Jacinda Ardern
Minister, Arts, Culture and Heritage
Minister, Child Poverty Reduction
Minister, National Security and Intelligence
Prime Minister
Good afternoon, everyone and welcome also to the beginning of Sign Language Week. My name is Jacinda, and now you officially know my Sign name. Did I get that correct? I can only assume, of course, that is a reference to a facial feature of some description of mine. But I wear with honour and pride that I’ve been given that name. And you can see from the presence both of the Minister for Disability Issues but also Alan Wendt, who is here with me today, that we’re not just acknowledging the beginning of Sign Language Week; we are actually supporting it from here into the future, particularly as an official language in New Zealand. We will have Sign interpreters as a permanent fixture at our post-Cabinet press conferences from here on.
I want to acknowledge the initial approach that we had from Deaf Action around making this happen, and also the support from the likes of co-leader Marama Davidson for seeing this addition to our post-Cab press conferences, but also the advocacy of the likes Deaf Aotearoa, who also do a huge amount of work around Sign Language Week and advocacy around Sign Language generally. So I know it’s something that the Minister is really pleased we are instituting here today.
Look, I’ll quickly run through the week ahead. We’ll move to an announcement that also involves the Minister of Social Development. She’s here with two hats today, and then we’ll move into questions.
This morning I did have the pleasure of meeting the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and I’ll forewarn you—I’m unlikely to go into the detail of the conversation as is the case with conversations that I have generally at this level. I can tell you, though, that we had a good discussion, which included some domestic policy here in New Zealand that Ms Clinton had an interest in—the Future of Work, for instance; geopolitical, environment; and also being a mum in the political frame. We also exchanged gifts, and Hillary passed on to me a gift she was told every New Zealand child needed to have, and which I can tell you I did not have already, and that was a buzzy bee. So she’s obviously been very well informed during her time here. I gave her two children’s books, which I thought she may wish to read to her grandchildren, by authors Lynley Dodd and Margaret Mahy, which included A Summery Saturday Morning and Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy—because I know you want that level of detail! I want to acknowledge as well that the Minister of Defence has today part in a repatriation process that is incredibly important to family members and also service personnel. Last month, we announced the repatriation of New Zealand service personnel buried, and dependants, in Malaysia, Singapore, Fiji, American Samoa, the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Korea after 1 January 1955. The first of these repatriations is happening right now, as we speak. A Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules is returning the remains of RNZAF Flight Lieutenant George Beban and Leading Aircraftman Ralph Scott from Fiji, and Royal New Zealand Navy Engineering Mechanic First Class Russell Moore from America Samoa. They are being received by a traditional Māori welcome before their remains are handed over to their loved ones. Minister for Veterans Affairs Ron Mark is representing the Government at the ceremony in Ōhākea.
Just by way of background, prior to 1955 it was Government policy to inter our fallen personnel overseas. This changed, and between 1955 and 1971 personnel could be brought home at the cost of their family. Now, of course, as you’d expect, many families could not afford to bring their loved ones home, and that caused a huge amount of heartache. In 1971 the Government began picking up the bill, but it was not backdated to 1955, when the policy changed. The Government has agreed to fund repatriation and make a contribution of $1,000 for the memorial for those who are interred in a public or private ceremony.
The total cost of repatriations was originally expected to be $10 million, but is now estimated to cost no more than $7 million, and it will include in the future repatriations, 29 of which from Malaysia, one service person from Singapore, two from the United Kingdom, and two from the Republic of Korea.
The remainder of the week—tonight I’ll be launching this year’s Smokefree Rockquest. It’s the 30th anniversary of this event, something I participated in before and am excited to join again.
This week, there’ll be a number of pre-Budget announcements. On Tuesday, the foreign affairs Minister will be making a pre-Budget announcement in the area of trade, foreign affairs, and aid. On Wednesday, I’ll be speaking at a Salvation Army breakfast and making a pre-Budget announcement there that’s relevant to child well-being. That evening, I’m attending the Arts Foundation Icon awards. On Thursday, I’ll be chairing the Local Government Forum at Premier House, before attending an event in Auckland later that day. On Friday, I’ll be attending the launch of the New Zealand forestry service in Rotorua with the forestry and regional economic Minister, Shane Jones. I’ll also be at the annual Voyager media awards that night in Auckland. On Saturday, the conservation Minister, Eugenie Sage, will be making an announcement, and on Sunday I’ll be attending the second of two education summits in Auckland and making a pre-Budget announcement. I’ll also be speaking at the Northcote by-election, at Birkenhead Primary School.
Look, I do want to just finish up my introductory comments by acknowledging that it is also Privacy Week. It’s also Open Government Week this week as well, but I want to talk about Privacy Week very briefly, and the work that the Minister intends to do in this space. We have to acknowledge that there is some distrust amongst the public around the use of data by Government. It’s particularly the case when it comes to social services, and that’s why the Minister for Social Development has announced she is seeking New Zealanders’ view on both social well-being and how to best protect and use people’s personal information. And I’ll hand over to her to give a bit of an explanation behind that.