van Velden BrookeBROOKE VAN VELDEN (Deputy Leader—ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. Labour doesn't have a clue; they don't have a single clue how to produce a Budget that New Zealanders truly can get behind. This Budget that they've delivered is destroying New Zealand it destroys the spirit of people who want to strive and work hard and strive for their families to have a better life than they had.You know New Zealanders have now gone through two years of a COVID pandemic and what they really needed to see was a vision of hope and aspiration for the future. People are struggling with the cost of living they're struggling to put food on the table for their families they're struggling to afford their childcare they're struggling to afford the petrol they need to get to work and take their kids to school they're struggling to pay their rent and all that this Budget delivers is more borrowing and spending. People want to see real change and what the Government has delivered is a brain drain Budget. People want to work hard and be able to pay their bills for themselves but that's not what this Budget delivers. What this Budget delivers is another reason why you should leave New Zealand and I don't think that's good enough. Treasury already expects that people will leave New Zealand and we're already seeing it. I've listened to countless MPs across this Chamber talk about the millions that they'll be spending and handing out to various groups of people. Well New Zealanders shouldn't be proud of that. We shouldn't be proud of a Government that continuously borrows and spends because it's too much tax on productive people and we're going to see productive people leave New Zealand.There are so many costs that are imposed on people and it is hard to get ahead. Not only that it's hard even just to stand still. Under this Budget the amount of tax per person in New Zealand is around $22000. That's up from around $16000 when this Government took over. You know I spoke to a young man recently who said that he got a $2 pay rise per hour. That's around $80 extra per week in his pocket. But he hasn't felt like he's seen a single cent of that. It's all been sucked up by rising rents higher costs at the grocery markets and higher costs on petrol for him. That's unacceptable because I hope that young man doesn't leave this country. I know a mother with four children who already says that she is and middle-income earners have been left behind by this Government. Let's stop fleecing Kiwis who actually work and strive. That $350 handout is insulting. We should give more Kiwis back the money that they earn in the first place.If I go to housing the Government increased the Budget for first-home grants and first-home loans and I think that's just an admission of the Government's failure on housing. It's an admission that the Government has pushed up housing prices which is why they needed to increase the home grants in the first place and now they can't stop adding fuel to the fire. They've decided to pump an extra $148 million into an already inflated housing market. In 2019 Treasury said on this policy that it's likely to increase prices when supply is constrained. Government spending is inflationary. Increasing the maximum house price to be eligible by hundreds of thousands of dollars is only going to increase the lower quintile of housing supply.We don't want New Zealanders to have to deal with a Government that just pumps more and more money into the economy and pushes up prices for New Zealanders. We're sick of New Zealanders feeling like they're fodder for a handout culture. New Zealanders want a Government that creates a healthy economy and young New Zealanders want to know that they can afford to live they can afford to rent buy groceries have childcare costs that they can afford for themselves without a Government handout. So let's create the environment for that. Let's create a healthy productive economy where people can strive work and feel proud. The Government shouldn't feel proud of the handout culture that's in this Budget. We need to get back to basics and give New Zealanders back more of the money that they earned in the first place. Thank you Mr Speaker.