Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): The Opposition talking about the Budget reminds me of nothing so much as the Life of Brian. You know What have the Romans ever done for us?" "Nothing!" "Well actually there's the aqueduct." "Oh well aside from the aqueduct—" "And the sanitation!" "Well aside from the aqueduct and the sanitation—well I'll grant you the aqueduct and the sanitation—" "And the roads!" "All right the aqueduct the sanitation and the roads". And so it goes until we go "Well apart from the sanitation the beds and the education the wine the public order irrigation roads the fresh water system and public health—what have the Romans ever done for us?" And that's how they talk about the Budget. They say "What has the Budget ever done for business?"Well what has the Budget done for business? Let me talk about that. Coming up for business there was the wage subsidy—that little wage subsidy that helped businesses to keep their staff on through the weeks of the lockdown; the wage subsidy that helped businesses to keep their valued staff with them that enabled them to keep on going. "Well it was just a wage subsidy. Well all right then aside from the wage subsidy?" Well there was the wage subsidy extension. Another eight weeks of wage subsidy was there to help businesses keep their staff in touch with their jobs to help them get through these weeks of the downturn with support for their wages because employees are important. "Well all right then we'll give you the wage subsidy and the wage subsidy extension but whatever else did the Budget do for small businesses?"Well there's the loan scheme the low-interest loan scheme because we know that for small business one of the critical things is cash flow and that low-interest—and indeed in some cases no-interest—loan scheme will help business cash-flow and help them to get through. "Well all right then aside from the wage subsidy and the wage subsidy extension and the loan scheme what has the Budget ever done for business?" Well then there is the e-commerce package—there is the e-commerce package—because what we found was that many of the businesses who managed to get along reasonably well during the lockdown were those who already had e-commerce in place. But it's hard for a small business to get that going so in the Budget we put in place support so that all small businesses can get going with e-commerce. "All right then so we've got the wage subsidy the wage subsidy extension the loan scheme and e-commerce but aside from that" the Opposition say "what has the Budget ever done for business?"Well then leading on from that there's the $400 million that is available to help tourism because the sad fact is—the sad fact is—that the international visitors are not coming back any time soon and so tourism does need a really well-developed plan that is developed in consultation with the sector that is done in such a way that enables the sector to change what it's doing to swing to a new market to rethink what they're doing. In fact in that in terms of helping with tourism the wage subsidy has helped with that the wage subsidy extension has helped with that this $400 million package will help with that—that is what we have done for tourism. "Well all right then aside from the wage subsidy the wage subsidy extension the loan scheme the e-commerce scheme and the $400 million for tourism what did the Budget ever do for small business?"Well what did the Budget do for small business? There's the apprenticeship scheme and this is a really wonderful idea. Businesses take on apprentices and during hard times apprentices are often the first to go. But in this Budget we have a scheme to enable businesses to retain their apprentices to help support them so they can keep that apprentice on their books and that is so important because when business picks up again those apprentices will be up and trained and ready to work. So we've done that. "Well OK then. All right so we've got the wage subsidy the wage subsidy extension the loan scheme the e-commerce the $400 million for tourism and the apprenticeship scheme but aside from that" they say "what did the Budget ever do for business?" Well there is the transport package the package that's designed to help keep the supply chains open to keep transport links open so that businesses can continue to trade here and overseas. And so it goes.So there we have it. We have the wage subsidy the wage subsidy extension the loan scheme the e-commerce the $400 million for tourism the apprenticeship scheme the transport package—that's what we're doing for business. There is a lot we are doing for business. The words from the Opposition are hollow. They are hollow. They are just slogans. The local businesses that I have spoken to are grateful for the wage subsidy and I suggest that the previous speaker goes to speak to Bianca at the Arts Village Cafe in Rotorua who is very grateful for the wage subsidy. They are pleased to hear about the loan scheme that will help with their cash flow. They appreciate the other measures being put in place because this Government has put in place a package that helps business businesses of all sizes and small business. That is what this Budget has done and it's a lot. And I figured it's time the Opposition stopped bleating and acknowledged the work that this Government is doing."