Davidson MaramaHon MARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green): E te Māngai tēnā koe. Today the coalition Government showed us their true colours. It's a mean and nasty Budget. That's what it is. They had the choice to be bold and invest in our people and our planet but instead they have actively undermined our collective ability to support each other and restore Papatūānuku. This is a cynical Budget that serves mostly the short-term interests of a few and ignores the long-term challenges that we all face in Aotearoa. The Government has chosen to preserve poverty and remain a not-so-innocent bystander to the unfolding climate crisis with an incredibly unambitious Budget for Aotearoa.We have everything we need in Aotearoa to make sure everyone—everyone—can live in dignity. There is enough to make sure everyone—everyone—has a warm dry affordable accessible home food on the table and enough money left over at the end of the week to not worry about the power bill. And we have everything we need to restore our living systems our biodiversity and take climate action that our mokopuna will be proud of.The Government could have chosen to rebalance how we share the benefits of this country's success shifting the tax burden from those who earn the least and making sure that those accumulating huge wealth pay their fair share—just their fair share. It could have. This Government could have put in place an income guarantee so that no matter what everyone has what they need to live a quality life—everyone. It could've given everyone free dental care—it could have—and yet the Government has prioritised trickle-down tax cuts for landlords. We see who they are governing for; it is for their uber-wealthy mates.But the Greens are here for the many and not just the few. We are here for Te Tiriti o Waitangi and we are here for Papatūānuku. Mō te mana o te Tiriti mō te oranga o te taiao mō ngā tūmanako o ngā Tamariki me ngā mokopuna. [For the mana of the Treaty for the welfare of the environment for the aspirations of our children and our grandchildren.]It is plain to see in today's Budget that the coalition Government simply does not care about environmental impact does not care about everything that sustains us—our forests our beaches our rivers—and that mean so much to all of us as citizens as people of Aotearoa. They have gone and neglected them completely in this Budget. That is a choice this Government made. Four thousand—4000—of our native species are threatened with extinction and yet there is no new funding to protect them. It is a tragic truth that based on the choices that Government has made in this Budget our taonga indigenous native species are a step closer to extinction—for shame.They are cutting the conservation budget—cutting it. The Department of Conservation manages a third of our country's whenua and yet funding is being cut in the Government's relentless ideologically driven push to reduce public spending regardless of its consequences. Initiatives that protect the environment have been gutted to free up money for tax cuts and the waste disposal levy is being hijacked for use in disaster response.Sixty-three thousand—63000—tamariki woke up in poverty this morning in Aotearoa. Now this Budget could've changed that could have ended children living in poverty in this country. But this Budget will not do that. The Child Poverty Report a whopping four whole pages—that's right a whopping four whole pages is the Child Poverty Report—is clear that this Budget will see child poverty flat-line. That's what this Government chose. They chose for child poverty to flat-line—not to eliminate it not even to lessen it but to just accept it as it keeps going. For shame.This Government could have invested in many more public houses so that every single child in Aotearoa can thrive. It could have lifted the incomes of the people who need it the most those who are relying on our social safety net. But the Government has chosen not to make that vision a reality. A warm dry home—pretty simple—is the foundation of a good life and the Government's choices in today's Budget are undermining that foundation bulldozing the basic needs of our communities. They have taken funding away from emergency housing. They have gutted the funding for the homelessness services and the Homelessness Action Plan. They have stopped the plan to contract new transitional housing places for rangatahi—Hon Member: For young people—yep.Hon MARAMA DAVIDSON: —wait—they have stopped the funding and have pulled back some of the previously granted funding for youth and rangatahi transitional housing. The cruelness and the nastiness of that. The cruelness and the nastiness of pulling away funding from the very people—the very people—who need it the most. What is youth and rangatahi housing if not crime prevention if not health services if not education services? They have gutted funding for housing—for Māori housing for public housing for youth transitional housing—and they're building more prisons.What is a Budget if not cruel and nasty if it takes that funding away from the very people—the very people—who are struggling the most and instead puts it towards landlords—to landlords? This Government has slashed $40 million from the fund that was supposed to support iwi and hapū to build Māori housing. It was in the last Government and I have always commended this that finally— finally—we got to see Māori housing Māori-led housing which we know is one of the key ways to ensure that Māori disproportionately represented among those who are homeless those who do not own a home those who do not have housing stability—has to be led by Māori housing. They are slashing it.So this Government wonders why so many people march in the streets this morning and many other mornings against this Government's onslaught against Te Tiriti and against whānau Māori? They should not be surprised. This is not a theoretical constitutional argument. This is a Government that disempowers te iwi Māori and takes back funding that was supposed to build new homes. And what are they doing with that money instead? They are giving tax cuts to landlords—the same landlords who they are empowering to evict tenants more easily. So not just a whole lot more billions but a whole lot more power from those who have been denied their power and giving more power to those who already had enough. That is the cruel and nasty Budget that this Government is announcing today.This Government has chosen to make homes colder and more expensive to heat. They have chosen to cut $178 million from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority—EECA—which funded things like the hugely successful Warmer Kiwi Homes programme. They have cut funding specifically for the outreach programme to target hard-to-reach households and for efficient hot-water systems that would have lowered the cost and the burden on the electricity grid that they seem to be so concerned about. Remember a few weeks ago when the Government said we were going to have power cuts on a cold morning? Well today they have cut the funding to exactly the work that would have prevented this from happening. Their beloved power grid—they're cutting the funding to help take the pressure off it.This Budget is vandalism. And speaking of vandalism this Government has slashed and burned almost all climate and environmentally minded policy while pouring coal and oil and gas over the roaring climate-crisis fire. That's what this Government is doing.Today's Budget has seen funding from almost every major programme in the emissions reduction plan absolutely gutted. Mātauranga Māori – based approaches to agricultural emissions reduction—gutted. Agricultural emissions pricing policy work—gone. The development of a circular economy and bio-economy strategy—cut. The Community Renewable Energy Fund—slashed. The just transitions work programme—gone. The Transport Choices programme to reduce vehicle kilometres travelled—gone. Public transport workforce sustainability funding—but who needs bus drivers if you're also actively encouraging people not to catch buses? So I get where this Government is coming from with their vandalism towards our climate and our people.The Minister of Finance says she expects the emissions trading scheme to play a bigger role but they're even cutting the funding for that. The essential support for market governance work is gone. Now that is opening the door for carbon-credit cowboys to ride on in. What remains of climate action funding is not nearly enough to meet the scale of the climate crisis—not nearly enough. That is the short-term narrow-minded cruelty and vandalism of this Budget for our people today and for generations to come.The Minister of Climate Change needs to front up and explain how big a chasm his Government has created in the emissions budgets that it signed up to and how they plan to make up for that. Greenhouse gas figures released by Stats New Zealand today showing further decreases in emissions are proof that the green initiatives of the last two terms were working. The green initiatives of the last two terms were finally getting us in the direction that this country needs to head in. And I'm really not amused by the comedy that that side—that Government—thinks climate change is. They're amused. But yeah show yourselves. This Government is showing itself showing itself for the disregard that it treats our generations and future generations. So keep it going—keep it going.Greenhouse gas figures released by Stats New Zealand today—oh I'm repeating a paragraph but it's worth repeating because those are the initiatives that the Greens have worked on for the past two terms. And Government investment in decarbonising industry together with a higher carbon price drove the reduction in industrial emissions while the Clean Car Discount made a massive dent in our overall emissions—a massive dent—stuff that was actually starting to work. When it comes to climate change Governments are defined by their choices and this one is choosing to bury its head in coal.The single most important thing that this Budget has shown us is that we must make this a one-term Government. Their visionless cynical cruel approach cannot last. We must be bold and loud about the fact that Government can and must make better choices. Governments can choose to end poverty to fight climate change to protect Papatūānuku. This Government has shown that they will not make those choices. We can create an Aotearoa that all of us deserve. I want everyone who cares for our people and our planet to know that every day—every single day—the Greens will stand up in this Whare to show that a better Aotearoa is possible.So we say to every parent and whānau who skips a meal so their tamariki can eat to every student shivering through winter without the means to turn the heater on to every teacher and nurse and bus driver working too long for too little pay to look after our communities: we see you we hear you and we will always fight for you in these halls of power. And just as we will fight for you we need our people to join in with the struggle. Make yourselves heard be loud and be strong. The destructive and cynical things this Government is choosing to do are not inevitable. They do not need to happen. We can choose to improve everyone's lives by changing the rules and rebalancing the way that we share wealth and power.This Budget will leave people out in the cold and leave our planet to burn as emissions rise and our window of opportunity to combat climate change closes. Aotearoa can do better. We deserve better. We have enough to go around to ensure everyone has food to eat alongside a warm place to call home. We can and must choose to prioritise people and planet over the profit-thirsty industry interests that seem to have hijacked the direction of this Government.I tried to have a look in this Budget for anything and I actually feel aroha for Minister Karen Chhour who I know is serious about her work to prevent violence. If anyone on the Government benches can help me out I couldn't find a single new initiative for family violence and sexual violence prevention funding. I looked in Justice Corrections Ministry of Social Development Police Public Service Health Education—I couldn't find anything. And I know that that is an area that was desperately in need of more funding—desperately in need of more funding. You're slashing housing public housing rangatahi housing Māori housing. That's violence prevention. When people have a home when people have incomes and when communities are well and strong we need to understand that is violence prevention.But I haven't even seen any more funding for the kaupapa Māori – led initiatives who have been begging for more and more funding for a long time. The evidence is there. The evidence is there about what works over a generation when it comes to the prevention of violence. I feel sad for Minister Chhour. I feel aroha for all of the stakeholders all of the front-line workers victims and those who must have support to stop using violence. I feel sad for the trajectory of that mahi and I am calling that out.I also want to say again the Jobs for Nature funding the impact on rangatahi in the communities who are finally feeling connected to looking after their whenua and their rivers; the joy on their faces the sense of purpose the sense of connection not just to their living systems but to their culture—incredibly important mahi. I'm so disappointed but not surprised that this Government does not care about the good work that had finally started happening and has not found any hope to be able to fund it.These are choices—they're all choices. We should never allow for any Government to pretend like we cannot afford to end poverty like we cannot afford to end homelessness. We can. We just have to make those choices. Thank you Mr Speaker.