Craig LizDr LIZ CRAIG (Labour): I've just been sitting here in the backbenches listening to the inconsistencies of the other side's debate just washing over me. They say we're spending too much we're spending too little we're going too fast we're going too slow we're too hands-on we're too hands-off. And I think the thing is that it is really easy to criticise somebody that's got a plan and is moving on it than to criticise something that doesn't actually exist. What I want to do today is just briefly talk about a little story I used to share back in 2014 when I was on the campaign trail. I was trying to talk down south about the consequences of the previous Government's hands-off approach inaction and no plan in our own community. I think the thing is that ignoring the housing crisis and not increasing district health board budgets—just to account for the basics cost pressures and population growth—were having huge impacts. The story I used was just talking about how in my old day job I used to get really really busy. So what I used to do—and we all do it—is work from a job list. And when you get really really busy what you do is you let that stuff that's not that important slip below the bottom of the job list. Some things you shouldn't let slip off the bottom of that job list—like spay the cat. I think the problem I had was that while I was getting really really busy my cat Tūī was making friends with the neighbour's cat. And so on Labour Day a few years back I was presented with this litter of tiny kittens in the middle of my bed.I think the story I used to tell was the fact that if you do nothing it's not like nothing happens. It's like the consequences can amplify. I think the problem that we've got is that by 2017 those little kittens had turned into feral cats and they were terrorising the neighbourhood. What was happening in health and in housing was we were seeing real consequences.I think the problem we had in my own area in Invercargill was that we are suffering a housing crisis and what the previous Government had done in that housing crisis was they'd sold off our State houses. Between 2012 and 2017 we lost 69 State houses. So at the moment our housing providers are at capacity they're struggling to house people and we've only got 350-odd State houses to house everybody.The other problem was that the previous Government just ignored the fact that our rental housing stock is really rundown and we don't have decent rental standards. A lot of people are trying to find homes but they're mouldy they're cold and they're damp and their kids are getting sick. And so having that whole hands-off approach has not done us any favours down south. We talk about Auckland but it's right around the country.I'm proud to be part of a Government that's actually got an active plan and it's turning the situation around. So in Budget 2018 what we're doing is we're going to be building 6400 new State social houses over the next four years. We've said that down in Invercargill and everywhere else we're not selling off any more of our State houses; we're going to be building new ones.The other thing we're going to be doing—and it came through as such a privilege to sit and watch the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill No. 2 pass just before Christmas—is we're going to be getting decent rental standards for our homes and that's going to make a huge impact down in Invercargill where I see people struggling because there are hardly any rental homes and the ones they can afford are cold they're damp and they're mouldy; there's all sorts of mould. People are talking to me about gaps in the walls and having to tape them up and the heating costs. And so as a Government we're putting in place those rental standards so that people can be guaranteed a warm dry home. But also for pensioners and beneficiaries having the extra winter energy payment so that they can be able to turn on the heater over the winter and that'll have huge impacts for families with kids. So for us we're not just taking that hands-off approach; we're actively doing things.The other area I'd like to talk about is child poverty and this is what got me involved in politics because year after year my job was to put the annual rates of child poverty out and report them to the sector—in terms of the health sector. What frustrated me again was that lack of plan but our Government has got a plan and what we're going to be doing is putting in place transparent monitoring and targets for child poverty. We're directing Government agencies to develop up strategies to address the well-being of children but we're also with the Best Start payment making sure that for babies in the first year of life their families have enough income.We're looking at Working for Families getting more money back into families' pockets and we're increasing the minimum wage so that families going out to work have got enough to put food on the table. So I'm proud of Budget 2018. I'm proud of our Government's hands-on—not hands-off—approach to achieving all those things that we need to do for our families to make sure people can get decent services and decent housing and can go to hospital when they need it. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker.