Watts SimonSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): I must say listening to that last address from the last speaker Duncan Webb saying that the last Budget was a well-thought-out process" it was pretty hard to hold back the chuckles from this side. But the reality is this is no laughing matter because it is quite the opposite of what we have seen from this Government in regards to the Budget process that was put through in 2022-2023. Quite the opposite from the statement of a "well-thought-out Budget" because we can look at a number of aspects underpinning this expenditure spend by this Government and pull that apart. And that's what I'm going to do over the period of the next few minutes or so.Todd Muller: He did say some kind things though.SIMON WATTS: Why? Because—well Todd Muller's saying he did say a couple of good things and I think he was referring to where he was complimenting Todd Muller on his superb performance in aspects of his portfolio. But that's not what we're here for tonight.Let's get back into the conversation around debt because I think the debt aspect is a conversation that the last speaker again was talking about the role in which prior Governments have played. The reality is that financing costs to fund Government debt are going to be in the region of $2.8 billion for the year 2022. That is an absolutely huge amount of money that is going on the interest costs to fund that debt. That amount is looking to increase in the next couple of years to in the region of $4.8-$4.9 billion of interest costs on Government debt. That is the entirety of the law and order funding appropriation for the Public Service in the Budget. And that is the significance of a Government that is addicted to spending a Government that is addicted to growing our debt in terms of that pie. As a result hard-working Kiwis are now through their contributions of taxes that come out the back pockets of hard-working Kiwis they are funding a huge portion of that towards interest costs. And the challenge with the conversation where they said this was "well-thought-out" and the reality is it is not is actually that those finance costs mean that money going into that doesn't go into other areas.In particular the increasing levels of finance costs put at risk in my view front-line public services. Because you can't do both. You can only spend a dollar once. And if a dollar is going in to pay interest costs to offshore borrowers primarily then that cannot go into front-line nurses police doctors etc. So this and this allocation of appropriation at this period of time has and will have significant locked-in issues in future years from now. And that is what this side has been calling for. We've been calling for the Government to be taking a much more prudent and well-thought-out process in terms of the way in which they spend taxpayer money and making sure that when that money is being spent or invested that we're getting benefits and outcomes. I think if you could personify this Government in terms of their performance for the last five years and when you talk to hard-working Kiwis around this country in terms of where they see things going and when you ask them "Do you believe that the country is heading in the right direction or the wrong direction?" The majority of Kiwis that I speak to up and down this country believe this country is going in the wrong direction. And I'll tell you why: because they are not seeing the outcomes. They are not seeing the deliverables from this appropriation in this Budget and those Budgets that have come before it in terms of outcomes that they can see day to day in terms of the issues they face.I believe that not only do we have a cost of living crisis we have a social crisis that is brewing behind the scenes. And what I mean by that is this Government has provided a cost of living payment—which we heard today from our shadow Minister of Finance Nicola Willis that the nearly 100000 individuals that this payment went to in error that was wrongly done. They come across the side and say "Well these payments yeah they are well targeted." That's not well targeted. One hundred thousand people getting the payment when they shouldn't have got it is wasteful spending. But the challenge more so is that there are families across this country families in middle New Zealand that are getting squeezed at the moment because inflation levels in this country are sitting at around 7.3 percent. And I can tell you what: well early on in the process they said that was just growing pains. The Minister of Finance about 12 months ago said "Don't worry these inflation aspects they're just growing pains as we come out of COVID." Well absolutely not. Inflation is here to stay. It is going to be here a lot longer than what we expect and that means that the pain that hard-working Kiwi families are facing around this country is going to continue.So what do they need in terms of the appropriation from a Government in terms of its Budget like the appropriation that this Government has done in this year so far? Well they need to make sure that that investment is actually going to provide them benefits in terms of the issues that they're facing. I talked about the issue around a social crisis that I believe is brewing. What I mean by that is when a family cannot afford to fill up the petrol in their car that means their child might not be dropped off at school which might be 5 kilometres down the road and that might happen once or twice. But what we know talking to front-line service providers in my electorate and parts of the country we have travelled that is happening today. That social crisis is brewing today. That side of the House have got their heads in the sand that this is an issue and they believe that a cost of living payment in terms of the cash payment is going to solve all that. We know that that is not a sustainable response in order to deal with the cost of living process and the social crisis. And that side of the House members on the other side they're chuckling away thinking this is one big joke. But those families that make the decision around whether they're able to fill up their car each week and the ability for them to therefore take their kids to school and the reality that their kids do not go to school they're truant they're not part of the education system and they become disconnected from our communities. That has a social cost that will outlast every single person sitting in those seats on that side of the House. That is what our future National-led Government next year will inherit and that is the problem at its core that we are going to need to deal with.Bringing out a couple of hundred bucks here and there is going to do absolutely diddly squat in terms of providing solutions to those Kiwis. And you know what? That's what Kiwis have clicked on to. People are trying to work out "Do I trust the Government to deliver the outcomes that I need for my families?" Not in a years' time. This week next week the week after. They want to understand what is going to be. "Where's my hope? Where's my certainty about the future?" And these guys think that just throwing that out on a one-off payment is going to solve everything. Well it's not. And that is the reality that a lot of families around this country are facing at the moment.The other aspect that layers on top of that is in regards to the reform agenda. And I just want to pick one example $2.5 billion in the appropriation in regards to better-off funding for the Three Waters reform programme a reform programme that over 60 percent of Kiwis oppose. Just 18 percent of Kiwis in a recent poll said they support and about a quarter of those are saying that they are still undecided. That must signal to the members on that side of the House that this reform agenda is not aligned with what Kiwis across this country want. It's $2.5 billion. Imagine the impact of $2.5 billion if we can get that funding to the places that would drive economic growth that would increase productivity that would increase jobs and get those people that are feeling the pain a moment out of that but into an aspirational New Zealand where they have hope for their future. That is the opportunity cost that that side of the House are foregoing that is what a National-led Government in 2023 will inherit and that is what we will turn around.I want to finish in the last minute or so with a little bit of comment around the reality that Kiwis are going backwards. Inflation at 7.3 percent wage inflation at 3.4; 7.3 minus 3.4 means Kiwis are going back 3.9 percent—round it up to 4 percent. Every single Kiwi in this country every single day is going backwards under this Government by 4 percent. And you can't get that back that is lost opportunity. That is the cost that is the price of a Government that does not have a plan in order to manage this economy and get us from where we are to where we need to be which is an aspirational country that has hope for the future."