Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Speaker. What a disappointing and backward-looking speech that was about a backward-looking Budget which doesn't look to the future but looks back to the past. The Minister of Health just got up and talked about all the investment that's been made into health. Cochlear implants—yes there's money in this Budget but guess what? They cut funding for cochlear implants back in 2018 so now this year they can turn out and say Oh we're funding it again." and then of course I wouldn't want to dare mention Dunedin Hospital which is still going so well under this Government. This Budget is a blast from the past. The Minister of Finance was saying he is trying to correct a mistake from the 1990s with the "mother of all Budgets". This is a Budget which is looking back to what happened in the past rather than charting a course for the future and a course for our economic prosperity. I was born in 1991 and I barely remember the "mother of all Budgets". I might have been a couple of months old but guess what? This Government forgets that my generation don't remember the 1991 "mother of all Budgets". They're looking forward and this Government's focused on giving some nostalgic feeling back to New Zealanders of something that actually New Zealanders don't remember. This Government is looking backwards in promoting big unionism big government and a big increase in benefits rather than focusing on increasing jobs increasing our economic prosperity as a country and increasing the opportunities especially for young New Zealanders who have been the hardest hit coming out of COVID-19 from an economic perspective. As the police spokesperson in this Budget I wanted to know where was the mention of police. Well I read—and I had to listen to it as well—the entire Budget speech from Grant Robertson. Not once was the word "police" referred to. In the context of not only rising increasing gang violence and violence on our streets but also the role that police played last year dealing with COVID-19 and the important role that they played not once did the police get mentioned in Budget 2021—not even a thank you but particularly no new resources to help them actually do their job. In fact there's a $90 million cut from the Police budget—$90 million has been cut from the Police budget in the 2021 Budget.Nicola Willis: What a disgrace. SIMEON BROWN: It is a disgrace—it is an absolute disgrace—and what do we have facing New Zealanders? A 50 percent increase in gang membership in New Zealand. I repeat the comment from my colleague Nicole McKee in the ACT Party that those are the gang members we know about—the 8000 gang members we know about. This Government wants to say "Oh it's not quite 8000. Actually the numbers are wrong." It's 8000 that we know about based on the intelligence that the police reported and that they collect. That's the intelligence system that they use. This Government wants to downplay it.Not only do they want to downplay the gang numbers but also they want to downplay the violence that gangs are causing and perpetrating on our streets. The Ministers are lining up to go and have cups of tea at the Mongrel Mob gang pad in Hamilton. We've had Willie Jackson we've had Marama Davidson—she's not gone once but also twice. Who's going to be lining up next for a cup of tea with the Mongrel Mob in Hamilton to try and talk about their misunderstanding? Well I've got a message for the Mongrel Mob and for this Government: don't have your cup of tea until the Mongrel Mob stop peddling drugs on the street and until they hand back the guns and they stop the violence on our streets. New Zealanders have had enough of the gang violence. They've had enough of gangs closing down our streets and using our schools for their hui and making disruption across New Zealand society—the violence that's been caused by the guns that they refuse to hand back and the violence that they continue to cause on our streets.Where's the 1800 police that this Government promised over three years? Where's the 1800 police? We're now 3½ years in. They've only got to about 1300. There were 700 police promised to be targeted on organised crime and gangs. How many of those have been delivered?Hon Damien O'Connor: I think ACT were better than you.SIMEON BROWN: How many of those have been delivered? Mr O'Connor your electorate has had the biggest increase in gang numbers in the country. It's had a 177 percent increase in gang numbers. You should be worried about this. Your Government's only delivered 242 of the 700 police targeting organised crime and gangs. Our Government does not have the resource it needs. It is not delivering the resource it needs for our police to keep New Zealanders safe and that should be one of their most important jobs. This Budget fails to keep New Zealanders safe."