Lees-Galloway IainIAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): I listened very very carefully to the contribution made by Jono Naylor and what I was listening for was one—just one—statement about how this National Government Budget was going to make life better for people in Palmerston North. Just one would have been good and I did not hear a thing. He had 5 minutes and he did not say one thing about how this Budget is going to make life better for people in Palmerston North.That surprised me. That surprised me because I want to say that Jono Naylor has always been a strong advocate for people in Palmerston North and of the four candidates that the National Government has put up against me in Palmerston North Jono Naylor was by far—by light years—the strongest one. But surprisingly he is not standing at this election and I think I know why. It is because what Jono discovered is that despite the fact that he is a loud and proud advocate for Palmerston North and despite the fact that as a former mayor he knows the community better than any of the other candidates that the National Government has thrown at Palmerston North he discovered that being in the National Party even when it is in Government is not a place to get progress for Palmerston North. That is why there was not one thing in Jono Naylor's contribution about what this Budget is going to do for Palmerston North.Let us look at the challenges that Palmerston North faces right now. We have a housing crisis in Palmerston North. I know that everybody focuses on the housing crisis in Auckland but just like many other provincial centres around the country we have our own housing crisis OK? Housing has always been affordable in Palmerston North; it has been one of our strengths but house prices are growing faster now than they are in Auckland. House prices are growing faster in Palmerston North than they are in Auckland. It now takes more of the household budget than ever before to service a mortgage or pay the rent in Palmerston North.We have nearly 200 families who are in need of a State house. That means they are in urgent and desperate need. It is almost impossible to get on the waiting list for a State house these days and yet in a city of 87000 people we have nearly 200 families who urgently need a State house. So where was the statement in this Budget about how this Government was going to build the houses that we need in Palmerston North? Now land is not an issue in Palmerston North because this National Government has torn down houses in Palmerston North. It has not built them; it has torn them down. What is worse is that it has left that land empty for year after year after year after year.The very least it could have done was to sell it off to a private developer who would build houses. I would not have been happy with that but it would have been an awful lot better than leaving a Government asset completely un-utilised at a time when we desperately and urgently need houses. Where was the statement in this Budget that the Government would build houses on land that the Government already owns that had houses on it before that is zoned appropriately and that is ready to go? There was nothing—nothing—because there is no vision and no hope in this Budget for people who need an affordable home to rent or to buy.What was there? There was a boost to the accommodation supplement. Now that might sound good. I understand that if you are on incredibly low wages—because let us face it this Government has done everything it can to stifle wage growth in New Zealand—getting a boost to the accommodation supplement might sound quite good but this is the problem: it will fuel demand. And at the same time this Government is doing nothing to address supply. I ask the economic geniuses on the other side of the House: what happens when you fuel demand but you suppress supply? What happens? What happens? Can anybody in the National Government tell me what happens when there is not enough supply and there is too much demand?Can anyone on this side of the House tell me what happens?Tracey Martin: Prices go up.IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: Prices go up—thank you. Prices go up. Everybody on this side of the House knows it. It is Economics 101 and yet the economic geniuses over there cannot even answer that question—prices go up. So the National Government is pouring fuel on the fire and who gets burnt? It is low-wage people who are trying to pay their rent or trying to put enough aside to afford their own home. The accommodation supplement will simply drive prices up. People will not have any more money in their back pocket as a result. It will be money in money out. Who benefits? The landlords benefit not the tenants.In Palmerston North we have a mental health crisis. It has been going on for a number of years. I am sad to say—and this is not news but I am sad to say—that there have been suicides in the mental health ward at the hospital. We have enormous waiting lists. Just yesterday there was an article about how it is taking teenagers 8 weeks to access the mental health services that they need. We have a problem with our mental health services in Palmerston North. Where was the initiative to address that in this Budget?When we say that the health budget is missing $1.7 billion what we mean by that is that every single year that this National Government has been in power it has failed to give health enough money to address population growth and inflation. So in real terms every single year the health system has had less and less money to do what it needs to do to provide the treatment and support that New Zealanders need. That is what we mean when we say it is $1.7 billion short and this year was déjà vu all over again because once again the National Government has not put enough money into health to deal with population growth or inflation. That means in real terms that the health system has less.The education system—well it is the same in Palmerston North as it is everywhere else in the country. Our schools are bursting at the seams because of population growth. Yet does this Government provide enough money to deal with that? No. Parents are paying more in donations than they ever have before. I can say as a parent of three children at school it seems like every single week we get another bill in the emails for more money—just to provide what ought to be the basics for every child at every school. Now my family can afford that but for so many families that demand to pay more and more money week after week after week out the household budget just so their kids can get a basic education—that is too much. The pittance that this Government is giving low-income people in tax cuts will be blown away by the additional costs for education and health. In Palmerston North we are facing a spate of burglaries in dairies like many other parts of the country. We have had our community police station in Roslyn closed. We think it is very likely that the community police station in Highbury is on the chopping block as well. The police are withdrawing from good old-fashioned community policing where they are embedded in their community where they know who the troublemakers are where they know the families and where they know how to prevent crime as well as respond to it quickly. This National Government is making it harder and harder and harder for the police to do their job and—what do you know—crime rates are going up as a result. Dairy owners in my city are living in fear for themselves and for their families because this National Government is failing to provide the resources we need to keep our city and our community safe. The National Government has made a lot about how this Budget is going to make ordinary Kiwi families better off. It says that on average people are going to get $24 in their back pocket. Well the truth is the people at the top—Hon Jacqui Dean: It's $26.Hon Simon Bridges: $26. Don't nickel and dime us. IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: —the people like Simon Bridges like Jono Naylor like Jacqui Dean like Grant Robertson and like me—get the bulk of the tax cuts. So I will be able to use my enormous tax cut to pay those school fees and the camp fees and to be able to pay for the additional health costs that come along—to pay for the scans and what have you that my family need from time to time. We will be able to pay for all of that. But those families at the bottom who already have the least and who already struggle with all of those costs are not getting enough out of this Budget to cover the additional costs that they will face because of this Government's failure to invest in public services. Do not have the wool pulled over your eyes. That is what I say to everybody in New Zealand. Do not have the wool pulled over your eyes by this National Government. It gives with one hand and it snatches away with the other hand. The truth is that people's back pockets will be emptier as a result of this Budget. That is the shame of it—that is the shame of it. National Government members stand up in this House and claim to be putting money in the pockets of working people when the truth is they are making life more and more unaffordable and people will be worse off as a result. It is time for a fresh approach—an approach that only a Labour Government can offer.