Woods MeganHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): Thank you Madam Speaker. As I embark on my first contribution to this 54th Parliament of New Zealand I'd like to offer my congratulations to the presiding officers' teams. This afternoon we saw the Leader of the Opposition Chris Hipkins lay out an amendment to the motion that was put that spelt out exactly what it is that we as a Labour Opposition will be holding this Government to account on. That is the job of an Opposition—it is to hold the Government of the day to account and that is what we will be doing. We have seen the trilogy that has emerged through the coalition agreements the 100-day plan and today the Speech from the Throne the actions and priorities that this Government has spelt out at the beginning of its term. They laid that bare today and I'll go into that in some more detail. That is exactly what we will be looking to hold the Government to account on. First and foremost this is a Government that says it is going to deliver relief for New Zealanders on the cost of living. The tax cuts are a package looking for a way to be funded. This Government came in with all kinds of—on the campaign trail the National Party had all kinds of grand plans for how they were going to fund that tax package. But that did not survive the coalition talks. It did not survive the coalition agreements. So instead what have we seen? What we have seen from the Government that is sitting on the Treasury benches today is a decision that they are going to roll back world-leading smoke-free legislation—that would have seen smoke-free generations in New Zealand—with a Minister of Finance who thinks it is OK to baldly say that the revenue is needed to fund the tax cuts. I don't think there are many New Zealanders who voted—thinking they might like a tax cut—that thought they were voting for a tax cut that was premised on increased revenue from cigarettes and rolling back world-leading legislation. That is something that we will be holding this Government to account. But it is not only looking to increasing rates of smoking to fund tax cuts. We're also seeing flip-flops on things like the app tax. We were told—all through the election campaign—by the National Party how this was a measure that would impose costs on New Zealanders. But already we're seeing a backflip on that as well. We will be looking for more of these backflips. That is our job and one that we will prosecute with precision. We will be looking for what it is that this Government is doing to fund the huge fiscal hole that has opened up over their tax package. We're no longer hearing the Minister of Finance the Hon Nicola Willis tell us that it is a fiscally neutral tax package. So we look forward to hearing more detail on how that is going to be funded. The other thing that we saw today in the Speech from the Throne—I thought what was also telling was what was not mentioned what did not receive priority. One of the things that I saw that really was missing from this was a decisive plan for how it is that New Zealand will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. What we've seen in the 100-day plan and the Speech from the Throne is great lists of things that this Government will undo. But what we are waiting to see is great lists of what this Government will do. That is fair enough; that is the prerogative of the Government of the day to reverse decisions of previous Governments. It is what Governments do. But what is beholden on them is to come forward with their own positive agenda. So if I go through the 100-day action plan we see it's stop this it's cancel this it's reverse that. But what is it that this Government is going to do? In the area of climate we've heard that they're going to scrap the Climate Emergency Response Fund which was money set aside for funding initiatives to reduce New Zealand's emissions. We know what those initiatives are doing how many emissions they are saving. The National Party anyway agreed to carbon budgets in the previous term of Government. So what measures are being put in place to replace those emissions? That is something that we will push this Government hard on because this is a party that signed up to multi-partisan climate legislation that puts in place carbon budgets. So we will want to see what their detailed plan is there.But what we're seeing in climate is really just indicative of the great leap backwards that is going to happen under this Government; progress that has been made that is being unwound. The other thing that I didn't hear in the Speech from the Throne I haven't seen in the coalition agreements and I certainly haven't seen in the 100-day plan is what the party is going to do in terms of housing. Now they've made grand promises. They're going to get everyone out of emergency hotels in Rotorua within a year. We'll be watching that one closely. They're going to clear the public housing waiting list. We'll watch that closely. We'll also be watching to make sure that they didn't do what they did last time that National was in Government and that is just kick people off it and then not let people be put on the public house waiting list. What we are going to have to see is a programme of work to deliver housing. The previous Labour Government made it easy for this Government. There is funding to deliver more houses right through to June 2025. It is funded. It is in the Budgets. There are 21000 new public housing places funded by the previous Governments between 2017 and 2023. We delivered over 13000 of them in the six years that we were in Government; the most public housing of any Government since Walter Nash I think it was or did we update that? This is something we will be watching closely to ensure that this Government not only delivers through to 2025 but what are they going to do after that. What is the new commitment for more public housing places? Because on the campaign trail the National Party certainly would not commit to any more. So we will be watching that. The other area that we will be watching is: what are we going to do to ensure that we can continue to progress as a country? Now obviously we have different ideas on this side of the House than the current Government in terms of what progress looks like. But I think by anyone's definition backsliding and becoming an international laughing stock is not going to be the way forward for New Zealand. Already we have seen at the current climate talks that New Zealand received the Fossil of the Day" award. But the thing that marks this out: this was the very first one of the meeting. This was the very first country to be singled out and it is because of this Government's winding back the clock to bring back oil and gas exploration. Now banning new offshore exploration was something that I was proud that we delivered in our Government. It was very much driven by our Labour belief that we have to ensure that we are planning for a secure future for those workers who are engaged in those industries. That is something that we will be monitoring this Government to ensure—what is a sunset industry whatever tinkering that they make with the rules that we are seeing globally that this is a sunset industry and we will be watching to see what provisions are being made for those workers and those communities in areas that are reliant on that for economic wealth. So it is the job of an Opposition to hold the Government to account. We've seen a shambolic start to Government from this three-headed being that is our Government. We've seen the two junior partners in the coalition running rings around the Prime Minister. Hold their Government to account—we on this side of the House will do."