Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura): Thank you Madam Speaker. Well that member who's just resumed his seat Shane Jones has clearly missed his calling in the Southern Baptist church in Alabama! That was an interesting contribution and I see that he's pleased with my suggestion that he has missed his calling. But actually this is quite a serious business.We've got a Budget to discuss: the Appropriation (2020/21 Estimates) Bill. It is one which creates a tremendous amount of debt for the country. I think everybody in Parliament certainly to my knowledge understands that there is a very serious economic situation that the Government is trying its very best—not very well actually but trying—to address. We have in the Budget and the Estimates around an extra $20 billion of money that seems to be unallocated floating around available to be used at a moment's notice. That is really unusual and certainly in my years in Parliament this is not something that I've ever seen before. Some people have suggested that it goes back to the days well before the Fiscal Responsibility Act. People are wondering about quite where that money's going to be spent and how and certainly in which electorates and whether it be somewhere around election day. So there are certainly issues here.We've heard today some questions from the Leader of the Opposition to the Prime Minister around small business and I thought they were exceptionally good questions. They showed to me that the Prime Minister did not have the detail on small business. And why this is important to this particular bill is to understand that big business always has an open telephone line or email to Government—certainly to Government departments—but small business which represents most business in this country certainly the most employers in this country do not generally get a look in. It's only through their local members of Parliament that they can often even get noticed—whether it's in terms of immigration to get staff in or whether it's to help bring back into the country staff who have been overseas at the time of the lockdown or whether it's to deal with the fact that there is no extra money for small business.I've heard today about how there is a wage subsidy—well wage subsidies are by their very nature for the benefit of the employees as they should be. We heard some contribution from a member on the other side of the House—apparently a Minister I can't remember which one; quite truthfully can't remember which one—calling out and saying that even sole traders got a wage subsidy. Well yes that's because they're in the business trying to work it as an employee as well. But what's not there is anything to assist people with paying their rent paying their rates paying their insurances paying all the other costs and licences that they often have to have—paying their general way through.And why should that be available for small business? Well I can tell you it's because small business did not ask for the COVID-19 shutdown. It did not have any—any—input into what happened to their businesses. Unlike some members of the Labour Party—I'll try not to embarrass her by mentioning her name—I don't believe that's small businesses' fault. I believe that small business like every other business were sitting around thinking that they were going along OK they were paying their bills they'd got over the Christmas shutdown which they have to pay for—pay wages for and pay the rent for and pay everything else for—and they were getting themselves back into being cash positive and all of a sudden this struck.They did not have a direct line through to the World Health Organization. They did not have access to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials who knew what was happening overseas. They did not have the ability to make any provision. So this bill—this Estimates bill—makes basically no provision for them. What I see it making provision for is a whole lot of Government spending. Now this party on this side is not against Government spending; we just believe that that spending must be useful for the people of New Zealand and it must be something that's going to help grow the economy and also help people through their time of need.Despite everything and all the rhetoric out today from the other side—and my dear colleague the Hon Shane Jones' who has resumed his seat very good talking about people being employed. Well let's just get serious about this. People are losing their jobs. There are a thousand extra people a day going on to the jobseeker benefit which in the old parlance is the dole"—a thousand people a day. That is not a thousand people a day losing their jobs—there's a lot more than that because if one is in a partnership is living with somebody who is earning an income who is over a certain level they can't get the jobseeker benefit. And that's one of the things that I think is really sad is that people who have never been on the receiving end of a jobseeker benefit or any other benefit are suddenly finding themselves now in that situation of having to ask for help—having to ask for help when they are used to other people asking them for help. That is extraordinarily hard for people who have always been self-reliant and it's really hard on the mental health of people who have always seen themselves as being survivors and able to cope no matter what to suddenly find they can't cope. I see nothing in this bill that really addresses that.I don't see anything in this bill that addresses the significant harm that is being done to our communities in this country. When I look at the fact that even today the chief economist for the ANZ bank has come out and said that by September—only a few months away—we will have at least 10 percent unemployment I think that is an absolute tragedy. That is not taking into account the number of people who are not having to be on the jobseeker benefit because of sickness or other disability issues. These are people who are—this is a very serious issue for us as a country. I know that just about every country in the world is having to deal with very similar issues like this but simply saying that we're going to pay out a lot of money to a lot of big industry doesn't necessarily address the fact that most of our communities that we represent are actually small businesses and small communities.I was in Clevedon yesterday—part of the Papakura electorate coming up to this election—and on almost a whole side of the street all the shops were shut. This was until two months ago an extremely popular busy area where lots of tourists came and lots of Aucklanders actually just went out to Clevedon for the weekend and to go and do something on the way and there was also a lot of through traffic. Half the businesses there are shut. I just think—how do people come back from that without some help? The best way of helping them is in the Budget to look at how the Government could actually just directly help these businesses.There's no point as the Prime Minister said today in giving people advice about liquidations or how to go into bankruptcy—well that's pretty easy: just don't pay your bills and anybody will be bankrupt; that's the way it works. But the other issue surely it must be is that getting advice from some bureaucrats about what to do is hardly going to make anybody who's spent the last 30 years building up a business seeing it fail—or actually by the way bought a business last year and actually has plenty of debt—that's not going to help them one scrap. Until anyone's been in small business until anyone's understood what it's like to pay the wages and not pay yourself until anyone's been in the situation of having to pay the GST and not pay your own mortgage they don't know anything about small business.It's all very well to sit there and moralise about how these people should be better off and at the same time putting up the minimum wage for those who are lucky enough to have a job. Well how about thinking about the small-business owners who don't even pay themselves the minimum wage because they don't have the money. It's all very well saying "Well we've got the wage subsidy." Well that's great. I think that's a good thing the wage subsidy. I think everyone on our side of the House agrees but the fact is that's not going to the employer; it's not going to the small-business people. If anyone wants to ask just ask how much the Wellington rates have gone up. Just ask how much Auckland rates are going up. Just ask who's paying for that. I can tell this House it is not the Government; it is actually small medium and some large-style businesses but most are small.New Zealand needs better than this Budget; it needs a Government that understands small business it needs a Government that cares and it needs a Government who understands what to do and will do it."