Rich Katherine: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Rich Katherine: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:618;Page:14339] 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 It is very interesting to hear the comments made by the Minister for Social Development and Employment when he reflects on the past few years. We have just had the best economic conditions in a generation and certainly in my lifetime but very little of that—none of it in fact—has anything to do with what the Government has done in the social development area. It is also interesting to see the absolute amnesia that some Labour Party members have about the reforms in the 1980s and the 1990s. Although they carry on and complain about the changes that were made to the benefit system very few changes were made by this Government when it came into Government. It did not put the benefit levels back up again. It whinged on about it and talked about it but it did not put the benefit levels up again and it has not really undone any of the major reforms of the 1980s and the 1990s under the two successive Labour and National Governments. 
Despite having had those excellent economic conditions we now have more people dependent on welfare than ever. We have more people who are dependent on the State for their income than ever. When we look at the estimates and the Budget we see predictions that the numbers of people on all the major benefits will go up over the next few years. This is a time when we should see serious chunks taken out of the welfare system yet we have seen a huge increase in the numbers on the invalids benefit and a 35 percent increase in the numbers on the sickness benefit. 
I do not know where the Minister gets his figure of an 84 percent increase during National’s time because if we look at the period 1993 to 1999 we see that the increase was about 14 percent and that was an expected increase if we consider population growth and the expected rates of disability and illness. In the last 2 years before National left Government the numbers on those benefits were going down. The number on the sickness benefit was in decline yet if we compare that with the position during the first 2 years under Labour we see that the number went up by 21 percent. 
There was a reason for that. Most of the variables within the community remained constant but we saw a huge change in Government policy that was ideologically driven. We now have over 330000 New Zealanders of working age on a benefit and in those households live 250000 kids. That is a huge proportion of our community who are on welfare and living a subsistence life in many cases; it is basically the population of Christchurch Dunedin and Invercargill put together. We should have bigger aspirations for our communities. 
If we look at what was presented by this Government we realise that we did not see any vision or a grand plan. We saw a lot of spending which was supposed to bring in the votes but I think New Zealanders saw through that. They looked at the Working for Families package and they realised that the Government was embarking on a huge vote-buying exercise that was not designed to make a skerrick of difference to most New Zealanders’ lives. Why should they champion making more New Zealand families dependent on welfare? 
On this side we do not think that is something to crow about. We do not think it is a good thing to make more New Zealanders dependent on a State handout in order to live their daily lives. If we look at some of the respected members of our communities such as teachers policemen nurses and the Waihi family for example we find people who would be described as professionals saying they cannot get by in this country any more on basic salaries. We have to come to the realisation that this country is not a wealthy nation and that we have to make some big changes if we are to become anything other than the retirement village of the South Pacific. We have to try to keep our best and our brightest on these shores and not have them go off shore—[ 
Interruption 
]—as I am sure many of the member for Otaki’s friends and university colleagues have done. We need to look at a better way of providing welfare so that we can ensure that those who are in need get it but we do not create an ongoing trap. 
We on this side have bigger aspirations. We do not believe that people who go on to welfare have to stay there. We believe that most people are capable of doing something and that staring at a wall is not a great way to leave many New Zealanders. No wonder we see many New Zealanders go from the unemployment benefit to the sickness benefit! A lot of that increase comes from depression. Well if there is anything to make anybody depressed it is being inactive and sitting at home it is losing self-esteem and it is having decreasing morale. That is why we are seeing some major changes.