Sharples Pita: Appropriation (2006/07 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Sharples Pita: Appropriation (2006/07 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:633;Page:4581] 
Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Last Tuesday in response to a question from Te Ururoa Flavell about the policy of neglect that was revealed in  
New Zealand Living Standards 2004: The Report 
 the Minister for Social Development and Employment admitted to an astonishing fact. Mr Benson-Pope announced in this House: “This Government is not standing by and not supporting people in areas of need.” This Government will not stand by the approximately one-quarter of all New Zealanders who face some degree of hardship. This Government will not support people in the areas of need that are particularly desperate for Maori Pacific and sole-parent beneficiary families. Although this Government likes to boast that it has taken people off the domestic purposes benefit or the dole it turns a blind eye to those who are left behind to experience a level of social disadvantage that my colleague Tariana Turia has described as constituting a national emergency. 
It is interesting that Charles Chauvel who has just given his maiden statement spoke about the achievements of the Government yet last week’s report  
Children at Increased Risk of Death from Maltreatment and Strategies for Prevention 
 described the dire circumstances for children and adults living in lone parent or workless families in a state of persistent poverty. The report picked up on Unicef’s advice that strategies to reduce child abuse will not be successful if they do not address the question of economic poverty. We cannot address risk factors in isolation. A concerted effort is required if we are ever to address the national emergency of poverty. Dr Nikki Turner of the Child Poverty Action Group has described the greatest impact and cost of deprivation as being the shocking health status of our children. She has said: “It is shameful to us that poverty has been allowed to deepen over the course of an economic boom that has seen companies making record profits. The people who suffer the greatest poverty in New Zealand are our children with 38 percent in hardship categories”. This is happening under a Government that talks about strong families healthy confident kids and safe communities. I kid members not. 
In the Budget speech that Dr Cullen delivered just over 2 months ago he talked about ensuring that families young and old were able to secure the opportunity to reach their full potential. He used the phrase: “transformation underpinned by the values of fairness opportunity and security.” How can it be fair that Maori and Pacific peoples are overrepresented amongst those with an education and labour market disadvantage? What are the other factors operating outside of social and material deprivation that mean Maori women are more than twice as likely as non-Maori women to suffer from anxiety and from depressive and substance abuse disorders? Is racism fair? What opportunity has been denied to children in severe and significant hardship that has seen the proportion of such children rise from 18 percent to 26 percent since 2000? What opportunity cost is demonstrated by the fact that homeownership has dropped by 12 percent overall and by 21 percent for those with incomes under $40000 per year? What security can Maori children and families have when almost half of all Maori children will miss out on the new in-work payment because their parents are on benefits? That additional $60 per week could maybe make the difference between insecurity and survival. It is all about-face. The in-work payment turns working families into beneficiaries while depriving welfare families of support they so desperately need. It is back to front. The scheme does not get to the children who need it most and instead expands our welfare State by creating working families as the new beneficiaries of the State. 
All this does is tighten the apron strings to a nanny State even further. Political analyst Colin James has put this new phenomenon of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer into the context of a global gap which he describes as: “pervasive and unyielding dividing the struggling bulk of the population from the competitive elite.” If we are to foot it on the international stage we must take the whole nation along not just privilege the elite and leave the struggling bulk to suffer more. Our future will be a predominantly brown one. If we are to achieve a strong healthy workforce in order to drive our collective economic advancement we need to make sufficient investment right now.