Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora Madam Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. Oh moan moan moan—that's what we heard from that side of the House. You'd think it'd be a pretty negative place to hang out on the Opposition benches. Moan moan moan—I haven't heard so much negative doom and gloom in an awful long time. Basically David Carter spoke to a couple of people at Fieldays and he's diagnosed all the issues of the country. Moan moan moan—that's all that National was doing moaning about roads moaning about tax cuts. Moan moan moan.Now I'd like to start with something positive. I'd like to congratulate Paul Goldsmith for taking on the role as the shadow finance spokesperson for National. Now if I was Paul Goldsmith I'd be very happy that I gave that speech after I got the job rather than before because it was an incoherent rambling exposition from the new finance spokesperson who can't even name an economist who he respects apart from Bill English—who I don't think was an economist. We heard a rambling incoherent speech. I don't think that should give the National Party much confidence. Maybe that's why they're so doom and gloom and depressed about everything in New Zealand.What I heard that National member say was that he used the term a Bog-standard Left Budget" but then I just heard the last speaker David Carter say it was a "Nothing New Budget". It was a type of Budget that National could have done. We had Paul Goldsmith say it was all about inefficient spending when actually then National says "It was the kind of things we would have done." Now it's absolutely incoherent because then National says that wellbeing's nothing new but then they're criticising it. So what is it? Is it the worst Budget ever or is it nothing new? That's why National was just focusing on the leak because there's actually nothing of substance to criticise in the Budget.Actually when you look at the economic indicators of New Zealand it's incredibly positive: incredibly low unemployment—4.2 percent; growing business confidence and optimism the forecasts are looking positive—a forecast surplus of $6 billion. But crucially—and this is what you won't hear National MPs talk about is how the economy is reorienting to the future. Previously it was built on massive migration it was built on massive commodities dairy intensification and some sort of Beverly Hillbillies Wild West fantasy of finding oil which has never been found. We've seen a succession of oil companies leave New Zealand. What the Government is doing is reorienting towards the future. With the innovation in the R & D tax credit changes and with the investment in infrastructure you are seeing growth in the productive sectors of the economy not just trying to chase the lowest dollars when you're trying to chase commodities.Now National they don't have a great economic track record to stand on. What we saw actually was a massive underspend in infrastructure which this Government is having to catch up with; I'm thinking about our schools our hospitals our Public Service. We saw a National speech which focused on the desire and the wish for tax cuts. Now what those tax cuts would have delivered was super profits for the Hiscos world and nothing for the people doing it hard in New Zealand. Under National we saw growing homelessness growing child poverty and growing environmental degradation—the things this Government is turning around.Now why I think National is so incoherent and negative and focused on the petty politics of the leaks rather than the substance is because it's incredibly popular. It's exactly what the country needs which has a focus on wellbeing. Now this was something new. This is something which has received glowing international attention. The focus on wellbeing rather than just gross domestic product is a new concept. Treasury—all the spending contained in the imprest supply and Supplementary Estimates process for Budget 2019 actually went through Treasury's processes which asked how does it improve wellbeing. Previously the Government would have asked how does it just improve GDP. This Government's asking how does that improve wellbeing.So that's why you're seeing the decisions contained in this legislation like the minimum wage—that's up to $17.70. You see the indexation for benefits which is going to make a real difference in the medium term to those families reliant on a benefit. You see the Families Package helping 384000 Kiwis—more than 50000 Kiwi kids lifted out of poverty. I see the member Jacqui Dean sneering—speaking under her breath. What I'm talking about is lifting 50000 Kiwi kids out of poverty. Rather than just ignoring them this Government's acting and lifting them out of poverty as part of the Families Package and the tax changes.Now when you look at the actual substance of the Budget the $1.9 billion extra in mental health is going to make a real difference for Kiwis. They've been doing it tough. They haven't had access to the services because of the underfunding. This massive investment in the free front-line services and the massive investment in addiction services will help reduce the mental health challenges Kiwis face and will increase the country's wellbeing.As a Green part of where I find my wellbeing is knowing that the environment which we love is protected and not being opened up for mining or drilling or fracking knowing that threatened endangered species are protected. That's how I and many New Zealanders respect wellbeing.Now in this Budget you see an additional $180 million for the conservation estate. That's on top of the single largest increase in the Department of Conservation's history which you saw in the last Budget. An additional $180 million is going to make a difference for the kakapo the kiwi the Māui dolphin and the special places that we love. Economically of course this is the golden goose which so many tourists come from all around the world to experience this beautiful natural environment of ours.When you look at the sustainable land use package—this was something I was talking about this morning in Blenheim at the organic winegrowers conference. Here you've got the biggest organic conference in the country: 350 attendees from around New Zealand. What they heard was the good news that there's an additional $229 million going into sustainable land use. When you look at their sector organics in New Zealand in the last two years has grown 30 percent domestically to a $600 million industry. Organic exports are up 42 percent in the last two years. So we've got a massive growth opportunity in what's a growing global market and it's that brand integrity the credentials on sustainability—which our international customers are so discerning of and demanding at the moment—and the sense of a national story. That's exactly what you see with the sustainable land use package of which they were glowing.Now to get those products to market you also need a modern balanced transport network and that's why I was so rapt to see the billion dollars extra going into rail infrastructure in this Budget. Now I will give the former Government credit. There was a little bit of money invested in KiwiRail but not nearly enough to actually turn it around to make it economically self-sufficient. Yet at the same time we saw you know the Hillside works closed down and some pretty retrograde policies. So this billion dollars extra for rail is going to help keep trucks off the road which improves road safety it reduces pollution reduces congestion for people who have to be on the roads but more importantly it builds the national infrastructure transport backbone which our exporters rely on. Coming from the East Coast I was absolutely rapt to see the opening of the Napier to Wairoa rail line. I want to see it all the way up to Gisborne eventually and there's a feasibility study thanks to the Provincial Growth Fund looking into that area. But we have to invest in infrastructure if we're going to go forward as a country and transport's always going to be a mix between coastal shipping rail road and air travel. What we did see under the previous Government though was a myopic focus on the seven roads of National Party significance. Here National borrowed up big with billions of dollars for just seven mostly urban motorway projects. What this Government is doing is finding a balanced modern smart approach.When you look at the energy component of this Budget of course there's the winter energy payment which is making a huge difference for Kiwi families but importantly it's also transitioning New Zealand into the future. Now I don't know if members are aware but National threw more than $200 million at one very wealthy industry the oil and gas industry as special financial treatments—$235 million over the preceding nine years. What this Government is doing is actually looking towards the future because when you listen to say the former Saudi Arabian oil Minister he says "Well the Stone Age didn't end for want of stones; it ended because we found something better." That's exactly what's happening with the global economy where there's more net international investment in clean energy than fossil fuels. In fact what we see with the forecast is the price decline. I mean just across my lifetime the cost of solar panels has dropped 99 percent and that's going to keep going into the future. So if National wants to keep being the cheerleaders for coal and fracking go right ahead. The future the markets and the public all want to focus on clean energy and that's why the money for the clean energy R & D centre in Taranaki and the winter energy payments will help transition New Zealand towards the clean energy economy. When you couple that with the other work the Government's doing from the zero-carbon bill the massive increase in public transport walking and cycling funds—the work to help grow a low-carbon economy. So across the Wellbeing Budget you see this great focus on people and the environment and the economy going forward which of course is built upon the people and the environment. So this is legislation I'm very proud to support on behalf of the Green Party. We have been very privileged to play a role with our focus on protecting people and the environment and it's a good day for New Zealand despite all the moan moan moans from that side."