Ngaro AlfredHon ALFRED NGARO (National): That was a speech from the official deputy leader of New Zealand First but the true deputy leader of New Zealand First is the Tāne Māhuta of the North". That's right—that's Shane Jones. When he stands up he's making a declaration. There's a crack happening inside the coalition Government. No longer do they talk about the coalition Government. But what does he say? He says this: "I am a New Zealand First member of Parliament. I speak for New Zealand First." And what does Iain Lees-Galloway say? He says "I have no ministerial responsibility for Mr Jones." What does the Prime Minister say? "I do not agree with his statements." Why? Because for all of the brand of this wellbeing Government there are no cute and cuddlies any more that will try and mend this brokenness. There is a crack there is a shift that's happening there's an ideological change that's happening and it's happening right on the other side. You'll see it. They talk about the Mana in Mahi programme 2018. When it first started off 150 people is what they said would benefit from this programme. They realised they needed to ramp it up. They put another 4000 there—that's what they said in 2018. But what they don't talk about is the drop-out rate at 32 percent. That's right—those who've dropped out of that programme who unsuccessfully even completed the programme. It's not the success they talk about. But here's the bit that nobody else there in "Voterland" knows about because on the New Zealand First side what they wanted to talk about is basically pay for the dole—that's right—or work for the dole that those who are on the dole would work for it. Under the Mana in Mahi programme if you look clearly in the detail they've extended the criteria so that those who are on the dole will have to work as well. It's this sneaking in of New Zealand First; that's what it is. This Wellbeing Budget that this Government's talked about is a sham. It's not happening. How do we know that? I go back to the State of the Nation Report that was written by the Salvation Army and here's what they said: "This is [this Government's] attempt to mark out a different pathway for New Zealand"—one that in most quarters is talking about the Wellbeing Budget. But here's the part that I think is critically important that we look at to judge this Government by. One of the big problems with the wellbeing focus is understanding and agreeing on what we mean by wellbeing. As you get into the idea it can quickly become vague and complex. As a big idea to arrange public policy around it is at a risk of losing public appeal because of this vagueness and of this complexity. Those are the true words. You can talk about being warm and cuddly; you could talk about wellbeing but how do you wrap it around the policies of Government and of ministries? So therefore what's the telling of the tale? Well the telling of the tale are the results that would come out of there. Already this Government and this Prime Minister have talked about poverty and the reduction of poverty for children and yet already under the child poverty indicators seven of the nine indicators have shown an increase of those children who are actually in poverty. In fact the percentage of children in households with incomes under 50 percent of median after housing costs in June of 2018 the increase was 27000—that's 2.3 percent—and yet under National it was consistently dropping along the way. The percentage of children in households with income under 50 percent of median income after housing costs again in June of 2018 was an increase of another 7000 children. Seven of those indicators show this: that you can be wellbeing and you can be well-intentioned but if you don't know how to wrap it around the policies you don't have the evidence to make it work—the results show it's just not working. So let's talk about the hardship grants that are over there and I'm sure that the Hon Carmel Sepuloni will get up and she'll debate these but you can't debate the facts. You can't debate the facts. Let's look at the hardship assistance grants. September 2019 in that quarter: 573588 grants for special needs grants; more than double of that in 2014—double of that in 2014. It's an increase of 47.3 percent. When we look at emergency housing this is the bit that's got to really hurt them because already KiwiBuild has failed. They've not been able to put anything in place. Again being well-intentioned and wellbeing does not mean you have the evidence or know how to change this. In other words there's a lack of competence. Why? In emergency housing alone in 2018 there were 14000 grants that were granted at a cost of $16 million. In 2019 there were 29266 grants at $41 million—an increase of 161 percent. I have to say you can be wellbeing and well-intentioned but what it goes to show is there's a crack in the coalition. There's an inability to have confidence to be able to deliver the things that matter most to New Zealanders and to Kiwis."