Goodhew JoGENERAL DEBATEHon JO GOODHEW (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. It gives me great pleasure to rise in the House. It is a red-letter day but what I thought I would talk about this afternoon is the state of the House. I thought it would be a good time to reflect on what has been happening and I must say I extend my sympathy to the Labour Party. It is losing one of its brightest business brains and I bet that it is feeling pretty gutted about that. As David Cunliffe goes off to another career Labour Party members will be ruing that and will be quite worried about that. In the meantime what we saw with New Zealand First yesterday was a laudable attempt to reintroduce its caucus to the public of New Zealand. It left out a couple of members but nevertheless it was a fairly—not even generic. It was a bit of a mishmash but they mostly got on their feet and asked a question. No one was quite sure whether there was a plan or whether the plan was just to work through the names. Then it comes to the Greens. Well right now I think they are actually in relationship-building. They are not sure whether they want a relationship with New Zealand First even though it might be necessary. They are trying to build their relationship with Labour. Nevertheless they have a new member and a fairly new co-leader and the relationships there actually do not look to be gelling just yet—but never mind. Maybe it is best described as jugglers looking for a circus. Actually today what we saw was catastrophising which I suppose is better than what we have had in the past which was a crisis searching for a crisis—but never mind. New Zealanders are much more interested in the things that really matter to them and Better Public Services (BPS) is certainly something that is important to New Zealanders. The National Government has picked some really tough targets and we are having some success but there is not a moment that we can be resting on our laurels because these tough targets require us to keep at them to achieve them. I just want to talk briefly about BPS target No. 1 and that is helping New Zealanders to gain independence from welfare. The number has gone down 15000 people since 2011. That is actually a future liability for New Zealand taxpayers of $3.6 billion but there is a much more important thing about this liability going down and that is the New Zealanders who are gaining a better life for themselves. There are 51000 New Zealanders who have actually come off a main benefit since 2011. That is a phenomenal change in their lives. It has gone down from 295320 to 279769 in the last result. Why does it matter? Well if you are a child in a benefit-dependent home this is what it means for you: you have a 48 percent chance of not achieving NCEA level 2 compared with those who are not in a benefit-dependent house.Hon Member: Stop labelling people.Hon JO GOODHEW: In fact you also have a 48 percent higher likelihood or chance of being notified to Child Youth and Family. These are the facts. This is not a label; this is a fact. So having these children in a non - welfare-dependent household makes a very real difference to them. And 45 percent of them are going to end up on a benefit themselves therefore limiting their life choices. I want to also talk about today being a red-letter day when it comes to the household labour force survey because there are some real highlights we should be celebrating. There are fewer unemployed women: down to 5.1 percent from 5.4 percent. The unemployment rate for Māori is 10.6 percent down from 12.1 percent. For Pasifika it is 10.1 percent down from 12.3 percent. That really matters. That means a change in the lives of those New Zealanders and their families. A new measure showing underutilisation fell from 12.7 percent to 12.2 percent and if we are talking about those 15- to 24-year-olds who are getting out into the employment world who are not in education or training it is up very very slightly but you know what? There are lots of initiatives there. The important thing is that we are measuring and working on this. So we are reducing long-term welfare dependence and supporting vulnerable kids. We are increasing the proportion of 18-year-olds with NCEA level 2 and those 25- to 34-year-olds with a level 4 qualification or better. We are reducing crime. These are the things that really matter to New Zealanders but clearly are not on the radar of the Opposition.