Yule LawrenceLAWRENCE YULE (National—Tukituki): This was meant to be a wellbeing Budget. We listened and we heard all the hype beforehand and the supposed hack aside we waited until the Thursday of the delivery of the Budget. And you know for me as a new MP I'd have to say I was incredibly disappointed all round. And I say that because against the backdrop of significant decline in business confidence and a falling of GDP we produce a Budget that increases debt by about $20 billion. At the same time the job growth in New Zealand has gone from 10000 a month—that's 10000 a month that's a lot of jobs—we are now minus 4000 a month.Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi: How many?LAWRENCE YULE: Minus 4000. A turn-around of around 16000 jobs a month in not much less than 18 months.I was also interested in the Prime Minister's speech. The Prime Minister is a revered position and as the leader of this country she chose to go off what I'd call a normal prime ministerial speech and deliberately did so and spoke about mental health. Good on her for doing that and I'll come back to that in a minute. But what was missing was any plan any confidence or any reassurance on the economy of New Zealand and an export-led growth economy at that.I acknowledge the Minister David Parker sitting over there filing his notes. I'm not sure he was here on the day of the Budget. But that being said when the Prime Minister speaks New Zealanders want to see a balance of things. She used her whole speech largely on mental health and I think New Zealand actually deserves better than that and it needs a more all-round approach from this Government.I actually congratulate the Government for the money that's being spent on mental health and I think that across the Parliament we accept there's more that needs to be done. However that is a lofty goal—$1.9 billion on mental health—and numbers I've seen indicate that up to 6500 people are going to need to be employed to deliver that programme. Now that's a lot of people and they're not just anybody off the street; these are properly trained people that can help people in some of their darkest hours.I give the plaudits for the mental health but not in many other places. You see as we sat in urgency the first thing we did was put the price of fuel up by 4c a litre this year and next year. Then not long after that we considered school donations from deciles 1 to 7. We're not too worried about 8 9 and 10 apparently but 1 to 7—they can choose to have $150 if they don't charge fees. What came out from—Hon Tracey Martin: Ask for donations.LAWRENCE YULE: —Minister Twyford though was that—sorry donations—basically all of that help to a family was going to be eaten up over the next two years by the extra fuel charges they're going to pay when they fill their car. So on one hand it's a wellbeing Budget but the first thing they did under urgency was stick the price of fuel up by 4c a litre this year and again next year.Then if you look at the delivery model there was great concern exposed before the last election around housing. We talk about it just about every time in this House at question time and that's because the Labour Government and the Labour Party when they were in Opposition promised 100000 KiwiBuild homes. I haven't seen the most recent figure but I understand around 86 have been built. Across New Zealand that particular policy has been a laughing stock.I then look at really serious issues in my own electorate which I've spoken about in this Parliament before. In Hastings in the last 12 months there has been a reduction of 12 Housing New Zealand houses—not an increase; a reduction. This transformational Government—this transformational Government that's going to sort out all these ills—is on target to deliver five new houses in Hastings in two years in Housing New Zealand. They've demolished a whole lot. They've sold some. Guess what? That's exactly what the National Government did as part of the last term. This Government is no different. But what I say in the year of delivery is: how can it be that there are 300 people in my community living in motels and Housing New Zealand can build only five houses in two years?When I stand here listening to the wellbeing and I hear about mental health I look across all of that and I say Some things are still very wrong here." I didn't get a chance in the general debate to talk about sanctions on beneficiaries who wouldn't identify the father. I'm strongly opposed to that approach. I understand the rationale of the Government and they want to be kind to everybody but I guarantee we'll come back into this Parliament in three or four years' time and there will be an increase in benefits given to people who won't identify the fathers. Ultimately what that does is takes away the responsibility or minimises the responsibility on those fathers. Fathers have a role to play in the financial support of their children and every time we undermine this we simply send the wrong signal.I now look at the contributions that were made in this Budget and the choices that were made. Good on New Zealand First for managing to extract another billion dollars towards rail $1.7 billion to aircraft but when I go back in to my electorate and when I look at the Budget commentary in my own newspapers it was pretty devoid. Normally there are two or three pages on the Budget. In my own electorate of Tukituki and in Hawke's Bay there was not much over a page. The reason for that is because there was very little in it for the people in Hawke's Bay—very little. There were a couple of small things but very little.The commentary I hear when I go out and talk to people is not that there was a brilliant Budget; the commentary is that actually a whole lot of choices have been made and we don't necessarily agree with them. You see I have spoken previously to KiwiRail executives to Peter Reidy when he was the CEO and I have a view—and it's been espoused to me—that there's only one railway line in New Zealand really that is profitable and that's the one from Auckland Hamilton to Tauranga. All the rest don't make any money. Maybe there could be one in the middle of the North Island but it's marginal. For this Government to come along and say "Aren't we great? We've given a billion dollars." pays lip service to the fact that the National Government over nine years invested over $2 billion in supporting KiwiRail and even then couldn't make it work.Against that backdrop imagine the disappointment of what I call normal New Zealanders—what Scott Morrison would call quiet Australians; we'll call them quiet New Zealanders—when they see that a billion dollars has been spent on railway projects largely to try and win Northland and $1.7 billion on aircraft while the increase to Pharmac against that is around $40 million over four years. When you raise that with people they say "How can that be Lawrence?" And that's what they've said to me.I ask this Government to actually constantly think of its priorities. There is a growing need in New Zealand for better access to cancer drugs and there is a view amongst New Zealanders that we're not doing well enough compared with Australia. So when you invest effectively $2.7 billion on large projects—I accept we need some planes; but trains a billion?—how does that resonate with a quiet New Zealander who wants a fair go for somebody who gets in difficulty with cancer?If I look at some of the promises that were made by the Labour Party in particular prior to it coming into Government it promised no new taxes. It's introduced seven to date. It promised $10-cheaper doctors visits for all. That's not in the Budget. It promised $20 million for access to lifesaving medicines for New Zealanders with rare disorders. That's not in the Budget. It also promised no one would be sleeping in cars last winter and again this winter. Guess what? Some are—some are. It also said it was committed to not housing people in motels but that's increased threefold in the same period of time.If I go into my own electorate—I accept that it's better if they're living in a motel than living in a car but in my electorate alone if a Government agency can build only five new houses in two years then what is the Government doing in my city and my district to help wellbeing? The Government is failing to deliver on their promises. For my electorate of Tukituki it was a hollow experience and we don't read too much about it."