Logie Jan: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 26 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4003. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green): I rise to take a call in this the Budget debate and being the third Southlander in a row feels particularly momentous.I am sure that sole parents and children in care will be feeling quite proud and understanding of their place in our society now having been described as cost drivers in the Government’s Budget. I would like to say that the Green Party’s perspective on our society differs a little from seeing these people as cost drivers to the Government.When an economy is not working for everyone it is not working and we have had many examples over the last few years and weeks that tell us clearly that our economy is not working. But I do want to firstly acknowledge the Government actually for raising base benefit rates for people with children.Hon Member: Aw!JAN LOGIE: Yes I think it is important to acknowledge this because the Green Party has been saying for well over a decade now that these incomes have needed to increase. This was long actually before the National Government came to power because child poverty which we have been talking about was not created by this National Government; it has existed for decades going right back to the fourth Labour Government.In question time today the Minister of Foreign Affairs said that National had been changing lots of policies at our request. We appreciate that but we cannot take all the responsibility for the increase in base benefit rates because it was not just us alone. It was also the advocacy of Every Child Counts Child Poverty Action Group Plunket Unicef Barnados amongst many other community organisations as well as of course Bryan Bruce Nigel Latta and most prominently probably John Campbell. These groups and people have been working tirelessly for years now to help everyone in New Zealand to understand what child poverty looks and feels like because there is a big disconnect between our communities and most people who are working hard on good incomes do not necessarily get to see that real impact and they did not before understand the generational consequences of it. So I do really want to acknowledge them and the people of New Zealand who made sure the Government knew that they were not happy with so many of our children suffering and dying because of Government policies.The Government members certainly seem very pleased that they have introduced this policy and they should but I have got to say their pleasure does seem to verge on crowing and I am not really sure that that is the way to show that they genuinely care about the well-being of our children. But the acknowledgement that poverty will not be solved without addressing income is critical and the Green Party is really relieved to finally have that acknowledged.But in some ways all of this is about the politics because although we know that some people will get that $25 a week many will not get that much. The degree of poverty in this country with a quarter of a million children in poverty and 60000 to 100000 in severe deprivation without beds of their own without decent meals every day without Christmas presents or birthday presents without being able to afford to go to the doctor without transport and being unable to go on school trips—we know that that extra $25 even for those who get it is not going to solve those problems. This is one step; this is not a solution and sadly it is still not a plan yet. We desperately on behalf of those children need to keep advocating for that plan to be able to give them the opportunity to live good lives.I do want to specifically acknowledge too that that $25 increase does not compensate for the cuts to the child disability allowance which is an allowance that is not means-tested. There have been very significant cuts since 2009 and there are 11000 fewer children accessing that child disability allowance. That disability allowance is worth $46.25 a week so that has been a cut to 11000 children of an amount that is significantly more than what the Government is offering in this package and they are some of the children who are in the most need.Those cuts have been made by the Government not telling people about the available entitlements and by tightening up the entitlements. There was a very moving article in the New Zealand Herald at the end of last year talking about this and some examples. One of the Wellington beneficiary advocates Graham Howell was saying that one family with an intellectually disabled child—a child with a learning disability—lost the child disability allowance when the boy grew old enough to tie his own shoelaces and a boy with eczema lost the allowance when he became able to put on his own ointment.That is the threshold where access to that disability support for beneficiaries and working families has been put at such a level that I do not think any of us can understand. There was an Onehunga mother Emma-Rose Cottrell who was quoted in that article. Her husband works part-time and she is full-time caring. Her husband is able to work only part-time because otherwise they just would not cope as a family. She said referring to her husband: “He’s not allowed to do full-time otherwise I’d die of stress.” She said: “I have to do naps most days because I am just so exhausted.”This is the reality for some of our families. I really want to focus the House’s attention on the fact that that was a two-parent family and she is talking about that level of exhaustion when she is sharing the care of their child with a partner. Now to put that in focus around the increased work testing for sole parents that was also contained in this Budget when their child turns 3 regardless of whether their child has a disability or special emotional needs regardless of what trauma that family may have been through that parent is now going to be required to go and look for 20 hours’ work. Remember this is the story of a woman with a partner who is in work who is saying she could not cope without her partner being at home with her to care for her child. It would be just too physically and emotionally demanding.We need desperately to be supporting our families better and acknowledging the different struggles that our families are coping with. One-size-fits-all policies like this are likely to do so much more harm. Sure for some families some parents some mothers it is going to suit them to be able to go out to work and find a job if they can find one. But we also heard from Dr Nikki Turner at the Child Poverty Action Group breakfast that she is seeing parents going out to work and the only jobs they are able to get are evening or night jobs and they are leaving their kids at home alone because of that requirement and that pressure to be in work. Is that really what we want for our children? Is that really in the best interests of our society in the long term? I would say very clearly that it is not. The Green Party advocates for child-centred policies where we consider the interests of the child first. They will be different for every single child and we support families being able to do what is best for their children. That sadly is not a blanket 20 hours of work a week from the age of 3—the work-test requirement for parents—regardless of the needs of their children.I know I do not have much time but I do want to specifically also touch on—because the Speaker told us this was the space to do it—the funding decision around Relationships Aotearoa. That the largest counselling organisation in this country with 7000 clients which has been in existence since 1949 will be closing its doors this week without a publicly available transition plan for its clients is an outrage.