Hopping off the ferry in Beach Haven, Greens Social Development spokesperson /u/forgottomentionpeter arrived at an event to talk about his portfolio and the Green plans for the upcoming term.

“Kia ora! Today I’m here to talk about my portfolios and what we’ve been doing in government. As you may know, I’m the Minister of Social Development and also the Minister of Māori Affairs.”

“So in the last term, we restored the Working For Families Children’s Tax Credit, which is important to thousands of families around Aotearoa. For them it means it’s easier to put food on the table.”

“But in this term we came into government right near the end of the term and we didn’t have very much time to get things done. And that’s why it’s so important that we get reelected for another term. It will give us the time to get many more things done.”

“If we’re reelected, we’ll reverse the last governments benefit cuts. These cuts have left thousands of families living below the poverty line. The Greens are committed to ending poverty in Aotearoa and a critical part of that is a welfare system that works and gives people the support they need.”

“We’ll abolish penalties and sanctions on benefits, because the evidence shows it doesn’t work. Penalties are excessively harsh and have lasting effects. Children suffer when their parents are punished by the welfare system. The job of the welfare system is to give people a helping hand, not to punish them for being poor.”

“Next term we’ll create an independent ombudsman to investigate complaints from beneficiaries and we’ll continue to reform WINZ to make sure that the needs of beneficiaries are the main priority, rather than cutting corners and trying to save money at the expense of our most vulnerable.”

“And finally we’ll reverse the last government’s changes to the eligibility age for Superannuation and we’ll ensure that pensions are kept at a livable rate.”

“When it comes to te ao Māori, we’ll increase the authority of the Waitangi Tribunal and give it the power to make binding recommendations. We’ll stop “full and final” settlements, which will allow settlements to be revisited if circumstances have changed or when the original negotiations didn’t include some claimants. And we’ll remove the Crown’s requirement to only negotiate with large natural groupings, because this shuts out local hapū and small iwi, who have as much right as any other to be part of the process.”

“We’ll support Whānau Ora and restore provisions in the law which give priority to placing at-risk tamariki with whānau.”

“So thank you all for being here today to listen to our plans for the next term. To end: he aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata.”