Ardern strikes back in first speech
On the first day of Parliament it was the prime minister’s turn to strike back at the opposition that caused her grief within minutes of Parliament’s opening.
Jacinda Ardern did not hold back. In her first formal speech to the House following the state opening on Wednesday, Ardern told Opposition leader Bill English she understood the desire to defend their record.
‘‘I would simply remind them, that in defending their record they must also defend record homelessness. They must also defend dirty rivers and lakes. They must also defend inequality and yes, child poverty.
‘‘So by all means defend the record of the last nine years, while we get on with fixing it,’’ she said to theatrical applause from her own party.
Ardern also took issue with comments made by English with regards to the Government’s new free tertiary education policy.
‘‘The leader of the Opposition has continually claimed that a checkout operator will be paying for others to learn.
‘‘At what point did the leader of the Opposition lose his ambition for New Zealanders, that that checkout operator themselves could not aspire to go on to tertiary education,’’ she said.
‘‘And I say to those checkout operators, having been one myself, that you too could become a minister of finance or indeed the prime minister of New Zealand.’’
Ardern also took issue with National Party claims it had hidden education data and pointed to a sting the Government appeared to be preparing against National.
‘‘If you want to talk about hiding data, then there will be a lot of time in this House to talk about what we’ve discovered in the school properties portfolio. But that time will come.’’
In a strong speech, Ardern said the start of the parliamentary term was a ‘‘new beginning’’.
‘‘This is a Government of the realisation of the alignment of three parties which, while we come from different perspectives, share important common values, policies and intentions.
‘‘At its core this Government believes that our people come first. That our environment is a precious taonga and that we must reject the narrow selfishness that has pervaded our politics for far too long,’’ she said.
Ardern’s speech followed a fiery monologue from English who said that when the Government claimed progress it must do so based on the ‘‘impressive achievements’’ National made in the past decade.
The leaders’ speeches were among the opening set-piece events. They followed the formal state opening of Parliament where Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy delivered the speech from the throne, signalling the intentions of the new Government.