Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Madam Chair and I appreciate the explanation. I think what it is also useful for an explanation for those who are watching Parliament this afternoon is this is a debate on the annual review of the entities in this case on social development. It is to the financial year that ended 30 June 2019 so I will be focusing my comments on that. This is not a debate—for people watching—on the COVID-19 response although I do want to just put on record my thanks and the thanks of the National Party MPs for the incredible work that the front-line Ministry of Social Development (MSD) staff have undertaken during this period of time.But going back to the annual review it is the year in review to 30 June 2019. This is the opportunity for the House to ask the Minister questions ask the Minister—who would normally be sitting in a different location for this exercise—just to explain some of the performance of the entity and the performance of the Government in the year of review. So in order to provide some context I just wanted to put some figures on the table. The figures have clearly changed since then and they have continued to get worse well ahead of COVID-19 so I just want to make sure that that context is set.So this is looking at 30 June 2019. Some of the areas of questioning that the Opposition was deeply concerned about was the rise in the number of people on the jobseeker benefit. That is a concern because one of the things that we value is the opportunity for individuals to be in the driving seat of their own lives and the full understanding that being in work being in employment provides them opportunities to lead their own lives. So we constantly heard the Government talk about the fact that the economic times are good. I'm pleased that the National Government provided that opportunity when they came into office. So then what's puzzling and what we were trying to interrogate in the annual review was why then there's been a significant number in jobseekers and an equal increasing number of those receiving hardship both in terms of housing but more concerning in the area of food hardship but I'll come to that in a later address.I want to focus my first contribution here on jobseeker numbers. So 30 June they had gone up 13000 nearly 14000 which is an increase of 11.2 percent on the year before. That is a significant number. So that is 14000 additional New Zealanders who were receiving the jobseeker benefit or for those who are more familiar with what's previously been called the dole. It has meant that there was an increase in the proportion of the working-age population going on to the dole and the concerning part about that is it's in the middle of strong economic times. And the Labour-led Government continues to talk about the fact that these were strong economic times but actually in terms of unemployment data and the number on jobseeker benefits and the number receiving hardship grants it doesn't stack up.If we look for example at Northland that was an area that I spent quite a lot of time in the last three years of the National Government looking in very deep ways about how we could lead place-based initiatives and allow local communities to drive their own solutions to local problems. Their unemployment rate was 8.7 percent. Unfortunately now nine months later it's at 10 percent. So it's populations like that where there's a significant impact on the individuals on their families particularly their children and I know the Prime Minister has talked about her commitment to lift the number of children out of poverty—60 percent of the children who live in material hardship come from benefit-dependent homes. So you cannot talk about lifting children out of poverty without having a focus on the number of children who live in benefit-dependent homes and that's why on this side of the House we continue to be deeply concerned when people are out of work and when they are on the jobseeker benefit. As I said these figures were from the last financial year which was 30 June. So we're not talking about the current crisis.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. I really do need to just say that I was given the advice that we were to cover off our COVID-19 response during this debate and that that was able to be included. That's the second time that that member has alleged that I have gone off script and I don't believe that that's the case.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Well this is a wide-ranging debate. I don't really think there's a point of order here. We are actually in an annual review. It does look back and it does look forward and the Business Committee have made it very clear to presiding officers that they are quite prepared for COVID-19 to be discussed but that does not stop the normal process of an annual review debate and that's exactly the speech that the member has just made. I would remind all members that this is to be an interactive debate but I was just about to call the bell. Have you completed?Hon LOUISE UPSTON: No. Thank you Madam Chair. The other thing I do want to put on record is that the Parliament isn't functioning in its normal capacity. We are at level 3. There is a restricted ability for the Parliament to scrutinise the annual reviews. The time allocated has been reduced by half. So Madam Chair and to those watching I am very deliberate about focusing the efforts on the annual review—$30 billion is what's spent by MSD every year and the Minister for Social Development doesn't seem to think that scrutiny of that amount of taxpayers' money is to be valued. So I will proceed. The other areas that I'm interested in responses from the Minister are around employment initiatives and I'll just give two examples one of which is the much lauded Mana in Mahi. The Prime Minister herself launched it and when she launched it she referred to 4000 places. It was interesting in the annual review though we then found out that only 2000 were funded. So the 4000 quickly became 2000 of which only a very small number of places had been filled. What's more concerning—and the bit that I want the Minister to answer—is what actions have been taken to ensure an initiative like this which is about supporting young people into employment is actually delivering. Unfortunately what we saw and what we saw back last year was only a 65 percent retention rate. What we've seen since then—since the Minister wants to talk about more recent figures—is that unfortunately only one in four is now completing. This is an initiative that the Minister is lauding—or one of her ministerial colleagues is—in terms of the answer to getting thousands of New Zealanders back into jobs because they have lost them already or they may lose them in the coming weeks. So if Mana in Mahi is the answer I think that we should be concerned. It's our job as Opposition. We want to be constructive. We want to support the Government in ensuring there are more people who are connected to employment. So Minister when is the 4000 promised going to be delivered? Are they being funded in the Budget? What is being done in terms of improving the retention rate? Why is it that so many are returning to benefit? Why is it that there are now 10000 more young people under the age of 25 on jobseeker benefit than there were?Hon Member: How many?Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Over 10000. That's young people under the age of 25. The evidence tells us—and I'm sure the Minister has read this research—the younger someone is when they go on benefit the longer period they spend on benefit. If they go on a benefit under the age of 20 on average they will spend 14 years on a benefit.One of the other elements in terms of employment initiatives is Work the Seasons. I've been in contact on multiple occasions with a private provider who does exactly those placements around Work the Seasons and there has been an unsatisfactory answer in terms of the success of Work the Seasons so I'm hoping the Minister will be able to answer questions around that as well to respond to how many jobs how many placements have been successful how long have people been in the employment how many have come off jobseeker benefit into seasonal workplaces? Because again the $100 million that has been committed to as COVID-19 is all around a redeployment plan that's redeploying people into these seasonal jobs. I'm interested to know why 28 percent of that has gone into one electorate alone—not even a region. So there are a number of questions there that I am keen for the Minister to answer. I've got so much more to go but I shall leave it for there and wait for some answers.