Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Associate Minister for Social Development): Tēnā koe Madam Chair and thank you for the opportunity. The member who just resumed her seat Joanne Hayes spoke of one of the famed fathers of the House here Sir Apirana Ngata and actually what he meant in his deliberation around the dependency of our people was actually an attempt to address the inequities that Māori people were suffering at the time. One only need read the book called The Price of Citizenship to see that actually while they didn't want Māori to fall into dependency all they wanted was for them to get what they deserve—simply addressing the social inequities that plagued Māori people in his time and in the annual reviews continue to plague Māori people today.I want to touch on some of the points that that speaker raised in particular around unemployment. I want to highlight that in the time of the former Government in the past year Māori unemployment has sat stubbornly at double digits. In fact the last time it was in single digits was under the stewardship of the great Parekura Horomia who we remembered just not too long ago and the Labour Government under the Clark regime. It saw Māori unemployment in single digits. Under the last regime and in particular in the last year Māori unemployment has sat stubbornly at double digits. In fact it sits around 11.8 percent.But I also want to highlight as the Minister for Youth—I want to acknowledge that also in the category of unemployment are of course neets". I hate using that term because as we travel in and around the country they don't want to be called "neets". They're young people who have unlimited potential and aspirations for themselves and the label "neets" really is a bureaucratic term that I hope that outside of this House we don't use too often.But let's rattle through some of those numbers. The talk was about making sure that we bring unemployment numbers down and benefit dependency down but let's face it: more young Māori and Pacific peoples have been affected. In fact Māori are 19.5 percent unemployed "neets" Pacific peoples a close 17 percent Asian 10.4 percent European 10.2 percent and the average is 12.1 percent. Over the past year despite the rhetoric and the claims to have addressed the issue of youth unemployment or "neets"—those who aren't in employment education or training—nothing has been done. In fact the number of "neets" increased over the past year by approximately 4000—4000.So while the previous Government might talk about how we've reduced benefit numbers by thousands and we've seen people walking out the doors with their pride and aspirations to go on and live meaningful lives the fact remains that there has been an increase over the past year of 4000 "neets"—4000. That's a heck of a lot of young people who aren't in employment education or training and continue to receive assistance from the Government. So despite the claims from the other side of the House of how well they've done there is still a significant issue there.But just to bring it into today's context I am excited to be a part of a Government that are going to address these. We've got some policies coming up and I'm looking forward to seeing them roll out across the country.Just in the brief time I have left housing is of course one of those big issues. We know that for social prosperity for economic prosperity for educational prosperity and for prosperity in general for families it all centres around a rock and that rock is of course a family home. My colleague the Hon Jenny Salesa talked about the great dividend that was achieved by Housing New Zealand in the discretion of the Minister about what happens with that particular money. Well what's clear in the annual reviews is of course that money was spent on hotels and motels—hotels and motels to house our people the most vulnerable who in trying to address the issues that they face we're saying a house is one of those crucial steps to make sure that you can achieve your aspirations.So what's happened in the past year? The Government purchased motels and hotels. That's a shame because if we are true about trying to meet the aspirations for our families for our young people who are just looking for opportunities out there putting them in hotels and motels isn't the answer. It says here that 12 weeks is the average stay of a family in a hotel or motel. Well that's 12 weeks far too long. In fact I know of many cases that have been well over 12 weeks—in fact rolling into six months and even longer—and that's not good enough. But don't worry; this Government has a plan."