Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): It's a real privilege to take the last call in support of the Budget Policy Statement as a member of the Finance and Expenditure Committee but actually I'd like to speak to this as the MP for Taieri and what this Budget Policy Statement means for the people in my electorate. That's people like Balclutha man Bruce Keith who last year suffered a seizure and he waited for an ambulance that never came. He'd basically frozen and he became stuck in the doorway of his shed. There was no ambulance available a lot of desperate calls and finally a local nurse was able to bring a wheelchair and wheel him down to the Balclutha Hospital. Now Bruce was lucky; he lived to tell the story but others haven't. There was a woman in my electorate in Balclutha who sadly died in her garden waiting for an ambulance. To their families I am so sorry for that but that is what postcode health looks like.Last Budget the Minister of Finance gave $83 million to St John Ambulance and that has helped fill the cracks. It has definitely helped save lives but the system is broken: first responses all mixed up with primary healthcare; rural people wait for ambulances or they catch InterCity buses to get to a hospital. Some people in Balclutha are waiting to catch a bus to Dunedin and then their appointment is cancelled on the way. They have to travel all the way through then get another InterCity bus to go back and then wait for another appointment. Rural communities are finding it hard to get doctors nurses and midwives and rural communities are struggling to attract talent because for some people not having healthcare close by is a deal-breaker. In South Dunedin and Milton different scenario but the same outcome: people waiting for weeks sometimes months for cancers to be even diagnosed—and those are cancers that could or should have been treated; lives that could have been saved or prolonged; and lives lost due to a system which has been fragmented and underfunded for decades. Now this Labour Government has put people's health first in our response to COVID. It has led to one of the lowest mortality rates in the world one of the most resilient economies including the record low unemployment of 3.2 percent. We have consistently strong Treasury reports: Budget Economic and Fiscal Update the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update—stronger than forecast. They are testament to the careful and balanced approach of this Government and I would actually say adaptive approach" because COVID has not been easy and I salute the Ministers who have been able to adapt to the constantly changing challenging situation. And Nicola Willis if there was ever a more compelling case for continuing to put health first and transform the health system it is now during a pandemic because health matters and lives matter and healthy lives make for healthy economies. So I applaud this year's lifting of the operating allowance to $6 billion. And may I remind this House it is a one-off increase to enable investment into major reform programmes like health and that can't come soon enough for me. It's one-off: it drops to $4 billion and $3 billion per year over the next three years.Now National would rather cut that funding $1.7 billion of it—or $3 billion depending on who you listen to. So no health reforms and no new spend by 2023 and that is basically a death sentence for some people. They would rather dole out tax cuts especially to their rich mates and that is to their rich mates because as we've heard in question time today it is the difference between less than a cup of coffee for say a cleaner in the Parliament versus several thousand dollars upwards of $5000 for say the Leader of the Opposition or a Cabinet Minister. So National are running a script. It's a tired old National script. It's a bit like the script born out of the 1980s. We've heard a similar one not so long ago from a previous leader Judith Collins who wanted to spend $31 billion to build roads in the North Island. Now we jump forward several leaders to Christopher Luxon and it's suddenly a script about tax cuts. And rather than being out in the community the Opposition are working to a script and it's a bit like a public relations script. It's what you'd expect to hear at an airline with key performance indicators (KPIs). In fact Chris Penk let that slip yesterday. Now I like Chris Penk. He's usually a smart and sensible guy but he showed us the type of ship or plane his boss is running. He said in this House that for him the cost of living is a KPI. I couldn't believe my ears. So the cost of living—of getting food on the table clothes for children real life struggles for real life New Zealanders—to Chris Penk that cost of living is in his words a KPI. And apparently every time he says it he said and I quote he gets "a tick in the box". No doubt others on that side of the House do too and that is how National ticks.The Budget Policy Statement reflects an ideology—and we've heard that word levelled at us as a criticism. I don't apologise for that. Our ideology is around fairness real-life experiences of the struggles of ordinary New Zealanders and it's based on evidence. We have heard the Minister this afternoon acknowledge that there are struggles currently. It is a difficult time; difficult because of a lack of investment over many decades and difficult because of a pandemic that we are all struggling with. And some people are feeling it worse particularly in particular regions and in sectors like retail and hospitality. But the National Party script I'll call it a "luxicon" actually. So a lexicon is a special language but a "luxicon" is a language that comes primarily from the Leader of the Opposition. So in a "luxicon" a feminist is somebody who says they'll scrap the Ministry for Women a ministry that has been fought for for decades one that is trying to close the 8.6 percent gender pay gap for Pākehā women and the 27.4 percent pay gap for Pasifika women. Another "luxicon" is "high-calibre Māori". Now I'm wondering if that is (a) a Māori who is rich and therefore needs a tax cut (b) a Māori who doesn't have health issues (c) somebody who isn't a low-calibre Māori—well that says a lot about the National Party—or (d) none of the above because in his so-called state of the nation speech Mr Luxon didn't once mention Māori. So no clue there. Another "luxicon"—commitment to equity of opportunity. Now what does that actually mean when applied to the health system? Well it's a blame game. It's blaming those who don't get the same outcomes like Māori and Pacific people who are twice as likely to die young from health conditions that could be treated. So according to the National "luxicon" that's OK because somehow they're both young they're both New Zealanders—never mind the outcome. What I know is that the $6 billion that National wants to scrap or some of it—$1.7 billion or up to $3 billion—will go to establishing the new Māori Health Authority and that is long overdue. It will put Māori health back into the hands of those who can influence it and that's Māori and it will benefit all New Zealanders because surely it's in everybody's interests that all people in our society live the best lives in their best state of wellbeing. So I applaud the Budget Policy Statement. I applaud the balanced approach: the record low unemployment that has put us in a position to be able to focus on priorities and do it in a way where we can make meaningful change with a multi-agency approach with a multi-year approach; not a pet project for climate change as Nicola Willis has said. If there is a crisis it is a climate crisis and I think Nicola Willis needs to wake up to that. What this means is that we can go forward and change the postcode lottery system of what is healthcare. I can say to Bruce Keith of Balclutha and others in my electorate "Don't worry we know life's tough but we haven't forgotten you. In the middle of a pandemic we can still work to create equity so that you won't have to be left standing at that garden fence waiting for an ambulance that won't come. It means that you will get the same healthcare whether you are in Auckland or South Dunedin or Balclutha or Middlemarch." We will continue to put lives and livelihoods first because that's what we promised in our manifesto and that is what has got us through so far. It's that and the efforts of ordinary New Zealanders. I reject the statement that New Zealand is divided. We've heard a lot of noise from a very small group of people who have managed to get a lot of attention. But we know by talking to ordinary New Zealanders that they are united. They do want to see this through together in the way that we have been doing with a steady hand with COVID in the background but continuing to make the changes that we need to change to make New Zealand a fairer more equitable safer place for all New Zealanders. I am absolutely delighted to support this Budget Policy Statement and I commend the Minister for his work on it."