Waititi RawiriRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori): Tēnā koe e te Pīka. Otirā tēnā tātou e te Whare. I'd also like to just acknowledge the opening statements made by the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee Stuart Smith—a fine committee I must say as a representative on that particular committee—and also the sentiments he shared in regards to the three bullet point goals and objectives. I sympathise with my Green colleague Chlöe Swarbrick in that there is no mention of climate change but there's no mention of Māori in here at all either or low-income earners and so this is not a Budget that is going to help those who are struggling here in Aotearoa. I've heard you know the cost of living". It's like the "cost of death" to be quite honest in any Budget for those who are really struggling out there to put kai on the table to pay the bills. We've seen an increase in unemployment we've seen a decrease in people employed by the Public Service and so we're seeing just cuts cuts cuts everywhere and we're haemorrhaging everywhere and this is what this Budget is showing. So my three - bullet point contribution to this Budget is: the first bullet point is that this Budget Policy Statement 2024 is in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi once again article 1 as Māori have been excluded from developing and managing our own Māori budgets. Not surprising; this has been consistent for the past 184 years of oppression and assimilation. Kāwanatanga was supposed to be over your own people not over mine and that was reinforced in article 2 which is the second bullet point. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 is in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in article 2 as Māori have not been given our right to self-determination to be undisturbed—to be undisturbed—and the budgets pertaining to the protection of the land forest fisheries and other taonga that article 2 protected in terms of our pre-existing rights. Again another breach: protecting the pre-existing rights of Māori for as long as we wish to retain them—as long as we wish to retain them.Now if the Minister would read Te Tiriti o Waitangi he would know that those two bullet points have been breached. And the third: the Budget Policy Statement 2024 has also breached article 3. We were supposed to be given the same access and opportunities for education employment health housing social services and trade for the last 184 years as per the agreement with Kuīni Wikitōria.The Budget Policy Statement 2024 is in further breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi as there is no Budget funding that will address the significant inequalities directly and indirectly related to historic breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This was to be guaranteed the same rights and duties as British subjects. Again this Budget Policy Statement does not reflect any of that and gives us no choice but to talk about this and ensure that our people understand that this is not a Budget for our people. That's the first thing. The second thing is that this Budget—I don't see anything in there where it would have made life a lot easier for our people right now. Supporting my member's bill taking GST off kai would have done that. Income tax for whānau on low incomes would have done that. Those who are on $30000 or less—that's 2.2 million people in this country who are paying tax on $30000 earnings. That's cruel that any Government continues to do that. We're talking about beneficiaries we're talking about superannuants we're talking about those who have contributed to this country at 65 years old. There's no increase in take-home pay for 98 percent of the whānau. And we heard some of the tax discrepancies here in Aotearoa. Many are paying between 24 and 30 percent tax; 2 percent of this country are paying 9.4 percent but they control 50 percent of this country's wealth and that is not reflected in the Budget Policy Statement.Next week we will see the entrenchment of poverty in this country—we will see the entrenchment of poverty in this country—and we will see those who are well off. We will see homeowners well off. Many of our people don't own homes. We've got 50 percent of the social housing waiting list are Māori. We only own 31 percent of homes here in Aotearoa—31 percent of our people own their own home and they're intergenerational houses. We cannot get into a new home. You've taken that ability away from us. And this is what this Budget policy is telling us: huge Treaty breaches and that there is no hand-up for those who are struggling. Low-income earners and Māori are absent from this the whenua's absent from this those who are unfortunate are absent from this and we will not be supporting this. Kia ora tātou."