Pugh MaureenMAUREEN PUGH (National): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. It is refreshing to hear someone from that side of the House actually talk about the policy they're delivering because it seems to be that in the general debate the Government benches seem to spend most of their time criticising the Opposition and maybe that is as has been suggested a little bit of jealousy over there. I want to focus my contribution today on this wonderful new discussion document that has been launched this week. We are calling this our social services discussion document and it goes to demonstrate that while we have been in Opposition we have not been sitting on the couch with our feet on the desk. We have actually been working. We have been talking to the people who are affected by social policy from our social housing providers our NGOs our community service groups Government departments and volunteers. They have all helped us get this document to where it is today. There are some commitments that we're making in this document about our direction of travel for social services. There are some proposals that we're seeking feedback on but there are also some questions and we're expecting some very honest answers from the people who contribute back in their feedback because we do want to hear their responses. We as we've heard today do believe that the Kiwis in this country do deserve a safety net but at the same time we have to remember that to have social welfare at all relies on the hard work of New Zealanders who get up who go to work and who pay their taxes. We also know and recognise that the very best form of welfare is the family. So in helping families we recognise that we are helping all Kiwis and we're helping them to live better lives. At the heart of our thinking in this document is our social investment approach. That means investing early and breaking those cycles of dependency but also making sure that we grow the best population that we possibly can. We've used science we've used data and facts to support our direction of travel and we know that the very best interventions are the earliest ones. So I'm very pleased to have contributed to the document and my contribution was investing heavily in the first thousand days of a child's life from conception. We know that not all mums and dads are prepared for life with a new baby and becoming parents and not everyone has the support of a fully functioning family behind them to support them. So we're proposing a whole new range of ways that we can support people to become great parents. We're going to introduce our former target of having 90 percent of pregnant women registered with a lead carer in their first trimester—a target that was removed by the current Government when they removed the Better Public Services targets because I guess if you don't measure it then you can't be held to account. We're not afraid to be held to account. We want to grow healthy babies and we want to help pregnant mums understand how their lifestyle and their diet impacts on their growing baby and that is a very big first step. Already announced by the Hon Louise Upston is a three-day stay helping new mums to get the care and support they need if they so wish. For those that don't wish to stay for three days we are ring-fencing that funding so that DHBs cannot spend it elsewhere and that means that if mums choose to go home early then those that need a bit more support and need a few more days can actually use those credited days. The paid parental leave of 26 weeks—we're also proposing in this document that parents can split that and share it so that they can spend that time at home together with their new baby if they so wish. I believe that investing in the first thousand days of a child's life is the best investment that we can make as a country. We've used specialist information and specialists to help guide us in this development because we know that those who are nurtured survive the best. We are looking for solutions that break the cycles of poverty and tackle the root causes and not just looking to the symptoms. Thank you sir.