Willis ScottSCOTT WILLIS (Green): Mr Speaker thank you. Ned Stark warned us several years ago that Winter is coming" but with this coalition Government we know it's well and truly here and it's not good. Budget 2024 showed us this Government's heart is made of ice. We know that every dollar spent on insulation brings at least $6 in benefits according to a review of 45000 Warmer Kiwi Homes whare. And that's through analysis done by the Motu economics institute.So that's benefits—benefits in terms of health wellbeing and emissions: benefits gained through fewer visits to the doctor or days stuck in the hospital and fewer days away from work; less firewood less electricity being wasted; and benefits in fewer winter deaths. A warm cosy home safe from the elements is a basic human right and as a country we can ensure everyone has access to healthy sustainable homes in caring communities but this Government has cut $178.5 million of funding to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority and that will ensure that more children more elderly more whānau will suffer energy poverty. And we know that material interventions aren't enough. Social support is also needed like budgeting services and they've also been cut by this Government.The blitzkrieg of destruction has continued with cuts to front-line services. The financial mentors in budgeting services have called for an urgent review of Government cutbacks because this Budget as it stands will drive more communities into poverty and debt and put added strain on an already under-resourced sector. So clearly this Government has not finished its massacre of all that is good. Disestablishing the Consumer Advocacy Council means that there is no advocate for residential and small-business customers. The Consumer Advocacy Council was an independent advocate. So here we are with winter upon us and the cold icy stare of the ice army in front of us.I've had the privilege of working with those at the flax roots working on energy action. Members of the Community Energy Network like the Sustainability Trust here in Wellington like Aukaha in Ōtepoti Dunedin—people who really care about their community people who work with whānau in difficulty. I've had the privilege of working with many whānau in those challenging places with poor-quality housing needing support not knowing where to turn really stressed by this Budget. And when the Prime Minister can spend $95000 renovating Government House a house that the Prime Minister prefers not to live in but only to hold family Christmas gatherings in we can recognise the signs of privilege rather than care for those most vulnerable in our communities.I've visited whānau and whare with holes in the roof holes in the floor rotten windows and weatherboards that were like a filigree—you could poke your finger into them—leaking bathrooms that cause the joists and bearers underneath to rot holes in walls homes where black mould looks like something from Stranger Things and homes with weeping windows. Some of these homes were considered complete having met the very poor insulation standards that we've already got and having received ceiling and underfloor insulation in the basic Warmer Kiwi Homes scheme. So that's what makes this so outrageous: to not only cut the Warmer Kiwi Homes funding but also to cut the new programmes which were going to deal with those complex issues—the programmes that were going to ensure that people could afford to heat their homes programmes that would ensure that people could afford to have hot water programmes that would reach those who distrust the State who have been subject to abuse in State care and need special social support.The experience of those who work at the flax roots is really what matters and when we look at this Budget we see a disregard for evidence a disregard for experience. The practitioners have been calling for a caring Budget a Budget that recognises the cost of living pressures and the poor quality of housing a Budget that will allow more flexible funding arrangements for those providers that sometimes have to bunch together different funds report on different funding streams simply to do the one thing that is necessary to improve those homes to increase—not decrease—the available funding for repairing and restoring homes to a livable quality that are not safe to live in.To work with those practitioners who are now confronting whānau in homes that have been flooded whānau in homes that will be flooded again whānau in homes that are not safe to live in because they are at risk from the climate impacts that this Government's policies are now going to lead to when they expand coal mines and open up oil and gas exploration in our rohe—they have also called for coordinated approaches across Government; they've called for breaking down silos. I don't see anything in this Budget that shows how we're going to build a more collective effort across Government. They've also called for an investment in energy efficiency which is interesting given that the Government's already signalled an interest in reducing insulation standards reducing our poor-quality Building Code to ensure that people can build worse homes than already exist in our poor-quality environment. Another recommendation is multidisciplinarity to address what are complex social situations but instead we see $2.9 billion going to give landlords a tax break.And that's not all: this Government has also gutted the Community Energy Fund taking $30 million for tax cuts. And this is really really critical; this is important. This is important because many communities those who work on energy efficiency were also looking for localised distributed energy resources distributed energy systems peer to peer retail community windfarms community solar to bring the energy dollar back into communities—to help prepare those communities for climate impacts which will increase which will increase under this Government's policies. Those communities have a headway they are working anyway but what we could have seen in this Budget was ensuring that we built the community energy sector to take charge.And that is the big disappointment because the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment are now telling the sector that the remaining crumbs in the Community Energy Fund won't be decided upon until December this year at the earliest. So what we have are people who are working at the flax roots holding on with their fingertips to provide for their communities. The one thing that reassures me is that recommendation—let's see—in the Energy Hardship Expert Panel Report which the Government seems to want to bury as well. The Energy Hardship Expert Panel Report to the Minister released in July last year is that there's recommendation AF1 to improve competition and remove barriers to entry and operation for independent social retailers.The good news for the Government is there is a bill sitting in the biscuit tin waiting to be pulled out but it could come out a lot earlier. And it's called the Electricity Industry (Separation of Generation and Retail Businesses) Amendment Bill. So my gift to you is to adopt this bill and let us get working. Kia ora."