Henare Tau: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Henare Tau: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 I will not be too long. [ 
Interruption 
] It was 58 days ago actually. I want to speak about some of the more disingenuous comments made by Labour members tonight. 
Todd McClay 
: Which ones are you going to pick? There have been so many. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: There have been a few have there not? More important I want to talk about the personal attacks on the Minister for Social Development and Employment first of all for being on the domestic purposes benefit. Well at least she has had experience. Some of those people across the way have never had any experience. Some of them went straight from school into university and straight in here. I ask where they got their learning from. Was it from the streets or the hard stories out there? No they made it up at the universities. I tell some of those members across the way that some members on this side of the Chamber including the Minister went to the school of hard knocks and the university of life. 
To get it down to specifics in the day that our lovely Minister was on the domestic purposes benefit there was no such thing as interest-free loans for students. There was absolutely no such thing. There were no childcare subsidies in the Minister’s day and guess what? Even the accommodation supplement in those days which had just come in was not as good as it is now. 
I love it how Labour gets up—I was going to say on its hind legs but I had better not say that—and rattles off how bad it is that the Minister has taken away the training incentive allowance because she got it and other people will not. Well I tell members opposite that when the Minister was on the domestic purposes benefit she was getting not a few dollars less but hundreds of dollars less than what a person on the domestic purposes benefit gets today. If we put it in those words we see that that is the disingenuous mode and korero from the other side. 
I point out that Labour members do not have any experience. Nine years in Government would have taught them one of two things. Firstly it would have taught them that if they were doing a good job they would have got another 3 years. Like George Gregan said I would just love to say that we will have another 3 years and that side will not and I will tell the Committee why. It does not matter how sick or under the weather Chris Carter may be feeling; he was absolutely right. 
Sue Moroney 
: So arrogant. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh no. That has nothing to do with arrogance; it has to do with listening to the people in the caucus who are thrown out and whom we may not want to listen to any more. I think that Labour members have not a leg to stand on. There is no experience. Not one Labour member has any experience. 
Carmel Sepuloni 
: Oh really? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Well at least the Minister knows her way around west Auckland and she was not parachuted in without a map. At least she knows where to go. At least she knows her way around and she was not parachuted into that electorate. She won it fair and square.