Sepuloni CarmelHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): I was going to launch straight into my speech but I think it would be disrespectful not to acknowledge some of the speakers that have spoken before me. I want to start with the Hon Simon Bridges Leader of the Opposition. I go to his comment about this being a fake Budget". Well I just want to assure the Hon Simon Bridges that there is nothing fake about this. The only thing that's fake in this House is the perception that that side is trying to give that they're unified behind their leader.I also want to reflect on Judith Collins' comments. A number of times during her speech she said "When we were in Government …"—telling stories of old when they were in Government. I just want to remind her that when they were in Government we had the highest levels of homelessness in the OECD. We had enduring poverty amongst our children that they never resolved or addressed so perhaps keep those stories for an intimate group.Can I also refer to Jami-Lee's speech—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Proper names please.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: —Jami-Lee Ross's speech sorry. It was probably one of the angriest speeches in this House—yelling at New Zealand that "this is what they're missing out on." I don't think anyone could watch that speech and feel like they were missing out on anything in fact.Finally I just want to reflect on the Hon Nikki Kaye's speech and her criticism of our education policy. I just remind her that whilst she was the Minister of Education there were buildings falling down around her all across the country that she did nothing to address. So perhaps before throwing stones reflect a little a bit on what was happening when she was Minister.Now putting all that aside I just want to say how much I'm enjoying being part of this Government. It's been mentioned here in the House today about this wonderful three-way partnership we have going on with our coalition partner over there with our confidence and supply partners over here. I just want to say that the process that we go through to make decisions is robust. There are amazing minds behind the scenes making the decisions and I just want to say that this is a fabulous Government and I think that's reflected today in the Budget that we've got.We've already heard in this House from the Minister of Finance who has done a brilliant job on this Budget by the way. This Government is rolling out a comprehensive plan to address the challenges we face as a nation. Many of the challenges are due to the fact that we had a Government who neglected this country for nine years. I want to say that Vote Social Development is a pivotal part of that work.The social development portfolio is necessarily broad. At its core it's about ensuring individuals families and communities have the support and resources they need to be secure and safe and resilient and to meet their potential. We all know—everyone in this House knows—that's complex and challenging work. That's why we're focused on the needs and the rights of people receiving benefits as well as expanding that focus to meet the needs of the working poor to meet the needs of disabled people to meet the needs of students and of course to meet the needs of our children.This year's social development budget commitments are built on three pillars. The first pillar is to rebuild what was neglected and to protect our ability to operate in times of crisis. One of the areas we had to do that in was in respect of improving the resilience of the Ministry of Social Development's (MSD) critical systems where we've had to direct $35 million worth of funding—$35 million worth of funding—because the infrastructure in place has flaws and if there is a disaster in the Wellington region then 1.1 million clients receiving or relying on MSD could be affected. For 20 days potentially the IT systems could be offline. What is that like when you come into this job and you see that is the case? Of course a responsible Government is going to respond immediately.The second pillar is to take action now to alleviate the very real suffering we're seeing in our communities. This Government didn't wait for the Budget to do that; we did that in our first 100 days by introducing a Families Package worth $5.3 billion. We need to remind that side of the House that it's not just about what's been announced as part of this Budget; it's what we did immediately to alleviate the poverty that we've been watching unfold under their watch.From 1 July we'll be implementing the winter energy payment to help individuals and families heat their homes over winter. That payment alone will be providing an extra $443 million worth of support for people on a benefit or superannuation for 2018-19. We've been criticised for giving this to superannuitants. They don't want us to provide a winter energy payment to superannuitants; they say that it's not targeted enough. Yet they were willing to give $400 million worth of tax cuts to the top 10 percent of income earners in the package that they tried to sell but failed to sell to New Zealanders. That's just one of many parts of the Families Package.As part of this Budget we're investing $79.82 million in supporting our communities including the long-overdue amount of $76 million over four years to stabilise and strengthen family violence services. They put nothing into front-line family violence services whilst they were in Government. Ten years of no funding increases and now what we're going to see is an immediate 30 percent increase for 150 services providing family violence support. Talking about taking action now I want to point out that under the previous Government the cost of GP visits rose by 44 percent. This has made visiting a healthcare professional out of reach for many low-income New Zealanders. Through this Budget all Housing New Zealand tenants and New Zealanders that receive an accommodation supplement or an income-related rent subsidy will now be eligible for a community services card. All cardholders will also have access to lower-cost GP fees. That's estimated to benefit 540000 New Zealanders—540000 New Zealanders—and that's another move that I'm proud of.In this Budget we're putting $23.15 million towards supporting our young people in the Limited Service Volunteers programme and I acknowledge my colleague over there Ron Mark and also with respect to the youth health and well-being survey—one of the most valuable surveys to specifically inform how Government can design policy that meets the needs of our diverse youth population.I've talked about two of the pillars and given a couple of examples. I want to talk about the third pillar. The third pillar of the social development budget is looking towards the future through a sustained effort to address poverty and support the well-being of New Zealanders. The third pillar will include significant changes to our welfare system and I know many in the social sector are eager to see this happen. But the work is too important for knee-jerk decisions.This Government is committed to the welfare system. This Government is committed to overhauling the welfare system which was part of our confidence and supply agreement with the Green Party and it's an initiative that is unreservedly backed by this Government.As the Minister for Social Development I want to make sure that we take a careful considered approach that will have long-lasting benefits for future generations. We know that any changes that we make on this side of the House have to be enduring.On this side of the House we believe that New Zealand should be a place where everyone can live with dignity and children have the best start in life. But at this point that is an aspiration and we can do much better. We want to ensure that the welfare system is doing the job it was established to do providing real support for New Zealanders at the times in their life when they need it most. Over the last nine years we have seen the welfare system get further and further away from this. What that side of the House seems to forget is that the welfare system is there for all New Zealanders—all New Zealanders—and 1.1 million New Zealanders per year will access the support of the Ministry of Social Development; 1.1 million. Disabled people students our senior citizens sole parents young people—all New Zealanders deserve to be treated with respect when they access our welfare system.I want to touch on the fact that we are working on improving the culture that was undermined by that Government over nine years to ensure that the people that walk through that door get the respect they deserve. I just want to say—I'm running out of time and I'm not going to get to say everything I wanted to say in this speech. But all of these changes that have been announced and spoken about in this House today will go a long way to addressing the needs of New Zealanders.As you can see from Budget 2018 this is a Government that actually cares about people. We know that fixing long-term problems requires fresh thinking and energy and we're committed to creating change that will give all New Zealanders a chance for a better future. Budget 2018 is a major step towards that goal."