Woods Megan; Rurawhe AdrianHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Energy and Resources): It is an honour to rise in support of our Government's Budget. I want to congratulate our finance Minister Grant Robertson on his first Budget in this role. This is a Budget that lays the foundations to transform our economy while rebuilding public services like health like education and like housing that Kiwis rely on and make such a difference in our communities. We have to go through and do this rebuilding because after nine years of neglect from the previous Government we have to rebuild those foundations.Now the Opposition have been floundering around incoherent in how to respond to this Budget. It sounded a bit like an out-of-tune tone-deaf karaoke remix of an R.E.M. song—Oh no they've spent too much; they haven't spent enough"—because they have cannot settle on which one it is that they want to criticise us for. In one breath it's "They've spent too much. Tax and spend—typical of that side of the House." Oh and then it's "They're not spending it; they haven't spent enough." They've just come out with things that are outright wrong as well in their critique of this Budget. They've said that we've cut Pharmac when it's actually been one of the big winners of this Budget. They simply don't know how to respond because it's clear what a great Budget it is.Now the previous speaker Ms Dowie asked where Dunedin Hospital is. Well it's going to be on the corner of Great King Street and Cumberland Street. That's where Dunedin Hospital is and that's why there is money in this year's Budget to get that work under way. She asked what support there was for the Southern District Health Board. Well good news Ms Dowie. There is good news on the way because there is greater support for all our district health boards (DHBs) in this Budget because we are a Government that is absolutely determined to invest in health. There's $750 million of capital investment in there for DHBs because we simply have to rebuild a health system that has been run down by a Government that was more intent on trying to get to surplus than investing where we needed to for the good of our people and the good of our country. There's also a $2.2 billion increase over four years for DHBs. So Ms Dowie can be very happy that that help is there.But we as a Government are excited. The surplus is bigger than expected the economic forecasts are for continued growth and we are making major investments into things that New Zealanders tell us are important in their lives. It's very clear that under this Government this country is going in the right direction and it's very clear from this Budget that Grant Robertson is going to be one of our all-time great finance Ministers. He knows how to manage the books while investing in the public services that make the big differences to people's lives. We as a Government have a long-term plan to transform our economy and it is working. We are laying the foundations for the future. We are a Government that has the courage to raise our sights beyond the three-year political cycle and think in 10- 20- and 30-year increments. We are thinking about our long-term future and not just the next election which has been one of the problems that we've suffered under for the last nine years.A big part of that plan is increasing our productivity and diversifying our economy and that's why increasing our investments in research and development was such a priority in this Budget. Under the last Government we had low productivity and a low-wage economy. They did nothing to address that or turn that around in nine years in office. That's why we were so thrilled last week to announce a billion dollars—a billion dollars—for a research and development tax credit. That's a tax credit for businesses on every dollar they spend on research and development. This was the largest ever appropriation for research science and innovation that we've ever had in this country and it is something that we celebrate.In this Government we know that we want to see high wages and good jobs and we have to invest in new ideas and new ways of doing things. We are an ambitious Government that has high ambition. We want to get to carbon neutrality by 2050. We want to get to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2035. We want to address child poverty and find solutions. We know we need new ways of looking at the world and new ideas in order to do this. To do this we simply must increase the amount of R & D we do in this country. We have an ambition as a Government to raise that to 2 percent of GDP over a 10-year period. Now we just languish in terms of our OECD counterparts in terms of where we sit. Currently we spend 1.3 percent of our GDP on R & D. This puts us way below the OECD average of 2.3 percent. We simply have to do better. Nothing that was done over the previous nine years lifted those investments in R & D. In one Budget alone we have lifted our percentage spend from 1.3 percent to 1.5 percent and we are on track to hit 2 percent expenditure within the decade. That means that we will have more innovative businesses investing in new technology which means they can go out and compete in the world.With a strong economy comes the opportunity to do more to look after New Zealanders and that's why last week I was proud to announce that $142 million will be going into a new programme to provide heating and insulation for Kiwis in need. That is something that we celebrate.Something that I took a lot of personal pride in is that we kept our promises to the people of Canterbury. We've delivered a $300 million fund a capital accelerator to finally get some momentum into the recovery in Christchurch. We've got to do it better and we've got to pick up the pace and we have backed that up with investment. There was enormous optimism and excitement last year when Jacinda Ardern came to Christchurch and announced this money. She said we would be guided by what local people wanted to see and in our very first Budget we made good on that promise. I'm excited for what this will mean for Christchurch.In our very first months in office we've also taken steps to finally address the issues that are holding Cantabrians back from moving on with their lives: addressing settling their insurance claims. There are still thousands of Cantabrians who have broken homes that have yet to have settled insurance about it. We're not going to leave them to muddle on through with no end in sight like they were for the previous seven years. We were proud in this Budget to announce that we are going to invest in a tribunal to make sure that we can get people over the line with their insurance claims so they can get on with their lives and have hope back in their lives.We are also investing in putting in place an independent inquiry so that we can ensure no other community in the country ever has to go through the insurance mess that we've had to go through in Canterbury. That's why we're investing in it. So Canterbury has done well out of this Budget. This is on top of $28 million additional that we have put into youth mental health prior to this Budget and money that we had reallocated to keep the Residential Advisory Service going.This is a Budget that we can be proud of not only as politicians on this side of the House but as a country. It is a Budget that sets the foundations for a clear vision of who we want to be in the future—the kind of country that we will be and have some pride in as we go through the 21st century.It was disappointing to hear the previous speaker criticising the investment that we are making in terms of our overseas aid. She just trivialised it by saying it was money for chateaus for people to go on junkets. Well I'd like to remind Ms Dowie that the bulk of that allocation for foreign affairs is $714 million going into aid in the Pacific. That is not something we trivialise on this side of the House. This is about us fulfilling our role as an international citizen and doing our bit. In fact that only takes our percentage of gross national income up to 0.28 percent from where it had slipped down to 0.23 percent. So I congratulate the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the work he has done to get us to do our bit. We've still got a way to get to what the UN recommends and that's 0.7 percent. We're still a long way from that but at least on this side of the House we see our international obligations—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! The member's time has expired. I understand the next call is a split call. I call the Hon Nicky Wagner—five minutes."