Ardern JacindaJACINDA ARDERN (Deputy Leader—Labour): Malo Mr Assistant Speaker. Quite frankly that last contribution from a Cabinet Minister Simon Bridges—the first speech he is able to give after the Budget and he spent 5 minutes talking about the Opposition rather than being able to even muster enough from his own Budget to be able to promote it. He managed 5 minutes—5 minutes—on his Government's Budget and he is meant to be a Cabinet Minister selling the great vision that the National Government has for New Zealand. The reason he probably mustered only 5 minutes is frankly a Budget should be the way that people are able to see the priorities that a Government has for the country—its vision its plan and its ideas. And the fact that after 9 years we saw two things from this Budget is extraordinarily telling.The first thing that you can tell from this Budget after 9 years is that it is election year. That was patently obvious in the headline figures that came out of that. The second thing that was clear from this Budget was that when it comes to the hard stuff when it comes to the difficult problems that unfortunately New Zealand is undeniably facing when it comes to issues like homelessness the massive social deficits that we have the poverty the deprivation the unfortunate gaps in our education system—all of the hard stuff that everyone acknowledges are wicked problems that Governments have to grapple with—it was out of ideas. How do I know that? Because when the opportunity arose and the Government confessed that it had a surplus and the ability to spend some money on those social deficits that exist in New Zealand on the hard stuff it chose to spend $1.9 billion on tax bracket changes—$1.9 billion.Now the Minister over there might characterise on average a $26 a week change as a game changer". I do not. I do not consider that a game changer. I consider the incredibly high house prices for New Zealanders—that is a game changer. I consider the fact that rents have gone up since 2008 in Auckland by 40 percent—that is a game changer. I consider the fact that 90000 kids cannot get a job or get into education in this country—that is a game changer. Now there is no denying that families are doing it tough but the things that would make a difference for them are loosening up on some of those heavy costs that they are facing those things that they cannot change that they have to pay for like putting a roof over their head or putting their kids in schools. Those are the costs that make a massive difference to the kind of disposable income that they have and this Budget gave up. This Budget gave up on those big issues.So yes Mr Bridges asks us what we would spend the money on. Well yes actually Working for Families is a brilliant way to get money to people who need it most and what did the Government spend on that? It spent $373 million—when it spent 450. In 2010 it cut out of Working for Families so it has barely even restored it. But yes we acknowledge that was probably money well worth being spent. But $1.9 billion on tax bracket changes? That is not the kind of spending you are going to see from this side of the House because we know that a well-functioning society and a New Zealand that we can be proud of that we can take heart in knows that it has to get the basics right.The basics that we have not got right right now are the ability for you to walk into your nearest hospital and get the services that you need or for your local school to be the best school it can be or for your children to be able to go to an early childhood centre and have a qualified teacher teach your child in the most important stages of their development. Those are the basics and we cannot get that right. So that is where this Government has absolutely got it wrong.I think probably one of the most frustrating things for a taxpayer off the back of this Budget is that the 26 bucks game changer that the Government claims—they are paying out and more so in all of the areas where the Government has failed to acknowledge the problems that we have. Just look at what the fiscal update for 2017 itself has told us. It told us that New Zealanders could expect through to 2019 wage increases cumulatively of 6.2 percent but at the same time cumulative house price increases of 17.7 percent—three times the amount that they can expect their wages to increase will go into housing costs. Again the hard stuff has gone totally unaddressed.In this Budget what did we see? The Government is funding Crown land for 1200 houses—that is it. That is it in the face of a massive housing crisis. That is the best you can hope for from this Budget. It is an admission of complete failure. And nothing is a better admission of failure than the accommodation supplement. I know intellectually Nick Smith is sitting there accepting that they have just gone and subsidised landlords.Hon Dr Nick Smith: No we haven't.JACINDA ARDERN: They have. You absolutely—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Rubbish. JACINDA ARDERN: —the Minister absolutely has.Hon Dr Nick Smith: Garbage.JACINDA ARDERN: That is what an accommodation supplement is. Hon Dr Nick Smith: It is not.JACINDA ARDERN: It is an admission of failure when your house prices and your rent prices are going up at the extraordinary rate they have been in the last 8 years—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Well promise to reverse it.JACINDA ARDERN: —it had to move on the accommodation supplement because it was not keeping pace.Hon Dr Nick Smith: If you believe it promise to reverse it.JACINDA ARDERN: It was not keeping pace Minister. You had no choice. No. No. We accept that you have failed. We accept that you have failed and that is why the accommodation supplement change was necessary. We accept your failure Minister Smith. We accept it. We reluctantly accept it. But do you know what we need? We need some fresh ideas on the housing crisis. We need to start building State houses again not selling them off. We need to make sure that we are closing the tax loopholes that exist. We need to make sure we dampen down demand by stopping people who are based overseas buying in the residential housing market and we need to get on and build affordable houses. Those are the ideas that this Budget needed to contain and it did not.Again when it comes to health $1.7 billion has been cut out of health in the last 8 years—$1.7 billion. That is an extraordinary amount. Yes the Government made it look like it was investing this new chunk of money into health and we know it needed it. Waikato Hospital just one weekend ago shut down elective surgery because it could not deal with the demand walking in its door. And what was the trigger for that? Not some great natural disaster—it was winter. Winter came on and suddenly our health services could not cope. It cancelled its scheduled surgeries. Now what does that tell us about our health system? Well the Budget did not give us any answers. Yeah it has put more money into health but it is still $200 million shy of what it needed to stand still.And even the investment that was made in mental health which we desperately need—half of the investment that the Government announced district health boards are going to have to fund out of their own back pockets when they are already struggling. That is not an investment at all in our book. Again we have been really clear. Mental health services need a fresh look. We have got to review where the gaps are in services. It is a critical part of our health sector but actually what the Government has announced goes no way near addressing any of the problems that we know exist.Education is the next core area. If you have got a roof over your head and you can access health services then education has to be the next area we have got to make sure that we get right. What did we see in education? It has had frozen funding from this Government and what did it see this Budget? A 1.3 percent increase for operational funding. Following a freeze 1.3 percent—what does that mean for a school? Well that means a trade-off. I spent yesterday with a teacher-aide at one of my local primary schools. As she pointed out the dilemma for her school is that if it increases her wages it cuts her hours because it cannot afford to do both. That is criminal that situation. Teacher-aides make a huge difference in a child's life—their future trajectory in our education system is determined by the work that some of those extremely qualified individuals do—and yet we pay them a pittance and we ask it to come out of a school's already low operational budget. That is appalling. These are the kinds of priorities that Labour wanted to see in this Budget and that is the indication of what kind of party you have in charge: where it places its priorities in the Budget. Instead the headline figure out of this Government was a $1.9 billion tax cut at a time when our core services are failing.I always come back to a really really basic basic quote from Norman Kirk because I admired him so greatly and what he said at that time still remains true today: all that anyone ever needs is something to do somewhere to live someone to love and something to hope for. This Budget gives us no hope. It gives us no optimism that this is a Government that deserves to be in charge but it gives New Zealanders a clear message. If you want to get back to basics get those core services right and if you want fresh ideas for some of those gnarly problems that we are facing then vote for a party that is going to give you some hope again that is going to invest in the stuff that Kiwis care about. That is why we need a change of Government. That is why we need a Labour Government."