Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): I'm pleased to take a call on the Wellbeing Budget 2023. I do hope that the nation receives this Budget a lot warmer than Mr Jackson is reported to have received at the Tairāwhiti breakfast last week where he asked for a candidate to stand in the IkaroaRāwhiti for Labour. So let's try and see that we get some warm reception to this.But I do want to acknowledge the gains in this Budget. I do want to acknowledge the Whānau Ora gains the Te Matatini gains of course Māori housing. But when asked yesterday in the House to Mr Jackson around the percentage of the $850 million—and look I've gone through this book; I see there's $836 million of targeted Māori funding. But I hear the total of $850 million used and today I heard another figure of $900 million targeted funding. Whatever it is the point that I tried to get across to the Minister was was it—and it's not even 0.1 percent; it's actually 0.005 percent. His response was around the universal Budget in which case I said Well if there's $5 million that's newly allocated money and you have deducted $850 million that gives you 17 percent. What about the other $170 billion that's allocated every year?"But I've got some ideas because some of the Government members have been saying there's been no ideas from this side. I do have an idea and I want to talk about some of our local solutions. We saw it from Māoridom both in COVID where hauoras are vaccinated—not just Māori communities but they've vaccinated all communities: in Tāmaki-makau-rau in my area of the East Coast and of course down Hawke's Bay. We also saw in Gabrielle—in terms of the response we saw many marae stand up as evacuation centres.My point being—as Māori have proven themselves time and time again—when there's a crisis they come to the fore. I would have liked to see more in this Budget because it does a nod to those that are always at the cutting edge when communities are in crisis. I'm talking about our Māori communities; our rural communities who all banded together.So in the $6 billion National Resilience Plan I want to do a plug for those very communities. I know members across have talked about the $5 removal subsidies against prescriptions. On the East Coast there is no pharmacy. There's no pharmacy on the East Coast; you have to go all the way to Kaiti which for some is a 2½-hour drive. So there are no pharmacies on the East Coast but those are small beans. The point being is that Māori communities up and down this country stand and deliver and look after their own.What I wanted to see in this Budget is a nod to them; a nod to them to say "Listen we recognise your contribution both in response to Cyclone Hale and of course now Cyclone Gabrielle." From the people up at the very top of the East Coast to Te Karaka who have their own silt removers. I met the team the other day—they've done eight homes removing silt but unfortunately the Government has funded Gisborne District Council to remove silt and yet you've got a local band working at this minute removing silt from houses in Te Karaka. This is just one of the examples that I want to talk about in this short time I have on this Budget. It is around local solutions locally led.In this instance I want to represent those people of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti from the East Coast right through to Te Matau-a-Māui—Hawke's Bay—right down to Wainuiōmata. Our people—that I come to this House proudly representing—talk about "when do we ever get to see the returns and the investments" of what they do? In times of great need—and it isn't about the cost of living I'd hate to say—it is a poverty issue for many of our communities.So this Budget does go some way towards addressing poverty. But for me I'd like it to have gone a lot further. I'd like to see policies that have direct funding straight to those communities that have put their hands up. I'm talking about Māori hauoras I'm talking about iwi organisations and I'm talking about marae. I'd love to see more go to them because they know the communities better. But I also want to see more of the funding that's allocated in this Budget ring-fenced against population which is about 20 percent—17 is a start but I'd like it to be lifted to 20 percent going forward.This is a Budget to acknowledge. But from my perspective it could go a lot further—I've identified how it could—in delivering greater gains for our people. Thank you."