Allan Kiritapu; Mallard Trevor; van de Molen TimKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): Well Mark Mitchell—the Hon Mark Mitchell—I would be absolutely delighted to take a call. It is an absolute privilege to be the final speaker on the Government benches side for our first ever Budget in nine long years. I want to acknowledge—take my cap off to—the Hon Grant Robertson for your diligence and patience in pulling together something that's absolutely exceptional for the people of Aotearoa New Zealand. Goodness me I'm so proud—so so proud—to stand here today.Now I must say for many of us particularly the new MPs that came in on this side of the House we sat there alongside the rest of New Zealand in watching our colleagues in the House while we watched New Zealand go from a country that we could all be proud of—a country that looked after the little guy a country that punched above its weight—to a country that stagnated to a country that wanted to sell down State homes and to a country that couldn't be bothered investing in its young people the next generation of New Zealanders.Well what we've had to do and what our executive has had to do in the last very short amount of time is work swiftly to pull together the beginning of a new financial direction to ensure that New Zealand's economy is on track. I want to also just make acknowledgments about how our economy is on track. We have the wages going up we're projected to grow our GDP by 3 percent and our exporters—they're looking pretty chuffed right now.You know there'll be a few comments from the Opposition—we've heard it all afternoon and we heard it all through question time: Oh but business confidence—business confidence." Well I want to refer to the Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr this week. When he looked at the business confidence and when he released his quarterly financial Monetary Policy Statement earlier this week he said "Well you know what to be honest we don't take notice of the headlines when it comes to things like business confidence. What we do do"—the Reserve Bank what they do and what I encourage the Opposition to do—is look to how those businesses are actually tracking internally. The reality is with the wages going up with GDP projected to continue to go up business is actually pretty chuffed.Now I must acknowledge the colleagues of my contemporary over in the Opposition benches the member for Waikato Mr Tim van de Molen. Now he sat here with a straight face and turned to this side of the House and said "You don't care about the regions." We don't care about the regions! Well I tell you as an absolutely proud regional member of this Government that we absolutely couldn't care more about the regions. And what the regions are saying—if the Opposition would like to take a little bit of time particularly their spokesperson for regional economic development who lives in Epsom; if he'd like to come out and spend a little bit of time in the regions I would be more than delighted to take him around the mighty East Coast electorate. What I am hearing from cardholding blue party members what I am hearing from the Opposition's own members is they're wanting to tear those membership cards up and you know why? And why is that? It's because they haven't felt more heard in the last decade than what they are right now. They're seeing more of our senior Cabinet colleagues out in the regions.Now I refer to the comments of the Hon Paula Bennett. She said "The regions are laughing at ya."—referring to us. The regions aren't laughing; the regions are standing alongside cheering—cheering because for nine long years we have been kicked and shoved about like you wouldn't believe. Now for those of us that live in the regions we find that absolutely abhorrent and we—for example in the Eastern Bay of Plenty over the last 10 or so years we have gone backwards by about 3.5 to 4.5 percent of GDP compared to the rest of the country. That is a shame—that is a shame.Now when we look to the previous Government's economic growth plans for the East Coast region know what it was—know what it was? It was oil and gas extraction. Oil and gas extraction was going to be the saviour of the regions. Well I'll tell you right now: we have a mobilised the region right now. There are 65 projects that are coming up from the Eastern Bay of Plenty alone seeking the support of this Government to see our region stimulated. And goodness me to the champion of the region the Hon Shane Jones and to the executive that is backing him: kudos; hats off. Te Kaha will be proud when they see their horticultural expansion. Ōpōtiki will be proud when they see their aquacultural expansions come into fruition. Kawerau will be proud when they see that inland port supported by KiwiRail up and off the ground stimulating places like Murupara places like Minginui. The Opposition might not know where these areas are but they used to be in times not so long ago the backbone of our country. Well this side of the House we say it is.Now apart from the amazing things that we're doing in terms of stimulating regional economic growth I want to turn to the vision that Labour has for our people and it has always been the same. Norman Kirk articulated it many generations ago: "Someone to love somewhere to live somewhere to work and something to hope for." If you boil it down to its quintessential basics what this Government's first Budget has done and it will be the first Budget of the Hon Grant Robertson's very long tenure is set the foundations for a transformation in the way that we care about people for the way that we provide the basics for people—not for the top 1 percent not for the top 5 percent but for the majority of hard-working New Zealanders out there in the regions and in the urban centres.This is a caring and compassionate Government and we see that in the way that this Government has pulled together and put its first bastion project the Families Package. It was the first time that we had seen a substantial increase in funding for those families since the families package was introduced under the previous Labour Government.When the Families Package came into force on 1 July I had the opportunity of visiting a little school Waiotahe Valley School in the Eastern Bay of Plenty. Its principal is Pat Carrington the father of the East Coast icon Lisa Carrington. I had the opportunity at that time to go into their school and that weekend prior the website had come live. So I heard from young kids—you know I was asking them what they knew about what this Government had done. One kid put her hand up and she said "Oh I know what the Government does. It helps families like mine." And I said "What do you mean by that young lady?" and she said "Well my family and I we all sat around the table last night and worked out how much our family was going to benefit from the Families Package." She said to me that her Mum cried and I must say that when you have a Government that is enabling over 384000 families ordinary Kiwi New Zealand families—from an injection of $5.5 billion into ordinary Kiwi families and we know the amount of assistance that that will do—to put food on the table and gas in the car I can only say as a Government backbench MP thank you to my senior colleagues.In the few moments that I have left I want to turn to—this week in the Finance and Expenditure Committee we heard from the Auditor-General. We heard from the Auditor-General this week and what they told us was that in 2009 in 2013 and in 2016 they were advising the previous Government of the infrastructural needs that our schools and hospitals would need. That was in 2009 2013 and 2016—and what did they do? They failed to heed the advice of the Auditor-General—one of the most independent advisers in the country. The reality is that the previous Government for nine long years could see that we had an imminent crisis in district health boards and in schools—and what they do? They turned a blind eye. There was a housing crisis on the rise and what do they do? They turned a blind eye. So to the Hon Grant Robertson—SPEAKER: Order! Order! The member's time has expired. The Hon David Carter.Rt Hon David Carter: I've had my go.SPEAKER: What? Oh the member's had a call—no one else? All right. OK. The question is that the motion be agreed to. Those of that opinion will say Aye to the contrary No. The Ayes have it.TIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Sorry Mr Speaker. We didn't hear the call for no.Hon Member: There wasn't an option for a noes vote.Hon Members: There was.SPEAKER: "Those in favour say Aye to the contrary No."—that's what I said.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: Sorry Mr Speaker. It was too quick.SPEAKER: Oh well I'll be exceptionally generous. I mean what I've got sounds like it's getting infectious."