Martin Tracey: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Martin Tracey: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8915. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TRACEY MARTIN (NZ First) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Chair. I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak on the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill. New Zealand First will not be supporting the bill but that is not because we do not believe that the Minister for Social Development truly has the intention described inside this bill. It is merely because we have grave fears that some of the measures inside the bill will have a negative downstream impact that has not been appropriately addressed at this time. 
New Zealand First believes that the welfare system of our country is a safety net not a hammock. I remember the first time I met the Hon Paula Bennett. We were both speaking at a political engagement in 2008 at Te Atatu. It was one of the most volatile political engagements I have had during any campaign that I have been part of partly because the Hon Tau Henare was in the crowd rarking it up. But where we made a point of contact I say to Minister Bennett was when I spoke of my great-grandmother the loss of my great-grandfather and their small child through the influenza epidemic here in New Zealand and the fact that my great-grandmother then had to put her two small daughters in with the nuns down in Wellington while she went to find herself a husband. There was no support. There was no way she could look after her two small daughters—aged 5 and 3 if I recall correctly—while she sorted her finances. 
You and I both agree that that is not a place we want to go back to. That is nowhere near where this bill the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill is trying to go; that is not the point. However when I read the parts of this bill that deal with and merge the widow’s benefit for example with the work-ready benefit or the work-focus benefit I have concerns about women such as my great-grandmother who lose their husbands and about small children who lose their fathers. 
Then there is a subjective process about when they are ready to come back. It concerns me and it concerns New Zealand First in terms of some of the subjectivity that can be inside what is outside your control Minister. This is going to be at the front line. So that is something as you say where the proof will be in the pudding but New Zealand First is concerned that it has not been addressed appropriately or the safety net has not been addressed appropriately here. 
We also agree that there is a social contract in this country. Nobody gets something for nothing. We all work hard and we should all work hard for the benefit of our country. But that is different from the term “social obligation”. The social obligations that have been placed inside this bill start to direct and impact on a parent’s ability to make choices and decisions for their children. It is of concern to New Zealand First that the social obligations start to push people who have found themselves in a place of requiring support from their country to start to lose the ability to make those choices for their own children. 
Some of that concern is around the Well Child / Tamariki Ora checks. New Zealand First has always been a proponent for Well Child / Tamariki Ora checks. If I remember correctly I think it was our policy that started it. But we were not asking for people to be forced into a situation of immunising their children. Yet again there is a requirement a subjective requirement that they make a fully informed decision that somebody on the front line can decide they have not made it fully informed and therefore they can penalise them. That is a concern to us. 
David Bennett 
: Who cares? 
TRACEY MARTIN 
: Mr Bennett I think everybody here cares. There are reasons why a social obligation as opposed to a social contract is so important. New Zealand First has a policy that again is based on that concept—that if your country supports you you should be doing something to support your country—and it is our community wage policy. There is a constant call: “Where is the work?”. I do not think that the Government although we have all this political rhetoric denies that we are in a time—let us say it is the global recession—where it is a very tight job market and a very tight labour market. 
But we want people to continue to have that work ethic. We want our young people to continue to get up in the morning and believe that you have to go out and do for country and do for your community. That is why New Zealand First would have liked to see some sort of positive social contract engagement inside this bill something built around our policy of the community wage. There are many many organisations that require voluntary labour and for 20 hours a week to gain your community wage or your work focus benefit of whatever the title is you should have to—