Maharey Steve: Social Security (Working for Families) Amendment Bill Taxation (Working for Families) Bill — Third Readings 
Maharey Steve: Social Security (Working for Families) Amendment Bill Taxation (Working for Families) Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:617;Page:13521] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
:  
I move  
That the Social Security (Working for Families) Amendment Bill and the Taxation (Working for Families) Bill be now read a third time 
. Having listened carefully to the debate I would like to take my few minutes at the end of this to summarise the excellent provisions in the bills as they provide more support to low and middleincome families with children and go on to address some of the other points that were raised during the debate. Families will be benefiting from the Working for Families package this year. On 1 October this year housing will become more affordable. On 4 October this year the thresholds in the areas of childcare subsidies and out-of-school care rates will be increased. We will see Work and Income New Zealand offering childcare to coordinators around the country to ensure that people access what they need. Contrary to what was being said here people can choose whatever early childhood or quality childcare centre they want to. 
On 1 April next year family support unsupported child’s benefit—the orphans benefit—will be increased to some 260000 New Zealand families improving their weekly income by over $32 a week alone. That will happen as from 1 April next year. There will be changes to all of our systems to ensure that their value no longer erodes. The number of accommodation supplement areas will be increased from three to four and the amount of accommodation supplement to people will rise. On 3 October next year childcare and out-of-school care rates will increase again assisting 28000 families. On 1 October 2006 the new in-work payment will come in providing $60 per week $15 for each child in larger families. It will replace the child tax credit and ensure that work pays. Family income assistance abatement thresholds are simplified and made more generous on 1 April 2006. On 1 April 2007 family support increases once again and the legislation locks in increases in all of those areas. 
We listened carefully to Peter Brown. Although we could not accommodate everything he said we did move on the invalids benefit rules. We appreciate his support in putting that forward and we would like to support him in doing so. 
I record now my thanks to all of the parties that have stood up in this House for low and middle income families with children who want to go to work to earn a dollar. They are the Labour Party the Progressives United Future New Zealand the Greens and New Zealand First. That is an overwhelming amount of support for making work pay for parents as they move off the benefit. We will increase the family income address accommodation affordability place childcare assistance on a secure footing and simplify our social security system. 
There are two things that are being supported here today that are absolutely the foundation of why I came into this House and why these bills came into the House. The first is social justice. We believe in social justice. That is why we are here. Today we have spread the money that is available because of a growing economy across those families that have worked hard and deserve to share in the prosperity of this country. That is justice. 
The second thing we have stood for is social development. We have spread opportunity. We see in the paper today that people who have said that they could not go to work now say that their dream has come true. They can now go to work earn enough look after their children make a difference to their family and get on with their lives. That is what social development is about. Those are the two things that we stand for on this side of the debate; and on the other side predictably disappointingly ACT and National have failed to stand up for kids and jobs. That is hard to fathom. 
I look at the lacklustre pathetic performance of the National Opposition in particular. It knows that these measures are good and will make a genuine difference to 300000 families in this country. National has put up a token argument. It has said that it might change things and will not repeal things and will do a little tinkering. New Zealanders know that the National Party will say that it will muck around with this package but it knows good policy when it sees it. I look forward as all my colleagues do to the day we can get up on a platform and hear them go on and on about tax cuts as their only policy against the fact that a family earning $55000 a year with four children would gain only $39 from its tax cuts as long as it went down to 20 percent whereas under this package that same family will get $70 from 1 April next year building up to $110 in April 2006 and $150 from 1 April 2007. 
I am begging for the opportunity to stand alongside a National Party person to listen to him or her say that that family will get less. National will cut that family’s health education and all the other things that that family needs to be able to make ends meet. We heard National and ACT members say that if people take family support they will become beneficiaries. The bulk of the support comes through the family income assistance system. People will not go on to welfare. They will be rewarded and supported for having children and for going to work. This is about kids and jobs. It is not about the privileged few. It is not about them. It is about the majority of New Zealanders kids and jobs. Kids and jobs are what we are on about here. 
I thank Sue Bradford Judy Turner Barbara Stewart and the other members from different parties who have stood up in the House to give thoughtful contributions. They have not just stood up as members of the National Party and ACT have done to try to fill in the time so that they do not have to worry about being told that they collapsed in front of this legislation. This is a collapse. National and ACT have no arguments. They have had hardly anybody down here. They have had nothing to say but other people have come to the House to make thoughtful contributions to this debate. 
I like those thoughtful people want to see working New Zealanders get on with their lives. I want them to share in prosperity. I want their kids to be able to grow up to be secure young people and to take this country forward. I want them to share in the good things that we have to offer and this Government will make sure that we have more and more to offer. 
Finally I thank the officials from the Ministry of Social Development the Inland Revenue Department and Treasury who have worked tirelessly to make this a real success for this country. They have worked tirelessly because they know that this will make a difference. They have put their hearts and souls in it. It is a very very important day for them as well. It is hard to pick out individuals. In particular I thank Sue Mackwell from the Ministry of Social Development Mike Nutsford from the Inland Revenue Department and Paul Clarke from Treasury for their particular efforts in their leadership of large teams of people who have done a large amount of work. 
Finally it has been a pleasure to work through this with my colleague Dr Michael Cullen because of three things. He brings to these issues a level of intelligence and commitment to social justice that makes him one of the best Treasurers if not the best Treasurer we have ever had in this country. I thank him for delivering this Budget. 
KATHERINE RICH (National) 
: 
 After that patronising tirade listeners will expect that this legislation will fix all the problems currently out there in our communities all the problems that currently face New Zealand as we plan our future. The only future direction that this bill takes us towards is the dole queue and entrenched welfare dependence in this country. Dr Cullen had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a big change to this country. After 5 years of overtaxation he had an opportunity to invest that money in something that would grow the economy and close the gap between living standards here in New Zealand and in Australia and he blew it. He did not do that. I read from the  
Otago Daily Times 
: “… Michael Cullen may have squandered the opportunity to leave a lasting mark on the New Zealand economy and eventually attain legendary status in Labour Party history.” Michael Cullen had a major opportunity to make some big changes but he has not done it. 
By the Government’s own admission only one in five households will benefit from this legislation. Four out of five households will get absolutely nothing. Four out of five households will look at the changes that are being made and realise that they will get absolutely nothing. While that Government continues to patronise New Zealanders and expect them to be grateful for getting their own money back that Government will miss the point. New Zealanders do not feel grateful for getting handouts. New Zealanders do not feel grateful for getting back their own money that they earned in the first place. 
There is no vision for New Zealand in making the middle classes dependent on welfare. Michael Cullen is proud that families who earn $80000 will be dependent on handouts. Michael Joseph Savage will be rolling in his grave. When he first brought in the welfare State he understood that it was supposed to be for people who were genuinely in need and people were supposed to do as much as they could to help themselves. The thought that handouts are being given to families who earn $80000 will upset not only Michael Joseph Savage up there but also Peter Fraser who interestingly was concerned that many people thought the welfare State was an armchair ride to prosperity. Well we know where that armchair ride is to; it is to poverty and it is to entrenched welfare dependence. This Government will look back at this Budget and see it as a watershed for welfare dependence in this country. 
We have seen no vision. There is nothing in here that will contribute to growth nothing that will allow New Zealand families to try to earn the $175 extra a week that they would get if they worked in Australia. No wonder our doctors are leaving. No wonder our nurses look across the ditch and see opportunities over there. Nothing in this legislation will try to make New Zealand a better place for those people. The young married couple who are just starting out and are putting off having children so that they can pay their mortgage and pay their own way get nothing from this legislation. The superannuitant gets nothing from it. I had a call to my office today from a superannuitant who cares for his son who is intellectually disabled. He said: “I resent that my taxes are going to families who do not work in the first place.” If members look at this legislation they will see that most of the families who benefit are already dependent on welfare. The original bill was called the Future Directions (Working for Families) Bill but how can that be so when four out of five New Zealand households get absolutely nothing? 
New Zealanders have worked that out. New Zealanders have realised it. They will not be sucked in by this Government which expects them to be thankful for getting handouts to be thankful for getting back their own money that they earned in the first place. That is why this legislation and this Budget will backfire on this Government—because New Zealanders are not thick. They understand that this is a lolly-scramble. They also understand that this is not about solving problems out there in the community. This is about buying votes. This is about winning elections. If the Government is not cynically attempting to win votes then why do these provisions not start immediately? No most of the significant benefits kick in after 2007. This is probably the most cynical bribe I have seen in certainly my short lifetime. This legislation is about buying votes; it is not about solving problems within our community. That is why the  
Otago Daily Times 
 called this Budget the “Budget on the never-never”. It is a lolly-scramble all right but people get their lollies 3 years down the track. 
I think New Zealanders will see through that bribe. They will see that this is not a future direction for their community that they want. The original legislation had in its title the words “Future Directions”; I think that is laughable. What sort of future does this legislation build for our country? What does it do to make it easier for people to set up a small business? Where are the growth aspirations in this Budget and in this legislation? They are not there. This is totally about income redistribution. This is not about growing a pie; this is about redistributing it. In the long term that means that New Zealand loses the chance to do something great with the overtaxation that the Minister of Finance has extracted. 
The Minister has taken funding from New Zealand families over a period of years. Sure the Government has announced hip operations and knee replacements but that is no consolation to those New Zealanders who have been waiting for the last 5 years for these sorts of changes. The timing of all of this is for a reason. Although Michael Cullen says that Budgets are not put in place to win votes I think New Zealanders are not stupid; they can see that this is a cynical attempt to win their votes. If it is not then why do these provisions not kick in now? New Zealand First put forward amendments challenging this Government to put its money where its mouth is. If the Government is serious about these changes why could they not start this year? The Government had no answer to that. 
People seldom feel good about receiving support from the State. It is adding insult to injury to overtax people and place them in a position of dependency just to get back their own money in order to get by. I can see why the Waihi family is not very happy about what has been done. It is a sad comment on this country if families who earn $55000 doing jobs that we look up to—teachers policemen etc—cannot get by. That will be Michael Cullen’s legacy with this Budget—further welfare dependence entrenched into our community. There is no vision for our country in making middle-income New Zealanders more dependent on the State. That is no vision for our country. 
That side of the House should be embarrassed that that is the situation it is putting New Zealanders in. This Government had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to invest that money into growth into something that would make a huge difference to New Zealanders’ lives. What we have here is something that four out of five New Zealand households can look at and say: “It doesn’t do anything for me.” That demonstrates that this Budget and this legislation are short-sighted. This is about responding to Labour Party supporters and saying: “Here you go guys; here’s your payback.” New Zealanders will see through this cruel hoax. They can understand it. The Government is hacked off that people are not very grateful. People can see through the cruel hoax.