Ngarewa-Packer Debbie; Salesa JennyDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) (remote): Tēnā koe e te Pika. Tēnā tātou e te Whare. I stand to speak on behalf of Te Paati Māori in this debate on the Budget Policy Statement. There's been much kōrero in this House about the cost of living crisis and the reality is poverty of course from out-of-reach costs of living has been affecting tangata whenua for a very long time. We acknowledge the latest child poverty stats which showed a downward trend in the last three years but material hardship for Māori Pacific and disabled tamariki and their whānau remains the same. So yes as our Minister Kelvin Davis states New Zealanders are doing OK but Māori tangata whenua tangata moana and disabled whānau aren't. Now one simple solution would have been to adopt the 2019 Government's Welfare Expert Advisory Group recommendations. It didn't and now two years of COVID has exasperated these cruel hardships and whānau who may have been keeping their heads above water are now caught in the tide of disparity. And please stop the peacocking Minister Davis; stop acting as if the Government saved this nation from COVID. So you should be funding Māori response efforts—they saved your nono and are our Government Tiriti partners. Stop looking for praise for doing what should have been done. It's Māori faces that were on the front line still is and has always been. It's Māori faces that make up essential workers. It's Māori faces that make up Hauora Whānau Ora. When we look at this it's Māori faces that should also be receiving the recovery from COVID investment. Five dollars for butter from a cow on our whenua; kai housing fuel from our whenua no increased income rising inflation—undeniably our people are hurting. The last two years we've seen a huge wealth transfer from the poor to the rich. As economist Bernard Hickey has reported the Government's COVID policies made the rich $952 billion richer while the poor were forced $400 million further into debt to the Government. Low-income whānau now need more than twice as many food parcels as they did before COVID and I see on the ground the whānau choosing to travel to town to get groceries and not another trip to attend doctors specialist appointments or vaccination. The Leader of the Opposition claims to care about the cost of living while at the same time proposes to make this wealth transfer even worse through his new tax cuts for the rich policy. Prime Minister e te Pirimia it is absolutely a cost of living crisis that will create a pandemic of poverty. This couldn't be more obvious in the housing market where we're seeing the biggest wealth transfer in generations from hard-working whānau to the greedy property class. Since 1986 the number of Māori forced to rent has increased by 88.3 percent; 70 percent of Māori cannot afford homes and they're living in rentals. One-third of Māori live in a house considered damp or overcrowded. Māori make up 50 percent of the waiting lists for social housing; 30 percent of Māori pay rent that is over 30 percent of their weekly income; and 33 percent of Māori will shift residence every three years. At the same time there's 191646 unoccupied ghost houses; this is in 2019 by the way. At least 12000 tangata whenua are homeless in their own whenua. This is an absolute disgrace and fixing it should be our Government's top fiscal and economic priorities. We have generations of whānau who will never be able to afford to buy a house in this market and we're holding them to hostage with the very real prospect of homelessness. There are solutions to housing crisis and inequality including taxing unearned wealth through capital gains and ghost house taxes—Horror horror!" I hear some of you say. We must tighten up bans on foreign ownership and guarantee houses for citizens and permanent residents. We will fight and support to increase the construction of State houses and rent-to-buy placements while enabling papakāinga housing at scale through regulatory reforms and increased investment and stop all sales of freehold land to offshore foreign interests. We will also support low-income whānau by actually lifting their income. It is clear that we need to double baseline benefit levels and student allowance and increase the minimum wage to $25 while tagging increases in the cost of living. We are a low-wage economy with insecure employment. These policies will support whānau. They will stimulate the economy and help businesses as their whānau have to spend everything they earn while the rich hoard their wealth in trusts housing and investment schemes. It's time for a radical solution to address this shameful crisis. It's time for a new approach to economics. We must put people and the environment that sustains us first second and last. Nō reira tēnā tātou katoa.Andrew Bayly: Madam Speaker?ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call and they are both connecting with us remotely. You've got up before your time Andrew. I call on Anna Lorck."