Sepuloni Carmel: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSepuloni Carmel: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 28 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2978. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston):The theme of this part of the debate is services to citizens but I think when looking at social development we really need to rename it as “Disservice to New Zealand citizens” because that is what this National Government has been doing. I want to start by saying that we agree fundamentally on some things with the National Government. Yes where possible we think it is good to get people off benefits and into work. What we have seen from the National Government is this perceived drop-off in benefit numbers but so many of our social services out there are saying: “This is not a drop-off; this is a cut-off.” What is happening is that people are being denied support at Work and Income and other Government agencies and then they are getting referred by those Government agencies on to our church-based organisations and our NGOs. Those same church-based organisations and NGOs have not had any increase in funding under that National Government for over 6 years. They are under-resourced and the demand on their services because that National Government is not helping the most vulnerable people has skyrocketed through the roof.I just want to say that that Government is responsible for running some of our most charitable people into the ground taking advantage of some of the goodwill that these people have—the goodwill of these very good organisations that the Government is responsible for taking advantage of. They are working off the smell of an oily rag. They are talking about the fact that they have people coming to them who are being denied Government support and who are on the verge of suicide. I am not making that up. They are telling us because we have been all around the country that they have people going to them with high mental health needs who are being denied financial support by the Government and the last port of call for these people are these church-based organisations and NGOs which do not have the funding to support them but what they do have is the goodwill to do the best that they can. So I think that this theme of this part of the debate should be called “National’s disservice to New Zealand citizens” as opposed to “Service to citizens” because that Government is doing nothing.What I am really concerned about are the long-term repercussions of the decisions that that Government is making. It is saying that it is all about getting people out into work. Getting people out into work—no one will deny that that is very important but what are we risking here? We have got mothers who are being pushed out into work way earlier than they would like to be with kids who actually need their support and the mothers would like to be able to stay at home with them. But that Government says: “Nah. You had that baby. You get out and work. We don’t care who looks after it. We don’t care about the quality of early childhood education that they are going to be exposed to. We don’t care about the childcare arrangement. We don’t care about the danger that that child might be in. You go out you work that minimum-wage job you work your butt off and let’s not worry about the safety of you and your family or the long-term well-being of you and your family.”That is the real concern that we have on this side of the Chamber. We are concerned that it is just all a numbers game to the National Government—it thinks that by reducing the number of people accessing welfare it is winning. But that does not necessarily equate to more people going into work and it does not necessarily equate to a healthier society. And we are not seeing a healthier society. If you live in Auckland or even any of the other major cities around New Zealand you only need to walk out to your nearest shopping centre to see that the levels of homelessness the number of people begging on our streets have increased dramatically under that Government. That is a sign. That is a sign and the Government shuts its eyes to those things because it refuses to admit that it is responsible for the increasing social problems that we are facing as a country.As I said this whole debate should be themed “The National Government’s disservice to New Zealand citizens”. What infuriates me even more is that that Government through social development is dealing with the most cash-strapped New Zealanders who exist and yet we saw when we went through the annual review that in particular areas funding had increased significantly. Yet when asked the ministry could not say where that money had gone to and instead said that it was a drop in the bucket. That Minister Anne Tolley said that that is a minute amount of money. Well the $6.9 million that I pointed out which I was asking questions about and I was concerned about in terms of an increase in funding and spending was almost equivalent to the $7.2 million that that Government had to shave off and defer in terms of funding programmes that would have been really important to our people.