Sepuloni CarmelHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston): I'm going to start by just reading a text I received from someone I knew who was at the international airport leaving the country on 24 October. This person texted me to say Am on route to the US"—Hon David Seymour: Were they a former Labour MP?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: National staffer on leave. In brackets: "Pissed." Says "National will take six weeks to sort coalition. Willis is"—a derogatory word—"and can't do simple sums. Judith is a big threat to Luxon. Should be foreign Minister. Someone Christmas should be AG but won't make it and is National's only rainbow person. They expect to lose three electorates. Angee is nice but not quite good enough." I share that with you as a reminder to the House to be careful about what you talk about in public spaces including the Koru lounge but also just to give some evidence of the fact that it's not just this side of the House that has no confidence in that Minister of Finance and her ability to be able to do simple sums. Turns out the people closest to her do not have the confidence in her as well. So I thought I'd start on that very positive note.On the next positive note can I acknowledge the new Speaker of the House and all of the presiding officers. We hope for only one thing: that there will be fairness and clarity in the rulings that are undertaken here. If that is how things are conducted in the House—and that is our expectation—then the Speaker and all of the presiding officers can expect that this place will be orderly and that we will reciprocate our respect to the Speaker and to the Deputy Speaker and all of the Assistant Speakers.I also want to acknowledge the absolute privilege that it is to be elected into this place as a member of Parliament. I want to thank the Kelston electorate for supporting me again. It is a privilege. It is the primary reason that I'm here: to support the electorate that I have been elected to serve.Of course the ideal is always that we are elected into Government but New Zealanders didn't choose us this time round and of course we respect that decision. However New Zealand should rightfully expect that we will be a strong Opposition that we will hold the Government to account for working in the best interests of all New Zealanders and that we will hold the Government to account for the promises they made the promises that led to New Zealand electing them. And we will.What a great opportunity that this Address in Reply debate provides for us to do just that. Before we even got to the Speech from the Throne we had the coalition negotiations and I want to speak to that a little bit. It reminded me of a really bad circus I once took the family to one where they were trying to balance multiple people on a bike circling a ring but each time they'd go around someone or multiple people would fall off. The audience got increasingly nervous. Were these people going to be OK? Is this going to result in someone getting hurt and an ambulance needing to be called? Were these professionals? Did they know what they were doing? And what had we just bought tickets to?I think there are a number of New Zealanders who bought tickets to this political circus asking themselves the same question right now. After the coalition bandaged up and finally managed to get through the negotiations we started to get hit with the early musings of what were their priorities. At that point I was starting to wonder whether the Government were deliberating focusing on issues far removed from the cost of living issues as a strategy to take attention away from the number of issues that they have campaigned on: "Let's repeal smoke-free legislation. Let's get rid of te reo Māori names for Government agencies. Let's take away any bonus for te reo - speaking public servants who may be undertaking additional duties in their workplace."I was confused. How were those things going to help us as a country get back on track? How was bashing Māori banishing te reo Māori encouraging social and racial division and making moves to increase the uptake of smoking in Aotearoa New Zealand going to help New Zealanders pay for their bread and butter?Then it became even more confusing. The first move in the House this week is to get rid of fair pay agreements extend 90-day trials remove the Reserve Bank's dual mandate to focus on keeping inflation down whilst not taking their focus off employment—and just keep in mind that Australia has just moved to put that mandate in place.So apparently putting jobs on the line pushing towards a world where more Kiwis can find themselves unemployed equates to supporting New Zealanders with the cost of living. I thought the Speech from the Throne might help to provide more clarity but yeah nah. Instead what we got hit with was the biggest demonstration of gaslighting a nation that we as Aotearoa New Zealand have ever faced.Look at some of these examples that I just pulled out: "It is the people outside Parliament who will be the Government's priority in decisions over the next three years." So you will start off by making legislative changes that put at risk their ability to work and provide for their families? It wants "people to see demonstrable measurable results that make their lives easier and helps them to get ahead." So then the Government moves to get rid of regulatory impact statements so that New Zealanders can't see what the impact or benefit or losses might be to them through the legislative changes? And then: "Having 11 percent or one in nine New Zealanders of working age on a main benefit means too many people are dependent on the efforts of their fellow citizens instead of being self-supporting." While they are at it they are thinking with the two other strategies "Let's put the boot into beneficiaries in the good old-fashioned way including all of those on main benefits with a disability or health condition so that New Zealand has someone to blame for these crappy changes and the crap results that are likely to ensue."Many people have been saying outside this House—and I'm going to add my voice to it—that this Government is looking like the most backward regressive divisive Government that we have ever seen as a country. I absolutely agree with that. What concerns me is that there a number of communities that will be impacted by these regressive changes more than others.On behalf of our Labour Pacific caucus—because we have a Pacific caucus—I want to acknowledge one of New Zealand's most prominent Pacific health leaders Sir Colin Tukuitonga for going on record and saying it as it is. He said "I really don't want to work with this Government. I have no confidence. They are not going to treat Pacific people well and I want to be free to speak up and speak out." Sir Colin Tukuitonga is absolutely right with what he is saying. And to follow that up I want to quote Dame Luamanuvao Winnie Laban who once said—in fact I think she said it more than once—that "if you are not at the table you are on the menu." And right now that is where the Pacific community and many of the other communities that are going to be impacted by the negative effects of that Government's policies are sitting—on the menu.Very genuinely it does scare me. I don't get the sense despite the previous speaker's attempt to try and make it sound like she was in touch that the Government actually cares about New Zealanders. I don't get the sense that they have an understanding of the reality and the lived experience of the most vulnerable New Zealanders. We all clearly got the sense in the lead-up to the election that there were certain sectors certain New Zealanders that that Government had in mind when they were proposing their policies and the ones that lose are vast majority of New Zealanders; every other New Zealander that doesn't sit in those rich-list groups that that side of the House has very obviously demonstrated their support for over the course of—actually not just an election campaign not just through the Speech from the Throne but over the course of decades.I may have paid once to go to that really bad circus that one time and I won't be going back but I have no doubt that if the Government continues on the trajectory they are on—and they will—New Zealanders won't just be pledging to forego tickets to the next show; they will be wanting to leave the show early and asking for a full refund."