Lotu-Iiga Sam: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLotu-Iiga Sam: General Debate[Sitting date: 03 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4267. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Minister of Corrections): It is a pleasure to speak here in this general debate in the first week of June. As we have already heard the polls were quite clear in the last week. National continues with our ability to stay in the high-40s. The Labour Party of course is wallowing in the early-30s. We have got Winston and his crew hovering around 5 6 or 7 percent. And you have got members opposite who complain and whine and moan and say that the sky is falling. Well clearly according to New Zealanders across this nation the sky is not falling. You have got to ask yourself why. I was at the Warriors match on Sunday night and a few Australians were asking me why this Government is so popular. They asked what we were doing that leads us to have these types of polls in our third term. I said to them that it is because we have got leadership—clearly. We have got John Key an extraordinary politician an extraordinary man and a man who is leading this country admirably. Clearly we have got a caucus that is capable that is competent and that is doing its job of leading this country. But the other thing we are doing is focusing on the things that matter to all New Zealanders.On top of that list is jobs—on top of that list is jobs. When I survey my electorate of Maungakiekie and I get 2500 responses from the 46000 people who live there they say the No. 1 issue that they want me to focus on that they want John Key and our caucus to focus on in this Parliament is jobs. Today this morning in New Zealand 2.36 million people—2.36 million people—got up and went to work and that is the most New Zealanders who have got up and gone to work than at any time in our history. We have got unemployment falling steadily to 5.8 percent and we know that that is heading towards 4.5 percent in 3 years’ time. We know that we have created over 194000 jobs in the last 4 years and in the next 4 years we estimate that we will create another 150000 jobs.Jobs are important. Why? Well let us just give members opposite a little bit of a lesson as to why jobs are important. They help families. They help families feed clothe and raise their kids as well as look after their elderly as well as look after their communities. That is why jobs are important and that is why our focus our primary focus of this Government has been on jobs. Jobs also release people from the dependency of welfare. I know that the Hon Anne Tolley as the Minister for Social Development will know this. It gets people off welfare and into jobs and away from the dependency on welfare that you get. It also helps with the reoffending rates because we know that if people are working—people are in employment people are occupied and earning money looking after their families looking after their communities building up this nation—they are less likely to reoffend. That is why it is important that we focus on jobs and this Government’s track record on jobs is unsurpassed.But it is not just about jobs. We know that there are families there are kids suffering out there and that is why at the heart of Budget 2015—at the heart of this Budget—we are focused on a support package: $790 million. Yes that is right. If you did not hear that right: $790 million will be spent on helping children in our poorest households. That is $25 a week for the beneficiaries out there who are struggling. I went to my local budgeting agency just after the election. I spent 5 hours there listening to people who were suffering listening to people in hardship and they told me that they needed a hand up not a handout. The $25-a-week increase in benefits for families with children is the first time in 43 years that any Government has raised them above inflation. It is the first time and it is a National Government. I am proud of this package. I am proud of this Government for focusing on jobs for focusing on those who are impoverished and for putting together a Budget—the seventh Budget in a row—that is actually committed to the welfare and the well-being of all New Zealanders.