7. Question No. 7—Social DevelopmentANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour) to the Minister for Social DevelopmentQuestion No. 7—Social Development7. ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour) to the Minister for Social Development: What work-focused initiatives has the Government implemented to improve the support offered through the welfare system?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): We invested an additional $59.6 million into industry partnerships which includes initiatives like our partnership with Auckland Council and partnership with Turners and Growers; $12.5 million towards strengthening employment services for disabled people; $12 million into supporting offenders into employment. We invested in 263 more work-focused case managers to increase our work-focused engagements. We've rolled out employment zones and hubs across a number of Ministry of Social Development (MSD) sites. We have enhanced our online offerings so that people looking for work can more easily access the support they need and MSD implemented and expanded Mana in Mahi to support people to find and stay in work while gaining a qualification—thanks to Minister Jackson for his leadership on this. These are just some of the work-focused initiatives that MSD has led over the past three years. There are more in particular more investments and initiatives that have been put in place due to COVID.Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki: Pātai tāpiri. How has the Ministry of Social Development supported people to find and stay in work in response to COVID-19?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: We supported employers to keep people in jobs by administering both the wage subsidy and leave support schemes supporting more than 1.7 million jobs. We bolstered our capability to respond by investing $250 million into income and employment support staff including an investment into 500 more front-line staff. We initiated rapid response teams across the hardest-hit regions to coordinate employment redeployment and income support. We broadened our product offering establishing a free Keep New Zealand Working online recruitment tool and initiating a rapid return to work service for people coming on to benefit. We committed $150 million to provide more employment support products like Flexi-wage and pre-employment training and today announced an additional $54 million towards this.SPEAKER: Order! That is excessive.Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki: Pātai tāpiri. Why has this approach been important?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Supporting people into work is a central part of our welfare system and has been a priority for our Government even prior to COVID-19. That meant we were in a strong position when COVID hit. However New Zealand will not be immune to the global headwinds and ongoing impacts of COVID. We have not been and cannot be complacent. Our approach has seen Kiwis getting into work despite the challenging circumstances. June this year saw 2000 more exits off benefit and into work than June 2019. It is important to keep in mind that MSD is not the only agency focused on jobs. Multiple agencies and Ministers are working in collaboration with businesses unions local government and NGOs to keep New Zealand working.SPEAKER: Order! Chris Bishop.Chris Bishop: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I was just going to draw your attention Mr Speaker to Speaker's ruling 179/8 about replies being concise and this is not the first instance—SPEAKER: And the member knows well that he's not allowed to and frankly that's getting disorderly.