SpeechKANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National): Madam Speaker—[Interruption] Hon Member: So who's the new member? Looks different.KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: Ha ha! It's my privilege to stand and take this call. This Budget has a big task to address: the COVID-19 pandemic which has hit New Zealand. The world and New Zealand have been through this unprecedented pandemic. I hope and pray that mankind doesn't get to witness anything like what we have been through in the past few months. The pandemic may have got the whole world to stand still may have grounded all our travel plans and the way we trade in the world; however one of the biggest positive things from this pandemic was the human spirit which came together. During the pandemic New Zealanders were very willing to help and support each other. I myself witnessed thousands of food parcels loaves of bread and milk being distributed by the Indian community. Here I would like to acknowledge some of the organisations that took this lead and distributed thousands of food parcels which included the Supreme Sikh Society BAPS Avondale BAPS Hamilton BAPS Christchurch Bharatiya Mandir Auckland Indian Association Gurdwara Dukh Niwaran in Papakura Sikh Sangat in Tauranga Gurdwara Guru Amardas Ji in Rotorua and many more. They all came together to help those vulnerable who could not have access to their basic needs and there were very generous people from all over the region the Bay of Plenty Hawke's Bay and Pukekohe. They provided vegetables fruit and other things for the people who were in need of those things. From the bottom of my heart I thank all the donors for their generosity which brought all New Zealanders together. There are more than 100 ethnicities in Auckland itself and they all came together to support the vulnerable. Another issue which I would like to touch upon is those New Zealanders who are stuck overseas during this pandemic.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I appreciate that but this is a debate on the Budget. So in making those comments the speaker has to refer them to the Budget—relate them to the Budget.KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: Yes Madam Speaker I'm coming to that. But this is an important issue which I would like to—DEPUTY SPEAKER: OK well you've had three minutes—KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: This is my first opportunity to speak in this House. DEPUTY SPEAKER: I did give the member some latitude but would you come to the Budget.KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: Yes Madam Speaker. So on behalf of ethnic communities because most of them are from small businesses and they are struggling to survive this Government has been generous and fast enough to provide wage subsidies to businesses which has helped the people in hardship but there has been nothing for the businesses. They have got fixed costs which they have to pay—the lease money the insurances and interest to the banks—whereas they haven't got anything located within this Budget. We have been demanding from this side that we need to support businesses so that they can survive.When I was listening to the speech of the New Zealand First member Fletcher Tabuteau he said that there are two aspects—one is the business the other is the household. Households were given money to support them to have money in their pocket so they can survive but the businesses did not get anything. I was reading one of the stats that retail sales have dropped by almost 75 percent. The 25 percent was the only thing which was happening in retail which was grocery stores. There were long queues of people who were waiting to buy their groceries. But what about those businesses who did not have a single penny coming into their cash tills? They are the ones which we need to help at this stage. But I don't see any plan from the Government that they are doing anything.The only thing that I have heard of is they are giving a loan of $10000 plus $1200 per employee.Hon Member: $1800.KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: $1800 per employee. So that is a loan which they have to pay back later also.Hon Member: Interest-free loan.KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: Yeah interest-free but they have to pay back that money. That is not money they are going to get in the long term for their businesses to survive. I was reading in the report that a restaurant in Whangārei—they moved to Whangārei after the Christchurch earthquake. They established their business up there and they were doing so well until the COVID pandemic struck them. Today their business has dropped by more than 50 percent and it's very hard for them and their family because what they reckon is the margin they have is a maximum of 15 percent of their turnover—50 percent if the turnover has dropped; now they're having only 7.5 percent of the margin to survive and I don't think any business can survive on those margins.That is the reason why we are saying that we have to help small and medium businesses so that they can survive for the future. And 95 percent of the businesses as the Government is saying can have a loan of up to $100000 only if they employ 50 people. But most of the businesses in New Zealand employ between five to 20 people—that is the definition for small to medium businesses—whereas they don't employ 50 people and they can't take $100000. That is why National came up with the idea that they can have a refund of GST for what they have paid in the last six months and if they invest in their equipment or assets they can have a tax benefit against that also—up to $150000. Today the Leader of the Opposition Todd Muller time and again asked the Prime Minister: will you opt for the proposition that the National Party has proposed that $10000 per new employee should be given to businesses? The Government has kept $20 billion as a reserve to be spent in the next few months. We know the policy which has been proposed by the National Party can have that money from there and it can be allocated for some kind of support for businesses.These are the very important things which are very close to ethnic communities. As the spokesperson for the Opposition from this side I would like to say that I have been talking to many businesses. They are thinking about how they will survive in the near future. The 12 weeks' wage subsidy is going to expire very soon and after that what is going to happen? We will see that more and more people will be made redundant and that's not what we want to see. The Government members have been saying time and again that this Budget is focusing on jobs jobs jobs. But we are not hearing anything from them about how they are going to create those jobs. Only last month we saw that 37000 became unemployed and that is a big challenge for this country for the future. We don't want to talk about the past three months; we want to talk about the next three years about how we are going to make sure this country is back on track and try to progress as we did during the nine years of the National Government. I oppose this Budget.