Genter Julie AnneHon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. The Budget and imprest supply bill that we're debating today is really about our priorities as a country and the Government on behalf of all New Zealanders makes decisions about what our priorities are how we can invest together in the things that are going to lift up our people and protect our environment and ensure that we have a habitable climate in the future. There is much to celebrate in the Budget which is why the Green Party supported it. Of course the Green Party is not a party officially of the Government. We have a cooperation agreement with the majority Labour Government which means we're doing as our voters would have wanted us to which is to work as constructively as possible to get better outcomes for the climate for biodiversity for our people and equality in New Zealand. Our two Ministers James Shaw and Marama Davidson are certainly working as hard as they can and you can see the effort that they have put into this Budget because we had the largest ever investment in climate initiatives in this Budget. The fact that it came from emissions trading scheme revenue is fantastic because it means that those who are causing the most damage through climate pollution are therefore paying for a lot of the solutions which is fair.We also saw $114 million for the prevention of family violence—something that my colleague Jan Logie started in her work last term as the first ever executive role as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence and now Minister Marama Davidson is the first ever Minister to have that role. So that is fantastic. But ultimately we're not officially in the Government and the Labour Government doesn't need the Green Party's votes and there is a lot more that we believe could have been done and should be done to ensure that we do have a habitable climate and we do have a fair society. While we absolutely supported the response to COVID unfortunately the fact is that unintentionally it has led to a massive increase in wealth inequality in New Zealand and the only way to fix that is to fix the tax system and to make sure that the wealthiest are paying their fair share. So ultimately this is about political choices. Continuing to have child poverty in New Zealand is a political choice. Obviously the parties to my right are happy to let child poverty get worse and worse and to give tax cuts to those earning the highest incomes and to perpetuate a lack of a fair tax system and the party to the left you know is tinkering around the edges and saying We're doing the best we can." but not fundamentally changing the system. The system is rigged in favour of those who have the most. The system is rigged in favour of those colonists who came here and got land—whether through theft or through trade but a lot of times theft—and who have perpetuated a racist system that has failed those who have roots as tangata whenua. I acknowledge that the Labour Government is doing what they can to try and right these wrongs but until you fundamentally change the system nothing is going to change. That's what we saw in the response to COVID because we see the wealthiest New Zealanders almost $1 trillion richer after COVID. Of course most of that many of them would be happy to pay more to have a fairer society. Who wants to live in a country where children are growing up in poverty and don't have opportunities? No one. So how could we have addressed the cost of living crisis and inflation? The Green Party supports the measures that the Labour Party brought through on the Budget but we could have done a lot more if we had transformational income support a guaranteed minimum income and we could pay for that. We could end child poverty with a wealth tax on the top 6 percent of those who own wealth who just got a lot wealthier in the last two or three years through no effort of their own; simply through an economic system that is rigged that sees the return to capital grow faster than the economy grows. So making the tax system fairer is a choice that the Green Party would make a choice to really take ambitious action on climate. There are so many opportunities. I'm just going to give one example here which is unfortunately not in the Budget. The Government needs to commit $350 million now to be able to purchase the hybrid electric trains that could massively increase connectivity between Palmerston North the capital city and Masterton. We have a business case that shows a positive return on investment. We have the regions—Horizons Regional Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council have committed the funding. Waka Kotahi has committed funding. We already had track work go through as part of the COVID response and we know that there is a huge benefit to increasing the connectivity. If there are more frequent trains more people can choose to travel easily between these cities in the lower North Island at lower costs—lower carbon costs lower safety costs. It's just a win-win-win right across the board and of course a positive benefit to cost ratio which I would think the ACT Party would care about but you know. Instead the National Party did campaign on a massively over-designed extension to State Highway 1 north of Ōtaki to north of Levin and unfortunately this is a bit of road that needs immediate safety improvements—it needs immediate safety improvements. You know what won't improve the safety immediately on that road? Spending 10 years building a separate highway to the site—that will not improve the safety straight away. So the Government has committed $1.5 billion to this stretch of road that only has 8000 cars in each direction a day and a four-lane bypass of Levin—the cost of this project is equivalent to half of the residential property in Levin. Now look let's solve the problem of the bottleneck in Levin. Let's solve the problem of the safety of the State highway. You can do that for a couple hundred million dollars. You could get the exact same benefits the exact same result at lower cost faster if you improve the existing road and did a two-lane bypass of Levin and you'd have more than the $350 million left over to massively increase train connectivity not only between Levin and the city between Palmerston North and Wellington City but also on the Wairarapa line where you could double the number of peak train services and get services all day get services on the weekend. That's how you truly transform the transport system. It makes economic sense. It's better for the climate. It's better for the people who have the choice to not drive and not spend two hours stuck in a car. They can do other things. They can be productive. They can work. They can talk on the phone. They can have a glass of wine. They can relax. New Zealanders want effective passenger rail services and the economic case absolutely stacks up.But it means making choices. If we're going to make the choice to spend $1.5 billion on a highway that will delay safety improvements that has a benefit to cost ratio of 0.2 because the cost is so much greater than the economic return of that project—I mean I think it's a little bit surprising that only the Green Party stands up and argues for this kind of rational investment in transport solutions that will give people more choice that will reduce transport costs that will help us to respond to climate change. I know that there are supporters. The local MP in Ōtaki is absolutely supportive of the rail investment and I want to acknowledge her and her work campaigning for that. But we need to continue the campaign because unfortunately the Labour Government has not committed the $350 million in this Budget. That is why my friends we need a Green Party in Government so that we can actually get—Hon Scott Simpson: Look what happened last time. What about the letter?David Seymour: Release the letter.Hon Scott Simpson: Release the letter. Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: —the sensible investment in transport solutions that New Zealanders have been begging for for years. I hear that the National Party and ACT Party don't know that the letters are already public—you morons—and it's a great letter. Do you know why? Because it's all about evidence-based transport investment. Do the members of this House not want an effective investment in transport solutions in Wellington? Can the members for the National Party really stand and talk to their constituents in Northland and Southland who need investment in their roads and say that they back $2.2 billion of investment in the capital where already it's like the place in New Zealand where public transport could actually be an alternative? Do you want to spend $2.2 billion on roads here rather than effective public transport here and fixing the roads in Northland and Southland that move our product to market? OK well party vote Green."