Woods Megan: Imprest Supply DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWoods Megan: Imprest Supply Debate[Sitting date: 06 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12394. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Third ReadingDr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram):It is my pleasure to rise after my fellow southern MP Chris Auchinvole and perhaps address what Budget 2013 meant for us in the South Island and more broadly what Budget 2013 meant for New Zealanders. It was a Budget of no vision. It was a Budget that laid out a series of contracts. That is the way in which these people choose to govern. Members opposite are nodding their heads like this is a good thing. This is the way this Government has chosen to govern: a willing seller and a willing buyer. It is as simple as that for the Government. We have seen it in the creation of charter schools. We have seen it in the fact that we have sold out the education of our young people to a willing seller and a willing buyer. We have seen it in the dodgy deal around Skycity. What we have is a Government that is not about government for the people and for all people; it is about government for its mates and finding the best deal on the table.What we have been told by members opposite is that Budget 2013 was a momentum-building Budget and that it was all part of this brighter future. Well this is somethingthat we fail to see. Budget 2013 was a continuation of letting ordinary New Zealanders down. It was a Budget by a Government that has lost touch with people who are struggling to make ends meet to meet the needs of their families and to even get a job. The Government is more interested in looking after its mates than your mates. It has sold off our assets it has given tax cuts to the most wealthy and it has grown the gap between rich and poor. This is not something anyone can be proud of. [Interruption ]I think the barracking across the House was asking for me to tell you about what Labour would have done. Well I am more than happy to give you some kind of sketch of what Labour’s vision for New Zealand is. Labour will do something to address the fact that people in this country cannot afford a roof over their heads. Labour will take real action. It will not have just rhetoric. It will be a Government that is hands-on and it will lead the building of 100000 houses in this country over 10 years. We are not content to sit idly by and wait for the magic contract to land on the table while ordinary New Zealanders are shut out of the housing market. This is something that any Government has a moral obligation to do something about. A Labour Government will step up. A Labour Government will be a hands-on Government that will do something about this.Labour will finally do something to lower ordinary New Zealanders’ power bills. In my electorate I know there are homes that people simply should not be living in. There are homes that have 90 percent humidity overnight and a temperature of nine degrees. This is not a level of heat that I am willing for my constituents to live in. This is not healthy. This is not something that any New Zealander should be willing to tolerate in their country. The member who spoke before me Chris Auchinvole talked about what Budget 2013 meant for South Islanders. Well for South Islanders struggling through yet another cold South Island winter trying to pay their power bills there was absolutely nothing—zero zilch—in there to address the very real problem of people not being able to pay their power bills.We will under Labour have a Government that will be committed to creating high-wage jobs. We will have a Government that is committed to skills training that is really committed to the tertiary education sector and that will do everything in its power to match workforce requirements with the kinds of skills training we need in this country. What we will not have under a Labour-led Government is a Government like we have now which is ripping tertiary education out of our regional centres. We have had tertiary education provision taken away from a whole list of regions. Canterbury Gisborne Hawke’s Bay Nelson Marlborough the West Coast Otago Taranaki Waikato and Wellington are all regions that now have less tertiary education provision in those regions after this Government came to power. These are also regions that have high levels of unemployment.You would think that offering some kind of training at level 1 and 2 foundation provisions would be a priority for this Government but no it is not. It has done a competitive tender to the private sector through private training establishments and it has shifted the money to urban centres. Once again this is a Government that is leaving the regions of New Zealand to flounder with absolutely no commitment to them.Labour will also be a Government that will be committed to giving all kids a great start in life. We cannot sit idly by while the Minister for Social Development comes to this House question time after question time and gives funny answers about whether or not she is measuring poverty and meanwhile more and more children in this country are born into a life of poverty and their lives are a challenge. We will extend paid parental leave. We will make sure that kids have a great start in life. We will have a real and meaningful focus on early childhood education. We will ensure that every school is world class and we will have the proper supports in place for parents.One of the things that have been listed by members opposite when they rattle off the four priorities of this Government and where Budget 2013 is putting its money is the recovery of Christchurch. Being the member of Parliament for Wigram I cannot help but address some of this. I would like to see some real action. I would encourage the Government to give some real action to addressing the housing crisis in Christchurch. The Minister will not call it a crisis. He calls it a challenge. Frankly I do not care if he calls it Harry. I want him to do something about it. I have my constituents living in garages I have my constituents living in cars and I have my constituents living in overcrowded houses. This is a Government that thinks the market is going to fix an absolute crisis in housing in a city where it is simply failing.Members opposite need to wake up to the fact that there is market failure. It is absolutely negligent of them to sit back and wait for some magic market fix that is not coming. Meanwhile people are not living in any kind of accommodation that I would call acceptable from what I have seen in the course of being a member of Parliament over the last 18 months.We need to see the problems around the Earthquake Commission addressed. People have simply been waiting for far too long. There are problems. We need to find real solutions. People cannot live with the messy situations that their lives are in for much longer. People deserve some certainty in their lives and to have a start where they can rebuild. That is what Christchurch people want. Then to hear the member talk about the investment in Christchurch schools the alleged $1 billion investment. This is not $1 billion worth of new money. Half of that money is money that would have been coming to Christchurch anyway. So let us actually have some honesty in this discussion. It is money that was in the 5-year plan so it would have been there with or without the reorganisation plan.What we have is a Government that has run roughshod over community after community in Christchurch. We have communities that escaped the earthquake that this Government has come in and destroyed by closing those schools. What we now need to do is get behind those schools. We need to get behind those communities. We need to make sure that actually what we are doing is building community and that we are not leaving them to flounder. I can tell you the scars run deep throughout the city because of the schools’ reorganisation.Phillipstown—the member opposite might like to ponder on—is currently before the courts seeing whether it can stop the Government’s closure of its school. It is a school that is in Christchurch Central. A community is no longer going to have the option to send their children to be educated at the school in their community. It is simply not good enough that this is what this Government has chosen to do. This is not about rebuilding communities.I actually think we need to see some real action from the Government on many aspects of the recovery of Christchurch. We all accept that things are going to take time that there has been a huge disaster in Christchurch and a mammoth effort is required but the fact that people do not have proper houses to live in is not something that I can sit idly by and say nothing about. We have to see some action on housing. What we need throughout this country as well as in Christchurch is a Government that is prepared to be hands-on that is prepared to show some leadership and that has a vision. That will be a Labour-led Government and it will be after the next general election. Thank you.