Thursday, 23 February 2023 - Volume 765

THURSDAY, 23 FEBRUARY 2023

The Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.

KARAKIA/PRAYERS

Hon JENNY SALESA (Assistant Speaker): Ke tau lotu. 'E 'Otua Mafimafi, kuo mau taa'imālie 'i ho'o 'ofá mo e ngaahi tāpuaki hono kotoa. 'Oku tuku homau lotó ka mau hū atu ke malu'i ange mu'a 'a e Tuí, mo tataki 'emau fua fatongia 'i he Fale Aleá 'aki 'a e poto Faka-'Otua, 'ofa pea mo e 'ulungaanga malū, ko e 'uhí ko e mo'ui mo e melino 'a e fonuá. 'Oku mau kole atu 'a e ngaahi me'á ni hono kotoa 'i he huafa ho 'alo ka ko homau fakamo'ui, 'Emeni.

BUSINESS STATEMENT

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Leader of the House): Today, the House will adjourn until Tuesday, 7 March. In that week, the debate on the Prime Minister's statement will be concluded. During the week, legislation to be considered will include the first reading of the Māori Fisheries Amendment Bill and the second readings of the Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill, the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Amendment Bill, and the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2022/23, Platform Economy, and Remedial Matters) Bill (No 2).

SIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you. On what date will the Rotorua District Council (Representation Arrangements) Bill be returned to the House?

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Leader of the House): I know that is a matter of great interest to the member. I don't have that information in front of me, but he will be among the first people to know.

MOTIONS

Instruction to Committee—Leave Declined

Hon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Point of order, Mr Speaker. I seek leave to move a motion without notice to instruct the Māori Affairs Committee to report the Rotorua District Council (Representation Arrangements) Bill to the House by 7 March 2023, and that it be discharged.

SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is.

PETITIONS, PAPERS, SELECT COMMITTEE REPORTS, AND INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

SPEAKER: A petition has been delivered to the Clerk for presentation.

CLERK: Petition of Juliana Carvalho on behalf of Access Matters Aotearoa requesting that the House urge the Government to strengthen the Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill.

SPEAKER: That petition stands referred to the Petitions Committee. No papers have been delivered to the Clerk for presentation. No select committee reports have been delivered to the Clerk for presentation. The Clerk has been informed of the introduction of a bill.

CLERK: New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income (Controlling Interests) Amendment Bill, introduction.

SPEAKER: That bill is set down for first reading.

ORAL QUESTIONS

QUESTIONS TO MINISTERS

Question No. 1—Energy and Resources

1. MARJA LUBECK (Labour) to the Minister of Energy and Resources: What reports has she seen on how New Zealand's electricity sector is responding to electricity outages caused by Cyclone Gabrielle?

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Energy and Resources): Cyclone Gabrielle has wreaked havoc on the lives of New Zealanders and has had an unprecedented impact on New Zealand's electricity system, the likes of which has not been seen since Cyclone Bola in 1988. Last Tuesday, 225,000 people in the North Island were without power. There were approximately 6,118 households without power as of 9.30 a.m. today. This means over 218,000 customers, over 97 percent of those who lost power, have had their electricity reconnected. This has been possible due to the impressive work of those tasked with re-establishing these essential lifelines. Crews from across New Zealand continue to work long hours to reconnect those households that remain without power.

Marja Lubeck: Why are there still households without electricity?

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: The number of outages across the North Island is steadily reducing. However, I acknowledge how difficult this time is for those 6,118 households without electricity. As the number of outages reduces, those that remain are more challenging to resolve because they are either harder to get to or more complex to repair. For some, a large portion of outages are spread across individual low-voltage faults, which are more time-consuming to resolve. Distribution companies are focused on restoring power to remote areas due to welfare issues and dairy farm animal health and hardship. Roading and access, slips, silt, and standing floodwaters have been significant challenges for some regions and are preventing further progress until these issues have been resolved.

Marja Lubeck: What has Transpower done to reconnect electricity in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle?

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Transpower has been working around the clock with the local networks on restoration plans, including quickly deploying a bypass to the damaged Redclyffe substation, which would enable electricity to be restored to almost all households in urban Hawke's Bay. Transpower has already done substantial repairs. A crew and digger were helicoptered in to steady a tower servicing the line into the Hawke's Bay, where a slip had pulled away the tower's foundation. Transpower has also had separate crews working at Whirinaki since the middle of last week. I am advised that part of Transpower's resilience approach is also ensuring that it can respond and recover as fast as possible with strategic spares and contingency plans for a range of major events. It is Transpower's existing Hawke's Bay 110 kilovolt contingency plan that was activated on Tuesday, 14 February.

Marja Lubeck: How has the sector responded to Cyclone Gabrielle?

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I am proud of the collaboration and coming together in our electricity sector. The industry is pulling together really strongly. Resources from the South Island distribution companies such as lines crews and controllers have been brought to the North Island to assist existing North Island resources. Crews from across the North Island have travelled to Northland, Auckland, and the Hawke's Bay and Te Tai Rāwhiti to help with critical repairs. A crew from Australia are on their way to assist, and my officials are acting swiftly to ensure overseas specialists can join in the relief effort immediately. I'd really like to thank all the companies and individuals that have been doing this work.

Question No. 2—Forestry

2. Hon EUGENIE SAGE (Green) to the Minister of Forestry: What estimates, if any, has he had of the costs of damage caused by forestry slash in Te Tai Rāwhiti from Cyclone Hale and Cyclone Gabrielle?

Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment) on behalf of the Minister of Forestry: To date, I've seen no dollar estimate. I have seen serious damage caused by the storms, including from sediment and slash. Obviously, the local focus to date has been to respond to the immediate needs of those affected.

Hon Eugenie Sage: Is it acceptable that some of Aotearoa New Zealand's largest private landowners, overseas-owned forestry companies, can operate on steep-land erosion-prone soils in a way which causes such harm to rivers, downstream land, infrastructure, and communities?

Hon DAVID PARKER: I think the sentiment that the member has expressed—and I have heard similar comments of concern from the Prime Minister and from the Leader of the Opposition during his response to the Prime Minister's statement on Tuesday—would indicate that most people are worried about whether we've got the settings right around forestry in some areas.

Hon Eugenie Sage: Does he expect forestry companies to compensate councils for bridges which have been destroyed or damaged by forestry slash, farmers whose crops have been flattened and land is now unusable, and communities who have forestry slash clogging rivers and beaches, and, if so, what mechanisms is the Government considering so compensation can be paid?

Hon DAVID PARKER: The question as to whether there is a breach of any legal duty in the context that would allow a claim for compensation to be made against forestry companies is not one that I'm in a position to give the member advice on in the House. I do note that the maximum fines for breaches of environmental rules are being increased in the Natural and Built Environment Bill that's currently before the House, and I also note that that same piece of legislation makes illegal insurance against Resource Management Act (RMA) fines. At the moment, it's illegal to take insurance out against a criminal fine or a traffic fine, for example, but it's still legal to insure against RMA fines. So those are two instances of where the Government is improving the legal framework.

Hon Eugenie Sage: Will the Government consider a damage levy to ensure that forestry companies pay compensation and cover the costs of cleaning up forestry slash, repairing infrastructure in Tai Rāwhiti and Wairoa and elsewhere?

Hon DAVID PARKER: On behalf of the Minister, I've had no advice on that point to date.

Question No. 3—Finance

3. NICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of Finance: Does he think New Zealanders are being fairly taxed, and is he satisfied that the Government has delivered value for the $53 billion increase in annual spending since 2017?

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): It is the Government's role to ensure that we have a tax system that is fair and balanced, and that we all pay to ensure a fair society where we look after each other. We have made progress towards this, particularly by increasing the top rate of tax to 39c, closing loopholes, changing unfair settings, and improving the collection of taxes from those who seek to avoid tax. But there is always more to do, including making sure that some who do not pay their fair share—including some multinationals—do so. As a point of comparison, I would also add that according to the OECD, New Zealand has some of the lowest tax wedge on labour income among the 38 OECD nations. In answer to the second part of the question, the Government's increased investment has delivered, among other things, a record 2.855 million people in work, an increase of close to 12 percent above 2017; unemployment at historically low levels of 3.4 percent, compared to 4.8 percent in 2017; more than 50,000 new apprentices and more than 200,000 people in industry training; a significant increase in the number of nurses and doctors, and also making sure that those people are paid more; a world-leading COVID response, which saw tens of thousands of lives saved and the livelihoods and businesses of thousands protected; an additional 10,000 public housing places, as well as thousands more transitional and emergency housing places; and many more things besides, and all the while we're making sure that public debt is at one of the lowest levels internationally and that deficits, on average, are at lower levels than the global financial crisis.

Nicola Willis: Was the Prime Minister correct to claim yesterday that the Government is taking less tax as a proportion of the economy?

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The Prime Minister has today acknowledged that that was a mistake.

Nicola Willis: Does the Minister think it's fair that the Government is taking more tax from New Zealanders—the equivalent of $17,000 more per household—during a prolonged cost of living crisis?

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: It is true that the amount of revenue that the Government has taken in over the last few years has increased. A big part of the reason for that is that more New Zealanders are in work, more New Zealanders who are in work are earning more money, more companies in New Zealand are making more money and making more profits, and more activity is occurring in the economy and generating other forms of taxation. So I know that the National Party like to talk down the New Zealand economy, but the reality here is that, actually, the story of the New Zealand economy over recent years is one of strength. During that time, an enormous amount of cost has fallen on New Zealanders and on the Government to respond, among other things, to a global pandemic. So, yes, there is more revenue coming in; there are also significantly higher expenses.

Nicola Willis: Is the Minister's position, then, that if New Zealanders want a job under a Labour Government, then the price for that is paying higher tax and putting more money into Labour's pet political projects and wasteful spending, and, at the end of all of that, they should thank the Prime Minister and the finance Minister for spending more, taxing more, and delivering less?

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No, that is not the position. The position I have is that we are a Government that has focused—from the first day that we arrived—on making sure that New Zealanders stay in work. We have unemployment at 3.4 percent—it is historically low—we have more New Zealanders in work than we have ever had before, and, what's more, on this side of the House we also care how much those people get paid. So we've lifted the minimum wage and we've supported businesses across the economy to be able to keep people in work and pay them well.

Nicola Willis: Isn't it the case, however, that comparing the labour cost index with the Consumers Price Index proves that real wages have declined for 2½ years under Labour, and that's before you count the extra tax they have to pay under his big-spending Government?

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As the member knows, the measure that—when I sat in the seat that she's sitting in now—Governments have used for a considerable amount of time is not the measure that she has put forward. When it comes to annual ordinary hourly earnings, we can see that New Zealanders have—particularly in recent times—been keeping up with inflation. That doesn't stop it being hard for households. It is tough out there for many households to meet their cost of living pressures. That is why the Government has stepped up time and time again to support New Zealanders through lifting the family tax credit, through improving the rates of main benefits and superannuation, through the winter energy payment, and through the cost of living payment. And, as I noted yesterday, every time the National Party has an opportunity to support a measure to help people with the cost of living, they oppose it.

Nicola Willis: Does the Minister agree that a tax reduction for New Zealanders would help them with the cost of living?

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: A tax reduction for the highest-earning New Zealanders, which is the policy that the member favours, is one that would have inequitable outcomes. Every Government everywhere in the world would want to be able to say that people could pay less tax, but what a Government has to do is make sure that the books add up and that we do continue to look to the long term and that we meet the cost of public services that are in the here and now. The member is at great risk of repeating Paul Goldsmith's fiscal Bermuda Triangle.

Nicola Willis: Can he confirm that in the last financial year, Government spending reached 35 percent of GDP, higher than at any time during the Key-English Government, even at the height of the Canterbury rebuild, and isn't the reality that every single Minister opposite knows how to spend New Zealanders' money but wastes it and doesn't deliver results?

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The height of the spending during the post - Canterbury earthquake period was just around the 34 percent market; we're up around the 35 percent mark. I don't want to compare the different impacts of disasters, but I think everybody in this House would accept that a global pandemic of the nature of COVID required a significant response from the Government. I also recall, having been in this House for the last few years, hearing members opposite asking for more spending during the COVID period, not less.

Nicola Willis: Does he share the view of Chris Hipkins MP, who said in a 2011 Tweet, "They like capital gains tax; they think it's fairer. Me too.", and will he rule out introducing a capital gains tax while he is the Minister of Finance?

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The Government has been very clear about the taxation package that we have put in place to this point. That is the extent of the taxation package that the Government has agreed for this term. I'm pleased that the member is looking forward to my future terms as the Minister of Finance, but we'll deal with those when they come up.

Nicola Willis: Is it correct that the Minister of Finance is using publicly paid officials to put together tax proposals that he may take to the Labour Party manifesto in the 2023 election, or is it the case that those officials have been told to work on those tax policies because they are, indeed, potential Government policy?

Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: No.

Question No. 4—Defence

4. DAN ROSEWARNE (Labour) to the Minister of Defence: What contributions has the New Zealand Defence Force made to the response to Cyclone Gabrielle?

Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Defence): The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) is uniquely capable of responding quickly to large civil emergencies. They're trained to operate in tough conditions and a variety of environments. They are disciplined, well coordinated, and have vehicles, ships, and aircraft as well as personnel trained to operate in difficult situations and quickly deploy to a disaster site. Currently, the New Zealand Defence Force has more than 800 personnel deployed as part of Operation Awhina in the response to Cyclone Gabrielle. The New Zealand Defence Force has been providing logistics, land and air transport, search and rescue capabilities and reconnaissance, and functions to assist the local and national civil defence effort.

Dan Rosewarne: What contribution has the NZDF made on the East Coast?

Hon ANDREW LITTLE: The HMNZS Manawanui has been in Te Tai Rāwhiti coastal region. The ship has dropped off stores and provided support to communities currently isolated because of damage to roads and bridges. This has included transporting an emergency coordination centre generator and 440 litres of diesel in Tokomaru and Tolaga Bay. Last Friday, a C-130 Hercules arrived in Gisborne with a water treatment plant to help restore water facilities and also assisted with supplying medical supplies, including 80 oxygen bottles, and electrical supply parts to assist in the reconnection of power. NH90 helicopters have also flown in vital water pump parts to help overcome the damage caused to pipes in the region.

Dan Rosewarne: What contribution has the NZDF made in the Hawke's Bay?

Hon ANDREW LITTLE: In the Hawke's Bay, NH90 helicopters have delivered food, fuel generators, hygiene packs, and vet and medical supplies to Tūtira, Puketītiri, Rissington, Te Hāroto Marae, and Waipapa Marae. These NH90s also supported health clinic teams to check on residents in isolated communities. Using NH90 helicopters, NZDF personnel evacuated around 250 people in Hawke's Bay from around the Puketapu area, as well as transporting other people from Gisborne to Wairoa and Napier. The HMNZS Canterbury arrived in Napier on Tuesday evening. It delivered a range of stores to support the response, including five Bailey bridges, utility vehicles, generators, gas bottles, and emergency packs from Ngāi Tahu. NZDF staff have also conducted vehicle recoveries and ford crossing and bridge assessments in Dartmoor.

Dan Rosewarne: What else are the NZDF doing to support the response to Cyclone Gabrielle?

Hon ANDREW LITTLE: NZDF has carried out several land and air reconnaissance support operations to prove how accessible roads are across affected regions. Multiple NZDF teams remain in affected areas, providing support to numerous Government agencies. The NZDF remains on standby for solid waste clean-up and disposal, and New Zealand army high-mobility excavator equipment continues to assist NZDF movement throughout the affected areas to support delivery of aid to the community. The NZDF will also be supported by our international partners shortly, with two Royal Australian Air Force planes arriving yesterday with 33 Royal Australian Air Force personnel to provide tasking support. We're also currently considering offers of support from Singapore and the French armed forces in New Caledonia to help support the response.

Question No. 5—Building and Construction

5. BROOKE VAN VELDEN (Deputy Leader—ACT) to the Minister for Building and Construction: How many houses does she estimate will need repairs or rebuilding because of Cyclone Gabrielle and flooding in Auckland, and has she requested that the Critical Materials Taskforce review the building and construction sector's capacity to meet demand in light of the recent weather events?

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister for Building and Construction): While inspections and assessments are ongoing, there is not yet a final estimate of the number of homes that will need to be repaired or rebuilt. At this point in time, however, we know that across both the 27 January flooding event and Cyclone Gabrielle, there have been 574 red placards and 2,225 yellow placards issued in Auckland. Outside of Auckland, across the regions impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle—including Tai Rāwhiti, Hastings, Central Hawke's Bay, and Wairoa—103 homes have red placards, and a further 951 homes have yellow placards. But I stress that, in these locations, the assessments are far from complete, and the expectation is that these numbers will continue to rise. At this early stage, engagement with the Critical Materials and Products Taskforce members has not revealed stock issues with building and construction products. Engagement with this task force has revealed that Winstone Wallboards are building a good stock base of Gib; Hawke's Bay merchants have indicated that stocks of critical materials are at good levels but that road access issues may impact supply chains and present a challenge to distributing stock to the affected regions. The next Critical Materials Taskforce meeting is set for Friday, 3 March. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment continues to work with individual task force members and merchants in the affected regions to keep across emerging issues. Additionally, yesterday I met with the Construction Sector Accord to get their read on where things would be and what the needs of the sector would be. They indicated we need to urgently find areas to dispose of waste but did not identify any immediate supply chain constraints. As we transition towards the recovery phase, the industry is keen to ensure that insurance policies enable building back better and that local and central government use standard procurement contracts and seek coordinated pipelines and efficient contracting.

Brooke van Velden: Does she believe the current supply of construction materials is sufficient to meet the demands of this rebuild without construction material prices inflating further than they already have in the past two years?

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: This is an issue that we will continue to monitor. It is why, since 31 January, we have been engaging with the sector to assess supply chain constraints, to identify where there may be blockages and what needs to be done. We do have some outages of facilities and factories at the moment. Kāinga Ora, in my conversations with them to get their read on supply chains, have indicated that on the east coast of the North Island there are some constraints at the moment with cement production, but we are keeping across these issues. We'll continue to monitor them, and, of course, our Government has now completed the market study into building materials and supplies.

Brooke van Velden: Will she adopt ACT's policy of establishing a materials equivalence register to allow access to foreign-approved substitute materials that could be used to build and repair homes where there are supply issues?

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Of course, we addressed what needed to be done around this issue in terms of plasterboard last year, and what we found is that actually the equivalency register wasn't the only impediment; by far and away, the biggest factor was actually the guidance to consenting authorities about how it is that they needed to implement that and to get that out to the sector as well. But, of course, as we continue to monitor the situation and engage heavily with the sector—which we have been doing for some weeks now—we will consider all options.

Brooke van Velden: Does she agree with the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Statement, which stated yesterday, "In the very near term, maintenance, rebuild, and repair work associated with the severe storms throughout the North Island are expected to put upward pressure on building costs."; and, if so, why would she not advocate for increasing supply of products that are safe to use in other countries that could help Kiwis rebuild and repair, and keep costs down here?

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: What our Government demonstrated last year, during the shortages of plasterboard, is that we were prepared to do exactly what the member is suggesting, and that is to make sure that there was actually alternative products and to work to ensure that we could get those into the country for them to be used. It's not as simple as only establishing a register; if only it were. There are other important steps that need to be taken, and one of those is the guidance that is required for consenting authorities. As we did in the shortage of plasterboard last year, we will take a very pragmatic approach, we will work with the industry, and we will be solutions focused.

Dr James McDowall: Has she spoken to the Minister of Immigration since Cyclone Gabrielle to advocate for a streamlined visa pathway to attract the overseas construction workers who will be needed for the post-cyclone rebuild?

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Yes. One of the things that we talked about in that conversation is the currently approximately 40 roles on the immigration shortage list in the construction sector that include roles like construction project manager, carpenters, and bricklayers. We also spoke about the work that we're doing to train New Zealanders—the work that the Prime Minister referenced in his statement earlier in the week, the 215,000 people under our Government that have taken up free apprenticeships, the 54,000 people that have been supported through Apprenticeship Boost—and I certainly threw into the conversation the requirement that we've put through our Kāinga Ora contracting for those build partners to be actively taking on apprentices. Because we are a Government that believes as well as making sure we've got immigration pathways, we are training our young people.

Question No. 6—Health

6. Dr SHANE RETI (National) to the Minister of Health: Does she stand by all her statements and agree with those made by Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand?

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister of Health): I stand by my statements, in particular that my key priorities as Minister of Health this year are winter preparedness, workforce, and wait-lists. I also agree with Health New Zealand chair, Rob Campbell, when he said, referring to me on winter planning, "she has made it very clear that she expects us to be doing much, much better, and we've upped our attention to it in accordance with that".

Dr Shane Reti: Does she stand by her answer to written question No. 28840, stating that clinical health services are not in crisis?

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: As I've said, we are focused on making sure that our workforce is well supported and that our services perform well during winter. What I believe our workforce and our public expect us to do is to be prepared, and that's what we've announced today: a booster vaccine that'll make sure that people are kept out of hospital, the continued anti-virals that will make sure that people are kept out of the hospital, and that we continue to support our staff through improving their pay and the conditions in which they work. These are the sorts of things we do to avoid having those sorts of acute demand problems that we saw last winter.

Dr Shane Reti: Is the health system in crisis or not?

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: I have on multiple occasions recognised the huge strain that our healthcare workers have been under—including in many conversations with them up and down the country—and what I have said to them, and what I know that they expect us to do, is that we will take the practical actions that will keep people well, keep people out of hospitals, and make sure that we support them to manage acute demand.

Dr Shane Reti: How will the staff improvements at Middlemore Hospital emergency department (ED) that she stated last week ensure that Middlemore ED is ready for winter, when on the same day she said this the chair of Health New Zealand stated that the workforce shortages plaguing Middlemore's ED would not be addressed in time for the winter flu season and will continue to impact services?

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: Mr Campbell and I are in agreement that there needs to be concerted action to improve the staffing levels across emergency departments and in other parts of the health system. But what we do want to be clear to our workers about is that there is not going to be a simple fix, no single silver bullet that will mean that the pressure is totally gone away by this winter. We are totally committed to making sure we are taking action on multiple fronts to back our staff in terms of vaccinations, in terms of anti-virals, and making sure that the management of patients in the community and the hospital supports them to deliver the excellent care that they do.

Dr Shane Reti: What policies and actions from the previous Minister of Health will she not be following, and why?

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: I have great respect for my colleague Andrew Little and the tremendous amount of work he's done particularly to build a primary mental healthcare system in this country that now covers half the country, to reform our health system, and his commitment to healthcare equity in establishing a Māori health authority.

Dr Shane Reti: Who are the people called "boundary spanners" in the Health New Zealand document titled "Unify to Simplify", and how will she tell the 80-year-old man in South Auckland who is on the waiting list for skin grafts that she is sending a boundary spanner?

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: That's a very specific question and if the member wants me to reply to a detailed question in any one of the tens of thousands of pages of documentation produced by Te Whatu Ora, he is welcome to put that in writing.

Question No. 7—Environment

7. LEMAUGA LYDIA SOSENE (Labour) to the Minister for the Environment: What actions is he taking in response to Cyclone Gabrielle?

Hon DAVID PARKER (Minister for the Environment): Today, the Prime Minister announced that a ministerial inquiry will be held forthwith into land use causing forestry slash and sediment-related damage in the Gisborne, Tai Rāwhiti, and Wairoa districts. The inquiry will report by the end of April. It will investigate past and current land-use practices and the significant impacts on people, livestock, buildings, and the environment. It would also describe the economic drivers of current practice, and economic constraints on alternatives. The inquiry will be chaired by former Government Minister and Gisborne resident the Hon Hekia Parata. She'll be joined by former regional council chief executive Bill Bayfield, and forestry expert Matthew McCloy. People in the affected communities and wider public are invited to provide submissions to the inquiry panel.

Lemauga Lydia Sosene: What are some of the current problems in the region?

Hon DAVID PARKER: Homes and roads have been destroyed. Massive quantities of sediment, logs, and slash have choked rivers and estuaries and caused serious harm to people, coastal waters, and productive land, and this has occurred now on many occasions. Some mistakes were made post - Cyclone Bola, with the best of intentions. Pine trees were planted on very steep country and across creeks, without buffers. The collection of slash and its use is less economic when distant from processing facilities, which makes problems more difficult. Plantation and permanent forests, exotic and indigenous, raise different but important considerations. All these issues can be considered by the inquiry.

Lemauga Lydia Sosene: What recommendations does he expect from the inquiry?

Hon DAVID PARKER: I'm expecting the panel to make recommendations to improve outcomes, including possible changes needed to land use and its regulation at central and local government levels. This can include consideration of production and permanent forest practices, resource management plans, and national direction—for example, the national environmental standard for forestry and the Tai Rāwhiti and Wairoa district resource management plans.

Lemauga Lydia Sosene: What actions have central and local government already taken to improve enforcement and increase penalties for environmental offences?

Hon DAVID PARKER: Although decisions for prosecutions are a matter for local councils under the Resource Management Act, following events a couple of years ago, adjacent regional councils and the Ministry for the Environment helped the Gisborne District Council at their request, and in 2018 that council showed it was prepared to take action, successfully prosecuting five forestry companies for poor forest harvesting and management. The court imposed fines ranging from $124,000 to $379,000. The resource management reforms currently before the Environment Committee include new tools to assist enforcement, including a new civil enforcement regime, which I haven't got time to detail, as well as the increases in the maximum fines, from $300,000 to a million dollars for people, and $600,000 to $10 million for companies. It's also proposed to ban insurance against fines, as I said earlier.

Question No. 8—Social Development and Employment

8. RICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Has she seen reports that Aotearoa's most low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by climate events, such as flooding; if so, what steps is her Government taking to support those on the lowest incomes to recover from recent weather events?

Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Acting Minister for Social Development and Employment): As part of the Government's work on the equitable transition strategy, I have been briefed on the impacts of climate events on low-income New Zealanders. Not only has this Government made significant permanent improvements to income support for New Zealanders, we have also rolled out an immediate response to support those impacted by the recent floods and cyclone. To date, over $40 million has been given out to over 78,000 people in civil defence payments to help families with the costs that they've incurred as a result of those recent weather events. We're also backing our social service providers and community groups with a support package of $11.5 million. This is just the beginning of our response. As we move into recovery, we will continue to assess what other supports may be needed.

Ricardo Menéndez March: Does she believe that the civil defence payment adequately supports families who have lost everything in recent weather events, considering the amount people can receive for food, bedding, and clothing has not been increased in almost 10 years?

Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: There is already a considerable amount of both flexibility and the types of payments, or the things that people can apply for civil defence payments to cover, to ensure that people do get the support that they need during this crisis. This is an important part of our hardship assistance offering.

Ricardo Menéndez March: Does she agree that livable incomes are key to building resilience in the face of climate change, and, if so, is she committed to lifting benefits to livable levels?

Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: Our Government has already made significant increases to benefits—in fact, the largest such increases since the 1940s. Compared to the policy settings of 2017, we know that 351,000 people on benefits have seen increases that have resulted in them being benefited by about $113 per week—that goes up to $137 per week in winter. In fact, total income after housing costs—it's 43 percent higher, basically, in 2022, since 2018, and that's as a direct result of this Government's reforms.

Ricardo Menéndez March: Will the Minister reassure beneficiaries in areas impacted by recent extreme weather events that they will not be sanctioned should they fail to meet their obligations under Work and Income, and, if not, why not?

Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: As I have already outlined, this Government is taking steps to ensure that those who are affected by the recent weather events are getting the support that they need. We will continue to do that. We have continued to ensure that we reduce hardship for all New Zealanders, and that's what we'll continue to do.

Ricardo Menéndez March: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I was asking about sanctions. So while I'm not looking for a specific yes or no, the issue of assuring beneficiaries whether sanctions will be applied or not—

SPEAKER: Can you ask the question again and we'll—

Ricardo Menéndez March: Absolutely. Will the Minister reassure beneficiaries in areas impacted by recent extreme weather events that they will not be sanctioned should they fail to meet their obligations under Work and Income, and, if not, why not?

Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: Look, we have continually taken the view that we will look at what sanctions we can get rid of. We have done that. We have already said that in areas where people are affected by the cyclones, we will continue to support them. So we will continue to reduce hardship in various ways that we can.

Ricardo Menéndez March: Will she consider bringing forward the winter energy payment to provide relief for families on low incomes impacted by severe whether events?

Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: As I have said, this is the beginning of the support that we are providing to individuals and families who've been affected by the recent weather events. I have already outlined the supports that we are providing. I will reiterate what the Prime Minister has also mentioned in his statement. From April this year, we will roll out the next phase in the cost of living support. We will reverse a freeze on the income and taxation threshold for childcare eligibility, put in place by National in 2010—that means over 10,000 additional children are estimated to receive support. The family tax credit will also increase in April this year. We've put in packages of support to support people directly but also to support the NGOs and community groups that are supporting them. We will continue to assess the situation and take action as appropriate.

Question No. 9—Police

9. Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) to the Minister of Police: Does he agree with the Prime Minister, who said, "There's been no substantiation to the allegations that people on checkpoints had had guns pulled on them. If anyone wants to report that that happened they should do so to the police", and is he aware an incident was reported to police by the victims?

Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Defence) on behalf of the Minister of Police: Yes and yes.

Hon Paul Goldsmith: Why was a journalist able to easily substantiate the claim but the Police Commissioner and the Minister weren't, and why was their initial reflex to minimise the claim?

Hon ANDREW LITTLE: The facts behind this matter are that the police received a 111 call on the day in question from the manager of a roading crew—the manager who was not present at the time of the events—to report allegations made by the roading crew. Later in the day, police attended on the manager and the crew to ascertain further information and, according to the advice from the police, obtained no information of evidential value, but, nevertheless, referred the matter to the local Criminal Investigation Branch, and it is now in the hands of a detective sergeant for further investigation.

Hon Paul Goldsmith: Does he believe Kylie, on a roadblock, who told Newsroom, "If the Government says there's no such thing as looting or it's being exaggerated—I say liar, liar pants on fire.", and is she voicing reasonable concerns about what's going on in her community, or is she one of the people whipping up hysteria that he referred to in the House yesterday?

Hon ANDREW LITTLE: It's very important—again, on behalf of the Minister of Police—that, when allegations of crimes are made, they are reported to the police. It's equally important that the police follow up those reports and those complaints. Both of those things happened in this case. So far, the police have not been able to obtain anything of evidential value, but it remains under investigation.

Hon Paul Goldsmith: Was Di, another Hawke's Bay local, who told Newsroom, "They'll take anything. Generators, gas bottles, anything they can find. … These gangs are organised, they're more organised than the police.", again, voicing reasonable concerns about what's going on in her community or whipping up hysteria, as the Minister said in the House yesterday?

Hon ANDREW LITTLE: On behalf of the Minister of Police, I back New Zealanders, who, when they see criminal offending happening, report it to the police, and I back our New Zealand police force, when they receive reports, to follow them up appropriately and professionally and investigate and bring those who commit crimes to order.

Hon Paul Goldsmith: What on earth was he thinking when he said on Monday that "Now is not the time" for gangs to loot and predate on vulnerable victims of the floods, and does he acknowledge that such statements make his Government look ridiculous?

Hon ANDREW LITTLE: On behalf of the Minister of Police, it's very important that the Minister of Police supports our professional police force to do their job to uphold law and order—and, in the very difficult circumstances of a civil emergency, when entire communities are under considerable distress because of the things that have happened to them, that the maximum support is given to the police to do their job, to uphold law and order, to respond to complaints of criminal offending, and to investigate them accordingly. That's what I was doing, and that's what is happening.

Question No. 10—Education

10. CAMILLA BELICH (Labour) to the Minister of Education: What resources is the Government putting into schools so they can meet attendance and engagement targets?

Hon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Education): We know how important it is for young people to be at school and engaged in their learning, which is why this Government is putting in every effort to making sure they are. Earlier this week, I announced a $74 million package which targets resources on the ground to support schools and students to make a difference in improving the full range of school attendance rates. This funding will establish 82 new attendance officer roles to work with students who have low or declining attendance rates and further support the Attendance Service to ensure they are going to school every day unless they are sick.

Camilla Belich: How will these attendance officers get children re-engaged with education?

Hon JAN TINETTI: These attendance officers will be based at the chalkface, because that is where change will occur. They will work with students who have low or declining attendance rates. They will also work alongside parents and schools to turn around attendance rates. They'll do this by identifying and addressing the barriers to those kids attending and engaging in education. This Government understands turning this ship around will require input from the whole community, including parents, but we are laser focused on making sure our kids are not just turning up to school but that they are engaged in their learning.

Camilla Belich: How will this announcement support students who are chronically absent or not enrolled?

Hon JAN TINETTI: The 82 attendance officers announced this week will work with students who have irregular or moderate absence. This is in addition to the work existing attendance officers do with the chronic absent or non-enrolled students who are referred to the Attendance Service, where this Government has also significantly increased capacity. Our new funding will provide cost pressure and volume increase to bolster these services and support a further 1,300 chronically absent students and referrals of 1,500 non-enrolled young people.

Hon Paul Goldsmith: Can she explain how it is precisely 82 attendance officers that are required to get 95,000 chronically absent kids back to school when she did not know earlier this week how many attendance officers there were at all in the first place?

Hon JAN TINETTI: That member has misinterpreted the data and has not taken the data into account at all. If that member had read that data correctly, he would understand that the absence rates are split into justified absence and non-justified absence. Justified absence also occurs in the chronically absent young people, so therefore there are many of those young people who were chronically absent who had absolute justified attendance. I suggest that the member goes back and has another look at that data and understands it, but I also suggest that that member listens to the answer to the next question, because it might help his understanding of the data.

Camilla Belich: How will the package referred to improve the quality of the attendance data collected by schools?

Hon JAN TINETTI: Accurate and timely attendance data enables schools to identify patterns of behaviour and to intervene quickly where attendance patterns change. As a former teacher and principal of 27 years, I know from experience there are flaws in the way data is currently collected and interpreted, especially by those outside of the sector. That is why, as part of our new package, experts will be assigned to work directly with schools and communities to improve the quality, understanding, and use of the attendance data.

Chris Bishop: Point of order, Mr Speaker. There was a revealing moment in one of the supplementary answers then to my colleague Paul Goldsmith. The Minister said that the member should listen to the answer to the next question, indicating that she knew precisely what was going to be asked of her by the member asking the original primary. This is meant to be question time, not an example of prepared statements being read out by the Minister.

Hon Grant Robertson: Speaking to the point of order, I'm aware that the member who raised the point of order has some experience in particularly the preparation of questions and answers in this House, and often I would wonder just how Gerry Brownlee was so eloquent. I think the member might find that the way in which questions are constructed by the Government has been pretty consistent over a long period of time.

Question No. 11—Courts

11. CHRIS PENK (National—Kaipara ki Mahurangi) to the Minister for Courts: Does he have confidence that the court system is delivering timely justice for all Kiwis; if so, why has the number of days to dispose of a serious criminal case in the District Court increased by 55 percent since 2017?

Hon DAVID PARKER (Attorney-General) on behalf of the Minister for Courts: I have confidence in the court system but do acknowledge there has been an increase in delays. There are a number of reasons for this. These include the increased complexity and length of multi-defendant jury trials for drug offences. There's also been a trend towards more defendants electing trial by jury and later guilty pleas. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated delays but also highlighted opportunities for us to address them, such as the better use of technology within the District Court.

Chris Penk: What explanation, then, does the Minister give for the fact that the number of families waiting more than three years for a resolution through the Family Court has tripled since 2017, and what impact does he estimate any Government actions may have on those numbers?

Hon DAVID PARKER: The main reason for delays in the District Court were the ridiculous changes to the rules by the last Government, which continued to be in place until just recently, when the current Government fixed them.

Chris Penk: Why is it that into its sixth and final year of the current Government, the Minister is still blaming the actions of the previous Government rather than taking any concrete positive action to actually fix these problems that he refers to?

Hon DAVID PARKER: Well, it's certainly not the final year of this Government—I've got bad news for the member. But in terms of the steps that are being taken, the systems in the courts, for many years—including under the prior National Government—have been very, very antiquated. A paper-based system is run by the courts that does not link electronically to either judges, prosecutors, defendants, or their counsel. The response of the Government to that is to have under way the curing of that problem through the digitisation of court practices, which will vastly improve efficiencies. That project, Te Au Reka, is in procurement at the moment, and after the completion of the IRD upgrade—which was an enormous project—this is one of the biggest IT builds across Government. Over time it's going to have a huge effect on the efficiency of the courts, and that, long term, is the way to address these backlogs. In the meantime, post-COVID—which did make these delays worse—$90 million of additional funding was provided to the courts to employ additional judges and administrative staff.

Chris Penk: Is the Minister aware that moves were made during the COVID-19 response that allowed greater use of audiovisual link and other such technology, but the Government disregarded the proposal of the National Party that such changes should have been made permanent, thereby relieving some of the problems to which he's referring?

Hon DAVID PARKER: I am aware that there was greater use of audiovisual technology and other mechanisms during COVID. I think the District Court working group on that issue has done some good work, and I'm aware that the ministry, as a consequence, is expanding the availability of audiovisual facilities in more courts.

Chris Penk: What explanation does the Minister give for the fact that Coroner's Court wait times—undue delays adding to the grief and stress of families—have been increasing every year since his Government has been in office, to the extent that it is now a tenfold increase of families waiting longer than five years; and what impact does he think any reforms of the Government may make in that area?

Hon DAVID PARKER: The member is correct that the coronial work programme, the Coronial Services, have lengthened in the time it takes to dispose of matters before them. There are changes currently before Parliament to address that, both by allowing more general findings of death by general practitioners of elderly people whose cause of death is indeterminate, which has led to the clogging up of coronial services because those general findings of death have not been permitted under the existing legal framework—so that's one part of the solution. In addition, the Government has funded additional coroners and associate coroners.

Chris Penk: Point of order, Mr Speaker. Thank you, sir. I seek leave to table the answer to written question No. 1036 (2023), which is not yet publicly available, regarding the number of active coronial cases of five years or greater.

SPEAKER: Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There appears to be none. It may be tabled.

Document, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.

Question No. 12—Health

12. Dr TRACEY McLELLAN (Labour—Banks Peninsula) to the Minister of Health: What recent announcement has she made about the future of New Zealand's COVID-19 vaccination programme?

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister of Health): Today, I was pleased to announce that anyone over the age of 30 will be able to receive the new bivalent COVID vaccine from 1 April. Those at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 will also be able to receive an additional booster regardless of how many doses they've previously had.

Dr Tracey McLellan: How does this help us prepare for winter?

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: A priority for me as Minister of Health is preparing and planning for winter to ease the pressure on emergency departments and other parts of the health system. Uptake of the bivalent vaccine will prevent people from becoming seriously unwell and going to hospital. We know there is more to do, but this is the first step in our plan to keep Kiwis well for winter.

Dr Tracey McLellan: How will the vaccine be rolled out?

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: There are currently 717 clinics offering COVID-19 vaccinations across the motu, including general practices, pharmacies, community centres, and Māori and Pacific providers. We're working with communities to scale up vaccination campaigns, including pop-up events, targeted activities at priority groups, and outreach to those eligible.

Dr Tracey McLellan: How will people be able to book their vaccine?

Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: Booking the vaccine is easy and the COVID-19 bivalent vaccine remains free. We'll be running a comprehensive programme to encourage vaccination against both influenza and COVID-19, targeting those audiences most at risk in the lead-up to winter. You can visit , call 0800 282926, or talk to the health professional you see most often.

DEBATE ON PRIME MINISTER'S STATEMENT

Debate resumed from 22 February.

Hon JAN TINETTI (Minister of Education): I rise to speak on the Prime Minister's statement today with hope and optimism for the direction the Government is taking our country in. We're focused on the issues that matter most to New Zealanders: supporting New Zealand families and businesses through difficult economic conditions, accelerating the economic recovery, laying the foundations for the future, and providing strong and responsible leadership through difficult times, especially as we rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle. But we can't ignore the fact right now that this is only the third time in our recent history that our country has been in a state of national emergency.

Given what mother Nature has dealt us, many of us are hurting, anxious—anxious about our livelihoods, anxious for many people that their livelihoods have been devastated. The consequences of climate change are here and they are being felt with great impact. I'd like to echo the sentiments and aroha that have already come from this House, and our thoughts are with the 11 people who have lost their lives. Also, our thoughts are with their families and their friends, as well as with those who are facing the painful wait for their loved ones who are unaccounted for. As the Prime Minister said, no words can express the anxiety and grief that you are experiencing.

This was not the start to 2023 that anyone expected, and the impacts of the Auckland floods and then Cyclone Gabrielle, compounded by the war in Ukraine and the ongoing social and economic impacts of the global pandemic mean that this year is likely to be another tough one for New Zealanders. As the Minister of Education, my focus will be on ensuring we minimise any disruptions to the delivery of high-quality education and training for our people. This needs to be balanced with ensuring that we are also putting the safety of students and the wider community as the utmost priority.

Now, Madam Speaker Salesa, you know that I have been meeting with principals and sector leaders to hear directly from them on the needs of their school communities, and I had a fabulous meeting last Friday with principals in your electorate.

The Ministry of Education has also been in frequent contact with my office, and all school properties that have been able to be checked and visited by the ministry to assess the damage have been. Repairs and, in some cases, potential rebuilds will be arduous, but I'll ensure that we will be working as quickly as we can to address these issues and the subsequent issues that may come forward throughout the process.

I've been advised that as of today, we have 47 schools and 89 early learning services confirmed as being closed across the Auckland, Northland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, and Gisborne regions. This is affecting over 7,000 school students and 2,500 children in early childhood education.

For the schools that are closed, we are working at pace to get educational devices and tools to those children, and also to those children where their schools that may be open, but they can't get there because of road closures. So far, 500 educational hard packs have been delivered to kōhanga reo, who have been supplying them to their whānau. Te Tai Tokerau and Auckland teams have stock on hand and they have been taking these hard packs out through distribution to whānau that are in need, and this started from last week. We're also distributing hard packs to communities in the Wairarapa. An assessment of requirements across Hawke's Bay and Te Tai Rāwhiti is continuing, with an initial supply of 100 early learning packs and 50 primary packs to be dispatched to Gisborne this week.

There are also many incredible people who have stepped up in these trying times, and, as Minister of Education, I really want to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the Ministry of Education staff, both in Wellington but particularly those on the front line who are based in the regions in the flood and cyclone areas. They have been working around the clock to provide support to both schools and early learning services.

What's made it difficult for them is that many of these staff have also experienced devastation of their own, yet they continue to put their role as public servants first and foremost and are providing the most outstanding level of service to our schools and students during this national emergency. Some of the stories that I have heard of their own devastation have been really distressing, and yet they have continued to carry on every day, giving that assurance to those people that need it. Speaking directly to them, I would like to say thank you—thank you for your public service, thank you for your dedication to our education system, and thank you for supporting our schools and early learning services. Our children, our young people, and our learners are so much better for your dedication.

I know that many teachers and principals in affected areas are working tirelessly for their schools and wider communities. These are extraordinarily tiring times, and I can only imagine the stress that they are under right now. This is not the start that any of us wanted to the school year. But I also know the resilience that they have. Yes, it's stretched. Yes, it's been tested in recent times, but I have utmost faith in our workforce. We will get through this, and I also want to say thank you to our education workforce for everything that I know that they do to deliver for the young people that they have in front of them every single day.

I have heard the needs from schools, and we are doing everything that we can and as fast as we can to address these. For those schools affected by floods and the cyclone, I know it will be hard for them to think of anything else other than the mammoth recovery effort that they have in front of them. But those schools that are not affected, I know, are standing in solidarity with those that are.

As we work as quickly as we can to recover from these weather events, we will also continue to deliver on the Government's commitment to a world-class and barrier-free public education system. The Government is focused on making sure our young people are engaged and thriving, and, as we heard in question time today, just this week I announced 82 dedicated attendance officers to work with schools to turn around irregular attendance, and increased funding for the Attendance Service to engage intensive support to re-engage the most complex cases.

The evidence shows that dedicated resources placed in schools will enable schools to intervene early and turn around persistent absences, and we're already starting to see some results—and some very good results—when we dig into the data to see that the percentage of unjustified absence is dropping rapidly between 2019 to now on all four of the measures that we use in our attendance area. I'm really, really pleased to see these results happening. We know that we're still going to experience justified absence because we expect our young people to stay home when they are sick, but we also know that our schools and our parents are doing a very, very good job of getting young people to school when they need to be there.

That's not to say that there's not more to do. We absolutely know that there is a lot more to do. As I've said, this is a big ship to turn around, but we are well on the way to making that happen.

What we also need to ensure is that our young people are engaged in learning when they are at school. That's why we are investing in a comprehensive redesign of the New Zealand Curriculum, and the first priority subjects are maths and literacy. The new curriculum is clearer about what students need to understand, know, and do within these learning areas—something that has been a little bit difficult in the past because the curriculum didn't give teachers and the workforce that direction that they'd been crying out for for many years. So this is backed by high-quality teaching resources, as well as being based on best evidence and practice.

The Government understands that kids will have the best opportunity of attending and engaging at school if we remove the barriers that prevent them from doing so. That is why we have invested in our barrier-free access suite of initiatives such as free, healthy lunches, free period products, mental health and counselling support, and bully-free programmes, and removing the requirement on parents to pay school donations.

As I've said, this was not the start to 2023 that we had hoped or planned for. But despite the challenges ahead of us, I know that we will continue to be a resilient and resourceful nation.

CHRIS BISHOP (National): Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. Well, the member who's just resumed her seat is right: it's not the start we were expecting, and it's certainly not the start she was expecting, I suspect, when Chris Hipkins rang her up and said, "I've got a job for you. I'm moving into the big seat; you're going to take on the Minister of Education role." Jan Tinetti thought, "Fantastic! My life's dream.", but what she doesn't realise is she's been handed a hospital pass, because we've got an education system in crisis, that Chris Hipkins oversaw for five years: truancy on the increase, results on the decrease, and a Government with no plan to fix it. Jan Tinetti is going to be responsible for sorting out the Te Pūkenga mess bequeathed to her by Chris Hipkins, Jan Tinetti's going to have to sort out increasing truancy bequeathed to her by Chris Hipkins, and Jan Tinetti's going to have to sort out declining achievement in our schools—kids who can't read and write even when they actually get to school again—bequeathed to her by Chris Hipkins, who has overseen a shambolic education department for the last five years; $5 billion of increased spending, 1,400 more bureaucrats at the Ministry of Education, but yet results are going backwards, and this Government has no plan to do anything about it.

The first five years of this Government have been defined by five things: big spending, big taxation, wasteful Government programmes, an inability to get things done, and soft on crime. The news for New Zealanders is that Labour's changed the face; they've changed the top two, but the actual Government programme is all the same. It's same old Labour. Plus ça change, same old Labour.

Go through the numbers. This Government, like the Ardern Government, has a big spending agenda, because Grant Robertson, who's overseen a 50 percent increase in Government spending in just the last five years, is still the Minister of Finance. Apparently, all the Ministers are going through reprioritisation exercises and they're going to find out all the nickels and dimes. Well, I have asked every Minister a written question; I've said to them, "What are you doing with your reprioritisation exercise? What have you identified so far?" Guess what? Nobody's found a cent. Now, I did only ask them a couple of weeks or so ago, so we'll wait and see, but my prediction is that, yeah, I'm sure there'll be a million-dollar slice here or a $500,000 programme slice there, but the big spending will continue, and that's putting pressure on inflation, that's going to stay high above the band for longer. It's putting pressure on mortgage interest rates, and it is a big contributor to the Government's problems and to New Zealand's problems.

Secondly, big taxation: $17,000, $500 more per household since 2017. This Government is addicted to taxation in the same way that they are addicted to spending. What did the Government want New Zealanders to think a few weeks ago? Oh, the jobs tax—sorry, the social insurance scheme, Grant Robertson's fantasy. They wanted everyone to think, "Oh, no it's been deferred; we can't do it." What they didn't tell New Zealanders is you had to read the fine print: it's just been kicked to the long grass for a year. If Labour get back, it'll be back on the table after the next election.

And they haven't done away with all of the other taxes that they've introduced in the last five years. The tenant tax is putting pressure on rents, up 150 bucks a week in the last five years; the ute tax, the regional fuel tax. What we know is that David Parker has his "Piketty unit" squirrelling away hundreds more—well, probably not hundreds, but certainly dozens more bureaucrats in the Inland Revenue Department in Wellington, down the road from Parliament, squirrelling away there, furrowing into the tax code to try and figure out even more pernicious ways to raise tax on New Zealanders, because when you increase spending by 50 percent in five years, you have to pay for it somehow, and they know that. So we've got more taxes coming down the pipeline. So, again, changed the leader; the policies haven't actually changed.

Third thing is the waste: $50 million spent so far on light rail that was meant to be built by 2020 but has yet to—[Interruption] I'm sorry, it has started—it has started. Michael Wood was out there today with his little bucket and shovel out at some—I don't know where he was; somewhere along the voluminous route, pretending to start on light rail. I think it's euphemistically described as "early works". Well, early works—look, having been involved in a few photo ops in my time, early works with a little bucket and shovel to do seismic work; no one's going to believe that. It doesn't pass the sniff test. Light rail is as far away now as it was when Phil Twyford was the poor, bedraggled Minister of Transport all the way back in 2017, and Michael Wood was doing Facebook videos about how Labour's number one transport priority in Auckland was light rail, which he said would be built by 2020. He said that the only way to deliver that was to party vote for Labour. Well, enough people did in 2017, and now we find out they've been betrayed, because here we are in 2023 and it hasn't even started—well, it has started, if you count Michael Wood 's little bucket and shovel act today.

Fifty-one million dollars on a cycle bridge that nobody wanted, that ended up being cancelled. And then we get to the consultants. Chris Hipkins said in 2018—the last National Government—"I'm going to do something about those consultants they used. I'm going to get it under control." Well, what have we now? Last year, $1.25 billion spent on consultants and 14,000 more bureaucrats in Wellington compared to five years ago. This Government knows all about how to spend and they know how to spend it wastefully. Again, change the leader, you change the leadership; you don't actually change the party, you don't change the Government.

Fourth point that defines this Government: an inability to get things done, because despite the 50 percent increase in Government spending, despite the oodles of extra tax they have taken off New Zealanders, when you look right across the board from social services to infrastructure to housing, things are going backwards, not better.

Nicola Willis: But what about KiwiBuild?

CHRIS BISHOP: And my colleague Nicola Willis raises the example of KiwiBuild, another totemic policy, like light rail. One of the few things that people actually remember about the 2017 election campaign—they vaguely remember light rail, but they definitely remember the 100,000 houses that David Shearer dreamt up in the back of the VIP car with Annette King all those years ago. They remember that Labour said we were going to build 100,000 homes, and I think last time I looked I think we were at about 2 percent out of 100,000 homes. So that has become the totemic policy failure by this Government.

But it's not just KiwiBuild; it's everything involved in the infrastructure space from light rail, the fact that the Government smashed the transport pipeline in 2017 when they cut the State highway budgets and caused chaos in the sector. That is why we do want the Government to commit enough resources and reorganise themselves to rebuild the shattered communities on the East Coast and the Hawke's Bay, and we will hold them to account for that, because it is very important that that happens. But we do have scepticism that this Government has the wherewithal and the commitment and the organisational ability and the nous to actually know how to get things done, because very few transport projects have started in the last five years, and the Government is defined by its inability to actually do things.

Finally, again on the theme of "you can change the leader, but the Government does not change", this Government is soft on crime. I predict this phrase "unsubstantiated rumour" will become like "I reject the premise", because "unsubstantiated rumour" is what Chris Hipkins said about the multiple—it wasn't even a few; multiple—reports coming out of Hawke's Bay and the East Coast of lawlessness primarily driven by the gangs. Here's the sad thing: I used to be the police spokesperson and I was against Stuart Nash, and Stuart Nash used to turn up here and say, "Ah, well, I'm going to smash the gangs." It's literally what he said. He used to, you know, puff himself up and say, "Under Labour, they need to know I'm going to smash them. We are going to go out there and take their guns off them and we are going to crack down on them." Five years later, Stuart Nash is the police Minister again after the hapless Poto Williams was shunted out, and Stuart Nash's latest thing is "Oh, please take your patches off. That would be really good—please take them off." So the guy who went from "I'm going to smash them." has been reduced to asking them to take their patches off. Doesn't that just summarise the descent of this useless Government?

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call. I call the Hon Willie Jackson—five minutes.

Hon WILLIE JACKSON (Minister for Māori Development): As tempting as it is to smash that speech that has just been presented, I'll keep with the tone of the Government at the present time. No, I don't really want to go back on all the wasteful spending of the National Party, and the $26 million vanity flag project that their previous leader rolled out. I won't go back there and talk about the $1.5 billion spending from Gerry Brownlee, when he admitted $1.5 billion of National's spending on the so-called roads of national significance had been a bit out. I mean, there's been billions and billions of wasteful spending by that lot on the other side of the House. I won't lower the tone, because we've got a nation to think about.

I tēnei wā e tuku ana ki te mihi atu ki ngā patunga me ngā whānau kua mate i roto i ngā wiki kua hipa atu nei. Ki a rātou katoa tēnei Kāwanatanga me te Pāremata te tautoko me te aroha, nō reira tēnei te mihi ki a tātou katoa i tēnei wā.

[At this time I send my acknowledgments to the victims and to the people who have died in recent weeks. To all of them, this Government and Parliament offers its support and compassion, therefore, these are my acknowledgments to one and all at this time.]

It's only right that we remember some of the whānau and some of the victims over the last week or two. I've been proud of this Government and proud of this Parliament and the way that we have come together in terms of giving our support and our aroha to people all around the country. As a Government, we've certainly signalled that and I'm very proud of our new Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, who has really made a terrific start, hasn't he? So much so now, that we've got the National Party reduced to those sort of terrible and nonsensical speeches that we've just heard. He's really got them worried. At the same time, I need to thank our former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her fantastic achievements, but make it very clear that, as a Government, we're committed to what's happening in terms of our nation at the moment. You've seen the financial spend in terms of Gabrielle, in terms of $300 million in the last few days. As the new Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, has signalled, that bread and butter issues will be our number one priority going forward. It's something that this country is embracing at the moment.

In terms of Māori, we're proud of the way that Māori have progressed over the last term, particularly with Jacinda Ardern, and particularly the Māori economy, where, as the Minister of Māori Development, I've pushed through more than 1,200 cadets over the past year. In fact, we've seen more than 5,000 cadetships for Māori.

In the housing area, we've had over $730 million injected into Māori housing. It's the largest investment in Māori housing in a generation. We've had iwi prototypes driven by Willie Te Aho and Jamie Tuuta, really, really doing the business on the East Coast. We've got papa kāinga housing more so than we've ever had before.

It's only appropriate that I list the number of the achievements that we've achieved as a Government under the previous Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and, of course, our new star, the current Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins. We celebrated the first ever Matariki public holiday, despite opposition from the useless Opposition and the ACT Party, who, early on, did not support the proposition of a Matariki public holiday, until they saw the polls change, and then they got behind it.

We've now introduced New Zealand history into the school curriculum.

Hon Paul Goldsmith: Propaganda.

Hon WILLIE JACKSON: We've supported Māori seats at a local level—I know Mr Goldsmith supports that! There's a huge demand in terms of Māori language, celebrating 50 years, in terms of te reo Māori; we had a wonderful celebration out the front of Parliament. And we've established the Māori Health Authority.

I have to say, though, I've been disappointed to see the extent to which the Opposition will use Māori as a political football. Not so much saying National, but certainly other parties in the House—and these are the parties who will not engage in terms of Māori communities. Māori are being used as a political football this year; I think it should stop.

We hear the criticism from David Seymour earlier this week about James Shaw not having a science degree and that discredits him, apparently, as a Minister. Using that type of rationale, Mr Seymour must be an expert in tikanga and an expert in terms of Māori politics, because he engages with Māori communities all the time—of course, he doesn't; the only person he engages with is Rawiri Waititi, who he sits by. But apparently that gives him enough knowledge to talk about Māori things. It's disgraceful the way that Māori have been politicised. We hope it's going to be a better year. Madam Speaker, kia ora.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): I call on Helen White—five minutes.

HELEN WHITE (Labour): Thank you, Madam Speaker. First of all, I just want to reach out to all the people who have been affected in the last month and really traumatised by what's happened. It's been such a huge month for Aucklanders, and it's been such a huge month for parts of New Zealand that have suffered from cyclones.

My own experience of the floods was that I had the arrival of three of my family who had been flooded out in an apartment down in Freemans Bay, and when I woke up the next morning—I live on a park called Gribblehirst Park; it's a 10-acre park—6 to 8 acres of that had turned into a lake. It was something that I never thought I'd see. A hundred years ago, that park was a swamp. It was a wetland and it runs off for the whole area, and I'd just never thought I'd see it. It was one of those things where you actually can't quite believe what you're seeing, and the impacts for other people in that community were so much worse than my experience.

Later that week, I went out with Ginny Andersen, and we went to see some of the businesses that were affected by those floods, and I loved the way that she listened to those businesses. There's a woman called Chand, who works at Cassia—one of the most creative and interesting businesses in the city—she runs, with her husband, some very fine dining restaurants, and they're beautiful restaurants. But it was right under the water line in Auckland Central, and it had filled with water. It was an absolute death trap from what I could see, because it was full of electricity.

Chand was struggling with her landlord over the requirements in that situation, and Ginny listened to her and to other people. I'd just like to shout out to Marisa Bidois at the Restaurant Association, who was helping her with that. People were really gathering around.

What happened in that week was devastating to one business in my area, a place that's called Sal Rose, and it was a little restaurant that I used to take my kids to when they were growing up. It's been there for ever, and it was totally flooded out. It won't start business again for about eight or nine months. So that's the kind of impact that it's had on businesses, and what was lovely to see was, again, Ginny actually doing the work of listening to that community.

Then there was a support package, so there is money for those businesses, and some of the lessons have actually been learnt out of COVID. They have been learnt out of one crisis and brought into another. So what we're dealing with is a Government that has experience in what is necessary on the ground. This isn't the same as COVID. This is very different in some ways, because, actually, the impact is very uneven across New Zealand. But I have so much confidence of the capacity of the Ministers in this Government to listen to people, to connect with people, and to actually reach out and place the resources where they're most needed, and that was my example of that.

I just want to have a shout out to Great Barrier Island, which really suffered badly in the cyclone that followed. Great Barrier Island is a place where petrol costs lots of money and we really need to remember that that petrol is now being used for generators, and that's the kind of local knowledge that I hope is connecting in so that they will get the resources that they need. I'm confident that they will—there's a lot of good people helping them. I'd like to shout out to the man that I heard about in Dryden Street, who actually rescued his neighbours by kayak. He was in the next house, as I understand it, and the house below had a top storey. The children in the family went up to the top storey. They had to smash the window and let him in.

So this is a Government that deals with crises; this is a Government that's confident about crises. This is a Government that's listening to people in need, and this is a Government that will step out and reach into those communities and do the job that needs doing in this time. I am very confident of that. It was just wonderful to have that experience of being with Ginny at that time and going round those businesses and seeing what was going on and thinking about all that fresh blood that's coming in with our reshuffle, dealing with those issues in such a constructive way, and I will help this Government and continue to help this Government do that job in my own community. Thank you.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call. I call the Hon Julie Anne Genter—five minutes.

Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. I do want to acknowledge all those people who have been severely affected by the floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. Unfortunately, this type of devastation is not a one-off event. It is the sort of thing that we have known for some time will become more frequent and severe as a consequence of humans putting too much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Some of that is because of the way we use energy and the way we organise our transport systems, and also the way that we have changed land use away from indigenous forests and prairie, with a focus on raising animals.

So the message that scientists have been saying to us—and that the Green Party has been bringing to this Parliament for a quarter of a century—is that we can live in greater harmony with nature, we can live in greater harmony with each other, and we can do that by living in greater harmony with ourselves. The Green Party has always been thinking about the long term and trying to connect that we can't get rich and have a successful economy by trashing the planet. Ultimately, it's going to come back to bite us, and it already is, so it is beyond time that we start to take the steps to work together to protect our natural environment and to protect all life, not just that that is immediately of interest to humans. We do that through our Government policy at local government level, at regional level, and at central government level, and I would argue that some of the solutions—and there are many nature-based solutions that can be benefit us and lead to a higher quality of life—are going to be better delivered at lower levels, at the level of our communities. So the Green Party does envisage more of the important decisions being made at a local government level, where people understand and are directly involved in the community.

This year is such an important year, and I really have to say that it is a choice between making progress on our collective issues and going very far backwards after the next election, because—bless Maureen Pugh, she spoke her mind and ultimately, I think, the view that is reflected in the National Party: even though they say they believe in human-caused climate change, they oppose every single evidence-based policy that we could bring in to help address our pollution. They absolutely want to roll back any sorts of standards or protections that have been put in place to make our rivers safe to swim in again.

Protecting our waterways, protecting our natural environment—that is not what they stand for. Their entire economic vision is predicated on allowing those who already have the most to continue to get richer, and to do so by exploiting people and the environment, whether that's landlords exploiting tenants, whether that's stopping protection for workers—which they absolutely opposed so that employers could keep making money by exploiting workers—or opposing any sort of change towards a more regenerative, sustainable approach to land use.

Absolutely the Green Party sees a role for horticulture and agriculture and forestry, but we can and must do it in a much more sustainable way. Part of the way we do that is through Government paying attention to the science, keeping track of the data, and setting in place really important and useful regulations—and we don't have a race to the bottom.

When I go around Aotearoa New Zealand, what I see are people who do care deeply about our land and our water, and they do want to protect nature and do the right thing for climate change. But they have been failed by successive Governments that have prioritised having big corporates make money and having the rich getting richer, and have just constantly pushed back and tried to delay progress on protecting our environment and our climate.

So the Green Party is here. We have a vision. We have practical, evidence-based policies. We see a transport system that uses energy much more efficiently and that delivers people and goods—mobility in a low-carbon and lower-cost way. We can see much more of a role for electricity that is generated by solar and wind, and a much bigger role for energy efficiency, and, ultimately, that is something that we must do together.

Hon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. I congratulate the new Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, for the energy and teamwork that he is bringing to the role, and acknowledge the former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for being such a strong, people-focused leader.

We're only just nearing the second month in 2023 and a lot has happened. With the MetService forecasting significant rain in Tai Rāwhiti and the Hawke's Bay ranges later this week, and the Wairarapa, with more than 700 people displaced across the North Island by Cyclone Gabrielle, and thousands of others whose homes and lives have been impacted by the Auckland storm and the cyclone, people will be anxious about the consequences of that rain. People shouldn't be anxious about rain on the roof. We need rain for our drinking water, for good health, and for life. But that anxiety is the result of living with a broken climate, and the job of Governments is to help people to feel safe and feel secure, to have homes that are warm and dry, and to have enough for a good life where they can think about the future with optimism, where they can thrive.

So with these more intense weather events becoming so much more frequent, the future is now uncertain. How we respond to this new normal is really important. Across Tai Rāwhiti and Hawke's Bay, there have been so many inspiring stories that the media have brought us of people connecting with each other: strangers reaching out, offering kai, household goods, and diggers to move silt, and offering hugs and connecting. Recovery takes an awfully long time, but it's also an opportunity. In the recovery the Government must continue to connect with communities and to build on the ideas that communities have for how we live in a climate-broken world.

In Christchurch after the earthquakes, there was a huge number of community forums, hui, and meetings in that immediate response phase and at the start of the recovery. The community shared ideas about how we could have a very different city. The very centralised response through the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority meant that a lot of those ideas weren't taken up and there was less ambition. It was more of a philosophy of building back with concrete, cranes, consultants, and capital—the sort of thing that Rob Campbell was quite critical of in a Newsroom article this week.

When we build back, it needs to build back with nature to recognise the patterns in the landscape. To ensure that we avoid those steep, erosion prone hills in Tai Rāwhiti, we avoid plantation forestry. We re-wild them with the species that originally grew there to stabilise the soils and to stabilise the lives, livelihood, land, and communities downstream. That really needs building back with nature, ensuring that we adapt to these weather events—these climate events. In our cities, we make them more permeable so that we can absorb more rain, rather than having it inundating stormwater systems and flooding people's homes.

We need to ensure that we invest much more in public transport so that we have got people out of their vehicles and taking a serious effort across society to reduce climate pollution and to protect the climate, as well as adapting to these more extreme weather events. We need more cycleways and we need more protected walkways so that people have other ways of connecting with each other than private vehicles, and with the light rail project, we should definitely remove that underground section, which is so capital intensive—which Julie Anne Genter has talked about extensively.

The infrastructure rebuild needs to be based on recognising that life on our planet is based on helping nature and anticipating what nature needs, restoring ecological functions, and having our cities and towns be pleasanter places to live. Because we can have big buffers around our estuaries, we can allow our rivers room to move, as the Netherlands has done, taking people and development out of high-risk areas in floodplains and allowing those rivers room to move.

There are so many opportunities to use the wisdom and the energy of people to have a future which both slashes our emissions and adapts to these extreme weather events. The Government needs to harness that energy, connect with people, and listen to some of the ideas and solutions that the Green Party is proposing. Kia ora.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call. I call Camilla Belich—five minutes.

CAMILLA BELICH (Labour): Thank you, Madam Speaker. On 27 January, just a few weeks ago, it started raining heavily in Auckland and it didn't stop. I was isolating at home with my family, with four out of the five of us having recently had or were recovering from COVID-19. That afternoon, in the early evening, videos started to be shared from around the city. My sister's garden turned into a river. Busses were driving through floodwaters. There was water at the airport. To start with, it was a surprise, a curiosity. But it kept raining, and it changed to flooding in friends' homes, people afraid or stranded, and evacuations. People were missing. Night fell; tragedy struck.

I want to acknowledge the three people who passed away in Auckland and their families. I'm sure I speak on behalf of the whole House when I say to them we are so sorry for your immense loss.

I also want to acknowledge the emergency services. It could have been a much worse tragedy had it not been for the selfless heroism of the men and women who work in our emergency services, and for that you have our thanks.

I want to acknowledge the people who lost their homes. A neighbour of mine had their home stripped bare to the timber frames, their sodden worldly possessions out in the elements. Another had to evacuate in waist-deep water, the fear still remaining with them days later. But overall, when I spoke to my fellow Aucklanders, most of them said that no matter what happened to them, that they felt lucky and that they knew that there were people who were worse affected than they were, and it was this amazing attitude of resilience and coming together, and humbleness, that was so impressive following this terrible tragedy.

As I said, at the time, I was isolating with COVID. By the time I was out of isolation, Auckland had stood up and stretched out hands to those in need. The council and the Government were coordinating to help Aucklanders and the community work together. After we experienced the worst, people showed their best. I saw MPs from across this House putting aside plans, leaving their own families in order to help the community. I want to especially acknowledge our Deputy Prime Minister, Carmel Sepuloni. She was, I think, at the St Leonards Road School evacuation centre for almost 24 hours a day in the first days. It was incredibly impressive dedication to the community and true leadership in a time of crisis.

I also saw many members of the community that I didn't know or I hadn't met who were setting up centres for those displaced, donating food, clothing, and bedding, volunteering, cleaning up properties that were flood-damaged, handing out hot meals, and being kind, being Kiwis—being the best of us.

Then the cyclone hit—as the Prime Minister said in his statement, the most significant weather event of the century. Warnings were issued. I did a double take at the advice—would people really need to evacuate again? But the dire warnings proved to be, sadly, correct. The story of Cyclone Gabrielle is ongoing. I want to acknowledge those parts of New Zealand that are struggling with huge and unimaginable loss in her wake. We have colleagues from around the House out there in their communities at the moment helping to respond and recover from this event. I'm sure they'll have the opportunity to tell their stories of this tragedy in due course.

Due to Cyclone Gabrielle, in the area that I work in as a list MP in Mt Eden, unfortunately, there was an issue with a historic tower that proved unsafe during the cyclone. This shot tower meant that surrounding apartments had to be evacuated. A decision has now been taken to dismantle the shot tower, and I'm sure those families will be relieved to be returning to their homes soon. I want to especially thank the Kindness Collective for really stepping up to assist those residents at really short notice at a time of great need.

When we look at these recent weather events with sadness, we also must look to the future with a renewed focus on addressing climate change and improving community resilience to extreme weather events. As the Prime Minister said, this is a Government focused on the issues that matter to most New Zealanders, and, as stated in his statement, this also includes urgent action on climate change. We know that these unexpected weather events will soon become something that we can expect, and we must be resilient enough to not only build back better in response to these overwhelming tragedies but also build resilient communities that can withstand the things that we will face in the future.

Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): As it has been in the Hawke's Bay, Northland, Coromandel, and a number of other places, it's been a very tough last few weeks in West Auckland.

I want to start by paying respect to those people who lost their lives in both the Auckland floods and in Cyclone Gabrielle, particularly the two volunteer firefighters who gave their lives while serving their community in Muriwai.

My Te Atatū electorate has been badly hit; there are about 10 neighbourhoods that are built in floodplains and overland flow paths that have been very badly flooded. There are perhaps a couple of hundred homes in my electorate who had floodwater actually enter their homes—sometimes a metre or even two metres of water in their homes. It's turned their lives upside down. Stinking, contaminated water has made those homes uninhabitable.

It's been traumatic. The psychological toll for people who've had this experience is crushing, and it's been particularly bad for those people in my electorate—the owners and residents of about 60 homes who were badly flooded a year-and-a-half ago in the 30 August 2021 floods.

Many of those people who I've got to know well in the intervening months have spent the last year-and-a-half cleaning up, haggling with insurance companies, and repairing and rebuilding their homes, only to be wiped out again in the anniversary weekend floods. One family in Swanson, who've been living in a tiny home on their property and who have a young child—that tiny home lifted up off its foundations and floated 50 metres down the road. This was on the night of Friday, 27 January, as the floodwaters rose, carrying one of the members of that family in the tiny home as it floated down the road. And when the floodwaters receded later that night, the tiny home, relocatable, was left sitting on top of a parked car.

In the middle of all of this, it's been incredibly heartening to see the at-times heroic work of our first responders—particularly, on the night of 27 January, of the fire service and of the police who were out evacuating people in these neighbourhoods—but also the way that right across West Auckland, in the communities I represent, neighbours were out ensuring that the elderly, the young, and the disabled were looked after and were evacuated from their homes as the floodwaters rose. There are legion stories of really brave and courageous actions by people that night.

I want to also acknowledge the way, in the days that followed, Government agencies and our community organisations worked together: the Ministry of Social Development; Kāinga Ora; Visionwest, the outstanding social sector provider in West Auckland, working alongside The Fono, churches, and community groups to deliver the welfare support that dozens—actually hundreds—of people who'd been displaced from their homes needed. It was outstanding to see the quality of the work as everybody pitched in together to house and feed and clothe people who'd been displaced from their homes.

I also want to recognise Carmel Sepuloni—the Deputy Prime Minister, the MP for Kelston, and the Minister for Social Development—who was out there day and night, day after day in the evacuation centres, coordinating and supporting and motivating and working with our communities. I also will say that in West Auckland, the elected members—the members of Parliament, the councillors, the local board members—were, almost without exception, out there on the front line with their communities, working with people and doorknocking with the Student Volunteer Army, teams of volunteers out there helping residents clean up their backyards. It was really great to see.

But it's now time to start talking about the build back. And we have to do that because time is running out for these people and they need longer-term solutions.

Hon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you, Madam Speaker. Gabrielle came, but she did not conquer. She caused havoc across the country from one end to the other, but what no cyclone will ever do is destroy the spirit of New Zealanders. I want to speak specifically about some of those New Zealanders that I've spent time with in the last couple of days in Hawke's Bay—the stories from Hawke's Bay will no doubt be reflected across the country—and, as you've heard from other members in the House, the ability of parliamentarians, other elected representatives, whether they're councillors, first responders, community organisations, friends and families, but also the support of strangers.

So on days 8 and 9 when I was there, all I was trying to do was to listen, to look, and understand. As the MP from the neighbouring area—as I said, from over the hill, until somebody looked at me and said, "You're not over the hill.", and I thought, "Well, that's great; that's quite a compliment." But, actually, the road, like many roads from the Hawke's Bay, are completely separated. So you can't travel on State Highway 5, and one of the things that of course has been distressing for many over New Zealand is the inability to connect with loved ones, and in some areas like Hawke's Bay, no power or phone contact made that more extreme.

I think the challenge with an environment like Hawke's Bay—and both Katie Nimon and Catherine Wedd were able to show me some of the hardest-hit areas. But then some areas have zero damage, so it was a bit like the Canterbury earthquakes where there were sections of the city that are completely fine, and then you go into the next block and it's decimated—one side of the road is fine and the next one isn't; one valley of orchards where a metre is covered in silt, a metre above that the waterline, and a few apples on the trees still clinging on above that; and yet, the valley over, they're beautiful and they're being picked today.

So, of course, the first thing has to be that immediate relief, and the provision of welfare both in terms of food, clothing, and shelter. But the other thing that people in those communities were looking for was a sense of safety. And that's one of the things that I want to focus on today. The many welfare centres—some of them formal, many of them informal—that cropped up in their communities, they knew who their people were, they knew who needed support, they knew where the resources were, and got them out the door.

But what you don't expect—what you don't expect in an emergency like this in New Zealand, in our country—is to then have the threat of some of that food and clothing and essential resources like generators to be threatened by parties, groups, gangs, who want to take it for their own purposes. They are stealing from their neighbours.

And then, you know, we unfortunately had a Prime Minister, in response to people speaking out, including community leaders, who said, "Unsubstantiated rumours."—unsubstantiated rumours. Well, I have to say, having listened to small community organisations, people volunteering on checkpoints, the thing they don't expect to deal with is threats when they are serving their community. And they do not expect a Prime Minister who minimises and doesn't listen and doesn't believe their concerns about safety. And that was outrageous. That is outrageous.

So it is important in situations like this to listen to the voices of those who are there. And as a representative, I'm bringing their voices to Parliament. Because you shouldn't have to have a welfare centre that decides not to be open to the public because they're concerned about safety. You shouldn't have to deal with that when you are leaving your family at home to look after others, to then worry about whether you are safe in doing that. It is absolutely crazy and when I described it to someone, he said, "That's what happens in war zones all around the world." When aid is threatened—that's what happens in war zones. And unfortunately it has been happening in New Zealand.

When you have clearly lost your home, lost your belongings, still don't know if some of your neighbours have survived, your business is pretty much gone, the last thing you should be worried about is whether anyone is going to drive up your drive while you are digging out the next-door neighbour's gateway and whether your property is being looted right now. It is the last thing they should be worrying about and it is heart-breaking to know that they have to.

When crises like this start and disasters of all types—it is absolutely our responsibility as parliamentarians to pull together and to support the Government, which we do. But that will not stop us from raising the hard questions, raising concerns, and challenging the Government on what they've said.

So here's one of the other resounding messages from the Hawke's Bay: where is the wage subsidy—where is the wage subsidy? So for one business in Napier, $30,000 they would have normally earned this week and they earned $300. How does that mean they keep their staff, they pay their staff, and they are able to have a future for their business, and let's remember that if there's no businesses, there are no jobs. So we have to look at what other support is available and when that will be delivered. Because that would have been, other than safety, one of the most important questions asked. Great to see some support in terms of the support that was announced on Monday. How do they access it? The $50 million—how do they access it? Who do they get it from? How does it work? How soon can they get it? Where's the wage subsidy? So I encourage the Government to focus on these issues.

Yes, food and clothing and shelter have been the focus in the first week. But in some communities that have been devastated by the cyclone, safety must also be a consideration. So I ask the Prime Minister: listen to the people. Listen to what they're saying. Do not—do not—ignore what they are saying. And I urge you to start delivering. For a Government that's cancelled more roads than built them, promised a light rail three years ago that hasn't started yet, promised 100,000 KiwiBuild homes, I really hope, for the sake of New Zealanders whose lives have been destroyed, that the Government does way better in delivering for them and delivering for them soon. Because they deserve to have hope, to be able to look forward—for themselves, their families, their business, their community, their sectors—and to know they have a future in the communities that they live in and love and want to continue their future in. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

SPEAKER: I understand this is a split call. I call Rachel Brooking—five minutes.

RACHEL BROOKING (Labour): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I want to start by acknowledging the stories that we've just heard from across the House about the harrowing events of the past few weeks and that the Prime Minister started his statement with some very vivid images of those tragedies. I won't talk further about that because I've been very much focused on supporting my colleagues by being around this place and in my home in the South, where, of course, we have issues with drought—quite the opposite.

I want to talk about climate change because this is very relevant and has, of course, been in the news quite a lot. I think it's important that when we're talking about climate change we think about that phrase and what it means and we split it into mitigation and adaptation. And, of course, those two are linked—that is, by talking about them separately I'm not saying that they aren't linked. So what this Government is doing on mitigation—there's a big work programme. We've had the first emissions reduction plan that's dealt with a lot of issues such as in transport and renewable energy, and we've heard some speeches on that topic already this afternoon.

Related to this, I think it's interesting that our free-trade agreement with the European Union, yet to be ratified but signed, incorporates the Paris Agreement. That's really important. And that agreement will get duty-free access for 97 percent of our current exports. On a side note, I want to acknowledge that we have had members of the European Parliament in this place this week, and it's been great to catch up with them.

But one of the reasons for caring about mitigation is trade. Do our exporters have a market? But that, of course, is not the only reason. We need to be a good neighbour, we need to be an abider of international rules, and, of course, there are issues about biodiversity and then there's much more dramatic and front-of-mind issues about where we live.

So that's why I want to now talk about adaptation that has been in the news. The idea of adapting to climate and new things is not a new one. But we do know when people exist in an area that is going to be affected by climate change, whether it's sea-level rise or these very intense rainfall events or cyclones, that that's difficult to deal with. There are many unknowns. We don't know how much the temperature of the world is going to increase. We don't know how much we—well, hopefully we do know—are going to emit. We're going to stick to our carbon budgets, but we don't necessarily know how much the rest of the world is going to emit either.

The Randerson report, that I was pleased to be a part of during the previous Government, did address this issue and said that we do need specific legislation for climate adaptation to deal with these existing areas where people live, but there will need to be some change. That went into the Labour Party manifesto and now it is part of the wider resource management reforms. It's very important that whatever happens in our climate adaptation discussion that we involve local communities. So we've seen that. We've heard from the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance that when we're looking at cyclone recovery it's very important that those local communities are at the heart of that.

Where I live in Dunedin, we have issues that have been talked about for a long time now in South Dunedin, after a 2015 flood event, and when you just talk about it without engaging the community, that scares people and that makes sense. So you really have to work with people and we need to talk about things like trigger points and funding and, of course, our wider planning system. On that, I note that with the resource management amendments, one of the really important changes is to increase the hazard provisions in that so that we can—councils can—say, "No, that is not an area to build new houses on. We're going to strengthen the hazard provisions.", and to enable some extinction of existing rights as well. So that deals with new things.

Talking of new things, of course, this Government continues to invest in infrastructure, and one of those things is the Dunedin Hospital, with over $1.5 billion of investment to come for two main hospital buildings in Dunedin.

I want to end by acknowledging that, again, this year, we will have a public holiday for Matariki and that will be on 14 July and I hope that everyone is able to enjoy that occasion. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

SPEAKER: The Hon Aupito William Sio—five minutes.

Hon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): As we begin our journey as a nation for 2023, we've suddenly found ourselves beset with torrential rain, flooding, and a tropical cyclone. None of us imagined that we could be in the eye of the cyclone at the beginning of this year. I saw families in West Auckland, as we were driving home on that Friday night—rivers just pouring down and taking families, taking vehicles, and taking homes. Even in my beloved Māngere, the same thing was happening, and I had not imagined that we would be in that state. The cyclone has also devastated lives and livelihoods and even the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers from overseas.

I suppose the point I want to make in those preliminary remarks is that in times of crisis, people need certainty, people need leadership, and people need calm. I suppose I want to acknowledge the speech from the Prime Minister in his statement, because I thought that that delivered that, and gave confidence to our communities that the Government is doing all it can to respond and to respond quickly, however ill-prepared we may have been as a nation with climate change.

I think, when I'm hearing criticism from the Opposition—and that is their task, but I also put on the table, for their consideration, that when families have lost loved ones, when families are unsure what to do with a house that has been red-stickered or yellow-stickered and they don't want to stay with temporary accommodation, they don't want to hear the bickering and the criticism from this House; they want to hear responses that will help recover, and recover quickly. If there is to be criticism from this House, then let's point the finger at those who seem to think that hiding your head in the sand, not recognising that we are living in an era, indeed, of climate change, that is not going to go away.

About a couple of weeks ago, one of our scientists—a Niuean woman; her name is Coral Pasisi, and I'm sure she won't mind me acknowledging her—was speaking to the United Nations Security Council, on behalf of the Pacific Islands Forum. In that speech two or three weeks ago, she said to the security council at the United Nation that these one-in-100-year events will become regular annual events. I suppose, as we rebuild, it is important for us to take that into consideration.

I want to acknowledge, as others have done, the response of Auckland Council, our councillors, and local board members, and their leadership. Our emergency centre at the Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa in Māngere will close this Friday, and I'm hopeful that Government agencies will continue to gather and provide support and information, because the needs of those who were harmed during the torrential rain will not be resolved any time quickly; it requires long-term solution. The work that I'm hearing from a number of Government agencies is, indeed, important.

I want to also offer my thanks and appreciation not only to Government agencies—including the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, whose coordinating work amongst the Pacific communities in the Hawke's Bay region, alongside its local members of Parliament—but I want to than the local church leadership, particularly Pastor Charles Faletutulu of Kings Church, and also Reverend Nua of the Ekalesia Faapotopotoga Kerisiano Samoa, Hastings. And, of course, the employers who are working to support the RSE workers, who themselves have been displaced alongside our local communities.

But I come back again to the statement by the Prime Minister. That's the sort of rhetoric that is required in times of crisis—leadership, calm, and certainty—so that our people have confidence.

SPEAKER: I understand this is a split call. I call Damien Smith.

DAMIEN SMITH (ACT): Yesterday marked 12 years since the devastation of the 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, and this year's anniversary was made even more poignant by another great disaster recovery which lies before us. All of us, in recent weeks, have been shocked by the images of destruction across the Hawke's Bay, Tai Rāwhiti, and the upper North Island as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle and of the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods. And I'm sure many of you, like me, have felt a similar feeling as to those deaths that followed the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

Christchurch has set a great example of how a city can rebuild with more vibrancy and vitality than ever before. Another parallel can be drawn: 2011 was fresh out of the global financial crisis and the 2010 earthquake; Cyclone Gabrielle is fresh out of COVID. But this is where the similarities end. This time around, we're in the hands of incompetent economic managers. Labour has been running this economy too hot, keeping it on a knife edge, as they spend more than any Government before on expensive ideological projects whose costs have soared beyond all initial predictions.

I dearly hope, now, this Government will finally hear what ACT has said over the last five years, calling for a time for spending reprioritisation and a moratorium on projects. We have three options, and Grant Robertson has shown disdain for the taxpayer by saying we can borrow more money and make life harder for future taxpayers, we can introduce a cyclone tax and make life harder for current taxpayers, or we can reduce wasteful spending. The last option is the correct one, but he is ignoring it. Auckland light rail will cost $15 billion; three waters, $200 billion. Now is not the time for eye-watering expensive projects. We need projects which are outcome focused, practical, and have solutions.

I'm sure the Prime Minister will be happy to hear that ACT has plenty of practical solutions to offer, and we also know where the money needs to go, where it needs to go most—not on consultants, communication staff, or middle managers.

ACT will be the watchdogs for the people of New Zealand. ACT has shown throughout its fully costed budget how to save up to $7 billion. For five years, this Government has focused on projects that have not gone on and on, but have been a great boon for the consulting class. At the root of all these non-delivering failing policies has been $1.2 billion on consultants, which is quite unbelievable.

Under Labour, New Zealand has transformed itself from a beacon of freedom into an overtaxed, over-regulated, and under-delivering political dumpster fire. I think the so-called policy bonfire is more accurately described as a dumpster fire because it's based on the quality of policies in the flames. And we await the Prime Minister to actually announce the further policies that he will not allow under his watch. ACT has a list of ideas to offer the Prime Minister if he wants to come across to our office.

We've a difficult road ahead of us and we will recover from this cyclone. ACT realises what the rest of New Zealand does: that the wasteful spending just has to stop right here, now. I clearly hope that it's not too late and that we'll be able to navigate this recovery. All around New Zealand now, hard-working Kiwis and Kiwi families are bracing themselves for costly repairs, relocation, life re-orientations, higher interest rates, and a soaring cost of living. Many are living from pay day to pay day, learning to do more with less, and asking themselves "Why can't Wellington do the same?"

This Government must be held accountable for wasting money that it takes from hard-working Kiwis. We need to actually put a moratorium on spending. We need to come together across the political barriers to really get sensible about the New Zealand economy. And as we enter Mr Orr's year-long recession coming up, we need to seriously consider: is spending recklessly the answer to this situation? Thank you, Mr Speaker.

KAREN CHHOUR (ACT): Thank you, Mr Speaker. It's been a rough start to the year for many communities around the North Island, with many people who have been displaced through weather events that I am sure will not be forgotten for years to come.

Over this time, I have seen communities wrap around each other and care for strangers like they're family. I have also been one of those who was waiting for the messages or a phone call from loved ones to let me know that they were OK and that they were safe. It's not easy, and my heart goes out to all of those affected around the country by the recent weather events.

But there will always be another crisis coming, and we need to realise that there are issues that don't just disappear because there is a crisis at the moment. So I was listening to the Prime Minister's speech earlier this week, and it got me thinking about what were my goals and my aspirations when I first arrived here at Parliament. I remember speaking to some of those issues that mattered to me the most, and realised that my words then are just as relevant today as they were two years ago.

Governments past and present have failed our most vulnerable, and this Government needs to stop the lip service and start delivering and achieving for our young people. A change of a name, or a rebrand of an organisation with new letterheads and fancy slogans achieves absolutely nothing. I put it to you: a change of Prime Minister and new slogans like, "Going back to the bread and butter politics" also achieves nothing if the culture does not change within.

Listening to the Prime Minister's speech made me realise nothing has changed except the language that is now being presented to the public. What exactly does "bread and butter issues" mean to the new Prime Minister? Apart from backing away from the policies that he was comfortable to support and fight for just a few weeks ago—and many of those policies I have spent the last two years fighting against.

A lot of what's happening is that this Government does not listen to the people they say they're trying to help. Many of the policies that have currently been dropped—I'm grateful—but there are a few more I would like to see go. There was a reshuffle, but the reshuffle did not seem to have any substance. I just can't see how the Prime Minister can still have faith in some of these Ministers.

The Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence? Well, unfortunately, disasters bring out the worst in society as well. We've seen this happen, with reports of family harm incidences increasing in the areas affected by the cyclone. Where is our Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence? Why is she not front and centre calling out that behaviour for what it is, and making sure the victims know exactly what resources are available in towns that may not have the normal lines of communication?

We have a terrible record in this country for family harm and abuse, and instead of the leadership at the top stepping up to have those hard conversations, we see the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence show more concern for whether or not another member believes in climate change.

How can our Prime Minister still have faith in the children's Minister, when report after report after report shows that Oranga Tamariki is failing and the leadership at the top is nowhere to be seen? In the wake of yet another damning report into Oranga Tamariki, there's still nothing to suggest that the children's Minister, Kelvin Davis, is taking the many issues within his department seriously. The report from the Independent Children's Monitor released over the break shows that nothing has changed since the organisation's last report from 2020.

Oranga Tamariki is continuing to fail the most vulnerable people in society, and ACT will continue standing up for those people. And I urge the Prime Minister—

SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired. I understand this is a split call. I call Dan Rosewarne.

DAN ROSEWARNE (Labour): Thank you, Mr Speaker. What a privilege it is to take a call in this debate on the Prime Minister's statement. The statement that was presented during a difficult time for our country. Many New Zealanders are doing it tough as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods, and, in his statement, the Prime Minister acknowledged the many areas that are still in emergency response mode for food, water, fuel, and supplies having to be distributed.

There has been widespread damage to farms, processing and packhorse facilities, and infrastructure as well as losses across the horticulture, vegetable, forestry, stock, and feed industries. The Government has moved quickly to respond. I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge our New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), with more than 950 personnel directly involved in other elements preparing for rotation into affected areas. They have thrown absolutely everything at this. As of late yesterday, Air Force NH90 helicopters had moved more than 42.5 tonnes of essential supplies throughout the Hawke's Bay region. They've flown more than 120 flying hours, transported more than 260 personnel, both civilian and military. They've transported 17 dogs, five cats, and underslung more than 13 tonnes of equipment.

NH90s have flown generators and electricians into Te Hāroto and Tarawera and essential supplies to the Mōhaka Marae. They continue to deliver critical supplies to isolated communities and earlier this week transported a health clinic team to check on isolated residents. An Air Force C130 Hercules aircraft transported crucial supplies to Tai Rāwhiti communities, including water, StarLink equipment, oxygen, sanitary items, and formula. Multiple NZDF teams remain on the ground in affected areas carrying out community checks, delivering essential supplies, and providing support to numerous Government agencies—reconnaissance teams checking road access around Wairoa in the wider region.

I want to particularly acknowledge the Queen Alexandra's Mounted Rifles, who deployed with New Zealand light armoured vehicles, to find alternate routes into Wairoa and beyond. The 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, deployed personnel to liaise with local authorities to determine where support was required. The 2nd Combat Service Support Battalion, along with 2 Engineer Regiment, formed a task organised team to provide catering, fuel delivery, transport, and water purification. HMNZS Canterbury has been unloading stores in Napier and is preparing to host members of the National Emergency Management Agency's incident management team and accommodate emergency responders who have been deployed to the region. HMNZS Manawanui continues to provide support to East Coast communities, with crew delivering supplies and checking on the welfare of isolated residents, and they'll return to communities in the vicinity of Tolaga Bay today.

Having only recently retired from the Defence Force, I feel a huge sense of pride seeing the various images and social media posts showing NZDF in our communities and just like the NZDF contribution to COVID-19, they've been there when New Zealand needs them. And I'd like to take this opportunity on behalf of this House to thank the NZDF for their huge contribution. It's times like this where people really do get to see that the NZDF is a force for New Zealand. As a Government, we will say more about our plan to rebuild, but for now we'll do what it takes. We will stand by New Zealanders as we recover.

And just like our response to Cyclone Gabrielle, we are also focusing on the response to the cost of living pressures our families are facing. We have extended the fuel excise restrictions and half-price public transport as well as increasing the minimum wage. More is on the way because that is what this Government is all about. The recovery will cost billions, but we're in a strong financial position with some of the lowest debt in the world on a per capita basis, and we are also in a strong position to focus on the bread and butter issues in front of New Zealanders right now: the cost of living and recovering and rebuilding from the cyclone.

So once again, I want to thank our NZDF staff and then also our emergency services working across the motu to make sure that our communities are safe. So thank you, Mr Speaker.

Dr LIZ CRAIG (Labour): Thank you, Mr Speaker. The past few weeks have been incredibly difficult for many in the North Island, and the scale of the devastation caused by those weather events has been unprecedented in recent history. As a country, our thoughts are with all of those who've been impacted. But the scale of the emergency response has also been significant, and I'd like to acknowledge all of our first responders—to Fire and Emergency New Zealand, the Police, the Defence Force, and all of those who have worked to clear the roads, to reconnect the power and the phones, and to make sure that our supply chains are working.

But also to those who have helped out in other ways, by donating money to the services and also making sure that people have been able to clear rubbish and mud from their homes—everybody coming in together to help out. And I think while the scale is different, I recall our own floods that happened down in Southland in 2020 and the way that the community stepped up in that response. And I recall going to local marae—there were churches that opened their doors, provided a warm bed, provided food and dry clothes, and basically they provided the support that people needed when they were displaced from their homes. I also think of the neighbours in their communities who mucked in to help pull up their neighbour's wet carpet, to remove that sodden furniture from their homes.

But I'm also reminded by that event that once the emergency response comes to an end, the recovery begins, and basically as that recovery begins, we need to build back better. And as we build back better, we need to be preparing for communities where they're going to be increasingly exposed to severe and more frequent weather events. In this respect, I'm really grateful for the support that the Government has provided to Southland, to help it upgrade its flood protection systems, and that includes the recently completed Stead Street stop bank, which is going to help stop, during severe storm events, the waves overtopping the roads that protect the airport.

Clearly, thinking about the North Island, I think the scale of the response that's required is going to be significant. As the Prime Minister has said, he'll have more to say about that in coming weeks. But what he's also said is that, for now, suffice it to say, we will do what it takes; we will stand by New Zealanders as we recover.

But these events also come at a time when many New Zealanders were already struggling, because we had global events impacting the cost of living here, and so many families were increasingly having to make many trade-offs in order to make ends meet—you know, things like changing up what they're doing for shopping, so less fresh fruit and veges, and thinking about how you can reduce the power consumption, turning off the heater, and putting on a jersey.

But it is much, much more significant for those who are faced with rising housing costs. The Prime Minister has also made it clear that supporting families with the cost of living remains a significant priority for our Government, and he has recently announced a number of things that will help in that respect. And I think one of the first ones that he announced was extending the 25c per litre fuel tax cuts and the half-price public transport. That was due to be phased out at the end of March, and now it's extending on until the end of June this year. With transport being one of the families biggest cost, basically that will reduce filling up a 60 litre fuel tank by about $17.25. But it will also have an impact on the way fuel costs have been impacting on food prices as well. So it's significant for many, many families, particularly in Southland where many people have to drive very long distances.

But also for those that are earning the lowest incomes, we announced that we'll be increasing the minimum wage in line with inflation so that, basically, on 1 April this year, the minimum wage will rise by $1.50 to $22.70 per hour, so that people on those lower incomes don't fall further behind. And for many small businesses, what this will do is mean that many of their customers have got much more money in their pocket to spend in local businesses and local services. This is one of the things my father often noticed when we ended up in difficult economic times as a retailer—people's purses snapped shut. So I think providing that extra money for families is incredibly important.

So, basically, we're not sure what 2023 will bring, but supporting families and households with their livings costs remains a top priority for this Government, as does standing by those in the North Island who are impacted by the recent weather events. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

SPEAKER: This is a split call. The Hon Andrew Little—five minutes.

Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Defence): Thank you, Mr Speaker. It's an honour to be able to make some remarks in response to the Prime Minister's statement. And like the Prime Minister, can I just also add my acknowledgment of and pay tribute to those who have been really struggling in the face of floods in Auckland at the end of January, and now Cyclone Gabrielle last week in Hawke's Bay and Tai Rāwhiti. And for those whānau and families who have lost loved ones as a consequence of those events: do know that our thoughts are with you. We do know that the weeks and months ahead will be full of trials and tribulations for all those affected as a consequence of those events.

I took the opportunity yesterday in my capacity as Minister of Defence to go to Hawke's Bay to check out the work of the New Zealand Defence Force personnel, and also to talk to some of the volunteers who have been helping out in the distribution centres and helping out members of their local community. And I saw for myself, too, just that sheer destruction in so many places—the consequence of that fierce power of the water washing through, the mud and the silt, and the remnants of the forestry activities just washing through those rivers and waterways, clearing out bridges and what have you. It is going to take a phenomenal effort to restore those parts that have been very severely damaged.

And, of course, it highlights what I think this Government has known from the outset: we cannot neglect our infrastructure forever—actually, it's a constant thing that any Government of the day has to be maintaining a focus on. All around the country, we've seen the consequences of neglect. I saw it in my previous portfolio as Minister of Health, and I know that one of my challenges that my successor, the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall will pick up is that constant need to make sure that our health infrastructure is maintained so that we can maintain the services that New Zealanders expect of those public facilities. But we see it in the infrastructure that we need to deliver safe drinking water and to safely remove stormwater and waste water, because that's an area that has been neglected—not so much by central government, but by local government. That's a stark reality that we have to face up to, and this Government—and I know that, under the prime ministership of the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins, this Government will continue to face up to those challenges as we work our way through the policy challenges that we have ahead.

I want to acknowledge also that in addition to those long-term nation-building activities that we as a Government have to do—as any Government should be doing—there are the day-to-day things that have to be sorted out as well. There are many families who are finding it really tough because of the level of inflation, because of the cost of living challenges that we have, so this is a Government that has also kept us focused on trying to maintain incomes, trying to improve and increase incomes. Trying to improve people's opportunities to get decent, good jobs, to back employers in their investments in technology to generate those new, sophisticated, and well-paid jobs—that never stops either; that continues as well. And any Government doing its job has to back all those in the community: those who are prepared to take a risk and invest, those who are prepared to provide services to their community, those who want to work and earn a living and support their families—we have to support everybody; and that is what this Government is doing through a variety of policies and platforms that we've put in place since.

I just want to take a moment to speak a little bit about one of my new portfolios, and that is the defence portfolio—and I again acknowledge what I saw yesterday with our personnel in the Hawke's Bay and as I got around just the incredibly skilled professional, determined, and dedicated people that we have in our defence forces. They do a terrific job, but they are under pressure too. Some years of attrition; of our defence force personnel who found other opportunities and left the forces, whose places we're finding it difficult to replace—actually, we do have to do that, and that remains my priority right now. We need to make sure that we have the people who are well trained; well disciplined; trained to walk towards danger and not to walk away from it—and people who help out in times of catastrophe and crisis as we're seeing at the moment. Not just for domestic catastrophes like the ones we're seeing, but also in the Pacific: helping our neighbours in periods and episodes of conflict as well. That's what our defence forces do, that's what they're trained for; and I'm very proud to take up that responsibility in the period ahead.

ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Kia ora e te Mana Whakawā. It's an absolute privilege and an honour to stand here to make a contribution on the Prime Minister's statement. I want to echo all the sentiments that have been said today, to acknowledge the lives that have been lost, the impact on their families, and the impact on communities. And for those people whose homes have been affected, I want to also acknowledge you. Although most of us in this House haven't experienced your experiences, we do have you in our thoughts and our prayers.

When I think of the Prime Minister—it's only the second month that he's been the Prime Minister. When I think of him, three words come to mind. It is about our leadership, and in that leadership, strong, stable, and responsible leadership. His actions speak louder than words. Parliament was supposed to start last week, but where was the Prime Minister? He was with the people; he was in Auckland. He was in Auckland, being with the people, rolling up his sleeves, and helping people clean up their places. Where was the Deputy Prime Minister? She was with the people also. There are two things I want to highlight in terms of leadership. The mayoralty fund: the mayoralty fund that was an instant response from the Prime Minister.

I was at Manu Tukutuku where evacuation centres were set up in Randwick Park, because there wasn't one on Papakura. I was at Manu Tukutuku when it was set up during the floods. What I saw there was a child that came in with a family at 3 o'clock in the morning—13 members of the family came in at 3 o'clock in the morning. I spoke to her, and she said, "My mum's going tomorrow to buy my school uniform." She didn't know where that came from, and she said, "My mum said that the lady over there said she could do that." And that's because of the civil defence payment that was paid up. She also spoke about temporary accommodation. The family came in—there were 13 of them, and you think, how can 13 people live in a three-bedroom house? That's because a garage in South Auckland is accommodation. They lived in a home with the second family in the garage, and it was flooded.

And I want to also acknowledge—education is the second one. There is 82 dedicated education officers to support with education. With due respect to the sister across the road, Rosehill College opens five days a week, not four according to Judith Collins—five days a week. I visited the new principal, Davida. I visited the new principal, and she said to me in December that in January, Papakura High School and Rosehill College will be going on a leadership camp so that they can come together as a community to support their students to remain at school. Last Friday, I visited Whaea Raina. She's Kataraina Nock, the principal at Edmund Hillary School—that's a primary school in Papakura in case the member across the road didn't know. She told me the way they are getting kids to school. She gets into her car. She goes—this is Whaea Raina, the school principal—to the home because the parent has called up and said, "My daughter's not coming to school." She gets into her car, goes to the home, wakes the child up, gets them into the car, and takes them to school. That's the leadership in the community, and I want to acknowledge the 82 officers who will support that.

I am also the chair of the Aotearoa Tongan Response Group. Six days after the floods in Auckland, I was asked to go and visit a family in Māngere, because they were affected but they stayed at home. So we visited, along with the secretary, Dr Soana Muimuiheata. We visited, and the woman said, "I don't have house contents; I've got all this rubbish around me. The garage is another accommodation where my children and grandchildren live. I live in here." She said she doesn't have contents, insurance. All she wanted is that we can take the rubbish away so she can start thinking about tomorrow. That's what she said. So as a community, we came together—the deputy chair, Pakilau of Aotearoa, Pakilau Manase Lua. We came together with the CEO of ‛Akiheuho, Makahokovalu Pailate; the CEO of the Tongan Youth Trust, Rev Ikilifi Pope. We came together with the Mate Ma'a Tonga New Zealand Rugby League. We came together on Waitangi weekend, and we cleaned 70 homes. We didn't just put the rubbish on the kerb; we ripped out the carpet, put it in the truck, and took it to the collection unit. I want to acknowledge those community leaders. I want to acknowledge the Red Cross. I want to acknowledge the councillors. I want to acknowledge the chair of the local board and the Salvation Army that came together at Elizabeth Campbell Hall—

SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired. I call the Hon Todd McClay—five minutes.

Hon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): Mr Speaker, thank you very much. I, too, would like to offer my thoughts to the people all around New Zealand, in the North Island, who have been so adversely affected by these weather events—the flooding and the storms—from the north of Northland through Auckland and surrounding areas, parts of the Bay of Plenty, and of course Gisborne, Tai Rāwhiti, and the Hawke's Bay. People remain challenged.

It seems a touch surreal standing here in this House listening to the types of speeches we are hearing from Government members, when everyday New Zealanders not only are doing it so hard; have no idea in these areas what the next week has to hold for them, let alone the next few months or an outcome of an election.

It's important we focus on the things that need to be done for them: making sure that every Government agency, every member of this House, the Government does their job properly. And I apologise to them, but for members of the Government, the political rhetoric we hear when you stand up in here, read out the notes that have been given to you just don't cut it at the moment.

You know, there's many New Zealanders in Napier who got up in January when the former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern—who has hardly been mentioned in this debate so far. The Prime Minister, in his speech, didn't mention Jacinda Ardern—not her name—once; the Minister of Finance and former Deputy Prime Minister under Jacinda Ardern did not mention her name once. Carmel Sepuloni, from memory—although it wasn't a memorable speech—didn't mention her name once.

But those people in Napier, when they woke up and Jacinda Ardern announced that she was retiring, resigning, was stepping down, believed Chris Hipkins and others in the Labour caucus when they said things would be different and things would change.

Well, the early days of a Government response to any crisis as we've seen—as hard as it seems—is the easier bit. Actually doing the work, getting people's lives back to where they should be, is where the real challenge is. So far, I've got to say, from what the public are observing, they remain hopeful that this is a Government that finally, after five years, can get something done but need to not only see evidence of that, actually need the Government to roll their sleeves up and get on with it.

In question time yesterday—for the only question time the new Prime Minister has been able to do—in one of the questions from Christopher Luxon around wasteful Government spending; whether it's a good use of money; what else it could be used for, he dug a hole deep enough to share with the former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and he went in and he justified and supported and actually made excuses for light rail in Auckland.

Sadly, if the suggestions and rumours are true—and it would be a very good use of her time: Jacinda Ardern has an opportunity on the world stage together with the United Nations—she will have to wait 20 or 30 years before she could actually take that light rail to the airport in Auckland because it's not going to get built, but this Government is going to waste money.

So Chris Hipkins has said to New Zealanders, "We're different. This is a bread and butter Cabinet." Well, bread and butter's more expensive today than the day he said it, but, "This is a bread and butter Cabinet. We're changing. We recognise problems." And the first opportunity he had in this House in a question time, he's doubled down on and supported something that New Zealanders around the country shouldn't have to pay for and Auckland know they will never get. It is, and will remain, a waste of money.

It's enough for a Government sometimes to say, "We're going to be different." But after five years—after five years of this Government actually not doing the things they need to, except for a serious short period of time where all New Zealanders accepted restriction upon them—the time for talk is over.

You cannot live in a press release from Megan Woods saying they're going to build some houses one day. You can't do that; you cannot cross a bridge across the Auckland Harbour on your pushbike with a press release that says, "We're going to build it" and you never build it. You can't. You can't get the $51 million back they spent on that bridge that will never be built either and use it for something else.

When Chris Hipkins says he now understands that inflation and cost of living is a huge issue and it's a number one priority, when he sat around the Cabinet table making the decisions that have driven up costs on everyday New Zealanders, where was his silver bullet then? He hasn't got one. He won't deliver. This is the end of a desperate Government and it's almost all over.

SPEAKER: Melissa Lee—five minutes.

MELISSA LEE (National): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I'd like to echo my colleagues right around this House who have wished and actually passed on their condolences to the families and friends of those people who have lost their lives through the floods and the cyclone.

I acknowledge my colleague across the House—Helen White—who mentioned, in her local area, Sal Rose—am I guessing that the member is now looking at Mt Albert as an electorate that she may contest? Because it is actually in the electorate of Mt Albert. During the Auckland floods, the Alberton Avenue shops were absolutely devastated, where the shops—including the New World Fresh Collective; the Little French pastry cafe; Sal Rose; Anne Duncan Real Estate; and the Rocket Kebabs, where most people go for lunch—were covered in water.

That, when you consider the fact when you look at what the cyclone has actually devastated in the regions up North and Muriwai on the west coast of Auckland, and also in the Bays and also in Wairoa, you know, communications were absolutely lost; people could not even call 111. On that note, I'd like to acknowledge the telcos, the Telecommunications Forums, members of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association of New Zealand, Starlink. There's even a notice of motion in my name where I acknowledge the work that they've done to restore those telecommunications, which is utterly important because they are the lifeline—not just physical lifeline but when there is danger, that is the lifeline that they actually need to alert people of the danger that they're in, so that they can seek help. But, in this instance, it has actually failed. I hope that the Government will actually look at how we can be more resilient in times of trouble.

So the Prime Minister's statement, apart from talking about the disaster that we've actually faced in terms of the weather, is about how this Government, with a new Prime Minister, was going to be different to the previous one—as in, the same Government just with a different leader.

But if I could say: considering the fact that the Prime Minister was a Cabinet member and in the kitchen cabinet that actually decided on the RNZ-TVNZ merger that got cancelled, I'm just not sure how different this new Prime Minister and the new Cabinet and the Government make-up will be, considering the fact that the cancelled RNZ-TVNZ merger actually has cost a minimum of $16.1 million—$16.1 million that hasn't actually produced anything, apart from lining the pockets of consultants. Apparently, according to WPQs—written parliamentary questions, for those people who don't understand what "WPQ" is—the establishment unit and board, some of them will still be paid in March. Considering the fact that the merger has now been cancelled, I would've thought that that was a drop-dead, close-up kind of a thing where all payments stop. It hasn't ended. They're still paying them till March.

Hon Judith Collins: No, that's the real world—the real world.

MELISSA LEE: Well, the stop payment will happen in real world, but not as far as this Government is concerned. And 14,000 new bureaucrats when this Government came into power, more consultants that actually got paid more than $6,000, and you sort of wonder how much that minimum $16.1 million would actually help the people who are really, really struggling in the cost of living crisis in this country right now.

I'd like to also acknowledge the first responders that have responded in this disaster that we've actually faced in the last month, almost; and the churches, the temples, the gurudwaras, the mosques; and also people in our collective who have actually housed at Wesley Primary—I know it's actually not in Mt Albert; it's in Mt Roskill, I've gone there to try and help out as well—where they house 29 people and many other families who have lost everything as a result of the floods and the devastation it has caused. I would just say thank you to all of the volunteers and all the community who have come to help other people who are worse off than they are, even when their own houses—

SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired. This is also a split call. I call Steph Lewis—five minutes.

STEPH LEWIS (Labour—Whanganui): Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. It is my privilege to rise and take my first call in the House for the year. It's my pleasure also to stand in support of the Prime Minister's statement and the vision that he set out for Aotearoa New Zealand in this House on Tuesday.

I'd like to begin my contribution in this House, just as members across the House have done this week, by acknowledging those who have lost their homes and every possession that they own, bar the clothes on their back that they left with. And that is as a result of the floods that we've seen in Auckland, and it is a result of Cyclone Gabrielle. I especially want to extend my thoughts and aroha to the whānau and friends of the firefighters who lost their lives, and the families and friends of everyone who's lost their lives as a result of the floods.

Again, I also want to join my colleagues by acknowledging our first responders, our telcos, our social service provider agencies, thousands of volunteers who have turned up with shovels and gumboots on the ground to help clear out silt and mud, and all of those Kiwis from across Aotearoa who have donated bedding, towels, clothes, and money to help those in need.

I cannot imagine the terror of watching the flood waters rise to within 10 centimetres of your ceiling. I cannot imagine the horror of wondering how you are going to make it out alive to safety. But coming from Wanganui, I do recall the 2004 and 2015 floods quite vividly. In 2004, while we weren't flooded, we were without power and isolated for four days. I remember bucketing in water as we had no power, just to flush the toilet, cooking on the barbecue, and candlelit evenings. In 2015, it took us years to recover from those floods.

As the new chair of our Primary Production Committee, I also want to acknowledge our primary producers—the food growers and the farmers who have been affected and impacted, who have had their homes washed away, their livestock drowned, their livelihoods and their legacies, in some cases, gone. Our Government is here for you. We are here to help you rebuild and recover. That is why we've announced $25 million as a kick-start to recovery efforts for farmers, growers, whenua Māori, owners, and rural communities significantly affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. This is taking our primary sector support to a total of $29 million to date. We've also made available grants for growers, of up to $2,000 per hectare to a maximum of $40,000, to help remove silt from trees and vines, to clean up and minimise their vine and tree losses. For pastoral and arable farmers, we've created grants of up to $10,000 to help with the initial recovery on-farm, such as repairs to stock and water infrastructure, fencing, and feed troughs. Our Government will provide further support once more assessments have been completed. Affected farmers can apply for this support through the Ministry for Primary Industry's website.

While there are farmers and orchardists who have been significantly impacted, there are also food producers in the affected regions who haven't been as impacted. What they are facing instead is the inability to harvest their crops and get them out to port. So I'd like to acknowledge our public servants and our defence force workers, contractors, Waka Kotahi, and lines companies who are working round the clock to restore that infrastructure, to rebuild those roads in some way, to get workers in to help with the harvest, and then get the produce out to the ports and our export markets.

We are here to help families. Our Government has taken action across all of the main costs impacting New Zealand families: groceries, transport, housing, and health. And in April this year, we'll roll-out more support for families. That's going to be in addition to the initiatives we've already rolled out, like the winter energy payment, increases to main benefits and Working for Families tax credits, increases to student allowances and the accommodation supplement—

SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired. This debate is interrupted and is set down for resumption next sitting day. The House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, 7 March, 2023. Kia ora.

Debate interrupted.

The House adjourned at 4.56 p.m.