Smith DamienDAMIEN SMITH (ACT): I just wanted to quote an article from Thomas Coughlan at the New Zealand Herald which said that Treasury recommended against the Government's $350 cost of living payment for middle-income households saying it was a 'poor mechanism for supporting households with a longer-term problem' "—that is absolutely correct—"and that it will make inflation worse in the short-term." And that's absolutely correct as well. "Instead Treasury believed the Government should investigate a 'more targeted form of support to lower-income households' according to advice released on the scheme. Treasury even thinks the payments would 'add to inflationary pressures in the short term' although 'the risk to longer-term inflationary pressures is relatively small' because the payments are temporary. On Thursday the Government announced [this and] people earning less than $70000 and who do not receive the winter energy payment [is estimated at] 2 million people. … Treasury said the Government should use the money set aside for the scheme … to pursue 'initiatives that more directly impact on interim child poverty targets' " which this Government and this Prime Minister came into Parliament to actually achieve.Let that sink in. The advice said that the Ministers wanted to forge ahead regardless of Treasury's recommendation that Inland Revenue be the agency to administer that scheme but the IRD said that it should not have to be put in charge of that because it would be a critical operation for the IRD which is currently managing COVID-19 payments and it would blow out their key performance indicators for actually doing it.So you can see where the problems are. Under the ACT Party's alternative budget which the Green Party obviously haven't read the average worker benefit would be $2802. A single person earning $60000 would get an extra $800. An average income of $73000 would get $2800. A middle-income worker swimming against the tide of inflation in this "Brain Drain Budget" would leave because this country is working to the lowest possible common denominator in terms of aspiration.So we're going to tax the productive to fund Labour's ideological advantages. But I would argue that at a dollar a day this goes nowhere—absolutely nowhere—to helping with the cost of living crisis.Angie Warren-Clark: Rubbish!DAMIEN SMITH: How is that rubbish?Angie Warren-Clark: It's not a dollar a day.DAMIEN SMITH: How would you actually ascertain whether this is a good spend of money when last night the Minister Mr Parker who's usually respected in this House could not even tell us how this was modelled whether it should be $500 $400 $350 or $200? Come October we'll be asking this question again when the cost of living crisis still will be there inflation will still be high and interest rates on your mortgages will still be high and food prices will still be high.So I'd like to ask the Government to actually think about: why $350? Where did that come from? When was it decided? Was it because of the Newshub poll which said that three-quarters of this country don't agree with this Government on the cost of living crisis that they had failed to anticipate even after all the COVID stimulus? The COVID problem is a different problem to the housing and cost of living crisis. It's absolutely a separate problem and it needs a separate set of solutions and it's going to be here this time next year come the election. So let's be honest about this and let's be pragmatic. That's why I like Mr Faafoi because sometimes he is really pragmatic but the rest of the economic backbench of the Labour Party are throwing this out as a political spin—and now we know what it's worth to get a vote from the Labour Party: it's $350.So I would ask you to look at Thomas' article and actually say to the people of New Zealand: this is a short-term fix—it's not a long-term fix—and you're on your own. And that's what they know out there. And we're all tightening our belts and you guys haven't and that's what your opportunity was in the last Budget: tighten your belt reduce spending reduce the size of this Government and give people back some taxes to have them pay for the cost of living crisis. Thank you Mr Speaker."