Mahuta Nanaia: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMahuta Nanaia: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 07 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11722. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato): If those two speeches were an exemplar of the Government’s promotion of its eighth Budget it is no wonder that out in the provinces there is not a peep not a sound not a murmur of what the Government is trying to promote here today in the House.Do you know what? It is as simple as this. The Government’s Budget has got its priorities in the wrong place. It does not reflect the type of concerns that everyday New Zealanders have. They want a warm healthy home. They do not want homeless people on the street. They want a reliable public health care system where district health boards are not crammed to the hilt in the accident and emergency (A and E) room. They want to ensure that every kid has access to a decent public education—where we are not relying on philanthropic trusts to feed our kids at school—and that we have a school system that works for them and a school system that cares about them.They are thinking about jobs and out in the provinces—and I heard the contributions of members on the Treasury benches who were talking about this Budget being good for the regions. They want jobs out in the regions but there is a more unstable work environment for many people who are earning up to the minimum wage—up to the minimum wage—and they cannot rely on the jobs that they do have out in the regions. It is a very precarious state. The Government has got its priorities in the wrong order because people out in our communities in the provinces—actually in Auckland—are worried about the housing crisis that is there but also out in our regions as well.I want to come in particular to the lack of a strategy for Māori opportunity because the Māori Party members have simply raised their hands and said “Hallelujah!” to all the baubles of what they have been able to achieve but it is as simple as this: the Government is getting more revenue in tobacco tax than the Māori Party has been able to return in the initiatives that it is putting out there. So let us go through them. This is an example of putting the cart before the horse. The Minister for Māori Development has promoted the Māori Land Service and my colleague Meka Whaitiri is promoting the concerns of people about Te Ture Whenua Māori reforms. He is providing $18 million over 3 years to the Māori Land Service. Heck! The legislation has not even passed through the House. Those members are putting the cart before the horse without listening to the concerns of people in their communities about the type of land reform that may inhibit simple owners on their own land from having a say. How can that be? Then yes Te Matatini our huge cultural event is receiving a small increase. Comparatively when you look at the numbers going to regional kapa haka and then the national kapa haka event around about 250000 people are estimated to go which is more I am told than the 71000-odd people who go to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra but there is a huge inequity in distribution.Housing initiatives—around about $17.2 million has been set aside for housing initiatives $12.9 million of which is for the Māori housing network. But I can confidently say that the needs in the Māori housing space will outweigh the meagre apportioning of Budget funds in this area. So you know we can acknowledge that yes some gain has been made there but actually is it enough and does the strategy meet the real need in our community which faces high needs in terms of housing provision high needs in terms of health care and high needs in terms of good reliable quality education? No the Budget does not address that at all.In fact it is laughable what Minister Bennett did when she said: “We’ll give a $5000 grant to people to get out of Auckland for free and go to places like Huntly.” Well I was brought up in Huntly and I can tell you now there are no homes in Huntly. That $5000 will go straight into the pockets of private landlords who will be reaping all the rewards from these people who are being turfed out of Auckland. How can that be? The Government sells State houses the Government refuses to ensure that there are more affordable homes to buy in many of our regions and in regions under pressure and the Government ignores that homelessness exists. How can that be where we have the Government promoting its economic performance at the expense of greater inequality and greater poverty in our society? It cannot be can it? Well it is.So next year when the Government brings out the policy—and people should know now that the reason why no one is talking about this Budget is that next year the Government is probably going to give tax cuts and that will be the election sweetener. Well it cannot be at the expense I believe of people who need the support now—it cannot be at the expense of people who need the support now.In housing we see some very significant pressure so let me paint a picture just across my own electorate which I am sure reflects many other electorates. In Huntly there are no homes. In fact you will be waiting for a long time to get assessed even by private landlords to be eligible to go into the private rental market there. It is a problem. In Pukekohe you only need to visit Kingseat to see what people are reduced to if (1) there are no homes on the Housing New Zealand list and (2) private landlords will not have them. So they go to whatever is available and I challenge any Government Minister to go into Kingseat and see the conditions that people are forced to live in when the Government does not take some leadership role in this space. Papakura—what we have seen is the refurbishment of a fire station for temporary accommodation but I can tell you “temporary” at that particular dwelling is up to 2 years because the Government is not taking its rightful leadership role in providing good State housing. In Thames and Paeroa it is the same. People are moving out of the city. They are moving back to where they think they can get more support around their whānau and things like that. They are moving into their whānau’s sheds or their sitting rooms because again there are no homes. There is no adequate support for them and how can that be? In Hamilton it is just as bad.If we have any issue coming through our electorate office it is housing and the issues around housing mean simply this—and this is how it impacts on education. We have had a family who came to us and those people had been in three different homes so that meant their child had to go to three different schools and that child’s learning opportunities were set back simply by the transient nature of their living experience. In a caring decent society we should say “No this is not acceptable.” because in a society like ours in New Zealand education is the doorway to opportunity. So having a secure housing environment a stable warm home will give all our kids the best opportunity and the Government members should not look down. They should look up they should look forward and they should meet the challenge of kids who are now forced to live in cars and we have numerous stories of those people up in Auckland.The Government talks about district health board funding but for the Waikato District Health Board it has flat-lined. I can tell you that if you go to the hospital in Hamilton you will see good staff under pressure working in the A and Eunit with waiting times up to 8 hours. If you go to a private A and E in Hamilton city they are waiting up to 2 hours to see a doctor. This is the challenge of a public health system that is not adequately funded and then that impacts on other parts of the community.Operations funding grants have not increased significantly. Teachers are bearing the pressure of more and more responsibility for needs outside the school gate and that means they are taking from their pocket to try to ensure that their kids get the very best opportunity. The Government is putting pressure on teachers and principals who want all kids to have a good opportunity. Operations funding means that schools will be more reliant on parents to give but what about the parents who cannot give? What is going to be the opportunity for them? Oh a charter school. A charter school—give more funding to a charter school than to a public school. What message is that sending to kids in New Zealand?This Budget has got its priorities in the wrong place. It does not provide for people who want a good home a reliable job good access to education for their kids—not transient opportunities—and a good public health care system that they can rely on. More so the Māori Party has no strategy in terms of Māori development. In some cases it is putting the cart before the horse. It is not addressing the fundamental need of regional development that provides jobs in partnership with iwi. It is a bit of a mess. I am happy to speak to this particular Budget because I think that in 2017 it will be all on—all on.