Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (Minister of Corrections): I want to quote a sentence from our Prime Minister the Rt Hon Bill English: I believe in the capacity of all New Zealanders to improve their lives in some way large or small. And I believe in the generosity of this country to help them do it." I am very proud to stand in the debate on the Prime Minister's statement. We have a leader of our country who is investing and is committed and dedicated to ensuring that every New Zealander sees the benefits of a growing economy. So often the conversation is about the facts and figures about the growing economy but I want to focus on the benefits of that to New Zealanders because at the end of the day it is about ensuring that that economic growth leads us to having stronger communities stronger regions and safer communities. One of the areas where I have accepted new responsibilities is ensuring that every one of our young New Zealanders achieves educationally so I want to focus on a couple of those areas.One of the other important parts of this Government's trademark of which Bill English has been such a significant part is the fact that we do have Better Public Services targets and in education we have seen just this week the announcement by the Minister of Education Hekia Parata about NCEA level 2 achievements going up yet again. That is the sort of thing that actually makes an enormous difference in the lives and the futures of New Zealanders. If you look at the achievements it is now at 77 percent of students achieving NCEA level 2 which is a significant lift on what it has been. But I think more importantly Māori achievement is just absolutely rocketing up. Previously when we came into office one in two Māori students were not achieving NCEA level 2. So we are absolutely on this side of the House focused on ensuring that the gains of our economy are invested right back into the very New Zealanders whom we want to see have a fantastic life and have opportunities in front of them.If we look at education one of the areas where I have taken on responsibilities as the Associate Minister includes parental engagement. At the end of the day if we do not have both whānau aiga families and communities embracing and committed to students' learning and achievement we will not get the gains that we are looking for. I think one of the significant achievements has been the introduction of the communities of learning because what that does is it lifts individual student achievement it engages the family and community and what it enables is the sharing of teaching practice and excellence across a cluster of schools. So on so many layers our education system is absolutely designed and reshaped to deliver for the future.But it is not just what we are doing in the classrooms to lift achievement. If I look at my own electorate with a growing population in the north pressure on school infrastructure has been challenging. This is a Government that is absolutely responding to that need—so there is a billion dollars of new capital for school property delivering 11 new schools and over 700 new classrooms. But overall and I think this is a figure that should be imprinted on every New Zealander's minds the education budget has gone up by 35 percent—35 percent—and the student numbers have increased by only 3.5 percent. So when we say this is a Government and this is a Prime Minister who are investing in New Zealand and New Zealanders absolutely that is the case and I am enormously proud of that work.If I look at the tertiary education space we have got a target of 50000 New Zealanders to be in apprenticeships by 2020 because at the end of the day whether it is in primary industries or whether it is in the construction industry we need more of our young New Zealanders to choose trades and choose a career that will give them lifelong rewards and opportunities. So we are absolutely investing where it counts.One of my new roles is of course as the Minister of Corrections. At the core of a strong country is safer communities so we had the announcement that Prime Minister Bill English made in terms of the investment in additional police—and I want to refute completely one of the comments made by an Opposition MP from New Zealand First because this investment is going into more proactive policing and it is going into prevention of greater levels of youth crime which we have seen falling significantly by the way. That investment is going to be really critical in terms of supporting the front-line work that has already been done the proactive policing the support for victims and ensuring that we actually have convictions where that has occurred. And at the end of the day if you come back to this conversation about investment at the heart of it is supporting young people stopping that very first offence getting them back on to greater opportunities and preventing them from offending in greater levels of more serious crime.One of the things coming back to the Taupō electorate is absolutely to have police in our local communities and in terms of the announcements that the Prime Minister made 12 police districts across New Zealand from one end to the other will get more police officers. But if I look at this in terms of really rural New Zealand which is an area that I represent they do want to know that if there is an issue they can call a number that will not clog up the emergency lines. So the introduction of the non-emergency line is important as well as having 24/7 police presence within 25 kilometres of New Zealand communities.So then looking at the corrections side—absolutely I am proud to be part of a Government that is tough on crime. I am proud to be part of a Government that is ensuring that those who do the crime do the time. But the reality is that for every offender they will come back into our families and back into our communities so I am very committed to ensuring that for the time they are in the care and protection of Corrections we do whatever we can to ensure that they come out as better people. Having visited 10 prisons over the last month I have seen some fantastic examples and I am enormously proud of the work that the Corrections staff do. Some of the work is very much about prisoners demonstrating that they are able to give back to the community that they harmed whether it is in the carving of a pou for the local school whether it is the growing of fruit and vegetables that are then donated to a food bank or women's refuge or whether it is in the refurbishing of bikes that are then provided to decile 1 school students.There are so many ways that our offenders while they are in prison are giving back to our communities and I think that is a critical part of their reintegration back into our communities. But it is more than that; it is about education. It is about skills and work experience. As I said before they are members of our families and our communities. We have a responsibility to ensure that the taxpayer funds that are spent in Corrections are used effectively and efficiently and are delivering results.I am incredibly proud to be a part of Bill English's team to be a part of a Government that is absolutely investing in New Zealanders. With a growing economy that growing economy ensures that we are able to improve the lives of every New Zealander—every New Zealander. That is our commitment. That is what we are doing. We are led by an extraordinary Prime Minister who is delivering on that promise.I am sure that later this year we will show to a greater number of New Zealanders that we can continue the work around social investment that we are tackling the very hard issues and that we are not afraid to try different things. This is a Government that has a record but a Government that also has new ideas about how we can go even further in delivering for New Zealanders on that aspiration for the life we know they love and the future that they want to have. We are a party that is backing their opportunity and backing their future."