Barry MaggieHon MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore): Thank you Madam Speaker. This really does take me back this discussion and this level of debate to the time when I was in the media on Morning Report. We had a sort of a wage round situation going. Every year there were cyclical changes. Every year when Labour was in Government they taxed more they spent more and they borrowed more. What's changed? Very little. The Wellbeing Budget is anything but. What was in it for seniors? What was in it for women's health? These are some of the issues that I'm going to touch on in my call today. We look at the context of how this Budget emerged—pretty much economic growth is what we all depend on if we want to have a good Budget that's going to deliver for the people who need it who pay their taxes and who work hard and want to know that those taxes are being well spent. What's happened to economic growth though? They inherited 4 percent; it's down now to around 2 percent. Treasury has also confirmed that we've got about a 1 percent slower growth rate each year so after three years that equates to about $5 billion. That's revenue that could've been used for a lot of the things—for example the things that seniors missed out on completely from this Budget. They did though deliver on one thing this Labour Government. What would that have been? They promised no new taxes but they delivered on those: seven new taxes to date and no doubt a few more working groups to come with it as well. I mean when you look at what this Budget has delivered it's really what isn't in the Budget and what really we need to focus on. As the Hon Todd McClay said in leading off this debate for National earlier this afternoon In trade this Government lacks ambition." Ain't that the truth? What new opportunities have been developed? They're still doing what the entire Government is doing with its legislation which is relying on the material and the hard work that the last Government put in. So in trade: no new opportunities. There's nothing new in there about expanding trade so how are we going to grow this economy so that people can actually get what they need? Let's have a look at some of the details around what seniors have been promised and what was not in this Budget. They were promised an annual health eye check for seniors. That's not in the Budget. They were also promised an increase to the breast screening to 74 years of age—also not in the Budget. The Hon Amy Adams in speaking earlier today in question time talked about the cochlear implants. The things that make a huge difference to the quality of people's lives—they were not addressed. In terms of elective surgery in my own area of the North Shore there are 400 fewer operations available this year than there were in our time and that is a pattern that's been repeated in district health boards (DHBs) throughout the country. The DHBs are a basket case in their own right and the Hon Michael Woodhouse has spoken about that in detail so I'll just go through the things that the seniors have been hoping would come their way because they were told they would. They were told—they were promised—that there would be delivery on the things that mattered to them. That has not occurred. Housing and affordable housing is particularly important to older New Zealanders who don't have the nest egg and who perhaps don't own their own house. They're reliant on paying rentals which are going up. They need to have affordable housing. What was supposed to deliver on that? KiwiBuild. The epic "KiwiFailure" that's currently undergoing what is it a retread or a reworking or tweaking or something? No one mentioned it at all throughout the Budget on that side of the House and I'm not surprised. It has been in a long list of failures the most epic of them that this Government has failed to deliver. Law and order and security—that matters a lot to older people. They're at home they're more vulnerable and they worry about whether they're going to be able to be safe in their own homes or if they go out during the day. This Government promised 1800 extra front-line police in their first term—woefully short. There are fewer than 500 net new police so far and my colleague Chris Bishop is talking about that a lot and really trying to hold the Government to account and get them to stick to what they said they would do because it's important. Unlike people on this side of the House who are perhaps a little cynical a little sceptical about when politicians in Government make promises even when they were in campaign mode—we kind of take it with a pinch of salt but a lot of older New Zealanders trusted the Labour-led Government and what have they got for it? Nothing. This Government has said in the past that it doesn't want to house people in motels but that has increased threefold. Older New Zealanders are looking into their future and feeling very afraid. So the Government that promised to be the most open and the most transparent that New Zealand has ever seen with this groundbreaking Wellbeing Budget has failed to deliver. They bungled it when they first came out to announce it and it hasn't got any better since that time. I've been looking through some of the agencies that represent older New Zealanders and looking at their evaluation of how this Budget has shaped up—not good. If you talk to and hear from Mac Welch who is the national president of Grey Power New Zealand he said that on the whole Grey Power is very disappointed with the Budget. They said the pre-election promise of the appointment of an aged-care commissioner has not eventuated. This is something that one of the coalition partners has been talking about for a very long time. In fact I think there was a big hoopla about three years ago when the Greens New Zealand First and Labour went around the country annoying a whole lot of old people and asking them what they wanted. An aged-care commissioner was their big glittering jewel in the crown. It's been promised. What has happened with it? Absolutely nothing. In fact I've been asking the Minister of Health the Hon David Clark about it and he has said that in fact the million dollars that they had to scope it and to look at the aged-care commissioner has not been able to come up with anything. So look I don't know. I think if you make a promise to older people about looking after them about checking up on the things that go wrong about having somebody who's in their corner on their side—more than the Ombudsman; more than the individuals that are already there—and looking out for their needs you should deliver and that has not occurred. Just getting back to Mac Welch basically as far as the Grey Power organisation—who you know are a group of people that the Hon Simon Bridges and myself went and spoke to a couple of weeks ago. They were very disappointed and didn't hold back on how upset they were about the fact that the wellbeing of seniors is so far down on the list of the priorities of this current Government. There's absolutely nothing in this Budget for seniors. So we look at the seniors who are continuing—as he pointed out—to suffer and to make headlines for all the wrong reasons and that is the reality. Grey Power good on you for calling them out on that one. Actually I looked back on my notes from last year's Budget. Last year I called it a Budget that was a dowry Budget to pay for and to prop up Labour's marriage of convenience with New Zealand First and the Greens and what's changed? The same applies again. This is a dowry Budget. They're spending plenty of money to keep the coalition partners and the cling-ons happy but again they have not delivered. So Labour promised an aged care commissioner with New Zealand First and that didn't happen. Dementia is another issue that I think has been woefully overlooked by a Government that promised so much and has delivered so little. Alzheimer's New Zealand has indicated how disappointed they have been in this Budget and again "the forgotten people" is the phrase that they use. This is a group of people—Dementia New Zealand Dementia Auckland; there's a number of them around the country as well as Alzheimer's New Zealand—who have asked repeatedly to be treated fairly. We know we've an ageing population. We know that we need to train up really skilled people to look after them so that they can stay in their homes as long as possible so that they can get their diagnoses earlier and so that they can have cognitive skills development which improves their quality of life and slows down the pace and the progression of most forms of dementia and it needs to be funded. The broken promises that Labour has not delivered on for people with dementia is in my view unconscionable and the specialist dementia services that they were promised are just not happening. Elder abuse: very disappointing again to see that the number of people who are reporting abuse which is financial as well as psychological and physical abuse has risen. There's about 2400 cases reported a year. We know that's the tip of the iceberg. We know that the 0800 number—which is a toll-free confidential number—was being used but it has no additional resources. The money runs out next year and it needs to be boosted. It needs to be talked about so that people will know to ring up. This is elder abuse awareness week. This is a time when we need to care for the people who are worried lonely isolated and vulnerable. This Government has delivered nothing to them. In palliative care: no additional funding or announcements around that. Again when it comes to the end stages of life I think a lot of people might be seduced by the idea that there could be an easy answer in the way of euthanasia and assisted suicide because they have no other options and to actually think that older people might think that the nuclear option of having an end-of-life euthanasia is better than being cared for and looked after is something that I find incredibly sad. We are better than that in New Zealand. We are better and we must look after our vulnerable better than we have. This Budget in looking after the vulnerable absolutely does not deliver."