Menéndez March Ricardo; Brownlee GerryRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. This bill the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill has been called sneaky by some and I think actually it goes beyond being sneaky; it's a bill that it is cruel and it speaks to the values of the National Party and its coalition partners. This is a trickledown bill that ignores those doing it the toughest that gives cake for those at the top and breadcrumbs for everyone else and people deserve far more than those breadcrumbs. We should not settle for people having a handful more dollars each week when we know we can make it a political reality to ensure that everyone can live well and not in poverty.It was really telling in this third reading debate when the Minister the Hon Simon Watts talked about hard-working Kiwis as the people who this bill was targeting but actually some of the people least benefiting from this bill and in fact left out entirely in portions of this bill are caregivers who do caregiving full-time who won't be receiving the boost to a bunch of income top-ups such as the in-work tax credit for example because this Government and successive Governments have determined that full-time caregivers are not doing so-called work. The Green Party says an end to this nonsense argument that caregivers are not doing work. Caregiving is work. And it's time for the Government to stop putting it about to all the labour that comes across our economy that actually sustains all of us and yet is not considered important because it is not under an employment agreement. Caregiving volunteering—and the reality that people deserve the dignity of living well.This bill has to be taken in the context of the cuts to all the other subsidies that will make life more expensive. The reality is that this bill is coming in the context of subsidies for transport being ended resulting in higher transport fares for people; an end to the subsidies for prescriptions which will make access to medicines more expensive. It comes with the introduction of greater powers for landlords that will make it easier to evict people putting people into situations where they'll need to access emergency housing in distress. So while they may be celebrating the breadcrumbs that they've thrown out to our communities they're also making life more expensive for the majority of people. But it is absolutely no surprise. This Government never claimed to be on the side of the many. They've made it abundantly clear that they're here for the wealthy few. And the Green Party will continue fighting to ensure that we have a Government that makes the tough political choices to actually end poverty to tackle the climate crisis and deal with our biodiversity crisis.The Prime Minister is not right when he talks about the decisions in this Budget being tough. In fact they just continue what successive Governments have done which is to enable inequality to continue to increase. We've seen report after report showing how child poverty measures will stagnate—that this Government isn't taking the tough choice of ending poverty once and for all. And my colleague Chlöe Swarbrick was right in calling out the nonsense from Government reports that talk about how one of the key determinants of child poverty is living in a household that relies on a benefit because it is a political decision to set those benefits below the poverty line. People did not grow up in poverty out of inertia. They grew up in poverty because the Government and successive Governments of blue and red stripes have set benefit levels way below the poverty line. They refuse to tax the wealthy few to ensure that we can lift people out of poverty and have refused to recognise the inherent right that people have to a life with dignity.This Government has also turned its back on disabled people many who live on income support many who will be some of the least proportionately benefiting groups out of these tax cuts. The reality is that you can't fund Whaikaha and then on the other hand remove supplements to minimum wage extensions and exclude disabled people on income support from many of the elements of this bill. Our communities deserve far more than a Government willing to hand the future to those already doing it well and the wealthy few. We deserve a Government that is committed to making the tough choices of ending poverty tackling the climate crisis and not continuing with this proven trickledown economics that has only increased inequality and made life worse for the majority of people.SPEAKER: Just before I call the next member we have a situation where a party has indicated they wish to share a split call. That is allowed except that it is on the basis that it is notified. It wasn't notified. So in order to maintain a degree of fairness about that we will have the splits as they are determined already excepting that the Māori Party call on this split goes to the Hon Dr Duncan Webb.