Tolley Anne: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTolley Anne: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 18 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1688. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Social Development): It is a pleasure to stand and speak in the House today to our Prime Minister’s excellent statement. He is quite right when he says that New Zealand is in good shape and that it is getting better. Actually New Zealanders know that. When you go out and talk to them as we all did during the election campaign last year people knew that we were certainly working towards a brighter future for all New Zealanders and they gave this Government and our coalition partners a mandate to get on with the job.We have to acknowledge in all of this that New Zealanders have shown extremely good resilience throughout the years of the recession. It makes you very proud to be a Kiwi. We are the sort of people who roll up our sleeves and just get on with it when the going gets tough. That is what this Government has done. We have provided good stable leadership over the last 6 years and we have an outstanding Prime Minister who New Zealanders know is in touch with what they are thinking understands the difficulties they are having and is showing strong leadership throughout these very difficult years.During his speech the Prime Minister said that this Government was focused on improving the drivers of long-term performance. For those of us working in the social sector that means quality education for all New Zealanders it means good health for all New Zealanders it means employment and it means independence from the State for all New Zealanders. The resultsfrom the Ministry of Social Development when you look back over the past few years have been absolutely excellent. It has worked tremendously well with our community and produced some very very good results. We are seeing the lowest number of solo parents on benefits in 22 years. I have to compliment my colleague Minister Bennett who for 6 years worked away at making sure the systems were in place to support those solo parents back into work at making sure that their children were well looked after and at convincing education Ministers to invest in early childhood education and in after-school care which is so important when we are trying to talk to parents about how they go back into work. So we see the lowest number of solo parents on a benefit for 22 years.Every week in this country—every single week—1600 people move off a benefit and into work. That is an outstanding achievement when you consider the deep dark days of the recession. There are 80000 more people in work today than there were 12 months ago. Eighty thousand people who a year ago were looking for work are now out there working. Again that has not happened without a great deal of effort. Employers can take some credit for that the Government can take some credit for that and certainly the people working in Work and Income need to be given a great deal of credit for the work they have done. This country is now seeing 217000 more people working than there were 5 years ago at the height of the recession. That is an enormous achievement for any Government. We are seeing unemployment now at 5.7 percent in December which is lower than most of the other countries that we compare ourselves with—in particular as we look across the Tasman at the Australian Government which is coping with unemployment up at 6 or more percent.If you want to talk about young people we have put a tremendous amount of focus on supporting young people. They are always the first ones affected by any recession. We put in place the Youth Service that pipeline managing those young people aged 16 to 18 who are dropping out of school and waiting around to go on to a benefit and today we are seeing 40 percent more of those young people in education or training than there were 3 years ago before we started the Youth Service. Forty percent more are back in education or some form of training and that means their chances of ending up on a benefit at age 20 have dramatically reduced. They will have skills and qualifications that will help them into work.So that is some tremendous work that has been done but we are not resting on our laurels. This Government knows the research; the evidence is very clear. This Government believes that people are better off in work. They are better off supporting themselves and their families and so we are helping them into work. But this is not a new idea actually. It was quite interesting talking to a couple of other countries about how they were facing the numbers on unemployment benefits and it was quoted to me that Galen who was a prominent Greek physician surgeon and philosopher from 129 AD to 200 AD said that employment is nature’s physician and is essential to human happiness. This is not a new idea. Actually it has been around for a long long time. Of course this Government has not come up with this as a new idea; the evidence is very clear that if you have people supporting themselves and their families they feel better about themselves and they are in better health and of course we know that that enables their children to live a better and much more successful life.This Government is focused then on continuing to support people off the benefit and into employment. This year we have a great deal more to do to support them building on those early results. We are not going to rest on our laurels; there is always more to do. First of all we are going to look at extending those youth services that we put in place to support 16 to 18-year-olds. We are going to look at how we can extend those to support 18 and 19-year-olds. We know that we have the criteria for identifying those at risk but how can we support them into education? I am always a strong believer that we have got to get them those skills and qualifications. Otherwise they circle around on the benefit. But if that does not suit them how do we help and support them into work?At the end of the December quarter we had about 55000 people on Jobseeker Support who were in the health condition and disability benefit section—55000 people who should be able to be out there looking for work but because they have a health condition or a disability they have been unable to do so. It is not a long-term condition. We will be working very closely with the health sector over this year to see how we can address their health conditions earlier so that they are able to get back into work. Second we are going to look at how we can address their mental health conditions much more effectively. That is a growing area that employers have made us aware of and we will be working to help those people back into work faster and with better support.I could not possibly be talking today about the year’s plan if I did not talk about our vulnerable children. We identified 20000–odd children as part of the Children’s Action Plan in the bill that we passed last year. We have got two Children’s Teams that have been going for over a year now: one in Rotorua and one in Whangarei. This year we have opened Children’s Teams in Horowhenua Ōtaki and Marlborough and by the end of this year we will have Hamilton Tai Rāwhiti Whanganui Eastern Bay of Plenty Clendon Manurewa Papakura and Christchurch up and running. We are targeting about 20000 children who are classified as at-risk to prevent them going into State care.While I talk about State care we are undergoing a major review of Child Youth and Family—a major review. It is about the children who are victims of some horrendous neglect abuse and crime and they are victims in our society. They figure too highly in all of our statistics around prison and poor education results and we as the State owe them a better set of outcomes and so the focus for this year in Child Youth and Family is how we achieve that.I went overseas recently to look at how other countries are dealing with this and was surprised to see that although we are talking 17-18 as the age until the State takes care of children in Europe they are talking 23-25. We have a lot of work to do around how we get the voice of the child into that process and I am delighted to be able to lead some of that work this year. This is an excellent statement from our Prime Minister and I commend it to the House.Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato): Ā tēnā koe e Te Pika. Tuatahi he tino mihi rawa atu ki a koe mō ō mahi hei whakawā i ngā taupatupatu o ngā kaitōrangapū. E tika ana me mihi atu ki ngā tini mate ērā o ngā tangata rongonui kua hipa atu ki tua o te ārai tērā ki a Apirana Mahuika nō Ngāti Porou. Ki tērā o ngā tangata rongonui a Tama Huata rātou katoa e huri atu o te marama o te wiki o nanahi. Haere haere haere atu rā.[Thank you Mr Speaker. First of all I really commend you with regard to your determinations during debates by politicians. It is apt that the myriad deaths are acknowledged with regard to those noted people who have passed beyond the veil: Apirana Mahuika from Ngāti Porou; Tama Huata another famous identity; all of them throughout the month the week and yesterday. Farewell depart and journey on.]I just want to acknowledge that as this is my first speech in the House this year it is an opportunity to say how delighted I am to be back in the House on the Opposition benches holding this Government to account on the things that really matter. I listened very carefully to the Minister for Social Development speak about jobs. Why is it then that those unemployed were fewer than 100000 in 2008 and now there are 46000 more people in addition to those on the dole queue? Why is it? In the last quarter there are 8000 more people unemployed and in our towns rural communities and provinces we have seen job losses not job increases.I want to stand to support the amendment to the motion that Andrew Little moved. He made it really clear that Labour is here to represent people on the issues that matter to them in their communities and on the things that will make a real difference in their lives. The No. 1 issue for Labour is jobs jobs jobs—more jobs not fewer jobs like what the Government is dishing out. In terms of housing we want warm affordable healthy homes for all people no matter where they live where homeownership is a real prospect. Cost of living issues—we will tackle those types of issues that really hold families back and down so that they can get better opportunities through a good public education and affordable healthcare. We want a regional economy that works for everyone where people can see the benefit in their towns from Invercargill to Kaitāia from Wanganui over to Te Puke and everywhere else in between. More important—and I guess given the topic of today in question time—we want a country that we can be proud of both here and abroad.The political year has not started well for the Government at all. State homes are being sold off. Overcrowding is occurring in many communities and Alfred Ngaro knows it. Homeownership is out of reach for many and Auckland members know that more than many of us. More important homelessness is becoming more visible on the streets of many of our cities when 5 years ago that was not the case. There is a by-election in Northland and public confidence in the Government is wearing thin. The Skycity pokies deal has been revealed to the public who were being asked to put their hands in their pockets to the tune of $100 million for a world-class convention centre. That will be now significantly scaled back. Pokies for policy concessions—Labour does not support that.The Government’s position on good employment law means zero-hour contracts and unstable work conditions. That is what this Government is standing for. There is a growing gap between rich and poor where more kids are going to school without. In fact they are living without and the Government looks the other way. There are not enough teams working with the most vulnerable in our communities. Jacinda Ardern knows it and I tell you what the Minister responsible is neglecting it.The Government is potentially sending troops to Iraq without a United Nations sanction to a live combat zone all the while assuring the public that they will be behind the wire. What we heard today was that they will not be in combat roles yet the Government cannot rule out protective action. This neglects the real worry that the public have on this particular issue. This is classic National: reality defies the spin machine but hey let us stick with the spin!We are listening and talking to people from all walks of life about the issues that matter to them and will make a real difference in their lives. National would have some people believe that more people are employed and we have just heard that but what National really means is that the job fairs are doing a fantastic job at bringing people who are already in work to fill up roles that people who are not working cannot even fill. Where is the sense in that? Local people here could fill those roles. Labour believes that reskilling upskilling and investing in that simple initiative will help more local people get the jobs that are available. Do not cast your eye the other way. The group of people whom I am referring to are actually stuck. They are stuck in seasonal employment and temporary work and they need better solutions. They certainly do not need people being brought in from offshore to fill the jobs that are in their communities. National does not have a long term plan to invest in a high-skilled high-waged workforce. Labour does. Labour’s Future of Work Commission will look towards regions local government community business iwi and the education stakeholders—a whole range of groups—for sustainable solutions to crank up our regional economy and create jobs and better work for people that will be sustainable. We are looking forward to that work programme in the year ahead.You know what? Housing is in a shabby condition. The Government said it would not sell off State houses—“nek minnit” it sells off State homes. It makes it hard for people to get the homes that are left. Homeownership has absolutely been out of reach. We are seeing increasing private market rentals. What that is doing is increasing overcrowding. This is not a responsible solution in a country like ours. Social housing is just a myth under the National Government. This Government has got housing badly wrong. Both local and central government need to play a role in social housing and Labour believes that.You know the Government’s plan for regional economic development neglects places outside of Christchurch and Auckland. But let us just talk about Auckland for one minute and the Skycity deal—the pokies for policies deal. Steven Joyce and the Prime Minister promised the public that they would not be reaching into their own pockets for this world-class convention centre—next minute we hear that it could cost $100 million. Well you know what? Labour initiated a petition and in a number of hours a whole lot of names were collected—around about 28000. I am pleased to see that the Government is retracting and listening to what Labour had started. The public should not be funding a deal with Skycity for a world-class convention centre. A Government subsidy on this is a no deal.The cost of living and growing inequality should be the motivation for any Government in a country like ours. We pride ourselves on coming from New Zealand. But National does not want to set child poverty targets. Where is the sense in that? Targets would make its whole-of-Government policy platform more accountable to outcomes for our most vulnerable our children. Sadly the Government’s four priorities that the Prime Minister talked about fall short of measuring outcomes for children. I continue to implore the Government to rethink this strategy. Things could be better and under Labour they will be and I am confident in saying that.This political term started with the annual pilgrimage of politicians to Rātana and Waitangi. Māori have put this Government on notice and set a challenge to Labour that in time I am confident we will rise to meet. Māori are saying that new thinking to old solutions is required. The country needs bold leadership to move beyond past hurts and resist scratching old wounds like the sovereignty debate. The symbols of our identity—the Treaty of Waitangi a flag our culture language and identity—no longer exist in a vacuum. Ask your Scottish grandson who has got Māori heritage who can do a karakia in his classroom. A more equal society is a fair one. Māori understand. Māori are no longer benefactors of benevolent policies churned out from the Government and we want to be active determiners of our future in a new economy and determining what social responsibility can look like. The thinking amongst many iwi and Māori has reached a new maturity. No matter how hard the National Government might try to outsource this thinking in its relationships with other parties it must be embedded in the political consciousness of its own party. Labour has that. We will grow that. I am hopeful that we will meet the challenge that Māori have set. Kia ora koutou.