Moroney Sue; Mallard TrevorSUE MORONEY (Labour): They used to be known as the Key team" and now they have just turned into the B-team. Did that speech not say it all really? There was Jono Naylor saying how excited he is to get out of the place. He cannot wait to get out of the place. But before he goes he thought he would talk about a new model for social housing—the rest of New Zealand calls them cars. But that is what National calls it. When people are sleeping in cars and when people are sleeping in tents on riverbanks National says that is a new model of social housing. It is an absolute disgrace.I want to start off this speech by telling people how happy I am. I am happy that it is 2017 and this is the year that New Zealanders get to change the Government. They get to change the Government and for many New Zealanders—for most New Zealanders—they can hardly wait. Although what the Salvation Army told us this morning is absolutely true—the economy has started to grow and yet poverty remains stubbornly stable. It remains stable. So from the heights of the global financial crisis poverty rose under this Government and it has remained there despite the fact that the economy is growing.I want to tell listeners the story of a constituent whom I went to see last week. I think that this woman represents the situation that far too many New Zealanders find themselves in. She is 21; her partner is also 21. They both work full time. They have just had their first baby. After they have paid a ridiculously high rent for a two-bedroom unit on the back of another house in Hamilton—they are paying $380 a week for the privilege of living in that two-bedroom unit. After they have paid that and they have paid for their car insurance and their medical insurance and their food for the week they have $45 left each week. These are two New Zealanders trying to do the best they can working full time but they like too many other New Zealanders are paying a high rent. Like too many other New Zealanders they are stuck on the minimum wage.It used to be that we kind of accepted that when you got your first job—maybe at 18 or 19—you would be on the minimum wage there and after you had been doing that job for a little while of course your wage would go up. But that is not what is happening and that is not what has happened for these two 21-year-olds. They are stuck on the minimum wage and they know that they are going to be stuck there for some time to come. At the end of the week: $45. That is $45 to get themselves to and from work $45 to pay for any medical emergencies they might have $45 a week to pay for formula for their baby $45 a week to pay for nappies and all the other things that come with having a new young child. That is the trap that far too many New Zealanders find themselves in: stuck in minimum-wage jobs not going anywhere and paying high rents. The squeeze is such that they just cannot make ends meet.I went to see them because they had written an email—they had sent it to many members of Parliament—to describe their predicament and ask for help. Two 21-year-olds doing the best they can both in full-time employment are asking members of Parliament for help. They had gone to Work and Income and found that they could not receive help there so how are they to feed their family? How are they to survive? Unfortunately although my office can help them and has helped them to get a little bit more support into that household the truth is that while they are paying high rent and while they are on low wages—like far too many New Zealanders are—they are not going to be able to get ahead. That is the truth of what is happening for that family and far too many others like them. I say "far too many others like them" because the Salvation Army told us this morning when it did its state of the nation speech that in 2011 around 64000 New Zealanders relied on the minimum wage for their income. That is a reasonably high number. But the shocking thing is that by 2016 last year that number had risen to 152000—actually almost 153000 New Zealanders reliant on the minimum wage—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I was informed by the whips that this is a split call. The member's time has expired."