Radhakrishnan PriyancaHon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Minister for Youth): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's absolutely no secret that through this pandemic and the economic crisis that has ensued and that we experienced beforehand our young people are some of the hardest hit amongst us. This is because of the missed opportunities that they've had throughout the course of the pandemic—missed opportunities in education in employment in the connections that they would have had otherwise and also in terms of the jobs that they tend to hold in tourism in hospitality. Those are the sectors that were the hardest hit and therefore we've seen a number of young people affected in a plethora of ways including their mental health their employment status and a whole heap of other things.That's why as a Government we've taken the approach as Minister Sepuloni spoke about earlier to ensure that we have a suite of measures that will work for various young people given the various situations that they're in and the fact that we have to take an approach that is equitable. That is what is lacking on the other side of this House. Equity—understanding that not every young person starts at the same point in life that we're not all born with a silver spoon and that if you are going through hardships in life and you—like Minister Jackson said—perhaps come from a circumstance where you don't even know what a role model looks like what a sense of purpose is that you awhi them that you look at what the barriers are that they face and you address those barriers. That's the approach that we take on this side of the House.As Minister for Youth I've been out there talking to young people who've faced various circumstances that are difficult and the youth sector organisations youth workers who have supported them over years. We know that what we need to do is address those barriers and not just to be punitive and hit them on the head with sanctions as the other side wants to do. We don't view people receiving a benefit as hopeless; we don't view them as bottom feeders as members on the other side have said; and we certainly don't view their circumstances as being a free ride.Sadly what we've seen over the weekend in terms of the announcement from the National Party shows that they are incredibly out of touch with what young people need. What they're doing in terms of their language—it speaks much more to dog-whistle politics than actually addressing the problems at hand and it does a disservice to our young people in what is an incredibly tough economic time as well. Largely by and large rangatahi I've spoken to are ambitious. They want to develop skills and contribute to the economy and to our society and on this side of the House we commend that and we want to continue to back them. And that's exactly what we're doing.We're doing that through Mana in Mahi as Minister Jackson has talked about as well. That is one part of the Government's suite of employment programmes. That has surpassed 5000 participants recently; 75 percent of participants who had been on a benefit for two years or more haven't gone back on to a benefit. Because again what we're trying to do on this side is not just kick people off benefits but actually get people into meaningful work that pays decent wages as well. Sixty-four percent of those who've been part of Mana in Mahi are under the age of 24 years. The Apprenticeship Boost—we've seen a 55 percent increase in the number of apprentices since the start of the pandemic. Over the past two years more than 190000 people have benefited from our Government's investment in trades training including apprenticeships—one of the first things that was cut by the other side when they were in Government during the global financial crisis as well.We're removing barriers as I mentioned. Through Budget 2022 an estimated 64000 people will be able to access driver licensing programmes. We know that is a key requirement for up to 70 percent of jobs. In my portfolio we've seen a 40 percent increase in support to Ministry of Youth Development funded youth services. These are services where many who don't have a role model in their lives who may not have a sense of purpose actually get that wraparound support that we know they need to succeed later in life whether that's reconnecting with education getting a job or getting into training. We're seeing that that works through Budget 2022. That will be extended to about 7000 additional young people to avail of as well.In the end our Government has delivered record low unemployment—one of the lowest rates in the OECD; lower than most of the countries we compare ourselves to—and we are seeing a much larger number of people including young people getting off the benefit and into work. Thank you.