Borrows Chester: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Borrows Chester: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:13136] 
CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 It is interesting to note just how broken this place can be if we look at it from the other side of the Chamber. All we hear in the debate on the Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill from members opposite is that anyone who does not have a job needs to be completely mollycoddled and should never be encouraged to stand on his or her own two feet. Members opposite say that to ask people to do anything at all to assist in their own situation is being harsh and mean and that it is the only province of the political right. 
Let us look for instance at the speeches from previous speakers who have made the point that we on this side of the Chamber are apparently stigmatising those who are out of work. Let us have a little look at stigmatisation. We know that members on the other side of the Chamber need people to be poor and pissed off so that they will continue to vote Labour. Members opposite cannot afford to let poor people have aspirations to do better for themselves and their families because they are afraid that when they do those people will realise that the pattern of electoral history is to keep returning the party opposite to power. It was in Government for 9 long years and never increased the abatement rate at all. The previous Labour Government did nothing to encourage those people to go out and do what little they could in the time they had available to increase their household incomes—even just a little bit. 
The other thing members opposite are really good at when it comes to stigmatisation is saying that anyone who works for the Ministry of Social Development is evil does not care does not listen will not speak and will never do anything for people they come across. Well I go into my Ministry of Social Development offices on regular occasions and my office staff and I speak and advocate for those people who need assistance. I find people who are willing to help who care about their clients and who work hard to encourage those clients to enhance their own situation. But not according to that side of the Chamber. Members opposite want to relegate those clients into believing that there is nothing they could or should do to enhance their situation. 
We know that one thing that encourages a person’s self-esteem and the aspirations of those around them is a job. What do we hear from the other side of the Chamber? There are no jobs. It suits Labour to say there are no jobs so people should not bother looking for a job. They should not present for an interview! If we listen to the previous speaker Catherine Delahunty we hear that apparently job seekers have no clothes to wear to a job interview because life on the benefit is absolutely so poor and so terrible. Well I do not aspire to be on a benefit. My children have aspired to be on a benefit at times and they have done their darnedest not to go there. 
The point is that those people care. They want to get out and get a job and they find the wherewithal to do it. We should do everything we can to encourage them. Members opposite know that nothing in this legislation penalises somebody who tries to get a job and cannot get one. Absolutely nothing prevents that person from presenting for a job and getting it. 
Members on the other side of the Chamber we find as much as they talk about work and jobs undervalue the aspiration and the enhancement brought to people’s lifestyles by working. They do that constantly. The message that members opposite give out time and time again is that there is no work. Well there is work. In some places it is difficult to find but it is there. We have a history in this country of people needing work travelling to find it. They may need to move addresses but members opposite say they could never do that. It would be the most terrible thing that anyone could ever do! Yet in all our family trees we see people who at one time or another have changed their situation so that they can find work. They have retrained travelled moved house or done something to get work and they have benefited from it. 
It is very very difficult to find current statistics but we know that not too long ago the average income of a sole person household was $16900. Anything we can do to encourage people in need of work to find work to encourage young people who live within their care and in those communities and to see those people better themselves is a very good thing. We have aspirations for those people; we want to see them do well. We will give them an incentive to do that; that side of the Chamber had 9 long years and did not give them one. This legislation is an enhancement of National’s policy and indictment on Labour’s.