Lotu-Iiga Sam: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLotu-Iiga Sam: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 02 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4175. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Minister of Corrections):It is a pleasure to rise and speak in this Budget debate. May I first congratulate the Minister of Finance on another outstanding Budget his seventh Budget in a row and one that actually speaks to most New Zealanders.We are a country that is on track economically we are a country that is on track fiscally for surplus next year and we are a country that is on track to deliver help where it is needed most. I would just like to state upfront that in terms of delivery we have delivered in this Budget $790 million to help children in our poorest households—help children in our poorest households. Mr Hipkins might ask why we are not delivering but I do not hear Ms Ardern complaining about this Budget in terms of $790 million being spent on the poorest households.What does it look like? Well it looks like 160000 of our lowest-income families. Some of those families are in my electorate of Maungakiekie. I know they are in Mr Ngaro’s electorate of Te Atatū. We are helping those families who really need some assistance around their benefit—$25 a week. If they are low-paid families they get up to $12.50 a week in most cases through Working for Families for those with incomes under $36000.It is also about providing more childcare support. It is an extra $1 per week per child. So for different children that is $50 per week. I challenge members opposite who complain about this to show me a family that would not take $1300 in 1 year—show me one family that would not take that money. I do not believe you can come up with that sort of family. I know Ms King brings families to this House—little examples of people who are not doing well—but you bring one family Ms King to this House who would not take the $1300.How do we know that this Budget is successful? How do we know? We held a Budget workshop—Mr Ngaro and I and Mr English—in Manukau in the heart of so-called Labour country last Friday morning. And what positive feedback we received about this Budget from Pacific community leaders from academics from workers and even from unionists dare I say it. Those people were saying to us: “We believe in what you’re doing. We believe in what the National Party is doing. We want to see more jobs we want to see more opportunities but we think we’re doing well under the National Government.”What does that look like? It looks like this in terms of Pacific communities. The current statistics show that over 123000 Pacific people are currently employed in New Zealand. That is more than at any other time in our history. I notice that members opposite have their heads down. They do not want to hear the truth. They do not want to hear the facts around how Pacific communities are doing very well under the National Government. That number is up 17500 from this time last year.We are doing well in our health statistics. Immunisation rates for Pacific people are in the mid-nineties. In fact they are doing better than most of the rest of the population. So we are doing well in terms of immunisation. We are doing well in terms of jobs. In terms of education we now have National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 pass rates for Pacific people in the mid-seventies. What was the pass rate under Labour can I ask? The heads are down again. It is OK. They are not proud of their record but I will tell you what it was. It was 51 percent under the Labour Government.Although they rail over there about the amount of spending that goes into education they do not look at the outcomes. The outcomes are quite clear. The pass rates for NCEA level 2 are up by 25 percent. Graduation rates are up by 50 percent. Early childhood education participation rates are up by 20 percent. I hear members opposite groaning whining and moaning but the outcomes do not quite fit with the rhetoric and the misleading representations that are made opposite.This Government has put in place more measures to address the housing problem across this nation than any other Government. Yes we know about the HomeStart package that subsidises our first-home buyers. Yes we know about the release of land and we are working alongside the Auckland Council with the Auckland Housing Accord. We have special housing areas and we are releasing large tracts of land. But in this Budget we also came up with a plan around releasing more Crown land for development. That goes alongside the extra money we are putting into rent top-ups as part of our housing reforms in order to have the income-related rent subsidy for those who are impoverished.We are about providing the community housing sector with the opportunity to actually get alongside the Government and provide some of the housing. I am proud of the announcement that the Tāmaki area will get a $200 million injection. Admittedly it sort of started under the Labour Government many many years ago but we are now implementing that plan to release more land to work alongside communities. At the launch of that plan we heard from a local early childhood education teacher who was talking about how the Tāmaki community was being empowered and given the opportunity for self-determination and to work out their own aspirations and their own goals and that can only come under a National Government. We believe that the answers to our social ills lie in our communities. That is why we support Whānau Ora that is why we support the Tāmaki redevelopment and that is why we support schemes that empower our communities and give them the ability to determine their own successes.This Budget is also about health. Ms King over there is a former health Minister but what she did under her reign was she doubled the spending but the outcomes diminished.Hon Annette King: Not true.Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA: The outcomes actually got worse under her reign. I like Ms King but her record is poor. She cannot stand on her record. [Interruption] I really admire her but her record is poor. What we have done in the health portfolio is increase spending. We have got immunisation rates up. We have got health outcomes really doing well. I say to members opposite that they should look at our track record. They should look at what we have done in health in education and in housing.I also really admire what our Government is doing in the transport sector. We have funded the electrification of trains in Auckland. We have given some targets around the inner city loop and how we can achieve those targets and where we are going in terms of public transport. But what we have also done is we have invested in highways that actually promote economic growth to our regions. That is what is critical here—economic growth.We know that tourism numbers are up. We know that jobs are being created in the tourism sector. When I make my business visits locally in Maungakiekie I know that the IT sector is actually thriving. We also know that in terms of local manufacturing—and Maungakiekie is the hub of light manufacturing in the country—we have companies like Compac Sorting Equipment and we have companies like Coca-Cola that employ thousands upon thousands of locals. We know that that economic growth is important for our people.This Government has created over 170000 jobs in the last 4 years. We are about to create another 150000 jobs in the next 4 years. We are a Government that is clearly on top of our game—creating jobs providing for the needs of our less able and for our vulnerable kids. That is what is at the heart of this Budget. I am proud of that. I am proud of the fact that we are helping people who really are at the poor end of the scale. We are helping them lift up and improve their aspirations and their dreams by getting off welfare and into jobs. This Budget is another stellar Budget by the Hon Bill English. It is a Budget that I am supportive of and I commend it to this House.