Harawira Hone: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Harawira Hone: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Sitting date: 26 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5657. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
7. 
HONE HARAWIRA (Leader—Mana) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development 
: Does she think it acceptable that the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders reliant on government benefits face the predicament each and every week such as the case of Sam Kuha in Kaikohe who is left to survive on $18.00 a week for food? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development) 
: 
 To the first part no I do not. But to the second part the information that is being reported is factually incorrect. They are not the circumstances of Sam Kuha. The member in fact puts me in a difficult situation because those members are the first to kind of criticise me when I do put the right correct information out there so I will just state that it is not correct and that is not the amount that he is living on each week. 
Hone Harawira 
: Does the Minister agree with the view of Dr Lance O’Sullivan who says that it is an appalling state of affairs that people are forced to take extreme measures such as going on hunger strike to bring to her attention the crippling levels of poverty that her benefit cuts have caused which are leading to more and more poor children going without food every week; if not why not? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: There have not been benefit cuts to start with. The other part is that actually my office has been in touch with the doctor this week to make sure we are giving that right kind of support to Mr Kuha. Particularly they have had at least four different interventions with him. He is entitled to other support. We would like to get that to him. If he could just make himself available I believe they have plans to home-visit him on Friday. I think that is the right thing to do. I hope we can work together so that we find a solution for him. 
Hone Harawira 
: What has she done to ensure that the hunger strike of Sam Kuha undertaken in protest at the Government’s welfare policies which he says are actually hurting children more than anyone else does not lead to a severe disintegration of his health and well-being; if nothing has yet been done what does she intend to do? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I think I did just address that but I am happy to again. Work and Income has been in contact actually with his agent and has met with them I believe at least twice but there has in fact been about five meetings from 14 September and a letter was sent out to him today addressing it. I also instructed someone to make contact with the doctor because I thought maybe we could get other supports around him that were not coming from Work and Income. There are issues I think of accessibility because of his disability and there is other assistance that could come actually from other agencies. So we are pretty keen to make sure that that is all coming round him. As I say there is I believe—I have been told—a meeting this Friday where the budget adviser and others are going to meet with him at his home and make sure that he is getting all of his entitlements. 
Te Ururoa Flavell 
: Tena koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tatou. How is cutting the benefits of the parents of children who are living in poverty and those who are struggling with drug issues a long-term solution for beneficiary dependence? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: I suppose particularly up north—because those are the sorts of cases we are talking about—there are jobs up there that people could take on if they were not actually drug dependent. 
Le’aufa’amulia Asenati Lole-Taylor 
: Where? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: For many it will be—well particularly in forestry and I can show the member articles in newspapers about employers who say that if people were to pass a drug test they could give them a job. The other part of that is that if they do have an addiction they can get help and this might be the first time actually that their addiction is identified. That might be a good thing as we can get other services around them to help them with their addiction issues. If they have addiction issues their benefits will not be cut.