Unkovich Tanya; Pugh MaureenTANYA UNKOVICH (NZ First): Thank you. On behalf of New Zealand First I'd like to rise and speak on this bill. I was listening last week to some of the contributions and some of it painted us on this side as uncaring saying I wonder if any of the people opposite have ever spoken to anyone who's on a benefit or who has experienced hardship themselves." Well as we have heard from many of the maiden statements on this side many of us have experienced poverty have lived it and we know what it tastes smells and feels like. So I would like to invite the members opposite to reflect on some of their words when accusing us of being uncaring.One thing I know is that the coalition is a very caring coalition and that is why we are going to support this bill. We are caring. We are mothers. We are fathers sons and daughters. There is no way that we would not want the people of New Zealand and our country to flourish which is why we are rejecting many of the—Chlöe Swarbrick: Evidence—the evidence; you're rejecting the evidence.TANYA UNKOVICH: —words spoken on the other side. Evidence yes evidence is great and in many of the words spoken on the other side I don't hear evidence coming; I just hear accusations. Many of us on this side we all want the same outcome as the members on the opposite side; however we just have different paths to getting there. That is what we are committed to—we are committed to protecting the people.Now we are not slashing benefits; we're protecting the benefits and we're indexing them to inflation. It is about also addressing the culture of welfare dependency that we've got in this country and it is something that seems to be increasing as the years go on and something that this coalition this Government is very concerned about. So we are not trying to slash the money coming in; we are protecting their purchasing power which is why we are indexing to inflation—a policy that has been used for 31 of the previous 35 years we note. It is by no means a polarisation of people. Where is that evidence saying that we are kicking people who are already down? Those are statements made with evidence.So I have been in the helping profession myself and I have had many clients come to me who really want help in getting out of poverty and being able to get back into the workforce. Not everyone wants to stay on a benefit; many want to get out of a repeating pattern and being in a family that is dependent on benefits all the time which is why New Zealand First is very committed to helping this Government address other issues such as the cost of living reducing the tax on the petrol that is affecting the people who are on benefits who have to get in their car and who often drive cars which use significantly more amounts of petrol—they are being really hit at the pump there. We are addressing some of those issues looking at the price of groceries—addressing some of those issues—so that they can in fact have more of their money in their pocket. We are not prepared to continue to encourage people to remain on benefit but to help them with other areas. There are so many other things that people can be looking at. Self-esteem is a big issue here. It is about helping people to become more inclined to want to prosper and not continue to enable them to stay stuck but helping them to get unstuck.New Zealand First is very much a political party of common sense and taking a balanced approach. We would like to support this bill and are very proud to be doing so. So thank you.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): This is a split call."