Edmonds BarbaraBARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a privilege as the chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee who reviewed the Supplementary Estimates bill to be able to take a call in the House. I really wanted to be able to back up the Minister of Finance in his comments around the importance of these particular two bills. They are quite dry and I accept that—you know the titles are very dry and they seem like very technical bills but actually they're quite important in the respect that you can't spend money as a Government unless you have the authority of this Parliament; in the same way you cannot tax without the authority of Parliament you cannot spend money.So effectively these two bills provide the authority to be able to spend for the next three months until the Appropriation/Estimates bill carries through and also it provides the authority for some of the extra spending through last year in the Supplementary Estimates.We'd like to thank the officials who came before the Finance and Expenditure Committee. I think there was over 20 of them all the different chief financial officers from the main Government departments where there were changes to the Estimates—the Supplementary Estimates. We only had them in for about five minutes because what effectively the Finance and Expenditure Committee came to in their report was we approve the Supplementary Estimates and our report back was to support what was in them. As the Minister of Finance said the imprest supply Acts are a regular part of the annual Budget cycle and the Crown again cannot spend expenses or capital without them.So what I found really interesting coming from across the other side of the House was that the member that sat down Nicola Willis said that National opposes these bills. National will therefore oppose reducing the cost of living for Kiwis who are finding it really really tough because that's exactly what these bills do: they approve the spending for the package that reduces the cost of living.And just for the member over there who forgets what it's like to reduce the cost of living—our package—that includes the fuel excise duty and the road-user charges being cut and extended for two months. It also includes the spending for half-price public transport which is also extended for a further two months. The National Party opposes that because that's what these bills allow for. You cannot spend unless you put these bills through the House.The National Party also do not agree with the temporary cost of living payment for people earning up to $70000 who are not eligible to receive the winter energy payment. And to be fair if they even go into coalition with the ACT Party who don't want the winter energy payment I'm not surprised they oppose this particular bill.But also if they oppose these bills they oppose establishing better access to health services. The vast majority of this Budget and of the spending which will be in this quarter will be establishing the New Zealand health authority and the Māori Health Authority. The other side of the House don't approve that spending and you know I'm not surprised that they don't approve that spending because they didn't mind running down the hospitals. They didn't mind running down the workforce that came to this—so I'm not surprised.The other side of the House by opposing these bills also oppose the rural connectivity and the innovation in tourism. They're asking for a plan so why don't they agree with innovating the tourism industry? Why do they oppose rural connectivity? We know how hard it is to be able to work remotely in some parts of our country. And these two particular bills provide the spending for to improve that rural connectivity.By opposing these two bills they oppose the support for apprenticeships that will help build a skilled workforce. That is the effect of opposing these two bills: you in effect oppose the spending that allows for apprenticeship work.And for Māori and Pacific people you oppose the ability for them to have to be mana enhanced. They oppose the health education housing and social welfare initiatives that are right throughout Budget 2022. For a person like me who is the MP for Mana the opposition to these bills means that you oppose the 300 further homes for Pacific ownership in Porirua East. And that's unfortunate because Pacific homeownership is one of the lowest—the lowest—in the country. So by opposing these bills you oppose the initiatives that are needed to support improving Pacific housing.They also would oppose the implementation of our Government's commitment to support the Dawn Raids historical accounts. We've seen time and time again since last year these records of the Dawn Raids which are so important to our Pasifika communities to our Tongan communities to our Pacific Island communities to our Samoan communities. Being able to record those accounts are so important in order for those communities to move forward and that sort of work it is unfortunate the other side of the House oppose.They also oppose the $49.9 million for the Pacific Provider Development Fund. Again by opposing these bills you oppose the investment into those Pacific providers. The reason why we want to provide that money for those Pacific providers is we want them to adopt their models of care into the new health system.Now members during the weekend I saw so much social media of people really enjoying Matariki. I was really moved by the dawn festival the ceremony that happened from Te Papa that was broadcast across a number of media platforms in New Zealand. And I remember sitting there watching those scenes of that dawn ceremony and thinking I'm a mother of eight Ngāpuhi children and this is their time in order for them to be proud of their Ngāpuhi heritage in order for them to understand Mataliki Matali'i Matariki—it is what their ancestors used to be able to navigate into this country and for to them to be proud of what they were doing."So by opposing these two bills you also therefore oppose the resilient and sustainable cultural sector that this Government has been trying to help during these COVID times. More than $185 million was used to help build a resilient cultural sector because of the impacts of COVID-19. And so as part of it that investment included investment in Matariki celebrations. You oppose these bills you oppose that investment in those Matariki celebrations that rung out across the country. That is our first public holiday with a te reo Māori focus. So by opposing this bill you can't sit there and say "Mānawatia a Matariki" and then oppose the funding that is needed to be able to support such a celebration.These bills also support the funding into Te Matatini. Another plan is the cultural sector workforce capability initiative—that is another plan to be able to boost our Māori and Pacific arts. Again these bills provide the foundations in order for those initiatives to be funded.But you know I want to be able to understand why you would oppose such bills. They are technical bills in nature. They approve the Supplementary Estimates from last year: the additional funding that the Minister of Finance said had to go into Vote Corrections and COVID support. As the Minister of Finance said earlier today it is far less than what has previously had to be used and as the Minister of Finance says as we move into different and more normal spending the amount has come down. It's really unfortunate that we're having to play that politics of not being able to support New Zealand through that COVID recovery.The Supplementary Estimates approve—the Parliament approves—the authority of using those expenses in the previous financial year which were not in the normal Appropriations/Estimates bill. So I'm really I'm really saddened that the Opposition don't want to support such a bill.And again by opposing this bill you oppose the cost of living payments $350 for those who earn up to $70000—that's 2.1 million people. You oppose the support that is provided to 2.1 million people—and the member from ACT over they can come across with as much as she'd like to say but 2.1 million people again is the population of Auckland and the population of Wellington and a little bit of Christchurch.So you can oppose as much as you want for these two particular bills but we on this side of the House know that Kiwis are hurting and we wanted to be able to provide some temporary relief for them as they go through the next few months. We know that economically internationally our economy is looked at and seen as sound and stable. But we knew that Kiwis were finding it tough we knew that Kiwis wanted to be able to celebrate Matariki we knew that Kiwis wanted to be able to celebrate Matatini we knew that Pacific Island people wanted to be able to own their own homes and we knew that the health sector had to be reformed.So these two particular bills again provide the authority for the spending that was spent last year over and above the Appropriation/Estimates bill. They provide the initial funding for the three months going forward for Budget 2022. So by opposing these bills you oppose the initiatives that are helping Kiwis who are finding it tough at this time. So therefore I'd like to commend this bill to the House and ask the Opposition—particularly those in ACT—to have a really good think about it."