Henare Peeni: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Peeni: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4013. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau):Tēnā koe. Fa‘atalofa i le Paia Ma Le Mamalu o Le aofia faafetai I lau susuga I Le pule fono mo lenei avanoa.Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker and thank you for this opportunity. Can I take this opportunity to highlight a significant day for Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei the people of Tāmaki Makaurau and indeed Māori in its entirety.Yesterday 25 May marked 37 years since my whānau were evicted from Bastion Point after 507 days of protest occupation. The National Government under the Muldoon administration at the time was shameless—I say shameless—in its attempt at a land-grab of prime real estate. I am proud to say that under a Labour-led Government the Lange administration agreed with the Waitangi Tribunal recommendations and Ngāti Whātua ki Ōrākei are still there today.Why do I bring up this marker in our history? I bring this up because it is an important moment and because 37 years on under a National Government many of the people of Tāmaki Makaurau find themselves still in a desperate position. There are also parallels that can be drawn between the Muldoon administration and this administration. As a result of poor fiscal management by this Government we see nothing in this Budget to really help the hard-working people of Tāmaki Makaurau.In my maiden speech in this House I spoke about how the backyards of family houses in Tāmaki Makaurau will be the playground of property developers and land speculators. Let me add to that list foreign investors. Nowhere in this Budget do the people of Tāmaki Makaurau get a sense of relief. Nowhere in this Budget are young or first-time homebuyers given any hope of entering the housing market that they long to enter into.I dare not claim any Nostradamus abilities here because what the people of Tāmaki Makaurau have known for the past 7 years is that there is a crisis something that this Government has ignored for far too long. I believe it has come to a head and it is time for some real opportunities some real plans and some real vision to go into Tāmaki Makaurau to ease the housing crisis.Can I turn the attention of this House to the paltry sum of $500000 allocated to addressing Treaty and contemporary claims matters. This means very little to the many claimants who currently have longstanding claims with the Waitangi Tribunal an organisation that is already currently under-resourced in dealing with true reconciliation for the people of this country—reconciliation that the Māori people in particular deserve—to build a stronger bicultural New Zealand leading into the future.Some might ask: well what is the Labour Party doing about this? What are our plans in the future? Can I first congratulate my staff who work extremely hard in Tāmaki Makaurau to pick up the pieces of those families and those whānau who are left behind in this Budget—those whānau who despite the paltry sum of $25 being offered to beneficiaries in the latest Budget are still being left behind in Tāmaki Makaurau which is far too expensive for them to live in. It is a place that they have called home for many many years. All of a sudden they find themselves being pushed out into the regions. I wonder whether this is the true regional development plan that this Government has—to force all of those families out of Auckland to leave Auckland to foreign investors and to price the people of Aotearoa New Zealand out of the housing market and force them into the regions.Can I also speak on behalf of Tāmaki Makaurau and say to this Government that shifting Māori Television to Rotorua is not a sound regional growth development plan. I stand by the people of Tāmaki Makaurau and insist that Māori Television stays in Tāmaki Makaurau. It has been looked after for the past 10 years and I hope that this tradition of looking after Māori Television continues long into the future within the boundaries of Tāmaki Makaurau.A responsible Government that holds the Treasury benches would not deliver a deficit to this country time and time again. I have already spoken about the blowout in the debt that matches in fact exceeds that of the Muldoon administration. At this point in time I cannot see a plan and given that this Government is very good at talking to itself I daresay that the rest of New Zealand cannot see a long-term plan for this country.I am concerned as a young parent to know that our families will be forced I believe back into the workforce too early. We know what the research says. It says that the first 5 years of a child’s life are the most important. Sure more money into the household will help those families. I agree with that. So let us give proper growth to wages that will benefit our people. Do not force them back into the workforce far too early where families as already pointed out by my esteemed colleagues who are stuck in a cycle of poverty at the moment just cannot seem to get their heads above water.These are of course huge concerns to the Labour Party and we are committed to making sure that we keep this Government accountable—accountable to the Budget it has delivered. Some might argue it is a “Claytons Budget” and I am not referring to my esteemed colleague in the New Zealand First Party. What I am saying is that this is fake and it is false. We have heard many other words to describe this Budget and I believe them to be true. I believe that the people of Tāmaki-Makaurau will not be better off under this Budget they cannot see a brighter future for themselves or their whānau and these are of course concerns right across the country.When I say “right across the country” it is well known in this House that I am also from the rural heartland of Northland. I am from the rural heartland of Northland and I can tell you that after years of that seat being held by a National member still nothing has been done up there. There is still no clear plan for the people of Northland to grow. Some people might argue a Ngāpuhi settlement might do that. But I doubt that. I doubt that because in this Government’s rush to settle many of the claims—and you will hear Government members boasting and beating their chests about how many claims the Government has settled—what it does not realise is that it leaves a wake of destruction behind it and one that does not recognise whānau one that does not recognise hapū. The Government thinks that if you pour enough money into the situation it will fix itself. That is not the case.I also have a little chuckle regularly when I consider the recent by-election in Northland and the pledge to make two-lane bridges and the Government is going to fix up 10 single-lane bridges. Yet if it is serious about tourism the one bridge it did not promise to fix was the one-lane bridge in Waitangi the biggest port for tourism in Northland. There was no promise to develop that bridge to allow more numbers to access our beautiful Bay of Islands. If the Government was serious about that it would fix that bridge. But what that tells me is that Government members are actually scared. What they are scared of is that on every Waitangi Day they will see an increase in foot traffic protesting at what this Government is doing—whether they be Māori whether they be Pākehā or whether they be from the Pacific Islands or from any other place in the world. We are going to beat that bridge protesting against what this Government is doing to this country leading us into nowhere into the abyss. Fa‘afetai.