Pugh MaureenMAUREEN PUGH (National): Thank you very much. We've had some very robust discussion on this appropriation tonight but I've got to say that the biggest highlight for me was listening to the Hon Phil Twyford when he talked about housing. I know that that side of the House isn't very good with numbers and my colleagues over here are so I'm going to ask my colleagues: how many times did we hear the Minister talk about KiwiBuild?Hon Members: Zero.MAUREEN PUGH: Zero—exactly. The biggest fail—one of the big flagship policies of that Government and the Minister couldn't even mention it once in his speech tonight. That tells us a lot.And the Minister in the chair Carmel Sepuloni who's just resumed her seat—I'm so pleased that she talked about the working groups.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: I raise a point of order Mr Chair. KiwiBuild is actually not within the scope of this appropriation hence why you probably didn't hear the Minister speak about that.CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I thank the Minister for that intervention.MAUREEN PUGH: OK so the Minister who's just resumed her seat certainly did talk about working groups. Now we know that that working group that was set up the $2.1 million working group which is one of the 200-plus working groups set up by this Government—after 18 months of work the Welfare Expert Advisory Group came up with we know 42 recommendations. Three of those were adopted. But here's the kicker: one of those was already under way and that was the abatement rates that the previous National-led Government had under way. One was an election promise which should have been happening anyway and didn't need a working group to come up with that gem and the other one was a retrograde step because it removed the sanctions for mothers who refused to name the father of the baby meaning that the father was not then liable to help make contributions towards the upkeep and the child's maintenance their own child's maintenance—well contributions in the legal sense—which would have then in turn reduced the burden on hard-working Kiwis who now have to pay their tax to fully fund that. The irony in that is that in 2004 the then Minister for Social Development Steve Maharey said—and I quote—Removing sanctions on women who don't name the father of their child is a complete reversal of position for Labour. It is a rort and I have said time and time again in this Parliament that fathers must front up to their obligations and we will make sure they do." Well this Government certainly does not stick with their policies over time and that is what leads to uncertainty in this country. Now I'd just like to make mention of some of the issues around change of policy direction because they create real problems for real Kiwis. I've got to say that some of the change in direction in some of this Government's policy is felt most harshly on the West Coast. What those policy changes do is they set us on a pathway to economic destruction and we're seeing that now with the West Coast being the only region to fall in its GDP. So what that does is it means that we're going to need more social support in places like the West Coast where in fact what we need to be doing is investing in the economic viability of those places to make sure the economy thrives and make sure the locals are gainfully employed. That way we need less social support because they're quite capable of standing on their own two feet but they do need the Government to support them in the industries that they have now. But we know that this Government is becoming synonymous—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I'm sorry to interrupt the member but the time for this debate has expired."