Another budget has come and gone, leaving little trace other than empty rhetoric. The headlines were all about the next tax cut, but we see the evidence around us of deterioration in our public life—soaring house prices and rents, traffic congestion, polluted rivers, rising greenhouse gas emissions and too many children in poverty, missing out on opportunities in life. This is not the New Zealand that we want.

This Budget pretended to solve the housing crisis, but instead it just blamed someone else—in this case, the Auckland Council. There was no plan to deal with the crisis that has left people homeless, sleeping in garages or cars, or going into debt for emergency housing. There was no decision to stop the sell-off of state houses or to use the profits from Housing New Zealand for building affordable houses. There was no protection for people living in damp and unhealthy homes; in fact, the budget drastically cut the home insulation programme.

The environment fared just as badly. Last December, the government signed the Paris Agreement on climate change and pretended to care about the environment, but the Budget did little to reduce record levels of greenhouse gas emissions, with only minor changes to the ineffective and fraudulent Emissions Trading Scheme. The tiny budget to clean up rivers was opened up to further funding for irrigation schemes, and the core budget of our overworked and demoralised Department of Conservation was slashed.

New Zealand can do better, and we have done better in the past. We have had governments that were the first in the world to give votes for women, pioneered public health and education systems, declared an independent foreign policy and built affordable state houses when we needed them.

Unfortunately, this government has run out of ideas. We need change. There are important priorities for this budget that have been neglected. The Green Party stands for fair taxation that ensures that speculators, wealthy individuals and multinational companies pay their share of taxes. We stand for a people-focused economy that provides support and opportunities to all children. We will invest in our future, by making housing affordable, reducing traffic congestion and supporting innovation. And we are committed to a clean environment and a transition to a low emissions economy. We can build a better future.

Barry Coates is next on the Green Party’s candidate list into Parliament. He is currently developing a sustainability programme at the University of Auckland Business School.