Turei Metiria: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 20 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18099. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker.Tēnā koutou e te Whare. Bring on 20 September I reckon. Bring on 20 September so New Zealanders will finally have the chance to absolutely and without question reject John Key’s exclusive Cabinet club economy—an economy that we have seen laid out in this year’s Budget. What a disgrace. What a disgraceful Budget. New Zealanders will havethe opportunity to instead have a genuinely progressive Government of which the Greens would be a part to build a smarter greener and more compassionate future for our country a future from which we will all benefit not just the wealthy few.If this had been a Green Party Budget—and we expect that in time we will be able to say that with absolute certainty—we would have set out the steps to enable a living wage for every working New Zealander. If this had been a Green Budget we would have removed the discrimination in the Working for Families tax system that leaves out from the benefits of Working for Families those families who are most poor. Do not forget that this Budget reinforced the discrimination against New Zealand’s poorest children with the criteria for the parental tax credit. But the Greens would remove that discrimination because we believe that every child regardless of their parents’ income is entitled to a good life and a fair future.If this had been a Green Budget we would have implemented our “schools as community hubs” policy a dedicated school nurse in every low-decile school free after-school care and free holiday programmes for kids so that they can keep and maintain their learning through the holiday periods. We would have implemented a school lunch fund so that every low-decile school could provide lunch to their kids as they see fit whether it is through community gardens or working with their local community devising community solutions to community-defined problems. We would have implemented a school hub facilitator in every low-decile school so that school teachers and principals are relieved of the burden that they face every day in dealing with inequality and poverty with their kids. Instead there would be a full-time person whose job it is to find those social services that would work best with that school community to help remove the barriers that children face every day when they are sick and poor and hungry.If this had been a Green Budget we would have made a significant investment in safe cycling and walking infrastructure for our kids so that we would all know that our kids could walk and bike to school safely. Who in this country does not believe that children should be able to walk and bike to school safely just like we used to in the old days? We were all walkers and bikers. I remember walking to school. But parents are too frightened to allow their kids to walk and bike to school these days. Why is that? It is because we have not built the separated cycleways that would mean that our kids could get to their schools safely every day. We know that kids want to walk and bike to school. We know that they want to be with their friends out and about and getting physical exercise. We know that it is good for reducing congestion in the morning. A Green Budget would have delivered the steps to achieve that for our kids—their safety and a reduction in congestion.If this had been a Green Budget we would have implemented the NZ Power solution to bring down power prices and the power bills of New Zealand households by $300 a year. We know that families are really struggling right now to pay school fees to pay the power bill to get healthy food and to pay the rent or pay the mortgage. A Green Budget would have dealt with those problems that our families face every day. One of those solutions is implementing NZ Power to bring down the price of electricity for families.If this had been a Green Budget we would have introduced our Home for Life policy which is about building new homes in this country. That is a consistent State house - building policy to create jobs and build skills for our young people to build homes for all of those families who need them and to bring in a progressive ownership scheme that allows for a person to be able to slowly buy their home from the State over time without a mortgage and without debt just like many of our parents did through the old family benefit or the old State loans scheme.Safe and secure tenure for tenants is another core part of our Home for Life programme. We would have eliminated by now those ridiculous renewable tenancies that throw families older people and children out on the street. Instead we would have brought in secure tenure for renters so that they know they can have pride in their home and they can invest in their home—even if they are renting it—because they know that they are secure in their home and have a right to stay. And we would have brought in a warrant of fitness and a home insulation scheme so that every New Zealand family would know that their home was warm and dry and safe for them and for their kids. That is the kind of security every family needs if they also want to make sure that their children have access to a great education at their local school which they would know is consistent and secure too.I guess it is no surprise that John Key and Bill English and the National Party did nothing for housing in this Budget. It is the great and glaring hole that at the time of a national housing crisis John Key Bill English and the National Party did nothing for housing in this Budget. John Key of Cabinet club fame thinks that homes in Auckland are more affordable than homes in London and New York. He was on the radio yesterday talking about how he had lived in those places and he had visited those places overseas and that Auckland was not any more expensive than the homes he had looked at. Well I guess it depends on the kinds of homes he was looking at. The OECD’s actual evidence—research-based evidence—shows that in fact Auckland homes are grotesquely expensive compared with those in these overseas cities. So is that really what we have now a Prime Minister who because of his own personal experience of buying homes in other countries believes that he knows all about what it is really like for a young family on a median wage who are just trying to get into their first modest three-bedroom home? This Budget proves that he does not have a clue. This Budget proves that John Key is staggeringly out of touch with ordinary New Zealand families who are facing the housing crisis every day.John Key will argue that he has been terribly generous. He has of course brought down the cost of nails for example for those people who might be lucky enough to be able to afford to build their own home. How generous! New Zealanders do not forget this! Be thankful New Zealand because John Key and Bill English have brought down the price of nails for you! That is their great contribution to the housing crisis—bringing down the price of nails! We had better all be thankful and grateful for it while everybody who is desperate for a decent home is out there scrambling around to save as much as they can on low wages while kids are getting sick in homes that are too expensive—too expensive to rent too expensive for mortgages too expensive to heat—poor quality and making them sick. Be thankful New Zealand says John Key. In his experience of living in London and other places New Zealand and Auckland are not that bad.Perhaps what we need in this place is a new Government that does understand what it is like for ordinary families who have to get by on an ordinary income and who want the security of a home that they can be proud of who want to have access to a home that is warm and dry and safe and will not make their kids sick who want the security of being able to either be a tenant for long periods because they have a secure tenancy or perhaps buy that little patch of Aotearoa New Zealand that they can call their own—that is part of the Kiwi dream—so they know that they will be safe and secure and so will their kids. Why is that so difficult for this National John Key Government to understand? Why is it so difficult for this National John Key Government to take seriously and understand that this is a real difficulty a real crisis for New Zealand families? What we have is a Government that refuses to even acknowledge that the crisis exists.The Green Party will deliver a Budget that will deliver for our families after 20 September after the election. Party vote Green. Thank you.