Genter Julie AnneJULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): New Zealanders care deeply about fairness. That is obvious. They do not want to live in a country where there are record levels of homelessness and child poverty. New Zealanders care deeply about protecting our natural environment. They hate to see what has happened to our rivers over the past few decades. They want to take action on climate change. They want us to be investing in a clean green economy and infrastructure that is going to reduce our carbon pollution and reduce our dependency on foreign oil. That is obvious in how this National Government has changed its rhetoric.Now sadly it is not doing anything to actually fulfil the aspirations of New Zealanders to live in a fair society where we look after our environment. Oh no National is the master of spin and this Budget is evidence of that. There is no real action that is going to tackle our housing crisis in this Budget. There is no real action that is going to lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty. There is no action whatsoever on cleaning up our rivers or investing in the infrastructure we need to make it easier to get around our towns and cities without relying on a car. There is no real action to make it easier for households and businesses to buy an electric vehicle.This Government is treading water and it does just enough to keep people's heads just above the water—just enough tinkering to make it seem like they are doing something. Now I am heartened by the fact that New Zealanders care about fairness and the environment and I came to Parliament along with my colleagues in the Green Party to make good on our promise to deliver that for New Zealanders. We can do that. But the National Government in this Budget has continued its unfortunate habit of prioritising spin over substance so we see it announcing policies that might maybe come into force in 30 or 40 years' time—you know like Aucklanders will get that rail link to the airport 30 years from now. Maybe we will start dealing with climate change in 2050 when it is a bit too late. Rather than actually making our rivers swimmable the National Government is going to change the definition of swimmable so it means you are more likely to get sick when you go for a swim in our rivers. Rather than actually reducing rheumatic fever and meeting the Better Public Services target that it set 5 or 6 years ago it has completely dropped the target to reduce rheumatic fever in this Budget and it has slashed the spending on it. That is because it was unwilling to take on the changes that need to happen to truly deal with the housing crisis. Well the Green Party knows how to do that and if this were our Budget we would be doing a lot more for families and a lot more for housing.The Government has failed to implement an actual capital gains tax that would have made the tax system fairer and helped to reduce house-price inflation in Auckland. It has failed to bring in a reasonable standard for rental properties and protection for tenants. It has failed to deal with the fact that foreign capital is driving up house prices in Auckland and like many other countries in the world we could have said that if one is going to buy a property in New Zealand they must be a citizen or a resident.The Government has failed above all to build houses. So when this Government gets up and talks about more houses being built it is talking about there being consents—there are homes being built but not at the rate that we need them to be to meet our record population growth. The only way to deal with that is to have a Government that is committed to increasing the supply of actual communities not just big McMansions on the fringe of Auckland that are not really going to help anyone but the developers who make big profits off them. No we need our Government to be leading on building affordable housing building more State houses and building the types of homes and communities with schools and parks and shops and all of the things that people need to live a good life. We could be doing that. That is what the Green Party will do when we are in Government.This Government—the Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman—has made the point that we are spending more on health than ever before. Well it is about time that we increased funding to a point where we are actually going to be able to deliver the services that people need. What I have found talking to people in the health sector is that things are at a breaking point and the increase in this Budget is not enough to deliver the services that people need. It is not enough to keep up with record population growth. It is not enough to keep up with the increasing demand out there in the community because we have an ageing population. We have an increase—a structural increase—in the need for mental health services and this Budget does not do enough to help people who are in dire need. We have incredibly long waiting lists. We have a shortage of beds for acute care. Even worse than that we have a lack of services out there in the community that would prevent people from getting to the state where they need that acute care in the hospitals.What we need more than anything is not more spin from this National Government. We need a change in Government so that we can start actually tackling these problems and we have every opportunity to actually resolve them. We are on the cusp of a paradigm shift globally about how we look at the economy.I heard previously Minister Nick Smith speaking and rattling off statistics about economic growth and how great our growth rate is. Well Minister how can our economy be delivering for New Zealanders when we have record levels of homelessness—Hon Dr Nick Smith: We don't.JULIE ANNE GENTER: —record levels of child poverty record levels of pollution in our rivers record levels of carbon emissions—and they are just going to keep increasing as long as this National Government is in power—and we have record house price to income ratios. The Minister says Oh we don't. That's not true." Well that just demonstrates how out of touch this National Government is. He thinks we do not have record levels of homelessness. He thinks there is no housing crisis. Ladies and gentlemen this is your National Government—out of touch and out of time. It has not done enough and we can do better. We know—we know—that investments in clean infrastructure will not only reduce our carbon emissions they will make life better for people on the ground. Ultimately that is what the economy is for. It is not some fancy machine; it is just a word for how we spend our time and how we allocate our resources. Unless we are allocating our resources in a fair way—in a way that means that every child in New Zealand has a warm dry secure place to call home that they have the opportunity to get an education that allows them to get ahead in life that they have the opportunity to walk and cycle safely to school and to grow up in a New Zealand where they can swim in our rivers without fear of getting sick and that they have an opportunity for meaningful work that makes this place a little bit better—then the economy is not serving us. And it is really not serving us right now. The reason it is not serving us on a global scale is that the people who have the most—the most wealth and the most power—are influencing politicians to make sure that they can get even more. Jonathan Young: You're in the top 3 percent.JULIE ANNE GENTER: And it is time for those of us who have the most to say that we want to give more back that we have got enough and that we want to make sure that the most vulnerable in our community have the opportunities that they need.We want to make sure that families who go out there and work 40 or more hours a week are not struggling to make ends meet that they have a place to call home and that their kids can get the health services and perhaps the mental health services that they need. We have this opportunity and I believe the Green Party understands better than any party in this Parliament just how much things are about to change in this world. We have the opportunity to respond to climate change and to create an economy that is working for people and for the planet and we can do this only if we work together. All of us need to start working together. The No. 1 priority I think for this Green Party is to improve our democracy. It is to improve the ability of ordinary people out there on the street to feel like they have a stake in this society that they have a voice in this House and that they have the ability to influence policy in a way that is going to benefit the greatest number—not just the wealthiest not just the most powerful. But an election is coming. An election is coming and New Zealanders will have the opportunity to get involved and elect a Government that will actually deliver on their values of fairness and protecting the environment."