Lotu-Iiga Sam: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLotu-Iiga Sam: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 29 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:408. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Minister of Corrections):Fakatalofa atu ki te mamalu o Tokelau mo te tatou vaiaho o te gagana Tokelau. Mr Assistant Speaker Mallard I just greeted you in Tokelauan. It is Tokelau Language Week and we have our Tokelauan MP—first and only—in Kris Faafoi. I just want to welcome him here today in his native tongue. It is a pleasure to take this my first call in this Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne.First may I thank the people of Maungakiekie for returning me as their MP for a third consecutive term. To the people of Maungakiekie thank you for entrusting me as your voice in this Parliament and for putting your faith and trust in me to deliver your dreams and aspirations through our Government. I aim to serve your interests as those of the people of New Zealand with the passion and vigour that I have over the last 6 years. May I also offer congratulations to our Prime Minister the Rt Hon John Key on also winning his third term as the leader of our nation. I believe he has demonstrated over the last 6 years a bold and strong leadership style which I think resonates with New Zealanders and he deserves another 3 years. Mr Assistant Speaker congratulations also to you. I think I prefer you in the Chair actually to across the Chamber. But congratulations to you to the Rt Hon David Carter as well as to Lindsay Tisch and the Hon Chester Borrows as the officers of our Parliament.To new parliamentary colleagues who have arrived—and I see Jenny Salesa across the aisle—I want to welcome you all. To the 15 MPs—we have got three here today: Dr Parmjeet Parmar Todd Muller and Andrew Bayly—welcome. Welcome to all our new MPs—congratulations. It is not easy to get here as a new MP. Although sometimes this role can be full of ambition ego and testosterone I just urge you not to forget that sometimes better outcomes for people in New Zealand are achieved through collaboration across this House on select committees and with just a touch of humility. But enjoy your time here. It is a real privilege to be a member of Parliament. I also want to say commiserations to those who have failed. It takes courage to run for public office. There are numbers of people out there who missed out this time but as Stuart Nash has proved there are opportunities in the future to come back and I wish all those people well.The hoardings are now down and the last election pamphlet was delivered over a month ago. New Zealanders delivered their verdict. They delivered the verdict in favour of the National Party and our coalition partners—and I want to acknowledge David Seymour who is also a new member here today. The public has given us the mandate to govern for the next 3 years. In my view Kiwis voted for a party that campaigned on the issues that matter to them as New Zealanders. They are issues like work and employment for mum and dad affordable and accessible healthcare and a top-quality education for children and our families. Kiwis also wanted safe and secure neighbourhoods. That is why I believe that they voted for our National Government. These are the issues that matter to the people of Maungakiekie. They are issues that I want to champion in this the 51st term of this Parliament.It is also a pleasure to be appointed as a Cabinet Minister in our Government. I want to acknowledge the Prime Minister for entrusting me with some of the responsibilities that I have today as Minister of Corrections Minister for Ethnic Communities and Minister for Pacific Peoples and also as an Associate Minister of Health alongside my colleague the Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman. In corrections our key target is about reducing reoffending by 25 percent by the year 2017. Although it is currently down by 12.1 percent we know that there is much more work to do. So as Minister I plan to continue the fine work of the Hon Anne Tolley to make every prison a working prison. I want to give every prisoner the opportunity to work a 40-hour working week. Why is this important? We know that on release this will help transition prisoners to a life outside of prison with an aim of reducing their reoffending. We also intend to increase drug treatment programmes because we know that over 50 percent of all crimes involve drugs or alcohol and that over two-thirds of prisoners have addiction problems. So we plan to upgrade our prisons to make them safer fit for purpose and have a greater focus on rehabilitation. I want to acknowledge and thank the approximately 8000 men and women and over 2000 registered volunteers who serve tirelessly in the area of corrections. They serve every day and they ensure the safety of New Zealanders while they support offenders to become productive and law-abiding members of our society.In terms of my Pacific portfolio I want to work with Pacific peoples and continue the fine work that this Government has done by supporting Pacific peoples out in our communities. We have helped raise educational achievement in terms of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2. The achievement rates have gone from just under 50 percent to just under 75 percent. This is the bare minimum for our children to succeed in society. I want to acknowledge obviously the fine work of the Hon Hekia Parata and the Hon Anne Tolley in this area. At the tertiary level the number of Pacific students—and I know that the Hon Steven Joyce is in the House; he will be proud and he knows this—completing Bachelor’s degrees has increased by 56 percent. Jenny Salesa knows it because she worked at the Tertiary Education Commission. She knows the rates of Pacific achievement that have been achieved under this National Government. There are now 550 more Pacific people each year graduating under National. On top of that there are over 5000 more Pacific students achieving qualifications across all levels of tertiary education. So I want to thank the Hon Steven Joyce for the work that he has done in this area.Next year we will have two partnership schools focused on the needs of Pacific children. Choice in education—and I know Jami-Lee Ross understands and supports this wholeheartedly—will benefit Pacific children and their families by combining high-quality educational outcomes with Pacific culture and values. Supporting culture and language through the provision of language resources will continue under National. I want to acknowledge the Prime Minister’s announcement of investing $0.25 million into the Polyfest festival to support the language the culture and the arts that are within that cultural festival. Why is education important? We know that a better educated populace leads to opportunities for higher-paying jobs and that is what Pacific people want in this country. That is what we migrated to this country to do and that is happening under this National Government. In the last year 18000 more Pacific people have been employed and we need to leverage that Pacific talent that innovation and that success to lift up the aspirations of all our Pacific people.Finally I want to just touch on the ethnic affairs portfolio. I want to explore new innovative ways to attract more talented people to New Zealand. We want to ensure that we are working with schools to promote cultural awareness programmes and ethnic diversity as a desirable end goal. I look forward to engaging with more of our ethnic communities as we did last night with the Prime Minister and the Diwali festival that we hosted here in Parliament. In summary our John Key - led Government has a mandate a mandate to continue the work of managing the economy towards surplus to provide more effective public services and to provide more jobs at higher wages. I look forward to working in this the 51st Parliament serving the interests of all New Zealanders to improve their well-being and uplift their aspirations while also helping those who are in genuine need. Thank you.