Barclay Todd: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarclay Todd: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4002. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD BARCLAY (National—Clutha-Southland): It is a privilege to carry on with the second phase of “Team South”. I can quite proudly say that I have got an ironed shirt and it was fully thanks to my mother joining the workforce as soon as she could following my easy birth I can imagine. It is a pleasure to speak on this Budget for a number of reasons. Firstly after a couple of the speeches that I have heard so far tonight from the Opposition members it is clear that they are not fit for Government. They are not even fit for Opposition given that they clearly have not read major aspects of this Budget. They have talked about regional New Zealand not getting a look-in. We can say—and we have heard from Sarah Dowie tonight—that Southland has experienced 15 percent growth over the last year. It is one of the largest growth-rates in the country and we have got one of the lowest unemployment rates at 3.1 percent.Clare Curran: How come I’ve got your constituents coming to my office?TODD BARCLAY: The member over there for Dunedin South Clare Curran as well speaking about information and communication technology and ultra-fast broadband—these services are being rolled out continuously throughout New Zealand. Regional New Zealand whether it be through ultra-fast broadband or the Rural Broadband Initiative is getting great gains through the initiatives being driven by this Government.What I want to talk about tonight is the system of Government reforms and that has been touched on by Paula Bennett tonight because she is one of the main architects of it along with the Hon Bill English and Prime Minister John Key. This is fundamentally one of the biggest things—and one that does not get enough attention I do not think—that this Government has done that is going to make systemic changes going forward. I hope that one day when unfortunately there is a future Labour Government some of these changes that we have put in place through the Better Public Services framework will actually stay in place and help protect against frivolous spending and empty programmes that are simply not benefiting New Zealanders.What we have done through these reforms is to say that for far too long they have been focused on increasing spending in Government departments for the sake of increasing spending in Government departments whereas this Government is focused on individuals and on people who need the investment the most. So what we have seen through the work of Paula Bennett Bill English and now the Hon Anne Tolley in the social welfare space is that they have identified some of the largest cost drivers in the social welfare space and I want to touch on two of these groups.First I want to touch on teen sole parents. We know that since we have come into Government we have reduced the number of these by almost 50 percent to a level of about 2600. We know that the average expected time that the teen sole parent will spend on a benefit is 20 years at a cost of around $250000 each over their lifetime on a benefit. But if they have a qualification their time on a benefit automatically reduces from 20 years to 7 years. So as part of Budget 2015 what was announced is that from 4 April 2016 the childcare assistance rate will increase from $4 to $5 an hour for low-income families. This does not sound like a lot of money but for these families it is. It is a significant amount of money over a long period of time. It helps lower-income parents get access to affordable childcare and supports them in employment education and training. The benefit rates have increased in real value as well for the first time in 43 years.For the Labour Party members to say this is absolutely nothing and is not making an impact is incredibly hilarious actually given they are meant to be the party that looks out for the most vulnerable New Zealanders—or the self-proclaimed party that does that. It is the National-led Government that has made some fundamental changes affecting some of our most vulnerable New Zealanders. Just as a snapshot going back to teen sole parents in my electorate alone we have got 185 teen sole parents in Gore 168 in the Clutha district and 98 in Queenstown. These are real people who will experience real benefits from the change that this Government has put in place.The next portion of high cost drivers which relates directly to my electorate as well are children in care. We know that these members of society are hugely disproportionate cost drivers. Within this group we know that there are a group of 2000 kids whose future prison costs based on 30 years’ worth of records will be $750 million. Budget 2015 appropriates almost $60 million to help at-risk children through new operational funding and capital grants to Child Youth and Family for its Children’s Teams. In Balclutha we have got 12 children who are in care in Gore we have got 19 and we have got a number of other kids across other parts of the electorate as well. We know that included in one of these groups we have got one kid who is 12 years old and who has had 95 foster families. That is utterly outrageous and it is not something that this Government wants to see continuing. That is why I wholeheartedly believe that these changes will make an impact on real New Zealanders. Thank you.