Ross Jami-LeeJAMI-LEE ROSS (Botany): Thank you Madam Speaker. This is the ninth Budget that's been delivered in the time that I've been a member of Parliament. Normally I stand up and give some tub-thumping speech saying what the other side's doing is wrong and what my side's doing is right. Of course I don't have a side to be yelling at now in the Chamber and it's an interesting situation.But the upside that I've found through my current situation—where I am an independent sitting up the back looking down at the rest of the Chamber and also spending considerably more time in my electorate talking to real New Zealanders and not getting too wound up in what happens in this place in Planet Parliament"—is the world out there and the way New Zealanders see our politics in New Zealand isn't as black and white as we make out in this Chamber. It isn't the case of everything the Government does if you're a Government MP is right and everything the Government does if you're an Opposition MP is wrong. It isn't a case of members on that side and the Government saying "Our Budget is great. Our Budget is perfect. We're delivering on everything." and then the Opposition to say "They've got it all wrong. They've broken all their promises. It's a botched Budget." That's not how New Zealanders see budgets in this country. It's not how New Zealanders see our politics.One of the real downsides that I see now that my eyes are really opened up too is just the fact that we don't do enough to work together in this Parliament and Government on addressing solutions for all New Zealanders. I want to say actually congratulations to the Minister of Finance. He's delivered a reasonably good Budget. Actually it delivers on most of their promises. Actually it's a Budget that could have been delivered by Bill English or it could have been delivered Steven Joyce. The only difference is rather than it being called a Wellbeing Budget Bill English would have talked about social investment. When it comes to the likes of job creation when it comes to the likes of investment in important areas like health and education a National Government probably would have done many of the same things.The Government is doing more in mental health. This Government is putting $1.9 billion into the mental health system and good on them for doing that. It's 19 times what the National Government promised in 2017—19 times. Through that election campaign—because I was a National MP at the time—many of us would go to public meetings or go to mental health - specific debates and we'd be hauled over the coals for the lack of investment in mental health. Actually National got it wrong in that area. We did a lot to increase the number of operations we did a lot to improve health services but we didn't do enough for mental health. So good on the Government for doing what they're doing in mental health.The great thing about what this Budget's doing around mental health is it's going to get some of the funding into those front-line services and into the areas where people can get access to care early so they don't end up in the acute system. If an individual gets in that system they're exposed to hospital-grade services and they do get quite a lot of support. But where we're failing New Zealanders when it comes to mental health is we're failing to help people to get the support they need early on when they're identifying that they've got challenges; when they're identifying that they're needing support before they get to that crisis point.If we can solve a situation where people don't get enough support before they get to crisis point where they don't get enough help and assistance then we'll be able to ensure that we reduce that suicide number. And getting access to mental health services in the community—if the Government can crack that nut then they'll be doing a huge amount for New Zealanders.But in terms of the overall Budget I really struggle when I hear the terms being flung about about how the Government is doing something wrong or how the Government is botching a budget. That's not how New Zealanders see it. The taglines we give policies and the taglines we give budgets and the debate we have in this Chamber that's not reflected out there in reality.The Government is doing a lot when it comes to the economy that actually the National Party could have done as well. That debt target that I heard Iain Lees-Galloway talking about—getting debt to below 20 percent of GDP by the early 2020s—that's the target that Bill English announced four or five years ago. They're doing exactly what National put in place. The Government can't stand up and say they've solved it all and they've done everything right and it's their Budget which is achieving that because the fundamentals were put in place by the National Government—the fundamentals were put in place by Bill English and by Steven Joyce. So what I'm trying to say is that when we look at Budgets and when we debate them we'd do New Zealanders and ourselves a lot better if we were to actually identify things where we can work together as a Parliament and identify things that we agree on. When I read the amendment from Simon Bridges basically saying that the Government's bungling and incompetent and they're overseeing a slowing economy and declining job creation—well actually that's not the reality. It's a nice political point to make but it's not the reality. I have to say the Government isn't getting everything right though. I do struggle when it comes to housing and understanding what the vision is. There was no vision delivered on housing in this Budget. The key question that many people particularly in Auckland want to know and have answered is: what is a Government whether it's blue or red going to do to deliver on a vision where young people can get access to housing? KiwiBuild—for all that they've tried to throw at it—it's not working. It's failing. It's not delivering cheaper housing for New Zealanders. But at the same time my old friends in the National Party—we couldn't claim that we got everything right either. Nick Smith I have to say put a huge effort into trying to make changes in housing. He sweated blood and tears to try and get reforms in the housing sector and good on him. He did very well. He tried very hard but we didn't crack that nut either. We left Government in 2017 leaving young New Zealanders without the ability to access affordable housing. We left Government not delivering a vision on how young New Zealanders and how children and grandchildren can afford housing into the future. The solution has to be genuine Resource Management Act reform. The solution has to be increasing land supply. Sitting back and hoping that small changes and tinkering around the edges will make big adjustments to housing won't work. Sitting back and thinking regulating a little bit more and a little bit here and there is going to work is not actually going to achieve the solution. We have to open up considerable chunks of land in Auckland so there can be greater housing supply. We have to put more infrastructure in place so that the people that will be moving into that new housing can get good transport can get good water can get good access to services. But by sitting back and just tinkering around the edges it's not going to be doing very much.While I'm talking about housing I want to say that we also need to seriously look at the way Auckland Council is operating. The way I relate this to the Budget is that there is a review that's going on at the moment around rates and there'll be work internally within the DIA around how local government is operating efficiently or not. I have to say it's been almost 10 years now that the Auckland Council has been in place and if the Minister of Local Government is sitting back asking herself "What do Aucklanders want to see from local government?" I think the answer that she needs to arrive at is that Aucklanders aren't being delivered efficient local government. They're not being delivered local government services cost-effectively. They're seeing costs escalate. They're seeing staffing numbers grow year on year but they're getting less and less for their money. It's about time—it's been almost 10 years—we start to seriously consider whether the changes that this Parliament put in place in Auckland are working for Aucklanders and whether or not Aucklanders want to see some more reform and some more changes in that area. If we don't get local government in Auckland working right and we don't have local government working with the Government to deliver a vision on housing then those young New Zealanders aren't going to get access to the housing services that they need. Finally I also want to say thank you to the Government for putting in place measures to deliver more police. They're not doing it fast enough though. We do need to see more front-line services in the police force and we do need to see more support there for those officers. In the emergency services space why did the Government stop at the level that they did when it came to ambulance services? It wouldn't have cost much more to fully fund ambulance services and I think that's something New Zealanders would like to see happen into the future. Ambulance services and dental services—whilst the health system is receiving considerable boosts those are two areas that I think New Zealanders would expect the health system to do more on and that the health Minister could work on for future Governments. This Budget delivers on many of the fundamentals that New Zealanders want to see Government deliver. It doesn't present enough vision and it doesn't solve all the problems but actually it delivers much of what New Zealanders want. It's a Budget a National Government could have delivered with a different name and a different tag line. It's not as bad as the Opposition makes out but it's nowhere near as visionary as the Government makes out either. I think we should work better and closer together in the future as a Parliament. I think there are more areas we could collaborate on. The "them and us" attitude that we take in this Chamber doesn't serve New Zealanders well. When you take the blue-tinted glasses or the red-tinted glasses off and you actually sit there and observe politics in New Zealand actually there's a lot we agree on there's a lot we can work together on and there's a lot that we should do more on as a Parliament."