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Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
WEDNESDAY, 20 MARCH 2024
The Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.
KARAKIA/PRAYERS
MAUREEN PUGH (Assistant Speaker): Almighty God, we give thanks for the blessings which have been bestowed on us. Laying aside all personal interests, we acknowledge the King and pray for guidance in our deliberations that we may conduct the affairs of this House with wisdom, justice, mercy, and humility for the welfare and peace of New Zealand. Amen.
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
PETITIONS, PAPERS, SELECT COMMITTEE REPORTS, AND INTRODUCTION OF BILLS
SPEAKER: A petition has been delivered to the Clerk for presentation.
CLERK: Petition of Te Pāti Māori requesting that the House remove GST from all food sales in Aotearoa, and note that 19,864 people have signed a petition to this effect.
SPEAKER: That petition stands referred to the Petitions Committee. A paper has been delivered for presentation.
CLERK: 2022-23 annual report for the New Zealand Productivity Commission.
SPEAKER: That paper is published under the authority of the House. A select committee report has been delivered for presentation.
CLERK: Report of the Governance and Administration Committee on the 2022-23 annual review of the Public Service Commission.
SPEAKER: The Clerk has been informed of the introduction of a bill.
CLERK: Employment Relations (Employee Remuneration Disclosure) Amendment Bill, introduction.
SPEAKER: That bill is set down for first reading.
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
MOTIONS
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa—80th Birthday
SPEAKER: We come now a very special occasion for Parliament. In accordance with the determination of the Business Committee, I call on the Hon Paul Goldsmith to move a motion without notice.
Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I move, That this House recognise the achievements and career of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and congratulate her as she celebrates her 80th birthday.
Very few New Zealanders attain global pre-eminence in their field; even fewer hold on to that pre-eminence for decades. Dame Kiri Te Kanawa was one such Kiwi. Her 80th birthday provides an opportunity for us to acknowledge her talent and her distinguished career. This House is a place of debate and confrontation, as well as cooperation, but it should also be a place where, from time to time, we pause to reflect on the great deeds of some of our fellow New Zealanders.
Kiri began her journey in Gisborne, then travelled with her adopted family to Auckland to learn her craft from Sister Mary Leo. In 1971, she made her Covent Garden debut as the Countess in Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. From there, she ascended to the highest levels of international opera, thrilling audiences and reviewers alike. One wrote, “She makes hideously difficult music sound easy as pie.” When Charles and Diana married in 1981, before a global audience of 600 million, the royal family turned to Kiri Te Kanawa to sing Handel’s Let the bright Seraphim—the seraphim is a form of angel, Willie. I remember watching the wedding in the middle of the night and feeling the feeling of pride that came with seeing a Kiwi at the heart of such an event.
Honours have been heaped on her, including the Order of New Zealand and the Order of Australia. As well as thrilling audiences, she’s inspired many fellow New Zealanders to reach for the stars. She inspires, but she also helps. Twenty years ago, her Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation, as King Charles noticed, has been established and has helped more than 40 singers succeed globally as well.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, we honour you today.
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
TUESDAY, 19 MARCH 2024
The Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.
KARAKIA/PRAYERS
SPEAKER: Almighty God, we give thanks for the blessings which have been bestowed on us. Laying aside all personal interests, we acknowledge the King and pray for guidance in our deliberations that we may conduct the affairs of this House with wisdom, justice, mercy, and humility for the welfare and peace of New Zealand. Amen.
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
OBITUARIES
Rt Hon Jonathan Lucas Hunt ONZ
SPEAKER: Members, I regret to inform the House of the death on 8 March 2024 of the Rt Hon Jonathan Lucas Hunt ONZ, who represented the electorate of New Lynn from 1966 to 1993 and continued to serve as a list member until 2005. He was the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1999 until 2005. Before becoming Speaker, he held several ministerial portfolios, including Minister of Broadcasting, Postmaster-General, Minister of Tourism, and Minister of Communications. I desire, on behalf of this House, to express our sense of loss to his family along with our sympathy as they deal with the death of the late former member. I now ask members to stand with me to observe a period of silence as a mark of respect for his memory.
Members stood as a mark of respect.
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
ORAL QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS TO MINISTERS
1. JOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland) to the Minister of Finance: What recent reports has she seen on the New Zealand economy?
Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): Last week, ANZ released its Business Outlook report and its consumer confidence report, both of which come out monthly. These show that consumer confidence continues to rise, albeit off a very low base, and business confidence is on a strong upward trend, despite levelling out in February.
Joseph Mooney: How does consumer and business confidence compare to previous years?
Hon NICOLA WILLIS: In 2022 and 2023, consumer confidence fell to the lowest level ever reported in this survey—lower than the global financial crisis and lower than during the COVID lockdowns—and, strike me down, business confidence was also the lowest it has ever been, in 2022 and 2023. Again, it was lower than in the global financial crisis and lower than during the COVID lockdowns. So it is very heartening indeed that consumer and business confidence is rising off the all-time lows recorded under the previous Government.
Joseph Mooney: What do the results say about people’s own expectations?
Hon NICOLA WILLIS: The consumer confidence survey shows that in net terms, people expect that they and their family will be better off financially in a year’s time. At present, people are wary about purchasing major household items, but this measure is on an upward trend and is considerably better than it was last year.
Joseph Mooney: What do the results say about business expectations?
Hon NICOLA WILLIS: The Business Outlook survey saw lifts in most forward-looking indicators, such as businesses’ own activity, investment intentions, employment intentions, and profit expectations. Together with the consumer results, this reinforces that New Zealanders are more optimistic about their future under this coalition Government.
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
THURSDAY, 7 MARCH 2024
The Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.
KARAKIA/PRAYERS
ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): E te Atua kaha rawa, ka tuku whakamoemiti atu mātou, mō ngā karakia kua waihotia mai ki runga i a mātou. Ka waiho i ō mātou pānga whaiaro katoa ki te taha. Ka mihi mātou ki te Kīngi, me te inoi atu mō te ārahitanga i roto i ō mātou whakaaroarohanga, kia mōhio ai, kia whakaiti ai tā mātou whakahaere i ngā take o te Whare nei, mō te oranga, te maungārongo, me te aroha o Aotearoa. Āmene.
[Almighty God, we give thanks for the blessings which have been bestowed on us. Laying aside all personal interests, we acknowledge the King, and pray for guidance in our deliberations, that we may conduct the affairs of this House with wisdom and humility, for the welfare, peace, and compassion of New Zealand. Amen.]
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
ORAL QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS TO MINISTERS
1. JOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland) to the Minister of Finance: What recent reports has she seen on the New Zealand economy?
Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance): Last week, ANZ released its Business Outlook report and its consumer confidence report, both of which come out monthly. These show that consumer confidence continues to rise, albeit off a very low base, and business confidence is on a strong upward trend, despite levelling out in February.
Joseph Mooney: How does consumer and business confidence compare to previous years?
Hon NICOLA WILLIS: In 2022 and 2023, consumer confidence fell to the lowest level ever reported in this survey—lower than the global financial crisis and lower than during the COVID lockdowns—and, strike me down, business confidence was also the lowest it has ever been, in 2022 and 2023. Again, it was lower than in the global financial crisis and lower than during the COVID lockdowns. So it is very heartening indeed that consumer and business confidence is rising off the all-time lows recorded under the previous Government.
Joseph Mooney: What do the results say about people’s own expectations?
Hon NICOLA WILLIS: The consumer confidence survey shows that in net terms, people expect that they and their family will be better off financially in a year’s time. At present, people are wary about purchasing major household items, but this measure is on an upward trend and is considerably better than it was last year.
Joseph Mooney: What do the results say about business expectations?
Hon NICOLA WILLIS: The Business Outlook survey saw lifts in most forward-looking indicators, such as businesses’ own activity, investment intentions, employment intentions, and profit expectations. Together with the consumer results, this reinforces that New Zealanders are more optimistic about their future under this coalition Government.
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
HELEN WHITE (Labour—Mt Albert): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise in opposition to this repeal Act, and I want to talk about why. I have a great deal of time for Mr Bayly as a person—as he knows, we’ve sat on committees together, and I know him well—and I don’t intend to do anything but absolutely speak genuinely to the Government and to the Speaker about what I think about what is going on today.
I was an employment lawyer for 25 years, and I came across this problem quite frequently. And I came across it from people I never really expected to. Often they were quite powerful in their own right—they might be the HR manager at a company—but they were contractors, and they were in situations where they worked for our biggest businesses. And our biggest businesses had a practice which they thought they couldn’t walk away from, because it made sense to them financially, and that was to delay payment. So a business like Fonterra delayed payment to its staff for three months. They were sole traders—three months regularly.
Carl Bates: Staff or suppliers?
HELEN WHITE: Absolutely. Sole traders. Sole traders. So I am talking about people who were contracted into the business, and I am hearing the opposition and the Government say differently, but that’s not right. Those people I know. I can stand on the experience I had. Those sole traders were in no position to argue with our biggest companies; they were dependent on them. So, basically, our biggest companies, our companies with over $100 million of capital, were the companies that were withholding from these small players, these people who were sometimes their suppliers too, who were often small businesses which were dependent on the only capital they had, which in New Zealand actually turns out to be their house. Usually it’s the equity in their house. They were the people waiting. From our biggest companies, they were waiting for payment, because the big companies were using their money, their hard-earned money, their money that they’d earned three months earlier, just to get the interest on it. They were cynically using that money.
And this emerged as an issue, and it got picked up, and it got picked up by the The Spinoff in 2017 by one of the journalists Cormack, who talked about it. And it got picked up by practitioners like me who saw what was going on and thought it was really unfair. So we got to pick it up, but nothing was being done about it. This obviously had happened in Australia too, and they went after it with a law where they did something quite similar, but they had a threshold of $100 million. We went after it in perhaps what I would say is a softer way than I would have liked. I would have liked to see a prohibition on this kind of clause. The reason was, for doing it in this way, was to collaborate with people to really target those big, big businesses against our small ones.
Our small ones are 97 percent of New Zealand businesses, and those people need a champion in this Government, and they haven’t got one. What they’ve got is a Minister who comes from the experience of being a fund manager, and that is all about financial markets. That’s big business. That’s very, very different from the small businesses I’m talking about. I’m talking about the tradies. I’m talking about the people out there who are our contractors who are basically, often, just trying not to work for the man, right? They’re trying to run these businesses, and those are the people that you will hear me, in these speeches, stick up for, because this was nudge legislation which had already started to change the habits of our big companies because it shamed them. It said it shamed them.
So I’m going to put out some amendments today, and I hope that the Minister will listen to them. They are amendments that are all about doing stuff that gives this more teeth, doing stuff that takes us seriously, because I want to see our small businesses thrive in this country, and we should be targeting those big businesses and holding them to account. Instead, what this legislation does is repeal itself and then repeal that repeal so we don’t even know it ever existed. We’ve never even put our toe in the water to standing up to big businesses who act in a way that I consider immoral. I consider it a form of theft from our hard-working New Zealand businesses. Thank you.
ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O’Connor): [Pause] Scott Willis. I just encourage members to keep an eye on the speaking list.
Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
Sitting date: 5 Mar 2024
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