Hayes JoJO HAYES (National): I just want to say to the previous speaker Tracey Martin that we're pleased that the Government is carrying on with Oranga Tamariki. It's an amazing project. It's an amazing policy and so many things over the last 12 months have had to happen to actually set Oranga Tamariki up in a way that it could move forward. So I say thank you to that Minister.I want to talk a little bit around the social development side. On this side we view welfare and benefits as something that should be able to help people when they are in times of need. That's what this side of the House sees. We don't see it as something that should be of a right but we see it as something that should help people when they are in need to actually help them to get to the next place to get them back on their feet again and to move forward in their lives. This side of the House isn't about telling people what they want. It's about listening to people on their needs and many of the things that we have done in 2016-2017 have been about that.Social development is a huge portfolio. It deals with everyday people's lives—people that really desperately need that help. One of my whanaunga who was an ex-Minister of this House the Hon Sir Apirana Ngata once said that when welfare was being discussed in the House in those times he didn't really support it. He felt that welfare would be the ruination of our Māori people and maybe in some aspects it has been. But in saying that I just want to say that we understand on this side that there are times and places where people need help and that's what this side of the House was about when it came to social development.Just some key facts around the 2016-17 period: unemployment to the September quarter was 4.6 percent. That was the lowest unemployment rate since the global financial crisis in December 2008. That's amazing considering all of the issues that New Zealand faced from 2008—made of other people's makings but we had to actually bear it. So to get the unemployment figure down to 4.6 percent was an amazing feat of this side of the House as we led Government. Some of the things around hardship: the number of kids in material hardship had fallen to nearly 40 percent since the global financial crisis to 135000 in 2016. The Ministry of Social Development reports no evidence of any rise or fall of household income inequality over those last two decades.Welfare: nearly 60000 fewer people were on job seeker benefits than in 2010 over the period—Hon Scott Simpson: How many?JO HAYES: Sixty thousand fewer people on job seeker benefits than in 2010. The number of people on sole parent benefits: the lowest data collected was 27 percent lower than 2008.Hon Scott Simpson: Hugely impressive.JO HAYES: It was because a number—and I met a number of those sole parents that had come off the benefit and were making their way in the working world. It's not easy when you have to move off something that has been regular in your life and I get that. I get how hard it is for sole parents. I was a sole parent so I know how hard it is to actually cut loose and make it on your own and go out and get work and do all of those things while still bringing up a child. So I get it and I got what those young women were telling me.There were 57 percent fewer teen parents on a benefit than in 2009. That's really good because to be a teen parent is very difficult in today's society. It's difficult anyway but in the pressures that young people face today teen parenting isn't exactly where they should be at. They should be in education; they should be moving towards getting their career sorted and not having to worry about having to raise a child when they are a child themselves.So the number of benefit recipients per thousand population has been the lowest since 1988 and this side of the House is very proud of all of those particular statistics. I could go on and on and on but I won't.