Norman Russel William: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Norman Russel William: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:675;Page:20605] 
1. 
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he stand by his reported statement that the needs of children should be balanced with the needs of other New Zealanders? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Is it not wrong to pit the needs of our children against the needs of other New Zealanders because children are the future of our country and every dollar spent on children is a dollar spent on our own future? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No because the Government actually raises an enormous amount of revenue through taxes and part of the job of the Government is to allocate those resources as and where it sees fit. If every dollar of Government resources was to be spent on children no resources would be spent on pensions no resources would be spent on rest homes no resources would be spent on the environment no resources would be spent on the health system no resources would be spent on police and no resources would be spent on the military. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Does the Prime Minister accept that no one is arguing that every dollar in Government spending should be spent on children; rather that we should not be pitting the interests of children against other New Zealanders because every dollar spent on our children is a dollar spent on our future? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I was simply answering the question I was asked. But the Government puts a high priority on young people and that is why an enormous amount of resources are applied towards young people. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Does the Prime Minister agree with the economic consultancy Infometrics that the cost to the country of child poverty is around $6 billion per year in increased spending in health welfare education and justice and as a result of decreased productivity? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Mr Speaker can I just ask the member to clarify that the work he is referring to came from the Every Child Counts research done by Infometrics right? 
Dr Russel Norman 
: The work was done by Infometrics; that is right. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: It was done for Every Child Counts. Actually largely I thought the report was rubbish. For a start-off the data in it was simply wrong: six of the indicators were not available; two of them it got wrong. The data was an indictment on the then Labour Government because the data was from 2003 to 2005. By the way although Infometrics was looking at the spending on children the report did not include health spending Working for Families payments or domestic purposes benefit funding. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: If members had not been interjecting so loudly they may have heard that a point of order was called. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: My question was specifically about whether he agreed with the estimate of the cost of $6 billion per year. There were many other points he could disagree with but the question related to that cost. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think the Prime Minister indicated what he thought of the report and therefore of the cost. I think that was pretty clear. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Does the Prime Minister find it acceptable that under his Government there are still 270000 children living in poverty? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: That is not my preference. My preference is that those numbers are considerable lower—in fact my preference is that the number is zero. That is one of the reasons why in the weekend we made announcements in terms of reform of the welfare system and there will be more reforms to come. The reason for that is that if one analyses that figure of the 270000 children who are in poverty one will find that the vast bulk of them are growing up in welfare-based homes. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: In reference to his welfare announcements and given his admission yesterday that the Government cannot provide enough teen parent skills for every mum will his new policy to force sole parents to be in education not involve the forcible separation of 18 year-old mothers from their babies? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. As I pointed out when I made a substantial number of remarks in relation to that issue we can work with teen mums for solutions that may be in their homes. It may be that a group of mothers gets together with an educationalist providing them with support or it may be that they go to a number of other courses. Frankly I am a little surprised that the member does not think it is a good idea that we are asking teen mums if they are in need of drug or alcohol counselling to attend those courses or asking them to attend parenting courses if they would benefit from that. I am also surprised that the member does not fundamentally think that 16 17 or 18 year-old teen mums should get an education. I am sorry; he might have that view but it is not shared on this side of the House. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: Given the Prime Minister’s new-found love of education for poor people will he support the reintroduction of the training incentive allowance so that young mums can get a degree-level course because we know that when young mums get access to education there are better educational outcomes and better welfare outcomes for their kids? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I think the member needs to reflect on how much this Government is actually spending on education and the steps this Government has been taking to make sure that that spending where it can targets at-need at-risk young people. One of the things we did in Budget 2010 was cap the amount of expenditure going into early childhood education facilities in terms of their being 80 percent teacher-led so that we could put $500 million into targeting at-risk young people. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question was specifically about whether the Prime Minister would support the reinstatement of the training incentive allowance. He did not address that question. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I invite the member to have a look at what he actually asked. The start of his question was not in order but I was not going to stop it because it gave the Prime Minister almost free licence as to how he answered the question. If the member wants to have a particular answer he must ask only what he said he asked because he included a whole lot more in his question. 
Dr Russel Norman 
: I seek leave of the House to table the Green Party’s policy priority for addressing child poverty in New Zealand. It was produced by the Green Party this year. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection.