Bradford Sue: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Bradford Sue: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:611;Page:8218] 
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party will be supporting the subordinate legislation bill before us this afternoon but there is one particular clause that I would like to address. 
Clause 8 deals particularly with cost of living increases applied to benefits and allowances as of 1 April 2003. I would like to use this opportunity to take a closer look at exactly what the rates of benefits are due to the widespread misapprehension among many in some parts of New Zealand society that people choose to live on benefits such is the wonderful lifestyle incurred. As of 1 April this year and as per the legislation before us today a single person aged between 20 and 24 who is unemployed or sick receives a net weekly benefit of $134.75 entailing a cost of living adjustment of an additional $3.59 per week. On the other hand for a person who has finally reached adulthood at the impressive age of 25 the benefit has gone up from $157.37 per week to $161.65 giving an increase of $4.28 per week. 
There are a number of things to look at here. First of all I wonder how many people in this Chamber and how many people outside it who criticise beneficiaries for being lazy bludgers can imagine what it is like to really try to live on $134 or $161 per week. Even for a single person without dependants trying to survive on that amount of money anywhere in New Zealand much less in one of our larger cities is just about impossible. We have seen news today of the enormous increase in housing costs everywhere not just in Auckland and Wellington but all over the country including horrendous rises in places of relatively high employment like Nelson. We have also recently had Steve Maharey’s Jobs Jolt which tells us that the— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have the let the member go on a little bit longer but this bill is about confirming and validating regulations; a little bit of leeway is possible but this is not a case for a general discussion on benefits. The member should come back to the bill itself. 
SUE BRADFORD 
: Thank you Mr Speaker. I was under the impression that I was talking about clause 8 which relates to benefit rates. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It validates regulations and the member can say why she is in favour of or opposed to it. 
SUE BRADFORD 
: Fundamentally the Green Party supports the bill including that clause because we do want benefit rates to rise. But the amount they are rising by in the cases I have mentioned—$3.59 and $4.28 a week—and in all the other rate increases in this bill are way below what this or any Government should be doing with the benefit system. I have been outlining the reasons for that but evidently one is not allowed to talk about that in this debate. 
Behind this we believe that benefit rates should be raised and that they should be indexed in the same way that superannuation is. Benefit levels should be protected by being linked to a fixed percentage of the average wage just as for superannuation. It is about time that Labour brought the principles of sufficiency universality and simplicity to our benefit system.