Sepuloni CarmelGENERAL DEBATEHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business.Question time started with no surprises today with the Leader of the Opposition lobbing over his questions to the Prime Minister—questions that inferred that young people were useless and probably not meeting their obligations in the welfare system. The Prime Minister responded by smacking it back at him but what was surprising was that he started to at the beginning of every question say under his breath We care about them. We care about them." a level of insincerity that I think the general public are getting quite used to. It also came as no surprise to see that the National Party's latest welfare policy announcement was lacking in more areas than one. It was predictable. It was out of touch. There was no evidence base and as per usual they were asserting that they had the silver bullet despite the fact that they have no understanding of how the welfare system works let alone the actual benefits. Nor do they understand the people in the welfare system and the complex challenges that they face. It did however seem in touch with what we know about the National Party. Their track record with demonising young people and beneficiaries stands. They called them "pretty damn hopeless" they called them "bottom feeders" and more recently "These people are all getting a free ride." The irony of their policy which they have heralded as "welfare that works" is that it won't.Prior to coming into Parliament I spent much of my career in the education sector. I was a primary school teacher. I was a literacy educator with at-risk youth. I worked with Māori and Pacific students at the University of Auckland. I've seen what works and what doesn't and what doesn't are punitive approaches to people already experiencing complex challenges. There's evidence in that even when we look at the welfare systems in the UK and the USA. In fact punitive approaches can actually be counterproductive and in fact stop people from being able to get into work.I liken the punitive approach the National Party seem hell-bent on taking to pushing someone over who is wanting and trying to get up whilst at the same time yelling at them to get up. Let's make one thing clear: I believe that employment is the best option for young people and that we need early interventions. That's why as a Government we've already set up a range of effective initiatives that are leading to record numbers of people moving off benefits and into employment. In the last year that was 35000 young people; that compares to the 22000 under their watch in their last year. The hard truth is that Chris Luxon doesn't want to admit that we inherited an employment and training system that the Welfare Expert Advisory Group said had "been badly neglected for years". It was a world where case management services had been run down to the point that front-line staff were spending significantly less time on front-line work-focused case management and that's what we set about fixing. This included money for 263 more front-line work-focused staff in 2019 and followed by year-on-year investment thereafter. Despite the pandemic we never saw the skyrocketing numbers of people on benefit that Treasury had forecast. We are now seeing record exits off benefit into work. As part of our efforts through Apprenticeship Boost we've seen 50000 people go through; 18000 people with Flexi-wage; 5000 people in Mana in Mahi. The results are reflected in our unemployment rate—record low rates of 3.3 percent—and finally the closing of that persistent gap between Māori and Pacific and everyone else: 5.5 percent and 5.4 percent respectively. We have been both relentless and deliberate in our approach and efforts to support Kiwis into employment. Education and training is seen as key for us. What is important for our young people is the pastoral care the wraparound support the targeted support for Māori and Pacific and disabled and young people alongside a shared determination from employers business providers and Government that will put people into meaningful work and keep them in work. Let's also not forget a little bit of aroha for our young people goes a long way."