Roche Denise: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 07 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11704. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green): I rise to take a call in this debate which I hope will be the second to last debate on a Budget from the National Government. This Government is tired. There were no new ideas in the Budget that the National Government presented to this Parliament. It failed to deal with two of the biggest issues of our time: climate change and inequality.Let us talk about climate change. After 8 years of not talking about climate change National’s big idea—and only idea—was to end the two-for-one rort that made no economic or environmental sense. Rather than just finding some simple solutions like for example putting a 10c to 20c levy on single-use plastic bags—it could have raised between $20 million and $60 million of new revenue it could have decreased our pollution impact on marine life and it could have reduced our emissions by the equivalent of taking about 3000 cars off the road. Instead of doing that the National Government opted to go for a less effective recycling scheme that does not actually fix the problem of too many plastic bags and actually costs taxpayers money.If the Government had put in this plastic bag levy—a simple solution—perhaps it could have avoided the steep cuts to the Department of Conservation (DOC) which has lost nearly $60 million since 2008. Under National 146 species are closer to extinction and nearly a quarter of the DOC huts and half of the walking tracks are not up to standard. National is mismanaging New Zealand’s clean green reputation and by doing so is putting our economy and our environment at risk.We have a Government that is unwilling or unable to deal with addressing inequality. When you have a Prime Minister who is denying the housing crisis by saying that homeless people do not want help then we know where the refusal to deal with problems comes from: it comes from the top—the rot starts there. While chief executive officer (CEO) salaries have gone up by $180000 over the last year working people are facing real cuts to their real wages over the next 2 years. The only thing going up almost as quickly as CEO pay rates is the Auckland housing crisis which has surged by $100000 in the last year alone.Auckland is now the fifth least affordable city in the world but there is nothing in the Budget that addresses the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots in this country. There is nothing in the Budget about the housing crisis which has led to nearly one in a hundred New Zealanders being homeless or on the brink of homelessness—and that is shameful.Instead since the National Government has come into office it has given away hundreds of millions of dollars in tax cuts and corporate subsidies to its rich mates in private companies like Serco like Skycity and like Warner Bros. At the same time as doing that it has been absolutely gutting the Public Service and has twiddled its thumbs while community services that provide support to some of the most vulnerable people in our country like the Nelson Multicultural Council are contemplating closing by year’s end because money has been either frozen or cut. Although we have got migration at over 100000 a year we need to be taking migrant settlement and support seriously not freezing the settling-in grants and support budgets for migrant services like this Government has.To sum up under the National Government CEO pay has gone up and real wages are going down. Under the National Government homelessness is going up but housing affordability has gone way down. Under the National Government emissions have gone way up and conservation funding is way down. Under the National Government our planet and our people are worse off. We need to change the Government.