Katene Rahui: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Katene Rahui: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:660;Page:8699] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 A statement made by the Prime Minister in his speech this afternoon was one that I am sure will be endorsed by every single member of the Maori Party. I am talking about the 23000 members of the party not just the five in this House. It was the recognition that he was “impressed and heartened by the resilience and optimism of New Zealanders and by their desire to do better for themselves their families and their communities.” 
As I travel across Te Tai Tonga I am frequently in contact with people who are struggling to survive. The median family income for my constituents is $54500—some $5000 less than the median family income for New Zealand as a whole. That $5000 makes a difference at the petrol pump at the supermarket checkout at the pharmacy and at the bank. Today we are asking those same people to agree to a rise in GST to 15 percent. 
GST of course is an issue dear to my heart. Tomorrow I will once again submit to the ballot my members’ bill the Goods and Services Tax (Extension of Healthy Food) Amendment Bill. This bill has directly responded to the situation for the people of Te Tai Tonga and for the people of the Maori electorates—everyday New Zealanders who are powerfully motivated by the desire to do better for themselves their families and their communities. These everyday New Zealanders have suffered from the impact of food prices that have risen by more than 20 percent in the last 3 years while real incomes have risen only very slightly. Within that we know that increases for the staples of a nutritious diet such as fruit vegetables and milk have been particularly high. In response to the long-term impacts this could have on public health organisations such as the Public Health Association of New Zealand and the National Heart Foundation have called for GST to be removed from foods that constitute a healthy diet in order to make them more affordable. I repeat their call is for GST to be removed not to be rocketed up to 15 percent. 
I want to make it absolutely clear that the challenge faced by many of our families is of the harshest kind. It is our families who suffer from the reality that New Zealand’s after-tax distribution is one of the most unequal in the OECD. It is our families disproportionately who are suffering from the unacceptable level of child poverty with rates so dire that the 2008 survey of living standards reported that 19 percent of children were experiencing serious hardship and unacceptably severe restrictions on their living standards. These are the faces of the families that I bring with me into this debate. 
We are pleased that our consistent call to remember these families has been reflected in the announcements made earlier today by the Prime Minister. We have welcomed the decision of the Government that any decrease in personal tax will be made across the board. If there are across-the-board personal tax cuts then we will certainly be doing everything we can to ensure that our people will see some sort of benefit. 
We have certainly noted the statement of the Prime Minister that fairness is a very important consideration for this Government so we will be talking closely to the Government about finding a common context for what we mean by fair. Is it fair that 51 percent of beneficiary families with children are ranked as experiencing serious hardship? Is it fair that 28 percent of families with children had serious health problems for at least one child in the past year? Is it fair that for 22 percent of families keeping the house warm is described as a major problem with another 17 percent saying that dampness and mould were major problems? 
The challenge we face as a Parliament is to ensure that the current levels of inequality and poverty are not intensified by the tax package highlighted today. It would appear that we are shifting the burden of taxation from the people who can pay it to those who cannot. For those at the top income level there are ways and means of claiming back GST: they can set up trusts they can increase rents they can make the end-user pay. But for those at the bottom level there is no other place from where they can claim the money back. So we will be greatly interested in the discussions around fairness and equitable outcomes particularly as they relate to low incomes. The key thing for us is that there is an opportunity for dialogue and within that we hope to put forward some of the key ideas that we have promoted from the Maori Party. So I go back to that collective desire that I hope we share across this House—to respond to the aspirations of people to do better for themselves their families and their communities. 
As a first start we must do something about the unacceptable levels of serious hardship that compromise living standards. We must increase the minimum wage and by more than 25c. We want to see a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour. We are greatly pleased that benefits superannuation and Working for Families support will be increased to assist people on low incomes but if we were really to show a level of responsibility for those more vulnerable we would put in place measures to ensure that the first $25000 of income is tax-free. We need leaders who see that small is the new big. We need visionaries who can create opportunities for a new economy and who are not mired in old thinking or tainted by the existing economy. We need more Grameen Banks; we need community banks. Vision is what we need not more of the same. As a coalition partner with the Government we expect to be involved in discussions concerning the nature of the income support provided to New Zealanders. We support the goals of reducing dependency on benefits but it is absolutely critical that at the same time we maintain an appropriate safety net for those in genuine need. 
We are really concerned about the vulnerability of sole parents to fluctuating income. Sudden change can often have a detrimental effect on the whole whanau. We know that far too easily families go further into debt just to meet the basic costs of food rent and power. For too many of these families the opportunity to take up full-time work is simply not available. Although we are supportive of the efforts to gain better entry for Maori into the workforce we will not accept any proposals that threaten the capacity of whanau to be able to maintain a reasonable standard of living. We do not want to see our whanau in a worse-off position through any of the ideas being floated. In this regard I am honour-bound to remind the House that in the design of the Working for Families scheme its policy architects effectively cut out the poorest 200000 children who have been left floundering in increasing poverty. 
Finally I bring us back to a concept that resonates with tangata whenua: he aha te mea nui o te ao? What is the most important thing in the world? He tangata he tangata he tangata. It is people it is people it is people. Thank you.