Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National): When will this Labour Government learn that New Zealanders will judge them not by what they promise to spend but by what they actually deliver? When will that Minister learn that it doesn't matter how many times he says he's spending more it doesn't matter if he doesn't deliver more? When will that Minister learn that after five years of failure across the key areas he came to Government on New Zealanders have learnt to read between the lines of his promises?Actually when we look at these Estimates of Appropriations we see the biggest spending Budget in New Zealand's history. And this comes at a time when everyday New Zealanders are going backwards. Their real wages have declined by 3.7 percent in the past year. We had the amusing if somewhat startling contest today in question time where the Minister of Finance denied that fact despite the fact that that is a fact provided to me by the Parliamentary Library where we have a Minister who is seemingly in denial about the fact that prices in New Zealand are rising at the fastest rate they have in 32 years while wages are not keeping up. For the past eight quarters—that is for the past two years—prices have been rising faster than wages.So the context for that Minister's Budget is a cost of living crisis. And what does his Budget offer to solve that? Does it address the underlying drivers of productive growth? Does it address the underlying drivers of inflation? No it doesn't. It proposes more band-aids more bureaucracy more spending no targets no results.And if you want a case in point for that let's take the cost of living payment because that is the absolute epitome of a band-aid. The Minister of Finance is smug enough to believe that New Zealanders who are beset by a cost of living crisis will thank him for doing something for just three months—for a $350 payment—when they know that that is the same Minister who is planning to fund his spending by a raid on their KiwiSaver accounts and who in the next couple of years is proposing a jobs tax that will levy every single employee such that the average taxpayer will be paying $800 more on tax. And yet the Minister of Finance expects those same New Zealanders to turn around and say Thank you so much for that $350 temporary band-aid payment."Well actually what New Zealanders are saying when they look at this Budget is "Why is it that the Government can't be just a little bit more careful with its spending? Why is it that they were so sloppy that the cost of living payment ended up going to more than 6000 people who explicitly told the IRD that their mailing address was overseas?" Well here's a clue: when you tell the IRD that your address is overseas that means you're not a resident in New Zealand and you shouldn't be receiving the cost of living payment.This is the same Budget that proposes massive spend-ups on areas that New Zealanders have made very clear that they do not wish to be prioritised. The billions of dollars for three waters reforms—that is adamantly opposed by dozens of New Zealand councils that is opposed by tens of thousands of New Zealanders who see it for what it is: a bureaucratic centralising answer to a problem that will see more inefficiency and more Byzantine governance structures.And this is the same Budget that proposes to put billions of dollars into a health restructuring at a time when our front-line health workforce have had to cope with two years of global pandemic—a workforce who are exhausted and who have been told that the priority for this Government is another shuffling of the bureaucratic deck chairs. This at a time when our emergency rooms are overflowing—literally overflowing. Here in Wellington we have had more than one person more than two people more than three people waiting more than a day for treatment in their emergency room; where we have had fewer elective surgeries delivered and where we have seen immunisation rates decline.In all of this we are expected to believe "Don't worry we'll just pour some billions more into the bureaucracy and you'll see some results."—this despite five years of failure. And here we have a Government that says "Oh well look we're going to get better outcomes by spending 70 percent more." Because you've heard the rhetoric from the Minister of Finance who says—his actual phrase was "We're going to begin the journey to more stable fiscal management. We're going to begin the journey."So let's be clear about where that journey is at. This year the Government intends to spend $51 billion more than National did in its last year of Government. That is a 70 percent increase in spending. So it feels fair to me to ask "Where's the 70 percent increase in services? Where's the 70 percent increase in results?" Actually as far as I can see we've got fewer children attending school we've got declining literacy and numeracy rates we have declining amounts of elective surgery we have declining waiting times in our emergency rooms and wherever I care to look I see failure. We have a State house waiting list that has quadrupled. Last night around 4000 families put their children to sleep in a motel room. And yet we are to believe that this Government should be trusted with spending 70 percent more.And let's be clear about what's fuelling that spending. It is being fuelled by the taxes from hard-working New Zealanders because this year the tax take will be up $41 billion from what it was when National left office—$41 billion more. It is actually clear why that's happening. It's because with inflation roaring ahead New Zealanders are being pushed into hard tax brackets such that typical New Zealanders are paying more tax than ever. So they're being robbed twice: once whenever they face a price at the supermarket at the pump when they pay their rent; and the second time when they go to the tax man.And what is this Government's response to that? This Government's response to that is to see how it can sneakily devise more taxes so that it can continue to fuel the big spend-up. And we've had the unedifying spectacle of the IRD taking up to Ministers proposals for a KiwiSaver tax and Ministers instead of having the good judgment to say "Well you know this will wipe $103 billion off New Zealanders' savings; maybe that's not a good idea."—instead of Ministers having the good judgment to agree with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment who said "We don't think this is a good idea because it will lead to declining savings funds." instead Ministers licked their lips with glee at the thought of $250 million more in annual revenue.So we have a situation in this Budget where we have a Government that is on an out-of-control spending track and that has lost all sight of delivery. And I would put to you Mr Speaker that my words at the beginning of this speech are words that this Government should listen to because I think New Zealanders are a bit sick of Government by press release Government by panicked reaction. It is not enough to put out a press release saying you care with a big number attached; what New Zealanders want to see is that things improve as a result. If you want a really good example of that look at mental health. A lot of people believed this Government when they said that they cared about mental health and they were going to do something about it when they got that press release saying that $1.9 billion would be spent. And yet when I talk to parents in this city here in Wellington when I talk to New Zealanders across the country they tell me that it is harder than ever to access specialist mental health services. They tell me it is harder than ever to get the help they need for their children and loved ones.So this is a Budget that will take New Zealanders further backwards into more debt more spending more tax less delivery more band-aids more bureaucracy—it's more Labour. They've already had five years of failure and this Budget is just the cherry on a cake that New Zealanders don't want."