Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill, Imprest Supply (Second for 2026/27) Bill

on behalf of the Minister of Finance: I move, That the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill be now read a third time and the Imprest Supply (Second for 2026/27) Bill be now read a second time.

These two bills before the House today are both very important to our public finance system. Appropriation bills and imprest supply bills give the Government the authorisation by Parliament to spend money lawfully. The Public Finance Act makes it clear that the Government cannot incur expenses or commit capital expenditure without that authority. This is the constitutional principle long since held since the restoration of the Crown in the United Kingdom in 1660. For members and those listening at home, more detail on the history of the imprest supply can be found in chapter 42 of McGee.

The Imprest Supply (Second for 2026/27) Bill provides interim parliamentary authority for expenditure decisions made or to be made by the Government through to the end of the financial year that are additional to the amounts in the 2026-27 Estimates. The second imprest bill provides for any operating or capital decisions, including precommitments against future Budget allowances and expenditure incurred against the between-Budget contingency. It also covers fiscally neutral adjustments which increase one appropriation but decrease another, confirmation of expense transfers, increases in demand-driven appropriations, and drawdowns of existing tagged contingencies. Provisions are also made for any risks that may materialise—for example, matters covered in the “Risks to the Forecasts” chapter of the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update.

The amount of authority requested in the Imprest Supply (Second for 2026/27) Bill is $29 billion, made up of $16 billion of expenses, $12 billion of capital expenditure, and $1 billion of capital injections. The amount requested this year is broadly consistent with those sought in recent years’ second imprest supply bills, except for last year. The significantly higher amount requested last year reflected a provision for the potential one-off transfer of approximately $30 billion of school property assets from the Ministry of Education to the New Zealand School Property Agency. The amount sought in this imprest bill will be sufficient to cover any expenditure that may be incurred in this financial year that is additional to what is in the 2026-27 Estimates.

Treasury reporting indicates that actual expenditures incurred against imprest supply Acts are considerably lower than the authority provided by legislation. All expenditure incurred under the interim authority of the second imprest supply bill still needs to be appropriated by Parliament before the end of the financial year, as is the case every year. This will be done through the Appropriation (2026/27 Supplementary Estimates) Bill, which will be introduced on Budget day 2027.

Not only do we have before us the second imprest supply bill, but we also debate the third reading of the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill, which had its second reading on Budget day, 28 May 2026. This bill sees the Budget becoming law—a Budget that is focused on securing New Zealand’s future. Budget 2026 is a responsible Budget that boosts funding for essential services and invests in the infrastructure New Zealanders need for the future without breaking the bank.

Thanks to this Government’s careful management of the public finances, New Zealand is digging its way out of the post-COVID fiscal and economic hole. Balanced books are now in sight, with a forecast return to surplus in 2028-29. Returning to surplus and reducing debt means that more of the tax dollars earned by hard-working New Zealanders can be invested in the front-line services and infrastructure Kiwis rely on rather than servicing interest costs. We are building the future through Budget 2026, with investment in State highways, rail, hospitals, schools, social housing, courthouses, police stations, and defence capability. These investments mean thousands of jobs up and down the country, improved transport connections, and support for economic growth.

There are a few key announcements from Budget 2026 that I want to draw to the attention of the House this afternoon. The single biggest item in the Budget is support for front-line health services. Next year, Government spending on the health system is expected to total $34 billion, which equates to $17,000 for every New Zealand household. Budget 2026 provides an additional $5.5 billion to help the public health system meet front-line demand and deliver more services, including increased emergency department capacity, specialist assessment, elective surgery, cancer treatments, and GP visits, alongside targeted investments in paediatric palliative care, ambulance services, forensic mental health, and Pharmac.

It also commits $682 million in capital funding for health infrastructure, including a new 158-bed ward tower at Whangārei Hospital and the next stages of development at Tauranga, Hawke’s Bay and Palmerston North hospitals. Through this Budget, the Government is funding the purchase of land south of Auckland for a future new hospital, the redevelopment of the Mason Clinic in Auckland, and costs for the establishment of, of course, our new medical school at the University of Waikato. The starting age for free bowel screening will be lowered from 58 to 56 from the 30th of this month, and new mums will have the choice of longer postnatal stays thanks to this Budget.

We came into office promising to teach the basics brilliantly, and this year’s Budget continues efforts to boost educational achievement. Budget 2026 invests an additional $1.6 billion in operating funding for schooling and early childhood education, supports better opportunities for young people while helping to build a more productive, highly skilled workforce. Schools will receive increased operational funding, including support for higher employer KiwiSaver contributions, while early childhood education services will benefit from higher funding rates. The Budget also includes targeted investments to strengthen teaching and learning reading, writing, and maths, and to support the roll-out of a refreshed secondary curriculum and new national qualifications.

Next year, the Healthy School Lunches Programme will continue to offer students nutritious and affordable meals as ongoing work continues in the background for any potential future innovations in that programme. Budget 2026 also allocates $470 million of capital funding to redevelop up to 10 schools to deliver up to 232 additional classrooms and purchase land for new school sites in high-growth areas such as Queenstown.

This Budget ends the failed Fees-free scheme, which did not increase enrolments nor completion rates, especially for students from low-income backgrounds. The funding will now be put to better use to deliver front-line public services, including better prepared young people for trades and other vocational education. This Government will double trades academy places for year 11 to 13 students from 10,000 to 20,000 and provide 1,000 additional Youth Guarantee places offering wraparound support and training to school leavers with no or low qualifications.

This Government supports law and order, and through this Budget we’re providing a $1.1 billion uplift in the operating funding for Corrections, Customs, Police, and the Ministry of Justice to maintain essential front-line services that keep our communities safe. This includes funding of $477 million for Corrections to manage an increased number of prisoners, a $50 million funding boost for front-line policing, and investments to replace Police’s end-of-life automated biometric identification system. The Budget also provides funding to establish a new independent firearms regulator, Firearms Safety and Education New Zealand. Budget 2026 provides capital funding of $100 million towards the construction of a new High Court, District Court, and Māori Land Court in Rotorua—and, finally, funds badly needed for new police stations in Greymouth and Wanganui. Customs also received new funding to disrupt serious transnational organised crime groups and to combat drug smuggling.

None of this can be taken for granted. Delivering these results requires New Zealanders to stay the course. The country cannot afford to put all of this at risk, and with promises of reckless spending or large new taxes from many across the House, except on this side, we are fixing the basics and building the future. I commend these bills to the House.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s often said in this House that Budgets are the opportunity for Governments to clearly spell out their priorities. In that thick tome of spreadsheet data, a Government lays bare what’s at its soul: what its priorities are, what its values are, and what it thinks is important for New Zealand’s future. We’ve just heard the Minister who took his seat, the Hon Simon Watts, say that this was a Budget that did it without breaking the bank. Well, this is the Budget that is breaking New Zealand families up and down the country.

There are New Zealand families that are doing everything right. They’re working hard, but they’re struggling to pay their bills, they’re struggling to get ahead, and they’re struggling to make ends meet. Those families, right up and down our country, saw this as a letter addressed to them this Budget, that told them very clearly: they cannot afford another three years of this National Government. They see that this National Government has no plan to address what is important to them and what they are struggling with. We had a National Government that came in and offered real action on the cost of living. We now have a Minister in that Government telling us with pride about sustained price increases that New Zealand families are facing at the supermarket, as if that’s an achievement and as if that is a source of pride.

We had Nicola Willis, in 2023, say, “National will take action to get food prices under control once more.” We have Christopher Luxon saying in 2023, “I mean, so, the first thing that we’ve got to do is we’ve got to reduce the cost of living.” Well, this is certainly not what New Zealand families are experiencing. They have Ministers in their Government, now, that see that achievement and doing things well is when, every time they go to the supermarket, the prices are still rising. For this Government, that’s what success looks like.

Let’s look at some of those items in this Budget. Let’s look at health, that the Minister who just took his seat was so, so pleased to talk about, and let’s talk about nursing staffing levels. Let’s talk about how this is a Government that, over two successive Governments, provided funding that delivered New Zealanders 54 fulltime-equivalent nursing positions in New Zealand.

Now, if you’re at home and you’re getting a bit confused because you’re hearing ministers misleading by saying, “Oh no, there’s been 2,000.”, here’s what the facts are: that 2,000 figure includes the period from October 2023 through to February 2024, before the National Government, that had just come in, threw down the anchor and put in place a hiring freeze. Those people that were employed between October and the end of February—those hiring processes that were in place started under a Labour Government. From March 2024 to March 2026, this National-led Government has led a Government that has delivered New Zealanders 54 fulltime-equivalent nursing positions. That is a disgrace. That is something that every member of that National Party caucus and every member of a political party that occupies those Government benches should hang their heads in shame for.

Ryan Hamilton: Point of order. Madam Speaker, we’re on the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill, and it’s not a free-for-all National Party slag-off, which the opposite member’s doing. I just seek your guidance on whether she’s straying a bit or whether it’s just going to be opened up to a general debate for the rest of us.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): It’s not really a point of order—

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Speaking to the point of order—

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): It’s not really a point of order, so I’m not going to take it any further.

Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: OK, thank you, because I can assure you that that wasn’t a generalised attack on the National Party; this is talking about the Budget, and what this National Party has failed to deliver Budget after Budget. As I said, Budgets are a chance where Governments reveal their values and where they reveal what they think are priorities for New Zealanders, and this is a succession of Budgets where the National Party has told New Zealanders that, certainly, nursing is not part of that.

We had the Minister speaking on behalf of the Minister of Health today, talking about promises to hire New Zealand’s graduates that we train in this country as “reckless”. That was the language that was used by the Minister—actually hiring the nurses that we train in this country would be “reckless”, according to the National Party. That certainly is what is contained in the Budget documents. That sentiment carries through and flows through into those spreadsheets. Like too many New Zealanders, I’ve had more occasion to be present in the health system over the last three years than I care to have ever imagined I would, caring for elderly, very ill parents.

I can tell everybody that the nursing staff that I encountered on each of those visits worked hard, they cared, but they were slammed. When I look back now and I see that the people coming to support them were only 54 full-time hires over a two-year period to add to those wards where those nurses were run ragged, it is simply appalling and it is a sign of a Government that has absolutely let New Zealand down, and yet another reason why we just cannot afford another three years of this National Government.

Then we turn not only to our health system, but the other thing that New Zealanders look for in Budgets is hope. Where are the opportunities? Where is it that I’m going to get ahead? Where is it that I and my family might find those opportunities to get ahead? Well, if it’s looking for employment, it certainly isn’t the case, because Budgets are the place where Governments put in place initiatives that lead to employment. This Government’s put in place one initiative in its time in office. It’s talked about what it will lead to in terms of future employment. For the record, that was, I think, 1 percent growth in employment over a 20-year period, with a 1.5 percent uplift in wages over a 20-year period.

We put that against a Monetary Policy Statement that came out yesterday, that talks about 171,000 New Zealanders who are now unemployed. Worse than that, there are 440,000 New Zealanders who are underutilised in our economy. Now, underutilised is a pretty clinical word for people that want to work more but simply cannot find those hours. They’re not getting as many hours as they want to, and what that means is they’re not getting paid as much as they need to. They’re not showing up in unemployment figures, but what they’re not doing is able to make ends meet. They’re not able to pay their bills, they’re not able to put food on the table, and they’re not able to care for their futures.

We’ve got youth unemployment in this country that is the highest since the global financial crisis. This is something that we need to examine and come up with solutions for. Was there anything in this Budget for this? No, there was not. Was there a commitment to back our young people, to do things like say, “We will hire all our graduate nurses. We will give them full-time jobs. I’ll tell you what, we’ll improve our health system as we go.”? Was there a real plan to uplift apprenticeships in this country, bring back Māori trade training schemes, things that history has shown us in New Zealand work? No. Those plans were not in this Budget.

Were we seeing support for our small businesses? No, we were not. Were we seeing things like a real effort from Government to go and use homegrown talent and back our small businesses to have thresholds in there of what needs to be purchased not only from New Zealand - owned businesses but small New Zealand businesses to really give them that ability to get ahead? Did we see initiatives in there that our small businesses that employ so many New Zealanders could expense assets under $10,000? Did we have rules in there about Government decreasing the amount of time it took to pay our small businesses? No, we did not.

What we did not see in this Budget was anything that was about really addressing those pressures that New Zealand families up and down the country are feeling—anything to address those cost of living pressures. We know so many New Zealand families are working hard, they are getting ahead, they’re doing everything right, but what they have is a National Government that has let them down. They have a National Government that is not putting their interests first. What they have is a Government they cannot afford another three years of, because this is a Government that is delivering Budgets that are not putting them first. It is a Government that is delivering Budgets that are not thinking about “How is it that we assist our families in New Zealand?”

Thank you so much, Madam Speaker. A surplus built off the back of people most struggling to make ends meet is worth nothing.

What is even the point of slogans like “Getting back on track” if getting back on track means cutting support to the people who are already struggling the most to make ends meet? What is the point of a surplus if it’s off the back of low-income homeowners who are having their accommodation supplement cut? What is the point of your surplus if it’s off the back of cuts to temporary additional support that is accessed by people who may need to meet their costs of cancer medicines or travel costs to go to the doctor for lifesaving procedures? What is the point of a surplus if it comes off the back of cutting benefits for sick, injured, and disabled 18- and 19-year-olds, including cancer patients and people who are struggling with ill mental health?

A surplus that is built off the back of everyday workers tells us that this is a Government that would rather build an economy that benefits the wealthy few as opposed to everyday working people. This Government has told us time and time again that there is not enough money to end poverty in this country—that there is not enough money, apparently, to guarantee a job for every worker in the healthcare system—and yet they tell us that there are billions for military equipment. They tell us that there are billions for landlords. They tell us that there is always money for the people who are already doing well. If this doesn’t tell you who this Government is serving, I don’t know what will.

I want to reflect a little bit on the Estimates debate that we held over the past few weeks, because, to me, the fact that we had a Minister for Social Development and Employment, when asked about savings produced through the use of automated decision-making and therefore mandatory reviews, and whether this had resulted in main benefits being cut—we had a Minister who said, “No.” A few minutes later, she said, “Possibly”, and then, a couple of days later, it turns out that, yes, main benefits had been cut through the use of automated decision-making and mandatory reviews. Then she tried to walk it back by saying, “Oh well, don’t worry. I had actually said ‘Yes’ on 17 August.” I cannot find a single statement made by her that says that, so I am none the wiser about what the Minister was hoping to do with this.

The key thing here is that mandatory reviews were touted by the Minister as better supporting people to receive their benefit entitlements, but what we know is that, instead, this policy has been used as yet another tool to strip people of support when they need it the most. When I say support for people who need it the most, I am talking about supported living payment recipients, people who have long-term health conditions, injuries that prevent them from being in full-time employment for over two years, or disabilities that keep them out of the labour market. These are the people who are having their support cut. So, whenever the National Party tells you that they’re on track to deliver a surplus, I want to remind them that their surplus is being achieved through cuts for people in poverty.

These are all decisions that are being made by humans who are in power. It doesn’t have to be this way. Our economy could instead serve everyday working people. We could, instead of delivering tax cuts that benefit high-income earners the most, tax the wealthy few to deliver a tax-free bracket for low-income workers that would actually help alleviate poverty. We could instead invest in renewable energy to lower power bills. We could do things like banning price gouging, so that the duopoly stops taking advantage of everyday people. We can make different decisions; it does not have to be this way. If the Estimates and decisions being made by this Government show us anything, it is that they will go to any length to punish the people who are most impacted by the current high unemployment crisis, instead of focusing on creating jobs.

I’ll tell you what, Christopher Luxon, there is not a job in Rocket Lab for every unemployed person out there, so I recommend that maybe the Prime Minister gets out a little bit more, talks to the 18- and 19-year-olds who are sick, injured, or disabled who are having their support cut, and tells us whether he is genuinely getting us back on track or back on a track to misery.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): This is the second half of a split call. I call Tamatha Paul.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. On that note—to continue on the theme but to move the focus to housing, a favourite topic in the House—one of the cruellest and, I think, most overlooked parts of this Budget is actually the changes that the Government is making around Kāinga Ora and public housing. It’s one that I don’t think has got nearly, remotely enough attention or scrutiny within this House, or any concern from Government MPs, or a whole lot of coverage from media either. This is an issue.

The changes that are being made in this Budget to adjust the amount of money that people get as a part of the income-related rent subsidy—which is being increased from 25 percent to 30 percent and which, in real terms, looks like an increase, on average, of rent going up $31 per week for those households when they already don’t have the money to pay for their existing costs—are unconscionable in a cost of living crisis. It’s especially unconscionable because it impacts the people with the least in our society, and it just hasn’t even had the time of day in terms of scrutinising it.

The reason, they’ve argued—and it’s funny, because they’re repeating the same lines that they used when they actually introduced the accommodation supplement in the first place—is that they’re trying to create some kind of “horizontal equity” between renters in the private market and those living in Kāinga Ora housing and their costs of rent every week. But that is not the reason that we’re seeing this adjustment in this Budget. The reason that we are seeing this adjustment is because it is a continuation of the funnelling of State funds into the hands of landlords. This is corporate welfare for landlords. If this Government genuinely cared about the outcomes for renters, then they never, ever would have changed the rental laws, as I’ve been talking about, to introduce no-cause evictions, and 60 percent of renters say their lives have not improved since the rental laws were changed in this country.

It doesn’t matter if you’re topping up the accommodation supplement when you’re cutting entitlements in other places—for example, the temporary additional support subsidy, which is also being capped in this Budget, and which can be used to cover accommodation costs. They’re actually not making life better for anybody except landlords, which has been the consistent theme of this entire Government. They’re using their Budget to channel and funnel State funds away from those who need it the most towards people who do not need the assistance of the State to be even wealthier—to prop up the fact that housing is treated as a commodity, as an investment opportunity, in this country, as opposed to treating housing as the human right that it is. That is why public housing exists in the first place—as a social safety net for those who cannot afford the private rental market.

These changes in the Budget were modelled off of officials’ modelling that said that 26,000 households in Kāinga Ora could afford lower-quartile rent in the private market. That is an important piece of information—except for the fact that it’s divorced from reality in that, in July of this year, on TradeMe, there were only 2,569 rentals listed that meet lower-quartile rents. That means that when they’re saying these 26,000 households don’t need to be in public housing because they can afford private rents, there is only affordable rental housing for one in 10 of those people. Tell me where the funding is in this Budget for the nine out of 10 people who will lose their Kāinga Ora home because of this Government’s obsession with landlords and hatred of the poor? It’s hard to read it as anything else—it’s hard to read it as anything else.

Housing is a human right—and we haven’t even touched on the lack of money that is in there to actually build State housing and the fact that in homelessness insights briefings, officials cited the lack of supply and a consistent supply of the building of public housing in Budgets that the Government has set as a driving reason why homelessness has been increasing. The reason that we have increasing homelessness, increasing evictions—258 children evicted from their Kāinga Ora homes due to the decisions of this Government—is because they are callous towards the needs of people in public housing and in Kāinga Ora.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): The member’s time has expired.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Appropriation bills tell us something very important about the difference between this side of the House and the Opposition.

Tamatha Paul: Yeah—that’s right.

SIMON COURT: It comes down to one question—one question, Tamatha Paul: when Government has a problem, do you first ask how to spend taxpayer money better, or do you go looking for another way to tax them? ACT starts with this answer: before Parliament authorises spending a dollar, somebody has to earn it—a builder getting up before sunrise; a nurse starting their next shift; a farmer making decisions about next season; or a small-business owner sitting at the kitchen table and working out which bill they need to pay first to keep their business open. These people already know about making choices, and Wellington needs to re-learn that lesson.

Labour’s answer is becoming very clear. They want a new capital gains tax of 28 percent—28 percent—on commercial and residential property. They’ve already decided what they want to spend the money on, too. It’s already gone. Over there on the Greens’ benches, they’ve gone much further: a wealth tax—

Mike Davidson: Yes!

SIMON COURT: —a tax on large gifts and inheritance. Mike Davidson says, “Yes”—Mike Davidson says, “Yes”—a wealth tax; a bank levy; a higher company tax rate for large businesses; another, higher income tax rate. This is the same philosophy we saw from the last Government. When the books go into red, when the going gets difficult, the Opposition parties want to reach into somebody else’s pocket.

Mike Davidson: Everyone deserves a good life.

SIMON COURT: ACT rejects that approach, Mr Davidson. David Seymour, that wise philosopher and leader of the ACT Party, this week said that New Zealanders do not want and cannot afford new taxes and warned that taxes have a terrible habit of growing. That is why we think of a new tax like an acorn. When it’s introduced, it looks tiny; the politicians who want to plant it tell you not to worry, it only affects just these people, it’s only this much, it’s only for this particular purpose. Well, then the years pass, and the rate goes up, the threshold comes down, the exemptions change, and another Government discovers this revenue stream. The acorn becomes a tree.

Before long, everyone is sitting under this new oak tree just wondering how it became so enormous. Well, another wise man, Milton Friedman, understood government rather well when he said, “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government programme”. Tax bases have much the same quality. Labour tells New Zealanders that nine out of 10 will not pay its capital gains tax. That rather misses the point. The question is what kind of tax system and what kind of Government do we want to build over the next generation? Because once Parliament creates another major tax, every future finance Minister inherits it.

ACT would rather ask a harder question: can Government do better with the enormous amount it already collects from hard-working Kiwis? That matters, because Labour had six years to demonstrate that approach. When Labour entered Government, core Crown expenses were around $70 billion. By 2023, they were $127 billion. That’s an extraordinary increase, and what did New Zealanders get? Did emergency departments suddenly work brilliantly? Did educational achievement soar? Did infrastructure become easier to build? No, clearly not. Did crime disappear? Not judging by the ram raids and lawlessness that I witnessed firsthand in West Auckland.

I had somebody come to a public meeting recently, who said that they’ve only recently allowed their daughter to go back to the mall with her friends after, as an 11- or 12-year-old, she witnessed a ram raid where robbers—wearing masks and gloves and black clothing, and brandishing baseball bats, a hammer, and what sounds like, to me, being a student of medieval history, a mace—rushed into the mall, into the jewellery store, and smashed their way into cabinets while terrifying shoppers and people walking out of the supermarket with their trolleys. Under Labour, having spending increase from $74 billion a year to $127 billion a year, did crime disappear? Definitely not. New Zealand was heading for anarchy.

The lesson is obvious: spending more money and delivering better government are not the same things. Intentions are not outcomes, and that is why ACT talks about sensible spending. We should spend where it matters—health, education, police and justice, roads of course, water, energy where the Government can make a difference, and infrastructure that allows New Zealanders to build homes, to run businesses, and get to work, fixing what matters. But every dollar wasted on something the Government does not need to do is a dollar unavailable for those things, or a dollar that could have stayed with the person who actually earned it, and taxpayers are entitled to ask, what did they get for their money that Government takes off them?

I see this constantly in infrastructure. New Zealand’s never lacked ribbon-cutting opportunities. We announce a road, announce a hospital, announce a rail project, politicians put on a hard hat, they get a photograph—sometimes they even get a write-up in their local newspaper—then comes the difficult bit. Was it properly designed? Was it procured well? What does it cost to maintain? Who carries the risk when a project goes wrong, either in construction or if it never delivers the promised or imagined benefits? Quite often, based on what I’ve heard from the Opposition, some of the benefits that they propose—and I just take Let’s Get Wellington Moving, for example. Apparently, for spending $80 million on tearing up Lambton Quay and redoing the footpaths—I mean, I walk down there, I think the footpaths are fine and the place looks quite nice—apparently, for $80 million, they were going to get $400 million of benefits.

Now, when I looked into that, because I’m a civil engineer and I like the idea of getting $400 million worth of benefits for $80 million down, it turned out that hundreds of millions of dollars of those benefits were realm—vibe. They’re literally like, “It will feel nicer.” Well, I tell you what, when I walk down Lambton Quay—and I’m an Aucklander, so you know I’m a pretty harsh judge of downtowns, and Auckland’s downtown’s looking pretty flash these days with Commercial Bay and the City Rail Link’s open.

Hon James Meager: Downtown Blenheim.

SIMON COURT: This gentleman, James Meager, says downtown Blenheim. I’ve been to downtown Blenheim and they’ve got some beautiful tumbleweeds down there, but it’s not like Lambton Quay or downtown Auckland. But the question we have to ask ourselves when it comes to public sector investment using taxpayers’ money is, are the claimed benefits actually real? In the case of Let’s Get Wellington Moving and the case of the doomed Auckland bike bridge, or even in the case of the doomed Auckland light rail project, which, for $200 million, never delivered a single piece of railway line in five years, despite the fact that the leader of the Opposition at the time, Jacinda Ardern, Leader of Labour Party, claimed that the first train would arrive at a station in Mount Albert by 2021. I tell you what, do not trust people who’ve only ever worked in a fish and chip shop and led the Labour Party to design and deliver your infrastructure for you.

That’s why ACT pushes for better use of private sector capital; proper allocation of risk, including between the private and the public sector, because when the private sector has skin in the game, I tell you what, they want to deliver on time and on budget. Of course, whole-of-life thinking about infrastructure, because operations and maintenance, as the Infrastructure Commission wisely points out, should be at least 60 cents of every infrastructure dollar spent.

There’s no free lunch. We have to make choices. Roger Douglas put it plainly, that great sage and former Labour Minister of Finance—RIP Labour. All Government spending must be paid for, ultimately, by taxpayers, be it through current or future taxes. Borrowing simply sends the tax bill to the next generation, and that wise sage Richard Prebble had a useful description for the alternative approach. Tax, spend, and bust. That’s what this election is going to be about. Labour says another tax. The Greens say several more. There are parties outside of Parliament which wish to impose a land tax. Apparently, according to one of their representatives who spoke at a debate in Morrinsville last night, it’ll only tank the price of farms by 15 percent. I wonder if that party wants to go and ask the banking association whether tanking the price of New Zealand farms will make those loans sustainable.

After what New Zealand households have been through, we should take the pressure on their household budget seriously. The answer cannot be people coming to Wellington and finding another part of their lives to tax. The answer is a more disciplined Government focused on doing the important things well: spend wisely, cut what doesn’t work, pay down debt, build infrastructure that’s needed and delivers, grow the economy, and allow New Zealanders who want to live their best life and work hard to keep more of their rewards. That’s the choice at this election. That’s the choice we’re facing in the vote on this bill. ACT is asking New Zealanders to do something different.

I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak in strong support of the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill. This bill represents the very cornerstone of our parliamentary democracy, the statutory mechanism by which we exercise our fundamental duty as MPs of fiscal oversight and authorise the responsible expenditure of public funds for the upcoming financial year. I’m sure the member from the ACT Party, Simon Court, would agree with that statement. It ensures that every dollar spent is legally bound to its proper scope, providing the transparency, accountability, and stability that New Zealanders demand and deserve. In a nutshell, good fiscal discipline.

But there’s a twin to fiscal discipline. There is the monetary policy, and yes, I will stay on the bill here. I was privileged enough to be with the Reserve Bank this morning on the Finance and Expenditure Committee where they’ve had to raise the OCR to 2.75 percent. What we learnt this morning is that our current inflation is around 4.1 percent, but the actual underlying interest rate is 2.9 percent. The difference is what we’re paying for fuel. That has really hurt us badly, but that’s not all. Let’s just go back a little bit to what we arrived to as a coalition Government.

We had debt to GDP at 53 percent. That is more than half of our GDP in debt caused by the previous Government. We have never had that rate of high cost to GDP, high debt to GDP, since prior to the financial Act 1996. Since that time, this is the first time we’ve got close to that, and of course, the financial Act has allowed us to keep prices stable. It has provided the platform for us; but oh no, the previous Government actually managed to kick that out the door. What we arrived to was $9 billion a year in interest payments on that debt—$9 billion a year. Well, just quickly, if we had that $9 billion, what could we spend it on? Health, education, housing, so many things that we could do with it. That’s about three new hospitals.

I looked in the mirror this morning as I got myself spick and span for coming to Parliament, and I’m sure that a lot of members on the other side did the same, but I would just like to remind them that sometimes you need to actually look into the mirror and have a reflection of your own actions before you start casting aspersions on the other side of the House who are trying to manage this fiscal discipline in a way that we should be doing it. So what did we arrive to? We arrived to that. Soon after that, the Ukraine war—that didn’t help. That really stuffed up our supply chains. That made it really hard for us. What came after that? Tariffs. What came after that? The war in Iran. One hit after another, and yet this side is still wanting to spend more and tax more. Unbelievable. We’re actually trying to manage this and trying to manage the appropriations. I don’t think they have a clue. I don’t think they actually do look in the mirror for anything other than coming to work in the morning.

But there are some green shoots in here, and I know people don’t want to hear this, but this is really, really important. You know who is holding us in good stead right now? It’s the manufacturers, it’s the producers, it’s those people in the productive economy, and in the last month we had another 30,000 people employed during that recovery. These guys are seeing this, looking through what’s in front of us, and exporting and keeping us ahead. It’s fantastic. I was so pleased to hear that. It’s the farmers and our productive sector in manufacturing and mid-sized businesses, so pleased to hear that.

This debate is not about abstract numbers on a page for New Zealand First. This bill is about delivering on written commitments that we signed, sealed, and delivered in our coalition agreement.

We promised New Zealanders that we would be a stable, constructive partner in Government; a partner that respects the taxpayer and ensures public spending is focused on wealth creation and infrastructure, rather than wasteful consumption. The Estimates before us today prove that New Zealand First does not negotiate, we deliver. Let me give you some examples. Out of the appropriations, $1 billion went to rail; $750 million of that was capital expenditure; $477 million of that was operational expenditure, very good at the right time for productivity and moving freight and logistics.

How about regional infrastructure? New Zealand First negotiated the historic establishment of the $1.2 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund (RIF) over this parliamentary term to build projects that will drive our provinces forward. Today, we see tangible proof of that win—$704 million is appropriated to this bill under Vote Business, Science and Innovation, specifically for the Regional Infrastructure Fund. This is real capital, going directly into the veins of our regional economies to build the infrastructure that we know needs to grow. Let me just give you a bit of an example. We’re not just about spending Government money, we’re about using Government expenditure to attract co-investment. The RIF, through enabling growth: 20-odd projects; $354 million invested by the Government. Co-funding: $687.9 million. Energy: $229 million invested; $123 million in co-funding.

Māori economic development: $47 million invested, and another $32 million alongside that. Resilience projects: $291.9 million; $194 million in co-funding. RIF water storage: $134 million; $192 million in co-funding. Total committed funding: just over $1 billion; co-funding: $1.2 billion. That’s what you actually do with Government expenditure when you get the chance. You invest it in the productive economy.

Second, protecting our seniors. We pledge to protect seniors by keeping the superannuation age at 65, which they deserve; maintaining the winter energy payment; and upgrading the SuperGold card—that wonderful card. This bill backs that up with funding allocated for the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and the winter energy payment. We did not stop there. We secured $4 million specifically to fund the enhancement and promotion of SuperGold cards, and $82 million for the rates rebate scheme to directly ease the cost of living burden on our beloved seniors.

How about honouring our military veterans? We deliver on the service cost of veterans’ entitlements, alongside those I’ve just mentioned. More importantly, we’ve locked a major multi-year appropriation, running through to 2031, to fund the unwind of the discount rate on veterans’ entitlements. This is a long-term, multimillion-dollar shield for our heroes.

Fourth, backing our young workers and apprentices. In the coalition agreement, New Zealand First insisted on maintaining the Apprenticeship Boost scheme to keep training our workforce. This bill delivers on that, with over $25 million specifically appropriated for apprentice support.

New Zealand First, and this Government, is a party of its word. We promised, we deliver, and we commend this House to the bill—or the bill to the House, whichever way you want it.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): This is a split call—Lan Pham.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I hear, time and time again when I’m out in the community, that New Zealanders expect a duty of care when it comes to te taiao, our environment. They expect that of Governments of any political stripes, so it’s been absolutely extraordinary for the general public, but also for community at any level, to see this Government and their attacks on nature. This is through and through their Budget decisions. It’s not hyperbole. It’s not something that’s on paper; it’s something that’s real and that is costing the country, costing our communities. What I find absolutely frustrating, in hearing the Government members talk about particularly the election, but even their Budget and how that relates to things that are happening today, is how they’re apparently so focused on the costs. They’re so against this idea of any taxes or costs to community, when they simultaneously seem to have absolutely no concept of the fact that they are taxing and costing New Zealanders after every turn and every decision.

What do those costs actually look like? They look like costs on drinking-water pollution. They look like the costs on our ocean ecosystems collapsing, and the spin-off effects into our economy and our communities and our society. It looks like delay and denial when it comes to climate change, for example—pushing forward and pushing back any climate commitments that we may have as a country. We even saw the Minister for the Environment, Nicola Grigg, announce the other day that she was pushing back on her plans to ban hard-to-recycle PVC and polystyrene, something that had already been committed to in 2024—and then, here we go, a lobbying blitz ahead of us, and now it’s delayed even further, because apparently the Government has other priorities.

The priorities that have so clearly come forward, that are part of this Budget, are the priorities that include things like disestablishing the Ministry for the Environment. The fact that their only major expenditure in the environmental space are their resource management reforms, and these are the reforms that so-called dictate that environmental limits are not actually based on environmental limits at all. They are embedding into those acts climate denial and delay into the heart of our resource management legislation. What I find completely unacceptable about that is it is ultimately costing our kids, our grandkids, and future generations. These costs exist in reality, and when the Government does not address them, and does not apply, for example, the basic idea that polluters should pay for the damage that they do to our commons, our shared environment.

In the Resource Management Act reform bills, that only applies to contaminated land; it doesn’t apply elsewhere across the board. Instead of the Government taking any responsibility in their duty of care to actually deliver for New Zealanders, they’re failing New Zealanders. They’ve failed the environment, and it’s unfortunately everyday New Zealanders who will be picking up the tab, whether that be in the cost of the treatment of their drinking water; in not being able to go down to their local river, beach, or lake for a swim without fear of getting sick. It’ll be the intergenerational cost when it comes to the natural disasters that we’re seeing time and time again, that are actually increasingly completely unnatural, because they’re born by decisions, the very decisions that are happening right now under this Budget and in this House. That is a shameful legacy for this Government to take to the election, and they’ll be voted out.

To paraphrase Dr Maria Armoudian from the University of Auckland, “Science strengthens societies by building and deepening knowledge.” As Greens, we are very aware of the need to live within Earth’s limits and to respect the thin layer of life on this planet. We recognise that ecosystems and scientific knowledge are interwoven, both enhancing and invigorating each other. So we need trans-disciplinary and evidence-based practices to guide science and technology and to support decision-making to be precautionary and informed—something this Government knows nothing about.

Christopher Luxon says he wants to brutally commercialise our science system. I’m reminded of the days of Roger Douglas that began the brutal destruction of our social contract and the turn to neoliberal barbarism—something represented by the ACT Party in our Parliament today. “Budget 2026 pushes the science system into a quiet purgatory, with zero announcements from the Minister’s office since 1 April”, lamented New Zealand Association of Scientists Co-president Troy Baisden back in May. He continued: “The only real story for science is the long-running decline in the foundations of our research and tertiary education system.”

We’re experiencing a local state of emergency virtually every week at the moment as climate impacts hit thick and fast. We’re in a super El Nino, which will impact our primary sector, our hydrology, and society in general. Yet, we’ve suffered an emptying out of expertise after the Government’s cuts to basic research. Who is going to bottle “essence of flooded farm” and sell it, brutally commercialise it at Auckland’s Britomart? Who is going to brutally commercialise the air, soil, and water? Well, we know this Government’s going to do that. But who will help us avoid the next silent spring with young scientists leaving the country in record numbers?

Science and research should nurture learning and curiosity. It should not be directed towards profit. They should critique society and our entrenched beliefs, help us understand misinformation and disinformation that we get from the other side of the House, and give us techniques to address extremism and conspirituality. Science should be enabled to provide the best evidence-based and reputable insights to the important social and material questions and problems.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): And an appropriations debate should mention somewhere in the speech about the appropriations.

SCOTT WILLIS: Thank you, Madam Speaker. We agree with Troy Baisden, who said, “Foundational public investment in research must be at least 0.6% of GDP to provide agile support for business and government as opportunities and shocks arrive on our doorstep. It provides the foundation upon which businesses and government can quickly and efficiently fund the outcomes they need. Currently we are trending towards 0.3% of GDP, half the needed level.” We view investment into research, science, and technology as long-term infrastructure investment. We aim to ensure that the funding levels are reliable and are tailored to the research context, and at least 2 percent of GDP.

This Government has had a total disregard for meaningful jobs in the science, tech, and innovation sector or in evidence-based decision-making. It’s at a time when we need to boost and enhance our science ecosystem to deal with the ever deepening polycrisis. So what I can say to you is roll on 7 November.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think the only thing brutal in that last five minutes was the speech. But I do like the member’s green jacket. It’s very sharp on you, sir. Speaking of clothing, I wear a black shirt today, because it’s great to see that this Government is getting the budget back in black in 2028-2029—fantastic to see. In fact, this’ll be the first surplus in a decade and a year earlier than previously forecast. The Treasury forecasts the Government’s headline operating balance before gains and losses, excluding ACC revenue and expenses in 2025-2026 to be at $11.9 billion negative this year. We missed out 2026-2027, we get very close in 2027-2028, and then in 2028-2029 we’re set to post a $2.6 billion surplus. I want to say surplus quite slowly because that word doesn’t get used much in this chamber. But now that National is back, it’s going to be a lot more common.

I’m quite excited to talk about a lot of the things that have been appropriated in this Budget, as I’ve already mentioned the surplus. But if there was to be a winner, it would be health. Our investment in health has been one of the most significant investments ever made. I’d love to correct the record where the previous Labour MP Megan Woods was waxing lyrical about the 54 nurses. It’s been annoying me, so I thought I’d do a little bit of research and just set the record straight. Because Mark Twain, I believe it was, said there are “Lies, damn lies, and statistics.” Let’s set the record straight. Labour is comparing March 2024 with March 2026. Health New Zealand nursing fulltime-equivalents (FTEs) were about 29,404 in March 2024 and 29,458 in March 2026, hence the net increase of roughly 54 FTEs. But here’s the thing, the Government took office in late November 2023, not March 2024. So using September 2023, the last full quarterly snapshot before the election, Health New Zealand had 27,818—

Reuben Davidson: Your Minister admitted it.

RYAN HAMILTON: Do you want to take a call, Reuben?

Reuben Davidson: I’m going to later.

RYAN HAMILTON: Good. Well, just save it till then, because you’re going to run out of hot air.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Just keep the debate tidy.

RYAN HAMILTON: By March 2026, it has 29,458—a net increase of 1,640 nursing FTEs.

So, importantly, neither figure literally means how many nurses were hired; they are net workforce changes. Thousands of nurses can be recruited, while thousands of other retire, resign, move overseas, change hours, or otherwise leave Health New Zealand. So saying that National only hired 54 nurses is simply not correct. The Opposition likes to cherry-pick and misconstrue and run roughshod over the facts that we are providing.

The other good thing which was great to know about the health budget was, of course, the postnatal stays: $34 million additional for mums that are able to stay in postnatal care for three nights. Again, I’d just like to acknowledge our colleague Catherine Wedd for her member’s bill and the work that was done in that space, for that’s going to be significant. Or the additional $54 million for Pharmac to purchase medicines, or the $35 million to boost support for road ambulance services.

We heard earlier from Dr David Wilson, we spoke to the Reserve Bank this morning in the wonderful Finance and Expenditure Committee, and we know that the official cash rate went up slightly today. The large proportion of the inflation contributing to the need for that slightly more conservative approach is because of the fuel crisis. Now, we are so fortunate that we’ve got the leadership of Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis, who took the fuel crisis into consideration during the Budget. They didn’t radicalise or catastrophise. They said, “Let’s learn from all the crazy mistakes the Opposition made in COVID.” They said, “Let’s make targeted, timely, and temporary measures.” So we offered those to people most in need—those travelling, those working families. It’s good to see that that situation has stabilised. We even put aside money in contingency for that crisis. Now we’re able to use that for some other purposes. That’s what good fiscal management looks like. I’m really pleased to be part of a team that has enabled that.

Let’s talk about infrastructure. We’re doing some significant investment in infrastructure: about $60 billion over and above some of the key highlights of the Budget. Cambridge to Piarere: $1.67 billion—a four-lane expressway that not only helps get people from A to B, but it does so safely, and it does so whilst improving productivity. We all know that our productivity in this country needs to increase. Now, we’ve heard the Opposition talk about cancelling roads of national significance. They’re good at cancelling things that boost productivity.

All it does is it makes New Zealanders get frustrated, it gets more bottle-necked.

Hon Julie Anne Genter: Interisland ferries.

RYAN HAMILTON: I know Julie Anne Genter wants us to drive around on unicorns and speed bumps and all that stuff, but we actually need roads. Even the great electric vehicles that we want to see more of in this country require roads—roads of national significance. It’s great to see that investment taking place. We know that for every billion dollars, Treasury has forecast an extra 5,500 jobs will be created for Kiwis. Over the forecast period, we’re expecting 220,000 new jobs over the four-year period.

I’m pleased to say that even the Reserve Bank Governor confirmed the story for New Zealand is looking good. Even in a constrained environment where we’re seeing lumpy success—the South Island is doing quite well, dairy is doing quite well, but parts of the North Island are having some challenges—the overall picture is one of growth, and it’s looking really positive; really pleased to see that come to bear.

What about education? I know that we had $470 million deployed to redevelop up to 10 new schools. Obviously, a little plug for Hamilton East, Knighton Normal is to get four new classrooms; and, of course, Hillcrest High, an additional 10 as well because of the growth demand in what is largely New Zealand’s fastest growing city—the city of the future. But what about the $69 million towards doubling the trades academy, with 20,000 year 11 to 13s. We’re targeting those young people. We know we want them in work. In conjunction with the work Minister Louise Upston is doing around getting young people engaged, into work, we know that their future and, indeed, our future is so dependant on it.

Our defence. It’s so wonderful to have our Prime Minister focused on national security, economic security, financial security, and the biggest defence boost we’ve seen in the last two budgets, which is phenomenal. New Zealand’s got to step up and play its part in this global economy which has a lot of volatility.

I’d like to finish on an environmental one that the Green Party might like: the $109 million package for better control of wilding pines. I know that was tremendous, particularly through the South Island, it’s going to be well received.

Just in closing, it’s so good to see that there’s a party and, in fact, a coalition that’s working together that wants to reward achievement. We want to see competition, we want to increase productivity, we want to improve this place—these two islands at the bottom of the world called New Zealand Aotearoa. We want to do better. We know that we’ve got to grow the economy. We know we don’t achieve that by adding more taxes, by taxing wealth, by taxing investment, by taxing inheritance.

Dan Bidois: How many new taxes?

RYAN HAMILTON: How many new taxes, Dan Bidois? I think we’re up to 10 or 11. It changes every day: wealth, investment, inheritance, business, banks, incomes, properties, streaming, death tax, ghost tax. It just doesn’t stop. But on this side of the House, we just really want to grow the economy. Rather than chop the pie up, we want to grow the economy. We want to grow the pie so everyone can have a bigger piece. By growing the economy, we can have higher wages, we can have better public services, and that’s why we’ve been making changes to these Budget appropriations and redeploying it to the front lines. We’re backing business, we’re backing people that take risks and we want to reward them. We’re getting Government spending under control. Yes, there’s more to do, and we look forward to tackling that in the next three years. Yes, we want to build infrastructure, lift productivity, create jobs, and let New Zealanders keep more of what they earn. National backs New Zealanders. We are fixing the basics and building the future.

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker. This was a sad Budget—sad indeed. You would think that after three years, having a third budget in place, you might have heard from the members’ opposite about what their track record is on delivery—about what are the things that they’ve done for New Zealand, or even, maybe, their plan going forward. But we did not hear that. We did not hear that at all. No track record, no plan, and no hope for our future from this Government.

Last election, National was very clear: they promised Kiwis that they would fix the cost of living. That was their promise to all New Zealanders. That promise has well and truly been broken. There are so many families up and down our country that know that on a day-to-day basis, when they can’t afford the very basics. It’s so ironic that the strapline for this election for those members opposite is “fixing the basics”, because that’s exactly what so many New Zealanders don’t have right now under this Government.

What National does not understand is that New Zealand is a community. We are connected. The cuts they have in different areas impact and ripple right across our country. They have flow-on effects. Same as when they fail to fix the economy and when inflation goes up, those have knock-on effects right across our economy. Just on my phone a few minutes ago, it flashed up that all major banks in New Zealand have now raised their floating mortgage rates, with the official cash rate going up. For the party who promised New Zealanders three years ago that they would fix the economy and fix the cost of living, all major banks today have now raised their floating mortgage rates.

What does that mean for New Zealanders? That means that there is less money each week for food. That means that there is less money able to be spent on the basics that New Zealanders need. That means when people go to the shops, they’re not spending. When they’re not spending, that’s our local businesses that are liquidating at higher rates than ever before because there is less money in our economy because people are struggling to survive. When we know there’s been over 20,000 business liquidations because of the cost of living crisis and the fact that people are struggling to survive. When those businesses close, what does that mean? That means that more jobs are lost. Record levels of unemployment and people haven’t got jobs as a result of the ongoing impact of this Government’s bad choices. That means that our young people don’t have employment or hope or opportunities here in New Zealand.

New Zealand, quite simply, cannot afford three more years of a Government that cuts, can’t fix the economy, can’t fix the cost of living, and just looks after their own. That is absolutely what has been going on over the past three years. This Budget absolutely confirms it.

What New Zealanders are looking for is actually some hope right now. An ability to see what is the future here in New Zealand—what is that future here in New Zealand for us to be able to give our kids? Where can we find that? Labour’s plan is fighting for better jobs, affordable healthcare, and more affordable household bills. So people can get ahead, so people can have a future here, so New Zealand kids can look here and see themselves with a future right here in New Zealand—not have to go to Australia for a job, not have to go overseas so that they can earn a decent wage.

Better jobs. Better jobs mean things like the Apprenticeship Boost—bringing that back so kids in the Hutt Valley can go through and know that there is Apprenticeship Boost right there. We know that that works and it’s going to work again to give young people opportunities here in New Zealand. Māori Trades Training—funding that ability for services to be delivered and upskill young people so they have hope, ability, and skills here in New Zealand.

Of course, our graduate nurse guarantee. We’ve heard today, after this Budget, 54 nurses they’ve hired over the last period of time. Labour will guarantee every eligible New Zealand - trained graduate a job here in New Zealand. We know, with more nurses caring for patients in a job here at home for the nurses that we train, that is tangible. That is a real outcome that delivers for Kiwis and improves our health system. More nurses mean better care, shorter waitlists, less pressure on staff, and more nurses where patients need them, instead of absolutely running down our health system, as we’ve seen under this Government. We know that National has made healthcare worse for New Zealanders. Too many graduate nurses are struggling to even find work. As we know, 54 in two years. New Zealand quite simply cannot afford another three years of National.

Let’s talk about affordable healthcare. It’s so important for New Zealanders, not only for the cost of living, but also to make primary healthcare more accessible. That is a tangible outcome that Labour will deliver. Three free GP visits—as simple as that. Three free GP visits, enabling primary care to be affordable for New Zealanders. We know there are over 600,000 New Zealanders who can’t afford to go to their local doctor—we want to change that and make it available for all New Zealanders through a Medicare card.

With that same medicare card, there will also be access to be able to get cervical screening, which I’m glad that National now supports. Cervical screening is important.

Free prescriptions—we know there are many New Zealanders right across the country who don’t go and pick up their prescriptions when they need to because of that cost being a prohibitive factor. Under Labour, we will make sure people not only get to see their doctor but also get to pick up their prescription. We know the real way of fixing the problems we’re seeing in our hospitals being absolutely broken and having issues with having people in the hallways and not getting the care they need: if we make primary care accessible and affordable to New Zealanders, that is a long-term solution to our health system.

Finally, lower household bills; solar saver; power bills are that lower. We know that that’s a real and affordable way for power bills in New Zealand to come down and we’re proud to have a good solar saver policy in place. But that’s not the only policy for affordable bills; we also have our policy of one week of public transport for $20. I’ve met and spoken to people when out door knocking in the Hutt Valley and they know that will make a real difference for their weekly bills. For people in Newlands who often commute every day back and forwards between Wellington to work, that will make a tangible difference to people who don’t have enough money to be able to pay for food and pay for bills. One week of transport for $20 capped—that is a real and tangible way that Labour will make sure there are lower household bills.

I think it’s really telling when the only track record and the only delivery that the people opposite have is to list out taxes that don’t exist, and that tells a hundred stories. That tells you that there is no track record for National. They have not delivered any tangible difference for New Zealand. They have not got a plan going forward. Their only plan is to make up things about what Labour’s policy is—that’s it. We know that our rates have gone up. We know that our water bills are really high in the Wellington region. We know we have to pay for parking in the Hutt Valley. We know all of these bills, road user charges—all of those things have gone up and up and up and up.

New Zealanders feel it in the pocket because under this Government, everything has gone up in price, whether that’s food, whether that’s rent, whether that’s daily work—ability to get a job and pay the bills at the end of the week. That has become harder under National. Young people today and those families in New Zealand that are struggling deserve to have something to look forward to. We have an amazing country here in New Zealand—so much opportunity for us to look forward to and to work together, but this Government is holding us back by the bad choices that they have made.

Labour believes that we can have a better future right here in New Zealand and we’ve got a plan to make sure that that happens: by having jobs that people know, that pay a decent wage; by having health care that’s affordable; and by being able to have a home. Those are things that are fundamental. Those are the basics that we know build a strong, connected, vibrant, and thriving community. Those are the things that build communities and those are the things that I am so proud to say that a Labour Government will restore to New Zealand, and those communities, those families, those people up and down the country that are suffering under this National Government—they can lift their heads up with some hope to know that we offer a brighter future and better starts now.

It’s a pleasure to bring this debate back to the bill, which is the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill, and I have a message for the member there: nothing that she said was in the bill. It is great to be back on the purpose of the bill. What is this bill all about? It’s all about trust: trust about who you can trust to deliver sound economic policy; trust that when a Government spends, they spend it with the intent of getting better outcomes; and trust that a Government will focus on the things that matter to New Zealanders.

It amazes me, the amount of money that Governments spend. This forecast year, we’re due to spend $155 billion of tax—that’s people that have worked, employed others, and then given that over to the State. I don’t think we need any more taxes in this country; we have enough—$155 billion of taxes. The other side have at least 10, I understand, that they wish to institute on the public of New Zealand. We have some serious issues facing this country with respect to the amount that we tax and the spending, and this Budget goes a long way to support public services but also take a measured approach—a strong approach—to get the books back in black, which is why my colleague here is dressed in black to demonstrate that central fact.

This Government spends an enormous amount of money on everything. In fact, one of the biggest items in the Budget was a record investment in health. For all that the opposite side wishes to jump up and down about health, the facts are there—they’re there in the Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update documents and in the Budget documents. We are spending a record amount of taxpayer money on health and that is really a good thing. In terms of getting the Budget back in good shape, we have a lot of work to do, but we are making good progress.

I just want to take a step back and, for those of you who are at home, just reflect on the amount of debt that our country has. When Labour came into office, we had about $60 billion of net core Crown debt. That jumped up, by the time they left, to $155 billion—nearly $100 billion extra in debt. We came in with one of the largest fiscal deficits in the developed world in terms of the amount that we spent over the amount that we borrowed, due to the previous Government. Nicola Willis has done a fantastic job trying to rein that spending in, but we’re still doing it, and because we’re having that challenge, we’ve had to increase the debt in the last few years as a result of the previous Government’s decisions.

This forecast year, we’ve got a net core Crown debt of $216 billion as forecast, which is roughly 45 percent of GDP. The Minister of Finance has got an objective with this Government to get that down by closing the books by 2028/29, and we can start to pay down that deficit. “Why is this important?”, the other side might say. Well, it’s important because this year alone, we’re spending $9 billion to service that current debt. What can that $9 billion get? Well, that can get a lot of classrooms, a lot of hospitals—

Hon Member: Roads.

DAN BIDOIS: Roads—more roads. We need more roads in this—

Hon Melissa Lee: Three Dunedin hospitals.

DAN BIDOIS: Three Dunedin hospitals—at least three Dunedin hospitals there. That can get us a lot. In fact, that’s more—

Hon Melissa Lee: Harbour bridge.

DAN BIDOIS: Yes, that can get us half a new harbour crossing. If it wasn’t for the previous Government’s debt, we would have probably been able to fund the harbour crossing with that interest cost. The interest cost is significant. It is the total amount, in aggregate, that we spend on police, justice, and law and order combined—that’s our debt service cost, that just goes to people who are lending us money on an average yearly basis.

We have significant issues with respect to the debt that we pay, and there are two approaches that are offered in the House. The first is to spend more and to tax more in order to close that debt gap—

Hon Member: Borrow more.

DAN BIDOIS: And borrow more. The other is to constrain ourselves and to get the books back in balance by getting more value out of that spend, and that is what this Government is all about.

It really is about trust, this appropriations Budget. Where there is spending that we do make, what is the outcome? Let’s go to the outcomes. With respect to education, we’ve got a huge amount of work, and Erica Stanford’s doing a fantastic job making sure our schools teach the basics brilliantly. There’s money in the Budget that will enable us to have that. Law and order—we’ve got a huge amount of extra money to make sure that New Zealanders feel safe, because that is, by far, the most important priority a Government must make, to keep its people safe. Infrastructure—Ginny Andersen would be impressed; we’ve got a Land Transport Fund, we’ve got maintenance that is funded in the Budget—

Andy Foster: Doesn’t fund maintenance.

DAN BIDOIS: Well, apparently it doesn’t fund maintenance according to Ginny Andersen, but yes, in the Budget documents, maintenance of roads is included in the Land Transport Fund. Apparently it doesn’t fund maintenance, according to Ginny Andersen, but, yes, in the Budget documents maintenance of roads is included in the Land Transport Fund. We’re focused on Kiwis, right? We’ve talked about the relief that Minister Nicola Willis and the Prime Minister have given as a result of the fuel crisis—that has been well traversed in this House—to provide targeted, temporary, and timely support to those that need it.

There are fantastic wins in this Budget. Ambulance services have been crying out for extra funding. They get it in this Budget. We have extra money for post-natal stays, for those of you who have the opportunity to stay in post-natal care. It’s a fantastic opportunity to become a family unit and is so needed for newborns when they are coming into the world.

On education, we’ve got a doubling of the Trades Academy places, to $20,000, and $87 million for the Youth Guarantee places. This is all good news, and we heard today from the Reserve Bank Governor that all the forecasts are looking better, in terms of growth, in terms of underlying core inflation, no matter what the White House does and what happens in the Middle East. In fact, core inflation is coming down and continues to do so. We are going to experience real wage growth, employment growth, and lower pressure on the cost of living as a result. It is a good appropriations bill.

In terms of the choice that this bill and this election is for voters, it’s quite clear, and I do want to run through it. The choice in this election is very clear: on this side of the House, it’s no new taxes; on the other side, it’s at least nine new taxes. On this side of the House, it’s smaller Government, tracking at 30 percent of GDP; on that side, it’s bigger Government, at 33 percent of GDP. On this side of the House, it’s about a firm commitment to return to surplus, which is supported by economists and bond and ratings agencies; on that side, it is a whimsy, no credibility commitment to return to surplus and no plan to do so—no plan to do so. They’ve got well over $18 billion of unfunded commitments that they all expect to fund out of the Land Transport Fund for some reason.

I think the choice this election is clear. On this side of the House, we’re focused on delivering the basics well in education, in healthcare, and in infrastructure. On that side of the House, they’re focused on empty promises, virtue signalling, identity politics, and simple tax and spend—no delivery. On this side of the House, we’re growth focused. They don’t like growth; they want to defund and de-growth this country in its entirety. We are a Government of yes, saying yes to development, yes to Resource Management Act reform, yes to KiwiSaver, yes to high and real wage growth, and yes to trade agreements with India. The other side is a Government of no—a Government that voted against tax relief, a Government that has no plan and does not support getting rid of red and green tape.

The choice this election is clear. We’re focused on fixing the basics and building the future.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Dan Bidois, the previous speaker, is a lovely person who is, I think, actually more intelligent than the average National MP. However, that speech I found quite disappointing, because it’s pretty clear that, in the National Party and on the Government benches, they get up and speak the empty slogans that they have decided will position them to seem like they are the more credible party, when, in truth, pretty much every single decision they have made since they’ve been in Government has been incredibly irresponsible and is resulting in higher costs for ordinary working people here in New Zealand, and those who are living on low incomes for whatever reason, if they happen to be sick or injured or disabled, are finding it harder than ever; if they are unemployed, due to no fault of their own but because the Government decisions, the coalition Government decisions, resulted in less jobs being available, now they’re also being punished for that.

That’s just the truth. It’s the sad truth of this place: that we have to sit here and listen to absolute gaslighting from the Government MPs over and over again. Then they claim that somehow their speeches aren’t about electioneering, when they literally say “fixing the future and building the basics”—whatever it was; “fixing the basics and building the future”—every single speech. I think New Zealanders are smart enough to know that that is an empty, hollow slogan that is covering over the fact that their decisions are all about letting the wealthiest New Zealanders get wealthier and wealthier while that extreme concentration of wealth is propped up by ordinary working New Zealanders, particularly those working in the funded sector and female-dominated industries.

In this Budget, we did not see the funding that would have been necessary to pay people in female-dominated industries what they are worth. We are talking about nurses, teachers, midwives, and care and support workers, and it’s those people who do the fundamental, essential work that props up the rest of the economy. Yet this Government, the coalition Government, cannot be trusted, because they did not campaign on ripping up the pay equity legislation. They did not campaign last election on cancelling 33 pay equity settlements that were in progress. In fact, the National MPs, in Opposition, voted for that legislation. It was completely out of the blue when, under urgency, right before the 2025 Budget, they changed the law overnight to make it harder for people who’ve been underpaid due to systematic undervaluation on gender-based discrimination.

That’s the reality—that’s what they did—so any promise they make now is not worth the paper it’s written on; it’s just an empty, meaningless commitment to try to get re-elected, so they can continue dismantling our democracy, to enable the super-rich to get richer, corporates to make super-profits at the expense of ordinary New Zealanders, and particularly to run roughshod over any environmental protections. We know those environmental protections are deeply important to New Zealanders. The conservation estate is deeply important to New Zealanders. In this Budget, I heard some of the Government members talk about some tiny little scraps. What was it? A few million for attacking wilding pines, getting them out? When they talk about virtue signalling, whenever they talk about their little investments in the environment, we know the vast majority of what they are doing is defunding environmental protection, looking to sell off or lease off bits of the conservation estate to open it up for mining—anything they can do to try to extract more value from the common good, from future generations, in order for it to be spent by these irresponsible clowns who constantly say the opposite of what they are going to do. They promised to do the opposite of what they are going to do.

Let’s look at another example. We had the National Infrastructure Plan. That is something that was funded by the previous Government and by this Government. They funded the Infrastructure Commission to prepare a national infrastructure strategy, to do a national infrastructure plan. They launched it with a big fanfare, tried to get cross-party support, saying that what we really need is cross-party support for the recommendations in this plan. In the summary of the plan, it says, “The land transport funding system is unsustainable, with the most recent three-year plan requiring $12.8 billion”—that’s $12,800 million—“of Crown loans and grants that could have gone to other priority areas, reflecting investment ambitions that significantly exceed user revenues.”

What does that mean? That this Government and the previous majority Labour Government took public money that could have been better invested in really important other parts of our country, like hospitals, desperately needed health infrastructure, education, housing—

Hon James Meager: You voted for it.

Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: That’s not true, Minister Meager.

Hon James Meager: You voted for the previous Labour Government’s Budget.

Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: Well, Minister Meager, you actually don’t know what you’re talking about.

Hon James Meager: Did you not vote for the previous Labour Government’s Budget?

Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: Minister Meager, I can critique the previous Government just as much as I can critique this one, but the point is that you’re doing the same thing. This Government is full of crap. They claim that they’re about responsible investment. [Interruption]

DEPUTY SPEAKER: We might need to lift the level of—thank you.

Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: Having signed up and launched this infrastructure plan, they proceeded to do the exact opposite of what it recommended in their recommendation that they said it supported, which was to appropriate in the Budget $1,773 million for Cambridge to Piarere highway. Now, that is the opposite of what the national infrastructure plan is saying. It’s saying we’ve already, as a country, put too much Crown funding into the land transport system. That funding is needed elsewhere. That should be coming from the National Land Transport Fund, it should be coming from revenue that is raised from users, from petrol taxes, and road-user charges, but it is not. We’ve got the single largest part of the capital allowance in this Budget allocated to this one little extension of a four-lane highway when we need significant investment in infrastructure right round the country.

Coincidentally, the cost to that is probably getting close to the cost of the cancelled ferries, which we don’t have because this coalition Government cancelled Interislander ferries that were on order that would have been delivered by now, that were desperately needed, and that had been planned for five years, because they said we couldn’t afford to do the wharf upgrade infrastructure. Now, there was a possibility of rescoping that work infrastructure. There was the possibility of doing something a million times more responsible, but cancelling an order for ferries that was only $550 million, an exceptional deal, would have meant that the movement of people and goods between the North and South Island would have been far more reliable right now. We’re going to have to wait years and years because of this coalition Government and the National Party’s Minister Nicola Willis’s incredibly rash decision to cancel something under order on the claims that we can’t afford it. But at the same time, they’re quite happy to shovel money into an extension of a four-lane highway—nearly $2 billion—and to take that money away from capital that could be and would be better invested in other parts of New Zealand like the health system and like electrification, which we desperately need.

I’m just saying that, frankly, I think New Zealanders are tired of hearing empty slogans from this current coalition Government, that pretty much everything the coalition Government MPs say, the Luxon Government MPs say, is a reflection of their own actions. The people who cannot be trusted most of all are the people who are currently in power, because, in the last three years, they have made a series of irresponsible decisions they did not campaign on that are costing New Zealanders every single day, and it’s because they have decided to prioritise the people who have the most wealth and are the highest-income earners. Whenever they come out, the only argument they have—they can’t campaign on their own vision and ability to deliver because they’ve clearly demonstrated over the last three years that they don’t deliver for ordinary working people in New Zealand and that they can’t deliver long-term responsible investment and infrastructure. They don’t listen to their own national infrastructure plan, even though they claim to believe in that. What they do is they bow down to the corporate interests that are clearly helping them in many ways, like the tobacco industry and like the investment property people who are absolutely determined—

DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.

It’s great to be speaking in this Estimates bill debate following that 2026-2027 Budget. One thing I wanted to focus on was what came with that Budget, which was the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update, and some of the numbers that came out of that were really, really encouraging. Yes, we were stalled after a good first quarter. We were stalled by the Iranian conflict and the fuel crisis, but the medium-term forecasts remain strong and next year’s looking a lot better.

Can I remind you that these were Treasury’s forecasts, and Treasury, as we know, are not the most overly optimistic people necessarily, but they could see 220,000 new jobs created in the forecast period. That’s what Treasury predicts, not what the National Party predicts. They could see wages and they’re forecasting wages outstripping prices. They could see the Government reaching surplus faster than forecast. They could see national debt curbing, and they could see economic growth at 2.7 percent on average over that forecast period. We need to keep some perspective in here. We need to remind ourselves also where we’ve come from and what we inherited—a very high inflationary environment that peaked at 7.3 percent. Yes, we are at 4.1 percent now, but when you strip away the international influence on petrol and diesel prices and you look at that core inflation as well, it’s within band and it’s below 3 percent.

We’ve got a lot of things to be grateful for. As the Reserve Bank Governor said yesterday, we’ve got things in a situation where our exporters, our manufacturers, particularly those in dairy and those in meat, are the ones that are doing well at the moment, and those supportive industries, but it’s a mixed bag around the country. If you go, like I do, to the South Island and visit a lot of manufacturers and small businesses, the biggest problem they have is often getting staff. Christchurch’s unemployment is half, if not quarter, of other places. It’s a mixed bag. Invercargill, Dunedin—getting staff is often the problem. We know in Auckland, for example, that it’s harder in that regard, and there’s a lot of applicants for a lot of jobs. But we will keep pressing through, and you will see this National Government singularly focused, as we have been for three years, on delivering that economic growth. As Treasury, not the National Party, forecast, wages will be outstripping prices, and economic growth will be averaging nearly 3 percent.

Some really good things that came out of the Budget that I want to allude to that probably didn’t get the airtime that they deserved, and that was in the space of vocational training—trades academies. I’ve got one in the electorate of Upper Harbour at Massey High School, where the kids there, year 12 and year 13, are building houses on the school campus for Kāinga Ora, and we’re committed to that. They are being trucked off and placed around West Auckland where kids are there doing trades in building and construction. They’re also doing automotive, they’re also doing tourism, and they’re also doing hospitality. We are doubling those places, and the principal, Alistair Fairley, at Massey High School is very excited out that. We are doubling those places in the coming years from 10,000 to 20,000, because we know that if we get the kids at high school, they’ll go on, they’ll get their apprenticeships, they’ll stay in the trades, and that is the way to get kids into work, and so we’re doubling that commitment to our high school trades academies.

Another $15 million was allocated to the Industry Skills Board to develop new vocational subjects with building and construction, outdoor education, and primary industries. You saw the Hon Erica Stanford and Nicola Willis announce nine new foundational subjects there for years 12 and 13—next-gen manufacturing, for example. Again, bringing the market to the kids and getting them involved early. That’s not to mention the work that the education Minister is putting into financial literacy and financial capability, and, as has been said before, another $87 million into youth guaranteed places for school leavers with no or low qualifications. We are investing in our young people.

Another thing that we’ve overseen—and it’s been led by Advancing Manufacturing Aotearoa and its chief executive, Catherine Lye—that we fund is Earn as You Learn. That is something that I was happy to announce an expansion of after a very successful trial in the Waikato. That is—

Tim Costley: Oh, well done.

Hon CAMERON BREWER: —in Wintec, Tim Costley, if you’re doing level 3 at Wintec in Hamilton CBD, manufacturing and engineering level 3, you’re at Wintec Monday and Friday, but on T to T—Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday—you’re in an industry, whether it’s Gallagher or whoever—10 participating industries. You’re earning minimum wage plus $1. You’re there for 10 weeks, and then you go to another participating industry—factory, if you like; manufacturer. Then you go to another one—over 30 weeks. You come out with your certificate, and guess what that Waikato pilot showed us! Almost all of them come out with a job, and most of them are within those participating businesses.

This is how we get our kids—Nanna was right: get them into in-work experience. This is in-work experience that pays the bills, too, to get them through their tertiary institution. We’ve expanded that policy and that programme into the Hutt Valley, into the Bay of Plenty, and into Christchurch, with cohorts of about 20 students each starting in 2027 next year and gaining New Zealand Qualifications Authority qualifications. That will continue to grow. These are the programmes that we will continue to invest in.

I wanted to finish up highlighting not only the success of manufacturing and the fact that in the first quarter, we saw manufacturing doubling, growing at twice the speed of the rest of the economy and often leading the way, but its use, as with small business and large, of Investment Boost. Now, for a Harvard-educated economist like Dan Bidois, he loves public policy like this, and he would see this as a pure policy that can be done with the stroke of a pen. That is what the Minister of Finance committed to—admittedly, in the previous Budget. But we’ve funded it for a tax policy package of $6.6 billion over four years. This Budget puts us into year two.

Others—without getting political, because I don’t know if this is the room for that. But others—and I won’t mention their name, but I’ll mention the colour red—are looking at cutting that. That is a $6.6 billion package. When I go around manufacturers and small businesses and large, they say, “Cameron, we got that metal fabrication plant with Investment Boost”, and they know the name of it. If you don’t know the name of it in small business or manufacturing, sack your accountant, because it’s working a treat. Investment Boost is that 20 percent tax deduction immediately on top of depreciation. That’s been great for Government GST receipts, but it’s also brought investment forward. It’s a productive policy, it’s lifting productivity, it’s enabling businesses to invest in their business, and many have done just that. We are committed to that policy—a very, very popular policy and, I would argue, the cleanest tax policy and tax advantage policy that we’ve seen out of a Government for some time. Investment Boost it is. The medium term is looking a lot brighter. Bring on 2027.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am excited to take a call on appropriation 2026. But first, before I discuss some of the details of appropriation 2026, I think it’s wise of me to go back to where I was standing three years ago on the election campaign and the state of our country and our economy. We were in really dire situations. We had a Government that had just borrowed and borrowed and spent and spent. The irony is we are back in a similar position, but this time, they’re wanting to talk about free, free, free—everything is free, according to the Labour Party. Well, I’ll tell you right now, New Zealand, nothing is free. We are paying—

Hon Member: What about free speech?

LAURA McCLURE: —be quiet, guys, because you might need to hear this; buckle up—$24 million a day to service the debt—

Hon Member: A day?

LAURA McCLURE: A day—$24 million a day in debt. We have political parties on the other side—and, I mean, big ups to the Greens. At least they are honest about the taxes that they want to do in order to pay for some of the more crazier things. But we have a party on the other side called Labour who do not want to admit that they cannot afford all the free things that they’ve promised—

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Don’t suggest that anyone on the other side is dishonest.

LAURA McCLURE: No, not entirely.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: OK. That’s all right.

LAURA McCLURE: I’d never do that.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Just pre-warning the member in case she does.

LAURA McCLURE: This Budget gets us back to a faster surplus, and one of those people that are responsible for that is David Seymour. We know that the ACT Party is, one, the only party, the OG party, that promises no new taxes, and, secondly, the only party who is brave enough to make the decisions when it comes to cutting back the size of our Government, because our Government is too big. I think that all of us in this House know that no matter how much money we keep throwing at things like health, for example, we are not seeing better outcomes, and everyday Kiwis right now can attest to that. Throwing more money at something does not work. We have seen $2 billion in savings in appropriation 2026 to help us get back into surplus. Anything that we borrow today will be the debt that my children and our grandchildren pay, and that’s something we really need to keep in mind.

Now, ACT has had a few wins in this Budget. We’ve seen the ending of fees-free because it was a poorly targeted programme—and the fact that when we first came into Government it was the first year free. Not only did it not improve those going through and actually completing their degrees; it basically added no real value. Look, we moved that to the final year in the first Budget, which at least gave some people an incentive to carry on and continue. But now we’ve actually scrapped that, because we know that getting a degree and going off into the real world isn’t always the ticket to a successful life or career, particularly with some of the degrees that are on offer at university right now. I mean, a lot of them wouldn’t lead to any jobs, and I think a lot of New Zealanders know that.

We need to get more of our young people into trades. Being in a trade or having a diploma—I know, myself. I’ve got a diploma as a pharmacy tech. That’s a trade. I can always fall back on that. That is not something that is to be frowned upon. Higher education is not always the ticket to success. We have to change our culture, we have to change our thinking around it, but also we have to invest in our young people and getting them into trades. Saving taxpayers nearly $350 million on fees-free has been reallocated—we’ve saved some of the money and we’ve reallocated into where we know our young people need to be, and that’s getting them into the trades. We’re getting the results—[Interruption] Exactly, to my colleagues over this side of the House.

We’ve also seen an increase—$131 million investment into primary school maths and literacy. Oh my goodness. One of the reasons I’m a member of Parliament is that during COVID, my children came home from school—and they were littlies; one was only a new entrant and one had been there a couple of years—and I was absolutely blown away with how little they knew about mathematics. My son was considered top of his class at this point. We had to teach them the basics at home. It was the first time I really got to look at that, because you know what, a lot of us are working parents. We are really busy. People are out there. They don’t have the oversight on what their kids are learning at school the same way that they used to.

We have a serious problem. I know a good friend of mine—she’s a high school teacher, year 9—had students showing up to school completely not up to standard or ready for high school mathematics. Do you know what happens in our education system? We don’t backfill. You have to be ready to go when you get to high school. We’ve invested in that. I think $131 million is amazing, because without those maths and literacy levels being in a great place, we’re not going to see a successful future.

The other thing I think worth noting is that attendance is actually improving, which is incredible. We can have great literacy, we can have great mathematics, but if the kids aren’t in the classroom and they’re not learning, then that is a problem. Term 2 had the highest attendance rate in 10 years, but, get this, only 64.3 percent. That is still absolutely outrageous. It blew me away to find out, when I first came to Parliament, that children were only regularly attending school at around 45 percent. It’s so embarrassing. It’s shameful. It should be a national shame.

Where else have we done great things? Gosh, we’re getting through this so quickly. Rotorua courts: $100 million of investment into the Rotorua courts facilities to support safer, more modern courts and faster justice for victims and communities. We’ve seen a $5.5 billion increase for front-line health services, including a $35 million boost to strengthen ambulance services, an additional $54 million for purchasing medicines, on top of our record $1.774 billion investment, and $604 million in uplift made in the previous Budgets.

But we are not there yet. New Zealand has a serious problem in inequity when it comes to accessing medicines in this country. Right now, we know that we need to close the gap between New Zealand and Australia. It shouldn’t matter where you’re born in the Pacific. It shouldn’t matter if you’re born in Australia or New Zealand or the UK; you should be able to access medicines that are lifesaving. That will actually save our healthcare system an awful lot of money. We want to move from 4.9 percent GDP to 12 percent GDP over a few years so that we can factor that in. Those savings will be there, and that will take the burden off the healthcare system itself.

We’ve invested $400 million to support housing growth and infrastructure by rewarding councils for consenting more homes—and don’t even get me started on the Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms. RMA reforms could be the single-biggest thing that this Government has done to unlock the potential of this country. We do have some money in the Budget; we have $294 million to deliver the new planning system that Kiwis need. It blew my mind to know that 5 percent of the total construction costs is getting a consent in this country. That is outrageously huge. No wonder it is so expensive to get things done here—it’s so expensive to build new things. We’re talking about needing more jobs, we’re talking about creating an economy with higher-paid jobs, but we have to have the infrastructure, we have to have the buildings, we have to have the businesses, the homes—it all comes back to being able to build something in this country, and this Government has been working hard to unlock the potential for the next generation.

Oh, gosh, where else do we start? Firearms reform. I know no one else is going to talk about firearms reform except for ACT, because we are super proud of the work that we’ve made. Budget 2026 funds a practical firearms reform that treats licensed firearm owners fairly, it targets the criminals, and it supports our safer communities. I think that is something that everybody in this House can get behind. We know that we have illegal firearms coming into this country. We know that we have gangs out there right now that are using firearms. There was a horrible incident that happened in Manurewa last week. We need to do more to crack down on criminals that are using illegal firearms, and that is what we are doing.

We’ve seen a massive increase in defence spending—and I know I’m going to run out of time. It’s really important in these challenging geopolitical times that we actually have a defence force that could defend us, defend our sovereignty, and also respond to weather events in the Pacific. We need to be able to support our guys out there in the Pacific. It’s really important that we do that, and we are not going to unlock New Zealand’s potential if we don’t have a strong defence force.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It is so good to have an opportunity to stand up and take a call on this imprest supply bill this afternoon. There’s been a number of contributions across the afternoon, and from all sides of the House, but I think the resounding and important message that has echoed around this Chamber this afternoon when we’ve talked about the imprest supply bill and what the priorities are in this Budget is that New Zealand simply cannot afford three more years of a National Government. We absolutely cannot afford three more years.

We’ve got people working so hard—so hard—in our electorates who we connect with, who we meet with, who we catch up with, and no matter how hard they work, no matter how much work they put in, they are still going backwards. That is why, on this side of the House, Labour is fighting for better jobs, for affordable healthcare, for lower household bills, and for creating the opportunities that will allow people to get ahead and to build a future.

On the other side of the House, we’ve heard a lot of talk today about this “no new taxes” promise. That’s really interesting, because if this party on the other side of the House is promising three more years and no new taxes, then what we know, and what we’ve learnt from this last term of Government, is that this coalition Government are talking about three more years of cuts. They’re keeping quiet on where they’re going to make those cuts, but you can be guaranteed that that means three more years of cuts.

They came into Government with some big promises. Christopher Luxon promised he was going to grow the economy—that was a promise he made. Yet, if we look today, unemployment is now up to 5.6 percent. He promised that he was going to grow the economy, but if we look, business liquidations are at a 15-year high. We’ve seen a 49 percent rise in hospitality liquidations, and in June of this year alone, 259 companies were placed into liquidation. It’s very easy for us to talk about 259 as just a number of businesses, but each of those businesses are real people, and they have people working for them, often, and those businesses have gone into liquidation.

The other area that I want to look at—I want to look at a few in my contribution this afternoon. There are a few covered in this Budget, but there are also so many numbers here that are getting smaller and so many that are struggling, none more so than the science sector, who have been given a mandate of brutal commercialisation by this Prime Minister. If you want to know what that looks like in reality for the science sector, just ask Professor Nicola Gaston, who says that the current approach “is like pulling an apple tree up by the roots to harvest its fruit”. It does not make sense.

At Callahan Innovation, we’re seeing $10 million pumped out into redundancies, and we’re seeing commercial R & D projects frozen and halted as a result of that. That’s not good for the economy. In the science sector, we’re seeing at least 700 scientists gone out of that sector, we’re seeing the demonisation of social sciences, and we’re seeing, for the first time ever, our PHF scientists on strike, taking industrial action. These are the people who do the vital research into public health and disease, into water and environment, into forensic science. Our science sector cannot afford three more years of a National Government, and New Zealand cannot afford three more years of a National Government.

Now, let’s look at school lunches. I’d rather not, because the ones that I’ve seen in my electorate that are being delivered by this Government are absolutely disgusting.

Hon Dr Duncan Webb: Poisonous.

REUBEN DAVIDSON: They are absolutely disgusting, and as one of my colleagues suggested, they are potentially poisonous; 50 percent of them, according to an Audit Office report, do not meet nutritional standards. Radio New Zealand reports that over 2,000 people have lost their jobs producing healthy school lunches. Schools have reported children being burnt, plastic in their food, and rotten food being delivered to be fed to children. Now, it’s not lost on me that if you look at the child poverty report that was released with this Budget—if you open up the thick folder—it is a single sheet of A3 paper that this Government has taken to report on child poverty. That is shameful. Children in New Zealand cannot afford three more years of a National Government, and New Zealand cannot afford three more years of a National Government.

Now, if I want to talk about public transport, I cannot go past the new bus that we got this week in Aranui—the first service, at 7.15 on Monday morning from New Brighton travelling through the suburb of Aranui—but to get a new bus service or an extension of public transport in New Zealand at the moment is an absolute battle. Now what’s happening because of the cuts from this Government in this term of Government and in this Budget? Bus services are being cut, and uplifts that are required for people to be able to catch a bus or use public transport during a fuel crisis are not happening. They’re being delayed for the second or third time. They are not happening—simply not happening. While fuel prices surge, while people struggle to put petrol in their cars, they are not getting the support from central government for public transport. That’s why I think it’s great that what we’ve committed to is a public transport fare cap: no more than $20 a week that you would need to spend on public transport to make sure that you can get to the places you need to go. Users of public transport simply cannot afford another three years of this National Government.

In the broadcasting space—well, that’s just been hollow promises, absolutely hollow promises. We had a Minister who waltzed in and promised immediate action, and what did we see? Cuts to Radio New Zealand. We’ve seen an absolutely laughable Sunday advertising bill, which is the only achievement that Minister has made. He said he’s going to scrap the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA), and he’s also promised that he’s going to start work on prominence, but with 10 other portfolios on top of Broadcasting and Media, I don’t think anyone believes that the Minister is going to take immediate action. The greatest risk that the Minister faces currently is that I will have to deliver him a cake on the second anniversary of the media release claiming he was going to take immediate action. It will be much better than the food delivered in school lunches. The word I hear and the messages and conversations I hear from the media sector every week is that the New Zealand media sector cannot afford three more years of a National Government.

Now I want to talk about something very serious, and that we see very clearly in the electorate of Christchurch East, where I’m lucky enough to be the MP, and that is record levels of homelessness. We have entire communities being set up in abandoned parts of the red zone. We have up to 80 people living in Wetlands Grove in Bexley. We have people living in the red zone in tents and under bushes and under trees. In the last months, we had someone who lost their life living on the beach at New Brighton. This is an absolute tragedy and an absolute crisis in homelessness, and this Government is not doing anywhere near enough, if anything, to address that.

This Government is instead selling off State houses in the electorate of Christchurch East. At the same time as we have people living in buses, cars, tents, and temporary structures that they’re building in the red zone—and some of these people are children, living in this unsafe, cold, dangerous environment, which has cost people their lives—we see this Government selling off the very houses that could be the warm, dry homes that they need. New Zealanders deserve a warm, dry home, but this Government is not interested in delivering that for them. Those New Zealanders seeking those homes cannot afford three more years of this National Government.

I also cannot let an opportunity go by without saying one more time: would the Minister find, before this Government rises, a single hour in which this House could have the first reading of the online harm bill so that the select committee process could be started. Only 10 days ago, the Government stood up and had a very lavish press conference and event here at Parliament saying that mattered, and yet they will not give it a single hour in this term of Government to start that select committee process. Online safety and people who care about it cannot afford three more years of this National Government. [Interruption]

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can I say just say to the people on the National Party side of the House: that shouting is unacceptable. Nobody heard a single word because you were all shouting at the same time.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to speak on the Estimates bill debate. I just want to start by saying that this Government’s Budget continues to back our rural and provincial communities, it continues to invest in rural New Zealand, and it does it without the need for a capital gains tax or a land tax or an inheritance tax or a wealth tax or any other tax that can be dreamt of. I just want to say to rural New Zealand: we see you and we thank you. We thank you for the contribution you make to your community, to your local economy, and to our broader economy and the success of this country.

Rural New Zealand matters. It’s 360,000 people who work in our food and fibre sector. About one in six or one in seven people that get out of bed every day goes and works in it. This year, the food and fibre exports are forecast to reach $64.3 billion. It’s 82 percent of our export income, and it’s up 6 percent on the previous year. That’s a success to be celebrated. Of course, to export, you need access to markets, and that’s why free-trade agreements are important and it’s why access matters. As I like to say, access gives us options, and with options we get a ticket to the game. Those export earnings don’t just benefit our farmers and growers, because that’s how we pay for our teachers and doctors, our policemen and our care workers, and they also fund our medicines, our ambulances, our schools, our roads, and all the other public services that Kiwis rely on. Let’s be clear: when rural and provincial New Zealand is doing well, we are all better off for it. Every export dollar earned by a primary sector strengthens our ability to pay for those services and move the country forward so that we can build for the future. That’s why this Government’s Budget is investing more where it matters. We’re investing in infrastructure, services, people, and opportunities that allow rural New Zealand to succeed.

I’ve been very clear as the MP for Wairarapa, Tararua, and Central Hawke’s Bay, and the rest of rural and provincial New Zealand: they must be heard. My job is to take the reality of daily life, rural life, into the rooms where decisions are made and keep making the case until we get results. One example is transport: roads are the lifeline for our rural communities. They’re not a nice to have; reliable access matters. That’s why Budget 2026 invests $400 million in State highway resilience, strengthening routes too often closed by severe weather. It builds on a larger programme of transport renewals and bridge work already under way. For example, the Waihao North River and Elephant Hill Stream bridges on State Highway 82 are being replaced. Other funded bridge and culvert replacements are progressing in Taranaki, Whanganui, Coromandel, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and the West Coast. Those are national investments with local benefits: reliable access, safer journeys, and stronger supply chains. There are stories like this around the country—different road names, different rivers, but the same need: dependable access. I’ll keep advocating for the wider investment that rural New Zealand needs, because it’s kind of handy if we can get our goods to market safely and on time.

We’re also investing more where it matters in health. For years, the Wairarapa people have said that living outside a major city should not mean travelling over the hill to Wellington or Palmy for every diagnosis or treatment, and I’ve carried that message and advocated strongly for our hospital. Now we have a major win: we’ve already received the replacement CT scanner, but we’re receiving a new $34 million MRI and endoscopy suite, and that includes a $3.7 million MRI scanner—the first in the Wairarapa. It’s also a seismic remediation that’s been upgraded to a hospital redevelopment. That’s what investment where it matters looks like, and it’s happening right across New Zealand. It means fewer patients travelling for hours to access services; it means less time away from work; fewer hours on the road; and less stress for families. It gives local clinicians better diagnostic tools and helps people receive answers and treatment sooner. We’ve invested an extra $5.5 billion for front-line health services, supporting more GPs, specialist assessments, surgery, and cancer treatments, alongside more investment in ambulances and Pharmac.

We’re also investing in the next generation: Budget 2026 provides a $1.6 billion operating boost for schools and early childhood education and $470 million for school property. Trades academy places will double from 10,000 to 20,000, with another thousand Youth Guarantee places. Those are school leavers with low or no qualifications, so that will enable those young people to have a better chance at success.

That will enable those young people to have a better chance at success.

We need to support our young people who see a future close to home. Builders, mechanics, engineers, electricians, agricultural workers and rural contractors are highly skilled careers that allow people to earn, stay, and build a life in our rural communities. Treasury forecasts a further 220,000 jobs, and we’re going to need those people.

Learning support investment continues through more teacher-aide hours, specialist support, and early intervention. In small rural schools, it’s investment like this that really counts, because numbers and words should never be a mystery to anyone.

We’re continuing to invest in our rural vets with the voluntary bonding scheme encouraging graduate vets to work in our rural communities. Last year, 32 graduates took up the offer, and with this year’s round open now, I’m expecting to see even more take that opportunity. Investment of $4.95 billion baseline funding for the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) is also continuing, and that reaches right into our rural communities. There is $246 million for the Primary Sector Growth Fund, helping good ideas move from the farm, the orchard, the forest, or the processing floor into commercial reality. There is $40.5 million over four years for our catchment groups, and another $79 million goes into the wilding control programme, which brings the total investment to $109 million.

There is $400,000 over four years supporting more than 90 A and P shows where town meets country, $250,000 for Rural Women New Zealand for their community outreach, and $60,000 to support young farmers, and those are our farmers for tomorrow. An investment of $4 million over four years for the Rural Wellbeing Fund has seen support for 18 initiatives across the country. Rural support trusts are also receiving $6 million over four years, including an extra $1 million for front-line mental wellbeing services. Then there’s Investment Boost—the second year of a $6.6 billion incentive to invest.

This is about investing in our businesses, increasing productivity, creating jobs, growing our economy, and supporting all those good things that this country needs. Allowing a business to deduct a further 20 percent depreciation on top of normal depreciation is the incentive sometimes that will just allow people to make that decision, which boosts our regions and our economy.

But here’s the thing: Investment Boost is not just about big-ticket purchases. You can replace the chainsaw that takes 10 minutes to start. You can replace the printer that seems to have a life of its own and doesn’t want to work. It’s for businesses big and small.

And then, resource management reform is another pro-growth measure this Government’s delivering. Budget 2026 invests $294 million to begin rolling out a simpler planning, consenting, compliance, and IT system. It’s a novel idea: one IT system to rule them all. What it will do is allow efficiency and clarity and reliability of decision making.

The new planning and natural environment legislation will have a positive impact in our rural and provincial areas. We want our farmers and growers to get on with what they do best, and that’s grow more. We want to unlock growth, we want to unleash people’s aspirations and ambitions, so that we can build for the future.

I also, just in closing, want to thank all those people working in the food and fibre sector. I want to thank our hospital and rural health teams, our teachers, our vets, our police, our firefighters, and our rural support trusts. I also thank the volunteers that keep our A and P shows, our halls, and our community organisations alive.

This Budget and the continued investment into our productive sector acknowledges the importance of the contribution that’s made and will continue to be made to the success of this country and the opportunities that will continue to develop. We respect rural New Zealand, we value them, and we back them 100 percent, and we’ve done it without any new taxes. This Government will continue to fix the basics and build the future.

Tēnā koe.

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This afternoon, we’ve heard a lot of promises, and “gonnas”, and “we will”, and “we’re going to do this.” I don’t blame them, because their track record to date has been abysmal. The Prime Minister promised that the economy would turn around and people would have jobs. Where are the jobs? This afternoon, we heard the Minister talking about there being 4,000 rangatahi who are getting coaching for jobs. What jobs? Under National, unemployment is up, the take-up of apprenticeships is down, and jobs are nowhere to be found.

All across Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, from Awakairangi to the Wairarapa, which the member Mike Butterick has just mentioned, tae noa [up to] Tai Rāwhiti, unemployment is up in each and every one of our communities. National unemployment is at 5.6 percent but Māori unemployment is at 10.1 percent, almost double. Shame. No wonder they’re talking about making promises instead of standing by their track record, because that is what has been achieved under this National-led coalition.

Whānau across Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and Aotearoa cannot take another three years of this National-led coalition. Thank God that Labour has a plan. The Minister who spoke said, “We see you.” Yes, they do see you, Aotearoa, and they’re ignoring you. You are telling them loud and clear, voting with your feet in many cases, and moving from Aotearoa because the opportunities that this National-led coalition promised have not materialised and whanau are struggling each and every day.

Often in this House, we talk about mana motuhake. In its simplest form, mana motuhake in your daily life is being able to get ahead by your own hard work. That’s what people across Aotearoa want, and this Government has not fully enabled people to get ahead on their own hard work. They’ve made promises that the economy will turn around and that there would be jobs for whānau, and that has not happened.

One in five rangatahi Māori are not engaged in employment or education, That is simply not good enough, and that’s why Labour is going to back Māori into skilled work with the Māori trades training initiative.

Hon Dr Duncan Webb: Great idea.

CUSHLA TANGAERE-MANUEL: It is a great idea, and we know it’s a great idea because we know it works. When the Labour Government introduced this, 81 percent of those who went into the kaupapa went into employment, and 76 percent achieved a training outcome. That is a result. That is not just empty promises about what we’re going to do; this is giving people the opportunity build their own mana motuhake. Even better, it’s going to be done in their communities with organisations they know and trust.

Another thing that is often lauded in this House is the amazing progress of the Māori economy in recent years. However, under the National-led Government every metric of the Māori economy has gone backwards. So while that will certainly be supported by improved relationships and commitment under a Labour Government, it will also be supported by the Future Fund, but we also have to get right down to the grassroots and give people the tools to develop and grow their own mana motuhake on their own whenua, which is exactly what Māori trade training will do.

We are also going to back Apprenticeship Boost. I believe that part of the reason the uptake is so poor is because, probably, there hasn’t been too much of a focus on it, but also it is due to the affordability of it for employers. We know that everybody is doing it tough and it’s not just the whanau who are struggling to pay the bills and put kai on the table; business are struggling. You heard my colleague talk about the number of liquidations across Aotearoa. How can we expect businesses to support whanau into trades and therefore into employment and therefore into contributing to our economy when they too are struggling?

Under Apprenticeship Boost, the employer subsidy will be restored to two years at $500 a month. The eligibility will be expanded to include new industries, because we’re all diverse, and our population are diversifying as well. Industries have changed; we need to as well. There will be a grant of up to $1,000 to cover work-related upfront costs for our apprentices, because what’s the point in gaining all the skills if you don’t have the tools to do the mahi? We’re all about practical outcomes for our whānau to help them enhance their own mana motuhake. There will also be $2 million for industry skills boards and providers to pilot additional support and mentoring—again, making this doable, workable, and ensuring that we get outcomes.

Another real result that whānau are going to feel is as a result of our SolarSaver project. Not only is this going to hit people where they want to be hit, right in the back pocket—bringing down one of the major concerns that this Government has been told time and time again and has not taken any affirmative action on—but the SolarSaver kaupapa will deal with the number one issue we know whānau are facing, which is the cost of living. It’s also going to create another industry and more jobs, more jobs for our skilled apprentices, who can stay in the communities where they live, where they grew up, where they want to stay connected to their whenua, their whānau, and their communities, putting their tamariki in local schools and supporting local business. That will all be supported by our SolarSaver scheme.

Also, we know that a lot of iwi have already got really strong solar capability. I think of Rangitāne, who have got their floating solar farm ready to expand, the recently opened solar farm in Te Karaka. Iwi are ready to go, so this is all very complementary to our Māori trades training and our Apprenticeship Boost kaupapa. As I said, these are very real kaupapa that are going to have very real impacts, and it’s not just going to keep individuals well educated, well trained, and well employed, it’s going to keep them in their communities and make a massive contribution to our economy.

In wrapping up, I just want once again to acknowledge the real mamae that people are feeling, the pain that families are telling us they are enduring every day. As I said, it’s no wonder members opposite are making promises, because their track record to date has been shocking. Everywhere I go, across not just Ikaroa-Rāwhiti but Aotearoa, whānau are telling me they are ready for change. They cannot afford another three years of this National-led coalition. As I said, whānau, Labour hears you, Labour sees you, and Labour has a plan—plans that we know will work; plans that we know have worked.

Whānau,

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the final message is clear: we know—you’ve told us—your number one priority is the cost of living. We know your other priorities. You want a good home. You want to get ahead on your own hard work

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You want access to healthcare—you’ve heard our plan for that—and you want access to good, warm houses, and Labour has a solid track record of delivering that all across Aotearoa. There are papa kāinga today still receiving houses that were funded under a Labour Government.

So,

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We’ve got two more weeks in this House and less than 70 days until the election. Who is sitting on that side of the House when we come back is in your hands. Make sure you are registered, make sure you vote.

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Thank you, Madam Speaker.

As I stand to commend the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill third reading to the House, I want to first acknowledge Paul, who came all the way from Christchurch, who’s with us in the gallery today. Welcome to Wellington. Welcome to your House. I hope you feel very special that you’re welcomed by members across the party, because we are elected by people like Paul to be in the House to fight for things that will build a better future for New Zealand. It’s very welcoming to actually see how people like Paul engage with how we pass bills to make it better for New Zealand.

At heart, this bill is about choices. It is about how, as a National-led Government, we use taxpayers’ money more responsibly, where we choose to invest to return the biggest impact that we can for the public sector and for New Zealanders, and what kind of New Zealand we want in the future and the economy that we want to build, to leave a lasting legacy for the future generations of New Zealand. There was so much that this Government needed to fix when we inherited it from the last lot, but our priorities are very clear: it is about fixing the basics and building a better future for all New Zealanders. I’ve had so many notes to write about—one part on fixing the basics, one part on building the future; what we have done in the last three; what this Budget is adding to what we’ve done in the last three years, but also, the bill as it laps over the next four years and what we are building for New Zealand.

In terms of fixing the basics, I have to start with health. Health is often, especially now, at the end of winter time, what people talk about when I door-knock on the weekend and what people tell me about on the doorstep. When I’ve shared with them that the current Government has invested, in our Budget, a record $5.5 billion extra—extra—of taxpayers’ money into front-line health services over the forecast, they’ve been quite surprised. Then they’ve asked me questions and we’ve gone deeper into the bureaucracies that we inherited from the last lot; what happens in healthcare. However, we’ve told them the plan and what we’re doing already, including the additional spending that we put in into this year’s Budget, including new hospitals and new wards built around the country—that is the new hospital wing in Dunedin, that is the new hospital we’re now building for Whangārei, that is the new land we’re purchasing for South Auckland, that is also feeding and building into the future of front-line doctors and nurses by doing the additional school in Waikato University.

Apart from the hospital, the wards, the beds, it is also the additional money we’ve put into Pharmac medicine. It is also about putting in funding and support for more precautionary and prevention testing—into breast cancer screening, into cervical screening, into bowel cancer screening. All of this is adding and helping towards building a better future for New Zealanders.

Then, what are we fixing in education? I am a mother of two young children, and when I sent Amber to her first day in school, I sent a text message to the Minister of Education, Minister Erica Stanford. I thanked her as a voter in New Zealand, and I thanked her as a mother, because myself, having gone through the public school system, I had all the confidence in the New Zealand public school system until the last lot came in, when there was rising truancy and kids were not going to school any more. There was no clear understanding from schools, from teachers, and from parents on what to teach our children. There was no foundational skills or knowledge taught in maths and English, and definitely not in science.

So what are we fixing? We are fixing it. I literally just saw this and I thought it was so fitting—I hope the TV will see it, and people around New Zealand will see it. While Labour are talking “tax, tax, tax”, we are building, and this is without adding additional tax on New Zealand taxpayers. We as a Government are building 1,364 new classrooms—1,364 new classrooms—without adding new taxes. We’ve built three new specialist schools without adding new taxes. We are also adding solar panels to 500 schools around the country to help to reduce their energy bills, to help to provide a safer and warmer school for our children, without adding new taxes. That is what I call fixing the basics but also building the future—this is what the National Government is about.

Then there’s law and order. I remember door-knocking in 2023 and that was the number one thing talked about in our community. There was concern about going into shopping malls, concern about ram raids, and concern about all the young children getting out of school or not going to school and then creating chaos and mayhem. There was concern about gangs going into townships and closing down townships so kids can’t go to school. There was a lot of anxiety and fear in the community.

So we came in, and what did we do in fixing the basics—and what has this Budget added? Just look at the results now. Ram raids are down by 85 percent, there are new police stations because the Government invested in a new police station in Greymouth, a new police station in Whanganui, and for Corrections a new courthouse in Rotorua. All of that was added, and the result we’re seeing now is a 22 percent reduction in serious repeat youth offending and 46,000 fewer victims—victims and their families—and better, safer communities.

That sort of fixing the basics needs to continue. We still have too much crime, but we cannot afford to go back to the last lot, which has, by the way, the same leader, the same deputy leader, the same front bench—just swapped around because they don’t answer emails—and all the same team, and they’re going back to the same strategy of all talk and no delivery. Actually, there is additional talk, because they’ve now promised tax, tax, tax, and also because their potential coalition partners are now talking about a bottom line being adding taxes, taxes, taxes. What do they have to show for it? Nothing.

In the last week when I door-knocked, people were concerned about the additional tax burden. Fundamentally, they are saying, “We don’t mind so much about paying tax, but we know that we’re just giving our money for no reason. We know that we’re just giving all this money to the IRD and we don’t see new hospitals, new roads, new schools—nothing.”

I want to answer one of the comments made by a speaker in the Labour Party just before me. He talked about the growing number of businesses closing down. He probably hasn’t read the news, because actually at the year ended 31 July 2026 there were more companies registered at the Companies Office—far more; actually, 40 percent more new businesses registered than businesses closed. If you are going to read one side of the stats, just make sure that you read the other side so that you have the complete, accurate story, because whatever we say in this House has a growing impact outside this House. People listen, so give them the true story.

Anyway, what are we doing for the future? This Government, in this Budget, has committed to infrastructure pipeline projects—and we have started turning the sod—that in the next four years will bring 220,000 new jobs for New Zealand. Those jobs will come with construction, with all the different sectors that are related to the projects, like new roads, new bridges, but also in retail and all the hospitality and service providers that come around those infrastructure projects. Remember that when we talk about the new infrastructure we’re putting in.

Also, there are record-breaking export sales. We are a migrant country. We are also a country that focuses so much on exports. We do so well at producing primary goods, so let’s not forget about the policies we have implemented and are supporting through Investment Boost and through a boost to families.

Also, KiwiSaver can now be used for first-home buyers on farms. All those measures are to help our primary sector to make sure that they continue to deliver and to grow this economy. This is why I think people at this year’s election have a very, very clear choice. It is about a party vote for parties that are mature, that have a plan, and are already delivering on the plan, and we have shown in the records that we have actually fixed the basics, but we are also building the future at the same time.

This election, make sure that you vote. Make sure that you vote for the party that will actually drive delivery, growth, and provide better jobs and a better future for all New Zealanders. I commend the bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. That was quite an extraordinary contribution. Government members are trying to have New Zealanders believe that they have somehow managed to lower taxes, increase spending, and reduce debt. Oh, no, they didn’t mention debt, did they? No, and there’s a very good reason for that. They have tried to present this to New Zealanders—that somehow they have managed to do all these things without raising taxes. That is what they are trying to push.

But, as Nancy Lu was pleading with the House to tell the whole story, let’s have the whole story. This Government has borrowed through the teeth to get the things that are in this Budget. They have not balanced the books like they promised. In fact, they have increased the debt. This Government have borrowed more than the previous Government did, if you exclude COVID. Let’s now include COVID, because during that time the very same MPs that are now senior Ministers were pleading with us to spend more. They cannot have it both ways.

They are trying to trick New Zealanders into believing that it is possible to do all these things that they have promised without increasing taxes and without increasing debt. It is not possible. It is not true. That is why they are not telling the full story. The thing is that a few speeches—even speeches read today on that side of the House—are not going to change the reality for New Zealanders. They know that what Nancy Lu just said isn’t true. They know that what Mike Butterick said before her isn’t true. It doesn’t add up.

Rima Nakhle: Best MP.

Hon KIERAN McANULTY: I’m not at all surprised to hear that Rima Nakhle’s piping up. She may as well make the most of the time she’s got. My pick, with two parliamentary sitting weeks left and just over two months left before the election, is that she’s gone, and so is Tim Costley as well.

New Zealanders know that this Government promised the world and has delivered nothing. Things have got worse. Debt has increased. Costs have increased. Wages have gone down in real terms. Unemployment is up. Homelessness is up. None of those things was talked about in any of the contributions from the Government members today.

What is also fascinating is that none of them has talked about nurses. Why is that, I wonder. Why is that? Is it possibly because the Prime Minister and the health Minister—and basically all of them—have been caught out? They have been caught out misleading the country by saying they have added 2,000 more nurses, but, actually, that is not true, is it? No, it’s not true. The number is 54—54 nurses at a time when demand on the health system has never been higher. This lot have only increased the number of nurses by 54.

Why is it, I wonder, that they have to make things up. Why do they have to claim that it’s 2,000 when it is actually 54? It is not just in terms of nurses, by the way. They are claiming that they have built 7,000 houses when, actually, it’s 600. Why do they have to make things up? It’s because their record doesn’t stand on its own two feet. It falls over very quickly once you scratch the surface, once you get through the spin, once you get through all the nonsense, all the PR—it doesn’t stack up.

Just look at the record in nursing. Waikato Hospital has 90 fewer fulltime-equivalents than a year ago. That’s extraordinary. Auckland City Hospital has 74 fewer. Middlemore Hospital has 78 fewer. They have not added a single nurse to Wairarapa Hospital in their entire time in Government. In fact, Wairarapa are 40 nurses short, and they are not allowed to hire. Let that sink in: they are 40 nurses short of what we need, and they are not allowed to hire, because Simeon Brown and this Government have put a hiring freeze on. They are not allowed to hire.

Is it any wonder that the number of nurses has grown by only 54 in this term? It is outrageous, and the fact that they tried to fib, the fact that they tried to mislead the country into thinking it was more when it was only 54, says everything you need to know about this Government. Just look at Palmerston North. They’ve had 25 cut in the last two years. Northland has had 67 cut, and Nelson-Marlborough has been cut by 30. They are going backwards because they have not invested in health. When they say they’ve done all these things, put a record level of funding into health, you only need to increase it by a dollar for it to be a record level of funding.

The thing is that they have not kept up with demand; they have not kept up with the cost.

Rima Nakhle: In six years, they couldn’t even bring in free breast cancer screening.

Hon KIERAN McANULTY: They are chirping away because I have hit a nerve—because they’re going around their communities knocking on doors and telling people that nurses have gone up by 2,000 when they know it isn’t true. Why are they saying things they know are not true? It’s because they know that if they actually talked the truth when it came to nurses, it would not stack up.

It is exactly the same when you look at the claims that were made around Wairarapa Hospital. This is an issue that I have been banging on about for the last three years. This Government stole money that was intended to fix our hospital. We had to get the Speaker involved because the Minister refused to answer questions. We had to get the Ombudsman involved because the health ministry refused to answer questions. There was money designated to fix Wairarapa Hospital, they took it to fix the hole in their Budget, and then they have the nerve now, when they have been shamed into giving that money back, to claim credit for it.

Glen Bennett: It’s outrageous.

Hon KIERAN McANULTY: It is outrageous. Their record on health is outrageous. It is shameful. The facts speak for themselves. I would challenge any Government member to go and stand outside their local hospital, be it in Waikato or in Auckland City or in Middlemore or in Wairarapa or in Palmerston North or in Northland or in Nelson-Marlborough and to tell the truth—tell the facts: that their nursing numbers have gone backwards, and then tell people to vote for them. They won’t do it, will they?

Glen Bennett: No, they won’t.

Hon KIERAN McANULTY: They won’t, because they know that no one is going to vote for a Government that says it as it is, that tells the facts, that tells the truth that says despite three years in power, despite making all sorts of claims about expenditure in health, things have gotten worse. Fact: things have gone backwards—fact. They can’t spin their way out of it. They tried. They tried to mislead the country and they got caught out. But they don’t care—they don’t care.

They think that they can win this election by misleading people. I’ll give you an example: the National Party want to sell Air New Zealand. They want to privatise our national carrier. Is that true? No. That’s what the ACT Party want to do. It would be dishonest for me to say that the National Party want to do something because their coalition wants to do something. But that is not what the National Party is doing, is it?

Glen Bennett: No.

Hon KIERAN McANULTY: No. They are not sticking to the truth; they are trying to collate things and present a problem. So if it is dishonest for me to say that the National Party want to sell Air New Zealand, it is dishonest for the National Party to say that the Labour Party want to introduce nine new taxes. They know it isn’t true, but they say it anyway.

What does it say about a Government with a record of three years behind them that they have to make things up to make themselves look electable; that, after three years of being in Government, they have to go to New Zealand and say, “Vote for us because these guys are going to do nine new taxes.”, despite the fact they know it isn’t true. That’s hardly a record to stand on. That is why they’re doing it. They have hardly got a record to stand on so they have to make things up to make themselves look electable.

I haven’t even mentioned New Zealand First; that speaks for itself. They’re going backwards; I’m going to leave them alone. They’re doing themselves damage; that’s fine by me. But the fact is that New Zealanders can see through this fib. They can see through the nonsense. They know that in their local hospitals, things are going backwards. If nurses aren’t allowed to be hired, they have been cut; if work needs to be done, the money’s been put elsewhere to fill the hole in their Budget.

This is the reality that New Zealanders are facing: the highest homelessness in the history of this country.

Rima Nakhle: Not true.

Hon KIERAN McANULTY: The highest homelessness in the history of this country.

Rima Nakhle: According to who?

Hon KIERAN McANULTY: Rima Nakhle always changes seats in order to heckle—have you noticed that? It still doesn’t work. She says that it is not true. Well, I’ll tell you what? New Zealanders, here is a simple choice for you: who are you going to believe? Those people on the front lines, like the Wellington City Mission, the Auckland City Mission, the Christchurch City Mission, or the Methodist Mission, or Rima Nakhle? Who are New Zealanders going to believe? The people who are working with homelessness, the people who are working with our most vulnerable—those who say that it is the worst they have ever experienced, the worst that the country has ever seen—who are they going to believe? Them? The people who know what they’re not talking about? Or desperate National MPs who only have a matter of weeks left in the job who are clinging on to anything—making things up in order to stay in this job. I know who New Zealanders are going to believe: the ones who are actually telling the truth. They are ones who they are going to believe. In just over two months’ time, we’re going to see that in action.

If there was ever a pitch for leadership on that side of the House, that was it—that was it. One of the prerequisites, as Suze Redmayne said, is he has to wear a tie. So that discounts half of his colleagues on that side, but that was the leadership pitch. And that was the leadership pitch after a 24 percent poll result in this week’s Roy Morgan Poll on that side for Labour: 24 percent. They’re taking a dive—they’re taking a deep dive. You just wait: the hospital pass will come in. Mr McAnulty, Chris Hipkins has read the tea leaves, and we think you should take it up, and take on the mantle.

Ladies and gentlemen, he’ll use that speech, right there, to say, “Colleagues, I’m the white knight, I’m coming to save the day. Don’t worry about Wairarapa. Don’t worry about that. I want to lead this party and this country.” That’s what that speech was—that’s what that was. That was the leadership pitch. The only downside is he only had three other colleagues here to listen to it—and one of them is retiring, and he’s out of here; he’s checked out. He was yawning during that contribution; he was so bored—he was so bored. So there are no votes there. That was a leadership pitch if I’ve ever heard one.

Hon Kieran McAnulty: But you’ve seen two already this year.

TOM RUTHERFORD: But we’re actually here to talk about the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill; that’s what we’re actually here to talk about. We’re not here to talk about things here, things there—

Hon Kieran McAnulty: Did you vote for Erica, or did you vote for “Bish”? It was Erica, wasn’t it? Or was it Penk?

TOM RUTHERFORD: We’re here to talk about the appropriation bill, Mr McAnulty.

Hon Kieran McAnulty: Who did you vote for? Was it Erica? It was Erica!

TOM RUTHERFORD: Well, I certainly didn’t vote for you, sir—I certainly didn’t vote for you. If I lived in the Wairarapa, my vote would have gone to Mike Butterick every day of the week—every day of the week, Mike Butterick. That’s a true representative, one that actually lives in his community; one that actually lives in it, and knows and lives and breathes it.

Hon Kieran McAnulty: Point of order. As everybody in this House knows, I love the hustle and bustle of this House, but it is inappropriate and unparliamentary to make an inaccurate claim about someone’s personal circumstances. I do live in Wairarapa and the member should not allude otherwise.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, I expect that Tom Rutherford would apologise to the member.

TOM RUTHERFORD: Madam Speaker, I withdraw and apologise.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: And I also want to remind the member that we’re on appropriations, and I know we’ve gone a bit political this afternoon, but a little bit of the appropriation bill in the speech would be good.

TOM RUTHERFORD: That’s great—I’ve got seven minutes and 42 seconds to do so.

If we’re talking about accurate records in the House, there should be other members standing up and correcting the record at the same time. I just wonder, if the member on that side wants to hold that standard, maybe he should look across his benches to other members on that side of the House and hold them to the exact same standard, because if he wants to hold us to that standard, he should start in his own glasshouse—his own glasshouse—and set the standard there.

This year’s Budget was focused on fixing the basics and building the future. If I think of my home in Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty, one of the things from this year’s Budget that I’m so proud of—so proud of—was the funding for the redevelopment of the Tauranga Hospital. Our city has grown exponentially over the last 25 to 30 years—we’ve grown massively; we’ve been one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing areas across the country.

Our men and women on the front line, working day to day in our Tauranga Hospital, are working in a constrained environment. Many Governments have known about the issue; many Governments have known about it. They have seen the droves of people coming across the Kaimai Ranges into Tauranga and seeing what we have in our slice of paradise. People have seen it; they know what we have: beautiful beaches, amazing communities, pretty damn good representations from their local members as well. But our Tauranga Hospital has been pushed to its absolute limit.

This year’s Budget had funding to upgrade it—finally, finally, it had funding for the redevelopment of the Tauranga Hospital. That is something I am so proud of us about, as a Government, that we are delivering. I know my colleague Sam Uffindell, the MP for Tauranga, would share the same thoughts as I would, because for many men and women across Tauranga and the wider Bay of Plenty, they want to know that if they turn up to their hospital, they can get the service they need from the incredible front-line healthcare workers but also that they are working in an environment and in facilities that are there to support them. So I’m really proud that we’re the Government delivering the redevelopment of the Tauranga Hospital.

Another thing I’m incredibly proud of, for us, is supporting our Port of Tauranga and the fast-track legislation that we’ve got that will enable growth, not just for Tauranga but for New Zealand—for New Zealand. This is New Zealand’s largest export port in the country—in the country—and it’s been our Government’s fast-track legislation that has enabled things like the Port of Tauranga, numerous renewable projects, numerous housing projects to finally be delivered; to change this attitude of no into, finally, a yes. And that is a good thing.

Roading and investment into infrastructure is massive for Tauranga and the Bay of Plenty, and this year’s Budget is building on that. We’ve got two roads of national significance: State Highway 29, Tauriko West, stage one, started under us—started under us. They talk; we deliver on this side. They talk, they consult, they put heaps of money into consultants. Remember “light fail”? Remember “light fail”? Not one metre of track actually delivered. This side, we came into Government, we said we would begin Tauriko West, State Highway 29 and it’s under way. That is a great thing, delivered through numerous Budgets, as us, as a Government.

And then there’s the Takitimu North Link, stage one, that’s progressing exceptionally well; opening in less than two years’ time for our community, which will be great. Fast track delivered for stage two already. Stage two is going to continue, and that is great. That’s what a Government of action actually does and I’m really, really proud of that.

This year’s Budget delivers on the investment into roading and infrastructure: nearly $7 billion in capital investment and about $60 billion of infrastructure investment over the next four years. That’s jobs—that’s what that is. That’s opportunity. That’s saying to New Zealanders that we’ve got plans for the future. We’re creating jobs, creating opportunity, investing in local economies, creating growth—that is how a Government grows the size of the pie. That’s how you grow the pie, and that’s what Mike Butterick talks about a lot. You don’t cut the pie up into so many small pieces and try to tax the hell out of it; you grow the pie. You want to solve the cost of living, you create more jobs, you build growth, you lift wages. That’s how you do it.

Hon Dr Duncan Webb: I can’t afford a pie.

TOM RUTHERFORD: That’s how you do it. And Duncan Webb, he can yell—he can yell—but the only reason he’s yelling is he’s looking for a job in two months’ time. He’s looking for one in two months’ time. [Bell rings]

DEPUTY SPEAKER: The bell is the Business Committee clock. That one’s about 30 seconds behind.

TOM RUTHERFORD: OK, Madam Speaker, that’s fine.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Just to inform the speaker.

TOM RUTHERFORD: That’s fine. I think of other opportunities coming in our community and I think of what we’re doing in law and order. Law and order, for many locals in the Bay of Plenty—if I knock on doors in Pāpāmoa, Mount Maunganui, Welcome Bay, Maungatapu, or Ōhauiti, they say to me, “Gosh, I feel a lot safer now than I did 2½ years ago. Gosh, I feel so much safer if I go to Bayfair or the Crossing or into Tauranga Central than I did 2½ years ago. Thank goodness your Government has invested in law and order and getting rid of the sense of lawlessness that was taking over this country.” Remember ram raids? Down 85 percent under our Government. Gang patches? I haven’t seen one of those for nearly two years—I haven’t seen one of them for nearly two years. And Greg O’Connor, last night, in his valedictory statement, said that he absolutely loved the gang patch ban. That’s maybe why he’s going—that’s maybe why he’s going: down the back if you’ve got a differing view to the front bench.

And just, finally, the one thing I keep hearing is, “Please, don’t bring in any new taxes.” You want to do something about the cost of living, don’t take more of people’s own money; they’ve worked hard for it. You don’t grow this economy by digging into other people’s pockets; you do it by creating opportunities, creating a brighter future, focusing on the things that actually matter, and fixing the basics and building the future.

A party vote was called for on the question, That the Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill be now read a third time and the Imprest Supply (Second for 2026/27) Bill be now read a second time.

Ayes 67

New Zealand National 48; ACT New Zealand 11; New Zealand First 8.

Noes 48

New Zealand Labour 34; Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand 14.

Motion agreed to.

Appropriation (2026/27 Estimates) Bill read a third time.

Imprest Supply (Second for 2026/27) Bill read a second time.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Imprest Supply (Second for 2026/27) Bill is set down for third reading immediately.

Imprest Supply (Second for 2026/27) Bill

Third Reading