Dowie SarahSARAH DOWIE (National—Invercargill): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Well it may be surprising that for me as an Opposition MP I am delighted to take a call on this Budget because it is a pedestrian Budget and I would like to have my right of reply to this ho-hum very underwhelming piece of—this document that does absolutely nothing for New Zealand. In fact I would actually go as far as to say that a leopard certainly doesn't change its spots.I used to think that that saying was quite harsh back in the day when I was younger and a little bit more liberal. Obviously I've got much more conservative since then. But a leopard doesn't change its spots certainly with respect to Labour. They've borrowed more—a broken promise. In election 2017 they said that they would pay down debt and yet they're borrowing more. In election 2017 they said No new taxes." but what are they doing? Taxing and of course spending—spending more but interestingly not in the areas that you would have traditionally thought that this Labour Government would spend in. I think it's because when you look across at the Government these three parties that call themselves a coalition Government—this three-headed monster these uneasy bedmates—you've got the Greens on one side living in this type of utopia on clouds and riding unicorns and then New Zealand First that think they're some sort of champion of regional New Zealand. All we've seen is an assault on regional New Zealand—I'll get to that later—and then Labour is wrangling in the middle to try and keep everybody under control. This horse-trading event of a Government—literally because we know who's been the winner out of the horse-trading—to get their hobby horses their individual hobby horse projects across the line. Again I say we all know who won that.So it's been an uneasy time for the Prime Minister of late. In fact we all know who the winner is: the Rt Hon Winston Peters. When you look across the spectrum of all of the broken promises—the promises that came out of each of these parties during election 2017—there is only one winner and that is the Rt Hon Winston Peters. He's very very high maintenance.I would say as the Opposition spokesperson for conservation it's diplomats over dolphins—it's diplomats over dolphins. You don't want to be a dolphin swimming around the New Zealand waters; you want to be a diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. You want to be jet-setting off to Stockholm to pick the curtains and the carpets for the new chateau. How is that necessarily going to benefit New Zealanders moving forward?But let's talk about the Greens and their failed advocacy with respect to their vision of a green utopia. Well it's been underwhelming—absolutely underwhelming. Look at their first pre-Budget announcement of $80 million over four years for pest control. Well yes absolutely I support pest control. We were the visionaries behind Predator Free 2050. But when you actually look at how the $80 million is going to be spent over the four years and you look at the Department of Conservation's (DOC's) projections in the first year DOC will be an estimated spend of $4.4 million. Well in Battle for our Birds the National-led Government committed $21 million. So the rats possums and stoats can thank the Rt Hon Winston Peters. They're going to have a reprieve next year because diplomats will be jet-setting off to Stockholm to pick the curtains and the carpet for their new chateau. So it's been underwhelming for the Greens. They campaigned heavily on water quality. Where are the announcements with respect to water quality? They're not there.Hon Member: Oh they're not there?SARAH DOWIE: No they're not there and it's been completely underwhelming with regards to the environment.I also want to talk about this further investment in the Department of Conservation from the Greens announced by the Minister Eugenie Sage—an extra $1 million into policy. So we've had the Director-General come out at select committee and say that he's going to be doubling the amount of policy officials in Wellington. Well what I would say to that is what skills do those policy people have in killing rats stoats and possums? Not much I would say. So where is this Government taking conservation? Where is this Green utopia? They may be spending more in policy but what results is that going to bring on the ground?I want to talk about New Zealand First and how they say that they're the champions of regional New Zealand.Mark Patterson: And we are.SARAH DOWIE: And yes again—winners. They have this grandiose slush fund of $1 billion per annum for regional development yet we're waiting to find out what the criteria is to actually get something—a project—across the line or granted. How is that party a champion of the regions when they've allowed places like Southland to languish? We under our Government had an initiative called the Southland Regional Development Strategy and Mr Patterson knows much about this. It is languishing. We started off giving it $2.4 million in seed money and where is the money now? Show me the money Mr Patterson—$200000 for some obscure feasibility study from the slush fund that had no bearing on the Southland regional strategy so far.Mark Patterson: Well that'll be up to them. They're bringing it forward.SARAH DOWIE: So where is it? Where's the money? Get advocating.Mark Patterson: They're bringing it forward not us. They're bringing it to us.SARAH DOWIE: Get advocating Mr Patterson. You're very very ineffectual. I want to see some money down in my region and I want to see and understand what the criteria is for that fund because Southlanders have been abandoned.Not only that they've been abandoned with regards to the new taxes. Yes that's right—tax and spend. We're already witnessing escalating fuel prices and despite the escalating fuel prices this Government will not relent. It is bringing two new taxes to the fore: an excise tax upping that and then a regional fuel tax. So an extra 25c per litre on the price tag: $15 as you fill up at the pump per person. That is absolutely ridiculous and we've already seen the spread across the regions—that regional New Zealand is picking up the tab for the rest of the country. It's not good enough and we are not serfs on our land.As for a Government that says that it cares about people where's the investment into the Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa? Our farmers need some help at the moment. They live in the most isolated of places and they're experiencing some serious stress with regard to biosecurity issues. We've already heard from our colleague the Hon Nathan Guy talking about a flat-line investment in the primary industries and very much a lack of attention in biosecurity. Where is the investment into Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa? That's 600000 New Zealanders that will no longer have support as they're facing or watching their cows being culled as they're watching the Ministry for Primary Industries come in and ruin their life's work because of an incursion that we still don't know whether it's going to be eradicated or if we're managing it.Mark Patterson: Why don't you know? It was under your watch.SARAH DOWIE: So come on Mr Patterson. Stand up for your community. You're a list MP for New Zealand First. You're supposed to be the champion of the regions and yet where have you been? Where have you been Mr Patterson?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! Can we be careful with the use of the personal pronoun "you" so as to avoid bringing the Speaker into the debate.SARAH DOWIE: My apologies Mr Assistant Speaker. So—Hon Clare Curran: Careful with the facts too.SARAH DOWIE: Well it is the facts. This is the facts. This is a pedestrian Budget that has really not hit the mark.Let's talk about health will we? I come from a region where we have a commissioner team in place at our district health board (DHB). Where is the extra attention to help get Southern DHB back on its feet and this broken promise of universal cheap doctors visits for our people? Not in there. Where did that go—where did that go?Hon Clare Curran: How did it get in deficit? Under whose watch?SARAH DOWIE: And the other thing too Ms Curran: where's Dunedin Hospital? Rural Southlanders actually rely on Dunedin Hospital for a range of different services but where's the new hospital Ms Curran? Where's the new hospital? There are a whole lot of promises made by this coalition three-headed monster and yet none of it's being delivered and it's because this is solely a horse-trading event—a horse-trading event—with no clear priorities and no understanding of what levers they're pulling in their policies and what ramifications they will have on New Zealand. What you see now is business confidence dropping people not investing and people not taking on extra people with regards to jobs and soon New Zealand will be at a standstill because there is no confidence in this three-headed monster Government."