Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): I am recalling the day that the Budget was announced in this House. Right in front of me a couple of seats ahead there the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern gets up she delivers her speech she holds up this Budget and she says it is this reason right here—because she was delivering this Wellbeing Budget a transformative Budget a step in the right direction - type Budget—this was the reason that she got into politics. I want to emphasise that sentiment for us on this side of the House. When I look across this side of the House I can honestly say we got into politics to fundamentally transform the face of Aotearoa New Zealand. The reason that we're doing that—the reason that we're doing that—is because we knew after nine years of the previous Government being at the helm when you came up into regions like ours in the East Coast when we saw the economic disparities up in our home town when we looked out and we saw the number of people that could not have access to fundamental things like services for mental health when we saw the addiction rates in our community up in the East Coast absolutely rising sky high—we both know Madam Speaker in our region where we're from—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Don't bring me into the debate.KIRITAPU ALLAN: Where I'm from in the East Coast I saw over that campaign period in particular over a very short period of time suicide upon suicide upon suicide in this very very compounded time frame. It was absolutely shocking. The weight of—we call it the taumahatanga that we felt up and down that coast. We saw young people we saw old people we saw Māori people we saw Pākehā people we saw farmers sons and daughters we saw those that had barely come into the cities before we saw people of all shades in our community in the East Coast suffer from the lack of ability to access fundamental things like access to mental health services.So when we say we're delivering a plan to address mental health challenges I stand here with my hand over my heart and after I've been up and trooped all around our electorate I know that all of my colleagues on this side of the House—we've been out all across Aotearoa New Zealand over the last few weeks taking this Budget out to our communities. Do you know what our communities are saying? Our communities are saying that for the first time—some of them in their generation since they have had a political voice—they feel heard.That was a real penny-drop moment for me when I was up in a meeting up in Gisborne. We had the Minister of Health. He came in and we called a midday meeting. It was very short notice. The Minister of Health the Hon David Clark had been up several times before to the Tairāwhiti District Health Board to meet with Jim Green and the others. He'd seen the lack of services in terms of the fact that we had no residential services or providers to be able to care for those that had mental health issues or those that needed wraparound services if they were suffering from mental health and addiction.The Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern herself had been up to Te Tai Rāwhiti and had met with family after family and NGO provider after provider. As they said she'd met with the police officers and they said—and she said this in her Budget speech—that (1) those communities were crying out to be heard and (2) they had been seeking for so long the chance to have some real resource and funding channelled into our community which is one of those communities that on a per-population basis suffers from some of the worst mental health and addiction issues in this country.So when we had the Hon David Clark come up to our electorate over the recess—and like I said we called this meeting with very short notice. Well I showed up about 15 minutes before that meeting. As sometimes is the case you hope that there're a couple of people in that room. It was the middle of the week and the middle of a day and I said to some of my staff that were working up there Oh maybe put out 30 chairs and we'll hope that they get filled." By the time that we arrived—and that was slightly early—that room was filled to the brim. By the time that the speeches had commenced it was standing room only. When I looked out into that crowd of people I saw members of all political ilk. I saw members of every single community whether that be business whether that be in NGO services whether that be in education or whether that be in health; I saw those people the faces of our community hankering. For so long they had been hankering to be heard and to be seen.When the Hon David Clark came in to our community to announce—and you know it's actually not a large sum of money; it's $20 million. It's a large sum but it's not the largest sum that has been announced in our region. But it was the fact that the community had been calling for so long to have these wraparound services in the areas of mental health and addiction—for far too long. Our young people our elderly people and our working-class people—their lives have been taken at far too early a stage.When we went I saw that the people wouldn't leave. After the Minister left and after we'd called the end of the meeting the people still just hung around. They just hung around. That indeed has been the reception that I've heard from those that have held meetings all throughout their rural communities all throughout their urban communities: that when they take this Budget out into our communities regardless of where those people are people are saying we feel heard and we feel seen.Another big platform and pillar for us—and again the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern has been championing this area—is improving child wellbeing. It was very soon after the Budget was announced and there was an announcement that for all schools under decile 7 if the school said to their parents or to those that had children enrolled in their school that they weren't required to make a paid donation the Government—our Government—would invest and pay $150 per student to that school.Well I got this email. It would have been less than 24 hours I think thereafter. It was from a principal of a school in Whakatāne. It's a small decile 2 school It's about 340 students. This school it has had many challenging days. But this principal he was so excited. He said to me "Kiri Kiri Kiri—do you know what this means?" He said "This means $51600 additional extra to our operational budget Kiri." He said "This is huge." I want to just commend the Hon Chris Hipkins who has been at the forefront of championing access and equity for all whether it is children in our school or every single person who chooses to pursue an education. That is a fundamental pillar of this side of the House our fundamental proposition for being a citizen in this country.One of my other schools up there Gisborne Girls' High School—almost $120000 will go to that school. That's a huge amount of money for a school up in our region. Tarawera High School—it's a smaller school but almost $70000. One over in Whakatāne—almost $160000 will be going to Trident High School if they say "No we won't ask our parents for donations. Actually we will accept this generous offer from the Government because this Government is committed to the wellbeing of children."Throughout the last few weeks I have heard from educator after educator—educator after educator—telling me (1) how significant these school donation fees are but (2) how fundamental the NCEA sum is that this Government will pay.About three or four days after the Budget had been announced I was at a community meeting. Very shortly after that meeting this grandmother came up to me and she said "Kiri I didn't realise but my son-in-law hadn't been able to pay the NCEA fees and so my two grandchildren they didn't get their NCEA results. I went to pay the fee on the Monday. Well the school said 'No worries grandmother' "—I won't say her name—" 'the Government has just announced that they will be paying those NCEA fees—$77 per student.' " That there—they are small initiatives but they are fundamental and therefore I commend wholeheartedly this Wellbeing Budget to the House."