Webb Duncan; Rurawhe AdrianDr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. It's a real pleasure to stand and speak in this debate and it's with some pride that I stand here as part of this Government led by Jacinda Ardern with a group of Ministers around her who are doing such great work. I've been privileged to be made the chair of the Environment Committee and I was really surprised to hear the Hon David Carter speak in a quite derogatory manner. I don't mean when he said that he thought I was Shane Jones. What I really mean is when he was trying to drive a wedge between rural and urban. I am a central city MP but you know that's not to say that I don't bring to the Environment Committee—and all the work that this Government is doing around that—a real sensitivity to what's going on there and a listening ear. It's very clear in the work we're doing—he mentioned the zero carbon bill—that absolutely the farmers are on board. They want to play a balanced part in bringing New Zealand to a world which addresses climate change because it affects us all. And we absolutely want to have a framework where the best farmland is protected we adapt appropriately in terms of climate change and we mitigate as well. So it's quite inappropriate to try to pretend that New Zealand is not at one here and we're all working together there. What's more in terms of what this Government in this Budget has done in terms of the environment protecting our elite soils and sustainable land use the fact is that we recognise on this side of the House how important the agricultural sector is. Only today we heard of the great results that have come from our primary sector and that in fact our trade is flourishing: our kiwi fruit our honey. Incidentally our honey exports have skyrocketed on the back of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. On the back of an open market into Japan our farmers and our primary sector are doing better. I'm really glad that we're part of that.So we've got research grants so that people can transition into this new low-carbon economy. Of course the Minister of Revenue very recently introduced research and development tax credits: a universal scheme where people who are innovating and moving our economy into a much more productive sector are going to be rewarded for that by what I must say are very very generous tax credits. I know that the select committee there has been working on that making them more easily accessible and more workable and that's going to be great as well. But it's not just that; of course this was and is the Wellbeing Budget. It is called wellbeing" for a reason: focusing not just on a single aspect to what goes on. Money doesn't make us healthier but health services good exercise a good diet a strong community—all of those things—make us healthier and contribute to our wellbeing. So it's time we started joining those things together. As part of that I was disappointed to hear Mr Doocey be derogatory in respect of the mental health reforms. We are doing much more in this short two years than National did in the nine long years that they let the health service—mental health in particular—languish. It languished and deteriorated.Of course we can't magic up mental health nurses; we've got to find them. We've got to find the young students who want to train as mental health nurses and rebuild a health sector that deteriorated over many long years. So that's what we're doing: we're putting money into vocational training. We're tidying up that sector—a sector which was neglected as well. So we've got to start on ground zero there as well.And of course addressing properly for the first time suicide—the scourge of our society—the scourge that hits our young and Māori and Pasifika most heavily. Introducing a suicide prevention agency—something that that Government could have done but never did. Thank goodness we've got a Government on this side that looks to those things. We can't do it all at once but we're doing it. We're starting it right away. We're not going to sit on our hands any longer. Of course mental health again isn't just about those acute cases. We're putting in a front-line service so that anyone who has mental health issues can go and get that help at the front line—at the primary level. So whilst we accept there's huge need in our hospitals—like with Hillmorton Hospital in Christchurch—equally people need to be able to access mental health services at their GP as well. We're doing that as well. In Christchurch—and I know I hope elsewhere in the country over time—Mana Ake is an absolutely fantastic initiative; an initiative which typifies the wellness approach in this Budget bringing through the education system through the schools social workers educators and mental health professionals together to bring a cohesive and coherent approach so that we can look at the children who are at risk who may be suffering anxiety or other moderate mental health issues and those professionals can intervene there in a way which is appropriate and is right sized so that we can avoid the huge costs—not only money costs but the catastrophe that hits those young people's lives if those things are not addressed right away—and so that they can learn better they can be participants in their social networks better and their family better and as they grow up they can go on and lead meaningful lives.You know one of the great things about the wellness approach—and something I think that I hope we can build on over time—is it doesn't necessarily say the only thing to do is to enter into the productive workforce; it recognises caring and volunteering as well—those people who are absolute cornerstones of our society but don't necessarily appear on the GDP figures. They don't necessarily appear on the employment figures but they're out there. They're engaged in what I consider—and on this side of the House we consider—to be meaningful work and they're absolutely supporting the network of our society. Our Minister of Health has been working so hard and he has had to work hard because of the huge deficit that he has been handed. The fact is that our hospital system has been run down and I still remember as a very new member in this House learning of the huge problems he was having at Middlemore Hospital—a hospital that simply hadn't been maintained. And of course Dunedin: this Government is rebuilding Dunedin Hospital. There is a real need down there for a world-class modern hospital not a sprawling mess across all kinds of building downtown there. So that's a massive spend.And of course we've taken action—this Government has taken action—on cancer care. We've listened and seen where the need is and taken action by having a cancer agency which can have a coordinated approach so people's cancer care does not depend upon where they live does not depend on some kind of lottery but it will be appropriate it will be measured and it will be doctor and therapy led and not based on the basis of cheap party politicking.But really the big push here—and our Prime Minister's push Jacinda Ardern's push—is to reduce child poverty and that's what we're doing. We are absolutely reducing child poverty because we see that as one of the biggest barriers. A child living in poverty will struggle.I mean even a small thing. It's from small beginnings great things grow and we're starting with trialling school lunches. That's fantastic because we know that nutrition is at the heart of wellbeing. So this Government is going to make sure that those young minds are fed and fed properly because that's a critical part.And also our Families Package: lifting 74000 children—74000 children—out of poverty. That is a huge lift. Now on a family-by-family basis the payments to you and I may look small but the fact of the matter is that those payments—whether they be $25 or $75—they will make a huge difference to be able to buy better food send the kids on school trips and so on and so forth. Speaking of that of course our move in respect of school donations is well overdue. This is a situation where the framework was broken. The idea that it was a donation on the one side but the schools depended on it on another was absolutely wrong. So we've come in and we've said particularly for those schools in the lower deciles we are going to give them an opportunity to do away with those donations altogether. We're going to fund them more so that they don't need to ask and they don't have to put those families in the invidious position of choosing between school donations and giving their kids what they need—their soccer boots or whatever it might be. So yet another small—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! The member's time has expired."