There is one word which dominates the report of the social services committee on Vote Employment; Vote Social Development and Vote Youth Development.  It is a word which has been found throughout all of the reports in this estimates debate.

Recession.

In this Vote, we learn how WINZ has changed the way it works, since the economic downturn, to concentrate more on relationships with employers.

We are told about the various Governmental responses to the recession including the ReStart package; the Job Support Scheme and the Community Response Fund.

And we read about the Committee’s concerns for the impact of the recession on young people.

There is no denial that we are caught in the grips of a volatile financial environment; a situation in which around the globe, nations are having to react quickly to rising unemployment.  

We are seeing the traditional forms of social protection under threat as markets become fragile and publicly financed services feel the pinch.

The Maori Party is, of course, particularly alarmed at the continuing high levels of unemployment for rangatahi Maori – a trend which was well advanced over the last decade, tragically, in a time of plenty. 

These are our leaders of tomorrow, who will shape the policy direction of our nation; who will confront the ever-increasing challenge of new technologies, who will drive our economy;  who will care for us when we age.

We must take care of them as an investment in our future.

The Select Committee reported that Government would be considering various ways to provide young people with meaningful opportunities in employment and training.

It is a commitment we have dedicated ourselves to, in our efforts to ensure there are relevant strategies for Maori and Pasifika youth.

While the package includes a massive plan to create close to seventeen thousand new opportunities, I want to focus on two initiatives, Community Max and Job Ops.

Community Max will provide three thousand places on local community and environmental projects over the next year.  We know that our unemployed youth living in rural areas will benefit from the $40.3 million investment in this scheme.

The projects will be community based – it could be projects such as renovating community buildings, working on your marae, improving access to local environments. 

This will be real mahi in real locations – work that can make a difference for iwi, NGOs, local Maori and Pasifika groups; runanga, and incorporations.

I was really delighted to learn last week, that close to 40 percent of the 120 registrations of interest received for the Community Max programme have come from Maori organisation, and I want to commend their initiative in coming forward, to care for their young.

I will be expecting our government departments to be just as forward looking in responding to the enthusiasm of communities.

I have an expectation that Departments will be helpful; and they too, will demonstrate initiative to work together with our community, in the better interests of our nation.

The community groups that have been coming to my door have been saying to me, “don’t tell us what we can’t do; tell us what we can do, and help us to do that”.

The other focus is the Job Ops scheme which pumps $20 million into funding around 4000 entry level jobs.    In essence, Job Ops will subsidise employers $5000 for each young person hired. 

Just like Community Max, the programme is there to support our young people aged 18-24 years if they are receiving the unemployment benefit; but it also creates opportunities for any young person aged 16 or 17 who are receiving the Independent Youth Benefit or who have left school.

Mr Speaker, when the Maori Party signed up to a relationship with the National Party, we gave voice to an aspiration that we would recognise mana maintenance and enhancement.

While I would have to say, this is definitely a work in progress, there is nothing that enhances one’s mana more, than the opportunity to contribute, through being involved in meaningful and productive work which helps to support our whanau and community.

But of course, and as the Select Committee report notes, there is also a need to do what we can to support critical community and voluntary sector organisations that are having trouble maintaining their services in a recession, or are experiencing much higher demand.

The opportunity provided by Community Max is that some of these organisations will be able to immediately meet the demands placed upon them for increased labour.

And I want to call for a united effort on all fronts, none the less being in this House.

We must ensure that our community groups make the best of this opportunity so that it is a win-win for all.   We often hear about the difficulties some groups face in trying to connect with that youth and make their services relevant.

There is no better time; no better way, than using the youth opportunities package to involve young people in organisations, to integrate their perspectives, to utilise their knowledge about modern communication, and to ensure youth are shaping our plan for the future.

Finally, I want to focus on our most vulnerable children – those who are referred to in the Select Committee report under the heading of child abuse.

In the Family Commission’s report released earlier today we learnt that over 12 thousand children and young people were found to have experienced abuse and neglect.

That information should break our hearts – and even more so, when we read the statistics revealing that about 8 in 10 abusers were family members; or living in a domestic relationship with the child.

The facts and figures must provoke us to act – and that means all of us.   We cannot sit idle, noho puku, pretending that it is not happening, that it is happening behind closed doors; within the sanctuary of the family home.

What sort of a sanctuary subjects its most innocent children to the devastation of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse and neglect?

As the Minister responsible for the Government’s response to addressing and reducing the impact of family violence, I am utterly serious about ensuring I live up to that responsibility.

And so I have today, announced, the establishment of a Ministerial Committee to ensure that this Government invests in taking up our collective responsibility to protect and care for children.

The Committee will bring together Ministers from a whole range of areas so that collectively we can look at the way in which the system responds to confronting such a significant social and economic blight on our nation.

And we must also live up to our collective responsibility as members of families and communities, to do what we can, to ensure families are resilient, respectful and safe places to grow up in.  Child abuse can not be addressed by a well-meaning case worker; a vocal advocacy group; a Ministerial Group in isolation.

It will take all of us – to work constructively and courageously – to ensure that our children are protected from harm, and free to develop to experience their full potential.