Lotu-Iiga Sam: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lotu-Iiga Sam: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 27 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3431. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 It is a pleasure for me to speak in today’s general debate. I just want to thank the last speaker Su’a William Sio because he is using Government resources well; he is using the Labour parliamentary research unit well. Well done for reading all those statistics from Labour’s research unit. It is a pleasure because the Government’s priorities are about delivering better more effective and productive public services. We want to ensure that we are delivering results in the areas that matter to New Zealanders. We make no apology for having high expectations of the public services that the Government provides. 
The Opposition does not believe in standards—education or otherwise. The Opposition does not believe in high expectations. It does not believe that caring for New Zealanders is a priority. It thinks that caring for New Zealanders is meaningless. New Zealanders want to know that they can rely on the public services that they need and use on a day-to-day basis. They want services that are reliable services that are safe affordable and sustainable into the future. That is why this 10-point plan is about measuring the quality of those services and holding the Government to account which that Opposition clearly is not doing. 
So why are we making these changes? Well we inherited a Public Service that was growing at an unacceptable rate and there was no clear direction in terms of expectation or results. When you look at the Ministry of Health which the Hon Annette King oversaw for 9 long years— 
Hon Annette King 
: No. 
Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA 
: It was 9 years and she was part of the administration that looked over it. Spending in health doubled over those 9 years. What happened? The outcomes went down; outcomes actually deteriorated. I pity the people of Wellington who are going to get this woman as their next mayor. She will be the next Mayor of Wellington and she could not run the Ministry of Health. Well the situation is common across Government departments. Common across Government departments is the profligate spending of the last Labour Government. 
New Zealanders deserve high-quality services that deliver better results for their families their kids and their communities. New Zealanders want to be assured that public sector spending is wise and within budget. Mr Speaker you know that more than anyone as the Speaker and as a parliamentarian with vast experience in this House on select committees and as a Minister. You know that the public sector makes up one quarter of our economy and it has a huge influence over society and over our economic performance. That is why better public services are critical to our future in this country. We all know that those agencies need to perform better and there are different ways to work to deliver greater value and better results in those Government departments. 
I want to commend the Prime Minister for setting up 10 challenging results for the public sector to achieve—10 measurable results. Underneath each result you get some specific measurable targets that will be achieved over the next 5 years. We will report on those regularly. It is about holding this Government to account. We are prepared for that level of accountability. Each target will have five themes and the Prime Minister has appointed senior Ministers to oversee those achievable results. 
What is it about? It is about reducing long-term welfare dependence. I have stood in this House over the last couple of months and talked about the welfare reforms that we are bringing through this House. Later this year we will bring in some more welfare reforms because $20 million a year on welfare spending is unacceptable—sorry $20 million a day on welfare spending is unacceptable. Twelve percent of our working-age population is on a benefit. So we are going to do something about that. The programmes that we are implementing are about caring for those people giving them parenting programmes having budgeting services and having mentors available to help people who are in need to get off welfare and into work. Jobseeker support will be introduced by July 2013 and we are aiming to break the cycle of long-term dependence through these welfare reforms. 
Before I finish I just want to mention another goal that is extremely worthy and one close to my heart. Ninety-eight percent of children starting school will have participated in early childhood education by the year 2016. I will repeat that in case the guys over there do not listen. Ninety-eight percent of children will be participating in early childhood education. We know that that enables children to go to primary school confident ready for school and engaging in learning. Thank you.