Sepuloni CarmelHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): Today I want to talk about some of the changes and some of the significant things that came into effect—SPEAKER: The member is allowed to take her mask off if she wishes.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: —oh yeah thank you—on 1 April. It didn't come as a surprise. People knew what was coming their way and the timing couldn't be better given some of the challenges that we are facing alongside many other countries because of the global pressures. It was really important that we as a Government had moved to reverse the cuts to benefits that had happened in 1991 and that we had followed the advice of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group's recommendations and responded to the needs of some of the households with the lowest incomes in New Zealand. In contrast we on this side of the House have been very targeted with our investment very targeted with regards to who we are prioritising and on the other side of the House it's been very sad to see them return to type and continue to put this narrative out that is divisive and really comes down to divide and rule politics. When we first got into Government in 2017 we had on the table a proposal from the National Government to make tax cuts—tax cuts which would have seen $400 million go to the top 10 percent of income earners in New Zealand. We took that money when we got into office and we put it into our Families Package instead. That was just one of many changes that indicated demonstrated our commitment to the New Zealanders who really do need support most. Not only did we see benefit increases on 1 April but we saw increases to student support we saw increases to the family tax credit and fortunately as well we saw significant increases with respect to superannuation. These are the people who need our support more than anyone else right now. When we compare that to the offer of tax cuts from the other side and we see as Minister Davis is saying that some of the lower-earning households in this country would be lucky to get $2.50 versus the thousands of dollars that people in this House would get then surely I'm hopeful the rest of New Zealand will see why that does not make sense. I've been very committed as the Minister for Social Development and Employment with regards to not only addressing income adequacy but also addressing the other important part of our welfare system and that is support for upskilling and training and employment for those that are in the welfare system. We are seeing more exits off benefit into employment than what we have seen since electronic records were kept. There are results and outcomes that we are seeing that far outweigh anything that we've seen before. Yet we continue to hear from the other side of the House criticism about the fact that we still have New Zealanders on benefit.Compared to what we saw two years post - global financial crisis we are actually better positioned than what we were then. At that point in time 13.1 percent of the working-age population were on benefit. At the moment we are talking about 11.2 percent of the working-age population that are on benefit. And we see it week on week going down. Currently I think we have 20-something thousand less people on benefit than we did this time last year. When we came into the pandemic the projections with regards to the unemployment rate that we might experience the numbers of people who may end up on benefit were absolutely dire. The other side of the House seems to have forgotten that this was anticipated but we have not reached the depth or the numbers that have been initially forecast. That comes down to some good economic management. We do need to acknowledge the work that this Government has done to manage the economy but also the efforts that our team of 5 million have put into ensuring that not only have we prioritised the health of New Zealanders but as a consequence we have also seen our economy better off for it.Even with the changes that came into effect on 1 April I along with everyone else on this side of the House continue to say that there is more to do. We are absolutely committed to doing it and we have the energy to make sure that that work is done.