Hayes Joanne: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes Joanne: General Debate[Sitting date: 01 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2808. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOANNE HAYES (National): Kia ora Mr Speaker. I am pleased to stand in this debate. What a load of rubbish that was from the previous speaker. Let us talk about bribes shall we? Let us talk about free student loans eh? That was one of the biggest bribes of Labour was it not? [Interruption] Oh yeah! Let us talk again about New Zealand First’s bribes in the Northland by-election. Let us talk about that port. How on earth is the Rt Hon Winston Peters going to deliver on a port? He is not going to be able to. Ten bridges—we are going to be able to deliver on 10 bridges. That is what we have put into our plan and that is what we are going to do because we are a Government that delivers on its promises. We are a Government that when it says it is committed to doing stuff it does it. That is what I need to put across.I have just arrived back from a wonderful conference overseas in Ethiopia. It was the Women in Parliaments global summit. I can tell you right now it opened up my eyes to many things. I looked around the places that we were fortunate to visit and one of the things that I saw was the treatment of old people there. I looked back at New Zealand and I thought how lucky we are to have such a great welfare system looking after our elderly. It has been said many times and it has been heard across the world that New Zealand when it comes to its welfare system has one of the best in the world especially with regard to looking after its elderly. Over 1 million New Zealanders are on superannuation and will receive an increase in their payments—that is a 2.07 percent increase in their payments. That is 66 percent of the average wage for married couples as opposed to the average wage.When I say I was shocked about the elderly I noticed there were old women in Ethiopia who were carrying bundles of eucalyptus sticks down the hill. That was what their job was. When I say I was shocked I was shocked because once they retired from that they retired into town and there was nothing for them—there was absolutely nothing for them. Every time I looked around the places that I went—I went to some of the poorer areas in Addis Ababa—I was reminded of that great philosopher Fred Dagg who said: “We don’t know how lucky we are.” We do not know how lucky we are.Tim Macindoe: He was a great philosopher.JOANNE HAYES: He was a great philosopher. Then I turn and I look at something that is close to my heart the veterans pension.Tim Macindoe: He taught Labour that we can borrow a few million more.JOANNE HAYES: Ha ha! Then I look to the veterans pension and I see that it is a $60 million package for veterans—to support the new Veterans’ Support Act which the Hon Michael Woodhouse is responsible for and which came into force on 7 December 2014. That is great because I have two grandfathers who fought in the Māori Battalion in the pioneer battalion in World War I and I am sure that as they lay there listening to their mokopuna standing in this House talking about supporting the veterans package and all the other things that we do within the veterans sector they would be very proud of me as they sit on my shoulders and look across the House.The Government is also providing $300000 in grants to the RSA and all of this has come through on 1 April. We have also increased the veterans travel mileage rate by 20 percent. That is really important because a lot of veterans like to catch up with each other and travel from one place to the other—and some of them have long distances to travel. I am based out of Christchurch East and they have a very strong group especially the Māori veterans which means they do not need to travel that far. But when I first arrived in Christchurch East there was a tangi on and the tangi was in the North Island. So they all gathered together at Ngā Hau e Whā marae and worked out how they were going to travel north. So this increase in travel payments will help other veterans throughout New Zealand too to travel to either tangi or to hui with each other.From superannuation in the Veterans’ Support Act I move to employment. With regard to employment in terms of the places I went to in Addis Ababa there were groups of women who had been funded by their Government to set up their own businesses within the markets. Those businesses would start on the smell of an oily rag and they would grow into big business in Addis Ababa. Some of these were actually wood-carrying women who carried wood from the top of Mount Entoto all the way down into Addis township. That wood was used for housing it was used for fences and it was also used for burning.One of the things I was also quite amazed at was the innovation in that country. Steel was at a little bit of a premium for them especially when it came to building the big concrete buildings that they are putting together. It is a city that is developing as it goes. I see the Speaker’s finger circling but one of the things I just want to say is that I am really pleased to speak about this. Thank you.