Delivered by the Right Honourable Dame Cindy Kiro gnzm, qso, Governor-General of New Zealand, on the Occasion of the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday 6 December 2023

Karanga ki te rangi

Karanga ki te whenua

Karanga ki ngā pū ngahere

Karanga ki ngā maunga kōrero

Karanga ki ngā wai e tere nei.

E ngā rangatira, e ngā mema Pāremata, e ngā tāngata katoa o Aotearoa, ka nui ngā mihi matakoakoa ki a koutou katoa. Kia ora.

To the chiefs, Members of Parliament, and all New Zealanders, hearty greetings to you all.

Honourable Members of the House of Representatives.

It is my privilege to exercise the prerogative of His Majesty The King and open New Zealand’s 54th Parliament.

In October’s 2023 general election, New Zealanders voted for change – not just a change of government, but a change of policies and a change of approach. Following constructive negotiations to form a strong and stable government, a coalition between the New Zealand National Party, ACT New Zealand and the New Zealand First Party was agreed with a commitment to deliver that change.

This is the first time since New Zealand’s Mixed Member Proportional electoral system came in nearly 30 years ago, that there has been a three-way coalition government.

It took office on Monday last week when I swore in the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Christopher Luxon, and the ministry.

The Government enjoys the confidence of a clear majority of members in the 123-seat House of Representatives, but it is the people outside Parliament who will be the Government’s priority in decisions made over the next three years.

The new Government is committed to delivering; to getting things done. It wants people to see demonstrable, measurable results that make their lives easier, and help them to get ahead.

The Government will work alongside local government, businesses, community groups and iwi, believing that all of us can achieve more by working together, and that co-operation will enable greater reach into communities, particularly those with high needs, to effect change.

The Government’s aim is to improve outcomes for all New Zealanders, while leading a unified and confident country. The Government will encourage independence and reward hard work, while retaining a comprehensive safety net for those in need of support.

The new Government will show its respect for New Zealanders by spending public money carefully and with a clear purpose. The Government has many priorities and among them are rebuilding the economy to ease the cost of living, delivering tax relief and increasing prosperity for all New Zealanders.

The Government will restore law and order and personal responsibility so Kiwis feel safer where they live and work.

It will deliver public services so they are more efficient, effective and responsive to all who need and use them.

The Government will also strengthen New Zealand’s democracy.

Its policy programme will be extensive and ambitious, reflecting the amount of change necessary to provide hope and opportunity for more New Zealanders, and for this great nation to realise more of its potential.

Economy

To lift New Zealand’s productivity and economic growth, and in order to increase opportunities and prosperity for all New Zealanders, managing a strong economy will be a key focus for the next three years.

Restoring discipline to government spending will help the Government achieve its fiscal plan and ensure that public money is being spent effectively, using rigorous cost benefit analysis, where applicable.

The Government will reduce Core Crown expenditure as a proportion of the overall economy – with savings in government agencies targeted to deliver tax relief for hard-working, low-and-middle-income workers.

These savings will be informed by the increase in back-office head counts in each agency since 2017, but Ministers will be expected to work with individual chief executives to achieve their respective savings targets.

With the Official Cash Rate hitting its highest point since 2008, creating stress and worry for many mortgage holders and businesses, the Reserve Bank Act’s dual mandate has patently not worked at containing inflation. The Government will amend it within 100 days so monetary policy is quickly returned to having a single focus on price stability.

Red tape is adding costs to businesses that get passed on to consumers. A new government department, reporting to the Minister for Regulation, will be established to assess and improve the quality of new and existing legislation and regulation. A Regulatory Standards Bill will be passed to ensure regulatory decisions are based on principles of good law-making and economic efficiency.

As part of restoring fiscal discipline, the Government has already axed the expensive Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme, and the Government will also stop work on Industry Transformation Plans, the costly Income Insurance Scheme, Auckland’s Light Rail project, and Let’s Get Wellington Moving.

Cost of Living

Overwhelmingly, the public’s main concern is the high cost of living.

Reducing wasteful spending will contribute to taking pressure off inflation. Tax relief targeted at middle and lower-income workers will be of practical help to households. It will meet the Government’s objectives of encouraging people into employment, and people enjoying more take-home pay in return for their effort.

The Government will provide income tax relief to compensate for the increase in the cost of living, increase Working for Families tax credits, introduce the FamilyBoost tax credit to support young families with the cost of childcare, and widen eligibility for the independent earner tax credit.

These changes will see a median wage earner better off by at least $50 a fortnight – and more for many with children.

Mortgage interest deductibility for rental properties will be restored.

To further help with the cost of living, the Government will cancel planned fuel tax increases by freezing them for three years, while also removing the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax.

Funds raised from the Emissions Trading Scheme will be paid back to taxpayers through a climate dividend. They will no longer be used to unnecessarily subsidise the climate initiatives of profitable companies that should be making these investments themselves.

The Government will re-write the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act to protect vulnerable consumers, without unnecessarily limiting access to credit.

A select committee inquiry will be held into banking competition and the Government will explore options to strengthen the powers of the Grocery Commissioner to improve competitiveness in the sector.

Law and Order

Honourable members,

New Zealanders are wearied and worried by brazen offending, particularly against retailers. All New Zealanders are paying for this offending but those working in fear are bearing the highest personal cost.

The explosion in gang numbers is concerning communities everywhere.

The Government believes a good education is the best way for young people to have better life opportunities than the mayhem and brutality offered by gangs and criminal offending.

To support Police and ensure New Zealanders are safer, the Government will train no fewer than 500 new frontline Police within the first two years.

The Government will introduce legislation to provide Police with additional powers to tackle gangs.

That legislation will:

• Ban gang patches and insignia in public places
• Give Police the power to issue dispersal notices requiring gang members to immediately leave a public area
• Allow Police to issue Consorting Prohibition Notices to stop known gang offenders committing serious offences
• Give Police power to issue Firearms Prohibition Orders making it illegal for a gang member with serious convictions to enter certain premises where firearms are present, and give Police increased search powers for people who are subject to such an Order.

Too often, sentences do not reflect the gravity of offending so the Sentencing Act will be amended to ensure appropriate consequences for offenders. This will include making gang membership an aggravating factor in sentencing.

The “three strikes” rule for serious repeat criminals will be restored, with a tighter definition of offences that qualify as strikes.

To deter young people from a life of crime, the Government will create a new Young Serious Offender category and establish Young Offender Military Academies to help young offenders turn around their lives.

Additionally, over the term of this Parliament, the Government will increase the number of trained Youth Aid officers and will consider a Youth Justice Demerit Point system.

Funding will be increased for the Department of Corrections to ensure there is sufficient prison capacity and, where appropriate, prison officers will be equipped with body cameras and protective equipment.

Firearms legislation will be reviewed, including rewriting the Arms Act 1983 for greater protection of public safety and to simplify regulatory requirements. The Firearms Registry will be reviewed to see whether it is improving public safety.

Public Services

While spending on public services has increased in recent years, and the head count in government departments has grown, the delivery of public services has, in too many cases, declined. This decline is seen in measures that matter to individuals, and to our country.

Targets will be set for important measures – like wait times in hospitals and waiting times for cancer treatment. These will help focus resources on the Government’s priorities, which are achieving better results in the things that matter to New Zealanders’ daily lives.

The pay of public sector chief executives and their deputies will be linked to outcomes to encourage high performance and ensure accountability.

Education

Education is essential for opening up young people’s life opportunities, but current school achievement rates are worryingly poor. For example, half of Year 10’s do not meet the basic literacy and numeracy standards the OECD says are needed to succeed in further learning, and in life.

This Government will not stand by as cohorts of young people see their life horizons shrink because of a lack of schooling.

The Government will require every primary and intermediate class to be taught an hour of reading, an hour of writing and an hour of maths, every day, because a good grasp of the basics is the essential foundation on which to build further education.

To help teachers, the curriculum will be rewritten with clear requirements on what needs to be covered each school year in reading, writing, maths and science, and the curriculum will be focused on academic achievement, not ideology. Student progress will be regularly assessed. Cellphones will be banned in classes. Every child will be taught to read using a structured literacy approach.

Partnership schools will be reintroduced and state schools will be allowed to become partnership schools. Further options to increase school choice and expand access to integrated and independent schools will be explored.

In tertiary education, Te Pūkenga will be disestablished with control over polytechnics restored to the regions they serve.

The first-year fees-free policy for tertiary education will be replaced with a final-year fees-free-policy, but not before 2025.

Health

The health system and the health workforce have been under enormous pressure and more support is required for the frontline.

To encourage more graduate nurses and midwives to stay in New Zealand, the government will establish a system to pay their student loan repayments, up to $4,500 year for five years, in exchange for them agreeing to work here for at least five years.

To further boost the health workforce, the Government will increase the number of doctors, psychiatrists and clinical psychologists being trained.

The Government will undertake a cost benefit analysis on the proposed third medical school, based at Waikato University.

To support the health workforce in hospital emergency departments, security will be increased.

Cancer patients have better survival rates in Australia than in New Zealand. To help narrow that gap and to improve management of breast, ovarian, bowel, and prostate cancer, the Government will invest $280m over four years to fund 13 cancer treatments recommended by the New Zealand Cancer Control Agency.

Free breast cancer screening will be extended up to 74 years of age.

Pharmac will be required to take the voice of patients into account in making decisions, and its funding model will be reformed.

Approvals for new medicines will be made easier by requiring Medsafe to approve within 30 days new pharmaceuticals approved by at least two overseas regulatory agencies recognised by New Zealand.

To support mothers and babies, a new entitlement will be introduced to enable every mother of a new baby to have three days in-patient post-natal care.

The Government will fund the Gumboot Friday/I am Hope charity with $6 million a year, ensure Plunket is adequately funded to do its job properly, allow appropriately qualified pharmacists to prescribe certain treatments, and permit the sale of cold medication containing pseudoephedrine.

The Māori Health Authority will be disestablished. There will be no co-governance of public services and emphasis will shift to the frontline rather than the back office. Services will be delivered on need, using a range of effective providers, including iwi and community groups who have the best reach into the communities they serve.

Welfare and Work

Honourable Members,

Having 11 per cent, or one in nine New Zealanders of working age on a main benefit, means too many people are dependent on the effort of their fellow citizens instead of being self-supporting. The Government will encourage those who are able to work, to do so. The Government will uphold New Zealanders’ rights and expect individuals to demonstrate that they understand their responsibilities.

The welfare system will be focussed on helping get Jobseekers who are assessed as being able to work, into jobs. There will be sanctions for those who refuse to do their bit.

90-day trials for all businesses will be brought back to encourage employers to give workers a go.

The Fair Pay agreement legislation will be repealed because employers and their teams are best able to negotiate for their own circumstances.

Seniors

Turning to superannuation, the age of entitlement for New Zealand Superannuation will remain at 65.

The universal winter energy payment will be maintained. The Building Act and resource consent system will be amended to make it easier to build granny flats or other small structures up to 60sqm.

Housing

Successive governments have struggled to make housing more affordable for more New Zealanders, with house prices and rents rising particularly quickly over the last six years. The Government will require councils in major towns and cities to zone for 30 years of housing demand because getting more houses built is essential to having a more affordable housing market.

The Natural and Built Environment and Spatial Planning Acts will be repealed and replaced with genuine reform that will make it easier to build.

The Medium Density Residential Standards rules will become optional for councils, with councils required to ratify any use of the measures, including in existing zones.

Turning to social housing, the performance of Kāinga Ora is a concern. There will be a review of its finances, procurement, development and asset management practices.

The lives of some neighbours of some Kāinga Ora properties are being made miserable because of inadequate action against anti-social behaviour by some Kāinga Ora tenants. Under the new Government, there will be appropriate consequences for tenants who engage in repeated anti-social behaviour.

Infrastructure and Transport

Honourable members,

New Zealand has a significant infrastructure deficit and needs to improve the way it funds, procures and maintains infrastructure.

The Government will set up a National Infrastructure Agency. It will coordinate government funding, connect domestic and offshore investors with New Zealand infrastructure projects, and improve funding, procurement and delivery.

As part of amending the Resource Management Act 1991, the Government will make it easier to consent new infrastructure including for renewable energy, building houses, and enhancing the primary sector – including fish and aquaculture, forestry, pastoral, horticulture and mining.

There will be a fast-track one-stop-shop established for the consenting and permitting process for regional and national projects of significance.

The Government will deliver marine farming permits of longer duration to provide investment certainty, and remove regulations that impede the productivity and potential of the seafood sector.

The Government will partner with local government to create long-term City and Regional deals so there is an agreed, visible pipeline of priority projects underway across the country. Public/Private partnerships, tolls and other funding mechanisms will be considered to speed infrastructure delivery.

As promised, the Government will repeal the Three Waters legislation and restore council ownership and control with stronger central government oversight, and strict rules for water quality and ongoing investment.

The Government will invest in better transport infrastructure including progressing 13 new Roads of National Significance, with a focus on unlocking land for new housing developments and easing congestion in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, Hamilton and Tauranga.

The Government commits to a four-lane highway alternative for the Brynderwyns in Northland, and it will investigate the use of private finance to accelerate construction.

The Government will establish a Regional Infrastructure Fund with $1.2 billion in capital funding over the Parliamentary term.

Major public transport upgrades will be delivered to reduce congestion in Auckland and provide people with more options for moving around the city.

There will also be upgrades to transport infrastructure in Ashburton, Queenstown, Otago and Southland.

Primary Sector / Emissions

As mentioned earlier, across government, red tape will be cut in order to get things moving and to remove costs that have been imposed for little or no gain.

Cutting red tape will unleash the investment in renewable energy that is needed for the country to meet its emissions reduction targets, aid primary sector production and improve the productivity of small businesses.

The Government will reduce the regulatory burden on farmers, who are spending an increasing amount of their time on paperwork. The implementation of new Significant Natural Areas will cease and existing Significant Natural Areas will be looked at as part of the reform of the Resource Management Act.

The National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management 2020 will be replaced to ensure a local approach, allowing district councils more flexibility in managing environmental limits.

The Government will lift the effective ban on gene editing and genetic modification and encourage the use of these technologies. This will mean the advantages of technological progress, for example in reducing the production of methane by farm animals, will be available in New Zealand, just as it already is in many other countries.

The ban on live animal exports will be reversed, while ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare.

By December 31 this year, the Government will end the clean car discount scheme and, with it, so-called ute tax which has been particularly unfair on the rural sector and tradespeople.

The Government is committed to New Zealand meeting its greenhouse gas emissions targets. To encourage more renewable energy production, the Government will fast track consents. Consents will no longer be required for upgrading transmission lines and infrastructure.

The Government will undertake a cost benefit analysis on investing in a nationwide electric-vehicle charging network. The provision of more charging stations will encourage more people into electric vehicles, which will help reduce New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions from transport.

To further reduce emissions, by 2030 the Government will implement a fair and sustainable pricing system for on-farm agricultural emissions. As part of the Emissions Trading Scheme, 100 per cent recognition of on-farm sequestration will be introduced.

The Government will limit the conversion of productive farmland to forestry for carbon farming purposes.

Citizenship

The Government believes in equal citizenship with all citizens sharing the same rights and obligations.

The Government will work to improve outcomes for all New Zealanders with public services delivered to people according to their need, and not advance policies that seek to ascribe different rights and responsibilities based on race or ancestry.

A Treaty Principles Bill will be introduced and supported to a select committee for the public to have their say.

Waitangi Tribunal legislation will be amended to refocus the scope, purpose and nature of the tribunal’s inquiries back to the original intent of that legislation.

The Government will also review legislation – except where it relates to full and final Treaty settlements – that includes reference to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. Reference to the principles will be replaced with words that explain what Parliament intends, in the context of that legislation, or will be removed.

Foreign Affairs/Trade

Finally, the Government should not – and will not – focus its efforts only within New Zealand’s borders.

The world is increasingly complex and contested. There are risks to be managed, but also opportunities for New Zealand to make the most of, to ensure our country makes more of its potential.

This requires New Zealand to have an active foreign, defence and trade policy agenda:

• that enhances our security
• that signals that New Zealand is open for business and outwardly engaged
• that makes us a participant in major global and regional developments, not a spectator, and
• that sees us working tirelessly to grow trade and prosperity.

The coalition Government is committed to getting offshore and raising our profile on the world stage. The Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and other Ministers will strengthen relationships with key partners, advance New Zealand’s interests and promote our businesses offshore.

The Government will be bold in defending New Zealand’s interests, and vigilant in the protection of the values of democracy, freedom, and security.

Honourable members.

Perhaps New Zealand’s strong sporting traditions help New Zealanders to be generous in defeat, and humble in victory. Whatever the reasons, few countries in the world change governments as smoothly as New Zealand does. It is something of which New Zealand, as a nation, can be justifiably proud.

It has put the Government in a good position to start on its 100-day plan of action. The 100-day plan is a forerunner of three years of action because New Zealanders voted for change, and the Government will be tireless in executing it.

It has started work and will hold itself accountable for delivering results that make a positive difference.

No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.