Pallett SarahSARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's with great pride as the member of Parliament for Ilam that I rise to take a short call in this Budget debate. Ilam is obviously as we all know the very best electorate in Aotearoa but it may be one of the most misunderstood. We do have the traditional leafy lanes we do have wealthy homes there—very lovely they are. But we also have the second largest social housing area one of the largest number of different ethnic communities and we also have our fantastic university—the best university in the country. And this makes for a very vibrant interesting and challenging place to be and to be the member of Parliament for.It's in this context that I would like to highlight a few aspects of Budget 2023 in which there is as we've heard much to love—far more than I can do justice to in the few minutes that I have. Because unlike many it seems in the House sitting comfortably on the Opposition benches I know what it means to have to choose between getting a prescription filled or buying a few loaves of what I would rudely call plastic bread"—the stuff that they sell as a loss leader in the big-box supermarkets. I've seen in my work as a midwife under—it has to be said—a National Government firsthand what it actually means to be unable to heat your home to be unable to complain about the black mould in your home that's making your children sick because you can be evicted without reason or notice to be unable to afford hot water to wash yourself your children or your clothes. So I don't mind admitting that I felt extremely emotional when Minister Robertson came before caucus and told us that we were going to be scrapping the $5 prescription fee because I know what a massive difference this is going to make to the health of our people.If you care about people then you know how important this is. If you only care about money then it still makes sense because it saves money on hospital bills from unnecessary admissions. When people are able to pick up all of the medication that their clinician physician has prescribed for them they often don't need that hospital visit and that saves us money. We heard from the Hon Rachel Brooking earlier about the research at Otago University that shows that really clearly: 135000 unfilled prescriptions which is why when I read on the day of the Budget announcement that National would reintroduce the $5 charge if elected—Matt Doocey: That's right.SARAH PALLETT: "That's right." Mr Doocey says—I thought it was a joke. I thought it was a really bad joke in the style of The Onion satire. But then I heard the party double down and then I found it in black and white. And in my opinion it is cruel and economically stupid and the National Party can never ever claim to care one jot for anyone who is struggling to make ends meet.They oppose for the sake of opposition for the simple sake of contrariness. And at this point they've had to walk back so many policy statements or clarify so many positions that barely any of us know including their own benches what they stand for now. Whatever the most powerful lobby groups think is probably what they want—whatever their largest donor thinks. Who knows? Who knows what they think? They don't. They don't communicate it with each other. Simeon Brown says one thing one day walked back the next. You cannot trust a word the National Party says. You can't trust a word they say. You can't trust a picture they publish. You can't trust them even on legislation they co-wrote which would be funny if it wasn't so serious.So I reflect on whether or not women should trust Christopher Luxon when he says on the one hand abortion is murder and in the next breath that women's reproductive rights are safe in his hands. The legislation that his member co-wrote is not safe in his hands. The National Party have no idea what they stand for. And that's why you cannot trust a word they say. You cannot trust them to stand by people who have less than they do because they've shown us really clearly how much they care about the people of Aotearoa the elderly the poor children—not one jot. I commend the Budget to the House."