Belich CamillaCAMILLA BELICH (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's an honour to take part in this Budget debate. It's actually only the second time I've participated in a Budget debate because the first time when I was elected as an MP I was actually on leave for a short time with my baby who I had while I was an MP. I'm delighted to be able to sit here today in the House with my colleague Steph Lewis who is another person in our caucus who has become a mother during this term. The reason I mention that is because there's one thing that stood out to me in this Budget and that was the emphasis and the focus that this Budget has on mothers and people playing that role of mothers.So famously the Opposition brought in the mother of all Budgets" which devastated our social services. This Government I'm very proud to say has bought in the exact opposite: a Budget for all mothers. There are a number of things in this Budget that are really really significant and really look at the way New Zealanders live their lives and how we can make things easier for them in the really normal everyday bread and butter issues that they face.The first thing is going to work. How do parents go to work? They need obviously someone to take care of their children. We've had a very successful policy of 20 hours' free from three. We've now extended that to two and I have full confidence that this policy will work in the favour of parents people who are actually pulling money out of their back pocket in order to not only be able to pay for good quality childcare but actually go to work.And how are they going to get their children to work? Well that's another thing that this Budget has: free public transport for those under 13. They don't have to worry about that any more. By the way it's also good for the environment.Another thing that happens to parents is that children get sick. We know that. Steph Lewis and I know that. It's something that happens all the time so people have to pay for medication. People have unfortunately budgets which often don't stretch for unexpected costs so even the $5 fee is a struggle for many. This Government is getting rid of those prescription fees and I couldn't be prouder of a Government that stands for high-quality healthcare and access to high-quality healthcare. There are other things in this Budget which do really help working parents and especially women. One thing that hasn't been talked about as much perhaps but I think is a really significant policy is the policy of the Government matching employer KiwiSaver contributions to allow parents to take the time out to actually take that parental leave and know that it's not going to be disadvantageous to them financially by the time they retire. This is a fantastic policy which really speaks to the values of this Government: equity equality of outcomes not necessarily of treatment—of outcomes. So this means that when people retire they won't have to worry about the fact that there is a deficit.There are also other changes that will affect really the whole life of New Zealanders. The changes that we made to the Warmer Kiwi Homes announcement will really help lower household energy bills—another thing we know which is affecting the cost of living for New Zealanders. These are all essential changes that have come in that really will help address the cost of living and I'm so proud of this Budget for that reason. In fact this Budget was one of the first Budgets to introduce a gender budgeting snapshot which is a tool which looks at the Budget and how it affects people depending on their gender. I was really pleased to see this included on the Budget. We need to know that the policies that we implement in this House do not have negative effects on people because of their gender because of their ethnicity and these types of tools will really assist us to make sure that we can implement policies that help everyone.But what do we hear from the other side? Negativity—negative National constantly talking down New Zealand and New Zealanders telling us not only that they don't agree with our policy on prescription fees but that they are going to cut it when they come in making healthcare more expensive for New Zealanders. That's what the Opposition stands for. Absolutely shocking.And another U-turn: they say they'll bring it back in even if it is targeted. Well let me tell you that better policy is universally getting rid of that fee so people know that when they go to the pharmacy they're not having to be paying for that additional cost.So I stand by this Budget and the changes that it will implement. It's a Budget for this time. It's a Budget that works for working people but particularly for working women. It addresses many of the key areas that affect their life as a whole and I commend it to the House with the original motion."