Shanks Katrina: Social Assistance (Future Focus) Bill — First Reading 
Shanks Katrina: Social Assistance (Future Focus) Bill — First Reading 
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KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to support the first reading of the Social Assistance (Future Focus) Bill today. I can think of no better Minister in this House than Minister Bennett to put forward this bill. She is a Minister who understands the welfare system who has empathy and compassion and who will deliver for those people on benefits a brighter future which the previous Government under Helen Clark could not deliver. That Government failed people on benefits it failed to give them aspiration and it failed to deliver that brighter future. It is very interesting that Annette King stood up and asked where the jobs were going to come from. She asked “Who gives 9 to 3 jobs?”. I tell the House that my office does. My office is open from 9 until 3 and I employ people who are coming back into the workforce. I employ— 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: But that’s just one. 
KATRINA SHANKS 
: No it is not. Steve Chadwick says that that is just one job— 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: One office. 
KATRINA SHANKS 
: It is one office that is correct but it is more than one job because I have job-sharing. I want to have people with children who want to come back into the workforce working in my office because they contribute. Members in the Opposition are sitting there shaking their heads but I challenge them to use job-sharing in their offices and to offer jobs going from 9 to 3 so that people can re-enter the workforce. Members on this side of the House do that. We actually walk the walk and talk the talk. We do that and that is what this great Minister is doing today. 
I find it interesting that many many members of this House have been solo mums and they understand how hard it is when people have been at home—and it is not just solo mums; it is mothers and parents who have been out of the workforce—for them to go back into the workforce to build their confidence to retrain and to feel as if they can add value to the workforce when they have been out of it for a while. We are not underestimating that. Many of the mothers on the domestic purposes benefit are well-educated and well-trained but they have been unlucky in getting into that situation which was never planned. They never thought they would be there and now they want help to get out of the situation they are in. They are keen to go back to work. They know what they will get from having a job—the value that it will bring them in their self-esteem. That is what this bill will do. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: It won’t happen in that way. 
KATRINA SHANKS 
: It will happen and it will happen under a National Government. We care about those women and those partners who have been out of work who want to get back into work and add some value. I can tell members that if we want to give some aspiration to the children of this country who are in the homes of beneficiaries we will have to encourage them and help them to get there. That is what this Government is doing. 
As chair of the Social Services Committee I can tell the House that this bill will be coming into our select committee tomorrow. I look forward to hearing the submissions and what they have to say and to finding out how they will add value to this bill. I look forward to this bill coming to the Social Services Committee tomorrow. Thank you.