Wood Michael; Rurawhe AdrianHon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): I want to start my comments by saying something that you don't hear very often which is that I quite enjoyed Paul Goldsmith's speech three or four speakers ago. It was the sheer mental flexibility shown by the man which I imagine was a skill he had to learn when he wrote a hagiography about John Banks. What I particularly enjoyed about his speech was the fact that he opened up by extolling the benefits and the economic policies of living in Australia and then he finished his speech with a rant from his dark little free-market cave in Epsom about tax rates and fair pay agreements forgetting about the fact very conveniently that of course Australia has a higher marginal tax rate than we do here in New Zealand and for the best part of 40 years has had sector-based bargaining like fair pay agreements in place which of course is one of the ways in which they have retained better wages and conditions for many of the working people of that country. What is often very revealing in debates like this one is what is said but also what is not said by people when they take to the podium. What we heard from our Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern and our Minister of Finance Grant Robertson in this Budget debate was a clear plan and a vision for how we build economic security now and in the future for all New Zealanders—not just a privileged few but for all New Zealanders. We heard about how we are going to build on the strong and inclusive economy that we have as we move forward with our economic recovery and let's be very clear about the facts here. We can cut through the spin; we can cut through the speeches. We can go straight to the facts: at the end of the biggest economic crisis in a hundred years 3.2 percent unemployment jobs for New Zealanders and unemployment down across all population groups including our Māori and Pasifika communities who every time there has been an economic crisis in the past have been crunched. Well this Government has stood by all of our communities and has held up that rate: one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world at the end of two years of COVID one of the strongest economic growth rates in the world and one of the lowest Government debt rates in the world.We have done that through inclusive strong clear strategic economic management and I want to pay tribute to Grant Robertson for leading us through that. But as I said it's also about looking forward and so when we think about our economic plan going forward it's about important things like supporting our small and medium enterprises. That's why one of the initiatives that I thought was fantastic in the Budget was the $101 million that we have invested to make sure that our small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) get access to the financing that they often struggle to get from the major bank. It is often one of the big things you hear from them: that they're ready to go to the next step they want to expand but it's very difficult for them to get that financial support from our financial institutions. Often the only way is to leverage off your own house. Well here's the Government looking to partner with our SMEs to give them that backing and that support to take the next step. That's about how we build economic growth and security and jobs into the future. But as I said it's often about what you're not hearing as well. Here's an extraordinary thing: in his entire 19- or 20-minute address when the Leader of the Opposition got to speak in this debate not a single word about climate change. In 2022 when every sector of our economy is faced not with a future threat of climate change but with a present-day reality of a climate change that is devastating parts of our agricultural sector that is meaning significant challenges for low-lying regional and remote communities and that is the biggest moral and economic challenge for future generations he had nothing—nothing—to say about climate change at all. That speaks to a stale tired old National Party that has no vision and no sense of the issues that we actually have to face in the years ahead. Well I was enormously proud of the investments we've made in the transport sector to help decarbonise that sector through our emissions reduction plan. On this side of the House we are serious about what it takes to get down to net zero by 2050. You can't just say the words. You can't just sign up to say you support the carbon budgets without actually having the policies and funding the policies which will deliver on them. So I was pleased that our Clean Car Upgrade a $500 million investment will build on the success of our clean car discount policy which is getting record numbers of zero emission vehicles into our fleet. I was proud of the inclusive approach we're taking with the social leasing scheme to get clean efficient cheap-to-run vehicles into our lower-income communities. I was proud of the fact that we're backing public transport with half-price fares for people on community services cards and an investment in better pay and conditions for our bus drivers who we need to keep our public transport fleets running around the country and I'm proud of our transport choices package whereby we're going to work with councils and communities to roll out more choices for low-carbon travel all around the country. This is a Budget which is about economic security now and in the future and on this side of the House we are so proud of its work. DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member's time has expired.