Lee Melissa: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lee Melissa: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8732. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MELISSA LEE (National) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise to speak on the second reading of the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill. Before I make my contribution I would like to respond to a couple of points that other speakers have made. I guess to start with Ms Turei talked about how infuriated she was and how she felt that this Government was actually heartless. I would like to respond by saying that I am infuriated by her comments because it is incredible how Opposition members make out that this Government and this National Party do not care about beneficiaries. That is absolutely not true. 
We believe that most people do not want to be on the benefit but have to be on it in certain circumstances when they fall on difficult times. Whether it is a marriage breakup or they get ill there are many circumstances where people have to rely on State help. As Jacinda Ardern mentioned earlier Labour was in fact the architect of social welfare. Well let me say that we support that—people who are in difficult circumstances being on benefits. But let me quote from the  
Dominion Post 
 last year which said: “Those pioneers of the welfare state would never have envisaged the benefit system New Zealand has today. They would have been appalled by the thought of thousands of perfectly healthy adults spending more than a decade on the dole and thousands more 16 and 17-year-olds being paid to sit around and do nothing.” Welfare dependency is what we are trying to prevent. Mr Phil Twyford sort of said: “The whole idea behind this bill is wrong.” What is wrong with backing people? What is wrong with telling people that they are better than being dependent on welfare? 
This bill forms part of a package of reforms being introduced over 2 years that will basically shift the focus of the benefit system towards encouraging and supporting beneficiaries to move into paid work. National actually campaigned on reforming welfare by taking an investment approach that will make sure we have an enduring welfare system that supports Kiwis who fall on difficult times. That is what welfare was designed to do—to help people when they are caught in a jam. It is not about a lifestyle choice and we never said that people who are on welfare are choosing to go on welfare as a lifestyle. There are some who do but not all and the majority do not. 
Having said that the Government’s reforms have at the core a belief that most people can and do want to work and that most people do not choose to be on a benefit as a lifestyle choice. But this Government spends $8 billion a year on welfare and that is for 330000 working-age people. That is about 12 to 13 percent of the working-age population who receive the benefit and there are 220000 children who live in benefit-dependent homes. Evidence shows that children are better off when parents are working not when parents are on welfare. 
I would like to thank the Minister for Social Development who has put in a lot of work. I see her passion when she talks about welfare reform. This is the biggest amount of work that any Government has done and no matter what Opposition members say—and they can criticise the Minister and this Government all they want—let me say this. Under the 9 years that Labour was in Government what did Labour—the architect of social services the architect of State help—do for the people who are on welfare? It did nothing. This is a great bill. I commend it.