SpeechANDREW FALLOON (National—Rangitata): Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak this evening on the Budget. But before I do I do want to comment on the circumstances in which this Budget was written and on the enormous impact that COVID-19 has had on our country and on our country's finances.I do want to commend the Government including our public health agencies on leading New Zealand through what has been an absolute public health crisis. New Zealanders right across the country have made sacrifices that at normal times we would never usually ask of them. They've responded and they've responded well and it's been through their hard work that we are now in a position more than most around the world to defeat COVID-19.I don't pretend that that has been easy. Those sacrifices for many have been incredibly difficult. Almost every family will have their own story and my family are no different. In the early days of level 4 measures my wife's grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and unfortunately with travel restrictions in place I wasn't able to see her before she passed away. She was a life member of the Labour Party and was known to many in this House and indeed stood twice for Parliament to be here herself. That's a story replicated across the country for many thousands of families and indeed many people in my electorate that I serve who could not be with family members in their final days or in their final hours. It's one of many heartbreaking sacrifices that Kiwis across the country made in the hope of defeating the virus and turning the corner quickly and now it is the time to do that. The time has now come when we must turn our attention from a singular focus on the public health response to one where we also look to mend a shattered economy. A thousand Kiwis every day are going on the jobseeker benefit. That hides a larger number who are unable to access benefits. The Government's own Budget projections estimate that 160000 New Zealanders will lose their jobs in the coming months. I fear that the group that will be hit hardest by that are those who are least able to afford it. Recent research out of the United States suggests that the bottom 20 percent of income earners are four times more likely to lose their jobs than those in the top 20 percent. It's for those people that we must now seek employment. The wage subsidy despite some faults did a good job in keeping people employed but it doesn't recognise the other huge costs the other huge impositions that businesses found throughout the lockdown whether they be rental costs or other significant challenges. They also now have ahead of them a subdued economic environment. Nobody suggests that every job can be saved. Nobody suggests that every job should be saved. What's needed though is a plan to grow jobs to give small businesses the engine room of the New Zealand economy the confidence to invest to grow and to take on the chance of hiring somebody new. The cost of not doing so is incredibly high: people out of work for a lengthy period which we know makes it all the more challenging to get them back into the workforce when the time is right. But on that there is nothing in this Budget. There's more spending—a lot more spending: $160 billion of new spending and new debt—but no plan for how to create jobs for those that we lost.In recent weeks we in the National Party have begun to release our economic plan. It includes JobStart an incentive for employers to take on new staff to give somebody a chance. Our plan is one that will get the economy growing sooner with jobs for those who need them one that recognises it'll be farmers and small businesses around this country in Ashburton; in Timaru; in South Canterbury Jacqui Dean; in the Waikato Tim van de Molen; in Taranaki Jonathan Young that will create the jobs that will pay the bills for the foreseeable future. Hon Scott Simpson: And Coromandel.ANDREW FALLOON: One that puts jobs—and Coromandel Scott Simpson. One that puts jobs at the centre of our recovery knowing that that is the best safety net that there can possibly be to support New Zealanders and get this country back moving again.