Sio William: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: General Debate[Sitting date: 08 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11795. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere): In the course of the Queen’s Birthday weekend the Labour Party and the trade union movement buried a Pacific matriarch. Her name was Filiamata Fiu. Filiamata Fiu’s husband died about 25 years ago. She had one child who was dead at the time of her death and she had no other children. At 79 years of age this woman owned her own house from the 1970s when she was supported through the Government scheme of the day and was able to get a loan guaranteed by the Government at 3 percent. At 79 she owned her own home and she helped people with the little social security she got.Fili spent all her life fighting for social justice and fairness for workers. She had worked at Auckland Hospital and lived her life believing in the principle of solidarity. To Fili the principle of solidarity meant that she paid her taxes so the kids down the road would be able to get an education. She paid her taxes so that the Government of the day would provide health care and social welfare for the protection of the vulnerable for the unemployed—all the people whom New Zealanders have traditionally paid their taxes in order to protect. That is what Fili did all her life. She lived the principle of solidarity and paid her taxes to ensure that the people who could not afford to buy their own house would be able to rent a house and be supported through that.Pita Paraone: And she had her faith.Su’a WILLIAM SIO: Absolutely! She had her faith.I want to come back to the final words that Fili gave to a member of the Government in her final week. We saw the Budget introduced last week where this Government attempted—failed I would say. The Government failed to address the key issues that face our people. It does not fix the housing problem at all. It underfunds health it underfunds education and though it predicts some economic growth in the years to come it also lays out that the 5.6 percent unemployment rate—146000 people—will remain the same next year. For Māori it is 12 percent unemployment. For Pasifika it is 10 percent unemployment at the moment.Although the Budget predicts economic growth the economic growth would benefit those at the very top of our income ladder rather than those at the bottom. I say that because economists have said that most working people would have a reduction in their income—a reduction in their economic share—of 1.3 percent. That means that every worker would lose $400 per year per person in the next year. That is what the Budget fails to do. It fails to fix the housing problem. It fails to properly fund health and education. In fact one of the habits of this Government is that it continues to underfund the increases that come from inflation and population growth and then it calls it more funding.Infometrics research showed us last year that the Government underfunded health by $1.7 billion and again that is done in this particular Budget. Infometrics research said that this Government has underfunded health by $1.7 billion in 6 years. In fact it was the professional medical specialists who released a report last year saying that the funding of this Government in the health sector is based on misrepresentation.If we are to believe what this Government has said—that it is fixing everything that it is doing all it can—why is it that Te Puea Marae in Māngere has had to step forward and take on 54 families who were living in cars? If things are so good under this Government why is it that even though Te Puea Marae took on 54 families who were living in cars so that it can provide them with decent accommodation during the winter there are more and more people in homeless situations? The Auckland City Mission today released its report saying that homelessness in Auckland City has more than doubled in the last 3 years. We have had this Government for the last 8 years. Despite what National said at the very beginning when it took office when it promised every New Zealander a brighter future that is not the case today. More and more people than ever before not only do not own their own home—for Pasifika it is 16 percent—