Beaumont Carol: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Beaumont Carol: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8912. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill. This is as I understand it the second part of a move to reform our social security system and to fundamentally shift the focus of the benefit system towards encouraging and supporting beneficiaries to move into paid work. Well that is all very good if there is some paid work for them to move into. I know that some members opposite seem to think that growth in our economy has meant more jobs. Well actually this is jobless growth—the growth that there has been recently. We still have exceptionally high unemployment in this country. Many many New Zealanders are absolutely desperate to get work and as somebody who has been out in the community full-time for the last 12 months or so I can assure you that I have talked to many people who are really desperate about their work situation. People want to work but that would not be the message you would get from looking at legislation like this. 
As I understand it this legislation is going to do some things like extend work-test and work preparation obligations replace seven current benefit categories with three new main categories and have all sorts of provisions around social obligations and of course sitting alongside all of that are some very nice sanctions. And what are the underlying assumptions with that? Well I think it absolutely says loud and clear that the Government believes that most people who are on benefits do not want to work and that parents who are on benefits are not good parents. That is why we supposedly need this legislation. I think that that is particularly and utterly galling in this situation with the current levels of unemployment. 
What are the facts? How many people on benefits do not actually want to work? How many of the parents who are receiving benefits are not good parents? My colleague Dr Prasad talked about very small numbers of people who are probably in those kinds of categories. The facts are that people want to work. They want decent jobs. They want to be able to manage bringing up their children if they have got them to have a job that pays them fairly and to be able to look after themselves. The fact of the matter is there ain’t those jobs there for them. That is the fact. 
What this is about is beneficiary bashing headline grabbing and the Government’s typical spin. This is a Government of spin. It is short on real actions and solutions but big on spinning. I think it is pretty rich for the Minister for Social Development to say that this is not about beneficiary bashing. As I heard the Hon Phil Goff say this is dog whistle politics this is knowing that there is a constituency out there who thinks that everybody receiving a benefit is a bludger. I believe honestly that most people in this Chamber know that not to be true. But despite that there is this sort of legislation which actually is not the most important thing that the Government should be addressing by a long way. The most important thing or one of the most important things is actually our economy and ensuring that the economy grows and provides decent jobs for people to work in. If those decent jobs were there then people would be working. 
I thought it was absolutely disgusting in question time today when the Prime Minister joked about unemployment. I cannot believe that the Prime Minister of New Zealand thinks that unemployment is a joke. There are 163000 New Zealanders who are registered as unemployed. There are 111000 other New Zealanders who want more work who are underemployed. They want more hours. They cannot live with a decent standard of living on the hours that they have got. These are real people: real people who are hurting and real people who want work. Our unemployment rate is staying very very high and the Government is sitting on its hands in the face of wave after wave of massive job losses. We have got the Telecom ones coming up we have had Solid Energy and there are the Department of Conservation job losses today. Those are just three out of a massive great list of wave after wave of job losses. Again these are real people. Two hundred people waited for seven jobs in a Carter Holt Harvey workplace in Mangere. There were 200 people for seven jobs. In my own circumstances—in my own family—my niece who is a graduate is desperately seeking work. She rang me the other night and she said—