Salesa Jenny; Boyack RachelAPPROPRIATION (2023/24 ESTIMATES) BILLThird ReadingIMPREST SUPPLY (SECOND FOR 2023/24) BILLSecond ReadingDebate resumed.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Members before we went on the dinner break we were debating the third reading of the Appropriation (2023/24 Estimates) Bill and the second reading of the Imprest Supply (Second for 2023/24) Bill. Tim van de Molen has five minutes and 38 seconds left if he would like to take the call. I call on Rachel Boyack. RACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): Thank you Madam Speaker. It is a pleasure to take a call on the Budget from 2023 another outstanding wellbeing Budget from our aspirational Minister of Finance Grant Robertson. I'm proud to be a member of the team on the Labour side of the House delivering for New Zealanders especially during what are incredibly tough times for our country and for people around the globe. I want to make some points tonight specifically about the Budget and some of the initiatives that I know are benefiting the people in my community of Nelson but also across New Zealand. I said in the House last week how much I love public transport and I'm excited that I can share a little bit more information tonight about the incredible improvements we've made to public transport in Nelson and Tasman. It's well-known that we have an area that does have congestion at those highdemand times of the day and because of our geography it's not a case of just adding more roads because all you'd do then is add more cars and you'd end up in a situation where we'd all just converge at the same point. We'd just move that congestion from one part of the city to the other. As I said in my maiden speech one of the travesties for transport in Nelson was the removal of our railway which would right now have given us a transport corridor to transport goods and people throughout our region. So what I am so excited about is that our changes in Budget 2023 to support people through the cost of living and to reduce the price of public transport have come along at the exact same time that we have doubled the frequency of buses in Nelson and they now go to places like Motueka. I can actually take a bus to go and visit my colleague Damien O'Connor in the neighbouring electorate and we can get on a bus out to Wakefield. We have an airport bus. The buses are electric buses so we're reducing emissions and at the exact same time we've introduced free public transport for under-13s from Budget 2023 we've introduced half-price public transport for people aged under 26 and we continue to have free off-peak travel for our seniors and half-price transport for people on the community services card. So you can get from Nelson to Richmond in my electorate for two bucks if you're using your Bee Card and if you're one of those people getting half-price public transport it's only a dollar to get the bus around Nelson. In the first week we had a 44 percent increase in the usage of our bus services and at the weekend it was a 200 percent increase. It was a classic case of Build it and they will come" and the feedback I am getting from people around my electorate is that this is an investment that the Government has made that is making a real difference for people in Nelson. There are people able to get out and about who otherwise wouldn't have in the past because there wasn't a bus going near their place and for many of those people they can get on that bus for free or for only $1 thanks to our Government. The other amazing change that we made in the Budget which is making a real difference for people in my community is the removal of the $5 co-payment for prescriptions. Like many MPs across this House I am sure we've all visited pharmacies and seen the piles of unclaimed medicines sitting on the shelves. I know that for many people being able to know that they can go to the doctor and then go to the pharmacy and collect that prescription without having to pay for it means they are much more likely to take that medication and they are far less likely to end up in hospital. We have seen the data now that 900000 New Zealanders have collected 3 million prescriptions since we made this change and I know that for many people they've turned up expecting to pay worried about what that might mean for their budget—because just remember for people on low incomes if you're getting two or three prescriptions 15 bucks can be a huge cost. It can be the difference between buying bread and milk for the week. So we have made this change and it's making a real difference for people. Another initiative in this Budget that I absolutely love and that will deliver for people in Nelson is our commitment to building another 3000 more State houses and that's on top of our delivery of 13000 public homes since Labour came into office. I know that in my electorate we have a number of people who struggle to find affordable housing. We had no addition of State housing and only six more community homes built during the term of the National Government and during that time the National Government claimed there wasn't a housing crisis. They claimed that the people in Nelson didn't need affordable housing. But I know that they do because they come and see me in my electorate office every single week and I know many of these people by name. I am so proud of what we have begun in Nelson. Earlier this year we opened the first 14 Habitat for Humanity homes as part of our Progressive Home Ownership scheme. We have another five opening in Richmond soon and another five being built in Stoke. We also have added a number of community homes through the fantastic provider that is the Nelson Tasman Housing Trust and they have received support through the council and through our Government to build affordable rentals and also public homes that people who are on the housing waiting list can move into. These are warm dry homes. What I'm also really excited about is the work that Kāinga Ora are doing in my region. We are starting to see an absolute ramp up of the building of State housing in Nelson and it is so exciting. Just this year we've had homes built in Richmond that have opened another round of homes being built in Richmond that are due to open soon and another round of homes in Nelson's CBD that are due to start being built very very soon. We have a partnership with the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology where apprentices—so our fantastic construction apprentices—are building State houses that are due to be moved very very soon to the community of Nelson South. That is another area where we're planning to build nearly 50 new homes in my community—where I live—of Nelson South and this is a piece of work that we have been waiting on in Nelson for decades to lift up the number of affordable homes because we are one of the most unaffordable regions in New Zealand when you compare wages against house prices. It's cheaper to buy a home in Christchurch but you could earn more money. So my commitment and our Government's commitment for Nelson is to ensure that those people on the waiting list won't have to be waiting too much longer because we are building homes for them and that is because we believe in the Labour Government—unlike the previous National Government who sold these houses off we believe that the State has a role to play in housing our people. It is our job to ensure that every New Zealander has a warm dry safe affordable home and I will not rest and we will not rest until we know that every New Zealander can go to sleep at night knowing they have the security of an affordable warm home. But on the other side we have the coalition of cuts. Where we are investing on this side of the House that lot over there have plans to cut many of the policies that I know are making a real difference for our people. We can expect no more winter energy payment for everyone who needs it. They've said already that they will remove the free prescriptions for many many people which will make a terrible difference to people. I've heard no commitment from anyone on that side of the House for the Nelson Hospital which we are rebuilding and that we have committed $1 billion to and I'm so proud of our Government's commitment to health infrastructure so that we can ensure we have hospitals being built up and down this country to ensure that our communities get the healthcare they deserve. One of my biggest concerns is their plan to remove fair pay agreements because on this side of the House we know that one of the best ways we can address the cost of living challenges that we face in New Zealand is to lift the incomes of the lowest-paid people. That side of the House is offering them two bucks a week. They want to give $1000 a week in tax cuts to the wealthiest New Zealanders and yet they're somehow promising that they can reduce revenue but increase spending. It is just bizarre. Their economic triangle that involves also somehow paying debt down faster when again they're reducing revenue—it just does not add up. On this side of the House we are committed to ensuring that we are investing for New Zealand. We are committed as a Government to supporting people through these difficult times. We will continue to invest in our lowest-paid workers. We will continue to build State houses. We will continue to build more hospitals. We will continue to make public transport more affordable. But the coalition of cuts will deliver nothing but pain and devastation to our country."