Bennett PaulaHon PAULA BENNETT (Deputy Leader—National): In the words that I have heard previously and in answer to the previous speaker Kelvin Davis I have heard many times from Jacinda Ardern that if you can't measure it you won't know whether it's successful or not. You have to set targets you have to measure it and then you can know whether or not you are having success in those areas. What we are seeing from this Government is great talk and great kōrero lovely well-being good intentions and nice things being said but no actual actions that are being executed in a way that we can see New Zealanders getting ahead. I have asked myself many times: is there a portfolio that this Government is not stuffing up? I thought for a while and I thought Well what about statistics?" because that's a classic. No. They're stuffing up that too because even the census didn't go well and you know statistics are statistics as statistics will be and yet even there we're seeing actual failure. It'd be funny if it wasn't funny and the reason it's not funny is it's about things like KiwiBuild. They promised and promised again and then won't apologise for making those promises because the promises were so well intentioned but they had no way to actually build those houses. They had no way to know whether they were even needed. They had no way to get them to the New Zealanders that needed them the most. In fact they have built up a false hope that actually many New Zealanders are now very sadly seeing for the reality it is.It is sad that there are 11000 more people on the jobseeker benefit in the last 12 months—11000 more people. The reason that is sad is we should be asking ourselves where those 11000 people have come from. So for those aged between 18 and 25 years we have seen a 10 percent increase in the number on welfare—a 10 percent increase. Have those kids come out of school and gone on to welfare? For there to be 11000 more people on a jobseeker benefit have people fallen out of jobs and gone on welfare? We're certainly seeing fewer jobs available for New Zealanders to take up. It used to be 10000 when we were in Government; it's now more like 600 a month—from 10000 a month down to now 600. I do want to pick up on what Mr Davis was saying. He said that one of the things that the Prime Minister espouses and that they as a Government say is that you can't just have a strong economy if people don't have jobs and I echo that. You can't have a strong economy if it doesn't mean real jobs for real people. We are seeing fewer jobs being created under this Government every single month and that is having real effects. So while we have the Prime Minister espousing the virtues of a low unemployment rate what we have are more people on welfare. I don't think it is just because sanctions have been dropped and there are no longer the same expectations that people are actively looking for work although I do think that is having an effect and I do think that is part of it. But equally there are fewer jobs and fewer expectations on people as to what they will do and how they do it. If we don't think that that will affect them and their children and their children's children in the decades to come then we are being sadly misled.So a well-being Budget can sound good and it does. Doesn't it sound nice? Who doesn't want to have good well-being? I care that you have good well-being Agnes Loheni and I wish you very well for being in this House and I look forward to working for you. But actually it's only going to work if I get alongside of you and I help you and encourage you and see you do well and that's what we want to do for New Zealanders. That's not what we see from this Government. What we see is rhetoric. What we see are good words but we're not seeing the actual actions that back it up. In fact we're seeing new Zealanders go backwards.So let's get to a few of those. When it comes to the numbers on welfare that's going up. The numbers needing food parcels have gone up and are in fact the highest that New Zealand has seen. The numbers on the Housing New Zealand wait-list have gone up. The number of people on welfare has gone up. What we have seen is that fuel taxes in New Zealand have gone up. We have seen the cost of food go up because it's costing more to transport that food around New Zealand so as a consequence the dollar the hard-earned wage or even welfare is not going as far as it used to. So they've got less money in their pockets because costs are going up.Rents have gone up and they keep going up and we are seeing more New Zealanders fall behind and become worse off because of that. Hardship grants I think I said are up—that's a real problem. For the first time more are needing hardship grants—more than those on welfare who are needing actual help with housing. That's the first time we've seen that—so that's been reversed. NEETs are up. We know what NEETs are: those are the young people that are not engaged in employment or educational training. That is up 26000 people in the last three months. The number of NEETs is up 26000 in the last three months. That is the highest number on record. This is from a Government that espouses well-being and how much they care and how much they are going to do all of this good stuff. However what we are seeing is the reality of it. Unemployment is up. There are 10000 more unemployed people in the last three months. These are real people that are living real lives in this country and are hearing and have heard a lot of promises but have not had anything delivered. The Prime Minister herself admitted it when she said to New Zealanders that this will be the year of delivery—because last year certainly wasn't for them. As a fellow Kiwi I actually hope that they do that well because there are New Zealanders that are failing and whose lives are going backwards. They are suffering and actually I think they are in a worse position because they were given some hope. That hope is showing itself to be hollow. It is hollow hope that has been offered to them by a well-intentioned Prime Minister who either doesn't have the means to actually do it or the team backing her up to deliver that for New Zealanders. So when one goes out there and promises tens of thousands more houses when one promises people more jobs and better jobs and that their lives will be better one better be in a position to be able to deliver that to New Zealanders and that is not what they are seeing.Another thing I will be concentrating on this year is around drug reform. I have a lot of questions that I think we need to answer before we get to a binding referendum on the legalisation of marijuana next year. In that case we will need to know what the regime will look like. How are we going to legalise it? Will there be a market? Will the market be commercialised? Will it be big business? Is it just the not-for-profit that could sell it? Can you grow marijuana yourself? How does it fit with smoke-free New Zealand by 2025? What will happen with drug-driving?Look I've got a fairly neutral position on this one and I'm not inclined to see people being criminalised or having convictions against them because they are adults that enjoy the odd joint and I'm certainly in support of medicinal marijuana. But I believe that we have seen overseas jurisdictions enough that the New Zealand public can see what they will actually be voting for in the binding referendum. This is a Government that has an obligation and a responsibility to be showing them all of that. So far I've been hearing that that work isn't even being done and I think that's a shame. It is very typical. I'd even celebrate a working group on it—I've got to be honest! I would celebrate a working group on it. We've got a little bit of time so we could put a working group together that actually means we could look at what the question will be what a regime would be like if we were to legalise marijuana in New Zealand so that when they go to the polling booth they know exactly what they're up for.Mr Speaker—Mrs Speaker; Madam Speaker I will go for. It's nice to see you.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Hello. Happy New Year.Hon PAULA BENNETT: Happy New Year to you too and it's good to be here for another year ahead. I hope that the debates are fulsome. I hope we discuss more about New Zealanders and how we deliver for them as opposed to the personalities and the insults that can be thrown around this House at times. I hope that we look at those that are currently suffering and were given great hope and aspiration and promises from a Government that has done anything but deliver for them. Thank you."