Edmonds BarbaraHon BARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I want to acknowledge the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee; we are a quite a constructive select committee and it was important that we spent the considerable time having a look at the Government's Budget Policy Statement.We heard from a number of submitters both orally and who'd written in submissions as to the impact and the effect and what they wanted to see in relation to this Budget Policy Statement. And I've got to say the submissions were varied—varied. I'm going to go take some time a little bit later in this contribution to be able to go through some of those submissions and what some of those submitters said in relation to the trade-offs that were going to be made through this particular Budget. We have as the chairperson said one of the Government's overarching goals for this term as set out in the statement To build a stronger more productive economy that lifts real incomes and increases opportunities for New Zealanders."But what we have heard in the last 24 hours is something called "killing the Kiwi dream"—killing the Kiwi dream of being able to own your own home. That is what we've heard in the last 24 hours from this Government. And they've had to clearly stand up and address that because it had been leaked from their Budget Policy Statement.And this is what the concern is on this side of the House—that we're going to see a lot of smoke and mirrors between now and the Budget and then in the days after that. Because they probably weren't going to say that out loud—that they were removing the first-home grant. They were probably going to be requiring for that information to come out a little bit later or for others to find it. They weren't going to be transparent with Kiwis and put that in their PR saying "We're going to get rid of the first-home grant."It's very similar to a situation that we saw in previous years under a National Government when the training incentive allowance was removed by stealth as well. Nothing in the PR around the training incentive allowance basically being cut but the National Government back then by stealth—basically it wasn't until the Opposition highlighted it that that smoke and mirrors was revealed and it was revealed that the training incentive allowance just like the first-home grant was going to be removed.So I want to ask the members on the other side of the House when you do that PR be really clear about what you're going to cut. Because if you don't want to be clear about what you're going to cut New Zealanders won't be fooled. And in the time after the Budget when this side of the House starts to go through every single detail we will bring it to Kiwis' attention what you are doing to cut the choices they want to make in order to get ahead.So the other thing that they've decided to do is to cut a lot of the things which would have helped right now for Kiwis. They have removed the free public transport fares. They were free for those who were 12 and under we made them half price for those under 25 and they've removed them. They've also introduced a new car tax an additional $50 with road-user charges to Kiwis.So they've said time and time again and right through the Budget Policy Statement that they have a laser-like focus on the cost of living; that that is one of their targets. But they've actually removed some of the measures that help everyday Kiwis in the hand today. And yet if you actually go on to the National Party tax calculator—because they keep saying basically the tax cuts are going to help—well some of our lowest-paid Kiwis are probably only going to get $2 in the hand according to their calculator—$2 in the hand each week. How does that help when the rent is going up?And the chairman referenced the Monetary Policy Statement today and there are two very sticky things that are basically refusing to bring down inflation. One of them is increases in rents—apparently there's going to be downward pressure on rents. I haven't seen that since this Government has come in.The second thing that's basically making inflation difficult to bring down is around rates. It's great for Auckland that they've got a deal but what about the rest of the country? I've heard 33 percent up in Northland we've got 17 percent in Porirua and then it's 8 percent the next year. That is something that needs to be dealt with in order to bring inflation down. But we don't have a solution so far from this Government.The chairman also referenced the Monetary Policy Statement and one of the other things that was basically set out in the Monetary Policy Statement today was around insurance. That is another reason—increasing insurance premiums is another reason why inflation is not coming down. But what is the Government doing to support them through the Budget Policy Statement? It says they're going to try and make things more productive and yet what we have again seen—again through smoke and mirrors and basically through digging through some of our media—is that they've removed the national resilience plan. The national resilience plan—the funding for that was to support local regional councils to basically mitigate the climate change impacts and that was supposed to help with bringing down insurance premiums. But we're not seeing that action from this Government. Instead what we are seeing are smoke and mirrors where they are cutting one thing choosing another and then not saying anything about it.But that's the problem here—Kiwis are not dumb. They are not dumb. They will see right through it. They may not see it on Budget day but by golly this side of the House will go through the detail and show Kiwis the cuts and the choices that the Government is making that will basically impinge on their ability to get ahead.We have seen it already with first-home buyers. Interest deductibility—so straight away landlords—$2.9 billion—will be able to outbid them at auction because they will be able to have that tax break behind them. But what does this Government do? They remove the first-home grant.So I now want to basically echo the voice of some of the people who submitted to the select committee because even though the other side of the House won't agree or basically listen to what I say what about the people who actually read the document and want to be able to contribute and say to the Government and plead with the Government to change what they're doing?So if we look at the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers they say "we acknowledge the fiscally challenging environment in which the Coalition Government is currently navigating yet we raise our concerns about disinvestment in public services whilst maintaining intentions or personal tax reductions. Such an approach we believe is likely to further compound social inequities and lead to disadvantage for many New Zealanders."But you don't believe the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers? Maybe you'll agree with CCS Disability Action a group that represents our disabled community who again have seen a cut from this Government who have seen criteria tighten so that their carers cannot get respite so that some disabled people cannot access the support to help them enable them to live a good life. We've had meetings and rallies across New Zealand and a lot of people are absolutely upset with this Government for what they are doing to the disabled community. So if you don't believe this side of the House maybe CCS: "We have significant concerns about the priority areas as well as the short-term goals laid out in the Budget Policy Statement. We are also disappointed to see that disability is absent."And you know what? The disabilities community isn't the only group that's absent from the Budget Policy Statement. Where is the child poverty reduction? Where are the climate change actions? This Government has basically removed the ability to focus their accounts and basically the funding that hard-working taxpayers in New Zealand require them to do.So again if you don't believe the CCS Disability Action how about you might believe Disabled Persons Assembly (DPA) NZ? "DPA is concerned that the proposed tax cuts and funding of tax rebates for landlords will have a negative impact on the government's ability to provide essential services that disabled people rely on across health education welfare and support services."But maybe you don't want to agree with the Disabled Persons Assembly or CCS or the Association of Social Workers; maybe you just want to agree with a person an individual who took the time out of their day to submit to the select committee because they thought it was so important that they did. From Emma: "A budget policy statement that neglects to address social policy is woefully incomplete."Or maybe if you're a bit of an environmentalist the Environment and Conservation Organisations of New Zealand: 43 groups with a concern for environment. They are "disappointed that the Budget Policy Statement has lost the acknowledgement of the natural environment responses to climate change and wellbeing aspects of the environment." Time and time again during those submissions we heard people that said "Do not give us tax cuts but fund the public services that we depend on for us to have a good life."We have seen over the last 24 hours this Government using smoke and mirrors to basically disguise their cuts and we will hold them to account in eight days' time."