Mahuta Nanaia: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMahuta Nanaia: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 22 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18278. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato): National’s Budget 2014 is more rhetoric than reality. The very rich are getting richer and the very poor are finding it much harder. I am from a little town calledNgāruawāhia—many of you might know it—and we just tell it how it is. Many of us in this House have heard stories from nurses from teachers from social workers from road workers from subbies from people at the checkouts. They are asking why they are working harder for longer for less. They know actually that the National Government has not provided the brighter future that it promised.On 20 September 2014 people will be turning out to hold this Government accountable. This Budget has not delivered to them. In fact people are sitting at home listening to this debate and saying that actually it is easy to balance the books when you sell off State assets. It is easy to balance the books when you sell off State assets but what have we got to show for it?I want to highlight several things about this Budget. There is no long-term plan for New Zealanders that will deliver a brighter future that is more sustainable delivering better jobs for higher wages. This Budget does not address the serious challenges of inequality and poverty that families across the country are feeling in very real ways. This Budget does not leverage towards opportunities where the Māori economy can make a significant contribution. Where the rubber hits the road and where normal people at home judge whether or not this Budget is successful is on the issue of jobs.Let us look around. In our regions there have been a number of job losses which do not just affect individuals; they affectwhānau. In places like Northland the Bay of Plenty Gisborne andManawatū look at the statistics. They tell a very different story to the one that the Government is trying to have you believe. The regions are suffering. There have not been solutions to grow more jobs in those places where families really need the opportunities. They need to be backed.In the area of our kids yes the Budget did provide for free health care for under-13-year-olds but that is only if you can access those services. Go to places along the East Coast in MekaWhaitiri’s electorate Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and you actually have to get to the place where the doctor is to be able to access those free health care services. Go toKāwhia—people will tell you the same thing. Go to Manurewa where the doctors are already oversubscribed from dealing with a number of vulnerable users and they will tell you they are already under pressure. Will this funding deliver extra doctors in our clinics? Can the Government answer that? If you are going to provide free health care for under-13-year-olds where it matters then it has to be about delivering into areas where there are high needs and vulnerability and to those communities where there are a number of factors that limit access to free health care.In the area of homes what we see is a solution from the Government where it is transferring the responsibility for social housing to the third sector. It is transferring the responsibility for social housing to the third sector and stepping back and away from that responsibility. To me that does not sound like upholding the opportunity for people to have affordable rentals; that is passing on the problem. And that is what is happening here under this Government and its Budget. In fact what is also happening in the space of housing is that homeownership is a distant prospect for low and middle income earners who are scrimping and saving to try to get a 5 percent deposit let alone a 10 percent deposit. It is a very real challenge.If this Government is going to stand up and promote a Budget that is delivering on the fronts of jobs kids and homes on all three counts it has failed miserably. There are serious challenges. You cannot just put a plaster on a wound that is beginning to fester. That wound is inequality and poverty. This Government will be judged on 20 September by the way in which it helps the most vulnerable in our society. Alongside my colleagues in the Labour team I say that they have failed miserably.Finally on the issue of Treaty settlements can I say that if this was a Budget that delivered opportunity to leverage off Treaty settlements we would see far different solutions than the ones coming from the Government. The Government is rushing through Treaty settlements. There will be aspects that will come back to challenge this Government and make it accountable for what it is doing in this space. The Budget has failed those most in need abysmally and the Government will be held to account.