Edmonds Barbara; Kuriger BarbaraHon BARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's actually a real honour to be able to stand up in the House to talk about Budget 2024. I have spent a lot of time across the country and in my electorate of Mana gauging the sentiment and the response to Budget 2024. But before I go into the particular Budget debate I do want to respond to a couple of the comments made by the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee Stuart Smith the MP for Kaikōura.We have a great working relationship—so great that he as the member for Kaikōura and I last year opened the Kaikōura Fire Station. It was a $7 million investment that the previous Labour Government had put into Fire and Emergency New Zealand. We funded $51.3 million for the replacement refurbishment and upgrade of fire stations across the country. That was as part of the New Zealand Upgrade Programme and part of the COVID recovery funding which the member for Kaikōura Stuart Smith just said before was wasteful spending. Was it wasteful spending to spend $7 million on his local Kaikōura fire station? That was not what he was saying when he was helping me cut the ribbon at the Kaikōura Fire Station. And there are 26 fire stations across the country that were upgraded because of the Labour Government's spending on infrastructure.Another particular area that was also funded—apparently it's called wasteful spending"—was a runway at Kaitorete Spit in Canterbury. We put aside between I think $5 million and $7 million. My memory fails me at the moment. That was for a runway which locals had asked the Government basically to fund before the summer so they could get that runway finished. Well apparently according to that side of the House—and there is a number of members from that side of the House who went to the opening of that runway now that they're in Government. There was no word about that being wasteful spending. And time and time again we are now seeing ribbon cuttings across the country of infrastructure projects which the previous Labour Government funded which this Government is now saying is wasteful spending.The second point which I want to address that the member Stuart Smith also referred to was around inflation. He did talk about the Large Scale Asset Purchase programme but one of the biggest reasons why New Zealand's inflation went up similar to other countries in the world was because of tradable supply shocks across the world. Members will recall that during COVID borders were closed across the world supply chains were restricted and New Zealand being at the bottom of the world found itself in a position where our tradable inflation was high. So it's really nice to hear that Christopher Luxon is also now using that excuse as to why inflation is high! And yet when those members were in Opposition every single sitting day we heard from the Opposition—the now National Government—that that was not an excuse; "Supply shocks are not an excuse for inflation." However the facts are the facts and those supply shocks reverberated across the world and were a huge cause for why we had high inflation.But Madam Speaker I do want to come back to Budget 2024. Budgets are about choices. We have seen the impact of those choices that have been made time and time again. I noticed that almost every single day last week there was a negative health story in the media around cuts that were being done hiring freezes that were being done and so it's no surprise there was a whole lot of political spin and performance that happened in the post-Cabinet yesterday. But as I showed the House today when adjusted for inflation there is only an increase in operating expenses in Vote Health of 0.4 percent—0.4 percent. And how do I know this? Because it's in this document the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update.Now I know that some members on the other side of the House don't like to read so please indulge me so that I can help summarise some of the numbers that are in this Budget Economic and Fiscal Update. The operating balance before gains and losses (OBEGAL) returns to surplus in 2027-28. That is a year later than forecast at the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU). OBEGAL in the near term is considerably worse with the 2024-25 deficit increasing from 1.4 percent of GDP to 3.1 percent of GDP. Now outside of the worst years of the COVID crisis—again members on the Government side of the House say it was wasteful spending to have spent $30 billion on business support payments resurgence payments small-business cashflow loan schemes. I don't hear them saying basically that businesses shouldn't have got money. Actually during COVID they were saying "You should give them more money." But outside of the worst year of COVID 2020 a deficit from this Government in this year's Budget of 3.1 percent of GDP is higher than any other Labour Government ran.Right throughout the election campaign members on this side of the House would have heard "wasteful spending" "borrowing too much money"—"They're going to leave the debt for our children." Well again let's go back to the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update. Net core Crown debt is higher by $17.1 billion by the 2027-28 fiscal year relative to the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update. There is also an increase of $12 billion in the bond programme over that forecast period. What is the driver of these larger amounts of debt—again more than Labour borrowed? More debt-—what is the cause of it? It's because this Government doesn't have enough money to keep the lights on. That is why this Government has had to borrow for tax cuts as well. If you look at the income tax component tax cuts it is just under $10 billion. But as I've shown in the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update—which again I know some members may not have read; I will help summarise it for you—there is a $12 billion increase in the bond programme over the forecast period.It also shows in the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update that the fiscal impulse is going to be positive in the first two years. That's page 58 by the way everyone—page 58. The fiscal impulse measures the change in the Government's contribution to aggregate demand compared to the previous year. So despite the Government's claims that Labour's operating allowances were reckless the total impact of additional spending—additional spending—in this year's Budget including spending outside the allowances in the phases of spending has increased between Budget 2023 from members on this side of the House to Budget 2024 by members on that side of the House.But again numbers are numbers. What does it practically mean to Kiwis? What does it practically mean to our communities who members of this House have been talking to over the last few weeks? What it has meant is that we don't have enough funding in health to keep the lights on. There is a hiring freeze at Health New Zealand. It doesn't matter the big number and the smoke and mirrors which I warned members of the public in this House that that Government would use during the Budget—those big billion-dollar numbers. It means nothing if there is not sufficient funding in the operating expenses. Because if you break it down most of those billions of dollars is in capital funding. Yet the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update sends out a warning. It sends out a warning to New Zealanders that the allowances for health capital spending—there's a risk to Nelson Hospital there's a risk to Dunedin Hospital there's a risk to Whangārei Hospital. And guess how much this Government has put aside as a contingency just in case those hospital builds are too expensive—again Nelson Hospital Dunedin Whangārei. Only $100 million—only $100 million. That is irresponsible planning by this Government.And again our communities are suffering because even though they promised $250 in tax cuts what do our poorest New Zealanders get? Those on the minimum wage basically get $12.50. What do our pensioners get? And a lot of pensioners still own their homes and their rates have gone up by 19 percent in the last quarter. And they also have to insure those homes. Well guess how much they get from these tax cuts: $2.50. And then what point is a tax cut if you have no job? The Budget Economic and Fiscal Update shows unemployment is increasing. Poverty will increase. Child poverty will increase. This Budget is a shame.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The next call is a split call. I call Tamatha Paul."