McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour—Wairarapa): Thank you Mr Speaker. Before I start my speech I want to acknowledge the fact that today the Ministry of Health have reported 24 deaths of people with COVID-19 two of which were from Wairarapa. These are the first deaths that my region our region has seen since the pandemic began and this will hurt. We are a close-knit community. These are people's family members they are people's friends and the region will be hurting. I wanted to take the opportunity to express my heartfelt and sincere condolences to those that are impacted by those deaths today. What we have seen over the last few days in this House is a good example of the genuine differences between the Government and the Opposition. Now we've all heard it. We've all heard it as we walk around our respective electorates—people that come and say There isn't much difference between National and Labour." Well we've seen that this week. We have seen the tired old retried approach from the National Party in response to a time when people are really struggling and their answer is to give tax cuts that will disproportionately benefit the rich and give very little to those that are struggling most. The reason I am pointing this out by way of comparison is that when you compare what this Government is doing on 1 April where 60 percent of New Zealand families will see an increase through Working for Families—a programme that families depend on and a programme that the National Party voted against—they will benefit more from what this Government is doing from our prioritisation of low to middle income earners than anyone in that category will under the proposed tax cuts. When there are 1.1 million New Zealanders who will not benefit from National's tax cuts but the top 3 percent of earners will see hundreds of dollars a week flow their way that demonstrates the priorities of the National Party.Over this side of the House and under this Government we are helping those who are hurting the most. We are seeing beneficiaries have an increase. We are seeing minimum wage workers have an increase which incidentally the National Party do not support. They have the gall to stand up and say "New Zealanders are leaving for overseas because wages are better." yet every single initiative from this Government to raise workers' wages and improve conditions they have opposed. Every single year when that side was in Government they put the minimum wage up and then when we do it they vote against it. They like to play politics with people's wages they like to play politics with people's livelihoods; we take this seriously.Superannuitants will be seeing a significant increase in their incomes coming up from 1 April with a $52 per fortnight increase for a single person and an $80 increase for a couple. Of course the superannuation only goes up when wages go up. It's indexed. It demonstrates that New Zealanders' wages are increasing under this Government. What would they do with tax cuts? There would be less money to put into the wages of nurses which have gone up under this Government. There would be less money to put into the wages of police officers which have gone up under this Government. You cannot promise to reduce revenue to pay down debt and to spend more—it is a falsehood. It is a falsehood that they got caught out with at the last election and they've fallen into the same trap. My message to the National Party is that New Zealanders are not fools. They will not be tricked by this sort of falsehood. They will see right through the gaping fiscal hole in their plan.By contrast they will see in this Government here that it is responding to the current cost of living crisis that is under way. They recognise that because the COVID situation has had an impact across the world and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia has seen fuel prices go up across the world it is impacting lower to middle income earners the most. When you look at the numbers you will see that it is this Government that is benefiting those people and that side wants to give it to their rich mates."