Oute fa’atalofa atu ma le fa’aaloalo

 

Malo le soifua maua ma le lagi e māmā

 

Thank you for the warm welcome this morning, it’s always good to be back home in Mana.

 

I want to acknowledge and thank the Porirua Chamber of Commerce for hosting us today.

 

Thank you, Steven Dyhrberg and everyone on the Porirua Chamber of Commerce Board for the great work you do.

 

Thank you to the Supply Room – you’ve always been supportive of the Chamber, and our wider community, and I also enjoy having MP clinics here where people can access me more easily.

 

And thank you to all of you for being here. Anita Baker, our Mayor, our local leaders, employers, and members of the community. You are here because you care about our community and the future of our country.

 

A lot has happened in Parliament over the last few weeks that has a profound impact on our families, our communities, and our country.

 

I’m here to today to break down the choices that this Government has made, and give you a preview of the different choices that a Labour Government would have made.

 

Today, I’m going to talk about three simple, but important ideas:

 

First – and make no mistake about it – this will be remembered as the Budget that cut women’s pay.

 

Not just any women. The hardworking women who help deliver our babies. The women who educate our young children. The women who care for us during the final days of our lives.

 

So, I’ll start there.

 

Then I want to talk about some of the other choices that this Government made in their Budget, and what it means for our communities. Because every decision a government makes isn’t just a number on a page or in a spreadsheet, it’s about people.

 

Lastly, I want to talk about what you didn’t see in National’s Budget. The choices that Labour would have made instead.

 

So let’s get into it.

 

Cutting women’s pay to make the Budget add up was a deliberate decision by Nicola Willis, no matter how many times she tells you it’s not.

 

The Government changed the law under urgency, wiping 33 active pay equity claims off the books, and hoped they’d get away with it.

 

David Seymour – the next Deputy Prime Minister – gave away the game when he told us that ACT had just saved the Budget.

 

For weeks, they refused to tell us the full extent of the damage, but last week we finally saw the figures – and it was shocking.

 

In one move, they swept billions off the books, money that was set aside for future pay rises for low-paid women.

 

They moved the goal post for any futures claims, leaving about 180,000 people – predominantly women – in service industries like Plunket nurses, teacher aides, and hospice care workers to start again.

 

They’ll try to tell you that no one’s pay has been cut. They’ll say that women can still make claims.

 

But when you take money that has been put aside for future pay raises and put it into something else, that is a cut, plain and simple.

 

The reaction from the public has been swift because they understand what the Government is really doing here. They’re telling hard working women that you don’t matter.

 

They’re telling women, “you’re not worth it.” They’re telling women that your contribution to the economy is less than a man’s is.

 

I think one of the reasons this is resonating so strongly is because for many Kiwis, the promises they were sold at the last election have turned to dust. The question almost every Kiwi should ask themselves is this: do I feel better off today than I did 18 months ago.

 

On almost every economic indicator, the National Government has made things worse. They will blame everyone else for it - or take credit for the work of the Reserve Bank - but the facts don’t lie.

 

While people all over New Zealand struggle to pay the bills, National is giving massive handouts to landlords and tobacco companies.

 

Kiwis were told the economy would be stronger. But it's slower.

 

Kiwis were told the cost of living would come down. But prices are going up.

 

Kiwis were told that families with kids would get an extra $250 a fortnight to help with the cost of living, yet that most of that money is nowhere to be seen.

 

When I said last year that these families in their Budget documents were ghost families, the government clearly didn’t count on their own officials agreeing with me.

 

National cannot confirm if even a single family has received the full $250 they were promised.

 

Kiwis were told a new government would get things moving, and yet building projects have ground to a halt and 13,000 people working in construction lost their jobs.

 

This is a particularly important point for us here in Mana, where the construction industry is our second largest employer. Here in Porirua, up to December 2024 we saw a 70.6% decline in non-residential building consents, annual unemployment increased to 5.4%, and the number of people claiming Job Seeker benefits up by 16%.

 

Our local economy has declined by 2.2% over the year to March 2025, compared to a 1.1% decline nationally.

 

The sort of short-sighted decision making by the government that has also led to cuts in programmes and the loss of 60 jobs at our own Whitireia and Weltec, will have long-term impacts for the construction sector, which we will have to work hard to get back up to capacity.

 

Now they’ve broken their promise of a better future for working women.

 

Something this Government has failed to take in to account is what happens when you give low paid workers a pay rise, they spend it back in the economy, at our local shops, at our retailers.

 

The decision to cut women’s pay is not just bad for our economy, it’s a direct assault on our values as New Zealanders.

 

We’re the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. Fighting for equality is in our national DNA. Turning our backs on equal pay is not who we are as Kiwis.

 

So, while there are other parts of this Budget that I’ll get into next, we must not forget that all of it comes at the expense of women.

 

Every Budget is a choice.

 

These choices are meant to reflect the underlying values of the government of the day.

 

The reason we have a Budget is to allocate resources where they are needed, so we can build the kind of communities and society that are good for all people to live in.

 

The Budget is one of the best chances the government has to make clear to the people why it is in power and what it wants to do.

 

It’s not just women’s pay National went after.

 

They are also stealing from our kids' futures by slashing the Government KiwiSaver contribution.

 

An 18-year-old New Zealander, as of this year's Budget, is now going to be $66,000 worse off in their retirement due to this cut.

 

On cost-of-living support, the best many families will get is $7 a week. Not even enough to cover a block of butter

 

Even before this Budget, the Government was failing to live up to its promises. Remember that ghost $250 a fortnight for families I mentioned earlier!

 

Many Kiwis voted for this Government thinking they’d benefit from FamilyBoost, but fewer than half of their target has received the full payments. About a quarter of the scheme has been eaten up by administration costs, rather than going to families to help with childcare.

 

Even Nicola Willis admits it’s overly-complicated. She’s botched the numbers and the finances on her flagship cost of living programme. It’s quite simply a broken promise.

 

National are also taking money away from whānau with a new baby at home by cutting back Best Start.

 

$73 might not mean much to this Government, but for many families it's the difference between a box of nappies and a tin of formula.

 

The Budget also made changes to Working for Families, making over 60,000 families about $43 a fortnight worse off.

 

It ended emergency housing contracts, meaning more Kiwis will be sleeping rough. The opening of the E Kai Soup Kitchen yesterday afternoon here in Porirua is yet another example of our local communities doing what they need to do to look after our most vulnerable when the Government won’t.  

 

They say, “there’s no alternative,” but that’s not true.

 

There is always a choice. And they are choosing wrong.

 

Instead of helping families with the cost of living they have wiped away about half a billion in taxes from multinational tech giants, like Facebook and Google.

 

Instead of creating jobs that pay well and help build a future here in New Zealand, they are pushing thousands of people out of work and driving up costs.

 

Instead of making sure everyone can get care they need, when they need it, National’s barely funding the health system enough to keep the lights on.

 

Instead of investing in a future where everyone has a safe, warm, affordable home near schools, work, and healthcare, they are gutting essential housing programmes

 

Instead of bringing down power bills by investing in renewable energy, they’ve chosen to give hundreds of millions of dollars to gas companies.

 

Now, I’ve heard some say that love it or hate it, at least it’s getting us to surplus a few years from now. But that’s only true because National moved the goalposts by making up their own measure.

 

Besides, what good is getting to surplus when people are finding it harder and harder to pay the bills? When our construction sector has been decimated and Kiwis are fleeing for better prospects overseas?

 

They call this the “Growth Budget,” but what growth are we talking about? If you’re measuring growing unemployment, growing homelessness, growing food prices, a growing gap between rich and poor, and the growing pay gap between men and women… If those are your metrics, then yes, this is a Growth Budget.

 

All Budgets are about choices, and we would have made different choices.

 

Labour’s focus will be on what matters most to people.

 

Well paid jobs, safe and affordable homes, quality healthcare, and the peace of mind that comes from knowing you can pay the bills, care for your family, and plan for the future.

 

We will choose to create good jobs, not cut them. That means supporting local industry and small businesses. That means backing training, apprenticeships, and skills for the future. And that means investing in infrastructure to get people into work and get the country moving.

 

We will choose to properly fund our public health system. Not just to keep the lights on, but enough to make sure people can see a doctor when they need one. That our health system is properly staffed, not frozen on the frontline.

 

We will choose to build homes, not cut housing support. Warm, affordable homes in communities where people can thrive and send their kids to a good public school down the street.

 

These are the foundations of an economy with people at its heart, and with an investment in our future.

 

Every year, Budgets are talked about at length in the media, in our workplaces, around the dinner table and amongst friends.  

 

In every case, they should be judged on the difference they will make to people’s lives

 

This will forever be remembered as the Budget that cut women’s pay. This is the Budget that said women don’t matter, that families can wait, that the future can be sold off. This is a Budget that tells New Zealanders you’re better off going to Australia.

 

Labour rejects their choices. We say that women deserve fair pay. We say that families doing it tough deserve support. We say, the next generation deserves hope.

 

We say, it’s time to invest in jobs, health, and homes.

 

That’s how we’ll build a better future, and we’ll do it by making different choices.

 

Fa’afetai lava mo le avanoa, thank you.