Clark DavidDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): I cannot avoid now using Southland as an example of how this Budget has failed—it is something I want to come back to. That speech there shows just how out of touch this Government has become. The member for Invercargill Sarah Dowie tried to paint economic development in Southland in a good light when it has dropped by a whole 10 percent—a whole 10 percent—in 2015. I hope it is simply a coincidence that that has happened in the time since she was elected the member there.I do not think it is entirely her fault that it has dropped 10 percent but you do begin to wonder when you hear a speech like that one which was so disconnected from the reality of people living in that city—when they are living with a health system where funding has been cut by $1.7 billion and people in Southland are missing out on operations and when roading funding in Southland has been cut by 23 percent. National has cut transport funding for Southland by 23 percent—$14 million—and that is just since 2010. That is how disconnected that member is and it is a real shame to see someone so out of touch when her constituents are crying out for support. The average household income in Southland fell by $49 a week last year—the average household income fell $49 a week in Southland last year. It is extraordinary.I spend a bit of time visiting Invercargill. I wonder whether the member herself has ever been there because with that kind of reality—it is an alternative reality. It is not how things are going in that city right now. There are lots of great people in Invercargill. I have met loads of great people with great ideas. The transport museum is going ahead. There are people who are working hard on their farms trying to make a crust risking their shirt every day and then you have got a member there who is trying to pretend that everything is rosy when 10 percent is knocked off the economy there in just 1 year. Unemployment she said is very low. Well it has doubled—it has doubled—since 2008 in that part of the world under this Government's watch. It is extraordinary. National has also cut let us not forget $109 million just from the Southern District Health Board budget in real terms. That is under this Government's watch. This is a real example of regional neglect.I am glad the member Sarah Dowie has brought up Southland because it is like a poster for regional neglect under this Government. Burglaries in the Southland police area—my colleague Stuart Nash has been looking into the staff cuts in policing and the effect that that is having. Burglaries in the Southland area rose by 11 percent in the past year—an 11 percent increase in burglaries. We have got assaults up by 41 percent—up by 41 percent—in the Southland area and that member over there says that everything is perky.That shows just how out of touch and arrogant that Government is becoming. It can look at that situation and say: Everything's fine. All of you people in Southland who are doing it tough—nothing to see here. You're imagining it. You're just imagining it." The burglaries have gone up. The assaults have gone up. The funding for the hospital is going down and roading has been cut by 23 percent but Southlanders are just imagining it. The economy is down 10 percent but they are just imagining it. The Government is doing a great job if you would believe that member.Well this Government is too focused on those at the top. That is the reality. It has become more and more focused on the super-rich. I am not talking about middle New Zealand those people who are working hard every day. It is not interested in them any more. It is interested in only the super-rich. We have seen it of course with the tax haven investigation it did not need to have and then was forced—embarrassed—into making. We have seen it in numerous areas. The Government has crept up the health funding a little bit this year—just nearly keeping pace with inflation—because it is so embarrassed by that $1.7 billion it has cut out of the health budget but middle New Zealand knows the reality is different from the way the Government is painting it.Working families under the last Labour Government—and I was not there so I cannot claim credit for this—got 50 percent of the value of growth in the economy and it grew of course a lot faster under the last Labour Government. Under this Government that portion of the economy has grown by just 37 percent. Working people got just 37 percent of the benefit of the minimal growth that there has been. So a smaller and smaller and smaller portion of the value of economic gains is going to working people. Most of the money unfortunately is going to a very few at the very very top. That is whose interests the Government is looking out for.So under this Government what we are seeing is the Kiwi Dream slipping away. The aspiration to own your own home—I speak with students in my own electorate who say they cannot now imagine owning their own home. When I was a student I think pretty much every student thought that if they wanted to one day and if they worked hard they could own their own home. Well there is now a generation of students who cannot imagine that. They are burdened with student debt and homeownership rates have plummeted. The homeownership rates used to be over 50 percent for 25- to 40-year-olds. Now they are down at just 25 percent. That is on this Government's watch and those inequalities are growing.Those at the very top are getting wealthier but actually 99 percent of New Zealanders are doing it tougher than ever under this Government. They are working hard. They are trying to get ahead. They are doing the right things but this Government keeps putting roadblocks in the way. It is not supporting rural aspiration. It is neglecting the regions and that is what we looked at of course with these Estimates. The regional neglect was evident there in the tiny pot of money set aside for regional development. There is nothing that will change the dial. There is a little bit of window dressing here and there. That is Steven Joyce's style. He wants people to think he is doing something. There is a little bit of busy work there but there is nothing to change the dial in the regions.Of course these members when they do go and visit their regions—if they do get out beyond Wellington—will see that people in the regions are crying out for support. The understanding of regional neglect is very real when you go to a town like Gisborne. There are people there who want to get ahead who are working hard and who have aspirations but the Government just is not coming to the party. The Government is not coming to the party.Meka Whaitiri: It's absent.Dr DAVID CLARK: It is absent. My colleague is absolutely right and she is there on the ground working with those people. It will be a good day when she is a Minister in the Government making the change that matters for those people. It looks like it is coming closer because these people on the other side of the House are getting so out of touch.We on this side of the House would do things differently. We would invest in people. We have said that we want to have 3 years of post-secondary education for free. We will not be getting there in our first term. We have laid out a plan. Some people say "Look you want to do it faster." but we have set out a plan that is affordable where New Zealanders can get 3 years of free post-secondary education so that we as New Zealanders can retrain as we need to so that people in the regions can access education and so that education provides opportunity for everybody not just the super-wealthy. That is part of the Kiwi Dream.We have said that we will over time get that money back—the $1.7 billion that the Government has stripped out of the health system. We will make sure that people do get the operations that they need. We will make sure we have better public healthcare. We will make sure that the economy is there to support those changes and aspirations that we have because we know that more equal economies tend to do better. Where you support people to have the basics where you make sure that every person has a decent education where kids go to school with food in their tummies where they have access to quality education and where the infrastructure is there to support opportunities in the regions countries get ahead.Under this Government unemployment is going to be up—by its own projections—by 45000 at the next election since it took office. It set itself a target of growing exports. It said exports would grow to 40 percent of our gross domestic product. Well where is it now? It is actually back behind the starting line. It was around 30 percent when it started. It is now at less than 30 percent and going backwards. That is a sign of a Government that is failing to meet its own goals.What we would like to see of course is our regions succeed because New Zealand cannot afford a two-speed economy. We cannot afford to see one or two cities in New Zealand getting ahead—and they have got their own problems—whilst the regions are left alone to suffer in silence. That will not get our country ahead. We need every part of New Zealand to be succeeding if our country is to get ahead. We want to make sure that wage and salary earners get their share of the gains that we are getting in our economy. They are very small and we want to grow them but we want to make sure the wage and salary earners get their fair share too.In 2015 the fact that that share of the economy was going more and more to the very very wealthiest meant that the average family in New Zealand got $50 a week less in the pocket in real terms. That is huge. That is absolutely huge and families are noticing it because they are not having the kind of disposable income that they used to have. We have an aspiration for New Zealand. We are calling it the Kiwi Dream. It is about making sure New Zealanders have the opportunities they need to get ahead. It is making sure healthcare is properly funded. It is making sure the regions are supported in their aspirations. It is about making sure all New Zealanders get a fair suck of the sav. Thanks very much."