Doocey Matt: Social Security (Extension of Young Persons Services and Remedial Matters) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDoocey Matt: Social Security (Extension of Young Persons Services and Remedial Matters) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 23 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5294. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): It is an honour and a pleasure to rise and speak to the Social Security (Extension of Young Persons Services and Remedial Matters) Amendment Bill in its first reading. It is a bill that I will be wholeheartedly supporting.Members across the floor still do not get it. If we go back to the 2008 Salvation Army state of the nation report it said that for all its increased expenditure the Labour Government did not increase social progress by 1 percent. Fast forward 6 years the Salvation Army’s state of the nation report last year reported that there was a reduction in child poverty and there was a reduction in the number of people presenting to food banks. We asked the Salvation Army why there was that reduction in child poverty and people presenting to food banks and it was because of job creation—job creation. They still do not get it.This bill is not about the money; it is about supporting vulnerable young people through education through training to get into employment that will get them into independence and that will get them to where they want in their lives. It is giving them a vision. It is giving them a hope.Carmel Sepuloni: They’re not doing it for any other beneficiary.MATT DOOCEY: They still do not get it. Their second-biggest loss was in last year’s general election. The voters gave us their opinion. What they wanted is a National Government that cares for the people; a Government that cares for the working people and listens to them. We are a Government for the working people.We spoke yesterday in the general debate about the strong economy. We have a strong economy strong economic growth and strong economic management. But that is only half the story. The reason we have that is we want to improve the social well-being of the people in New Zealand. Look at increasing free general practitioner visits to under-13s. Look at the educational achievement results that we heard today. Look at some of those core planks of that Budget 2015 a plan that is working. We gave 3500 Kiwis more access to social housing. That was a bill that that party voted down New Zealand First voted down and the Green Party voted down. We gave through the Support for Children in Hardship Bill vulnerable families low-income families and the most deprived $12 to $25 a week. New Zealand First members voted it down. They are not putting New Zealand first; they are putting their own party first.Now after focusing on young kids going to GPs on their educational achievements on the Budget reforms for social housing and also on the Support for Children in Hardship Bill we are quite rightly focusing on our young adults—the future of New Zealand. What this bill is about is transitions. Transitions are important in our lives. We transition from being a child to a young adult and to being an independent and productive adult. That is a very key part of anyone’s life course as they go from a child to a young adult and to an adult. It is quite right that we put policies in place to support people transitioning them through the life course.If we take a social investment approach—and that is what this Government is doing—we know that if we can focus on the most vulnerable and give them the resources it will make them more productive later in life. This was a key part of the Government’s 2014 welfare manifesto where what we want to do is reduce benefit numbers and to reduce those numbers by 25 percent.In 2014 there were 295000 people on a benefit and we want to reduce that to 220000. We know that we can reduce the long-term investment of dependency by $13.5 billion. That is a huge amount. If we look at the current Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that reduction will surpass anything that we will make through a free-trade agreement. Not only should we be generating new income for this country through free-trade agreements but we should also be reducing expenditure. It is not just making a small Government; it is making big communities. That is what we need to do and to reduce the number of customers that we are serving here for the State.When we look at this vulnerable group—I was amazed when I looked at some of the statistics at how vulnerable this group of young people whom we are going to be working with is—38 percent of these young people have been victims of domestic violence 76 percent of this group of young people whom will we will be focusing on have had emotional neglect and 5 percent have been homeless or victims of sexual abuse. We know through the developmental approach that when young people experience this range of abuse and neglect it plays out in such things as the classroom and in high school. We know that a lot of these young people whom we are working with have experienced educational difficulties and have not attained as high a level as they can in education. So it is quite right that we are putting services together that will wrap around these young people keep them in education keep them in training and support them into work.If we look at previous attempts at this—just paying a young person a small benefit and putting them straight into a low-skilled job—that did not give them anything that they needed. All it did was to perpetuate their problem and not give those young persons any skills that would take them forward.A great asset and resource of this bill will be in allowing this group of young people up to the age of 18 and 19 to now access the Youth Service. We know that the Youth Service is working. There is a lot of research that has come out currently that shows that by the end of March 2014 four out five enrolled in the Youth Service were engaged in education training or work-based learning in either a full-time or part-time capacity. We do have to get the balance right. At the end of the day we are giving these young people payments and we need to ensure that they are using them correctly.When we give these young people payments to put them into education training and employment the payments are partly distributed through redistributions that will cover their accommodation and utility costs payment cards so that they can buy food and groceries and an in-hand allowance. But they have to live up to expectations. Again an important developmental stage for young adults is to understand expectations of them in their community and in their society. So for those payments they will have to engage in training education and employment.If we look at the social housing reforms with wraparound services if we look at people with mental health issues—with wraparound services—there is a whole range of social groups that can get targeted support. With the developmental age of young adults that we are dealing with here that will be targeted support that is age-specific to the needs of young people and the issues they are working through at the time. It is great to be part of a Government that is thinking about the people of this country and the support that they need at all life stages as they go through the transitions of life.One thing I would like to highlight is how smart this bill is. If we take the concept of allocative efficiency and if we look at the total expenditure along the life course we know that if we invest in certain points of the life course then that will cause a reduction in expenditure in another part of the life course. If I take my own background in mental health we know that if we work with young people from the age of 0 to 3 when their personality is being formed and with young adolescents when there are issues around early psychosis—if we front-load the resources and services at that end we know we reduce the number of people entering services later in life.This is very much the same. We have heard the Minister say that one dollar spent at this stage reduces a future liability—