the Port of Tauranga; 60 percent of New Zealand’s exports by value go through the Port of Tauranga. It is critical that that very important port is expanding. There are a range of infrastructure and housing and energy projects listed on the fast-track list that are going through. The Labour Party opposes it.

People leave New Zealand to go work in the mines in Australia, but the Labour Party opposes any liberalisation of our planning laws to make it easier for mines, make it easier for quarries, make it easier to build roads in this country. The Labour Party opposes Resource Management Act reform, which is the thing, as David Seymour says, that has been the millstone around the neck of this economy for 30 years.

So my message to Kiwis is this: it’s one thing to carp and moan, it’s one thing to put out endless press releases and fulminate against problems, but it’s another thing to actually have a plan. They don’t have one; this Government does. I’m proud of this Government and the work that we are doing.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. This is my first contribution in the general debate since the sad passing of our colleague Takutai Tarsh Kemp, so I say, hoki wairua mai—may your spirit come back amongst us here today.

I also want to acknowledge Ngāti Tamakōpiri, her people of Ngāti Whitikaupeka and of Mōkai Pātea, who received the country in mourning for our tuahine, for our colleague, and for our friend. I also acknowledge the good people of the township of Taihape, who saw an influx of people, influx of customers, who used it as their base to continue to farewell our tuahine. I want to mention in particular the Taihape rugby club, who welcomed me with open arms, presented me with a tie of Taihape, and wanted me to say, “Up the Hape!” I’m quite proud to wear this tie today, and I wear it to remember my tuahine and the kindness that her people showed to myself, my father, and, of course, everybody who attended the funeral of our colleague.

That leaves us in a position in Tāmaki Makaurau where a mandate needs to be sought. Today, we’ve heard in the House from the Government benches what is apparently going on in Auckland and what is going to lift Auckland out of the doldrums. It’s simply not enough.

What we heard from the Deputy Prime Minister in his general debate today is that he’s proud to say, “Now schools will teach real language.” What does he mean by “real language”? Well, what he means by “real language” is the diminishing of te reo Māori, the language of this land. He diminishes the efforts that many have made to revitalise te reo Māori. In fact, he also stands in contradiction to the words of his own colleague Erica Stanford, who stands up and praises her own efforts in trying to revitalise and support kura kaupapa in Tāmaki Makaurau and, indeed, across the country. We’ve heard from the Deputy Prime Minister today that he cares not for the Māori language.

I take the words of my good friend and colleague here Mr Shanan Halbert: “Who is the Deputy Prime Minister in this House to be handing out mana cards to people?” The person with the least amount of mana is handing out mana cards trying to tell us who we are as Māori and who deserves to be a Māori, not in this House but indeed right across the country. I think it’s shameful. It’s shameful that when there are real issues impacting families right across this country, the Deputy Prime Minister focuses on something like a “real language” and diminishes te reo Māori in this House.

The real issues are clear in this country. There is a cost of living crisis. The fact that this Government has, all of a sudden, turned their attention, not to address the matter, but to attack the Opposition benches on the critical matter of the cost of living crisis shows that they are trying to (1) remediate their failures in the past in dealing with this particular issue, because they promised in the campaign hustings in 2023 that they will deal with the cost of living crisis and they have not; and (2) it shows that they have no ideas to be able to bring us out of this challenge that is affecting so many people.

It’s winter, it is cold, and whether you live in Tāmaki-makau-rau, in the Far North, or in the Deep South, power prices have gone up exponentially. Our people cannot afford to warm themselves. Usually in Tāmaki-makau-rau, it’s warm; the other day, it was 4 degrees Celsius, and for somebody from the Bay of Islands, that’s freezing. But I want to be very clear: that impact is felt in every single household—whether you’re a young person, whether you’re a family, or whether you’re our kaumātua and kuia. Those energy prices are going up and up, and, of course, the wellbeing of our people is going down and down.

Our leader, the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins, rightly explained that all of the indicators that show wellbeing in this country—like the cost of living, like the cost of energy—they’re all going up. What’s clear to us, on this side of the House, is that the Government benches know that what is going down is actually their polling, so what do they do? They start the blame game. They blame Labour for everything. They blame us for absolutely everything. Well, I take the words from my 13-year-old daughter, who says, “Dad, I’m sick of the blame game because what actually is happening is the lame game.” They’ve come up lame on the cost of living crisis. They’ve come up lame on the extremely high energy prices that have caused heating prices in this country to go up exponentially. They’ve come up lame on opportunities to lift our country into economic prosperity, which we know will be able to help whānau right across this country.

We are in an important race. As we head towards the 2026 election, it’s clear that this Government has no answers, and I can tell them, in the famous words of the Rt Hon Winston Peters, “Help is on its way.”

Well, nobody will be relieved with the suggestion of that sort of help. But we’ll move on to things of greater substance.

Can I say that Chris Bishop said earlier that it’s been a great week for New Zealand infrastructure, and he’s absolutely right. We need to invest in infrastructure that grows the economy, that makes it easier for New Zealanders to move around. The reason that we are building more roads is because very few, certainly not enough, were built under the six years of the previous Labour Government. When you build roads, you get goods and services around more easily. You get goods to the port to get to overseas markets, but it’s fundamentally more simple than that. You free up time for men and women to go about their business more quickly, not be stuck in traffic, to spend more time with their families and a greater quality of family time. That’s a very important outcome when it comes to infrastructure.

Can I also say that not only has it been a good week for trade for New Zealand exporters because of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) free-trade agreement coming in, moving through the Parliament; it’s been a very good year for exports and trade and New Zealand exporters. I want to highlight a few of those, because behind every single one of these statistics, it shows greater trade overseas, New Zealanders who are better off, and more jobs.

The EU free-trade agreement entered into force a year ago—many, many months sooner than had been predicted, which we were told when we came to Government. There actually were opportunities for it to enter into force and be ratified by this Parliament before the election. But, sadly, that wasn’t a priority. In that period of time, in the 12 months under that agreement, our exports to the EU have gone up by 28 percent. It’s an extra $1 billion of goods exports for New Zealanders. Sheep meat is up 29 percent—an extra $216 million. Kiwifruit is up almost 70 percent—$316 million more. And, very important, machinery, of which a lot is agricultural machinery, exports are up 104 percent—an additional $173 million for the New Zealand economy. Every day, New Zealand is benefiting from trade agreements and from a Government that was quick to take action to get it in place so they could benefit so very much sooner.

The UK free-trade agreement, in place two years now—a 21 percent boost of our exports, up $644 million; services a 22 percent increase, which is important because although we are known for the highest-quality, safest food to be produced anywhere in the world that consumers all over the place in many countries want, there is a big opportunity in services. Goods exports are up 20 percent; meat a 46 percent increase—almost $500 million more over that period of time. Dairy, a 139 percent increase; fruit and nuts, 52 percent; tech services, 22 percent; and tech-related services are up 50 percent—an extra $221 million for the New Zealand economy.

Yesterday, the vast majority of parties in this Parliament voted in favour of the UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), and you heard me earlier in question time say that it is the fastest ever negotiated agreement and the highest quality, opening up unprecedented access for New Zealand exporters to a market worth $500 billion. The UAE imports 90 percent of their food. They don’t have the opportunity to grow it for themselves. They have choices as to where they import that food from, and they will now be choosing New Zealand, and whilst our trade compared to many nations is modest—we export a billion dollars to them—I predict that the trade in that market will go up significantly and so very, very quickly, because the two Governments have said that we want to do business with each other and we provide the certainty of a trade agreement for our business communities to grow and to flourish.

The NZ-Gulf Cooperation Council agreement concluded last year—there is a $3 trillion opportunity in that region. The size of that economy—the countries are all of significance to New Zealand, but Saudi Arabia certainly is the jewel in the crown. Over 10 years, 99 percent of our exports will be tariff-free and, on entry into force with the CEPA, it will be more than half of what we export, tariff-free. There is a huge opportunity in that market. The Saudis are transitioning their economy away from reliance upon petrochemicals to opportunities and growth in so many fields, from tourism where there are New Zealand companies already there helping them build their infrastructure, giving advice, architects, engineers, construction companies, and, of course, another market where they import 80 percent of their food—a great opportunity for New Zealand exporters. This is a Government that backs those exporters to do well.

Finally, we are negotiating with India. Our second round of negotiation has taken place and we are making great progress. I predict we will have a deal that is meaningful with India before the end of this term of Government.

The honourable—sorry. Can I call Rawiri Waititi.

I love it when you address me like that, Mr Speaker! Ngā mihi nui ki a koe.

SPEAKER: Well, you know, you’re obviously an honourable man.

RAWIRI WAITITI: Tēnā tātou. Tēnā koe, Peeni, i ō mihi ki tō tātou tuahine i tēnei rā. Tika tonu, kei te mahana tonu tana wairua ki waenga i a tātou, me te mea hoki tika tonu kia mihi rā ki tōna hau kāinga, ki te nui o te iwi i tae ki runga i Taihape, ki Ōpaea Marae ki te tangi atu ki a ia. Me te mea hoki kei te tautoko i ō poroporoaki ki tērā o ō tātou tuāhine i tēnei rā.

Nō reira, Peeni, ngā mihi nui ki a koe, ki a koutou, Shanan, ki tō whanaunga, ki te tuahine rā. Kei te tangi tonu, kei te mihi tonu, ka poroporoaki tonu tātou ki a ia i tēnei rā.

[Greetings to us all. Thank you, Peeni, for your acknowledgments of our sister today. Very true, her spirit remains warm amongst us, and it is also very appropriate that we acknowledge her home people, to the many people that arrived in Taihape, to Ōpaea Marae, to grieve for her. And furthermore I support your eulogies to that particular sister of ours today.

And so, Peeni, many greetings to you, to all of you, Shanan, to your relation, to that particular sister. I yet grieve, I yet acknowledge her, and we will continue to eulogise her today.]

Just to acknowledge Takutai Tarsh Kemp in probably the first general debate I’ve taken part in since the passing of Takutai, and just to acknowledge the mihi today by Peeni Henare.

I want to just pick up, following the conclusion of the oral submissions on the Regulatory Standards Bill, on the rhetoric that continues to be pushed by the ACT Party, supported by the Government. Over 95 percent of Aotearoa saw this bill for what it truly was: a power grab by the ACT Party to sell off Aotearoa to their rich mates. So let’s look at that in a deeper sense. Approximately 131,000 submissions; 95 percent of those were against it—95 percent of those. That’s telling you that Aotearoa has spoken. But I want to, today, focus on one principle in this bill and what it means for our women, for our senior citizens—our kaumātua here in Aotearoa—who are not part of the 2 percent that control 50 percent of this country’s wealth.

In the Regulatory Standards Bill, you will find the following principle: “every person is equal before the law”. On the surface, this sounds like a harmless or even noble principle, but while David Seymour and the ACT Party failed to redefine Te Tiriti o Waitangi through the Treaty principles bill, they have succeeded in redefining the meaning of equality. They have convinced the public that sameness and equality are the same thing.

This is the mindset that justifies cutting the school lunches programme while giving a $3 billion handout to landlords, because, according to this Government, we all have the same opportunity to become landlords. We will be all treated the same. Whether you are rich or poor, you will be treated as though you are rich. Holding everybody to the same standard, regardless of whakapapa, culture, gender, ability, age, and class, can only lead to inequality. This is particularly true in a country founded on the displacement and manufactured poverty of indigenous people.

I want to address one of the ACT Party members today: Parmjeet Parmar, an Indian migrant MP who is waging war on Māori, based on race-based scholarships, study spaces, and entrance pathways. I wonder if she has written letters to the universities about the three Indian scholarships: New Zealand Excellence Awards, worth $260,0000; the University of Auckland India High Achievers Scholarship; and the University of Waikato Vice Chancellor’s International Excellence Scholarship for India. This is hypocrisy—this is hypocrisy. If this is about—

SPEAKER: As the member knows, you can’t accuse someone of that in this House. So withdraw the comment and find another way to say that.

RAWIRI WAITITI: What comment am I withdrawing, Mr Speaker?

SPEAKER: You cannot refer to someone in the—I’m not going to repeat it. You can’t use that term.

RAWIRI WAITITI: So I know what I’m apologising for?

SPEAKER: Well, you’ve just accused someone of engaging in a practice that has perhaps got a—I’m not going to say it.

RAWIRI WAITITI: The “h” word—you can’t say the “h” word?

SPEAKER: No—OK? Now, you’ve got it.

RAWIRI WAITITI: I apologise, Mr Speaker. But that doesn’t take away from the fact—that doesn’t take away from the fact—that it’s double standards; it’s double standards and it’s rūpahu—that is rūpahu. Look, earlier today, women representing over 300,000—this is the other part, so we’ll leave that there for the member to think about it, and I look forward to seeing her letters to the universities addressing that particular issue. But we want to make sure, everybody, that this piece of legislation based on everybody being the same under the law—absolutely rubbish.

It’s absolutely rubbish, and I tell you what: my plea is to our elderly people out there, to those who are on the super—that is under threat. Your super card is under threat because it’s preferential treatment to elderly—it’s preferential treatment to the elderly—and we don’t want to risk those particular issues that ensure that they live with some dignity.

We absolutely support the SuperGold card, and we absolutely support those scholarships that I just mentioned. But it’s double standards when it comes from that party when they’re targeting one race, which is te iwi Māori—and I want to bring that up, right now. We need to make sure—and I talk to our elderly citizens out there—that they write to Winston Peters. This is his flagship policy. Write to him and ensure that that bill doesn’t go through this House, because it will put everybody on notice who needs the dignity to live. Kia ora tātou.

Emotions have been running high in this Parliament since question time, especially on that side of the House, where they don’t like this side pointing out their record on jobs for what it is. This is a Government that has seen 47,000 New Zealanders leave its shores because of joblessness, because of the rising cost of living, and because they can’t save for a home and buy one. This is a Government that will be remembered for 17,000 jobs in the building and construction sector, since they were elected, gone—axed. Where are they now? They’re in Australia, building their roads, their schools, their hospitals.

When this Government crows about its infrastructure pipeline, what jobs are they talking about? They know that in their electorate, not one person is saying, “Oh, thank you, National, for that infrastructure pipeline that is kicking in in 2026. Oh good, my apprentice, who I’ve had on for two years down at my construction site, whose training I’ve invested in, and who I was promised by that National Government I would be getting the Apprenticeship Boost for in the election—they’re in Perth. Aren’t I lucky that the Government is giving me an infrastructure pipeline in five years to look forward to?”

Meanwhile, 20 percent of electricians in this country will be retiring in the next year. With gasfitters and plumbers, the situation is the same: an ageing workforce, that this Government is overseeing, having no one to replace them. And they say they are proud of their pipeline of work. Who will do that work?

When workers are under attack by this Government, it’s this party, the Labour Party, the party of workers, who will be standing up for them. The record of this Government will be that they have overseen the mass exodus of young people, of Māori, of the women who got into trades under the Labour Government—out and off to Australia. Those important construction workers who came in on technical projects like the City Rail Link and like the Manukau SuperClinic—they have gone. Because it’s this Government’s slogan that “Everyone must go”, they’ve overseen the leaving of all of those people who we desperately need when our economy is back in fit shape, under a Labour Government, to build again.

We’re the party of work, and building and construction is good work. It employs one in 10 Kiwis still, despite the massive cuts that have seen them leaving. More than 17 percent of the construction sector are Māori, and one in five Auckland workers are involved in the building and construction sector. That means that this Government’s record on the building and construction sector slump, which is heavier and harder than the global financial crisis now, is hitting Auckland particularly hard, and it’s hitting my community of Manurewa. You know what that means? It means that I walk down to the Manurewa town shops with my kids, and two of the four places where we can buy food, we can stop in, we can talk to the community—they have shut up shop, at the moment. They cannot make a living out of it, as bakeries and retailers; they are overseas visiting family because it costs them more to open their doors at the moment. The tradies aren’t coming through, the workers aren’t coming through, and if they do have a job, they don’t have money to spend.

What does this Government say? They say, “Don’t worry about it. We’ve got something in the infrastructure pipeline.” It’s stuff that we already knew about; it’s stuff that kicks in in five years’ time. That is not a record to be proud of; that is a record of overseeing a huge downturn in our economy, which will create scarring for a long time. Scarring for who? Scarring for the people who can least afford it.

We’re lucky to have some of those community housing providers at the moment building houses in my area, in South Auckland. I’m told that they are, in fact, the only housing providers that are getting housing consents through the council at the moment, because they are the only ones who can keep the pipeline going—no thanks to this Government—even though its policy is that community housing providers should be providing those houses that my community desperately needs. One in three people in Manurewa live in a Kāinga Ora home, and then this Government is saying that they should be providing housing by community housing providers who it’s not helping to continue to build those houses. Why is it not helping? Because it’s not helping with the funding and it’s certainly not helping them with the builders that they need.

This isn’t a plan; this is economic vandalism. It’s hurting the people who cannot save themselves, who cannot create an economic buffer for themselves. The reason why Governments should pay attention to jobs in an economic downturn is because those young people who we need to stay here on our shores, to invest in their education and to learn, those are the people who are most affected by this. They are the people who will leave and we will not get back. They are the people who the Government should be focused on making sure are in employment. They should carry through on their promise about Apprenticeship Boost. They should be making sensible changes to the building sector, so that they have somewhere to learn and something to hope for. But this Government is hands off when it comes to jobs; it’s hands off when it comes to young people, and that will be its record.

I want to talk about prudent financial management. We’ve heard a lot of speeches today from around the House about the problems that we have here in New Zealand. That issue has been well canvassed. We all know there are problems in this country, but what we haven’t heard are the solutions from the other side. So I want to talk about some of the solutions that this coalition Government has been undertaking.

Prudent financial management of the taxpayer’s money: I want to express why it’s important to me from the West Coast-Tasman electorate. This year’s Budget, as we know, was all about building the New Zealand economy, getting growth back into the economy, creating jobs, and lifting wages so that we can lift the prosperity of the cost of living so that it’s easier on Kiwis. But rather than focusing on the short-term sugar hit—which we all know if we feed our kids a heap of sugar, what comes at the end of that? The crash. So we don’t want the crash. We want long-term investment so that our country is set up for economic recovery and growth into the future.

Now, things like ensuring we lift the education standards in this country: there is nothing more important than investing in our students in our schools and universities, not only lifting the academic achievement but also building new classrooms so that they’ve got the most modern environment to learn in. Erica Stanford has done an amazing job at cutting in half the cost of building a new classroom. So what does that mean? It means we get twice as much for our money now. We’re getting twice as many classrooms for the same price as what the previous Government was spending. Now, it sets them up when they’ve got a greater education for higher-paying jobs. It gives them more future choices. But we’ve also got to stop the wasteful spending. This Government has done a huge amount in that space in the past, but we do know that we’ve got a lot more to do as well.

Growing our exports: Todd McClay has just expressed the important work that he’s been doing offshore. We don’t build those relationships and we don’t build those trade deals by staying at home and hoping people come knocking on our door. We have to be proactive about getting out there in the international environment and selling our country’s products offshore. And to know now that we have got access to a $500 billion market in the United Arab Emirates by the new trade deal, which was passed yesterday in this House, is a huge step forward, and the Minister has expressed what that means in economic terms.

But one of the most exciting opportunities for my electorate of West Coast-Tasman are the plans to double mining exports in 10 years to $3 billion. I’m very happy and enthusiastic about promoting mining, so I was very pleased to hear that, just late last week, another mining consent was granted by the West Coast Regional Council and Westland District Council for Westland Mineral Sands Company to begin mining just south of Hokitika. They’re going to be mining things like ilmenite, garnet, gold, and other rare earth minerals. They’re just below Hokitika—so a great opportunity to create jobs really close to a major town.

The other way that our electorate in West Coast-Tasman is doing well—and what we do well—is water. Hydro generation has huge potential for us on the West Coast. There’s no doubt that New Zealand does not have energy security going forward. I thought it was very rich today to hear from the Leader of the Opposition about how hard it is for our older people, that they have to turn off their heaters because the price of electricity is so high. I’d just like to remind the other side: who wrecked our electricity industry? Who wrecked our energy sector? Does anybody remember Lake Onslow? Lake Onslow was going to be an $18 billion or $16 billion project. So the industry players stepped back and said, “We don’t need to do this any more; the Government’s going to do it for us.” So we have now got a real gap in our energy infrastructure. No wonder the electricity price is going up, and the same with oil and gas. Thank God for the coalminers who are producing coal on the West Coast, keeping our processing plants running, because one captain’s call wrecked the oil and gas industry. I think this Government has done a fabulous job of laying the foundation stones for the future, and I’m very proud of the effort that West Coast-Tasman has played.

E te Māngai, tēnā koe. Otirā e te Whare, tēnā koutou katoa. This Government is failing one in 10 people in Aotearoa living with endometriosis. That’s more than 120,000 people, a figure likely to be much higher due to chronic misdiagnosis and impenetrable access to specialist care. And do not fall for this Government’s rhetoric, which seeks to embed anti-trans and misogynistic ideologies into our healthcare system. Yes, some woman can give birth, but so too can trans and gender diverse people, and the same can be said about those suffering with endometriosis.

This is a reproductive health issue, a human right, that has been ignored for too long by this Government. The silence and inaction must end, so whakarongo mai. We have heard, just this week in the House from the Minister of Health, that equity and targeted care based on social determinants like gender, sexuality, and whakapapa do not matter to this Government. The Healthy Futures (Pae Ora) Amendment Bill is just one example of that belief, manifested in legislation. We have seen this consistently during this term: smoke-free laws have been repealed which will disproportionately kill Māori; rainbow and takatāpui - specific mental health providers have been left high and dry; gender-affirming healthcare guidelines are being unnecessarily delayed; and people in desperate chronic pain needing specialist care for endometriosis are being rejected by the healthcare system.

Successive Governments have allowed entrenched medical misogyny to go unchecked in the healthcare system for too long. It is a disgrace that endometriosis, a condition which only affects women, trans men, and gender diverse people, takes, on average, eight to 10 years to be diagnosed in this country. Let’s not fail to mention the utter dearth of meaningful investment from this Government in research, infrastructure, training, and care that has been called on by people with endometriosis for decades—all this against the stark contrast of the Australian Government, which recently invested $500 million in targeted reproductive care.

We must do better. There are countless stories of too many people suffering from the immense pain of endometriosis, pain that goes beyond the physical, that infiltrates mental and spiritual health, that permeates and impacts relationships, that causes extreme stress on financial wellbeing and employment opportunities. I’ve heard from women who are told by their doctors that they just have painful periods; stories of trans men being turned away from care due to cis normative medical practices. Stories of gender diverse folk being ignored, erased, and humiliated by a system which fails to recognise their existence. If the option of treatment does eventuate, the rights of patients are often fundamentally undermined by a patriarchal system which prioritises hypothetical conception over a patient’s bodily autonomy.

It has been five years since the Hon Julie Anne Genter shepherded Aotearoa’s first best-practice guidelines for the treatment of endometriosis—a groundbreaking step at the time—but which has been totally disregarded since, with no attempts to review or invest in the next steps to continue the urgently needed progress in endometriosis healthcare. It is time to listen to the experts and community; they know what’s best.

Endometriosis New Zealand chief executive Tanya Cooke recently said that the Government needs to take up the call for a national endometriosis action plan that can provide a coordinated response to endometriosis in New Zealand. We must also address the legislative gap which fails to recognise endometriosis as an official disability. By doing this, people suffering from these severe health impacts and the insidious discrimination that it should not—but disturbingly does—entail, would be guaranteed rights and protections, which they are currently left without.

To continue a regime of under resourcing and apathy towards meaningful improvements to care for people with endometriosis is simply cruel and inhumane, but this Government has proven it does not care about equity in healthcare, it does not care about trans and gender diverse lives, and it does not care about the reproductive health rights of all people in Aotearoa—

The member’s time has expired.

Koinei te wā tuatahi kua tū ahau ki roto i tēnei Whare nō muri mai i te hingatanga o tō tātou hoa aroha, a Takutai Tarsh Kemp, nā reira i tēnei wā ka huri ōku whakaaro ki tōna wairua, te wairua i ū, i noho pūmau ki te rangimārie. Ahakoa te kaupapa, ahakoa ngā hōhā me ngā piki me ngā heke o tēnei Whare, kāore ia i ngaro i te ngākau mahitahi. E tino mokemoke ana tātou ki a ia.

Moe mai rā, Takutai, i te korowai mahana o ō tupuna. Ka maumahara tonu mātou ki a koe. Ia wā ka whai mātou kia pūāwai ngā hapori, ia wā ka rapu mātou i te huarahi kia kotahi ai, ia wā ka tū mātou i tēnei Whare, ā, ka taupatupatu ai ngā whakaaro me ngā mahere kia pakari ai te wairua o ngā whānau katoa. Mā mātou koe e maumahara tonu.

[This is the first time that I have stood in this House following the passing of our beloved friend Takutai Tarsh Kemp, and so, at this time, my thoughts return to her spirit, a spirit that was resolute and remained steadfast to peace. Regardless of the subject, despite the frustration and the ups and downs of this House, she never lost her collaborative heart. We miss her a lot.

Sleep well, Takutai, within the warm mantle of your ancestors. We will remember you every time we pursue the flourishing of communities, every time we search for the path of unity, every time we stand in this House and debate ideas and plans so that the soul of all families may be robust. We will remember you.]

On that day at Takutai’s marae, I was welcomed by a handsome MP wearing a Te Pāti Māori hat. He was seated beside Rawiri Waititi. Peeni Henare was his name. I caught a glimpse again, that day, of what this House is possible of, and of what Takutai brought. I thought it was a classic kupu whakarite—a classic metaphor—of what it was that she sought to foster in every interaction that I had with her, and so I want to acknowledge her today.

I want to stay on that theme. I want to turn my attention back to a conversation that I had that same week. It was with my Youth MP, Madeleine ’One’one, who has been here today with her fellow Tongan youth leaders from Onehunga High School. They were here earlier; then, they were watching these speeches from the Labour caucus room—I have some work to do, clearly. Right now, they’ve had to catch their shuttle to the airport, so, hopefully, they’ll be watching this later on. I wanted to mihi to them and acknowledge the passion that they have for our community. Mālō e lelei ‘a e fānau ako mā‘oni‘oni mo e kau taki ‘i he kaha‘u….lototo‘a These young leaders carry loto to’a - humble hearts and a dream to tautua to serve their community, as Takutai did. They are stepping up in debate, public service, and leadership, ko e ‘ofa, ko e lotu pea mo e ngāue, love, faith, and action. They are all alive in them, and it gives me some hope. I want to acknowledge the amazing leadership opportunities and development that is offered for so many young people at Onehunga High School, as it is in every one of our schools in Maungakiekie.

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to be interviewed by a couple of young year 4 students from Onehunga Primary School who were doing a leadership project. Franco and Max were absolutely delightful. They asked such thoughtful, fantastic questions. I was tempted, at the time, to bring them to Parliament to coach MPs—perhaps not in the patsy questions. One of their questions was: what do you most appreciate about being a leader? I explained how much I loved the opportunity to turn the dial for people in our community on a daily basis. Those moves may not shift the course of the whole country, but for that person or for that whānau, it means everything.

Their next question was a more challenging one. It said: what do you most struggle with about being a leader? What do you most struggle with? I think I winced at the time. I said to them: “There are so many things that I wish I could change, both here and overseas, that are simply outside of my authority.” It’s something I’ve been reflecting on a lot lately—the limits of influence, particularly with so much injustice in our world. I told Franco and Max that wise leadership includes accepting those limits even when you wish it were otherwise, focusing each day on what you can do, and that’s why I celebrate the kind of leadership that’s fostered at our schools in Maungakiekie, at our charities in Maungakiekie, and our businesses.

A big shout-out tomorrow for the Onehunga Business Awards—because I’m on duty here, sadly I’ll miss it, but what a night it will be, celebrating the work, the care, the sacrifices that our local businesses make to create jobs, deliver services, and invest in our community. Those businesses, those community organisations, those schools, those whānau: they are the backbone of our community. They are the ones that call us to seek justice, to work well together.

Kia tau te rangimārie ki a tātou, kia whāia atu te kōrero tahi, kia whāia atu te whakapūāwai o tō tātou hapori.

[Let peace settle upon us, let us pursue discourse, let us pursue the flourishing of our community.]

Mālō ‘aupito, kia ora.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Since this Government has come into power, we have seen attack after attack after attack on workers, not just with the loss of jobs that we’re seeing just getting bigger and bigger all the time but with an attack on workers’ conditions, an attack on workers’ wages, and an attack on the rights of workers. I know that 6 May brought one of the darkest days and the biggest attacks on workers in this country, particularly those women who have been fighting for so long to ensure that they have a fair chance at their pay equity claims. That is the day this Government announced they were going to gut the pay equity schemes within this country. That was the day they absolutely gutted that not only by changing pay equity in the country but by absolutely cancelling out the 33 active claims that were in place.

Today, we saw hundreds of people once again gather together on the grounds of Parliament, out the front, on the lawn, to see the handover of the petition “Protect Pay Equity - stop scrapping equal pay claims and law”, which 93,924 people have signed since 6 May. What an incredible number of people to sign a petition in such a short time. Those people are sending a clear message that New Zealanders will not accept the Government’s gutting of pay equity, and they are fighting back. They are very angry, and they told their anger out there today. In fact, we heard from young people as well saying how demoralising it was when this National-led Government didn’t consult anyone around their changes. They made the changes under urgency and wiped 33 claims—active claims—off the books, forcing a law change that takes money out of women’s pockets. And what did we hear from that Government? What did we hear from key Ministers, like the Minister for Women? Crickets. Absolutely nothing. They were not prepared to stand up and fight for what was right for women and workers in this country.

This was just another blow for women, who are already suffering under the cost of living under this Government. We know the difference that those pay equity claims make. We have heard about that difference, time and time again, and I want people in this House to think about people they know—and I’m sure that every single person has somebody they know—and how those claims have made a difference in their lives and the lives of their whānau. We heard today, out there, about the care and support workers—the people who had the first successful claim, with Kristine Bartlett back in 2017—who fought for that successful claim through the courts. We heard about the difference that that made, and we heard about the difference that it makes to their whānau.

I have a personal interest in that. I have a disabled sister, and I have met the people who have given her support over the years. These are the people who support our most vulnerable, in their darkest days sometimes. Those people help my sister, who I love dearly, to lead a life of mana and a life of dignity. Why is it that we, in a great country such as Aotearoa New Zealand, fight against them having the pay equity that they deserve? Why is that Government prepared to pay them, and keep them being paid, less than their male counterparts that do work of equal value? That is what it comes down to.

Today’s petition shows that people in this country know women are not worth less. They are not worth less than men, and the people who signed that petition today gave a very clear message to this Government. I want to acknowledge that message and say it here again today. This is only the beginning. We will not rest until every working woman in Aotearoa New Zealand—

The member’s time has expired.

Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. This Government, we have seen scrambling in the past week, because the reality is that the decisions that they have made have led to a much longer and deeper recession, and huge cuts in the construction sector because of the large number of cancelled projects. While they’re out there promising that they’re putting money into infrastructure and that’s going to create jobs, the reality is that, overall, they have cut more than they are going to invest in. Most of the projects they announced last Sunday have been funded for years—literally since the previous Labour Government.

Let’s look at the numbers. Here’s the reality: an Infrastructure New Zealand survey found that 65 percent of firms have reduced staff over the past 12 months. I’ve got a graph here that everyone can look at. Make sure you can see this. This is a year-on-year comparison of insolvencies in key industries from 2024 to 2025. The orange is 2025. You can see the orange is going up in most sectors. That means there’s more insolvencies in 2025 than there were in 2024. This is, in large part, due to the Government’s response since they came into power. But the really large orange line here is the construction sector. This is January to March. In June of 2025, construction firms made up one-third of all company liquidations. As we can see, that has been increasing over time.

The Government came in, and they say, “Oh, we want cross-party support. We want cross-party consensus on infrastructure.”, and yet what they’re asking for is for the Opposition to support their 30-year strategy on infrastructure when, in fact, they cancelled a bunch of long-term projects that should have had cross-party support. What’s the perfect example? Right after they came in, they put a whole bunch of projects on hold from the Ministry of Education—hundreds of school projects. In the end, over 100 were confirmed cancelled. Kāinga Ora: 212 projects. Recently, 212 projects were confirmed cancelled. That amounts to 3,479 homes at a time when we have a housing crisis and the private sector is not in a position to be investing. While it’s the perfect time for the Government itself to be investing in housing, they cancelled housing. I know a builder in my own electorate who said he had $70 million worth of work over the next five years lined up, pulled out from under the rug or, in some cases, delayed by a year and a half even when those projects are carrying on.

Everybody knows about the ferries being cancelled, and supposedly this is fiscal responsibility. It’s absolute rubbish. Those ferries are a lifeline. They are fundamentally critical infrastructure between the North and South Islands, which now we have a whole lot of uncertainty for the next few years while we don’t even have a contract for new ferries. But it is also the case that construction firms, engineers, and others were all put out of work when the upgrades to the wharfs were unceremoniously cancelled. Could it have been reviewed? Could perhaps there have been some savings found? I would say yes. That would have been a much better deal than cancelling the ferries.

The Government cancelled the transport choices programme. Now, this removed safety infrastructure from the vicinity of 101 schools around the country. It hurt jobs, and it hurt safety around schools. Honestly, if there was going to be cross-party consensus about anything in this House, I would think that safety around schools would be one of those things, and yet the Government cancelled projects that would have improved safety around 101 schools, and then, of course, they forced local councils to put the speed limit up around schools.

I could go on. Obviously, the Dunedin Hospital rebuild was scaled back. Three waters: we couldn’t get all the figures on the three waters projects, but that three waters change had a huge impact on a lot of civil construction that had been lined up for the past year and a half. Now, coincidentally, we have parts of the country who are being told they have to be on a boil notice, potentially for years, while they wait for the infrastructure.

Now, the reality is that there are solutions, and the Green Party is talking about the solutions. We’ve put out a fully costed Green Budget that shows how, if we had a fairer tax system, we could actually address our infrastructure challenges, address climate change, ensure that everyone in New Zealand has a warm, dry home, and invest in smart infrastructure like rail. There is an alternative. New Zealanders are smart enough to see through the PR spin and stunts of this Government, who largely represents, and is funded by, oligarchs, the richest of the rich just looking to get richer. The idea that they care about New Zealanders and the long-term future of this country is a joke. New Zealanders, it is showing in the most recent poll.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.