Post-Cabinet Press Conference: Monday, 3 November 2025

Good afternoon, everybody. It’s good to see you all. Welcome back, and I hope you had a bit of a chance to have a break over the recess. Can I just say a very big thank you to all of those that joined us on our trip to Malaysia and Korea for the East Asia Summit and to APEC. I think it was a pretty successful week for New Zealand, being able to push out deeper trade, defence and leader-to-leader relationships, and also the message that New Zealand is very much open for business.

This Government’s focus, as we’ve talked many times before, is about balancing the books, getting rid of the barriers to business in the form of red tape, and building the modern hospitals, roads, and schools that we need. Overseas investment is really vital in our plan to grow the economy, and by growing the economy we create jobs and we lift wages. That is why a good proportion of my overseas travel focuses on growing investment as well as cementing political relationships.

In Malaysia, two deals were cemented that underscore the huge potential to be tapped offshore. Malaysian-headquartered energy company Yinson Renewables announced a pipeline of renewable energy projects, expected to total around one gigawatt of renewable energy projects. This is a $2 billion to $3 billion investment that will create enough energy to power 750,000 homes, and that’s more, of course, than the total output of Huntly. Yinson has been developing a pipeline of wind projects in New Zealand over the past four years, supported by Invest New Zealand, the agency that we created to accelerate this type of investment at this year’s infrastructure summit.

The other significant deal signed in Malaysia was in tourism infrastructure, and the infrastructure conglomerate YTL confirmed a $160 million investment in the 225-room Hotel Indigo in Auckland, which is in fact the second-largest hotel transaction on record in New Zealand this year, and in fact the very first investment from YTL in New Zealand. These investments all demonstrate that New Zealand is seen as a credible investment destination by high-quality global investors. The projects that they commit to create jobs for your kids and a higher-wage economy as a result.

Tourism also offers us a huge opportunity to lift this country’s fortunes and it’s already exceeding our expectations. Tourism spending is up 34 percent since the election and we are nearly back to pre-COVID numbers. Our hotels, restaurants, retailers, and tourism businesses need these numbers to grow and we need tourism dollars coming in the door, and that’s why we’ve been doing everything we can to encourage visitors.

In the past month we’ve announced a $70 million events attraction package to secure large-scale international events and also to support new and existing smaller events as well. Major events, whether they are sports games or concerts, are a big win for the cities and regions that host them, supporting local jobs and incomes in pubs, restaurants and shops. And just yesterday, Minister Upston and Minister Potaka announced a new cycle trail in Ruapehu which will generate significant economic activity into the region and New Zealand.

And then here at home, fast-track, our process for powering up the economy, has been working well, and just a few hours ago, replacement consents for Genesis Energy’s Tekapo power station were approved. This power scheme is critical to New Zealand. It powers up 228,000 households and today’s fast-track decision means that this will continue long into the future.

This fast-track approval follows the port of Auckland expansion, Maitahi Village development in Nelson, and the Milldale development in Auckland. And the Auckland port expansion is expected to deliver between $2.5 billion to $6.6 billion to the New Zealand economy, as well as supporting 140,000 jobs over the next 30 years. Milldale will deliver 1,100 new homes in Auckland, contributing nearly half a billion dollars to the economy and supporting 3,500 jobs, and Maitahi Village will deliver hundreds of new homes in Nelson, contributing $356 million to the local economy and supporting 2,700 jobs.

Now, all of these projects would have taken years and years to consent under the RMA, and instead they have been approved in around six months. There’s been a serious amount of work done by this Government to shift what have been very stubborn economic circumstances and we’re going to continue to do all that we can to improve the lives of New Zealand families. And with that, I’m very happy to take your questions.

On the tourism issue, what message have you got for the number of local body leaders, including Wayne Brown, who say to cope with that, we need a bed tax?

Look, it’s not on our agenda for this term at all. What we can do is what we’re—you know, we’re spending $70 million on a major events fund. You know, that is our way in which we are actually saying we can attract more activity into a city like Auckland. Importantly, we’ve also said we’re loosening up the constraints. Where those major events funds used to have to be half funded by the council, half funded by Government, we’re relaxing those restrictions. So, you know, I think we’ve got what we need to be able to attract good events into the city through the major events.

That’s a hard no?

It’s a hard no this term for sure, yeah.

Has the Government received any advice on what to do about former prince Andrew and his place in the line of succession as it relates to the Kingdom of New Zealand?

Yeah, look, I mean, any change in the line of the succession, line of succession, is a matter for the UK, obviously in consultation with Realm countries. We’ll have a play to—part to play in that but I haven’t sought specific advice from New Zealand on that.

No advice has come from [Inaudible]?

We haven’t received any notification from the Palace or from the UK and, as I said, I haven’t asked for specific advice on that.

If you needed to pass any legislation to help with removing Prince Andrew from the line of succession, the Government would be happy to do that?

Yeah, in fairness, I just don’t know what the ask would be. It would be a bit hypothetical for me to prejudge that without having had advice from the Palace as to what is requested of the Realm countries.

Does he have any honours or anything like that?

Not that I’m aware of, no.

Would you want to see him removed from the line of succession?

Again, those are decisions for the Palace. I support the King’s decisions and I’ll continue to support the Palace’s decisions.

Prime Minister, there’s a case in the High Court at the moment around fresh water. It centres on comments made by Bill English in 2012 that Māori do have rights and interests in fresh water and geothermal resources. Do you agree with that?

Look, I haven’t looked at the details of the case, so I think it would be a bit immature for me to comment while it’s going before the courts, but we’ve had a long-standing view that certainly, you know, no one in this country owns water. It’s pretty simple.

But do Māori have rights to fresh water and geothermal resources?

There’s rights and interests that many, many folk have across the country, but no one owns the water.

Do you accept, though, that Māori have been locked out of the ‘first in, first served’ water allocation system?

No. I think what we have is we need to recognise there are many that have rights and interests in water. It’s a difficult issue. It’s a complex issue. As we go through our RMA reforms, we’ll have more to say about that in due course, but we’ve got to balance a lot of interests.

Is that an issue, sorry, you’re looking at as part of the RMA reforms?

Yes.

On measles, are you satisfied with the advice being provided by Ministries, particularly in regard to schools?

Yes, I am. Yes, I am. I think, you know, as Prime Minister, I need to trust the advice from Health New Zealand and Ministry of Health. But my message very clearly is: listen to the advice from the officials. But my second piece of advice is: today, as a parent, go out and get your kid vaccinated. There is nothing to stop you from doing that this afternoon, tomorrow morning. Go do it, because we have seen vaccination rates fall from 92 percent down to 77 percent under a Labour Government. We are building that back with partnership with iwi health organisations and some other efforts that we’ve got going on, and we’re making some good progress, but nowhere near enough. And one of the simplest, most simplest things you can do is jump on Book My Vaccine, I think it is, and just get your vaccine booked for your kids.

All the advice to date you think has been appropriate? Obviously, we’ve seen the prizegiving play out [Inaudible].

Yeah, look, in fairness, I came back into the country yesterday. I trust the Minister and I trust the officials and they should be directing us with the correct advice, so follow their advice. But again, I can just underscore—I don’t know how to be any more clearer about it but here we are in 2025, in a first-world country, with a measles outbreak that could potentially shut down schools. That is unacceptable, and there are parents that need to take personal responsibility for their kids and go get them vaccinated. And I know I’m talking very bluntly about this but it’s actually really necessary because we’re all in this together and if we don’t get vaccination rates up, we’re then very susceptible to measles outbreaks and bigger challenges.

What about schools taking it seriously? Just around the corner from here, Wellington Girls’ College are kind of ignoring the Ministry’s advice about large gatherings.

Well, again, I just would say: follow the advice of the officials. I can’t speak to the specific case, I’m not familiar with it sufficiently. I’m sure the—you should direct your question to the Minister of Health, obviously, but I expect the authorities to be very clear on their advice.

Prime Minister, where are you at in setting up the inquiry into what happened with the Tom Phillips case?

I’m very close to making an announcement about that. I hope to be able to do that in a matter of weeks.

Do you intend to set out publicly the election date early next year?

Look, it’s something I’ll think about. I haven’t given it thought at this point in time but, you know, I personally quite like the tradition that we’ve had in New Zealand of giving clarity up front and, you know, we’ll—I’ll think more about that over summer.

Prime Minister, has Paul Goldsmith figured out what a broadcaster is or what the BSA’s legal authority—

I haven’t had a chance to—I’ve been away for the last week and a bit, my friend, but I will leave it with him to work his way through it. But no change from when we last talked about it.

Just on the public service strikes and the ads that the Public Service Commission ran on Facebook, do you know the ads that I’m talking about?

I think so, yes.

On Facebook?

Yes.

Did the Parliamentary—did, sorry, the Public Service Commissioner, did he come to you or your office to approve those ads?

Not that I’m aware of, no. But I fully support what they did, which was to make sure they got their case and their offer out into the public domain using social media. Fantastic. Good on them. The bigger issue is that the unions need to get round the table and get back to negotiation, as I’ve said.

So is Judith Collins wrong when she says that they did come to both you and her office to approve them?

I’m not aware of it. They may have spoken to my office but I’m not aware of it personally, no.

Can you rule out the National Party running on any new taxes at next year’s election?

Well, I think you just need to look at our record. In budget number one, we delivered tax relief for the first time in 14 years to lower/middle-income working New Zealanders. Labour failed to support that. The unions failed to support that. In our second budget this year, we lowered taxes for businesses through our Investment Boost programme, which encouraged more investment. So we are a party of low taxes, naturally, instinctively, and we believe that actually the focus starts with Government spending and we have seen huge wastage of Government spending, a billion dollars on consultants. We’re able to deliver twice as many classrooms as the previous Labour administration because we manage the same budget better and get better value for that money that’s being spent. So that’s our natural starting point. That’s where we start as a party.

As to specifics, I wouldn’t want to—you know, we’ll confirm everything through our election policy but I think you’d have to be pretty—you know, just look at our record to know we’re a low tax party.

When will the National Party start releasing actual policy?

This is rich, coming from an Opposition that’s failed—has, what, had four policy announcements in the last two weeks and every single one of them has been an absolute debacle. I mean, like, it’s incredible.

When are we going to start getting a feel for what you’re going to be proposing?

Well, I mean, you should be pretty clear about what we’re doing right now, which is that we’re undertaking major reform of our RMA planning system because we think that’s a huge amount of red and green tape that needs to be taken out of the system so people can get on and get things done. We’ve got major reform programme around education because we’ve got to teach our kids the basics and I’m not having kids in New Zealand fall behind kids in Singapore, Canada, Ireland, New South Wales, so we are changing our curriculum. We are teaching the basics brilliantly. We’re pushing on with that because the results we had are not good enough.

You’re seeing a Government that’s very, very focused on good financial control and discipline so that we actually pay down our debt, ultimately, but also actually get inflation and interest rates down, and it’s got a huge investment in infrastructure going off and a major focus on trade, where we are lifting our intensity and creating as much opportunity as we can in our trading environment. So, you know, our programme doesn’t change: world class education, embrace more science/technology, get rid of the red tape, more infrastructure, modern, reliable infrastructure, and more trade and investment.

Prime Minister, 100 police are under investigation after it’s been revealed there were 30,000 fraudulent breath tests in New Zealand in the last year.

Yeah, look, I’m going to leave that for the police to respond to on that one. I won’t respond to that.

Are you disappointed?

Well, again, I’m not sufficiently aware of the facts on that one, given I’ve been away. But I’d just say to you if that’s the case we expect our Police Commissioner to be all over it and that’s what they should be doing.

On the Regulatory Standards Bill, has Cabinet discussed recently any new, perhaps, changes or amendments to the Bill?

Yeah, look, I mean you’ll see that when it comes to the House, back to the House again for second reading shortly. But, you know, there’s been some adjustments, obviously, post the select committee process. I’ll let David Seymour, as Minister for Regulation, talk to that.

Will that be happening tomorrow?

Again, you’ll find out about it when we—when we’re ready to bring it back to the House.

Are you confident that all of your coalition partners, namely New Zealand First, are genuinely supportive of the Regulatory Standards Bill?

Look, I mean, there’s been a range of views on it, obviously, expressed, as you’d expect, from a number of stakeholders across the whole country. That’s why we had quite a robust consultation period. We had a robust select committee process. David Seymour is leading that and he’ll be, you know, he’ll be making some adjustments off the back of that feedback. But the intention here is very clearly to make sure that we are delivering high quality regulation, that actually there is a way—a bit like there is with the Public Finance Act—a way to make sure that we actually have good discipline around creating regulation that’s actually adding value and not wasting taxpayers’ money.

I ask because Winston Peters said that they would need to fix the piece of legislation come the next election. Why does he still think that it’s not yet been fixed?

I don’t know. You’d have to ask him. What I can tell you is a Government priority— it’s happening and there’s been a select committee process and there’ll be—you know, as you would expect, to make the legislation better, as we’ve seen on fast track, as we’ve seen on Regulatory Standards Bill. That’s quite normal, quite natural that that would happen.

What have you made of the latest developments in Te Pati Māori? We’ve seen a petition from one of their electorate branches to replace their president and then the president has issued a lengthy statement of his own. What do you think?

Yeah, look, I don’t think Te Pāti Māori are a serious outfit. I think they are activists. I think they’re performative. I’ve never had a sensible—I’ve never heard of a single policy idea from Te Pāti Māori about how they’re going to improve outcomes for Māori students, Māori health, Māori achievement, and so I don’t take them seriously, frankly. I don’t want to work with them, I won’t be working with them, but the guy that does is Chris Hipkins. He wants to work with them. So does he want to work with the Greens. All that means is more tax, more spending, more borrowing, and frankly a party that hasn’t had one serious policy idea.

Do you have any concern that the dysfunction within that party could grow Labour’s vote?

Look again, Labour’s the guys that want to work with Te Pāti Māori, and their voting record on law and order, health and education, tax relief for working New Zealanders, is exactly the same. So, frankly, whether it’s a Labour‒Te Pāti Māori‒Greens coalition is what Chris Hipkins wants to form. As you’ve seen, they have the same voting record, but I don’t take them seriously.

If there was a change in leadership in the party—

Of which party?

Te Pāti Māori. If there was a change in leadership at that party, in the party, would it cause you to maybe reconsider your stance on not working with them, if the leadership took a different approach to certain policy areas?

Oh, look, total speculation, but I’m just saying to you the Labour—the Te Pāti Māori that we’ve seen in the last few years is very different from Te Pāti Māori that National was in coalition with many years ago. You know, this is a party that actually is just purely activist, purely protest, purely performative, actually doesn’t bring policy, substantive policy ideas to what they’re doing. And just imagine—just imagine it. I mean, imagine a Cabinet table where Chris Hipkins is sitting there with Chloe Swarbrick as Minister of Finance, and Marama Davidson and Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. That is just chaos, you know, absolute chaos sitting there in that coalition.

Is there anyone in the caucus that you could potentially see National working with?

No. We’re focused on what we’ve got to do, which is actually make sure we get this economy turned around, sorted, and that we actually, you know, restore law and order, deliver better health and education outcomes for New Zealanders. That’s what we’re about.

Some of the language that JT used in that post, I’d like to know what you think of it, but he said it was a white feeding frenzy. He talked about Pākehā media and rage-baiting. What do you make of that?

Well, I’ve got no idea what he’s talking about and I don’t care because I’m not the leader of Te Pāti Māori and I’m not—have got no intention of working with them. Chris Hipkins is the guy you should be directing those questions with. He wants to be in partnership with them. I don’t. So, you know, as I said to you, it’s just a complete soap opera. Well, we came here to do serious things. This is a country that is in—has been through a difficult set of times. We are fixing the basics and we have an awesome future that we’re focused on realising for this country, and that’s what I’m getting out of bed to do every day. What the hell everyone else does, I don’t really care, frankly.

Back to fresh water, the iwi leaders who are part of that case say it’s out of frustration that the Government isn’t listening to them and locking them out of discussions in terms of protecting fresh water. Do you think this is an example of how iwi chairs—this isn’t about Te Pāti Māori—iwi chairs and hapū leaders feel about this Government, and having to take you to court yet again in order to try and solve something and try and get you to listen to them?

Well, we have several components to our Government. We have a legislature. We have an executive. We have a judiciary. You know, they all play a unique and important role in any—in a democracy, but particularly our democracy, so, you know, the courts—it’s perfectly legitimate and reasonable that people will want to go through court action. But, you know, we know what we need to do, which is that we, you know, have to get this country unblocked. We have turned this country into a country of bureaucrats. We have so much red tape/green tape that we are struggling to do—to get things built and done. And so I appreciate that there’ll be lots of people who have lots of different views about whether that’s the right course or wrong course of action but we are focused on we are going to grow this country and we are going to set it up for an awesome future, and for that to happen we have to get things done and built.

Do you think though that the Government is sidelining iwi and mana whenua in terms of quite significant decisions that have been made in their rohe?

No, I don’t. I mean, I appreciate they may not agree with the decisions that we’re taking, but, you know, there is always genuinely an outreach that comes from—I think about the work that Chris Bishop’s been doing on infrastructure, in particular around RMA reform. I think about the positive conversations I get to have with iwi leaders who I think actually we have a lot in common with, who actually do care about advancing their economic interests so that they can improve the social outcomes for the people. It’s the same challenge that I have and the same focus that I have as the Prime Minister. I want to grow New Zealand so I can deliver better public services. So there’s a lot of commonality between—when I meet with iwi leaders, I meet with them regularly, just privately, quietly in my office, and talk about these sort of issues.

Would you describe your relationship with the Iwi Chairs Forum particularly as quite good?

Well, not Iwi Chairs Forum, but I meet with different groups of iwi leaders up and down the country and we have very good strategic conversations. If you think about some of the work that we’ve done around—

Like who?

Well, I’m not—I’m not going to go into it, but there is a group that I, you know, have spent a lot of time, right from day one, meeting with. Despite all the other histrionics that go on above the surface, actually very constructive, positive conversations because there is alignment about what we’re trying to do. But I don’t see any of that happening in Te Pāti Māori, you know, and so that’s why we want to work with folk that want to get things done and sorted.

Prime Minister, summer’s coming, thank goodness.

Are you calling summer now, mate? Are you saying the bad weather’s over, it’s all good?

Not quite yet. We know that northerly’s going to blow for a while. But look, the—

What’s the weather forecast for Thursday or Friday? Have you got a long-range view?

It’s just going to keep blowing.

It’s all sunshine?

Water safety is actually what I’m meaning to ask about. How important is it for avoiding injuries and tragedies?

Yeah, really important. We live in an island nation. We have funding from the Government and to schools to support some basic water skills for our kids, and obviously we encourage parents to do likewise and support their kids, whether it’s take them down to the beach, spend time with them in the water building their confidence, or formal instruction. But, you know, it’s really important.

Are you satisfied with the level of support the Government puts towards efforts to increase water safety?

Yes. Given all the trade-offs and all the things that we have to manage and support and invest in, yes, I am. But again, that doesn’t preclude parents from doing extra with their kids as well.

The Belarusian opposition leader is in town. Are you meeting with her at all?

No, not that I’m aware of. I didn’t know they were in town.

She’s meeting with Winston Peters, I understand. What are they talking about?

I don’t know. You’d need to talk to Winston, he’s the Foreign Minister.

There was a lone protester outside Premier House today, protesting the bill that will ban protests outside MPs’ houses. Will that be illegal under the bill?

I’m not sure whether it’s about Premier House. But the point is we just don’t want you getting in front of politicians’ houses, CEOs’ houses, anyone else of any public, you know, nature. Protest them for sure, you know, and there’s lots of opportunities to protest me, lots of different places, and—but just don’t disturb the neighbours.

Will Premier House be included, though?

I’m not sure, mate. I mean, I don’t—I’m not there often, so, you know, as you know, so I come and go.

Will you be marking the 420th anniversary of the gunpowder plot tomorrow, Guy Fawkes?

Guy Fawkes tomorrow? I hadn’t thought about that. I haven’t managed to get down and get some Double Happys or Tom Thumbs.

They’re banned.

They’re banned, are they?

Yeah.

Yeah. No, sorry about that.

That’s a no?

No.

Do you think the Government needs to go further in terms of restricting fireworks or private sale, given what we know around animals in distress?

Look, I think most New Zealanders have worked out the better shows are actually being put on by their community organisations or their schools, but frankly if they want to light up fireworks, they can make good judgments and good calls about that themselves.

Prime Minister, just on measles, Wellington Girls’ College has put classes online, for some years, for three days. They said the Ministry of Education told them not to do it, but they didn’t want people to get exposed to measles after they ran an earlier event which the Ministry of Health and Safety said was OK and now there’s measles coming out of that. Is there too much of a focus on making sure kids are always in class, not doing anything online, and that’s leading maybe to the spread of measles?

No, no, just follow the advice from the officials. They are the folk that are closest to it, they understand what we need to do, and we need to trust our officials to give the right advice, which they are, and so I just encourage everybody to follow that advice. But I also just think, imagine when we meet again in seven days’ time. How many more New Zealand parents could have gone and got their kids vaccinated? How much could we shunt the 77 percent closer to the 92 percent that we desperately want to see and needs to happen?

Is there any ministerial pressure on the Ministries to make sure kids are going to school and not staying home, even if they’re exposed to measles?

No, we just want our kids to learn, and when we inherited a Government, came into Government and we had over half our kids not at school regularly, when other countries around the world have a much higher level of school attendance, we need our kids back in school. So that’s why I’d say follow the advice of the officials and they’ll keep everybody safe. But the bottom line is we also need our kids in school and they need to be learning, and we’re proud of the progress that we’ve made with school attendance. There’s a lot more for us to do on attendance but also on academic achievement as well.

Prime Minister, what are you doing about rising homelessness in Auckland?

Well, as you know, we’ve had a—you know, I think if you look at our progress on housing, we’ve kept house prices pretty stable, rents stable, which is good, housing affordability through rent and purchases in good shape. We’ve taken about 6,000 people off the state house waitlist, which is fantastic. We took 2,100 kids, I think, out of emergency accommodation into dry homes, and that’s been good. We’ve ended up with about 80 percent of people going through into housing scenarios.

On the homelessness front, as you know, Minister Bishop and Minister Potaka had a five-point action plan that they announced a couple of months ago. One of those is to make 300 homes available immediately for people in housing. I understand 100 of those 300 homes are already occupied and 200 of the 300, I think, are actually available in Auckland today as well. So, you know, we have—and we’ve put extra funding into a couple of places as well.

So, what I—but I’d just say in the round of the whole housing issue—and remember ownership’s linked to rent, which is linked to state houses, which is linked to emergency housing and homelessness. You know, these are complex issues. Under the last Government, they spent a billion dollars on emergency housing and they had a 32 percent increase in people being homeless. So we know they’re complex issues with people with complex needs, but we’ve made that housing available and also some extra funding as well.

Have you had any—or your Ministers, have they had any conversations with Wayne Brown about the situation, about if any specific changes can be made between local and central Government?

With respect to homelessness?

Yes.

Yes, there’s been a series of ongoing conversations over the last year and a half with Mark Mitchell, Chris Bishop, with local authorities but also with other Government agencies and making sure we get the agencies working together better too.

What are you considering?

Sorry?

What are you considering as a result?

Well, as I said, the five-point plan that we announced two months ago or a month and a half ago, which actually made of 300 housing places available immediately to people who are experiencing homelessness. 200 of the 300, from memory, were in Auckland.

Just quickly, what’s your MMR vaccination status?

Fully vaccinated, my friend.

And did you know that or did you have to go and check?

No, no, fully. No, no, I keep up to date with my vaccinations, yeah. Last question, Māni, because I think it will be a serious and a good one.

Your office was vandalised yesterday, I understand. Any charges laid or any security measures being taken?

Not that I’m aware of. My office is often targeted and I think that’s pretty unfair, actually, in terms of—depending on a number of issues. I thought it was pretty interesting that we had a Green Party advocating for someone who had done a lot of the damage on my office and other offices in Auckland and yet also called out, you know, bullying behaviour in Parliament, and yet were actually quite happy to have—support someone who was actually causing huge intimidation to electorate office staff who were trying to support constituents. So, yep, feel free to protest, do all that stuff, but no need to, you know, vandal properties and cause stress on electoral staff.

Was that in relation to the instance talked about here, or is it—

I’m just talking about in general over the time. But, you know, obviously my office is a target. Cool. Thanks, team. Have a good week.