General Debate

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

“Te Tiriti is an opportunity for good for everyone in Aotearoa, and especially in the work of prevention of violence. It is a basis for belonging, a basis for equity, justice, and peace. Te Tiriti is an opportunity for both tangata whenua, tangata Tiriti, and all people to achieve wellbeing.” That was actually a quote from the Family Violence Death Review Committee, not from a Māori organisation, not from a Māori group, not from a Māori person, but from an organisation who understands that at the heart of eliminating violence has to be Te Tiriti and upholding the relationship between Māori tangata whenua and the Crown.

It is therefore quite disappointing that I stand to speak today in support of the ministerial advisory group, Te Pūkotahitanga, to the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, a group that I stood up in my time as prevention of family and sexual violence Minister. This current Minister has decided to discontinue that tangata whenua advisory group. That is another repeat example of this Government’s undermining of Te Tiriti and undermining of tangata whenua, but, most disappointingly, its undermining the work of Te Aorerekura, one of the most iconic violence prevention strategies, joined up with Government, community, tangata whenua—all groups of people working together over generations to eliminate violence properly with system change and community-led work.

Te Pūkotahitanga, the Tangata Whenua Ministerial Advisory Group, was born from an understanding that centring Te Tiriti was going to be key to interrupting the generational violence that exists in this country and to interrupt it for everyone. It was born out of a clear demand from groups across the sector, not just Māori, who knew that the only way to properly address violence was to both have a mana ki te mana relationship with the Minister and the ministerial advisory group, while also recognising that wahine Māori are more likely than any gender or ethnicity to experience violence, and therefore that requires mātauranga Māori, kaupapa Māori, and Māori relationships to be at the centre of the work for everyone. It also understood, as did the Family Violence Death Review Committee, that kaupapa Māori practice, in their research, had very clearly been upraised as effective and best practice for all people, because it was strength-based, because it is led with whole-of-whānau-and-community healing, and because it recognises that the Crown needs to take responsibility for its harm in violence, and that has been long and well established across decades.

The Greens would absolutely continue to highlight Te Tiriti as a positive chance for ending violence, continuing to fund a tangata whenua ministerial advisory group, and rejecting the playoff that the current Minister and her party are trying to instil—we’ve seen that be rejected, for example, just at the Regulatory Standards Bill oral submissions, where, across the board, at least 80 percent of the submissions that are opposed to that bill were clearly also upholding Te Tiriti as key to prosperity for this country, for everyone.

So I’m standing here to honour the expertise and leadership of the members of that tangata whenua ministerial advisory group, to give them voice and add my solidarity to the disappointment, so much so that they have reclaimed back the reo Māori names of both the department, formerly called Te Puna Aonui, and the group name Te Pūkotahitanga, as recognition of the breach of this Minister and her Government to their leadership, to their expertise, and to continuing the proper pathway and progression of eliminating violence, not just from Māori but from all of our country and from all of our generation.

So continuing to highlight and use Te Tiriti as a weapon against communities and groups in this country is completely against the spirit of what Te Tiriti has always meant, which has always been the promise of peoples to take the best possible care of each other. It is disappointing to see the end of the Tangata Whenua Ministerial Advisory Group—understandable that they have claimed back the reo use of their Māori names of the departments. The Greens would continue to support Tiriti-centred leadership, including in prevention of violence work, because that will be good for everyone. Thank you.

On this side of the House, we were busy during the most recent recess restoring law and order and restoring real consequences for crime. We’ve been concerned that New Zealanders should feel safe in their communities so we’ve built on the work that we’ve done ending the culture of excuses that we inherited from the previous administration by restoring three strikes, tougher sentencing laws, tightening up the sentencing laws to restrict the ability of judges to massively reduce sentences, and giving the police the extra powers that they need to take on the gangs. As well as that, we’ve ended permanent name suppression for convicted adult sex offenders—people need to be able to warn others—and we’ve also brought in legislation around stalking so that New Zealanders can feel safe from that.

On top of all those things, we’ve turned to the retail space and we’ve done a whole lot of things to help our retailers and their customers feel safe in the retail environment by introducing changes to the citizens arrest provisions to stop the ridiculous situation of people walking out of shops with a trolley full of food—being escorted to the car by the security guards—with nobody being able to do anything. We’re bringing in an infringement regime for shoplifting so that there is swift justice for those to deal with the rampant shoplifting that we’ve seen in our community so that people have confidence in the justice system.

We’re also bringing changes to the trespass laws, which haven’t been workable; many people in the sector have been encouraging us to make changes there. On top of that, we’re bringing tougher consequences for those who attack our first responders—the ambulance drivers, the firefighters, and the police. They deserve an extra cloak of legislative protection because they go into the scene of danger on behalf of the rest of society and they should be preserved. We’re also going to bring in some changes around the coward punch.

So what has been the response to all of that? I look over to the other side and, obviously, it got a little bit under the collar of our friend Mr Hipkins because he started ranting and raving about the “Tories” in the press as if there was something going on there and things were unfair—terribly sad about that. Then we had our friend Tamatha Paul from the Greens, who thought it was a good idea to bring up shoplifting in the context of the Greens and said that if people don’t have enough money to buy food, they’re going to go and look towards shoplifting things, as if there’s almost a green light from the Green Party that you should go out and shoplift if you haven’t got enough food. Well, there’s plenty of New Zealanders who have to work very hard and struggle to get through the week. Yes, it’s a difficult situation, but the vast majority of New Zealanders do not steal; society needs to send a strong and clear message. We certainly won’t be getting a strong and clear message from a Labour-Greens Government if, heaven forbid, there was one in the future.

When we look across the House to the justice sector, it does puzzle me, I suppose. I mean, the last new law and order policy announced by a Labour MP was announced by Kiri Allan a long time ago. We haven’t heard a single thing in terms of new policy on law and order from that side of the House. We’re now well over 18 months into the term. When we were in Opposition, we were coming up with ideas—new ideas—putting them before the public. It is the role of the Opposition both to oppose and to propose, and we haven’t heard a single proposal on the other side; they just seem to be sitting there doing nothing, not coming up with ideas.

I mean, are they going to bring back the culture of excuses? I mean, maybe that should be their policy. Well, at least they could actually say it so we could talk about it and know what they’re on about. Are they going to return to a sole focus on reducing the prison population—regardless of what’s going on in the community—by 30 percent? I mean, that might be one thing they’re going to do. They’ll certainly repeal our tough gang legislation because they prefer to give money to the gangs to do meth programmes, remember? Maybe they’ll be returning to the policy of funding gangs and gang associates to deliver meth programmes—that might be one of the things they’re going to do. I’m just not quite clear what the priorities are. I’m not even entirely sure who the justice spokesperson is in the Labour Party. It might have been that Reuben guy who gave me a cake a couple of weeks ago, I think, to acknowledge the great work that we’ve been doing on law and order. I thank him for that; my office enjoyed it immensely.

Ultimately, when we look at what the Government’s trying to achieve, first and foremost it’s about getting the economy moving so people have more money in their pockets and they can deal effectively—to look after themselves and their families and live in a prosperous society. So everything’s focused on growing the economy. Number two has been about restoring law and order. When we came into Government, it was a serious concern for many New Zealanders. The good news is that we’ve made great progress in the last 18 months. We had a target to reduce the number of victims of crime from 185,000 to 165,000 by 2029 and we’re already at 158,000. That’s still 158,000 too many. There’s much work that’s been done, but much more yet to do.

At the beginning of this year, the Government launched a new tourism slogan, “Everyone Must Go!” The problem for the Government is that New Zealanders are taking that literally and everyone is going: 184,000 New Zealanders have simply given up on this Government. They have voted with their feet and they have left the country, because under this Government, despite all the promises, despite all the bold projections, despite the constant reassurance that things are turning the corner and everything’s starting to get better, for most New Zealand families things continue to get worse.

On a day-to-day basis, New Zealanders struggling to pay their bills are being told by the Government, “Oh, but it’s all better now.” and yet they know that it isn’t. When they open the mail and they see their rates bill, they know their rates are going up, and they know their rates are going up because of the decisions this Government has taken. When they see their power bill going up, they see once again the Government with a whole lot of steam about the electricity sector but doing nothing to fix it—in fact, a Government that’s doubling down on the most expensive source of electricity, which is fossil fuels. When they could be focused on lowering people’s power bills, they seem committed to pushing the price of power further and further up.

We see it in insurance bills. What’s the Government’s contribution to insurance bills been? Well, first of all, they are saying they’re going to abandon regions that have been affected by severe weather events caused by climate change, first of all by denying that climate change is happening and second of all by simply ignoring the consequences of it, which is what the people in Nelson and Tasman seem to be seeing at the moment: a Government that’s pretending that they’re just not there at the moment. But the reality is their one contribution to the insurance sector has been to hike up the Government part of insurance levies.

Across the board, New Zealand families are seeing that at every opportunity the Government has to cut costs for households, the Government is doing the opposite. Every levy, every potential tax aside from income tax that the Government could increase, they are increasing. Even the cost of registering your car has pretty much doubled under this Government—a new drivers’ tax introduced, effectively, by this Government, because it’s not that the cost of registering your car has gone up; it’s just that the Government wanted more money so they’re going to charge you more money in order to be able to register your car.

Everywhere New Zealanders look, they will see the cost of living going up and they will see it being exacerbated by this Government. Take those who use public transport every day. Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders use public transport every day, and they see the Government actively saying to those operating public transport, “Charge people more.” That’s actually been a directive by the Government: charge people more for their public transport every day. So every time someone gets on a bus or a train or uses public transport, they are being told that their fares going up is because that’s what the Government have chosen for them.

Every day, New Zealanders see their prices going up and they see the Government celebrating that; they see the Government encouraging that. Instead of actually acknowledging the real economic pain that New Zealanders are feeling, we see a Government in denial. With 15,000 to 17,000—depending on which numbers you concentrate on—jobs disappearing from the construction sector, we’ve got the Government saying, “Oh, but everything’s getting better.”, and yet the builders are saying that things are getting worse. The people who actually do the work are saying that things are getting worse.

This Government is in denial about the consequences of the decisions that they are taking. When they choose to cut new State house builds, when they choose to cut hospital rebuilds, when they choose to cut school upgrades, when they choose to cut transport projects, they are putting people out of work and they are deferring the problems further and further into the future.

Today, I had the opportunity to speak to some young people here to learn about the Government’s Budget, and the most important point that I made to them was this: Government Budgets only record the cost of what Governments are doing; they don’t record the cost of what Government is not doing. It’s the young people sitting in front of me who are ultimately going to pay that cost, and that is what this Government are willing to do. They are willing to load up more and more costs on to the next generation of New Zealanders rather than actually invest in their future, and that is why young New Zealanders are giving up on this Government and leaving the country, because they see no future here under this Government. They simply see a Government determined to make their future darker rather than better, and that is what the Government should actually be focused on doing.

There is something that I know absolutely about vocational education and training, and that is that locals know best; local industries know best, local communities know best. And guess what! That member who just finished his speech didn’t understand that when he set up that failed institution Te Pūkenga, he didn’t understand it, and he disrespected those local communities. Let’s have a look how that went for him. Well, two and a half years after he set it up, that institution did not have a long-term financial strategy to get to sustainability. It didn’t have a short-term financial plan to get to financial sustainability. They didn’t do anything to help the financial sustainability of that sector.

Shanan Halbert: Where’s your financial plan?

Hon PENNY SIMMONDS: That was one of the reasons why Mr Halbert’s boss set it up, and it didn’t work. Let me remind him that, in 2022, it ran an $80 million deficit; in 2023, it ran a $38 million deficit; and, in 2024, it forecasted a $93 million deficit. Thank goodness there was a change of Government! People who knew how to run a polytechnic came into power, and it was turned round to a $17 million surplus. Thank goodness! I think I might have said, at the time that it was being set up by his boss, that it wouldn’t work, because he didn’t know how to run anything. I doubted if he knew how to run his own bar, and it came to be true—it came to be true.

What are we doing? National is going to restore regional decision-making, communities are going to influence polytechnic operations, and the changes are being welcomed across New Zealand. I remember when Mr Halbert’s boss was setting up Te Pūkenga, and I said to him, “With the centralisation, how are you going to ensure that well-performing institutions continue to perform well if they’re cross-subsidising others?” His answer was, “Well, I suppose it depends how good a manager you are.” I knew, at that moment, we were in trouble. He didn’t understand how to run it. But that wasn’t the worst it got. It got even more divisive. There was a polytechnic that had this wonderful state-of-the-art virtual reality for nursing. It was great. They could see in front of them—the trainee nurses—how to cope with a COVID patient who was deteriorating. What did Te Pūkenga decide about that? This is state-of-the-art stuff. It’s absolutely cutting edge. What did Te Pūkenga decide? Not, “Oh, gosh! We should try and get this in all the nursing schools.” No. They decided that was far too competitive with the rest of the nursing schools and said, “Oh, you can’t upgrade that. We can’t have that happening.” It was taking everyone down to the lowest common denominator.

What are we doing to ensure that there is going to be access to vocational education and training across the whole country? Putting in place a federation. A federation? What a novel idea. It was put in the submissions to the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins when he set Te Pūkenga up that a federation would be a good idea. Did he listen? No, he knew what was best. A federation will allow those smaller polytechnics, those ones with remote populations, to be able to have online learning, to be able to have access to blended delivery, to be able to deliver a wider range of portfolios of programmes and to be able to ensure that those areas that have got high numbers of unemployed youth have got a pathway to employment, a pathway to a meaningful job, and a pathway to good pay. They have got a pathway to get them out of being on the jobseeker benefit, and that is because we are putting in place a model that will enable access right across the country.

Locals know best. Local people, local communities, local industries know best, and we need builders and we need plumbers and we need nurses and we need mechanics and we need chefs across the whole country, and that’s what they’ll get from National.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I am a farmer, and my colleague beside me is also a farmer and there are a few farmers in the building. [Interruption] Thank you very much.

SPEAKER: Where’s your boots?

MARK CAMERON: I want to share an expression that is shared in rural New Zealand, if I may: “Can’t fix stupid, but I can feed one.” That’s commonplace in rural New Zealand; 56- to 60-odd billion bucks is made by rural people. Now, I am amazed when I come into this building that the advocacy on the left when it comes to the representation of rural New Zealand is missing in action; routinely not mentioning what we do so marvellously well, that I advocate for, that Andrew Hoggard advocates for, and that others advocate for on this side of the House.

In the world of equanimity—equal and opposites—how is it so many are fed by so few, my colleagues and I? I cannot for the life of me reconcile why it’s never mentioned or so seldom mentioned by the other side of the House. What, did they forget their meals, their breakfast, their lunch, the clothing they wear? I see, routinely, people wearing leather goods, shoes, handbags; reconcile where that is made and by whom. Yet, routinely, no comment, nothing shared. How is that so?

My colleague and I, we go out, 365 days of the year, we milk a cow, we shear a sheep. [Interruption] We are cognisant that not doing so would be our fiscal end. People laugh, but they are wearing my clothing, this man’s clothing. They are drinking our milk, eating our cheese, gracious me! But it’s comedic on the other side of the House. I don’t understand how quickly the left forgets where its breakfast was or the dinner the night before.

I grew up in the country—a fair amount of it—and things that we took as commonplace, I want to share with this House to try and bring some rural New Zealand to my townie kin. Now, routinely, Andrew Hoggard and I and Mike Butterick and others would talk about a shearing raised board, a gut, a wool press. What does that look like to a townie? They don’t know, but that’s what made your blessed clothing. How do you reconcile that? A cowshed, a cluster, a bowl, a receiving can—commonplace tools for everyday Kiwi folk. A ploughshare, a shear pin, a hock, a fetlock; all were terminology that we grew up with. And yet 60 billion bucks, I’m so sad, is routinely not mentioned by my colleagues on the left. How can you reconcile that when we, as parliamentarians—some of us—have, essentially, turned our back on rural New Zealand?

Now, I want to share an anecdote, if I may, for some in the public gallery, some of my parliamentarian colleagues. I’m brought to reconciling a period in my life on a Sunday morning when I got into drain, to put a snig chain on a cow. Sunday morning, July, August—doesn’t matter, give or take a bit. It’s blessed freezing. Now, I am pulling out this cow for fear that I would lose her life. So I run a bag into her. My hands are frozen; if you’re lucky, it’s 5 or 6 degrees. I’ve now tried six or seven times to get a needle into this poor, blessed creature to save her life. Now, bear in mind, a lot of people don’t know what that looks like, Sunday morning, 5 degrees, rural New Zealand. That is commonplace to us; we understand this. This is not unusual. It is growing your food. It is making your leather goods. It is growing the cloth, if need be, if it’s sheep or woolly jumpers, as we call them in rural New Zealand. Why is it such an anathema to the left?

Well, every day—and I know I speak to this at ad nauseam, at frequent volume. Why is it such a rarity for the left to share the same anecdotes. Well, I know why: because there’s no one on that side of the House, sadly, that understands this. If they did, they would, because I cannot genuinely reconcile—

Helen White: A little bit smug.

MARK CAMERON: —that $56 billion, Helen White, is so seldomly spoken of. Where are your farmers, I ask you? You do not know because you do not have any. I am saddened but I will advocate as long as I am in this House, with my colleague Andrew Hoggard, Cameron Luxton, and others, because rural New Zealand is worth fighting for.

I want to take this opportunity to call out an incredibly destructive narrative that has been perpetuated by members of the Opposition and that ignored reality for the benefit of sound bites and headlines. You might wonder why I would want to bring this topic up, given the storm of speculation that occurred, but I want to talk about it, because New Zealand First does not recoil from the fight. I would quote, “New Zealand is on the cusp of making history—soon to be one of the first truly smokefree nations.” These are not my words; these are the words of Emeritus Professor Robert Beaglehole, the founder and chair of Action for Smoke Free 2025—ASH.

This success is attributed to practical policy positions that New Zealand First has advocated for since 2017. It was our position to deliver a smoke-free New Zealand. Before 2018, there were moderate declines in smoking rates and, from 2018, massive declines. New Zealand First came to this Government with a clear and unwavering commitment to continue to do what we know works, not because of virtue-signalling catchphrases, but by delivering a clear, supported, reduced-harm pathway from smoking. There was success—great success—but rather than sticking to what works, the previous Labour Government wanted to wave around a banner of the smoke-free generation when youth smoking was not the problem. Our young people aren’t smoking and haven’t been smoking for some years. Under-17s were already recording a smoking rate of 0.6 percent—the good news being that we have a smoke-free generation.

In the last recess, I again met with the front-line quit-smoking workers who understand the challenge of the tools they need. That is what New Zealand First does. We meet with the front line, we understand the front line, and we form our positions by working with the coalface, who deliver the services—those that have skin in the game; those that know what works and know what truly is the situation. Let’s again reflect not on my words, but on probably the foremost expert in smoke-free action: Robert Beaglehole, someone who has himself worked for the World Health Organization and spent decades working towards eliminating the smoking harm that afflicts New Zealanders. He tells us the drop is steepest for Māori, with the rates having halved in six years. This progress is exceptional. It took Pākehā more than four decades to achieve the fall achieved by Māori since 2018.

We were fed statistics by the Labour Government. As the saying goes, they used statistics like a drunk uses a lamppost, for support rather than illumination. We needed to be illuminated to make sure we were doing what was needed. Labour told this country, to justify their positions, that Māori smoking rates wouldn’t be below 20 percent until 2045. It was below 20 percent in 2023, 22 years earlier than they were telling us. The dangerous misinformation stalled progress. It took us on the wrong path, and instead of implementing practical solutions and actions that invested in enforcement, that invested in regulation, that invested in tracking the activity of our front-line quit-smoking services, they told us what they thought sounded good, not what was good. We know that we have long-term, addicted smokers who need to be given the tools and support they need to quit, and that is why New Zealand First will continue to work as part of our coalition agreement to deliver Smokefree 2025. In amongst all the scaremongering, in amongst all of the noise, we will continue to deliver the practical, common-sense policy positions.

I will close with the final words from Mr Robert Beaglehole: “New Zealand is leading the world in reducing smoking. It’s time to recognise our success—not only to celebrate [it], but to protect our gains, strengthen our commitment and inspire others [around the world] to follow”.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Today, I want to really congratulate the Hon Penny Simmonds. She is a fantastic MP for Invercargill, but also a fantastic Minister. What she has done with the polytechs is truly amazing. I know Nick Smith, my cousin Nick, would join me in congratulating you on bringing back Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) into local control. What you said about local control is absolutely right. I think the people of the top of the South are really invigorated by this change. I know what great work NMIT are capable of doing across the top of the South.

NMIT, for a bit of context, was established in 1905, and the property was given to NMIT by the Nelson City Council at that time. So this is how these polytechs grew up around the country: with local money given to those entities to get them going. Then that was all subsumed into one giant mess. Really, it was a slap in the face for the locals, and I think this has gone a long way to bring it back, to where we are today. It’s been well-governed in the past, and it will be well-governed in the future. It had built up a $12 million surplus that it had tucked away. Where that is now, I don’t know. I hope it comes back to where it rightfully belongs. But they’ve also got enrolments which are up 12 percent, and internationals in NMIT now are up 36 percent. That’s a phenomenal performance for a small polytech at the top of the South.

Why would you have a polytech in the top of the South? Well, over 85 percent of the wine production from New Zealand comes from the top of the South, and over 60 percent of the seafood production comes from the top of the South. They run courses in both of those areas, and they’re run and delivered in the local area, and delivered for what the industry actually wants. There’s also a strong aviation industry in the top of the South. NMIT has an agreement with Air New Zealand, who will take on some of the aviation engineers that they train. That is a hugely skilful job with a lot of responsibility, and it’s a well-sought-after course.

But I’d like to point out the words of Olivia Hall, who is the chief executive—if you’ll bear with me—she said, “Thanks to our efforts to grow income and achieve savings, we’re now forecasting a shift from an expected $2 million deficit to a surplus of $1 million by the end of 2025.” That is a phenomenal turn-around. She goes on further to say that “This follows over five years of annual deficits of up to $5 million.” So local control will bring the success of NMIT back into focus again, and it’ll be a great thing for the top of the South.

In the limited time I’ve got left, I want to shout out to the people who’ve been very badly affected by the floods in the top of the South. I know there’s a lot of farmers and foresters out there at the moment trying to repair damage, and a lot of damage to roads as well. The community in the Onamalutu valley on the north bank of the Wairau River are cut off, with the road only being open for a short time in the morning and in the afternoon. There’s been a tremendous amount of rain, following a former storm. That has really laid the ground work—a lot of trees have come down with the soft ground and then very strong winds. So it’s done a lot of damage. It’s done a lot of damage to hop gardens and vineyards and so on. So we’re thinking of all those people that are out there doing the hard work trying to restore those things. I’ve done it before myself. It’s pretty tough work, and it can be quite soul destroying. So our thoughts are with them. I am sure we’re looking forward to restoring all the roads back so that people can go about their business in their normal manner. So I really am thinking of them.

I’d also like to shout out to the road workers and the emergency services that actually were out there working hard during the event, and are still working hard today. So thank you to all of those.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. We know that New Zealanders want jobs, health, and homes. But right now, they also want some hope, and that’s hard to get under this Government. The cost of living is driving New Zealanders offshore in record numbers. We know the highest levels ever have gone offshore, not only to Australia but to other countries as well.

The sad thing is that those numbers mask the actual unemployment number. If those people had remained in New Zealand, we would have seen an unemployment rate even higher than the one we currently see. So that migration rate masks the existing unemployment rate.

The pain that people are experiencing right now is directly the fault of this National Government, even though they refuse to take responsibility for it. They have cut jobs, they have cancelled infrastructure projects, and they have driven up costs like rates, insurance, and public transport, just to name a few.

I would like to read, quickly, an email I have recently received from a constituent who is soon to lose their home to a mortgagee sale. They’re almost a year without a job after losing their job in one of the Government’s cuts. “We have tried everything: payment holidays, interest-only terms, even food bank support. I’ve reached out to family and friends and while their generosity has helped us to get this far, now we have hit a wall. Our bank is demanding $27,000 to clear the mortgage arrears and a return to $7,500 a month in repayments. Without this, we will be handed over to the lawyers for a mortgagee sale in the coming weeks. We are not just numbers; we are families, professionals, and community contributors brought to our knees by a system that has failed to protect its own.”

The hurt is real in our communities. People are losing their jobs, their livelihoods, and the very homes that they have scrimped and saved and used their KiwiSaver to purchase. They’ve threatened our future here in New Zealand and that is why we are seeing record numbers departing from New Zealand. Nicola Willis is in denial regarding those unemployment figures because she refuses to acknowledge that that number of people leaving directly means that the number is underrepresented.

The construction industry is an example that again we are seeing the Government duck and dive and not stand up and take responsibility for—15,000 jobs gone from the construction sector and that is reported on by Statistics New Zealand. Yet, still, we have the Minister of Finance denying the Statistics New Zealand figures for construction job losses are accurate, and that reflects that this Government is out of touch and not understanding the reality of what Kiwis find themselves in.

Just to continue on that theme of “out of touch”, I would like to briefly talk about homes. Christopher Luxon continues to talk about the great track record his Government has on homes when people are on the streets. We all know this. We see this in our own areas.

Then we have Mark Mitchell out in Rotorua, who has told the media, has told people, that people are on the streets of Rotorua because that is a “lifestyle choice”. He says that people are on the streets because they want to come together for a sense of community. That Minister is completely out of touch, and it, sadly, sounds like something out of a Charles Dickens novel that you have someone who owns seven properties, telling homeless people that they’re coming together for a sense of community. But no, this is this Government—this is the reality that they do not understand the difficulty that Kiwis are under.

We know that things are getting worse in New Zealand, not getting better. We need a Government that cares, and we need an economy that works for everybody. We in Labour believe that we should have hope. We want to give our children hope and a future and a job and a home here in New Zealand, not tell them that there is no opportunity here. We know that the only real opportunity is a change of Government because those opposite do not care about people; they only care about serving their own. That is destroying our communities and taking away jobs, health, homes, and even the hope that keeps our people going.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. The former member, the Hon Ginny Andersen, talked about Charles Dickens novels; well, I think she just needs to go back to Sesame Street to learn that one and one equals two, because what we saw under that Government was outrageous expenditure going through the roof, a total lack of delivery, a lack of a clear plan for New Zealand. And what happened? We saw inflation go through the roof; we saw interest rates rise to try and counter that—that led to a recession across the country. We then saw homeowners—like the example the member just gave, and it is terrible for anyone in that situation—that, under that Government, could get cheap interest rates initially, and then the inflation took hold. They went up multiple percentage points, they lost equity, they were losing homes, and, unfortunately, those chickens were coming home to roost from the Labour Government’s poor management. That led to unemployment, that led to people leaving New Zealand, and it led to businesses failing.

I think it’s a bit rich for that side of the House to get up and try and blame the Government now for the horrendous situation that it inherited after six years of suffering under Labour’s leadership. It’s a simple disgrace, and they should be embarrassed. I think that’s why we see the nastiness—that’s why we see the bitterness coming out of that side of the House. It’s driven by frustration, because they can see now where they got it wrong. They can’t admit it, but they can see it. They can also see that this Government has a clear plan to restore New Zealand’s prospects—to get New Zealand back on track.

We can see that in the Waikato as well, and my electorate now is incredibly positive about the opportunities on the horizon. The food and fibre sector, of course, has been doing very well over the last year or so, leading the recovery again for New Zealand, like they typically do. Despite being bagged by the then Government of the day, the food and fibre sector stood up and delivered time and time again. I want to thank all of those farmers, all of those growers up and down New Zealand, but particularly in my electorate of the Waikato. I meet them every week; they are fantastic people doing fantastic work for their families, for their communities, and ultimately for the country. It is wonderful to see.

But our electorate suffered under the last Government, as well. We saw the cancellation of projects like the Waikato Expressway—a fantastic project that was much needed, a critical infrastructure project in our region—and Southern Links, as well. We saw the third medical school not supported by the last Government, as well. All of these things that would have led to opportunity being unlocked in our region, and as one of the fastest-growing regions in the country—in the Golden Triangle: Auckland, Hamilton, and Tauranga—our region needs to be supported to grow. The opportunity is there, the people are desperate for that support—and now, thank goodness, they are getting it.

I want to talk about Telephone Road. It’s a simple example, in my electorate, of just how bad it got under the last Government. This was a road that had been a State highway bypass initially, then the expressway was built. When that happened, that intersection was closed—it had a railway line crossing it, and it was deemed to be too dangerous. This speaks to the culture of “No” under the last Government, where everything was just too hard, and the simple answer was “No, don’t allow anything.” That intersection got shut. It impacted local families, it impacted the communities—it impacted farmers, their families, their schools—not being able to access that. And the Government of the day did nothing to stop it. After a long, hard fight, I am delighted now that with the support of the community—and the local council even got on board, as well—we have managed to get that reopened. It’s a fantastic outcome, and it speaks to this Government’s desire to see progress—to support good, community-led solutions that make sense to just get things done. I am so pleased that that intersection will now be operational again for that community.

It’s a simple example, but it just shows how meaningful it can be when you have a different approach, when you have a Government that is saying “Yes”, that is creating new rules, that is getting rid of the Resource Management Act, creating a whole sweeping change to our planning systems to allow progress to support development, innovation, economic prosperity, because that is how our country is going to succeed. That is how we are going to see the economic growth we need. That is how we are going to stop Kiwis that suffered under Labour, that have been leaving to Australia and beyond—that is how we will stop that; that is how we will attract them back, and that is how we will set this country up for success.

Finally, I want to end looping back to the food and fibre space. The Young Farmer of the Year contest was held recently down in Invercargill. Hugh Jackson won that, a fantastic young man from the Waikato - Bay of Plenty, but a fantastic competition showcasing brilliance in our food and fibre sector. Thank you.

Mr Speaker, thank you. It’s an opportunity to take a call in the House today to acknowledge the severe weather that hit the top of the South Island over the past few weeks. I just want to take the opportunity to acknowledge some of the devastation in my community and also to put on record my thanks to some of those who have been helping during this time.

From 25 to 27 June, severe weather hit the Tasman and Nelson region, with between 200 to 300 millimetres of rain recorded in some locations. For many of these areas, it was a one-in-100-year event, and many of our rivers were inundated at the highest level since records began. Properties and homes were devastated, many people were evacuated, rivers rerouted, roads chewed up, power out to thousands of homes, critical infrastructure—like water infrastructure—damaged, and many, many stopbanks destroyed.

Sadly, local hop grower Peter Lines was killed while cleaning up damage on his property. I know I speak for the whole House when I express our sadness at the loss of Peter and acknowledge his family and friends, who are feeling his loss significantly.

I also want to pay some particular acknowledgment to some of our local leaders. It’s always a bit risky singling people out, but there are a couple I want to single out in this speech today—people who have been providing significant leadership and support throughout this very difficult time for our region: Mayor Tim King, a good friend, who, despite having lost a member of his wider family, has been showing significant leadership in our community; his deputy mayor, Stuart Bryant, for his steady and wise leadership—it will be a sorry loss to our community when he leaves his role later this year—and the many Tasman District councillors who have been out and about supporting their communities at many events and visiting people.

I want to acknowledge the other MPs and other leaders who’ve also been supporting and a couple of the Ministers in particular who’ve been very communicative: Mark Mitchell and Mark Patterson; my thanks to you both. I also want to pay particular thanks to two of the Civil Defence leaders—Alec Louverdis and Briar Cook—who really have stepped up and led their teams remarkably over the last few weeks. It’s fair to say people are exhausted, and we are very grateful for the amount of support that has come in from outside of the region to support our teams locally on the ground. It has been an immense amount of support.

The photos and the footage on TV and social media don’t do justice to the damage that is visible on the ground. There are around 40 local roads that are still shut. Some of these roads are so badly damaged, the water has lifted and eroded massive chunks of the road so you can hardly even see where the road was. There are massive landslips on roads and properties and damaged infrastructure throughout the district—places like Tapawera, Ngātīmoti, Riwaka, Motueka Valley, and Mārahau to name a few.

We have a few asks, and I would be doing a disservice particularly to Nelson Mayor Nick Smith if I didn’t put this on the record today. We need a rain radar—we desperately need a rain radar—and also more integrated systems for helping to predict rain patterns. One of the issues that has cropped up in the Nelson floods in 2022 and in these floods was that it was very difficult for our local teams to accurately predict where the rain was coming, and we often only get it at a moment’s notice. That has made it very, very difficult. We’ve been making that clear to Ministers, and I’m making it clear on the record today that we desperately need these improvements and systems.

The other thing we need to sort out, which is an issue across the country but really showed itself, is the local road maps. We have two websites that don’t talk to each other: one showing New Zealand Transport Agency road closures; the other showing local road closures. If you’re stuck in somewhere like Saint Arnaud, trying to figure out how to get to Nelson, off your phone, looking at two websites, it’s an absolute pain in the butt— insert unparliamentary language here! That needs to be fixed.

The other issue that has really cropped up is the issue of support for our phone lines, our fibre, and our communications networks. I would not be accurate if I said we were completely happy with how that has been sorted locally. There is more to do in terms of legislation to require our lifelines to provide their plans to our local civil defence team so that we have better backups for things like the 111 system. It is something that needs to be addressed.

I could speak for a lot longer on this, but I just want to thank everyone who has helped to support our region—people, the first responders, everybody in the region, everyone from outside of the region. Your support is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of te iwi Māori as I consider the backtrack that we’re making in terms of hauora Māori and the current amendment that we have to the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act, which was to pave the way for both healthy, thriving individuals and healthy, thriving communities and whānau. Yet the amendments that are coming through the House right now are despicable, because they are turning the back on the Waitangi Tribunal’s Wai 2575—the recommendations that paved the way for the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act to create a new way of building a robust, healthy, community-focused health system. Yet now we have the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, we have relegated iwi-Māori partnership boards to solely whānau voice, we are going to see the health sector principles put in the rubbish bin, and we’re expecting a stressed workforce to try and work through serious concerns in terms of workplace safety. So what is the sector to think? What is te iwi Māori to think in terms of the way that the Minister is literally pulling the rug out from beneath the community, beneath te iwi Māori, and relegating our voice to merely whānau voice?

Let’s not forget that the Minister is elevating his ministerial advisory group, the hauora advisory committee, to be the sole voice of te iwi Māori to both the Minister and the new board of Te Whatu Ora: Health New Zealand. It is really frustrating, as somebody who is deeply connected to community, to see the way that we are seeing the stripping back of the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act that was a guiding star in the vision of Tā Meihana Durie to be nothing. “Pae Mate” I would call it—“Pae Mate”. Because what is the good of focusing on patient only when you’re not considering community and whānau wellbeing, which is, of course, something that contributes to all of us as all New Zealanders. That’s the issue that we have: the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act is awesome, the intent was great, our communities were on board and so was the sector. But as we saw, the changes, the repeals, the way that the Government has continued to claw back and undermine the very building blocks of what the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act was intended to be, what are we to think? What are we to think?

And the iwi-Māori partnership boards, who are saying, “No, it’s not OK. You disestablished our localities, you swiped us out of having any local community voice, the intersectoral community voice that was bringing together councils, other Government departments, community, hapū, iwi, and then elevating up their recommendations to the iwi-Māori partnership boards, to take away strategic commissioning, take away monitoring, and relegating them just to whānau voice.” Where is the fairness? Where is the lens on equity? Because that’s what’s happening in Pae Ora. It’s not just Māori going to be impacted; it’s our takatāpui rainbow community it’s going to be our migrant community; it’s going to be anybody of difference, even like our whaikaha. Because when you take away the equity lens out of legislation, you’re turning your back on those most vulnerable in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Where can we as kaimahi in the sector look, because if it’s not in the legislation, it’s not a given that it’s going to happen—it’s not a given that it will happen? I want to raise that as an issue because we’ve seen with Local Water Done Well, if they don’t have to engage as council with hapū and iwi, they won’t, because they didn’t. They didn’t for Local Water Done Well. So if you take it out of the legislation for Pae Ora, is Te Whatu Ora going to consider equity? Is Te Whatu Ora really going to prioritise those that die the earliest in our communities, which is Māori—seven to eight years generally in community. But, in listening to our kaikōrero from Ōpōtiki/Whakatane on the weekend, when I addressed the Te Oranga Māori Medical Students’ Association, he shared that, actually, it’s 14 years—the age gap between Māori and non-Māori in Ōpōtiki/Whakatane. That’s horrific that we are losing Māori 14 years ahead of non-Māori in the Bay of Plenty district.

So what is the pathway forward for us? We’re going to fight as tangata whenua. We will fight alongside our health sector colleagues for better pay, for better work conditions, and for our focus on fairness and equity for all New Zealanders. Kia ora.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. While I am the happy last speaker in this general debate, I’ll start by speaking to the House about the tragic burning down of the St Mary’s Catholic church in Avondale early on Monday morning. St Mary’s Avondale has been in existence for over 100 years, having been established in 1905 through 1906. St Mary’s Avondale is home to very many families; it is not unusual to encounter parishioners who themselves had attended church in St Mary’s when they were little and who have attended the attached primary school, St Mary’s primary, when they were little, and who now have their own children or their own grandchildren attending St Mary’s.

Nothing was left, and it is a very, very sad time for the people of Avondale and New Lynn and neighbouring suburbs. While this tragedy has meant that St Mary’s doors have closed for now, windows of joy and hope have actually opened: St Mary’s parishioners have had a renewal of their faith, united by this tragedy, and have been welcomed at the Christ the King parish in Ōwairaka, with open arms. We all look with hope to the future where St Mary’s doors will open again.

I also want to now bring into this general debate the thousands of parents throughout New Zealand who are working hard in their jobs and working very hard raising their young children. In a time where the cost of living is so high, it’s become difficult for families, the Government has taken decisive steps to lighten as best as possible their financial burdens. Key policies stand out, particularly the FamilyBoost, which started last year in July. At that time, it was a targeted and designed policy to give ease to the cost of living for families; 25 percent of the cost of early childhood education could be refunded up to $75 per week. But at the beginning of this month, our Government has updated this programme to do much more, and families can now be refunded 40 percent of their early childhood education costs up to $150 per week. This means that parents have a little more left over in their pockets. They can choose to save this money or to spend this money for their families. It equates to a few hundred to a few thousand dollars per year in their pockets. In New Lynn alone, 9,000 couples with children are going to benefit from this. There are 3,000 single parent homes in New Lynn who will also benefit from this updated FamilyBoost policy.

I also want to bring in the very many seniors throughout New Zealand, particularly in New Lynn, who are doing it tough—especially the ones on fixed incomes—and how hard it has been to keep up with increasing rates. The Rates Rebate Scheme of this Government, which started on 1 July, has updated the rebate scheme which supports up to 66,000 SuperGold card holders.

It’s a privilege to work for a Government that looks out for its seniors and looks out for parents who are hard-working and tries their best to help them out with the raising of their children. I am privileged to be able to speak at this general debate today. Thank you.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.