Wednesday, 6 December 2023 - Volume 772 WEDNESDAY, 6 DECEMBER 2023 ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Members, the interrupted debate on the Address in Reply is resumed. Hon PEENI HENARE (Labour): Tuatahi, ka kōrero au i te reo Māori. [First, I will speak Māori.] Just to advise the House, I'll speak in Māori at first if you choose to listen or otherwise. Tuatahi, māku, e te Māngai o te Whare, e mihi atu ana ki a tātou katoa. Ki roto i ōku tūnga katoa i tēnei Whare ko tāku mahi tuatahi kia mihi poroporoaki atu ki te hunga mate kua riro atu ki te pō. Anā, ki roto i ngā rangi tata kua pahure ake nei, ko Tūroa Royal, ko tōku pāpā, a Moka Puru, ā, i te rangi nei ko tōku matua, a Waitai Tūoho. Nō reira rātau ki a rātau. Ka whakahokia mai ngā rārangi kōrero ki a tātou e ōku rangatira. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa. [First, Mr Speaker of the House, I'd like to acknowledge us all. In all of my speeches in the House, the first thing I do is acknowledge those who have recently passed. In the very recent days that have passed, they include Tūroa Royal, my elder, Moka Puru, and today, my uncle Waitai Tūoho. May you rest peacefully. I would now like to return the relevant topics of conversation, my esteemed colleagues. I thank you all greatly.] Kia ora and greetings to the House. I've become accustomed, just as I do on the marae, in my chance to contribute to the House, I always start to acknowledge those who have passed on and I can see everybody in this House who just acknowledges how special that is. When we consider our time in this House, we think that we do walk in those people's footsteps, so it's important to acknowledge them. Madam Speaker, I want to acknowledge you and of course your colleagues who preside over our House. It is indeed a huge honour that's been put upon you all to make sure that the House certainly lives up to the expectations that many have already spoken about today, calling and describing this place as an august institute. So it's important that we acknowledge you all and wish you all the best through this sitting term. I also want to acknowledge all of the new members who have come into the House, in particular our own on this side. I do want to acknowledge my new colleagues, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, who comes in from the mighty East Coast, winning the seat of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. I also want to acknowledge our very good friend down in the south, Reuben— Hon Grant Roberston: Davidson. Hon PEENI HENARE: Davidson, that's right, yes. I keep confusing him with Kelvin Davis but Reuben Davidson, yes, who's a lot better looking than my former form 2 teacher, Kelvin Davis, and I want to acknowledge them both because coming into, as I did in 2014, as a small number into an Opposition—the Labour Party—it was a difficult time but also a very exciting time. So I want to acknowledge them and of course new members right across the House. I want to acknowledge also my colleagues from the Māori Party. Why? Because, sadly, I didn't hold on to my seat but I want to acknowledge them who have received the mandate from Tāmaki Makaurau and a number of the other Māori seats, and I acknowledge them. I also want to acknowledge my two beautiful tuāhine here, my relatives from the far north: Hūhana Lyndon and Darleen Tana. We come from the same whakapapa. In fact, if colleagues in the House are interested and you looked at Te Tiriti o Waitangi, you'll look at the first name right at the top; it's Kawiti. The three of us are descendants of Kawiti. So it's really special to have my tuāhine, my relatives, here in the House joining me and walking in the illustrious footsteps of our ancestors. Tēnā koutou. Kia ora tātou. If I can offer any advice to the new members, it is: it's always true, the only time you get to say what you want is on your maiden speech, so good luck, and the only other time is in your valedictory speech. I say this as an Opposition member: I hope that for you that comes a bit sooner than later. But I do want to acknowledge all of the new members, and I also want to take this opportunity to apologise. What I witnessed earlier in the House isn't the House that I think represents our people. Bringing a bit of decorum to our debate and making sure that we actually are here to debate what matters to our people. It's far better than a slanging match. I apologise for the new members because we don't want you to see that as the example for you to follow into the future. Let the debate be robust. Let the debate be about the facts and the matters that are important to our people. But let's always keep it correct. Let's always keep good decorum in our house. Tēnā koutou, welcome. I want to start my contribution, after all of the thanks and all of the praises across the House, by reading something very brief, if you'll indulge me. The Māori people are opposed to any sort of referendum or process in this, our House of democracy, for the obvious reason that we are numerically inferior to our other treaty partner. If taken, the result is a foregone conclusion. The choice for the Government is quite clear: to honour or dishonour, between treachery and good faith, and that we have at last reached the dividing line which makes or tarnishes a nation worthy of the name. Now I wish those eloquent words were mine, but they were indeed the words of my grandfather, the late Sir James Hēnare, who in September of 1988—in Parliament House, here—addressed the members of Parliament and used those words 35 years ago. Here we are today debating the very same thing. After years and years of progress between the Treaty partners, progress for Māori and our communities, our country moving forward into a bicultural and a multicultural society—and sadly, here we are 35 years later. It would appear that my grandfather's words continue to ring in the halls of Parliament. My hope is that they continue to ring in the ears and the hearts of the members of this House, in order for us to make sure we have a debate moving forward on the issues that matter and that we do not take our country back into the past. That is the premise and the basis for the rest of my contribution here today, and that is to say that the Government has made very clear their agenda for the nation. However blunt that might be to some of the ears, in particular my colleagues on this side, it has become very clear to me that a very regressive Māori policy agenda is going to beset this nation, and I want to make sure that we are here for the fight. I want to make sure, as many members across the House have already said, we look towards scientific proof, we look towards the facts, we look towards good research in order to make good decisions. I was but one of the former Ministers from this side of the House who was part of the architecture of Te Ata Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority. The reason we did that was based on sound research over many, many decades. In fact, the person who I'd like to call the godfather of Māori health, Sir Mason Durie, was the leader of that particular kaupapa and initiative—not me, not the Minister of Health in the day, but actually Sir Mason Durie. In fact, we went to his house and, as you do when you go into a home you take goods, so I took some muttonbird and some pāua, just to grease the old man up a little bit, but more importantly to make sure a man who has dedicated his life to ensuring Māori health in this country was able to work with us and lead this particular initiative. It makes me sad to think that Te Aka Whai Ora has not been given a chance; that Te Aka Whai Ora is not just about the delivery of equitable services in our community, but more importantly—and we'll approach this when we come to the debate—it is about holding the Pākehā system or the actual health system in this country to account, making sure that that system can continue to deliver better services for our people. Because what became abundantly clear during the COVID-19 pandemic was that it didn't serve our people. The data wasn't there in order for us to reach Māori communities. It wasn't there in order for us to reach rural communities, not just Māori communities. We called it the "postcode lottery of health" and that is very clear when we look into how we on this side—the Labour Party in power—actually made significant changes to the health system. Of course we want a health system that delivers for all. My plea for this House, and we'll come into this matter when we debate Te Aka Whai Ora, is that we do give it a chance; we make sure that it does meet the well-worked-through intentions of Sir Mason Durie and many others before him to give something equitable for Māori healthcare in this country. The other one is of course smoking, and I heard today in the House many people say, "It's just smoke and mirrors." Well, from where I'm sitting in a Māori community, it's more smoke and less mirror and it's really sad to hear that. You know, I grew up in a household that smoked and it was just one of those intergenerational things. I don't smoke and I'm proud of that, and my tamariki don't smoke, my nephews and nieces, they don't smoke—simply because of the changes that a brave Government in their day made many years ago. It would be a real shame to see that reversed. But we're here, on this side of the House, to hold the Government to account, and I'm fortunate to sit amongst many great members of this House, many who have served as cabinet Ministers, many who have worked really hard in their communities, and it will be our job as the Opposition to make sure we continue to hold the Government to account. And they can bet that we will do that. We will do that by discussing the facts; we will do that by discussing, of course, the sentiments and the feelings amongst our communities that we bring and represent here in this House. Finally from me, I am looking forward to this term of Government—this is my fourth term here in this House—continuing to serve Māori, continuing to serve our country, and may we all look towards making sure that this country does move forward together, and certainly doesn't leave anybody behind. Thank you. RICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Tēnā koe. Thank you, Madam Speaker. I want to start by acknowledging the legacy and the shoulders that we stand on of all the people who have built our movement, the Green Party. That has enabled us to return as incumbent MPs and to bring our biggest caucus ever, and I want to say just how exciting it is to be working with some of the best organisers and campaigners in this country to work towards a fairer future. Today, we're here to discuss the Government's agenda and what was said in the Speech from the Throne. I think there is as much being said when there is a speech where something is omitted, and something that was not said in the Speech from the Throne was anything in relationship explicitly to poverty. In fact, the words "poverty" and "inequality" did not get a single mention in today's speech. We are talking about the communities who have been underserved by successive Governments, who have been kept in poverty by political decisions from politicians in this House—from people who have said that countless families deserve to live below the poverty line. The myth that has been spoken for far too long in this place is that all it takes is hard work to get ahead. What has been said by Christopher Luxon in referencing someone else's maiden speech in his speech, which was that all it takes is to have good parents, is a myth, because, actually, we have designed a House that is designed to keep those families in poverty and that has been designed to keep disabled people living below the breadline—and I see that people are going "No", and nodding and rejecting what I am saying, but look at the numbers. Look at the evidence. Look at how much someone earns when they're on a benefit, and then match it up with the median rents across the country. Tell me that the incomes that we've decided to give to people who deserve support are livable—they are not. These are decisions and it doesn't have to be that way, and yet while there was talk about reducing red tape and subsidies for landlords, there was nothing in today's speech about how we're going to eliminate poverty, let alone continue meeting our child poverty reduction targets, which were—yeah—a first of a kind, but were not even ambitious enough to actually commit to eliminating poverty. They simply were there to reduce poverty, and it didn't even get a single mention. The Green Party has a proud legacy of working and fighting to end poverty. It has been our mahi in this place from previous MPs that secured those child poverty reduction targets and that secured increases to benefits and the removal of some of the punitive sanctions, and yet despite poverty not getting a mention in today's speech, if we trawl through the coalition documents, we can find what's in this Government's agenda. We can find that this Government intends to introduce punitive sanctions—sanctions that have no evidence of working. I think back to 2017, when we were finally having a more sensible public discussion on sanctions on sole mothers. We were talking about 17,000 mothers who were being sanctioned at that time for not naming the father of their children. The Government at the time was unable to produce evidence that those sanctions were working towards supporting whānau, or towards supporting people to actually have a relationship with their partner, or the father or mother or caregiver, of the children. There was no evidence that punishing beneficiaries or that leading them further into poverty was working towards the benefit of anyone in our society, and all it was doing was criminalising the same people that were being scapegoated. So all the talk about getting tough on crime is simply a scapegoat. It's a dog whistle that hides the fact that this Government will be criminalising people, because when you strip people of their only legal source of surviving, you put people in a position where their only way to survive is to commit a crime, and so this Government is actually working against the goal of reducing crime by creating a generation of people who will have no means of surviving. When they say that they want to get tough on people on the benefit by putting those obligations on jobseeker beneficiaries, they should spend some time talking to those people who attend those work seminars. Do they even actually support people into meaningful employment? No. The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) in Wellington has been unable to even keep track, for example, of the number of people that attend those seminars. MSD has been unable to actually quantify the wages that those people go on to, and yet successive Governments have been eager to punish people who are not deemed to go into the types of jobs that policies from Governments have chosen to push people into. By sanctioning those people who you deem to not meet those obligations, you will be leaving them without any source of income or any ability to pay their rent. Shame on this Government and their agenda to wage a war on the poor. The Green Party will be working to eliminate poverty, not to continue to increase it, as this Government is intending to do. For all the talk of this Government about personal responsibility and people needing to learn to make good decisions, it's quite frankly insulting when the goal of this Government on those on the lowest incomes is to monitor their expenses more closely, and to give people less agency and less opportunity to make those decisions in life. Forcing people to go to Work and Income, to queue at Work and Income, to prove every single expense in order to get a food grant—a measly food grant that has not even been properly increased in countless terms—is insulting. It's both a waste of time for the person sitting at the Work and Income office and it's degrading for the families that have to queue up just to survive. This is a Government that, by omitting the words "poverty" and "inequality" from the Speech from the Throne and from its opportunity to set an agenda, has told the whole country that its interests lie in protecting landlords' ability to evict people without any reason and to give them more money. I also want to reflect as a migrant to Aotearoa on the fact that for far too long, the Government parties—all of them—have chosen to pit our communities against each other. I don't want to hear any celebration of the new migrant members of the Government's caucus, who are complicit—who are completely complicit—in driving a divide between our migrant communities and Māori. What many of us know is that our struggles for liberation are absolutely connected and that the only people—the only people—who have something to lose from our migrant communities by strengthening the ability for people to recover their reo and to actually have a partnership approach in the way that we do things are the people who have gained from the direct exploitation of those communities. As migrants, we should be working towards supporting our companions and their struggles for liberation, whether it's in Aotearoa, whether it's in Palestine, or whether it's in West Papua. By standing together towards the common cause of taking climate action, ending poverty, and having a true Te Tiriti partnership, we'll be able to actually create the society that this Government proposes to represent and to aspire towards. In pre-colonial times, immigration policy was not based on the exploitation of workers, and I did want to quote Professor Khylee Quince, the dean of law at Auckland University of Technology, who spoke at length about how in pre-colonial times immigration policy was actually led by concepts around manaaki, aroha, and utu—policies that we actually have a lot to learn on, and, actually, it could be time for the Crown to think more about devolving power and resources so that those values can be restored. I'll end with a whakatuakī which I think represents the solidarity and the connection that we can build with one another, rather than the division that this Government wants to create with one another. Mā whero, mā pango ka oti ai te mahi. [With unity, the task can be achieved.] Kia ora. Hon JAN TINETTI (Labour): Madam Speaker, can I start by offering my congratulations to you. As someone who hails from the West Coast, it is wonderful to see a fellow West Coaster in that chair, so congratulations, Madam Speaker, and I wish you all the best in it. And can I also say congratulations, especially to all the new members in this House—and what you bring to this place. It is something I was thinking about listening to the speeches today, but also in the swearing-in yesterday—of my time six years ago, and what a very special time that is. And so I just want to reiterate my congratulations to you, and I look forward to working with you over the next term of Parliament. That's where, unfortunately, I have to sort of take a little bit of a diversion, now, because listening to that Speech from the Throne today; devoid of vision— Hon Simon Watts: Tell us about education! Hon JAN TINETTI: Just wait, I am going to talk about education, and I will happily talk about education and the smoke and mirrors that we are seeing coming from the current Government at this point in time, because what we heard about today was a turning back of the clock. New Zealand is going backwards under this Government and will go backwards and not forwards. Do you know, I actually had a time before, when I was listening to some of the speeches, that I thought, "Do the Government realise they're in Government now, or are they still thinking they're in Opposition?"—because their speeches were more about us, and more about Labour than what they're going to do, and that is what I have heard all day: I have heard only about us, repealing, and going backwards. I haven't heard anything about going forwards whatsoever. And I've heard a whole reinvention of history where facts have been slightly put out there and maybe not quite as the reality is—nothing about the proud record of this Government. So let me remind you, Madam Speaker, of just a few things that have come through from the previous Government. In jobs: more Kiwis in work than ever before. All of the wonderful things happening in health: things like three million free prescriptions; the increase in Pharmac's funding by 51 percent. Child poverty: 77,000 fewer children in poverty than when we took office. Climate change: emissions have fallen over the last three consecutive years. And let's talk about education. Let's talk about early childhood, because have we heard much about early childhood from the current Government? No, we haven't. The previous Government strengthened curriculum in early childhood. We strengthened oral language provision, because we know that that's where it starts: it starts with early childhood. It isn't about saying "Learning and education starts at age five or six", it starts well before that—in fact, it starts at birth, and some say prior to that. We put an early learning action plan in place—something that the previous National Government had got rid of. We worked towards pay parity and because of the absolute complexity around that, we committed to a funding review—I've heard nothing about that in this Government's plans. In fact, as I say, I've heard nothing, or very little, about early childhood. Let's move to the schooling. We put in an evidence- and research-based strategy developed by experts on literacy, communication, and mathematics because we know that it takes time to turn around the results that we have been seeing declining over decades. We made certain that we had the experts there to bring in that evidence-based and research strategy, and implementation had well started. I heard the Minister saying just recently that, "We need to make certain that teachers know what they are teaching." Well, guess what? That's exactly what the refresh of the curriculum has been doing, so teachers know what to teach and when, but that Government does not deal with facts at all. We have put in place—or had put in place, ready to be released—the common-practice model, which has the core teacher requirements. I challenge that to be released now. That work is right there, ready to go. Teachers are crying out for it, it is already there. But what have I heard from the Government? They are bringing in one hour of teaching of reading, writing, and mathematics every day. Nothing about professional development for teachers—to increase the professional development so they know what they're teaching, when they're teaching it, how to teach, and how to be better teachers—nothing about that. We'll just say, "Oh, we're going to bring in one hour of teaching of reading, writing, and mathematics every day.", and even the sector are finding that confusing. Does it mean integration; does it not mean integration? I've even heard that the Minister has been saying, "Well, most schools do teach an hour a day of reading, writing, and mathematics; it's just the odd few that don't." So what's the problem that we're trying to solve here? The banning of cellphones, which schools have been able to do forever— Hon Grant Robertson: They don't trust schools. Hon JAN TINETTI: They're obviously not trusting of schools. But when I do ask schools around the country—if there are schools that haven't banned cellphones—"Why don't you?", they reply "Oh, because there is a bit of a digital divide there and cellphones are a way that we're able to breach that." So why is nothing being done about that? We're just going to put a whole ban on cell phones in that time. I think the real smoke and mirrors are the one hour of teaching reading, writing, and mathematics and the banning of cell phones, to take the real focus away from what really is insidious, and has been hidden in the documents so far that we have seen: the assessment, the measuring progress along the learning journey. Well, guess what? That sounds like national standards mark two, and how well did that work out for the Government last time? What a failure for our kids, and they are still feeling the outfall from that, even today. Those young people that started under National's standards had the worst start in education that any young person could ever have, and that's what this Government wants to bring back. It's the smoke and mirrors around charter schools, an attack on public education—we will create this system over here and fund that, but let's not put the resourcing over here into the majority of young people who are in the public system. But what I'm really concerned about is that—and here is sort of the irony that can happen sometimes—the statement that has been made in both coalition agreements and in the Speech from the Throne today, to refocus the curriculum on academic achievement and not ideology, including the removal and replacement of the relationships and sexuality guidelines. Well, first of all, what are charter schools if they are not ideology? That's exactly what charter schools are—exactly; they are exactly ideology. Secondly, I would ask what is ideology in the relationships and sexuality guidelines? I challenge anybody to show me the ideology. My thoughts are that they are going to say that it is "gender diversity." Go tell that to our community who are seeing themselves represented—but saw themselves represented in the 2015 guidelines that were released under the then National Government. The 2020 guidelines brought a bigger focus on to consent, not gender diversity—gender diversity was already there. And I can remember speaking to the Hon Nikki Kaye in about 2018 and her talking of pride of bringing those guidelines into the education curriculum. But here, we've had this flip-flop already, coming through and saying that we're going to make sure that they're age-appropriate. Well, the Government need to go through and make certain that they read those before they make such rash statements, because they are only harming communities who are already under threat and in a minority in this country. And it just beggars beyond belief that those statements have been made. People are getting upset about what isn't in there rather than what is, but what I want to finish with is what has not been mentioned by this Government: I said early childhood education, I'm going to say learning support, Māori education, Pacific education—where are they in this Government's plan? They are being let down. Hon KIERAN McANULTY (Labour): Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. May I join the other brownnosers and acknowledge your appointment as Assistant Speaker and hope that it may pay dividends in years to come! But, in all seriousness, I am very pleased for you, because you have been a solid contributor to this House and you really deserve this, along with Barbara Kuriger, Greg O'Connor, and, of course, the Rt Hon Gerry Brownlee—delighted with the group of presiding officers. To those who are new to this House: welcome. You will enjoy yourselves. We did, and we will. And to those who have returned: congratulations. Because it truly is an honour to be here. I do want to start my first contribution since the election by acknowledging Mike Butterick, who won the Wairarapa seat. I think that's only right. Hon Member: What a great man. Hon KIERAN McANULTY: Yep; that's right. Thank you—thank you. What they may not have picked up at home is that the reason members were clapping is because they said I'll win it back next year! So I appreciate your support. Thank you for that! Today is a special day. It is a day when we have the Speech from the Throne. It is a day, one might think, that members of the Government might celebrate—celebrate the speech that outlines what they intend to do over three years—and the time in which to do that is the Address in Reply. Have we heard that? Have we, my foot! We have heard three contributions from the Government, and each and every single one of them slagged us off. They talked about what we did, and I think I know why: because all they're going to do is reverse what we did. They are going to bring this country backwards, and if they were proud of what they're going to do, I reckon they'd want to talk about it. But they don't. I wonder why they're not talking about tax cuts that don't add up. I wonder why no one on that side has mentioned te reo Māori. I wonder why no one has mentioned smoking. What about fair pay agreements? They campaigned on those. They're supposed to be proud of those. I wonder if the reason why they haven't mentioned those is because, within the first week, their Cabinet had leaked the document to the media that contained advice that said very clearly that repealing fair pay agreements would disproportionately disadvantage women, Māori, Pasifika, youth, and low-wage workers. I wonder if that's why they're not mentioning it. Why have they not mentioned that they are going to bring in a rule that allows employers to sack people within 90 days without giving any single reason? Why? Why haven't they mentioned that, because of what they plan to do, ratepayers will face bills that they simply cannot afford? If they had mentioned those, they would be being upfront and being consistent with what was in the Speech from the Throne today. None of them has mentioned it, and I would wager that not many of them will. When you serve in this House, be it for a short time or a long time, there are occasional moments when you reflect on what you have achieved, and I am sure that, when our time collectively is finished in this House, we will talk about what we did when we were members of Parliament, be it with our children, our grandchildren, or, for some of us, great-grandchildren. And I wonder if we would be proud, when we spoke to those young people, if we told them that we got elected on the basis of talking about doing something about climate change but, when we had the opportunity, we actually took away the things that were working. I wonder if we would be proud if we told those young people that on the one hand we said that we should encourage te reo Māori but then we removed the measures that actually did just that—actually punished those workers who should be rewarded for having a particular skill that is in demand, that requires them to work more hours and do more tasks than other workers because they speak Māori, and they don't like it. And if they take exception to that, I would ask them to refer to some of the statements and some of the policies that they have signed up to. Riddled throughout the coalition agreement are things that will push Māori backwards. The reason this Government wants to get rid of the Māori Health Authority is because of the first word in those three words. That's it: "Māori". They know it works. It's been proven to work. They know that it's backed up by stats. They know it's backed up by evidence, but they don't like it because it focuses on Māori. Where's the talk of repealing the rural health strategy? That's what I want to know. Where's the talk of that? They won't do that, because they know that rural people vote for them, and they know that Māori people don't, and they know that they can kick them, and I think it's bloody disgraceful. Fair-pay agreements will help people's wages go up. It is proven. Their advice says so. It is the reason why our wages in New Zealand and Australia are so far apart. They don't care—they don't care—because the people that back them don't want to pay higher wages. They don't care about low-wage workers, and if they take exception to that, don't bring in policies that will hurt them. Fair-pay agreements advantage large businesses and disadvantage people who work for a living. But guess what! The vast majority of New Zealanders work for a living. So how on earth can they stand up and say that they are the party for New Zealanders? The proof is in the pudding, and in three years' time, New Zealanders will see what it is that they've actually brought in here. Because they've campaigned on broad promises, but what is in the coalition agreement is actually the guts of it, and the guts of it is going to hurt people. It's going to hurt workers. It's going to hurt women. It's going to hurt Māori, Pasifika, and young people. It's going to hurt the majority of New Zealanders. They have an opportunity now to actually do what's right, to back New Zealanders and be upfront with Kiwis and say, "We can't deliver tax cuts, because we overpromised. We can't do what we said we were going to do, because our numbers don't add up." They didn't add up before the election; they certainly don't add up after they've given Shane Jones $1.2 billion and given the ACT Party interest deductibility backdated to April. None of that was campaigned on. So when you've got a $10 billion hole in your transport budget and at least a $2 billion hole in your tax budget, and then you add on $1.2 billion for Shane Jones and God knows how many millions for the ACT Party, that's a massive hole—a massive hole that Nicola Willis is desperately trying to put on us, even though the thing she's pointing to was already out there in the public domain, and two of them are already factored into their fiscal plan. That's not going to wash. New Zealanders aren't dumb. They know a fiddle when they see it, and that is exactly what they're trying to do. Their numbers don't add up. They cannot deliver what they've promised, and they're trying to shift the blame, but Kiwis will see right through it. Kiwis will see right through that. What we're seeing right from the start is a pushback on what has to be the shortest honeymoon in a new Government's history, be it leaks or be it policies that no one campaigned on but they decided to do, not for health reasons but because it gave them money. It plugged the hole. It made the massive hole in their fiscal plan just a little bit smaller, and what it will mean by reversing the smokefree rules that have been coming in is that, for those young people who wouldn't have taken up smoking, some of them will, and some of them will die from it. We know smoking kills. Successive Governments, National and Labour led, have done things to decrease the number of people smoking, and just like climate change and just like wages and just like the promises they've made to working people and the elderly and women, it all sounds good, but when you look at what the detail is, none of it helps. This is exactly the same. On one hand they say that they want to discourage people from smoking and on the other, because it's convenient and it brings money in, they actually scrap the things that will help. It is shameful, and I think, when that comes in, in years to come, they'll look back on that, and I wonder whether the members opposite, when they are speaking to young relatives and reflecting on their time in Parliament, will mention that. I wonder whether they will think back on that with pride and say it was financially and fiscally convenient to change rules that we knew deep down people would die from. It's a disgrace. Hon CHRIS PENK (Minister for Building and Construction): Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. May I start by congratulating you personally, as well as your fellow presiding officers who have been elected to this higher office. As a partner in crime in the last term of Parliament, I'm delighted to see that you've risen to this lofty station and hope that my remarks now will stand us in good stead as you make rulings throughout the parliamentary term. Congratulations, too—if I may be so bold as to bring you into the debate—on the election win that you had in the area that you now represent. I wish to join others who have congratulated our new members of Parliament from across the House—both from the National side, of whom there are many; and also from those of other parties based in the same area that I am fortunate enough to continue to represent: my friend Jenny Marcroft, of course, returning to Parliament; also Hūhana Lyndon of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand. I also wish to acknowledge the maiden speeches that were made earlier tonight by my colleagues James Meager and Katie Nimon—look forward very much to the maiden statements of other members of the class of 2023. I do wish, also, to acknowledge, particularly, Dr Weenink and Mr Costley—new colleagues. They have very recently served, in one case; and for a long period of service, in both cases, in the New Zealand Defence Force. So I'd like, as the newly minted Minister for Veterans, to thank them for their service, as well as all of our New Zealand Defence Force personnel. I know that the defence Minister, the Hon Judith Collins, would wish to do so, likewise. I do also wish to acknowledge—as we're being reflective about this wonderful institution of Parliament and even the building itself—we stand here in a war memorial with such auspicious but moving reminders of the sacrifice made by so many New Zealanders. I look around and I see Afghanistan, I see Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and many other reminders of the history that we should always bear in mind when we speak in this House, exercising our freedom of expression and so forth. I also wish, of course, to congratulate the right honourable Prime Minister for the formation of Government. I'd also like to congratulate him on his choice of ministry, in the case of an excellent Minister for Building and Construction, and, as I said, veterans and various others. I do actually want to speak about some of the things that I would like to attempt to do in in those various portfolios and areas going forward. It is important, however—notwithstanding Mr McAnulty's speech—that we do reverse some of the unpopular policies that have been put forward by the Government in the last six years. Indeed, we campaigned on those; we gained a mandate on the basis of doing so. It would be strange, and indeed anti-democratic, were we not to follow through with those policies—so we will. So when Mr McAnulty says that we can't go through and provide tax relief, I say to him: not only is it not true that we can't; we should, we can, and indeed we will. So on a positive note, then, in terms of the various briefings that I've received so far in relation to portfolios, I note that there are, in some cases, longstanding issues that face our country. Other ones are more in the category of things that have been somewhat let slide these past six years, or certainly, particularly, the last three in a couple of cases. So in relation to the veterans' affairs portfolio, major question marks remain in relation to even such a basic and fundamental question of what is a veteran, what length of service, what type of service—operational or otherwise—should qualify a person who puts himself forward in service of this country to be regarded as such. Some valuable work was undertaken two terms ago, led by the Hon Ron Mark, who was very passionate about this work, and consultation was undertaken in relation to the idea of a covenant—or a kawenata—to reflect that special bond of service between New Zealand and these fine women and men who put themselves forward. That work needs to be progressed. Frankly, we let down people who have served our country if we don't come to some manner of conclusion in relation to that question, as well as very specific questions about how we regard the service of those who witnessed nuclear testing at various different places around the globe. That's a question that the Government will need to resolve in terms of how we recognise the presumptive injuries that have come about for people who were placed in that terrible position some decades ago. In building and construction, we've seen far too little progress lately on the question of how we can allow the building sector to be more productive, less bound by regulation; while acknowledging, of course, where safety is an issue of workers, but of course in terms of the abilities of buildings to be safe and secure environments too. Of course, there is a balance to be struck there. But I'm pleased to say that along with other aspects of the Government's programme in removing the wasteful industry transformation plans, or ITPs, likewise in the building construction sector, while we commit very firmly and strongly to talking with the sector, we won't do it through a mechanism that has not been productive at all in the way that the Government had intended. We will save the taxpayer money by doing so, and therefore we will make a contribution to reducing those cost of living pressures that we rightly talked about during the campaign and on which basis New Zealanders have given us a mandate to go forward and govern. Other issues, I'll leave perhaps for another day—perhaps as early as question time tomorrow; I might be fortunate enough to be asked a question about these, so sort of just throwing it out there in case the Leader of the House is watching. Arena Williams: Are you on regs review? Hon CHRIS PENK: I'm not on the Regulations Review Committee. Arena Williams: You love it! Hon CHRIS PENK: I know, I know, I know. Ms Williams has asked if I might be on the Regulations Review Committee and I'm so committed to the idea. Arena Williams: Tell us what it does. Hon CHRIS PENK: Ask what it does. Well, look, we've only got 3½ minutes. Even though, in a funny kind of way, if I were to talk about it, it would seem like a lot longer. Anyway. So we are in a phase, though, actually, in all seriousness, of discovering—as every new Government does when they come in and they find exactly the state of things and, on occasion, that might be better; more often they will be worse. But, actually, I do have a very serious point to make in relation to this. It concerns at least one school in my electorate. It's Kaipara College, which has had planned for many years a major new innovation centre. They need the space; this is an important project, but it turns out that through considerable mismanagement, over-promising, under-delivering, announcements being favoured over the hard reality of delivery, and a mismatch of rhetoric and reality, this project now appears not to be able to be funded given the state of the books that have been left with us. I've sought advice. The Minister of Education, I'm very pleased to say, is seeking briefings to understand how the situation has risen, how it might be resolved. Can I just make a plea on behalf of that community, of which the school is a really important part, and of which this project, in turn, is a very important new innovation, as I say: we simply need to be non-ideological in the way that we commit to providing services and facilities to New Zealanders. So if it is able to be the case that we can have this built in a way that is perhaps through a public-private partnership programme or some other creative mechanism of ensuring that the kids of that area get what they need to actually be in school, learning and so on, then we should absolutely go ahead and do it. So my plea to all concerned is that they recognise the importance of that. I know the Minister of Education does. I'm very grateful that we have, in Erica Stanford, someone who gets it; someone who will be deeply committed to those. With all due respect to Ms Tinetti, when she talks about issues and decries our focus on ensuring that at least one hour of math, reading, and writing takes place every day, well, it's not very much help if we don't have school classrooms in which to be able to actually conduct those. So I say to her: it would be helpful for her to reflect on her legacy and her Government's legacy. We've heard a lot about smoke and mirrors—no doubt it's in the talking points; that's fine. But, actually, some of those Government Ministers should be looking in a mirror and reflecting, quite literally, upon the cause of some of the malaise across this country and including, particularly, as I say, in the education system. It's an absolute crying shame. Goodness knows so many kids haven't been turning up to school, so they probably barely even know what they're missing. But they should know, and they should know who's caused that problem. My remaining time, I commit, again, on behalf of the Government, and as a member of that Government, we will work hard to reduce the cost of living issues. We will improve the situation with law and order in our New Zealand cities, towns, and indeed rural areas. We will improve health and education services. You've heard about some of those measures we've undertaken through the Speech from the Throne. More importantly, it is a speech for the people. It will get New Zealand back on track and I can't wait to see how we, on the National Party side of things, along with New Zealand First and ACT, can achieve that in the next three years. Thank you. Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour): E te Māngai o te Whare, tēnā koe. Otirā tēnā tātou katoa kei roto i tēnei Whare o tātou i tēnei pō.    E mihi ana ki ngā mema hou kua hau mai nei ki roto i tēnei Whare, ā, ka mihi hoki ki a tātou kua hoki mai anō ki roto i tēnei Whare. E mōhio ana ahau he hōnore tēnei mō mātou, mō tātou katoa e whai wāhi ki te hau ki roto i tēnei Whare hei mema Pāremata ki te tū ki te kōrero i roto i tēnei Whare. Ka kōrero ahau i roto i tōku reo rangatira nā te mea i tēnei ata i ara ahau, i kite ahau i tētahi kōrero kātahi anō ka puta mai i tētahi Minita hou. Ko tana hiahia ki te whakakore i te utu mō ngā kaimahi o te Karauna e matatau ana ki te reo Māori. Ka tino riri ahau. Ka tino pōuri ahau. Ka tino pā mai te mamae ki ahau nā te mea ko tāku e kite ana, e takahi ana koutou te Kāwanatanga hou, ahakoa e ono rā noa iho, e whitu rā noa iho koutou e mahi ana, i tō tātou reo rangatira. E tika ana te kōrero a Chris Hipkins i te ahiahi nei: he taonga te reo Māori. Me patu te whakamā, ki taku whakaaro, koutou e tautoko ana i tērā āhuatanga, nā te mea e hoki muri ana tātou. I te wā o ōku tūpuna karāni, i a rātou e haere ana ki te kura, i patua mō te kōrero i te reo Māori. I akiaki i a rātou ki te ako i te reo Pākehā kia whai hua i roto i tēnei ao. Waiho tō reo Māori ki te taha, ki te kāinga. Nā, i tae mai te petihana me te hīkoi i te tau 1985 mō te reo Māori. E tautoko ana ngā pāti, tēnei Whare, kia motuhake te reo Māori mō Aotearoa whānui. Engari nā tēnei kaupapa here, nā tēnei kōrero i puta mai i tēnei ata, e tino āwangawanga ana ahau, e tino mataku ana ahau e hoki muri ana tātou. He taonga te reo Māori nō reira kia kaha tātou katoa ki te tiaki i tō tātou reo Māori. I kite ahau i ētahi kōrero i runga i Paeāhua inanahi, i runga i Pukamata inanahi, i runga anō i te porotēhi mō te reo, mō te whenua, mō te Tiriti o Waitangi, me te auē o ngā māmā mō wā rātou tamariki, mō wā rātou tamariki Māori. E kite ana rātou i ngā hiahia o tēnei Kāwanatanga, i rongo i te kōrero i puta mai i te Kāwana-Tianara mai i te Torōna i tēnei ahiahi, te hiahia o tēnei Kāwanatanga ki te whakarerekē, ki te tutu i te Tiriti o Waitangi, ngā mātāpono, ki te whakakore i Te Aka Whaiora, te pai ora mō wā tātou tamariki, ko te tango i te 7AA i te ture Oranga Tamariki mō te whānau, te hapū, te iwi, te whakapapa, te reo o ngā tamariki, o ngā mokopuna. E mōhio ana ahau he aha tō rātou āwangawanga, tō rātou pōuri, tō rātou mamae mō wā rātou tamariki nā te mea e kite hoki ana ahau i tērā i roto i te rautaki o tēnei Kāwanatanga hou. He hōnore mōku te whiwhi i ngā kaupapa o te tamariki, o ngā taitamariki, me te mātauranga wāhanga Māori anō hoki. I taku hautanga mai ki roto i tēnei Whare, i taku kōrero tuatahi i kōrero ahau mō wā tātou tamariki. I whakahua ahau i te kōrero a Dame Whina Cooper. He aha tana kōrero? "Take care of our children, take care of what they hear, take care of what they see, take of what they feel, for how the children grow, so will be the shape of Aotearoa." E tautoko ana ahau, e whakaae ana ahau ki ngā kōrero a Chris Hipkins i te ahiahi nei. I a au e whakarongo ana ki te Kōrero mai i te Torōna, kahore ahau i rongo, kahore ahau i kite i tētahi paku whakakitenga mō wā tātou tamariki mokopuna. Horekau. E ai ki te kōrero a Te Puea, "ki te kore he whakakitenga, ka ngaro te iwi". Nō reira e tautoko ana ahau i wērā māmā i runga i Paeāhua e tangi ana mō wā rātou tamariki, e tangi hoki ana tēnei māmā mō waku tamariki, me ā rātou tamariki hoki. I a au e whakarongo ana ki te kōrero, ka pā mai te mamae mō wā tātou taitamariki me ngā hiahia o tēnei Kāwanatanga ki te mauhere i wā tātou tamariki, taitamariki e taka ana ki te hē. Me te hanga i tētahi kaupapa hou, ko ngā boot camps. Horekau he rangahau e tautoko ana i tērā, engari he kōrero e mea ana e hē ana wērā mea katoa, kaua e mahia. Ka hoki anō ki te hē. Ka tino pōuri ahau ki te rongo i tērā kōrero. I rongo ahau i tētahi atu o ngā rautaki, ko te hiahia kia āta titiro, āta kōrero, āta wetewete i ngā mātāpono o te Tiriti o Waitangi. E, nā tētahi uri o rātou mā i haina i te Tiriti o Waitangi. E tū ana tēnei uri i tēnei pō ki te kī atu ki a ia, koutou katoa i whakaae ki tana hiahia ki te tutu i te Tiriti o Waitangi. Tētahi kōrero nā te tupuna, nā Kawiti, kua whakahua i tana ingoa i roto i te Whare i tēnei rā. I waiho tēnei kōrero mā mātou, ngā uri. "Waiho kia kakati te namu i te whārangi o te pukapuka, hei konei ka tahuri atu ai." E kakati ana te namu i te whārangi o te pukapuka, tērā namu. Kahore i konei i tēnei wā engari mōhio ana tātou katoa ko wai e kakati ana i te whārangi o te pukapuka. I roto i tērā whakataukī, kei takahia e koutou te papa pounamu a ō koutou tūpuna e takoto nei. Nō reira kia tūpato tātou. He kawenata tapu te Tiriti o Waitangi, te Whakaputanga anō hoki. E titiro atu ana ahau ki ngā taumata o te moana, ka hua mai i reira he ao hou mā tātou. Kāore e kore ka porotēhi tonu te iwi Māori. I porotēhi inanahi, ka tū mai tētahi hui nā te Kīngitanga i karanga i tēnei rā, ka tū ki Rātana, ka tū anō ki Waitangi. Kahore rātou e noho noa iho me te, āe, noho puku, kahore. Engari ehara ko ngā Māori anake e tū ana ki te whakahē i tēnei. E tū ana ngā tāngata Tiriti ki te tautoko nā te mea he whakakitenga mō Aotearoa. Tērā te mea e hiahia ana mātou i tēnei taha. E te Māngai o te Whare, kua tata pau te wā ki ahau. Kotahi wiki anake tēnei Kāwanatanga e mahi ana i tā rātou rautaki, kua kite i ā rātou mahi takahi i wā tātou tamariki, taitamariki, te momi paipa, te whakakore i te ture mō te auahikore hei utu i ngā nama o ō rātou kaipōti, kaitautoko ā-pūtea nei hoki. He aha te utu i te mutunga o tērā? Ko wā tātou tamariki, taitamariki, he mate. Patua e te whakamā. Nō reira e te Māngai o te Whare, tēnā koe. [Speaker of the House, thank you. Indeed, greetings to all of us in this House of ours this evening. I acknowledge the new members who have entered this House, and I acknowledge those of us who have returned to this House. I know that it is an honour for us, for all of us to have the opportunity to come into this House as members of Parliament to stand to speak inside this House. I will speak in my noble language because this morning I rose, I saw a statement that has only just come out from the new Minister. His desire is to do away with the funding for staff of the Crown that are proficient in the Māori language. I am very angry. I am very sad. I truly feel hurt because of what I see you are trampling, the new Government, even though you've only been in the job for six days, seven days, our noble language. The statement of Chris Hipkins this afternoon is true: the Māori language is a treasure. You should be stricken with shame, in my opinion, you who support that phenomenon, because we are regressing. In the time of my grandparents, when they were at school, they were beaten for speaking the Māori language. They were encouraged to learn the English language so that they could be successful in this world. Leave your Māori language to the side, at home. Well, the petition and march for the Māori language arrived here in the year 1985. The parties, and this House, supported the initiative that the Māori language become an official language for all of New Zealand. But due to this policy, and this statement that came out this morning, I am very concerned, and I am very fearful that we are regressing. The Māori language is a treasure so let us all be resolute to protect our Māori language. I saw some statements on Instagram yesterday, on Facebook yesterday, on the protest for the language, for the land, for the Treaty of Waitangi, and the cries of the mothers for their children, for the Māori children. They saw the desires of this Government, they heard the speech that came from the Governor-General from the Throne this afternoon, the desire of this Government to modify, to mess with the Treaty of Waitangi, the principles, to disestablish Te Aka Whaiora, the Healthy Futures of our children, the removal of section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki legislation for the family, the hapū, the iwi, the genealogy, the language of the children, of the grandchildren. I know what their concern is, what their sadness is, what their pain is for their children because I also see that in the strategy of this new Government. It is an honour for me to hold the portfolios of children, of youth, and Māori education also. When I first came into this House, in my maiden speech I spoke about our children. I quoted Dame Whina Cooper. What did she say? "Take care of our children, take care of what they hear, take care of what they see, take of what they feel, for how the children grow, so will be the shape of Aotearoa." I support, I agree with the statements made by Chris Hipkins this afternoon. While I was listening to the Speech from the Throne, I didn't hear, I didn't see a single vision for our children and grandchildren. Not at all. According to Te Puea, "If there is no vision, the people will be lost". So I support those mothers on Instagram that are crying for their children. This mother is also crying for my children, and for their children too. While I was listening to the speech, I was afflicted by anguish for our youth and the desire of this Government to incarcerate our children and our youth that fall into trouble. And to create a new initiative, that is boot camps. There is no research that supports that, but there is a statement that says all those things, don't do it. They will only fall into trouble again. I was very sad to hear that statement. I heard another of the strategies, the desire to closely examine, to deeply discuss, and to analyse the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Well, it was by a descendant of those who signed the Treaty of Waitangi. This descendant stands here tonight to say to him, to all of you that agreed with his desire to mess with the Treaty of Waitangi, a quote from the ancestor, from Kawiti, whose name has been mentioned in this House today. This quote was left to us, the descendants. "Wait until the sandfly chews on the pages of the book, that is when you must act". The sandfly is chewing on the page of the book, that sandfly. He is not here at this time but we all know who is chewing on the pages of the book. In that proverb, don't trample the sacred ground of your ancestors that lie here. So we must be careful. The Treaty of Waitangi is a sacred covenant, the declaration of independence also. I look at the peaks of the ocean, a new world for us will originate from there. Without doubt the Māori people will continue to protest. They protested yesterday, a meeting will assemble that was called by the Kīngitanga today, they will stand at Rātana, and stand again at Waitangi. They will not merely sit, and yes, do nothing, not at all. But it is not the Māori people alone that are standing up to condemn this. Our Treaty partners are also standing up in support because there is a vision for Aotearoa. That is what we want on this side. To the Speaker of the House, my time is almost spent. Only one week has this Government been working on their strategy and we have seen their abusive actions to our children, our youth, the smoking, the repeal of the smoke-free legislation to pay the bills to their voters, their financial supporters also. What will the price be at the end of it? It will be our children, our youth, a calamity. Be afflicted by shame. So to the Speaker of the House, thank you.] ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Before I call the member, can I just make a reminder, especially for some of our new MPs, that we do not permit filming in the House. You can watch it again later on Parliament TV, if you so wish. TEANAU TUIONO (Green): Thank you, Madam Speaker. Let me join with members from across the House with congratulating you on your recent ascension into the seat, and I look forward to supporting you, of course, with other members across the House in your executing your duties over this parliamentary term. I'd also like to extend my greetings to all new members of the House, those who have come here if this is their first parliamentary term. Nau mai, haere mai, whakatau mai. [Welcome.] It's an honour and a privilege and also a massive responsibility to be here to represent our diverse communities, our different communities, and I wish you all the best in how you do that. I was thinking about a whakataukī, and it goes "He toka tū moana koe". [You are a sentinel rock in the ocean.] This whakataukī translates as a rock standing firm in the sea, and it refers to a person who is steadfast and strong in their culture, beliefs, and/or position, against all oppositions. They are likened to the rock in the ocean that stands against strong elements, against all elements. The Greens—we're a bit like that. This is my second parliamentary term, and in my first parliamentary term in 2020, we were here when the red wave kind of swept through, and now here, after the 2023 election, we've got the blue wave kind of sweeping this way as well. But guess what! The rock that is the Greens is here and there are more of us, and we've got a couple of electorate seats on the way. I want to also acknowledge the anxiety that many of our people are experiencing, the anxiety of the people that gathered to protest yesterday, who gathered under the whakaaro of toitū Te Tiriti. I do want to acknowledge the words by my whanaunga Willow-Jean Prime, me āna kupu katoa i te mea kei te tautoko au i ērā kupu, kei te mihi atu au ki ērā o ngā kupu i te mea kei te rangona, kei te rangona ō tātou nei iwi ki ērā o ngā whakaaro. [I do want to acknowledge the words by my whanaunga, Willow-Jean Prime, and all of her words because I support those words. I acknowledge those words because they are heard, those ideas are heard by our people.] In English, they say "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me", but in te reo Māori we have a saying that goes "Ko te kai a te rangatira he kōrero"—kōrero, conversation is the food of chiefs. Words have power, words have meaning, and they clothe our intentions, and it is important that in this place we give each other a bit of a hard time. It's part of the job. We're here to debate vigorously the issues and vigorously the bills and all that kind of stuff as well, but I think it's really important that we're mindful that words trickle out of this place into social media and they trickle down into rabbit-holes as well, and I think it's our responsibility to be mindful in the way that we use our words. I was reflecting on some of the words that we're saying about cultural theatrics as well, around the kapa haka application of some of our politics. I say this as someone that didn't make it into the fifth-form kapa haka group. Some say I did not have the— Hon Marama Davidson: He's got other skills—it's fine. TEANAU TUIONO: I've got other skills. Some of us do not have the coordination. Actually, my kids won't be watching this, but we have waiata practice in my whānau and my kids put me in the back row of a song that I taught them 30 to 40 years ago, as well. But here's the thing: our kids love kapa haka. They love those cultural expressions. That is the way that they can help to build their identity and that strength as well. So I just wanted to support some of what people would call the theatrics or antics of our whanaungas in Te Pāti Māori and say, "Hey, you know what? This is how many of our people express their politics.", and we should be free and able to express our politics in the way that we feel comfortable. What I would say to those protesters as well is thank you very much for not blocking the Wellington motorway as I was coming down from the mighty Manawatū. Wellington traffic sucks at the best of times, and I was reflecting on that Speech from the Throne where they were going to get rid of Let's Get Wellington Moving and replace it with Keep Wellington Stagnant. We're going to go from Let's Get Wellington Moving to Keep Wellington Stagnant, and that was the theme in that Speech from the Throne. But fortunately for Wellington, Wellington Central has got a new member of Parliament who will be doing everything that she can to keep Wellington moving—Tamatha Paul—and also somebody who has a bit of experience in terms of transport issues, the Hon Julie Anne Genter, as well. So this Government might want to keep Wellington stagnant, but we're going to try to keep it moving. As I was listening to the Speech from the Throne, I—like, honestly, I just felt it was like a grab-bag of policy gimmicks. I felt that it ruined Christmas for many people: for workers, for Māori, and for Pasifika who were listening to that speech. This Government is shaping up to be the Grinch who stole Christmasthe Grinch who privatised Christmas. Sorry, kids nothing under the Christmas tree this Christmas but pseudoephedrine, cigarettes, and guns, and especially bad luck if you wanted a Government that would give us a stable climate. How embarrassing that up at COP28, this Government got called to account for wanting to reverse the oil and gas exploration ban. How shameful—how shameful. That was echoing the sentiments of leaders at the Pacific Island Forum as well. How did our new Minister for Climate Change keep his head high? But here's the thing: the science tells us that we need to stop extracting oil and gas. We need to stop that. We need to focus on making sure that we stabilise the climate, an here's the thing which concerns me: this Government loves oil and gas so much that they're going to use some of that gas to gaslight the workers. They're going to use it to gaslight the workers. They want to get rid of the fair pay agreements—shameful—and I want to say this to all the workers who are out pulling double shifts tonight and might have the misfortune of hitting the wrong remote button on the remote control and happen to be tuning in to our speeches: the Greens will always listen to you. The Greens will support you. The Greens will back the unions and fight back against the stripping back of workers' rights. Our lowest-paid people deserve a pay increase, not a Government that is deliberately deciding to put the profits of big business ahead of making sure working people are paid what they deserve—paid what they deserve. For many people, the cost of paying the bills and putting food on the table has been going up, but their wages have not. Fair pay agreements were designed to raise the bar for pay and conditions for poorly paid industries. The idea is simple: people working alongside each other who are doing a similar job in the same sector should be able to work together to make sure the minimum pay in their sector is fair for everyone. But there's one person I actually feel especially sorry for in this whole fair pay agreement debacle, and that is the new Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety, whose colleagues are already leaking on her within the first five minutes. The fair pay agreements would have put more money in the pockets of people who really need it and who really deserve it, who tirelessly teach our mokopuna, keep our workplaces clean and safe, stock the supermarket shelves, and get us around on the bus. This Government has not given a second thought to whether or not these people are working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. All they care about is making it easier for businesses to get out of paying proper wages. ere we have the official advice that was leaked, and I'm not sure who it was. I'll scan the roommaybe they are here. All we have is the official advice to the new Government that spells out in black and white that young people, women, Māori, and Pasifika will be harmed most of all of this legislation is removed. We've got a long three years ahead of us. The Green Party will be resolute, standing up for the workers, standing up for Te Tiriti o Waitangi, standing up for our taiao, and standing up for our mokopuna. Nō reira e te Whare, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa. JOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise for my first speech in this new Parliament, and, Madam Speaker, may I congratulate you on your elevation to a well-deserved role, and also, if I may take the liberty of congratulating you for winning the great electorate of the West Coast-Tasman, the only general electorate in the country bigger than my own great electorate of Southland. Congratulations, Madam Speaker. May I take this opportunity to congratulate every Member of this House, regardless of your political persuasion; the people of New Zealand have put you here to be a voice for them, and it's a real sacred honour that we have. As others have said before me, we look around and we see the memory of those that have gone before us, and some have made the ultimate sacrifice so we can have this Chamber, we can have this democracy, we can have these discussions and these debates. We need to contest robustly with one another, but there's also a collegial respect, I think, that we also develop in this place. And so I look forward to working with all of you to ultimately work towards a better New Zealand, which is what we all here about. This is a new Government. New Zealand has chosen a change of direction, a change of policy, and we are here to deliver. This is a Government that is focused on action, it is focused on results, it is focused on delivery, and we will deliver on what we have promised. We went, all the three parties—and I congratulate the new Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon, the Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters of New Zealand First, and David Seymour, the leader of the ACT Party, and the ACT Party members of Parliament. We've all come together with differing ideologies, differing promises we've made to our electorates, and we've come to a comprehensive agreement—the first one of its kind in New Zealand's history, to deliver a comprehensive policy agenda for the people of New Zealand. I'm very excited to see this done because this country does have some major challenges that we need solved. I spent three years in Opposition before this, and I saw a Government that had a lot of, I think, well intended—like I think there's a lot of good intentions in terms of many of the things they were trying to do, and there's the different lenses that we bring to the roles that we have in this place. But what I didn't see, in many cases, was delivery on those results, and that is something that we actually have to get for New Zealand. So I think in many cases we agree on the ultimate outcome that we're trying to seek for the people of New Zealand, but we have different ways of doing that. I speak for myself. I am someone who experienced severe poverty in the mid-1980s in New Zealand when we had high inflation. I know how much high inflation hurts poor people. I've experienced it myself. We need to solve that, and we have made a commitment that we will refocus the Reserve Bank. We will narrow as focused, to focus on inflation, which is a real killer for the household budgets of people across New Zealand, and it puts people into poverty, puts children into poverty—children who do not have food on their table. Now it's absolutely critical that we solve it. We need to focus on small businesses and again, inflation crushes small businesses more than most, and the Fair Pay Agreements is a well-intentioned idea, but the reality is that the majority—97 percent, in fact—of firms in New Zealand are small businesses. It is a business that has 20 or less employees. This is what our country is made up of. There's about 546,000 small businesses in this country, and these well-intentioned but misguided aims to try and lift up the minimum wage actually makes it—I've talked to many, many small businesses—it makes it actually impossible for many of them to hire new young people to give them a chance. It puts them out of business in some cases because their margins are so small, and if one has not been in business, one does not know how tough it is to run a small business. I have built and run small businesses, and I know how tough it is. Those margins are small. Small-business owners work long days, long nights. They absolutely believe in their staff. They sweat bullets for their staff, and they mean everything. The business doesn't work for them; it's actually a family. These small businesses are families; they care deeply about them. So we want them to succeed. We're going to be focused on delivering an economy where they can succeed. We're going to celebrate aspiration. Aspiration so people can set up their own business where they can provide employment, and those people can have good jobs and they can put food on the table for their children. That's one of the things that drew me to this place and drew me to being a member of the National Party because I know from my childhood that the Government doesn't solve all things for poor people. It really doesn't. What you need is for people to have a chance. They need to have a good education. They need to have a chance to get a good job or to build their own business and provide jobs for people to put food on the table so their kids can have that opportunity. The kids can see an opportunity for themselves to build that mana in their own family, and in their own selves. This is something that our Government will be very relentlessly focused on. Now, if I touch on education, we have a relentless focus on actually making sure our kids can read and write and do science well. Unfortunately, New Zealand has been going backwards. In fact, the most recent PISA tests—the Programme for International Student Assessment—show that we have dropped back. In fact, in reading and science, our 15-year-olds are now a year behind where they were when testing first started. So it takes a year longer for them to get up to standard. They're at the 14-year-old standard now, our 15-year-olds—so they're a year behind. In mathematics, they're a year and a half behind where they were when testing first started. So this is actually a blight on our country. It's a blight on the opportunities for our young people to get ahead. It's a blight on the chance for them to build that opportunity for themselves, and for those who follow them. It's absolutely critical, and I hear in terms of our aspiration for Māori rangatahi, the biggest opportunity for so many of our young people, our rangatahi, is education. Again, I speak for myself. I am someone who failed high school. I went out, and I did every tough, rough job you can talk about. I eventually made my way to university, and I eventually got an honours degree in law, and it's taken me to this place. I know how important education can be. I know the doors it can unlock, and this is something we want to unlock for all of our people in New Zealand, and that's why we're going to have an absolutely relentless focus on education in this House. When I hear about the concerns expressed about Māori and the approach this Government is taking, now, let me just say, I know the Opposition has a role to take to criticise the Opposition, to raise issues, to try and give themselves a chance to win back again, but let's be responsible about the terminology we use here, because this is a Government that is focused deeply on what it's going to deliver for Māori—Māori who want jobs, they want education for their children, they want healthcare for their young people and for all of their whānau, they want homes for all of their people. These are the things that we need, this is what we want, and we celebrate te reo Māori. Look, let's just keep in mind that there have been some people who've felt left behind in the last three years, and felt that things have been— Rachel Boyack: Why? JOSEPH MOONEY: Why? Co-governance. This Government without, or the previous Government, sorry, without a mandate, introduced co-governance provisions without discussing it with New Zealand. Now there's also, "What does co-governance mean?" What does co-governance mean? Does it mean some will govern others without being electorally accounted for them? There's so many questions that hang in the air that need to be answered, that need to be discussed, and we need to have a rational, considered debate about this, and discussion about this. Let's not shout at each other. Let's have a kōrero with each other like we have on the marae. Let's discuss it with each other, and let's be sensible and careful, because the words we say reverberate across the nation and it affects the 5.2 million people who call this great country home. We're all passionate about this place. There's only a few of us who live here, far from the rest of the world. We need to take care of each other. We need to belong together differently, be proud of our differences, be proud that we have different lenses and points of view, but let's work with each other. Let's have a respectful discussion with each other, and let's not create fear where fear does not need to be had in the debates that we have. So let's have those careful discussions. I heard some discussions about climate change. I'm very pleased to say that my great colleague from the 2020—Mr. Simon—the Hon Simon Watts, is the great Minister of Climate Change. And as I say, I heard criticism about oil and gas, and let's keep this in perspective. We jumped a generation previously from, in many cases, coal, straight to trying to find renewables which we didn't actually have, and as a result we started importing record amounts of coal. Gas is used as a transition fuel across the world to transition away from coal, which has a high emissions profile. So we're actually about doing things sensibly. Again, recognising that we need our energy in this country to look after our people, to make sure that our elderly can turn on the heater, for example, and you know, have their home warmed in the depths of winter. We're not the warmest country in most of the land, but we need to do it in a sensible staged way that actually makes sense in our economy. So, with that, I'm pleased to be a part of the Government that is going to deliver for New Zealanders, and I've got an exciting three years ahead. Hon BARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana): Talofa lava, Mr Speaker, malo le soifua maua malo ma le lagi e mama. Can I congratulate you first, Mr Speaker, on your appointment as an Assistant Speaker. You served us well under the previous Government and were very fair in your rulings. But also, Mr Speaker, I really want to congratulate you on your win in Ōhāriu. That was a well thought campaign and I know the people of Ōhāriu have absolutely acknowledged and appreciated your contribution in the bowling clubs, in the different RSAs, and in the markets every Sunday. So congratulations, Mr Speaker. I also open my congratulations to the Rt Hon Gerry Brownlee; my favourite part of being an MP in the last three years was watching the Rt Hon Gerry Brownlee interject with a lot of humour from this side of the House when he was here, so I really hope that the Speaker will take it in mind to allow our interjections to bear with humour as well. And also to the Deputy Speaker and to the Assistant Speaker Maureen Pugh and Barbara Kuriger. I want to thank the people of Mana for re-electing me as your member of Parliament. A little over three years ago I gave my first speech in this House and I gave my commitment to my electorate of Mana to be a tenacious, empathetic, and strong advocate—that will continue in Opposition. To the new members of Parliament, welcome. This is a place of privilege where there have been more All Blacks than parliamentarians. I also wanted to especially acknowledge two of my new colleagues, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, the MP for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, whose "Push for Cush" campaign saw her take the seat emphatically. I also want to acknowledge my good friend Reuben Davidson, the MP for Christchurch East. We saw you take the seat from our very good friend the Hon Poto Williams, and we know you will take care of that electorate. For many of you in the House who don't know, Reuben is an acclaimed award-winning TV producer. Oh, I'm looking forward to the goods that you're going to produce here my brother. I also wanted to just acknowledge two other MPs who are not necessarily from my party but whom I have had some history with. To Kahurangi Carter, she is one of our ex-Carmel girls, which is a school in Auckland's North Shore, in Milford, a strong school which—and I'm really proud to have you, my Carmelite sister, here with me in the house. We are the first two MPs from that formidable school, so welcome. I also want to acknowledge, surprisingly, Andy Foster who was the former Mayor of Wellington City, who took the surprise decision not to run for any of the Wellington City electorates but actually came up north to Mana to try and give me a go. So I just want to acknowledge—thank you for being a respectful candidate on the campaign and sorry you didn't get that many votes. I also wanted to acknowledge two people who have now retired from this House, the Hon Andrew Little, who has done remarkable work over his time as a Minister, but also in his very courageous and brave act in 2017 to allow the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern come through. We thank you Andrew, for your decision to allow the depth of the caucus come through. So thank you very much for that, Andrew. I also wanted to really quickly actually acknowledge the Hon Michael Woodhouse. My first years here in the Beehive were actually working for the Hon Michael Woodhouse. I know he has not been able to give his valedictory speech, but I wanted to acknowledge him here today. In my maiden speech I spoke of different love stories that were weaved throughout my name and they say in this place that new Governments get a somewhat honeymoon period when they get elected in. If anything, over the last few weeks, is a story to tell: if that was a honeymoon, I wonder what this marriage is going to be like. From a leak of a Cabinet paper from someone on the other side, to protests on your very first day. I suspect, and I think many other people in this House suspect, that this marriage is going to end in divorce. I also want to turn to the Speech from the Throne. As I sort of was sitting there, I—probably from my family experience of holding a poker face, and we did many poker nights growing up as a child. My poker face wasn't as strong as Chlöe Swarbrick's poker face, but I waited in anticipation for a vision, for some inspiration. I waited for the principles and the values in which this new Government was going to govern. I waited for a "P". I waited for a "Pacific", and I waited and I waited for that "P". The only thing I heard was "pseudoephedrine" and that was the vision that was lacking from that Speech from the Throne. And then I thought, OK, maybe give the Prime Minister another chance. You know, he is new at this. I'm really good about giving fair chances. But when we came into the House, all I heard was, "Ring-ring, ring-ring. Hi, it's 2008. We're calling. We would like our Speech from the Throne back, please." And that's what we heard. We heard time and time again a repetition from a 2008 Speech from the Throne. It was absolutely devoid of vision. There was no inspiration. And that's why it's so quiet on that side of the House, because it's true and you know it's true. Where was, "This is our vision for New Zealand. This is what we're going to do to build it back better." No, they spent most of the time on that side of the House basically trying to personally attack us, basically they spent it on us. And that is one lesson that you should learn as a Government, you need to focus and look at yourself and figure out the principles and the values in which you are going to fight for this country. When I thought about how there was division, there was devoid of Pacific, it's because of a very simple reason, there is no Pacific representation in the Government. It is here on this side of the House. I see the representation here, and it's important there is representation. Because if there was a Pacific person on that side of the House, perhaps when they were reviewing the Speech from the Throne on behalf of their Prime Minister's Office, they would have said, "By the way, you're missing something for Pacific." I've sort of thought really hard and I thought, "I'm waiting, I'm waiting.", because I thought maybe it'll be in the foreign affairs policy—nope, there was nothing there. And even when the Rt Hon Winston Peters was the Minister of Foreign Affairs under this Government in 2017, there was a focus on Pacific, on the Pacific reset, because we knew how important the Pacific would be to our geopolitical outcomes here in Aotearoa New Zealand. So it was again devoid of vision, devoid of aspiration, devoid of inspiration. And what I've seen over the last few weeks is basically a Government scrambling to pay for its promises. A Government that, one, didn't clearly read the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (PREFU)—didn't actually have the competency or the ability to read and see what was in it, to interpret it, to actually understand what the difference between time-limited funding and baseline funding is. And that's important, because these are the people who are supposed to be looking after this country but can't even read the PREFU. Everyone else could read the PREFU, but perhaps the Minister of Finance will now have a strong Treasury bench that might be able to help her out. Maybe. But then the other factor that I was concerned about was the smoke-free is that, yes, trying to scramble to find money—find $800,000 from taking away te reo bonuses, trying to find money through smoke-free. And I just thought, again, this is where the lack of representation fails us, because who are the people who are most affected by those rules? Who will most actually benefit by keeping those smoke-free rules in? It is Pacific and it is Māori people. But again, the lack of representation concerns me and it concerns a lot of people out there. And then what do we get? The international view of this new Government in the last couple of weeks has been one, getting rid of world-leading smoke-free rules. That's the representation, every single one of you on that side of the House, when you say yes to that Act going through repealing it, that is what you're saying to the world—that we're no longer world-leading. The second thing that the international view of New Zealand will probably be—because of this Government—fossil of the day. Hon Member: Here's here! Oh, he's gone. Hon BARBARA EDMONDS: This is the representation you are leaving for the world for the first few— ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): Just for the sake of new members, we don't comment on the fact that members are not in the House. Hon BARBARA EDMONDS: We didn't refer to a specific member, but nevertheless. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): Or we don't answer the Speaker back either. Hon BARBARA EDMONDS: There no was reference at all to what the vision is, what the aspiration is. Instead, just wait. Just wait until the rest of the world finds out that we are peeling back some of our world-leading gun reforms. Then what will the world say to us? That we are not world-leading smoke-free, that we are fossils of the day, and that we're peeling back our gun law reforms. Shame on you. DAN BIDOIS (National—Northcote): E te Māngai o te Whare, tēnā koe. It's my pleasure to join the chorus, today, of congratulations to you, Mr Speaker, in your elevation to Assistant Speaker, and also, dear I say, for winning and holding your seat. We know, on this side of the House, how hard it is to do that, and I commend you for winning the people of Ōhāriu's support once again. I'd like to acknowledge the new MPs across the House; it is a fantastic privilege to be back here with you. And also to the new MPs here in my own caucus team, how great were the speeches from Katie Nimon and James Meager? Excellent talent. We've got excellent talent with principles, with vision—just like what Barbara Edmonton wanted, but she did not choose to comment. It's my first contribution, actually, to this House since I left, and I've been in the political wilderness for the last three years. I return to this place with a little bit more humility, with a little bit more resilience, and a little bit more better listening skills. I also return having reflected deeply on the challenges that our country faces in this present time and in the future. I'm a little bit wiser, slimmer—having not been to Copperfield's as much. Above all, I think—for my new colleagues in the House—I've reflected on how short political careers are. So my one advice to those of you who are in the proud 2023 year group is: make this job count. Make this job count, because there are so many members of Parliament that leave here having achieved nothing. Our goal in this Parliament and in this term is to actually effect change for people out there. Now, we're here debating the contribution from the Prime Minister's Speech from the Throne, here today, and can I maybe just take a step back and want to thank the voters who have elected us to be here. In particular, I'd like to thank the voters of the Northcote electorate who have instilled with me the ability to be here and to speak on behalf of them. I'd also like to thank the many volunteers who got out, day after day, and campaigned for all of our seats across New Zealand. It is an immense privilege to have people that give up their time and their effort, their resources, because they believe in you—not you, Mr. Speaker—they believe in us, and they believe in what the National Party stands for. I'm a really proud member of the National Party. Katie Nimon's made reference to Adam Smith, whom I am a lifelong admirer of, and, in my belief, Adam Smith's values are the core values of a centre-right National Party—a classic, economic-liberal National Party. The takeaways that I see from the election, I think, are pretty clear for us to see. But I want to give you, in this House, some observations from a bellwether seat of Northcote. The desire for change was strong. We did a poll locally, and three quarters of the Northcote electorate said they were unhappy with the way the country was going. That is something that that side of the House— Hon Willie Jackson: I can't believe that. DAN BIDOIS: You can argue all you want, Willie Jackson—you can argue all you want—but the voters in Northcote and the voters in in the wider public were very clear that they were not happy with the way this country was going. They wanted change, and they've got that through ACT, National, and New Zealand First. New Zealanders are very clear. They want hope for a better tomorrow—that's the first thing. So what Barbara Edmonton said: hope for a better tomorrow. But they want a Government that can actually deliver for them, and they want a Government that presents real solutions to the problems that they face. Now, my community wants meaningful change, particularly around areas like law and order. It's a great privilege to call Mark Mitchell the current Minister of Police—and you're doing a great job, Mark. Crime is up 50 percent in the last six years under this Government, and I've got shops in our community of Northcote that have been ram-raided. Just today, I've had, by the way, a jewellery shop that has decided to close because they've been ram-raided three times. So that's a key area of priority of focus for delivering for us. The next area is the economy. Cost of living is biting. I met a person on the campaign trail whose husband actually had to leave this country and take a job in Australia just to pay the mortgage here in New Zealand. That is not the type of country we want to live in. That is not the type of country that we want our kids to grow up in. So I'm really pleased with the package around tax, and I'm very confident that our finance Minister will find the money in order to pay for that. Education is another one. It's a disappointment but the former Minister of Education, Jan Tinetti, didn't want to talk about the Programme for International Student Assessment results that've just been released. She didn't want to talk about 20 years of educational decline in this country. But, here on this side of the House, we will. We are committed to reversing that trend—a trend, I will say, that successive Governments have contributed to in this country. So we in the Government have a huge task ahead of us to reverse that multidecade decline in educational underachievement. Health and mental health is another one. On the North Shore of Auckland, we've got wait list after wait list for emergency surgery, elective surgery—the basics are all there. Mental health—I have people contacting me over the phone, crying because their son, their daughter, cannot access appropriate mental health solutions that they need. This is an abomination in this country, and it is something that I'm convinced our new Ministers Shane Reti and Matt Doocey are committed to improving on and getting delivery in that area. The list goes on. Transport on the North Shore. Simeon Brown, the transport Minister, has already talked about, actually, how expensive the previous Government's options were for the third harbour crossing or the second harbour crossing. We have to deliver, actually, a real practical solution for transport in Auckland, to futureproof— Hon Members: What is it? DAN BIDOIS: Well, it's certainly going to be a lot cheaper than tramways down Dominion Road, and right up to ghost trains that never happened. Right, then we've got environment and climate change. Can I say, this House is absolutely committed to the targets in the Paris Agreement and to actually delivering on our climate change commitments. Actually, we've got some fantastic policies around electric vehicles (EVs). Do you drive an EV, sir? Hon Member: I do. DAN BIDOIS: Oh good. So you'll be happy with the EV roll-out that we've got. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): Mr Bidois, one rule that hasn't changed while you were away is we don't use the word "you" across the board, we address the Speaker. DAN BIDOIS: So we have a lot to do, and Barbara Edmonton—Edmonds—said, actually, where were the principles of this Government? Well, I will give you— Ingrid Leary: Point of order, Mr Speaker. The member is required to call the other member, my colleague Barbara Edmonds, by her correct name, which is Edmonds, not Edmonton. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): That's something for the Speaker to decide, I think. Ingrid Leary: Thank you, sir. Just to point out, it was three times. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): I'm sure the member will, as he gets to know the new members in the House, take note of their correct names. And we will add 20 seconds on for that. DAN BIDOIS: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, very generous of you, so that I can spend 20 seconds talking about the principles of this Government. The first principle is a return to equal citizenship in this country. Principle number two, liberty—economic and individual liberty. Principle number three, the value of the private sector and the farmers in this country as the engines of economic growth. Principle number four, equal opportunity. I believe in the economics of opportunity, not the economics of envy. The last core principle of this Government that I want to highlight is that we will restore consequences for those that break the law. Those are the type of principles that we will seek to uphold in this National, ACT, and New Zealand First Government, and I'm really excited about the coalition arrangement that has been announced. I'm immensely optimistic about the future potential of this country. We have a liberal democracy—as was indicated, one of the few places in the world—where people of New Zealand get to pick who sits here. We're well-placed geographically. We're friendly to all nations around the world. We've got industrious people. We've got a lot of work to do, but I have no doubt that Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and the whole team—with ACT, New Zealand, and National—are committed to delivering for New Zealand and delivering for the people of Aotearoa. Thank you. RACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I begin my contribution this evening, Mr Speaker, on congratulating you on your appointment as Assistant Speaker. I look forward, Mr Speaker, to you remembering all of our names throughout—I'm skating on thin ice already, I know, Mr Speaker. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor)383ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): It's not a special skill of mine, I might say. RACHEL BOYACK: But I do want to congratulate you and look forward to working with you and the rest of the presiding officers throughout this term. Can I begin by acknowledging a former member of this House who was also unable to deliver her valedictory speech, and that is the wahine toa who is the Hon Nanaia Mahuta. Can I acknowledge the contribution she has made to Aotearoa over many, many years, and the bravery, the vision, and the foresight she has had and her tenacity in dealing with, quite frankly, what were some unprecedented attacks on her and her whānau throughout the previous term, which was distressing to witness. So I want to thank her for her support of me and many others in this House and her commitment to the people of New Zealand and a better country for all of us. Thank you, Nanaia, for your service. Can I also acknowledge the new members of this House, in particular a friend of mine, a good friend of mine, from the other side of the House, Tim Costley. Now, Tim and I have been friends for over 30 years, and all I will say about that is that what happens at church youth group stays at church youth group. I'm not insinuating anything, definitely not in Palmerston North. But we now have three members of this House who are proud to be former students of Ross Intermediate: myself, Tim Costley—we were in the same class together—and then a very slightly younger member, Mr Tangi Utikere, who was always called on to give the thankyous to the visiting guests; I just note that Mr Costley and I were not. On preparing for this speech, I wanted to reflect on the maiden speech that I gave to Parliament, to this House, nearly three years ago, and, to begin, I wanted to talk specifically about my love of te reo Māori, my love of te ao Māori and Te Tiriti. In my maiden speech, I talked about my father, Jonathan Boyack, who hasn't been back to New Zealand yet since I became a member of Parliament because he lives in the United Kingdom, but I'm very pleased that he will be here next week to come and spend some time in this House. When I was a child in the 1980s growing up, my father was one of a new crop of area health board chief executives, and he was the chief executive of the Whanganui area health board. He was part of a crop of young chief executives who began work on delivering Māori health services, and I was really privileged as a young Pākehā girl to spend time running around at marae, listening to my father speak in the wharenui, listening to waiata and being taught waiata by my mother. I reflect on that, and I reflect on this new Government's decision to can Te Aka Whai Ora, and it distresses me greatly. On the campaign trail, I took the then Prime Minister Chris Hipkins in to meet with Te Piki Oranga, one of our Māori health providers, and here's what they said to me. They said to me and to Chris Hipkins that the new Māori Health Authority was allowing them to get money and services out to whānau who needed it so much faster. One of the reasons was: no longer did money go from the ministry to the DHB to the primary health organisation and then to the Māori health provider; it came straight from the centre to the organisation. It meant they had more money that wasn't being clipped by the tickets of bureaucracy, more money to actually spend on those who need it. I say to the members on the other side of the House: why is it that we need to focus on this? This is because Māori as a whole die so much earlier than those of us who are non-Māori, and that is a disgrace. That is a shame on our nation. The Labour Government took steps to actually try and address that, and it's going to get thrown away on the basis of some kind of idea that, somehow, other people are going to miss out. Well, I'll tell you what Māori don't miss out on: they don't miss out on dying younger because of their ethnicity. That is not OK. That is not equality. That is not equal rights in this country, and as a Pākehā I say it is not OK for me to have a greater life expectancy than my youngest brother Piers, who is Ngāti Kurī. I don't talk about him much in this House, but there should be no difference in the expectations and the life expectancy that he and I have based on our ethnicity. So I am proud of the work that we did, and it's work that I think should be continued. There is nothing those of us who are Pākehā have to lose. We've also talked a little bit tonight about kapa haka. I talk about kapa haka because I had the privilege of being a member of the New Zealand Youth Choir for five years and then the holder of a music degree. It's one of the reasons I asked to take on the arts portfolio, and I'm very, very proud to have that portfolio, to finally use the skills that I learnt at university here in this House. I had the privilege of representing New Zealand all over the world, singing kapa haka, having been taught by amazing people like Ngāpō Wehi—"Bub"—and Aroha Cassidy, and I just want to acknowledge their memories and their contribution to our country. Do you know what? When we stood there, when we sang English cathedral repertoire, which is my favourite stuff to sing, and we would sing European art songs, but do you know what everyone stood up and gave us standing ovations for? It was when we sang waiata. It was when we sang I Te Timatanga and told the story of the creation of Aotearoa. That was what got people overseas talking, and it's the story I tell people, because I know there are people—and in my electorate of Nelson, there are people who do not always understand why we are embracing te ao Māori in the way that we are, but I tell you, when Mr Watts and Ms Grigg and Mr Waititi and the former member for Northcote, Shanan Halbert, and I were in Canada recently, do you know what everybody loved us doing? Finishing our meetings singing waiata. It is what puts our country on the world stage. It helps our trade, it helps our identity. We should embrace it; we should love it. We shouldn't allow ourselves to be divided in the way that so many, unfortunately, politicians have been leading us down that pathway. We have obligations as members of this House—Māori and Pākehā, people who were born here, people who are new here—to uphold what is so special, the taonga that is te reo, that is te ao Māori, and that is Te Tiriti. That is my pledge to this House for this term. A couple of other things I wanted to mention—and I'm going to run out of time, which is unfortunate, but I'm going to focus quickly on a couple of pieces of correspondence I've had from my constituents specifically about smoking. Now, I smoked cigarettes. I was a child of the 90s where we could get down to the dairy and get them pretty easily and cheaply without ID. Successive Governments over many, many decades have worked to make it harder for people to access cigarettes and to make it less of a sexy option, shall we say. So here are a couple of emails I've had from constituents: one constituent who wanted to specifically talk to Dr Shane Reti, who said, "Until very recently, I saw you as someone with the mana to lead the National Party. This makes me even more disappointed with your complicity in repealing the progressive smokefree legislation. Are you really OK with people dying in order to fund the party's tax cuts?" And here is an email I received from a doctor in Nelson: "Dear Rachel, I am sure you are registering the absolute outrage that front-line health workers are expressing around the prospect of repealing the smokefree legislation. As an emergency specialist in Nelson Hospital Emergency Department, I daily see the damage done and years lost of people and their family both as a direct and indirect result of smoking. To see patients fearfully approaching a premature smoking-related death is an unpleasant and avoidable experience. The tobacco industry has a lot to answer. Aotearoa New Zealand has been a world leader with its enlightened approach toward a smokefree country. You must do all you can as a member of the Opposition to appeal to the consciences of those on the Government benches to do the right thing for our people." And that is what I do tonight. I appeal to the consciences of those on the other side. Every other time we've introduced legislation, of any colour of Government, the next Government has not repealed it when it comes to smoking—until now. I began talking about Māori health, and that's where I'll finish, because it is our Māori and our Pacific people who will suffer as a result of this. We have obligations to ensure we are making decisions for all New Zealanders, and this legislation will ensure that Māori's life expectancy increases. Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity. Kia ora. HELEN WHITE (Labour—Mt Albert): Thank you. It's a pleasure to rise in this House. This is my first speech as the MP for Mt Albert. Now, the first thing I wanted to do was to was say congratulations to you, Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to have you in this position. I also wanted to congratulate Melissa Lee, who's become a Minister in this Government. She's quite right when she said earlier in her speech that I reached out to both her and to Ricardo Menéndez March—who were candidates in Mt Albert, a hotly contested seat—to say that it is absolutely important that we work together as far as that is possible. She has met me in the spirit of that, and I hope to work very well with her. It was a very tight race, and I'd like to thank the voters of Mt Albert for seeing me back into this House, and I intend to do everything I can to earn their respect. Yesterday, when we were sworn in, was one where I took the step of speaking my affirmation in Māori. I had done that before and it was when I was a very new MP and I was very nervous. I was equally nervous yesterday. I don't take to languages well. I find them pretty scary, actually, and I am worried that I'll be judged for my terrible pronunciation. But I thought it was really important to do so on this occasion, because I am concerned that there is an attack. I think it is really important that we push ourselves. We do that as parliamentarians all the time. I recently had my uncle and aunt visit from Australia, and I took them around this Parliament, and they were so impressed with it. We are actually privileged in this House to work together and to work—quite often—in very much a consciousness of the tikanga in an integrated way in that around the House. I think we actually come on our journeys in this place towards a much greater respect and engagement with Māori culture. So I will be very, very sad if that is undermined in the currency of this Government. I wanted to talk about my greater concern about that because of what I heard from Winston Peters today. He said, and I was listening to him carefully, he said that what Māori want is First World wages. I wanted to say to him that that's exactly what the people of Mt Albert want too. That is a common need of people. We do want First World wages. Hon Member: That's the point. HELEN WHITE: The point—absolutely—is that Winston Peters has got into bed with ACT, and got into bed with National, and they have made an agreement— Hon Member: To fix the economy. HELEN WHITE: which I am concerned—and I will now talk about in my speech why I don't think it's going to achieve that, sir. We have an issue in this country with productivity. One of the things I saw on the list that will be over is the Industry Transformation Plans (ITPs). Those are our long-term plans for our industries. What on earth was wrong with them? What on earth was wrong with keeping plans which actually make sure that there are skills pathways for people, makes sure that all the flow over effects from those skills pathways affect other people? You can look at something like the Digital Transformation Plan. Digital industries—really good plan. It feeds a high-paid workforce. But the decision of this coalition is that we will not have them. You know what else we're going to get rid of? The Productivity Commission. It's going. It's going to pay for a new Minister for Regulation. It is laughable that the Ministry for Regulation is, in fact, setting up a Ministry for Regulation, which is sort of more regulation, isn't it? But we're going to get rid of the Productivity Commission for that, which actually is the body that recommended long-term planning for productivity—things like ITPs. I am really sad to see that. I'm going to be the spokesperson in the Labour Party for manufacturing and small business, and these things are critical to the development of these incredibly important things. That is what pays the wages of people in this country. So it is very sad to see those moves go, those forward, future-thinking moves go for something that is so backward looking. Because there is an ideological background to the decision to do things like this, which is that we just have to get out of there and cut all the red tape, and everything will come right. Well, it didn't. It didn't come right in the 1990s, and it's not going to come right now. What we need to do is make sure that we're supporting our businesses, and supporting our workforces, and making sure that we build high-wage work in this country. And that is what we were doing, because we had a vision. What's it been replaced with is a 1990s ideology which is long since out of date, long since disproved. I want to talk about wages a bit more, because I was an employment lawyer for 25 years, and I saw the pain low wages caused people. There has been a halt and a suggestion—I think softened by the New Zealand First Party—that perhaps the minimum wage might have to go up a little bit. Well, that's not just good enough. The Labour Government made sure that wages stayed ahead of inflation, and they made sure the minimum wage went up. I am proud of that, and I would be very sorry if it gets slipped backwards, and so will the working people, including the Māori people that Winston Peters talked about. So will they. They will be very sorry to see their wages slip backwards while the majority of tax cuts go to the wealthy in this country. Because, again, ideologically, the fundamental underpinning is a belief—an outdated belief—in trickle-down economics long since that myth has gone, and long since most of the world has lost interest in that ridiculous philosophy, because it has never worked, and it never will. I want to talk to you about contracting. That would have been a very big piece of work that needed doing. We needed to get a handle on the back door to paying bad wages, which was basically subsistence contracting, dependent contracting. Instead, a deal has been done that we are now going to—we're not going to look behind the words; it was called the "status quo" in the agreements. But what it was—we weren't going to look behind the words of what people call themselves. So I am fearful that what the coalition Government has decided to do is ignore utterly what the real relationship is between people, whether there is exploitation, whether they are actually, really in business on their account, or whether they are actually just dependent and subservient and exploited. If you go through with that, that's going to hurt working people in this country, so please don't. Think twice. Think twice, because—again, I quote the Hon Winston Peters—"I understand that Māori want First World wages too", because so do I, so do the people of Mt Albert. Now, I want to talk about an issue that is related, and that is housing. Because the other thing that people need—they need a decent house. They need a decent place to live. There has been so much work done on that, and it is about to be undermined. That is my fear. My fear is that we have a situation that we are going to see rents rise in this country, but also insecurity of rent. Insecurity. You cannot deny that if the proposal is to bring in a 90-day, no-fault termination—because that means it doesn't matter if you can now bring your dog to the rental, which I'd love—you could get kicked out in 90 days for doing nothing, for doing no harm. We need to make moves towards treating rentals as homes, not investments. If we did that, if we stuck to the plan and moved on that, what we would end up with is homes for our children, secure homes for our children. And yes, I welcome the idea that we would bring pets into them. That is a really nice move, but you have to have base security first. You have to have a rental that you can call your home, that you can bring up your kids in, that they can go to Mount Albert Grammar School and know that they're not going to get kicked out tomorrow. It's a really important part of security of people. Poor first-time home buyers. What's going to happen to them in the next little while? Because they're now going to be competing—they're going to be competing—with a whole lot of rental investors, because that's where the money is going to go. You know where it's not going to go? And I'm going to return back to my speech here. It's not going to go into the productive economy, is it, where we would really like that money. That money, if it was in the productive economy, would boost wages and productivity in this country, something that we sorely need to do. Thank you. SAM UFFINDELL (National—Tauranga): It's great to be able to stand here, and I'd like to congratulate everyone who's a part of this 54th Parliament. To all of the new MPs: welcome to Parliament; I wish you all the best on your career here in this place, and I hope you are able to deliver for your electorates and for the people of New Zealand. And to all the returning MPs: well done on your re-election and I also wish you all the best, and to all of those from the 53rd who haven't made it back, thank you for your service to New Zealand. I would like to send my congratulations to the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Christopher Luxon; to the Deputy Prime Minister; to the Speaker; and the Assistant and Deputy Speakers, including yourself, sir. Well done on your roles. I'd also like to congratulate the coalition Government: National, ACT, and New Zealand First. Very good to be on this side of the House, and I will give a little mention to two other MPs who are here, who are from my neck of the woods: Tom Rutherford, from the Bay of Plenty, and Cameron Luxton, also from the Bay of Plenty. I've had a fair bit to do with you both in varying degrees over the past couple of years and I know you will bring a lot of passion and enthusiasm to this place and represent the people of the Bay of Plenty, and by extension Tauranga as well, we can continue to make it the best region in New Zealand. Well, it's been a real sigh of relief, I think, and I've noticed it, and I know probably a few other members have when they've walked around their electorates, and they've had a lot of people coming up to them and saying, "We are so happy that National is back in Government." We hear it over and over again, and I definitely hear it when I'm walking around Tauranga. We got in there because we campaigned on what the New Zealand people were interested in. I think, when people look back on the 53rd Government and why they are no longer on this side of the House, they will—and this is just my opinion—probably see that they didn't deliver on what they talked about when they were in Government, and when it came to the election campaign they failed to talk about the things that actually mattered to Kiwis. As a result, they were resoundingly rejected by the electorate and we have been given a mandate on this side of the House to deliver for New Zealand. We have a very ambitious 100-day plan. I think this will be one of the most transformational Governments in New Zealand's history, and I am very proud to be a member of it and very proud to represent the people of Tauranga. The four key things we're focused on are to manage a stronger economy for New Zealand, to ease the cost of living crisis, and to deliver tax relief; secondly, it is to restore law and order; thirdly, to deliver better public services; and fourthly to strengthen our democracy. ou will see in our 100-day plan we're quite clear around some of the things that we wanted to do. We needed to rein in Government spending. It was out of control under the last Government and that delivery of service wasn't there. I think most people would be all right if you were willing to spend more as long as you actually got something back in return, but we didn't see that, so we are going to be reining in that spending there. We have committed to repealing some of what we would consider to be poor or misguided legislation from the previous Government around the fair-pay agreements, three waters, projects like Let's Get Wellington Moving and Auckland light rail; committed to returning the Reserve Bank mandate to price stability, which is very important and almost one of the most important things that we need to get on top of because, if we don't get on top of inflation quickly, it is going to continue to erode the wealth of New Zealanders. We've been in a cost of living crisis for far too long. We've seen rents up $180 a week over the past six years; we've seen grocery prices continue to eat away; petrol prices continuing to increase, and Kiwis have really been doing it tough. But good news: we have some sound fiscal discipline back on the Treasury benches. We're also committed to making New Zealanders safer. So we are getting rid of the prisoner reduction targets and cracking down on gangs—and I know the Hon Mark Mitchell is going to do an absolutely fantastic job as the new Minister of Police. We are committed to delivering better public services. I think, in this House, we would all agree that we want to see excellent First World health and education services. We might have different ideas around how we want to get there, but we all share the same concerns that we want our children to have a First World education; we want them to graduate from school and be able to compete in the 21st century, where skills and knowledge are going to be more important than they ever have been. We want a healthcare system that looks after people and can deliver for them, so if they get sick or they fall ill or whatever it may be, they know that they can get these services that they need to get them through. We haven't been seeing that in education; we haven't been seeing that in health. So we are going to restore health targets. We are going to lift educational performance and from 2024, I know Erica Stanford will make an excellent education Minister, and we are going to ensure that New Zealand children at primary and intermediate level are spending an hour each day on reading, writing, and mathematics. As a parent of three young children, that makes me very happy indeed. We are ambitious for all New Zealanders. We are very ambitious and we want to raise the standard of living for all New Zealanders. We want all New Zealanders to have a fair shot at their version of the New Zealand dream, whatever that may look like. So we are going to be a Government that enables that. We are going to be a Government that reduces restrictions; reduces impediments. For too long, we have seen red tape—nonsensical red tape—that adds more pain instead of benefits getting in the way. We have hampered our primary industries, which contributes enormously to the wealth and prosperity of New Zealand, and it's through those sectors that we are able to pay for the health and education and police and all of those other services that we need. We are ambitious for New Zealanders on this side of the House, and I look forward to working very strongly with all of my colleagues. I look forward to working with members on the other side of the House. I know that they may have different versions of how to make New Zealand a fantastic country, but we will work together and I'm confident that the 54th Parliament will be a fantastic Parliament for New Zealand, and I wish us all the best going forward. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Rt Hon ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour): Tēnā koe e te Mana Whakawā. Ka tuku mihi atu ki a koutou katoa; te whare nei, tae atu ki ngā mema hou, anei ahau e tuku mihi atu ana ki a koutou. Tae atu ki a koe, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel me Ruben Davidson. Tēnei te mihi ake mai i ahau ki a kōrua tahi. He tika hoki kia tuku mihi atu ki aku whanaunga nō Mōkai Pātea. Tuatahi, te mema hou mō Tāmaki Makaurau, ki a koe Takutai Tash Kemp, tēnei te mihi. Ko te hokinga mai anō o hōnore Tama Pōtaka anō hoki. Nō reira tēnā kōrua aku whanaunga Ki a koutou katoa. Kua roa te wa ka tū ake ahau ki te kōrero i roto i te Whare nei. Tata ki ngā tau e whā. Nō reira he tino hōnore tēnei kia tū ake au, kia tuku atu aku whakaaro ki te Whare nei. [Thank you, Mr Speaker. I acknowledge you all; this House and its new members. I commend you all. Especially Cushla Tangaere-Manuel and Ruben Davidson. I would like to welcome you both from me to you. It is only right that I address and commend my Mōkai Pātea relatives. First, to the new member for Tāmaki Makaurau, to Takutai Tash Kemp, I acknowledge you. To the returning Hon Tama Pōtaka as well. I acknowledge you my relations. To you all. It's been a long time since I've had to stand and make a speech in this House; just about four years. So it is an honour to stand here to give my contribution to the House.] As I said, it's been a long time since I made a speech in this House. I do want to, Mr Speaker, congratulate you on becoming an Assistant Speaker this time. I think you were an excellent Deputy Speaker to me when I was Speaker. I now become the former Speaker and I hope to carry it out as well as the Rt Hon Sir David Carter did when he was the former Speaker. I acknowledge the other presiding officers as well, especially the Rt Hon Gerry Brownlee, Barbara Kuriger, and Maureen Pugh. I think you've got a great presiding officer team and I hope the House sees it upon itself to give the new team a good start. So congratulations again to you. I want to acknowledge the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins, who has given me the responsibility in Opposition to be the spokesperson for the Labour Party on Whānau Ora. I do mihi again to my whanaunga, the Hon Tama Potaka, who holds that portfolio. It's one that is really dear to my heart. And I think back to before I came to Parliament, the work that I did as the chair of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Apa, also chair of Te Oranganui Iwi Health Authority, chair of Te Kōtuku Hauora, and a member of the Whanganui Regional Primary Health Organisation as well. Throughout that time, Whānau Ora was an important kaupapa for all of those organisations, because we knew it was a great way forward. Tariana Turia, now the Hon Dame Tariana Turia, was the first CEO of Te Oranganui Iwi Health Authority. She was the architect of that plan and I was right there when that was happening. I feel honoured to have witnessed its emergence into a Government policy. I'll be making certain that my cousin Tama also upholds that. I think it's important that his colleagues in the Government support him in that. He's got a lot of portfolios that are going to attract a lot of attention. Because when I saw and I heard the speech that was made today, I heard a lot of things there that bothered me, bothered me a lot, as I know from experience how difficult it is for whānau Māori without those mechanisms being in place. I know it because I've been part of it. I've seen it, I've walked in that world, and it's difficult. It feels like we're going to go backwards after hard-fought gains to address the inequities that clearly exist in our society. I heard today that the Government would govern for all people, for all New Zealanders. Māori are New Zealanders. I just want remind everyone in this House: Māori are New Zealanders. Not only are we New Zealanders; we deserve to have the Treaty relationships and the promises in it upheld and acknowledged. There is nothing less that will do. We deserve nothing less. This country deserves nothing less. We have to do the best that we can do. So we will oppose—we will oppose—for those things that have been hard gained and fought for, that have made a difference in our people's lives. For example, in the last six years, funding for Whānau Ora has increased by 145 percent. It has gone from servicing 13,000 families to 30,000 families—a huge increase—because the need is there. Now, I hear a lot of things that are going to be taken away. What I don't hear is how those inequities are going to be addressed. There is mountains of evidence, even in this House—evidence. In the 52nd Parliament, there was an inquiry by the Māori Affairs Committee into the inequities in health for Māori. The report was tabled in this House. It recommended by majority that a Māori Health Authority be established to address that. That was the evidence that was collected over that inquiry. I can point to the Simpson report—again, evidence; not just making up stuff. I just feel it's an absolute tragedy to go backwards after gaining so much. We will lose much more; it will be much harder to regain a Māori Health Authority, and the impact on Māori families will be huge. I want all of us to know that. I line it up directly alongside the impact of removing smokefree legislation. When I was the Speaker of the House, one of the proudest moments I had was presiding over the passage of that legislation. It will change lives if it's left alone. By that I mean: we all know the evidence. Smoking kills our people. There's no way of dressing it up so it looks nice and it feels nice. It doesn't. It's not nice. Too many of us have gone to hospitals and hospices to witness the impact of smoking. I can take you around the urupā at my home, and I can point to the graves of those who have passed away from smoking. Removing the barrier that is going to prevent more of that is a horrendous thing to do. I would be ashamed to vote for the repeal of that legislation. And I think every single member in this House should actually ask themselves, "Do we want a future where the impact of such an activity as smoking should be legislated for or against? What is the best outcome for our people? What is the best that we can do for the future generations?" I think that, if it is repealed, the next time we have a progressive Government that wants to make a difference about the number of kids that take up smoking and then eventually die from it, we'll have to be a lot stronger in the legislation that we put up. Let's just ban the stuff. Kia ora. LEMAUGA LYDIA SOSENE (Labour—Māngere): Talofa lava lau Fofoga Fetalai, malo le soifua maua ma le lagi e mama. Mr Speaker, congratulations on your new role. It's really good to have you there today, and I'd also like to congratulate the rest of the presiding officers that will look after us in this House and in the debating chamber. I'd also like to congratulate all the new members of the House, members of Parliament, that are new. It's really good to see the diversity across the House and also to hear the different languages that we heard yesterday. I'd like to acknowledge two of my new members of caucus in the Labour Party: Cushla Tangaere-Manuel from Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, and colleague Reuben Davidson, Christchurch East. And also I'd like to acknowledge another brother from South Auckland, Fa'anānā Efeso Collins, and we have history working in previous roles. This is my first contribution to the House in the 54th Parliament, and it's a real pleasure to be the final speaker tonight. We heard today from this Government—in the Speech from the Throne and their 100-day plan. And as a member on this side of the House, I actually had real trepidation, because I saw the progressive initiatives from the last Government. On this side of the House, we heard the leader, Rt Hon Chris Hipkins, speak about how we are going to be a strong Opposition, pushing back against the changes that are coming up. It is important that we hold this Government to account on the many announcements that have been made today, because New Zealand wants to move forward and not backwards. Where is the hope in vision for New Zealanders—particularly young New Zealanders—in all the repealing of many of the progressive legislation that the Labour Government worked on since 2017? I want to acknowledge the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins for his words of wisdom that he shared today, and to continue to hold the Government to account. The Labour caucus will be building the machinery towards 2026, and we may be down but in no way are we out. We believe, on this side of the House, that the Government has the wrong priorities and that they are out of touch. And I will tell you why—and there's a couple of areas that I want to focus on, specific to my community; specific to where I come from in South Auckland. I really listened intently to the speech that was shared today, specifically around Pasifika, because we know that in a lot of the stats across the country that Pasifika feature really low in those stats—whether it comes to socio-economic environments; health stats; education. I have a very strong interest in Pasifika, and in the document that I read afterwards, there is very little mention of Pasifika. It is important to hold the Government to account—that they understand Pasifika communities, because that's the community that I represent. That is the community of Māngere in South Auckland, who put me in this role, and I'm very proud and feel very privileged to have this role. The Pasifika communities are diverse, and they're actually the fastest-growing and youngest population of Aotearoa. And it's a real shame that there is no member of the Government who is of Pasifika ethnicity, because on this side of the House, we have the Labour Pasifika caucus. And I interpret today's announcements that the Government has no commitment. It just does not understand that kaupapa. We heard that on the campaign trail, and if you were in Māngere and you were out there door knocking and talking to the people of that community—they're very worried, because when you don't have that commitment, what next? So the research and the evidence that has been provided in many of the Government agencies led by the Ministry for Pacific Peoples really tells it black and white: Pasifika are tuākana and tuāhine to Māori. If Māori are worried, as we've seen very recently as of yesterday, then Pasifika need to be worried as well. So how do we hold the Government to account? I will be one of the members on this side of the House, asking those questions every time I get to speak. As a second-term Member of Parliament, culture and language is our very being. That is what we represent. Our young people—Pasifika, Māori, ethnic—are really welcoming in terms of expressing themselves as young New Zealanders being able to speak the reo, speak their language, and able to present their skills and talents in the education sector, in the arts and culture sector, in the sporting sector. You take Pasifika people out of all those sectors; it will be a very dire picture. Our young people are very proud of their identity, not just in metropolitan areas but also in the regions. They are growing fast. So I just want to reflect really quickly in my time left. We saw, yesterday, many Members of Parliament, right across the House, when they did their oath, when they did their affirmation, they either spoke in English or they spoke in te reo, and then they spoke their language of their culture. That was very special. That is a taonga. We need that reflection in the policies and legislation that we see across, because New Zealand is a growing, diverse population. We shouldn't be afraid of people expressing their cultural identity. That is something that we need to celebrate, because when you have a member who understands where they come from, where their origins come from, that is something that is woven in their work. And as a member of Parliament, that is really important to my kaupapa. Secondly, I just want to quickly acknowledge where I came from, which I mentioned earlier. I am here because the people of Māngere voted me to be in here. I am a very proud member of my local community, and I want to just do a shout-out to the Labour members but also to the community that voted me in with such a high percentage. I'll just share with you that I just wanted to get over the line, but the percentage of voters that voted for the Labour Party and that voted for a Labour member to represent our local community is a very proud moment for me. Very quickly, the Government needs to understand that there is a tonne of research and evidence that points to all different factors—be it social, be it economic—about the different populations in various communities. I want to remind that it's not just in the metropolitan areas, but it's actually right across Aotearoa. The last point I want to just stress is the smoke-free legislation. There's been a lot of members on this side of the House who've really expressed why we need to have that legislation continue and not be rolled back. And I am sure the Government can go back to its books to see where else it can take some revenue and to leave the smoke-free legislation that is impending where it is. We had a select committee in Māngere, and a lot of young people came and spoke to us as to why they want to see a progressive smoke-free environment in their local community. They are tired of seeing many members of their family and going to tangi and just seeing them reduced with their health implications. It is a real travesty if that legislation goes through in those repeals. It is something that the Government really needs to think about in terms of the representation from our communities, specific to Māori, specific to Pacific and other parts of our communities. I do want to remind it that our young people really want to stress that smoke-free environments are really important, especially in this day and age. We no longer want to lose many of our community, many of our family members. We want a smoke-free generation because it's good for Aotearoa; it's good for New Zealand. Just as I finish up, Mr Speaker, I want to thank you for the opportunity, but I do want to stress that a smoke-free environment for Aotearoa as we move forward is something we need. Thank you. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): This debate is interrupted and is set down for resumption next sitting day. Can I congratulate members on the quality of debate tonight. It's been excellent. The House is adjourned until 2 p.m. tomorrow. Debate interrupted. The House adjourned at 9.59 p.m.