Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker tēnā koutou e te Whare. I want to talk about the opportunity that we have: together we could build an Aotearoa where every person has a warm dry secure affordable home. Where that home gets some or most of its electricity from rooftop solar and rooftop wind that's generated for community benefit—not private profit. Where people have the opportunity to get public transport: fast frequent electric buses trains light rail. Where they can walk to the shops. Where the kids can walk and cycle to school and the park and the playground and the sports fields. Where we're spending so much less time commuting in our cars. Where we have cleaner air and quieter streets—except when people gather there and people do gather there because it's not a traffic sewer anymore. We can build an Aotearoa where native birds and forest are regenerating; where our jobs that people do are actively restoring nature helping each other providing the caring support that is needed right across our communities. Where we're undoing the harms of our history of colonisation. Where Māori can get stolen land back—we've set up a framework for that—and use that as an economic base to look after their whānau. And now into the future where education is a human right where tertiary education—whatever it is vocational or at university or at polytech or some other—is something that anyone can access at any point without having to live in poverty. Where people's power bills are lower. Where we are combating the climate crisis. The work that we need to do is great. As a society we have a lot of work to do to look after our people to tackle the challenges of climate change and to restore nature. Yet we can do all of that but it does mean changing our priorities. In this Budget I can say the Greens—we're proud of the accomplishments of our Green Ministers and we have made a positive influence on this Government. There was a number of Green wins that will make a difference to people's lives but they're too little and it's almost too late. People need to know at home that in the next few weeks they have a choice. They have a choice and they can ensure that we have a Government that is bold enough to take on the systemic inequality in our tax system—where right now New Zealand ranks 136 out of 161 countries in terms of an equitable tax system. We can change that. We can ensure that our Government agencies have the funding that they need to provide the services that people need like free dental care. How amazing would it be if every New Zealander could access the dental care that they need when they need it? That's something we could do together. How amazing would it be if we were making Government grants and loans available to everyone to be able to put rooftop solar on their houses to insulate their homes to upgrade their appliances and switch off fossil fuels for good? That would lower their power bills. It would help reduce fossil fuel use which we have to end very very quickly. There is such a stark choice and I don't blame people for being disappointed. Because while there's some good stuff in this Budget it is not going fast enough or far enough to tackle the systemic inequality that we still have in our society. People are feeling the pain but that will continue to happen. Climate change means we are going to see more frequent and intense severe storms. We'll have times of drought. We need to rapidly reduce our fossil fuel use to zero and we can work with nature to help both make our communities more resilient and to ensure that we're reducing our emissions and restoring biodiversity at the same time—because people know that's what really matters. What matters is if you have a home if you're able to power it if you have enough resource to put healthy kai on the table if you have some form of stability in your life—and you know whether you rent or you own your house you should have the right to that stability. Our communities are going to need to cooperate on a scale that we have never before cooperated if we are going to survive and thrive in the 21st century.I've seen reports and I'm sure many other New Zealanders have seen the scale of the tragic and devastating fires in Canada that are raging right now the unprecedented storms that hit Aotearoa but that have been hitting other parts of the world with flooding. There is a cost to that and we do not have the luxury of carrying on like we have in the past. Most of the changes—if not all of them—that we need to make to reduce fossil fuel use to live sustainably in harmony with our environment with a stable climate will actually enrich people's lives. They will actually make lives better. I tell you what they won't do. It won't line the pockets of the billionaires who have been making tons of money off of the sale of fossil fuels which are slowly killing the planet—and now rapidly potentially killing the planet. So yeah the Green Party makes no apology about standing here and saying the system needs to change and it can change but we need a more equitable distribution and access to resources for that to work. We need to have a clear plan. We cannot rely on the goodwill of billionaires or a hundred millionaires to come to the rescue and save us when we are being hit by severe weather events. We can't rely on them to donate through charity to ensure that we have the public services and infrastructure that people need to live good lives.Only the Green Party has consistently been standing in this House for over 25 years saying Climate change is real wake up we need to do something about it." Only the Green Party has been standing here saying "We can have an economic system that actually looks after people and protects our planet." That's the whole point of it. But we are different than the parties on the right and so while people right now might be concerned that the Labour Government has not been as competent as it could be I have to agree. OK. Tunnelled light rail in Auckland makes zero sense. Two new tunnels for cars under the Auckland Harbour make zero sense. The enormous amount of money being promised on massively carbon-intensive infrastructure projects that will provide little to no benefit to people's ability to move around the city is absolutely astounding. The National Party and the ACT Party will take us backwards much further and faster.So people at home need to know if they are dissatisfied with the status quo with the cost of living with the fact that we're having to deal with increased storm events with the fact that the health system is not yet where it should be with the fact that housing is still too unaffordable that rents are still going up: you have a choice. People at home people of New Zealand: you have a choice to vote for the Green Party. We have a clear consistent message. We have delivered in Government. We have been a positive influence. We have brought forward the home insulation programme that both the National Party and the Labour Party claim a success—that was our co-founder Jeanette Fitzsimons who did the work to bring that to New Zealand and it has had enormous benefits and it has carried on. It has created jobs it has helped communities but we can do so much more.The public transport projects that the Green Party has consistently advocated for have been proven to be a success when people in the National Party were saying they'd be a white elephant like the Northern Busway and the electrification of Auckland's rail network. We campaigned hard for the City Rail Link and it hasn't been delivered as fast as we would have liked; National Government at the time delayed on it.At the time National was last in Government the carbon price was $2 a tonne and there was absolutely no Government direction to invest in things that would address climate change or that would really help nature. We had a Predator Free 2050 goal with absolutely zero funding to achieve it. Now last term we saw Jobs for Nature make a huge difference to our natural areas creating jobs that will restore nature. We can continue to do this but to do this we have to change the system. And to change the system the Greens need to be at the heart of a coalition Government with many more MP's and many more Ministers.I see the opportunity that we have. I know that New Zealanders care about nature. I know that they care about pulling our weight in climate change. I know that they want more investment in public transport rail and coastal shipping. There was a poll recently that showed that 72 percent of New Zealanders think the priority for transport investment should be public transport rail and coastal shipping. And yet the three other major parties in this Parliament all are promising more roads. Some are promising it financed by overseas interests at which we will definitely have to pay back at a much higher rate and the Labour Party's still not going far enough in seizing the opportunity and the desire from the public for better public transport. Only the Green Party can help deliver this vision and we can do it with your vote."