Williams PotoHon POTO WILLIAMS (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector): I just want to say that the last speaker is someone who I admire because not only has she experienced some personal issues she's actually an athlete and someone who I know works very hard. She reflects what many of us across the House bring: the desire to have a better country. We're here for the right reasons. We may not agree on the way we get to that but many of us are here because we want our country to be the very best that it can. I'm really heartened by some work that we did earlier this year as a caucus with the Prime Minister when she gave us the opportunity to talk about how we wanted this election campaign—and therefore our policies—to roll out. And what she said was she wanted this to be positive. She wanted this election campaign to be a contest of ideas she wanted us to actually ensure that when we were out there discussing what Labour and this Government had done that we were being truthful and honest with the people and that they could make a decision for themselves. And actually our people deserve that from us. Our young people demand that from us and I am really heartened by that. I took that message to be one thing: that we are now encouraged to be the best that we can be because politics can be pretty dirty—it can be pretty grimy—and unfortunately some of that can rub off. But if you come from the place that you hold within yourself some integrity that you are doing everything you can for your country then you can rise above a lot of that. Now what heartens me is yep we know that we've done a bit of work but we know the weight of expectation is upon us to do more. And I'm really heartened when I talk to people in my electorate—or when they unsolicited by me give me their opinions—because some of them really tell me that with what we are doing we are on the right track. I want to quote from a couple of emails that I got and I will call this woman Katie. I didn't know her before she sent these emails but I was really impressed by what she had to say. I didn't ask her for this but this is what she told me. I know that going into an election year there will be a lot of … flying around so I want to give you a perspective from a beneficiary. Since I met you my financial and life situation have improved enormously. I no longer want to just die. Life is not always easy but I have enough money to eat well I can pay all of my bills and going to WINZ is no longer a desperately miserable experience and the winter payments actually help. I can afford school fees. I can buy my daughter anything that she needs—luckily she likes op shopping—and if there is something we want but don't desperately need we can now plan to save for it. I haven't needed to rely on food parcels or the kindness of others. My mother was close to death before Christmas and I was able to just book a flight and go. She's now OK. This is a thankyou note. I have many things to be grateful for now. This is because of your Government. Thank you thank you thank you. Please extend my thanks to the coalition Government."That's fantastic. She also goes on to say she thinks Phil Twyford is a hero. But that's another matter. [Interruption] I know. I know. But what I want to say is that out of the mouths of constituents come some pretty honest things. And what really heartens me is that when I've been talking to people about the things that we want to do the things that we've done already they're actually encouraging us.I want to talk about one school in my electorate that's actually going to benefit from the infrastructure package that we're putting out to the tune of $260000 and that's Banks Avenue—one of the schools that post-earthquakes is going to have to sustain a rebuild. I've gone to that school every year a couple of times every year to talk to them about you know the issues and stuff. In Opposition we tried to support them to get some extra help from that Government. The extra help we were looking for was they were given pūtea to rebuild their school. That pūtea was supposed to last them for a period of time while they were in situ on their current site to rebuild on to their new site. While they were in situ on their old site they had maintenance issues that they had to actually pay for from that pūtea that the National Government gave them for the rebuild. So year on year their maintenance costs actually ate away at the money that they were going to be able to use for their rebuild. So when this was announced that they were actually—from us—getting $260000 for their maintenance they went "Thank you. You've listened." That's one school in a whole country of schools that's going to benefit because we listened to them about what their needs were. Now Banks Ave is a very unique school because a lot of the children were impacted by the earthquakes and they also asked National in Government to support them with some extra support for those children's needs; also not forthcoming from that Government. What do they have now? They have Mana Ake. They have Mana Ake workers going in there to support children who've got significant behavioural issues because of the trauma they've experienced from the earthquake. That makes me enormously proud. They're small things: things like families not having to pay for school donations things like elderly people saying in wintertime "It's fantastic that we've got the winter payment." and actually not knowing that that's going to happen every single winter—every single winter. Those things they may be small—we're on a journey—but people are actually starting to resonate that we are delivering to them. But we have so much more to do. There's so much more I could talk about. You know just as I was sitting here I was watching a lovely clip over the shoulder of my colleague there of his son enjoying an ice block I think at home and I think about what it is that we want to leave for our country and that's definitely about how we support our children. Now we've done some things. We've increased the amount of time that mamas and papas can stay at home. You know paid parental leave is a really important aspect to how we ensure that we bond well with our children. But going past that what do we want for our kids? We want our kids to be healthy and well. We want to make sure that they've got access to good healthcare; that when they get unwell—and unfortunately they do—cost is not a barrier; that if they have serious illness they can go to a hospital that doesn't have stuff running down the walls; that those hospitals those facilities are the very best that they can be for those kids; and actually that their families and their parents are supported to be the best that they can be too. Now we've got a real problem in this country and it's called family violence. I'm enormously proud of how much money we have put into supporting services. But we have got so much more to do. Whānau resilience—supporting families to identify the issues and work on them so that they can be the best parents for their kids. That's extraordinary stuff and that will be a game-changer in years to come. Supporting kids to get over the trauma they experience in homes where violence is present; supporting kids to get over the trauma they experience when they have to live through several years of natural disaster. That's game-changing stuff. That's the stuff that brings some of us to this House and makes me extraordinarily proud of our Prime Minister when she says we are going to be positive. This campaign is going to be a contest of ideas. Thank you Mr Speaker."