Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour): It's an honour to talk about this exciting progressive Budget which is the opposite of what we've heard from the honourable member Chris Finlayson opposite who I recognise will be hanging up his boots soon. But if he keeps sucking sour grapes he'll be out before we know it. But I'd like to inform the House that I've been sleeping very well lately. In fact I've been sleeping very well for the past few weeks because every night before I lay my head on the pillow I pick up the coalition Budget and I have a read through the Budget and it puts a smile on my face. It warms my heart and as I lay my head on the pillow my dreams are bliss. So maybe some of the Opposition members may wish to follow that course of action if they'd like to be a little bit more positive. Some of the reasons that I have been so excited about this Budget are around housing. Dave Dobbyn once said Welcome home from the bottom of our hearts" singing in one of his songs "Welcome home from the bottom of our hearts". This Budget says "Welcome home" to 6400 families because we are building 6400 more State houses. These houses will be for people—they'll be for families they'll be for individuals—who have for whatever reason fallen upon difficult times. But we are saying "Welcome home see we've made a place for you." This Budget once again puts New Zealanders at the heart of our economy. And I am very proud that we've got a Minister of Finance Grant Robertson who said that it's the people that matter the most and this Budget clearly articulates that in a number of areas.Another area is around education. As the House knows I've had experience in this area and I've been told for years and years that the education sector has been having to do more with less similar to the health sector. They were told by the previous Government "You must keep delivering." but they weren't being funded in order to do that. This Budget restores funding to education. There are a lot of challenges in this area but we've made a start. One of the key areas that we've made a start in is around teacher supply. We're employing 1500 more teachers and there's provision for that in this Budget.Hon Tim Macindoe: Where are they coming from Jamie?JAMIE STRANGE: We'll build hundreds of new modern classrooms. And to answer the member "Where are the teachers coming from?"—so this Government will value teachers. What's happened in the past is teachers have been more like administrators teaching to a test testing retesting and retesting. But we've removed national standards so that teachers can once again go back to that wonderful curriculum document we have and to be able to teach from that and teachers can get on with the job of doing what they're passionate about which is teaching young people. So we're lifting the status of the profession.Some other ways that we're going to lift the status of the profession is by special needs. So we will provide ongoing resourcing scheme funding which is funding for some of our most vulnerable students who require extra support. We're going to add funding for 1000 more students. This has been issue for a number of years—the funding in special needs. We have special needs students integrated into the classroom and that's wonderful and that's the way that it needs to be. But the teachers need to be supported in this area so we will provide that support.We've provided extra funding around tertiary education and around supporting Māori students with a programme to identify and support talented Māori students and initiatives to lift capability for delivering high-quality Te Reo Māori education.So I've talked about housing I've talked about education and in the last 30 seconds I'd like to talk about health. The health sector has struggled under the previous Government—everybody in society will admit that. I met with 50 nurses from New Zealand's largest hospital Waikato Hospital about a year ago and they were holding back tears as they told me that patients were sleeping in the hallways on mattresses because they were 400 beds short. But we've started to address this issue and I'm proud of this Budget. Thank you."