Bennett Paula: Third Readings — 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Bennett Paula: Third Readings — 
[Sitting date: 18 August 2010. Volume:665;Page:13243. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I move  
That the Children Young Persons and Their Families Amendment Bill the Education Amendment Bill (No 3) the Taxation (Definitions of Dependent Child) Bill the Social Security (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill and the War Pensions Amendment Bill (No 3) be now read a third time 
. 
This legislation which started out as the Social Assistance (Future Focus) Bill was introduced to the House in March of this year. The introduction of the legislation represented a turning point for this country. A debate about the welfare system is now under way and I think it is high time for that. There is much discussion about the possibilities that a new approach to welfare could bring to New Zealand. There is much interest in how it could be done better—how the system could be redesigned to be fair to those who use it and those who pay for it. 
There is also some angst among a few driven largely by mischief-making from the Opposition. The scaremongering has been appalling. The Opposition has been misinforming beneficiaries that they will have their benefits cut and will be thrown to the wolves arbitrarily. It talks about the horror of it the cheek of it that the Government will ask those who rely on taxpayer-funded benefits to look for work if and when they are able to! How dare we? Well Opposition members should look at themselves especially because they know exactly how important it is to curb the insatiable growth of the welfare system. They know because they presided over the system in much better times—not that they took advantage of those very good opportunities. Even as the job ads burst out of the papers all that those members could do was stand and watch as the figures for those on the sickness benefit and the invalids benefit continued to grow. 
We all know that the unemployment benefit numbers ebb and flow according to economic conditions. When there are jobs people are in work. When the economy dips and the jobs dry up people have to fall back on the State. What does not make sense is the continued expansion in the number of those on the sickness benefit which bears no resemblance to the overall health of the country. It is nothing to be proud of that we have operated a system that has seen thousands of sole parents take up the domestic purposes benefit every year sometimes remaining there for decades. It is nothing to be proud of that we have families growing up with intergenerational dependence on welfare. We are talking about parents in some instances raising children on benefits who grow up to be beneficiaries and raise their own kids on welfare. I ask how anyone could argue that the system is working well for them when that is their reality. It is time for this debate and this Government is not afraid to have it. This is the turning point. 
I have watched with considerable interest the progress of this legislation very closely over the past 4 months. It is a pleasure today to see all the hard work that was done by the Social Services Committee on the bill come to fruition. I thank the committee members very much for their work and particularly the chairperson Katrina Shanks. I thank all of those who made submissions on the bill for their contributions. 
The phrase in the title of the bill as it was “New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations” tells the story of what these changes are all about and I thank the Law Commission for its advice on changing the name of the bill. The intention behind the introduction of clear obligations and expectations is to rebalance the system making it fairer and discouraging long-term benefit dependency. Most people want to work and I know that for many right now it is actually damn hard. The recession swept away much of the economic wealth that had built up over the last 10 years and jobs suddenly became much harder to find. Those Kiwis who are battling on looking for work and relying on a benefit while they do so will not be penalised by this legislation as some people seem to think. 
I stand with the National Government and say proudly that we live in a country that supports those who need it in their toughest times. We will continue to do so. But we also want people to make an honest effort to find work and we will help them to do that. Those who can work should. It may be a bit harder for some people to find a job right now but they definitely will not find one if they are not looking. We are simply asking them to look. It is as simple as that. 
Our economy relies on work. Our children need to grow up in families where people are in work not on welfare. Our communities will be driven on to better success greater health and greater prosperity only through having their members working. Welfare reliance and long-term intergenerational welfare will not create success. We see the effects on individuals families and communities when life revolves around the weekly benefit cheque. It ain’t pretty and it is not the kind of environment any of us wants to see our kids grow up in. 
When people are in work there are aspirations and hope for the future. If people cannot find work or if the jobs are just not there we will continue to support them and their families. The obligation on people is to do everything they can to grasp every opportunity. We are asking those on benefits to make every effort to be in work if they can be and when people are not prepared to look for work there will be consequences. Sanctions will be imposed on people who are not prepared to make an effort. Those sanctions will apply to people who do not bother turning up to a job interview or who are sent on a training course but do not get up and go to it. We are making the sanctions regime more effective by graduating the penalties. That means that sanctions get progressively tougher if people continue to fail to meet their obligations. We are serious about holding people to their obligations; we owe it to them and to the taxpayer. 
We are also serious about asking those on the domestic purposes benefit to actively look for part-time work when their youngest child is 6. There is evidence to show that families are better off when a parent is working. It is better for the parents and for the children. We are not expecting sole parents with young children to work although we are expecting them to plan for a return to work in the future. We are saying that if one’s youngest child is 6 or older he or she is in school and 15 hours’ work a week is fair to ask. That is a reasonable expectation. Children are in school for the best part of the day and it is quite possible to balance part-time work with childcare responsibilities. 
There is no intention to force sole parents into unsuitable work as some people have suggested. Jobs with long hours or shift work are clearly not suitable for some sole parents. Before Work and Income will refer sole parents to a job their individual circumstances will be carefully considered. It would be very short-sighted to refer someone to a job that was clearly not suitable for them. 
It has been suggested that people should be able to do voluntary work in order to meet their obligations; I do not agree with that. Voluntary work is important and those who do it carry out an important role in their communities. We are asking people to do 15 hours’ paid work and it will be up to them to do voluntary work on top of that if that is what they wish. For people who rely on benefits for their income getting a paid job has to be the priority. 
In a few months’ time we will be introducing a new requirement for people on the sickness benefit. At the moment there is no requirement for anyone on the sickness benefit to work no matter what the extent or nature of their illness. We know that some people are capable of working part-time but more than that we also know it is better for them and their long-term recovery if they do so. If a doctor thinks that someone is capable of working part-time that is what we expect of them too. 
During the debates on the legislation I have heard people say there are no jobs and that this legislation does nothing about getting jobs for people. That is not the point of the legislation. The legislation is about reinforcing expectations that people who can work should. This Government is wholly committed to growing the economy which will grow the jobs. We are also investing $223 million a year in employment-related training and support. We are investing in industry partnerships Straight 2 Work programmes training opportunities providing help with writing CVs boosting literacy and numeracy skills and placing people in work. 
As I said when I introduced this legislation in its first reading my focus is on the future. We want a society that values work and in which people provide for themselves and their families. We also want a system that is fair to those who need help and to those who provide the dollars that support it. This is a turning point for New Zealand. This is a point when we acknowledge we could do better in the way we provide welfare and support people into work. These bills are a step in the right direction towards achieving those things and I commend them to the House.