Roche Denise: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3989. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green): This is a Budget that has not addressed any of New Zealand’s fundamental problems. It is a start but it will not lift enough kids out of poverty it will not help address the gap between the haves and have-nots and it certainly does not address the fundamental issue of our time which is climate change. It is a political Budget that has made or continues to make the thousands of cuts that have happened under this Government. From the medical students who will not become doctors because of the changes for fulltime-equivalent students to the single mum who cannot upskill and move up due to the cutting of the retraining grant this Government has ignored people who are marginalised.When and where the Government has paid attention it has paid attention due to the public outcry and attention from ordinary New Zealanders and that includes things like the zero-hour contracts and getting child poverty into the Budget at all this time. Credit where credit is due but I want a Government that cares about issues not because it is popular and not because of the polls but because it genuinely cares about those who are marginalised.One of those marginalised groups is refugees. This Budget will make life for refugees even tougher than it is. The $1.5 million cut in funding for essential refugee protection services has the potential to send an already vulnerable group overseas. It will strand them. Refugees live at risk of their lives in hot spots and they stand to stay stranded in those areas because of the bottleneck of the unheard cases.We are going to spend $24.4 million over the next 2 years sending New Zealanders to support the Iraqi army. But for a fraction of that we could be taking concrete steps to protect vulnerable refugees from human rights abuses in some of the places that they are caught in. We think refugees need to be resettled as soon as possible so that they can integrate and get on with their lives. It will make a huge difference for the lives of so many people.What about migrant workers in New Zealand? They are another marginalised group. How do they fare under this Budget? The Government announced a package of $33 million for immigration but that money is going to be spent on border control not necessarily on seeing to the needs of migrant workers. Recent high-profile cases have shown that there is a need for better education and information for employers about minimum standards but also for migrant workers so that they know their rights. Essentially we also need strong compliance to ensure migrant workers are not exploited.I recognise that the Government has announced a funding increase for six new labour inspectors for Auckland. That is to be applauded. However we lag behind international standards in terms of the ratio of workers to compliance officers. In New Zealand it is about one inspector for 14162 workers. That is about double what happens in Australia. With the deregulated labour market that we have—and workers’ rights have basically been steadily eroded under this Government—it is essential that we have some kind of compliance for workers and particularly for vulnerable workers like migrant workers. Seasonal workers for example are also at risk of exploitation and I note that we have got only five labour inspectors who are specialists in this area for the recognised seasonal workers’ scheme.This Budget is a case of Peter being robbed to pay Paul. There is a reduced allocation for WorkSafe New Zealand. There was a promised increase in health and safety inspectors when WorkSafe New Zealand was set up in 2012—$37 million over 4 years. But this Budget says there will be a reduction. And we still have not recovered the number of health and safety inspectors we had before 2012. We need that compliance to occur if we want people to come home safe and unharmed from their jobs. This Budget leaves a lot of people behind. It makes it harder for families to get ahead and we certainly could be doing a lot better.