Tinetti JanJAN TINETTI (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. It certainly is an honour and I'm really delighted to be able to stand here and speak in the debate on the Prime Minister's statement. Towards the end of last year I didn't even know that I would be back here at this time of the year due to my health issues and I'm just so grateful because I have to say that last week when we had our recess and I was out visiting people on the ground and was hearing what they had to say about our Government it reminded me just what a privilege it is to be part of this side of the House making the real difference for the people on the ground. Last week in those recess visits I heard an acknowledgment from people that this is a Government that is tackling long-term issues and long-term challenges that have been facing the people in the sectors for quite some time. They talked about proven leadership in this Government they talked about a stable Government and I even heard about a strong economy that is facing us and that they felt safe in what was happening. They know that there were years of neglect and they know that it's going to take time to fix those years of neglect but they were really really pleased when I was on those visits about the great progress that we are making on this side of the House on what matters to them. Last week I visited businesses I visited NGOs I visited schools and I visited early childhood education centres and the same messages were being told to me over and over again. A couple of points that I'd like to really focus on though were from a couple of school visits that I went on. One of those school visits talked to me about the positive difference that the school donations scheme has made to them. This Government is increasing funding so that parents don't have to pay NCEA fees and in the decile 1 to 7 schools where they are not asking for donations we are paying $150 per child to those schools. The principal of one school that I visited last week who wanted to talk to me specifically about this scheme talked about how last year the school managed to make just over $300 in donations. This year—they're a smaller school of about 150 students—they're making just over $20000. They are excited about what that's going to mean for their learners and the difference that that will make to them. They talked about the fact that this would mean more extracurricular activities for their students and they talked about taking the pressure off the teachers to provide those extracurricular activities because now they have the funding that other schools have been able to provide in order to provide extra people to take those extracurricular activities and the light in that principal's eyes was amazing to see. The other area that I wanted to talk about was the fact that a lot of these schools now—or in the pilot in some of these schools—that I visited last week are really really appreciative of the fact that we are tackling child poverty. They said to me We know that it's a tough issue. We live and breathe this every day but you are actually taking this on and we are really really appreciative for that." One of the schools that I visited is in Rotorua. It is now part of the recipient of the healthy lunches in schools programme and the difference that it was making to that principal's particular students was absolutely tangible. He said that they are coming to school every single day. In the past they used to worry in that school about the fact that they would have such small attendance due to poverty issues and now he's seeing a difference in those attendance issues. It's too early to tell that statistics-wise but in his anecdotal notes on the ground he is saying that those classrooms are full every day because the children are coming. They're looking forward to the healthy lunches that they're going to be getting they find them really nutritional and they are staying in the zone for learning all day. He's really excited by that because it's the first time he can say that that's actually making a big difference for his learners and he's not having to go and find lunches for those kids that didn't have them in the class. So we're making great progress in those areas. We have more mahi to do but we know that the sector is pleased."