Lotu-Iiga Sam: General Debate 
Lotu-Iiga Sam: General Debate 
[Volume:678;Page:1397] 
Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to stand and talk in this general debate this afternoon but before I do I just want to mention in this House a recent death. I certainly send out my personal thoughts and prayers to the Tongan people for the loss of their king King George Tupou V who died last week. I was part of the parliamentary delegation up there yesterday for the king’s funeral so certainly my thoughts and prayers go to the people of Tonga and to Tongans around the world and certainly to those Tongans in my electorate of Maungakiekie of whom there are many thousands.  
I stand today to talk about the welfare reforms that this Government is putting in place. These welfare reforms are an important for several reasons. They are important because the burden of welfare on our economy is becoming great. They are also important because we have identified as a Government that welfare is not a long-term solution for our people and that actually getting people into work is more important for our constituents out there. The background is this: 330000 people receive benefits. One in eight workers receives the benefit; one in eight workers is not contributing directly to the economy. But we believe that certainly some of those are deserving and should be protected within our welfare system and our economy. One hundred and seventy thousand have spent the last 10 years receiving the benefit. So a great majority of those who are on welfare are long-term dependent beneficiaries and that is not a good fact.  
We also know that 220000 kids are living in welfare-dependent families. We see this cycle of welfare over and over again and one of the greatest things that you can do to break the cycle of welfare in families is to give them a job. 
Andrew Little 
: What are you doing to give them a job? Where’s the jobs? 
PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA 
: Finally $8 billion of welfare spend a year is 14 percent of our Government’s revenue and we know and certainly the Labour Party knows and Andrew Little knows that that is unsustainable in the long run. It is unsustainable for the economy and it is unsustainable for those families that are living in welfare situations.  
So what do our law reforms do? Well they introduce a new system to support our young people. It is about supporting those young people to get a job and also upskilling them through education through training and through employment. It is about getting them back into work. But it is also about designing the support around young people to allow them to get back to work and to allow them to pick up skills. What we are proposing is to provide budgeting programmes. What we are proposing is to provide parenting programmes to help them move forward in their lives. There is a carrot-and-stick approach here and it is about strengthening those obligations.  
What does it mean? Full-time education training and work-based learning at least to a National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 qualification is important because that promotes their ability to get employed. Undertaking approved budgeting programmes leads to better financial outcomes not just for those people but for their families. It is about improving their financial outcomes. We all know—we heard from the Retirement Commissioner last week in the select committee—about the issues around financial literacy and that not just those on low incomes or on welfare but everyone needs to get better education around financial literacy so that they are able to look after their families better. But it is also about undertaking parenting programmes getting more kids enrolled in early childhood education and getting these young children to Well Child checks. That supports the programme that this Government has undertaken and employed around pouring more funding into early childhood education around promoting national standards for our children and also around the Youth Guarantee programmes that ensure that those who are falling through the cracks are actually— 
Denise Roche 
: Nga mihi nui ki a koe Mr Speaker and to my esteemed colleagues— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! The member needs to call then I have to call the member. 
Denise Roche 
: Mr Speaker. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I call the honourable member Denise Roche.