Allan Kiritapu; O'Connor GregHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): I rise as a proud rural member of this House and spend a lot of time with my constituents up and down very small rural regional communities. The things that those rural and regional folk whether they are farmers horticulturalists whether they are trying to break bread in the forestry industry or cafes whatever it is the sense that I get is that what they want and what they have been asking for for many years is a Government that shows up is a Government that listens and is a Government that responds. Alongside my colleagues over the last 10 or so days we have literally been going into small communities—whether that's the Moerewas whether that's Whangāreis whether it's Ruatōria Te Araroa Potaka. We've been going into those communities to break down what the Budget means for them.I've got to acknowledge my colleague the Hon Grant Robertson. This is the fifth Budget—the fifth Wellbeing Budget—that he has delivered in this House. It was a very simple message that he gave to New Zealanders on the assertion of our colleague the Rt Hon Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. The instruction was clear: everything that we have to do in the current economic environment that we are in it must be focused on the bread and butter issues. There are four things that Norman Kirk said and I think that this is why I believe this Budget is the perfect Budget that has been delivered for the times that we're in: somewhere to live food to eat clothing to wear something to hope for. Somewhere to live: this is one of the largest most significant investments in our Budget. It literally was about education health and housing. Of all the parts of that Budget that I look to two things in particular stuck out for me. It's that recommitment to social housing. That's something that we as a Government have been dedicated to during the time that we have been in—3000 more public homes. I saw that the coalition of cuts" they also released some sentiments around housing and housing policy last week. I eagerly looked through the eight pages of their policy document. The thing that struck me which goes to the core of the difference of beliefs between that side of the House and this side of the House: they needed to find some money and the question that we always ask on this side of the House is "Well where are you going to get the money from when you propose new policy?" Well it shouldn't surprise any of us but guess where it was. It was in their social housing plan. It was to cut the funding that goes into social housing. It was to cut the funding that goes into Kāinga Ora. So there was something funny that happened during the Budget last week or the week prior when the Government announced some of our core platform things that literally target those families that are finding it the toughest right now. When we made the announcement—in particular the scrapping of those co-payments those five bucks on the prescriptions the mask slipped down a little bit from the veneer of the deputy leader on that side of the House. The mask slipped down and she said "We'll scrap that co-payment." Last year 130000 prescriptions weren't picked up—130000 people did not get the medications that they needed that their doctors said that they needed putting ultimately more pressure on a healthcare system because they simply couldn't afford it.When that scheme first came in it was three bucks; it was put up to five bucks. You know we all would have whether it was on that side of the House or this side of the House we were absolutely full to the brim with correspondence about that. There was a couple of particular types of feedback that I recall—and I might not get it absolutely right. One young woman she said "Look if you don't know what it's like to have to transfer $1.28 out of one account and three bucks out of another account to have to go into that pharmacy and buy your prescriptions please don't come at me." There was another woman that made some interesting reflections. She was a doctor. She said "Look we as young doctors used to work in the hospital system and couldn't understand that when we'd prescribe medications to people that their ailments would continue to accumulate and that they'd end up in the hospital system worse than ever." Her proclamation was that that simple act of scrapping that $5 payment would be absolutely lifesaving. It would have an absolute immediate impact on the healthcare system and indeed the profession. So I want to acknowledge my colleague Dr Ayesha Verrall and of course with the backing of our finance Minister for something so small so targeted that helps ordinary New Zealanders.The extension of the 20 hours early childhood education: up and down my electorate what I was hearing from our constituents is what that means for a whole heap of—not just mums—mums and dads who are trying to raise their kids trying to juggle a bit of this and a bit of that to educate their children but also work part time to pay the bills. I literally had one mum up the coast she had a big tangi about what that would mean for her as that meant that she could go about her business and could continue her work. It's a little thing but it is the little things that for most of us on this side of the House—which is why we got into politics to be champions for those that didn't necessarily have a voice. Because some people when they let their mask slip down they let the rest of New Zealand know that their core motivations and drivers for being in politics are to consolidate wealth consolidate power amongst a handful of a small few when this side of the House always has been and always will be committed to ensuring equitable distributions amongst those that need it most.I had the privilege of—I don't know if it was a privilege—being stuck in a van with Willie Jackson. But anyway I had the privilege of going on a bit of a road trip with some of my colleagues: the Hon Willie Jackson Peeni Henare Kelvin Davis Willow-Jean Prime Nanaia Mahuta. Off we go in a van so that we could go to those communities that often don't have their Cabinet Ministers showing up in force but to say "We're here for you. We see you. Indeed we have developed a Budget that has been designed for you." We were very proud as a Māori ministerial group to be able to go and share some of the things that really impact the lives of many Māori. That was upping the Budget with respect to Whānau Ora. It was investment in housing. But a little star of the show—I don't know what Tāmati is going to say being a proud lad from Te Arawa but I can say as a member of Parliament for Te Tairāwhiti that has the best kapa haka in the country on our backyard the $34 million investment for Te Matatini was absolutely so well received. We will see that that's all about ora—wellbeing. It's all about every aspect of what is good within our communities—communities coming together to create to feast on mātauranga Māori feast on our tikanga and to grow that within those homes. That was a big highlight for many of us on that tour.But look putting on my other hat now as the Minister responsible for cyclone recovery I also want to acknowledge the depth and breadth of the hardship that's been felt—real pain within my backyard. Now whilst we had old mate Simeon Brown who barely makes a misstep or kua pīkarikari hunahuna as my colleague the Hon Michael Wood said earlier—whilst he was in my electorate talking about bilingual signs we were in my electorate talking and working alongside agencies looking at some of the broken infrastructure as a consequence of Cyclone Gabrielle. I've got to acknowledge my colleagues—on top of the $890 million that's been invested into that cyclone recovery there was an additional almost a billion dollars through the Budget that was set aside but particularly for me it was the $275 million for regional roading for immediate recovery. Now for those people up in Potaka or those people up in Te Araroa suffering from literally broken infrastructure that was put in in the 1950s that type of announcement will be immeasurable. Support for today building for tomorrow—the "coalitions of cuts" will not deliver for New Zealand but I'm proud of our side of this House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Split call—the Hon David Parker."