Simon Bridges National MP simonbridges.co.nz

I hope you enjoyed a good long weekend with friends and family, or you got to those jobs around the home you've been putting off. I took the opportunity to have a family weekend and spend some time with my parents.

But I was straight back into it on Tuesday though, with cabinet meetings in Wellington before heading to Auckland on Wednesday for the opening of a new substation, and the Site Safe NZ Graduation and Construction Health and Safety Awards.

Tonight, I am attending the Westpac Tauranga Business Awards at the ASB Arena. These awards showcase the region's business talent and capability. It is a great chance to celebrate and publicly acknowledge those outstanding people and companies that help to boost our economy.

Getting more people into work

It has been said you can judge a society on how it treats its most vulnerable and those in need.

The National Party has taken firm action to protect vulnerable children. And we've reformed our welfare system to better support beneficiaries to help them back into work and achieve independence from long-term welfare dependency.

In December 2010, at the peak of the recession there were 352,707 people on a benefit. In the September quarter of this year, this number had fallen to 304,394, including a drop of 5388 in the last quarter.

At the same time, we are doing more to help people into work, through things like childcare, training, workplace support, and access to health and disability support services.

As part of our welfare reforms, we introduced a ‘work bonus' payment, which allows the benefit payment to be phased out incrementally, so people keep a proportion of it as they transition to a wage. More than 700 beneficiaries have sought out jobs and have been hired since the new work bonus became available just six weeks ago.

This Government is making a difference by setting expectations, and providing incentives and support to those wanting to work.

The welfare system will always be there to support people who genuinely need it. But National believes by getting people into training and employment, they can gain more skills, higher wages, and better opportunities.