Verrall AyeshaHon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Labour): It's a pleasure to—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Sorry before you start—we'll start you again. Look as I said earlier this is not a conversation—rare interjections only. I call on the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall.Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: Mr Speaker thank you. It's a pleasure to follow that fulsome contribution from the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee. This bill enacts elements of the Budget that takes New Zealand backwards. It borrows billions for the tax cuts that are contained in this bill. The tax threshold changes will result in far less for New Zealand families than was promised. The question that all New Zealanders are asking today was answered by Andrea Vance in The Post. The question was Was it worth it?" She says "For a pensioner couple getting $4.50 a week … probably not. The minimum wage earner pocketing 30 cents surely not. The singleton earning $55000 a year receiving $51 a fortnight arguably no. [For] The patients relying on funding for 13 new cancer drugs almost certainly not. And for future generations saddled with $50 billion of debt definitely no." It is clear that many things that are good about life in New Zealand are being sacrificed on the altar of saving Nicola Willis' political credibility because she committed to tax cuts. Commentary in the New Zealand Herald today says "There is absolutely no doubt"—says Matthew Hooton—"no doubt that New Zealand is borrowing for tax cuts." I want to touch on whether or not this is worth it and I want to focus on one particular policy initiative: the free prescriptions. Now that was a policy brought in at last Budget that had tremendous impact in New Zealand keeping people out of hospital making sure that the many people who have to forgo their medicine because they cannot afford it who otherwise end up in hospital for treatment can get the treatment they need. There are many people who need multiple prescriptions at a time and they depend on that support. The pre-election promise from the Government was that that policy would be used to fund cancer medicines. But what happened doesn't add up. No they've scrapped the free prescriptions and they've also not followed through on the cancer medicine treatment. Another area: free public transport support for working families has been lost. That contributed quite a bit—it can add up to about $25 a week for some families when they've got kids who were getting the free public transport subsidy. That was meaningful impact on the cost of living. Similarly people's hope for the better future for being able to purchase their first home lost with the cancellation of the First Home Grant. So it seems that this Government is taking with one hand and giving a few scraps in return and certainly no meaningful action for those that they call the squeezed middle.But there's more to what's lost in this Budget than just the ins and outs on the daily budget sheet for the average family—there's also the services that many New Zealanders depend on. This Budget was funded in part by the loss of 5000 jobs across New Zealand's Public Service. Health: we've lost the people who monitor whether our health system is doing a good job or not we've lost the people who will be there to protect us in the next pandemic we've lost advice and we've lost people who work on regulation—things like protecting kids from vaping—and on and on and on. In education people who see if those school lunches are in fact nutritious—they might provide some inconvenient advice—they've been fired. People who protect the borders of our communities and Customs keeping meth and other drugs out of our country and people who keep harmful pathogens out of the community at biosecurity—they've been fired in order to fund the tax measures in this bill. At Oranga Tamariki the people who make sure that the management of children are supported by good legal advice when they're in State care—they've been laid off. There's been lay-offs at ACC the agency that helps New Zealanders rebuild their life after an accident—in particular people at ACC in the injury prevention unit have been fired meaning that the overall efficiency of the of the programme is reduced. In the Ministry of Social Development people have been fired to fund these tax cuts—they're often the ones transforming the systems that people interface with when they go to get their entitlement. Department of Conservation funding has received a real cut as well as a result of these changes to the tax thresholds where the only people celebrating are not people they're ferrets because it's a great day for pests in New Zealand given all the cutbacks that we're having to the measures to preserve our environment.The childcare rebate is a poorly designed piece of policy though the intent to make sure that parents have support when they're having their children in care is a good one. The requirement to mean that parents have to pay for their care upfront will be a barrier to many on the lowest incomes accessing the support that is intended to be provided by this bill. It's a few years since I was a parent of a preschooler but I remember well the lack of time to do anything for myself the sleep deprivation the overwhelm the household work the piles of washing the relationship difficulties that you have when you're managing all this extra work in your household and your career commitments. Yet the Government decides it's helping to put a little bit more of red tape and admin in the way of those families as they try and access support. I don't know why they would design a policy like this in the modern world.Finally I want to talk about the changes to the student loans. And this is where the bill gets truly truly sneaky. This was not canvassed in the run up to the election that this type of a change would be made. But it is of a piece with the type of initiative that this Government has sought to bring forward to tax people who are not New Zealanders or at least not in New Zealand. We know that the foreign buyers tax was the Government's first effort to raise revenue of people overseas but that was scotched by New Zealand First. The international visitor levy is another one where they're trying to put more costs on people coming to New Zealand. And this one has snuck through: the student loan increase in repayments for New Zealanders overseas. Now this one is on New Zealanders who are overseas who are having to pay back their student loans. For some it will cause additional hardship and it may well cause our well-trained people not to return to New Zealand. When I think about the situation in our health system where it's normal for many of our well-trained people to go do a fellowship overseas get the skills they need and come back to New Zealand—they'll be facing additional costs as they seek to do that and then the barrier to returning to New Zealand where we can use their skills seems even higher. I think this is a concern that that side of the House should take more seriously as we face the highest ever level of immigration from this country. In the last year 52000 New Zealanders went overseas; 39 percent of them are aged 18 to 30—precisely the people who would be impacted by this. We know that they'll be looking around looking at the rising projections for unemployment in New Zealand; seeing the country they love go backwards on climate backwards on race relations; a Government that likes to kick trans kids in the face every now and then if it suits them politically; challenges in homeownership in this country; and putting an additional burden on them in their student loan repayments. What positive agenda does this Government have for those New Zealanders who we would like to return to New Zealand!So this is a broken promises Budget. We all remember Christopher Luxon in the leaders' debate saying that New Zealanders will get $250 a fortnight with the tax changes. Well this bill shows that it is barely anywhere near that for the majority of families. It shows very little happening for the squeezed middle and in fact there are more costs being put on to people as free prescriptions and public transport subsidies are rolled back. Also for seniors—I mean it was incredible how short the New Zealand First seniors spokesperson's call was given that it must be of some embarrassment that seniors will only get $4 a week with these—Arena Williams: $2.20!Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: $2 each a week. This is a broken promises Budget. This bill does nothing to take New Zealand forward; it takes New Zealand backwards. I cannot commend this bill to the House."