Bennett Paula: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett Paula: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3990. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAULA BENNETT (Associate Minister of Finance): It is with absolute pleasure that I stand and actually get to put on record just how proud I am of this National-led Government’s Budget for 2015. It has been my first Budget as an Associate Minister of Finance and so I have worked my way through it with the guidance of Bill English actually looking at what needed to be done and where we could address the needs of this country.It is easy to forget actually that we have an average growth rate of 2.8 percent and that we are projecting 150000 more jobs to come on board. I remember the calls when we were saying that there would be 170000 more jobs and it would be fair to say that we were derided by the left. They took every opportunity that they could to throw that back at us. Well here we are saying: “No no we did not do 170000. Actually the economy has produced 194000 more jobs which have been created since 2011.” And that makes a fundamental difference for New Zealanders—that and seeing the average wage increase; that and seeing actually people able to have more money in their pockets and able to get the jobs that quite frankly they do deserve in this country; that and seeing us project that unemployment will continue to drop and employment will continue to rise. You can see from the projections in this Budget that we are heading well and truly to that 4.5 percent unemployment rate.But what is different what is fundamentally different in how we look at that unemployment rate is that we are actually not putting all of that sort of slightly discretionary funding where we assist people with CVs and skills and training and help them to get work-ready on to just those who are on the unemployment benefit. What you can see is that over the last 6½ years we have moved resources to those who fundamentally need them the most. And yes we reset obligations as we did a bit more of in this Budget.But I want to take people back to when we first came into Government in 2008. I was the then Minister for Social Development and Employment and I will never ever forget sitting in a room in Paris with my colleagues with welfare and employment Ministers from around the world and they fundamentally could not believe—in fact I had to repeat it about four times—that we had absolutely no work obligations for someone who was on welfare until their youngest turned 18 and who could then have another baby and get another 18 years of no work obligations. They fundamentally could not believe that we did not have balance in what we expected of people.As a consequence it was actually worse than that. We did not put any resource or extra into helping them get work-ready. So we did—we reset. We reset the balance. We made sure that those people had hope and opportunities. We reset the balance that had never been there in the welfare system so that they could actually create a better life for themselves and their children. As a consequence of that and many changes we now have the lowest number of sole parents on welfare since the 1980s—1988 I think it is.But what people forget is that we could not have actually made the changes to welfare and given those families who still are there an extra $25 a week on average—we could not do that if we had not reset the balance if we had not actually got some mutual obligations within the system in those previous years. It is not just the work of the last 12 months that leads us to a place where we can produce a Budget that is giving back to those who most certainly are having it tough and living hard lives on very limited incomes where we can put more in their pockets that goes to helping them and their children. The way that we are able to do that is over many years of resetting our social policy to make sure that we are helping those who need it most and making sure that they actually recognise what changes need to be made.I have heard many from the opposite side say that this does not make a difference. Well it makes a huge difference. Actually $25 makes an absolutely huge difference. Also though we really wanted to make sure as we worked our way through this package—and we have spent a lot of hours and a lot of time debating and looking at it from every angle—that we were also increasing Working for Families and making sure that those who did go into jobs and were still on low wages were able to reap those rewards as well. We are making sure that we have the obligations right that people are able to get into work that they get the extra assistance through agencies like the Ministry of Social Development through education and other skills and training—but then equally for those who do go into jobs making sure that they get assistance on that extra pay so that we are keeping that balance right that work really does pay. From everything that you look at it is work that makes the biggest and most fundamental difference in people’s lives. When we could we have. At the first chance that we have had to increase benefits for the first time in nearly—what is it—43 years we took that opportunity to put money in the pockets of those who need it most.If I am to be a little negative which is not really my thing I would have said that the Opposition was expecting us if we were going to do anything to do sort of nine or 10 bucks. Yeah? And we all then would have gone around thinking we had done a good thing. We knew that we could and it was absolutely important—as we worked our way through what was actually quite a tough Budget process of trying to make sure that we are actually looking after the needs of those who work for our agencies and are expecting a wee pay rise for those who have got cost pressures there—that we set real money aside to go to real people who needed that help and assistance. That says I think a lot for this Government and a lot for the leadership quite frankly of our Prime Minister. When he stood upon election night ladies and gentlemen and said having accepted the win: “This National-led Government will govern for all people.” here is the evidence of it. It is in black and white. It is in this Budget that he stands by what he said and he stands there and says: “I will govern; we will govern. This National-led Government will be there for all people.” When he could give back under his leadership and under this hardship package that is what he delivered to New Zealanders.I also want to just touch on another part of that hardship package that has not been touched on much I do not think from what I have heard so far which is the increase in the childcare subsidy. What perhaps some of us knew instinctively was that if you removed barriers and believed in and backed these women and children then they would take every opportunity to make a difference in their lives and in the lives of their children. They have proven that by the tens of thousands who have gone off welfare when we have actually rebalanced.What they also need though as I indicated is those barriers removed. One of the biggest barriers is the cost of childcare. So for those who are looking for extra assistance we have put the subsidy up from $4 to $5 which is a 20 percent increase in what we will actually pay to help them while they are working so that they can get that extra assistance.The other thing that I do not think people have realised so much—and it is not necessarily in this Budget—is that about a year ago we also really relaxed the rules on what we will pay for as far as childcare is concerned. Too often it was just about the creche down the road or the day care centre although for many parents they are working different hours and they want more flexibility with that. That is part of how we are actually getting there and how we are rebalancing it.You could hold this Budget up in the world—and I do not say that lightly—and know that you are extremely proud of it and that New Zealand is more than punching above its weight as it does so well. As a country we actually have the economy well and truly on track and are delivering to all New Zealanders as we see the average wage increase as we see those on welfare being assisted with a bit more money as we see more jobs coming on board the support for the regions and also the support for our businesses that is recognised daily through a Budget that is delivered like this.I am incredibly proud to be a part of a team—and it is a pretty big team and it is a pretty great one—that cares a lot about this stuff and that has spent the time on really using the data analytics using the information that we have and making sure we pull that together in the best interests of all New Zealanders. I am really proud to stand up and support what as I say is a really strong team that is actually backing a really strong growing economy. Thank you.