McAnulty KieranHon KIERAN McANULTY (Labour): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. May I join the other brownnosers and acknowledge your appointment as Assistant Speaker and hope that it may pay dividends in years to come! But in all seriousness I am very pleased for you because you have been a solid contributor to this House and you really deserve this along with Barbara Kuriger Greg O'Connor and of course the Rt Hon Gerry Brownlee—delighted with the group of presiding officers. To those who are new to this House: welcome. You will enjoy yourselves. We did and we will. And to those who have returned: congratulations. Because it truly is an honour to be here.I do want to start my first contribution since the election by acknowledging Mike Butterick who won the Wairarapa seat. I think that's only right.Hon Member: What a great man.Hon KIERAN McANULTY: Yep; that's right. Thank you—thank you. What they may not have picked up at home is that the reason members were clapping is because they said I'll win it back next year! So I appreciate your support. Thank you for that!Today is a special day. It is a day when we have the Speech from the Throne. It is a day one might think that members of the Government might celebrate—celebrate the speech that outlines what they intend to do over three years—and the time in which to do that is the Address in Reply. Have we heard that? Have we my foot! We have heard three contributions from the Government and each and every single one of them slagged us off. They talked about what we did and I think I know why: because all they're going to do is reverse what we did. They are going to bring this country backwards and if they were proud of what they're going to do I reckon they'd want to talk about it. But they don't.I wonder why they're not talking about tax cuts that don't add up. I wonder why no one on that side has mentioned te reo Māori. I wonder why no one has mentioned smoking. What about fair pay agreements? They campaigned on those. They're supposed to be proud of those. I wonder if the reason why they haven't mentioned those is because within the first week their Cabinet had leaked the document to the media that contained advice that said very clearly that repealing fair pay agreements would disproportionately disadvantage women Māori Pasifika youth and low-wage workers. I wonder if that's why they're not mentioning it. Why have they not mentioned that they are going to bring in a rule that allows employers to sack people within 90 days without giving any single reason? Why? Why haven't they mentioned that because of what they plan to do ratepayers will face bills that they simply cannot afford? If they had mentioned those they would be being upfront and being consistent with what was in the Speech from the Throne today. None of them has mentioned it and I would wager that not many of them will.When you serve in this House be it for a short time or a long time there are occasional moments when you reflect on what you have achieved and I am sure that when our time collectively is finished in this House we will talk about what we did when we were members of Parliament be it with our children our grandchildren or for some of us great-grandchildren. And I wonder if we would be proud when we spoke to those young people if we told them that we got elected on the basis of talking about doing something about climate change but when we had the opportunity we actually took away the things that were working. I wonder if we would be proud if we told those young people that on the one hand we said that we should encourage te reo Māori but then we removed the measures that actually did just that—actually punished those workers who should be rewarded for having a particular skill that is in demand that requires them to work more hours and do more tasks than other workers because they speak Māori and they don't like it. And if they take exception to that I would ask them to refer to some of the statements and some of the policies that they have signed up to.Riddled throughout the coalition agreement are things that will push Māori backwards. The reason this Government wants to get rid of the Māori Health Authority is because of the first word in those three words. That's it: Māori". They know it works. It's been proven to work. They know that it's backed up by stats. They know it's backed up by evidence but they don't like it because it focuses on Māori. Where's the talk of repealing the rural health strategy? That's what I want to know. Where's the talk of that? They won't do that because they know that rural people vote for them and they know that Māori people don't and they know that they can kick them and I think it's bloody disgraceful.Fair-pay agreements will help people's wages go up. It is proven. Their advice says so. It is the reason why our wages in New Zealand and Australia are so far apart. They don't care—they don't care—because the people that back them don't want to pay higher wages. They don't care about low-wage workers and if they take exception to that don't bring in policies that will hurt them. Fair-pay agreements advantage large businesses and disadvantage people who work for a living. But guess what! The vast majority of New Zealanders work for a living. So how on earth can they stand up and say that they are the party for New Zealanders? The proof is in the pudding and in three years' time New Zealanders will see what it is that they've actually brought in here. Because they've campaigned on broad promises but what is in the coalition agreement is actually the guts of it and the guts of it is going to hurt people. It's going to hurt workers. It's going to hurt women. It's going to hurt Māori Pasifika and young people. It's going to hurt the majority of New Zealanders.They have an opportunity now to actually do what's right to back New Zealanders and be upfront with Kiwis and say "We can't deliver tax cuts because we overpromised. We can't do what we said we were going to do because our numbers don't add up." They didn't add up before the election; they certainly don't add up after they've given Shane Jones $1.2 billion and given the ACT Party interest deductibility backdated to April. None of that was campaigned on. So when you've got a $10 billion hole in your transport budget and at least a $2 billion hole in your tax budget and then you add on $1.2 billion for Shane Jones and God knows how many millions for the ACT Party that's a massive hole—a massive hole that Nicola Willis is desperately trying to put on us even though the thing she's pointing to was already out there in the public domain and two of them are already factored into their fiscal plan. That's not going to wash. New Zealanders aren't dumb. They know a fiddle when they see it and that is exactly what they're trying to do. Their numbers don't add up. They cannot deliver what they've promised and they're trying to shift the blame but Kiwis will see right through it. Kiwis will see right through that.What we're seeing right from the start is a pushback on what has to be the shortest honeymoon in a new Government's history be it leaks or be it policies that no one campaigned on but they decided to do not for health reasons but because it gave them money. It plugged the hole. It made the massive hole in their fiscal plan just a little bit smaller and what it will mean by reversing the smokefree rules that have been coming in is that for those young people who wouldn't have taken up smoking some of them will and some of them will die from it. We know smoking kills. Successive Governments National and Labour led have done things to decrease the number of people smoking and just like climate change and just like wages and just like the promises they've made to working people and the elderly and women it all sounds good but when you look at what the detail is none of it helps. This is exactly the same. On one hand they say that they want to discourage people from smoking and on the other because it's convenient and it brings money in they actually scrap the things that will help.It is shameful and I think when that comes in in years to come they'll look back on that and I wonder whether the members opposite when they are speaking to young relatives and reflecting on their time in Parliament will mention that. I wonder whether they will think back on that with pride and say it was financially and fiscally convenient to change rules that we knew deep down people would die from. It's a disgrace."