Sharples Pita: Budget Debate 
Sharples Pita: Budget Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16245] 
Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Budget day is the day when the members of one side of the House rise to their feet and applaud while the other side throws brickbats and dissects the dollars. The meaning of life does not feature much in that classic piece of political theatre. But for over 4 million New Zealanders the meaning of life is the quintessential conversation point of every significant discussion. It is the motivation that separates out those who live by their dreams from those who live in regret. It is the question not about whether we will die but about how we will live. So how will the great New Zealand public assess the difference this Budget will make to their lives? A $4 billion tax cut package is all well and good but there is so much more to do to address inequalities and need. The tax cuts will relieve pressures on many families but we really wanted to see a much greater emphasis on eliminating poverty. This Budget does not do that. 
How does this Budget affect the 1.8 million people on incomes under $25000 whose hope is being extinguished by a Government that seems to ignore them? There are 1.8 million people who are struggling to make ends meet. We need to recall that it is not just the unemployed who need help with feeding their families but those in part-time work and those on low pay scales. Of these 1.8 million people 10 percent are children who the Child Poverty Action Group has revealed are living in severe and significant hardship. The Public Health Association describes these children as an underclass with poverty and poor housing making them sick. And what is the meaning of life for the people who inhabit our dormitory suburbs—those communities like Titahi Bay Otara Mangere and Flaxmere—where people may sleep but their working life is elsewhere? The meaning of life must be about a qualitative difference that brings our aspirations within reach. 
The Minister referred to a vision for a sustainable nation. The trouble is that if we do what we have always done we will get what we have always got. We need to be bold and to make statements of faith to lift the quality of life for all. Some of that policy courage has been demonstrated in this Budget amongst the loads of lollies designed to reward lobby groups. We welcome the investment in rail and ferry infrastructure to deliver a better service to reduce the number of cars on the roads and to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions. We commend the initiative of the Greens in their work in achieving a State house insulation programme—a programme that will improve the health of tenants and achieve energy cost savings. Of course we are pleased at the investment of $450 million to improve partnerships with community-based social services $80 million for child and adolescent oral health and $30 million to create healthier environments. All are elements of progress but are they enough? 
We cannot be blind to the newsflash from Statistics New Zealand that the number of New Zealanders leaving for overseas in the past year—some 48000 of us—has never been larger. It is even more shattering to learn that quality of life has displaced pay as the biggest single influence on finance professionals weighing up whether to leave New Zealand. Ironically the factor that most attracts immigrants to our shores—our quality of life—is pushing us on to the first plane out of here. When we talk of quality of life we think of traffic congestion poor air quality the management of waste poor beach and stream quality and the need to protect our biodiversity. We think about crime violence child abuse white-collar corruption and poverty. We think about the 29000 workers who have lost their jobs and we think about the fact that the unemployment rate for Maori has shot up to 8.6 percent and for Pacific peoples to 8.2 percent compared with 3 percent for Europeans. It would seem that our pursuit of wealth as our saviour has sacrificed sustainability in Aotearoa as a place people want to live in. 
The Maori Party has constantly raised the need for a genuine progress index to ensure we measure progress on all levels. If we do not set a baseline standard for what is acceptable the nation will end up with a quality of life that is far below what we deserve. We need to pledge to end child poverty in terms of all poverty measures by 2020. One part of this is to designate an official poverty line at 60 percent of the median household disposable income after housing costs. How else will we know we have made the difference if we do not have a benchmark to begin with? The need to bring relief to the poor is urgent. Although the bringing forward of the Working for Families adjustments related to family tax credits is welcomed we still believe there is much more to do to respond to what the Minister described as the twin pressures of food and fuel price increases. We need to adjust income support levels to maintain and improve their relativity with what the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions has recommended to be required—a new minimum wage of $15 per hour. If we were to increase benefits by wage movements rather than by the CPI that would equate to an annual increase of little more than 1.1 percent on average. Based on the current forecast for benefits in 2007-08 at $16.4 billion the extra cost would be about $180 million—not a great deal in the scale of things. 
Although the business tax regime has been simplified we would have supported the introduction of business tax incentives for businesses to move to limited employment zone areas—those regions that are economically underdeveloped. We want to turn our dormitory suburbs back into communities of hope and promise where we know our neighbours we enjoy sport and recreation together and we rebuild our communities as sites of safety. 
We want to see our world being a clean green haven once more. We know that that means facing the costs of greenhouse gas emissions including carbon dioxide which someone has to pay—the polluter the taxpayer or future generations. We need a savings culture that is not just about living within our means but is about investing in our future. For tangata whenua our quality of life is associated with our cultural values and customs our responsibilities for our traditional lands water sites wahi tapu and other taonga and our capacity to live as Maori. Although the Government has announced that $750 million will go into developing our unique national identity it appears to be focused on developing that identity only in Asia the Pacific and Latin America—in fact anywhere but Aotearoa. No matter how important it is national identity is more than a wharewaka on the Wellington waterfront or the re-appropriation of funding to pay for waka umanga. When will we learn that our greatest opportunity for success is in upholding our indigenous values to ensure that our country maintains its natural beauty and is home for all New Zealanders? 
We want to see an investment in diversity. Diversity should not be redefined as a way in which we understand the persistent disparities of the social and economic disadvantages associated with low levels of educational participation and attainment and of those who are preyed upon by gambling lords and loan sharks. Diversity is about the strength of all our peoples in Aotearoa the added value our nation achieves through valuing the importance of working together and living together and our shared heritage—our home. And most important of all our quality of life is about happiness which is what we might call “wairua tau” “mauri tau”—that general sense of well-being. 
If there is one thing that New Zealanders want now it is to know that leadership is being provided by people with a purpose by people who have the knowledge about what one needs and by people with a burning desire to achieve that success. That leadership is being provided already in whanau hapu and iwi. It is being provided in families of the working poor families in hardship families in business and enterprise and families enjoying success. The Maori Party respects that leadership and our biggest job now is to ensure that the qualities displayed by that leadership are not hindered by structures and systems designed to undermine them. 
The Maori Party is committed to working together with those who are committed to staying in this country to make Aotearoa great once again. This Budget is but one reason that demands we do so.