Mackey Moana: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Mackey Moana: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:13127] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 The sad thing about the Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill is that it is not about getting beneficiaries back to work. The sad thing about this bill is that it is not about instilling a work ethic in people who do not have one. The sad thing about this bill is that it will do nothing to help into work the ever-growing number of beneficiaries in this country who want to work and are trying to do so in a way that two-parent families can often take for granted. The sad thing about this bill is that it is a nasty nasty piece of political theatre. 
When I heard the Prime Minister and the Minister in the chair the Hon Paula Bennett say that what was wrong with this country was that beneficiaries needed a kick in the pants I was ashamed to be a member of this House. I am ashamed that we have this legislation from a Minister for Social Development and Employment who herself benefited from a system that saw her value as a mother saw her value as someone who needed to be there to raise her daughter acknowledged that sometimes there were barriers to her leaving that system and provided assistance in the form of the training incentive allowance. 
To see that Minister not only take that assistance away from every other solo parent in this country but also introduce legislation that says that beneficiaries are worthless is a shameful day for this House and it is a shameful day for a Minister who has pulled up the ladder behind her and left behind every other solo parent who is in the same situation that she was in. This is not a day of glory for the Parliament of New Zealand. 
The fact is that this legislation is being put in place to hide the fact that the Government has no plan to deal with rising unemployment. It was not that long ago that New Zealand had the lowest rate of unemployment in the world and we did not do that by vilifying beneficiaries. We did not do it by taking some of the most vulnerable people in our country and saying that they are worthless and we will give them a kick in the pants. We did it by trying to create the economic environment that allowed jobs to be made. 
In Mount Roskill today 2700 people applied for 140 supermarket jobs. Why does the Minister continue to tell us that New Zealanders do not want to work when 2700 people queued up for 140 jobs at a supermarket? Last year in South Auckland more than 3000 people queued up for 150 supermarket jobs. New Zealanders want to work but their Government has abandoned them. Worse than that their Government is now blaming them for the fact that they are not in work. Their Government is now saying: “It’s your fault. You’re lazy you’re worthless and that is why you do not have a job.” 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Oh rubbish! It’s just tripe. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: I tell Dr Smith that the reason they do not have jobs is that this Government has no plan to deal with rising unemployment. 
The Government talks about its plan. It talks about research and development. It should tell that to my friend who has a PhD and was fired recently from a Crown research institute because of health cuts. Government members should tell that to the dozens of other scientists in this country who are being fired from Crown research institutes while this Government stands up and says it is doing such a good job in research and development and is creating jobs. Well it is not. 
This legislation is a smokescreen. It is the nastiest type of political smokescreen that we ever see in this House but unfortunately it is one that we have come to expect from a National Government. We can vilify solo parents all we want. We can call them lazy and worthless but we need them to raise their kids. 
Let us talk about the reality of solo parents. I have a parent who went on the domestic purposes benefit after my parents’ marriage broke up. My parent did that because one parent needed to be at home not so much for me because I was old enough to deal with it although it was still hard but because a parent needed to be with my younger brother and sister at a time that is very very difficult for any family and at a time when kids need their parents more than anything else—in the case of a marriage break-up. 
This is often the norm for domestic purposes benefit recipients. They are not baby factories as the Prime Minister called them. They are not baby-factory 14-year-olds popping out kids to make money. They are very often solo parents leaving at the end of their first marriage who need to be with their kids—and their kids need them. They are not worthless. They are carrying out a very important job to make sure that those kids do not end up in such significant trouble in their education that they end up in our justice system. For a Government that constantly trots out the hollow rhetoric of being about families to say that it now does not care that suddenly it is just standard that all kids who grow up in sole parent families at a certain point— 
Debate interrupted.