Russell DeborahHon Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour): A Budget represents a series of choices that are made by a Government. A Budget makes a series of claims about what a Government is doing. But when we dig down into those choices when we dig down into those claims then the character of the Government is revealed. What is revealed in this Budget is something that I can think only of as being devious: it is a Budget that alleges that it gives with one hand and then it takes with away with the other. It makes a whole series of choices that leave ordinary New Zealanders worse off.So they talked up large they promised they would deliver but what have they done? Public transport subsidies: gone. Free prescriptions: gone. Bare minimum wages for people with intellectual disabilities: gone. Proper school lunches: gone. The second year of the Apprenticeship Boost: gone. All these things small amounts—a bit here a bit there—but they all make a real difference to families.So that Government over there talked up large about the tax threshold changes talked up large about what that might do for families. But on this side of the House we've had family after family contact us sending us messages talking about the increased cost of public transport talking about the prescription fees that they will now have to pay talking about how they will be worse off as a result of the choices that that Government has chosen to make in this Budget. So they've made very small changes on one hand in the tax thresholds and then they have taken them away on the other. Not only that they have derided—they have derided—ordinary New Zealanders for the things that they choose to spend money on. A Minister on the other side of the House talked about the frivolous" things that people spend money on. Frivolous things like prescription charges frivolous things like public transport frivolous things like food for their children—characterised them as "frivolous" things. How outrageous. It is going to be so much tougher for so many people because of this Budget.TVNZ 1 1News on Friday evening—Thursday evening or Friday evening—featured a story about food banks. I took particular notice because Lady Maliena Jones was featured in one of them; she runs a food bank in West Auckland. As it turns out you know the Ministry of Social Development sends people along there for food parcels when they need them. On the one hand people are struggling to get by looking for Government assistance but they get sent to a food bank—a food bank which is no longer receiving Government assistance itself. Taking away with one hand—sorry allegedly giving with one hand and taking away with the other. It is so hard for people out there.So when we look at this Budget the word for it is "devious". That deviousness extends right through into some of the stuff that has gone on in the Budget documents—right into this. Sitting in the Budget document sitting in the revenue strategy is a claim that a good tax system is one that rewards effort and individuals investment in their own skills. Sitting in the regulatory impact statement for the tax threshold changes is the revelation that some people as a result of this Budget will face a personal income tax rate of 128 percent. For every single extra dollar they earn they will be taxed $1.28 because of the changes that have been put in around the tax thresholds and the abatement rates and so on—it's a complicated place in there. But that example sitting in the Government's own documentation shows that they do not set out to hard work and effort. Instead they create real barriers for ordinary people. That is a devious Budget.When we dug into the Budget numbers even further we found that the examples of families were made-up—created through modelling while someone tapped away on a calculator. They could not tell us how many families would actually receive each of these alleged changes in the tax threshold. Devious hidden charges on ordinary people. This is a shameful Budget."