Ngaro AlfredHon ALFRED NGARO (National): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I had a circumstance happen just recently where a young person from a local school saw my name—Hon Alfred Ngaro National list MP—and she said to me What does the 'Hon' stand for?" I said "Well it's 'honourable'. It's when you become a Minister." But also too I then said to her "Actually under parliamentary rules all members are honourable and that's the reason why we call them 'honourable members of Parliament'." The understanding is that the level of trust and the threshold is set high and that threshold is set because it's the integrity that we set in regards to what we do and how we do it and what we say. Part of the role of being in Opposition is to hold the Government to account for the things that it says and I know on the other side they'll be saying they've heard a very common focus of the debates from this side which is that the coalition Government are failing to deliver on their promises. Now it's very easy to say that but you've got to be able to back it up. So when I stand here in this House and make this speech I do so understanding the integrity of having a debate where you've got to be able to back up your words. At the same time too to the Government they too have to back their words. So when I say the Labour - New Zealand First - led coalition—I notice they don't say that very much—are failing to deliver on its promises I want to back that up with evidence that proves the point. On many occasions the current Government has been told to be mindful and careful about the way that it's put together its manifesto—its promises that it's been making. However following the election Labour increased the funding envelope available to them. This was only made possible because of a previously growing economy. They were warned before the election that the promises they were making were too great and their funding too tight and during that election campaign Labour dismissed these concerns and said all these figures were costed as is—in other words there was not a problem. So here's where the crunch comes because when you come to a Budget—which I tell most people probably is the most important time in the life of Parliament over here because it's where the Government of the day begins to declare its manifesto the promises that it's made when it's been out there and then people hold them to account. So when we talk about broken promises what would they be? These are not only coming from us but they're also coming from the community. Well the first broken promise is that they promised no new taxes. We all know they have introduced seven new taxes to date. In fact during the urgency motion there were another two more that were introduced during their period of time. Another promise? They promised $10 cheaper doctors visits for all. That's not in the Budget—another broken promise. Again when we talk about wellbeing this is at the heart of wellbeing. Under a National-led Government we made sure that not only were doctors visits for children under the age of 15 free but also after-hours and also their prescriptions. But no under this current Government the promised $10 cheaper doctors visits are not in there—another broken promise. There was a promise for $20 million for access to lifesaving medicines for New Zealanders with rare disorders—that is not in this Budget. I want to go on the record as saying that I along with a number of other MPs that are here was outside Parliament on two occasions when petitions from Metavivor came along. They had declared the fact that they are at stage 4 with breast cancer. They need to ensure that they receive medicine and medication which is purchased bought by Pharmac to ensure that their lives could not only be prolonged but in most cases be saved. This funding here would have helped save lives. They went even further these Metavivors who said that not only is it a broken promise but these are lives now that eventually will die. So I hope the weight of the burden of a promise made and now a promise broken is heard and resounds in this hall of Parliament because a number of us were out there. In fact a number of them said why was it that $200 million was spent—and now we've seen that there was no outcome no result out of that investment—on a tertiary fees-free investment and yet that $200 million would have gone a long way. In fact all they needed was $20 million to make up the shortfall so that those rare drugs could be purchased. There's some accounting to be done. Another broken promise: annual health eye check for seniors. It's not in the Budget so now we've got our elderly. People often say that a nation's concern for wellbeing is indicated in regards to how it cares and it looks after its young and its old. So already we are having situations where both our young and old are not being cared for—another broken promise here. The promised early childhood education funding for 100 percent qualified teachers—not in this Budget again for our young people. The promise to increase the age of breast screening to 74—not in this Budget. The promise that no one would be sleeping in cars last winter—failed and failing again. We've got more people sleeping in cars than there were previously under a National-led Government. Another broken promise: they committed to not housing people in motels. The amount of angst that came from the Opposition at that time who are now the Government who would continue to criticise us for putting people in motels and yet now we have not only increased the number in there but the number's been increased threefold of those who are now in motels. The promise to build light rail to the airport within four years—no sign of even a business case and that's rumoured to be headed for the scrap heap. There's a growing concern here out in our communities because on one hand those members are going out there and ringing the jingle bells and saying "Look we're here—Father Christmas is here to give out and dish out all the dollars that are out there to help the people." but if you don't have a plan if you're not considered if you don't know how to measure and monitor that then there's a real concern in our community that is growing. There's no commitment to build light rail even to Auckland north-west ever. I'm in the north-west. I'm actually in Te Atatū and I can tell you that when people heard there potentially could be light rail and when that Minister the Hon Phil Twyford made the promise—and now it's a promise broken. There's no date there's no plan there's no promise and there's no funding that goes with it. I want to touch just briefly on a couple of areas that I think are really important. I want to acknowledge that under my shadow portfolio of the Minister for Children I want to acknowledge the Hon Tracey Martin who's doing an exceptional job and who's working as hard as she can to address some very complex and very difficult issues in the work she's doing. I want to acknowledge also too that most of the plan that we've negotiated and talked about is some of the plan that's continued on from the Hon Anne Tolley's work. But I have raised this and I know this is a concern in our communities around improving our outcomes for Māori—in particular Māori tamariki. In this there was a plan that was submitted to us and there was a Budget allocation of $1.1 billion—which we think is really important—around Oranga Tamariki. But we are now seeing those concerns where a number in the Māori community are actually coming to the fore. They're coming to the fore because they're saying that the uplift policy actually is not good enough; in fact if anything it's broken. Us on this side and even myself we've been very cautious and careful because we know that the role and the task and responsibility for those at the front line is always challenging. There are two areas that we think are really important that relate to this Budget: policy and practice. So while we said that in this Budget there's been an allocation an increase to ensure that on the front line there is the promise of 900 extra front-line staff—those would be social workers and caregivers that are in there—there is a concern because both the ministry and the Minister have gone on record actually saying that they will work with Māori more intensively. I've got in the Hansards that I have here that that's the same promise that was made nearly 12 months ago and that was over another incident with Oranga Tamariki. So while I commend the Minister on what she's doing and it's a very complex issue I have to say that there's some accountability that needs to be done in this regard especially for our Māori whānau. I know that actually a number of the Māori MPs—I commend them—have been meeting with the Minister to try and address this critical issue as well. I want to also then talk about just briefly some of the allocation that's gone to Pasifika. I want to commend the Hon Aupito William Sio who last year—he will remember. In fact I saw him on the street and there was nothing in the Budget. In fact his expression was like this [Member opens his arms] and I'm pretty sure he said in Samoan "It was a fa'a moa Budget for Pacific."—in other words there was nothing in there not even a chicken to take home. But you know I want to commend him for the work that he's done in which he's now been able to see an increase: $20 million over four years for the Minister for Pacific Peoples around a language unit. I want to commend the Minister on that and the ministry. We had previously done some work around setting up the framework to look at languages and that's where we'd left it. He's obviously taken it further on to see how they could do that. The only thing I would say on that would be as to how the progression of that will continue to improve some of the outcomes around education. We look forward to seeing what that will be. My time is just about up. On this side I want to continue to say that the current Government is failing to deliver on its promises—they are broken. This is not just from us on this side; many in our communities are reiterating the same comments. So we would say that the current Government should keep its promises to the people of New Zealand."