Andersen VirginiaVIRGINIA ANDERSEN (Labour): I'm pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this debate on the report of the Finance and Expenditure Committee that was released on 14 December 2017. A big part of this report—this Budget Policy Statement we have here—is about improving the living standards and well-being of New Zealanders and a big part of how that's going to be done and continued to be measured is the living standards framework which is the crucial start of how that's going to happen. That will be how we create future Budgets and it will be how we measure success of our work going forwards. Let me quote—and this is a long one; we'll unpack it—The [Living Standards Framework] is based on an OECD framework that organises indicators of … intergenerational wellbeing." Well what does that mean? That means to the average New Zealander that this Government is measuring more than just money. It's moving far beyond the narrow indicators that we've been stuck with in the past and it's looking at how we gauge the success of people and families that live here in New Zealand. If we take the average New Zealand family and look at how we measure whether they're healthy and happy and successful and how this country is operating it's got to go a bit further than how much they're earning how much the mortgage is being repaid or how much bills are being paid. It's also about their health about their community and about their well-being. I'm proud to see a Labour-led Government start setting up indicators in a framework that now allows us a far more comprehensive way of measuring the success of our country and that is where this Government is different to the previous one.We're looking in terms of health mental health and connections between people and their community. What's the point of being ultra-productive—of going faster to the point where the people are broken? That's exactly what New Zealand has seen over the past nine years. Families and mums and dads work longer hours for lower wages to pay higher rents and higher food costs to spend less time with their children and put them in after-hours care so the next generation of New Zealanders have far more problems than the previous generation and that's what we are here to put a stop to. We want our families to be strong and resilient to have high-quality healthcare mental health services when people need it education services that are world class and homes that are warm and dry. That is how we will be measuring the success of this country going forward. Over the past nine years we have seen not investment in New Zealand but running it down. Things have been run down to a point where they are breaking. That is going to take a long time to fix and we know that. It's going to take a long time to fix because the people that have borne the brunt of the running down of those resources are New Zealanders. They are the people in Hutt South that have not been able to get mental health services when there are immediate suicide risks in their family. Those are the people that don't know where to turn or to go to because the basic rights they need as New Zealanders have not being delivered to them and this is a cycle that will require investment—investment and building up the strength of our country—not milking it and letting it run down.So of the four capitals in the list—the four main capitals that we'll be looking at in this area—number one is natural capital: aspects of our natural environment. Making sure that we can swim in our rivers—that is a measure of how healthy our country is. Social capital number two is how our Crown-Māori relationships are working that our Treaty relationship is healthy and functioning and that the connections we have between people and our communities are working well. Number three human capital: the skills knowledge and mental health of our people are well. That we enable people to participate and fully partake of society is a measure. Number four financial and physical capital: that we have houses roads buildings hospitals and factories—a direct role in supporting the incomes of New Zealanders. These things are being measured as well. In the past the previous Government created surpluses by running down expenditure in key areas and then crowing about their success. This is not sustainable. This is not sustainable for the long-term development of our country and those people—as I've already said—who wore it through the lack of housing through the lack of health services and through the running down of education and other services were New Zealanders. This Government is about investing in our strengths investing in our people and investing in our services and about strengthening New Zealand for future generations to come.In our first 100-day plan we have set out bold targets. Those have been completed and they pave the way for good work to continue to come. The first one which I'm really proud of seeing is the fees-free programme for post-secondary education and training and after two years' time there will be two years' free in 2021 and three years' free by 2024—planning for a future workforce that has strong skills whether it be trade training university or polytech and giving employers the ability to offer the right types of jobs to keep our young people here in New Zealand and not going offshore. Restarting contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund—there's a good one. We just let those go for nine years—the first thing they did when they got in under the National Government. We need to help protect the Government's ability to pay super from the age of 65 and that's exactly what we've done. It is irresponsible to cut payments and to bury your head in the sand and think that those things won't come in the long term. It's important to restart those contributions like we have so that we look after those people when they retire. Three banning overseas speculators from buying existing houses—this is a good one. While the housing crisis spiralled out of control we still saw people from overseas with the ability to buy a residential property here in New Zealand and the only action that was taken was the limp-wristed two-year brightline test that's been put into place which has since been extended to five years. We want to see foreign investment where it adds to our country and where it adds to our economy not where it stops the average Kiwi family from owning a home and not when it drives up rent prices to the point where no one can afford to pay for their groceries because all the money's gone on rent. That's where we've seen real issues going and by having a KiwiBuild policy and having a commitment to building 100000 affordable homes over the next 10 years we have a clear plan of how we want to turn that around and how we want to make New Zealand families the priority and give those families the basics in life to get on and take full advantage of the benefits that this country offers.The last one I would like to touch on is what we've done for those families with kids—those families who have a hard time whether they be working or in the middle. It's very hard having children when you're trying to go back to work and pay the bills. By extending paid parental leave—the first piece of legislation that was passed through this House—we saw that 22 weeks of paid parental leave were made available. That will soon increase to 26 weeks' paid parental leave.As a mum—a working mum—that works very well with 20 hours' free early childhood a previous Labour policy. That enables mums and dads to go back to work at a number of hours per week and add an additional salary to that income to make life a lot easier for those in the middle. That is in addition to the Working for Families package which is targeted at that middle-income family area to make life easier for New Zealanders to make sure that they can give their kids the best start in life and to make sure that they have a real chance of trying to save enough of a deposit to buy their own home which is what this Government is about.I am very proud to stand by this Budget Policy Statement because of what it provides to do but also because of the fact that it looks deeper than just the two-dimensional view we've seen in the past. We want to measure more than just money more than just GDP—we want to look at the whole well-being of our country and that means putting our children first. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker."