Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): How I did not miss being in this space listening to the petty exchanges finger pointing and energy that goes in—people just looking at each other instead of looking at the communities that we are supposed to serve—the energy that we should be putting in serving the communities that actually have been doing it the toughest over the past few years whether it has been through the inequality crisis that has actually been here for successive Governments whether it has been the pandemic or now the inflationary pressures that are seeing more families struggling to make ends meet. We should be paying attention to the fact that people all around the motu are doing their best to support each other and fill in the gaps where successive Governments have failed.Over the past month we have seen how on the one hand the National Party is hell keen to punish the people who are doing it the toughest by introducing punitive benefit sanctions when all that they would do is put more people into hardship starve people out so that they get any job no matter how unsuitable despite overwhelming evidence that such an approach does not help to reduce unemployment. The National Party is running policy on vibes to punish people and the Labour members were rightfully critical of this approach and calling out the potential of the National Party putting in place policies that would see disabled people starved out so that they could be forced into work. I congratulate the members for their energy in calling out National but they should be looking at their own policies as well and the fact that we have a sanctions regime that is still run on vibes that is not run on evidence and that is punishing people.I've heard over the past few weeks when I've questioned Ministers on this issue that they have made sure to introduce some checks so that fewer people are sanctioned and therefore we're starving out fewer people but one sanction is one too many particularly when there is no empirical evidence of a New Zealand welfare regime that includes sanctions supporting people into employment. All we've seen is a handful of overseas examples where maybe the sanctions regime helped but all we know is that people are being put into hardship. I encourage all MPs in the House to talk to people on the benefit about their experiences with Work and Income the threat that people are facing when it comes to that pressure of going to their appointments and knowing that if they don't show up they may have their benefit cut off. But we forget that actually this measure does not support our communities. Starving people out will not encourage them to show up at Work and Income to engage in services to see how they can meet their aspirations.We know that the Government's own advisory group which gave substantive recommendations on how to overhaul the welfare system was unequivocal that financial sanctions do not work and that instead we should be putting in place a system on mutual expectations. At no point was the report actually saying that what we should be doing is cutting people's incomes as a way to address the lack of trust that people may be having with our welfare system. So I hope that our Labour members in this House channel the critical energy they have for the National Party with their sanctions regime to look at their own policy to finally introduce policies that support people and meet their aspirations because we cannot rely on the status quo. We cannot rely on regulations that simply see a reduction in sanctions because if the National Party gets back in what we do know is that if their legislation hasn't changed what they'll do is they'll ramp up those sanctions they'll ramp up that punitive approach.We have an opportunity right now and Labour has an opportunity right now with the mandate that they have got to put an end to benefit sanctions once and for all to support the communities who have been doing the mahi to support each other during the pandemic and recognise the diversity of contributions that they make because employment isn't the only contribution that people are making right now. People are doing volunteering they're doing care-giving and our welfare system continues to not recognise those contributions as meaningful and as worthy of a life with dignity. I yearn for a system that recognises the diversity of contributions that people bring and that does not have a narrow approach of pushing people into low-paid work. Instead I hope that our employment schemes such as Mana in Mahi support people into employment that pays at least the living wage. Everyone deserves a livable income a warm house to live in and the guarantee that they'll be supported by Government into employment that meets their aspirations.So we'll continue putting pressure on Labour to own up to the values they showed when they were criticising National and to put an end to the sanctions regime once and for all.