SpeechTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Kia ora Mr Speaker. The thing that annoys me this afternoon as I'm sitting here listening to the debates from the other side is that the National Party Opposition have absolutely got everybody in the weeds talking about beneficiary bashing. It's the same old diatribe that they roll out every time they start feeling good about themselves and they start seeing a lift in the polls: they go for the default. And they need a new default you see because the last one about being tough on crime? They have to revise that—there's stuff going on at the moment.So they have to go for the second one on the list which is that they're tough on beneficiaries. So what do they do? They roll out the same old lines about beneficiaries and start the witch hunt around the country towards those people that need a little bit of extra Government support. And do you know what? Sometimes people do need a little bit of Government support. Sometimes they need to come to the Government and say I haven't got a job. I need some extra support." So that's what we've gone and done and we're doing it and they have no idea that the policy they're putting up is actually already in motion.Labour has always been about work—it's in the name; it's in the name! Labour has always been about work but not just work—meaningful work that makes a difference to a person's life so that it's not just a part-time job doing something that they absolutely don't want to do. It's about finding meaning in life and that's what they've gone and done. That's what we've got out there: we've got a bunch of people who've said "I need a bit of extra support. I need some meaningful employment. I don't want it to be short term but also I want to be paid meaningfully as well." And there's some people out there who say "You know they should take the first job that's coming to them." But actually the cost of living is going up for everybody including beneficiaries that really need some support. So every time that we've gone and hiked up the minimum wage in New Zealand the Opposition have voted against it. They don't like that. They think that it should still be back at the $15.25 that it was when we came in in 2017.What we've gone and done is we've lifted up the pay rates we've stood alongside these people who find themselves needing Government support and we've put in place a suite of packages. You've heard them from different members that have stood up from our side this afternoon. We've talked about the Mana in Mahi programme and it is a great programme. We've surpassed the target that we've set for ourselves and it was the Opposition that always says that Labour hates targets—"They don't like targets." Well here's something: we don't mind a target or two and we exceeded ours. So give us a clap for actually doing that. But no they won't because they'll just want to rubbish it. They think that it's a rubbish policy. I say it's not. I say it's gone and put 5000 job seekers into employment.If you want to talk about another programme back in the Bay of Plenty we've actually amplified our work in driver licensing and I think that's incredibly important to remember. I remember going to the launch of the Howard League's programme in the Eastern Bay of Plenty and it was there that Mike Williams got up and he talked about a few numbers. He talked about 15 being the number of Māori in this country in a percentage. He talked about 53 which was the number of Māori that are in our prisons around the country and then he talks about 65 which is the percentage of Maōri who have ended up in the prison system because of a driver licensing infringement. We've done lots of things to be able to turn around the plight of those people needing extra support whether it's through Mana in Mahi He Poutama Rangatahi which the Opposition crow about but it was us that started it—well it was us that gave effect to it and gave it a budget as well and rolled it out successfully around the country. So Mana in Mahi He Poutama Rangatahi and driver licensing.I got to talk to some third-year nursing students from Rotorua the other day. I went in and spoke to them. They're running for the light at the end of the tunnel. They've had a big couple of years. But you know what we talked about? How successful fees-free education was for them to be able to reduce the barrier to get into the Bachelor of Nursing degree.So you know what? Despite all the rubbishing that's coming from the other side of the House we just need to take a bit of stock and remember that there have been a lot of programmes that this Government has rolled out. They don't want to know that it's been successful but to those people who are listening around the country they have been successful. What we've done over on this side of the House is we have progressed the situation. They would have us regress back into the place that we were in when we picked up the shambles of a mess that this country was in in 2017."