Horomia Parekura: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Horomia Parekura: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:13152] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Labour—Ikaroa-Rawhiti) 
: 
 That speaker quite clearly said— 
Hon Mita Ririnui 
: Shameful speech! 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: —shamefully—that this bill had issues relevant to the tyranny of low expectations. That member is really following the Minister responsible for this bill who has produced some of the most shameful legislation in this Parliament. It is shameful and those members know that. There is more than third-party support but that member said that the bill was about National’s manifesto. It is about the manifesto but the manifesto also stated four other key things. It stated there was an edict to improve the economy but National has no plan so that has not happened. National said that it would create more jobs and that has not happened. There were two or three other issues. It is fascinating when we read this legislation to see that it is premised on a strong labour market. Well that is amazing because the unemployment rate generally is running at 6 percent. For Maori and for Pacific Island people it is tracking up higher and knocking 11 percent. In Wairoa the rate is at nearly 60 percent. How the hang does the Government expect to find people a job there when there is no basis for employment? This is good old right-necked National Party weeping manifesto stuff. It is outrageous. 
The member said that this bill will help people out of poverty but I see Mr Joyce sitting over there and I wonder what is behind the capping of those places in universities and wherever. Nanaia Mahuta Kelvin Davis and I were privileged this morning to talk to about 35 middle-aged—mature-aged—women whose average age I would say was about 40. It is fascinating that this increasing push is about the rangatahi the youth only but there is a trick and a trap in that too because at the end of the day we feed it because it is cheap. 
If that is lined up with the 90-day bill what do we get? We get uncertainty we get insecurity in the labour market and we get all those relevant issues. 
Tim Macindoe 
: You get a much greater prospect of a job. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: Yet that gentleman talks about the prospects of a job. I tell him that the great leader of the Labour Party Phil Goff went to open a food market this morning. 
Tim Macindoe 
: He’s already told us that. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: And I will tell the member again so that he understands the picture because it is surreal. There were 150 jobs there and 2500 lined up for them. How the hang can the Government push through this legislation when that happens? That is a disgrace. It was the same at the KFC place down there and the same at the vegetable place. 
Chester Borrows 
: The penalties don’t apply if they don’t get a job. Read the bill. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: That member knows that since he was a policeman the situation has got worse. He understands that. It has got worse. I tell the Minister that the bill certainly does not have much in it I am afraid to say. But third-party support in this country is growing and parents are paying for youngsters out of their own pockets. 
Then we have the income-splitting notion which is relevant to this bill I tell my dear friend. It is relevant. But it is income-splitting for whom? It is only for the rich people. It is only for the well-off. Members can tell me how many working-class parents can split their income at the moment and I will tell them about the Pacific Islanders and the Maori in this country who are being trashed into the dungeons of doom by this misconstrued legislation and by a Minister who does not care and who should know better. If we couple together all of those issues with the Minister of Finance’s continual singing of the song that there is not much money and the attack on the Public Service what do members reckon is coming up? 
It is unfair. It is amazing that the Attorney-General this Minister’s colleague said that this bill was discriminatory and that it was a disgrace. The Presbyterian Church has said that it is not too sure where the hang this legislation will be run. It has said that the bill is one of the worst bits of legislation that it has ever read or ever heard about. This bill really is a simple exercise in targeting beneficiaries—sole parents. Where is the protection for the child? When a child is 6 years old everything is supposed to be tickety-boo. But on this side of the Chamber we can talk about ensuring that income-related rents were there that 14 weeks of maternity leave was real and that at the end of the day people’s rights were intact. 
The unemployment rate is at 159000 at the moment so if we are coupling this legislation with a very very weak labour market which is one of the weakest we have had in the last 16 years I ask how the hang this is going to work. How will this legislation work when the people at Te Wananga o Aotearoa were telling us this morning that they were not too sure where their certification will head to and Mr Joyce capped them. So the Government is talking about skilling and about opening up trades academies but it has shortened the 14000 apprenticeships that were running and a lot of those apprentices did not finish their apprenticeships when the National Government came in because it cut the funding. It cut part of the funding; that is what happened. 
Virtually all of the Government departments that were consulted on this gave advice that was totally contrary to what the Minister wanted to bring in. In 1936 there was no domestic purpose benefit and it seems to be heading back that way now. Who protects those people? There is real competition in the search for a job. Mr Joyce always makes the mistake of thinking that other people do not understand what is going on. We do understand. On behalf of all those working-class families and of all those people Maori and Pacific I say that they are being ill-treated. It is a disgrace. Government members need to go out in the regions like me. I walked past two Work and Income offices the other day. People were sitting on the bloody street lined up. They were sitting out on the street waiting for their turn. Then we have this huffing and puffing from the Government which says that this will be good for beneficiaries. 
People are supposed to reapply for the benefit after 12 months. That is all very well but the stoke in the economy is not happening. The GDP is slipping the macro is put asunder and a whole lot of small and medium sized businesses are closing—80 in Hawke’s Bay and nine in Gisborne. What is that all about? 
The Government is getting into cheap labour. Those members know that they are knocking them out. The Minister of Finance said that the biggest ministry in this country will soon be the justice department. People will start thieving. People will start going on the hunt for their families when they are treated like this so the Government needs to be clear about crime. 
Chester Borrows 
: All someone else’s fault. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: No not necessarily—people need to own it. But the majority should not pass judgment on the minority just because they are in the seat that the member is in I tell my friend. The member was a policeman. I was in community development and the member used to talk sense. He is learning a lot of nonsense from Ministers like the Minister in the chair the Minister for Social Development and Employment. The member needs to stop it. The member needs to understand that. 
With regard to the loss of percentage like people losing 50 percent off their benefit if they do not turn up for an interview I say that these interviews have been going on for a long long time. This has been going on since before the Belmont theory about labour markets and creating jobs came down here and it just seems that the officials are being bullied to do this. 
I need to tell the Minister that this is incredible unjust legislation. The bill appears to limit the right to be free from discrimination. These limitations can be justified under section 5 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. People will argue that. The Attorney-General in this country is telling the Government to wake up and stop doing this and the Government will not listen. It is a bit like Heather what’s her name and that other fellow who has been punishing people through the super-city stuff and all that. Presbyterian Support stated in detail “we find it unconscionable that any government in New Zealand would propose measures that will inevitably increase poverty and hardship for some of the poorest children in this country and further penalise those in the most unfortunate of life circumstances.” That was not the Business Roundtable. That was not the Maori Council. That was not the Maori wardens. That was a recognised organisation that has supported those people those beneficiaries. The widows are put at a disadvantage so I ask where we are coming from with that. 
I need to tell members that this bill is just unbelievable. Somebody over there mentioned intergenerational adjustment. Well I will tell members about intergenerational adjustment. Two hundred years on from being colonised things start changing. If one is not given a fair go when that change comes—and I mihi to our great leader in Ngati Porou who passed away today—when the old people start moving on things change.