Ardern JacindaJACINDA ARDERN (Deputy Leader—Labour): After 9 long years of a National-led Government it is our view that there should be one word that people should be looking for in this Budget in all of the Budget announcements and that word is solutions". I think people will be tired as we are I am sure of the constant blame game that you hear from this Government any time you raise a significant issue that needs to be addressed but if there is one thing that you run out of after 9 years of being in Government it is excuses—it is absolutely excuses. It is time—and we should be seeking it in this Budget—that we see the solutions to the major challenges that we are confronting here in New Zealand and they are undeniable.If you are looking for one of them then you need look no further than the challenges that we obviously have when it comes to the most fundamental of provisions and that is shelter—a roof over your head—because housing affects everything. It affects the quality of your health and your children's health. It affects your ability to put food on the table. It affects your stability to keep your kids in education and enrolled at their local school. It affects the stress and tension that your family experiences. It affects everything.That is why it has been such a focus for us and yet what did we see in the House today when we again raised the need for solutions in this area? We had a Prime Minister who could not decide whether he wanted to blame councils the media Aucklanders or the Salvation Army for the issues that we are facing—all of which is inexcusable when you have been in Government for 9 years.No one has said it would be easy. No one not even on this side of the House has ever claimed that resolving the housing crisis would be easy but we have said that it is an imperative. We have offered up time and time again our new ideas our fresh look at this problem—ideas like closing tax loopholes banning foreign overseas speculators from being able to buy in our domestic residential market moving the brightline test and fundamentally getting on with the act of building houses at scale which is something that we have promised to do. That is what a solutions-focused Government would have done.But that is not the only area we need to look for solutions in in this Budget. I have a major expectation that this Government is going to do something to reduce inequality and the child poverty that we see in this country. I have looked for that in every single Budget. In fact in one Budget in 2011 we actually had a Government that stood up and placed cuts on Working for Families that amounted to $448 million. It said that was to pay down debt and what did we see instead? An increase in Crown debt. What do we hear now? Rhetoric about this next Budget that those members are finally going to do something around fixing Working for Families after they have time and time again adjusted abatements and cut and cut and cut away at that provision. It will be insufficient just to reverse some of the damage that has already been done so I will be looking for real solutions that ease the pressure on families.I heard Steven Joyce today though say that when you look at a Budget you should not look just at inputs; you should look at outputs—you should not just look at inputs; you should look at outputs.Chris Hipkins: What about kids?JACINDA ARDERN: You know well actually if by "outputs" he means people then yes I am really interested in what we are doing for people. I am interested in what we are doing for kids. I am interested in what we are doing about people's wages. We have a low-wage economy. We need people's wages to increase. We need investment in the early years—those fundamental years—of a child's brain development. If that is what Steven Joyce means by "outputs" then I am going to be looking at that too but I might put a human face to it.But finally I will also be looking for solutions in the health budget. We have had $1.7 billion cut over time from health. When you have one out of every six New Zealanders suffering in their lifetime from a mental health - related issue mental health is an area where we need sufficient investment and there has been under-investment. Labour has fresh ideas and new solutions in this area. We have talked about primary mental health care. We have talked about comprehensive health in our secondary schools. These are ideas that we want to see and those are solutions I will be looking for in this Budget. But actually what I think we need instead is just a change of Government."