Curran Clare: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Curran Clare: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8944. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South) 
: 
 I want to talk to the title of this bill the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill which should really be called the “Social Sanctions Amendment Bill”. So many of my colleagues on this side of the Chamber and in other parties on this side of the Chamber have talked about this issue tonight—about how much this bill is about sanctions and what its focus is. 
I want to talk to you about Bronwyn who came into my office last month to ask for advice. She is 55 and has worked for a school for the last 12 years as a literacy tutor for 22 hours a week. Her husband was made redundant last October. He has worked all his life. Since then he has managed to pick up a little bit of casual work but he and his wife finally approached Work and Income for some assistance because he could not find full-time work. Instead of getting that assistance Bronwyn who has worked in this job as a literacy tutor for which she has trained for for which she has a lot of experience was told to leave that job and find a full-time job. She loves her current job. She is well qualified for the position and she feels that she makes a bit of a difference. But because of the necessity of accepting a helping hand from the State during an economic downturn she is likely to have to leave that position and get a full-time entry-level position that does not pay nearly as much as she is earning at the moment. Jobs in her area for her husband are scarce and these people are between a rock and a hard place. 
When a new Countdown supermarket opened in South Dunedin last year around 1400 people applied for the 115 positions that were available—1400 people. Of the 1285 people who did not get those jobs they have not just walked into other jobs. This is the fundamental issue with this bill. People want to work—people want to work. Why does this Government not understand that? Why does this Government not understand that what people want is a job and an income and to look after their families? We are not all as well off as everybody else. Some people do have disadvantages. This bill is ultimately about pushing the buttons of making those people feel as if they are second-class citizens as if they somehow do not fit the bill; therefore they have to be treated differently from everybody else. I do not understand that. I do not think anybody on this side of the Chamber understands that. So that is why we fundamentally object to the underlying assumption in this bill that those on Government support who are there because they need to be there do not want to work. 
I want to talk to you about the other group of people in society. I know some of my colleagues have touched on this. These are people with disabilities people who struggle—who struggle—to get to first base to get that interview because they either do not have the skills or do not have the ability to get chosen for an interview. These people many of whom are on the sickness benefit or the invalid’s benefit are desperate to work. They are desperate to contribute to society to be productive members of society. But for some reason that side of the Chamber is actually putting more barriers in their way by introducing bills like this. That is an absolute disgrace. As CCS Disability Action eloquently stated during the submissions on this bill this bill will not add one more single job for a disabled person. It does nothing about the attitudes of employers and workers. It does nothing about the ability to make adjustments in the workplace and nothing about access to education or work experience. If the bill wishes to provide opportunities for people with disabilities to move into the workforce it does not contribute. I mentioned earlier about the freezing of mainstream funding. I would like to know what this Government is going to do about that.