Salesa JennyHon JENNY SALESA (Minister for Building and Construction): Thank you so much Mr Assistant Speaker for this opportunity to discuss the Wellbeing Budget of 2019. It is a Budget that I'm truly proud of—New Zealand's first wellbeing Budget ever and the first wellbeing Budget in the world. I am also really proud of what we're doing in education. In Vote Education $11.4 billion is what the Wellbeing Budget of 2019 is investing in education. It is the biggest in our history. But before I address what Nikki Kaye the previous speaker said can I talk about the thing that I am truly proud of and it's really different. One of the things I've heard other speakers say is This is the same old Budget. It's the Budget that we've heard before." It is not. One thing as I begin is that there is $1.9 billion for mental health. Have we ever seen the previous National Government commit that much to mental health ever before? Hon Members: No. Hon JENNY SALESA: "No." was the answer to that—$1.9 billion for mental health. Another thing that's different for us is there is a half-billion-dollar investment in Māori. Have we ever seen the previous National Government investing that much in Māori? Hon Member: No. Hon JENNY SALESA: "No." was the answer to that. The other thing that's different is the investment in Pacific: $113 million investment in Pacific. It's historic. We've never seen a Government before invest this much in Pacific and also both Māori and Pacific are a priority for us in this Budget. That is also different. The other thing that's different—with my Minister for Ethnic Communities' hat on—is that we are investing in our ethnic communities. In April I came through and I announced a $1.8 million investment in ethnic communities as a direct response to what had happened over in Christchurch on 15 March but in this Budget we are investing $9.4 million in addition to that original $1.7 million and it is because we have a growing ethnic community right across Aotearoa New Zealand. When you look at the numbers one of the things that we're doing in this Government that's different is we are investing in more staff in the Office of Ethnic Communities because there are so many of our ethnic communities that we need to serve. We're also going out to have further conversations with imams with Muslim young people and with Muslim women because we want to ensure that we continue to be an inclusive society in Aotearoa that we are welcoming and that we assist our ethnic communities to grow stronger. Another investment that is different in our Budget is the $12 million that we are investing in combating rheumatic fever to address the high rates of rheumatic fever for Māori and Pacific young people. We are looking at investing in this. Two-thirds of our rheumatic fever cases are in South Auckland so what are we doing as a Government? We're making sure that we invest this money in Auckland because the majority of the cases are Māori as well as Tongans and Samoans. They have the highest rates of rheumatic fever. We're interested in addressing it. The other thing that we're doing differently this time—and this is from evaluating what happened in the last rheumatic fever programme—is that we are listening to the providers and we are listening to our whānau and our families who tell us that the programmes that worked most successfully for Māori and Pacific whānau was the one where they helped us co-design the initiatives. They actually give us the advice on what is the best way to ensure that the whānau know more about the signs of rheumatic fever and know more about the importance of taking the medication to ensure that kids with sore throats are actually treated with a full dose of the treatment. I have so much more because I'm so excited for this particular Wellbeing Budget: $1.7 billion to fix hospitals over the next two years. This is a fantastic investment by our Government. The other thing that we're doing differently is we are sitting down we have had a construction sector accord that we as Government Ministers—seven of us—have already signed an agreement with industry because when we are fixing our hospitals we would like it to be of good quality. We would like the hospitals—not only the ones that we need to fix because of the lack of investment from the previous Government over nine years but as we're building new hospitals we want to ensure that it is of good quality and long lasting and that the materials that go in are really good long-lasting materials.We also have—and addressing the previous speaker Nikki Kaye in terms of education—a 10-year investment in schools; $287 million this year for the first wave and $913 million for the next four waves of investment. The difference between us on this side of the House and the previous Government is that when we actually say that we're investing these many millions we actually allocate the funding—Hon Member: Yeah it's real money.Hon JENNY SALESA: It's real money—to ensure that we're building these schools; and yes we have the programme of build for schools throughout all of Aotearoa. When we look at the investment in education $27.4 million is the investment for Pacific. If you ask "What is that investment going to do?" it's going to do several things. One of the investments is to ensure that as we work with our whānau with our families that we're ensuring that we welcome them into schools that there are churches that convene Pacific families. We're ensuring that we work more with those families because we know that when we work with our families when we sit down and have various programmes and show them all of the things that their students are doing in the schools when they are more supported by attending community sessions they are then better able to support their students at home.Another example is that we're investing in early literacy programmes. We're expanding various programmes that have been evidence-based—10 new schools a year—the programmes that are working with our families to ensure that they have better literacy skills.Another example is this programme called Tapasā. Now Tapasā is a cultural competence tool. What we know from talking to young people as well as teachers and as well as parents is that they tell us things like this—these are according to our learners and our Pacific parents: "a good teacher"—and I quote from this particular document—is one who "understands … my identity language and culture is important … pronounces my name and words in my language properly … does not make fun of [myself]"—this is the students that are talking—"or my [whānau] or my parents" when they come through the schools and they do not speak fluent English because when students feel that they or their parents are being put down they don't feel welcome in schools. So this particular cultural competency tool is a framework for teachers; teachers who actually work with the majority of our students. In this Budget within that $27.4 million we've invested money to ensure that it is a tool that more of our teachers—I'm not talking about Pacific teachers or Māori teachers; I'm talking about the majority of teachers who teach our students in schools—actually get to know how to appropriately support our students in schools.There are so many things that I would like to talk to—Dr Duncan Webb: So much to deliver.Hon JENNY SALESA: So much to deliver. In terms of Māori one of the things that is an investment—a huge investment—in Māori is Whānau Ora. This is the largest investment ever that any Government has made to Whānau Ora: $80 million. I speak of Whānau Ora because it's an investment in both Māori and Pacific—about a third of the Whānau Ora money goes to Pacific families. I hear a lot from our families from our providers as well as from our young people that this is a really important programme. Why? It's because it is a programme that reaches right across. It's actually a really good indication of what a wellbeing Budget looks like—when you have health when you have housing and when you have education all coming together to address issues.I do have one last example of an initiative that is a good example of wellbeing. It is one that I as Associate Minister of Education and as Associate Minister of Health have worked on over many months with the Minister for Sport and Recreation to ensure that we have this particular programme which is a health and wellness programme in schools. It is going to be led by Sport New Zealand. It is an investment of over $47 million. It is one where Sport New Zealand will work in schools—level 1 to level 8 primary school to the end of intermediate—to ensure that we encourage healthy eating and encourage more active sport and physical activity because one of the things that we are wanting to address is childhood obesity. Our rate of childhood obesity is way way too high and we must absolutely address it moving forward. Thank you so much Mr Assistant Speaker."