Sepuloni Carmel; Mallard TrevorGENERAL DEBATEHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business.It's a privilege to stand today in the general debate particularly given the report that we received and were able to publicly release today around the way in which the Families Package has reached so many New Zealanders. We made a commitment right at the beginning that we wanted New Zealand to be the best place in the world to raise a child and for everyone who is able to be earning learning caring or volunteering. And the actions to date—the report released to date—on the progress with the Families Package prove that we are well on our way to achieving our objectives.By the time the Families Package is fully rolled out in 2020-21 385000 families with children will be better off by on average $75 per week. That is something that we are proud of on this side of the House. The Families Package is part of the Government's wider plan to lift the wellbeing of all New Zealanders. We have been engaged across Government to achieve this goal. We've made it free for every child under the age of 14 to go to the doctor. We've increased school funding so parents don't have to pay for school donations which will help 416000 families I heard. We are building more State houses than any Governments since the 1970s and of course we should be proud of that on this side of the House.What we have seen with the Families Package is that it has boosted incomes across the country. We've seen it with the roll-out of the Working for Families tax credit changes that we made. We've seen it with respect to the Best Start payment that we've introduced increasing paid parental leave. We're helping older New Zealanders. We're helping New Zealanders who are on the main benefit keep their homes warm during the winter months with the winter energy payment. We've seen increases to financial help for carers by increasing the rate of the orphans benefit the unsupported child's benefit and the foster care allowance and we increased the accommodation supplement and benefit.The reports that were released today on the Families Package actually show that the modelling that we had when we put that Families Package into place was absolutely on the ball. More than one million New Zealanders have benefited from the winter energy payment and can I say that's a lot of New Zealanders. When I'm out and about it's the number one thing that people come up to me about to thank this Government for. I heard too many stories of senior citizens who were staying in one bedroom in their house during the winter months who were sometimes not even getting out of bed because they could not afford to heat their homes and so we've received a lot of positive feedback from superannuitants and also main beneficiaries on the difference that that has made for them and their families.Thirty-six thousand families have banked the Best Start payment in the first year and that doesn't even count the New Zealanders who may want to wait till the end of the tax year to actually claim that. The difference that has made to families with new babies is huge—$60 goes a long way to helping towards those costs in the first years. It doesn't just show that we were willing to make an investment in low to middle income New Zealanders but it also shows that this Government is committed to families that we do support New Zealanders who are raising children that we do value children and that we do value those early years. Six thousand more families received the family tax credit and also the families getting family tax credits are getting more. As was said in the House today this is the most significant lift in Working for Families and the family tax credit since 2005. So we're proud of that on this side of the House.We saw the lifts to the accommodation supplement. That was necessary. We also saw the new clothing allowance for carers go to 13500 carers. That is something we can be proud of. The main thing is as I've said earlier today in the House and as our Prime Minister has said we are on track to lift 50000 to 74000 children out of poverty and that is an absolute objective that all of us should share—SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.