Wood Michael; Tisch LindsayMICHAEL WOOD (Labour—Mt Roskill): New Zealand is a good country. New Zealand is a very very good country and our people have so many strengths. They are decent they are hard-working they are resilient and they have big aspirations. People in New Zealand have aspirations for themselves and for their families but they also have aspirations for the communities that they live within.One of the things we pride ourselves on in this country is that we are compassionate. We care about the people who are around us. We want everyone to have opportunities to succeed not just ourselves. We have always been a country that has left the next generation better off than we are. Taking those strengths and those aspirations into account what any Budget should do is look at the problems that we face as a country and build on those strengths and aspirations to make this a better place for our communities and for the next generation.I want in my comments to address in particular two areas in which this Budget has signally failed to offer any vision or any leadership in terms of our shared aspirations. The first is around our economic performance—it is around our economic performance. So much of our success is our country—our ability to raise prosperity to share prosperity and to deliver social services. To be a place where people want to live and where the next generation can do better is based around our economic performance but as soon as you lift the hood on the economy in this Budget you see that not all is well.Fran O'Sullivan wrote a column the other day after the Budget. Fran is a straight shooter. She does not take sides. She goes to the data and she tells it straight. Here is what she said. This is her commentary on the Budget: But in truth we are failing as a nation when it comes to ensuring higher wages productivity and exports. There is no realistic chance of the Government meeting its goal to lift exports to 40 per cent of GDP by 2025 …" which was this Government's goal when it did have some ambition when it first came to office. There is nothing in this Budget—absolutely nothing in this Budget—that will change any of that.She goes on to say "The lack of substantial growth in real wage rates is another failure." and that is evident in this Budget as well. It tells us for example that housing prices are still going to keep growing above wages in this country. Here's something interesting—she says: "It is really quite disturbing that the Government is having to fund a massive increase in Working for Families tax credits and the level of the accommodation supplement simply because for many families their take-home pay packets are not sufficient to live on."A Budget and a Government with vision would be tackling this big problem. Let me say it here in this House: the problem of low wages and low productivity in this economy is not just this Government's fault; it has been a 30-year long-running problem in our country. We have a Government here that has had 9 years. We have got a Government that does have surpluses. We have got a Government that says itself it has got options to make this a better place. We see nothing in this Budget to address any of those issues around our productivity which is the fourth-lowest in the OECD and around real incomes which so many people are struggling on and we are now having to subsidise to the tune of billions and billions of dollars.The extra tax cut that I get in my pocket as a result of this Budget will be helpful and it will be helpful for some other people. But when we face so many social deficits whether they are in health in education or in mental health—and I am sure members of the House read the report this morning from the Auditor-General telling us that people who leave mental health wards are being discharged not into better care not to family members but are sometimes sent to caravan parks because there is no other accommodation available.This is a Budget that could have done so much more. It is a Budget that is tactical and political and maybe on those terms it is a clever Budget. Maybe the members opposite feel a little bit proud about that and think it will help them a little bit come 23 September. I am not so sure about that. But the people of New Zealand deserve better than a clever and tactical and political Budget. They deserve a Budget with some vision. They deserve a Budget with some fresh ideas on housing health education and fixing our infrastructure in Auckland. Believe me building more roads in Auckland is not a fresh approach and it is not going to fix anything like the traffic problems that we have in Auckland. We actually need some serious investment and game-changing investment in public transport and there was not really a drop of that in the Budget.We deserve vision in this Budget. We do not have it and I certainly will not be voting for it. I want to see a fresh approach in our country. Thank you.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I call Louisa Wall—5 minutes."