Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): In amongst the ranting the shouting the—well raving would be a rude word so I won't say that but of Mr McKelvie—the rambling of the speeches that are coming from the Opposition there is an occasional pearl of wisdom and I wish to refer to one of those pearls of wisdom that one of the Opposition speakers came out with today to talk about something very important that relates to this entire debate. It was something that was said by the Hon Nikki Kaye—a beautiful aphorism. She said that Budgets are a window to the soul of a Government. Budgets are a window to the soul of the Government. How true that is and if we look at the soul that is being displayed by the Opposition today it's all about the money it's all about the technicalities it's all about the machinery and it is not about the people. That is the difference between the soul of the Opposition and the soul on this side of the House. On this side of the House we are concerned with wellbeing for all New Zealanders and it shows very much in our Budget it shows in the rhetoric from the Opposition the difference between them and us. On that side of the House the people serve the economy. On this side of the House the economy serves the people and that is a window into our soul and what we are about. Thank you Nikki Kaye for that wonderful aphorism. So if we're going to look at the economy—something that the Opposition has been criticising us about—let's look at some of the economic indicators. Our growth rate is slightly down but it's holding up well in comparison to our trading partners and it's holding up well in comparison to the global headwinds. It's a tough world out there at the moment and we're doing well enough in it. The farm-gate milk price is holding up reasonably well: between $6.25 and $7.25 a kilo depending but it's doing quite well. Net Government debt is falling. We are in a better financial position. Unemployment is at an 11-year low. We are getting people into jobs and really importantly Māori and Pasifika unemployment is down too. We are achieving something in that space. The median household income is up. It's now over $100000 so we're doing well in that space. And if we look at what's going on with all this we are actually seeing growing confidence in the business sector. Our services sector is continuing to expand at a greater rate than its long-term average and there is more spending in the economy. Consumers are confident. The business sector is hiring staff. That's what's going on with that falling unemployment rate. And just in the last few days the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research has released its consensus forecast for the next three years. Now it's polling all the bank economists; not talking to the person on the street necessarily but trying to get that educated view on what is happening with the economy. In actual fact it shows that bank economists expect that the economy will go from around about 2.3 percent GDP growth in 2019-20 to 2.7 percent in 2020-21. Now maybe it would be better if it was higher maybe not but the fact is it's doing well and it's growing. Retail spending is increasing. Seasonally adjusted retail card spending rose 1.1 percent in August. All this shows an economy that is doing well. Perhaps it could do better perhaps not but it is by no means a disaster. In fact it is a solid performance by this Government in terms of the economy as Labour Governments always do. So this economy despite what the Opposition is doing is doing well. Moving to the Budget the Budget that is a window to our soul; it is an ambitious Budget. Why? It's because it focuses on wellbeing. If we are what we measure then we need to work out what to measure so that the Budget serves the people of this country. We have chosen this time to present a Wellbeing Budget where we focus on increasing not just GDP not just the economic indicators but we look at what those economic indicators need to serve and that is the wellbeing of New Zealanders. When we are asked what is transformational about our Budget that is what is transformational about this Budget. Not just the dry numbers but what purpose those numbers serve. So that is one reason for why we are very very proud of this particular Budget. Like many of us I want to focus in particular on what we are doing in mental health because that is especially about the people and this Budget had a huge emphasis on mental health. We all know that there cannot be a family in this country who is not affected by mental illness; some of us quite severely so. When we were campaigning in 2017 there was a display that was going around the country: a pair of shoes for everyone who had committed suicide. It was devastating. It just showed how prevalent suicide is in this country. When we spoke to people they told us that the thing they wanted us most to have a look at was mental health because it was making a real difference to New Zealanders. And in this Budget we have responded to that call from the electorate to work on the mental health of New Zealanders and we have put in place a whole variety of actions to ensure that we do work to improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders through improving their mental health. Let's start with the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission which we talked about just last week. It was announced last week. Did you know that we used to have a Mental Health Commission? We used to have one.Hon Member: What happened there?Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: It was shut down in 2012. It was shut down. The previous Government shut down the Mental Health Commission.Tamati Coffey: That's outrageous. Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: It is outrageous. This Government that cares about the people has set it back up again. We've got that Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission back in place. Why? It's because of the need to focus on New Zealanders' wellbeing. In response to suicide we have set up the suicide prevention office. Why? It's because one suicide is one too many. And that suicide prevention office was explicitly endorsed by Mike King the New Zealander of the Year. He praised us for that action and said we really needed to get it going. It's a really great action under that mental health care. We're putting in place much greater support for young people to ensure that they thrive and that they are not debilitated by mental illness. The nurses in schools programme is designed in part to support the mental health of young people. The Piki pilot is helping 10000 young people. The Mana Ake programme is in 219 primary and intermediate schools working on helping young people with their mental health. We're helping about 170000 New Zealanders through the roll-out of mental health providers in GP practices so that when you or I our brother our mother our employee or our friend is in need we go to our GP and that support for mental health is right there. It's an incredibly important series of measures that shows that this Government is taking the wellbeing of New Zealanders seriously through mental health and it will be measured. It will be measured through Treasury's Living Standards Framework Dashboard looking at the key indicators that show that New Zealanders are thriving. If we are what we measure then we're going to try to measure subjective wellbeing we're going to measure social connections we're going to measure civic engagement—all things that show that people are thriving and their mental health is thriving. So what this Budget does is it tackles some of our long-term problems. It doesn't brush them under the carpet or hope they'll go away or just kind of manage along day to day because managing is fine. It takes positive action to address our long-term problems to put in place solutions that are going to last for 30 years not just the next three. After those nine long years of neglect under the National Government we needed to take some serious action and here it is in this Wellbeing Budget which is not just about the dry measures of the economy which is not just about how many dollars are spent here there or everywhere. This Budget is a transformational Budget that is focused on wellbeing and focused on wellbeing for all New Zealanders because the economy serves the people. That is the soul on this side of the House. We are here for all New Zealanders. This window into our soul is one that I am so proud of.