Verrall AyeshaHon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister for Food Safety): It's a pleasure to take this call on the Taxation (Cost of Living Payments) Bill and be the first Government speaker after the dinner break on this Budget day.Look we've all had the chance in the Labour Party to partake of some KFC with our colleagues from the Greens and Te Paati Māori but the Opposition instead decided to go and have a peek at what the major news outlets had to say about the Budget instead and we heard that in Paul Goldsmith's comments. They would've have been disappointed to hear Newshub describe the Budget as a masterstroke by the Government and that the Opposition has been backed into a corner and indeed they have been. They've been caught flat footed by the cost of living package in this Budget. Here they are voting against a bill that will see $350 paid to low and middle income families over the coming months. It will do a lot to address the pressures that people are under alongside the measures to support free reduced costs public transport the winter energy payments and our actions on fuel costs.This Budget is about protecting our security as a nation and it extends the Labour Government's efforts to protect our people just like we did through the pandemic against threats from outside. If you think about that we have done that through the pandemic and we continue that in the face of this economic crisis. So the pandemic has led to both supply chain problems and then that was compounded by Russia's illegal war in Ukraine causing rising inflation in New Zealand and also across the globe putting economic pressure on families. This Government bill is about providing cash to alleviate the pressure on the cost of living for people earning less than $70000 and who are not eligible for the winter energy payment. Just like in the pandemic we are protecting people—that's what this bill does: contributes to our security.Now you might ask Is it enough?" It is a contribution and other important contributions are made through other measures. It will help 2.1 million people and students are eligible for this help. Now the Opposition have a different policy. They have proposed tax cuts that will benefit our wealthiest earners to address the pressure on the cost of living. That won't help low and middle income earners. And in fact that approach has been criticised by the IMF who advises against tax cuts at this point. So there is no economic basis to the opposition to this bill or to the Opposition's tax policy. This balanced Budget has presented. It is targeted at those who need it most without making inflation worse.When I look across the Government's agenda I see that this approach of securing our people is widespread throughout the Budget—for example another disruption of people's security and their livelihoods is threats to their health and yet we have strengthened our health system through this Budget. We have addressed inequities that have been profoundly unfair throughout our history by funding and developing a Māori Health Authority. We have cleared the DHB debts that have constrained them for far too long in terms of taking new measures to protect the health of their people. We are investing $61 million in public health systems that'll ensure we don't have to reconstruct an underfunded public health system in the face of a pandemic ever again. We are ensuring that the system is responsive to those it has never served before and I'm thinking particularly about our measures for the rainbow community or for people who suffer with dementia.Another threat to our security is climate change; in fact in many ways you could describe it as the mother of all threats. It causes sea-level rise that endangers our homes it damages ecosystems on which we depend and it damages crops and our food supply. This Budget through the emissions reduction plan and associated funding secures us against the risk of these threats. We have a number of initiatives including to promote the transition to electric vehicles to reduce methane emissions in agriculture through investment in science and through improving the use of biofuels and renewables in our energy supply. Budget '22 secures a positive future for New Zealanders. It is not too late for the Opposition to change their votes. I commend this bill to the House."