Hipkins Chris; Rurawhe AdrianHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of Education): The memo's clearly gone around on the other side. As we come into this final part of the debate on the Estimates when we're talking about housing the memo went around to the other side: don't talk about the houses. Don't talk about housing. Whatever you do don't mention housing. And why might that be? Why might it be that they're so reluctant to talk about housing? Well could it be that after nine years of National there were 6000 fewer State houses? That could have something to do with it—1500 fewer public houses under National and record homelessness.So when it comes to talking about compassion—which we just heard about from one of the members speaking opposite Maureen Pugh—how is it compassionate for a Government after nine years to preside over and be proud of a legacy that saw record homelessness in New Zealand? That will be one of the most symbolic parts of the last National Government's legacy to New Zealand. When they write the history of that National-led Government housing—the lack of housing the growing level of homelessness the lack of affordable housing—will be one of the most defining legacies of that previous National Government. It is no wonder they don't want to talk about it.So what are we doing about it? Fair question: 6400 new State houses over the next four years. In four years we will build more State houses than the last National Government sold off in nine because we know that we need more State and social houses. We will over-deliver on the promise that we made to New Zealanders around building more State houses. That is something to be proud of.We're discussing Vote Social Development under this particular part of the Estimates debate and it's important to remember that one of our first moves as a Government was to provide a huge boost to the families in New Zealand that needed extra money the most. The winter energy payment will provide huge support and relief to some of the New Zealanders who now live on the lowest incomes because we know that they need the help. We think that's a much better spend than the untargeted tax cuts that were being proposed by the previous Government. But one that I am particularly proud of—and it's covered in the Vote Social Development Estimates—is the Best Start tax credit introduced by this Government to ensure that families with newborn babies get extra support in that critical first year of a child's life. That is something that we are incredibly proud of on this side of the House—a big boost to Working for Families to ensure that work pays.The National Party over the last few weeks have been doing what they like to do which is to beat up on beneficiaries have a good crack at beneficiaries. When the polls start going down have a good whack at beneficiaries—we've seen that in the last few weeks as their polling continues to slip. But how about this: how about instead of constantly beating up on beneficiaries the National Party applied their thinking put a bit of thinking into it and thought about how you actually make work pay. How is it that we can support people to get into work to get into meaningful work and make sure that they're not worse off when they get into work? That's what we're doing on this side of the House and the big boost that we have put into place for Working for Families helps to deliver on that. The extra support for the accommodation supplement helps to deliver on that. We want to make sure that New Zealanders are well supported in making the decision to get into the labour market to get into jobs and to contribute to the New Zealand economy.On the other side all they want to do is beat up on beneficiaries—sell all the State houses beat up on the beneficiaries lock people up when things go wrong. They have no positive vision for the future after nine years—after nine years. This Government has done more in nine months to provide extra support to the most vulnerable New Zealanders than that Government managed in nine years. They were focused on creating more vulnerable New Zealanders; we are focused on providing the support where we know that it is needed. So it's not surprising they don't want to talk about their legacy in housing because it will define their Government. It was disgraceful and it will define their Government. Fewer social houses less affordable housing—that's not going to be the legacy of this Government. We're going to turn that around.CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): There's about one minute left in this debate. I call Jan Logie.