Mr Speaker, I also thank you for allowing this debate on child abuse and social welfare, because I have had a chance to see the Hon Paula Bennett in action this afternoon. I have to say that I could not be more impressed by a Minister. She shows compassion, she is so passionate about this issue, she is articulate, and she has a very clear view on what she wants to do. I congratulate her and I congratulate her Government. She has a very clear vision and she gave a very strong and impassioned speech.
What I took from the Minister is that she is reorganising the Ministry of Social Development. She is reorganising it, she is looking to save costs on administration, and she is looking to put more front-line staff in there.
Paul Quinn: That’s right.
JOHN BOSCAWEN: I thank Mr Quinn. That is right; I have understood correctly what the Minister said. She said she will immediately have 12 more front-line social workers or caregivers. That is what she referred to—12 more social workers or caregivers immediately.
Annette King is upset about the restructuring. She is upset that there will be 12 more front-line staff immediately. The Minister went on to say that we will have a further 12 caregivers or social workers a short time later, and that by the end of the year we will have a further 30 to 40 front-line caregivers or social workers. The Minister is focusing on what truly matters. I congratulate her because we need to look at the causes of child abuse and we need to put resources into front-line staff.
I heard Annette King talking about having to stop the violence and saying that the Minister’s action is short-sighted. She said we have to stop violence and that if we do not move immediately, then we will be going backwards. She talked about a paltry $22 million. If I heard her correctly, she talked about a paltry saving of $22 million. I remind Annette King that the previous Labour Government, which she was a member of, spent close to $1 billion on purchasing the railways. That is right—$1 billion. It cost $700 million to buy the railways, $300 million to upgrade them, and then annual subsidies of $100 million a year, and she has the audacity to stand up and criticise a restructuring.
So much money was wasted in the last 9 years by the previous Labour Government. It was a period of lost opportunity. Labour members are very happy to suggest that the solution to problems is to spend more money; that is right—spend more money. The more money we spend the better, and the more likely the problem will go away. We have had a massive increase in health spending—a 50 percent increase in health spending, adjusted for inflation. What do we see? We see a drop in productivity. It is not a question of spending more money; it is a question of how we spend it.
We also need to look at the causes of child abuse. What are the causes? How do we address the root problem? The solution is not just to spend more money; it is actually to look at the root causes of the problem. New Zealand, sadly, has become a two-class society. We are a society of two classes of citizens. We have the privileged and unprivileged. We have the haves and the have-nots. We have the people who have a choice in the quality of the education they get. We have children who are born to parents who can afford to move into areas with quality State schooling or can afford to buy private school education. We have those children who are denied that choice because their parents cannot afford to live in areas that offer a higher quality of State schooling. We have those who can afford the protection of private medical insurance, and those who cannot. We are a society of haves and have-nots, of privileged and unprivileged. We need to look at the real causes of child abuse when we look at what causes New Zealand society to have two classes of citizens.
I will conclude my comments by reasserting what I said earlier. Paula Bennett is clearly a passionate and articulate Minister. She is focusing on what truly matters. She knows what she wants to achieve. She is putting more resources on the front line. I congratulate her. Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker.