Williams PotoHon POTO WILLIAMS (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector): Mr Speaker I wonder if you could indulge me for a few minutes. I want to spend a little time—this is the first chance I've had to speak in the House since we have returned post-lockdown and I want to acknowledge the sacrifice that families have made over the lockdown periods particularly families who have lost their loved ones; families who have been restricted in their ability to care for loved ones especially those at end of life; families who have been unable to grieve. I want to say a huge and immense thanks to all of those families who despite really wanting to be with their loved ones actually paid a sacrifice for all of us. So I want to acknowledge them. I cannot speak more highly of what they have done for all of us.But I want to pay special tribute to my friend and colleague Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki for the loss of her mum. I want to pay special tribute to Jerome and Jules Mika and their family at the loss of Josiah and to my special friend Stephen Hughes and his family at the loss of their dad Richard Hughes. But most importantly the 11 residents at Rosewood Rest Home: more than half of the deaths attributed to COVID-19 from my electorate the loss of our kaumātua from Christchurch East. I want to pay a special tribute and acknowledgment to David Meates the chief executive of the Canterbury District Health Board; his staff and team; the team at Burwood Hospital; and the staff of all the facilities who took the residents from Rosewood and cared for them and loved them during this difficult time. My thoughts my prayers my aroha to them all. Thank you Mr Speaker for allowing me that.I have the most incredible fantastic opportunity to work with and be the associate for some lead Ministers that I'm very grateful for: Megan Woods as the Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration Iain Lees-Galloway as Minister of Immigration and Carmel Sepuloni as the Minister for Social Development. I'm incredibly proud of what the Ministry of Social Development has contributed to the joint venture looking at family and sexual violence and the Budget that we have produced this year: $183 million; $142 million for family violence services $16 million for perpetrator services and $25 million for elder abuse.Overseas experience taught us in the lead-up to our own experiences of dealing with COVID-19 that we would experience a spike in family violence. During the course of particularly lockdown at level 4 the numbers were relatively stable but we knew from the intel that we were getting from our family violence services that underneath all of that families were under some pressure they were under stress and there were some difficult times that they were experiencing.Now our key methods of detecting levels of violence within our community were no longer operating. We get a lot of information from our schools for example as key reporters of difficult times with families. And of course we weren't getting that information but anecdotally our refuges were telling us that violence was on the rise and we had to be able to be prepared to support victims and families better. So I'm enormously proud of the $142 million for family violence services proud of the work that the Ministry of Social Development does as part of the joint venture to put in this particular case a staffer from the ministry into the National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges to assess how they work and actually to look at what they need and start to deliver based on the need and the ability to deliver effective programmes to victims and their families.Now this has come on top of significant increases that we have already made. So since coming to office since taking over as Government we've made extraordinary increases to funding for family violence because it's been needed; that's what we've needed to do. So in Budget 2018: $76 million to stabilise and strengthen family violence services for victims perpetrators and families. Budget 2019: $90 million for specialised sexual violence services; $30 million for family violence prevention including the programmes E Tū Whānau Pasefika Proud and the Campaign for Action on Family Violence.In this Budget there are a couple of things that have been very exciting for me. One of them is the $16 million for perpetrator services. Why I find that extraordinary and exciting is there is a huge opportunity for us to look at those people who use violence and try and develop the circuit-breakers the mechanisms that will support them to deal with the issues that cause them to use violence before they do that—whether it's by de-escalation through some of the programmes that are delivered through Hey Bro or My Fathers Barbers. Simple things like having access to someone to talk to when you are elevating when you are starting to become at risk of using harm someone to talk to to actually help you to deal with your issues of anger and stress. Simple things but preventative that stop you from doing harm in the first place. This is a step in the right direction to us actually eliminating violence in our communities and I think it's a great step in the right direction.Also $25 million to address elder abuse. I can recall talking to the Hon Tracey Martin about this and saying to her that actually really in the scheme of things we don't really recognise elder abuse as family violence but it is—it is. Our older people our older citizens deserve to actually be as safe as anyone in this country. And we have all got examples—constituents or others who have told us of how older family members may be placed under some duress to hand over assets or money or the like. So family violence does exist amongst our older citizens.Just in the last few minutes before my contribution ends I do actually also want to acknowledge the $63 million for water safety—the $63 million in this Budget for water safety. I'm particularly happy about this living as I do on the east coast of Christchurch and my constituency having a long length of coastline as part of it. Actually when I'm exercising in the morning I go past three Surf Life Saving clubs—four if I'm extending myself but three and they are particularly happy with this announcement. Surf Life Saving New Zealand the Water Safety Council and Coastguard all contribute to the programmes that they deliver to keep New Zealanders safe in and on the water.I come from a family of fisher folk and I know that for us—Pacific Island men in particular need to be encouraged to wear safety devices when they're out fishing. This is part of the wider programme to keep us safe not only in but on the water as well. These services are run mostly by volunteers and if it hadn't been for our community organisations and our volunteers we would not have responded to COVID as well as we have. So I just want to send out a tautoko and a mihi to all of our community and voluntary services. Thank you so much for everything you have done during this really difficult time in our country because without you we would not have come through this as well as we have. So congratulations to the Hon Grant Robertson who has been extraordinarily nimble in being able to take what was a Budget that took a year to craft and turn it on its head so that we could respond appropriately and significantly to this difficult time that we all face. Fa'afetai tele lava.