Goodhew Jo: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoodhew Jo: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13707. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon JO GOODHEW (National—Rangitata): As I rise for this general debate today I do so knowing that the feedback I am getting from the people of my Rangitata electorate is that they are so grateful to have a Government that has its eye on the ball; that has its eye on the things that really matter to New Zealanders. So it is not what is the matter with New Zealanders; it is what matters to New Zealanders.One of the most important things to them is that the Government has assisted their households and their families through the global financial crisis and through the tough times and they have come to understand that it has their interests at heart. So it is about responsibly managing the Government’s finances. As I often say to people I understand as does this National Government that when we talk about Government spending it is actually their spending. It is their taxpayer money that we are spending. It is not Government money. It came out of the pockets of hard-working New Zealanders.It is actually about a more competitive and productive economy because that is about jobs that is about raising incomes that is about raising the standard of living for the households of New Zealand. That is the sort of stuff where in fact the average household understands that it is spending so much less on its mortgage under this National Government than it ever did under the previous Government. They can certainly get their heads round how that has helped them through this time.It is about the confidence that the people of Canterbury understand. They know that this Government is backing them and is backing getting the rebuild done. Canterbury is firing on all cylinders. I can tell you that unemployment is low there. I can tell you that in my part of Canterbury we are now suffering from unease about skills shortages. So I would say to people in the rest of New Zealand to come on down—we have got a job for you. We will look after you down our end of the country.The thing I want to concentrate on today is the Better Public Services targets. You see this Government does not shy away from setting itself tough targets—targets that will not be easy to achieve and that are not simply window dressing. Our Government and New Zealanders understand that it is not about spend spend spend—spend for the sake of spending. It is actually about getting some value for the money we spend. It really is. We are certainly delivering. We are reducing crime. We do have measurable improvements in the health of New Zealanders. We are reducing educational underachievement and long-term welfare dependence. But long-term welfare dependence is something that the members on the other side of the House depend upon. They actually depend upon it to stay there and support them.In fact the targets we have actually set are quite hard to achieve. We have actually had to take some risks. On this side of the House we have had to take some—Andrew Williams: We’re over here.Hon JO GOODHEW: Welfare dependence is over there is it? Welfare dependence is over there since that is what I am actually talking about at the moment and the member calls out “We’re over here.” So the number of long-term beneficiaries has fallen by almost 3000 to 75300. That is 3000 in the past year.As for the Social Workers in Schools scheme they are now implemented in decile 1 to 3 schools—72 percent of low-decile schools. That is making a real difference in those schools. Not only have we got social workers in schools but we have got social workers in every single district health board hospital. That makes a real difference. That makes a real difference.So if we want to look at some statistics that are truly truly scary 3044 children experienced substantial physical abuse in the year to March 2013. But actually the good news is that that is a reduction of 3.5 percent. So we are seeing—Andrew Williams: That’s margin of error.Hon JO GOODHEW: Oh the member is dreaming. The Vulnerable Children Bill received universal unanimous support across the House so that is something that we can actually all agree on. But what we did not see under the previous Government is any jolly improvement on that or on any tough things. So when we went out around the country with a green paper we said that we wanted to hear the tough things that people thought we should do to protect vulnerable children. We are having fantastic success when it comes to immunisation elective surgery cancer treatment—results results results under this Government—Mr SPEAKER: The member’s time has expired.