O'Connor SimonSIMON O'CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): I don't commend this Budget to the House. I think that's the quick response to the speaker Deborah Russell who's just resumed her chair. But may I start on a slightly more sombre note. I wish to acknowledge the passing of a fine person who's contributed a lot into my electorate and area and that's Ruth Bartley. She's the mother of one of the local councillors there: Josephine Bartley. Their family has been very involved in the community and so in somewhat of a cultural tradition both of this House and theirs I acknowledge the passing of Ruth. I've been in and around the electorate since the Budget but obviously not on sitting days—it's always good to be in the House when you're meant to be. But as I've been around the electorate one of the things which has struck me is that very few of my people realised there was a Budget. They don't realise there was even a Budget and that doesn't completely surprise me because the Budget was not only botched and not only highlighting the failures of delivery but it was a boring Budget—absolutely boring. In fact it goes against one of the very basic dictums of the Labour Party and certainly of Helen Clark which this group is following through that you under-promise and over-deliver. Well as it turns out this Budget over-promised and under-delivered in a huge huge way and I'm going to go through some of those aspects here. But as I say within Tāmaki there's a sense of There was a Budget? What happened?" Even when we talk about the legislation and I was trying to tell some constituents about the Budget urgency and trying to explain to them that we were here they said "We didn't even realise. Well what happened?" I said "Well unfortunately what happened was you ended up landed with more taxes."—many many more taxes under this Government already—and importantly I had noted to them that Labour had been very big when they got elected that there'd be no new taxes but we have even more petrol taxes now in Auckland. So I say to my constituents and to all of those in Auckland to look at the price at the pump particularly after 1 July and see that it's going up and up and up. They've been "rewarded" with higher rentals of over $50 extra a week now because of the extra costs that have been put on by this Government. Taxes around tourism taxes around—well basically you name it; this Budget is looking to tax it. Mobile roaming: actually there's a little quirky one that most people won't have noted but they will when they go and get their next mobile roaming bill. So a boring botched Budget—a triple B if you will—but one that for me just illustrates the failures in this Government. Look I'll focus primarily on the social housing side; that's one of my spokespersonships. Look incredibly disappointing—all we have is a cosmetic window dressing. In fact I would suggest it's just a reshuffling of the deckchairs to bring about the Titanic idea. We've had massive failures by this Government in the social housing sector and not only by an erroneous obsession with "KiwiFail"—sorry KiwiBuild—which the community housing providers have noted has been very misspent money where they themselves were asking for help and this Budget delivers nothing absolutely nothing to community housing providers. That's important because under this Government we've seen the social housing waiting list almost double—almost double—in the last 18 months. Now over 11000 Kiwis are looking and waiting for a State house and this Budget has delivered absolutely nothing. In fact what the Budget highlighted and it was tucked away—delicately tucked away in those hundreds and hundreds of pages is a Government and a Minister in social development and a Minister in housing which are admitting failure because they are expecting the emergency social housing grants to go through the roof. It was anticipated that we would spend about $20—sorry about $6 billion million. Gosh I'm getting my figures mixed up today. It was anticipated that we would spend $6 million in social housing grants over the last year. It ended up being $20 million which is an admission of that immediate failure which the Government has. Then when you look at the Budget documents over the next three to four years they're expecting those housing grants emergency grants to be at $120 million a year—$120 million a year—from what was anticipated to be between $6 million and $20 million. That's a huge increase. That's a huge increase on top of a Government talking big about a housing programme. If you're logical you'd think that if the Government was able to deliver its housing programme you would not have a need for more emergency social housing grants but so incompetent is this Budget and this Government that not only is there a failed housing programme but there is going to be not $10 million and not $20 million of social housing grants but $120 million for the next four years. If that isn't a sign of failure then I don't know what is. We have an attempt through this Budget to I would suggest hide the failures of KiwiBuild. The Minister tabled very soon along with the Budget a new bill to effectively merge Housing New Zealand the KiwiBuild unit and the Hobsonville Land Co. into a newly named Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities group. Nothing like a name change—always good to put it in Māori and English just to sort of mix things up a little bit and to mix up perceptions. What it's going to do is completely unclear to us but I would have one idea and that's that it's an attempt to wash over the failure that is KiwiBuild. So I signal to this Government that myself and others in the housing sector will be following that one very closely to make sure—it's a little bit like the justice suggestions: "Let's just change the name of how we run the Family Courts and that'll fix everything." Well a bit of a newsflash to the Government: simply changing the names of organisations does not change the failures which they're presiding over. Look to be somewhat—somewhat—positive I am pleased to see the money in the mental health space. It is an important area to be addressed but two further comments need to be made—actually three. The first is there is no plan. So it's great that there's that eye-watering amount of money—that's brilliant. There needs to be a plan of how to spend it. Money alone does not solve problems; plans that use money do. Secondly it's actually looking at the situations which bring about the mental health problems and I would suggest that a lot of the Government's policies a lot of the left progressive policies are what add to this instability in families—a desire effectively to keep people away from work a constant desire to find excuses. These all drive the mental health issues and of course we have the glaring contradiction of a pro-drug approach by this Government. And what a time for Andrew Little to be here looking across the House at me but a pro-drug approach—if this House is going to be serious—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon—Hon. SIMON O'CONNOR: The Hon—yes indeed he is the Hon Andrew Little whose honourable intention I am sure is to have a good mental health programme that actually works. I would suggest to him and others on the other side of the House that liberalising drugs allowing people to smoke more marijuana and all the other distillates is not going to help mental health. In fact spending $13 million on a referendum on cannabis without even a piece of legislation is a joke and I'll say today it'll be more than $13 million by the end of it—by the end of it. Look the thing about the mental health increase though is that was more than what the entire health sector got—more than what the entire health sector got—and that's a substantial problem. I've been on the record many a time over the years that Pharmac needs to be completely reworked and it's quite correct when Ministers of Health get up and say "We can't direct Pharmac to buy certain drugs." That is not what I and others are asking. It's not about directing them to buy certain drugs; it's to change the structure in the funding to allow those drugs to be funded. Look I'm happy as the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee chair with what's happening in the defence space. Our military assets do need to be upgraded. I am pleased to see the money's finally appropriated around the P-8s. I'll be very interested to see where the money is for the Hercules fleet. I think myself speaking in my own personal capacity the decision to buy the C130Js is a good decision but we need to see where that money is and appropriate it at the appropriate time. The last thing I want to note though is I am hoping that there is a little bit more money for Immigration New Zealand. In recent days they had to take down effectively an anti-Israel document off their website that had falsely claimed that there is a State of Palestine and that Jerusalem exists as only the capital for one country. That is a disgrace and it's inappropriate. I will acknowledge that with the outcry and the message from myself and others that has been taken down. But I would like to see—DEPUTY SPEAKER: It's not in the Budget though. SIMON O'CONNOR: —more money in this Budget diverted to Immigration New Zealand to actually sort those sorts of areas because I believe—and I have the Minister of Foreign Affairs here—that New Zealand's policies in the foreign affairs space to do with the Levant need to remain committed to a two-party solution and ensure that errors like this will not happen again. As I said at the start I cannot do not will not and never will commend this Budget to the House."