Patterson Mark; Williams PotoMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I'd just like to start by congratulating Grant Robertson on bringing down an outstanding Budget document. I am proud to be part of a team that has pulled this together—this Labour - New Zealand First coalition Government with a little help from our friends down at the Greens.I note the Minister has a similar Scottish Presbyterian southern heritage to myself as does David Clark and Shane Jones of course is the other Associate Minister—probably slightly more flamboyant than we are—but you can see those values come through in this Budget. This is a Budget with a heart and it seeks to address a lot of social inequity that has been building up—major spending in health housing and education—but it's also a prudent Budget a balanced Budget and in keeping with those stoic southern prudent values keeping Budget spending to 28 percent of GDP. That was actually lower than the previous Government.So that's the reason why the Opposition has been taking air swings at this Budget because there's just nothing there to swing at. The old tax and spend" clichés the "broken promises" clichés—they're all empty statements especially in light of the glowing endorsements from the likes of Business New Zealand and Export New Zealand.There is one thing the Opposition were right on—there is one thing they were right on: this has been a good Budget for New Zealand First. We have delivered some really sound sensible far-reaching policies—Hon Member: Not for New Zealanders.MARK PATTERSON: —for New Zealanders—absolutely for New Zealanders—and I will start with our flagship $1 billion Provincial Growth Fund. I note Ms Dowie was mocking that but this is the first time—and Minister Robertson mentioned it in his Budget address: that this in our lifetime is the biggest injection of funding into provincial New Zealand.In reply to Ms Dowie the mayors are lining up all up and down the country. They have got a backlog of infrastructure that for the first time they have got a hope of getting over the line for their communities because there is some funding allocated. It hasn't all been delivered yet; that is because there is a prudent process to go through.This is also a nation-building project. The 1 billion trees—this is us taking responsibility for our international commitments not buying shonky offshore carbon credits. The return of the Forestry Service to Rotorua back to the regions and the 1800 extra police—and just the other day there's a policeman now in Clinton for the first time in a decade. So the drugs that go on there the delinquent crime and the stock rustling—there is now someone there and that is part of what we will see rolled out with this $300 million boost to the police force in our rural communities.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT)—again another spend that the Opposition have picked up on. What they don't understand within this is the trade element as well. It's not only just keeping our international obligations and being a good international citizen but there's the trade thing and wasn't it great news today to hear Minister Parker and Prime Minister Ardern announce the beginning of our EU free-trade negotiation? We will now have the capacity to carry that out. As Minister Woods said the Achilles heel of this economy and the reason when I look out my window in Bowen House that I see unprocessed raw logs heading off to Asia is that we have not spent on R & D—the 1.3 percent compared to the 2.6 percent OECD average. And it's worse than that because the public sector spend is actually pretty competitive with the OECD average. It's the private sector that is languishing well behind at only 40 percent of the spend of other international corporates. So we are lagging well behind.This Budget will unleash innovation and development. It will be businesses not bureaucrats deciding where the corporate R & D is spent. They will not have to come to Wellington and beg to Callaghan Innovation or the Primary Growth Partnership and it won't be political connections that get you that R & D spending. It'll be on your own merits making your own case.So there is much to be lauded in this Budget. This is a major shift. It's far-sighted. It's visionary. It's starting the process of turning round what was the very narrow focus group - driven Government that we've had that's seen so many imbalances—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I apologise to the member. You time has expired."