General Debate

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

Fundamentally, Budgets are about people and choices. We have already seen the choices this Government are making in this year’s Budget. For landlords: billions of dollars. For tobacco companies: hundreds of millions of dollars. For the New Zealand Defence Force: billions of dollars. For low-paid, hard-working Kiwi women wanting pay equity, they get nothing—“Get back in line” according to this Government. In fact, not just “Get back in line” but “Get to the back of the line and start again.” That’s the message from this Government and this year’s Budget for hard-working Kiwi women who have been fighting to be paid fairly. It says everything about this Government’s twisted priorities that they are looking to balance the Budget by taking billions of dollars away from our lowest-paid workforces.

There’s been a lot of contention in the last few days about the facts around pay equity, so let me just recap some of the facts that even the Government are not contesting. Fact number one: 33 existing pay equity claims covering 180,000 people, mostly women, have been extinguished. That is a fact that not even the Government are denying. Fact number two: not all of those 180,000 people are eligible to apply under the new pay equity regime that they have delivered. So some of those who are working through the process have found their claim extinguished, gone for ever; the promise of pay equity off the table for ever for them under this Government. Number three—which, again, the Government are not contesting: that this change has saved them billions of dollars. Billions of dollars. In fact, David Seymour was caught telling the truth when he said that it had “saved the Government’s Budget”. The Government saved their Budget at the expense of low-paid, hard-working New Zealanders, most of whom are women. That is how the Government have chosen to balance their Budget, and that cannot be contested. Four, and a very clear claim: those who do pursue new claims will almost certainly get less under the new formula that the Government has come up with.

Those are clear facts. What we’ve seen from the Government is gaslighting. I think New Zealanders know a cut when they see it, and this is undoubtedly a cut to the pay of hundreds of thousands of low-paid women in New Zealand, and they can see a cut when they are given one, and this Government has absolutely done that. Then we saw the defence from the Government, the myth that this was somehow a result of a flaw with the 2020 law. Well, let’s go back and see what the National Party said at the time. Nicola Willis stood in this House, not far from where I’m standing now, and actually said that the bill in 2020 “was all National’s work”. In fact, she claimed it was their bill. She said it was “a National bill with a Labour sticker on it”. And now she’s trying to claim that the bill was wrong, despite the fact that, at the time, she was trying to say it was all their idea. I think New Zealanders can see gaslighting when they see it, and that is exactly what they are seeing from this Government.

Then we have seen Chris Bishop jumping on his high horse and saying, “Labour needed to do better”. I can only say I hope he didn’t injure himself as he fell off his high horse when it was flying at breakneck speed in the opposite direction, because at the same time he was saying we needed to do better, his own party was posting artificial intelligence - generated images of me when he was saying that we needed to “raise the tone” of the debate.

Despite the best efforts of members on the other side, this isn’t actually about us; it’s about the low-paid New Zealand women who this Government are cutting millions of dollars from the pay packets of. They try and say, “that’s not a pay cut”. I think those who are now going to be paid less in the future because of the Government’s decisions, the Government’s choices, are going to feel like it’s a pay cut. If we legislate it in this House to take away the two pay rises that members of the House—including members opposite—are going to get over the next 18 months, they would regard that as a pay cut. Why should low-paid New Zealand women regard it as anything other than a pay cut when this Government legislate, change the law, to cancel their pay equity claim and take away billions of dollars that have been set aside to pay for fair pay for Kiwi women?

The “c” word’s been thrown around a bit in the last week. I want to read out some “c” words that I think apply to the Labour Opposition: callous, cruel, and cowardly. I’ll tell you what’s callous: callous is spending the better part of five years as the alleged progressive feminist movement on the Opposition crying about gendered abuse of female MPs and, when it’s doled out to women on the right, saying nothing. That is callous.

The standard you walk past is the standard you would set, and this week Chris Hipkins and the Labour Party senior MPs had an opportunity to stand up against misogyny and gendered abuse. In 2023, Chris Hipkins said there was “no question … women in leadership … [were] the subject of far more abuse and vitriol” and “I think we do have a responsibility as men to step up and to condemn that and to speak out against it.” I agree. Fast-forward two years, after a disgusting column on the weekend, widely condemned around the country, using the “c” word and other pejorative terms about senior women MPs on the right—fast-forward two years later, what does Chris Hipkins say? Oh, that’s just free speech: “I’m not going to tell them what they’re allowed to say.”, “I believe in the independence of the media.”, “What [they] choose to publish is a question for them.”

No one’s disputing they can publish that. The question is: is it right? And Chris Hipkins, the alleged progressive feminist who leads the party that like to tell us that they are the “party for women”—in fact, they spent much of the last week lying about that. He likes to tell us that they’re the party for women. He had an opportunity to condemn that column and the pile-on that resulted afterwards, and he chose not to—and I apologise, I shouldn’t have said that, Mr Speaker, I know you’re about to get to your feet. I shouldn’t have said that word that you’re not allowed to say.

SPEAKER: Then apologise.

Hon CHRIS BISHOP: So that is callous. That’s a “c” word that applies to Chris Hipkins and the Labour Party. I’ll tell you what else is cruel, is the double standards and the misleading statements that have been put out by the Labour Party over the course of the last week. Because this debate all started because of the actions the Government took when it comes to equal pay, and we have heard all sorts of nonsense from the Opposition. They have said on Facebook that National is cutting women’s pay; that is not true. They have said that equal pay is being abolished; that is not true. They have said pay equity is being abolished; that is not true. They have said equal pay and pay equity claims can no longer proceed; that is not true. In fact, the Government has set aside more money for pay equity claims. The Labour Party really needs to do better when it comes to what they are saying about this controversial topic.

The other point that I would say would be callous and cruel would be the alternative budget released by the Green Party, to segue to something completely different.

Hon Marama Davidson: Sing it!

Hon CHRIS BISHOP: She says “Sing it”—oh boy, I’ll sing it. Here are the facts—here is what they’ve literally just put out in the last couple of hours: $44 billion in additional debt, taking debt to 50 percent of GDP. It’s already gone up by $120 billion, but, “No, no, no, no, no”, say the Greens, “We need more.”; $88 billion in additional tax—this is all in their budget; higher income tax rates, wealth tax, trust tax, inheritance tax, higher ACC levies, higher company tax, the private jet tax, higher mining taxes, and bringing back the tenant taxes.

Oh, well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Labour Party’s coalition partner. Goodness me, the next 18 months are going to be a good time. Because here’s the question for the Labour Party: do they believe in all of these things? Because I can’t wait to hear them talk about income tax, wealth taxes, trust taxes, ACC levies, and don’t worry, here’s a really good one: reducing the prison population and closing the military academies to pay for it, and paying everyone on the unemployment benefit more money. What a prescription for New Zealand! Bring on 2026.

Hon Kieran McAnulty: Point of order, sir.

SPEAKER: It’s a point of order; we’ll be quiet.

Hon Kieran McAnulty: So Hansard will recall that in response to Chris Bishop indicating that he said something that was unparliamentary that you said, “Well, apologise” and he did not. I believe if we are going to ensure that parliamentary standards are adhered to that he should at least withdraw and apologise even though he has acknowledged he shouldn’t have said it.

SPEAKER: Can I just—I would have intervened, but I heard it asked as a question, which brings it slightly into order. Same discussion I had with you a couple of weeks ago. But for the sake of order, it might be useful to withdraw and apologise.

Hon CHRIS BISHOP: I did say it in my speech, but I withdraw and apologise.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. [Holds up image] This image is a naked image of me, but it is not real. This image is what we call a “deepfake”. It took me less than five minutes to make a series of deepfakes of myself. Scaringly, it was a quick Google search for the technology of what’s available. When you type “deepfake nudify” into the Google search with your filter off, hundreds of sites appear.

The rise in sexually explicit material and deepfakes has become a huge issue. As our party’s education spokesperson, not only do I hear the concerns of parents but I hear the concerns of teachers and principals, where this trend is increasing at an alarming rate. This worrying trend is becoming more prevalent with this available tech readily available to use—anybody can use it. In fact, I didn’t need to enter an email address; I just had to tick a box to say I was 18 and that it was my image and I could use it—which is pretty scary, to be honest. It wasn’t on an app that I downloaded, because the App Store has a pretty good filter to actually deal with quite a few of these things. It was just on our internet, not the deep dark web.

For the victims, it is degrading and devastating. It even gives me the ick having to stand here in Parliament and hold up a photo of myself—knowing that it’s not me, but that it looks exactly like me. This technology is getting better and better every single day. Creating and posting deepfake porn without consent is a form of image-based abuse. Vaughan Couillault, the president of the Secondary Principals’ Association of New Zealand, said, “It’s not as low level and as simple as the perpetrator might think it is. It’s not cheap entertainment, it’s life-damaging work.” Catherine Abel-Pattinson of Netsafe is quoted as saying, “Every day we answer the phone and we have suicidal people on the other end because stuff like this has been sent and it’s not them.”

While researching for this bill, I heard stories—mostly from youth and nearly always female. All talked about the lack of consequence or support for victims in schools for this type of bullying and abuse. In a news report last year, it talked about two schools reeling from the spread of social media of deepfake pornographic images of their students. Fifteen of those students were at a school in North Canterbury, quite close to me. Around 50 at another location have asked to not be named.

One story I have heard of this happening to is a migrant student, who not only was humiliated and degraded by it, it was also culturally crippling and devastating. This young girl went on to self-harm as a coping mechanism to deal with the effects of this trauma. Current legislation does not keep up with this tech and the world we live in. There is a grey area, and we haven’t defined the use of AI for synthetic, sexually explicit content, images, or content providing harmful intent without this clarification, and it needs changing.

I have a member’s bill, that is in the tin right now, that we could actually close this gap. I think that everybody across this House would find how alarming this could be. This may not be limited to just celebrities any more—or, potentially, politicians—this could be your child, this could be your colleague, this could be your friend, or anyone within your whānau. This Parliament, no matter what side of the political spectrum you come from, must act now to protect our most vulnerable.

This also leads me to the other issue currently being discussed amongst politicians, parents, schools, and our youth: it’s the possibility of a social media ban. As a parent, I find it extremely worrying the effects that social media may be having on my children. They, very thankfully, are not on social media. I really welcome this House to have a deep and thorough debate, and I think it’s important to see that today there is a select committee that is opening a type of inquiry into this. I think it’s extremely important that we all engage in this. What we want to do and what we must do is we must make sure that we get the right settings in place, that we don’t just act out of fear and concern and just rush in a piece of legislation that may not work. We need to think about how we can best protect our children, our youth, going forward. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Today, we released the Green Budget, which shows that we can have an Aotearoa where everyone has what they need to live good lives, where we protect our rivers and our oceans and our native species, and where we leave our mokopuna with a stable planet. We have enough. It just takes political courage to make the decisions. There is enough to go around, there is enough kai for no one to starve, and there is enough money for everyone to have a livable income. We do have what we need to mitigate and adapt to climate change. We have what we need to protect our rivers and our health.

The Greens are standing proudly behind our plan that shows Aotearoa that we can and must address the big issues that people care about. But for too long, the economic system has been rigged to benefit the rich at the expense of the wellbeing of everyone else and the wellbeing of our living systems.

Just last week in this House, we saw this Government urgently rush through law that means that low-paid women are bearing the burden of this Government’s tax cuts for the wealthy. Those are the types of economic choices that this Government chooses and that continue to bake in the inequities and the injustice of the uber-wealthy being able to hoard more wealth while the rest of the vast majority have to scrap over the crumbs. The Greens are proud of taxing wealth so that we can have free GP visits and free early childhood education and build more public housing and have livable incomes and protect our rivers and nurture our ecosystems. That is how we protect our economy—by building our own resiliency, because we have the people, we have the land, and Governments have the tools to make sure that our communities are building the skills that we will all benefit from, like in our green-industry plan.

It is insulting to hear this Prime Minister declare that New Zealand has been living beyond its means when so many families who are doing their best are struggling to make ends meet. Meanwhile, only 311 families have more wealth than 2.5 million of us. We can afford to pay workers, including women, what they are worth, but we cannot afford to keep propping up the super-rich. Unlocking the wealth we already have will help us invest back into the services that we all rely on, and I am proud of the Green Budget that we have released today.

During breast cancer treatment, I heard from women who had to go back to work after chemo infusion because our current ACC system does not provide for illness right at the time when their immunity is low and when they are feeling their crappiest, but they are worried about how they’re going to pay their rent and look after their whānau. The budget that we announced today would bring illness and sickness into the agency of comprehensive care to make sure that anyone diagnosed with illness can put their health and their whānau first and not have the stress of having to worry about going back to work when they are sick. I know how important this is. I know every single family in here and every single person has a story of when it is so unjust and unfair for people to just not be able to focus on their health.

Those are the sorts of decisions that we have made in our budget today. We look forward to getting out to communities and discussing what this would mean, the way it would improve our lives and the lives of our mokopuna to come. No one should have to return to work when they are sick, and not everyone has the support that everyone deserves. We can change that. We can choose for our lives to be made better. We can choose to take care of each other and our living systems for our mokopuna to come.

I am so proud of the work that we have done to share our Green Budget. I welcome all of the Government MPs talking about it the way that they are. Keep talking about it! We are going to keep talking about it. Kia ora.

Budget season has arrived, and we are now just eight sleeps away from the Minister of Finance revealing Budget 2025. But how could we forget one of the big announcements today, speaking of budgets. Of course we have seen Labour’s coalition partner, the de-growth Greens, come out with their alternative budget, which focuses on taxing people more and letting debt skyrocket. I think we call it green waste.

While the Government is focused on economic recovery, the Greens want to snatch more money out of the back pockets of hard-working Kiwis. While this Government is focused on getting the books back into surplus, that Opposition is thinking about skyrocketing debt and taking debt up by $44 billion, or over 53 percent of GDP. That is in stark contrast to what is required and that is not what you’re going to see from this side of the House.

Let’s reflect on Budget 2024. This Government promised tax relief and delivered it. We promised no new taxes and we delivered it. The first time in 14 years that tax relief has been given to hard-working Kiwis—$3.7 billion back into the back pockets of hard-working Kiwis, and the Opposition voted against it. Budget 2024 also allocated $116 million over four years to support Inland Revenue (IRD) to collect debt and improve the tax compliance system. We know no one really likes paying taxes, but most Kiwis do the right thing and pay it. Those Kiwis meet their obligations, and we as a Government expect others to do the same.

Under the previous Government, New Zealand’s tax debt rose substantially. For a party who loves taxes, the Greens and Labour aren’t particularly good at collecting them. By the end of 2024, New Zealand’s tax debt hit just over $8.5 billion. That is billions of dollars that could be used and devoted to fund front-line services like schools, hospitals, and our Police. That’s why we allocated in Budget 2024 more money for Inland Revenue to collect debt and to improve the tax system.

Let’s be clear: that investment isn’t about punishing Kiwis who are doing their best and doing the right thing. It’s about fairness. It’s about making sure that that small number of Kiwis who are not paying their taxes are being followed up and ensuring that those people who do pay their taxes aren’t being ripped off by those who deliberately don’t. It’s also about making sure that that money is used to fund the real things Kiwis need. These aren’t abstract issues. They are real threats to our tax integrity in our system and it undermines trust and fairness.

Take the hidden economy. It’s not just dodgy cash jobs; it’s people operating entirely off the books while using the very services like health and education like the rest of us who pay for it. Or take electronic suppression software tools which are used to delete transaction records. It’s deliberate action to avoid paying tax. We’re already seeing significant results from that Budget’s funding.

IRD has ramped up audit activity by 50 percent this year and uncovered more than 2.5 times the tax discrepancies. By March, $1.2 billion had been assessed from audits. That’s up $500 million from this time last year. Inland Revenue released figures on student loans yesterday. They collected more than $200 million in repayments since this time last year—a 43 percent increase in the same period. Twelve thousand borrowers have been contacted, 1,300 have entered repayment schedules, and nearly 1,000 as a result of that activity have now fully paid off their overdue taxes.

In conclusion, these efforts show what is possible when we take a firm but fair approach focused on compliance. If you think that you might have outstanding tax debt, don’t wait to be contacted by the IRD; they are there to help you. This Government is focused on delivering for Kiwis and every dollar we collect in those taxes is a dollar we don’t need to borrow.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It was just over a week ago that we passed, through urgency, an egregious piece of legislation—egregious piece of legislation—which saw National cutting future women’s pay to balance their Budget, taking money out of women’s back pockets. It was said that it had to be rushed through—it had to be rushed through. Their justification was that they might see an increase in claims. Well, how disingenuous is that? We know that claims took a long time to process. And why did they take a long time to process? Because they were robust.

The process that was put in place after the 2020 amendment Act was a robust process that made sure that we were getting it right. It was a process that was agreed across the House. The reason they put this through in urgency was it silenced voices. It silences the opposition that was going to be seen against this bill. Did it silence those voices? No, because people refused to be gaslit by this Government. We saw huge turnouts across the country, at very short notice, to protest against this, and we will see more over the coming weeks. That side of the House tried so hard—so hard—and are still trying so hard to justify this.

The Minister of Finance said that she was shocked at how much these claims were costing when she came into her role. Was it that she was shocked at the cost of these claims, or was it that she was shocked at the extent of inequality across our society? Because that’s exactly the pay inequities. What they are showing in this country is the extent of the inequality between those workforces that are male-dominated and those workforces that are female-dominated. It costs money to rectify inequality, but when you do rectify inequality, there are social and fiscal economic benefits for all, and they will ripple right through the community. So people that believe in trickle-down economics should be right behind and go hard-out for these pay equity claims.

Amy Ross from the pay equity taskforce, who was the head of that before it was disbanded by that side of the House, said that they had conducted research that showed pay equity under the previous legislation, which they got rid of last week, reduced costs for Government through tax credits, income subsidies, and an increase on GST take. Money in communities revolved more. There was an increase in discretionary spending. But, most of all, people realised, and felt proud of the fact, that their work is being valued. Instead, what this Government has done is taken a short-term, rather than a long-term, look at this. They have made sure that they have put their priorities in finding money for tobacco companies, finding money for tax breaks for landlords, and finding money for tax cuts. That is what this is all about. Rather than taking a long-term look, they have taken the money out of the back pocket of women. Women are paying the price for their bad fiscal management.

Women and people around this country have had enough. They are tired. They are tired of talking about this like this is something that they will need to keep working for. This is a right. This is something that women should not be having to fight over, 50 years since the Equal Pay Act was first put in in the 1970s. The other area that I would mention is that they either have a misunderstanding or they are deliberately clouding the debate around comparators. They have said, “Oh, we’ve got this job and this job, and they do not add up.” The job-evaluation process is not about that. It examines the skill, the responsibility, the effort, the experience, and the conditions of work, and it is an extremely robust process that was happening. That is why it took so long. For them to misrepresent it is them misrepresenting the work that women have been doing for centuries and are being undervalued for.

I will go back to say that women and other people who are in those jobs have had enough. It is time we stood up as a Parliament. It is time that we said we will come together on this and not play short-term politics.

Boy racers are out of control across the mighty Rangitīkei, across New Zealand, and we are not alone; we’re absolutely over it. New Zealanders are saying the same thing everywhere: enough is enough.

We’ve had enough of the rise in antisocial behaviour, dangerous driving, illegal street racing, intimidating vehicle convoys, threats to police. Behaviour like this has left our communities fed up and fearful. I’m proud to support our Government’s decisive move to crack down on this behaviour with tougher laws, stronger penalties, and more powers for our police. The changes we announced over the weekend will give police more tools in their tool kit when trying to rid the streets of this kind of antisocial behaviour. More expensive fines to dish out, too; higher likelihood of offending cars being crushed—bring back “Crusher”!

The good people of Rangitīkei have seen and heard more than enough. In March, Feilding residents endured three days—three consecutive nights—of road closures, roaring engines, street racers turning Makino Road into a skid pad. “It makes your blood boil.”, one resident told me. Another told the local Manawatū Standard: “It’s just crazy. This is our intersection—it’s just littered with tyre rubber. They wreck the streets. It costs ratepayers money to fix it. It’s out of control.” She made 10 calls to 111. “The time for action is now,” she said, “before we face further destruction or even worse, a tragic accident.”

That’s exactly what happened last year in Himatangi: a spectator, a 16-year-old boy, lost his leg when a car went out of control. Gatherings of hoons and spectators routinely take over Halcombe Road near the Kākāriki Road Bridge, the Colyton Road turnoff at Kimbolton Road, and Mt Stewart Halcombe Road intersection. Suburban streets aren’t immune either. The problem isn’t just noise and roads and public safety; it’s the escalating lawlessness. In Levin, my colleague Tim Costley witnessed things turning violent, with reports of drugs, weapons, and intimidation. An event in June 2024 was described by one officer as the worst situation of its kind he’s ever encountered in his 26 years of policing. He said participants and spectators are displaying a new level of militancy and arrogance. It used to be that the boy racers would disappear as soon as they got wind the police were on their way. It’s now more war than hide and seek. They’re acting like “This is our patch and if we want to do burnouts, tough luck to you.”

Members of the public have even resorted to vigilantism, using tractors to charge at racers—not something I’d recommend. It’s Mad Max in Rongotea. While I understand the justified anger of the public, this is not the way to go. Our Government has acted to resolve these issues. Minister Chris Bishop and the Minister of Police, Mark Mitchell, are taking action. Under our new proposals, those caught fleeing the police, organising street races, or refusing to name drivers will face presumptive vehicle destruction. If you want to act like a hooligan, you can expect your car to be crushed.

There will be new powers to manage illegal gatherings, by closing roads and issuing instant infringements, and the fine for making excessive noise is going to go up sixfold. We’re backing our communities and backing our police with the tools they need to end this behaviour. We won’t tolerate this any more. The legislation will be introduced to the House in the next few months. We’re going to see it through all the way to the scrap metal heap. Our message to the people of Rangitīkei and the people of New Zealand is clear: we’re empowering our police and taking back our community roads. We’re putting these hoods on notice. To the boy racers: no more Fast & Furious. With this Government, reckless driving doesn’t get you a sequel; it gets you a sentence and a crushed car. If you put lives at risk; you tear up our roads; if you engage in intimidating, illegal, antisocial behaviour, you will face the consequences and you will face life without your car. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. I stand in the House, again, to talk about the fast-track legislation and the impact that it is having on local communities because this Government favours the ultra-wealthy big business over the voice of community. This Government has shut out the voice of community when we saw over 23,000 submissions submitted against the fast-track legislation and gave a hand up to 149 projects that saw those companies getting to the front of the line when developing across the country and shutting out us as te iwi Māori. Because, as te iwi Māori, we’ve got a limited purview—only 20 working days to respond to fast-track applications. That’s how narrow it is for us.

Now, in Tai Tokerau, we have zombie projects coming back into the rohe, like McCallum Bros, who were pushed out of Pākiri after 80 years of sand mining, are now sniffing around Bream Bay, and will get the opportunity through the fast track to mine and dredge across te whanga o Whangārei for 35 years, five days a week, six hours a day. And that’s coming into our rohe of Te Tai Tokerau.

The ultra-rich are the ones getting the hand up from this Government. When we look at Waipiro Bay, a current application which is live: 250-berth marina in the Bay of Islands. My kāinga. [Holds up map of Waipiro Bay] As I might share with the House, this is whenua Māori. This is called Orokawa. Over here is the area where Waipiro Bay marina is to be established, with 250 berths, retail stores, a petrol station, and hospitality, in the back blocks of the Bay of Islands. That’s my kāinga. This is where our people gather kai. This is the pātaka of Patukeha and Ngati Kuta. The community is being shut out of the fast-track process. Because that’s the thing: this Government favours the ultra-wealthy to build a 250-berth marina in Waipiro Bay, the Bay of Islands, and forgets about those most impacted—whenua Māori, Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act claimants, also our hau kāinga and marae and hapū and iwi—with only 20 working days to respond. There is going to be massive visual impact with 250 boats parked up in Waipiro Bay, just around the corner from Parekura Bay, Orokawa bluff, where my tūpuna and whānau currently live.

This is like a lived experience right now, and this is what the rest of New Zealand has to look forward to through the fast-track legislation. Because it’s not just the 149 projects; it’s those that were not listed and are coming through the front door right now, impacting upon communities, impacting upon iwi Māori. Now, Patukeha and Ngati Kuta are unashamedly working with community, saying, “No. We don’t want this development in our kāinga. We know that there’s going to be impact on our takutai moana.” The hapū is already under stress with the Caulerpa outbreak just around the corner at Omakiwi. There’s a can in the area where Waipiro Bay is proposed to be built. You’re meant to be protecting the takutai and yet, in the fast track, you’re going to degrade the takutai, because you’re going to be privatising takutai moana, locking out our customary interests as 11 hapū and iwi and intensifying development. Scraping up the takutai. Nine hectares of sand—of takutai moana—will be tutū-ed with by a company that is only there to furnish wealthy businessmen and landowners so they can park up their boats and yachts.

Tangata whenua have united with community, and today we have nearly 12,000 signatures on a petition launched only one week ago. That’s how important fast track is to community is that it is the voice of the people coming through. It is showing support for Patukeha, Ngati Kuta, and all of the tangata whenua impacted, and this is what this Government prioritises: the ultra-wealthy, the rich, compared to us as iwi kāinga, as community, shut out through a process that neglects the taiao and neglects the voice of mana i te whenua. Kia ora.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Last week, on 7 May 2025, this House took a step backwards for the rights of women when it unilaterally cancelled, without any notice and any due process, the pay equity claims for equal pay for work of equal value for 180,000 New Zealanders. This is a huge step backwards for our country, not only in relation to women’s rights but also in relation to human rights. But we on this side of the House know that we are on the right side of history by standing up against these unilateral decisions that take literally billions of dollars out of the back pockets of women.

Now, Budgets are a choice. It is a choice that the Government has to make, whether to build a future or to cut, and the National Party and the National-led Government, in this instance, are cutting what women are getting paid. They have managed to find hundreds of millions of dollars for tobacco companies, but at the same time, they give with one hand to tobacco companies and take with the other from the pockets of working women.

We’ve heard a lot about the particular scheme that was in place, and I would like to challenge anyone who has an issue with that law to provide evidence on any allegations that you make that it was unworkable. We have seen, since that last Act was passed, 10 settlements that have valued the historically underpaid work of working women. That shows that this process is working. Is it straightforward? No. Is it simple? No. Is it affordable and cheap and easy for the Government to find that money? It’s a challenge to be able to fully address the historic undervaluation that women have suffered. But does that make it wrong? No.

We’ve also heard about the impact of comparators, and I would like to ask, rhetorically: how do you assess historic undervaluation without the use of comparators? The bill that the Government has put forward will continue to require the use of comparators. They will continue to require the comparison of jobs that, on the face of it, look very different. This is how undervaluation is assessed—very, very carefully, very, very scientifically, in agreement, looking for the skills that underpin that. That is a part of this new law, and it shouldn’t be used as a reason to attack the law that was lost.

The rhetoric around this has been strong, and it deserves to be, but I want to bring the debate back to the people who are really affected by this. I have something to read out from one of those people who were affected, a library worker whose claim has been extinguished. She says, “The end of our claim is devastating to myself and my colleagues. We were so close to a result, and to see that stripped away is so incredibly painful. We will go on providing for our community. We will continue to help elderly patrons with their technology problems. We will keep on helping children to develop their love of reading. We will keep on assisting patrons with other requests that we get every day. It’s just now that we do it knowing that our Government does not value our work and in the knowledge that we will have to start our long fight for fair wages all over again. Our hearts are broken.”

That is just one example that I have time to read in this short call, but I can assure the House that it is not an isolated example. Every single one of those 180,000 people that stood to benefit from those pay-equity claims will have similar stories of hope and similar stories of heartbreak at what this Government has decided to do—similar stories of dreams for their family, of what they could finally do when their work was properly valued and similar stories of how those dreams have been taken away.

The Government has said that this was not about the Budget. No one believes that. They’ve said that it won’t make a big difference to women. No one believes that. They’ve said it was about improving the law. No one believes that. They’ve said that this pay equity, working for equal pay for work of equal value, was a grievance industry. That is simply not true. They have tried to blame those on this side of the House and tried to say that we are the ones at fault when they are the ones who are taking billions of dollars away from undervalued women in New Zealand today. This is a shameful week for this Parliament, and I do not doubt that, when we come back to look at this period of history, we will see who was on the right side—this side of the House—and that that Government was in the wrong.

Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to stand up in this general debate. The last time I had this awesome opportunity was late last year, and so much has happened to continue getting Takanini back on track that I’d love to share with the House, and with my husband in the gallery and with people listening from across these walls. But, first, I’d like to acknowledge our Anzacs, our veterans, and our Māori Battalion, particularly with Anzac Day just past a few weeks ago—lest we forget.

Just the day before Anzac Day, we had the pleasure of hosting Minister Chris Bishop, Minister Simeon Brown, and Minister Judith Collins in Takanini as, collectively, they announced that the New Zealand Transport Agency Board had endorsed the investment case for stage one of the Mill Road project, and this is Manukau to Alfriston. In my maiden speech, I spoke about Mill Road, and I, along with many other MPs, have been fighting for Mill Road to be done for a very long time. The previous Labour administration said that they would do it in 2017. They reneged. Then they promised they’d do it in 2020, and they reneged on that, again. But we’re getting it done, and I cannot wait.

Also in April, a few weeks ago, Minister Stanford, the Minister of Education, announced 18 extra classrooms—more rebuilds—at Ormiston Senior College, and this is just wonderful news for the teachers, for the students, and for the parents in my patch, in Takanini. Flat Bush is one of the fastest-growing electorate areas in the country. This is going to help so much.

In February of this year—it just keeps getting better for Takanini—Minister Bishop announced our Government’s plan to invest $200 million towards removing the train level crossings, most of which are in Takanini. This will mean less time in traffic, it’s safer for drivers and for pedestrians, and it will improve productivity, something that we love to improve on this side of the House.

This year has seen so many beautiful cultural events take place in my electorate of Takanini. We celebrated the Cambodian Buddhist New Year at the Cambodian temple in April. Thank you, Mr Lim and your team for the beautiful display of culture you put on.

In the first week of April as well, the PM and other Ministers were at Polyfest at the Manukau Sports Bowl, which is also in my electorate. I personally loved watching Alfriston College score on the Niuean stage, with their powerful and beautiful performance.

In February, there was the official opening of the Auckland New Zealand Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Thank you to the elders for opening up the temple for those small few weeks so that we could have a fascinating tour and learn more about their practices.

There was also the Lunar New Year at Manukau Sports Bowl in Takanini; Holi, the Festival of Colours, at Barry Curtis Park in Flat Bush; and the Tamil harvest festival, or Pongal, at Bruce Pulman Park. I love being the member of Parliament for Takanini.

I’m very proud of the six students from Ormiston Senior College that were in the eight finalists for the Auckland region for the Race Unity Speech Awards competition. One of those was the ultimate national winner, and I’d like to acknowledge Jordyn Pillay from Ormiston Senior College for her outstanding speech. I’d also like to acknowledge the principal, Tim Botting, and his team for obviously instilling so much confidence and self-reflection in their students. I’d like to ask the House: what do we say to our young students about how to present themselves to the world as they embark on their futures?

If you don’t mind, Mr Speaker, although most of my speech was filled with happy thoughts, I will end with this. Where are our standards, and what are we saying to our young girls when the Opposition members across the House—not one of them has stood up and condemned the disgusting use of the “c” word from a disgusting journalist last week. They’re silent on the “c” word, but they’re not silent when it comes to manipulating a situation to harvest votes. It’s disappointing, and I encourage them to not manipulate the broken hearts—if they’re going to say there are broken hearts of people—to harvest votes, but to call out disgusting behaviour, just like we often do on other matters.

Mr Speaker, that’s how I will end this speech. Thank you for this opportunity.

Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Tēnā tātou. The only “c” word that’s done more damage to us here in Aotearoa is “colonisation”.

This Government is committed to working against the needs of its people. They are committed to making aggressive and regressive changes to this country. And they are dedicated to blaming the system they inherited, to detract from how willing they are to keep the everyday people of Aotearoa suffering. What we are seeing is not hidden. What we are enduring is not subtle. It is blatant disregard for our people and it is unacceptable.

When Te Pāti Māori offer up transformative solutions or speak to an Aotearoa hou and what that will look like for our mokopuna, this Government is quick to scream “separatist”. They say “separatist”; we say “independent”. They say “radical”; we say “transformative”. They say “race-based”; we say “rights-based”. They say “divisive”; we say “restorative”. They say “special treatment”; we say “equal footing”. They say “grievance politics”; we say “justice”. They say “backward”; we say “honouring our tīpuna”. They say “identity politics”; we say “mana motuhake”. Does Government fear anything aspirational; anything that dares to dream beyond the confines of comfort for the 1 percent? What they call “separatism”, we call “self-determination”.

Self-determination is not divisive. It means Māori designing solutions for Māori, based on our own tikanga, values, and aspirations. It means a future where both Te Tiriti partners thrive in their own right and in mutual respect. This self-determination is not only for the benefit of Māori but for the benefit of all of Aotearoa. A Whare Māori that speaks to sovereignty and partnership. A Whare Māori is not a breakaway State; it is a constitutional commitment to shared power, as promised in He Whakaputanga and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It supports localised solutions and economic justice. It’s about restoring what was promised under Te Tiriti o Waitangi: that Māori would have full authority over our lives, resources, and systems.

When we speak to a Māori tax system, this calls for economic autonomy. When we speak to a Māori health system, we are calling for oranga grounded in kaupapa Māori—models like Whānau Ora that are centred around wairua, whānau, and whenua, not just pharmaceuticals and profit. When we speak to Māori superannuation and ACC, we say that reflects intergenerational equity, where our needs, realities, and contributions are recognised. When we speak to Māori supermarkets, it is about feeding our people, controlling our supply chains, kai sovereignty, supporting Māori producers, and keeping profits in our communities. It is not exclusion; it’s economic liberation. It’s about creating a future where Māori are not an afterthought but a cornerstone of the society in Aotearoa. It’s about honouring Te Tiriti. It is about building a nation where equity comes from empowerment, not assimilation.

Often this kōrero is met with scoffs from across the room and heckles from those with the inability to think bigger, to think wider than the confines of Western colonial constructs. But Te Pāti Māori isn’t responsible to you and the inability for you to see the bigger picture. We are responsible for normalising what an Aotearoa hou can look like for our people.

What does an Aotearoa hou look like for us? We would welcome you—not just the landlords and the 1 percent but the unseen essential workers who work tirelessly to support this country, our takatāpui whānau, our whānau with disabilities, and our whānau who have immigrated and have so much expertise to offer Aotearoa. We would feed you proper school lunches, supporting kai sovereignty and alleviating the cost of living crisis. We will clothe you, not cut your benefits or subsidise prescriptions our kaumātua depend on. We will educate you on the history of Aotearoa and the partnership this country was founded on, under Te Tiriti. We would house you because housing is a right, not a business for profit at the expense of whānau living on the streets. Everyone should have the right to a constant, warm, secure home. We would manaaki you, not incarcerate you.

These are not radical ideas. So when you say “rule breakers”, we say “change makers”. They say “uncompromising”; we say “principled”. They say “disorderly”; we say “disrupting injustice”. You say “performative”; we say “unapologetic”. They say, “activist”; we say “protector of the people”. They say “too Māori”; we say, “We are good enough because our tīpuna made it so”. Kia ora tātou.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. We’re a pretty welcoming bunch in the Wairarapa. We welcome all and sundry to come and enjoy our region, but we don’t want the idiots, the boy racers, because they are not welcome.

It’d be an understatement to say that the people in the Wairarapa have had a gutsful. For far too long, the people that want to come into our region and cause mayhem have felt they’re above the law. Well, guess what! It’s all about to change and I welcome the proposed changes for tougher penalties to deter antisocial and intimidating driving wholeheartedly, as do all the people I’ve spoken to since it was announced on Sunday. The landowners whose business is horses—they told me about the thuggery, the intimidation, fireworks, exploding tyres, putting themselves at risk and their animals. They also expressed concern at the danger that not only locals but also the police find themselves in. They told me that the idiots involved think they’re above the law and can do what they want. Well, we’ll see about that. They told me that they heard about the announcement the other day and it’s a really positive move. They did ask if they could push the button on the first car to get squashed.

The local council where that particular event took place is spending thousands to clean up the roads each year. In fact, one of the costs incurred for one intersection—one intersection—was $150,000. So not only do the ratepayers have to put up with the offenders, now they have to foot the bill to fix and change the roads. The council talked about threatening, intimidating behaviour, alcohol, mess, noise, mostly late at night, and the sheer frustration within the community.

I’ve talked to another resident that’s had to put up with idiots in their urban neighbourhood repeatedly and the sheer intimidation it causes, let alone the stress, and they’ve really been struggling.

I did a quick Google search on incidents in the Wairarapa. I ended up using half a tree to print out the articles. Here’s one: “Boy racers costing Carterton ratepayers thousands each month.” Local mayor: “These idiot racers, these clowns, are going to get it wrong and someone is going to get killed.” Johannes Ferreira: “It is a frustration when we have just resealed or remarked an area to turn up to go out every Monday and clean up tyres, tyre marks and damaged signs.” The mayor, again: “There are a number of elderly residents [at one boy racing hotspot] and there’s no way in Hades that an elderly couple are going to walk out there and photograph boy racers’ number plates or ask them to stop. The intimidation factor is just too high and it’s not worth the risk.”

Another one: “Violent attack sparked after driver’s car hit spectator”. “A boy racer who was attacked at a Wairarapa meet-up had ‘spun out and hit the crowd’ moments before the violence interrupted.” “I was just standing there and … all of a sudden this car comes out of nowhere, it had McDonald’s trays on the back wheels and it spun out into the crowd.” “The bystander said it was ‘gutting’ when a select few ruined the events for everybody else. The hosts and organisers that go to show off their skills, they just want it to be about skids—a way to practice for competitions, some of the spectators get in the way and get drunk.”, he said. “I think we need a spot to go where all the interested people can go and practise safely.”

Well, guess what! They’ve already got somewhere to go. It’s called the Masterton Motorplex. They’ve got a place for them to go. It’s safe for the drivers, safe for the spectators. Do they turn up? No. No, they don’t turn up. They prefer to intimidate our locals and damage our roads. I’ve got no sympathy for any of them. Go to the Motorplex if you want to burn a bit of rubber. If you don’t want to do that, don’t bother coming to our place; you’re not welcome.

Another one: “ ‘Horrific scenes’ at Wairarapa boy racer event”. “Wairarapa locals are outraged … Masterton District Council mayor Gary Caffell said the ‘rather horrific scenes’ were ‘really disappointing’ … the community was lucky to get away with nobody being seriously injured or killed as ‘that could’ve happened’ … What needs to be done is that we need to get really tough.” Another one: “Boy racers in Wairarapa hurl fireworks, rocks, and bottles at police.” Another one: “Boy racers leaving an unwanted mark”; “Wairarapa, a boy racer ‘epicentre’.”

We’re acting now, because we aren’t willing to accept unsafe, unacceptable behaviour on our roads, in our community. If you want to act like a hooligan and put people’s lives at risk, that’s where the real rubber hits the road. You can expect to face the consequences and get your car crushed. At the end of the day, you reap what you sow. You want to break the law? Don’t bother crying us a river of tears. You won’t get any sympathy. Bye-bye little car, it’s getting squashed.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.