Warren-Clark AngieANGIE WARREN-CLARK (Labour) on behalf of the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee: Thank you Madam Chair. It's a great surprise for me to rise and speak in this Estimates debate on behalf of our chair and deputy chair this afternoon and that is because I am the newest member of the Social Services and Community Committee. However it has been a privilege to work with the members across the three other parties to review these votes.The Estimates reviews reports and debates play a key role in the financial scrutiny of Government spending. I'll quickly outline in my limited time how I understand that there was some vigorous and robust questioning and answering from members and Ministers. The chair has outlined the vast number of votes so I won't go through them; however I will note we had Minister Robertson Minister Salesa Woods Twyford Martin Sio Sepuloni Martin again Henare and Genter as well as the under-secretary for family and sexual violence Jan Logie and Minister Little who appeared.I want to quickly run through the votes in this long list reviewed. First up: social development. In 2019 the total funding for this vote is one of the largest Government expenditures. Nearly 90 percent of this is for benefits and superannuation. As well as meeting immediate and essential need through advancement and hardship grants Minister Carmel Sepuloni told us that the Government is also working to address cost of living increases. Some initiatives include the Families Package the winter energy package BestStart increasing benefits in line with wage growth lifting the minimum wage and removing punitive benefit sanctions with the repeal of section 192 of the Social Security Act. This sanction the Minister told us did not incentivise the absentee parent to pay child support. The committee asked questions around reducing long-term welfare dependency and reducing child poverty. The Minister said that the key to reducing the number of children in poverty is to support families in the welfare system in upskilling. We heard about Mana in Mahi and Oranga Mahi. The Minister told us that more than half the people on main benefits have a health condition or disability. Budget 2019 provided $26.3 million over four years to improve the outcomes of those people.We also heard from the Minister for Seniors about the $600000 provided to community organisations such as SeniorNet to provide training and teaching facilities to help seniors use and keep up with digital technology.A second major area we heard from was Ministers Twyford and Salesa on Estimates Vote Housing and Urban Development. A major point of discussion and questioning was around the Government's KiwiBuild programme. The Minister explained that the Government will complete a KiwiBuild reset which has now occurred. The Minister spoke about the establishment of the new housing and urban development authority Kāinga Ora—Homes and Communities.For Vote Oranga Tamariki we heard from Minister Tracey Martin. Minister Martin spoke about the co-design solutions for iwi Māori. Partnering with iwi means that children who have been uplifted are more likely to be placed with whānau and we look forward to seeing this work continue.In Vote Women we heard from the Minister Julie Anne Genter on the work to close the Public Service's gender pay gap which is 10.7 percent for women. The Minister considers that to make significant progress an area has to be measured managed and prioritised. There has been some improvement and there continues to be improvement.In Vote Arts Culture and Heritage the Associate Minister explained that there were not many salaried roles that are available in the creative sector and this area had been previously neglected. Tuia – Encounters 250 recognised 250 years since the first onshore meetings between Māori and Pākehā. Estimates vote Pasifika: a budget of $130 million over four years. The Minister for Sport and Recreation talked about the development of a lower decile school initiative to improve healthy eating and also about the new strategy that champions participation and visibility for women. Thank you.