Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): I know we're not allowed to make ironic statements in the House but for the Prime Minister to say that this is the year of delivery is absolutely! From day one when a Government is elected they should be delivering for New Zealand. But oh no no they take a big breathing space. They send off 200-plus working groups to do the work and then decide nearly halfway through the term of Parliament that this year is the year of delivery.Well I've got news for Mr Twyford around housing. Or should we call him Mr 47"? Forty-seven is not delivering.Hon Phil Twyford: 47 percent.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Forty-seven is definitely not 10000. It's definitely not 1000 and it's definitely a lot less than 100—47! Forty-seven is a tragic amount so if that's the first result out of the gate in this Government's year of delivery goodness help us all. It's going to be a tragic year.Hon Phil Twyford: 1100 extra State houses.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: It was really interesting—Mr Twyford might be interested in this particular figure that came out of the Salvation Army's state of the nation report yesterday. The report goes back 12 years but one of the graphs that was put up in the breakfast yesterday was over the last 20 years the number of consents for new houses. The interesting thing is that 2007 the end of the last Labour Government's term was when the number of consents for new houses bottomed out. In 2006-07 it absolutely bottomed out. That figure has absolutely escalated over the nine years in National. Have we got enough houses for the people that we have? Not yet—Hon Phil Twyford: You denied there was a crisis.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: —but 47 Mr Twyford isn't going to cut it—10000 may have; 1000 won't. Forty-seven KiwiBuild houses; $650000—I'm not sure that that's actually affordable but anyway.The other comment that Mr Twyford made in his first year when he was definitely talking and not delivering which is what we're going to see more of is in communities in this country—and as a local MP of a community that's seen an increase in the number of people who don't have access to housing when I asked for financial support and I asked for financial support from the Government for people in Tokoroa who needed access to emergency housing what was the answer? Zero—zero. So delivering for New Zealanders the Labour - New Zealand First Government: zero for vulnerable families who needed access to housing. The question was to the Minister of Housing and the response was quite clear: zero—zero dollars for those people and the Minister said no one needs to live in a car. What a joke.The other concerning thing that I think given the back of the announcement yesterday around tertiary education and the massive reform—be very careful. Be very careful. In terms of our workforce and our people getting skills they need for the jobs of today tomorrow and the next decades you're buying an interesting challenge.So in terms of delivering the Minister also made a comment about roads. I want to say and I haven't had a response to the letter that was written months ago now inviting him to come and speak to people in Cambridge who are absolutely devastated that the Waikato Expressway extension from Cambridge to Piarere was cancelled. That was a planned funded road that this Government cancelled. That's delivery; it's just delivery in the wrong direction. So I'm waiting for the Minister to say yes he's coming to Cambridge to talk to the locals who are very concerned about the deaths on their roads including one of the local schools at Karapiro. So I'm looking forward to your visit Minister.So the year of delivery—let's have a look at what that means in the area of vulnerable New Zealanders.Hon Aupito William Sio: Jobs.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Beneficiaries. Beneficiary numbers going up actually—Hon Aupito William Sio: You're making that up.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: —11000 more people on jobseeker benefit. So if that member's going to crow about the unemployment rate explain to me explain to this House why there are 11000 more people on jobseeker benefit. That figure was going down—had been going down for five years. All of a sudden this Government comes in—yes you're delivering; you're delivering more people on benefit you're delivering more people on jobseeker benefit when unemployment is supposedly at 4.3 percent. And at the same time you've got businesses around the country who can't find people to fill their jobs. They can't plant Shane Jones' billion trees. They can't pick the apples that are hanging on the trees. That's a year of delivery for you!It's quite interesting in terms of the increase in the number of people on jobseeker benefits because you know it is somewhat puzzling that that would be occurring at this point. But at the same time the Government has cut the obligations and responsibilities for very simple things like someone getting a jobseeker support turning up to appointments. So sanctions—and I'm expecting that's going to be a big word in the Welfare Expert Advisory Group that comes back next month. This Government is delivering: it's delivering fewer responsibilities for people who are receiving benefits and who actually we'd like to see in work. And the Minister today when I asked her about the number of children living in benefit-dependent homes—yes they are the children who live in the poorest households and they deserve they absolutely deserve our support.Hon Aupito William Sio: And the numbers grew under your Government.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: No that member is completely wrong: 61000 fewer children living in benefit-dependent homes since 2011—61000. So that's what New Zealanders want to know. New Zealanders want to know if this is the year of delivery tell us the targets. Oh no that's right; the Government doesn't believe in targets because they know they can't achieve them. KiwiBuild was 10000 then it was 1000 and guess what we got? Forty-seven.So how are you going to demonstrate delivery? Delivery is not just about nice fluffy words and hot air. It's about delivering for real New Zealanders up and down this country whether it's delivering to employers people to fill their jobs whether it's delivering for families and low incomes. Oh and guess what? Talking about young people we've seen the young people 18- to 24-year-olds not in education employment or training hit the highest record ever: 100000—100000 young New Zealanders not in education employment or training. What's your response to that Jan? What's your response to that?DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!Hon LOUISE UPSTON: My apologies—100000 young New Zealanders not in education employment or training. Now what does that do? That absolutely rips away the opportunity of that young person's future.Hon Aupito William Sio: That's a legacy from the previous Government.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: It is absolutely not a legacy. You're dreaming. You are absolutely dreaming. I mean the reality is this side of the House quite proudly believes that people are better off in work. The opportunities for their future are better. They're also better able to provide for their family. And for a Government that is focused supposedly on children in poverty I would have thought that reducing households' dependence on benefit would have been a priority but it's anything but.We think it's important to support New Zealanders and we did support the legislation around children in poverty but we want to see the results. We want to see the results. We want to see the actions. We want to see delivery. Unfortunately this side of the House isn't too optimistic about what that's going to look like because we haven't seen those results.I want to touch on a couple of other areas because it's about trends and changes. Whether you're looking at NEETs whether you're looking at recidivism with people leaving prison whether you're looking at those on job seekers whether you're looking at the number of children living in benefit-dependent homes New Zealanders should be very disturbed to see that those statistics were all coming down over the last five years. Guess what? They're all going up. So that's this Government's delivery. That will be the Labour Government's delivery for New Zealanders. It's hardship it's pain it's suffering and this Government needs to do more than just talk about it; you need to deliver results.So we'll be watching. We'll be holding you to account. That's the job of the Opposition. We'll be expecting 10000 not 47 and New Zealanders will be watching to test whether your words actually count. Actually a lot of them have decided that already. The Prime Minister's statement unfortunately was a flop."