Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) (remote): Tēnā koe e te Pīka. Tēnā tātou e te Whare. It's good to be here to speak certainly as a tangata whenua for Te Tiriti which may have started in the 1800s but didn't end and evolves as we too must evolve in a Tiriti-centric Aotearoa.So Te Paati Māori give credit to the Government in some parts; certainly for trying to change how we view economic success in Aotearoa—an inclusive society that is embracing their tangata whenua. We've long known that GDP is not an accurate measure of success let alone of the health of our people and environment. So we need to ensure the changing of public perception matches the changing of the reality for Māori. COVID-19 has highlighted this reality and exposed just how brittle our economic system is during times of crisis and as usual we have seen Māori take the full brunt of it. We will continue to support the Māori Health Authority and more thought towards supporting the Government that realises our potential.A few things for us stood out in this year's statement from the Long-term Fiscal Position. One is that people living longer healthier lives could become fiscally unsustainable if the retirement age doesn't shift to reflect this. My tungāne Rawiri Waititi caused a bit of a stir in the media last week when he suggested we do just that: change the age for superannuation to better reflect life expectancy statistics. When we look at the fact that life expectancy for Pākehā males is 80.9 years versus 73.4 for Māori and 84.4 years for Pākehā women versus 77.1 years for wahine Māori it would only be consistent and equitable to lower the retirement age for Māori to reflect this.As referred to earlier Treasury predicts that by 2060 26 percent of the population will be over 65 years old compared to 16 percent in 2020. So by 2043 Māori are projected to account for 21 percent of the population but only 11 percent of the 65-plus population. So while people around us are debating co-governance and stale politicking the reality is we have a health system that sees Māori die seven years earlier than non-Māori in this country. At the same time every piece of advice given by tangata whenua and experts over the course of this pandemic—and other health kaupapa—has been ignored.So it's good to hear earlier that the Minister of Health is acknowledging this and reviewing what could be done better. Until we are able to raise life expectancy with radical change across the board Māori will continue to work themselves to the bone for this country while not living long enough to fully enjoy the benefits of their hard work.Another statement worth highlighting from this report is that our current debt levels don't need to be lowered for our Government to continue to borrow money. Change is happening and yet we still have the National and ACT kei te tangi hei te kurī [crying like dogs] every time the Government invests just a little bit into social services as though debt collectors are waiting at the Parliament steps. It's no wonder the Leader of the Opposition had no idea what the word 'public' in 'public transport' meant yesterday.The report also talked about a more sustainable taxation system. We need an end to the current situation which has poor and working class people subsidising the rich through tax policy. Right now we're seeing the biggest wealth transfer in generations from hard-working whānau to greedy property developers and landlords who've created a generation of renters living pay cheque to pay cheque. So we need to shift this tax burden through tax on wealth including capital gains ghost houses pollution and land value. We would provide tax relief to low income whānau while improving the progressive nature of the tax system including through exempting food and sanitary items from GST.We've got a plan to do this and we welcome the Government to keep picking policies from our manifesto and to implement. An easy one could be to remove GST from food. We've seen things being done overnight by lowering GST.Before I end I would like to say that look we need to raise the minimum wage to $25 we need to double baseline benefits we need to stop punishing beneficiaries with sanctions we need to cancel income support - related debt and we also need to support a Government that's focused on creating a sustainable economy. We want a fair society and healthy environment. We are the only party in Parliament whose tax cuts aren't for the rich. Our people are struggling and we need to make sure that we have an economy that's able to have a liveable climate. Kia ora koutou katoa.