O'Connor Greg; Genter Julie AnneASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): Good evening. The House is resumed. We are on the second reading of the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green—Rongotai): Tēnā koe e te Pīka. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. This bill the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill which represents the tax changes that the Government is bringing in ultimately shows I think the ideological difference between the Government and the majority of New Zealanders because the majority of New Zealanders know that we can do so much more working together. These tax changes are very I me mine". That's how I would sum up the ideology of the governing parties: "I me mine". It's the little gains that they're giving to individuals and missing out on the bigger picture of what we can do together.They claim they're delivering when at best they're delivering $10 or $20 a week extra to people but they're taking it back. It's a drop in the bucket from what they're taking away that we can achieve together. I've already seen people publicly commenting on this. They're getting an extra $20 a week—that's what you get if you're on the higher end of the income spectrum—but they're going to miss out because their daughter's bus fare has gone up to over $13 a week and they have prescriptions that they now have to pay more for. It doesn't take into account the loss of the collective investment that we could be making in the infrastructure and services that serve us better when we work together.Cheaper public transport free prescriptions making it easier for people to buy electric vehicles—because we have to because that's how we adapt to the climate crisis; by decarbonising our transport system. But they've axed the Clean Car Discount. They've massively put up the price for driving electric vehicles (EVs) through road-user charges and of course we haven't even begun to see the true cost of the cuts that will be felt in public services that are no longer there for people.The this is a smoke-and-mirrors Budget. They very much claim to be delivering but the big win for people again is all broken down into a very individualistic approach. I think that most New Zealanders know that when you go overseas you see better infrastructure and fewer homeless people. That's because those countries have fairer tax systems and our tax system is still very unfair and the changes in this bill make it less fair.The irony is that the Government will talk about trying to deliver for "hard-working New Zealanders". It's very much a kind of virtue signal to say that if you are working in paid work you're worth more to society than people who are caring for children or caring for elderly or disabled whānau. What if the work that people contribute to society doesn't have a commercial return? It still has a value to society and that is something that people on the Government benches really have not yet understood.We are continuing to let land bankers and land hoarders pocket more and more untaxed income while working people are struggling with rising rents rising electricity prices and rising costs of public transport all because of decisions this Government has made. And there are certain slogans that get trotted out again and again and you can go right back to that in the 1980s and 1990s to hear where they first started—"Oh so and so wrecked the economy" blah blah blah "Got the country into debt." Again it's all just meaningless slogans like the quotes from Winston Churchill.If we really want to understand how to build a more productive economy one that genuinely benefits everyone we have 30 years of evidence that the neoliberal ideology does not deliver that. It does not work. That's the facts. You know I grew up in the United States where the infrastructure is crumbling. We've had these same ridiculous political lines trotted out by right-wing parties since Ronald Reagan and what has it delivered? Populist demagogues like Donald Trump and crumbling infrastructure but a small number of millionaires and billionaires who can claim massive tax deductions for their private jets. It's just crazy. Like that's where it goes. That's where this ideology leads to. It leads to an incredibly unequal society where people increasingly if they are lucky enough to be the winners in this society—because they inherited property usually or because they happened to start out with money—end up living in gated communities and having to pay private armed guards because the crime gets worse because you've got people who are starving outside the walls of that gated community. Now that sounds extreme but that's the road that we are on right now.This bill adjusts personal tax income thresholds and as I've already said—Hon Members: Woo hoo!Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: They're very excited about that. The Government members are super-excited about that because that's the highest goal they have for our society—it's for people to get an extra $10 or $20 a week and then miss out on investment in our society our collective wellbeing and our collective good. But the difference is that most New Zealanders I think actually know this and this is starting to be reflected in the polls. They realise that they've been sold a bit of a bit of a sham. And that is why I would say this is very much smoke and mirrors—because where are the cancer drugs? Where are the cancer drugs that were promised? Where are the EV chargers that were promised? Where's all the infrastructure that was promised? It's not going to happen and it's definitely not going to deliver the outcomes.Finally in my last few minutes I just want to talk about how this bill in particular is so harmful right now because we are facing a climate crisis that is going to continue to affect the world and New Zealand. And the Government parties not only do not have answers; they are literally taking us backwards. The things that they propose as solutions to the climate crisis are the exact opposite. So the changes that they've made to the clean car legislation are going to mean higher-emissions vehicles higher emissions from road transport. The changes that they're making to the Resource Management Act to have a fast track—they claim this is about renewable electricity. In reality they will be allowing more coal mining and motorways that make emissions worse so it doesn't stack up.Ultimately I think that most New Zealanders have the values—and probably the members opposite; some of them do have the values and they do understand manaakitanga generosity working together being collaborative. How is that not the most fundamental value of a liberal democratic society and the way that we implement that is through our shared resources through having a fair tax system that ensures that everyone in New Zealand has what they need to live a good life? Not an extra $10 or $20 a week but spending more on public services spending more because public transport fares have gone up because we're charging more for our prescriptions.The thing that I really can't understand about this Government but I think they have realised and it will increasingly become clear to the country is that it is not possible to improve our infrastructure improve our public services and deliver large tax cuts to landlords. Until we fix our tax system we aren't actually rewarding people for working hard; we're rewarding people for owning property. And that is one of the biggest challenges for us to improve the productivity of our economy—the fact that there's an incentive to invest not to build new houses. The interest deductibility was there for new builds but now that the Government has given it to existing houses there's an incentive to buy more of the houses they already exist which of course has not reduced rents. Surprise surprise. No the changes that benefit the landlords in this society do not put downward pressure on rents. Rents continue to go up but I tell you what would and what the Green Party would definitely support—rent controls. If the members opposite care about keeping rents in check build more public housing and put rent controls on rents. Otherwise it's just lip-service and we know who the Government really represents. They represent the landowners. They are feudalist."