Smith Lockwood: Future Directions (Working for Families) Bill — Second Reading 
Smith Lockwood: Future Directions (Working for Families) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:13468] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 Let me first make it very clear that National cares deeply about low to middle income working families. And let me point out how much Dr Cullen and Labour care about them because the families who are most disadvantaged in New Zealand at the moment are those where there is a couple with one person working on say $10 an hour. After that person has worked for 8 hours in order to get another dollar in the pocket at the moment he or she has to work 49 hours a week. Now has Labour done anything tonight to fix that problem? Labour is to do something in 2006 to help that family. But if Dr Cullen and Labour cared at all about low-income families they would do something tonight to help that family. How is it right for a family after 8 hours’ work at $10 an hour to earn a certain amount of money and not to earn another dollar till the income earner has worked 49 hours a week? The Government is changing the abatement rate. This bill does change that rate but when does it do that? It does it— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Midnight tonight. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: Not midnight tonight. When is the Government to help that low-income family? In the explanatory note of the bill it states that it will be on 1 April 2006. 
What the arrogant Dr Cullen does not seem to understand is that there are other ways of helping low to middle income families. This is the most stupid way to do so because it turns tens of thousands more hard-working New Zealand families into beneficiaries. That is what is so wrong with this bill. Dr Cullen sits there and says the only way National would do that is by changing the taxation rates which would cost billions and give tax breaks to people who do not need them. All I can say to people like Steve Maharey and Dr Cullen is that they should think a bit more about how they could be innovative regarding taxation. They are clearly so arrogant they have not thought the thing through. There are other ways of delivering support for low to middle income people but to tax them then give money back to them and expect them to think that is great is just stupidity. Yet that is what Labour is doing. It is taxing people more because with bracket-creep low to middle income earners are paying more and more in tax. With all the new taxes that Labour has introduced people are paying more and more in tax and the Government instead of reducing tax says that it will pay that money back. It has even changed the name from tax credit to “in-work payment” or something. I cannot believe that Labour thinks the people of New Zealand will buy that one—that on one hand they are taxed more and then on the other hand a couple of years later they are given a little bit of that money back. The Government wonders why it is that on the  
Holmes 
 show four out of five people do not like it and only one in five says it makes sense. 
The disgrace of what Labour is doing in this measure is that there are low to middle income families that are hurting. They are hurting right now and hurting very much. But the disgraceful thing about this legislation is that the families that are hurting the most will not be helped for a couple of years. That is the disgraceful thing because the abatement arrangements hurt people who are trying to get off benefits the most. That is because of the way the benefit abatement interacts with the family support tax credit and Labour is not changing that till 1 April 2006. That is a disgrace! It shows the Government does not care about the families who are hurting the most. It is throwing out a couple of little crumbs from 1 April next year but is doing nothing serious to help those families until 2006. It is no wonder people are not supporting this legislation tonight. 
Sitting suspended from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. (Friday)