Mackey Moana: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Mackey Moana: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:623;Page:18863] 
1. MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: Has he received any reports on child poverty? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I have seen a report from the Ministry of Social Development that estimates the impact the Working for Families package will have on child poverty when it is fully implemented. By 2007 we will be putting $1.1 billion a year into the pockets of 61 percent of families with children through family support an in-work payment accommodation supplement childcare and out-of-school care. The report estimates that the Working for Families package will reduce child poverty which is measured at below 50 percent of the median income by 70 percent. This will take child poverty rates to between 4 and 5 percent down from 14 percent in 2001. In 3 years’ time we can expect child poverty measured on an income basis to be lower than at any time in the previous 20 years. 
Moana Mackey 
: What other reports has the Minister received on child poverty? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I have seen a Unicef report  
Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005 
. The report compares 24 OECD countries and paints a picture of New Zealand at the end of the 1990s that is shameful. The report using statistics from 2000 ranks New Zealand as having at 16.3 percent the fourth-highest child poverty rate. What is even more shocking is that that child poverty rate actually worsened by 2 percent during the 1990s in contrast to the UK the USA Norway and Australia—all of whom improved their position slightly. This demonstrates that the policies pursued by the National Government during 9 long dark years were bad for children. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That remark was quite beyond the pale. The member will stand withdraw and apologise. 
Hon Chris Carter 
: I apologise. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Now he will leave the Chamber. 
Hon Chris Carter withdrew from the Chamber. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I warn members that they cannot expect any generosity on my last day as Speaker. 
Judith Collins 
: What credibility does the Minister give a report that lists the United States of America at the bottom of the child poverty league that measures poverty as being a household income of less than half the median wage that makes the official poverty threshold in the US the equivalent of NZ$28000 a year and the New Zealand official poverty threshold NZ$17000 a year and does the report not really show that fewer working families are having children? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Fewer working families may be having children. The Unicef report for the member’s information is one of the reports that people around the world regard as credible. It is done by credible researchers using the usual techniques of measuring data. I know the member is embarrassed—as she should be—about the 1990s. If I had that record I would be ashamed too. 
Bill Gudgeon 
: Could the Minister identify which areas of the country these families reside in? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The Unicef report is aggregate data—in other words it takes country by country so the information about this country is for children right across New Zealand. 
Sue Bradford 
: How can the Minister dismiss the latest Unicef report as having relevance now given a report just hours ago from Unicef that in 2005 our child poverty rate is only 1.5 percent better than it was when Labour took office 5 years ago? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I have not dismissed the relevance of this report. For example one of the recommendations in the report is that all nations should aim to get below 10 percent in the poverty stakes. 
Opposition Members 
: Answer the question. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The Working for Families package will take the figure below to 5 percent. I know the National Party members are embarrassed—I would be with their track record. Their policies were a disaster for children. 
Moana Mackey 
: Is Working for Families the only contribution the Government is making towards reducing child poverty? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: No for example for every year that this Government has been in power the minimum wage has been increased the income-related rents policy has meant New Zealanders now have lower rents and stable housing and the public health organisations policy means that there are lower costs for health care to families. But the surest cure for child poverty is sustainable employment and that is why I am very pleased that 264000 more New Zealanders are in paid work since the Labour-led Government took office—a 3.6 percent unemployment rate is a fantastic achievement. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Why 5 years after a Labour Government inherited the fourth-worst child poverty rate in the developed world is its own Ministry of Health saying in this just-released report on childhood diabetes that the cost of a basic nutritious diet remains unaffordable for many New Zealand families? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The New Zealand National Children’s Nutrition Survey to which I think the member is referring found that 80 percent of New Zealand households could always afford to eat properly. 
Sue Kedgley 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker— 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: If the member is not referring to it I will accept that she is not. But just to give the member back what I think is the situation: around 80 percent of New Zealand households could always afford to eat properly; around a third of the poorest families reported that sometimes they ran out of food. That is exactly why we have a Working for Families package that is exactly why we have lifted the minimum wage and that is exactly why we have income-related rents. If I had longer I would go on with a long list of other things that we have done. 
Sue Bradford 
: Why is it current Government policy to persist through things like the Working for Families package and the bill that increases penalties against some solo parents to deliberately exclude some of our poorest children who happen to live in beneficiary families from the benefits of Working for Families and other assistance that is targeted to working parents only? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The member will be aware that a great deal of the targeting that takes place in Working for Families is for beneficiaries. The lowest amount that a person who has children receives through Working for Families is $17 and the average is around $100. Yes we do want to see people make the move into work and by doing so they will increase their income more. That is the best cure for poverty—getting a paid job with a career and a real future. 
Sue Kedgley 
: I seek leave to table the document by the Ministry of Health  
Influences in 
Childhood on the Development of Cardiovascular Disease and Type 2 Diabetes in Adulthood. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: I seek leave to table  
Working for Families: The Impact on Child Poverty 
—a report by Bryan Perry of the Ministry of Social Policy. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.