SpeechHon TRACEY MARTIN (Minister for Children): Thank you Madam Speaker. I welcome your ruling because only through actually hearing another language and having it translated can we ourselves learn to recognise what is being said and it creates more diversity for all of us. So I really appreciate that—I really appreciate that.Just to pick up on the member who's resumed his seat Simon O'Connor which he knew I would on some of the things that he's said just around the students—knowing some students myself—the students who are eligible for this income relief payment had to have been employed in a job at the same time as being a student. That is why they are eligible for this income relief payment: because they had been working to gain income so they could live. That's actually what this is about. This is about making sure that we've got some sort of buffer for those that were working who have now lost their jobs due to COVID-19 and we want to make sure that they have at least some support from their country to be able to transition through this process. It is a temporary payment. It is 12 weeks. That keeps being repeated.What we have heard of course during this period of time is that the Opposition would not and is not supporting this bill. The Opposition would not put in a relief payment in this way. The Opposition would prefer to have had all of this money provided to businesses. I'm just having difficulty—again there are mixed messages coming from the Opposition. During question time yesterday members from the Opposition kept shouting out Just give them cash! Just give them cash!" when they were referring to businesses but now we actually have a contribution from Minister O'Connor—sorry Mr O'Connor; wrong O'Connor—saying that he's worried about the probity. And yet apparently the Opposition is happy to shout out "Just give businesses cash!" but not the New Zealand public.One of the other things that we haven't heard from the Opposition is their plan. So the Opposition does not agree with this but the Opposition doesn't say what they would do instead except throw cash at business—except throw cash at business. The other thing of course that we have heard from the Opposition is that they're very distressed about the fact that there's a group of New Zealanders here in completely different circumstances due to COVID-19 who are gaining more money than the 112000 or 113000 New Zealanders who were on jobseeker before COVID-19 and they think that's incredibly unfair. The fact is that they had nine years when actually they could have lifted this. They could have had a Welfare Expert Advisory Group report themselves in a nine-year period but chose not to do that—chose not to do that chose not to actually take those that they are now flailing about and do something about it. But we still don't have a plan.I would be really interested if the next Opposition speakers would like to stand and say that if they are in Government after September they will raise all beneficiary incomes to the same level as this income relief period. That is what the Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jan Logie was pointing out yesterday with this new attempt by the Opposition to decide that they will cuddle up to the Green Party because they're all in such agreement. If the Opposition would like to stand up and commit now to the New Zealand public that after 19 September they will lift all beneficiaries to the same rate as the COVID-19 income relief payment I think that the Green Party will come on over and hug them even though there's still social distancing. But I don't believe we're going to see that ladies and gentlemen. I don't believe we're going to see that.This is a COVID-19 income relief payment for a short period of time. At the same time this Government will continue to work on supports that are created during the COVID-19 period and after the COVID-19 period to do better by the 112000 to 113000 beneficiaries that were on jobseeker benefits and were looking to their Government for support. That work does not stop merely because we are actually now having to deal with COVID-19. New Zealand First endorses the bill."