Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Mr Speaker. I follow my colleague who talked about the Prime Minister's kind of pledge about it being a positive campaign. Prime Minister Ardern also talked about the fact that this was going to be the most open and transparent Government that had ever been that last year was going to be the year of delivery and that this year was going to be about truth and honesty. Well how quickly things change.One of the things that people rely on from their Prime Minister is a Prime Minister who demands—actually the Cabinet Manual states it so it's not about demanding it it's just about delivering it—standards of Ministers in their Cabinet. That doesn't say Ministers of the same political party in their Cabinet; it says Ministers.So it's somewhat fascinating to see—when we have pretty much exactly the same situation play out as did in 2008—a Minister in Cabinet not standing down not offering to stand down or not being stood down by the Prime Minister and two very nasty issues occurring related to ministerial behaviour. It's not about are you the leader of a political party; it's a Minister in Cabinet.The Prime Minister's job is to uphold the standards to uphold the standards that the New Zealand public expect of their Cabinet. As my colleague Nikki Kaye spoke about before a very new low in this place last week and that was by the Deputy Prime Minister admitting to the media that he was involved in the covert surveillance of journalists. So—Darroch Ball: That's not true.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: —if that's what the Prime Minister was talking about when it was about—SPEAKER: Order! Order! That is not an acceptable interjection. The member will withdraw and apologise.Darroch Ball: I withdraw and apologise.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: So if that's the standard if that's what the Prime Minister wants New Zealanders to think of when she talks about the most open and transparent Government when she talks about truth and honesty and when she talked about last year as the year of delivery well I'm sad to say it's a pretty low bar because at the end of the day New Zealanders want a Government who delivers. Actually they want a Prime Minister who isn't just full of hot air. At the end of the day she leads a team. She is accountable for every single Minister in her Cabinet not just the ones she wants to have.So let's look at some of the things that she said in her statement because this is of course the debate on the Prime Minister's statement so I'm going to touch on a few.Child poverty—she talked about cost pressures for families about new jobs that have been created about the so-called transformation of the welfare system and about things like Mana in Mahi which she was an enormously proud of. Well the reality is talk is cheap—talk is cheap. At the end of the day New Zealanders want to know that the members of Parliament in this place—and I do agree with the speaker who resumed her seat before me—New Zealanders want to know that the people in this place are doing their damnedest to improve their quality of life.So child poverty was meant to be the top priority for Jacinda Ardern and she was going to solve it. Well guess what! We've got 15000 more children living in benefit-dependent homes. We know that 60 percent of children who live in hardship come from benefit-dependent homes. Seven of the nine indicators of poverty have gone up so on that one area alone the Prime Minister is not delivering.Actually if you think about—as many of my colleagues do and we discuss it on a regular basis—you know supporting the most vulnerable what does it come down to? Can they afford their everyday costs whether it's housing whether it's petrol whether it's filling the supermarket basket and making sure that they've got food at home? Well the reality is we now have a record number of Kiwis who are seeking hardship assistance—half a billion dollars more in assistance. So this isn't a country where New Zealanders are doing it well. They're not doing it better than they were two years ago.So if as the member opposite said before this is a Prime Minister who's talking truth and honesty can we at least get some honesty around the number of Kiwis who are doing it tougher under this Government than they were two years ago? The housing crisis as they often wanted to talk about. Social housing register: three times as many people on the social housing register—three times as many people.Hon Peeni Henare: Nine years.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: So it's really unfortunate that the member opposite isn't interested because at the end of the day when this Government came in the number of people who were on jobseeker support or the dole—oh that's right we're not allowed to call it the dole" in here according to the Minister for Social Development even though truth and honesty that's what the Prime Minister calls it.Hon Peeni Henare: It's not the "dole".Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Oh here we go again. They don't want to be held accountable for the 27000 more New Zealanders that get the dole. Remind the Prime Minister—remind the Prime Minister. But 27000 more New Zealanders have to front up to Work and Income because there aren't the jobs available.Oh and the Prime Minister was bragging about the fact that there were a large number of jobs that have been created. What was that number? This is the world of truth and honesty. Eighty-seven thousand; 4000 a month compared to 10000 a month under National—4000 a month. So why is it—oh now the members opposite have gone quiet because at the end of the day every single one of those 27000 people don't have the same opportunities because they're not in work.Oh and what was the big flagship employment programme? Mana in Mahi. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern launched it and said 4000 people in the next year. Then it became 2000. Then it became 2000 in four years. So it's a bit like the KiwiBuild of employment initiatives where I think there's been about 300 people so far.What members opposite fail to realise when you fail to deliver for the most vulnerable New Zealanders guess what! It's the children in those households that are the most affected. So when we say 15000 more children in benefit-dependent homes they clearly don't care about it. So instead they talk about this transformation of the welfare State. Where is that transformation Associate Minister for Social Development? Where is the transformation of the welfare State? This is a campaign of truth and honesty.Three out of 42 recommendations. So you know a group of very hard-working New Zealanders that participated in that advisory group—one of the 300 working groups by the way—put a huge amount of effort into making recommendations and the Government accepted three. So it ain't going to change any time soon.So unfortunately we have more New Zealanders who are stuck in poverty because they can't get a job. These are New Zealanders that you know they want to work but actually when they go into Work and Income because there's all these new case managers they can go for three months with not one conversation with someone from Work and Income about getting a job. That is disgraceful—that is absolutely disgraceful. So the caseworkers—Hon Poto Williams: Prove it.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Actually it's in the Ministry of Social Development's own statistics and answers in terms of employment engagements. It's called a written parliamentary question. If that member opposite who is a Minister Associate Minister for Social Development doesn't believe the written parliamentary questions that her own department is providing how is that a campaign of truth and honesty? I ask you that. How is this a campaign of truth and honesty if the Minister herself doesn't have confidence in the answers that are given to members opposite whose job it is to hold the Government to account? Oh but actually we're not allowed to ask questions about the 27000 extra people who now have to ask for support because they can't get a job—they can't get a job; 27000 more people. I'm particularly interested in young people who don't have those opportunities: 7000 more people under the age of 25—7000. That's a crime. That is a crime of lost opportunity. National knows what you need to create jobs give people opportunities and give them the ability to be in the driver's seat of their own lives making their own choices looking after their—SPEAKER: Order! Order!"