Macindoe Tim: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Macindoe Tim: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5529. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West) 
: 
 I was fascinated at how silent members opposite were when the Minister for Social Development was moving the first reading of this bill a short time ago. In fact I think I was not the only one on this side of the House who came to the conclusion that maybe they had had a road to Damascus experience and had actually decided to support the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill. But sadly we then had the clichéd and unconvincing contributions of Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson and it was clear that they had fallen back on their failed ideology which it has to be said is actually the reason why we have got the problems that we are tackling in this bill. 
I have repeatedly argued in this House that New Zealand needs a generous and compassionate welfare system. I am going to start by repeating that today because I firmly believe it but it also needs to be said that we can have that only when the policy settings are right and relevant to contemporary circumstances when incentives are in place to assist people out of welfare and into work and self-reliance and when abuse of the welfare system is minimised or preferably eliminated altogether. 
I am hugely enthusiastic about this second tranche of our welfare reforms and I want to point out so are all of my constituents who talked to me at length about these issues during the campaign last year. It would appear that the whole of the country is because voters enthusiastically embraced the idea by voting for National in record numbers on 26 November. This bill sets out a vision and it sends the right signals yet Jacinda Ardern questioned where the incentives focus is that the Minister talked about. I am really surprised that she cannot see it because assisting people to gain skills and become ready for work is a significant investment in them and it is the right thing to do. So is giving extra support to those who want to work but need a little bit more help in order to get ready for it such as those who struggle with addiction and we are putting that investment into them. Those provisions are in this bill. We have struck the right balance between incentives obligations and the provision of targeted assistance. 
Miss Ardern’s protestations prompted me to have another look at Labour’s legacy which it left the new Government just 4 years ago. If we are talking about incentives let us remind ourselves of that record. Labour paid criminals the benefit while they were on the run from the police. Well it has to be admitted that is I guess an investment but honest taxpayers deeply resent such nonsense as that and this bill will stop it. Labour claimed that it had a strategy for reducing unemployment yet what it really did—and the figures show this—is that it merely shifted beneficiaries between different types of benefits. 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: No. Don’t tell lies. 
TIM MACINDOE 
: As I say— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Order! 
TIM MACINDOE 
: The figures show it. Let me give you some figures Mr Lees-Galloway. Under the 9 years of the Labour Government the number on the sickness benefit increased from 33000 to 46000 while those on the invalids benefit increased from 53000 to 85000. I do not think there are a whole lot of young people in every town and city wandering around on the street all day who are invalids but according to those numbers there must be. 
Opposition members have again chirped today that our welfare reforms are cruel and callous and that there are no jobs available. Well not only are our reforms an expression of confidence and belief in those who are on benefits but the evidence tells a different story. So let me just close with this. I am very happy to tell the House that as at 3 p.m. today 12194 jobs were advertised on TradeMe and 10278 of those are full-time. Meanwhile on SEEK 16420 jobs were advertised and of those 13085 are full-time. So there are certainly jobs out there. These reforms are about assisting as many people as we can to be ready to take them on. When they do they will become aspirational. They will become self-reliant. The quality of their lives will improve and so it will for all of their families. The whole country will be better off but most important those whom we are assisting will be. I enthusiastically support this bill.