Robertson GrantGRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): I am going to begin my contribution by trying to help out the member Tim Macindoe who has just resumed his seat to understand some of the basic economics that lie behind this Budget. Perhaps to do that we will talk about a typical family going to the supermarket. A couple of friends of mine over the 8 years that I have been a Minister here—a Minister! If only!The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order!GRANT ROBERTSON: Over the 8 years that I have been a member of this House a couple of friends of mine have had two children. If they showed up at the supermarket with the same amount of money before they had the two children—8 years ago this year—and expected to be able to buy the same amount of produce and goods that they need to feed their family they would come away short-changed. That is the problem Mr Macindoe in the health system. It is all very well to say We've put some more money in." but the money has not kept up with population growth and it has not kept up with inflation. What that has led to is cuts—cuts in services in almost every district health board (DHB) in New Zealand.There is a headline in a newspaper or online that says to us that services are being cut. We heard about the MidCentral District Health Board today. We hear about Waikato Hospital in that member's area which has told people: "Please don't come to the emergency department. We can't take you." That is because Mr Macindoe the National Government has underfunded health to the tune of nearly $2 billion over the last 8 years. That leads to cuts. It is a real-term cut and until the Government members get their heads around that people around New Zealand will not be able to understand why they keep standing up in the House every day and telling New Zealanders that it is all fine in the health sector. New Zealanders know that it is not.The window dressing in the health sector in this Budget was exposed by Jacinda Ardern in Parliament last week when she asked Steven Joyce what the $100 million contingency fund for mental health was for and he did not know. He did not know. It is a typical last-minute knee-jerk reaction from the National Government when it knows that it has got a problem because for 9 years it has consistently underfunded health and consistently undervalued mental health as part of that picture. That for Mr Macindoe's benefit is what cuts are actually about in our health sector.I want to actually focus most of the remainder of my contribution on my concern for what is really missing from this Budget. We saw the sugar hit. The sugar hit of the $2 billion of tax cuts—Brett Hudson: The line's not working for you Grant. Wait for the next poll buddy.GRANT ROBERTSON: —that translate out to about 20 bucks a week and that sugar hit—well that is the thing Mr Hudson. You see a sugar hit will last for a little period of time. That is the thing. You will get a little bit of a high out of that sugar hit but it is not the solution that New Zealand needs. After the sugar hit high goes away we will still see a grossly underfunded health system. We will still see 40000 New Zealanders homeless. We will still see the lowest homeownership rate in 60 years in New Zealand. We will still see early childhood educators saying to us that they are tens of thousands of dollars short in each kindergarten in New Zealand because the funding has not kept up. The solutions to those things are not in the Budget. So it is a "sugar hit Budget" and there are no solutions.But the other element missing from this Budget is some kind of vision for the economy—some kind of vision for how we are going to grow higher-waged jobs and opportunities for people right across New Zealand in the face of a rapidly changing world of work. Go looking for that in the Budget and it is not there. Before anyone says that this is just the Labour Party the country manager for Xero Craig Hudson came out and said: "Budget 2017 lets down small businesses and the tech sector." That is what he said. The point that Mr Hudson seems to not quite be able to understand is that right across New Zealand people are looking for the Budget to do what it should do to set out the vision for New Zealand and instead the campaign manager for the National Party Steven Joyce—who happens to be the finance Minister—laid down a Budget that was all about 23 September and not about the 21st century.It is interesting to note that Craig Hudson said: "You have to be a real believer in trickle-down economics to think that this Budget is going to change [anything]." That is the reality: a tired Government out of ideas out of touch and relying on a tired outdated economic philosophy. What the Budget needed to contain was a road map for the 21st century. For the Labour Party at the centre of that for the economy is actually how we support education and training. We do not know exactly what jobs are going to be available in the future but what we do know is that we need a workforce that is adaptable that can make sure it is resilient and that has the skills that are needed.That is why I am extremely proud that we have a policy of 3 years free post - secondary school education and training to make sure that every New Zealander gets the chance to go ahead and get the skills that they need in the future. It is also why I am very very proud of the fact that we as a party have a proper regional economic development policy. Go looking in the Budget for that and you will struggle to find it. The Labour Party members have said that we want to be a partner in communities to grow jobs. We know that there is a decent life available for New Zealanders right across this beautiful country but central government has to be a partner there. Andrew Little has already launched the Labour Party's Centre of Digital Excellence in Dunedin which is about making sure that the gaming industry there which already employs hundreds of people can grow even further. It partners between the university and the tech sector down there to make sure that we are building those decent jobs of the future.In Gisborne we have announced our support for another wood-processing plant so that a region that grows fantastic wood can actually benefit from the jobs that come with processing there. It is a community that wants that to happen and is looking for help and partnership from the central government and the Labour Party is there. We want to see those kinds of projects right around New Zealand. That is an active regional development policy. That is how we support the growth of decent jobs right across our country and we see precious little of that in this Budget.In fact what we see is the Government running up the white flag on exports. This is what we all know we need: if we are going to get those higher-paying jobs we need our export industries to be firing. This Government set itself a target saying: "We are going to have exports of 40 percent of GDP." That was the target. Exports have gone nowhere and the Budget forecasts that they will go backwards. There is no investment in support for those exporters. There is a failure around new thinking and research and development—which we have covered with research and development tax credits that we will bring in—and pitiful increases forecast in the Budget for weekly income.Real average wages are going to go up 1.3 percent across the whole next 5 years. That equates out to 8c an hour for the average worker every year. That is supposed to be the benefit of this economy which has gone so well? That is how we are sharing prosperity—8c an hour a year? That is meant to be the dividend for hard-working New Zealand people? It is pathetic.What New Zealanders have consistently said is that they want a Government that will build strong social foundations in health in education in housing and in keeping our communities safe. That is why those are the priorities of the next Labour Government. We do not believe that the priorities should be a tax cut that all of us in the House benefit from when there are people living in cars and garages. We do not think that the priority should be a tax cut that does not deliver to the lowest-income New Zealanders when we have got a mental health system that cannot keep up with the people who end up in it.What this Budget needed to be was a vision for how New Zealand goes forward in the second decade of the 21st century. Instead it is a vision for what the National Government thinks is clever politics. I can look at it as a politician and say "Maybe I can see some of that." but we have to be about something more than that in this Parliament. We have to be about creating a future that means that our children and grandchildren know that New Zealand is the place where they want to be—that it will be able to deliver them good and decent jobs an environment where they can swim in the rivers a country where we look after one another. Those values that are core to New Zealand are sadly lacking in this Budget. It is a continuation of the failed economic policy of this Government one that has left far too many New Zealanders behind.We can do so much better. We can invest in our regions. We can create an economy that leads us to a low-carbon future. We can create an economy where we have higher-paying jobs and one where New Zealanders have access to the best education and health systems in the world. We can do that when we change the Government."