Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour): Madam Assistant Speaker thank you for the opportunity to talk about the most anticipated Budget in 10 years. Here it is: the first wellbeing Budget a first for the world. I'd like to begin by acknowledging our Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern. As I travel the country and people talk to me about our Prime Minister one word that comes through is the word genuine". That she is a genuine person and that she understands people. She particularly understands people who may have had a hard time and who need some support. One of the key aspects here is around mental health and I'll get back to that in a second but I first need to acknowledge the previous speaker Mark Mitchell. Generally Mr Mitchell makes sense but today I wasn't quite so sure because he spoke about that in 2008 the previous Labour Government left the books in a mess. Well the previous Labour Government—nine years of surpluses paid down net debt to almost zero; started the Superannuation Fund now worth $40 billion; started KiwiSaver now worth $35 billion. In fact the previous Labour Government had the books in such good shape that when the global financial crisis came the National Government were able to borrow and they borrowed around $60 to $80 billion to get through those challenging times but that was because the Labour Government left things in a good state. I'd like to talk about rail. We have a wonderful network here in New Zealand—a wonderful rail network. It's been built by generations of New Zealanders. It's a fantastic resource that we have. This resource has not been utilised over the past few years and I am proud that this Government is starting to make the first step towards utilising that wonderful resource that we have. We're investing $1 billion in this Budget on rail and $300 million on regional rail. That $300 million particularly comes from the Provincial Growth Fund and I'd like to acknowledge our colleagues in New Zealand First for the work that they do there. That's $300 million on regional rail. Now the member opposite Lawrence Yule former Hastings mayor he's excited about the regional rail because they've got rail right through the Hastings region. One of my colleagues Tim van de Molen he's excited about the rail heading up to Auckland the passenger rail. We need a diverse transport system—a diverse system that caters for road rail and coastal shipping. This is the first step towards moving towards a diverse balanced transport network and that's what we need in New Zealand. The previous Government built a lot of roads and we do need roads we acknowledge that but we also need rail and we will move towards coastal shipping as time goes on. One of the key things about passenger rail is productivity so when you're sitting on a train and you're sitting next to a table you can open your laptop and you can start working; you can be productive. You get certainty of arrival time particularly with the rail that will be launching next year between Hamilton and Auckland. You don't have certainty of arrival time when you're in a car travelling up to Auckland; you hit the Southern Motorway and you're not really sure how long it's going to take. So people in the Waikato region are particularly excited about that. That's the first one—rail.The second one I'd like to touch on is education. People know I'm a former schoolteacher in education—certainly something that's very dear to my heart. We have allocated $1.2 billion for classrooms; the biggest spend in a decade on classrooms. Now one of the key messages that I receive from principals particularly the growth areas like for example the Waikato region is that the funding for new classrooms has not kept up with the demand. But we've heard that and we're committed to addressing that. We've got a 10-year growth plan which will be coming soon—it's just passing through Cabinet—and that will provide certainty for those schools. Previously there's been a three-year plan and it's sort of been a little bit haphazard at times. But this will give those principals and those schools certainty in those growth areas. We're also removing school donations for decile 1 to 7 schools and we're investing in special education. Now we acknowledge that there are a number of challenges in special education and we are working hard to address those because teachers need that support and we're investing in that area.I did touch on mental health and mental health is probably the centrepiece of this Budget around wellbeing; $1.9 billion for mental health and that allows for access for free mental health services and not just for those people who are living urban but for those who are living rural as well. The mental health of our nation is of utmost importance and I'm proud of this Budget."