Macindoe Tim: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMacindoe Tim: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13709. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): I am wearing a gerbera which is the symbol for Arthritis New Zealand to acknowledge and celebrate the organisation’s wonderful work with the many New Zealanders who are living with that debilitating and often painful condition. I also want to acknowledge those who are out collecting in their annual appeal this week—in pretty inclement conditions in many parts of the country. I am always so proud of the generosity of New Zealanders in responding to such good causes.I am also very proud to be a member of a Government that is doing such a good job focusing on the challenges and the issues that matter to New Zealanders and is succeeding. One of the four key planks of our current term of office as was mentioned by the Hon Jo Goodhew is delivering better public services. That is because New Zealanders want their Government to spend their hard-earned tax dollars wisely and they deserve to see positive results for that expenditure. We have been through very challenging times since the recession hit at the end of 2007 and our Government has had to make many tough decisions to get public spending under control and the Government’s books back into surplus. We are succeeding and that is a remarkable achievement which has earned admiration from Standard and Poor’s the IMF and many Governments that look on New Zealand with great envy.The members opposite love to talk of cuts. Frequently they make them up because the facts do not support the story they are trying to tell. In fact their constant misrepresentation of the Government’s fiscal strategy and significant progress is a major reason for their failure to connect with the electorate at large or to persuade the public to accept their attempts to rewrite history.My constituents in Hamilton West know we have had to get Government spending under control after the reckless approach that we inherited at the end of 2008 and they understand that we are following a programme to attract investment in our economy and job creation. They are unimpressed by the constant opposition of Labour MPs and Green MPs to the many options that we are suggesting to create new job opportunities and investment in this country. The facts demonstrate that our plan is getting resultsbecause the economy is growing wages are increasing and interest rates are at record lows.More than 65000 jobs have been created in the past 2 years and our unemployment rate is lower than that of most developed countries. Business confidence is the highest it has been this century and our manufacturing sector has grown 9.2 percent since 2009—an amazing turn-round from just a year before when Labour was in office and it plummeted. Our fiscal outlook has improved markedly our management of the economy is sound we are on track to surplus in 2014-15 and we will be one of the few countries in the world that will not be increasing public debt at that point.At the start of this term of Government the Prime Minister set some very ambitious targets for those who are delivering better public services in our country. That is because we are an ambitious Government and because New Zealanders want to see better outcomes across health education social welfare our criminal justice system and elsewhere and in every one of those areas we are delivering. The recent results are very good.Let us consider some of the results. We have committed to reducing child abuse and neglect in New Zealand because it is a tragic blight on our society. In the year to March 2013 we have seen a 3.5 percent reduction in the number of New Zealand children who are experiencing substantiated physical abuse. It is still a major challenge and I am absolutely committed to the Children’s Action Plan which Paula Bennett has rolled out because it will deliver further gains and further safety for our children in this country. Our crime rate is the lowest it has been for 30 years and our police are doing a superb job—Chris Auchinvole: How long?TIM MACINDOE: Thirty years. The police do a superb job on the front line. Most encouragingly youth crime has fallen by 19 percent in just 2 years. We have already exceeded the Better Public Services target.As a political candidate and latterly as an MP I hammered the need for a much greater focus on rehabilitating those who are already in our criminal justice system because there is no point in incarcerating offenders at great expense to taxpayers if we do nothing to reduce the likelihood of their reoffending on release. That is why I warmly welcome a raft of initiatives that we have seen in recent months from the Hon Anne Tolley. We have seen a new nationwide reintegration programme called Out of Gate which will deliver fantastic services to those who are on the point of being released. It is a fantastic initiative. I really commend it. It will ensure they have much greater options to get a job at that crucial time just before their release when they could be at risk of reoffending.We have seen that there are fewer victims of crime and there are further reductions in reoffending rates as a result of the new education strategy that is being rolled out for prisoners. The majority of prisoners cannot read or write properly. This is a serious driver of crime. That is why we are tackling the problem. It is working.