Moroney Sue: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 20 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18133. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour): I think that last speech by Jacqui Dean just proved what we know—that the Budget showed the Government is out of touch and out of ideas. It is out of ideas because the things that the Government is trumpeting here tonight are things that it took from what Labour was on about and watered them down. The Government watered them down substantially—in fact so much so that 26 weeks’ paid parental leave became just 16 weeks’ paid parental leave. So next year there will be only 2 additional weeks of paid parental leave and then not until the following year will there be another additional 2 weeks. That is what you call next to nothing. The only thing less than that that the Government could have done with paid parental leave is to do nothing. That clearly was not an option for the Government because of the Labour Party’s Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Six Months’ Paid Leave) Amendment Bill which is in front of Parliament right now and commands a majority in Parliament. So the Government did the very least it thought it could get away with.No one believes that it is authentic for the National Government to have New Zealanders believe that this is something it wanted to do or that this was the Government’s idea. The truth is that the New Zealand public has witnessed National being dragged kicking and screaming towards extending paid parental leave at all and it is not authentic for the Government to argue any other way. So the Government is out of ideas and it is having to come to this side of Parliament to look for the way forward. Well look New Zealanders can just cut out the middleman and actually get a Labour-led Government in place. Cut out the middleman get a Labour-led Government in place and we will do it properly. We will actually do it properly and make sure that families are properly resourced.All of the information evidence and research tell us that it is not a little election-year gimmick like 16 weeks’ paid parental leave that will make a difference for families; it is actually listening to the research and evidence and understanding that 26 weeks’ paid parental leave is what we need to get to. Twenty-six weeks is when the health benefits come in. That is when we know that children have had that opportunity to form that really good close bond and attachment with their parents that will turn them into resilient and well-balanced citizens. That is when we know that parents will feel better about returning to the paid workforce knowing that they have actually had that valuable time with their newborn baby. Sadly turning that into an election-year gimmick like National has done actually undervalues it. It diminishes families and it diminishes the views of all the people and organisations like Plunket and Barnardos that have come forward and come out in support of getting it right—doing it properly and getting 26 weeks’ paid parental leave.So we know that National is out of ideas but we also now know that it is out of touch. How do we know that it is out of touch? Because the big problems that New Zealanders are struggling with day to day were not even mentioned in this Budget. There was no attempt to deal with the issues that matter—no attempt to deal with the issues that matter. Issues of housing are of deep concern to New Zealanders who are trying to enter into the housing market and get their first house. It is a deep issue for people who actually are wanting to get into any sort of decent house at all.In Hamilton we are facing a situation right now where we have got vacant State houses lying around while people cannot even get on the waiting list of Housing New Zealand. They are having to stay with relatives having to go into camping grounds and having to sleep in their cars and in other people’s garages because they cannot get on the waiting list for Housing New Zealand in Hamilton yet there are empty State houses littering our neighbourhoods. The people of Hamilton are asking what is going on. What is going on is that that Government is reneging on its responsibilities to provide decent housing. That is what is going on and nothing in this Budget—in this “fudge-it Budget”—will do anything to address those very immediate and very real concerns.We also know that the Government is out of touch because when it did move—when it was pushed into putting some money into supporting families—it was not for all families. Not all families benefit from this Budget. The Government chose to leave out the most vulnerable children in the lowest-income families.Tim Macindoe: $492 million is lots of money.SUE MORONEY: Well Tim Macindoe you did.Tim Macindoe: That’s not right.SUE MORONEY: Your Government did. It is absolutely correct. Who misses out on the parental tax credit?Maggie Barry: You.SUE MORONEY: Well Maggie Barry probably does because she is not having children any more. I am not having children any more. I am going to declare it: mychild-bearing days are over all right? This has nothing to do with self-interest here. I am going to declare it. My child-bearing days are over but this is for others. I am not concerned about myself; I am concerned about the generations that come beneath us and the generations still to come. Yes I want my grandchildren to have access to decent family support. That is what I want. It is not about me.This is about that Government being out of touch. It left out the lowest-income families from its package for families. The children of beneficiaries—no they do not count. They are not valued by a National Government. They can go sing for it under a National Government. The children of students—so it might be mature students or second-time-round students—will not get anything out of National’s package. And what about the children of those who are actually on ACC at the time that they give birth? No they are not going to get a look-in either. So this package was not for all families. What does that do? It grows inequality. It grows inequality. It is not even as if the National Government has turned a blind eye to the current set of inequality settings; it is deliberately growing inequality. This is how it works: put up the parental tax credit extend it for a bit longer but do not give it to the families who need it most. What that does is it leaves them even further behind.That leaves them even further behind but it can be fixed. It can be fixed by Labour’s Best Start policy because Labour’s Best Start policy is for all families. All families will benefit from an additional $60 a week if they have a newborn child—all families. Well in fact they will benefit from at least that because if they qualify for paid parental leave they will get that extended to 26 weeks under a Labour Government and they will get it extended at a much faster rate than that Government is prepared to do. So by 1 July next year under the election-year gimmick that the National Party has reduced it to paid parental leave will be only 16 weeks under a National Government. Under Labour on 1 July next year 22 weeks’ paid parental leave will already be in place. That is the commitment under the Best Start policy so it is not hard to work out—16 weeks under a National-led Government next year versus 22 weeks under a Labour-led Government next year. It is not a hard choice for the electorate to make.But wait there is more. By 2017 Labour will extend paid parental leave by a further 4 weeks to get to that critical number of 26 weeks. There is nothing magical about that number except that the development of a baby at 6 months old is so much more advanced. If they have had that time to actually advance their child development brain development and bonding and attachment while they have had parents who have had that financial stress and worry removed from them so that they can focus on bonding with that newborn baby for that 6-month period then all of us get to win. All of us get to win.I just want to come back to what happened last week with that very underwhelming and disappointing Budget. It shows us that a Government that was once ambitious for New Zealand has completely lost that sense of ambition. Any old thing will do. Any old election-year gimmick will do for the National Party. Well that is not good enough for the Labour Party. National is out of touch it is out of ideas and come 20 September it will be out of office.