Wedd CatherineCATHERINE WEDD (National—Tukituki): I rise with great pleasure to speak about our Budget 2024. We're having a few recess weeks out in my electorate of Tukituki; it's been great to get out and understand our people and our businesses and all the amazing things that are going on in Hawke's Bay. I visited the new $100 million T&G packhouse where we're seeing world-class full automation AI just incredible; Silver Fern Farms one of our biggest employers in Hawke's Bay; and then The Apple Press and Boring Oat Milk innovation in fast-moving consumer goods; Ovation the meat-processing plant there; and Topline Contracting with the Minister actually over here and it was just fantastic because this is a business which is doing amazing things to lift people out of welfare and into work into employment and that's what we're wanting to encourage. These are just a few businesses in my Tukituki electorate that I visited over the last couple of weeks. They're employing amazing teams of people and providing hundreds of jobs and opportunities and driving productivity in this country. Speaking of driving productivity I've just been at the Red Meat Sector Conference this evening where they are driving a lot of productivity and doing amazing things our primary industries here in New Zealand. But of course these businesses and these industries are doing it really really tough at the moment with high interest rates and high costs as the Minister has already alluded to this evening. But relief is on its way in this 2024 Budget. Next week 83 percent of hard-working New Zealanders will receive tax relief for the first time in 14 years. Our Government is laser-focused on strengthening the economy and getting more value out of the money we spend.We're already starting to see some positive news: 3.3 percent inflation this is the lowest inflation we've seen in the last few years and this is promising news for people who are struggling with their mortgage struggling to pay those grocery bills struggling to pay those electricity bills. Interest rates are forecast to come down and that is a result of the work that this Government is doing to get on top of spending and get on top of inflation.We are stopping the wasteful spending; saving and putting money back into the pockets of hard-working New Zealanders. This Budget is about putting things into what matters and that is on the front line in our hospitals in our classrooms and seeing more police on the beat.In these past few weeks I've also been visiting some early childhood centres—the BestStart centre in Hastings. Our FamilyBoost tax rebate of up to $150 a fortnight has been incredibly well received by parents and early childhood teachers because early childhood is very very expensive and it's really taking its toll on a lot of hard-working families out there. So this is a great initiative in our Budget 2024.I'm also really excited in this Budget about our commitment to infrastructure—$68 billion in infrastructure over the next five years to fix the infrastructure deficit in this country. Getting things built. Actually investing in roading; 17 roads of national significance have been committed to by our Government and a four-lane expressway for Hawke's Bay is one of those roads of national significance. Building roads and infrastructure is what drives productivity and efficiency and it gets us around a lot safer and more efficiently. The logging trucks; getting our produce to the port faster; our apples our meat our produce off to the markets faster—with better State highways we can reduce congestion and ensure that people can get to work faster and again drive more productivity and strengthen this economy.But we also need to maintain our roads. This Budget sees a significant investment in maintaining our roads and improving our pesky potholes which I know on that side of the House they've mentioned quite a few times in this debate but during the campaign last year it was one of the number one issues in Hawke's Bay that people actually cared about—they cared about these massive potholes on the roads. After having years and years of not maintaining our roads people across Hawke's Bay were sick of the potholes and they were also sick of the road cones. We are reducing the number of unnecessary road cones which are costing the taxpayers and just epitomises the wasteful spending by the previous Government over the last six years. During the campaign I had truck drivers and motorists who would actually send me pictures and videos of road cones lined up for kilometres and kilometres on the road with nothing actually happening. They just couldn't believe that there was so much money being spent on unnecessary road cones. Well on this side of the House the madness is about to end. We are putting some practical sense back into traffic management and general road maintenance. Away with the wasteful ideological projects like Auckland light rail and cycleways across the harbour bridge; it's time to get real and invest in what really makes a difference and that is good roads and good infrastructure in this country.Housing is another area where we're making a big investment so we can build more warm healthy homes for families and more affordable homes to rent and buy. Rents went up $180 per week in the previous Government. Too much red tape. Things just taking too long to consent and build. Just yesterday actually I was at the Havelock North new opening of their very large supermarket there. An incredible incredible building but wow it has taken some time to build. It has taken some time to get the consents and actually get the development under way. We need to build things faster and get things done and that's why our fast-track bill and the amendments to the Resource Management Act are going to make a huge difference to New Zealand.Rural New Zealand has been hurting. This Budget is about investing in our primary industries to drive more productivity so we can afford the public services that we so desperately need.Education is another area I'm certainly really passionate about with four children. Yesterday I dropped the kids back at school. They had been staying with their grandparents up at the farm in Taumarunui. Their nanna does a lot of reading with them during the school holidays. She really enjoys reading with them. Anyway when she dropped them off she said Wow I just can't believe how your six-year-old has really improved with his reading." I said "It is structured literacy. It's really making a difference because the kids are sounding out the words their faces are lighting up and they can actually read." That is why it is so good to see $57 million in this Budget to roll out structured literacy across all of our schools across New Zealand because that is what's going to lift performance in education.Just the other week I was out with one of our rural country schools actually Kererū School—a lovely school and the teachers are doing an amazing job there—and they are big fans of structured literacy because they say that structured literacy really makes a difference with our kids in terms of the sounds and the phonics and actually getting them reading. That's what we as a Government are doing. We are making sure we're getting back to basics in the classroom with an hour of reading writing and maths each day because that is what is going to make a difference for the future of our children and the future of this country.Law and order is another one that I'm just going to quickly touch on before I conclude. During the campaign I visited a lot of stores that had been ram raided. People in Hawke's Bay were feeling scared. They were fed up with the rising crime. In Hawke's Bay we actually have one of the largest gang populations in this country. The crime and the intimidation that we are seeing is unacceptable. So seeing this Government make a real commitment to restoring law and order in this country is so important; ensuring that we have safer communities for our families and for our children. So we've made a big investment—$1.94 billion in the Budget—into front-line Corrections more support for offenders to turn their lives around as well and more rehabilitation. That's what we need to encourage.So two-thirds of this Budget is going towards health education and law and order. It's going into the front line not the back office; the front line where it really matters. We are being fiscally responsible and we are restoring care and discipline and fiscal management."