Donnelly Brian: Motions — Family Support Tax Credit—Increase 
Donnelly Brian: Motions — Family Support Tax Credit—Increase 
[Volume:638;Page:8328] 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY (NZ First) 
: 
 I would just like to remind the members of the Opposition who were giving me a bit of a hard time before that I had plenty of pressure put on me in 1998 by the likes of Wyatt Creech Don McKinnon Jenny Shipley Doug Graham etc. asking me to remain as a Minister and stay with National. I did what I thought was right and I will continue to do what I believe is right in this House. 
New Zealand First has always been an advocate for children and there is no doubt that the Working for Families package has positively impacted on families and family life. I want to give the experience of my own family. My youngest daughter has a beautiful young child and her partner works in a factory and works long hours. He is not on a high salary. This couple does not waste money. They do not go to the pub or out to the pictures. They live in a modest rental property etc. The money that comes to them through Working for Families is absolutely critical. I want to make the point that every cent of that money that comes into their household goes on my grandchild. Believe it or not—and I did not realise this until I had grandchildren—it costs so much more money to bring up a young child these days even just to get the basic equipment that is now required. So on behalf of my family I want to thank Labour for what it has done. It certainly has made a difference to my youngest grandchild. It is good that they will have another $10 a week after 1 April. 
I do not necessarily believe that this is the answer to the problem. I think the answer to New Zealand’s problem is the fact that our wages are not high enough. We need to drive our wages up. That is why New Zealand First put into its confidence and supply agreement with the Government that we would drive the minimum wage up to $12 per hour. As Barbara Stewart mentioned on 1 April something else will also take place—that is the minimum wage will go up by $1 which will once again drive up wages. 
I say that because looking back my father was an M5—married with 5 children. He would not have actually paid very much in tax but he never ever would have brought home more than he earned and that is unfortunate. With the system of tax credits etc. that we have that problem is reduced. 
 New Zealand First believes that the Working for Families package is absolutely critical at this point in time for us to be able to get our families out of poverty. It is not the long-term answer; the long-term answer is getting the wages up but we readily admit that that is not a possible solution within the next year or so. Therefore we need the quinella of approaches to be able to achieve that purpose on behalf of New Zealand. One of the things that New Zealand First believes—and I certainly believe—is that the quality of the future we leave to our children will be determined by the quality of the children we leave to the future. We will not be able to leave quality children to the future if we are trying to drag them up in poverty. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.