Prime Willow-JeanWILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour—Northland): E te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe. I want to start my contribution by saying that when we were getting reports of the National Party conference over the weekend I was worried about what issue they were going to come out and make big announcements about. Was it going to be tough on crime? Was it going to be racism? What was it that I was going to have to be responding to and defending for my community? All of them would have hurt but this one hurt me the most because it's about our taitamariki; it's about our rangatahi. Our young people are our future and here we have the Opposition coming out and talking about punitive approaches to our rangatahi and our taitamariki. So when I heard our Minister for employment wrap up her contribution in today's debate I was a bit emotional. She concluded with the words a little bit of aroha goes a long way" and it speaks volumes. If you listen to her contribution and that of every other speaker from this side this afternoon it speaks volumes to the difference of opinion that we have about our taitamariki about our rangatahi about the policies that we believe need to be in place to support them to support our future. And so I want to acknowledge our Minister for employment because she is working so hard in this area providing a range of opportunities for our rangatahi to ensure that they have hope that they have aspiration and that they have the support that they need to overcome whatever barriers may exist for them to be able to be in sustainable employment. I can see firsthand in my electorate in Northland the difference that this suite of measures that our Government have had in place and introduced over the last five years is making for our rangatahi. We have focused a lot this afternoon on how proud we are about Mana in Mahi that we have exceeded our target of 4000. We have now more than 5000 who have benefited from what was a pilot programme. That pilot is showing us proving to us providing us with the results that that type of investment and support is working. But I want to also mention He Poutama Rangatahi because in Te Tai Tokerau we have had over 14 programmes supported through He Poutama Rangatahi that have benefited close to 800 taitamariki in Te Tai Tokerau. It has helped them to get re-engaged in education in employment and in training. We also have Pae Aronui which is a Te Puni Kōkiri Māori employment programme—again close to another 800 rangatahi benefiting from this suite of measures that we have introduced—Hon Carmel Sepuloni: That's right—sweet!WILLOW-JEAN PRIME: —"sweet" of measures to support people into sustainable meaningful employment. I want to talk about just a couple of projects in Northland which have come within these schemes. One recently: they said not by design but they became the supreme winner in the recent Northland Regional Council Environmental Awards. They were recipients of Jobs for Nature funding programmes like He Poutama Rangatahi. I want to mihi to the Kaikohe-based Te Kotahitanga e Mahi Kaha Trust who have worked with rangatahi to give them opportunities to train and to develop more skills to have meaningful employment and in the process of that they are restoring the waterways in and around Kaikohe. So the environment is also benefiting from these initiatives. I remember being with the former Minister of Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan when she announced over $20 million worth of projects for Jobs for Nature in Northland. That was in 2021. Another tool another measure in our suite of measures that we have to help our rangatahi to help our people. We know that this is contributing to record low unemployment. We are now down to 5.5 percent unemployment for Māori. As the co-chair of the Māori caucus that is something that I am so proud of. So I want to mihi to our Minister for employment to our former Minister for employment as well Willie Jackson who saw that it was right to name it Mana in Mahi. Kia ora."