Pettis Jill: General Debate 
Pettis Jill: General Debate 
[Volume:630;Page:2291] 
JILL PETTIS (Labour) 
: 
 At the beginning of the year the Prime Minister said in her statement: “There is a world of difference between Labour’s “New Zealand way” of promoting higher wages based on higher skills innovation productivity and sustainability and the right-wing parties’ standard prescriptions of slashing the tax base in public spending cutting back on employees’ rights and protections sacrificing the environment and deregulating and privatising. That was the agenda New Zealanders revolted against in 1999 and have rejected ever since that time.” This is a day when we in Labour are very proud to be part of Labour because today we are talking about a fabulous range of policies that will be implemented on Saturday. We are proud to be members of a party that is progressive forward-looking and inclusive and that still believes in universality—as did our first Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage a man of whom we are very proud. 
I also remind members opposite of what their current but temporary leader Don Brash has said in the past that refers particularly to universality and I think it is particularly important to put it on the record again. In March 2004 he said: “I’m saying there are racial components in the allocation of healthcare and education funding—in that sense I suppose you can say I’m saying Maori are given too much.” Given the comments National members made this afternoon during question time and their obvious lack of enthusiasm during the debate this afternoon on the Working for Families package I ask them what parts will they cut? Which families will they cut income from? This is the Government that has got more people off benefits than any National Government did in recent years—and $11 billion worth of tax cuts would not deliver the kind of money this Government’s policies will deliver to working New Zealanders. 
Labour listened very carefully last year to what New Zealanders said they most wanted. They said that what they wanted most was more help for New Zealand families more help for working families and more help for people when they need financial assistance the most which is when they are raising their children. We all know that raising our children is the most expensive time of our life. Labour listened; Labour is delivering. And I am proud we are delivering. 
I am very proud to live in the Wanganui-Taranaki area and I am very proud of what we have done for families in that area. We are already providing $49 million extra in financial assistance to families who are working and helping to raise their families. We are also assisting more than 2500 families who are receiving $12 million in family assistance. Six hundred working families are getting more than $1 million through the accommodation supplement and 500 families and more are receiving assistance through the accommodation supplement. These are fabulous sums of money that are going directly into families’ pockets. 
Where are those families spending this increased income? They are spending it on their children and in their local towns. An example of how that is benefiting our local towns is that in 2001 Wanganui had 36 vacant shops. Today only eight are vacant and development plans are under way for five of those so now only three shops remain empty in the Wanganui main street business district. What has happened since 2001? We have had a Labour Government whose policies have provided a direct form of assistance to the whole community in which I live and to communities throughout New Zealand from North Cape to the Bluff. Families spend their money locally. Money is made round to go round as they say and this money is going back into the communities where families throughout New Zealand live. This is not just about assisting families through the Working for Families package; this is about a whole suite of policies that will benefit New Zealand.