Harawira Hone: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHarawira Hone: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 28 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15544. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]HONE HARAWIRA (Leader—Mana): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koe whaea mō tērā kōrero.[Thank you for that speech Madam.]Seeing as the Prime Minister may have missed the fact that while he was up in Hawaii playing golf and his MPs were sizing up more investment properties to buy for the biggest untaxed capital gains they could get most Kiwi families were actually going backwards. Since Parliament last sat housing has become even less affordable more families have fallen behind in their rent more families have been evicted more families have shifted to caravan parks the price of food and just about everything else has continued to rise more jobs have become more precarious and more people have become poorly paid more food parcels have been given out at food banks more families have had their electricity cut off because they cannot pay the bill more children are in hospital with poverty-related illnesses and diseases and more children are regularly going hungry.Big bank economists tell us we are about to benefit from a rock star economy in 2014 but that is rubbish. Everywhere in the world the benefit of the economic recovery is going to the richest 1 percent while the 99 percent either stagnate or go backwards and New Zealand is no exception. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer under a system where people strive to get as rich as they can and the winner is the person who has the most money when they die.How crazy is that? How does that make sense when kids go hungry because families have to pay the rent the electricity the petrol for the car doctors’ bills and medical bills before they can even afford to buy food for the kids? But does this Government care? Not for 1 second.Take loan sharks for example. Six years ago this Government said it wanted to deal to loan sharks for preying on poor families. Well what did it do? Nothing. Instead it bailed out the banks wealthy investors and companies like South Canterbury Finance which got a $1.7 billion taxpayer windfall which in one single gift to the rich was more than the entire 22 years of Treaty of Waitangi settlements where iwi ended up with less than 3 percent of what was stolen from them. Meanwhile the victims of loan sharks are told that they have to pay up to 500-plus percent interest rates so that a small loan to pay a power bill rapidly becomes a crippling debt to the loan sharks with no bailouts for the poor.Housing is the same. Everyone knows that housing is becoming less affordable. Mortgages are through the roof and as interest rates go up—it was in the paper this morning—so do rents. But this Government has no plans to create more affordable housing for low-income families who need them the most. In Glen Innes and elsewhere the Government is actually pushing people off the waiting list then telling everybody that State houses are no longer needed and then bulldozing those homes so private developers can build mansions for the rich.In education the Government is also missing the mark. Instead of ensuring that every child can learn by adopting a comprehensive food in schools programme as recommended by its own experts it is focusing on a failed charter schools model from overseas and drop-in principals. We have all heard the drivel about how poverty has nothing to do with educational underachievement but that is a refrain delivered only bythose commentators who choose not to hear the advice and Governments that choose to ignore the inequality that is at the heart of increased social problems in low-income communities.As for those jobs Mr Key are you happy that unemployment helps to keep wages down and to keep workers worrying that they might lose their jobs? Is it your plan that 260000 workers cannot get a job or cannot get enough hours at work to pay for a decent chance in life for themselves and their families? Is it your plan that this Government has no policy at all to create meaningful employment except to leave the fate of the worker in the hands of the free market? Instead all we get is policy after policy bill after bill to take even more from low-income workers—employment rights social support tax dollars and all of that—to feed oil and mining giants property developers foreign bankers casino bosses private consultants and the like.Families are struggling—Māori families Pasifika families and increasingly more Pākehā families—after decades of the deepest cuts this country has ever experienced. These cuts come from policies that have deliberately driven hundreds of thousands of families into poverty policies that have led us to a direction that has been disastrous for all Kiwi families outside of the comfortable middle class and ruling elite and a direction that has brought us to a critical crossroads in our lives. There is growing inequality homelessness and unemployment and a growing population of working poor who cannot even make ends meet.At the end of the last year the world mourned the loss of Nelson Mandela and celebrated his momentous life. But Mandela was not just an anti-apartheid campaigner; he was also a fighter for the poor who once said: “Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity; it is an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings.” Mandela considered poverty to be one of the great evils of the world and believed there could be no freedom where poverty persists.At the beginning of this new year Mana stands resolute in our determination to find ways to eradicate poverty—particularly child poverty—wherever and however it may exist. We will do all we can to ensure that this issue is the issue by which political parties are measured by voters in 2014. Mana wants a new deal for Aotearoa—one based on everyone playing their part and everyone paying their way not just families but Government and big business as well—and an economy where everyone can live in dignity and respect and where jobs are secure hard work is rewarded and people can earn enough to give their families a decent standard of living.Mana is calling for homes for every Kiwi family—the building of 10000 homes a year especially for those on low incomes—until every child in every family is housed in a clean and warm home. This will create thousands of jobs in design architecture carpentry cabinet making painting roofing electrical work plumbing drainlaying landscaping roading community infrastructure and all the related jobs that come with a strong and vibrant housing sector. Mana will encourage immigrants to build new homes rather than buy existing ones to increase the jobs in the housing sector and to keep the current housing stock for kiwis. And Mana will introduce a serious capital gains tax to force those with too many investment properties to sell back into the housing market drive down the prices and free up homes for those who can afford to buy but cannot find anything in the overheated market place.Mana wants jobs for all and Government-created community work on an index minimum wage for everyone else who is able to work in hospitals schools old people’s homes marae sports clubs local parks and the like giving people the opportunity to rebuild their confidence and develop basic work skills while helping to revitalise their communities. Mana wants financing and mentoring for small business because if youback small-business owners they commit to a future in this country rather than leave and their success encourages their families to do the same.Mana also calls for taxing the rich to free the poor introducing a “Hone Heke tax” on all financial transactions adding billions to the national budget and enabling Government to launch positive jobs programmes feed the kids provide a well-resourced and positive educational environment at all levels reduce taxes for low-income earners and abolish GST on food and essential services. Of course Mana also supports taking back the power. In today’s world access to a consistent and affordable supply of electricity is a staple part of life for all New Zealanders. It was never envisioned that it be owned by private investors. Mana supports reclaiming all electricity assets for the benefit of all citizens of Aotearoa.Mana’s position is clear. This is not a time for tinkering. This is a time to be bold to chart a new path and to establish a new deal where a life of dignity and respect is a birthright afforded to everyone. We call on all of the parties to rise to the challenge rather than surrender to the squabbling. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia ora tātou katoa.