Tolley Anne: Social Security Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Tolley Anne: Social Security Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:636;Page:7199] 
ANNE TOLLEY (National—East Coast) 
: 
 I thank the Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Ruth Dyson for her very full explanation of what the Social Security Amendment Bill is intended to do. Having sat through and listened to all that and having read through the bill this afternoon I have to say that it is legislating for Work and Income to do what most New Zealanders already thought that it did—that is to help people into work. 
When the Minister for Social Development and Employment first talked about this bill and went through all the rah rah of a big announcement he claimed that this was the greatest reform of the welfare system in 50 years. Of course that is ridiculous. When members read through the bill they will see that that statement is typical of the spin from that Minister and that it has little basis in reality. 
It is typical of the Minister and it is an indictment on this tired old Government that it has taken 7 long years before we see any attempt to provide incentives and assistance in getting sickness and invalids beneficiaries particularly back into work. The number of beneficiaries has been rising; in fact it has risen by 50 percent under Labour. There are now 125000 people receiving sickness benefits and invalids benefits. 
Every time we have questioned the Minister about this matter he has quoted overseas countries with the same problem—never saying of course that those countries have rising unemployment figures as well which is not what we have seen in New Zealand. Whenever we have questioned the Minister about the fact that many people have gone from the unemployment benefit on to a sickness benefit or an invalids benefit he has denied the facts. He has denied them despite the fact that the numbers of invalids and sickness beneficiaries have continued to rise inexorably. He has sat on his hands watched those figures rise and those people moulder on a benefit and he has done nothing. 
In fact the Minister has admitted that he knows that one in five potential sickness or invalids beneficiaries who are signed up by a doctor are actually fit for work. He has admitted that yet even the great reform bill that has been tabled in the House today does nothing to tighten the assessment criteria for those potential beneficiaries. Twenty percent of them are getting a benefit almost fraudulently. The Minister knows it and the ministry knows it yet nothing is being done in this legislation or by this Government to get those people back into work. 
In the spin around this bill the Minister tried to conceal the fact that sickness and invalids beneficiaries would have their benefits cut if they did not meet the proposed activity requirements. He said that meeting the requirements would be entirely voluntary. Fortunately a closer reading of the bill shows this not to be true. It is just another example of this Government saying one thing to people and then going out and doing another. 
National is supporting this bill going to the Social Services Committee. Why on earth would we not? We have been arguing for this for 7 years. Labour members should be ashamed that after 7 years they have to introduce legislation to do what they have talked about doing for so long. We want to see this bill in the select committee. We want to tighten up the provisions in this bill. This is basically just a wet dishrag of a bill designed to make the Government look as if it is doing something but it is not actually doing very much at all. 
We do not want to be tough and mean to people who are down on their luck. The reason that we want to make some tightening-up changes in this bill is not because we want to be tough on those people who are down on their luck or who are suffering long-term illnesses but because welfare dependency is like a cancer that eats away at people’s self-esteem their mana and their ability to look after themselves and their families. Only work—even part-time work—can lift their spirits lift their aspirations and ultimately lift their standard of living. The Government has a responsibility to support people into work and to assist them to take their lives back into their own hands rather than allowing them to languish on a benefit. 
Finally I have to say to the Minister that we have talked for almost 20 years about a single core benefit. Is this bill as close as we are going to get to it? Where is it? Why does the Government not just come clean and say that it is too hard that it cannot do it and that this bill is about as close as we are going to get. We need aspirational change to free people from the welfare trap. This bill just does not cut it but we will make it right in the select committee. Thank you.