SpeechHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): E te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe. Otirā e ngā mema katoa o te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. I'm pleased to take a call on the Appropriation (2023/24 Estimates) Bill on behalf of Te Paati Māori. As is our custom it's important that I acknowledge a dear kaumātua by the name Heemi Kara from the marae of the Prime Minister at Ōrongomai Marae in Upper Hutt who sadly passed away over this weekend. So e te rangatira kua whetūrangitia haere haere moe mai rā.[So oh esteemed one who has passed away rest in peace.]In taking this call on this bill I just want to acknowledge that this week was the 17year anniversary of Kīngi Tūheitia's reign. I mention that because on the paepae he mentioned change was important. In fact one of the speakers from the pae addressed the fact that only 2 percent of Treaty settlements that are settled with iwi across this country amounts to 2 percent of what was actually lost which then equated to the further statement that 98 percent was goodwill—98 percent was goodwill.So let's look at this Budget. It will come as no surprise that Te Paati Māori and I will be voting against it simply because our tax system is doing exactly what it was designed to do: take money from the poor and give it to the rich. The richest 10 percent now own half the wealth in this country while the poorest owns a mere 2 percent. On top of that average people in Aotearoa pay 20.2 percent in tax while the wealthy only pay 9.4 percent. It is time Madam Speaker we rectify this imbalance. We've all seen the growing wealth inequality in our country. This Government's inaction on housing and response to COVID-19 has seen a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary people to the richest in our society. This is on top of the entrenched poverty that our people have been experiencing for generations. It is unacceptable that over 2 million people in Aotearoa earn less than $30000 per year. Nearly 50 percent of our working population do not earn enough money to survive let alone thrive.Te Paati Māori's vision is simple yet profound: to shift the burden of tax from the poor to the wealthy and to restore fairness and economic justice. We believe in an Aotearoa hou where ordinary people don't have to subsidise the extravagant lifestyles of the rich. No one should go hungry while supermarkets are making record profits. No one should be homeless when there are enough vacant houses to house everybody. Whānau should not have to choose between paying their bills on time or taking their babies to the doctor. We will no longer accept any excuses from the two major parties who are fighting to keep people poor.We are putting our pou in the ground. Now is the time for radical change just like Kīngi Tūheitia said yesterday. Our tamariki are literally hungry for it. Te Paati Māori has a plan which would see 4.2 million people paying less tax in Aotearoa. That means more kai on the table. It means whānau being able to afford their own homes instead of being forced to pay off someone else's mortgage in rent. It means reinvesting into those who need it the most. It's time for the wealthy to start pulling their weight.We hear a lot of talk about unprecedented times but we aren't seeing any unprecedented solutions. We stand on the precipice of an Aotearoa hou a new era of Aotearoa one where economic justice shouldn't be just a dream but becomes a reality. What does an Aotearoa hou look like? Let me remind you. It looks like how we treat you on our marae: we will welcome you we will feed you we will house you we will love you. Unfortunately this government has lacked the vision to usher in the Aotearoa hou that our people deserve. No one should be hungry no one should be homeless and no one should have to feel unsafe. We envisage an Aotearoa hou where every whānau is thriving.It's time for transformative solutions to redistribute wealth to restore economic justice and bring an end to poverty. And we can do this by removing GST from all kai and regulating the ability of supermarkets to hike prices. We can do it by removing income tax for low-income whānau. We can do it by increasing income tax on those earning more than $200000. We can do it by increasing the corporate tax rate from 28 percent to 33 percent.But we go further. We talk about the wealth tax that I've just outlined but there's also taxes on foreign companies who earn their earnings in Aotearoa and transfer them overseas. They should be made to pay. There's much land that is banked in this country sitting idle. It should be forced to pay tax. And of course there are many vacant houses that if we were to tax them and bring them back on the market we wouldn't have the homelessness that we currently have.I've touched on a few policies that Te Paati Māori are putting up in this year's election that are going to rebalance an unfair and unjust tax system. This is what we were looking for in this bill; we didn't see it. This is why we are voting against it. Like Tūheitia said it is time for change. And as Te Paati Māori says: he Aotearoa hou—by Māori for all. Thank you Madam Speaker.