Macindoe TimHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Thank you sir. Let me begin with something positive. I welcome the significant extra funding for mental health that was announced in the recent Budget. It would be fair to say that Governments of both stripes for far too long have failed to respond to the worrying increase in our suicide statistics addiction rates and other concerns because these are serious matters that cause heartbreak in families and all sorts of devastating consequences. But I was very disappointed for the reason that Government parties last year failed to agree to my colleague Matt Doocey's suggestion of a cross-party approach to mental health issues. That would have been the best way to ensure a commitment to sustainable mental health policies and funding without point-scoring to tackle the serious problems that many New Zealanders face. Nevertheless I will support all initiatives made possible by this Budget's funding increase that can be shown to be well targeted evidence-based and effective. It is vital that this Government's habit of saying nice things and promising lots of money without having done the work to convert those good intentions into effective programmes and lasting improvements isn't repeated in the mental health space. The Ardern-Peters Government has frankly destroyed the trust of the electorate by repeatedly failing to deliver on their promises. They are light years away from delivering on the extra police numbers that they promised. In education they've broken their promise over school donations for all deciles. In 2017 they promised teachers the earth yet they've presided over unprecedented strikes—Hon Ruth Dyson: Nine long years doing nothing. Hon TIM MACINDOE: —while demonstrating total ineptitude Ms Dyson in the negotiations over teachers' pay and conditions. They've wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars in their fees-free tertiary education blunder which incredibly has seen a reduction in the number of students enrolling. Rather than meeting health targets they've abolished them to cover up their failures and the number of elective surgical operations is plummeting around the country. They're failing to deliver lifesaving drugs to people facing serious illnesses and people's lives are at stake. They promised 100000 affordable new houses but instead they're subsidising developers in affluent areas while failing to meet their housing targets so abysmally that the housing Minister must be the first one for the chop in the Prime Minister's looming reshuffle. What a joke his KiwiBuild policy has been. No wonder none of his colleagues are mentioning it in this debate despite it having been their flagship policy for years even before Winston Peters put them into office. They promised new roads but they're not building them. Instead they made further fuel tax increases their first priority when they sat under urgency following a so-called wellbeing Budget. But at the same time they're cancelling important infrastructure projects all around the country and not building a single new road with the proceeds. Well my constituents in Hamilton West are furious that the extensions to the Waikato Expressway from Cambridge to Tīrau and from Karapiro to the foot of the Kaimai Ranges which National promised and budgeted for—Hon Julie Anne Genter: No. Hon TIM MACINDOE: —have been cancelled on a whim by this Government and if Julie Anne Genter sitting over there wants to tell people waiting to get on to State Highway 1 at Piarere while they're driving from Tauranga to Hamilton that they're car fascists and she doesn't care about their safety then she should be the next one for the chop in the Cabinet reshuffle because Miss Genter my constituents are very very angry with your decision. In all of these respects this Budget was the direct opposite of delivering wellbeing. New Zealanders can see that they've been conned by a Government that talks about kindness while spraying cash on any project that the minor party that calls the shots in this administration demands. But even that party let them down. There was nothing in this Budget for ACC clients but there is significant angst in centres such as Palmerston North Timaru and Whanganui where large numbers of ACC jobs are disappearing—Andrew Falloon: That's right. Hon TIM MACINDOE: —because they're being shifted to main centres—and it's good to have the member for Rangitata in the House. During the last campaign Winston Peters went around the country pretending to be the provincial saviour. He told farmers in Ashburton that they were the lifeblood of this country and needed to be protected. You burn the provinces down the country is finished." he thundered yet now he's supporting methane reduction targets that will cripple them and our economy even though all the science tells us that they're unjustifiably extreme and he's happy to see Government jobs depart from regional centres including about half of the jobs in Timaru my colleague's electorate—just down the road from those Ashburton farmers Mr Peters. Well that's another promise that previous speakers on the other side of the House haven't mentioned. But what do we read in the coalition agreement? This is quite significant. Under coalition priorities New Zealand First has a number of priorities to progress which Labour will support alongside its policy programme including a commitment to relocate Government functions into the regions. Into the regions—what absolute poppycock! So those who voted for that priority have been betrayed yet we've heard nothing from the self-appointed champion of the regions or his leader about that. Frankly their record is appalling. They promised much they tax more and they consistently fail to deliver on their promises while wasting the cash mulching trees and paying for wealthy students to entice them into courses they were going to enrol in anyway. But let me return to mental health. While I welcome that extra funding I am concerned that so little of the extra $1.9 billion promised over four years that has been allocated for mental health is earmarked for drug and alcohol addiction services. In my city of Hamilton the local service provider tells me that he may have to close his rehabilitation centre if the Government funding isn't forthcoming. The evidence of the link between drugs and alcohol addiction and mental health challenges is overwhelming. Most admissions to the Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre at Waikato Hospital are due to drug-induced psychosis or a psychotic episode yet there's only a pittance in this Government's specifically allocated predictions and even then there are no details that providers can rely on. I'm also alarmed that the Budget fine print would suggest that our alcohol and drug treatment courts—which were piloted and funded by National—are under threat and I call upon the Ministers of justice and police and health and corrections to express their support for these courts—Hon Andrew Little: $650000—$650000. Hon TIM MACINDOE: —clearly and unequivocally. Alcohol and drug abuse causes havoc in our communities. Both lead to road crashes violence in our streets and misery in our homes. Methamphetamine use is increasingly driving homicides. There's considerable research in New Zealand that shows that more than 50 percent of crime is committed by people under the influence of drugs or alcohol and that two-thirds of our prisoners have substance abuse issues. Drug courts focus on breaking that cycle of addiction with access to specialised services which engage with offenders on a longer-term basis as they complete appropriate milestones alongside their sentences. Now while I believe that the drug court programme should be expanded right throughout the country no funding has been announced for the courts beyond June next year Mr Little—Hon Andrew Little: That member's Government set up a pilot that finishes this year. Hon TIM MACINDOE: —and the Government has given no commitment to continuing with them. I've been a strong advocate for a drug court in Hamilton. I know that all of those on the formation committee in Hamilton are deeply worried about this issue Mr Little and they've read your Budget and they can't see—Hon Andrew Little: No they're not. They've spoken to me—we've had a good conversation. Hon TIM MACINDOE: —any evidence of support at all. They have told me they are very concerned and I'm reflecting those concerns in this speech. Well there are 3000 drug courts of that type in the United States and in Texas they've even been able to shut down some prison wings because they have been so effective. While I'll continue to push for that in Hamilton I know that it's strongly supported by the Waikato Mayoral Forum the Waikato District Health Board and many others. My disappointment over this matter is widely shared and so it seems are many others. There's widespread disappointment being expressed across the board by this Government's friends and by other organisations who would usually be seen to be sympathetic to them and many of my colleagues have quoted people like Mac Welch from Grey Power. We've even heard from the Child Poverty Action Group how disappointed they are with this Budget—there are huge numbers of people with very good reason. For instance the New Zealand College of Midwives described it as a "disappointing" Budget in which "the dire issues facing the maternity system have not been addressed." Their chief executive commented that "Much has been said by Grant Robertson about child wellbeing and investing in our younger generation to ensure better outcomes for them and wider society—but how the very workforce that brings those children into the world could again be largely ignored is beyond us." The chief executive of Lung Foundation NZ expressed the same concern as the Cancer Society of New Zealand. They have been concerned about the lack of significant increase in Pharmac's funding. The chief executive of the Lung Foundation said that "the $10 million over four years is a step backwards." and his assessment was pretty brutal: "Budget 2019 is not a Wellbeing Budget but rather an instrument of more suffering financial crisis and premature death for cancer patients most in need of care and support." The New Zealand Association of Counsellors highlighted the lack of detail about how the extra funding for mental health services will be spent. Their president said "At the moment we don't know and neither does anyone else." and it goes on and on. If I had time I'd put on the record many more concerns. There's huge criticism across the sector about the fact that this is a Government that has promised so much and has failed to deliver in really significant ways on their promises. It's a disgrace. Members opposite should hang their heads in shame and they couldn't possibly be proud to commit this Budget to the House. It's a disgrace."