Parata HekiaHon HEKIA PARATA (National): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker ā huri noa i tō tātou Whare i tēnei pō tēnā tātou e whakawhāiti mai nei i runga i tēnei kaupapa ātaahua he kaupapa mō Aotearoa whānui.[Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker and acknowledgments to us throughout our House this evening packed together here under this lovely proposal that should be one for New Zealand wide.]It is wonderful that we are here coming towards the end of the debate about a magnificent Budget. It is a Budget that has taken a lot of effort from a lot of New Zealanders over these past years to get to the stage where we are now.Economies are not magic. We can look round the world and we can see a lot of problems. But New Zealand has worked very hard to be at the place we are now notwithstanding the challenges of the global financial crash and notwithstanding the natural disasters that have been sent to test New Zealanders and Christchurch and Kaikōura and Edgecumbe and that test New Zealanders in all sorts of other ways.This Budget should be seen for a start in the context of—or in contrast with—some of the discussions for instance that have been going on in the United States about their Budget. One of the items that I noted as relevant to ours was that much of it is based on the idea of the United States economy growing by a minimum of 3 percent. The commentators there are saying How ridiculous." "We'll never get to that stage." "This is just a fairy tale." or comments to that effect but New Zealand is doing that. New Zealand is an economy that is strong and that has growth of 3 percent or more and that has happened off the hard work of so many New Zealanders and the prudent management of this National-led Government. It has allowed us to buffer against many of the challenges against us but it has also allowed us to lift the standard of living for so many New Zealanders particularly those most vulnerable—but not exclusively so.This Budget represents the use of all the levers available to us to bring about the conditions—the environment—in which New Zealanders can make choices for themselves and flourish. Unlike the Opposition we do not spend our time here in Government prescribing what other people should do. We focus very much on what the role of Government is which is to create the conditions facilitate opportunity and trust New Zealanders to make good decisions for themselves. But there are some critical elements that contribute to that. I have already mentioned the strength of the economy and I will not go over all of the numbers—well maybe I will—that have already been iterated by my colleagues on this side.Suffice it to say we have a Budget that looks both at the economy and at infrastructure which is the backbone or the arteries of a nation. The previous speaker from our side the Hon Gerry Brownlee did mention that there are those who seem to think that roads are irrelevant but in fact they are the arteries of an economy. They move people and services and goods from one part of the country to the other.Hon Amy Adams: That's right. Almost as good as broadband.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Almost as good. In fact I was going to get on to that. Not only are we talking about roads in terms of infrastructure but we are talking about technology. We are talking about broadband. This is a Government that has put New Zealand taxpayers' money where our mouths have been to make sure that we have this network across the country that New Zealanders can take advantage of.If I may also mention that we are the biggest investors in school infrastructure I think well—ever.Todd Barclay: Trevor Mallard closed all the schools.Hon HEKIA PARATA: Well yes there were all of those. What we have done is we have invested in school infrastructure. We have built and invested in the backbone of our country. Why? And this is what I want to come to in terms of our Budget because we have at heart the well-being of New Zealanders in general and those most vulnerable in particular.The approach that we have taken which we have framed as social investment is one that we have worked away at ever since we came into Government when we understood how important it was for New Zealanders either not to go on a benefit at all or to get off it as soon as possible so that they could be engaged in the economy and make choices for themselves. What our social investment approach does—and it is led by our eminently capable Minister the Hon Amy Adams—is it infuses all of our social sector work. It is not confined to one narrow approach. Whether in justice whether in education whether in health or whether in policing we are all about which people need what kind of help and when and how we get the resource there to support them to be successful.That is why you see for instance that we have invested in the public services. We understand completely that we have to have good quality public services to support New Zealanders. We have got one of the biggest—possibly the biggest—health investments which is presided over by my colleague the Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman. We recognise that not only do we want to be a First World nation but we want to make sure that we have health provision that is about being a First World nation. That means we trust New Zealanders to look after their primary health but we also know that we have got significant challenges with mental health. We know that. This Government has provided for it. We are not prescribing exactly what the answers are because we want to invite the initiative of New Zealanders about what is the best way to tackle this. There is not a family or a whānau amongst us who has not been touched in some way by mental health and mental challenges. We are cognisant of that. We are investing. We are putting funding into that. We want to make a difference in people's lives.Clare Curran: After 9 years.Hon HEKIA PARATA: In justice—oh through the 9 years. The members of the Opposition think we have waited until now but that is not true. Every year we have built on it. I will talk about education because it is something I know a little bit about. When we came into Government in 2008 that Opposition had left the situation where about 66 percent of New Zealanders were getting our minimum qualification Māori were at 43 percent and Pasifika were at 50 percent. They are all up now in the top quartile. So that has not happened just in the ninth year; that has taken year on year on year of work. That is what it has taken. We understand that getting a good qualification is a critical cornerstone to economic participation to social well-being and to strengthening the prosperity and the backbone of this country. We are not telling them what they should do with their education; we are facilitating them to get one. We want them to make choices for themselves and they are doing so.We have invested in public services—policing. Every New Zealander knows that there are a range of issues that we all personally feel very passionate about but we know the economy health education and law and order are the four pillars on which New Zealanders think: "Well if those are in good order we can then move into the others." Look we know for instance that people want to—obviously—feel safe in their homes on their streets and moving about the community. This Government opened this year with over half a billion dollars of greater investment in raising policing—ensuring that there are police out there on the streets so that New Zealanders feel safe and are able to call on their services. We know for instance that we have a very poor record in terms of family violence and again my colleagues the Hon Amy Adams and Anne Tolley have done a power of work not just this year not just this month; they have been working on it for so many years as we tackle some of the hardest questions.The Opposition wrings its hands; this Government rolls up its sleeves and says: "What can we do about this?". We can point to measurable impacts. We have been prepared to be accountable. We are the first Government that has said: "Here are the 10 Better Public Services targets that are emblematic of the wider public services which you can measure us on and New Zealanders can measure us on." These are hard challenges that we are prepared to tackle because we want all New Zealanders to have the best life possible. That is what this Government is about.The core of this Budget is the Family Incomes Package. So again we have not just talked about what is necessary; we are the first Government to raise benefits in 43 years. We have moved on from that—it is part of our social investment approach. We have said: "How do we help those families that need a lift up a little further?". So what did we do? We moved the tax thresholds.Members on that side of the House have gone on about how well they have benefited from this. Well actually we have seen more New Zealanders lifted from the lowest and the middle thresholds. We have adjusted the accommodation supplement. We have looked at Working for Families. We have not looked at just one lever or another; we have put together this complex system and said that these together will make the difference for New Zealanders.We are not an either/or Government. We are an "and and and and" Government. We have looked at the economy. We have a Trade 2030 agenda. We have a Minister of Trade in the form of the Hon Todd McClay knocking himself out all around the country making sure that we have trade entry and export markets so that we can grow our economy even further so that we can fund the public services that we know are core to the well-being of New Zealanders so that we can continue to help those who need help the most and so that we can grow the prosperity and well-being of all New Zealanders. That is what this Budget delivers. Thank you very much."