Sepuloni CarmelDEBATE ON PRIME MINISTER'S STATEMENTDebate resumed from 15 February.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): In the Prime Minister's priorities speech she covered six points across my portfolios that I am looking forward to discussing today. Last week the Prime Minister outlined our Government's ambitious plans for the year. As has been the theme for our previous years in Government there is a lot to do in lots of areas not least of which social development employment ACC disabled people and arts and culture. We have some big changes planned this year and we are very well advanced in our work.One of the big changes will include the establishment of the long overdue and yet to be named Ministry for Disabled People. Last October the Minister of Health and I announced major changes to the disability system. The current disability system is broken and there are many barriers in place which make it hard for disabled people and their whānau to find and get the support needed to live their best lives. We as a Government want a true partnership between Government and the disability community and that's why a new Ministry for Disabled People will be established on 1 July this year. The new ministry will be the first of its kind anywhere in the world which is a massive achievement for disabled people.In her statement the Prime Minister reaffirmed our commitment to build on previous work by the disabled community and roll out the Enabling Good Lives approach across the country. This will be a key role of the new ministry and will transform disability support services for over 43000 disabled people their families whānau and communities. We've learnt from the Enabling Good Lives demonstrations happening across the country that this approach creates more meaningful engagement gives more voice choice control and flexibility and is reaching people who hadn't accessed disability support services before. It also ensures that support is reaching the most vulnerable parts of our disabled community. I've been told that the MidCentral prototype has seen a 60 percent increase in tangata whaikaha Māori and Pacific disabled people connecting with the system. Setting up a new ministry doesn't mean that every other Government agency will not also have to have a focus on ensuring that they are providing for disabled people. The new ministry will be a leader but other agencies will continue to be responsible for the way in which they serve disabled people as well.The Prime Minister also confirmed our commitment to introduce the Accessibility for New Zealanders Bill to the House this year. The framework that will be set out in the bill has been developed in consultation with the Access Alliance and provides progressive approaches to identifying preventing and removing barriers to participation for disabled people and their families tangata whaikaha Māori and Pacific peoples. This will apply to a range of areas including new or redeveloped buildings transport education health information and events.I want to move to ACC. Fifty years after it was set up—and it is 50 years old this year—ACC remains a unique and world-leading scheme. It is an integral part of our social support system in New Zealand and has become part of the fabric of our country. As Minister for ACC I want to make sure that this system assists all New Zealanders who have had an injury and is fit for purpose for New Zealand in the 21st century. That means continuing to reverse the cruel cost-saving changes that National made to the Accident Compensation Act in 2010 which unfairly disadvantaged tens of thousands of New Zealand workers. It also means looking hard at the equity of the ACC scheme and whether it is serving women Māori Pacific peoples other ethnic minorities and disabled people in the way that New Zealanders would expect.Last year I requested data from my officials that showed that women made fewer claims to ACC than men and have fewer injuries covered by the scheme than men and each woman's claim costs the scheme a third less than a man's on average in entitlements. These gender disparities are not surprising when you think about the fact that this scheme was set up to support the largely male New Zealand workforce back in the 1970s but it is time for us to begin addressing them.That is why the Government has taken the first step in this mahi by introducing a bill that will extend ACC cover to a list of maternal birth injuries. The extension of cover will benefit up to 18000 more women per year who will be able to receive cover for maternal birth injuries. This change will make a massive difference for these women but we know that there is more work to do to address inequities in the ACC scheme and we as a Government are committed to doing that.Let's move to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). MSD will continue to prioritise our welfare reform work programme but some of the key milestones we will see happen this year are the roll-out of our increases to main benefit and increases to Working for Families tax credits. The increases to main benefit levels represent the largest increases to main benefits in a decade and are a continuation of our commitment to address income adequacy. We know that addressing poverty in our nation is not just MSD's job; it is the job of multiple Government agencies and our combined work programme this year will see us progress towards our ultimate goal of eliminating child poverty.MSD will also continue its focus on employment. We've invested heavily in work-focused front-line case management. The specific actions we've taken include 263 new front-line staff in Budget 2019 to help people into work. We've invested $150 million in Budget 2020 to help people into work invested a further $99 million in work-focused case management and services in Budget 2021 and invested $86 million to sustain the additional front-line work-focused staff we employed through COVID-19.The quarterly benefit figures show that our Government's investment is beginning to deliver results and meaningful outcomes. He Poutama Rangatahi has supported 7047 at-risk rangatahi to overcome barriers to employment education or training. Mana in Mahi has supported 4446 people into placements since 2018. There's been a total of 11193 flexi-wage placements and our Apprenticeship Boost scheme to help employers retain apprentices and encourage more people to take up apprenticeships has already benefited 40314 apprentices. These are excellent results but there is more to do.Last but not least I'd like to touch on the arts culture and heritage portfolio. The Government's strong economic management and landmark $374 million investment in the arts and culture sector in response to COVID-19 has protected jobs supported livelihoods and cushioned the blow for the arts and culture sector. The COVID-19 cultural recovery package impact report on the initial impacts of the four-year Arts and Culture COVID Recovery Programme shows that up to June 2021 our Government's significant investment in this sector has created over 1500 jobs many of these in the arts and creative sector. I think I saw somewhere it had saved just under 3000 jobs in the screen sector.There is no question that the Omicron phase of the pandemic poses fresh and serious challenges for the arts and cultural sector in 2022. It will not be an easy road. In early February I announced $121 million in further support for the arts and culture sector to further cushion the blow and protect jobs incomes and livelihoods of those who make a living from delivering arts experiences and events and we should not underestimate the important role that the arts and cultural sector has to play with regards to supporting the wellbeing of New Zealanders but also the economic contribution that the arts and cultural sector make to our country. We continue to listen closely and engage with the sector to ensure we pivot where needed to ensure the cultural sector continues to make a significant contribution to our economy and to our collective wellbeing.This Government is ambitious for New Zealand's future and we are delivering. The work programme you will see coming out of my portfolios this year are ambitious but will make a difference to the lives of many New Zealanders. I'd like to thank all of the officials who are working on these incredibly important changes and all of the community organisations and iwi that are working alongside us. It is a programme of work that is well under way and I look forward to delivering it.