Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I want to start my contribution in what of course is an important conversation for New Zealand. The Prime Minister has said that her intention is to have legislation that's supported through the Parliament by all parties so it's a fairly bittersweet day on this side of the House as we acknowledge the resignation of our leader Bill English because I see that of anyone in this Parliament based on their record and their results he is the single most effective MP in terms of actually delivering results for the very children that we've been talking about today. You cannot deliver for the very vulnerable children we're talking about unless you have an economy that's growing unless there is employment and unless there are opportunities. And the guts of this if we are serious about improving the lives and changing the lives of children living in poverty is that social investment is the only path to do that. So I do want to just put on record my thanks to the Rt Hon Bill English for his leadership in this work.My request to the Labour Prime Minister is to engage fully with this side of the House on the how". It's all very well to set targets. I don't think anyone would disagree that targets aren't a good idea which is why as a Government we set Better Public Services targets to focus results.Our support beyond the first reading is conditional on three significant areas. I want to talk about those three significant areas because there is no one out there who listens to the Prime Minister speaking about lifting children out of poverty that would disagree but what everybody wants to know is how. How is the current Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government going to do it?What we've seen if we look at results and if we look at what has been achieved is that 85000 children have been lifted out of poverty in the last five years. So what the New Zealand public want to know is is the new Government paying attention to what worked or is the new Government going to be ideologically driven and just abandon anything that the previous Government had in place that worked? That's my challenge to that side of the House today—if that side of the House is authentic about solving the very challenges for families up and down this country or is that side of the House going to abandon the very things that worked? I want to give the House an example because it actually speaks to the three areas that our deputy leader Paula Bennett spoke about in her letter. It's about Better Public Services targets. It's about actually being ambitious and not just saying you want to achieve less than what was achieved in the last five years. I think that's outrageous. I actually think it's outrageous for a leader of a party whose supposed top priority is child poverty—but then actually housing is the top priority and something else as well so I've kind of lost track. It's about how. It's about how the Government will do it and it becomes even more of a challenge to get the results that that side of the House is suggesting if you abandon what worked. Let me give you an example of a place-based initiative. Yes the Prime Minister was in Northland for five days. I've not heard that the Prime Minister visited the place-based initiatives in Ōtāngarei in Kaitāia or in Kaikohe because when you meet with the families the very families that this bill purports to work for—I want to know how many of the Ministers opposite have sat in front of those very families and their children to understand the challenges they face. So if you look at the challenges gosh it's kind of interesting. Look at the Better Public Services targets that we were measuring ourselves on: reducing—Jan Logie: Wow! Come to my neighbourhood. Talk to the people in my street and give that speech. Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Did you visit them in Northland? Did the Prime Minister meet—well I haven't had a yes. So look at reducing long-term welfare dependence look at healthy mums and babies look at keeping kids healthy look at safer kids improving—Hon Clare Curran: How many State houses have you visited? Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Oh they just don't like to hear. The pathway to lifting children out of poverty is these very complex areas of dysfunction and I can tell that side of the House that the problems will not be solved by writing a target and a number on the wall of your office. You've got to get out there. You've got to look at innovation and do things differently from how things have been done before. That is the reality. Another part of it is it's not just accountability and targets on politicians—what about on the Government departments? It's disappointing but it will make it challenging for the Government to not have a mechanism that forces Government departments to work together. I'm concerned we'll see a withdrawal back into silos and instead of focusing on the very children this bill is meant to serve Government departments will retreat into silos because all of a sudden they are not having to deal with the complex issues. I've had members opposite say "Well of course we know what's happening in our community." and I was talking about Northland. So one of the things that Better Public Services targets enables you as a local advocate as a member of Parliament to do is to actually talk to the Government departments talk to iwi and talk to the community organisations and ask them "What are you doing differently about this particular issue?" So I'm concerned and this side of the House is concerned that the current Government is removing because of ideology the very things that worked. So let me tell you about social investment. Let me tell you—DEPUTY SPEAKER: No I'd really like you to relate it to the bill. Hon LOUISE UPSTON: In terms of the bill our support is conditional on three things. Our support for this bill past the first reading is conditional on the continuation of Better Public Services targets being more aspirational in terms of the targets you've set. Because this side of the House doesn't think it's good enough when we've actually achieved more in the last five years. So we're challenging the current Government to lift your level of aspiration for the very children we're talking about.Also our support past the first reading is conditional on social investment. If that side of the House is serious about changing the lives of these children we're not just talking about financial poverty. We're talking about poverty of health and we're talking about poverty of opportunity. So in order to do that you need to use information and data about them. These are real people in real need and the invitation is to deliver the services much closer. In order to achieve the targets—Hon Kris Faafoi: I thought the other guy said data wasn't enough. Hon LOUISE UPSTON: In terms of achieving the targets that the Government is setting—Hon Kris Faafoi: Which one is it?Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Well your Minister for Social Development isn't sure that she wants to support social investment via data. So if you talk to the very families that I'm talking about the more you know about them the more you can deliver what they need. And it is interesting going back to the place-based initiatives that a very high proportion of the one in Northland is Māori and yet your Minister of Finance is talking about removing—removing—funding for those programmes and initiatives that are focused on Māori. It's no surprise also that this is the week that you've killed the schools that are delivering for Māori and Pacific Island students. So that side of the House is providing mixed messages. I want to close by saying that this is about real people with real needs and what this side of the House is looking for is real answers and real plans for how the Government intends to do it because we've heard nothing. We've heard nothing. We've heard nothing about your plans for how. So I think that if this Parliament is to support a bill unanimously through all stages the New Zealand public is owed an explanation of the how. You can talk in fluff and you can talk in convoluted statements but at the end of the day if you want to change lives you've got to show us a plan."