Leary IngridINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): Oh it's really difficult to sit and listen to the previous speech from the National Party member Andrew Bayly because of the hoodwinking that National tries to do when it comes to financial statistics. We've heard about the so-called high debt ratios. Well New Zealand sits in the lower half of debt compared to our GDP of all the OECD. But actually the other statistic which the previous speaker didn't mention is how our relative incomes fare and actually our relative incomes and income inequality are really low. That's what this Government has been seeking to address throughout these two terms.Budget 2023 shows a Government that targets the support to those who need it. We take inflation seriously. We understand the urgency of climate change. But perhaps most importantly we have a costed Budget one where the numbers add up and where we are really clear and transparent about those numbers. I cannot say the same for the other side.Of course the cost of living has been hard for everybody. That is why this Government took the fees off the prescription charges so that there are free doctors' prescriptions for those who really need them. That is a double win. It means that people get their medicines on time they can afford their medicines but it also takes pressure off the health system. We don't see the same levels of chronic illness that we did prior to that happening.There is cheaper childcare. There are the 20 free hours' early childhood education (ECE) for twoyear-olds which makes a significant difference to families that are working—for women in particular who want to get to back to the workplace where previously the economics haven't stacked up for them to do so. They now can make that choice to go back to work for their families knowing that their families will be up to $138 a week better off.There is free or half-price public transport for children and young people. That's made a really big difference in my electorate for those who need to get out not only to be able to contribute to society but also for their own mental health who previously have been homebound. We have very high numbers of public transport users in the electorate of Taieri and they have told me the benefit that that has given them.There's also the winter energy payment. Now let me make no mistake: in cold climates like Dunedin this is an absolute game-changer for our families and particularly for our seniors. Let's be under no illusion: if this winter energy payment goes that is going to mean that seniors are going to have to choose between putting food on their table or paying for heating in their house. I know that prior to the winter energy payment coming in we had people who came down to our Labour rooms in Macandrew Road for social events simply to be able to get into a heated room. That's what they told me.We also have better pay for health and ECE workers and funding for 500 more nurses. When the previous speaker complained about what he described as the bloating of the Public Service he was talking about nurses he was talking about teachers. They are vital; we know that. That's why this Government has increased their pay and that is why we are continuing to bolster that workforce. If he wants to see cuts in those areas that means that we will have fewer teachers in our schools; fewer nurses in our in our hospital system. It just doesn't make sense.He also talked about the Dunedin Hospital. Well it is Labour who builds hospitals. The National Party talked a good game for years about building a hospital in Dunedin with absolutely no intention of building it. The good people of Dunedin and of Otago know that. That's why they are not buying the lines from the National Party.What would happen under a National-ACT Government for all these particular initiatives is the free doctors prescriptions would go. Now we know how difficult that will be for people. But what really concerns me about National's announcements to do with cancer funding is not only the lack of competition and the high price that New Zealand would pay for those medicines—because there would be no competition; they've been promised by politicians—but it is a very very dangerous precedent to have politicians meddling in something as fundamental as healthcare. That is really dangerous. How do we know that those politicians don't have vested interests? How do we know that they're not acting on behalf of particular family members? That is why we have clear rules around Pharmac. That's why politicians have stayed out of it and that's the way it should be. When National start saying they're going to meddle with that what else are they going to meddle with in terms of our really important democratic principles? What about 20 free hours' ECE for twoyear-olds? That will be gone. Changes to Working for Families: that will be cut. Half-price transport: cut. The winter energy payment: cut. Now National said they won't cut it. Well good luck to that because if you're in Government with ACT—which is what the reality would be if there was a change of Government—they have made it very clear they will cut the winter energy payment. Minimum pay rises: frozen for three years if not gone depending on who you believe—National or ACT. And yes really tricky for my constituents.They have made it very clear that they would raise the superannuation age. That is the superannuation scheme the taonga of this country introduced by the very good former member of my electorate Sir Michael Cullen. They would tinker with that as well and they would make it really difficult for our seniors.What happens about the tax cuts that National want to introduce? It's not only that they will benefit the rich but they won't be funded; they haven't been clear on where their funding has come from. So we've heard from previous speakers on this side that there would be cuts to health cuts to education cuts to the environment. The reality of the tax cuts being proposed by the other side is that they will actually benefit the rich and people need to be really clear about that. We know that it's hard for working families but when people hear tax cuts that sounds promising. They need to do the math. They need to understand where those tax cuts will go.Under an ACT regime it is actually the lowest paid who would be paying $800 more per year because the lowest tax threshold would actually increase and so they would be paying $800 per year. Under National a person earning $180000 would pay $7270 less per year but a low-income earner it's around $2.00 to $2.50 per week. That is the reality. Now I don't think the richest New Zealanders need a tax cut and I don't think that ordinary New Zealanders think so. They've been enticed by the rhetoric. They hear the words tax cut" but they haven't done the maths to understand where that sits for them and what that will mean. Let's not forget the high net worth individual research data that came out this year that shows some people in our society—the top richest in our society—pay a real tax rate of only around 9 percent. The rest of New Zealand—middle New Zealand—pay around 22 percent. That is the reality. That is the reality that caused Treasury to actually revise its figures upwards around the redistribution of wealth to say that the most wealth is concentrated in the top 26 percent of people rather than the top 21 percent. That's what that data shows. So why would we want to give tax cuts to those people?Now the other issue is just looking at how things will or won't be funded. We know that the National Party are not being clear about how they'll fund particularly around transport for example. Simeon Brown has said toll roads. Well that's a lot of toll roads to make up for a $9.5 billion shortfall over 10 years. Nicola Willis has said transport would be hypothecated. She stopped saying that so there's some disagreement now. But the leader has talked about allowing the CCP—the Chinese Communist Party—to fund roads in New Zealand and I find it absolutely staggering actually that the media hasn't picked up on that more and I say this as a co-chair of IPAC—the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China. National either don't know how else to fund those roads or they're blatantly ignorant of the geopolitics happening in the world at the moment including in our own backyard in the Solomon Islands. Or there could be more sinister motives. Are they in the pocket of the CCP? I don't know.But if that's not the reality the other thing that they possibly may do is raise GST. Why not? The National Party love GST. They've said before that they wouldn't raise it. They raised it in 2010 under John Key. He tried to say that that was different from the promise that he broke because it wasn't around funding deficits but—Hon Judith Collins: Point of order. The member who has just resumed her seat has made an allegation in Parliament questioning whether the National Party is in the pockets of the Chinese Communist Party. From my recollection that's a breach of our Standing Orders.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The member will withdraw and apologise.INGRID LEARY: I withdraw and apologise. In the final moments of the speech I just ask New Zealanders to—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order! The member's time is up."