Goff Phil: Social Security (Long-term Residential Care—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goff Phil: Social Security (Long-term Residential Care—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2539. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill) 
: 
 I want to pick up where my colleague the Hon Annette King has left off. We have been sitting in this Chamber now for some time. We have been waiting for the Minister for Social Development to get to her feet to justify what she is doing in the Social Security (Long-term Residential Care—Budget Measures) Amendment Bill why she is rushing it through under urgency why she has not consulted with any group or individual in New Zealand about it and why she will not have the Government front up at a select committee and explain to people why the National Government kept this as a dirty little secret that it did not tell the electorate about. I am surprised that this Minister has not got to her feet to defend this legislation. She prides herself on being a westie—you know one of those people who tell it as it is who are ready to get up and stand behind what they do and justify it. But she has been nailed to her seat. She has not taken the call. She has not answered the questions. She has not had the courage of her convictions to get up to say to the country why she is doing this. 
And we have that row of backbenchers over there. Maggie Barry is from the North Shore. There are a lot of elderly people on the North Shore. I wonder whether Maggie Barry fronted up before the election and said to them: “Well I’ve got to tell you this: the Government’s got to make hard calls and what we’re going to do is stop the process of exempting your assets from asset testing when you’re in the last 18 months of your life.” I wonder whether she got up during the election campaign and said that. 
Maggie Barry 
: It wasn’t known at that stage Phil. I’m not a clairvoyant.  
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Jami-Lee Ross was in a by-election and an election campaign. 
Hon Annette King 
: She just said it wasn’t known. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: It was not known! Oh it was not known. I think that Annette King is right you know. I think those backbenchers are sitting there like stunned mullets ashamed embarrassed and not prepared to get to their feet to defend their Government because this bill was dumped on them. They did not know a thing about it. Well welcome to the world of politics Maggie Barry! You did not know— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: You did not know about it but you are— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: —part of the team and you will have to take responsibility. You will have to be accountable for what you did but you will not be. 
Louise Upston 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. It is a very longstanding tradition that you are not brought into the debate. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: That is very true and I had pointed it out to the member. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: I apologise to the Chairman because I know that you Mr Chairman would not have had anything to do with this. You would have had the courage of your convictions to speak— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! The member knows that he cannot challenge someone’s courage. He is a very longstanding member and knows better than anybody else. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Speaking to the point of order Mr Chairman far from challenging your courage I was saying you would have had the courage. By inference maybe the others did not—but that is only by inference. 
I want to know why this National Government which knew before the election all of the things that it knows now never told the people of New Zealand what it intended to do. Why did the National Government keep this as a dirty little secret that it would not share with the country? Did it tell the elderly people of this country what it was going to do? Did it tell the elderly people of this country that it was not going to index the rates rebate so that those people who had worked hard all their lives and were struggling to pay their rates would not get assistance to match inflation and the high rise in rates that has occurred? Did Government members tell New Zealanders—here is another dirty little secret—that they would remove the promotional budget for the Rates Rebate Scheme? They will not necessarily have what it takes to remove rates rebates but they do not want people to know about it so that they can take advantage of it. That is another sneaky little secret that those members did not warn people about. 
You know what is it that this Government has got against the elderly? In the last term it actually took away the home help that many elderly people relied on so that they could stay in their own home. They are being forced out. I was in Kris Faafoi’s electorate during the by-election and we came across a 91-year-old lady in Titahi Bay who was being forced into a rest home because the National Government had cut her home care. Now that she has been forced into the rest home the Government is going to make sure she has to use up more of her assets to be able to meet the costs of care—after it put her in that position. Why is it that this National Government in everything that it has done in this Budget has picked on the most vulnerable? From the young paper boys and girls it is now taking away their tax rebate. How pathetic is that? There are 68000 young people out there in the rain and the wind and the cold in Wellington delivering the newspapers and the Government takes away their tax credit. It knows that people cannot vote at that age and it knows that the elderly the most vulnerable are not in a position to defend themselves. 
No wonder not one of those backbench members will get to their feet and defend this. No wonder the Minister time and again will not take the call. I hope she will under this provocation. I hope she does have the courage and the conviction to get up and say to this country why this National Government has done something that it did not tell the country about and why it is not prepared to go to the country to consult—to let people come to a select committee and say what is wrong with what she is proposing. No wonder every National backbencher and the Minister in this Chamber today are too ashamed to speak out to defend what they have done to those who are defenceless those who are most vulnerable and those who will be paying a price for something that the National Government never had the guts to tell the country about— 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order!