Woods MeganHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): The Budget Policy Statement is an opportunity for the Government to set out their goals and their objectives to guide the decisions that they're going to make in their forthcoming Budget. That is the purpose of a Budget Policy Statement. By convention Ministers of Finance not only set out the strategic framework that will guide the decision making for the forthcoming Budget but they also set out what the operating allowance is going to be how much is going to be spent in the forthcoming Budget. This is a long-held convention. It is not required by law but it is a convention that has been held including at times of changes of Government. Now we traditionally hold elections and form Governments towards the end of the year. This is inconvenient around the budgeting process but it is something that incoming Governments of all stripes up until this year have dealt with. We had Bill English in 2008 in the midst of the global financial crisis issue a Budget Policy Statement and an operating allowance. We saw the incoming Government in 2017 formed very late in the year not only deliver a Budget Policy Statement with a stated operating allowance but also a mini-Budget in that period. So this Government has to explain to the New Zealand public why it has broken that longstanding convention. It is not unreasonable for New Zealanders to know the strategic framework in which the Government is making Budget decisions and the amount of money that will be spent. It is where the short-term fiscal intentions are spelt out. It is where the long-term fiscal objectives are signalled if they've been changed from previous strategic statements around expenditure. We did indeed see that in the Budget Policy Statement that was put out by the Government. This was something that the Finance and Expenditure Committee spent a large portion of time discussing. Part of that is around what the Budget is going to achieve. I think one of the things that stood out not only for Labour members on the committee but for a number of submitters is the difference between those objectives between last year and this year. Because in terms of what the priorities for this new Government with its first Budget are we can see that Māori and Pacific people have been removed as a priority in terms of what is in the Budget Policy Statement. We see that child poverty is no longer listed as a priority—that has been removed. We see a transition to a low-emissions economy gone—not a mention of decarbonisation or climate change. Not one single mention in the entire Budget Policy Statement put out by the Government.I think one of the things that we can say is that this Budget Policy Statement indeed stands as a very true and accurate testament to the priorities of this Government. It spells out very clearly that they will prioritise landlords over first-home buyers. It spells out the strategic intent to make sure that they do rip out and cut the funding for any climate measures that were in place. Then we have members opposite—members who sit on the committee and sat there and listened to submissions such as the member who has just sat down Catherine Wedd—trot out something that simply is not correct that New Zealand is on track to deliver on its emissions reduction targets. That member if she was paying attention at the committee would have heard a number of submitters including a discussion with the Minister about how we are indeed not on track to deliver on emissions budgets. In fact there are big gaping holes—in emissions budget two a 4 million tonne hole left by scrapping the Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry Fund and a further hole in emissions budget three and a Government that has absolutely no plan no vision and no idea of how it will achieve closing the gaps on it.This is a Government that is intent on taking our country backwards and nowhere is it more plainly spelt out than in the Budget Policy Statement. So when they say the country is back on track it's back on track and slapped into reverse because that is where we are going—backwards fast with no vision and no plan for the future.If we have a look at the kinds of other things that are starting to seep out that indeed are enshrined in the objectives of this Budget Policy Statement we can see what we're seeing coming out around housing in the last 24 and 48 hours that we have a Government that is prioritising tax cuts for landlords over helping first-home buyers into their first home. They are making bad choices and choices that will have ramifications for decades. What we are seeing is that the National Party is laying very clear that they object to expenditure on building public houses. We've seen this smokescreen sham report that has come out and object to the kinds of investment that needs to be made if we are going to solve our housing crisis. But no what we have is a Minister and her minions that trot out that what we will see is by bringing back interest deductibility we will see a lowering of rents for renters. By how much? Nobody can tell us. It's not something that is ever answered. It depends" is the answer. The sophisticated economic modelling that sits behind the National Party's backwards thinking—it depends. Well front up and tell us how much better off they are going to be. New Zealanders were promised in the election that this Government would deliver a Budget that would help them with the cost of living. Most New Zealanders are expecting $250 a fortnight in tax cuts so I guess in eight sleeps New Zealanders will know whether or not the National Government is going to deliver on that election promise of up to $250 a week—not the few cents that many of them will get while they are paying more for rents while they are paying more for insurance while they are paying more for so many other things.In the midst of this housing crisis of slashing the number of State houses that would have otherwise been built and making sure that they are prioritising investors over renters what are they doing? They're bringing back the ability of landlords to kick tenants out for no reason with bringing back no-cause evictions.This is a Government that is indeed making its priorities clear. It is also a Government that is borrowing for its tax cuts. Throughout the submissions and the analysis that we heard on this Budget Policy Statement we heard from a number of submitters—and this was something that was canvassed very fully. We discussed the analysis that had been carried out by Westpac and the economists at Westpac which outlines that the Government will need to borrow up to $15 billion over the next four years and that is close to the publicised cost of the tax cut programme outlined by this Government.It is not radical economics to say that if you weren't spending 15 billion bucks on tax cuts you wouldn't need to borrow $15 billion. This is a Government that says out of one side of its mouth it wants to pay down debt but yet its actions are showing that it is going to borrow $15 billion over four years to pay for tax cuts and this is in addition to the $2.9 billion it will be delivering to landlords while making sure that first-home buyers are locked out of the market.We have an opportunity in the Budget Policy Statement to have good and constructive debates about operating allowances and we will across different parties have different views on what they should be but in order for that to happen we need a Government that is transparent enough with a finance Minister that is transparent enough to actually tell the public how much that operating allowance is."