Mitchell ClaytonCLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I'm sure everybody in the House felt that wave of depression go over them. I'm just going to lift us up out of the doom and gloom and finish on a positive note. Of course we've got a great speaker following myself. I'm sort of like the interlude—the build-up if you will.I'd like to first start by acknowledging the revenue Minister and Grant Robertson in fact for this wonderful Budget. I thank all the Ministers and Cabinet for the time the effort the energy and the consultation that's gone into putting this Budget together. I actually even had a couple of my Tory mates—I remember talking the other night to Mr O'Connor about this very thing that even a few of my Tory mates said Bloody hell I was impressed with that. This is a hell of a lot better than what I was expecting." So there is salvation on the way all you Tory people out there. I'll tell you right now that is a very very good Budget and despite all the doom and gloom and all the rhetoric that you have to go through I think deep down some of you are actually very very pleased with it.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I actually don't have to go through any of that rhetoric. Don't bring the Speaker into it.CLAYTON MITCHELL: No I won't do that again Madam Deputy Speaker. Thank you very much. But there is some good news on the way.I'd also like to thank very much from the bottom of my heart the huge service that the National Party caucus has delivered to this House and particularly to all New Zealanders for choosing their leader because what a woeful presentation we got—Kiritapu Allan: "#SaveSimon".CLAYTON MITCHELL: "Save Simon". The woeful presentation that we got—in fact it was more like a Duncan Garner presentation.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! In this House we use full names appropriately.CLAYTON MITCHELL: Mr Simon Bridges.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Actually it's "the Honourable".CLAYTON MITCHELL: It was more like a Duncan Garner speech to be honest. It was filled more with downtrodden rhetoric around clichés and innuendos. In actual fact it was full of nonsense and contradictions pretty much right the way through it. He talked about building—well he talks about a lot of things to be honest. But a lot of irony was also involved in that particularly around the fact that he talked about the pooh-poohing of the KiwiBuild project. He said "It's just a plan that's not working." Well I have to say to the National Party at least we've got a plan. The previous Government did nothing for nine years to deal with one of the biggest crises that this country faces. Not only did they do nothing to remedy the problem of housing and building houses; they sold off our State houses and then they flooded our shores with migration numbers that we just could not cope with—73400 migrants being thrown into an already overwhelmed economy who we just couldn't deal with.We've taken a very sensible approach over this side. We have set up the KiwiBuild we are going to be building houses and we will deliver on what we said we're going to deliver on. You're just going to have to be patient and watch this space because like Pantene it doesn't happen overnight but it certainly will happen.Mr Bridges spoke about an economy of trickle-down neo-liberal economics that was going to get us out of the trouble. Well I'm telling you this side has got a different approach to building an economy and it's taking that economy-building from the bottom up where we're looking at real wages to New Zealanders working towards a living wage and giving tax breaks to those companies to ensure that they can afford to pay them. Now that is sensible as opposed to the National Party or should I call them the "International Party" who are more interested in giving their rich mates big tax breaks—$400 million was your budgeted tax break for the top 10 percent of earners—rather than looking after the people that really needed it.What about the corporate welfare that they dished out? What about all that? The South Canterbury Finance bailout and AMI—$1.72 billion down the drain for their mates thank you very much.What about building an abattoir—an abattoir in the Middle East—so we could send our live produce there and employ people in the Middle East to build an abattoir for $11 million of hard-earned tax dollars? What an absolute waste of money that was. What about that flag referendum that New Zealand screamed for? They said New Zealand wanted a flag referendum more than anything else—$25 million of wasted money. Does everybody remember Rio Tinto? The international foreign company that netted $300 million in profit but the previous Government decided it would give them $39 million in tax breaks and support. What about pumping $630 million over five years into the China infrastructure fund—$630 million? What about the $191 million that they put into the—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order! Would the member come to this Budget. CLAYTON MITCHELL: Yeah I'm talking about this Budget. DEPUTY SPEAKER: It's just—CLAYTON MITCHELL: These are the things we're correcting. DEPUTY SPEAKER: No don't argue with me. I'm asking the member to come to this Budget. It is a wide-ranging debate—CLAYTON MITCHELL: It is. DEPUTY SPEAKER: —but actually you do have to mention Budget 2018. CLAYTON MITCHELL: Budget 2018—fantastic. All these problems that we've just outlined are being addressed. Now we're talking about a bottom-up economy where we're putting a balance into social economic and environmental policies to put this country back into the right place and head it in the right direction. Nine years of neglect and the absolute nonsensical noises that we hear about the problems that we're faced with by the other side that they created—it was the creation of your lack of funding that got us into this situation in the first place. So let's talk about it—social policy. Free doctors visits for 14-year-olds plus prescriptions—what a huge support that is for family members that are struggling to get by on a day-to-day basis. What about the 1800 new police officers looking after our streets that we have been neglecting. Less than 10 percent of burglaries under that Government actually got looked at or got any attention at all. The police force are stretched out like banshees trying to deal with the flood of crime in this country and you had no solution for it and no funding. There is $300 million more in Budget 2018. What about looking after our social responsibility to bring in a winter energy payment for those people most in need? That's an absolutely fantastic policy and great money well spent and I'm sure you'll have a number of your people that you know who will take full advantage of that. We can't go past of course core issues like health—$3.2 billion is being put into health $900 million more than under the previous Government. It's the biggest funding increase in over 10 years. Now it's of huge benefit with $750 million of that going towards capital funding and that's five times more than the previous Government put in to do the same thing in capital funding. You should have been ashamed of yourselves—a shameful indictment. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Actually I'm not ashamed. CLAYTON MITCHELL: And we stopped the—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'm not ashamed of myself. Please don't bring me into the debate. CLAYTON MITCHELL: Sorry Madam Deputy Speaker. And we've stopped the selling off of our State home assets. That's social benefit. Let's talk about some economic benefits. The Provincial Growth Fund: $1 billion is going into regional economic development looking at unemployment for the people in the regions that need it the most. As much as we've heard just about every member on that side of the House talk about it and say "Oh this is terrible. This is just a disgrace." they all end up by saying "Please help us. Please put some of that money into my region." "Oh we'd like a little bit more in Northland." I heard Matt King talk about. We've heard it in Southland from Sarah Dowie. The reality is that New Zealanders understand the importance. Do you remember—does everybody know how much they put into the regional provincial growth fund last term? Kiritapu Allan: How much? CLAYTON MITCHELL: $11 million. That's 100 times more—$1 billion compared to $11 million. It's a disgrace. You do not value the people in your regions. It is a good thing that you've been kicked out—that that side of the House has been kicked out from this side of the House to deal with it—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I value people in the regions. Please don't bring me—CLAYTON MITCHELL: Wonderful. DEPUTY SPEAKER: —into the debate.CLAYTON MITCHELL: Thank you. DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is the third time. CLAYTON MITCHELL: I think it might have been the third time you're right. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Three strikes you're out.CLAYTON MITCHELL: Not only that the $1 billion going into our foreign affairs and trade to boost economic growth to actually create added value exports in New Zealand is an absolutely wonderful thing. I had somebody the other day ask me about the $100 million going into the Auckland infrastructure for the America's Cup. They said "Wouldn't it be better to go into housing or other areas than $100 million into the America's Cup?" I said "You've got to understand investment. When you can go and invest into the people that need it the most the returns are huge." In fact when you look at the America's Cup in Bermuda the return on investment was 1:5.2—[Madam Deputy Speaker gestures] Yes Madam Deputy Speaker would you like say something? DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'd like you to stop bringing me into the debate. CLAYTON MITCHELL: Did I do it again? DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes. CLAYTON MITCHELL: Crikey I'm slipping. Righty-o.I've got a minute—I've got a minute. So environmentally—I hear people on the other side saying that there was nothing for the environment. Well we've talked about social and we've talked about economic. We're planting a billion trees. We are internalising our externalities. We are dealing with the problem ourselves. Rather then signing ourselves up to a Paris accord and giving $14 billion to foreign economies we are planting trees to deal with that carbon issue ourselves. Along with that we are also putting $181 million extra into conservation which the other side underfunded to the tune of $424 million over the time that they were in Government. It's an embarrassment to call yourselves a good Government and fiscal leaders. We've got a great Government here. We've got a lot on our books. We're going to deliver for New Zealanders and we've got three years to do it in. And I tell you what New Zealanders will vote back in the same group because it makes sense."