1. Question No. 1—Child Poverty ReductionHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston) to the Minister for Child Poverty ReductionQuestion No. 1—Child Poverty Reduction1. Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston) to the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction: How many more children are forecast to be in poverty as a result of her Government's decision to change the indexing of benefits from wage growth to inflation?Hon NICOLA WILLIS (National) on behalf of the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction: The analysis which is publicly available and has been tabled in this House states that preliminary modelling shows indexing main benefits to inflation in isolation as a policy may increase the number of children captured by the after-housing-costs fixed line and before-housing-costs moving line measures of child poverty by 7000 plus or minus by the year 2028 in the absence of other Government policies and intervention. The Government is however making policy changes before 2028 such as tackling the cost of living delivering tax relief through Back Pocket Boost and stopping petrol tax hikes which will significantly help New Zealand families with children in modest- to low-income households. It is also our intention to break vicious cycles of welfare dependency which substantially increased under the previous Government that trap children in poverty.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: What advice has she received on how many of the forecast 7000 extra children in poverty are likely to have a disability or live in a household with a person who has a disability?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: I'm not aware of having received that advice.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: Given that the supplementary analysis report of the indexation bill clearly states the risk of disabled people and people with health conditions being disadvantaged by the change in indexation does she expect more children and households with disabled parents to have increased poverty?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: On behalf of the Minister as I said in answer to the primary question the modelling that the member refers to is in the absence of any other Government policies and interventions. Our Government fully intends to take other policies and interventions such that we can have confidence that we will be doing more to help children in poverty than that Minister ever managed to achieve.SPEAKER: Just to remind members that when asking supplementary questions they need to begin with a question word. Hon Carmel Sepuloni: Will the number of children forecast to be in poverty because of her Government's change to indexation increase or decrease as a result of wage-growth figures outstripping inflation in time for this year's 1 April general adjustments to benefits?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Well I think what the member is referring to is the fact that unfortunately under the last Government we had a situation where inflation was outstripping wage growth. What that meant was it not only eroded the purchasing power of New Zealand workers and their families; it also meant that the previous administration's wrong-headed changes to the indexing of benefits would have effectively meant actually that benefits would have reduced by less than they will actually under this Government this year.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: Does she agree with the supplementary analysis report that $670 million in savings the Government will make from changes to benefit indexation will be available to be used for tax cuts and is this fair on the poorest New Zealanders?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: Well that money will actually go into the consolidated account where it will help pay for schools where it will help pay for nurses where it will help ensure we have police on our streets where it will help ensure we lock up the offenders that they wanted running free. We will ensure that that money—we treat it with much better care than that Government ever did.SPEAKER: Just wait—wait for silence. There was talking during your last question from your own side which is not very respectful.Hon Carmel Sepuloni: I think it was in support but thank you Mr Speaker. Does she agree with the Children's Commissioner that indexing benefits to wage growth was the single biggest step to stop children remaining in poverty; and if so why is she reversing these changes?Hon NICOLA WILLIS: No I disagree because actually the single biggest thing we can do is reduce the number of children growing up in benefit-dependent households. And then the second biggest thing we can do is provide those children a decent education by ensuring they're turning up to school and we're teaching them how to read write and do maths. These are tasks that the previous Government ignored. They were prepared to see children trapped in cycles of poverty and this Government is not.