General Debate

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

Today, New Zealanders got some good news, and because I know that “Chicken Little” and his friends over there will only ever tell New Zealanders that things are getting worse, I want to take this opportunity to tell them about a few things that are getting better.

It has been tough, Mr Speaker—it has been tough, my fellow colleagues. New Zealanders have been through the wringer. They endured a prolonged cost of living crisis, in which they watched while inflation went sky high—intergenerational highs—prices got away from them at the supermarket, with their electricity bills, and with their bills. They watched as their interest rates flew ever higher, and they watched the outlook get ever darker.

Today, it is good news to have confirmed inflation is under control, and it is set to remain under control. This is important—you can take it for granted—but opposite us are members who allowed inflation to get to 7.3 percent. Well, not on our watch; we will not countenance those sorts of price increases for New Zealanders.

More good news: since this Government was elected, we have now had 175 basis points of interest rate reductions for New Zealanders. And what does that mean? That means literally hundreds of dollars more in the bank accounts of people with mortgages. It means that businesses wishing to borrow face far lower costs. It means more cash flowing into our economy—literally tens of millions of dollars more each week.

More good news: the growth outlook is forecast to accelerate this year. With that—here’s the piece of news that I was delighted to see—unemployment is forecast not to get as high as it was when they left office. All in all, today is a day in which we can confirm that the direction this Government is taking New Zealand in has good signs ahead.

What I want you to do now, members, is imagine the alternative that that lot are painting you. I want you to think about this: first of all, I want you to imagine “Mr Slow” at the helm—Kieran McAnulty. Now, the first thing he’s done, of course, is say, “Slow down those roads in the Wairarapa. We don’t like that, it’s too unsafe.” Then his next job has been to sit down with his leadership council of the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori.

He sits down with them all and he says to Chlöe Swarbrick, “Now, what should we do to help working New Zealanders?” She says, “Well, actually Kieran, I think it’s time for some degrowth Marxism, because, actually, this whole idea that we will create a productive economy is wrong, bunkum. Let’s give socialism a go.”

Kieran looks a little bit disturbed, so then he turns around and he says, “Well, what do you think, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer? What should we do?” She says, “No, no, no, no, no—a $200 billion capital gains tax, that’s what we need. We need to confiscate half of GDP to make working people better.”

Kieran’s confused at this point and he’s saying, “I’m not sure she’s got her numbers quite right. So what do you think, Rawiri? Rawiri Waititi, what’s your prescription for making New Zealand better?” And Rawiri says, “Look, to heck with this Parliament business, let’s put a dictator in charge and call him the Treaty Commissioner, and somehow that’s going to make it all better.”

Of course, you know, this is a cloistered little group, this group of Kieran and his friends from Te Pāti Māori and the Green Party. So along the corridor walks Helen White. Helen White says, “I’ve got a copy of Capital—I’ve got a copy of Capital—it’s by Thomas Piketty. David Parker gave it to me, and he said that this whole idea of a capital gains tax is wrong. What we need is a wealth tax.” And Ingrid Leary wanders along and she says, “Yes, I think so too. I think that’s a very good idea.”

Then what do we have? I think probably Duncan Webb—you’d turn up in support of that too, wouldn’t you?

So there’s a little fight breaking out in the corridor between the capital gains tax folk and the wealth tax folk, but the one thing they can all agree on is this: Labour’s prescription for the economy is tax some more, borrow more, hire more public servants in Wellington, and somehow that will all trickle down to working New Zealanders being better off.

Well, I tell you this, Labour used to be the party for working people; it is now the party for taxing everything working people have worked for. New Zealanders who’ve done it tough can know things are getting better, and they—the Opposition—would put it all to waste and wreckage.

It appears the National Party have now given up on getting “back on track” and they’ve adopted a new slogan: “Everyone must go!” And it seems that Nicola Willis has led the charge, because before she stood up to speak the National Party backbench adopted that slogan and every one of them went. They weren’t that interested in hearing what she has to say.

When it came to promoting tourism, they’ve adopted the slogan “Everyone must go!” They clearly didn’t think that through. At a time when record numbers of New Zealanders are simply giving up and leaving the country, the Government adopting the slogan “Everyone must go!” is totally ham-fisted.

When the engineers are complaining that because the Government have stopped school rebuilding projects, they’ve stopped State house builds, they’ve stopped hospital upgrades, they’ve slowed down roading projects, they’ve scrapped water infrastructure upgrades, their compatriots are all leaving and going to Australia, what does the Government say to that? “Everyone must go!” That seems to be the answer.

When the health system is in crisis, the Government slogan seems to be: “Everyone must go!” The health leadership has to go: the board of Health New Zealand, the Chief Executive of Health New Zealand, the Director-General of Health, the Director of Public Health—now even the commissioner that they appointed seems to have a dagger hanging over his head. Everybody must go.

They make it sound like New Zealand is in the clearance bin, as my colleague Cushla pointed out the other day, but what they have proven since they became the Government is that stringing together a bunch of slogans will not make up for the fact that they simply don’t have a plan. They don’t have any idea how they’re actually going to turn around the fortunes of the country.

New Zealanders know that, while this Government are patting themselves on the back saying how wonderful everything suddenly is, Kiwi families are still going backwards. Life is still actually getting harder for New Zealand families. There are more Kiwi families with a parent who’s unemployed today than there were at the last election, and that has happened under this Government.

Families still see their grocery bills going up each week under this Government. And let’s not forget power prices going up every month under this Government. People are still suffering under this Government. Things are getting harder for New Zealand families, and instead all they’re getting from this Government is “Isn’t it great? Isn’t everything so much better?” It isn’t better for New Zealand families. This Government pat themselves on the back while things get worse.

What is their solution to the big challenges facing the country? Well, they talk a big game on things like power prices, and yet they have done nothing. What has actually caused the growth in power prices? Well, hocking off half the power companies actually contributed to the current power crisis that we’re seeing at the moment, because those power companies decided to gouge more profits out of consumers rather than actually invest in new power generation. And what’s their solution? Sell more! Everything must go! Everyone must go! Everything must go! That seems to be their new slogan.

More tough talk on supermarkets, but no real action. More tough talk on banks, but no real action. No actual solutions. Oh, and when it comes to people who are homeless living in emergency accommodation, it seems they’ve adopted the slogan “Everyone must go!” They don’t seem to mind where they go as long as they leave emergency accommodation. If they’re going to a car, that’s OK. If they’re going to sleep under a bridge, that’s OK, as long as they’re not in emergency accommodation. Emergency accommodation is not a solution, it is a stopgap measure while we build more houses, but they’re not doing that any more either. They cancelled the new State house build programme when they became the Government, and all New Zealanders will pay the price for that.

I’ll tell you who’s not going, though, and that is the Ministers who aren’t living up to the standards that New Zealanders should be able to expect of their Government. We now have a future Deputy Prime Minister, someone surely to become Deputy Prime Minister, who thinks it’s OK for members of Parliament to interfere in murder investigations, who thinks it’s OK to drive a Land Rover up the front steps of Parliament, who thinks it’s OK to refer a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of that member’s party president to a lawyer supplied by the party rather than to Victim Support or the Police. And that’s OK under this Government.

New Zealanders already have seen enough of this Government to know that it’s not getting any better. It’s no wonder that more than half the country thinks things are going backwards.

There you have it, what happens in the first year of Opposition when a former Prime Minister loses an election: you end up living in a twilight world where “New Zealand was perfect, but we lost the election because New Zealanders didn’t realise”. You know, if you listen to Chris Hipkins, everything they did was perfect, the country was wonderful, but Kiwis just didn’t realise it when Labour lost the election. I’ve got to say, Chris Hipkins can’t see what we see on this side of the House, which is the people sitting behind him, hollowly clapping from time to time, but waiting and biding their time.

He is right—he is right—that it is hard for New Zealanders; it’s tough for New Zealanders at the moment and the reason that it is tough for New Zealanders is six years of economic vandalism and mismanagement and creating rules and costs on New Zealanders to control every single part of their lives, because that’s a Labour Party and a Government that thinks they know best. If only New Zealanders had realised it when they voted them out of office when Chris Hipkins was Prime Minister.

I want to thank wholeheartedly, on behalf of every single member of this coalition Government, every single man and woman in rural New Zealand who works hard every single day to help us fix the mess that we inherited from six years of economic vandalism and mismanagement from that Labour Government Chris Hipkins was a member of. The reason I want to thank them is they work hard every day, and they are the fabric of the good things that we know New Zealand is. It’s good to see that actually they have their heads up because they recognise that through hard work you can get ahead in New Zealand.

I want to mention the Federated Farmers annual survey this week released the result that shows the highest result of confidence in a decade, and the greatest single increase in confidence—of 68 points in the last 12 months—in the history of their survey. The reason our farmers are happy: not what Chris Hipkins said, not because the Government is patting ourselves on the back, but because we are recognising farmers work hard, we are recognising they’re important, and we are helping and working with them to fix the rules that were holding them back, that were costing them, and that were putting them out of business and sending jobs and production overseas.

It’s a long list of areas where farmers are feeling better, but they’re feeling better because they’re recognised for their hard work and they are producing the highest quality, the safest food, that’s environmentally friendly as they look to meet and work to meet their emissions obligations. And they are selling it to the world—consumers recognise that it’s safe and that it’s high quality and that they want to buy it.

In that they have a Government, three parties in coalition, that 100 percent backs them and is working hard to get dumb Government rules off their back—not something Chris Hipkins talked about; farming was perfect under what Labour did over that six years—getting that regulatory burden off their back so they can do what they do best: care about their animals, care about their land, innovate, be more productive, meet their obligations, and sell to the world. We will see over the next 12 months and next year that New Zealand farmers, with the Government, are working hard to restore the economy and provide greater income, more jobs, and a better standard and quality of life for every New Zealander, because of the hard work that they do.

Over the last 12 months, we’ve undone more than 20 rules and regulations holding rural New Zealand back that were just the cost. A huge number of those were done when Chris Hipkins—actually the whole time—was a Minister, and a lot of the time when he was the Prime Minister. We are looking for solutions and outcomes, not process and just costly mechanisms that make it harder to farm. We want them to produce more, and they should be proud of what they do, because we, as a Government, are proud of farmers. We’re working with them, we trust them; they will meet their obligations in partnership with us. It does not have to be a fight, it does not have to be a war, because the war against farmers from Wellington is over, and we’re working hard to make sure we get Wellington out of farming.

The final thing I want to do is recognise the hard work of our lamb and wool farmers. They’re doing it harder than most at the moment. They have a very important future. Actually, this country’s economy grew on the back of our lamb farmers. We’ve done a couple of trade deals in the Middle East where they will want this lamb because it’s high quality, it tastes good, and as I said last week, if you want to feel good, eat lamb. In fact, everybody—everybody—should be eating more lamb.

I rise to talk about an issue that is on every Kiwi’s mind: making our energy system actually work for Kiwis. First, I really want to congratulate the Minister Simon Watts for his elevation to energy Minister, because it is a positive sign that the Minister, in his new role, has made it clear that we need a market that works in the interests of New Zealanders. Kiwis have been taken for a ride for far too long. They want to see their electricity bills come down. It’s the same story, whether it’s your home, your businesses, or regional manufacturing. We can begin the job by enabling innovation and competition in both generation and retail markets.

Last week, the Energy Competition Task Force, which is a task force that’s jointly between the Commerce Commission and the Electricity Authority, made recommendations to support security of supply and affordability. Every home has energy assets that could be valued as a value stack—energy stacked up that we can use creatively. They could be used to buy and sell their own electricity and in a market that enables participation and builds community resilience as climate change impacts become more extreme—think solar panels and batteries on your homes; think fridges and freezers; think heat pumps, hot water, electric vehicles. We can harness all of those assets for effectively building resilience. There’s a wealth of potential to create an energy system fit for the 21st century. This tremendous opportunity exists right now.

It’s in this House, with my Labour colleagues, my Te Pāti Māori colleagues, and I know even across the House with National, with New Zealand First, and possibly even ACT, people understand that we’ve got a broken electricity system and we need action. Step one is the Minister removing the unnecessary barrier that means our electricity system—both technology and markets—won’t let Kiwis participate or make full use of distributed energy resources and intelligence. We’ve got a golden opportunity to fix things together. My bill, the Electricity Industry (Separation of Generation and Retail Businesses) Amendment Bill, is prepared and is in the ballot and can be acted on now by the Government if the Government wishes, and everyone seems to agree this is necessary.

We know the least-cost solutions to meet new demand are offshore wind and solar, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. With new wind and solar, along with geothermal, as increased supplies of baseload, we can use hydro power more effectively for peaking and for firming, removing thermal generation entirely.

Alongside a more intelligent use of our renewable assets, we can increase the warmth and benefit for Kiwi homes and families and whānau through an enriched Warmer Kiwi Homes programme while we replace fossil fuel transport to increase demand of the new renewables.

I pay attention to energy experts, as well as our Minister and our community, and what I hear is a desire for certainty and clarity in the decarbonisation journey. We need a delivery of the national energy strategy—and it would be good if it was bipartisan. It was supposed to be delivered last December. It would be good if it can be delivered in 2025. I’ll reach across the House to ask the Government to work on that together. We need delivery of a national policy statement for renewable electricity generation. It was supposed to be delivered in June 2024. Again, we have some expertise—we’ll reach across the House and help deliver it—but it needs to be resourced. And we need delivery of an industrial strategy.

We can become an energy-sovereign nation with our wealth of wind, solar, hydro, geothermal. We can power our homes, our transport, and our industry without emissions. We can enable iwi and communities to own their own energy assets and keep that energy dollar local—local circulation. We can have cleaner, cheaper, and smarter power for everyone; we just need the political will.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’ve been looking forward to standing and speaking on some topics that New Zealand First are very strong on and are very committed to: fairness, safety, democracy, equality, and also freedom. Now, we have listened to the people, and we are delivering.

Let me first start on fairness and safety. We have had many people come to us with concerns about fairness and safety in women’s sports. Women’s groups, mothers, families—they have been distressed, and for a very long time now we have listened to them. That is why the Rt Hon Winston Peters, in our coalition agreement, secured that publicly funded sporting bodies support fair competition that is not compromised by rules relating to gender. At the end of last year, the Minister for Sport and Recreation approached Sport New Zealand and asked that guidelines be reviewed and updated. Now, we see that this is something that we are delivering on.

Another topic that we are very committed to is democracy and people’s right to decide. Now, there are two areas that we have done work on. One of them is Māori wards, and the other one is the fluoridation of our water. As per our coalition agreement, last year legislation was placed “to restore the right to local referendum on the establishment of ongoing use of Māori wards.”—promise delivered, along with our coalition partners.

Only last week, the Rt Hon Winston Peters met with a group of concerned people about the fluoridation of water. Over 20,000 people signed this petition, and we gladly accepted it because we believe in the right of people to have their say and to not be shut down. Also last week, New Zealand First submitted a member’s bill. This member’s bill will reinstate the fundamental right of communities to determine, through democracy, whether or not their water is fluoridated. New Zealand First will always remain firm on protecting our democracy and our freedom.

Let me now talk about freedom. When I talk about freedom, I think of phase two of the COVID inquiry. Now, the reason we have a phase two is because many people did not feel that they had the right to be heard. They felt gaslit, they felt shut down, and they were, and many feel that they still are. The New Zealand First people, we all listened to everyone who has come to us for many months now and expressed their concerns, which is why, back in July 2023, Mr Peters—once again, a very busy leader—committed, in Whangārei, that we would have the second COVID inquiry. He also committed that we would have wider terms of reference, which is what the people wanted. This was secured in the coalition agreement with our partners beside me here.

In phase two, we will be looking at things that people did not have a right or the freedom to speak up on: vaccine safety and efficacy, the mandates, the lockdowns in Auckland. We were all locked down for many months. All of these things will be discussed, and people who are feeling still that they are unheard will have the opportunity to share the trauma that many have shared with me. I still continue to speak with many who are vaccine injured, and they share the trauma that they feel. They are too scared to actually sometimes write down on paper what it is that they are still suffering from. It is important that we listen. Someone has to listen, and New Zealand First will continue to listen and be a voice for those who feel that they do not have a voice.

There’s another area that New Zealand First have been listening to concerned parents and concerned groups about: what is being taught in schools. We were shocked to hear some of the things that parents were going through, and no one would listen. So we had to listen. That is what a democracy is all about. We need to listen to all New Zealanders. Everyone has equal rights to be heard. That is why, in the coalition agreement, we secured to refocus the curriculum on academic achievement and not ideology, including the removal and replacement of gender, sexuality, and relationship-based education guidelines. This is another promise that we are delivering on. All people need to be heard.

Also, I just want to say that we will always listen to all New Zealanders. Common sense will prevail. Democracy, freedom, safety, and equality—this is what we will always stand for. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

E te Māngai o te Whare, thank you for giving me the chance to have a few words and make a few observations on going for growth, economic growth, and how we can go for growth with, for, and alongside Māori. It’s a key facet and foundation for ensuring that New Zealand’s economic development and economic story are not only accelerated but catalysed.

We’ve got to pick up those economic challenges as a Government, but also facing many, many Māori communities, to ensure that we accelerate and supercharge the economy. It’s my very strongly held view that without realising the potential of te ao Māori and Māori people and Māori communities and iwi and Māori organisations, we’re never going to achieve the leading small advanced nation that the Prime Minister has so carefully articulated over the last 15 months.

The first pillar for doing that is making sure we recognise talent and encourage talent and develop talent—not just that talent that’s out there at Te Puni and St Stephen’s and sometimes across the other side, but recognise the youth of our population, knowing that over the last 10 years there’s been a growth of nearly 50 percent of the total Māori population in this country. That’s absolutely phenomenal. That upward trajectory, actually, if we support it carefully, if we facilitate opportunities carefully, is going to create a huge ballast for the nation’s economic growth. You can’t have economic growth without social growth and without cultural growth. Those things, in my world, come together very carefully. That’s why it’s my great privilege to be the Minister of various matters.

Whilst the average age of the Pākehā or European population in New Zealand is around 42, the average age of Māori is between 27 and 28. That points to us and says, actually, you’ve got to invest very, very prudently and very reasonably. I acknowledge Minister Stanford for her mahi around a Māori education plan and rolling out the Te Marautanga o Aotearoa curriculum, rolling out structured literacy and numeracy resources in te reo Māori, and really being focused on ensuring both attendance and achievement across Māori students, no matter whether or not they are in kura kaupapa or Māori medium education but also mainstream education.

Ko te kai a te manu e kai nei i te miro, nōna te ngahere, ko te manu e kai nei i te mātauranga, nōna te ao.

[The bird that consumes the miro berry has the forest. The bird that consumes education has the whole world.]

That bird that participates in the miro berry has a great time in the forest, but that bird that participates in education has a variety of global experiences and opportunities available to him and her.

Not only that, Māori land and the development of Māori resources are also a massive challenge upon us. There’s a lot of regulatory molasses that affects Māori freehold land, which comprises around 5 percent of the total land of New Zealand—1.5 million hectares of this country. Some of our challenges include ensuring that we have greater equality for our people to actually develop our land.

I heard a submission the other day in the Treaty principles submission hearings about how it takes 26 steps to get an easement for Māori land but it only takes about five steps to get an easement on general land. That is absolutely a stunning example of where we can improve some of the regulatory burdens that continue to confront the development of Māori land. We need to get to that because the productive capability of Māori land, if we realised that, can create billions of dollars of extra revenue for our whānau and for our communities.

Promoting trade and investment: well, we heard from Minister “Trade McClay”—I mean Todd McClay—who was here early on, who has been absolutely instrumental in driving international trade deals to enable massive exporters, including Māori businesses like some of those that we heard from today at the Ahuwhenua awards announcements, Whangaroa Ngaiotonga, and also Tawapata South in the primary sector, but others like Tuaropaki, who’s partnering with Obayashi in producing hydrogen down in the middle of the central North Island, and of course Waikato-Tainui and their hotels out at the Auckland Airport with Accor. That notion of promoting trade and investment and getting our Māori businesses and folks out there is absolutely important.

There are massive confronting issues for many of our communities. I just think about Tokoroa, for example, and we need to ensure that we provide the necessary support. My tuakana from the member from Waiariki mentioned before the unemployment rate of Māori being around 10 percent. Of course the youth NEET rate is absolutely massive, particularly in places like Henderson and West Auckland. Somehow we need to tilt some of our mahi to ensure we give them the experiences, and part of that involves supporting wānanga like Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, but actually our own wānanga as well, whether or not that’s Puanga, te Tai-o-Rongo, or other wānanga that we have ourselves.

Infrastructure: if we get the infrastructure right for Māori communities, not just driving infrastructure without people’s consent but get that moving, we’re going to be in a far better place. That’s why I’m a massive supporter of investment in Māori organisations to deliver social infrastructure like housing, and I’m sure there are other infrastructures, like roads, car parks, health organisations, that we can be involved in too. Kia ora tātou katoa. Māori economic growth.

Before I call the next member, can I just say to members down at the back of the House having conversations, it’s not permitted to do that. There’s been too much of it this afternoon. Don’t do it any longer. Also, conversations among members need to be kept as soft as possible so that those speaking aren’t interrupted.

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

SPEAKER: No problem.

Hon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: That is a Government full of facile slogans and empty rhetoric. It has words, saying, “Growth, growth, growth”. It says it wants growth. It tries to sell growth. But, frankly, it is a cargo-cult Government. It thinks if it says the words, then it will just happen. What are their big ideas about getting growth growing in our economy? Import some rich people from overseas—and that’s it. That is it. That’s the way they’re going to try to accelerate growth in this country.

What is their other big idea? They’re going to have a slogan saying, “Everyone will go.” Do you know who they’ve been telling to go in this economy? They have been telling scientists to go. That is the people that they have been telling to go. If we want growth in this economy, it needs to be strong and sustainable. It needs to last for a long time. It needs to come from our innovation, not from rhetoric. They’ve talked a big game about supporting science in this country, but what have they actually done?

The science sector is in turmoil. One estimate from our own sciences is that around about 500 jobs have been lost in science since that Government came to pass—500 jobs across all parts of the science sector, some in science, some in NIWA, some in the Department of Conservation, some in the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, some in the Ministry for Primary Industries. There is still no Chief Science Advisor for the Government. They do not value science. It’s all words, but nothing actually happening.

They’ve cut research funds for science, got rid of the National Science Challenges, got rid of the blue-sky element of the Marsden funding, and, while they’re at it, they knifed the humanities in the back. Then they said that their big idea was to reform the science system, and they had some grand ambitions for that reform of the science sector. They said that high-performing science and tertiary sectors are vital parts of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy, but what have they done?

Well, when the Science System Advisory Group reported back, it advised that perhaps the science sector should be restructured and restructured into public research organisations. It said also that Callaghan Innovation should be disestablished and some parts of its activities would go to other parts of the science system. We don’t quite know where yet or how that’s going to happen, but it’s going to happen, they tell us, and three new public research organisations are to be set up by some time in 2026.

Then they did something else with Callaghan Innovation. The new Minister sent a letter of expectations, and said, “Here’s some activities which will be hived off to various parts of the science system.” Then there was to be funding for innovation, for the Food Network, for the Measurement Standards Laboratory, but everything else that Callaghan Innovation was to do, all other activities, here’s the exact words from the Minister’s letter of expectations: “any other activities beyond this will no longer be funded from 30 June 2025”.

What does that mean? No new science organisations until 2026; funding for activities at Callaghan to stop by 30 June 2025; science activities to stop—that’s 60 to 70 scientists whose jobs are going at Callaghan Innovation. Those are the scientists who work doing actual science—industrial science for businesses who can’t afford it themselves, who can’t afford a huge science infrastructure, but they contract into Callaghan Innovation. Those are the scientists who do actual physics, actual chemistry, actual industrial research for businesses. They’re not going to be funded beyond June this year.

Those scientists have no option but to look for employment elsewhere, and, in many cases, it’s looking to go overseas because there is no funding for science in New Zealand. We are losing our scientists, and that is the action of that Government that says it values scientists. They might say that, but that doesn’t actually happen. The reality is that funding for science is going. What does that say to children who might be interested in a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics? That is a Government that has, through its science activities, shown a callous disregard for people, a callous disregard for businesses, and a callous disregard for science in New Zealand.

Thank you very much, Speaker. Never let it be forgotten in this House or across the nation that that member who’s just resumed her seat, Deborah Russell, was part of the failed last administration that led our country into the financial abyss that we find ourselves in today, and that this coalition Government, supported, led, by National, ACT, and our partners in New Zealand First, is getting New Zealand back on track, getting the economy growing again, and getting the cost of living under control.

Now, in the beautiful Coromandel, we’ve had a pretty good summer, I have to say. I was just thinking, reflecting on it, that it’s almost exactly two years to the week that we were impacted, as were so many other parts of the North Island, by Cyclone Hale, initially, and then Cyclone Gabrielle. Two years ago, our roads were closed, communities were cut off, telecommunications weren’t working, and people in my part of the world were doing it very, very tough. Two years on, I’m very pleased to say things have changed: we’ve got a new Government. That’s, of course, a great source of jubilation and happiness across the Coromandel, as it is across the rest of the country.

Just to give the House an indication of how well we’ve been doing in the Coromandel over the summer, there’s analysis of data that was produced by an organisation that was analysing ANZ’s domestic tourism spending from mid-December last year to mid-January this year. I’m delighted to report to the House that in fact it was the Thames-Coromandel area that had the highest level of domestic tourism spending over that summer period. We knocked out—and this is no offence to my good colleagues in Northland—we knocked out Northland and we knocked out the Queenstown Lakes area.

It wasn’t just the quality of parliamentary representation that made people want to come to the Coromandel; it was just the beautiful beaches, the lovely nature, the beautiful bush, and the wonderful opportunity to spend a classic summer in New Zealand’s summertime holiday capital. There are many, including people who preside over this House, who visited the Coromandel recently, and they got an opportunity to see it. In fact, over the summer there are often more MPs in the Coromandel than there are on some sitting days in this House, and that’s all for good cause.

On both a micro and a macro level, things are happening and are reflected in my electorate that are reflected around the rest of the nation. Let’s just think about some of that stuff for a moment. Today, we had the announcement at 2 o’clock that the Reserve Bank had decided to drop the OCR by 50 basis points. That’s very, very good news. Most people will be thinking, well, what does that mean in real terms, to themselves? Well, for people in the Coromandel who have mortgages, people anywhere in the country who have mortgages, that’s really good news because what it means is that interest rates will drop again, and they’ll have more discretionary dollars in their pocket to help them counter the cost of living crisis that our Government has inherited from the last lot. That’s good news.

That’s kind of at a macro level, but what about some of the stuff that this Government is doing at a micro level, that actually might seem relatively small to many people but actually has a big impact. I wanted to cite—there was a very good question today asked in question time about the impact of a consultation document on changing the time frame for renewing warrants of fitness and certificates of fitness on motor homes and vintage cars.

Now, in the Coromandel we have a great thing called Beach Hop; it happens every March. We’re having the 25th anniversary Beach Hop this year. About 100,000 people arrive in Whangamatā and they bring with them their classic cars, their vintage cars, their caravans, their motor homes and what have you. Now, those sorts of people, if this consultation paper goes through, are going to benefit by having a reduced cost on renewing their warrants of fitness and their certificates of fitness. That’s a small thing, but it’s a good thing, and it’s how this Government is adopting an approach to red tape, to rules and regulations that are unnecessary and that are slowing our economy down.

The message that this Government has is we’re going for growth. We’ve got to get the economy growing and thriving again so that we can afford all the resources, all the investment that we want in a First World nation: into health, into education, into police, into defence, into all those things that New Zealanders want for our country. Ours is a Government that’s clearly focused on that—that’s going to be our primary goal over the next 12 months. Getting the country back on track in a way that has been helped today by the OCR is great news.

Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, and I commend the member who’s just resumed his seat for a great speech—although it’s not too hard to explain the beauty of the Coromandel. It’s a stunning part of the country and very well represented by Scott Simpson. I think we need to talk more about the real New Zealand, about the people up and down this country who actually make it tick, the challenges they face, and the effort that the Government is making to hear their concerns and fix them.

Today, we saw a 50 basis point cut in the official cash rate by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Now, the Reserve Bank is independent; the Government did not make them do that, but the Government did create the conditions for an official cash rate cut. The Government created the conditions for that cut that will allow the banks to lend money at lower rates. It’s not just to people with mortgages—although that’s really important—it’s also to people on farms; it’s also to people with small businesses, who need working capital to get through the week and pay the wages to the people who depend on them, so they can keep serving their customers. It’s the people that actually make this country what it is by taking the effort to build a home and raise a family. Those people are going to get cheaper access to loans because of today’s cut.

I said the Government didn’t make the Reserve Bank do it, but we created the conditions. How did we do that? Well, a problem defined is a problem half-solved, so it might help to understand why the interest rates were so high. That’s pretty simple: at the heart of it, we had a Government for too long that created too much money and ended up producing too few goods. They spent billions and billions and billions that they couldn’t afford. All the while, they locked down the borders, locked people in their homes, and put oodles of new rules and regulations that stopped people producing—lots of Government cash sloshing around, driving up the prices, and lots of red tape restraining the people who are trying to produce stuff to buy. If there’s more money hanging around than there is stuff to buy, then the prices go up. That’s what has been hammering New Zealanders for the last four years, until finally we got inflation under control.

When inflation gets out of control, what does the Reserve Bank do? They put the interest rates up, and that forces up the mortgage rates and the business loans and the farm loans. And why were they doing that? Because the Government was spending so much that it had to rein in money from somewhere, and the Reserve Bank reined it in from the people who try and make this a great country every day. By restraining our own spending, by cutting waste, by getting rid of red tape, we have taken the problem that the last Government defined for us, and we have reversed it. That 50 basis point cut today by the Reserve Bank represents money coming out of the Government column—less waste, less spending, less inflation, less red tape—and put into the hands of the people who work hard to earn it and make this country work every day.

It’s that simple. People use all these terms: OCR, basis point, Reserve Bank, fiscal—whatever. At the end of the day, what is happening here in New Zealand is that we’ve got a Government that understood what the other guys did wrong—they spent too much and they tied us up in red tape—and then we thought, “If that’s the problem, we’re going to run as hard as we can in the opposite direction.” We’re going to cut the waste. We’re going to do things smarter and more affordable. We’re going to deliver the same services, and yet we’re going to spend less money. That’s going to take pressure off inflation, that’s going to take pressure off interest rates, and that allows something that is much more important. That’s what it’s all about.

It allows New Zealanders, no matter who they might be or when they might have come here—whether it was a waka, a sailing ship, or a 747—to actually have a chance in this life to use their time on Earth to make the most of their life, to make a difference in their life, to be able to celebrate their successes and be accountable for their failures. In other words, it allows New Zealanders freedom—freedom to choose how their own life story turns out without excessive hectoring, lecturing, and waste from a Government. That’s why I’m proud to stand in this House representing the ACT Party. That’s why I’m proud to be in a coalition with National and New Zealand First that is bringing about these values, because we are creating a free society where New Zealanders can be their best. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Tēnā rā koe e te Pīka, otirā tēnā rā tātau e te Whare. E tū ana ahau ki te waha i ngā kōrero mō te Pāti Māori i te rangi nei.

[Greetings, Mr Speaker, that is, greetings to us all in the House. I stand to present the views of Te Pāti Māori today.]

Before I start, I want to make one thing very clear: takatāpui are our whānau. In the recent events we have witnessed following Pride week, we saw our takatāpui communities being devastatingly targeted for simply being themselves. Our taonga Māori, like haka, should never be used as a weapon against our own people—

Hon David Seymour: Point of order, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, I always hesitate to interrupt a member’s speech, but this member’s been here for six months now. I understand there’s a rule against reading a speech; you should be able to just give one by this point.

SPEAKER: There is a provision that members don’t read speeches, but there is also a convention that speakers may refer to notes in front of them. There would be very few members in the House who have, perhaps, the expertise that the member who raised the point has that would enable them to speak without those notes.

HANA-RAWHITI MAIPI-CLARKE: That side just loves me, don’t they, Mr Speaker? Any little thing—from my stickers, to my shoes, to whatever it is. They love it! They just keep picking, and, honestly, it doesn’t do them any favours. But talking to the point—

SPEAKER: Hang on. There is so much noise going on in the House, I’m having trouble listening to the person who is speaking. I think I just missed something that I shouldn’t. Could we stop having this across-the-House conversation. It’s not acceptable. Hana, please continue.

HANA-RAWHITI MAIPI-CLARKE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Reflecting back—and they were only just notes to reaffirm—on such an important kaupapa like our takatāpui communities being devastatingly targeted over the weekend, the immense disappointment and heartbreak that I felt as a young wahine Māori to see this.

Now, I am not able to speak on behalf of takatāpui communities, but it should be my responsibility to advocate for and stand up for our takatāpui community. I think of the way they were barricaded and pushed—this is not how you protest; this is not how you advocate for something. What even are you protesting about? Someone simply being themselves.

I want to mihi and reflect on some of the takatāpui that I know, such as the magnificent Pere Wihongi—I mean, isn’t he just absolutely amazing in the way that he’s constructed our taonga tuku iho mātauranga Māori in a way that my generation can benefit and flourish from? There are so many takatāpui who have been so instrumental and educational in my life that I’d like to acknowledge.

Throughout our Polynesian whakapapa, our takatāpui whānau have always been accepted and have always acknowledged our differences, even more so throughout Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, being held on a pedestal of an example of a māhū in Hawaii. We each come with our own whakapapa and our own genealogy and our own identities, but, at the end of the day, we are all whānau.

It was colonisation that started criminalising and oppressing our people for being simply who they are. We must speak up. We must ask ourselves what allyship looks like when it comes to amplifying the rights and voices of our takatāpui community. Fighting for our rights as indigenous peoples means we must fight for all rights of oppressed communities.

During the campaign trail for 2023, during my first debate, I had never experienced discrimination and hate like I did when I stood up for takatāpui communities in my debates. It was an extreme wake-up call for myself, instantly realising my privilege as a straight wahine. I say to our people: don’t let your fear from lack of understanding drive you to discriminate against our own whānau. It’s our job to tautoko and awhi our takatāpui communities.

I’d, finally, like to say to any takatāpui community person listening to me in the House or outside of the House: we hear you, we see you, we love you, and we appreciate you. With the platform that I have on social media—if any rangatahi are listening to me now, and if you have had any self-doubt or mental health hardships after watching the recent events, please go to the ME Family Services and OutLine Aotearoa if you are struggling with anything that you have witnessed over the week, where they can help and facilitate any awhi or tautoko that you might need. Tēnā rā koe e Te Pīka.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, it’ll be no surprise to anybody that I want to talk about growth, and economic growth, and what it means for this country. New Zealand has huge potential. We are fantastic. We’ve got the best global connections coming together now with our free-trade agreements. We are the world-class innovators; remember it was we in New Zealand that split the atom. We feed the world; we’ve got the world’s best farmers. And we want a stronger, wealthier, more resilient country and economy, because that will bring more jobs, more opportunities, more people starting their businesses in our country, and more innovation. That is what leads to growth. That all leads to more jobs.

I want to talk about infrastructure and jobs. New Zealand is doing it tough out there—we know that—and, in my part of the world, the cost of living bites hard every single day, but we don’t get economic growth by taxing people more. In fact, once, the very effervescent Winston Churchill said, “Trying to tax your way out of prosperity is like standing in a bucket and trying to lift it up by the handles.” And he’s quite right. We have to run this economy well, we have to get it charged up, and we have to get it going, and we’re doing that. I mean, you will have noticed interest rates are down 50 basis points again today. What a great result. We have inflation down. We are putting more money in people’s pockets so they can spend that money.

Now let me just talk about two things that relate to that—infrastructure first. Good infrastructure is the backbone of the New Zealand economy. It’s what gets us around. It’s what transports our goods and services and people up and down this country. What great news it was for the people of Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay and Wairoa to have the announcement just last week, on the second anniversary of Cyclone Gabrielle, that this Government has put its money where its mouth is. It is funding the Waikare Gorge realignment, which is a massive project. I don’t know if you’ve seen the virtual thing on Facebook—on social media—but that realignment means everything to the economic future and sustainability of regions like Tairāwhiti and Wairoa.

It is the one road that took everything out. When Cyclone Gabrielle hit two years ago, the time from my house to Napier increased from 2½ hours to 3½ hours, overnight, like that, but that was only after the Bailey bridge was put in. Prior to that, we had the circuitous route of going via Ōpōtiki, Murupara, Taupō, and back to Napier to get to Hawke’s Bay—six hours on a good day if you didn’t stop for a cup of tea along the way. It just strikes me that that is the absolute answer: the infrastructure for our economy means everything. If we can’t get people up and down that road, if we can’t get the goods and services in and out, if we can’t get the tourists up and down the country, and we can’t get the students back to school and back to university, then we’re really going to struggle to get anywhere. Reliable, economic, and efficient; that’s what it has to be.

What does infrastructure do for us? Well, it brings jobs. If we’re going to build infrastructure and we’re going to get foreign investment and we’re going to do all of these things, how does that relate back to what it means for Mr and Mrs Joe Bloggs in New Zealand? Well, I’ll tell you. It makes business confidence go up. The economic growth will put the business confidence up. The inflation and interest rates are down.

What happens to Jimmy? Jimmy is on his jobseeker benefit in Gisborne. He’s there, he’s earning $300 a week—well, he’s not earning $300 a week: he’s getting $300 a week on the jobseeker benefit. Business confidence has gone up, inflation has come down, interest rates have come down, and guess what? The businesses thought it was all good, so one of them came into town and bought a mill, and then all of a sudden there are something like 300 or 400 jobs available. Jimmy got a job, he went to work, and instead of earning 300 bucks on his jobseeker benefit, he now earns more than twice that after tax. Not only has he got more money but he’s got some self-esteem back, he’s got a few more skills, he’s got some opportunities, he’s got a reason to get up in the morning, and he has opportunities that he didn’t have before.

If you think about that—just extrapolate that out a little bit. For every Jimmy, that’s about $15,500 a year we pay in the jobseeker benefit for Jimmy. That’s not a lot, I accept that. But for every thousand Jimmies, that’s $15 million. And for every 10,000, that’s $156 million that, if we aren’t paying jobseeker benefits because we’ve had growth, we’ve got more jobs and opportunities, we can spend on everything that the Opposition tell us we need to: health, education, housing, infrastructure—all of the things you want. That’s what we need in this country: more growth, because that’s where the answer is. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. Under this Government, we are seeing patients being denied the healthcare they need and should have access to, with devastating consequences. In Nelson today, there’s been a story on the front page of the Nelson Mail—of one of my constituents—of one of the most horrific examples of this happening. It is the case of Daniel Walker, who is being treated for testicular cancer at Nelson Hospital—and I do note a couple of giggles across the other side, which is not appropriate.

In June of last year, Mr Walker was referred to Nelson Hospital by his GP for suspected testicular cancer. The referral was urgent and he was supposed to be seen within a two-week time frame, but in fact it took nine weeks for Mr Walker to be seen—nine weeks. His clinician wrote in his files, “I saw Daniel in clinic today. He was appropriately referred in late June, and his triage was accepted on 27 June as a two-week-wait patient. Unfortunately, he has waited for significant time to come through to clinic.” It goes on to say, “I have requested urgent staging with a CT chest, abdomen, pelvis, and I have placed him on my theatre list for tomorrow. The urologist was so concerned, she said he needs to be seen tomorrow.”

The urologist was concerned about the delay and encouraged Mr Walker to seek financial support through ACC. In September, she wrote, “I have also completed ACC treatment injury paperwork for Daniel today. It’s possible that his disease has become metastatic, or certainly that the metastatic disease has worsened, during his wait time.” The clinician is of the view that it is very likely that Mr Walker’s cancer spread because of this massive delay in him being seen. What is even more concerning is that in the initial communication to ACC, Nelson Hospital said that the reason for the delay was because of clinician shortages. It wasn’t until Mr Walker, on the advice of his excellent case worker at ACC—who is a hero and deserves a medal, who advised him to come to my office and advised him to go to the Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC)—went through the HDC process that Nelson Hospital finally admitted there had actually been a change to his medical records. A change to his medical records, which had initially said it was an urgent, urgent, suspected high-grade cancer—down to a painless right testicular lump.

How on earth did this happen? We are asking these questions of Te Whatu Ora. We expect answers as to what happened, and steps to be taken so that this does not happen again. One of the questions that we need answered is why was his clinical status downgraded in the system? Why did this happen after the two-week wait period that he should have been seen in had well and truly passed? It didn’t happen within it; it happened after those two weeks had passed. Someone went in and downgraded it in his file. Why did Te Whatu Ora originally tell ACC the delay was due to clinical capacity? It led to a declined ACC claim, and significant financial strain for Mr Walker, who had to go on to a jobseeker benefit even though he has a job. The man has a job and he had to go on to a jobseeker benefit and take $10,000 out of his KiwiSaver because of financial hardship.

The biggest question is: what was going on inside Te Whatu Ora in Nelson in terms of their ability to hire more urologists? Were they actively seeking a locum urologist, or were they affected by the removal of their approval to approve recruiting at a local level? The timing lines up, and this is a critical question. Why did they not have enough urologists? Were they actively recruiting? Had they been given that approval to do so? These are the questions that we will be asking of Te Whatu Ora and of the Minister. This operational issue has led to a most horrific situation. It has led to a man having a terrible cancer diagnosis that will have devastating consequences. It is an example of how this coalition of cuts is taking New Zealand backwards, and how people’s lives, like Mr Walker’s, are being put at risk as a result. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

The debate having concluded, the motion lapsed.