Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): I am proud to be part of the Labour - New Zealand First - Green supported coalition Government. I am proud to be part of this Government that cares. I am proud to be part of this Government that has delivered this Budget—this Budget that is about recovering this Budget that is about restoring and this Budget that is about regrowing. This Budget is about rebuilding and putting our economy back in a better place after nine long years of neglect and after nine long years of the winner-takes-all mentality. The previous speaker Nikki Kaye talked about doing the hard yards. Well I tell the previous speaker and I tell this House who was doing the hard yards: it was the children sleeping in cars it was the people dying on park benches it was the families living in cold damp mouldy homes and it was the people whose incomes were being stretched and stretched so that they were going into food banks begging to get by week to week. That's who was doing the hard yards. I can tell you where that idea that you might be doing the hard yards comes from. You see the party on the other side of this House they believe that the market will fix it—that somehow by the great magic of the market mechanisms everybody will be OK. Well I tell you that the market does supply solutions. The market does come up with results. The market supplies a market solution. It's just a shame about the people who get left out. On this side of the House we care about the people and that's why we have delivered this Budget—this Budget that is about caring for New Zealanders. Let me just talk about some of the things that we have done in this Budget that actually matter. First up we have put $3.2 billion into health—$3.2 billion. We've used some of that money to make sure that our nurses are properly paid. We've used some of that money to make sure that our wards are properly staffed. We are using that money to ensure that New Zealanders can access decent healthcare. We've put $750 million into capital budgets in the health system—no more mouldy walls in hospitals. The neglect of Middlemore Hospital was absolutely shameful especially a hospital that serves one of the poorest communities in our nation. The other side of the House ought to be ashamed of what happened there on their watch. Then in terms of education we have increased the operational grant to schools by 50 percent. There are 1500 more teachers coming on our watch. We have doubled the pay offer to teachers—doubled what the previous National Government ever offered to teachers. The other side of the House has been complaining about teachers going out on strike and about nurses going out on strike. They are saying Why why why are they doing it under a Labour Government?" I'll tell you why—because the National Government had them tied down so hard and made it so hard for them to press their claims that at last with a Labour Government they can press their claims. You know it's hard managing strikes in the public sector but we are negotiating in good faith first of all with nurses and now with teachers because we do want to ensure that our children and the people in our health system have access to professional staff and that they are well served. So we are entering into those negotiations in good faith. The previous speaker also worried about our fees-free policy for tertiary students. There were a couple of complaints. One was that we're doing it at all and the second was that we should have done it for third-year students not first-year students. Well that second reason is very easily dealt with. It's not just a policy for university students who do three-year qualifications. It is a policy aimed at any post-school education: polytechnic education trades education apprenticeships and university education—not just university education. When it comes to that fees-free policy it wasn't just about increasing enrolments. You know students come out of our universities and out of our polytechnics with huge student loans. It creates a real burden for them. The reason for this fees-free policy is to ensure that we decrease the burden on our young people and that we commit to the value of a free education so that every member of our society has the opportunity to access a decent level of education—the education that is required to have a thriving democratic nation. That's why we went for fees-free. But let me focus specifically on housing. There was a crisis in housing. There still is a crisis in housing—it isn't going to go away in one Budget. I have yet to hear a single member of the Opposition ever admit that there might have been a problem in housing. All we got was futile running around in Crown cars looking at cemeteries as possible places to build houses—that was their sole effort in terms of housing. They simply closed their minds to it. They closed their minds to the families sleeping in cars. They closed their minds to the cold damp homes. They closed their minds to the outrageous price of houses that shut young people out of the housing market. We are taking action right across the housing portfolio across the whole range—right from the people who need emergency housing through to people who are trying to buy a house. Let me talk this House through the actions that this Government is taking. In emergency housing we are providing 1400 more emergency places. You know we shouldn't have to provide emergency housing but we are because we want to make sure that people at least have a secure place to lay their heads at night. So we are funding the Housing First programme. That's a fascinating programme. The idea is that you sort out people's housing and then you help them to work on all the other issues. So first of all get them into a house and then it's possible to help someone to work on perhaps addiction issues to work on perhaps mental health issues and to get them the assistance they need. Sort the housing first and then the other stuff. It's a really good programme.We are building more State homes. The previous Government in the midst of a housing crisis sold State homes. We are building them. We have an enormous commitment to ensuring that New Zealanders have secure housing. We are taking action with respect to the outrageous housing market where we propped up the economy by flipping houses on to each other. Those of us who had housing sold it to each other and somehow we thought this was success. So we have expanded the brightline test from two years to five years to slow down that outrageous rate of turnover in the housing market and we are bringing in restrictions on who may buy homes in New Zealand. You know if someone is coming to live here in New Zealand fantastic—you're welcome to buy a home here. But no more non-citizen non-resident overseas owners of our homes—homes for people who are living in and are committed to New Zealand.None of these actions perhaps would have mattered by themselves but taken together as a suite of actions across the housing market they are designed to ensure that New Zealanders have secure homes and secure homes matter. A person who is secure in their our own home a person who knows where they will sleep that night a person who is part and parcel of a neighbourhood and a community—that's when that person can flourish. That's when someone can coach their child's sports team. It's when their child can stay at the same school. It's when they can get a job—because they have secure housing. Secure housing is not a reward for having a job; it's the other way around. The first thing is secure housing for a person and then we can help secure the structure of their lives so that that person can be a thriving part of New Zealand.If nothing else I hope that this Labour Government will be remembered for its commitment to housing it's commitment to ensuring that New Zealanders have a home because that way we have a successful and thriving society."