Lee Melissa: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 31 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11495. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): I rise to support the Appropriation (2016/17 Estimates) Bill. I want to just start by saying what an excellent Budget the Hon Bill English has put up. We used to say he has put out as many Budgets as he has children but he has surpassed that. He has actually delivered more Budgets than he has children. This is his eighth one and each one has been amazing and I just want to congratulate him for his incredible hard work and for delivering a fantastic Budget.Before I talk about some of the details of the Budget I want to just address some things that the member who just sat down David Shearer the member for Mt Albert has said. He actually said it is appalling. What is appalling and what people will find appalling is that Labour has actually given up. It has actually decided that it has given up and it has turned to the Green Party and said “Hallelujah! We will adopt everything that you say.” and I think people will turn and look at the Labour Party and say: “What an appalling decision it has made.” The Labour Party will be ashamed of its decision one day. One of the things that Mr David Shearer loved to talk about was the trade policies that the Labour Party actually has had. I know that he and his good friend Phil Goff agree on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and support this Government’s policy on that but no they could not support that publicly because they had their knuckles hit. I think it was Phil Goff who was actually allowed to support that because he is standing for the mayoralty in Auckland.One of the things that I feel passionate about in this Budget is Dr Jonathan Coleman’s health portfolio. In this Budget we have actually announced $39.3 million over 4 years for national bowel screening starting with the Hutt Valley District Health Board and Wairarapa District Health Board. It will be spread right across the country. I was just interested in the bowel screening thing because you know as women we have cervical screening and we also have breast cancer screening as well. I was just interested in how many people are affected by bowel screening and I was shocked to find out that bowel cancer actually affects more people than those who die on our roads through car crashes. We have more people dying of bowel cancer than breast cancer and prostate cancer put together. I think it is an amazing thing that we are doing for the people who suffer from cancer. For someone who has actually recently lost a good friend through cancer I think any screening that provides prevention work in the health sector has to be really good. I support that.On this side of the House we are actually committed and focused on achieving results for New Zealanders up and down the country. We are committed to supporting them and their families to achieve their goals to have aspiration and to actually set the goals for them to decide they want to own a home to have certain educational goals and for them to have aspirations for their families. Under National there are 40 new houses—earlier other members actually talked about some of the issues with Auckland. I live in Auckland as well and I know that we have a major shortage in houses but this side of the House this Government has delivered 40 new houses being built every day in Auckland. That is four times more than what was being delivered back in 2008 when Labour was in charge. So when Labour turns round and says we are not delivering anything it is actually wrong. We are doing four times more than what it was doing when it was responsible for the Treasury benches.We are growing social housing as well so there are opportunities to support those needs right across the sector. Over the summer I was very fortunate to attend the sod-turning of the Chinese New Settlers Services Trust which is investing in providing social housing for the senior members of the Chinese community. It is a partnership between the Government and the private sector. The trust was actually doing something about its own community’s need for social housing for its senior members. I congratulate the trust on the work that it does because I think it is really important. This is just one of the many enterprising community groups of all shapes and sizes that are responding to the needs of their own communities and I think we need to celebrate that.More than 150 special housing areas have now been announced through the special housing accord to relieve the housing situation in Auckland. Hundreds of hectares of new housing land designed for affordable homes for Kiwi families and for the development of new homes has been released. It is freeing up over $100 million worth of land surplus to the Crown holding. It will help more families on to the property ladder and owning their own property and I think that is really important. The housing market has now reached record levels for building growth. When you look at the number of houses that we are building we have hit an 11-year high. Consents have been issued for more than 28000 new dwellings around New Zealand. This is on track to be 15000 more homes built than during the last Parliament—a total of 85000 new homes to 2017. This will be achieved and it will help to grow the New Zealand housing stock to ease the demand on supply and give New Zealand families more opportunities around the country. This is excellent work done by the Hon Nick Smith and we should be congratulating him on his work.Some have been calling this Budget a little boring but I think that sometimes boring can be a good thing. We need to be conservative. We are not into just taxing and spending like the members opposite. We are about responsibly managing this Government this economy and making sure that we are frugal in the way that we spend our taxpayers’ money. What we need to do is spend it in the right places. I cannot see what is boring about getting more New Zealanders into jobs building more affordable homes and growing our economy. Helping to support the training of 42000 apprentices across the country is actually not boring at all and neither is $24 million being invested to support more training of apprentices—more aspirational young New Zealanders. Not everybody goes to university to study for a degree and become a fantastic architect doctor or an accountant. Some people are more suited to trade training and I think the fact that we are spending $24 million on helping people into trades academies into trades as apprentices to grow their skills and get them into a job is a really fantastic thing. The training of 42000 apprentices up and down the country is a fantastic number.This leads me to an important point about the number of people who are leaving school with National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2. Back in 2008 the number of students gaining NCEA level 2 was only about 68 percent. Minister Parata—every time I talk about Minister Parata I remember the look in her eyes whenever she talks about student achievement. She is so passionate about student achievement. I think when you look at the fact that we now have 84 percent of students who reach NCEA level 2—from 68 percent back in 2008 to 84 percent now—that is a fantastic achievement. I think we need to congratulate our Ministers of Education. The record $11 billion investment to support aspirational New Zealanders and their education cannot be boring and it should not be dismissed. I think we should celebrate that.Congratulations to our Ministers of Education and I thank them personally as well. The Mt Albert electorate although I am a list member based there has had a lot of benefit. Balmoral School and Western Springs College have received a lot of money for the new building and renovation work that they are doing. The Community Education Hub in Point Chevalier is gaining benefits for the students there and obviously for the families that are in the electorate as well.The other thing that I feel really passionate about is the funding for Pharmac. There is $124 million more funding available for Pharmac. What that really means is more money for more medicines for more New Zealanders. When health care is at the forefront of our Budget it is something that we should celebrate because ultimately health is really more important. We could grow the economy but when we do not have healthy families and healthy children who can celebrate the wealth of our country I think it is a sad country indeed. I think when we are providing better health-care more funding for things like advanced melanoma drugs or hepatitis C drugs when we are investing—I mean we are the Government that delivered Herceptin to the women of New Zealand. When we are delivering more drugs that are relevant to growing healthier New Zealanders I think we need to celebrate that. I actually welcome the decision that was made in respect of Pharmac. This is a great Budget and I congratulate the Minister of Finance.