Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Co-Leader—Green): E te Māngai tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. We are of course debating the Budget Policy Statement and much has been made—particularly by the finance Minister—of the fact that there's still eight more sleeps" or so until we get to the Budget itself. But none the less we have here in the Budget Policy Statement some clues as to what will be in the Budget although not the operating allowance—breaking from convention there.Government Budgets are values statements and we have actually on the record a former National Party Minister of Finance and then Prime Minister who once said in a quip in an election debate that people "can't go shopping with your values." So let's talk about this Government's values and how they're making it harder for regular people to go shopping.On those values as the Hon Barbara Edmonds just noted within this Budget Policy Statement there is no reference whatsoever to climate change—climate change which by the way was mentioned in the briefing to incoming Minister the Minister of Finance as one of the greatest threats to financial stability in this country.We also saw that one of the first things out the door from this Government under its first 100 days was a repeal of smoke-free legislation which no one had asked for and no one had campaigned on except for the tobacco lobby. But guess what! It's given the Government an extra half a billion dollars in revenue to pay for their much-foreshadowed trickle-down tax cuts and of course their $2.9 billion in tax cuts to landlords.Within this Budget Policy Statement it says that the Government wants to and I quote "build a stronger more productive economy." So the question has to be asked: stronger for who? More productive for who? What do those words actually mean? Well we know that it will be stronger for the landlords in this country who have $2.9 billion handed to them. It will be stronger for the oil and gas companies who will see more profit going offshore and lining their pockets. It will be stronger for those who are opening coal mines in the conservation estate and it's stronger for the tobacco lobby.But on that point of productivity—and we've had a lot of debate about this back and forth in the likes of question time and other debates over the last few months—we have had not only Treasury officials in many hearings in front of the Finance and Expenditure Committee but also the likes of the International Monetary Fund and the OECD saying to the Government that one of the most important things that it could do if it really cared about the productivity of this economy is to fix the tax system.I know that the Greens go on about this somewhat because it is a fundamental piece to fixing the way that our economy operates. We've got a pretty good clue into how it operates out of the IRD and their high-wealth individuals report at the beginning of last year and some great subsidiary papers from Treasury which broke down wealth distribution in this country. There we found that the top 311 families in Aotearoa hold more wealth combined than the bottom 2½ million New Zealanders. That is not an accident. It is a consequence of a tax system that has consistently entrenched inequality and sees the average New Zealander pay an effective tax rate of less than half of those at the top. Those are political decisions.So we also heard from the chair of our select committee about the mental health announcement today and I think that there has been quite ample discussion about procurement processes which of course we'll leave for another day. But to that effect I just wanted to reflect actually—because this Government seems to be intent on and tells us a lot that they care about return on investment and value for money. Well in 2018 we had He Ara Oranga the report of the mental health and addiction inquiry tabled in this place and it told us what effectively all of the international research does which is that all of us have genetics which predispose us potentially towards the greater or lesser manifestation of mental ill health but that it is fundamentally our environment the opportunities that we have access to the stability that we experience in our lives as a result of having affordable housing or not the ability to belong—all of those things are the greatest determinants of mental ill health manifesting or not.To put that another way: stable housing is suicide prevention decent incomes are suicide prevention and belonging and acceptance in our communities are suicide prevention. And if we are solely as a Government or as a Parliament talking about funding mental health treatment while not talking about addressing the causes of mental ill health then we are missing a massive trick and putting far too many New Zealanders in pain and suffering that they do not need to go through.I also just wanted to pull through some of these pre-Budget announcements that the Government has put out there because frankly this Government is gaslighting New Zealanders with all the more oil coal and gas. They're telling us that they're making decisions for renters. But how are they doing that? By handing $2.9 billion to landlords which by the way the financial policy statements from the Reserve Bank said is going to increase house prices in this country by increasing the valuation of properties from those who already own.They tell us on the one hand that they are making decisions for the wellbeing of kids in State care by shredding laws that those who grew up in State care the Children's Commissioner and the Waitangi Tribunal are pleading with them not to shred.They tell us that they are making decisions for reaching our climate goals. And how are they doing that? By passing laws to fast track coal mines and seabed mining. And in fact as I've just alluded to climate change is not mentioned once in this Budget Policy Statement. And that is despite it being one of the greatest risks to financial stability in this country and indeed in the world—Sam Uffindell: I didn't hear it from your new MPs in their maiden statements.CHLÖE SWARBRICK: This is one of the really important things that I think it's important to unpack especially for members of the National Party heckling just now as to why the Green Party cares so fundamentally about the inextricable connection between social and environmental wellbeing. Climate change exacerbates inequality. So if we can take a second here to unpack that it is the case that we know based on domestic and international evidence that those with the most means contribute the most in terms of climate-changing emissions. Yet they are also those who have the means to continue moving further and further up the proverbial hill from rising seas—that is further and further away from the impacts of a warming climate. So who is hit the first and the worst by climate change? It's those who have the least and have contributed the least to those climate-changing emissions.So what's the Government's response? Not only to knowingly plough ahead with policies that will increase inequality based on the data the evidence and their own official advice but to say that they are no longer going to use the emissions trading scheme revenue directly for reducing carbon emissions in this country but for generalised tax cuts. Tax cuts do not trickle down.So for all of the hot air that we hear in here for all of the rhetoric that we hear from the Government—that they care about people that they care about the planet—there's the evidence that bears out completely the contrary of that—that their decisions will increase inequality they will increase house prices and they will increase homelessness.When it comes to climate change well my many parliamentary written questions to the Minister for climate show that he's not even asking so we can only conclude that he doesn't care.Then there's the experiences of everyday people who out there removed from this place will tell you that they are exhausted. This Government campaigned on the cost of living yet so far all we can see is that that cost of living continues to go up. More people are losing their jobs and will under the economic track that this Government has decided to pursue.We are also seeing climate progress being shredded. And when I pressed the Prime Minister a few months ago on whether he could name one thing that they had done which would lower the cost of living in this country what did he point to? Removing the regional fuel tax which will remove hundreds of millions of dollars for critical infrastructure in our largest city. And there is next to no guarantee that the fossil-fuel companies won't just fill the gap.So in conclusion this economy that we're always talking about and debating in this place it isn't set in stone; it isn't this deity that was handed down to us on stone tablets. The economy is all of us—the stuff that we create the planet that we live on and the rules that we put in place which show our priorities and the things that we value the kinds of outcomes that we want to work together in society to create.And the message from the Greens here that we want New Zealanders to hear is that we can make decisions that prioritise fundamentally the wellbeing of people and planet not the austerity trickle-down nonsense that we are hearing from this Government.I also just wanted to point out finally the deep inconsistency that we hear from this Government that they are going line by line through expenditure and cutting wasteful spending yet none of their Ministers take responsibility for any of the job cuts."