Moroney Sue: Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 15 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17985. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): It is great to have an opportunity to speak on Part 2 of the Budget Measures (Financial Support for Newborn Children) Bill. It is a bit of a mouthful and it does not necessarily indicate how little support there is for newborn children but still it is a step in the right direction—a small step but a step in the right direction none the less. This part is the part that deals with the parental tax credit. I note that this morning the Prime Minister was having breakfast with the Child Poverty Action Group up in Auckland. Well I hope that he is honest and I hope that he is upfront with the group because it will not be fooled by the way; it is a very smart organisation. I hope that he is clear with the group that he has failed to give financial support for newborn children and the most vulnerable and the poorest of families because that is in fact what has happened.In fact the Child Poverty Action Group issued a press statement this morning pointing exactly that out. It says: “Unfortunately the 2014 budget offers little else to assist the 205000 poorest and most vulnerable children in NZ who fall below the very low 50% poverty line.”That was a press statement issued this morning from the Child Poverty Action Group. It is absolutely right that Part 2 bears this out. It is interesting that the vehicle that National has chosen is the parental tax credit because that parental tax credit is very targeted but interestingly does not target the lowest income people. It excludes the children of beneficiaries from having any support in this way. It excludes the children of students from having support in any way. It excludes the children of people who are on ACC payments from having any financial support at all. So I think it is quite misleading that the bill title says “Financial Support for Newborn Children” as if it is for all children.It of course is not and National with its Cabinet club mates has moved to specifically exclude the people who are the poorest. [Interruption] It is kind of interesting because every time we talk about financial support for children and parents National gets really rowdy. It gets very rowdy and angry actually. It is really surprising that this continues to happen.Mike Sabin: I’m always angry.SUE MORONEY: I could understand it—well Mike Sabin says he is always angry but in fact he is at his most angry when we talk about financial support for children. National members find it very difficult to understand this concept.I do want to support the amendment to this part in the name of Jacinda Ardern because it shows a huge gulf and a huge difference between the approaches of Labour and National when it comes to financial support for newborn children. Under Labour’s Best Start policy every child will benefit.Simon O’Connor: No no no.SUE MORONEY: Every single child will benefit. Well Simon O’Connor says: “No no no.” He is a little bit right. The people who earn more than $150000 will not benefit from the $60-a-week Best Start payment under Labour but they do get the early childhood education component and they will get paid parental leave. They will get extended paid parental leave—a much more extended parental leave—under a Labour Government by the way. But every single child will benefit from Labour’s Best Start package.Simon O’Connor: Oh!SUE MORONEY: It is true Simon. I know that National does not like that. It does not like the idea that all children will benefit but that is a fact of Labour’s Best Start package. Jacinda Ardern’s amendment would mean that all the children who miss out under what National is doing in Part 2—Hon Anne Tolley: All means all.SUE MORONEY: Well if Mrs Tolley would you know stop yelling and screaming—Hon Anne Tolley: Tell the truth.SUE MORONEY: She is saying “Tell the truth.” and I am—all of the children who miss out under National’s package will get $60 a week under Labour’s. It is not only $60 a week for the first year for those children who are missing out under what National is proposing—and they are from the poorest families by the way—but that goes on until the child’s third birthday under Labour’s Best Start policy. That is for the poorest families in New Zealand. Is that not the issue that really needs addressing? Well finally there is silence from National’s benches. Finally while I am on my feet there is a little bit of silence because National members do not want to answer that question.Labour’s Best Start policy—and I challenge Simon O’Connor to say this is not true—gives at least $60 a week for the first year to all families earning $150000 because those families who are entitled to paid parental leave get even more than $60 a year for that period. So it is at least $60 a year. And then the very poorest families—for those low-income families earning less than $50000 per year—will get $60 a week until that child’s third birthday. Those families earning up to $70000 a year will get a proportion of that $60. I really do want the Minister to take a call and explain—Mike Sabin: What does it all cost Sue?SUE MORONEY: Look all they can see is the cost. They cannot see that it is an investment in children. Is that not National through and through? They just see children as being a cost. This Government cannot see that that is the real way to a brighter future in this country. It is always in deficit mode—it is always in deficit mode. From the time that National got into Government it has increased the country’s debt. It has delivered deficits. It has got the slimmest of surpluses this year and you would think it had never happened before. Well there were 9 years of surplus under a Labour Government and that is what there will be from next year on when Labour returns to Government as well because it is Labour that knows how to deal with the issues that the Government is trying to deal with here—the parental tax credit.Clearly under a Labour Government there are many more opportunities for jobs. Unemployment was at the lowest levels in the OECD under the previous Labour Government. Under this Government we have slumped to about 15th or 16th place in the OECD rankings for unemployment. So these are the real issues that need addressing.In Part 2 the Government is instead just trying to pick and choose some winners amongst children. By using the parental tax credit it is casting the sorts of judgments that we see time and time again from National. Those members are very very good at judging other people’s families. They are casting the judgment that the children of those less fortunate than themselves are not worthy—they are not worthy of this financial support for newborn children. That is what they have called this bill yet they are using Part 2 to deliberately exclude the neediest of those newborn children—the most needy.I am looking forward to hearing the vote on the amendment put forward by Jacinda Ardern. It does reflect the very comprehensive policy and I do want to take issue with what Minister Bridges said albeit last night because I did not get an opportunity to respond at the time. He said that his Government has done all the policy work in this area. Well I can see that what it has done is look at the very comprehensive work done at the Social Services Committee through the very good Labour Party bill that extends paid parental leave to 26 weeks and it has cherry-picked a bit of it. And then with regard to the part that it does need to do some more policy development on it clearly has been lazy and has not done the work because if it had its proposed—proposed—extension to eligibility for paid parental leave would be in this urgency motion today and it is not. It is not being debated. So clearly the Minister has not done the policywork that he claims to have done—he has not done it—and it will be interesting to see whether that bill gets introduced before the House rises in July. I am not sure that we will see it this side of the election and then I think the New Zealand public would have cause to ask themselves why that is not happening before the election.Part 2 will be supported by Labour because it is a little bit of improvement but it is not a lot of improvement and it does make some really worrying judgment calls about National judging which children are worthy of the support and which children are not. Under a Labour-led Government that will change. There will be $60 a week made available as financial support for newborn children—all newborn children—and that will be coming in next year. So the New Zealand public would be wise to look in detail at this. I know that the New Zealand public understands which side of the House it is that really understands the needs of children.