Twyford PhilBUDGET DEBATEDebate resumed from 14 May on the Appropriation (2020/21 Estimates) Bill.Hon PHIL TWYFORD (Minister for Economic Development): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's good to be back in the House and speaking on this year's Budget aka Rebuilding Together. Now it's not the Budget that Grant Robertson expected that he would be delivering in 2020 but it is absolutely the Budget that New Zealand needs now. At the time of a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic history will record that this Government took decisive action not only to fight the virus but to protect jobs incomes and businesses. Alongside that we took the view that the best economic response to this crisis was always a strong public health response—and when you turn on the TV news and you see what's happening in countries around the world that is unquestionably true. We went hard and we went early and thanks to the team of five million now is the time to start rebooting the economy and building the recovery. The challenge—[Interruption]DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order! It's very difficult for the Minister. Carry on Minister; I was just getting a bit of quiet for you.Hon PHIL TWYFORD: Thank you Madam Speaker. The challenge now is surely that this country has to take the same level of focus and discipline that it applied to fighting the virus over the first two months since we went into lockdown and apply that same measure of resolve to the economic recovery.It shouldn't surprise anyone that since our health system has been supporting us through this time of COVID-19 it's appropriate that we support the health system. Budget 2020 delivers the biggest ever increase in funding to the health system; it's also importantly had additional funding for around 153000 more surgeries and procedures radiology scans and specialist appointments to help clear the COVID-19 backlog. Budget 2020 continues this Government's record of tackling the legacy of neglect and underfunding that we inherited in the public health system.Last week the Government's west Auckland MPs had the pleasure of hosting the Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson in a public meeting—a Zoom and Facebook Live session—about the Budget. One of the queries that was raised by Margaret in that session was about services at Waitakere Hospital. She said that she wanted Waitakere Hospital to have all of the services and the status that North Shore Hospital does which is also in the Waitematā DHB. Well good news for Margaret: the Budget put around $300 million into the Waitematā DHB and a good share of that will go to the Waitakere Hospital—something that myself and other Government MPs in west Auckland strongly support.Some other feedback that we had during the Facebook Live session with the finance Minister came from Leigh who said that she was so pleased to see the restoration of funding for adult education after it was decimated by the former National Government a decade ago. It is a very very popular announcement: a $16 million boost to adult and community education in the Budget. The new funding will give 11000 New Zealanders the opportunity to take up adult and community education which will involve a modern approach to rebuilding and reinventing night classes—something that our communities treasured but was taken away from them. And of course it's particularly important now given that so many people in the job market will be looking for an opportunity to get back into education and to retrain.Tevita—you know who you are Tevita—said it was fantastic to note that $36 million was being put up to support community groups in Budget 2020. A specific focus of this Budget allocation is to help Māori Pacific refugee and migrant communities to access this fund to support grassroots work. That's really important in west Auckland because our community is so diverse—very big Māori communities Pacific other new migrant communities. They will treasure the extra resources being put into these community groups. And of course those organisations play a crucial role in supporting the most vulnerable people in responding and adjusting to the shock caused by COVID19.West Auckland is of course the home of small business. A few days ago I did a Facebook Live panel discussion with the Central Park Henderson Business Association and the leaders of that association made it very clear in that discussion just how important the wage subsidy scheme has been to keep workers in work and businesses in business. The wage subsidy scheme has supported businesses from large ones in my electorate like Tasti the snack bar manufacturer and exporter in Te Atatū Peninsula who employ more than 200 local people in their factory there to the family who run my local fish and chip shop.We followed that up with a $1.4 billion injection into skills and apprenticeships. If there are two things that west Auckland needs at the moment it's support for jobs and for training and skills and apprenticeships. This could not have been received more warmly in my community. That injection into skills and training will financially incentivise and support businesses to keep apprentices on during these difficult economic times—that's absolutely essential. It will also ensure that some trade training and apprenticeships will be free in targeted and selected industries. One of those will be construction. I'm sure another will be retail. Those two industries are critically important for people in West Auckland—a lot of jobs in those two sectors.We've also put support packages in place in the response to COVID-19 to save jobs in tourism and in aviation—two of the sectors that were hardest hit and earliest hit. We're also doubling our assistance to exporters. That's a really important part of the COVID recovery plan. It has to be export-led. We need the jobs that our big exporters generate—particularly in the regions—and the foreign exchange. Those are the big industries that are going to get us through the next few years. We are doubling our assistance through NZ Trade and Enterprise—NZTE—a fantastic Government agency that works directly with thousands of New Zealand firms helping them to lift their export performance.At the smaller end of the scale for small to medium sized enterprises another part of the assistance package for small businesses has been $10 million to help them hone their e-commerce skills. We saw this during the level 4 and level 3 lockdown periods. So many businesses reached for e-commerce as a way that they could keep operating keep looking after their customers and keep their staff at work. Many have discovered that actually that can become a successful and productive part of their business model. They can reach more customers more efficiently and so directly helping those small businesses with e-commerce is I think one of the best and most targeted things we could do.As economic development Minister I'm working with the film industry to get productions back under way in west Auckland. I'm pleased to say that a number of the big American studios are very keen to resume production and there are a number knocking on our door to come here and start new productions. That's also something to celebrate in west Auckland because it means literally billions of dollars of investment over the coming years and hundreds if not thousands of jobs directly and indirectly supporting these big international screen productions.During our Facebook Live session with the Hon Grant Robertson Heather said that it was great news about the school lunches programme. The expansion of the free and healthy school lunch programme was part of a whole package of initiatives designed to really support some of our poorest and neediest communities during the economic crisis. The expansion of the programme will see around 200000 extra Kiwi kids get a free lunch every school day. It's not just good for the kids; it's estimated that this policy will create around 2000 jobs in those communities. I know in west Auckland in some of our neediest schools parents and staff in those schools come together to provide nutritious food for the students that need it to ensure that they can learn. This is a great policy—no wonder it's so popular.Lynette from Sport Waitākere welcomed the package for sports and recreation in our Facebook Live discussion and pointed out that actually since COVID-19 much of the funding for the sport and community sector has dried up putting sports under real strain. The Government—DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member's time has expired.