Upston Louise: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Upston Louise: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5908. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 Ask any person in any street in any town in New Zealand what is the single most important thing to them. It is the economy; it is jobs. 
Grant Robertson 
: Where are they then? 
LOUISE UPSTON 
: Interesting Mr Robertson because in question time yesterday and today I was waiting. I was waiting for the question from the Opposition members about jobs. They had this manufacturing jobs crisis last week but there was not one question in the House. It was interesting because actually I think that was more of a photo opportunity and given the number of people who attended you could have taken that photo in a phone box. 
Instead this side of the House is focusing on what matters to New Zealanders to hard-working New Zealanders who are doing their bit. Every speaker on this side of the House has spoken about growing the economy and has spoken about jobs. I do not want to repeat the wonderful facts and figures about what this Government has produced in that space. I want to turn my attention instead to the fantastic work that is being done in the area of welfare reform because this Government is ambitious for New Zealand. I want to read you a quote: “We are actually trying to do something about the cycle of disadvantage that children of single parents on welfare dependency experience. The evidence is that those children have fewer opportunities in life if their parent continues on welfare payment and does not get an opportunity to connect to work.” So this quote—is it from the Children’s Commissioner’s expert panel? No it is not. Is it from the Minister for Social Development or the Minister for Economic Development or the Minister of Finance? No. This is a direct quote from the Labor Government in Australia and its leader of the Senate. It is introducing welfare reforms that go way further than what we are doing here in New Zealand. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Read it again. Read it again. 
LOUISE UPSTON 
: Yes it is quite interesting. We are actually trying to do something about the cycle of disadvantage that children of single parents on welfare dependency experience. So our Minister Paula Bennett is making gutsy decisions. We are doing the reforms that that side of the House did not deal to when it had the opportunity. As a result there are 10400—[ 
Interruption 
]—no listen to the facts—fewer New Zealanders on welfare. Join the dots. 
Hon Annette King 
: Oh yeah! 
LOUISE UPSTON 
: I have just quoted you. I am quoting your partner party in Australia—and I thought actually that the two Labour parties were very close—about the fact that welfare is not the answer in terms of lifting children and families up but work is. That is why Labor is putting full-time work requirements on sole parents when their youngest child is 8. It is not the Liberals; it is the Labor Party. 
I am really proud of the results that this side of the House is achieving in Government: 2300 more people who were on the domestic purposes benefit took up part-time work and 13000 people went off the domestic purposes benefit into work. Those are results we should be proud of because that side of the House is quite quick to talk about child poverty. What is the path out of poverty? It is work. But no that side of the House is not willing to deal with the tough questions. Its counterparts in Australia are; they are doing it. If we look at the evidence the evidence suggests that the most effective way to achieve long-term sustained reduction in child poverty is to address its causes directly. That is what the Government is doing. 
I am really proud of the record that this Government has in welfare reform. We have tackled the tough issues and we will continue to tackle the tough issues because that is what is important to the hard-working New Zealanders whom we represent. We are in touch with them we are asking them and we are listening to them. That is why we are clear that it is work not welfare that provides a brighter future.