Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. I'll start by talking about what was good about this Budget and it was actually quite significant—it was our first real climate Budget. After decades of the Green Party campaigning for action on climate change and proposing practical solutions for climate change we finally have Government taking climate very seriously. I am proud of the work that my colleagues co-leaders of the Green Party have done as Ministers in this Government despite the fact they're outside Cabinet despite the fact that it's a Labour majority Government. They have been in there fighting their hardest for meaningful action on the single greatest issue of our time and the single most important thing that we need to respond to. You know $2.9 billion made great strides and I just want to be totally honest: what the Government is doing on climate change right now is not enough. It is not even close to what we need to do to address the climate crisis.It's not just the climate crisis. We have a biodiversity crisis. And quite intertwined with that we have an inequality crisis. To be honest the Labour majority Government is just tinkering; they're not doing anything remotely like transformation. In part it's just evident from the debate that we're having here in this House today it's a debate about the wrong issues in many ways about the wrong solutions. We're still having the debate that started in the framing of the 1980s. We had Hon David Parker—who I really admire and I think he works very hard—he was extolling the virtues of the 1984 Labour Government who unfortunately started us down this track of a Government approach that was actually undermining Government and undermining our collective public assets. Of course it got much much worse in 1991—don't get me wrong the National Government in the 1990s definitely made it much worse.But here we are we're still debating we still have Labour saying Don't worry don't worry we're not spending any money. Debt is really low. We've got less debt than all these other countries in the rest of the world. And don't worry we're not spending too much money. And growth is back growth is up." And of course the National Party's scaremongering saying "Oh this Government's so terrible." Now they got a few things right: there is a problem with delivery and public services could be much better. But they haven't got a single realistic solution to that problem because all of the policies the National Party are promising will actively make those issues work. Indeed the fact that the Labour Government is so concerned about being attacked over Government spending debt and wanting to prove GDP is up rather than measuring what really matters rather than investing in the things that we need to invest in to address the inequality crisis to help us transform our society and our economy so we can live in harmony with nature so we can have a stable climate for our children—because right now our children need us to be responsible.We are already seeing the impacts of the climate crisis. I mean this year the extreme weather events around the world—the floods the droughts—it's only 2022. We haven't even hit 1.5 degrees increase in warming and we're on track for way more than that. There will be some in this House who will say "Oh why should we do our part? We shouldn't do anything. Little New Zealand—we're just a small number of people we don't need to do anything." That's what they'll say. "Oh it's the big polluters: it's the United States and it's China." And they're right. But on a per capita basis we are one of the worst. I would never imagine them arguing we couldn't be the world champions in rugby because we're a small country or that we couldn't have the first person to summit Mount Everest. That's the true Kiwi spirit. We care about our planet we care about our people and we want to pull our weight in the world against this fight. This fight for life—we want to be on the right side for our children and grandchildren.Now the biggest barrier—like we can have this we can have a New Zealand where children are not in poverty and where everyone has a secure dry warm home. We can have that. And we can have communities where people are able to access everything they need to access to have that green open space; schools in walking distance; kids able to walk and cycle to school; and frequent clean electric buses and trains available to people. All of that is entirely possible and there are huge huge advantages to quality of life from embracing this different approach. But the true barrier to us achieving this is vested interests who have profited and continue to profit from the status quo all right. And those vested interests are driving the political debate to try and limit what Government can do with its Budget right. And that's why we hear about the limited debt and you know "We're not spending too much" "You're spending too much"—all of this debate is set up to undermine people's faith in us together as a people to work together to deliver the outcomes that we need.They're doing that—they're diving and conquering—because they're saying "Oh if you're struggling if you're struggling out there blame the poor people. It's the beneficiaries." We're going to hear this again from the National and the ACT parties in this debate. "It's the people on the jobseeker's benefit—they're the problem. They're the real problem that the middle class should be worried about." All while they argue against any policy that would dare touch the wealthy elite who are passing down their wealth through hereditary policies—we're right back to the aristocracy. But "It's just the market." The market has decided who's best rather than the divine right of kings. It's the market and the banks and "We're going to ensure that that those people never have to contribute to the collective that they continue to own their many many many homes." And you know God forbid they should pay some fair share of capital—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ms Genter we've got three minutes to go now so I've tried to encourage you just to—it is a wide-ranging debate but at some stage could we just talk about the Budget.Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: —gains tax. Yes. Yes. Mr Speaker I am referring to matters that have been debated and will continue to be debated by other parties in this House today but we need to put it in the context so people can understand. Yes we can work together to solve our collective challenges. We can do that with a fairer tax system—something that was missing in this Budget sadly—one where those who own property that's worth lots of money actually pay their fair share of the income they get from that property.But the companies who are massively benefiting from the current COVID environment—so we had the Government paying Government support to companies. And yes we do see inflation and high prices. At the same time we see a number of companies posting record profits in certain areas where we do not and never will have proper competition. Supermarkets the energy companies the petrol companies the banks—they're all making enormous profits. So it's not those on the jobseeker benefit that are preventing the Government from delivering great services and addressing the housing crisis it is those entrenched vested interests that are represented by the National Party. They will continue to defend those interests. They will claim that to increase public spending and investment in the things we care about like health education sustainable infrastructure—the type of infrastructure that will enable us to address the climate crisis protect biodiversity and address inequality because all of these things are interrelated.We can have liveable incomes for everyone in New Zealand. We can have healthy warm housing. But we're not going to get it through the economic settings in this Budget and we're definitely not going to get it from the National and ACT Parties because they're all about protecting that wealthy entrenched elite. So as long as the debate continues to be about "Oh no no no no. We're not going to spend money; we're going to limit Government debt. But we are going to spend money on climate and try to address our housing crisis without fundamentally changing the settings" like through a capital gains tax or through a wealth tax which would make the tax system fairer which would help address both the demand side and the supply side of our housing crisis. If we don't get proper investment in transport infrastructure that's going to enable people and goods to move around with less carbon and with less cost with less energy then we won't be able to address this crisis.So the Green Party stands here as the only party that is going to address the things that matter most to New Zealanders: our environment our children and our future."