Radhakrishnan PriyancaPRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Labour): Thank you Mr Speaker. I almost feel a little bit sorry for members opposite who have stood up and spoken today. Such flat speeches so much doom and gloom and grasping at straws. You would think that we have nothing to celebrate but on this side of the House we absolutely do.Firstly of course we stand alongside New Zealand Indian communities who are celebrating this week across Aotearoa the festival of lights Diwali. They are celebrating the triumph of light over darkness that symbolises the triumph of knowledge over ignorance truth over falsehood strength over weakness and hope over despair and fear and this Government is doing so much to dispel the darkness that is poverty and that is inequity with the light of good economic management and compassion for the many who have been locked out of the benefits of a strong economy over the last nine years.Today we've heard that unemployment is down to 3.9 percent—the lowest level since we on this side of the House were last in office. A strong economy delivering strong surpluses more jobs and lower debt—surely that is a cause for celebration. More people in work and more young people in employment education or training. The economy is going well—and it's hard for the Opposition to swallow that pill—and it's having an impact on the lives of families and communities and that must be celebrated. In its entirety when you look at what this Government a Government that I am so proud to support has done through the Families Package through lifting the minimum wage through the KiwiBuild programme that will deliver on large-scale affordable housing through the shared equity schemes that this Government is working on for those on lower incomes who wish to own a home through more State housing and more emergency housing through making doctors' visits cheaper for 600000 New Zealanders and through the Child Poverty Reduction Bill that passed recently as well—with our Government's plan it will ensure that we lift children and their families out of poverty.In my last couple of minutes I want to focus on what we have also done in terms of addressing family violence. Just last night in this House we passed two bills that will make a huge impact on reducing what is really a scourge on this nation. Our family violence rates and family violence homicide rates in New Zealand are sky-high and it is absolutely something that this Government is focusing on to address. Now very recently the Social Services and Community Committee spoke to officials to Government members to MPs to NGOs and to researchers in Australia. At every single meeting we had with them they recognised that family violence is not just something that occurs as well and contributes to poverty and homelessness but is in fact a driver of those things.If we are to ensure that we improve the well-being of our communities it is imperative that we address family violence as well. The two bills ensure that we take into consideration the fact that family violence affects us all but that it affects us differently. The recognition that we must expand the definition to include dowry-related violence and make things like forced marriage—that the sector has been campaigning on for decades—an offence shows that on this side of the House we get it and that there is the will to ensure that we address family violence so that everyone is lifted out of it.This coupled with the joint-venture approach that was recently announced—the fact that we will have an integrated system a whole-of-Government system where every Government department will contribute to addressing and lowering family violence rates and eventually ending it. The fact that we have a Parliamentary Under-Secretary—for the first time internationally—under whose leadership this will happen along with the Minister of Justice to ensure that we have leadership in that space so that everyone contributes where they can to address our horrific rates. The fact that in Budget 2018 there was $76 million announced to boost support services that hadn't seen that in a decade. The fact that just today an announcement was made of $15 million to fund whānau resilience services to break intergenerational cycles of abuse because we know that that happens. I'm proud to be supporting a Government that gets it and that is acting to improve lives.