Robertson GrantAPPROPRIATION (2019/20 ESTIMATES) BILLThird ReadingIMPREST SUPPLY (SECOND FOR 2019/20) BILLSecond ReadingHon GRANT ROBERTSON (Minister of Finance): I move That the Appropriation (2019/20 Estimates) Bill be now read a third time and the Imprest Supply (Second for 2019/20) Bill be now read a second time. Not long after the Budget was read on 30 May the Salvation Army said the following thing: The 2019 Budget heralds a change in direction welcomed by The Salvation Army. This wellbeing Budget with its greater socioeconomic approach is a step on the path towards lifting New Zealanders out of poverty. We"—this is the Salvation Army—"welcome the Government's focus on our most vulnerable communities including those with mental health and addiction issues children and families in challenging situations and Māori."That is the change in direction that this Budget is about because fundamentally this Budget draws a line underneath the narrow focus on GDP as the only indicator of success for our economy. We of course need a growing prosperous sustainable economy but if we are simply to draw the line and say that that means is the end then we let down and we leave out hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders and on this side of the House we are not prepared to do that. So we set out in Budget 2019 to create New Zealand's first wellbeing Budget. Not only does that Budget measure our success differently by moving beyond that narrow measure of success to look at the health and wellbeing of our people the protection of our environment and the strength of our communities; it takes the evidence and the indicators we have about those four areas and uses that as the evidence for what we will invest in as a country and through this Budget. That has not been done before in New Zealand. That is the change of direction that is being welcomed in this Budget. So having set that Wellbeing Budget up in that way we are able to prove to New Zealanders that we are focused on the issues that will have the biggest long-term effect.I want to make it clear: on this side of the House we know that the issues that are priorities in this Budget—mental health dealing with climate change closing the gap in the disparity between Māori and Pasifika and the rest of the population child wellbeing and making sure that we're adjusting to the future of work—are long-term issues. It will take sustained investment to be able to turn around the challenges we have but we are not afraid to take on those long-term issues. Equally we're not afraid to fix the mess that we were left with because in both of the Budgets that I have had the honour of presenting to this House sadly it has been necessary to spend billions of dollars fixing up the mess of the previous Government. So in this Budget one of the really different things we have done is move towards a four-year capital allowance. What that allows us to do is give certainty so that we have five years' worth actually of funding for school building and so the construction sector schools and parents know the certainty they've got. But we're also doing that in health. We've got two years of funding—$850 million a year—to invest in our hospitals. The sad reality for Dr David Clark as the Minister of Health and myself as we make the decisions about where that health capital goes: so much of it is catch-up. So much of it is fixing up the mess that was left from the previous Government. If members opposite want to know the detail of that then we can go back to the year before this in Budget 2017 when the grand total of expenditure in health capital was $150 million—that was it. The year before that it was nothing—nothing at all. In the three Budgets that we put in place we put in $750 million and then two years of $850 million not only to give certainty but to start fixing up the mess that has been left in terms of our health capital—let alone the investment that we're making in the rest of the health system. So this is a change of direction for the way that we do Budgets. It's about planning for the long term. It's about intergenerational wellbeing. It's also about having Government agencies actually work together towards these goals. In this Budget I'm extremely proud of the more than $300 million that we are putting into addressing domestic and sexual violence. That proposal comes from a joint venture of eight different Government agencies coming together for one—one—outcome and one goal. Now members of the public might say "Well surely that should have been happening for ever." but the reality is it hasn't been—it simply has not happened. So I'm proud that in that area in the area of mental health in the area of getting more sustainable land use we have brought together teams of Ministers Government agencies working with the private sector to make sure we're delivering on those goals not worrying about the silos but making sure that we actually get what we need done done. So this is a change of direction. This is a different Budget. This is one that takes on those big challenges.One of those that I want to highlight today is the one around child poverty and child wellbeing because this Budget contains for the first time a child poverty report presented by the Minister of Finance. The good news is—and I'll give credit to the other side of the House—by a vote of 119 to one in this House we agreed that every Minister of Finance from now on must report on child wellbeing and child poverty at Budget time because what's the point of a Budget if we're not actually holding ourselves to account for those matters? In this Budget based on the work that this side of the House has done in establishing the Families Package and indeed in some of the initiatives in this Budget including the indexing of main benefits to the average wage and working on making sure that more benefits are retained for certain types of—particularly solo mothers—we have proof that we will lift between 50000 and 74000 children out of poverty as a result of what we have done and I am proud of that achievement.It's been said before that a major focus of this Budget is around mental health and it is: a $1.9 billion package. Now the reason we did that is because the evidence showed us that we had not as a country invested in mental health to the extent that we needed. We know that nearly nine out of 10 kids who are under the care of Oranga Tamariki have experienced or been in a household where there have been issues around mental health and addiction. We also know that about those who are in our prison system as well. It's time that as a country we came together and took that seriously. It's time we got those front-line services sorted out that we have proper support for addiction right around the country that we invest not only in the services but also the capital and the infrastructure that sits behind that. If there's anything about this Wellbeing Budget that we know has resonated with the public it is that question of investing in mental health and just this week we've seen the beginning of the work around the suicide prevention strategy and the independent mental health commission coming on board as well. I am extremely proud of those investments.But across the board we in this Budget can see this Government's plan to transform our country. When it comes to making sure that there's investment for business we've got the $300 million venture capital fund being set up. Where we saw a gap where we were told by entrepreneurs the investment support's not there we stepped up and said $300 million goes on the table to support those businesses to grow. We've got a plan to support our rural sector in the transition to more sustainable land use. Right around the country New Zealanders called on us in the last election to do something to make sure that our primary industries could continue to grow but do that in a sustainable way—a $229 million package in this Budget for sustainable land use that will do that. So on this side of the House we know that it is the investment of an active Government alongside our communities that will make sure that we are able to deliver for New Zealanders. This Budget also uses evidence to decide that we needed to significantly invest in supporting Māori and Pasifika aspiration. This Budget shows that if we get in behind Māori business if we get in behind Pasifika business we can grow jobs right across New Zealand. This is the Budget that delivers the second year of the Provincial Growth Fund. This is the Budget that delivers more social housing places more places in the Housing First programme and more support for transitional housing. Across the board this is a Budget that does things differently. This is a Budget that addresses the long-term challenges that New Zealand faces and this is a Budget that truly delivers to the New Zealanders who have felt left out and left behind for the last nine years. I am immensely proud to present this Budget to the House and to see it come to fruition today. It is a Budget that lays further foundations for New Zealanders to achieve their wellbeing."