Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora. Well you know it is time for a change of Government when even the Government MPs are calling it 9 long years". I do not know how many times Alastair Scott in the previous contribution called it 9 long years of National. It felt like 9 years just listening to that speech. If viewers wondered why that last member kept looking up during the speech he was looking at the clock because after 9 long years there still was not anything to fill 10 minutes of a speech with. It was painful to watch him constantly looking up and seeing the clock count down.I am proud to rise and oppose strongly these bills the Appropriation (2016/17 Supplementary Estimates) Bill and the Imprest Supply (First for 2017/18) Bill. For those who mischaracterised the Green Party's position during the Budget that we were supporting the Budget you will see us in this debate voting against the Budget. We voted for the pay equity and the Working for Families threshold changes but we oppose this Budget—we oppose this Budget loudly strongly and passionately just like we oppose this National Government loudly strongly and passionately. After 9 long years the environment is still being failed by the Government our families are still being failed by this Government and our economy is still being failed by this Government.Now remember this bill we are dealing with today deals with some of the changes we have seen since the 2016 Budget. That was called by Steven Joyce the "innovation Budget". What we did not see was much real money for innovation; we simply saw money being moved around in different funding pots and given new names. We saw since then a survey come out which James Shaw has been speaking about that fewer businesses are actually undertaking research and development in New Zealand since then and we are still seeing New Zealand in the bottom half of the developed world for spending on innovation. In fact the only innovation that came out of the 2016 Budget was how successful National has been at PR gimmicks at moving money around. This is a Government that is all about the spin—it is all about the sizzle not the actual sausage. There is no actual substance within it and you see it in the other policies and the other issues.Let us take rivers: it is an absolute travesty and an indictment of policy that in two-thirds of our rivers our kids risk getting sick if they swim in them. So what did the Government do? It simply changed the definition of "swimmable" so that it looked like it was delivering swimmable rivers—an absolute sham. We can see it with the electric vehicle targets. Here it announced the policy eight different times in eight different locations announcing a target for electric vehicles that is actually less than its official do-nothing scenario. You can see it in how it kicks for touch with these targets that are literally decades in the future when none of the current Ministers are going to be held accountable because it is literally decades in the future. So climate change—reducing 50 percent by 2050. You can see it with superannuation changes; they are decades away. And you can see it with pest-free New Zealand where the target is literally so far in the future that none of them will be held responsible. This is the real innovation. We are seeing a change in how our Government is being run. It is not on substance. It is about these empty targets. It is about the PR spin. It is about these gimmicks.In the real world what we do see as a result of the Budget is that New Zealand is going from one of the most equal to one of the most unequal countries just across my lifetime. What we see is our children going hungry in New Zealand. Annually we are seeing 40000 trips being made to hospital by kids because they are sick as a result of their housing. For 60 years now we have been progressively dropping down those economic rankings and now we work some of the longest hours for some of the lowest wages and pay some of the highest costs of living in the entire developed world. For 40 years now we have imported more than we have exported so we have to sell assets to stay afloat and debt has literally gone through the roof under National.This is exactly what we saw in the recent OECD economic report that came out recently. What it said was that any short-term growth that we have seen has been driven by migration and some construction activity but over the long term it is being undermined because of our low productivity the pollution from farming and agriculture and the high and growing greenhouse gas pollution.So when you look at productivity the Budget had absolutely nothing for it. There was no additional boost in investment in R & D that is actually going to lift us out of the bottom half of the entire developed world which sees our scientists paid four times less than the OECD average. There was nothing over those 9 long years to boost our productivity as an economy and nothing substantially to move us out from the R & D bottom rank. The Green Party has proposed the idea of a Minister for manufacturing because what we have seen is some huge challenges facing that sector. Why does the Government not come up with some bold ideas like a Minister for manufacturing?The OECD also highlighted the fault of the Government through its financial and economic management of protecting the environment. It signalled this out. It is a tragedy that you cannot swim in two-thirds of our lowland lakes and streams because they are so polluted as a result of intensive agriculture. So when you look at the Budget there is a trifling amount—$1 million for a new freshwater fund. There is $80 million for investing or subsidising from the taxpayer intensive agriculture. For $1 for cleaning up rivers there is $80 for polluting them. You can see it is the same for climate change where our emissions continue to grow through the roof—our net emissions. We saw a $4 million funding increase regarding climate change but then we saw a $300 million increase for subsidising polluters under our emissions trading scheme.Just stop and think for a sec: $4 million for tackling climate change but 10 times that amount just in taxpayer subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. There is $4 million for protecting the climate and 10 times that for increasing pollution. You can see it—$4 million in terms of action for climate change and nearly $10 billion over 4 years for spending on new roads and motorways which are simply going to increase pollution.So what you see under National after those 9 long years is a continual failure for our environment failure for our families an increase in poverty an increase in homeless and in fact our economy is worse as a result in real terms. But that is why I say it is a real chance for change in a few months' time. Our vision is a New Zealand where you can swim in our pristine rivers and lakes and you are not going to get sick where you can explore our beautiful environment that every New Zealander loves—and it defines us in the world; our relationship with nature—and where you can still see some of our endangered species in the wild. It is a New Zealand where we say no to poverty. Too many people are in work in study or on a benefit but are in abject poverty. We can commit to an end to poverty.We can commit to a goal of the right of every New Zealander to have a house—and not only that a warm dry house that is not going to make you sick—a New Zealand where you can live in more livable cities that are pollution free where you have got fantastic public transport choices to get around faster and cheaper; and a New Zealand with 100 percent clean energy that is pulling its weight on the world stage. This is the vision of an alternate New Zealand which you could see with the Green Party because it is the exact contrast of what we see after 9 long years of National. But the good thing is that after 9 long years change is coming."