Shearer David: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Shearer David: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 29 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4867. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. We have been sitting here today—actually over the last 2 days—listening to the Government desperately trying to defend its record on poverty in New Zealand. It is trying to defend its record against three reports—three reports not just one. Those are  
The Netherlands Study 
 the Ministry of Social Development’s report  
Household incomes in New Zealand 
 and the Children’s Commissioner’s report all of which are saying exactly the same thing: that poverty has gone up in New Zealand. More than 250000 children are now living in poverty. We now have the highest level of poverty that we have seen in the last 20 years. Not since the 1990s—the early 1990s—have we seen such record levels of poverty. And hardship material hardship for young people and children has gone up from 16 percent to 21 percent of children in this country.  
That is a disgrace. It is a bloody disgrace that our country is in that situation where children are in such conditions. We are seeing in the hospitals rheumatic fever skin diseases and respiratory diseases—all of these sorts of diseases that you would see not in a place like New Zealand but in a place like the Third World. These are places that I have seen and worked in before and here we are seeing them in this country. It is a disgrace.  
What we hear from the other side of the House is that all we need to do is make sure that everybody is in full employment. Well I agree that full employment is a wonderful thing and under the Labour Government that is exactly what we had—3.5 percent unemployment. But I can tell you that the biggest problem here is that 40 percent of those kids who are in poverty—40 percent—are actually from families where there is employment. There is employment in those families. What does that tell you? It tells you very simply that we are not paying enough.  
This Government John Key’s Government is actually aiming for the bottom. It is aiming for a low-wage economy rather than a high-wage economy. What that means is that one in five people who go to the Salvation Army to get food parcels come from families who are in poverty and are working. When this Government says that all we need to do is to put people into work it overlooks the fact that the rates of pay are so low for many of these families that they will not be able to avoid going into poverty. They will not be able to avoid bringing up their children without the benefits that they need in order to thrive.  
The other big question about going for full employment is the absolutely obvious one. Where are the jobs? Where are the jobs that are meant to be supplied to those people who need to move into employment? They are not there. John Key gave a number of statements a number of promises over the last few months. He said: “I am prepared to commit Government resources to try to lift children out of poverty.” We have failed. He said: “I am deeply concerned about every child in New Zealand who is in poverty.” So is Labour but what has happened? Nothing. He also said: “We will bring a special focus to improving the results of public services for vulnerable children.” The only problem is that we are going backwards not forwards. A string of empty phrases and empty promises does not actually help.  
The Ministerial Committee on Poverty is a joke. It has met four times. It cannot even come up with a measurement on poverty. There is a really good reason for that because if you come up with a measurement you actually have to be measured against it. If this Government is measured against a poverty measure it will be found to be wanting. It will be found to have failed. So we have this Ministerial Committee on Poverty that keeps on just meeting month after month after month and nothing is coming out of it. We actually offered—