Smith Lockwood: General Debate 
Smith Lockwood: General Debate 
[Volume:624;Page:19062] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 The pale shadow of a Labour Party we have in this Parliament today would have Michael Joseph Savage turning in his grave. Yesterday hundreds of workers in this country lost their jobs. Tanners and timber businesses closed down. Phoenix Freight is going to the wall and Skope Industries laid off dozens of workers yesterday. Yet senior Cabinet Ministers who have spoken in the general debate today have not shown the slightest concern for those workers. The Prime Minister admitted that she did not even get advice on how her policy the Working for Families package would impact on workers and wage earners as they sought to earn more money in this country. 
So far we have heard only the good bits about that package. The news is not so bad. We have heard the news that if two-parent families with a couple of children are on $50000 and seek to get the 5 percent pay increase that the president of the Labour Party and a few other unionists want them to get of the $2500 pay increase they would get to keep $270 of it. The Government gets $2230 and that worker gets $270. People think that that applies only if that family has two children. I tell this Parliament that if a family has six children it still keeps only $270 out of that pay increase. They are the lucky ones. If a family was on $65000 and got a 5 percent pay increase under Labour’s Working for Families package in theory it would get $3250 in increased pay. Of that $3250 that family would get to keep $156. The Government would get $3094 of that increase and the family would keep $156. Under a Labour Government a worker would get to keep $156 out of that $3250. 
John Key 
: Three bucks a week. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: Three bucks a week says my good colleague John Key a future Minister of Finance and a very good mathematician. 
But that is not the worst news. Labour once used to say that it cared for low-income people. If that same family is on really low wages—on $10 an hour; earning $20000 a year—and it gets a 5 percent pay increase it would get $1000 extra. This is what is so disgusting with this hopeless Labour Government: that family would get to keep $78. That is $1.50 a week. With a 5 percent pay increase under Labour’s policy Helen Clark’s wonderful Working for Families policy which that clever clever senior Cabinet Minister Steve Maharey dreamt up low-income workers on $20000 a year get to keep out of a 5 percent pay increase $78. The Government takes $922. This Labour Government takes $922 out of that 5 percent pay increase and a working family on $10 an hour keeps $78. The Government—Labour—takes $922. I ask Marian Hobbs as a Cabinet Minister to justify why Labour is taking $922 of the $1000 pay increase— 
Helen Duncan 
: The member is talking absolute rubbish as usual. 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: The figures I have used are from the Inland Revenue Department. They are not our figures. 
What is quite good though is that if one is really a high-income earner and is on $75000 a year the 5 percent pay increase would give that person $3750. That family would get to keep $2240 of it. So the high-income people do better and the low-income people really suffer under this Labour Government.