Nakhle RimaRIMA NAKHLE (National—Takanini): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to speak in support of this bill. Just for the benefit of people listening outside of Parliament at home or around the world—I used to love it when different MPs would explain what we're doing because someone outside of here just might lose track—we're speaking to the Social Security (Benefits Adjustment) and Income Tax (Minimum Family Tax Credit) Amendment Bill.Now for people listening from home or anywhere else they'd think—if they were listening to the last few speakers from the other side of the House—that this bill only does one thing and that this bill only adjusts the way we're indexing benefits. We're saying we want to adjust that to index it on Consumers Price Index which is inflation. So if you were listening in the last half an hour I apologise if you think that this bill only does that one thing because it doesn't.Now I know that our members on the other side of the House—and I say this respectfully because I know that many of you are very lovely beautiful people—seem to have ignored the fact that this bill also proposes another change. It's a change where we adjust the minimum family tax credit bracket in a way that we ensure more lower-income families are better off if they remain in full-time work. I think it's very important that we emphasise this. Yes there's one part of this bill that talks about adjusting benefits to inflation taking it back to what it was for 31 out of 35 years under successive Governments including Helen Clark's Government—so we're going back to that true and tried form where we're adjusting benefits to inflation. But the second part that we're doing with this bill here today is we're adjusting the minimum family tax credit. As I just mentioned the result of this will be that more families will be better off if they choose to remain in full-time work.Now I know—like many of us in the House—we have a lot of friends we have a lot of families that have spoken to us about the different circumstances they find themselves in. I remember doorknocking—because I love to go out doorknocking you'll hear this a lot throughout my years in Parliament. Throughout doorknocking many times I came across people that are clearly very hard-working people and they say to me this simple thing that We don't apply. We don't reach that minimum. We don't fit under that bracket." They say that about a number of different situations including the family tax credit. So I'm very proud of the fact that we're adjusting it with this bill and I'm glad that we've got support across the Government parties because it will ensure that many families are better off. There's a lot of people that are juggling that beautiful juggle of having a family having children having mokopuna wanting to work and wanting to also spend time with them but also contribute to society—for society for themselves—and this is one way that we're ensuring people can go out and work and they will be better off with the family tax credit. We're also adjusting the childcare credit.Now I'd like to also speak about a number of points that were raised today and just some thoughts as a result. A member earlier spoke about déjà vu. The member earlier referred to their former—and this is the former Labour Government's—Budgets and the aspiration behind these Budgets and the aspiration behind their 100 days and then referred to what's happening now under this Government—our Government—as déjà vu. Well what I'd like to respond is that it's not déjà vu; it's actually déjà true. It's déjà true that under Labour Governments as we've seen just recently the number of young people under the age of 25 on the jobseeker benefit has risen by 66 percent. Déjà true. In the last six years it's now 40000—déjà true. This is what happens under a Labour Government. Déjà true: under a Labour Government since 2017 New Zealanders on the jobseeker benefit have increased by 70000. Déjà true. This is what happens when we've got a Labour-led Government. The latest forecast is that teenagers who become beneficiaries—so under the age of 20—can spend up to 24 years of their working life on welfare. Déjà true. This is what happens as a result of a Labour-led Government. Here on this side of the House the National Party with our coalition partners will not sit around and let the déjà true Labour legacy of dependency go unchecked. That's why—that's another reason why—this bill is before the House.A mere few months ago I was having some kai with a very lovely woman—she's a woman that's quite established now—and she spoke about how she used to be on the benefit and she shared what that did to her soul. She spoke about how one's life is not their own when they're on the benefit. She spoke about how their calendar is not their own when one is on the benefit. She spoke about how you are literally dependent on someone else when you are on the benefit. And so when she found herself on the benefit and was surviving with a benefit but she ached—she ached to get back out into the workforce. And she's a woman that has children and found herself in difficult times. The beauty of what we have here is that we acknowledge people do find themselves in difficult times but we also acknowledge that if we allow ourselves to go too far we'll have a poverty of aspiration. We need to fight against the poverty of aspiration. This woman that I spoke about is the Hon Louise Upston. They're the things that she said to me and they really resonated with me—what being on the benefit can do.Our Government wants to support people out of the benefit. Our Government wants to support families that want to work—with the family tax credit with the childcare credit. Our Government is not going to allow the poverty of aspiration to permeate any longer and that's the kaupapa behind what we're doing here today. I commend this bill to the House."