McAnulty KieranHon KIERAN McANULTY (Labour): I'll tell you the one thing Parliament needs—and I haven't really realised this for the seven years that I've been here but I've come to realise it whilst listening to the Government members speak—Parliament needs a fact checker. Parliament needs a dedicated Officer of Parliament to write a report every time there is a speech. But by Christ that would be a long report after that last speech. Every point that was made missed the mark. Catherine Wedd said police have gone up; it's gone backwards. She said that things are improving; they are not. They said that they have improved investment in various areas failing to mention that it actually hasn't kept up with inflation so in effect it is actually a cut. But if you took what they said as gospel you'd actually think they've solved things. They've not solved things. They have made things worse. It's interesting that of all the list of things she spent more time talking about road cones than she spent talking about health. I wonder why that is.I wonder why in a speech after this new Government's first Budget they haven't mentioned health. One of the largest areas of expenditure one of the most crucial elements to every household in this country and they're not talking about it. Why is that? It's because they know that they have been caught out. They tried a massive public relations exercise this week. They tried to blame their underfunding and their incompetence on the previous Government and Kiwis aren't having it. They aren't dumb; they can see a spin job when they face one and they saw one this week. That's why they've said in all the lists—and let's be honest all the speeches have said the same thing; all they're doing is reading their lists. It's OK; we used to do the same thing. It's all right it's all good it's what they do but they've clearly taken health off the list because they know that everyone that works in health knows that what they're saying is absolute tripe.They know that there's a hiring freeze. They know that in hospitals like Masterton Hospital when there is a vacancy in the nursing staff opening up—do you know what they do? They don't fill it; they drop the minimum staffing requirements at that hospital. There are 33 vacancies at that hospital. If you go online and check it out it says there is none. It says they're fully staffed. It's a disgrace. I actually think it's a scandal because they are misleading New Zealanders. They are making it look like they care about service provision when actually all they care about is cutting spending. It's interesting that they will talk about the inflation figure of 3.3 percent but they don't talk about rents going up at the highest level in 17 years rates across the country averaging 9.8 percent and insurance having gone up 14 percent. It is absolutely fatuous to claim that they have solved inflation when everybody else says they've had nothing to do with it.The measures that come into this Budget—many of the things that are supposedly to help the cost of living—haven't come into effect yet. There should be a rule about making such claims when there's absolutely no factual basis to be able to do so. It's got nothing to do with them. The Budget Economic and Fiscal Update in 2023 said that at this point at this very moment this year inflation would be 3.3 percent. What it didn't say was that rents rates and insurance would be going up at record levels. Why is that? Could it be because they gave a $2.9 billion tax cut to landlords promising this House and the country that it would have downward pressure on rents when they knew deep down it would have the opposite effect? Could it be that they went round the country during the election promising councils they would help them pay for water infrastructure only to break that promise and then impose extra costs on councils and remove the options that were being reviewed to give councils alternative revenue streams leaving them the only option they've got to put rates up? Could it be that insurance is going up because they know that this Government has withdrawn the funding that was previously committed to help regional councils put in flood protection?If this Government isn't investing in flood protection what confidence does the insurance sector have and what confidence should Kiwis have? Rents will continue to go up house prices will go up house builds will go down and if they don't believe me look at the stats because it's already happening. The fact is that this Budget has got nothing to do with improving Kiwis' lives. It has actually got nothing to do with the cost of living. The two dollars or whatever that retired people in this country will be getting will do nothing to help them with rates and nothing to help them with the costs that this Government has imposed on them. It's a joke.