Little AndrewHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Justice): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Can I begin by congratulating you on your election as Assistant Speaker and indeed congratulate the Rt Hon Trevor Mallard on his election as Speaker the Hon Anne Tolley as Deputy Speaker and Poto Williams as the other Assistant Speaker. I think it's great that as the diversity of Parliament is now really starting to evolve—it's great to see even in that small clutch of presiding officers the extent of diversity in your group and I think it's fantastic and it's great to see you in the Chair Mr Assistant Speaker.I'd also like to congratulate my leader and the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on the leadership that she has provided the campaign that she ran and her work in establishing a solid stable enduring relationship with our colleagues in New Zealand First and in the Green Party to form what is a truly MMP Government in New Zealand at last. This is what MMP was about: voting blocs parties coming together and forming that interesting mix—David Seymour: Is that what you call it—an interesting mix"?Hon ANDREW LITTLE: —of policies we have in common and a real diverse representation of the views of New Zealand. I'm sorry there was no room for Mr Seymour in spite of his celebration of past achievements of past Labour parties. I want to acknowledge the members opposite and welcome the new MPs opposite too and to say that amidst the histrionics the theatrics the slights and the insults—and of course there won't be many of those now because Mr Mallard has ruled against them—the Opposition does have a vital role to play. We respect that we understand it we know it and it is vital for a thriving democracy. If there's one thing that we all come into this House to do and a value with which we are all imbued it is that sense of the robustness of our democracy of the freedom of expression that every member gets to enjoy in this House. It is your role it is our role and we respect each and every part of it.Of course members opposite will know whether through the adversarial exchanges in this House—either in question time or in the debates that we have or indeed in the exchanges in select committees—or whether it's the debates we have in the metaphorical town square we might just find that there are some things that we agree on and we should never hesitate to do that.Can I welcome the new members on the Government side as well. I look particularly to the new Labour MPs and what a rich well of talent we get to draw upon in this 52nd Parliament. I am very proud to be part of a party that has the level of diversity that it has: the number of new women MPs Māori MPs and members for whom New Zealand is the place that their families chose to come to live and settle here. Our caucus is richer for that this Parliament is richer for that and New Zealand is richer for that as well. We are a country that celebrates its diversity and I celebrate that on this occasion as well. Slowly but surely the rest of this Parliament will catch up.The Speech from the Throne set out ambitious and challenging goals in housing; in health; in public safety and police because we have a bit of work to do there; in the environment because we have only one planet; and in building a truly productive economy where wealth is generated and wealth is fairly shared. That is our goal. The Prime Minister yesterday in her Address in Reply speech made it clear what the Government's priorities will be. They are about genuinely reducing child poverty about building an education system for the future—for early childhood for primary for secondary and for tertiary. There is transformation about to happen in education and it won't come a moment too soon.Hon Tracey Martin: And adult and community.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: Of course—and adult learners too as the Hon Tracey Martin has just reminded me. Of course the other big challenge and goal we've set ourselves is to give first-home buyers a chance to restore that Kiwi dream of owning your own home. And why wouldn't we in this great country we call Aotearoa New Zealand?There is a good reason why New Zealanders wanted change. The Hon Nick Smith can rail all he likes about mandates. The truth is just like in his electorate more people voted against that side of the House than for it. More people voted for this side of the House than against it. That's why we have a mandate. That's why we are the Government. New Zealanders wanted a change because—see here is the reality: we cannot claim to be a success as a nation when we have record homelessness in this country. That's not a New Zealand value. That's not a New Zealand way. We cannot claim success when 60 percent of wage and salary earners in the last 10 years have noticed that they have not got ahead and in some cases have gone backwards. That's not success. No matter what figures you trot out that ain't success.We cannot claim to be a success when 290000 children live in poverty. We cannot claim success when our health system is left struggling to provide basic healthcare for many New Zealanders. That's not success and New Zealanders had enough and they wanted change—and they're going to get it. We cannot claim success when the regions are struggling and when job growth numbers—as the Hon Nick Smith talked about; he was very proud of those job growth numbers but we can't claim success when those numbers are based on a growing number of part-time casual short-term temporary low-paid jobs. That's not success. That's why we're committed to genuine productivity growth genuine productivity improvement through good investment good technology and good long-term jobs that pay well. I know members opposite are confused about what a good quality job looks like because that was a question from the Hon Steven Joyce today. A good quality job is something that allows a person to live in decency and in dignity because that's the New Zealand way. We have big challenges.In justice we have a sharply increasing crime rate a rapidly rising prison population and we had a previous Government that continues to boast about its version of social investment and I just lay this out for this House. They talk long and large—still—about social investment. They say "Don't take it away." You see their version of social investment was "Look we can look at the numbers and we know where the hard problems are and therefore where the money needs to go." Nine years they had in Government nine years they had running their version of social investment looking at the numbers seeing where the hard problems were. But what happened? For nine years they told us of social investment but when it came to criminal justice they even declared that prisons were a moral and fiscal failure. So in their nine years in Government as the prison population steadily rose throughout that nine years as the crime rate grew—certainly serious crime grew in the last three or four years of that Government—what was the single biggest social investment they were prepared to make to fix those hard issues? One billion dollars and yet another prison—$300 million a year for yet another prison.Hon Louise Upston: Well just let them out then. Unlock the doors. Let them out.Hon Member: Labour's open door policy.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: And the silly mindless bleating from the members opposite who say "Oh let them all out." They don't have an answer. They don't have an answer. They claim to be the authors of social investment to fix the big social problems we've got but they don't have a single answer. Eight years they had of tackling those problems and they said a year ago "We know what the answer is. We'll build another prison. It'll cost a billion dollars. We'll spend a billion dollars on another prison and we'll spend $300 million a year locking these people up because we don't care about the real problem."Well that has to change and it's going to change because you've got brilliant people like the Hon Kelvin Davis like Peeni Henare like the Hon Tracey Martin like Darroch Ball in New Zealand First and like the members of the Green Party who care about fixing the problem and that's what we're going to do. Just as we have done for Teina Pora it is time for justice for all New Zealanders. It is time to stop the growing crime rate that happened under that Government; time for New Zealanders to feel safe in their homes in their streets and their communities; time to do something for justice; time to do something better for New Zealand."