Katene Rahui: Budget Debate 
Katene Rahui: Budget Debate 
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RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 In my maiden speech of 11 December 2008 I drew upon the wisdom of the late Dr Martin Luther King who said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” 
I come to this Budget thinking again of the injustice of poverty. This is not a concept that we heard about in the Budget speech from Mr English. He talked about making changes to Working for Families to better target assistance towards lower-income families. He talked about channelling resources into key social programmes while ensuring they are well targeted and protect the most vulnerable. He also talked frequently about the need to take a responsible longer-term approach a prospect seriously threatened by rising debt which leaves the Government vulnerable and less able to meet future shocks. Yet nearly 3 weeks after those statements were made today we heard the staggering news provided by Treasury that suggests that the Government is borrowing about $100 million per week more than it needs to borrow. As Treasury pointed out that amounts to $5 billion more than is necessary for this financial year. 
Although the Government seems to have been quite relaxed about over-borrowing at substantial amounts it appears that New Zealanders have been the ones who have taken the more conservative approach regarding expenditure. In the survey released yesterday by Sorted New Zealand it was found that 56 percent of New Zealanders are less willing to go into debt since the recession. In fact out of a polling group of 700 only 4 percent of those surveyed were willing to take on new debt. 
I wish to place this Budget into the context of many of the constituents who call on us. According to Statistics New Zealand’s food price index between September 2010 and April 2011 milk cheese and eggs have increased by 2.5 percent fresh milk has increased by 3.4 percent and petrol has risen by 17.1 percent. On top of that electricity prices rose by 72 percent under Labour in 9 years—that is by 8 percent a year—and they have then risen by 9.5 percent in the 2½ years since National took office. These are some of the bread-and-butter issues that our families are coping with day in and day out. For too many of our families no matter how diligently they budget and no matter how much they have tightened their belts and tried to make the money last unanticipated crisis events occur: a death in the family a bad case of flu the loss of school uniforms or the loss of wallets. And all the time prices rise and rise and the money-go-round speeds up. 
The effect of some of these events these life shocks can be tempered in most families because they may have the benefit of a bit of give and take in the budget. But for the 240000 children of parents who rely on income support that flexibility simply is not there. So we come to the injustice of poverty. All of us know that a child who grows up in poverty is three times more likely to be sick than other children. We know too that opportunities in employment training and education are inevitably influenced by the income levels in a household. 
The Maori Party has always given priority to protecting the vulnerable. By that we mean the elderly the young the disabled the disadvantaged those who have not and those who may live on the margins of our community. In one of the most fundamental transformations of our time we have sought to restore whanau responsibility: to invest in collective and mutual obligations through the initiative of Whanau Ora. We were therefore delighted that Whanau Ora through the 2011 Budget has been supported to grow and to build on the incredible momentum it has developed. But we also were vigilant in our call for a responsible Budget that takes account of the sharp edges of recession but that also invests in our mokopuna. Our call has been to eliminate poverty. We believe that poverty reflects worse on those who have but do not share than on the have-nots. So at the end of last year I wrote to every party in the House seeking their support to hold parliamentary cross-party talks on child poverty. I repeated that call in the very first speech I gave when the House resumed this year and I highlighted seven simple solutions that could help us to eliminate poverty. 
We know that addressing poverty will take a long-term approach. The first and most immediate response is to care for and support those who are living in poverty now. But also we must develop long-term measures that strengthen whanau and communities so they are not living in poverty. As a result of our advocacy the main benefit and superannuation payments were increased by 2.02 percent from 1 October 2010 to specifically take into account the rise in the rate of GST. In addition to that one-off increase between April 2010 and April 2011 main benefit rates increased by 3.75 percent. We did our best with the minimum wage and an increase was announced earlier this year although it was not nearly as consequential as we had argued for. 
We have developed a very successful Mara Kai programme. We have funded over 450 mara kai nationwide to support whanau to grow their own kai and to rebuild community connections at a time when money is tight. This is about community resilience. I have consistently raised the issue of removing GST from healthy food. Fifty Kaitoko Whanau workers nationwide work with all members of a whanau to support them to access proper support to advocate for their needs and to ensure that as a whanau they are all moving forward together. We have invested in cadetships trade training and professional training which resulted in over 1800 training and employment outcomes: some 1550 training placements and 252 jobs. Under our emissions trading scheme negotiations the Maori Party halved the petrol and power levy increase. Electricity would have increased by 10 percent; we got that reduced to 5 percent. Petrol and diesel prices would have increased by 7c per litre; we got that reduced to 3.5c per litre. That would have cost the average whanau about $165 more per year if the Maori Party had not intervened. About 1500 low-income Maori whanau have had their homes insulated as a result of the Maori Party negotiating a 100 percent subsidy for housing insulation for those with a community services card. 
I come back to the seven simple solutions to support children whanau and families. Our strategies are to set a deadline to eliminate child poverty by 2020; to designate an official poverty line at 60 percent of the median household disposable income after housing costs and to set a net income to prevent poverty; to increase the minimum wage to at least $15 an hour; to raise core benefit levels including superannuation and the veterans pension; to simplify Working for Families including the extension of the in-work payment to all families; to investigate the reintroduction of a universal child benefit; and to establish a neighbourhood renewal fund which may include incentives to encourage living more collectively such as community gardens and after-school care. 
I come back to my call for a cross-party parliamentary approach to addressing poverty. I am really proud that tomorrow my colleague Metiria Turei and I are holding the very first meeting of this auspicious forum. It will be a great day indeed when our shared ideas truly do make the difference in terms of addressing the injustice of poverty and developing a better future for all.