Fenton Darien: General Debate 
Fenton Darien: General Debate 
[Volume:630;Page:2297] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 What a pathetic contribution from that member! I have heard of wishful thinking but I have to say that that takes the cake. 
I am very very proud to be part of a Government that is making a serious commitment to families the low-paid those with children and those who are trying to get ahead. We are in Government to make a difference and up and down the country New Zealand families young and old will this weekend be celebrating the measures that this Government is delivering for a better New Zealand. 
The Working for Families package is one of the most significant poverty-reducing measures any Government has taken in decades. Bringing up the next generation is the most important thing we have to do as a nation and almost three in every four New Zealand families with dependent children will be entitled to extra financial support under our Government’s Working for Families package. On the North Shore for example 9000 working families are already receiving a total of $51.5 million in family assistance 4800 working families are getting $24.2 million through the accommodation supplement and 1100 families are receiving childcare assistance. That is $259.6 million in extra financial assistance going to thousands of North Shore residents and parents who are working to raise their families. From 1 April even more families will be able to get their share of Government support to help bring up their children. 
This Government has already delivered a lot to families. We have the lowest unemployment rate in the OECD. We have built more State houses and made them affordable. We have provided 14 weeks’ paid parental leave and we have increased the minimum wage by 8 percent from Monday of this week. We are also introducing 4 weeks’ annual leave from next year. 
We have taken some giant steps towards tackling the lingering social deficit from the 1990s when National’s policies were all about economic gains for the better-off at the expense of the not so better-off—and nothing seems to have changed. During that time there was no progress in recognising the costs and demands of raising families. New Zealand in the 1990s was one of the meanest countries in the OECD when it came to financial support for working families or families with children. Families increasingly found themselves on the wrong side of a growing divide between rich and poor with serious consequences for children. We remember the market rents from 1991 when the Housing Corporation progressively increased rents on housing from 25 percent of income to market rates which forced overcrowding sub-standard housing and Third World diseases. This Government has fixed that and we are delivering on our commitments to our country’s future. 
Another lost generation under National were students who if they wanted to improve their chances of a decent life through tertiary education had to mortgage their futures. On 1 April tens of thousands of students will welcome the scrapping of interest on student loans for those who live in New Zealand. That will reduce the debt burden on students and knock years off repayment times. It means that more families can plan for their children to enter tertiary education because Labour is making it more affordable. 
Of course there is more: 490000 senior citizens will receive a boost in their standard of living through the increase in the rates of superannuation and the veterans pension. As my colleague the Hon David Cunliffe said businesses will benefit from the biggest cuts to business taxes since the late 1980s. 
Meanwhile what is National up to? Its members have no new ideas. They continue to bang on about tax cuts but New Zealanders know that tax cuts do not deliver better education and improved health systems. They are so devoid of ideas that they have resorted to personal attacks smear campaigns and witch-hunts—and I appreciate the comments of my colleague Gordon Copeland on those matters—which are not what the people of New Zealand want to see. But National is doing that because it cannot think of anything new to say to the New Zealand public. I say that the public did not vote for the muckraking and character assassination that we have seen in our Parliament in recent weeks. People want to see us getting on with the serious business of building New Zealand and helping it succeed. 
Labour is making a difference. It is changing lives for the better and that is what responsible Governments do. We are in Government to deliver. I am proud to be part of a Government that is focused on its programme for families young and old for economic transformation and for our national identity. Through Labour New Zealand families are getting ahead and I feel privileged to be part of a Government that continues to deliver.