Genter Julie Anne: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGenter Julie Anne: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 21 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18215. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): The Budget is about choices. In the Green Party we are very conscious that resources are limited and so we have to make choices about how we spend our money. Despite what the National Party might say about us we believe in living within our means. One can tell what someone values by what theyprioritise in their spending. The Green Party values our pristine natural environment we value people and we value democracy. We would make very different choices to this Government in our Budget. A Green Budget would be one that builds an economy that serves people and protects the planet and that enriches the lives of New Zealanders for generations to come.I stood to be an MP for the Green Party because I love New Zealand. I want to help look after our precious places and all of our people and we can do that. We have so many opportunities right now in 2014 to create a clean green economy that works for everyone not just those who are already at the top. Unfortunately this National Government does not believe that we can have a healthy environment and have jobs. It consistently says that we are against jobs because we want to protect the environment. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our economy exists to serve us—it exists to serve people—and it cannot exist without a healthy environment. Our economic success is underpinned by the health of our environment.I know that New Zealanders love our rivers and streams and that they want them to be clean enough to swim in as they once were. Unfortunately this Budget does not do much to clean up our rivers. On the contrary it earmarks $80 million to subsidise irrigation schemes which will make pollution in rivers worse. National is choosing to prioritise big projects—like theRuataniwha Dam a project that does not even stack up economically in the short term let alone environmentally in the long term—and the National Government is consistently choosing to prioritise a few people who stand to gain in the short term even when it will leave New Zealand’s economy and environment worse off when it will leave New Zealand’s rivers more polluted and when only a few people will benefit.Another example of short-term thinking by this National Government is the decision to prioritise billions of dollars in the transport budget on a few motorway projects that will serve only 5 percent of vehicle trips. It sounds crazy and it is. It is going ahead with these projects that do not stack up economically in the short term or environmentally in the long term. Of course there are some people who will benefit from these new duplicate highways. There are a few people who drive on those roads who will say once they have been built that they are better off. That is true but we do not see the opportunity cost and there is a massive opportunity cost to spending billions on just a few highways like thePūhoi to Warkworth “Holiday Highway”; Transmission Gully which we are taking out a private loan to fund—even though the Government claims to have returned to surplus it is actually getting us into more debt for some very dodgy projects—and the Waikato Expressway.That opportunity cost is that we will not see the improvements to safety and maintenance of these existing roads sooner. We will not see the improvements to train and bus services that could have helped millions of New Zealanders get to work and get to school more affordably and more quickly whether they travel by public transport or by car. The best way to free up the roads at peak time is to make it easier for some people not everyone to leave the car at home. We will not see the transformational and very low-cost benefits of making it safer for kids to walk and cycle to school. The Green Party has a very smart practical alternative to the Government’s programme that will improve our existing roads and give New Zealanders more choices.Housing has been raised as a major issue. I want to make just a couple of comments about housing and how the National Government is missing a huge opportunity to address both the demand side and the supply side of housing. It claims that there is no demand problem that there is no impact from foreign capital coming into our real estate market. Well that would make New Zealand an absolute exception on the world scene because it is affecting property prices in cities across the world. Secondly it says it isentirely a supply issue and that freeing up new land on the fringe is going to create affordable housing but it will also bring with it enormous transport costs. It would be wiser to enable cities to address the supply problem through targeted building and increase the opportunities for people to live where they want to live where land values are highest.