Turei Metiria: Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turei Metiria: Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5956. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker. Tena koutou katoa e te Whare. I move  
That the Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 I nominate the Social Services Committee— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Sorry Metiria. I am just not sure that I heard that you nominate the Social Services Committee to consider the bill. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: I was just about to. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: My apologies. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: No problem. I nominate the Social Services Committee to consider this bill. All New Zealand children deserve a good life and a fair future. New Zealand can be and should be a great place for our kids to grow up. But we cannot deny that for many thousands of children it is not great. It is a cold and hungry place to grow up. It is easy for us to turn away to blame the parents to blame the economy to blame earthquakes or Europe or acts of God but it is impossible to deny the facts—the facts of poverty in our own country—or to deny that we have the solutions in our collective hands. 
The Children’s Commissioner says that 270000 New Zealand children live in poverty. That is more than a quarter of a million New Zealand children. Fifty percent of these children are Maori or Pacific and more than 150000 are reliant on families who rely on a benefit. These facts are why we see on television screens day after day empty lunch boxes in school-bags; teachers desperately seeking funding to help give their kids breakfast; increasing illness hardship and deprivation of our littlest citizens; and even reports of kids looking through pig bins for food. These are children whom we know. They go to the same schools as our kids they play in the same playgrounds as our kids. They have the same dreams and aspirations but they do not have the essentials and therefore they do not have the opportunities that many of our kids have had. 
We could wait for a miraculous growth to provide thousands of new jobs—and that is certainly what John Key crosses his fingers for. We could wait for some new economic boom to bounce our economy back into the black. But we are not the ones who are waiting. It is the 150000 poor kids who are waiting and paying the price for this ongoing delay. It is a price that is paid in empty tummies cold feet and poor learning. How can we possibly justify leaving 150000 beneficiary kids in poverty? We simply cannot justify it on any grounds. Such a huge disparity can never be justified in a country that prides itself on fairness and opportunity. 
The solutions to this poverty suffered by kids every day in this country are in our hands and we can if we choose to give them a fair future. So here is my first step towards that fair future for our kids. My bill that we are debating tonight will relieve the worst poverty for these 150000 children. My bill transforms the in-work tax credit into a genuine targeted child payment available to all low-income families. It is a step towards a universal child payment supported by so many in our community. 
My bill removes the requirement that a person must work a minimum number of hours from the current criteria for this tax credit. It also removes the restriction that a person must not be in receipt of a means-tested benefit whether that is a welfare benefit a student allowance or superannuation—and we know that many grandparents on superannuation take care of their grandchildren. So this extends the eligibility for the payment to all low-income families. The bill does not alter the means-test aspect of the payment so John Key’s supposed millionaires will not get the payment from this bill no matter what he says. 
The in-work tax credit was designed to provide an incentive for people in paid work and to alleviate child poverty. But it is not delivered as an incentive. It is actually delivered as a child payment to alleviate child poverty. The tax credit is paid on the basis of the number of children in the family and it is paid to the carer of the children not to the income earner. It is not related to the cost of work nor to the hours worked. It is in effect a child payment and it has been operating well for low-income working families. 
People should be encouraged to work and increasing the minimum wage and making the first $10000 of income tax-free are just a couple of ways to make work really pay. If this Government is serious about creating an incentive for families and for work it should not pay that incentive by denying to the poorest kids in this country a child payment that will help alleviate the worst poverty. 
My bill will cost the Government money and so it should. It will cost between $300 and $400 million a year. But compared to the estimated $6 billion a year—the cost of keeping kids in poverty—it is a very good and very small investment to make in our littlest citizens. And we do need to make it now because our kids deserve it. The bill has been described as a practical and just way to address child poverty by Auckland University economics professor Susan St John. She says that excluding the poorest kids from the payment as they are now cannot be justified on moral or ethical grounds. 
David Bennett 
: You rely on Susan St John—far out! 
METIRIA TUREI 
: It is disturbing that the National members of this House are barraging from behind me given the serious issue of child poverty that we are facing today. I think it shows their attitude to the issues of poor children who go hungry every day in this country. In fact the High Court has held that the in-work tax credit is discriminatory in part and the Child Poverty Action Group is preparing a case for the Court of Appeal seeking a ruling that the in-work tax credit discriminates against the poorest children. I sincerely hope that they succeed to get justice for our kids. 
Some from the Government would have you believe that the poor in New Zealand are bad parents by definition and deserve nothing more. But through this bill I would unashamedly put at least $60 extra each week into the back pockets of families who desperately need it to house clothe and feed their kids. 
David Bennett 
: It’s called communism. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: Did you hear that comment from the National member that feeding kids is communism? I refuse to condemn ordinary New Zealand mums and dads who are without work. I was one of those mums once as were many in this House and thousands of those in our communities. We know how tough it can be and we only shame ourselves when we judge others or kick the ladder out from behind us as we know some have done. 
Over the past month like many New Zealanders I have been appalled by the Prime Minister’s scorn for the seriousness of child poverty by his refusal to entertain any solution for these 150000 children and by his ignorance of the targeted child payment created by my bill. I urge New Zealanders to take this step for children and to join our Green Party campaign to end child poverty to become champions for children and to make poverty a political issue so that no politician could ever turn their face away from the facts or the solutions—to make it such a political issue that even John Key could not reject those children who go hungry who go cold while he has his holidays and plays his golf on “Planet Key”. 
I urge the House to send this bill to the select committee to allow the debate to be had as to what kind of support we should be providing to families and children and how we might best do it. All New Zealand children deserve a good life and a fair future but we cannot deny that for many thousands life is not great. It is a cold and hungry place New Zealand. So let us make New Zealand a great place to grow up for every single New Zealand child and do that tonight. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.