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The other day, I picked up the Whangārei Advocate, and there was an advertisement from Mr Reti on the highway to Marsden Point. |
Hon Nathan Guy: Dr Reti. |
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Dr Reti had an advertisement saying that it had been reinstated. Dr Reti, please tell us how many dollars were set aside by the National Party with respect to Marsden Point? Mr Reti, put your hand up if $1 was assigned to Marsden Point to Whangārei—please put your hand up. You see what I mean? He... |
The same thing when it comes to, for example, north of Tauranga. There's the member for Tauranga talking about Ōmokoroa being promised, and all the way to Katikati—not "Catty-catty", as he said; Katikati—and Mr— |
Hon Simon Bridges: The Te Reo renaissance man, now—are you? |
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: OK, Mr Bridges, put your hand up if $1 was assigned by you as a transport Minister for that road. He can't tell a lie, either. I hope some people in the media are watching, because now we're having a confessional. We're having an admission. We're getting it out of him, but, boy, how hard it's bee... |
Where was the money? Well, it was never there, but he got up and said it. He read a list out today of what they had promised, excepting—as Grant Robertson will tell you, and as Mr Twyford will tell you—there was no money assigned to it. |
When it comes to defence, they had a $20 billion plan with not $1 assigned to it. Along comes Ron Mark and, in very difficult and trying circumstances with the Minister of Finance, he starts getting the funding that defence desperately needs. All over the country and all over the Pacific, our troops are helping this co... |
Hon Simon Bridges: Why is she not listening? |
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh, the Prime Minister's listening, all right, because I shared this speech with her before I started it. We're a Government of cooperation—in fact, she could have written it herself. Ha! |
When I was the Acting Prime Minister, I can tell you what happened one day. I'll never forget it because I was absolutely shocked, because in the room came a group of civil servants to tell me that the Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) buoy programme—which for decades we've been financing to warn u... |
I stood there and I could not believe it, and my colleagues know what happened. They are sitting here now. We said, "We're going to get on to this. We're not going to lose one day. We're going to rebuild these DART buoys.", and last year, before Christmas, five were sent to the Pacific, and at the end of the year, 15 w... |
There is nobody on that backbench who was told that—that we could have had circumstances where, when the media asked, "What happened here?", we would have found that the so-called Government of Gerry Brownlee and Mr Bridges had allowed the whole warning system for the Pacific and ourselves to lapse and rot and decay. Y... |
More importantly, the Australians were shocked and said, "We'll help out." I spoke to the United States. They said, "We'll help, as well." But they could not believe that the very people who had put that in place— |
Hon Gerry Brownlee: No, that part's not true. |
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —under former, responsible Governments had allowed it to happen. Mr Brownlee is still fully unaware of what happened. But, you know, if you're not spending all your time focusing on politics and other things, then you can possibly—possibly—lose the plot. |
Can I just say one thing: the National Party today—and its image is very clear—is a party with a small "n". It's not a centre party any more. It is still in the throes of "Ruthanomics", even though that was a disaster that took the National Party, in the space of three years, from the biggest majority ever to a hung Pa... |
Here we've got Mr Goldsmith. You know what his experience is: he's looking to cut anything and everything. He's spent every time on massive, essential investments in provincial New Zealand scoffing at every idea—parked up in Epsom. He's notorious, of course, because he's the only politician in the whole Western World t... |
David Seymour: How's Northland going? |
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: —anywhere in the Western World, and now here's the political cuckold from Epsom shouting out now. You know who that is, don't you? The one who's looking for a second tango partner. |
In fact, I saw the other night on TV him dancing, again—it was on the weekend show—and I had a good, hard look at myself and I thought, "You know, this cannot surely be—that we in New Zealand have a Parliament where people are so desperate for publicity they're prepared to do that." They pick these special moments on n... |
But, you know, can you remember the ACT Party's leadership? I do. Remember who the first one was? Douglas, and then Prebble, then Hide, then White—was it? And who else—somebody in between? |
Hon Members: Brash. |
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Oh, Don Brash—sorry. Oh, Don Brash, yes. Don Brash, and now Seymour. Now look, this is a case of serious, mortal mental deficiency—it shows. Seven leaders—seven—and the present one's only there now because there's not a second vote. That's what he's doing there. |
By the way, when you say something like you said the other day, if I thought he had a cent, I'd sue him. But he said on TV something that's defamatory. If I thought he had any money or he had a sense of being able to pay me, I'd sue him, but I'm not going to waste all my money to get— |
Hon Simon Bridges: Talk's cheap, sweetheart. |
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: No, no. Talk's not cheap—that member's going to find out how expensive it is. This is a member that's all over a tape recording of illicit funding of the National Party. The tape recording's going to be disclosed in this Parliament shortly. |
Hon Simon Bridges: Run us through the defamation. |
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: And he's shouting out that he's innocent. Is it somebody else's voice? Is it somebody else's voice? Mr Bridges, when the voice is played, will it be Mr Bridges' voice or someone else's? Because if it's his voice, then he's deeply implicated. He gave the directions. No wonder he said he wanted to ... |
Can I just say that recently the Fitch Ratings agency said that New Zealand had sound fiscal management, low and declining debt in relation to GDP, and they said that this would enhance the country's resilience to economic and financial shocks. The reality is that we face difficult times that I have forecast in the pas... |
For all those who will say otherwise, bear this in mind: when this shock happens, we will be affected; just like we are with coronavirus as we speak, where it will have a 2 percent effect—it looks like—on the Chinese economy. There are going to be international ramifications. The issue is: have we done all that we can ... |
We're looking at ways to support small and medium businesses, and in that regard, the following principles are guiding our policy development: the ease of understanding and compliance, tax efficiency, practical tax relief that will have a real impact on economic growth, innovation, and productivity. We're going, compar... |
Now, do you remember the National Party and its rail privatisation programme? Well, I do. In 1993, they flogged it off to their friends. Then they recapitalised it and the shares went up to $9.34, and after they'd recapitalised it and gouged it, the shares went down to 28c. That's their record on rail. So then the Labo... |
Chris Bishop: Rubbish! |
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: I know it's rubbish, and that's your specialty. Unbelievable. What a sucker, eh? Ha, ha! What a sucker. I want to focus on my speech; otherwise I'd have a field day. It's like having a duel of wits with an unarmed opponent, mate. And I don't like being unfair to people, I'm a nice guy. |
Back to my point. Can I just say that the big thing that's going to happen this year—it's important for New Zealanders to recognise this—is that we need a dialogue with the New Zealand people about our future population policy because the forecast of New Zealand's population by 2050 has got us there already. All the fo... |
Where are they all going to? Mainly to Auckland. All around the provinces we need workers. So we need a focused immigration policy that looks at making sure the provinces get their fair share of overseas expertise as well. Meanwhile out in the provinces, there's a different dichotomy of ageing, where they are older tha... |
I want to tell people out in provincial New Zealand that they've got all these members of Parliament from the National Party from the provinces—they're lions in the electorate and lambs in the caucus. They have never defended the interests of the provinces when it comes to exporters and farmers. |
Look, let me say—because I was a member of the National Party once—if your choice as a young person is to join the National Party because you're trying to find a wife or husband, there are better places to go—there are better places to go for real company. The problem is that once they get here, the big banks get to th... |
And please don't tell me the guy from the prosecution office from Tauranga, even though he didn't have a warrant. Please don't say he speaks for the country. Oh yes, it sounds good on the CV; he used to be a prosecutor, he says—he used to be a Crown prosecutor. Mr Bridges, did you have a warrant? No, again exposed. It'... |
Hon JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green): E Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe. Before I turn my attention to the Prime Minister's statement, I just want to take a moment to draw this House's attention, and our memory, to the catastrophic fires that occurred in Australia over the summer, many of which are still burning now. I thin... |
Sitting and listening to the Prime Minister's statement, I felt enormously proud of everything that this Government has done, is doing, and is going to do to make this country even better and to ensure that it is a great place to live for all of us, and not just all of us now, but for generations to come. So it is with... |
I do hope that the politics of this place—and we have seen that amplified already by the proximity of the election, even though it is still something like eight months away—won't distract us from the fact that we still have some big decisions to make that will have a profound effect on the lives of New Zealanders. Whet... |
In the next eight months, we will be asking those people, the people who put us here, to hold us to account for what we have done. We too in the Greens will ask them to support the ideas that we have about where to go next. Most of these New Zealanders, I'm sure, want a Government that will not just confront the challe... |
Now, one term of Government was never going to be enough to fix everything that needed to be fixed, but we have made an incredible start, and New Zealanders know it. Nine years of a National-led Government demanded it. Look back at that nine-year period, and what most people will see is the familiar pattern of neglect ... |
On that last point, Mr Speaker, you well know that there are kids growing up today who are deeply worried about the future that they will inherit as climate change impacts their lives. It's hardly surprising, when you consider that every year that they have been alive has been the hottest on record—every year for teena... |
Yet, in their term of Government, National squandered nearly a decade of opportunity to do something about it, to create a better future. They gave us no reason to hope. They eroded any promise of change. They became a risk to our shared future. That is not just negligent; that is unforgivable. So here, two years into ... |
We will win by talking to New Zealanders about the type of future that they want and the ideas that we have about how to get there. And we will win because of our track record in Government, regardless of anything that they say. More than two years ago, the Green Party members of Parliament elected to take seats in thi... |
In our first two years, we have taken more action on climate change than the last 30 years of Governments combined: the zero carbon Act, the Climate Change Commission, the emissions trading scheme reforms, the first set of emissions budgets, the billions of dollars that we are investing in rail and light rail and buses... |
I know—I know that there will be people out there who say we've not gone far enough. But no one should ever think—no one should ever think—that the hard work is not worth it because we haven't got everything that we want. You try telling that to Marama Davidson, who has worked so hard to ensure that our loved ones, our... |
And let me say this about the Advertising Standards Authority finding on the National Party, who found yesterday that the National Party thinks that they cannot hold this Government to account without lying about what it is that we're doing— |
SPEAKER: Order! Order! |
Hon JAMES SHAW: Beg your pardon, Mr Speaker. Try telling Jan Logie that the work to reform the way that we manage and reduce sexual and domestic violence has not been worth it. Or tell Gareth Hughes, who has changed the future direction of this country by working successfully to end offshore oil and gas permits that th... |
It's work that serves to remind us that we are stronger when we have each other's backs, when we're looking out for one another, when we're giving support that makes sense to the people who are needing it. Tell that to Golriz Ghahraman, who has championed changes to our democracy that build trust and make us more accou... |
We have done all of this. We have done all of this and so much more with just eight members of Parliament. Imagine what we could do with just a few more. There will never be a moment that we can say that we are done or that we have won. Lasting change demands that we keep working every single day further and faster tow... |
This Government of three parties has shown how we can work through our differences and find common ground that benefits all New Zealanders. Who will be around the table for those discussions after the election is a matter for New Zealanders to decide. But for those who say they want us to do more, I say, get involved. ... |
With two years at the heart of Government, the Green Party's first-ever time in Government, we have done a huge amount to create a better future for our kids and our grandchildren. But what we do next—what we do next—is where you will find our better future: an Aotearoa defined by its leadership on climate change, by f... |
DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the ACT Party in opposition to the Prime Minister's motion and with some support for the National leader's amendments that you've finally received on the Table and with a few additional comments. |
This year, New Zealand faces a choice between the politics of gesture and the best political marketer in the world, who is also the world's worst policy deliverer. A choice between a speech which delivered no substance whatsoever—there were lots of intentions. You have to hand it to the Prime Minister for outlining the... |
He says, "Oh, I'd sue, but you don't have any money." Here's the truth: the truth is that it's all gone wrong. The facts are out there. People know what's been going on. He can bluff and he can bluster, and he can huff and puff and threaten to blow our house down, but the truth is going to come out, and it's going to f... |
This Government is so filled with good intentions, and yet none of them work. Most of them, it turns out, actually, are a failure. The Prime Minister, as has been noted, didn't talk about KiwiBuild. I think she talked about the Child Poverty Reduction Act. What has it done? It's seen child poverty go up—as if passing a... |
We've seen intrusive market studies into whole sectors, such as petrol retailing, and get this: the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs says that they're going to bring down the price of petrol 32c by attacking the cut that petrol companies take. Well, the petrol companies only take 25c a litre, so can the Minist... |
Then they banned plastic bags to reduce the amount of plastic in the ocean. Well, there're two problems with that. I actually asked the Government how much of the plastic from the ocean comes from plastic bags in New Zealand. Do you know how much it was? No? Neither do they. The Government can't tell you how big the pr... |
I could go on and on talking about ineffectual policies that this Government has put in place. Here's one: we have a real problem in this country with our firearm laws. We know this because an Australian weirdo—and, frankly, as it turns out, one of the most evil people to set foot on our shores—is able to get off the p... |
And then the Prime Minister had the temerity to say—and I guess if you're 100 percent marketing-led you can say these things regardless of their veracity—that this is a Government of infrastructure. I mean, how does a Government of infrastructure spend two years trying to work out which projects they're ideologically o... |
Not only are their policies ineffective at making New Zealand a better place; they're actually damaging. This Government sees every aspect of public policy through the lens of class warfare. Employers are people who save up, invest capital, have ideas, and attract customers so they can give someone a job. I think that'... |
Take landlords. Landlords are people who save up, invest, manage property, and, for a weekly fee—which is often less than the mortgage on the property—provide accommodation. I think it's a wonderful service. I think they're great people. Not this Government. Constantly, such people find themselves under attack, with mo... |
This country deserves better. This country deserves a society that works because it gets better policies that actually deliver the intentions, not just serve as background to an unending marketing campaign by the Prime Minister, who—I'll give it to her—is the best marketer in world politics but the worst public policy ... |
Let me say finally, in relation to our Parliament, if there's one thing we can all be proud of and agree on, it's that we have been enormously fortunate to inherit parliamentary democracy. There is a long history where, gradually, power shifted from the monarch to the people, who send representatives to the capital cit... |
It's because of the importance of that job—holding the Crown to account—that we have such great privileges. Traditionally, Mr Speaker, it has been the person in your role who is the prime defender of that tradition. Early Speakers literally lost their heads for speaking up for and defending the rights of parliamentaria... |
SPEAKER: Following agreement at the Business Committee, the debate on the Prime Minister's statement will now be adjourned and oral questions held. The debate is adjourned and set down for resumption next sitting day. |
MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS |
COVID-19 Outbreak—New Zealand Response |
Hon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): I wish to make a ministerial statement in accordance with Standing Order 355 about the novel coronavirus. The novel coronavirus, recently named as COVID-19, was first reported to the World Health Organization on 31 December. As members will be aware, since that time there have b... |
I'm advised that providing clear health advice remains our best protection against the spread of the coronavirus, and that remains a key part of our ongoing response to this issue. An incident control team was set up within the ministry in the week of 20 January. That same week, on 24 January, the Government's interage... |
Based on expert public health advice, on 27 January we deployed public health nurses at Christchurch and Auckland international airports to meet all flights from mainland China, to provide advice and check anyone displaying symptoms. Those measures are ongoing. On 28 January, Cabinet met for the first time this year an... |
That same day the Ministry of Health activated the National Health Coordination Centre, which is operating seven days a week to monitor the situation and which provides updated advice on a daily basis. Our response to the coronavirus has been measured and responsive. As the number of cases has increased and disease has... |
On Monday, 3 February the Government introduced travel restrictions that prevent anyone other than New Zealand citizens or permanent residents who have been in China in the last 14 days from entering New Zealand. This step was not taken lightly but followed updated health advice and was in step with Australia, the US, ... |
All New Zealanders who have been in China in the last 14 days and have returned home since the travel restrictions were introduced have been asked to go into self-isolation for 14 days, which is believed to be longer than the incubation period of this virus. Previous experience suggests that self-isolation compliance r... |
Members will also be aware that the Government arranged an evacuation flight for New Zealanders and Pacific Island citizens in the city of Wuhan: 157 people remain in isolation at the military facility at Whangaparāoa. They are receiving regular health checks, and if anyone displays any symptoms, no matter how mild, th... |
New Zealand is well placed to respond to emerging infectious diseases, we have a strong public health service and a longstanding— |
SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired. |
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