Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill

Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill Second Reading—Budget Debate Debate resumed from 23 June on the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill. Hon CAMERON BREWER (Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs) (14:59): Budget 2026 is built around a simple but important concept: fixing the basics and building the future. It is a Budget that secures New Zealand’s future by backing the people who create growth—our businesses, our workers, and our communities. This Government understands that you cannot build for the future unless you fix the basics first. That means restoring discipline to the Government’s books, it means bringing inflation under control, and it means creating an environment where businesses can invest with confidence. A personal highlight for me, and one which Kiwis can take much confidence from, was the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update, the BEFU, announced on Budget day. Let me just take you through some of the highlights there. Treasury forecasts growth averaging 2.7 percent over the next four years. Treasury also forecasts that 220,000 new jobs are expected to be created. The books are forecast to return to surplus in 2028-29, one year earlier than previously forecast. Inflation is contained and interest rates are easing, and debt is expected to trend down over time. Those are not just economic statistics, they are the foundations of confidence, and confidence is what small businesses tell me they need. As Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing, I spend a lot of time on the shopfloor and on the factory floor. These people I meet are very practical people, and they don’t ask for favours. What they ask for is stable settings, sensible regulation, and an economy that rewards hard work. Small businesses account for 97 percent of all enterprises in our great nation. We are a country of small businesses. Around 700,000 Kiwis work in small business. They sponsor local sports clubs, they support charities, they employ apprentices, and they keep our towns and communities alive. That is why fixing the basics matters so much. Small businesses are often the first to feel the effects of inflation, high interest rates, and economic uncertainty, and they are also the first to invest when confidence returns. Budget 2026 backs those businesses by restoring stability and creating the conditions for investment. This is a Budget that understands prosperity is built from the ground up. In the March 2026 quarter, manufacturing grew by 1.9 percent, as Statistics New Zealand revealed last week. Overall GDP growth for the first quarter of this year was 0.8 percent. Manufacturing grew at more than twice the national rate. In many cases, it was leading the charge. These are New Zealand businesses investing in equipment, taking on apprentices, exporting around the world, and creating highly skilled and well-paid jobs. Manufacturing is proof that, when we create the right economic conditions, New Zealand businesses compete with the best. This Government backs manufacturers, because we back New Zealand making things. That’s why, when we announced a $1.2 billion gas transition loan guarantee scheme, it went down very well. It will help businesses to reduce or eliminate their dependency on gas. The Crown will guarantee 80 percent of eligible bank loans, so businesses can access lower interest rates to switch fuel sources. It’s a great policy. Building the future also means building the workforce, and one of the most exciting parts of Budget 2026 is our investment in vocational education. University is one path; trades and vocational skills are another. Both deserve equal respect, and in this Government, both get it. Budget 2026 invests $68.9 million to double the trades academy places. We are growing from around 10,000 places today to more than 20,000 places by 2030. That means more young people learning practical skills whilst still at school, and that includes my own local high school in Upper Harbour, Massey High School, which is a leader in trades academies, with kids there literally building Kāinga Ora houses on the school campus. We are investing $15 million to establish at least eight new industry-led subjects in secondary schools, as well. Subjects like this are coming into our secondary schools: construction and specialist trades, food and fibre, manufacturing and engineering, energy and infrastructure, electrotechnology and information technology, transport, services, education, and health and community. These are practical courses that are being designed by our industry skills boards and aligned with real jobs. I know that our manufacturing advisory group has been meeting with the industry skills board to work on that manufacturing and engineering course. Employers have also been asking for this. In fact, they’ve been asking for a long, long time. They want apprentices, they want welders, they want electricians—they want people graduating with skills that businesses actually need. It’s this Government that’s committed to vocational training, and it’s this Government that is investing in young people to get there. This Budget delivers exactly that. Vocational education is simply not an education policy; it’s a small business policy, it’s a manufacturing policy, and it’s a building-the-future policy. I see the benefits of this Budget in my own electorate. Growing communities need growing skills—schools, and skills. It was a pleasure to take the Minister of Education, just a couple of weeks ago, around the new Ta Pae School—the brand new Ta Pae School near Westgate, a brand new primary school that will be open for term 1, 2027. She also announced in my electorate, as well as across the whole of the north of the North Island, many more classrooms: 20 more for Upper Harbour, and an upgrade to Massey High School. So, real investment in Upper Harbour when it comes to education, more schools, and more classrooms. The same principle applies across New Zealand. Budget 2026 makes targeted investments into education, health, law and order, and infrastructure. These are the fundamentals that support families, communities, and businesses. Better infrastructure means businesses can move goods more efficiently; stronger public services create stronger communities; and stronger communities support stronger local economies. What I like most about this Budget is that it has confidence in New Zealanders. We are backing New Zealanders; we’re not getting in their way, we’re getting behind them. Confidence in the tradesmen, confidence in manufacturers, confidence in the small-business owner, confidence in our next generation. This Budget is about fixing the basics above all, and it’s about securing the future. I want to finish up, again, on the BEFU forecasts. The BEFU forecast that the Minister— Dan Bidois: What does BEFU stand for? Hon CAMERON BREWER: That stands for— as you well know, Dan Bidois—Budget and Economic Fiscal Update. Dan’s still reading it; he loves rereading these documents. It was released on Budget day, and it shows Treasury’s forecasts. Another 220,000 jobs are expected to be created—another 220,000 jobs. Treasury forecasts growth averaging 2.7 percent over the next four years. Hon Dr Megan Woods: You’ve got another one minute and 15 seconds to go. Hon CAMERON BREWER: The books—while the Labour Party can yell, the books are set to return to surplus in 2028/29, one year earlier than previously forecast. Debt—here’s one that the Labour Party wouldn’t have ever heard of—debt is expected to trend down over time. After we inherited all that debt, threefold—threefold debt going up. It is now, as we go through this decade, expected to start trending down. Inflation is contained. Oh, the Opposition won’t like hearing that: inflation is contained. Of course, it got to 7.3 percent under the giddy heights of Labour. And, of course, interest rates are easing, making home ownership and making the cost of living even more affordable. These are not just economic statistics; they are the foundations of confidence. Confidence is what gives small businesses and manufacturers what they need most. This Budget is about the basics, and, above all, securing New Zealand’s future. I commend this bill. Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram) (15:09): This was this Government’s last chance in this Budget to prove to New Zealanders that they got it—whether that be New Zealand households that are sitting at the table thinking: “How am I going to pay my bills? What am I going to do when the car breaks down? How am I going to make ends meet?” or New Zealand businesses that are struggling to stay afloat. They did not deliver this in Budget 2026. This is a Budget that delivers so much, that even one of the newest members of their ministry struggles to make a 10-minute speech about that Budget. There is nothing more sure of a Government that is on the slide than when newly minted Ministers give speeches that concentrate almost exclusively on their own electorate, trying to shore up their own seat because they know where the party vote is going; they know what is ahead of them. The previous speaker talked about all those indicators that were glowing for small businesses. Well, what he did not talk about was business liquidation being at a 15-year high. What we’re seeing for New Zealand businesses—small, medium, and large—is that they are going under at a greater rate under this Government than they have at any other time. This is because this is a Government that is not delivering for them. What happened when National came into Government? The half-yearly economic update, the first one that Nicola Willis, the Minister of Finance, received in 2023—compare it to what she delivered with this Budget. Well, GDP growth projections of 2.8 percent that she received in that first half-yearly fiscal update are now 1.2 percent. So growth is lower than it was going to be. Unemployment is higher, though. Unemployment was forecast to be 4.8 percent; now 5.5 percent. Inflation was meant to be 2.2 percent; that’s now forecast to be 4 percent. And Government debt is now $4 billion higher than forecast. Under any indicator that you look at, you can see a Government that is failing on the business front. But I do want to talk about the fact that we had the Minister stand there and say that this was—I wrote it down—a Budget that was delivering for ordinary New Zealanders. Now, let’s have a look at where some of these “savings” in this Budget came from. I want to talk about the $195.6 million of “savings” that this Government has extracted by decreasing the amount that someone who cannot pay, who is in a situation where they simply cannot afford to buy food, they cannot afford their rent, and they cannot afford childcare—$195 million is being taken out of those people’s pockets, in the form of the changes to the temporary additional support payment. The Government know—they will have been told—that this will increase poverty, this will increase food insecurity, and this has the potential to render people homeless. These are the kinds of savings that we are seeing in the lines of this Budget. We are also seeing the changes that are being made to State houses. Now, I’m not just talking about the changes made to the income-related rent supplement levels; I’m talking about the messages that were given by the Minister of Housing, Chris Bishop, around the fact that they’re going to start kicking people out after a certain period of time. I have had a steady train of people through my office—in fact, I’ve had people stopping me when I’ve been doing my shopping, crying about the fear that they now live in that they are going to be kicked out of their homes. This is real. This is what this Budget means to people. Some of these people voted for National at the last election on a promise of $250 a fortnight in tax cuts that were going to make them better; not one of them has received it. The Government cannot point to one single family in this country that receives enough. I have lost count of the people that have said, “The National Party told me I was going to be better off, but things are harder, things are worse, and there is no way out of this. And I certainly won’t be making that mistake again.” This was the last chance for the Government to prove to New Zealanders that they have their interests at heart, and they certainly have not delivered that. They have delivered more pain for businesses and for households, and they certainly did not deliver hope. TANGI UTIKERE (Labour—Palmerston North) (15:14): Kia orana, Mr Speaker. Well, this is a terrible Budget, and when we look at why that is, it is a Budget that has not provided hope for people around the community and the country. It certainly hasn’t provided a lot for people in Palmerston North. It is a terrible Budget. This was a Government, in the National Party, that was elected, as they say, to fix the cost of living, and the reality in communities all around the country is that they continue to make it worse. They’ve already made it worse; this Budget continues to make it worse. It was, as my colleague the Hon Dr Megan Woods has said, the Government’s last chance to respond to the cries of help that people have been calling out, based on their own experience in communities and in households, and they have failed to deliver. It is yet another example of Christopher Luxon being completely out of touch with the experience of the hardship that communities all around this country are experiencing every single day of the week. Of course, that comes as no surprise when this is a Government, when we reflect on their priorities—yes, it is a Government that wants to focus on billions for tobacco companies and for property speculators, as well. When we look at the context of the bigger picture, unemployment continues to rise, particularly for our Pacific community. The costs when it comes to people’s electricity bills, rent, food—all of these things that people need to meet the costs of, they continue to go up. We have people in households who are going cold during winter because they know that they cannot afford to turn on adequate heating. Petrol costs are going up. How much it costs to go to the doctor is going up. Twenty-thousand people who were employed in building and construction in this country have moved on from their jobs. Why? Because this is a Government that has continued along the path of cancellation when it comes to Kāinga Ora housing in our communities. This is a photo that was taken in the Government’s first year of office, and this is land in my electorate of Palmerston North in Church Street where there were 63 one- and two-bedroom homes that were proposed and funded, with resource consent granted for them to be built. Camilla Belich: Where are they? TANGI UTIKERE: Well, Camilla Belich, I’ll tell you where they are. They’re not on Church Street because the bollards continue to be there. This was a Budget that provided an opportunity to send a really strong signal to people in communities like Palmerston North and elsewhere around the country, that we acknowledge and we understand that there are issues and we are prepared to fix them. To the people of my community that will continue to travel past Church Street and see that those more than 60 homes are still waiting to be built: not under this Government. It is an absolutely terrible Budget, and that’s not just in my community; that is in communities all around this country. Perhaps for the rural school buses, there was hope that maybe Erica Stanford and the Government would see the light and return to providing alleviation in terms of cost pressures that households are dealing with right now. Oh no, there’s nothing in the Budget when it comes to supporting households in that particular light. When it comes to public transport, the day before the Budget, I implored the Government to think about what they were going to do to address the concerns about public transport. Were they going to perhaps have a $20 fare cap for Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, and $10 everywhere else? Oh no, they weren’t. They had the opportunity in their Budget, but it was not forthcoming. When it comes to fuel excise and road-user charges, just yesterday the Government did not rule out—they did not rule out—the fact that those increases were still going to come. That is yet another example of a Government that is out of touch, where they do not understand that households all around this country continue to do it tough. Fuel tax increases and road-user charge hikes are still on the cards under this Government, and, in actual fact, their revenue forecasts in their Budget depend on those increases. They’re baked in, and that will be another direct hit on households that this Government is not prepared to simply rule out. Our communities were looking to the Government to provide some certainty for them. Kiwis need certainty right now. They crave certainty, and that’s what we’ve provided in ruling out things like the fuel tax increase for next year. In transport, again, it’s disappointing that it’s not likely that we will have a Government policy statement on land transport in the lead-up to the election, probably because the suite of projects of roads of national significance is over $56 billion and climbing. There’s no sort of plan for how that’s going to be funded under the current Government. The priorities in this Budget under the National Government provide nothing for households. It provides nothing for communities that continue to do things tough right now. That is why this Budget is a terrible one. Hon MATT DOOCEY (Minister for Mental Health) (15:20): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. Look, for those listeners and viewers today having to experience Tangi Utikere and Megan Woods, the conclusion they would come to is that it’s the same old Labour; nothing has changed. The crocodile tears come out, but, in fact, what the public wants is just an apology—an apology for the state they left the country in three years ago. The rose-tinted—or should I say “red-tinted”—glasses are out for what was comprehensively a failed socialist experiment. If those members want to talk about affordability and the pressures of affordability on everyday Kiwis today, all I need to point to is the 7 percent inflation rate under that last Government. Inflation is a thief in the night, and under them, affordability went backwards for everyday Kiwis. Tangi Utikere talked about housing. Think about KiwiBuild, an absolute failure: trying to build 100,000 houses. They even had the nerve to talk about education, where, under their watch, 50 percent of our kids were not going to school. You’ve got to listen very clearly to their language, because what they’re starting to frame this as is the need for Labour to intervene in your life. That’s their modus operandi: State planning and socialism. They want to get into your life and make the decisions for you, whereas, on this side of the House, we want to create the economic environment and the economic settings, and then get out of your way so that you can go on and flourish. Nothing was more emblematic of the last failed socialist experiment of that Labour Government than mental health. Remember the $1.9 billion? The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, in their last report for the last Labour Government, said that despite the $1.9 billion for mental health, it had made no material improvement. Last week, this Government welcomed the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission report on the performance of this Government. They found significant improvement. Waiting times had come down, access rates had increased, workforce vacancy rates had come down, and the number of people in the workforce had increased. Workforce diversity had increased as well. It shows you that it’s not just how much money you spend; it’s where you spend it—targeted investment—and that’s why, under Budget 2026, I welcome the targeted investment into better mental health. Over $100 million is going into better support the Government’s mental health plan, faster access to support, more front-line workers, and a better crisis response. That’s why, in Budget 2026, we’re investing for the first time into a new registration—one of the first health registrations we’ll see in New Zealand in over a decade. I’m going to meet those students in the middle of July at the University of Canterbury. That’s the new psychology assistant role. They’re hitting campuses around New Zealand, and they’ll hit the workforce next year. That’s why, through this Budget 2026 investment, we’re funding an extra 150 full-time equivalents of psychology assistants at the front line. On top of the 11 percent increase we’ve seen in the mental health and addiction workforce since coming to office, there is a 19 percent increase in the child and adolescent mental health workforce. Why? Because the Ombudsman said to the last Government, “You have no plan for the mental health workforce.” We published ours in our first year and $44 million went into it. We’ve seen clinical psychology double, psychiatry increase by 50 percent, and an 11 percent increase in the front-line workforce. Not only that, there is faster access to support. The data is out today for quarter three of the financial year: 83 percent of Kiwis are accessing primary mental health and addiction support within one week, and 82 percent of Kiwis are accessing specialist mental health and addiction support within three weeks. That’s been a real game-changer. What did the last lot do? Their approach to the post code lottery—remember it? They took a wrecking ball to our health system in the middle of a pandemic, put all of the control in Wellington, and said, “Wellington knows best. Wellington knows better about your health system than local communities.” What has this Government done? On 1 July, we’re returning local decision-making to the front line to decide about service delivery, budgets, and workforce. That’s why we’re investing more into one of the most important times in a parent’s and child’s life—that’s maternal mental health—not only to increase the investment into our specialist services but also to roll out new roles of peer support, lived-experience workers in our maternal mental health services. That will be a game-changer. On top of that, we have further investment into community and NGO services for better maternal mental health support. That’s our front-line NGO community and iwi providers, who know their community, know how to engage their community, and know how to make a real difference. When you look at our third priority—faster access to support and a better crisis response—sadly, in New Zealand, quite often when you call 111 in a physical health crisis, you get a health response, and in a mental health crisis, you get a criminal justice response. That’s why this Government is rolling out 10 new mental health co-response teams across the country, so that in a time of need in a time of mental health crisis, if you call 111, you will have a mental health professional coming out to your house. But it can’t just stop there. When you go to the emergency department (ED) under this Government, you no longer wait hours in the emergency department—brightly lit, noisy, with a lot of people—with two police officers with taser guns; you are fast-tracked within one hour of getting into an emergency department, to be seen by mental health professionals. But it doesn’t stop there. Too often, people are stuck in emergency departments after being assessed because there is no availability of beds. That’s why, under Budget 2026, there’s significant investment into opening up a number of mental health in-patient beds. Would you believe that when we came into office, there were dozens of mental health in-patient beds sitting there unfunded, and they weren’t open to respond to the need and that demand. You’ve got to question: where did the $1.9 billion go? No one knows where it goes, and I’ll tell you what. Typical of a Labour Government, they raised expectations for some of the most vulnerable Kiwis and then failed to deliver. As the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission said, it was $1.9 billion with no material improvement. Only a former Labour Government could spend $2 billion and not make a difference. That’s why we’re opening up more in-patient beds—to ensure that people get faster access when they come into ED in a time of crisis. I do want to highlight one more investment out of Budget 2026: forensic mental health. It’s probably an area that does not get the profile it deserves. Sadly, we have too many prisoners who need specialist mental health support and who wait too long. Budget 2025 has $51 million to open up more beds, not only in our forensic mental health facilities—I opened a new forensic in-patient facility in Waikato recently because of that $51 million investment—but also stepped down here, in the community. We continue with that investment in forensic mental health today with Budget 2026, investing a further $36 million. That will provide more forensic mental health in-patient beds. It will also deliver more prison in-reach, which is mental health support for our prisoners in corrections facilities who need that specialist support, as well as court liaison for those going through the court system. There is a lot to do in mental health, but I would point you to the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission report last week that said that there was significant improvement. I’d point you to the data today that shows Kiwis are accessing mental health faster than ever before. I’d point you to the continuing investment of Budget 2026. MARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI (Te Tai Tokerau) (15:30): Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Tēnā tātou e te Whare. Budget 2026 is not a Budget of transformation; it is a Budget of maintenance. Most—much of what—I’ll try these, shall I? [Puts on reading glasses] Yes, there we go. Much of what has been presented as investment is simply the redistribution of existing funding. Money is moved from one pocket to another, repackaged as progress, and sent out for the headlines. It’s all smokescreens and mirrors. This is a holding-the-line Budget. Growth is forecast at around 1.2 percent this year. The Government is running a deficit of approximately $12 billion. Government debt is projected to rise from around 42 percent of gross domestic product to 46 percent next year. At the same time, inflation remains elevated and the cost-of-living pressures continue to bite. Those realities matter because Budgets are ultimately about choices. If you are wealthy, this Budget asks very little of you, but if you are a family already choosing between food and power bills, or are unemployed, Māori, or a woman, you are helping fund this Government’s pathway back to surplus. The Government has chosen to prioritise fiscal restraint while expecting households to absorb more of the burden. Nowhere is that burden more visible than in Māori communities. Māori unemployment has risen to 11.5 percent. Māori under-utilisation now sits at 22.3 percent. Nearly one in four Māori rangatahi aged 15 to 24 are not in employment, education, or training. For Te Tai Tokerau, it is what we call poverty in paradise. Our midwives are increasingly supporting māmā who cannot afford adequate nutrition throughout their pregnancy. Appointments are missed because transport costs too much. Medication is delayed because every dollar has already been spoken for. These realities breed environments for domestic violence. This intensifies the risk for māmā and pēpe. Addiction levels are rising, and babies are more frequently born pre-term, where survival is a struggle. I want to discuss this in the context of the four-page child poverty report in this year’s Budget, where one of the pages is a diagram, and nowhere within is the word “Māori” mentioned once. Dan Bidois: A picture is worth a thousand words. MARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI: Considering our tamariki were not mentioned once—that’s you and I, Dan—in that report, I will take the chance now to say that around 25 percent of tamariki Māori live in material hardship. That represents approximately 77,000 Māori children. Nationally, around 170,000 children are living in hardship, meaning households are going without essentials such as heating, food, healthcare, clothing, and keeping up with the bills. A nation that tolerates 170,000 tamariki in poverty is not short of resources, but, rather, political will. The question is not whether we can afford to end child poverty, but, rather, if we’ll choose to, because the cost of hardship does not disappear; it reappears elsewhere. It has appeared in this year’s Budget for health, corrections and social services. Those figures suggest a system that remains heavily focused on intervention after harm has occurred, rather than preventing harm in the first place. Across multiple Votes, I questioned Ministers and officials in the recent scrutiny time about performance measures relating to Māori outcomes. Increasingly, those measures are being removed, narrowed, or absorbed into broader reporting frameworks. Without transparent reporting, Parliament loses its ability to assess whether public spending is actually improving outcomes for Māori communities, but it also tells us who is expected to carry the burden while those targets are pursued. I agree with Ganesh Nana that the brunt of this Budget sits on Māori whānau. Mō Te Tai Tokerau, tēnā tātou. [For Te Tai Tokerau, greetings to us all.] HANA-RAWHITI MAIPI-CLARKE (Te Pāti Māori—Hauraki-Waikato) (15:35): Tēnā rā koe e te Pīka. Otirā tēnā rā tātou e te Whare. I rise today to speak on the outcomes of Budget 2026. Budget is where every citizen in this country gets to see where their taxpayer money is going. Right now, across the world, so many countries are experiencing what we call a polycrisis: multiple crises happening at once, when we think of fuel, shelter, food and climate devastation. Now, when this happens, we should have Budgets produced by Governments and a tax system that can quickly relieve short-term pressures and create long-term solutions, not making it harder. These crises are felt internationally on the international indigenous scale, but also felt here on a national scale and into our local communities: the polycrisis of food, fuel, shelter, climate—tangataTiriti, taiao, and tahua. When it comes to food, this country can make $450 million worth of food productivity for the rest of the world, and yet the 5 million that live here in this country are in food poverty and can barely afford the $11 butter that is at the grocery store. For many whānau who work in AFFCO, Tegal, and Fonterra, who make the food on our whenua with 87 percent of the diary and meat being exported across overseas, it shouldn’t have to be a luxury to buy the food that you make on your own whenua and land. The wider Waikato region exported approximately $14.4 billion worth of goods in 2025. Hauraki-Waikato is consistently over-delivering in this country’s economy. It is 10 percent to 30 percent cheaper for New Zealand meat over in Australia than here at home in Aotearoa. All GST should be removed from the receipt of your grocery shop spending when it comes to food, and we should see our own country starting to have conversations on how we can break down the supermarket duopoly. When it comes to fuel, around 44 percent of the petrol price is taxed. Nearly half of what you pay at the pump goes to the Government. During a fuel crisis, this Budget and Government should have made public transport free and removed road-user charges temporarily. That’s why you see the majority of people in Hamilton going to the NPD on Tuesdays and Thursdays, because that’s when it’s on a freeze. When it comes to shelter and housing, during this winter, we saw this Government come out with move-on orders, which literally translates to “People can arrest you if you haven’t moved in a certain location, even if you’re homeless.” This is not a supply issue. There are enough houses in this country to house every single person in Aotearoa. When it comes to climate, we have never had so many states of emergency in this country due to climate crises than in the three months of this year, and after three months of work consistently, we’ve only seen one out of the 19 fast-track projects that were detrimental to Hauraki-Waikato in the mining and fast-track projects be cancelled. So with those four crises outlined in this year’s Budget, what was actually done by this Government to relieve those pressures of all these crises happening at once for our whānau and communities, who suffer the brunt? Now, when it comes to crises, it affects our most vulnerable, and that’s when our system shows how unfair it actually is. The New Zealand tax system literally protects 150 people who own more than half of this country’s wealth. They are the top wealthiest 1 percent of the country, who pay only 9 percent in tax and earn over $26 million a year, while the rest of the country pay 22 percent to 33 percent in tax. We are not saying to bring the rich down; we’re literally just saying that they should pay their fair share. These are our teachers, nurses, the people who create the food for our country’s economy globally. These are our front-line workers. Now, what have they gotten out of this Budget in 2026, and where has their taxpayer money gone to? Tēnā rā koe e te Pīka. Dr HAMISH CAMPBELL (National—Ilam) (15:40): Excellent—thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise in support of this Budget because it’s helping secure New Zealand’s future by getting us back to surplus earlier, while still investing in the drive for better health and education and law and order outcomes. The Opposition wants us to get out the cash bazooka and spray money around in every direction. I’ll answer that directly, because that rests on the confusion in this country, that we can no longer afford: a confusion between spending money and solving a problem, and that is exactly what we can do. Anybody can open the books and absolutely empty them out. It takes no courage to hand out what you don’t have. It takes no wisdom to call a debt a gift. But let’s be honest about what un-targeting funding actually does: it pours money indiscriminately into the economy, which actually drives prices up—exactly what we are trying to fix. It doesn’t fight the fire; it feeds it. Why would you treat the disease with a larger dose of poison? Let’s be clear what we’re actually doing here: we are making sure that we are building a solid foundation for New Zealand so that our wages and job growth can outpace the cost of groceries and our prices. That is the way we’re going to help New Zealand. We need to help the families in front of us, and not penalise the future generations that are coming along. Let’s start where we plan to continue. Let’s start with health, because, of course, the last Government did a restructure of the healthcare system during the pandemic. What we saw was wait-lists balloon, we saw people waiting for knees and hips for far too long, we saw people not being able to access their GPs. Well, we have added an extra $5.5 billion into the healthcare budget. For the first time in New Zealand’s history, we have a 10-year health infrastructure plan so that communities around the country can see what is coming. Because a number of our hospitals are well over 47 years old, we need to make sure we have a programme in place to actually replace that. We are lowering the age of bowel cancer screening to 56 so that cancer is caught early and not more later. It strengthens our ambulances, because, of course, many New Zealanders know that in times of need, we need ambulances to get out and help. It funds more medicines through Pharmac. In previous Budgets, we’ve already increased Pharmac funding by $604 million; this Budget is adding another $54 million to that pot. These are medications that New Zealanders can access—33 new cancer medications already. With a total of 57 new medications approved, we’re going to see even more medicines. These are going to affect the life of all New Zealanders. This Budget also gives new mothers the right to stay where she is cared for, rather than being sent home too early. As I say, this is the first time in New Zealand’s history that we’ve got an infrastructure plan: a $55 billion increase for health funding. Now let’s move to education, because, of course, our children are the future of this country, and if we can get the basics of our education right, then the future of New Zealand will be well suited. There’s another $470 million of capital investment to redevelop up to 10 schools, deliver 232 additional classrooms, and also buy land for new schools. We are putting education as a priority for the country, and it is going to pay off handsomely in the future for our children. We are doubling the number of trade academies to 20,000 people, because, as I said, the children are the future of this country. We need to fix the basics now to build for the future. A Government is not judged by how loudly it spends money or how much cash it blows without actually having results; it is judged by the reforms that it can drive and that we can actually deliver these services for all New Zealanders. We’ve had more spending in the law and order space, defence, and foreign affairs. This is a Budget which is fixing the basics and building the future. It is going to secure the future for New Zealand. Therefore, I commend it to the House. DAVID MacLEOD (National—New Plymouth) (15:44): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. This debate is about the Budget that is before us, the Budget that is for the year of 2026-27. Just as a brief explanation for those viewing at home, people may think that once the Budget has been read by the finance Minister, the money is there ready to be spent. Well, that is not quite the case. We actually go through quite a process, and enacting the bill that we are debating is actually what allows the Government to go on and do its spending that it releases within the Budget. Another part of the process is actually the imprest bill that was read, or spoken to, prior to this. We need that bill there to allow the Government to be able to spend money between the time of the end of the financial year and when this bill comes into enactment. That’s just a very basic “101” of what we’ve been doing in recent times here. One of the areas that’s of extreme interest to me is the role that I play as chair of the Māori Affairs Committee. Within Māori affairs, we have just recently conducted some scrutiny hearings with regards to Te Tari Whakatau, which is the Government department that deals with the Treaty settlements; but also Māori development, which is in the spheres of Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK). They have different Ministers for both of those particular entities. But I do want to briefly talk to Te Tari Whakatau with regards to the settlement. As a little bit of an update, the Government of the day has completed just north of 100 settlements, and, of those 100 settlements, the high 80s are actually do with iwi. We have settlements that are of a non - particular singular iwi basis, which are with the likes of Taranaki Maunga, where there’s multiple iwi; the Whanganui Awa; the Te Ureweras; and all that type of stuff. There are settlements associated with pan-iwi on most occasions that are not specifically a singular iwi settlement, but of the iwi of New Zealand, we’ve currently settled about just north of 85 of those. There are quite some more to come. They say that there are up to another 50 settlements still to be enacted there, but progress is being made, and, of course, every Budget actually allows for that journey to continue. With Te Tari Whakatau, they also have the takutai moana determinations within it also. There is allowance within the Budget that is associated with helping our iwi to be able to go through their process with regards to takutai moana. With regards to Te Puni Kōkiri, I’d love to actually mention one of, what you might call, their ethoses, or the ways in which they conduct their businesses, and it’s said by the line of “whānau-centred, locally led, Government-enabled”. That there is, basically, where Te Puni Kōkiri goes out on the whenua, out to hapū and whānau, and endeavours to enable them to succeed. But it’s very much a bottom-up scenario, rather than a top-down scenario, and it works. I heard a speech from a member on the Opposition there about how it’s endeavouring to use data to look at the success of some of the programmes that are happening within TPK. It’s great to see that they’re capturing data. It’s going into the IDI—the central government data-capturing centre—and, hopefully, that there is going to help in securing more funding for some of these great programmes that are there in this space. I look very simply with regard to the Budget. I think about my own homestead, my own family, my wife, and I, and about how we actually budget for ourselves as we traverse through our life and that, and it always comes down to choices. The choices are dictated by the revenue—the amount of money that we earn as a couple—but we most definitely have to make choices. I think it’s fair to say—and I hear it across the House—that there are many spaces that we would like to spend more money. This is primarily in Public Service with regards to health, education, law and order, and all the necessary stuff that we all play to. But, simply, we have choices to be made with what we are generating. We are not a Government of wanting to tax more and to borrow more. We are wanting to get to a point of surplus to repay debts and to make our country far more better-positioned to handle some of the catastrophes that we deal with from time to time. This Budget is most definitely about fixing the basics and building the future. I commend it to the House. STEVE ABEL (Green) (15:49): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I rise to speak to the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill. This bill demonstrates a long-evident agenda of this Government to cut funding to environmental protections. Specifically, over the course of three years, we see $165 million in cuts to the Department of Conservation (DOC). Similarly, we see in this bill expressed a greater funding of what is labelled “Regional Infrastructure Fund”. You can read between the lines on what a Government’s agenda is through the likes of an appropriation bill like this. So soon after the Budget, we see in other legislation before the House the manifesting of that agenda, which is one which sees DOC have its funding cut at the same time as there is legislation that is brought to open up DOC to commercial exploitation—i.e., our conservation estate. I wonder how much of the Regional Infrastructure Fund in the appropriations bill will go towards the mining of our conservation land. I wonder how the Department of Conservation, with its cuts to its funding, will be able to actually deal with the concessions it is expected to deal with for mining facilitation—the mining consents that are no doubt going to be applied for. We see today the extent of the mineral deposits—those listed by the Government as critical minerals that it’s interested in extracting. We see how much of those are on Department of Conservation land in a map released today by Greenpeace. Now, is it any accident that that exploitation of conservation land coincides with an appropriation that drops the funding to the Department of Conservation? Is it a likely pathway to DOC becoming a mining facilitator, rather than a protector of the conservation estate? Indeed, the language in another bill before the House expects that the Department of Conservation should be focused on exploitation to the greatest degree practicable of that conservation estate. So this appropriation paves the way for a Government that has been the most radically anti-environmental Government in certainly my lifetime and possibly in New Zealand history. But I wonder if it will become the last Budget of this Government, because they have misread the room on the extent to which New Zealanders value our conservation estate; the extent to which we expect the Department of Conservation to be appropriately funded to take care of the extraordinary species, the taonga species that exist within those estates; the extent to which we appreciate the ability to enter those magnificent Gondwanan forests, to walk through those crystal clear rivers, to hear the birdsong of the kōkako and the kākā, and to know that we can enjoy those without them being exploited or risked or sold off or dug up for mining by a foreign mining company. Those are not the expectations that New Zealanders have of how any Government should fund that extraordinary asset that is something that we are all obliged to care for and treasure, because it is, indeed, the inheritance of our children and our grandchildren. This Government seems intent on running that inheritance down through its failure to properly fund environmental protections and specifically our Department of Conversation. We have to wonder if their intention is to sell it off because they are not funding the care of it. Here, telegraphed in this appropriation, we see that intention demonstrated. It was about 16 years ago that a Government proposed to open up the conservation estate to mining, and they got a pretty big shock when 40,000 people marched up Queen Street against that proposal. It seems that the lessons of history that are not learned: those who do not learn them are doomed to repeat those lessons. Here we have a Government that has not learned the lesson of how New Zealanders expect our conservation to be cared for, not to be exploited and extracted from. I also wonder, when we understand that there is a clear ideology around what economic development looks like that sees a massive rise in our cost of living, that sees an underfunding across the board of our public services, a decline in the ability of those public services to deliver the most basic needs and expectations of New Zealanders: good healthcare, accessible education, good housing, good public transport—all of those things that are actually a benchmark for a thriving country. Instead, we see a greater polarisation of wealth inequality. We see the highest rates of homelessness that we have ever seen in our history. We see one in seven children in poverty—the highest rates of poverty that we’ve ever seen in this country. And what do we have? A Government that has been—how should be put it?—miserly with its willingness to actually protect those who are most vulnerable and those who are most in need of being cared for in our society. My final point is that one feels that the coalition has let the flanks of the major party drag it to more extreme focuses. It has failed to actually represent what most New Zealanders think are the appropriate focuses of any Government: that birthright of all New Zealanders to swim in clean rivers, to fish in abundant oceans, to walk in healthy native forests, and to live in a society where everybody thrives, no matter what their background, no matter what their circumstances of birth. That is a thing that this appropriation fails to step up to. That is a thing that this Government has failed to meet in the basic values of New Zealanders. It is my sincere belief that this will be a one-term Government for the exact reason that a Budget such as the one before us has not dealt with the essential values and principles that New Zealanders stand for. Thank you. HELEN WHITE (Labour—Mt Albert) (15:57): Thank you. I respect the views that have just been shared about this Budget. What I would say is that my own instinct when I saw the Budget played out and the legislation that came into urgency was that it was very, very lacklustre. It’s interesting that the Government seems to have decided its new word is going to be “ambition”, after “temporary”, “targeted”, and something else. There’s no ambition in this Budget. There’s actually a defeat in this Budget for ordinary people. There’s just nothing there for them. So I wanted to talk about why I thought that was particularly important in terms of what I’m seeing in my electorate. I’ve got this really wonderful market in the electorate called Wesley, and it’s not a farmer’s market like Matakana; it’s a farmer’s market with growers bringing in cheap carrots. It has lots of women—Chinese women—selling little amounts of things that you couldn’t get anywhere else because they’re used by the Chinese community, so quite different vegetables and they’re very cheap. And they sell duck eggs and other really quite special stuff, but the big thing about it is it’s very cheap in comparison to our supermarkets. I talked to those people who are coming to that market, scratching out what they’ve got, and they’ve all got stories about why it is that they’re earning a lot of money—and they’re not. They’re not earning much money at all. A lot of them haven’t been able to find jobs. There are people who have come in as part of the refugee quota or they’ve come in from war-torn countries, like Afghanistan, and they haven’t been able to find work for a long time, and young women who’ve done all the right things—they’ve gone, and they’ve studied, and they’ve become engineers—can’t find work. That’s the environment which means that there just isn’t enough money to make ends meet at the moment. I’m proud of the fact that Labour has a policy that addresses just that direct need that people have—particularly the one about public transport, because I can see those women and those people being able to lock in the expense of public transport at $20 in Auckland. That will make a big difference to our students etc. I just can’t see anything, in this Budget, coming to help people with things like energy bills and food bills. I just cannot see it. I was thinking about one example of this, which is the decision the Government made to up the rate that it gave home-care workers when they drove their cars to places. That was an upping of the rate to 82c from 62c. Now, that was proudly described as “temporary”. It was only going to happen for a short time. How much do we get, as parliamentarians, for our mileage? We get $1.20 or $1.30 and it’s not temporary. That’s how much it costs. That’s how much it actually costs, because that’s what the AA says it costs. We don’t prioritise, at the present time, a group of workers who are on about $25, maybe, to $32 an hour. They help people, like my parents, to stay in their home, and they’re gold. They’re people who we need doing that work, and we’re paying them peanuts. When we look at them under stress because of a fuel crisis, what this Government decides to do is to give them 82c temporarily, back to 62c the minute we see a shift. That’s what these people have been given. There’s a lack of values in the decisions this Government is making. There’s a kind of punitiveness towards anybody who wants to help anyone in their work. That’s apparently not what we’re after. We’re after a class of people who are supposed to produce a lot, which is all supposed to trickle down to the others. The others, who are all of us, really, are seen as some sort of parasite rather than the heart of New Zealand. For me, those people are the heart of New Zealand. I am grateful, every day, to those home-care workers who go in and help my 95-year-old father and my mother with dementia survive in their own home. This Budget doesn’t give those people enough SHANAN HALBERT (Labour) (16:03): E mihi ana ki a koe e te Māngai o te Whare, otirā tēnā tātou katoa. I want to reflect on this year’s Budget and Whānau Ora. What we know in this Whare, in this House, is that Whānau Ora works because it backs whānau. It doesn’t back bureaucracy; it trusts communities and whānau to know what support is best for their people out there. When families are struggling with housing costs, with food prices, with health needs, and with rising unemployment, the answer is not less investment in Whānau Ora; it’s more. One of the honours, I guess, of working as the Opposition spokesperson for Whānau Ora is that there is some connection between this side and that side, in that we agree, most of all, that Whānau Ora works. I honour our kahurangi Tariana Turia for the work and the idea that has forged the pathway through to today. Over the past few months, I have visited Whānau Ora providers on the ground at grass roots to hear directly from them about the issues that whānau are presenting to them. The things that they tell me are that things are getting more expensive for people out there. More people are presenting on their doorsteps, but, most of all, they’ve seen shifts in the increasing number of rangatahi that are tuning up on their doorsteps. In this Budget, what they wanted to see is a little bit of hope. They wanted to see additional funding that recognised the needs that they have communicated to this Government. They didn’t want to see how a wonderful data system can inform Budgets of the future. They wanted to see how this Budget in 2026 can create the change and help the need tomorrow. The reality of this Government is that while they’ve taken an axe to all things Māori, almost, in this term, with Whānau Ora, there was the opportunity to put some backing behind our kaiwhiriwhiri, our navigators. Instead, this Budget asked them to do the same—to do more with less. That says, “Hopefully, one day we’ll be able to expand the reach out into different communities, out in the regions.”, but that day is not today, because our fantastic data that we talk about hasn’t informed this Budget. On top of this, the Minister tells me that there hasn’t even been any recognition of the wait-list that Whānau Ora providers have told him about. That response says that there are at least 90 whānau out there that have presented since back in October and that are still on that wait-list, waiting to access the service and waiting to access the help that this Government is responsible for delivering. The reality is that these providers, in good faith and with goodwill as good Māori and Pacific people, are out there providing the services over and above without the resources that they need to do their job to connect individuals and whānau with the Government services that they need. What we wanted to see was increased funding, even a lift to increase the number of navigators and kaiwhiriwhiri to engage directly with those whānau. It’s not necessarily additional resources; it’s putting people in jobs to help connect these individuals with the services and support that the Government is responsible for providing. That is not what our Whānau Ora providers have seen. There’s not additional investment in Whānau Ora, a kaupapa that works, a kaupapa that we know changes lives and outcomes of not just one individual but of the whānau that live in our community. STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura) (16:08): Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s a great privilege to speak in this Budget debate, and it’s actually, essentially, what you would expect: we’re singing its praises, and, of course, the Opposition is not. I thought I’d reflect on what’s actually happening on the ground. Mr Speaker, I know you’re a follower of these things, and it’s really important to get the feedback on how this Budget is going down and what the mood in the country is. If I start at the Fieldays, I know a number of colleagues across the House attended the Fieldays, and it was a really good opportunity to take the pulse of the nation and certainly the rural nation. It was magnificent. Actually, people were really buoyant. They’re confident, and they, I think, were enjoying their time in the sun because it’s been a long way back for a lot of them. I don’t know whether the tools were ringing that much, but, certainly, farmers are paying down debt, and that mood went right across it. It was great to actually come across the wilding pine trust at the Fieldays. Mr Speaker, I don’t know if you got a chance to go along there and look at the great work that was done there, but I thought I’d tell you a little story about that. Years ago, one of the most famous or infamous—depending on which side of the House you came from—politicians, Sir Robert Muldoon, wrote a letter guaranteeing that if wilding pines got out of control, the Government would do something about it. And at last, we are. It’s been a long time coming. We only got in this position, Mr Speaker, as I’m sure you’re aware, because the old Forest Service and the catchment boards decided they were going to stop erosion, and really stop a natural process, and they were going to plant all these trees. They’ve, unfortunately, planted trees that would thrive in New Zealand, but their seed is so light that actually the wind-blown seed rain—it’s called—is causing havoc in New Zealand. So to have that $109 million over four years—I think it is—is a magnificent step in the right direction. It’s a heck of a job to get on top of it, but on top of it we must get. The positive feeling in the rural sector went on when I went to the Taimate bull sale, and that’s in my electorate just north of Ward, and the Hickman’s are great farmers there and they set a New Zealand record for their bull at $168,000. I thought, “Wow, that was great”. It was a magnificent animal. But then of course Kaharau sold a bull just this week for $220,000 and set another record. Now, that’s fantastic. And that’s on the back of the demand for beef, for our beef. Of course, to have beef, you’ve got to have bulls. It’s magnificent for the rural sector, but it’s great for those guys that put everything on the line, and they stand there that day and that’s the only day they earn their money. So if it goes well, they have a good year. And believe me, I’ve been to a few where it’s been quite sad. So to see farmers doing really well is great. The SOPI report, the Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries, has come out recently and is predicting $70 billion of agriculture exports by 2030. So, you know, everything’s up, dairy’s up $27 billion, up by 16 percent. Horticulture’s up by $8.4 billion, which is 19 percent, which is a huge uptick largely led by kiwifruit, of course. Meat and wool are up $12.3 billion, up 8 percent. It’s not all happy days; the wine industry is going through a tough time at the moment. I was at Grape Days in Marlborough in Blenheim on Monday, and, you know, the industry’s got itself to where it is at the moment, which is that supply has grown faster than demand. But despite what the rest of the world is doing, in the report that Philip Gregan, the retiring CEO of New Zealand Winegrowers, gave on the market, it’s clear that while demand is slightly reducing in most of the markets, in all markets we sell into, New Zealand wine demand and sales are going up. So it’s a positive story. But we do have to get that supply back in balance with demand, and that’s what drives it—it’s an immutable supply and demand story, and it’s just a pity it got out of whack. But it’ll come back and there is some sign of that, but quite a lot of grapes are being pulled out around the country and I really feel for those people involved. Thank you, Mr Speaker. GRANT McCALLUM (National—Northland) (16:13): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Look, it is with real privilege I rise to support this Budget. It’s an excellent Budget. It’s a responsible Budget in difficult times, and I hope I wake up the member over there, she’s yawning a bit, but that’s OK, I’m sure by the end of it she’ll be awake. It’s a Budget that’s about fixing the basics and building the future. Look, one of the areas we’ve spent up large has been in the health area. We really have put a lot of money, extra money, into health. For example, we’re looking to spend $5.8 billion over the next four years—extra—on top of what we’ve been doing in the past, which is significant. And in the Northland area, areas that have actually benefited from this is the new oncology and cancer unit hospital in Whangārei, which I was privileged to attend the opening of the other day. It will benefit Northlanders so much, because currently what they have to do is travel all the way to Auckland for treatment and back. For some of those people in the Far North, that is quite a journey and a long time to spend away from their whānau. So it was really good to have that, and I have to pay credit to the retiring Hon Dr Shane Reti who helped drive that project, I really do. One of the other areas—I recently also attended the 70th anniversary of the Dargaville Hospital, and we actually have provided extra funding into the Dargaville Hospital to extend the care hours. So extend the hours during the week till 8 p.m. at night and also during the weekends—open during the weekends, during the day. The difference that makes, as one of my friends and colleagues who’s involved in motocross explained to me—Colin said that now if we have someone that gets injured in the weekends at the motocross event near Dargaville, they no longer have to go all the way to Whangārei base hospital during the weekend, they can initially go to Dargaville Hospital for assessment. That is quite a big improvement, and it’s great to see that. Another area where we’ve been spending a lot of extra money is in the area of education. In education we’re looking to spend quite a bit more on new classrooms and a new school in my electorate. They’re building a brand new kura in Kaiwaka. We recently had the blessing of the site, which was great. I, unfortunately, couldn’t attend, but the Minister of Education, Erica Stanford, did attend, and it’s been really well received. In many ways, it’s long overdue because this little school has been operating down the end of the Oruawharo peninsula for many years in a set-up that has not been acceptable. So they are really excited about having their own brand new school in Kaiwaka. Then there’s also been new classrooms for Kerikeri High School, where you’ve seen the huge growth in demand in that area for new education facilities. That was really well received. Then, actually, one of the most exciting discussions I had was with the new principal in Dargaville High School who’s taken over a school that was struggling, but he’s doing a great job and getting the community on board. The school was very old, tired, and run down. We’re putting new funding in to actually upgrade the classrooms in the school, which has been very well received, as well as building two new specialist classrooms for some students. Now, it would be very remiss of me if I did not stand up here and talk about roading infrastructure and the importance of that to the Northland economy and Northland. As an example, there’s been a commitment in the Budget to build the new highway from Cambridge to Piarere, which is great—over a billion dollars—and actually coming up soon, we are looking forward to progressing the next stage of the four-lane highway all the way to Whangārei, of which the next stage will be through to Te Hana, which will be great. That will make a massive difference to the people of Northland, who are really looking forward to that. For my area in the farming sector, one of the really great announcements, whilst not a lot of money but huge impact, is the increase of base funding for the Queen Elizabeth II Trust. The second biggest national park in this country is on private lands. That is really great to see, and as chair of the Bluegreens and as a farmer with much bush on our land, it’s great to see that our Government is so committed to the environment in this country. It’s a great Budget and it’s a Budget that is fixing the basics and building the future, and I commend it to the House. Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour) (16:18): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. This was the Government’s last chance with their Budget to get things right for struggling Kiwis. Shanan Halbert: Last chance. Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME: Last chance! And they have failed. National has been busy trying to distract New Zealanders from their failures and they’ve actually forgotten about the human cost of their poor choices. Let’s go over them. One in three households struggling to access food, one in seven children suffering from material hardship, unemployment reaching decade highs, food banks being under immense pressure never been seen before, and Kiwis leaving the country in record numbers—all under National’s watch. Just today, I’ve seen the sad news that in my own rohe of Te Tai Tokerau, one of Kaitaia’s two mills will close down, with no certainty about the future of the second mill. I attended a public meeting in Kaitaia recently, and we know that there are up to 200 jobs on the chopping block. I want to firstly acknowledge those whānau who have lost their jobs and others who are still waiting for certainty on theirs. This is an incredibly difficult situation, and my aroha goes out to them and their families. We are talking about dozens of families with children and households facing the pressure of cost of living and, now, uncertainty about whether they even will have jobs. This is all while the Government has failed to keep its promises of fixing things, all while choosing to give billions in tax breaks to landlords and tobacco companies. Day by day, Kiwis lose their jobs under National. It becomes even more shameful that National refuses to own up to their collapsing jobseeker target, despite the Government’s own Budget forecast showing that there are going to be over 60,000 more people on the jobseeker benefit. National’s target wasn’t sabotaged by officials or inherited from previous Governments. They said it, they promoted it, and now they are failing to deliver it. You can’t talk tough about people being on benefits while presiding over an economy where more than 1,200 people are applying for one single cleaning job in Auckland. That’s not a failure of job seekers; that’s a failure of this Government not creating enough opportunities. I put these serious questions to the Minister Louise Upston in scrutiny week, and she refused to take responsibility for a failure of her own making, resorting to blaming everybody else. It’s been almost three years, and Kiwis are sick of the excuses, sick of being talked down on, and sick of being treated as disposable by this Government. The least the Minister Louise Upston could have done was acknowledge the reality. The fairytale target that they sold New Zealanders is failing horrendously, and refusing to take responsibility for it won’t help a single person into work. I want a better future for our children, one where we can feel confident that they will be able to build a future here in Aotearoa New Zealand. Therefore, it absolutely beggars belief that the Government is continuing to invest money, tens of millions of dollars, into the failed boot camps experiment. It completely boggles the mind to think why on earth we are still having this conversation. The first pilot failed, and now the Minister will not even answer questions about how many participants are in the second military-style academy. We have been here before, and it’s insanity to see history repeating itself. At a time when we are hearing stories from front-line providers—prevention services, counselling services—all put at risk under this Government’s funding cuts, we have a Government more worried about pouring tens of millions of dollars into a failed boot camp experiment. Our children deserve better. Our whānau deserve better. This Government isn’t making things better; they are making it so much worse. If the Government can’t even get it right for our youngest, how do we expect them to get it right for everybody else? Labour is focused on getting it right for our future generations. We are backing them to thrive here in Aotearoa New Zealand, and come 7 November New Zealanders will get a chance to vote this Government out. Hon RACHEL BROOKING (Labour—Dunedin) (16:23): Thank you, Mr Speaker— Grant McCallum: She’s awake! Hon RACHEL BROOKING: —for this opportunity to talk on the Budget. Wide awake, Mr McCallum! Does this Budget focus on the cost of living? No, no, it does not appear to. Does it focus on the great city of Dunedin? No, doesn’t do that either. How about the environment? Is it focused on the environment? No, no, not that either. There is some money for some implementation of some new environmental laws or planning laws that this Government is doing, ones that are going to create a whole new industry of people involved in regulatory relief and do much worse for the environment. So that’s not a good thing, is it? No, it is not. What else do we have for the environment? Have they brought back the fund for the environmental legal assistance? Nope. How about those environmental hubs that were building up communities and doing such great work? Nope. Jobs for Nature? No—no, not there either. And, of course, the cynical use of the waste levy, funding now a huge proportion of Vote Environment so that that money’s not coming across from the consolidated fund. So, not good for the environment. I will, in a surprising move, talk about one positive thing, and that is the work that we did—that the Hon Willow-Jean Prime did, particularly, when she was the Minister of Conservation, that followed many other Ministers of Conservation, as well, across both sides of the House—to increase marine protected areas with the south-east marine protection area. I was very pleased yesterday to celebrate Te Au Roa o Te Rakihouia with Edward Ellison, who’s been involved for a long time in that, and that these marine protected areas are happening from 1 July. Willow-Jean Prime and I, in October of 2023, announced that we had signed off as the Ministers all the work required for this, we’d found the funding for it, and now—almost three years later, but better late than never—the Minister of Conservation has signed them off and they will be in effect from 1 July, and some co-management is happening here as well. It’s a beautiful thing to see. I was able to, at Ōtākou Marae, meet some of the kaitiaki rangers who are going to be working in this area. It’s great stuff. So that’s one positive thing. Thank you, Willow-Jean Prime, for that work. Let’s talk about Dunedin now, of course—wonderful electorate, wonderful city. That’s right. I might ask my colleague here, Ingrid Leary, if she’s noticed any funding for those Kāinga Ora houses that were all ready to go—41 units ready to go on Carroll Street. You see anything? Ingrid Leary: No. Hon RACHEL BROOKING: No, not there— Grant McCallum: There is a hospital being built. Hon RACHEL BROOKING: —they’re all still being built. Oh, I’m hearing across the aisle about the hospital build. Is there anything to make up for the 18 months that it was on pause in this Budget? No. Have the timelines been totally blown out because this Government, that National Party that promised they would do more than Labour, heaps more than us, then said, “Oh, maybe it’s in the wrong place. Maybe it should be prefabs. Maybe we’ll put it in Cromwell.” That is what people said in the urgent debate that we had on this topic. So, no—no, Mr McCallum; that’s still not good and it’s still broken promises from this Government. Port Chalmers, the houses at Port Chalmers—what’s happening with the land there? Oh, Kāinga Ora keeps trying to sell it off. And if I’m talking about selling off land and the environment, well, we’ve had an interesting week on that discussion, haven’t we? Rather than paying for public conservation land, the Minister wants to sell it. That is how environmental things are going to be funded by this Government, and it is just not on. Generations of New Zealanders have built up that conservation land, and it is not for sale for this greedy National Party. What would’ve been good to see in the Budget is something like a $10 public fare cap, as Labour’s promising to do in cities like Dunedin—very good thing—a capital gains tax to fund three free GP visits, free maternity scans, and free prescriptions. These are good things that this Government has chosen not to do, and they need to be voted out. RIMA NAKHLE (National—Takanini) (16:29): Unlike others, I don’t break the rules. I am very happy, and I feel actually quite privileged, to be able to have these five minutes to say what—there’s so much to say about Budget 2026, but what I’m going to start off with is just to take us back a few years ago to when the Hon Chris Bishop stood in this House lamenting one of the Labour Party’s past Budgets, in the dark ages—God help me get through this. He said that they are throwing around taxpayer money like confetti. I want to thank our taxpayers. I want to thank them for working so hard to help put together this pool of funds where we are able to do what we’re doing in Budget 2026, on the back of Budget 2025 and Budget 2024, to deliver meaningfully, respecting taxpayer money, for my neighbours in Takanini and for our loved ones all around New Zealand. Now, what I’ve heard throughout this Budget debate—from the ones that can’t turn their frowns upside down, on the other side of the House—is a number of them say: “This Government has failed to deliver.” Whoa. This is where we need to look at what are the perceptions of delivery, because they’re pretty different on this side of the House. On the other side of the House, delivery is reducing the number of prisoners in jail by a target of 30 percent. On the other side, delivery seems to be spending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money on bridges—bridge designs that went nowhere; on light rail, which not even a metre of track was built for. On that side of the House, they think that delivery is announcing people will get a lot of free stuff, but not really knowing where the $18 billion is going to come from. On this side of the House, “delivery” has a whole different meaning. Maybe—maybe—some of them may just listen and learn a little bit. On this side of the House, delivery looks like an 85 percent reduction in ram raids from when that lot were in power; 46,000 fewer victims of violent crime—that’s what delivery looks like on this side of the House—66 new medicines funded, including 33 cancer medicines; approximately 2,000 nurses and hundreds more doctors employed; 24/7 online GP care. Cell bans—cellular phones banned from our schools so that our children can focus more; structured literacy and mathematics—we’re seeing the results in a small amount of time, so just imagine what it will be like in the future; and so much more. Not to mention, the free-trade agreement with India that Chris Hipkins mocked—mocked—Christopher Luxon about, saying, essentially, that we’ll never be able to achieve it. Well, guess what? We’ve achieved it, because here, results and delivery are actually tangible. What I’d also like to talk about, with delivery—because we’ve been quite careful with taxpayers’ money over the years, and this Budget continues to reflect that. For the first time ever, New Zealand has a Minister for Mental Health. This week, results came out with respect to access to mental health and addiction services. Anyone with a heart will probably have tears well up in their eyes, because we know that in New Zealand mental health is such a stigma on our society in that we have not been able to address. And the over a billion dollars of taxpayer money that the Labour Party poured into mental health—with no direction and no targets—meant that nothing was achieved. Access to specialist mental health and addiction services within three weeks of referral—we’ve gone above target in Counties Manukau: 88 percent of people. Access to primary mental health and addiction services within one week: 84.7 percent. I received from Flatbush Police yesterday, as well, figures about crime in Flatbush going down and down and down, thanks to the tools we’re giving police and the funding we are sustaining in our Budgets, including Budget 2026. I am really proud of this. We will continue to fix the basics and build the future so that life can be more affordable for my neighbours all around Takanini. Thank you, Mr Speaker. PAULO GARCIA (National—New Lynn) (16:34): Thank you, Mr Speaker. When our Government came into power in 2023, we came upon an economy that was perilously weak, and a law and order situation that had people feeling unsafe and New Zealanders all over the country feeling quite unsafe. We wanted, we needed, to focus on fixing these basic things and looking to the future and building for the future. We needed to get the economy going, first and foremost. That meant allowing for people to get from point to point. That meant infrastructure growth and building. It meant investing in roads that the country relied on. We needed to have people feeling safe to be out and about and getting from where they needed to be to and from, and, also, the goods that they were producing where they needed to be. It meant backing hard-working New Zealanders and creating job opportunities all across the country, pushing for exports, and creating the opportunities and the pathways for exports to grow all over New Zealand. We have invested in rural and regional roads. We’re also investing in over a billion dollars in the Cambridge to Piarere Expressway. This is really meant to get the flow of goods to and from the producers to the market very quickly. Protein is trending globally, and it happens that protein from milk is the best, most easily assimilated protein into the human body, and so the demand for protein is growing. We are helping our dairy industry to produce as much as they can and get these products to other countries through the many free-trade agreements, including to India, for all other export goods. I’d also like to focus on the improvements in healthcare. We have invested $5.5 billion in front-line health services. This means that emergency departments have started flowing much more quickly. More patients are being seen much more quickly. Elective surgery has moved very quickly; 51,000 people were treated in just this year alone, just from the elective wait list. More specialist assessments; cancer being diagnosed much more quickly, and the opportunity to get to treatment has been very much improved. For actual persons who are going into very uncertain ground in terms of their health, if diagnosed with cancer, this meant that people could be diagnosed more quickly and treated more quickly. That meant humans—actual people—would be able to get to their families, stay for that one more birthday and experience hope going forward. We’ve also invested in adding 30 percent on mileage rates for community support workers and people travelling for specialist treatment. We have also strengthened the ambulance service with an additional $35 million over four years. This is what fixing the basics and building for the future means. On top of that, we have enabled KiwiSaver to be paid for all children born in New Zealand, and for 65-year-olds who want to carry on working to continue to have them. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Labour) (16:39): Thank you, Mr Speaker. This is an absolutely disappointing Budget. It is particularly disappointing because members opposite campaigned long and hard in 2023 about easing the cost of living. Yet decisions that they have made—including a decision to borrow and blow billions of dollars on tax breaks to one tobacco company and property speculators—has meant that people today, that New Zealanders today, are struggling more than they have before the 2023 election when this Government campaigned to ease the cost of living. They have made it actively worse. One in three households today face food insecurity. That figure goes up to 82 percent when you factor in a disabled person in a household. This is a Government that claims to be backing small businesses, but company liquidations are at a 15-year high. The number one issue that I hear from small businesses up and down the Maungakiekie electorate is the fact that sales are down, that it’s one of the toughest years that they have done. They are asking locals—and I back this—to support small businesses as and when they can, but this is not a Government that supports small businesses. Unemployment: there are 40,000 fewer jobs today than when this Government took office—20,000 of those alone in the construction sector. They’ve stopped, en masse, building. Members opposite wax lyrical about the fact that they’ve invested in roads and so on and so forth. The construction industry is on its knees because of this Government. As a result of all of this, people are struggling and making some incredibly tough choices. CCS Disability Action describes this Budget as one that risks further isolating disabled people, stating that it “makes disabled people’s lives more restricted, harder to live in their own communities, and less visible to the rest of the country.” That is the implication of successive Budgets by this Government. They’ve outlined some of the detail in this: a disability allowance with the baseline in long-term decline; Total Mobility—that has been cut—a scheme that has been reduced by this Government, leading to a 40 percent increase in out-of-pocket expenses for taxi trips for disabled people who cannot take public transport; cuts—of course, further cuts—to Whaikaha, reducing the voice of the Ministry of Disabled People under this Government’s watch. The most egregious thing is the fact that part of what they gloat about in terms of an investment in disabled people is actually an expense transfer of funds that weren’t spent. It was an underspend over the very years where they restricted access of disabled people to support to such a point that the disability community has outlined this in terms of trauma and suffering that disabled people have experienced. That is now an expense transfer of an underspend. I want to also quickly touch on what this Government’s doing to the environment. My colleague the Hon Rachel Brooking pointed out some piddly sums in this Budget that go towards improving the environment. But the overall story is very different. We’ve seen multi-year funding cuts to the Department of Conservation (DOC) across successive Budgets, and that’s continued in Budget 2026, as well, to the tune of almost $38 million. I did a quick back-of-the-envelope accounting exercise, and it’s pretty much to the tune of $196 million that this Government has stripped from the Department of Conservation alone. That’s not taking into account their very cynical spending of the international visitor conservation and tourism levy (IVL) that they increased— Suze Redmayne: Oh, tell that to the wilding pines! Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: The wilding pines was good—I’ll give you that—but it was tiny, and it was work that we’d done, as well. It’s kind of neither here nor there in that sense, but it’s good. Look at it in context of what’s been stripped out of the environment, though. IVL funding increased. It was meant to be a top-up. It was meant to be additional spend to offset the impact of tourism on conservation, but, no, it’s being used to replace Crown spending on the Department of Conservation. All they have achieved is the watering-down of protections for the Hauraki Gulf, the ending of Jobs for Nature, the disestablishment of the Ministry for the Environment, and now the enabling, through a change in law, of the sell-off of up to 60 percent of public conservation land and a change in DOC’s fundamental purpose in order to focus on economic development to the greatest extent practicable on conservation land. This is a Government that continuously fails its people, the economy, and the environment, and, come November this year, people can vote them out. Ingrid Leary: Mr Speaker! ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): Go ahead— Hon Member: Ingrid Leary. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): —Ingrid Leary. INGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri) (16:44): Thank you, Mr Speaker. It’s appropriate to be talking in this House about mental health. I did request an urgent debate, earlier today, which, unfortunately, was declined. When I looked at the Budget, the issue that I wanted to discuss is very relevant to it, because we see that the Mental Health Commission this morning has released a road map calling for improved crisis response, workforce growth, reduced coercion and seclusion, equitable access, and better outcomes for people with the highest needs. Yet we haven’t seen anything in this Budget that speaks directly into what that road map is advocating. This is presenting as a real problem in the neighbouring electorate to mine, the wonderful electorate of Dunedin that my friend and colleague the Hon Rachel Brooking looks after, which is at Wakari Hospital. I have an interest in this both as a mental health spokesperson for Labour but also as someone who has constituents who are impacted. The hospital is the only place in the lower South Island that has the facility to look after a very particular group of vulnerable New Zealanders who are those with mental health issues over the age of 18 with disability in terms of intellectual disability and a conviction or, if not a conviction, a demonstrated propensity to cause harm to themselves and others. What we have seen come out in local media recently is a sudden decision by this Government to close Wakari Hospital, even though it made a Budget announcement last year to refurbish ward 10A. They’re now closing ward 10A, and, not only that, they’re also moving patients out of that highly specialised ward with no disclosure of where those patients are going to go. This has been very distressing for the families of those people who they love and who should be given the same level of dignity and reference to their human rights as any other New Zealander. Yet, despite repeated questions and also articles in the Otago Daily Times, we have not been able to get answers from the Minister for Mental Health. What I would like to understand is, if the Minister is not going to prioritise things like this in his Budget, can he at least rule out that there have been no cases of abuse, of cruelty, or of torture at Wakari Hospital? Why won’t he rule out an independent investigation? That might be a good use of the Budget spend, because this comes on the back of his offer this week to apologise to the family of an autistic girl who was 11 and who was sedated and restrained and incorrectly identified in the mental health service. It comes on the back of real issues at Hillmorton Hospital with rat infestation and with issues at Nelson Hospital of facilities that are not fit for purpose. I’ve had people contacting me from a hospital in Napier with the same kinds of issues and poor resourcing and poor facilities. Then we’ve had very recent media coverage of Palmerston North Hospital and a litany of issues that were brought out by the forensic work of a brother of a man who tragically died of suicide in that facility. We’re seeing a systemic problem at the very high, specialised, acute needs end of mental health. These are the people who are the most vulnerable in our system and who have the least visibility and the least voice. What we are not seeing is any kind of investment, in this Budget, to that part of the mental health response. Nor are we seeing answers to our questions about where the patients at 10A Wakari Hospital are being relocated to. Are they going into corrections facilities, which are highly inappropriate for most of them? Are they being expected to be cared for by their families, and do the families have the resources to support them? When will ward 10A reopen, or will it reopen? What happens to ward 9A, given that they were expecting to be refurbished to take on some of the people in the 12 beds in ward 10A? There’s a whole plethora of questions and lack of transparency that is just deeply worrying. We have no regard for that in the Budget, and, now, we have no regard for the anxiety of the families of people impacted by what is happening at Wakari Hospital and, indeed, facilities all over our country. This is not a good Budget, and there’s a lot to be answered. Hon MIKE BUTTERICK (Minister for Land Information) (16:49): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Before discussing the Budget announcements, I’d just like to acknowledge the extraordinary contribution the rural community makes to New Zealand. The numbers are very impressive. More than 360,000 New Zealanders work in it. Roughly one in six New Zealanders works in the food and fibre sector. That’s the farmers, the growers, the foresters, the contractors, transport operators, processors, etc., etc. Seventy-thousand businesses up and down the length of this country, from the top to the bottom, are associated with the food and fibre sector. Over 80 percent of our export income and 15-plus percent of GDP comes from the food and fibre sector. This year, the food and fibre exports are forecast to reach a record $64.3 billion; that’s the highest in New Zealand’s history. Dairy revenue is forecast to increase by 5 percent, meat and wool by 14 percent, and horticulture by 7 percent. Those earnings do not just simply benefit rural communities; they generate the tax revenue that helps pay for our hospitals, our schools, our roads, our police, our emergency services, superannuation, and the public services that New Zealanders rely upon. When rural New Zealand succeeds, New Zealand succeeds. My word, the confidence is high. Unlike the minus 66 percent confidence when the previous Government was in power, we’ve had the biggest turn-round since that farmer confidence survey was started in 2008—100 percent turn-round in confidence—and you can feel it. I was actually at the primary industries awards last night in Auckland. You could feel the confidence and excitement in the room, and particularly about the anticipation of the India free-trade agreement. Everybody is really looking forward to that. It’s really important to look beyond the headlines of the Budget and examine what is actually being delivered for our regions, our farmers, and our rural communities. The Budget is built around a very simple principle: creating the conditions for growth, because growth matters. It’s not just growth in export earnings and not just growth in productivity but growth in opportunity, resilience, innovation, and leadership. One of the most significant investments is the Government’s commitment to accelerating the adoption of new farm technologies through AgriZero; $100 million is being jointly invested through an early adoption accelerator programme that will help bring world-leading technologies on to New Zealand farms faster. Up to $51 million of this will be contributed by Government. For farmers, this is not just simply about reducing emissions; it’s about improving productivity, profitability, and competitiveness. It’s about ensuring that our New Zealand farmers remain at the forefront of global food production. Alongside this, the Government is investing in smarter land-use decisions. A package worth over $140 million across the lifetime of six major commercial projects, including $59 million from Government and over $84 million from industry, will support innovation across dairy, sheep and beef, horticulture, forestry, aquaculture, and Māori-owned land. These projects recognise that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to land use. There never has been; different regions face different opportunities and challenges. Providing that flexibility will allow landowners to respond to changing markets, environmental expectations, and emerging export opportunities, while also maintaining profitability. In the Budget, we’re also seeing targeted investment in Māori agribusiness. More than $5.3 million is being invested through the Māori Development Fund to support horticulture and aquaculture projects in Hawke’s Bay, Raupunga, and Akaroa. These investments unlock the potential of collectively owned Māori assets, create jobs, and expand export opportunities, while strengthening regional communities. Importantly, Budget 2026 is not only focused on productivity; it’s also focused on people, because thriving farms require thriving communities. That’s why I welcome the creation of the Rural Wellbeing Champions Programme. An investment of $98,000 will help train and support 100 rural wellbeing champions through a partnership between New Zealand Young Farmers and Farmstrong. Those champions will help lead conversations around wellbeing, support their peers, and strengthen those community connections. This initiative recognises something that every rural New Zealander understands: resilience is not just about infrastructure, it’s also about people. We’ll also continue to fund the good work of the Rural Support Trust. It was only last night that I attended the Primary Industries New Zealand Awards, where Neil Bateup, the previous chairman of the Rural Support Trust, was recognised for his significant contribution to the Rural Support Trust. One of the women leaders in agribusiness, Sarah Donaldson, was also a nominee as well from the Wairarapa. I’d just like to acknowledge the great work that they do for the mental wellbeing of their community up and down the length of New Zealand. This Government is also backing the next generation of rural leaders. The new Minister of Agriculture Future Leaders Scholarship will support three emerging leaders every year across agriculture, horticulture, and forestry, because investing in leadership today means investing in the future capability of our sector for tomorrow. Likewise, New Zealand Young Farmers are receiving support through one-off grants of $1,000 to 60 clubs nationwide, alongside $585,000 in Rural Wellbeing Fund initiatives to strengthen physical, mental, and financial wellbeing. Those investments will ensure that the next generation will remain engaged, connected, and optimistic about a future in the primary sector. Resilience is another key theme running through the Government’s investment. Recent years have reminded us how vulnerable rural communities can be to adverse weather events and natural disasters. To strengthen that preparedness, the Government is investing $160,000 to enhance the capability of New Zealand’s 16 rural advisory groups, $50,000 to support Taskforce Kiwi’s rapid deployment during emergencies, and $50,000 to build leadership capability and future resilience planning within rural regions. These are practical investments that will help communities prepare for challenges before they occur. This Government has also recognised the vital role played by catchment groups. Across the country, catchment groups are delivering practical environmental improvements, while helping farmers share knowledge and solve problems collaboratively. I would liken it to a continuation of the investment that rural communities have made in their environment. I would just point out the 186,000 hectares of Queen Elizabeth II National Trust covenants in this country, 2.8 million hectares of woody vegetation on our farmland, as well as 23,000 kilometres of waterways fenced off on our dairy farms as well—that’s actually 100 percent of waterways fenced off. It’s great to continue backing them with wider investment exceeding $40 million. The catchment groups will now benefit from baseline funding agreements that will provide certainty and allow them to focus on delivering outcomes rather than chasing funding applications. That certainty matters, just as certainty matters in another area that remains a major priority: resource management reform. For far too long, farmers and rural businesses have struggled with excessive compliance costs, delays, and regulatory complexity. Our commitment to replace the Resource Management Act remains one of the most important productivity reforms currently under way. Whether it’s building infrastructure, improving water storage, developing farm systems, or investing in regional growth, rural New Zealand needs a planning framework that enables sensible development while protecting environmental outcomes. Progress in this space will deliver benefits long after any individual Budget announcement. The Government’s also continuing its commitment to tackling one of the most significant environmental and economic threats facing many rural regions: the dreaded wilding conifer. Through a $109 million investment in wilding pine control over the next three years, work will continue to protect productive farmland, our ecosystems, our water resources, and our iconic landscapes from the spread of invasive wilding trees. For the record, rural New Zealand is not an afterthought; it’s a cornerstone of our nation’s prosperity. As long as the food and fibre sector continues to grow, innovate, and compete on the world stage, the benefits will be felt in every town, every city, and every community across New Zealand. National backs our farmers 100 percent as we fix the basics and build the future. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): Tākuta Ferris will now take his call, which he missed before. TĀKUTA FERRIS (Te Tai Tonga) (16:59): Tēnā koe e te Pīka. We’ve heard the Government describe Budget 2026 as “responsible”, but for the whānau I represent in Te Tai Tonga, it’ll be remembered differently. It will be remembered for one simple question, and that is “Who matters?” Budgets are never just numbers; they’re decisions, they’re choices, they tell us who is invested in and who is expected to wait. Once again, Māori are expected to wait. Across Te Tai Tonga, whānau are facing rising rents, rising costs, rising food, overcrowded housing, barriers to healthcare—the list goes on and on. Too many can’t see a GP when they need one, too many rangatahi can’t see a clear pathway to education and work, and too many whānau are working harder than ever, only to fall further behind. Yet in this Budget, we do not see transformational investment in Māori; instead, we see $3.5 billion more invested in defence and intelligence, on top of $12 billion last year. We see half a billion dollars for Corrections to expand prisons. The Government is investing heavily in managing consequences. So I have to ask: what about the causes? What security exists for whānau sleeping in overcrowded homes; for kaumātua waiting months for healthcare; for rangatahi locked out of housing, work, and support? The greatest threats in our communities are not foreign powers; they are poverty, preventable illness, poor housing, addiction, intergenerational disadvantage, and this Budget does far too little to address them. Instead of investing in solutions, the Government continues to invest in systems that manage failure after it occurs. It fails to invest properly in kaupapa Māori health. It fails to invest in rangatahi Māori. It fails to invest in housing that people can actually afford. It fails to invest in Māori education. Just weeks ago, the Government announced $62.5 million for classroom and school expansion in Te Wai Pounamu, yet not one dollar was specifically targeted to Māori-medium education capacity—not one—despite demand being up, despite wait-lists, despite ageing and unsafe buildings in many kura, and despite the fact that 2.9 percent of Māori learners in Te Wai Pounamu are in Māori-medium education. That is not due to a lack of aspiration; that is due to a lack of investment. When kura Māori are delivering stronger outcomes—strengthening identity, language, and achievement—why are they still treated as an afterthought? Kura, like Te Pā o Rākaihautū in Ōtautahi, are outperforming national NCEA averages, and won the Zayed Sustainability Prize for their world-leading mātauranga Māori innovation. But that excellence is still being delivered in mould-affected, leaking, unhealthy buildings that no tamaiti should have to learn in. Imagine, if this Government invested equitably in Māori-medium education, what our tamariki could achieve in safe, proper learning environments that match their excellence. The truth is that the solutions already exist. They exist in education, in health, in social services, in housing. Solutions exist everywhere that Māori have developed kaupapa Māori initiatives. The persistent problem is that they are simply not funded fairly. So I ask: why must Māori continue to fight for equitable funding for equitable outcomes? The answer is: priorities, and the Government have made that very clear. They found billions for defence, they found billions for prisons, but couldn’t find meaningful investment into Māori-medium education or Māori development or kaupapa Māori health. That tells us everything we need to know. Te Tai Tonga is not asking for charity; we’re asking for fairness, for investment, for opportunity, because the greatest asset in this country—in our country—is not a warship or a mega-prison; it’s our people. Our people are our wealth. When Māori succeed, Aotearoa succeeds. When our tamariki thrive, the whole country thrives. That’s a future worth fighting for. That’s a future of Te Tai Tonga, where investment is equitable and comes before crisis, where Māori solutions are funded for greater success, and where the people of Te Tai Tonga are empowered to determine their own futures. [Authorised reo Māori text to be inserted by the Hansard Office.] [Authorised translation to be inserted by the Hansard Office.] SIMON COURT (ACT) (17:04): When it comes to Budgets, ACT asks a simple question: if we’re going to spend money, where does it come from? Too often in this House, we hear parties proposing billions and billions of dollars in spending, as though these decisions don’t have consequences, as though deficits don’t matter, as though debt is free, and as though taxpayers are committed to unlimited sources of funding. These things are not free, and that is why ACT believes that every dollar the Government spends is a dollar earned by somebody else, and we apply that rule to every decision that ACT makes as part of this coalition Government. That means making choices. It means deciding what matters most. We’ve heard from members of the Opposition today, Priyanca Radhakrishnan included, that the Government shouldn’t consider whether land under the control of the Department of Conservation, that might include a works depot, a shed, a paddock that’s been grazed for 100 years—why that couldn’t be exchanged for money to reinvest in biodiversity in the conservation estate. That is the difference between this Government and the Opposition. The Opposition will pretend that all problems can be solved by taxing more and spending more and failing to make trade-offs. This Government, and ACT in this Government, will continue to reinforce— Hon Rachel Brooking: Oh, that’s what you call a “trade-off”. A cut isn’t a trade-off. SIMON COURT: —the Hon Rachel Brooking, while you sit there yapping from the Opposition benches, where you’ll stay for a while—that these things do require hard trade-offs. But we have the courage—ACT has the courage—and we will continue to focus on fixing what matters. There’s nothing compassionate about spending money you don’t have. There’s nothing progressive about handing today’s bills to tomorrow’s taxpayers. There’s nothing responsible about pretending the trade-offs that I’ve described do not exist. That is why this Budget matters. Over the last few years, New Zealanders have had to tighten their belts; Government has had to do the same. We’ve started to move in the right direction. We can go faster. But Budget 2026 builds on that progress. This Budget takes a different approach to the past. New Zealand is now forecast to return to surplus a year earlier than anticipated. That matters because deficits do not exist in a vacuum. Government borrowing— Hon Rachel Brooking: When? After other anticipated forecasts? SIMON COURT: Listen, Rachel Brooking, you might need to know this some day— ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): I’d ask the member to refer to the Speaker, as opposed to speaking across the Chamber. SIMON COURT: She’s interjecting, Mr Speaker, and that should be on Hansard. Deficits do not exist in a vacuum. Government borrowing puts pressure on inflation, interest rates, and ultimately on households trying to get ahead. ACT Ministers have collectively delivered over $14 billion in savings over three Budgets. That is not an accounting exercise. That is money that does not need to be borrowed, that does not need to be taxed, money that does not need to be taken from the next generation, because every Budget is a set of choices. While some argue for a bigger bureaucracy, this Budget continues that shift towards a Public Service that is smaller, more efficient, and more productive, with $2 billion in savings forecast from future reductions in size. That is before we get to potential reductions in scope, which is another opportunity over the horizon. Labour proved that more bureaucrats do not automatically mean better outcomes. That’s why ACT in Government’s approach is simple: we focus on fixing what matters, we create room to invest in the things that solve New Zealanders’ problems. I want to talk about one of the initiatives that I’ve been involved in funding. The Resource Management Act is one of the best examples we’ve had of why it’s important that law and regulation are clear and that everybody operating in a system—like building housing, building infrastructure, or maintaining roads and bridges—understands exactly what their obligations are and how to comply, so that you can go and get a cheap, effective design for something and you don’t spend years litigating with your local council potentially all the way through the Environment Court or, you know, for some poor souls, all the way to the Supreme Court to try to get consent for something we need. Now, not all infrastructure is pretty, I’ll grant you that. We can do our best to put a cultural mural on the side of a bridge, but I’ll tell you what, there’s not much you can do to a landfill to make it look good. But we still need infrastructure like landfills, like ports, airports, things that make noise, quarries that generate dust and traffic, because without them New Zealand cannot build the things we need. Look, all of these things will eventually get consented, even under the old system. It will just take decades and add billions and billions in cost. That is why Minister Chris Bishop and I, in the resource management reform portfolio, have secured $294 million to deliver and transition the current resource management system to the new system—that we’re going to deliver with the passing of the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill in a few short months’ time. That money is going to fund the first tranche of national direction. That is the direction that tells council planners and decision makers like commissioners and judges—and, of course, in the new planning tribunal—how to weigh up some of these tricky things. We want to build houses, but there’s a paddock with a few bull rushes in it. Do the houses win or do the bull rushes win? I’ll tell you what, in the new system, the houses are going to win, but not if we don’t invest in the data that’s necessary to make good decisions, if we don’t invest in a digital platform that is standardised across the country. Chris Bishop and I have said we want standardised zones to apply to towns and cities in New Zealand, instead of 1,170 different ways to describe height to boundary and the set-back that your garage must have from the road frontage. Instead of 1,170 ways to do it across 67 councils, think about Japan: they’ve got about 12 zones across the whole country. I’ve said to Minister Bishop we should aim for 11. He seems to think we might not quite get that low, but that’s the opportunity that investing in standardisation, investing in one digital planning system for the country, offers. And that’s before you get to the opportunity that AI offers. Once you start asking of every applicant and every decision, “Hey, did we really need all this information in order to make the decision?”, and “Were the consent conditions or the planning conditions that came out of the decision really necessary to protect the environment and protect the neighbours?”—or, actually, can we have a lighter touch, the opportunity to go not just from the 40,000 consents a year we have now but potentially down to 20,000, or even back to 5,000 consents a year demanded of Kiwis, like we had in the 1990s? It’s actually right there in front of us if we make this investment and we follow it up by making sure that the new system is implemented thoroughly. That is over four years. We intend the new system to be fully functioning by 2028-29, with new plans in place across the country. For those people sitting at home or sitting at their desk in their development office, or if you’re sitting down the road at the transport agency thinking “How on earth are we going to get consent for this site?”—you know, like a culvert; I mean, imagine having to replace a pipe under the road in 2026; it could take years to get consent—I’ll tell you what, relief is coming. Minister Bishop and I have assured that. Then, when it comes to energy, what we know is that when the sun doesn’t shine, the wind doesn’t blow, and the rain doesn’t fall—it does happen in New Zealand sometimes. It’s usually raining somewhere or blowing somewhere in the country. The problem is that, if it doesn’t do it enough and all at once, we don’t have enough energy. That’s why, in this Budget, we’ve made provision to fund a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, to make sure we have a secure energy system, that we are connected to the rest of the world. In a way, our isolation has actually been a problem; it solves the problem that our isolation has caused. When the previous Government banned oil and gas exploration without having a plan B, they left it to this Government to pull a rabbit out of the hat. Now, the LNG terminal could have been avoided if we had kept drilling for the gas that is available right now on the eighth-largest continent of the world. Just because you can’t see it, members of the Opposition, doesn’t mean it ain’t there. New Zealand, there’s a couple of little islands that are on the eighth-largest continent of the world. We have some of the best mineral and best energy resources available to any modern democracy. Under this Government, with ACT as a part of this Government, we are driving to get access to our oil and gas resources, to get access to our mineral resources. There is funding in this Budget to make sure we can get critical minerals which can contribute to the international supply chain, so that all of us, including members of the Opposition, can have their cell phones, have their iPads, and have electricity. I commend this Budget bill to the House. CARL BATES (National—Whanganui) (17:15): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Every day, I come into this House and hear the Opposition talk about spending more money. I’m surprised that it happens just day after day after day, as though this magic money tree can be growing every day to pay for stuff, without consideration to how the Government is going to create, where it’s going to take it from, how it’s going to grow the economy—the things you’ve actually got to do to be able to pay for things in the first place—and that not just spending money solves the problem. It reminds me of when I was a kid. I remember, one day one of my siblings said to my dad, “Can we have McDonald’s?”, and Dad said, “Well, we don’t have any money.” My siblings said to Dad, “Well, go down to that ATM thing and just get some out.” Labour thinks the ATM—the New Zealand taxpayer—can just be shot up for another amount of juice to fund another project that, quite frankly, as much as they’ll announce it, they won’t get it off the ground. You have to, as I said earlier in this House today, not only create money, you have to invest it and deliver an outcome from it. That’s what we’re doing with this Budget. We understand where the money is coming from. We understand that it is hard-working New Zealanders, that it is businesses, that it is the people who are making this economy tick that are paying the taxes. We appreciate that we have to invest that wisely in order to deliver outcomes to improve the challenges across New Zealand, including, as I said to the member across the House, Tākuta Ferris, earlier in this debate, the investment we have made into improving attendance at schools across the motu. Along with that, we have invested in tackling hardship and homelessness. There’s been an announcement, last week, of an additional $14.5 million over the next couple of years that’s going into that focus on reducing homelessness in New Zealand, including $2.7 million to support six new additional sites, two of which are in Taranaki and in Whanganui. That’s something we can be proud of. It’s about ensuring communities where housing pressure is real have an answer that is not endless motel stays, as it was under the last Government. It is about more homes and better pathways out of hardship. Part of that is the increase to 2,250 social housing homes, or social homes, that are additional under this Budget. It’s about backing rural New Zealand, and that’s about the size of the sector—this engine room of the New Zealand economy that Fieldays demonstrated to us is confident about where the economy is at. I said, in my maiden speech in this House, that there were farmers in Stratford that wanted a Government that backs them, and we have delivered on that over the last 2½ years. This Budget continues to support that focus: $266 million for the Primary Sector Growth Fund; $40.5 million for farmer-led catchment groups—a real driver of environmental improvement across our farming communities across New Zealand; a reminder that they don’t need to just be told what to do from an ivory tower in Wellington. They can practically go into their own communities, their own farms, their own environments, make changes, improve environmental outcomes, and achieve results in real rural New Zealand. Quite frankly, it’s not people from across this House that have no understanding of rural and provincial New Zealand that should be telling them what to do. It’s about regional infrastructure and services and the stronger communities that come from that, including, of course, I must mention as part of a Budget discussion in this House, the new police station in Whanganui, and the $15 million that’s going to go to the Awakino Gorge, the regional road of significance for Taranaki; our key line up from Taranaki to Auckland, which keeps us connected, which enables those products from rural New Zealand to get to markets in Auckland and overseas. It’s this Government that has committed that funding, along with the funding for the condition upgrade, of course, at Te Paepae o Aotea, the high school in Hawera that was started under the last Government, who promised much, did not fund what it needed, and it is this Government that’s delivering it under this Budget, as we continue to fix the basics and build the future. TIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato) (17:20): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. This is, quite simply, a Budget focused on fixing the basics and building the future. We’ve heard from Mr Bates a number of very salient points in terms of how we are investing to ensure growth, but before we do that, I just want to pick up on one of the comments that he mentioned as well around the spending piece. Now, we just had scrutiny week here in Parliament last week, and on the committee that I have the good fortune to chair, the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, we heard questions numerous times from the Opposition about why spending was lower, and that that was therefore clearly a poorer outcome. And what we actually heard from the agencies and the Ministers was, “No, just spending more doesn’t actually always deliver better outcomes.” Now, there are plenty of examples we have seen over the six dark years of the Labour Government that highlighted exactly that, where indeed it just felt like money was being thrown out the door and the only measure of success was how much can we spend. Have we spent more than has ever been spent? Then we must be doing well. Well, that is not the view of this Government. Quite frankly, that was a dereliction of duty from the former Government. This Government, now, is clearly focused on fixing the basics. That means getting expenditure under control, and we’ve demonstrated that over three successive Budgets now, staying within those operational balances every time as well—those operational allowances, something the former Government did not achieve once, despite having higher operating allowances in every one of their six Budgets, they could not stick to that. We have, and yet, despite that, we have also been able to make some crucial investments, some prudent, pragmatic improvements for Kiwis’ lives around the country. I’m very pleased that in the Waikato we have secured funding now for the extension of the Waikato Expressway to the intersection of State Highways 1 and 29 at Piarere. A dangerous stretch of road that, frankly, should have been done by now. It was planned under the last National Government, cancelled by the then Labour Government in 2018 when they came in, and unfortunately, we saw throughout the intervening years the continuation of the trend of deaths and serious injuries along that stretch of road and the increase of traffic volumes as well. So it is a delight, now, that we have finally secured the funding for that. Construction is getting under way. Anyone driving through that corridor will see activity taking place already. That is a fantastic outcome. It brings massive safety improvements, it brings greater social connection in terms of being able to transit through that corridor more efficiently, and, of course, it drives economic prosperity for our region, too. Now, ultimately, we want to connect the Bay of Plenty to the Waikato with four lanes. That is a long-term, ambitious project, but this is the sort of ambition that we need to have. This Government is clearly focused on trying to deliver towards those sorts of ambitions because that is how we build the future. We are fixing those basics right now, but we need to have that ambition for the future as well. We’ve also, of course, got the third medical school under construction in the Waikato as well. Another fantastic project that will deliver meaningful outcomes in terms of training new doctors and nurses in New Zealand, ensuring that rural focus, and helping to drive delivery of critical health needs for everyday New Zealanders, who, quite frankly, just expect to get that service when they need it. Now, that wasn’t always the case, and, unfortunately, when we came in, we saw in health all the targets had been removed, so it was hard to tell exactly what had happened or how performance was going. We had seen more money—as I said at the start, more money’s not necessarily a measure of success. Yet despite that more money going out the door, and yet across just about every metric that we dived into in health, poorer outcomes for Kiwis. Now, that is not good enough. We’ve set health targets in place and we are making good progress on those. Education is another key one—and I hear this from fellow parents around the Waikato electorate, that they were concerned at the underperformance of New Zealand students across the board over time, and, frankly, the attendance alongside that as well. So that’s another area where we have turned the dial. Law and order as well. Greater consequences for criminal offending, backing the police more, reduced victimisations—all of that is fixing the basics. Now, that is fantastic progress. Sure, there’s more to do, but we are getting on with doing it. This Budget is a fantastic continuation of that great work. We can’t go back to the dark days of Labour. National is getting it done. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): This call is also a split call. CAMILLA BELICH (Labour) (17:25): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Well, why won’t National tell us what they are going to cut? Why, in this Budget, have they told us that they’re going to get rid of 9,000 Public Service jobs but they seem to have absolutely no plan as to how this is going to be implemented, and absolutely no idea of the jobs that are going to be cut. Now, we take our job here, as the Opposition, seriously. So when they announced the Budget and they said, “We are going to balance this Budget on the jobs of public servants”, we said to the National Party, “Who is going to lose their job? How will this impact New Zealanders? What public services that Kiwis rely on are going to be cut by this Budget?” And what did we hear? Crickets. So then we had questions in the House, we had scrutiny week where I asked the Minister, Paul Goldsmith, “What are the jobs that are going to be cut? What is exempt from this process? And who needs to worry about how they’re going to pay their bills and what services they are going to be able to rely on?” I have had no satisfactory answers. In fact, today, we had to go line by line to every single Minister in this Government and ask them about every single important job that Kiwis rely on and say to them, “Will you rule this out? Will you rule out cutting the jobs of these really important public services that people do?” And just some examples for you, Mr Speaker, on that. The people who do suicide prevention; the people who do search and rescue; the people who work in the Labour Inspectorate to investigate crimes against vulnerable workers; the people who work for Oranga Tamariki’s contact centre, the contact centre where people call to alert authorities that children are in danger. I asked Ministers to rule out cuts to all of those important jobs, in addition to many, many others—dozens of other jobs. I was not able to get any assurances. Now, that doesn’t mean that the Government hasn’t ruled out some job cuts, because we see that Maritime New Zealand search and rescue coordination is staying and also the Cancer Control Agency is staying—two Ministers were able to provide that information. So I say to the Government, if it’s possible for them to give that level of detail around these key public services, the rest of the public servants who work across New Zealand need to know whether their jobs are safe or not, because, at the moment, we have 9,000 people, their families, their parents, their children, everyone who relies on them, wondering: do they have a future in this country? Do they have a career in this country? Can they afford to pay their bills? We have not had answers to that. You’ll also be aware that this couldn’t have come at a worse time for these New Zealanders. Not only are they facing the prospect of losing their job, but at the same time New Zealanders have a cost of living crisis. The economy, despite what you may hear from the other side, is not going well. We have business liquidations at a 15-year high. Well, that is a terrible indictment on the Government which is meant to be the party of business. The businesses in New Zealand are closing under this Government. We have unemployment continuing to grow. We have 40,000 more people out of work since National took office. Power bills are up 18 percent. We see more New Zealanders leaving than ever before. And we see 650,000 people unable to get primary care. Then, we look to this Budget, which we are debating today, and we thought—because we are optimists on the side of the House—“Surely there will be something for everyday New Zealanders in this Budget. Surely, on the background of this terrible economy, on the background of job losses, and the background of the cost of living crisis that New Zealanders are facing—surely there will be something.” There was nothing but misery and further cuts. To make it even worse, there are no details about how that’s going to be implemented. The only thing we heard is AI is going to ride in and save them. Well, that is blatantly ridiculous. We know that they don’t have a plan. We know that these cuts don’t add up. All we know is that austerity is coming for New Zealand, and if you think it’s bad for you today, then just wait. After three more years of that Government, it’s going to be even worse, because they have no plan, and the plan that they have means cutting back the public services and the jobs that you rely on. Let it be a warning to New Zealanders that if they make the grave mistake of re-electing that side of the House, the only thing that will happen for them is that employment will get worse, public services will reduce, and everything will be— ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): The member’s time has expired. Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū) (17:30): There’s no shortage of things that have outraged New Zealanders over the last couple of years, and, most recently, there’s Shane Jones’ $33,000 trip to Canada, companies donating to National and ACT and New Zealand First who have directly benefited from fast-track decisions, the current proposal to sell off conservation lands, tax cuts for landlords while State house rents are being hiked up, the subjugation of our once-proud independent foreign policy to the geopolitical interests of the United States and Israel. It’s a very long list, but, actually, what’s done the real political damage to this Government is their economic mismanagement, and you can see it in the Budget. Never has so much damage been done to so many people by the mishandling of the economy by a party and a Prime Minister who promised to fix the cost of living crisis. He’s the business guy, Christopher Luxon, He was going to make everything fine. The New Zealand public have watched for the last 2½ years while it’s got worse and worse. There is a widespread, pervasive view now across New Zealand that this Government has no interest in the lives of ordinary New Zealanders. Their hearts are not in it for ordinary Kiwis. They don’t care about them, they don’t want to look after them, and their priorities lie elsewhere. It’s this Government’s ideology, that’s reflected in this Budget, that’s done the real harm. It started off with tax cuts that disproportionately benefited the wealthy, and tax cuts that went to tobacco companies and landlords. That was the first big signal. That’s exhibit A, your honour. It was followed by the stopping and delaying of hundreds of construction projects—not only of State housing projects in my electorate but also of dozens and dozens of public housing projects cancelled and sections lying bare while homelessness has doubled. Then there was the sacking of thousands of public servants and the cutting of numerous social programmes—not to mention the hiring freeze in our hospitals, leaving our hospitals short staffed and under-resourced. Is it any wonder, in the face of that economic agenda, that there was a collapse in both consumer confidence and investor confidence with record business closures, high unemployment, and low to non-existent growth? Having throttled the life out of the economy, small businesses, contractors, tradies, and anyone in construction—20,000 jobs in construction alone gone—800 to 900 Kiwis are leaving the country every week for Australia, because there are no jobs. There are no opportunities there. That is what has really hurt people. The people that have been hit worst are the people who rely on casual work, the people who work two or three part-time jobs to survive, people who have to hustle for business every week—the independent traders, the contractors, and the small businesses. Retail has been absolutely savaged under this Government, and it’s because of the economic mismanagement. The fundamental lessons of demand management haven’t been learnt—or they’ve been unlearnt and forgotten—by Nicola Willis and the people around her. With that economic wasteland as the backdrop, grocery prices have relentlessly gone up week after week; petrol prices have gone up, not just because of the war in the Middle East that Christopher Luxon supported; power bills have gone up 18 percent, as Rachel Brooking said; insurance rates; car regos. Is there any household expense that hasn’t gone through the roof in the last 2½ years? When I’m in my electorate talking to people—whether it’s at the mall, the supermarket, car park, or on the doorstep—do you know what people say? “We’re dying out here. We need help. This is not working for us. I didn’t vote for this. Something needs to happen.” Now, luckily it is possible for Governments to do something about the cost of living crisis, and there are examples of Governments all over the world who have done something. Our Government took action consistently and repeatedly to ease the cost of living crisis when we were last in office, and we’ll do it again, and you can see it in the flavour of the policies that we’ve announced—three free doctors visits, the public transport fair cap. These are the policies that will make a difference to people’s back pockets, and, luckily, people have a choice in November to choose a better Government. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai) (17:35): Kia orana, Mr Speaker. This country deserves so much better. New Zealanders deserve so much better than what this coalition Government delivered in this Budget and the two before it. We have amazing opportunities, and there are opportunities of clean energy, electrification, the green economy, investing in our people to look after and educate other people. That is what will genuinely lead to better lives in New Zealand—not just better lives for Nick Mowbray and his family but better lives for the average New Zealander, the ones who are doing the real work of cleaning, of building, of nursing, of caring for aged people in our aged-care facilities. There are so many important jobs out there that require Government funding in order to be done, and we’re all better off as a result of it. That level of economic development and support is completely not understood by the ignorant people in this coalition Government. I mean, maybe they’re ignorant; maybe they’re malevolent—I don’t know which it is—but the reality is that with Government investment, the revenue circles around, and it actually multiplies. When we make sensible Government investments, then businesses are able to invest, the workers have more money, they’re able to go out for coffee, for a drink, and for a restaurant meal, and they’re able to do other things that support local business. That is something that Nicola Willis has apparently never understood. She thinks that jobs are magically handed down on high from those people who’ve been lucky enough to work our rigged tax system and economic system to become the super-rich. We’ve seen the super-rich getting more rich at the expense of ordinary people who are struggling with cost of living. Governments can do something about that. We absolutely know that that can be done, and the Green Party has long demonstrated where we can make practical investments that benefit our people and our planet, like the investment in Jobs for Nature, which was fantastic for regional economic development and fantastic for biodiversity, because biodiversity in nature is something that New Zealanders care about. All this coalition Government can think to do is to sell off and create a situation where our Department of Conservation isn’t looking after the intrinsic value of our conservation estate but looking to make money off it, potentially by selling off land and assets, which is extremely unpopular. Another example of the ways in which this Government is very out of touch with ordinary New Zealanders is that they go out claiming that their policies are resulting in business confidence, and yet here we have the most recent employment confidence index by Westpac, a regular survey of employment confidence, that just hit a new low—worse than 2008 and worse than COVID. That’s a result of failed economic ideology that too many people in the Government parties are adherents of, where they don’t understand that public investment is absolutely necessary. It’s necessary for the survival and the flourishing of our communities and our societies. They claim that we can’t afford to buy new ferries, for example. We had these new ferries that were a direct connection between the North and South Islands that were under order from a Korean shipyard. They came in, without any idea of what an alternative might be, and cancelled the order for the ferries—some of which would have been with us right now. Cancelling the work that was planned to enable those rail-enabled ferries meant a lot of jobs were lost in the construction sector in Picton and in Wellington. Now we’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars on sunk cost on cancelling the ferries, then we still have to buy some brand new ferries; it’s going to be years before they’re delivered. We are looking at years of disruption to the movement of people and goods between our two countries. Surely, that is, like, fundamental investment in our public good infrastructure, and so it’s an example of the ideological approach that is short-sighted and destructive, that this coalition Government came in and did right off the bat. The country is living with the consequences of that and will continue living with the consequences of that. What we did not see in this Budget was any commitment to changing the tax system to make it fair. The Green Party announced a tax policy; you wouldn’t know from the Government’s critique of it, but it would actually leave 96 percent of New Zealanders better off. So if you can make changes to the tax system that result in 96 percent of New Zealanders being better off and the Government having more revenue to invest in essential public services and infrastructure, who on Earth would oppose that? Who on Earth would oppose that? Oh, I know: the coalition parties who are getting massive donations from the super-rich. That probably has something to do with the fact that they wouldn’t make sensible changes to the tax system that would mean the first $10,000 of income earned would be tax free. That’s what the Green Party’s proposing: first $10,000 absolutely tax free. When we give more of our resources to more people, that benefits the entire society. If we concentrate ridiculous amounts of money in a small number of families, that’s of no economic benefit to the country. That’s where these fools are just, I don’t know—like, you almost can’t believe it’s true. It’s like: what is happening? One thing that is not reflected in the Budget is the fact that they’re about to sign us up to a very long-term, extremely expensive loan for a highway project that doesn’t make any sense—like, it doesn’t make any sense. They’re keeping the benefit-cost analysis secret, which is unheard of. If the benefit-cost analysis was public, I’m sure it would be overstating the benefits of the project, because they dropped the discount rate, which makes road projects look better even though they’re not actually better. Look, if there’s a road that’s carrying less than 0.2 percent of daily vehicle trips, we probably shouldn’t spend $12 billion on it, you know? Like, we’ve got other roads that need improvement. That’s what the National Infrastructure Plan said. The Green Party is absolutely committed to implementing those recommendations and putting maintenance and renewals first, bringing in appropriate pricing, and investing in the alternatives, because that is the huge opportunity for productivity gains: moving more people and goods with fewer vehicles and less fossil fuels. It just makes sense. Then, of course, obviously, electrifying our transport and investing in rail, because not everybody can drive, and also rail is just a more cost-effective way of moving low-value goods that are going a long distance. So, you know, there’s a whole bunch of sensible things that we could be doing. One of the more frightening things, I think, is the way that so many of the Government parties are distracting from the real challenges of inequality and climate change. Let’s be honest: climate change, we have always known, will drive up the cost of living, because when we have more serious flooding incidents, when we have more cyclones hitting us, that disrupts business, it means our insurance premiums go up, we’re having to put more resources into repairing the infrastructure that we already had, and it’s going to result in higher fuel food costs. So we have known for decades that climate change would result in higher food costs. One really simple thing the Government could’ve done to reduce cost of living, for example, was not cancel the programme that was supporting local councils to buy electric buses, because if we buy electric buses, we spend less money on imported fossil fuels to run our public transport services. Now in this Budget there is an undisclosed secret amount that the Government’s having to pay more for the same amount of diesel. So we’re not getting more services, we’re not getting electric buses, which would be good for air quality and save us money on diesel. Instead, we’re just spending the money on diesel. That just absolutely epitomises the short-sighted, ideological approach of the National Party; of Simeon Brown; of ACT and New Zealand First, who are supporting them, to cut back on programmes that just made economic sense. They finally came out and realised they actually had to help businesses transition away from gas, so after 2½ years, after cancelling the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry Fund, they’re coming up with a programme to do that. Well, we could’ve been doing that the last 2½ years if this Government hadn’t cancelled it. This is a record, a shameful record, of embarrassing failures for the people in the current coalition Government. I talk to businesses every day in my electorate and around the country who want to see direction from central government on sustainability, on waste minimisation, on transitioning away from fossil fuels because it makes sense, who want to see more investment in public transport and public housing. I had hundreds of public homes cancelled in my electorate. People need those homes. This is a shameful coalition Government. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): The next call is a split call. GREG FLEMING (National—Maungakiekie) (17:45): [Authorised reo Māori text to be inserted by the Hansard Office.] [Authorised translation to be inserted by the Hansard Office.] About nine months ago, I had the privilege of attending the opening of New Zealand’s first IKEA in, yes, “Maunga-IKEA-kie”—[Interruption] ah, there we go, yeah—just down the road from where I live there. I had the privilege of being there along with the Prime Minister and with Simeon Brown, who at that stage was the Minister for Auckland. After celebrating the opening of this business, we went out and had a press conference, and it was my first opportunity to be ambushed by Tova O’Brien. She’d been listening attentively, apparently, to the scrutiny hearing the day or two before; it was in the Māori Affairs Committee, and we were talking about the Vote and the amount of Budget that was being allocated to the support of Māori broadcasting, which she knew was something that I’m particularly passionate about. The question that she asked the Prime Minister was referring to a plug that I had made at that committee for more money to go into broadcasting, that even though we had these fiscal cliffs approaching, I would love to have seen the opportunity for us to increase the support of those fantastic agencies that we have in New Zealand: Te Māngai Pāho, Te Puni Kōkiri itself, Whakaata Māori, and Te Mātāwai. For the work that they do, you know, [Authorised reo Māori text to be inserted by the Hansard Office.] [Authorised translation to be inserted by the Hansard Office.] So she asked me this question in front of the Prime Minister, and the answer that I gave was one that I reflected on recently when I looked at the wisdom of our Budget. I said that what we are able to do as a country is invest in these things that we are truly passionate about when we have a growing economy. That is why our number one focus has to be to secure the economy of this country, because when we have economic growth, when we control our spending, when inflation is down, then we actually have a surplus to invest in these things that we are truly passionate about. In this Budget, because of the economic wisdom, we were able to invest in some things. Even in these lean times, we were still able to invest in these taonga, which is why I was so excited to see an extra $48 million—even in these tough times, an extra $48 million, that equates to more than 10 percent of the baseline funding—an additional 10 percent that’s been allocated for investment in Māori broadcasting. But there was even more for Maungakiekie. I had a phone call from the Minister of Education sharing with me some fantastic news, and that is that Ellerslie primary school in my electorate had for the last 25 years been seeking an auditorium. It’s been over 25 years since that school of 850 students has been able to gather as a community in a hall on site, and they have done everything and more than a school could ask to do. We have presented that case to our Government, and even in these lean times, because of careful fiscal management, we have been able to invest generously in school infrastructure, including the schools of Maungakiekie, and so Ellerslie primary school is getting its new auditorium. But there’s more. I also received a phone call informing me that we’re going to have new classrooms at One Tree Hill College. We’re going to have new classrooms to provide extra learning support for the students of our community. Those are the kinds of things which we are able to do, and do more of, if we continue to focus on fixing the basics, because then we can build the future. Suze Redmayne: Half-price classrooms. GREG FLEMING: And half-price classrooms. It is a strong economy that allows us to take better care of our communities. It is a strong economy that gives us the resources and the ability to take better care of each other, and that is why I am enthusiastic about this wise Budget, and I am excited about the future that is dawning for Aotearoa New Zealand. Thank you. DANA KIRKPATRICK (National—East Coast) (17:50): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Look, I rise to take a call in this series of wonderful speeches about the Budget and the great things that have been indicated. I wanted to talk a little bit about how important it is for regional communities and infrastructure, in particular. I think it’s really important to remember that in this Budget and in challenging financial times, and in times that we have had to be very prudent in terms of spending, the Government has allocated $400 million to resilience and risk reduction works on key pieces of roading infrastructure across the country. I’m referring, of course, to my colleague David MacLeod’s Awakino Gorge; I’m referring to Scott Simpson’s Coromandel—the beautiful Coromandel, as he calls it—and, of course, I wouldn’t want to forget the Waiōweka Gorge in the Tairāwhiti region, in particular the work that we still are yet to do and commence—and, I guess, understand how we deliver that—for State Highway 35 around the East Coast. In January 2026, the Waiōweka Gorge had 200 millilitres of rain fall in a two-hour period. The result of that was 40 slips, a significant amount of damage to culverts and flood-ways, and also a really difficult disruption to traffic and to anything that could get through. In Tairāwhiti, in January and February, we’re just entering into the time where it is harvest season, where the kiwifruit are about to come off the vines. We’re looking at citrus a wee bit further down the track, but we have squash, we have salad, we have all manner of things: persimmons, lemons—everything you can think of goes out. Horticulture New Zealand estimates about 120,000 tonnes of produce leave the Tairāwhiti region. Now, that’s one thing if you live in Gisborne; if you live in Te Araroa or Tikitiki, Rangitukia, the detour, if the gorge is closed, is more than seven hours to get through to the area where the port is. So it’s a significant detour, and then throw into the middle of that, of course, a fuel crisis, which makes the cost even more exponentially great. So for our producers in our region, it was a very stressful and difficult time. I want to commend in the New Zealand Transport Authority (NZTA) for the work they did to get it open as quickly as possible, but the investment allocated, in the Budget, of $75 million for the Waiōweka Gorge, is a significant amount in a constrained funding environment. I really want to commend the Government for delivering that. We have a whole lot of work to do in there. We have $8 million to be spent between now and Christmas on flood-ways and culverts, and then we have the rest of the $75 million to be spent in the coming years, or next year or the year after, to deliver much greater risk reduction. Because the problem is this: if you live in Gisborne and you’re planning to get on that bus at 8 in the morning and go to Auckland because that’s the way you get there, or if you live in Ōpōtiki and you’re planning to get on the bus and go to Rotorua or to Hamilton or to Auckland, it doesn’t go anymore. Those people have nowhere, no reason, no way to travel. If you think about the cafe owners in Ōpōtiki and in Tairāwhiti, and if you think about the people up the coast owning businesses where there’s no traffic all of a sudden because all of the roads are shut, it has a significant detrimental impact on the local economy. I think the importance of roading infrastructure and good investment into it cannot be lost. If I think about the tourism sector in Tairāwhiti, the report done by Trust Tairāwhiti in May 2026 indicated that tourism and hospitality during the six-week closure recovery period dropped in spending by $1.7 million compared to the year before for the same period. Remember, of course, in January, that’s the time when everybody’s travelling around having their family holidays, and the tourism ventures and the cafes and what have you are stacking away some savings for the winter period when it’s quieter. So they have a significant long-term, enduring effect on regional economies when roads are shut. We have worked really hard to make sure it’s open. We’ve stopped NZTA from shutting it every time it might rain, to keep it open and keep it a bit more secure. We’ve worked with the freight operators, and now we have delivered a substantial amount of money to ensure that the road remains open and that people can go visit their friends, that they can go about their business, and that our horticulture and agriculture producers can get their product to market to the Port of Tauranga and beyond. We will make sure that we are not forgotten, in the regions, and we are not forgotten in terms of State Highway 2, Waiōweka Gorge and State Highway 35, both of which deserve and should have investment into the future. Therefore, this is a good result and a Budget that has delivered for our region in a small but useful way. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): Members, the time has come for me to leave the chair for the dinner break. The House will resume at 7:30 p.m. Sitting suspended from 5.56 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): Good evening, members. I hope we’ve all dined well. We resume the Budget debate. The next call is a split call to the Labour Party, and there are 18 minutes left in this debate. Hon JAN TINETTI (Labour) (19:30): Thank you, Mr Speaker. As we’re coming to the end of this Budget debate, I thought it would be really timely to talk about one of the glaring holes and one of the moments of shame that this Budget is bringing to this Government. Alongside the Budget, we had the release of the child poverty figures: 50,000 more children suffering from material hardship than there were three years ago—50,000 more children. Overall, that’s nearly 170,000 children facing material hardship in this country. That is an absolute disgrace for this country. Also, New Zealand is nowhere near on track to meet its 2028 targets. I want to mention a retired Starship Hospital paediatrician, Dr Innes Asher, who said that the latest Budget was a very bad one for New Zealand because more children were in poverty now than there were 10 years ago. Poverty costs everyone. It costs our societies, it costs our economy, and it is not good for those precious taonga who are our future generations. To put that into terms of what that looks like for those children, there are 50,000 more children who don’t have enough food to live with food security on a daily basis, who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. There are 50,000 more children who don’t have enough shoes to put on their feet, who don’t have enough clothes, who don’t live in houses that are warm and fit for purpose. There are 50,000 more children who are more prone to diseases that will hospitalise them. We’re already seeing that some of the indicators of poverty—the diseases that are the true indicators of poverty—are becoming more prevalent in society right now: skin diseases such as scabies. We’ve had alerts about outbreaks of scabies. Scabies happens when poverty is rife. That’s what’s facing our children at the moment. It’s 50,000 more children who face greater inequities in their lifetime, greater inequities in their home lives, greater inequities in their schooling lives. It’s harder for them to have good outcomes across those areas such as schooling—not impossible, but much more difficult—than if they were living in a secure and poverty-free household. This is the shame of this Budget: 50,000—50,000—more children that this Government has caused to go into poverty from their policies or their lack of initiatives that they are targeting towards bringing kids out of that. It’s all very well when we can talk about those numbers, but I’m mindful of those children that I have seen in recent times. I think of ones that I saw at the end of last year, at a Christmas party, where a child wouldn’t unwrap the Christmas present that was given to them at that Christmas party because they wanted to take it home so that their sibling would have a present to open, because it would be the only present they would get under their Christmas tree—or the other child, who had unwrapped their present and was then busily trying to wrap it back up again because they wanted to have something for themselves to open on Christmas day. Those are the realities of kids that live in poverty. They don’t have extras. They don’t have presents. You stop asking them what they got for Christmas or what they got for their birthday, because they just don’t get anything. It’s a real blight on this country that we have children that are living in that situation. One would be one too many, but 170,000? We are heading in the wrong direction. This Government’s policies are heading this country in the wrong direction. We have far too many children that are living in situations not of their making but of the making of a society that is not supporting them. This is not a good Budget; this is an absolutely shameful Budget. We need to turn that around, and the hope is in November when we can vote. RACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson) (19:35): Thank you, Mr Speaker. As my colleague the Hon Jan Tinetti has just pointed out, this is a Government and a Budget that is failing New Zealand. This Government came into power nearly three years ago with a massive promise to New Zealanders that they would fix the cost of living, that they would make things better for New Zealanders, that they would make things easier for New Zealanders; instead, things are getting worse. I’m going to talk about that in a moment, particularly in relation to some matters in my electorate of Nelson. First, I want to focus on some of the cuts that haven’t necessarily had enough air time in this country, but it shows this Government’s priorities. Those are the cuts to the arts budget: $27 million worth of cuts over the next few years from organisations like Te Papa, which house our most precious taonga; from Creative New Zealand, which gets money out to artists operating in the regions; from the New Zealand Music Commission; from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, who travel up and down the country—a world-leading orchestra in our own country. Instead, this Government is giving millions of dollars to international artists who are multimillionaires, like Robbie Williams, yet leaving behind the artists in New Zealand who are looking to grow their talent and make a contribution to New Zealand across the whole country. I’ve spoken to many, many arts leaders who cannot understand why this Government is giving millions of dollars to people like Robbie Williams, who would come here anyway, through a process that isn’t transparent, and then they cut $27 million from Kiwi artists—from New Zealand artists—many of whom are doing it tough. Now, let’s talk about the cost of living, because, again, this Government talked a massive game. They said, “We are going to do so much for this nation.” Well, in my community of Nelson, we have lost hundreds of jobs. Unemployment continues to grow across the nation. Business liquidations are at a 15-year high. I want to give a shout-out to the wonderful team at Comida and Prego—a wonderful cafe and retail outlet in Nelson that has closed this week, very sadly. We’ve had jobs lost at Carter Holt Harvey, we’ve had jobs lost at Sealord, we’re having jobs moved out of our region from Proper Crisps—many, many more jobs lost and many people having to leave New Zealand for Australia because they cannot get access to an opportunity in New Zealand. We’re also seeing many people—around 650,000 people—who cannot afford to go to the doctor. They can’t afford it because of the cost. What I want to talk about is some of Labour’s plans to address this. We have some actual plans to address the cost of living. This was the last chance of this National Government. They could have come with a Budget recently, they could have come to this House, and said, “Here is how we are going to help you with the cost of living now.” Instead, they talked about KiwiSaver and things for the future, but they had made a promise to New Zealanders and they needed to do something for New Zealanders now. Here’s one of those things. I just want to thank my colleague Mr Utikere for lending me his Bee Card, because we both have a Bee Card—it’s a Bee Card. Now, these wonderful Bee Cards can be used in places like Palmerston North, in places like Nelson and Tauranga—all over the country—in order to pay for the bus. Now, one of the most popular things that we’ve been talking about that will address the cost of living in my community of Nelson, and it is very, very popular, is that you’ll only pay $10 a week in Nelson to use the bus. We have fantastic e-buses in Nelson that our Government helped introduce—something I was proud to assist with getting funding for. We have fantastic electric buses, the first electric bus fleet in New Zealand—sorry, I know we have a little contest about this—the first fully electric bus fleet in New Zealand. We’re very, very proud of it in Nelson. We are very proud of it. Ten bucks a week is all you’ll pay. Under the previous Labour Government, we had half-price public transport and we saw a massive increase in public transport usage in Nelson. People didn’t have to use petrol to fill up their car. These are the kinds of things that this Government could have done. They gave money to families but not money to the elderly people in my community, of which there are many; not money to the workers who don’t have kids but are still paying hundreds of dollars to fill up the tank; not money to the beneficiaries who are trying to get a job; but a $10-a-week bus fare will do wonders for them. It’s just one of the many things that Labour will do to properly address the cost of living, unlike this Government, who have come into power and made things worse. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): The Hon Chris Bishop, for eight minutes. Hon CHRIS BISHOP (Minister of Housing) (19:40): What a woeful contribution from the soon-to-be former member for Nelson—what a woeful contribution. It is hard to know where to start with the paucity of policy offerings coming from the Opposition. They like to lecture us about numbers. Well, just in the last week or so, we have seen from the Opposition quite a demonstration of the need for financial literacy in schools. I mean, leave aside the Greens’ kind of make-believe, mumbo-jumbo, make-it-up-as-you-go, “Oh, what’s $400—oh, sorry, it’s actually $800 million— Hon Nicola Willis: What’s $800 million between friends? Hon CHRIS BISHOP: “What’s $800 million between friends?”, says the Minister of Finance. I mean, if the Minister of Finance made an $800 million mistake—it’s a good thing the public don’t take the Greens seriously. We’ve also got, of course, the heroic claim from Mr Utikere that 1.2 million people can benefit by hundreds of dollars per week and it will only cost $65 million! Interestingly, according to him, we’ll also include the Eastbourne Ferry, which doesn’t have Snapper—so it doesn’t even work on the system that their own policy document said it would affect. It was quite interesting to see the reaction of Eastbourne locals. I should declare an interest: I live there. So— Hon Willow-Jean Prime: Sorry, what was that about your Budget? Hon CHRIS BISHOP: I should disclose an interest. It was interesting to see the Radio New Zealand article in which people from Eastbourne said, “Well, hang on, this is a bit interesting. It’s a huge amount of money to cross the harbour, and now we’re getting free cash from Tangi Utikere and his mates?” Anyway, there is so much to talk about in this great Budget. I want to talk about a couple of things. The first is the very large capital investment in the Budget: $7 billion across a whole range of different things. One of the things we’ve been trying to do since this Government was elected is establish a long-term infrastructure pipeline and make sure that we get the cash out of the door, because that has been a perennial problem for Governments of successive stripes over the last few years. We’re making real progress. It’s not there yet, but we are making progress. This Budget invests a considerable amount into the kind of social infrastructure that this country needs. One of the outgoing legacies of the Hon Dr Shane Reti, who’s now, sadly, retiring from Parliament, will be a new 158-bed block at Whangārei Hospital—fantastic—and we’ve got redevelopment money for a whole range of other regional hospitals. This is evidence-based policy. The National Infrastructure Plan, with cross-party endorsement, says we need to lift hospital investment; well, that’s what we’re doing. Unlike the last Government, which just made large pronouncements of money and worried about the details later—hence why, in 2026, having been promised in 2017, we are just getting started on the new Dunedin Hospital, which will finish in 2032; what a sad tale of infrastructure neglect and mismanagement in this country—we are making sure we can deliver projects and fund them when they are needed. Likewise, with Police; likewise, with courthouses, replacing the Rotorua Courthouse. I want to talk briefly about social housing, because I was at the Community Housing Aotearoa conference today. It was interesting to see the Labour Party a bit late to the party, a year after we came out with a liquidity system for the Community Housing Funding Agency and a bank loan guarantee scheme, to see them stand up and say, “Do you know what would be a good idea? If we did a Crown guarantee for the Community Housing Funding Agency.” It’s like, well, yeah, no doubt about it; we did it last year. Where were you? Like, wake up, Mr McAnulty, because that is delivering up to 400 basis point reductions in debt for community housing providers around the country, and it means we’re getting more bang for buck, so it’s a great thing. This Budget puts another 1,800 to 2,200 social houses funded from 2028 onwards, and I am very proud of this. For the first time in New Zealand history, we now have a four-year funded pipeline of social housing places, which is what the community housing sector has said they’ve wanted for as long as I’ve been involved in housing in this House. No Government has been able to deliver it; at a time of great fiscal restraint, we have been able to do it. I know that there are kids and whānau around the country who will get access to those homes, and the kids will wake up in warm, dry houses and all of the benefits that come from that. That makes me very happy. There is a significant investment in this Budget into the Waikato Expressway. The Cambridge to Piarere Road: $1.77 billion to deliver the extension of the Waikato Expressway. It was interesting to see the Labour Party, after the announcement, cast doubt on the benefit-cost ratio, which is actually really good; it’s about 2.7 to 3.1. Then they said it was unaffordable, even though it was capital funded in the Budget. My challenge to them is: will they commit to that road? I tell you, go and talk to the people of Cambridge, go and talk to the people of Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty, which the road connects to through State Highway 29, and if you say to them, “Do we need that road? That death trap of a road—a replacement road.” They’ll say yes. Go and talk to the Port of Tauranga, go and talk to Tainui, go and talk to the people at the Ruakura Inland Port, go and talk to the people of Hamilton and the logistics firms around that “golden triangle”, that great hub of growth, the great nexus of growth in the centre of this country, and they’ll say to you, “Yeah, it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread.” They want a commitment that we will get on with it. Well, under this Government, we are doing that. But it’s not just about big new roads. We made a specific decision in the Budget— Grant McCallum: I like big, new roads. Hon CHRIS BISHOP: —I know you like big, new roads; you’re getting a very big one—to make sure that we fund resilience investments; Waiōeka Gorge, for example. Dana Kirkpatrick: That’s right. Hon CHRIS BISHOP: I acknowledge the very hard work of Dana Kirkpatrick to make sure that that project was prioritised, because that’s a lifeline route for the great people of the East Coast. It has been bashed around through severe weather events, but we actually need to fix it, and we’re going to do that, and the work is going to start soon. I want to acknowledge David MacLeod and Barbara Kuriger for their advocacy for the Awakino Gorge—a real stress point. It has been a real problem, and we are going to fix it. There’s a whole range of other resilience improvements, and it’s, again, following the work of the National Infrastructure Plan, which said, “Focus on what you’ve got. Focus on resilience.” Finally, RMA reform and the digital investments. Now, people might say, “Oh, this is all very boring”, but it’s actually critical. I was speaking to the Environmental Defence Society today. There’s genuine excitement about building the digital backend of the system so that we have a federated data infrastructure, and rather than every council going off and purchasing their own IT system, going off and purchasing their own digital systems, we’ve got one for the country. A radical concept: one data system, and also making use of a thing that I’ve discovered in the last six months: artificial intelligence. It turns out it can do amazing things. The Opposition live in fear of it; we embrace it on this side of the House. It is a great Budget, delivered by a great Minister of Finance, and it sets up a sharp contrast in election year: a Government with a plan for the future, a long-term plan to set New Zealand up for prosperity, and people opposite who just want to splash the cash and get out the money hose and create all the problems they created in the first place. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): In reply, the Minister of Finance, the Hon Nicola Willis. Hon NICOLA WILLIS (Minister of Finance) (19:49): It is my honour to give the closing speech in a debate about a Budget that was delivered in very serious times and that rises to the challenges that New Zealand faces. As every New Zealander has experienced, in recent years we have lived in a volatile world. First, we endured the pandemic, then the intergenerational inflation spike and the cost of living crisis that flowed from it, then the huge hike in interest rates, and since then we have been slowly working ourselves out of that hole that was created. The world has thrown us a few curve balls. We’ve had a global tariff war. We’ve had an oil shock—the worst in a generation. New Zealanders, through all of this, have kept going. They have shown enormous resilience, and they have shown enormous prospects for the future. What our Budget does and what we sought to do was build a better future for those New Zealanders by fixing the basics today, which sets us up better for that future. Ultimately, when a Government puts a Budget together, it has to make choices. I know there are some in this Parliament who like to pretend you don’t have to make those choices. They think that, actually, you can just keep running up the old credit card, think up a few new ideas—“What could we do that would be free?”, or a subsidy over there, or a cheap thing over there—but, you see, the people who take that approach are really underestimating New Zealanders, because what they’re expecting Kiwis to believe is that, somehow, the money to pay for those things comes from the ether. Kiwis actually get it; they know where that money comes from. It comes from everyday people who work really hard to earn it. They know that Governments who spend more than the country is earning end up doing one or two very simple things: either they end up borrowing so much that inflation and the cost of living goes through the roof, or they introduce new taxes to take more money from working people and productive industry—or, as has been the case in New Zealand’s history if it’s a Labour-led Government, a beautiful combination of the two: more tax, more borrowing, more inflation, and higher interest rates to boot. In serious times, our Budget has had to confront serious context. The real back story to this Budget is the fiscal story of where New Zealand has come these past few years. In delivering this Budget, our Government stuck to a very tight new spending allowance. We got it down to $2.1 billion. For reference, colleagues, in Grant Robertson’s 2022 Budget, he let himself spend more than $9 billion. Hon Chris Bishop: How much? Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Nine billion dollars. Now, to be fair, he hid some of that outside the operating allowance, but he spent $9 billion. We stuck to a tight spending allowance of $2.1 billion, and yet while doing that, guess how much we will be spending this year simply servicing the debt the last Labour Government left us? That bill this year will be $9 billion, and you see the way that history rhymes there, because that $9 billion debt servicing cost is one that we are having to meet and that we will keep on having to meet until we achieve one very simple thing, and that is getting the books back in balance. The truth is that, since 2019, we have been in deficit. We have been spending more as a country than we earn. While some like to pretend that can go on for ever, here’s the news: it can’t. Our Government gets that, and we have taken a responsible course of saying, “Right, we’ve got to straighten it up. We’ve got to get those books back in balance.” And how do you do that? Well, you need to get more value from every dollar that you are spending and you are investing, and you need to make very careful choices. Actually, it involves reprioritising some stuff that might have seemed fun in the glory days when Labour had the cash bazookas out and were flying them everywhere but now look a little misplaced. We’ve done $50 billion worth of reprioritisation over three Budgets, and this Budget was the continuation of that. And, by doing that, we have been able to prioritise investments that truly matter for the future: job-rich infrastructure; actually getting on with redeveloping hospitals in Tauranga, in Hawke’s Bay, in Palmerston North, in— Grant McCallum: Whangārei. Hon NICOLA WILLIS: —in Whangārei. Thank you; the member for Northland reminds me—and making sure that they are actually being built; intergenerational assets that need to be fixed up. We’ve gone on and we’ve committed funds for new schools, for redeveloping schools, for building classrooms, and we’re doing it much more affordably than the last lot did. We’ve committed to replacing the stretch of *State highway that is one of the most dangerous parts of the country and has been for many, many years—that’s the Cambridge to Piarere stretch of the Waikato Expressway. We’re making it happen. We’re fixing up major bits of road that keep having problems every time there’s a severe weather event. We’re getting in there and we’re fixing them rather than doing the nonsensical business of coming and cleaning it up every time there is a severe weather event. We’re investing in those future projects, and we’re also investing in the things that really matter to everyday New Zealanders. That is, to my mind, health, education, having a decent police force, and making sure that our servicemen and women who defend New Zealand’s interests on the world stage have the equipment they need—and that’s in our Defence Force. I look at the approach we’re taking to education. In this year’s Budget, the real focus was we said, “Well, look, Erica Stanford has done such extraordinary work making sure we’re bringing structured literacy and numeracy and assessment and a knowledge-based Curriculum back into schools; what we need to do now is build on that foundation with an approach that actually heroes skills and trades training for the future.” We’ve seen what success looks like. It looks like trades academies, which ensure kids are far more likely to end up in enduring employment. We’ve seen the demand for those programmes and we are doubling them—doubling the number of trades academy places. At the same time, we are putting extra funding in to ensure that more of the kids who missed out on the basics they needed at school—probably the kids who had Jan Tinetti as the Minister of Education—those kids who missed out, actually, when they leave school and they are at severe risk of becoming unemployed in the long term can go into a Youth Guarantee programme and get the wraparound support needed to give them the foundational literacy and numeracy and skills needed to enter an apprenticeship. We’ve prioritised that. We’ve prioritised health—health funding, which we have increased, on average, more than 7 percent a year every year, because we know that we need to deliver more elective surgery, we need people waiting less time to see a doctor, we need them waiting less time in the emergency room, we need them to see specialists earlier. We haven’t just sprayed the money at the health system and said, “Hey, let’s do a restructure and set up a Māori Health Authority and hope for the best.” No, Simeon Brown has gone out there and set targets. He’s measuring, he’s driving accountability, and we are getting results. We invested in health and then we also prioritised, as I said, our police force, ensuring that they have the resources they need, ensuring that violent criminals who victimise other New Zealanders don’t get caught and released but actually can go to prison so that members of their community are kept safe from them. We are resourcing our prisons to keep New Zealanders safe from the criminals who reside within them. We’re rebuilding the Defence Force, because we, as I said at the beginning of these remarks, appreciate that the world, in case the people opposite haven’t noticed, is a lot more fragile, a lot more volatile than it once was. We don’t live in Helen Clark’s benign strategic environment; we live in quite a different environment. What we need is a Defence Force that can advance and protect New Zealand’s interests. We are rebuilding its capability, and this Budget continues the investments needed to do it. I think it’s actually a disgrace when you look at the condition of some of the housing that we have asked our soldiers to live in. Actually, the Labour Government, who like to claim they were all about houses—how did that go with KiwiBuild by the way; not very well—were prepared to have our servicemen and women living in, frankly, disgraceful conditions. These are people who are putting their lives on the line for our country, and we are investing in fixing it up. What this Budget does is it makes good choices, but, ultimately, it recognises that the people who create real opportunity in this country are not the Ministers who sit along this bench, or the backbenchers who sit behind me; it is the everyday men and women who each day decide to work hard, to make something, to build something, to farm something, to grow something. The Government needs to make it easier for them, not harder, and it does that by building a strong economic foundation, by taxing them fairly, and by investing their money well. This Budget shows respect to hard-working New Zealanders by doing exactly that. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): The question is that the amendment in the name of the Leader of the Opposition be agreed to. A party vote was called for on the question, That all of the words after “That” be replaced with “this House has no confidence in the Government because after promising to grow the economy, it has shrunk it; after promising to get Kiwis back to work, it is presiding over record job losses; after promising to fix public services, it has gutted our public health system; after promising to fix the cost of living, it has made it worse; and after promising New Zealanders relief, it is prioritising corporate interests over the interests of everyday New Zealanders.” Ayes 54 New Zealand Labour 34; Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand 14; Te Pāti Māori 4; Ferris; Kapa-Kingi. Noes 67 New Zealand National 48; ACT New Zealand 11; New Zealand First 8. Amendment not agreed to. The result corrected after originally being announced as Ayes 55, Noes 67. A party vote was called for on the question, That the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill be now read a second time. Ayes 67 New Zealand National 48; ACT New Zealand 11; New Zealand First 8. Noes 54 New Zealand Labour 34; Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand 14; Te Pāti Māori 4; Ferris; Kapa-Kingi. Motion agreed to. Bill read a second time. The result corrected after originally being announced as Ayes 67, Noes 55.