Ngaro Alfred: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNgaro Alfred: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 18 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1699. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ALFRED NGARO (National): It is an honour to speak this afternoon on the Prime Minister’s statement. Last week I attended the release of the state of the nation report from the Salvation Army. The report is entitled A Mountain All Can Climb. Why I was heartened by this report was actually that the statements that were used as the foundation of this report were talking about the values that Sir Edmund Hillary had. He talked about being of modest ability and having determination and ambition which really sort of states the things that we as a Government also believe that all New Zealanders have and that are important for a growing and thriving country as well.At that time on that morning what was quite interesting was that the Salvation Army was putting forward this report to indicate what it believed the Government was doing to meet the needs of the country. It is a report that has 22 indicators and five focus areas and often the Salvation Army’s report is looked at as being a critique on the social and economic infrastructure of the country and its state at that time. I want to say that this report is encouraging for the Government. Out of the 22 indicators 13 of those indicators indicate that there are things that the Government is doing that are making a difference.We can hear from the Opposition which will tell us about all the things that are going wrong from the inside looking out to the public out there. We will also tell our story. What becomes heartening and what creates evidence to the fact of whether we are making a difference is when those social commentators on the outside validate the direction that this Government has taken.I want to encourage the indicators in this report. It talks about child poverty which has been reduced by 2 percent. Yes we know there is more to come and there is more to do but the signs are encouraging. Children at risk—the number of substantiated cases of child abuse or neglect is down by 15 percent. On child poverty the report talks about the percentage of children living in benefit-dependent households.Today we had the annual review of the Ministry of Social Development. The opening statement by the chief executive officer Mr Brendan Boyle talked about the reduction of those benefit numbers. We on this side applauded that because that is one of the things that are absolutely important to us. From the Opposition all we heard was the little nit-picking about all the systemic things that could go wrong.The Prime Minister has made it really clear. Children in hardship is an area that we are focusing on. We know that we are beginning to make a difference to that as well. Teenage pregnancy—down by 14 percent the rate of pregnancy among 15 to 19-year-olds. Overall crime—down by 3.7 percent. We know that crime as a whole is down at a 35-year low. That is an indicator that we are proud of and we will continue that ongoing work as well. Imprisonment—down by 3.2 percent. Recidivism—down by 0.5 percent and there is still work to be done there.When we talk about jobs—Nanaia Mahuta talked about the importance of jobs and what they contribute to our communities as a whole. So let us talk about employment. The number of jobs within the economy has grown by 3.5 percent. We know that is encouraging. Household labour force surveys have shown that we have grown not only by 80000 more jobs but by 215000 jobs in the last 5 years. That is encouraging. Unemployment numbers are down by 0.4 percent—again making a difference that we know of in our communities.Let us talk about incomes. We know the difference that that makes for households in order for them to pay for the needs of their families for education for health and for recreation as well. The average weekly wage or salary for employees has risen by 1.8 percent—1.8 percent. We know that the rate of increase in the average weekly wage is far above that of inflation at the moment. Living and food costs and poverty are down by 2 percent. It truly is making a difference. Social hazards alcohol—we know that these things are making a difference.I have got 1 minute to be able to summarise and I want to summarise by quoting Simon Collins who is a social commentator for the New Zealand Herald. This is what he said in last week’s New Zealand Herald on the state of the nation report: “More jobs better incomes and fewer on welfare but we need 4000 homes”. We will not deny that there is a need for work to be done. Here is what he had as a title on the middle page on A14: “Life getting better on most indicators”.We can have the Opposition talking about all the things that are going wrong but from the outside looking in most New Zealanders—47.5 percent of whom voted for this Government—believe that we are making a difference. That is the fact. That is the truth. It is hard to argue with it but that is why this Government is making a difference. Thank you.