Ardern JacindaRt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): I do have a few things I'd like to say in response to the Leader of the Opposition's 19 minutes and 30 seconds of shouting but I've got a few things I would first like to address to our Minister of Finance Grant Robertson. Budgets even when designed to serve an entire country an entire population are still a very personal thing. Behind every single dollar is a story and behind every single dollar is an unmet need. No decision in this Budget was ever taken lightly. No decision was ever flippant or less important than the other. Each was considered it was prioritised and it was balanced to form some firm foundations for the future. So I want to thank Grant Robertson for never losing sight of those important decisions in every single step of this Budget.I also want to thank our coalition partner New Zealand First and our confidence and supply partner the New Zealand Green Party for helping us deliver this Budget. I am proud of this Budget. I am proud of this coalition Government. I am proud that we've been put in this position to deliver for New Zealanders today and I thank them for the opportunity.Now I have heard this Budget accused of many things. In fact I've heard it called many many things. Before we came into this debating chamber today it was called the brain drain Budget". Now I can only imagine that was somehow a reference to some of the activity in this debating chamber in recent times and all I can say is that it's not our fault Bill English left.Apparently—and I heard this reference today—it's also the "spray and walk away Budget". Now actually that one I'm going to give you. At first I thought it was metaphorical until I reminded myself that this is a cleaning product for algae and mould removal. Rather than a gibe it may be a legitimate tip from the Leader of the Opposition to clean up our rivers and our hospitals. It is however a shame that the rest of the mess will take more than 30 seconds to repair.It was somewhat of a confused response though from the Leader of the Opposition today. On the one hand he claims we are spending too much; on the other we are not spending enough. What I will say is that this side of the House will not be lectured on debt not when that last Government borrowed almost $50 billion in total in their time in office. I have to give credit where credit is due. They also claim they inherited a crisis. By that they must mean the continual nine years of surpluses and the net Crown debt that was next to zero because otherwise they would have borrowed more—absolutely.Then there was the doozy that I heard in the Leader of the Opposition's comments today. He asked probably the most pertinent question of his entire speech: rebuild what? Well let's start with New Zealand's reputation shall we—a place that we can be proud of again a place where you can be guaranteed a roof over your head where you have decent health services.I just want to address this claim from that side of the House that somehow they spent more investing into health than this coalition Government has. Let me address that. They're clearly including the more than $1.5 billion for the Terranova settlement in that calculation. That is not an apples with apples comparison and we all remember that agreement. It was the one that was forced out of them through the courts to give a fair deal to carers. Now of course we support that but to somehow claim that constitutes a boost to district health boards (DHBs) is factually incorrect. If we are comparing apples with apples on this side of the House it's $3.2 billion versus $2.3 billion on that side. This is the most significant increase that you're going to see for our DHBs and they know it.The same goes for capital spending: $750 million—the biggest single investment in capital spending for health in any given year in over a decade. For a point of comparison it was $150 million from that side of the House last Budget. I am happy to debate this Budget but let's debate the facts not the Facebook memes.Ultimately if you ask me the question: rebuild what? We're rebuilding a Government that thinks about people—that thinks about people and puts them at the heart of our decision making. On that side of the House there's a lot of "shouty-shouty" and not a lot of "planny-planny".I've been through a lot of Budgets. In fact this is my 10th in this House but there were several more when I worked around this building and this precinct so I know a Budget that will make a difference when I see it—one that makes the kind of substantive changes that we need. I remember the Budget that restored income-related rents. I remember the Budget of 2004 that established Working for Families. And I have read the legacy of the Budgets that created the "cradle to grave" concepts of State housing and of health and education provision. The theme through all of those as I've said has always been people—a drive to make sure that communities have all their needs met so they can thrive and that they have decent incomes decent health and decent education. These are all the foundations for a strong future and that is the foundation of this Budget.We didn't waste any time delivering on that vision. In fact we didn't even wait for this Budget. We got a little ahead of ourselves and in December we introduced and passed our mini-Budget. I want to reflect on that today because we are building on that here. We came in knowing that families from all walks of life were doing it tough; that people who had decent work still felt like they weren't going anywhere. People who had precarious work were worried that there would be one bill that could tip them into disaster and there were those that were doing OK but not OK enough to ever own their own home. That was why we introduced the Families Package so that we could ease the pressure on them—and not just with a tax cut that might give them a little bit but others a lot but the kind of change that means 385000 families from the time it is fully rolled out will get on average $75 a week. That's why we also introduced the winter energy payment for over-65s and those on Government support and it's also why we put that substantial investment into KiwiBuild.Now we could have made a political decision. We could have come in as a Government in October and said "We're going to hold all of that over—that $5.5 billion of spending on families. We're going to hold on to that so we can have a big bang in our Budget." We could have made a political decision but we made a decision for people. We delivered it as fast as we could so that in 6 weeks' time those families will see that benefit. That was the right decision.Today we continue that work on some of those long-term problems and we're doing it with fresh thinking and a new energy and we're going to need that energy because we're not just setting the foundations for the next three years. Too much short-term thinking has led us to the problems we find ourselves in. We need a plan for the next 10 years the next 20 years the next 30 years. We need to make big decisions around the kind of services we'll need what kind of workplaces we'll have and how to grow those opportunities in our towns as much as our cities. We need to plan for an education system that is dynamic that's adaptable and that fits those changing needs; a plan to protect and support our environment and a plan to build an economy that supports all of that. Now we are a Government that is facing those challenges boldly who has that plan and who is continuing that work today.Today we shift the focus of Government from electoral cycles to generational ones. Now you could say I have a rather more personal reason for doing that because in 15 or 20 or 30 years' time I want my child to look back on the history books and judge me and this Government favourably rather than deciding to change their name. If we're not here for kids or for the future of the country they live in then why are we here? And if our Budget isn't about people then what is it for? And on both counts this Government is happy to be judged. So let's talk about those foundations.I want to start with education. If you want to build a future for the next generation that is the place to start. It's our job and the job of this Government to make sure education provides children with the future that they need and deserve. Budget 2018 is a major step in our plan to rebuild education so that any child regardless of how wealthy their parents are what language they speak or their ability or disability has the right to a world-class education. They need an excellent start and that starts with early childhood education. That is why this Government's Budget includes the first universal increase in funding for early childhood education services in a decade. It's why we are employing 1500 more teachers it's why we're investing in Te Reo Māori in schools and it's why we've given our schools a much-needed boost in operating funding. It's why the ongoing resourcing scheme teacher-aides and deaf and hearing-impaired students all get more support. We want a local school to be the best school that a child can attend and because education and our teachers have the power to change everything what better foundations to rebuild?There is no question though that we can hardly expect our children to learn if they are hungry if their home is cold or damp or if they don't have a place to study. We know that poverty plays a role in a child's ability to learn and that's why that December package was so carefully targeted to lift tens of thousands of children out of poverty. And it's why we're holding ourselves to account on child well-being. But we know we need to do more. We need to address the single biggest cost that a family faces and that is the roof over their heads. We need more houses. Now the market has not done that—not on its own and not in the numbers we need or the standard that we need. The hands-off "she'll be right" approach has denied too many children their own bed their own home. It's driven down Māori homeownership it's driven down homeownership across the board and it's fast threatening the futures for a number of Kiwis especially those in their older years who don't have that security. We are getting on with the rebuild of houses ourselves.Last December in our mini-Budget we committed to spending $2 billion to get cracking on affordable homes. In today's Budget we're investing in an additional 6400 State and community homes and putting $15 million into papakāinga housing. This is about providing warm dry safe homes for the next generation and for this generation. It might take us a few years but imagine where we would be today if a few years ago the Government of the day had decided that they were to intervene where they saw failure that they wouldn't be afraid of setting big goals and that they wouldn't give up on homeownership. Where would we be today? Quite simply when it comes to housing we have only two options: we could stick with the status quo or we could try. Now I take up the Leader of the Opposition's challenge. I would rather be a Prime Minister that tried and missed than a Prime Minister that never tried at all and conceded before we picked up a hammer.Education and a roof over your head—they're cold comfort if you don't have the most basic thing: your health. It's easy to take your health for granted until it's gone. And perhaps—perhaps—that's how the last side of the House treated the health system. We cannot take it for granted. Our DHBs face deficit our workforce feels unsafe our hospitals are crying out for investment and we have heard that.Now I will be the first to admit that when it comes to health we will always need to do more especially when our demographic is changing and technology is increasing. But today we will begin the rebuild with an extra $2.2 billion into DHBs over four years—the largest increase in a decade. This is a Government that wants to make sure that if something happens to your health—to your health or your family's health—you can have a decent hospital visit; you'll have well-supported staff and you'll get the care you deserve. But of course we always want to get in early and intervention always remains the best approach for health. It is our intention to make accessing the doctor cheaper for everyone but in this Budget we are starting with the half a million Kiwis who need it the most. They won't just get $10 off their GP visit; they will pay $20 to $30 less for those visits. We've also made it free for every 13-year-old in the country—56000 of them—to visit the doctor and pick up their prescriptions. Now every child under 14 has access to free healthcare and I acknowledge New Zealand First. We're also making a start on our pledge around nurses in schools and of course we need to build up that nurse workforce as we roll out that policy but we're getting started with 24000 high school students with the nurse in schools programme.But whether it's health housing or education our motivation this Budget has been rebuilding services for people. Those needs come in many forms and the challenges of meeting them have been significant.Now I want to give you an example. I'm honoured to be the Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage. There are a raft of things I wanted to do in this area. It didn't take me long though as Minister to realise that my extensive plans were going to be quite hard to roll out and deliver when the ministry I needed to deliver them had received no baseline increase in funding for going on 10 years. Now the impact of that was telling. It wasn't a matter of losing staff in Auckland although that happened or not filling vacancies although that happened too. They couldn't even afford SEEMail the secure email system used by Government departments. They were literally walking documents to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Treasury.I tell this story for two reasons: to illustrate that there have been challenges every single place you look but also to share a message with our creative sector our storytellers our place-makers those who give us an extra dynamic sense of ourselves and our well-being. We have a lot of work to do. Today I'm rebuilding the foundations so we can start the work on Pathways to Arts and Cultural Employment on career pathways on the screen industry plan and on access issues and I remain committed to all of it.This Budget is one that's had to juggle a number of competing priorities but investing in our people and our future does not have to come at the expense of growing our prosperity. This Budget recognises in fact that if you want decent services if you want to invest in people we need an economy that works for us and for people. On that front we were not willing to sit back and see what happens. We want to drive towards greater productivity higher wages a workforce where we invest in their skills so they're adaptable and resilient so we have thriving regions and more trade and that means getting on with building the environment to make all of that happen.That's why we invested in people representing our trade needs abroad. That's why we invested in the Green Party initiative of establishing a Green investment fund. It's why we're creating tax incentives for research and development removing the barriers to further training and education. It's why New Zealand First and this Government delivered the Provincial Growth Fund. Strong foundations for the future mean building an economy that delivers for its people and that does not happen by chance.There's one more foundation I want to speak of today and that is that you cannot claim you have a successful economy or country if you are not supporting your environment. This is a Government who recognises that. We are striving towards that zero-carbon economy investing in biodiversity and planting plenty of trees.I said in the beginning that I've sat through many Budgets and this is my 10th. I've always said you can tell what kind of Government you're looking at by the kind of Budget that they deliver. What kind of Budget is this? One from a stable and confident Government. What kind of Budget is this? I hope it sends the message that we are prepared that we've delivered a surplus because we're prepared for the horizon. I hope it says that we are thinking about more than three years that whether it's growing jobs or protecting the environment you need a plan. I hope it says that we know the basics are important and I hope it says we have built the foundations for the future. I commend this Budget to the House."