Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green): Talofa lava. Thank you Madam Speaker. I thought I'd get up and have a go. I just want to take every opportunity—as we should in our roles as representatives—to ensure that we are speaking up for people removed and disconnected from resource and power people who sorely don't often have that representation in any places of power around the world people without the means and the vested interests to lobby the way that other groups and communities are able to lobby.So I'll start off by pointing out very clearly that everyone should be worthy of receiving support whether they are recently unemployed or longer-term unemployed; that employment status in and of itself is not the sole determination or indication of how people contribute to their communities; that for far too long we as countries and around the world have not valued the unpaid and volunteer work that is every bit as vital for sustaining our families our households our communities and yes our businesses and our broader society and community the way that they have done for thousands of years. So employment and relationship status should also not determine whether you are worthy of living with any sort of dignity. Aotearoa needs to live up to all of us being in this together and truly value everyone being able to live with dignity. So it has been a lack of political courage of who does and doesn't have access to power and resource that has prevented this change over successive Governments.Over successive Governments we have continued to see people kept in poverty kept living below the line not able to make ends meet because of the decisions that powerful people like those of us in this House have far too often made that have kept people struggling for what should all be guaranteed minimum basic fundamental human rights what should be a guaranteed minimum level of humanity that we as a country agree to share collectively with all of the people of Aotearoa. The benefits in this country in our social safety net have been kept so low for so long that this has created intergenerational poverty and hardship and as importantly has severed relationships and trust with democratic processes with engagements with agencies with political elected representatives because people lose their faith and trust in a system which is not seen to uphold their needs and their aspirations of basic care at all.So the impact of this has been very very clear to see over a long time. Just recently the Auckland City Mission reminded us that in 2002 they gave out 3000 food parcels. In the 2018-19 financial year they gave out 23000 food parcels. In the last three months alone demand for food parcels has doubled again—just in the last three months alone. I wanted to take a particular quote from yesterday on social media platforms where a person is speaking out for the disabled community and says that the announcement that we are going to afford some people recently unemployed through COVID the ability to live with dignity is a huge slap in the face for disabled people many of whom are excluded from paid employment and make up a large proportion of people on long-term benefits."Those are the impacts that our social safety net creates when it is not one that ensures that everyone is respected and can live in dignity. Only the Greens have consistently and long-term continued to call for the urgent increase of benefit rates according to the Welfare Expert Advisory Group and the report that they released over a year ago which offers us a clear blueprint and solutions for how to overhaul our social safety net system to one that is indeed kind and compassionate and understands the value of helping people get the support they need at the level they need and when they need it. It takes—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can I just remind the member sorry that this is a debate on the Budget and we've now had over 5½ minutes—I don't think that the member has mentioned the Budget once.MARAMA DAVIDSON: Fair call Madam Speaker thank you very much for pulling me back on track. We were pleased to see in Budget 2020 for example the massive upscale for public housing—8000 more public and community houses that are going to be affordable that are going to allow more people to live with some security. We were pleased and worked hard to see thousands more families going to be able to live in healthy safe warm dry homes with a massive upscale to the warmer Kiwi homes programme allowing for more families to have bigger subsidies to get that insulation done.We were pleased to see through the COVID initial Budget response the increase of $25 to base benefit rates. There are so many examples of the good things that we have to hold on to as the initial start of hope including through this Budget. And again we pushed for and received the $1.1 billion package for green nature-based jobs thousands of jobs around the country that are going to provide for decent livelihoods protect and nurture our environment for generations to come and help to get our country on reducing our climate polluting and our carbon emissions. Those are long-term visions that we really can be proud about.We also have to go further on what the Budget was able to announce. Again we are also really proud of having been at the core push for indexing benefit increases to wage increases and for removing the harsh sanctions for those children whose fathers and other parents were not named on the birth certificate—one of the cruellest sanctions I think that this country should never have had in the first place.So we are very clear that we have seen some good signs of good beginnings and a good ray of hope about what we can do collectively for this country. We have built incredible mandate and support through Budget 2020 and the fantastic initiatives that were in that Budget particularly around keeping people safe and secure and creating jobs coming through COVID. Those were essential. Those are necessary changes that we should all be leaning into as a sign of where we need to still continue to go. We have been able to bring people together rather than separating people out into who is deserving and who is not deserving of our help and support.So once again to finalise we want to keep pushing and working towards making sure those on the lowest incomes have enough to live. No one should have to line up for food grants in this country. We have enough for everyone to be able not just to live and provide for their families but also to ensure they are able to spend and revive their local communities local businesses and neighbourhood initiatives as well. There is every good tick to making sure that everyone has enough to live on and I'm proud that the Greens will continue to call for those changes. Thank you."