Hayes JoJOANNE HAYES (Chairperson of the Social Services Committee): As you have said Mr Chair the social services Estimates for 2017-18 comprise the social development portfolio and the portfolios for vulnerable children social housing and other social investment and State services. At the select committee hearings we heard from Ministers Anne Tolley Amy Adams Nicky Wagner and Nick Smith about those portfolios. I just want to talk about some key investments from the Estimates hearings. I want to start off with the key investment in the Ministry for Vulnerable Children Oranga Tamariki which is $434.1 million. When we look at this we start to look at why the ministry was transformed into Oranga Tamariki and why young people did not have a voice in the previous organisation but now they have. They have advocacy services through VOYCE and they are now centre of the operations at Oranga Tamariki or the Ministry for Vulnerable Children—that is $434.1 million. As I said as I start to break this down we have got $26.4 million to support around 4500 caregivers of children in care as well as to help those caring for higher-needs children. We have got $94.4 million to meet the new ministry's cost pressures through the transformation that Minister Anne Tolley launched on 1 March this year. We have $71 million to extend the support for young people in care and $28.1 million to extend Family Start which is really important because Family Start has had its ups and downs over its time with the previous Government. But this Government has come in and through the transformation of the Ministry for Vulnerable Children it has been able to work the programme out so that it is more responsive to the children in Family Start and their care. We have $11.7 million over the next 2 years to trial and evaluate community-based remand placements as well through this funding for Oranga Tamariki. As I start to move through the votes that we heard I want to take a little bit of time to talk about the $2 billion Family Incomes Package. This was the centrepiece of the 2017 Budget and—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will resume her seat. JOANNE HAYES: OK. The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): I just want to make it absolutely clear to the member that she is reporting from the committee on the areas the committee is responsible for. That is not one of them. JOANNE HAYES: OK—righty-o. As we move over to the $64.4 million of new money for new operating funding to help people to move off benefits and into work this particular part of the Estimates has been really good for those who have been looking to get off the benefit and get into work. Just recently—just today actually—we have seen that the unemployment figure has gone down to 4.8 percent and that has brought us back into line with the 2008 figures. When we start to look at the housing Estimates that we talked about with the Minister at the Estimates hearing we can see that $100 million has been set aside for new capital funding part of which is for 1200 new houses as part of the Auckland Crown Land Development Programme. That was also discussed at that meeting as well. We have got $2.3 billion to support 310000 households with accommodation and that is however they would like to have that—whether that be in accommodation supplements. I think the area I do want to finally mention—as I watch the clock ticking down—is the $321 million Social Investment Package. This really has been a really important package because it has helped people within the mental health services. We have put money aside for them there. We have put it into helping kids to get a better start in life we are addressing barriers to employment and independence and we are reducing offending and improving long-term outcomes through this package. Overall within the Social Services Committee we had some very interesting presentations from the Ministers which I mentioned at the start of my speech. We had some very interesting questions posed to them and as the chair I felt that the questions were well received and well responded to. Thank you.