be working hard all the way through to the election to change this
government this year. Kia ora tatou.
Jenny Salesa. Thank you, Mr Speaker,
for this opportunity to respond to
the PM's statement earlier on where
he said that there will be business
as usual this current year. This is
my first speech this session, Mr
Speaker, and I like to wish you and
all my colleagues from across the
House a prosperous and wonderful New
Year. I'd also like to wish all New
Zealanders, especially those from
South Auckland, a prosperous year.
Mr Speaker, this past eight years
has been a time of growing
inequality. A time where many, many
New Zealanders are going without.
The Salvation Army's 2017 nation
report
The Salvation Army's 2017 nation The
The Salvation Army's 2017 nation report that we received just two
days ago, Mr Speaker, has evidence
that things are getting worse.
Inequality is growing, child poverty
is growing and yet this current
government doesn't even want to
define child poverty, let alone
measure
define child poverty, let alone define
define child poverty, let alone measure it. How can we effectively
address this issue if we don't ever
know what the definition is and if
we're not even measuring what it
know what the definition is and if
Mr Speaker, do we live in a country where everyone is
Mr Speaker, do we live in a country
where all of our children have equal
live in a country where all of our
Not when we have tens of thousands of families and children living in
cars, living in garages, not when we
have over 40,000 who are homeless,
Mr Speaker. One of the staff in my
office in Auckland lives on the
street where every second house on
her street has a family that has two
families sharing the house. Because
this is the only way that they can
get by in Aotearoa, New Zealand,
today. We don't live in a prosperous
country where we have
today. We don't live in a prosperous
taken out of the health system and where nearly 60,000 people who have
been declined specialist medical
treatment. Where mental health
services and emergency departments
across hospitals, across various
services and emergency departments
very many cities across New Zealand, are stretched to the breaking point
where our doctors have gone on
strike not once, but twice, because
they are not being funded
adequately. Not when many parents
are struggling to manage the
contributions to the schools, that
their children attend, where we live
in a country where the education
that these children are attending at
state schools are supposed to be
free. New figures show that parents
of a child who is born today can
expect to pay almost
of a child who is born today can
their supposed free state education, and,
their supposed free state education, their
their supposed free state education, and, Mr Speaker, this is simply
outrageous. We live in a country
where we know from figures released
just last week where we have 90,000
of our young people who are not in
employment, education or training.
That is also outrageous, Mr Speaker,
when we have 15 to
That is also outrageous, Mr Speaker,
90,000 of whom, who are not in employment, education or training,
and
employment, education or training, 90,000
employment, education or training, and at the same time many of our
employers are going overseas,
recruiting from overseas because we
do not have the right skilled people
to rebuild our own country. Mr
Speaker, we need a country where
we're actually training our young
people and making sure that they
have the right skills. Mr Speaker,
the longer time that our young
people are disconnected and are not
in education or training, the harder
it is for them to actually become a
member of society where they can
actually contribute. Mr Speaker, the
good news is that this is 2017.
It is election year and we can have a government that actually invests
in core health, education and
housing.
in core health, education and in
in core health, education and housing. We can have a government
that actually addresses the housing
crisis. Labour will address the
housing
crisis. Labour will address the crisis.
crisis. Labour will address the housing crisis by building more
affordable
housing crisis by building more housing
housing crisis by building more affordable houses. By making sure
that there is a health system that
everyone can rely on and making sure
that young people have access to
quality education. Labour is
committed
quality education. Labour is everyone
quality education. Labour is committed to reviving the Kiwi
dream. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I
understand this is also a split
call. Andrew Bayly. Thank you, Mr
Speaker. It's a pleasure to be
talking on the PM's statement. And
also to be part of a dynamic,
united, vigorous team that is
absolutely setting about to continue
the good work that National has been
doing over