Tolley AnneHon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Children): I want to begin today by offering my congratulations to the new Labour team to the new leader and to the new deputy and I wish them well because they are going to need it. They are going to need it.Chris Hipkins: I don't think you really do.Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Ah yes I do—yes I do. I wish them all the luck in the world because they are going to need it because the problem is not leadership; it is about taking to the country with confidence and with a plan that is shown to be working and that is what Labour has not done. It has not done it.It has not got a credible plan whereas on this side of the House we know—we have seen strong stable Government through some of the toughest times that this country has ever faced. Through the global financial crisis through the Canterbury-Christchurch earthquakes and more recently with the Kaikōura earthquakes this Government has shown leadership it has shown support and it has shown that it can get the economy back in order so that it can be of support to people when they are in need.I want to say to Marama Davidson the previous speaker that the hearts of all of us in this House go out to those people who fall on hard times. Of course we want to have a country that has a helping hand and that shows a helping hand to those who fall on hard times but there are hard-working New Zealanders who provide that so there always has to be a balance. There always has to be that balance between where you can have two households literally living next door to one another where some people are struggling and others are working hard to pay their taxes and raise their families so there always has to be that balance which means there always has to be some form of obligation. So of course we want the sort of country that cares for one another and provides but by the same token there has to be some obligation.I am very proud to be part of a Government that has overseen the restoration of this country's economy to the stage where we now have surpluses and we can make choices about how we spend those surpluses for the benefit of the wider New Zealand community. I was very proud last year to see the first raise in the benefit levels in over 40 years going to some of the poorest in our community and proud again of Budget 2017 with that $2 billion package addressing both the accommodation supplement and low income levels through Working for Families which will see over a million people get an average of $26 a week.But more importantly I am really proud to have been able to lead the overhaul of our child protection system. This is a 4- to 5-year process—in fact it will probably be a 6- to 7-year process by the time we are finished. It is important that we understand when we are reaching out to those most vulnerable in our community that the most vulnerable are children because they have no voice. We talk about their parents and we provide assistance to their parents whether it is housing whether it is benefits whether it is the accommodation supplement etc. but those children for no fault of their own start their lives under severe circumstances. We have an obligation which is why we come into Government in the first place why we come into this House to support them.Last year we had the first set of legislative reforms and just 3 weeks ago the big legislative programme passed through this House. I have to say that I am extremely disappointed because I have sat in this House for some years now listening to members talk about the responsibility that we have to these young vulnerable New Zealand children and young people and those very people when they had the opportunity to put those children at the centre of a big legislative change and a big system change actually voted against it. I was even more disappointed when it became clear that they had not done their homework and read the bill that came back into the House from the Social Services Committee but apart from all that if we want a system that actually puts those children's interests at the heart of everything we do then we need to have their voices and that legislation gave them their voice. It gave them their voice not only for themselves but for the system and it was disappointing that the Opposition parties all voted against it.