Lee Melissa: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lee Melissa: Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 19 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3771. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 Ahn nyung ha se yo Mr Speaker. It is a great pleasure to rise to make a contribution on this third reading of the Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill but before I go on I would just like to make a comment about something that Jan Logie has spoken about. I cannot believe that any good parent would let their child go to bed in a raincoat because that was the warmest thing they could possibly find. You can go to an op shop and buy a warm jumper for 50c. You know I cannot believe that a Green member would actually talk about spending a lot of money on hair lice treatment. I mean you can actually wet the child’s hair and use a fine-tooth comb to actually get them out. It is called elbow grease. It does not cost very much. As a mother I know what that is like.  
Over the course of the debates in the passage of this bill I have to say I have become more convinced how important this bill is. It is exactly where we should be as a nation and I commend the fortitude shown throughout the process by the Minister for Social Development the Hon Paula Bennett. I also take this opportunity to thank the officials for the hard work that they have done in assisting the committee and the members of the Social Services Committee for their hard work. We have all heard the statistics during the debates about the number of young people on benefits in this country and about the number of young people who leave school who are not employed and are not in training of any kind whatsoever. We have also heard—and this is something all sides of this House agree on I would think—that when people end up on the benefit at a young age the likelihood of them staying on the benefit for longer than those who come on to the benefit later in life is high.  
Is this the kind of future that we want for our young people in this country? I certainly do not and I am sure that all in this House do not either and this bill provides a way out of the statistics for our young people. The wraparound service for at-risk youth who otherwise would end up going down the path of long-term dependency on social welfare is what I am passionate about because to me welfare cannot become a way of life. It cannot go down through the generation of families and it cannot be an acceptable way of life. It is purely a safety net for people who find themselves in difficult times to assist them until they get back on their feet again. That was the intention of social welfare.  
During the course of the debate it was a Green member—I think it was Jan Logie—who said that we needed to go down the path of a strength-based approach. I just wanted to comment that writing off young people as being unable to participate in the workforce cannot be the strength-based approach she is talking about especially when members opposite talked about National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 being too high a mark for them to achieve—that these young people could not possibly meet that goal. I say there is nothing wrong with backing our youngsters to have a goal and to achieve it.  
I want to see a welfare system that does more than just hand out money. I want to see a welfare system that encourages young people to aspire to be great and to do greater things—to be greater than what they are. I want to see a welfare system that utilises the expertise of youth support providers who actually know what they are doing in terms of young people to wraparound the service and to tell young people that they can do better and that they are in fact capable. Our welfare system over many Governments over the past has failed our young people. This John Key - led Government is doing something about it.  
Finally many members opposite have spoken about the work-test obligations in the bill as though they are a punishment for women. I have to say that at times during the debate I was made to feel guilty that I am a working mum—a working solo mum of a 13-year-old child. Would it not be fantastic if everyone who had a child could stay at home? I certainly feel guilty when I am not at home due to work commitments and miss significant events in my son’s life but it was a decision that I made to provide a better life for my son. It is time for all to realise that taxpayers should not be burdened for lifestyle choices and I am in no way suggesting that people choose to be on benefits. Some do; most do not. But helping people on benefits get out of their situation and to be work-focused and work-ready is what we are doing with this bill instead of simply giving them the money and leaving them to it.  
This change is long overdue. I commend the Minister for guiding this bill through its passage through the House. It is a great bill and I commend it to the House.