Gosche Mark: Social Security (Working for Families) Amendment Bill Taxation (Working for Families) Bill — Third Readings 
Gosche Mark: Social Security (Working for Families) Amendment Bill Taxation (Working for Families) Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:617;Page:13536] 
Hon MARK GOSCHE (Labour—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to stand in this House and speak in this debate. A couple of weeks ago I was a very proud grandfather attending the birthday party of my little 2-year-old grandson. I was sitting there looking at those little children who were enjoying that party and then I looked at their parents. Not too many years ago they were the little 2 3 and 4-year-olds coming to my house for my own children’s birthday parties but now they are young parents. 
They are the young parents this Budget seeks to help. They are the young parents who will wonder why the National and ACT parties say that they should not have $25 a week for those little children—that they should not get extra money in their wage packets to look after those little children because it is not philosophically the correct way to do it. Well they will be really interested in that argument when the rent has to be paid and the National Party has said that they should not have enough money to pay it. 
Some people in this House have short memories. The National Party would believe and ACT absolutely believes that anybody who dares take money from any sort of Government system—whether it be the old family benefit system we grew up with or the family support system we are talking about here—will turn that person into a beneficiary and a bludger. Well every New Zealander alive today should be described as a beneficiary and a bludger because all our parents were in receipt of the family benefit when we were growing up. 
My mum and dad bought the first family home with the help of family benefit capitalisation. When they started to have a heap more of us they capitalised a bit more of the family benefit and built an extra bedroom so that we were not all in the same room together. Seven of us grew up not to be bludgers and beneficiaries. I dare the National and ACT parties—or anybody else in this House—to front up to my brothers and sisters and tell them that they are bludgers and beneficiaries. 
Of course Mrs Rich might be silly enough to do that because she has not been around long enough to understand the ethos of New Zealand—that we are not a nation of beneficiaries and bludgers just because the Government finds a way of assisting us when we need help most. When we are young parents with the big overheads that come from being on small wages and having to pay rent and mortgages that is the time that New Zealand has traditionally helped families. 
Does Mark Gosche on a salary of $120000 a year need an extra $25 a week? No he does not and he is not getting it from this Budget. But I did not rush to the telephone to ring up the  
Holmes 
 show and say: “Oh there’s nothing in this for me; I’m against it.” No I said: “Bloody great!” because my grandson and his parents and all of those young people who are now parents need that money. I applauded it. I voted for it along with New Zealand First Green Party United Future Progressive and Labour Party colleagues. We know what it is like to be young parents struggling every day to find enough money. That lot over there too lazy even to go out and even visit a constituency let alone win one do not have a clue. 
Mrs Rich would not have a clue what it is like to be one of the struggling young parents in this country where every dollar counts. They do not like being told that they are beneficiaries and bludgers by the likes of her. They know what she got up to in her first few years in this House. They know that she took plenty of time off to have children and then she voted against paid parental leave. That is the sort of nonsense that New Zealanders understand. It is described by the sort of word I cannot say in this House but they know what it is. Those people over there have been employed for the last 4½ years in Opposition and still do not have a policy to help young families and the parents who brought those little children to my grandson’s birthday party. 
It is a proud day every day to come to this place as the representative of the people of Maungakiekie. When I go home I do not expect them to come to my house and say: “Well great. You did an excellent job.” All we have done is what they expect us to do—make proper laws and write good Budgets that reflect what the vast majority of New Zealanders want. It is a fair system. 
Most of the people who are now grandparents like me will be saying: “Personally I do not need huge amounts of money in my pocket because I have gone through the hard years of my life. The mortgage is on the way to being paid off or is paid off I have a reasonable income and I want to see my kids and their kids get a decent shot at life.” I want them to have childcare a bit of money to pay the rent some money to pay for food clothing and the normal things that people in the National Party and ACT do not even have to worry about because a lot of them have never ever struggled. 
I find it absolutely extraordinary that somebody like John Key who is proud of growing up in a State house with all the benefits the State poured into him is opposing this bill. He was not a bludger or a beneficiary before he came to this place but what has he been doing in the last 4½ years? He has no policy so is he earning his keep now? Absolutely not! That lot over there on the Opposition benches are bereft of ideas have no policy and are just telling ordinary New Zealand families and their kids that they should not get this money. 
The ACT party says: “Vote ACT and we will give you $39 because that miserable lot called Labour will give you $150.” Well that makes a lot of sense as its members fly around the country at taxpayers’ expense trying to figure out who the leader is by holding a primary. I want to get Mr Hide back here to perk-bust his own party so that they can ask themselves who is paying for those air fares. We want Rodney Hide to come back and answer the question about who paid his airfare so that he could go to Dunedin to stump up to the 3½ members of the ACT party who turned up to vote. 
This is a wonderful Budget and Mr Steve Maharey is a great Minister. I am extraordinarily proud of the enormous work he has done and of the work of all my colleagues in Cabinet. The Minister of Finance and every single member of this Government contributed to this package. We are proud of it; we will go home tonight feeling proud of it—and our constituents out there will be asking why that lot voted against it. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I understand that Lindsay Tisch and Barbara Stewart will take a 5-minute call each. I presume there is no objection to that course being followed? There is not.