Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): This is an austerity Budget for Māori. This is a Budget that is dashing the hopes of rangatahi Māori and taking away the dreams of people who want to live here who want to own a home here who don't want to see their dreams of homeownership taken away their ability to get into work and their ability to raise a family. But that is all the things that this taxation bill and the Budget bill before it do.It's so disappointing for young New Zealanders who have a dream of homeownership to have that ownership dream ripped away from them when we see things like the first-home buyers grant taken away to fund a $2.9 billion tax cut enabled in this bill to go ahead. This Budget enables some of the most extensive transfer of wealth from ordinary working New Zealanders to people who already own homes at the expense of people who National Governments in the past have championed—that's people who want to get into homes. Do you know who that will affect the most? That will affect the people who have the hardest time getting into secure warm dry homes. Māori Pacific people on low incomes people in the South Auckland communities that I represent will be hurt by these economic decisions that that Government is taking and represented in this taxation bill.We heard today from Treasury that unemployment is projected to rise to 5.2 percent. Last time that Government were in charge Māori unemployment went up to 14.5 percent. Tens of thousands of people will lose their jobs in the next quarter. What is that Government's response? It's to cut jobs. It's to put nothing in the Budget to support Māori aspirations into work. There is nothing in this Budget to support Māori to upskill.There are cuts to things like the Apprenticeship Boost programme that those MPs campaigned on keeping. It's been halved. You know just today I spoke to a young builder he was an apprentice called Jimmy Edwards. He told me that he wanted to finish his building apprenticeship and he was looking forward to being able to do that through WelTec here in Wellington. It's that kind of person who this Government is punishing at the expense of landlords to fund a campaign promise that they relied upon to get elected. But $2.9 billion in the context of their finance Minister standing up today and saying Oh things are hard. Things are really hard out there for working New Zealanders." Well it is a choice to give $2.9 billion worth of tax relief—tax cuts to landlords when in fact people are struggling out there like Jimmy who just wants to finish his apprenticeship and get into the construction sector; a construction sector that is struggling and needs not only more workers but a pipeline of builds.But no this Government has actually cut 500 Kāinga Ora homes and another few hundred are on the block. What does that say to the construction sector? It says "We were all big talk on the campaign trail but we're not going to put in those initiatives that would actually help us deliver on our promises."An austerity Budget for Māori hurts all New Zealanders. It means Māori homeownership rates will go down. It means Māori unemployment will go up. It means Māori who want to get ahead who want to provide for their whānau who want to do well in life are being denied the ability to do that by this Government's choices and the kind of economy that they are creating with this type of policy.Contrast that with Labour where successive quarter after quarter unemployment was below 4 percent where tens of thousands of people in South Auckland kept their jobs and kept their connections with their employers. It saw Māori unemployment come down to record lows. It's that kind of investment which makes a change in this country. It's that kind of investment which leads to the social cohesion that we all talk about wanting in this House. It's that kind of investment which means that whānau Māori can succeed. If that is what we want then these choices are not the ones we should be taking.Tax cuts worth $2.9 billion fly in the face of everything this House should be doing for not only whānau Māori but for Pacific people for hard-working South Aucklanders who were told at the election that they would be getting a cut of $250 but they're not getting that today. Instead they're getting more costs imposed on their budgets they're getting less relief than they were promised and they're getting cuts to the public services they rely upon. This austerity Budget for Māori is bad choices all round."