2. Question No. 2—Social Development and EmploymentRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and EmploymentQuestion No. 2—Social Development and Employment2. RICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green) to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does her Government's commitment to overhauling the welfare system" include ensuring low-income communities are supported to deal with the effects and costs of climate change; if not why not?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): The Government's welfare overhaul is an ongoing commitment to a welfare system that ensures that all New Zealanders in need are able to have an adequate income are treated with respect and dignity and are able to participate meaningfully in their communities. The Welfare Expert Advisory Group acknowledged that a number of factors including climate change will substantially change the nature of work in the long term and increase the risk of adverse impacts including labour market displacement. Key recommendations by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group to address this were centred around revamping active labour market policies across Government to make them more coherent and effective and strengthening the Ministry of Social Development's (MSD) redundancy support policies to better support displaced workers. MSD are also working to assess the impacts of the emissions reduction plan on employment and the income support system.Ricardo Menéndez March: Does she agree with India Logan-Riley co-founder of Te Ara Whatu who said that "A truly just transition would involve transforming the economic system and reckoning with colonisation. But raising core benefits is a step towards that just transition."; if so does she commit to further increases to core benefits beyond what was announced in this year's Budget?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I hear the quote from that particular member but I have not seen the context in which that was said or any of the additional commentary around that so I don't want to go too far into that. However I will remind the member that we have moved quickly to raise benefits last year by $25 and this year again—they will go up again next April. We did move to index benefits. Going back to the primary question also it's important on top of income support that we look at support for employment and that includes employment that is available at the moment and employment that will be available moving forward into the future as well.Ricardo Menéndez March: What if anything does the Minister for Social Development and Employment do to help people find decent and meaningful employment with a living wage that will allow families to transition to a low-carbon economy?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: It's not just about me as Minister it's about all of us as a Government and we've been very focused on this particularly in light of COVID. We have a number of active labour market policies in place many of them we have discussed in this House: Mana in Mahi; Apprenticeship Boost; our Māori trades training and a further expansion of that and He Poutama Rangatahiwas announced yesterday; and there is more. Much of the work that we're doing in the active labour market policy space is to support people to upskill and train so that they can get into more secure more stable work and work that is better paid—the trades and construction are two of those areas where we've had a particular focus. We are working with our tripartite partners to continue to bolster and flesh out the work we're doing in the active labour market policy space to look for gaps because we do as a Government want to do more here.Ricardo Menéndez March: Does the Mana in Mahi scheme guarantee workers at least a living wage?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: The Mahi in Mahi scheme in itself doesn't but it does provide people with a pathway to sustainable employment and that is what we're looking at. If we think about the areas of investment that we have put money into—apprenticeships and trades being the one that's front of mind—people can earn decent livings in those particular areas. And so we are very much focused on ensuring that people can get into sustainable well-paid work and I think our Government's track record over the last 3½ to four years proves that.Ricardo Menéndez March: Has she encouraged her Cabinet colleagues to speed up the trials of public transport subsidies for people on community services cards?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: It is not yet an active policy; however a community connect pilot is going to be trialling half price public transport fares in Auckland for all community service cardholders. The trial will aim to reduce emissions and air pollution by easing congestion as well as improve transport equity particularly for low-income earners. It will begin in July 2022 and will be for three years and if successful we will consider expanding it. It is a part of the Minister of Transport's Minister Wood's $31 billion investment into Auckland's transport infrastructure and an exciting project to be part of.Ricardo Menéndez March: Will she advocate for a clean energy industry training plan that will connect young rangatahi into work for clean energy careers through the Ministry of Social Development?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Can you repeat the question. I didn't hear the end of that sorry.Ricardo Menéndez March: So the question is: will she advocate for a clean energy industry training plan that will connect young rangitahi into training for clean energy careers through MSD?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Not just through MSD but across Government."