Sepuloni CarmelHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston): That side of the House this week have expressed an obsession with reality TV and I can see why that side of the House—coalition party a bit of a three-way awkward Married at First Sight kind of combination going on there. It's a bit of a game of Survivor who's going to last the distance how long are they going to last who's going to be kicked off next. That programme Traitors very similar to that side of the House. But I have to refer to Monday's post-Cabinet stand-up with Mark Mitchell and Luxon. It was awkward to watch. It was a bit scary. It reminded me of that programme Naked and Afraid. If that side of the House were in a reality TV programme I guarantee you the ratings would plummet. Oh hang on a second they've already experienced that. Anyway moving away from reality TV to the reality for New Zealanders because today I'm here to speak about the reality for New Zealanders. I've been on the phone recently to many of our social services; I've been on the phone to the umbrella organisations that watch out for them and they are really concerned with what they're seeing. The Government's been ignorant to the fact that their policy changes and what happens at the front line is going to have an impact on the social services and we're already starting to see it. What I'm hearing from social services is they've got more people going to them for food parcels because they're being declined hardship assistance when they go into Ministry of Social Development offices. It's like history on repeat from the last time that National was in power. We've heard from our financial services across the country our very reliable and trusted budgeting services that they are going to lose funding at a time when the financial stresses and pressures on Kiwis are only going up. And what does that mean? That means that we're going to see many of our centres I think including Dunedin and some others across the country who are going to lose those services and who will no longer be able to provide access to that support to their people who are experiencing increased interest rates cost of living hikes their incomes are not keeping up with the cost of living and they're struggling to pay for food. And then here we have a Government who is cutting support to social services. They have always done what they've done with limited resourcing but I'm proud of the fact that I was in a Government who responded to the need at the time. We came in when financial capability services had not received any baseline increase under the previous National Government for nine years. We increased their baseline funding. We responded to their need when they experienced heightened demand because of COVID and because of cost of living increases. That side of the House needs to be responsive to our social services as well. I'm really concerned because as New Zealanders continue to do it tough as front-line services are diluted even more because of the funding that's been taken away from them to give as tax breaks to landlords and to tax cuts then the pressure goes on our social services and yet we haven't heard anything from that side of the House to say that they're going to provide any level of reprieve for those social services to be able to respond to that need or demand. They are worried. As I said I have been speaking to them particularly over the course of the last week. they are seeing more New Zealanders walk through the door; they have limited resourcing. They have put their case to the Minister to their local MPs and to any relevant Minister. What they tell me is that they are not being listened to. It's important that the country knows that the cuts to the public sector are going to have a wider impact than just backroom functions in our Government agencies. It will affect our front-line resourcing and ability to respond to New Zealanders but the flow-on effects go on to impact those trusted reliable social services in our local communities and it's the New Zealanders who need that support most that are going to find themselves in a situation where that support is no longer there. It comes down to choices and that side of the House have chosen tax cuts and tax breaks for landlords over our most vulnerable people and making sure that the support is there for them. That is the choice that they have made and we do not support that choice.