Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): I think it's worth a reminder of what we are debating today and what this particular debate is actually about.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: I could do with a reminder.Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: I thought you could Carmel! It's an appropriation bill on the 2017-18 Supplementary Estimates. Now what that's based around is the Budget that was set in May 2017 and since then stuff has happened: Government departments in some areas have had to spend a little more money than they thought they were going to need to particular needs have come up there's been an election and we have a new Government. All of that means that somehow government expenditure is changing—and it has changed—from the Budget that was set in 2017. As I'll talk about a little later on it's not just the numbers that have changed but the values too. So here today in Parliament as part of our role we are examining the Supplementary Estimates making sure that they're OK testing them and engaging in our role of scrutinising the finances of Government. You know I don't think many people actually read the Supplementary Estimates. For those of you who are watching here are the Supplementary Estimates—A4-sized 457 pages long. If you're listening I'll tell you that it's 4 centimetres thick. It's a lot of reading.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: How long did it take you Deborah?Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: I haven't read them all and I suspect no one in this House has read them all. But here I want to pay tribute to the excellent public servants who have worked on these Supplementary Estimates who have kept an eye on the money and who have done all the figures. We owe a great debt to our public servants and I think we should express our gratitude to them from time to time.You see government is not just what happens in the Cabinet room. Government is not just what happens in this House. It's not just what happens in the select committees. It is also what happens in the ministries the departments and the agencies helping us to run this country and I for one am very grateful to the public servants who enable us to do that. That is what we're talking about today: all the work that they have done on these Supplementary Estimates. For that reason I do want to sort of engage with some of the arguments that the Opposition have given us—in fact the mistaken ideas that they have presented us with. I'm going to say mistaken" because surely no one would say these things in good faith.Let's start with Amy Adams who made the extraordinary claim—the extraordinary claim—that the former National Government had spent more on health than our current Labour and New Zealand First Government supported by the Green Party. You see it's a really straightforward thing and it's got me really worried about Amy Adams actually. You see the only way you can reach those figures is if you count the TerraNova settlement. So let me just go to the exact figures—let me give you the exact figures. You see in Budget 2018 the coalition Government allocated $750 million for health capital spend compared to Budget 2017 from the then National Government which allocated $150 million. She's just got that wrong because $750 million is bigger than $150 million.Let's talk about the operating budget. If we look at the operating budget in health we'll see that in Budget 2018 the coalition Government allocated $3.2 billion of operating health expenditure. In Budget 2017 the amount that was allocated by the then National Government was $2.3 billion. Perhaps she just got the figures a little bit mixed up in her head—$3.2 billion is bigger than $2.3 billion. We could expect that of someone who didn't know how to back out the TerraNova settlement. Frankly it worries me that that is the capacity of the person they have as their finance spokesperson. Part of the job of the Opposition is to examine what the Government is doing and you would at least hope—I would at least hope—that the person doing it knew how to manage figures.Hon Nicky Wagner: You are a bitch.Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: So we have—Mr Assistant Speaker I'm sorry. I believe I heard an unparliamentary word.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): The member needs to take a point of order.Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would like to ask the member on the other side of the House who used an unparliamentary word in response to me to withdraw and apologise.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Which member sorry?Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: I believe it was Nicky Wagner. I may be mistaken and if so I apologise but I do believe I heard an unparliamentary word.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): I didn't hear the interjection but I would ask the Hon Nicky Wagner if she did use an unparliamentary word that she would withdraw.Hon Nicky Wagner: I will withdraw and apologise.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): Thank you.Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: Thank you. Let me carry on. I want to speak just briefly about what Mr Paul Goldsmith had to say fantasising about taxes—fantasising speculating about what taxes might come along. He was speculating outrageously. You see we have introduced a Tax Working Group who are going to engage in a really well-thought-through structure for our tax Act and think about how our taxation system should be structured. Then we will be taking it to the electorate unlike the former National Government which simply imposed an increase in GST without taking it to the electorate in 2010. The people who engage in fantasy are not us.I want to turn to what the Supplementary Estimates say about us and our values. What they say is that the coalition Government supported by the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand is a Government that builds for the future that doesn't take the short-term temporary decisions but looks well into the future. As my colleague Mr James Shaw so beautifully pointed out this Government is investing in the future by restarting contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund—the fund that is sometimes also called the Cullen fund in reference to the foresight of the man who got it going the man who was a Labour Minister making those courageous decisions for the future. We need that New Zealand Superannuation Fund because we know that with demographic changes we are going to need to spend a lot of money on New Zealand superannuation in the future and we are going to start providing for that now. That's the kind of foresight that this Labour - New Zealand First Government has—prudent sensible valuing young people—because we will not impose burdens on them that we should be bearing ourselves. That's exactly what is going on in education as well.We have introduced in these Supplementary Estimates a year of fees-free education for tertiary students—so that's students at universities students at polytechnics students in trade training. It's a year of fees-free education for young people as they leave school. This is from the Labour - New Zealand First Government that echoes the Government that removed the interest on student loans. Why are we doing this? Well for starters we do not want to burden our young people with huge debts. We want to actually value those young people and say "We want you to have an education." It's also a commitment—a tangible commitment—to the value of education itself. This side of the House believes in education it believes in education for all and it believes in free education. Why? Because the only way to have a decent society the only way to run a great democracy and the only way to ensure that each citizen can participate is to ensure that those citizens are educated so that they are able to be part of our country to be part of our system of Government and to be part of our community. That's why we value education on this side of the House because it is an enabling action. It enables people and that's why we think it should be free so that everyone may access it. We are committed to that kind of forward-looking that values-laden spending. Not for us the minginess the cutting the pruning or the sort of just refusing to look to the future—we're not into just mere management. This side of the House believes in Government—Government of the people by the people for the people; a real living breathing active democracy—and that is why we are investing and building for the future. That is why I am so in support of the spending that we have engaged in in health in education in welfare—all the things that make this a decent country."