Jackson WillieHon WILLIE JACKSON (Minister of Employment): Kia ora Mr Speaker. Tuatahi ko taku mahara ki tō tātou rangatira a Jim Maniapoto. E te matua haere ki te taha o tō tātou matua tipuna kua riro ki te pō rā. Haere haere haere atu rā. Ko tēnei te pō nau mai te ao.[May I firstly pay tribute to our revered leader Jim Maniapoto. Farewell sir to take your place alongside our ancestor who has gone before you. Farewell farewell fare thee well. This is the darkness; I welcome the light.]I'm just doing a little poroporoaki there Mr Assistant Speaker to someone who passed away last week in your electorate a man who made a major contribution to Māoridom and to New Zealand: Jim Maniapoto the last of the Maniapoto line. I mention him because I know how much he supported the type of people who we in Labour are supporting particularly in that area. He was a brother-in-law a whanaunga to Georgina te Heuheu who is part of the National Party. I suspect a number of the Maniapoto whānau voted for National but they were supporters of the principles of what we talk about. It was a sad loss last week the last of the Maniapoto brothers dying and it was a big tangi up there—legends in rugby legends in Te Ao Māori—and it's only right that I mihi to him. It's a pleasure to talk today after Mr Goldsmith—the Hon Mr Goldsmith I should say—because after his big promotion it's good to see that he has been supported there in the National Party. They're looking for talent and who knows where he's going to be tomorrow. But I stand today to take a call on the second reading of this bill. I want to congratulate our Minister of Finance in terms of what he's done and I've already made a contribution in terms of Māori and the Budget and what's happened. I've covered those gains in terms of Māori but I'd like to talk about what Budget 2018-19 and what the Wellbeing Budget means in terms of employment. In 2018-19 we announced funding for skills in employment programmes and at the very heart of them we wanted to address the skills shortages that were left by the previous Government—a huge hole in terms of the previous Government a huge hole left in our communities that we have had to go out and fix up. That's why I celebrate the work done in terms of the Hon Shane Jones and the Provincial Growth Fund. We have seen first-hand regions who have been crying out for help. In the Ngāti Kahungunu area—a classic example—in the East Coast area and in the Tai Tokerau we have had regions that have been surviving just on baseline and we have seen employers who have asked for help. So we can tell you today the type of work that's been happening there and the type of support that a lot of our regions are getting. In terms of young people we don't want young people having to abandon their regions in search of dignified skilled employment pathways. We want an economy that works for everyone and the previous speaker the Hon Paul Goldsmith talked about this wonderful economy that was left by the previous Government. Yes we know employment was going well and things were going well for so many people apart from Māori people and Pacific Island people and women and disabled people and all the people in all the groups that count in our world. In our first two Budgets we have committed funding for our employment programmes that I want to briefly talk about and those four programmes have been He Poutama Rangatahi Mana in Mahi Pae Aronui and cadetships through Te Puni Kōkiri. Now He Poutama Rangatahi received $26 million of new funding from the Wellbeing Budget over two years focused on supporting rangatahi—young people—across the four existing regions of He Poutama Rangatahi but extending to the surge regions of the Provincial Growth Fund. Existing programmes are working with over 2500 young people—rangatahi—who are most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed. Now these are the people the Hon Shane Jones has talked about. We all remember his kōrero when he talked about getting the nephs off the couch. This is the type of programme that is backing that giving young people an opportunity where they never had an opportunity. They are young people sometimes who have come from intergenerational unemployment. Sometimes they've come from families that struggle families that have had too much drug use too much alcohol. These are the sorts of whānau that we've been hitting. The Hon Shane Jones talked about them and it may have been a provocative kōrero about a year back when he said he wanted to get his nephs off the couch. That was not exactly embraced by some of the politically correct but it was a message that rang home the fact that we had too many of those young people just wandering around doing nothing. So we have been able to get to them through He Poutama Rangatahi and Shane Jones' Provincial Growth Fund. The new funding will allow for further investment into these young people in the community in which they live meaning they don't have to move away from their support networks in order to have strong employment futures. I want to give some of those examples out there of the types of groups we've been funding: the Northland College pine plantation completed with 12 of the 15 participants still in full-time work; Tupu Ake a forest protection service with 30 rangatahi developing skills and employment in forestry and ecological management; and a Hastings District Council youth connector programme with more than 45 rangatahi into full-time employment and with 17 employers engaged in that programme. Everywhere we're looking we're getting the support and the encouragement from people in the regions and sometimes we get National Party MPs coming to our releases which we embrace and we support despite the criticism I'm hearing today. Also Mana in Mahi is a major kaupapa for us. Formerly seen as working for the dole I changed that name. I changed it because there is mana in mahi. There is mana—whatever type of job you're doing whatever type of work you're doing at least you're working at least you're being productive and at least you're supporting yourself and your whānau. That's why Mana in Mahi fits the bill perfectly. We budgeted $49.8 million from the Wellbeing Budget over four years in terms of Mana in Mahi participants. Mana in Mahi is an existing programme that supports people particularly in the 18- to 24-year-old area. With the $49.8 million we want to extend Mana in Mahi to an extra 1850 places. It was funded through baseline during phase 1 for 150 places. That number has been met and phase 1 was intended to strengthen the settings of Mana in Mahi particularly around partial care both for participant and the employer. Mana in Mahi will contribute to lifting Māori and Pasifika income skills and opportunities by assisting participants to achieve and maintain employment and will motivate them to participate in formal industry training. It's a scheme that I think we should all be proud of because we're getting our young people productive and we're supporting employers and we're supporting our communities.I'll read again the next part. More than 225 young people have commenced employment—225 people—through Mana in Mahi placements with 385 employers registering interest in the programme. Where someone is unable to complete their Mana in Mahi placement the Ministry of Social Development will work with both participant and employer to see if they can do things differently to ensure that their participant is supported further.Also we have what's called Pae Aronui. Now that's funded through Budget 2018. It's a programme aimed at tackling the number of Māori young people who aren't engaged in earning and learning—very similar to Poutama Rangatahi. [Member knocks his microphone] Excuse me Madam Speaker.Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki: Passionate.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Very passionate yes. It's very similar to both Poutama Rangatahi looking after our young people in the urban areas in the south in the Aucklands in the West Aucklands in the Hamiltons in the Poriruas in the Hutt Valleys—young people wandering around not doing enough not being productive enough but we're getting them engaged getting them into training and getting them into possible mahi.Also there are the cadetships through Te Puni Kōkiri (TPK). We've got $6 million from the Wellbeing Budget over four years to expand the cadet programme through TPK. This is achieved by providing funding to employers to support the employment development and mentoring of Māori candidates.It's clear that when we became the Government there was a tremendous amount of work to do but I'm proud of some of the initiatives that we now have out on the table. This is a Government that cares. This is a passionate Government who inherited nine years of no investment. We believe in dignity for our people dignity for our young people dignity in terms of jobs and I'm proud to support this kaupapa. Kia ora Madam Speaker.