Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): I rise on behalf of the Green Party to speak on the first reading of the Taxation (Cost of Living Payments) Bill. It's been quite the ordeal listening to the National Party members who keep talking about expenditure and advocating for austerity ignoring that right now many of our low-income communities are struggling to get by. This bill is an acknowledgment that many of our communities are struggling to make ends meet. It is a temporary payment of $350 targeted towards people earning less than $70000.But there is a problem. In an acknowledgment that people are struggling what we are ignoring are some of the communities that actually are doing it the toughest—that the sign of this legislation and the intent of this policy seeks to leave behind people on main benefits. We've known for years that these are the communities that are on the breadline. I think it's appalling and a disservice to the communities that we're supposed to be serving to not include them in a stimulus package effectively lifting incomes to allow people to make ends meet at a time where inflation is growing where global events are putting pressure on supply lines and therefore the cost of basic essentials is going up.Yes people on the benefit are already receiving the winter energy payment—but the Government knows that it is not enough. This is why in 2020 the Government acknowledged this by doubling the winter energy payment at a time when things were tough. And things are still difficult for those families. It is a shame that over a million people will be excluded from this payment by design and by political choice. It didn't have to be this way. The Green Party has advocated that as part of responding to our inequality crisis we need permanent increases to incomes so that families can thrive not just survive.Recently there was a group of organisations under the Te Tapeke Fair Futures group that released a report explaining just how much some families were struggling to make ends meet. Some of them were under $307 in order to just provide for basic essentials.This research was backed by some of our organisations that are doing the most at the front lines—including Barnados the Manawatū Tenants Union Monte Cecilia Housing Trust Auckland Action Against Poverty New Zealand Disability Advisory Trust Auckland City Mission Child Poverty Action Group the Disabled Persons Assembly (New Zealand) Inc. FIRST Union Save the Children and many others. These organisations know the struggles that our communities are going through. In fact people on the ground have been speaking to the media and to politicians for many years explaining that we need permanent fixes to our income support system.So I'm stoked for the families that will find some temporary relief through this legislation but I'm deeply disappointed that we are ignoring the reality that incomes remain too low. I've heard members of Government talking about how this is a Budget of health. I want to say that researchers and communities have told us for many years that we need to be focusing on the things that determine whether someone will be healthy—and incomes play a massive role in that. When families are struggling to make ends meet they go through toxic stress. That toxic stress builds up and contributes to families getting sick. If we're serious about building an infrastructure that is fit for purpose and a health system that delivers for all people in Aotearoa we need to have livable incomes. This is a massive missed opportunity to ensure that everyone is looked after.The inequality crisis is not going to go away in three months' time; in fact it is not new. So we're calling on Labour to look at the many recommendations their own Government reports have put out. The recommendations that people on the benefit have been talking about—to increase main benefits; to individualise the income-support system; to scrap benefit sanctions; and to look at genuine transformative solutions so that our families are able to fully participate in their communities. Kia ora.