Edmonds BarbaraBARBARA EDMONDS (Labour—Mana): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to be able to take a call on the Appropriation (2021/22 Estimates) Bill and I thank Nicola Willis the member on the other side of the House who has just finished and is sitting down for her scrutiny of the actual bill because it was really disappointing when the other side of the House didn't even bother with a shadow Budget for this one unlike other Opposition parties. But any which way it's good to see someone is scrutinising the bill—Damien Smith: The ACT Party has an alternative Budget. BARBARA EDMONDS: —and is actually paying attention just in case there was an $11 billion hole. Maybe that's why they didn't do a shadow Budget. But yes I will acknowledge the member over there from ACT who did have a shadow Budget. At least there is an Opposition here in the House today. We've heard from previous speakers—particularly the Minister of Finance in the first reading and second reading of this bill—that Budget 2021 is about securing our recovery from COVID. It lays the foundations for coming out of COVID stronger by addressing our long-term challenges while making sure we can continue to grow our economy. Now last week I had the pleasure of sitting down in the Porirua City Council business growth forum where the Minister took us through a number of the initiatives which are in this bill and what was really interesting was that we had an independent economist come and speak directly after the Minister who took us through the growth figures for Porirua City. Now Porirua City for those who are not familiar is the biggest city within my electorate of Mana. What they took us through and took the audience through was that there have been a number of indicators that show that unlike some parts Porirua City is growing. We had a GDP in 2020 of 2.8 percent compared to 1.6 percent for the rest of New Zealand. Employment is up 1.9 percent compared to 1.6 percent for the rest of the country. Productivity is also up. The reason why a lot of those indicators are up is because of the construction industry which is the main industry that comes out of Porirua and the reason why the construction industry is up is because of a number of the initiatives in this bill. One of the biggest decisions that the Government made last term when they were hit with COVID was to keep the apprenticeships scheme going. We saw that there was a significant increase in apprenticeships because what we saw with the global financial crisis was that one of the first things that were laid off were the apprentices but actually last year we made a conscious decision to keep that apprenticeship growth scheme which is a big part of the construction industry—again going back to Porirua. But what we saw was that pre-COVID only 14 percent of apprenticeships were actually held by women. The Apprenticeship Boost scheme has seen that contribution from women in apprenticeships increase from 14 percent to 30 percent. So that fits not only the investment that is in this bill but those decisions that were made last year. I wanted to touch on some of the other initiatives which are in this bill for women which were in Budget 2021—in particular women's health. I'm really heartened to see our colleague and Minister the Hon Kiritapu Allan who yesterday was out with her community having a look at the floods and some of the investment that is in here is very personal to a lot of us on this side of the House such as for the cervical-screening programme which saw an investment boost of $53 million. So that will go towards a new test which will replace the current smear test and 1.4 million women between the ages of 25 and 69 will be eligible for this test. It's a simple swab that can be done in the privacy of their own home or wherever they want to take the test. So at this time I just want to acknowledge our colleague—a big Wassup!" to our sis. Hopefully Kiritapu you will be back with us soon and we wish you well for the rest of your recovery post your treatment. There was also an additional $66 million within this bill for a new breast-screening system. That's a major upgrade of the IT infrastructure to establish a new system to proactively identify and enrol eligible women into this scheme. It is expected the upgraded system will reach an estimated 271000 more women who are currently not in this programme. So my biggest thanks as well to the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall for her advocacy in this area and also to the Minister for Women the Hon Jan Tinetti. You know we have got the biggest women's caucus on this side of the House so with representation comes advocacy for these really important schemes which we're seeing in Budget 2021. I also want to give my acknowledgment to another female Minister the Hon Poto Williams. Now there was some conversation on the other side of the House just before me around Crown Māori partnerships and around Ihumātao. Actually what Minister Poto Williams has managed to do is she's expanded a really critical piece of Crown Māori partnership around Te Pae Oranga in the police-justice portfolio. Now Te Pae Oranga did start in 2013 when the panels were established in the Hutt Valley Gisborne and Manukau and in recent years—back in 2018—the Hon Stuart Nash increased that number of what they call iwi panels. It was gifted the name Te Pae Oranga by the Māori King in 2018. It is an initiative that is widely supported by Māori leaders across Aotearoa and there are currently 16 panels in different locations around the country. I've got on the list Moerewa Waitematā Auckland City Papakura Māngere Hamilton Rotorua Whakatāne Gisborne Hastings Taranaki Masterton Lower Hutt Nelson Christchurch and Invercargill and two more will be in place by the end of this month. So Budget 2021 has supplemented the appropriation for the current panels by giving additional funding for 12 more te pae oranga or iwi community panels taking it to a total of 30 over four years. What does that come down to? It comes down to the priority on this side of the House that we want to deliver on our commitment to reduce reoffending and keep our communities safer with this significant investment. This investment works. An evaluation published in 2019 showed that the programme reduced harm from reoffending by 22 percent. That's evidence-based. That is investing in programmes that absolutely work. The programme provides an alternative resolution path where community leaders support participants to account for their offending and help them to make a plan to put things right. Those plans include restorative actions that participants must complete and conditions they must follow. It is a really big step when you have to one go on to a marae and be accountable not only for your actions but also be accountable to your aunties to your marae leaders and to your community leaders for the offending that you have done—so first of all they have to take account for their actions. Two they have to take account for their actions in front of their community leaders and then three they work through a plan to make sure they stop that reoffending and again it has stopped that reoffending by 22 percent. So by understanding that what works for Māori works for everyone Te Pae Oranga is a key enabler of a more humane criminal justice system through delivering tikanga Māori restorative justice services focused on accountability education and preventing of reoffending. Another really good initiative that was also funded through this appropriation bill was the $70 million to fund new rangitahi youth panels. I know that in Porirua my home town which is in Mana there has been a rangatahi panel which was released last year. The Rangatahi Courts are for young people who have admitted the charges they are facing—again accountability. They have accepted that they are accountable for their actions and then what happens is they go through a family group conference. So this is again bringing the young person one accepting that they've done wrong and accepting their actions and then having the community leaders community judges and then their family to work out a plan for how that young person can take responsibility for what they have done as well as working out how to make sure that that young person does not offend again because in the end it comes down to these young people. You could lock them up but if you don't give them a plan around rehabilitation and around recovery and they're released then they're going to reoffend again. So this investment of $70 million—$70 million—for rangatahi youth court is again around accountability and around plans for making sure that our young people are supported so that they don't reoffend. It could be as simple as a driver's licence course because for a lot of people we understand that the entry into the justice system is through not having had a driver's licence course. There is also funding within this bill for 35 fulltime-equivalent positions within police to support and enable these programmes Te Pae Oranga and the Rangatahi Courts. Funding has also been allocated to explore future referral pathways into this programme from Ara Poutama Aotearoa and the judiciary. On this side of the House this Government is committed to supporting initiatives that will have a meaningful impact on an individual and that will strengthen its commitment to the Māori-Crown relationship. So once again I'd like to commend this bill to the House. I'd like to acknowledge all the Ministers who have been involved in pushing this through for their advocacy for our women and for our young people. Kia ora."