Ball DarrochDARROCH BALL (NZ First): It is a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak to the Social Development and Housing Sector part of the appropriations. There are a couple of things that I would like to get through if I have enough time. First I would just like to mention one thing that Minister Tolley said which was that the best thing for beneficiaries is to get back into work. The question I have for her is that if that is the case then why has the Government demonstrably failed especially in regard to youth those youth who are unemployed and those youth who are disengaged from society? So we are talking about those youth who are not in any sort of education employment or training. At the moment we are looking at over 82000 of those across the country. That is actually the highest it has been in the past 3 years—the highest that it has been in the past 3 years. That is youth between 15 and 24 years of age who are totally disengaged from society. It has never been lower than pre-2008 levels. So we have got a Government that is preaching one thing and delivering another. The Government is saying that the priority is to get beneficiaries and disengaged people if we are talking about youth back into work. It is demonstrably failing. One thing that the Minister mentioned about youth and about the way the Government was addressing youth unemployment was the extension of the Youth Service that has occurred. We saw the legislation go through the House last month I believe it was. New Zealand First has a number of issues with that. First and foremost was the fact that the fundamental principle behind all of the social policies that the Government is pushing through at the moment is the social investment approach. The main purpose of the social investment approach is to ensure that the financial cost to the State of any individual in New Zealand is minimised. That is the sole purpose of the social investment approach. It is not about the need of the individual. It is not about what that individual or the family needs. It is about how much that individual costs the State in the long term and about those decisions that are made now that will affect that later on. It is not about the need. It is demonstrable that the Government's approach is not working. We have not only got neets" at record levels but we have got youth unemployment which is chronic.Hon Steven Joyce: It's not at record levels at all. That's rubbish.DARROCH BALL: Mr Joyce it is the highest level in 3 years. The "neets" rate is at the highest level it has been in 3 years. Not only that but it is the highest rate increase of young males. What we heard at the end of last year was the likes of Mr Joyce standing up in the House and saying that it was at record lows for 15 to 19-year-olds.Hon Steven Joyce: It was.DARROCH BALL: It was. The fact that he was failing to mention was that we were 18th in the OECD and that was something that he was standing up and saying was a good thing. We have got a record level—the lowest level in New Zealand history—but we are still 18th. We have got 17 countries in the OECD with lower levels of "neet" rates than us. But where does that go? Where does that end up? What does that mean? Eighty-five percent of all youth in the youth justice system actually have no qualifications or have dropped out of school. We are talking about 15- 16- and 17-year-olds. They have got no qualifications or have dropped out of school. Not only that but 60 percent of those who have gone through the youth justice system end up back in prison within 2 years and 80 percent reoffend. What we are talking about is the fact that those kids are inactive and have got periods of inactivity when they leave school. They have a greater chance of being inactive and being on a benefit 10 years later. So where is the social investment approach from this Government when addressing those issues with our youth? One of the youth courses that has been effective is called the Limited Service Volunteer (LSV) scheme. What this Government has done over the past 4 or 5 years is to slowly cut away every single year the funding to that scheme and the numbers to that scheme. It was at 2000. If we can recall the Prime Minister actually campaigned on it in 2008 and 2010 and the Government has cut away from 2000 places on the LSV down to 500. The Government has closed the Trentham base and it is looking at closing the Christchurch base as well and having only a small course in Auckland. What that does is it takes away one of the main courses that has been successful for the youth and for the "neets" over the past few decades. This Government preaches one thing about unemployment and about getting them into work—"