Sepuloni CarmelHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): I just want to start by referring to the comments of that member Paul Goldsmith on this Government's tertiary package saying that it was a missed opportunity saying that we shouldn't be spreading money everywhere and instead we should be targeting it. I just remind that side of the House that actually it was that Opposition that wanted to give broad-brush tax cuts to everyone in New Zealand and I can't see how that is targeted in any way. I just also want to remind that side of the House because we've had this come up so many times in the past that there are a number of members on that side of the House who had the luxury of getting free tertiary education. And it was good enough for them. And now here we are trying to introduce one year fees free and all of a sudden it's the worst decision in the world. All of a sudden they're saying things like These students should be prepared to make that contribution because it's an investment in their own future." Well actually it's an investment in the future of this country so any good Government should be prepared to make that investment and this good Government is prepared to make that investment.I have been asked on a number of occasions over the past few weeks what it feels like after nine years to be in Government. I have to say it feels pretty good. It feels pretty good because after nine years we have the ability to access information and advice. We don't have to wait five weeks for an Official Information Act request to come through. We don't have to submit hundreds of written questions and wait for the responses to come back. That advice is there. It feels amazing because all of a sudden after nine years of watching this country turn into something that we can't even recognise now we're in the position where we can actually make decisions turn back some of the bad decisions that have been made over the last nine years and actually give some hope to New Zealanders who had given up hope that things could be any better who had started to believe that homelessness was actually part of our everyday reality who had started to believe that inequality would grow and that's just how it was who had started to believe that actually every day you do just need to struggle and that's how it is. Actually it feels pretty good to be in the position where you can give people hope and make them believe and make them see that actually New Zealand can be better and we're a Government committed to making that happen.My previous ministerial colleague Minister Hipkins talked about some of the things that have already been achieved under this Government and the things that we're committed to making happen in the first 100 days. How could we be ashamed of that? We've got a Families Package that ensures that thousands of families are going to be better off. We've got a tertiary package that is going to break down barriers to people accessing education. We've got housing strategies that are going to ensure that we can actually address the issues of homelessness and address the issue of affordable housing so that the reality of homeownership can be known to New Zealanders. And there are other things that are going on behind the scenes. Our focus is of course the 100-day package but as Minister for Social Development and Minister for Disability Issues it is great to be able to work behind the scenes being proactive about what the next three years will look like—as I said looking at some of the things that we can unravel but being proactive about what our future will look like as a country.Over the past few weeks I have been hit up with a number of questions that are about employment unemployment sanctions and what we plan to do. I just want to say it is so disappointing that the Opposition is so narrow-minded when it comes to beneficiaries still wanting to put the boot in still wanting to stigmatise New Zealanders who find themselves out of work. Yet under them when they left office 72000 young people were still not in education or employment. Under them we still had unacceptably high rates of unemployment for Māori for Pacific and for disabled people. And that Government had no plan for those people—no plan for New Zealanders who found themselves out of work. The only plan they had was to reduce benefit numbers and to push people into whatever work they could push them into no matter how meaningful sustainable or well paid that employment was. Well we've got a better plan for New Zealanders actually. We believe that New Zealanders who find themselves out of work have the potential to go into better paid employment more meaningful employment and we want to support them to upskill and train so that they can do that. That side of the House doesn't seem to take that strategy seriously but in terms of the future of New Zealand it is important that we do take that seriously and that we genuinely invest in New Zealanders."