Robertson GrantGRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): The member who has just resumed his seat Simon Bridges might like to answer the question of what is fair about the tax package that he has just proposed in this legislation. Is it fair that the wealthiest households will get $35 a week from it and the lowest-paid New Zealanders will get $5.13 a week? Is that a package that is delivering to the New Zealanders who need it the most or is that a package in a classic election year Budget from the National Government?National members might think it is clever politics and that they have done something to march into the territory of the Labour Party but I do not think New Zealanders see it that way. I give New Zealanders a lot more credit than that. They know that the Budget today should have been one that had solutions to the housing crisis that properly funded the health system that created an education system that is right for the 21st century. But instead the legislation that National put in front of the House tonight is one that delivers a tax package that ultimately will mean that Simon Bridges can buy two more pottles of Brylcreem from Rodney Wayne—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order!GRANT ROBERTSON: —that Simon Bridges and me and the Assistant Speaker all get benefits from a tax cut far in excess—I am not suggesting that the Assistant Speaker is buying Brylcreem from Rodney Wayne don't you worry—than those people who the National Government purport to help.Let us go into some detail about that. I actually got an email over the dinner break from somebody who earns just under the minimum wage. They are a single person and they said they have looked at the Budget and worked out that they are—their name is not Bill but they are One Dollar Bill". They are the person who got the independent earner tax credit worth $10 taken off them today. Eleven dollars that is the big promise from the National Party for this person—$11 per week—but we are taking $10 per week off. They are "One Dollar Bill". How is that fair? How is that a fair tax package to put in front of this country?Around 800000 New Zealanders on taxable incomes below $14000 will get nothing from this—nothing whatsoever. Five hundred thousand low-income workers just like the person I mentioned who have been getting the independent earner tax credit lose that and are left with $1 a week. They are the people the National Government says it is trying to help here but instead it is people on higher incomes who get the greatest benefit from this package. The Government knows this. The Government knows. Steven Joyce earlier tonight when he was on Newstalk ZB just before me—it was put to him that actually the lowest income earners would not get that much from these changes and he said: "That's right. They'll get most of the benefit out of Working for Families and the accommodation supplement." Well how much is the Government actually spending on that? It is spending around $1.9 billion on the tax cuts—this is annually—and it is spending $373 million on Working for Families and $361 million on the accommodation supplement.So if the Government really wanted to deliver for low-income New Zealanders it would have put that money into Working for Families and the accommodation supplement not into an election tax-cut bribe and that is what it is plain and simple in an election year Budget. What is being put in front of us tonight is not a package that would deliver to those low-income families.This is a Budget—and this is the first time I have the opportunity to say this tonight—where the Government has squandered one of the great opportunities that it had. In the explanatory note of this bill some time is devoted to talking about housing. So I am going to take a little bit of time now to talk about it because it is in the explanatory note. But it is actually not in the bill—that is the thing. The Government knows it is in huge trouble on housing. It knows that New Zealanders have a housing crisis in front of them and it has got no solutions.After 9 years we have got a Budget that does include some changes to the accommodation supplement but that in itself is actually an admission of failure by this Government—and so actually frankly is the rest of the package that is in the bill. It is an admission that things have got out of control; that actually wages are not keeping up. In the Budget documents released today we see that successively over the next couple of years inflation will outpace wage growth—inflation will outpace wage growth.Andrew Bayly: And how do you know that? How do you know that Grant?GRANT ROBERTSON: So New Zealand is working harder and harder and for more and more hours. In the end all this Government has got—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member did two things wrong in a row then and—Mr Bayly.Andrew Bayly: Sorry?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Is he aware of what he did wrong? I will ask his colleagues to explain it to him and just save his interjections until he can get some that are within order.GRANT ROBERTSON: This package today is actually an admission of failure from this Government an admission that actually it has no vision for how to grow the economy sustainably. Do you know that this Budget today says that exports as a percentage of GDP are going to go down? They going to go down further. This Government does not have a plan. It is actually quite remarkable. There is almost nothing about regional development. There is almost nothing about how we are actually going to grow wages and instead a hand-out of a bribe here that actually is thoroughly inadequate when it comes to dealing with the costs that are facing low-income New Zealanders.In terms of the Working for Families part of the package my colleague Jacinda Ardern will speak in some more detail about this but once again we have the giving with one hand and the taking away with the other. While there is something to be said for the simplification around Working for Families this package squeezes once again—this package squeezes once again. It lifts the abatement rate and it reduces the income figure at which it kicks in and you look out across Working for Families as it goes out across the forecast period and the overall spend goes down. The squeeze is on on working families.So yes there are some parts of this that are useful and actually will help people but unfortunately it is again wrapped up in the National Government's giving with one hand and taking with the other. And then there is of course the accommodation supplement which I said I would refer to which will be welcomed by the people who get it but unfortunately on both sides of the House I think there is a shared view that the accommodation supplement is a very flawed instrument. It is in effect a subsidy for landlords. I can say on this side of the House that when we do get into Government we will be taking at another look at that scheme but in the short term yes we do have to do something to support people with spiralling rents.But it is double-crewed ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. There is no attempt to solve the underlying social problems. There is no attempt to come up with the solutions to fix the housing crisis. There is no attempt to get in early and help make sure that our health system works and we deal with mental health—no. It is making sure that we dress up the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff as something that actually is delivering for New Zealand. It is hugely disappointing to me that we have this package in front of us tonight a package where the finance Minister and the Prime Minister get 20 times what a single person working full time on the minimum wage gets—20 times. It is not fair. It is not helpful to New Zealanders.People like us—people like politicians in this House—do not need tax cuts. We especially do not need them when there are huge priorities out there in our community; when we have got homelessness again on the rise; when we have got the housing crisis; when we have got Waikato Hospital telling people: "Don't come in. We can't take you because we're so underfunded."; when we have got the Canterbury mental health officials saying to the Government: "We're in crisis." and this is what the Government puts up. The Government says "No. We are actually going to save by giving $11 a week to someone on the minimum wage and we have somehow solved those problems." We have not. That $11 a week is wiped out. It is wiped out by increased costs of rent. It is wiped out by increased costs of going to the doctor. It is not even catch up. It is not even getting to the point of catch up.So after 9 years we have a Budget and the one piece of legislation emerging out of that Budget does not even get close to making up for what National has done to undermine New Zealanders' well-being. So it thinks it has come up with something clever here. It thinks it has got a clever piece of election year politics. Well going around New Zealand I have confidence and faith in New Zealanders that they will see right through this piece of legislation for exactly what it is: an inadequate election year bribe that fails to come up with the solutions to New Zealand's social problems and fails to have a vision to give New Zealanders some confidence about growing those decent jobs with higher wages that we need right across New Zealand.This is a bill that the Labour Party will be opposing. This is not the right family and tax package for New Zealanders. We will provide that before the election but this is not something that we can support."