Rich Katherine: Future Directions (Working for Families) Bill — Second Reading 
Rich Katherine: Future Directions (Working for Families) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:13466] 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 That member says this is a great day for New Zealand. Well I wonder which alternative universe she has been in over the last few hours. Obviously she did not watch  
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where it was quite clear that most New Zealanders looked at this Budget and realised the emperor had no clothes and there was nothing in the Budget for them. Steve Maharey must be absolutely gutted. This was supposed to be the great day for the launch of the vanguard of Labour Party policy. This Budget was supposed to be the flagship of Labour Party policy and what did we have? We had had a comedy of errors. The day just has not gone Labour’s way. It started off at about 11 o’clock when at the Dunedin lock-up the representatives of the social services sector were accidentally locked up 2 hours before any of the Budget presentation. People turned up at 11 o’clock thinking that they were going to have a presentation from the Minister with all sorts of coffee tea and savouries and were told that nothing would happen until 1 o’clock. Well boy were they annoyed! The Labour Party has made itself a laughing stock by forcing some very productive people in my city to sit around and twiddle their thumbs. They said ladies and gentlemen that the savouries were not even very good either. That was 2 hours of wasted time. 
The second part of the comedy of errors was of course some of the information that was put out with the Working for Families Budget special. I want to turn to the example of Aroha and Robert. Aroha and Robert earn $37000. They have two children one aged 4 years and the other 16 years. The piece of paper I am holding states that in 2007 they will be better off by $163 a week. The problem is that the Labour Party forgot that 16-year-olds actually age over the years: that 16-year-olds actually become 19-year-olds by 2007 and are not eligible for those particular parts of the benefit. I would like to thank Mandy at the 0800 number for Working for Families who did some homework and realised the scenario was wrong. Well if that is wrong what else in there is wrong? We wonder what other misleading information is out there. I think New Zealanders can see through the Budget and that is what we have seen tonight. 
Only one in five families will benefit from this Budget and that is why we have seen only one in five people ring up the  
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show—probably most of them from Michael Cullen’s office. The Government must be absolutely gutted. Here we have the flagship Budget—the big day when people were all going to become excited and everyone was going to love the Government and be grateful to it—and New Zealanders have seen right through it. Members on the Government side of the House thought they could flash all that cash around handing back the money taken from hard-working taxpayers and somehow supposed taxpayers would be grateful for that. That shows the arrogance of Government members. They think hard-working New Zealanders should be grateful for getting their own taxes back. That is why Don Brash called the Budget a cynical ploy and a cynical attempt to win votes. Otherwise why did the Government not do it in its first 5 years in office? And why do some of these things not come in until 2007? 
In fact the important issue today is why we are here in urgency. We are not passing any legislation that requires a change to be made overnight. We are not changing the taxation system. 
Hon Dr Michael Cullen 
: It’s about time you did some work young lady. 
KATHERINE RICH 
: I say to Dr Cullen that some of these changes do not come in until October. This urgency is all just part of the performance to give the impression that we are doing something urgent and important. It seems the only thing the Minister is worried about is that people may go out and sign up on a benefit before midnight. If we look at the people who will benefit most from this measure we see most of them are already dependent on the State. 
I say that making more New Zealanders dependent on the State is no vision for New Zealand and that making more middle-income New Zealanders reliant on the Government for a State handout is no vision for this country. Even the mother in the family from Waihi said she would prefer to have her money back in the hand than to receive a handout from the Government. That is one of the things this Government has not quite got. People want to be able to make their own spending choices not the spending choices directed by this Government. The free childcare package was launched today with much fanfare. It was bit like paid parental leave actually. The Government launched it thinking that everyone would be excited about it but there are thousands of families who will miss out. The free childcare is only available to families who go to community-based early childhood education. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: How many do that? 
KATHERINE RICH 
: It is about 40 percent of the early childhood education providers. Parents like choice. They like the idea that they can determine where their children will go to for early childhood education be it kindergarten Montessori a community centre or a private centre. Ideology has driven that provision. That is why the 20 hours of free childcare is not available to parents who have their children in private facilities and that is a joke. 
It is an arrogant assumption that New Zealanders will be wildly grateful to the Government. I think we have seen tonight that New Zealanders can see through this Budget. They can see it is a cruel hoax and they will not benefit from it. Four out of five families will be no better off as a result of this Budget. The Government thought those four out of five families would somehow be grateful for the benefits that will accrue to the other one out of five families. It does not work that way and New Zealanders can see it is a cruel hoax. It is income-churning at best—taking the money off families by overtaxing them for the last 5 years just to hand that money back so this Government can determine the spending decisions of New Zealanders and continue its social engineering agenda. That is what this Budget is about. This measure is not about welfare reform; there is very little in it to do with welfare reform. Where is the miraculous universal benefit that Michael Cullen has been talking about since 1990 and that Steve Maharey said would be in place by 2002? It has not happened. Every time the Social Services Committee asks about that they say they are working on it. The Budget documents today stated they are working on it. I think the Minister has worked out that it is a helluva lot more complex than he originally thought. 
The incentives announced today make welfare more attractive for some people. What we have seen today will entrench welfare dependency further in this country rather than reduce it. That is why this Budget is a cruel hoax. Future Directions goes in the wrong direction. That is why in terms of replacement legislation National has its own ideas on how to take people from welfare and put them into work and on how to support those families. National’s ideas will be far more effective than some of the trash that has been served up today. This is a cruel hoax. The  
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 poll was a good indication of how most New Zealanders see this Budget and Dr Cullen must have been very upset to see that flat in the face on television tonight. It will be interesting to read the editorials and the letters to the editor. We will see more New Zealanders realise the emperor has no clothes.