Smith StuartSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Well I want to talk today a little bit about the impact of the obvious slow-down in the economy and how that's actually happening out in the real world in my electorate and around the rest of the country. Part of that in fact has to do with the immigration settings—well not the settings so much but the delivery of how visas are processed. What we're seeing with work visas is a 30-day increase in the time it takes—or a 33 percent increase in the time it takes—to actually process those visas. It is unacceptable and it's having a real impact on businesses and that was demonstrated this morning on RNZ where businesses were quite clearly saying that they are delaying investment in their expansion plans because they quite simply can't get the staff that they require to operate and expand those businesses. So it has a real impact and a knock-on impact around the rest of the economy. It also delays potential export opportunities. Today in fact I was at a signing of a joint venture between a Japanese honey company and Taylor Pass Honey Co. which is in my electorate. Those sorts of investments are vital for the increasing penetration of our goods into other markets. It was an absolute pleasure to be here today for that signing of that joint venture Sugi Bee Garden is the name of the company from Japan and it's a massive opportunity for the Taylor Pass Honey Co. That requires investment and it also requires skilled staff and semi-skilled staff. A lot of honey companies are having difficulty getting apiarists into New Zealand to help them with that vital harvest of the honey. But it's not just work visas. It's also holiday visas and we have seen people changing their holiday plans because tours can't get their visas processed in a timely fashion. It is 17 days longer now or 60 percent longer than it was taking when the Government took office and it has a real impact on tourism numbers coming to New Zealand. This is a simple process. They need a visa to come here. Yes we need our borders protected. All this is covered by the fee. People pay for their visa. It's quite simple: just resource it. The money's there to do it. It's not extra money that's required. It's already covered by the fee for the visa. Also for student visas we're now seeing a number of students changing their plans sick of waiting. It's also a 60 percent increase in the time required for those visas to be processed. So they're electing to carry out their studies outside of New Zealand. That's a lost opportunity and will cost some jobs.All this is occurring when we are seeing other instances where businesses can't get workers. And in my particular area in Marlborough we have a 3.7 percent unemployment rate—extremely low. Yet on top of that we are seeing running counter to that a 10.4 percent increase in those on the benefit. That's a phenomenal increase and that is while businesses are crying out for labour to operate in their businesses. They're paying very well the people that work for them but we're seeing that increase in people on benefits. We're seeing it worse in Kaikōura. There's a 64.9 percent increase in Kaikōura. In Hurunui it's a 42.2 percent increase. We all know that the way out of poverty is through work and the ability to get into work—staying on a benefit doesn't help people. It doesn't help those families. We heard a bit about child poverty today. Under the nine measures of child poverty when National was in Government we saw an improvement in seven out of those nine. One stayed the same and one decreased slightly under the new Government. Seven have got worse and two have slightly improved. Child poverty—the main reason that this Prime Minister came into Government as she said and got into politics was to deal with child poverty. Well it's getting worse; it's not getting better. So that is not a year of delivery; that's a year of non-delivery and failure and failing those people who can least look after themselves. We know social welfare is there to help people. Absolutely. It always will be; it's a vital safety net. But people should also have an obligation to turn up for a job interview to go out there and work when we have businesses that are providing employment for lots of people who depend on others to come along and do their job as well and work. They're being well paid and they'll be far better off for having that work. So it's with great pleasure I say good night.