Logie Jan: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 11 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5635. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green): I did have a whole speech written but I do feel compelled to respond to some of the comments from the Minister who talked about this being the first benefit raise in 43 years. She has conveniently ignored the fact that it would have required a 45 percent increase in benefits to be able to return them to the pre-1990 level when the previous National Government slashed them to the point where we now have the unemployment benefit being worth 24 percent of the average wage where people are consciously being left in poverty. And for children to be in our hospitals and dying because of the policy of this Government—we should be celebrating that in this Budget? Well I am sorry but I am not going to celebrate that.We are being told by this Government that it knows what works. It is these sanctions it is beating people over the head to be able to get them into work because that is how you make it happen—that is how you encourage independence! You cut people’s incomes! That leads them to a life of independence! Well why are more people being sanctioned now in the last year than were being sanctioned previously? If it was working there would be fewer people being sanctioned. But it has been increased by 30 percent. More sole parents have been sanctioned in the last year. That is a sign of this policy failing not succeeding.We know that when benefit levels were set at a higher rate we had lower rates of unemployment. Poverty does not drive people into work—it keeps them stuck in poverty. It puts them into fragile precarious work that is actually not better for them or their family.I really think that this Government with the Better Public Services targets that it has set—of reducing benefit levels by 25 percent and reducing the liability and the pressure on the Government—really shows the lack of awareness in its thinking. That to the Government is what is most important for this country. It is not about the well-being of our society. It is not about getting people into work into decent jobs. It is not about eliminating child poverty. It is not about ensuring that families where women and children leaving violent relationships are able to re-establish themselves with a minimum of trauma. It is not about people who are sick—getting treatment for cancer or any other number of illnesses or even donating organs—to be properly supported and not forced into debt or made homeless; so that they are so stressed out and unable to get the medical attention that they need because of the financial stress on them at the moment which is what is happening now. People are being made homeless while suffering and getting treatment for cancer because this system no longer provides a safety net.We are being told in this House by this Government in response to this Budget that we should be celebrating the fact that there will be an average of maybe $20 a week to families no matter how many children they have. This Government was told in the policy documents that that amount of money would make no difference to the child poverty levels in this country and the Government presented this to the public of New Zealand as a child hardship measure.The New Zealand public cares about our children. We want our children to be well and healthy and able to thrive and live up to all of their potential. Instead of actually creating the environment to enable that for our children this Government has presented a piece of window dressing that is leaving those children in hardship. It is refusing to address the core foundation of poverty in this country.Carmel Sepuloni: She can’t even look up. She’s just texting on her phone.JAN LOGIE: And the Minister is texting—really engaging with the issue!So the impact of these policy decisions is the increasing number of people being trapped in poverty. We are being told by the community organisations I am seeing around the country that they are dealing with a lot of people now who are not even wanting to go into Work and Income because they are finding the situation and the environment in those offices so traumatising.