Leavasa Anae NeruDr ANAE NERU LEAVASA (Labour—Takanini): Fa'afetai lava lau afioga le Fofoga Fetalai. It is a pleasure to rise as the MP for Takanini to speak on this Budget as it shows the support for my community and also the communities around Aotearoa Niu Sila.This Budget as reiterated by my colleagues focuses on four themes and that's supporting our Kiwis our whānau our aiga with the cost of living. It also delivers the services within New Zealand that we rely on heavily throughout. It also focuses on whānau and communities that have been hit hard by the cyclone and the environmental changes here. It also focuses on whānau and communities that have been hit hard by the cyclone and the environmental changes here. And it also looks at fiscal sustainability. I give it up to Minister Grant Robertson: it was a hard task to do and he has brought a balance to it in order to support our whānau in the here and now while also building for tomorrow by not putting the pressure on inflation that many of our whānau are facing.I want to comment on the busyness of last week when we went as a Pacific caucus—and many of our colleagues around Aotearoa went around with their roadshows—to show the Budget and also to get the feedback from our communities. We started off in Porirua where Minister Barbara Edmonds the MP for Mana was. I just want to acknowledge the EFKS church that hosted us there. Christchurch was our next stop and we went to St Paul's Trinity Pacific Presbyterian Church where we met up with our community. One of the big things was like many of our colleagues have mentioned the $5 prescription fee. I just want to acknowledge the University of Otago. In 2015 there were a couple of studies that showed that we needed to make a policy of removing the $5 prescription fee. In February of this year the University of Otago did another study where Professor Norris mentioned in one of the articles that we need to make sure we remove this in order to support our whānau to have access to medicines in order to get better health outcomes especially for our vulnerable communities.I know that Minister Ayesha Verrall has mentioned as a doctor herself—and I myself have been a GP in the community—that it is a huge thing to help our community remove this barrier. Many of our patients that come through will say Look can I delay my antibiotics prescription till Thursday when I get paid?" or "Is there any medicine in the clinic that I can have access to?" It's such a vulnerable position for our communities to have and to be frank we do go into the cupboard—obviously we record everything—to make sure that our patients are getting the right medicines at the right time. I know our local pharmacists who say "Look we're getting a build-up of medicines in the back corner. Is there anything else that we can do?" So it is a huge thing for us to remove the $5 prescription fee even though the Opposition will say "Oh it's just a cup of coffee. It's nothing. I want to pay for my medicines." They neglect the fact that there are thousands of people that need this barrier removed in order to get better health outcomes for our people.I want to mention the different areas that we went to across the motu ensuring the Budget. Ōtaki—thank you to the member Terisa Ngobi for hosting us there at the Levin Memorial Hall. We came to my own electorate of Takanini and some of the organisations that came through were organisations that will benefit greatly with the Budget as mentioned. Our local early childhood education centre came through and said their feedback on the extension of the 20 hours' free for two-year-olds—that being extended. In my community of Takanini almost two-thirds are under 35 years old: young families young kids who are either at home or at day care. So this extension to the two-year-olds will have a great benefit for our people. It will make mum or dad be able to go work or do the things that they need to do to serve in the community. I want to mention our New Zealand Sikh Women's Association which did come as well; our Takanini rest homes; our R and R groups that came to discuss the Budget. All these things all these organisations—I want to say a huge thank you to them.One of the things I did last week was get my booster: my COVID vaccine in one arm; my flu vaccine in the other arm. And I also got to speak with the local pharmacist at Unichem at Gateway Shopping Centre and he obviously said like many of our colleagues said about the local pharmacists it is a huge thing for them—not only on the one side to support the patients that come through and have access to better medicines but also on the other hand to support local businesses as well. So I give it up to all our local pharmacists. We do have to work together and they do a great job in supporting our community and this policy will make a huge difference for Takanini and for all the electorates across the motu as well. I commend this Budget to the House. Fa'afetai tele lava."