Grigg NicolaNICOLA GRIGG (National—Selwyn): I have listened with growing horror this evening to all of these speakers on the other side of the House casually spending money that they have never earned themselves. And we talked about this—I gave a little bit of a general debate speech I think it was—pre-Budget and we talked about Grant Robertson's—well we predicted it to be the mother of all spend-ups" and boy did that man deliver for us: $38 billion in new spending over the next four years. But let us not forget the money that that finance Minister is spending has been earned fair and square by New Zealand's primary production sector. The Government has gone on to claim that it's "investing"—in inverted commas—a billion dollars of new money into the primary sector. Well I call that a masterclass in smoke and mirrors. I've spent so much time going through Damien O'Connor's announcement line by line by line and it is just extraordinary what this Government determines is investment in the primary sector. We've got vague waffle here like "$118 million on advisory services to support farmers". Well what does that mean? What are the advisory services; what is the support they're going to be given? What is the return on investment? What investment? What are they going to get in return? We've got Stuart Nash: $40 million to transform the forestry sector. Well what is that? What does that mean? What is Stuart Nash's great transformation of the forestry sector? We've got $31 million for Meka Whaitiri to go out and police farmers and send out compliance officers to hold them up for their practices and do nothing but get in the way of the general high animal welfare standards that they apply to their farming businesses. Thirty-two million dollars: it is nothing but a crackdown on farmers for increased compliance and enforcement and on-farm inspection. Speaking of inspections as I referred to just before if you go—beg your pardon Madam Speaker—if anyone were to go line by line through the appropriations they will be quite stunned as I am that within this billion dollars of investment into the primary sector this will include up to $95 million of "integrated advisory services". What does that mean? It will also include—Simon Watts: Even the member for Northcote doesn't know. NICOLA GRIGG: No you'll love this Simon Watts of Northcote: 68 million for a Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) collective agreement. How is $68 million in an MPI staff a collective agreement considered an investment into the primary industry sector? There's all sorts of bits and pieces in there which really are quite fascinating. And I'll tell you what the one that was quite interesting was the $338 million into the agriculture emissions reduction—that's great but what are we going to get out of it? What are we going to get for $338 million being spent considering there are already research institutes that New Zealand has signed up to around the world? This is clearly written by a Government that has not gone out to earn that money themselves. It's just so terrifying. What worries me the most about these large sums of money being poured in is that they are being spent on compliance and policing and enforcement and inspection right at a time when farmers are absolutely fed up to the back teeth with regulatory change time-consuming auditing and a very very grey picture of a future ahead of them. And it shouldn't be like this right at a time when this industry has earned nearly $50 billion in export receipts. We have never seen this industry earn so much money for this country and this is why Grant Robertson can spend $38 billion of unallocated new spending. He is writing cheques that the agricultural sector is earning for him. This Government has unleashed the most unprecedented levels of spending we have seen in this country's history—Shanan Halbert: We'll still pay it off sooner than you did. NICOLA GRIGG: The spending since this Government came in in 2017—Shanan Halbert you might learn something—has gone up 68 percent an extra $51 billion a year since coming into office. This is unsustainable. Anybody who has run a business and understands profit and loss will understand this is unsustainable even for a sovereign countryNow we would agree that spending to boost the likes of biosecurity measures is essential but the refusal to rein in spending and take meaningful action to reduce inflation is quite terrifying. Last week we saw another 50 basis point jump in the official cash rate (OCR); the first back-to-back jump of 50 basis points that we have seen in this country ever. So therefore going back to my primary industries it does stand to reason that average farm debt of a dairy farm is about $4 million. Borrowings with a 100 basis point increase will see interest rates that will need to be paid back about another $40000 a year in interest. That is frightening for anybody.In my remaining minutes I want to switch topics slightly and turn to another sector of society that is extremely near and dear to my heart and that is the women and girls of New Zealand. As the National Party spokesperson for women once again I have been utterly horrified at the absolute lack of investment in 52 percent of this country. In a $9.5 billion spend up would anyone like to guess what has been allocated to the Ministry for Women?Simon Watts: At least a billion.NICOLA GRIGG: Twelve million. Well that's up on last year; that was $10 million. I mean what does that tell the women and girls of New Zealand as to the value that this Government places in them? It's utterly appalling. I have often said that this is actually a reasonably nonpartisan portfolio for me. Like everybody in this room I want to see the women and girls of New Zealand thrive. But actually I will call out the Government when it's just delivering nothing but waffle—it's absolutely nothing but waffle. They've come up with a headline policy of improving the lives for women. But I would argue in an environment where post-COVID 11000 women have lost their jobs the Minister has been beavering away on a workforce strategy that was due in October last year. It hasn't turned up. That's 11000 women floundering out there when they could be re-entering the workforce gainfully.Also in the environment where 50000 women have missed their mammogram 50000 women have missed their cervical smear test it takes about 8.7 years for the 130000 women in New Zealand who suffer from endometriosis to even get a diagnosis. I've heard many speakers on that side of the House crowing about the investment into the health services this year. Well put your money where your mouth is and start investing in the women and girls of New Zealand—the 50000 women who missed a mammogram and the other 50 that missed a smear test. Some of those women I hate to say it will die. They will have undiagnosed cancer because this Government cannot run a health system. It is utterly disgraceful.There is also nothing in Vote Health for the long-promised maternity unit for the Christchurch women who are looking to become mums. The Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) says it's meant to be opening in 2023 but we have not seen anything yet. It is just appalling.If we were to start looking for some ideas that this Government could perhaps implement then I've got a couple to suggest. I'd suggest an urgent task force to clear those backlogs to make sure those women get their screening tests to make sure the year 13 girls around New Zealand actually get their HPV vaccinations. It is another massive risk to those girls. And what about advocating for more maternal beds while we're at it? What about more midwifery training? What about advocating for National's three-day stay? Or our first 1000 Days programme? The title of this Budget is "Improving the Lives of Women". Well I would wager that any woman in this country would seriously disagree that their outcomes have improved under this Government. And while I am glad to see an announcement for a women's health strategy in pae ora it's just a strategy. Not one cent has been allocated to it. What about some funding some targets some outcomes? Let's actually invest in the women and girls of New Zealand and start showing them what they're worth."