Harawira Hone: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHarawira Hone: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 13 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15929. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.HONE HARAWIRA (Leader—Mana) to theMinister for Economic Development: Will he commit to spending the $41m on reducing child poverty after signalling that he might not now give that money to Team New Zealand to compete in the next America’s Cup?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development): The Government has not yet appropriated money for a further America’s Cup challenge but I am pleased to be able to report to the member in the mean time that the Government spends billions of dollars every year on supporting families particularly low-income families. The 2013 Budget included more than $900 million in initiatives to help vulnerable families through a significant investment in things like $189 million to assist people from welfare into work; $377 million to build 3000 new State house bedrooms and 500 new 2-bedroom homes; $100 million over 3 years for the new Warm Up New Zealand: Healthy Homes programme; $9.5 million for an expansion of theKickStart Breakfast programme; $21 million for rheumatic fever prevention; $15.7 million for the Children’s Action Plan; and $172 million in new investment in early childhood education. Of course getting people into work is the best way out of poverty. I lookforward to the member’s support for our comprehensive welfare reform programme as well as things that create jobs as demonstrated through our Business Growth Agenda.Hone Harawira: Does the Minister agree with the Salvation Army’sStriking a Better Balance: A State of the Nation Report released yesterday which called child poverty a time-bomb issue for the nation and can he explain how bailing out wealthy investors and spending money on a yacht race for millionaires helps to reduce the crippling poverty faced by 270000 children in Aotearoa?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: As I understand it the Salvation Army report says that child poverty rates may be easing based on data rates from Bryan Perry’s report. So the report does not support the idea that child poverty is getting worse. But the member raises a very fair point. The point I would make in response is that a very important part of what this Government does is to encourage economic growth and investment so we have more jobs for people because having a job actually gives people a quicker path out of poverty. I will acknowledge my colleague Minister Sharples who spends a huge amount of effort marketing New Zealand overseas for example and actually the America’s Cup and the involvement of the New Zealand Government is about doing exactly the same thing.Hone Harawira: Does the Minister think that gambling on the outcome of another millionaire’s yacht race after already losing $80 million on the first two is a reasonable and responsible way for a Government to be developing the country’s economic base or is it because gambling and the promotion of casinos are the basis of his Government’s economic strategy?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I reject completely the assertion made in that member’s question including that the Government’s plan is that we have to win the America’s Cup. Actually the Government’s involvement is the marketing of New Zealand through the America’s Cup. But if the member is concerned about economic development I invite him to join the Government in a whole bunch of other things he did not mention in that question—for example in his home patch oil and gas exploration the commitment to increase Māori land productivity and the commitment to work withNgāpuhi to get Treaty settlements and the equipment to build decent transport in Northland. The day that that member gets up and endorses some of those job-creating initiatives is the day that I will listen to him on economic development and the relief of poverty.