Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Green): I'm going to have to start off my contribution to this Budget Policy Statement (BPS) debate by picking up exactly where the previous Government and its members have taken up today. I want to pick up some of the terminology some of the words that they used to make it sound like they left this country's economy in good shape. So they go on a lot—I think it was the Hon Amy Adams. She was going on a bit about the future stability of our grandchildren. She talked about having to make very tough choices—and also I think the Hon Steven Joyce. They talked about: are we just going to have to spend more money? They talked about making sure that we can carefully balance the control of the money. Did they know in their planning of their amazing rock star economy that they were going to end up with children visiting hospitals 42000 times a year because of preventable illnesses from cold and damp homes? Did they carefully balance the future sustainability of our grandchildren when they thought about restricting and not making sure that all our homes are safe and warm—did they know? Did they know that they would end up spending $100000 day on motels because of the homelessness levels that are facing our country in this so-called rock star economy? Did they know? Did they carefully plan and carefully spend so that that's where we arrived at as a country today? Did they know? They talk about being honest. They talk about making sure that a Government can be honest about where it puts its money that a Government can be honest about the figures. Are we honest when we restrict our unemployment figures to just unemployment figures or can we be a bit more honest and take into account the full labour market and take into account those people who are employed in jobs and are still living in cars? Can they be that honest with themselves? SPEAKER: Order! MARAMA DAVIDSON: Come back?SPEAKER: Just leave the honesty" word out.MARAMA DAVIDSON: Sure. Fair enough—well it was raised by the previous benches. So I understand Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: The member's got a higher standard.Chris Bishop: Why don't you talk about the BPS?MARAMA DAVIDSON: So we've got a bit of a clean-up to do and that brings me to—thank you my colleague over here Mr Bishop. That brings me to the Budget Policy Statement.There's a bit of a mess to clean up and we know that communities in Aotearoa have been degraded economically socially and environmentally for quite some time with incredible underfunding to essential departments and organisations that help us to make sure that we've got all our things in a row—socially economically and environmentally. So the Budget Policy Statement talks about a fiscal management that we need to be looking at now that goes beyond just measuring deficits or surpluses that goes beyond just wanting to keep the debt to GDP ratio under a certain percentage. The Budget Policy Statement that we are putting up now introduces a far more sustainable way of planning our future together. This Government understands that fiscal management is also the responsibility of a Government to maximise real outcomes for actual people not just on a spreadsheet. Real outcomes like you know full employment and better-paid employment and more permanent employment. Real outcomes like making sure that people's living standards are at the least decent in this country—in this country where we have enough—making sure that we are building warm affordable homes that aren't going to send our kids to hospital and that aren't going to get people evicted because the rents are rising and the wages are stagnating. This fiscal management that we are putting up is starting to understand that having a world-class health system education system and justice system is also about how we balance our books because what are the costs—what are the costs—when we fail in that fiscal management? And alongside all of this we absolutely can keep our inflation stable. Things aren't going to be stable when you've got people in employment still struggling to pay the rent still struggling to buy healthy food still having to take time off work because their children are sick constantly. Those 42000 visits a year to hospital they were repeat visits because the kids had to keep going back to the same cold house. What sort of fiscal management do we call that?So I'm really proud that we are going to have legislation to put more money into families' pockets—an average of $75 a week with the Families Package and that's going to help around 384000 families. And what I like about that is the way we did that. We're getting rid of National's tax cuts which kept the majority of the wealth in the hands of a few. That's not how we design an economy. No matter what we produce it has to be shared equally in a way that's going to matter in a way that's going to keep our communities cohesive in a way that we can continue to protect our environment and our communities. I am especially pleased and proud of our Healthy Homes Guarantee Act where landlords now know and understand that properties have to be warm and insulated and have a way of being kept warm. These are basic things. These are basic things that are going to insist that we are stable in the long run. I am especially pleased about the extension of paid parental leave—which I've had to call on myself—starting with pushing it out to 22 weeks currently I think it's 18 and then eventually to 26 weeks. These are the things that will make our economy and our communities strong. I wanted to particularly pick up on the fact that we know that the way that we measure well-being has long had to change and I'm particularly pleased because the Green Party has understood this. We've understood that there is a connection between our economic environmental and social outcomes. They are not isolated. They depend on each other for our whole well-being to go ahead. I have to quote the incredible previous Green Party female co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons who said "If we value only what can be priced then of course we will pursue economic growth right to the point where the collapse of our life support system destroys us all. If we instead value our families friends community and human relationships our natural environment and time to enjoy them quality rather than just quantity we will measure our success with a Genuine Progress Indicator rather than by the sheer size of economic output." I'm most proud of the work we are starting and of my Minister James Shaw in particular for pushing through indicators that tell the actual truth. You cannot just say you left the books in good shape when you've still got families living in cars or even just in rentals that are insecure—in rental properties that are going to finish in three or six months. You cannot say you left the books in good shape and ignore all of the downfall and all the hangover around those books. We are not going to do that any longer. We understand that we have to measure all of the well-being indicators. I am proud to stand up and speak in support of the Budget Policy Statement. Kia ora."