Jackson WillieHon WILLIE JACKSON (Minister of Employment): Kia ora Madam Speaker. E tika me mihi ki ngā tāngata hauā mō tā rātou kaha ki te whawhai i ngā wā katoa. Tika me mihi ki a rātou koutou i tautoko i tēnei rōpū tēnei te mihi ki a koutou mō ō koutou tautoko ki tēnei rōpū i tēnei wā.[It's right to acknowledge disabled people for their strength to continue fighting at all times. It's right to thank them and to thank those of you who have supported this group. This is my thanks for your support of this group at this time.]Kia ora Madam Speaker. As we all know we have a very prosperous economy at the moment and New Zealanders are doing tremendously well at the moment with this Government: unemployment at 4.2 percent we've got Māori unemployment down to 8 percent employment rates are up—men 72 percent women 62.9—Pasifika are doing well Māori—doing well everywhere. We've been doing well for some time as—Barbara Kuriger: How is this related to the bill?Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Well I'm going to come to that so just hold fire—just hold fire—because I want you to listen. This is an economy and a country that is doing tremendously well. Business confidence is up and no one believes the nonsense that we heard in the general debate today about these 30000 jobs a month which is just a total story from the National Party who as we all know have lots of problems with numbers and make numbers up in the general debate about how many new jobs they've created. It's all a load of nonsense because they're just grabbing the best three months and believe you me it's way down on that number.Now I'm talking about this today because we can't just have a rock star economy for the National Party's mates. No we can't. We must have an economy for everyone. We must have an economy for everyone—you have the connection now—and that's where our disabled people miss out. I want to say to Chlöe and to Mojo Mathers well done. Ngā mihi ki a korua for your kaha. You know I've had something to do with this community and I'll say I've never seen a more humble community. They made not a lot of demands on the previous Government and they don't make a lot of demands on this Government. I'm humbled every time they come into our offices—I work in support of Minister Sepuloni—and I admire their humility and the support that they have for whoever the Government is.So any bill like this that can advance the interests of a group of people who have double the unemployment rates have double the underutilisation rates of the normal population is a bill we must all support—a bill we must all support. I just think it's tremendous the way they hold themselves. But New Zealanders would not really know their position because they're not a group of people who come out and slam whoever the Government is. No they're not. They're a group of people who in my view have not had the resourcing and funding and support that they deserve and we're working on that. We're working on that as the previous Government did too. There's no doubt about it—it's been a tough area. But this bill a bill that opens up accessibility for these people is a bill that we have to support.An estimated 9 percent of the population suffer hearing impairment. We know every day of the struggles of these people. I watch it all the time; I'm sure people in the House watch what happens all the time in terms of this wonderful group of people who—just going down to the supermarket is an ordeal because people continually take their car-parks simple everyday practices that the public should know better but their rights are breached all the time. Do we hear a big furore from them? Do we hear anger from them? No we don't. They just continue along this line.So I want to say today to everyone who's been part of the Governance and Administration Committee well done to everyone. Let's get the rights up for this group of people. Let's not play politics and let's support a group of people who are right down in terms of the bottom of statistics. I talk about those stats all the time in terms of Māori in terms of women and in terms of this group of people in the disability area. They're a group of people I'm proud to say that I support and will do my best to advocate for going forward.So thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to tautoko this bill. I'm happy to support the bill today. Kia ora tātou.