Sio Hon Aupito WilliamAUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): Budget 2017 is a blatant election bribe. It is an election bribe because none of the sweeteners this Government has thrown out to the general public will even take effect until 2018. If a person is living in a car right now with their family this Budget does not help them. If a family is living in a boarding house sharing one bedroom sharing the toilet facilities sharing the kitchen hoping for their independence in a three-bedroom house somewhere else this Budget does not help them. If families are moving into a marae for this winter because they are homeless this Budget does not help them. If a family is living in a garage and have been for quite some time this Budget does not help them. If a couple are working two or three jobs part time to try to make ends meet this Budget does not help them. Nothing in the Budget delivers as this Government has promised for ordinary working Kiwis.Earlier I heard Minister Tolley talk about the 55000 aged-care workers who will receive a pay increase. She spoke as if this was something that this Government did voluntarily. That is not true. This Government was forced to pay 55000 aged-care workers because the aged-care workers and their trade union took the Government to court. They took the Government to court and won. This Government appealed that decision and the trade union E tū and the aged-care workers took it to court and won the appeal. This settlement is a result of the determination and the advocacy of these aged-care workers and this Government in the long 9 years of it being in power refused to pay them proper wages. So that is the only reason why that settlement is part of this tax package—because those aged-care workers took the Government to court. I want to say to Minister Tolley: look you can spin this all you want but the aged-care workers and their families and their trade union know the truth. The truth is that your Government was forced to pay them the back-pay and they deserve it.It was also Minister Tolley when this Government first came into power who removed Pacific language resources for our schools. They removed Tupu. They removed Folauga. These were critical resources for the promotion of Pacific languages in our schools. That action was followed through by Hekia Parata when she was Minister of Pacific Island Affairs. She also removed from the Pacific education strategy the goal of Pacific language bilingual education. Since Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga became the Minister for Pacific Peoples nothing has been done about restoring those goals. Now my friend the Hon Alfred Ngaro is the Minister and nothing has been done. He speaks well about supporting Pacific language but that talk does not manifest with action when it comes to restoring those resources and to restoring Pacific language bilingual educational goals in our education system. That is sad because there is huge expectation from the Pacific community that a Pacific Minister on the Government benches would be a little bit more sympathetic and would understand the value of why it is important that Pacific language education becomes part and parcel of the curriculum of our education system. But that is not to be.In fact what has happened in this Budget is $50000 was cut from the ASB Polyfest—a festival that is run by the schools in Auckland off the smell of an oily rag to promote Pacific languages and cultures. Instead of renewing that money instead of providing and manifesting that support they decided to cut it. In fact as of 1 July the very board that Minister Ngaro appointed only last year to the Pacific Education Centre will become disestablished. That leaves that iconic asset of the Pacific community that promotes Pacific languages and that promotes the value of Pacific languages in limbo as to what then happens to it and its ongoing funding. But as I said this Budget is a deliberate election bribe by this Government. I would hope that New Zealanders would see it for what it is. It is a bribe. There is nothing substantial in it. The Government sprinkles some sugary stuff for the population to hopefully get sucked in but the reality is there is nothing worthwhile.There are some critical gaps that this Government has not addressed. There are gaps in the housing sector. There are gaps in health. There are gaps in education. There are gaps in our police force. Those four things are so important for building a strong and vibrant community particularly where I come from the south side in Manukau City. When it comes to housing families who are trying to save and may have saved $10000 maybe $20000 for their deposit will not be able to buy a house because the rules have not changed to enable that particular family to be able to buy a house. In fact it will be virtually impossible for somebody with $20000 or $30000 in savings to buy a house because the average price for a house in Auckland is over $1 million—over $1 million—and I want to repeat that and emphasise it. Young couples who are wanting to buy their own home—this Budget does not help them right now. So we will have 41000 people continue to be in a homeless situation irrespective of how flowery the Government tries to promote its Budget of 2017. We will have people who will still remain living in cars living in garages living in boarding houses and this Budget normalises that for these families.With health we have reiterated time and time again how this Government fails to adequately resource health to the point where since 2010 there has been a shortfall of $1.7 billion. This Budget actually cuts $200 million away from what district health boards require just to stand still. Here is a personal experience that I will round things off with. It is a really sad experience. My dad—gone on 79—fell over at his local gym not too long ago. He had a big gash on his left cheek where the bone was showing. I never revealed it was my dad because it could have been anyone. What was sad was the lack of services and support that my father received—firstly from the ambulance and then secondly from the accident and emergency services at Middlemore Hospital. The lack of services revealed the severe underfunding of our health services. It could have been anyone. But they are using a triage system where they would only value—they say under that triage system: If they die irrespective of the outcome they are not a priority; if they live irrespective of what service is provided to them they are not a priority." So after 9 hours my father received some treatment from the doctors. But that could have been anyone in those circumstances.That is the state of medical services that we now have as a direct consequence of the severe underfunding by this Government. And what is worse this Budget 2017 does not address that. It does not address that. It does not address also the issues that many communities are experiencing in burglaries and robberies because the police are run down to the bone. They are receiving insufficient resources to be able to respond to the needs of our community and this Government with its Budget 2017 continues to normalise that. Those are the kinds of services the general public will receive under this Government."