Ardern Jacinda: Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Jacinda: Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5960. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
: 
 I found that speech from the member Todd McClay quite frankly offensive. The implication from that side of the House that we hear continually is that somehow members on this side of the House all of the Opposition members do not have an interest in improving the lives of children particularly those who are in the homes of people on Government support; this notion that we pay to keep people on welfare rather than trying to move them into work where apparently everything in life gets better when you are on a meagre minimum wage. 
Well I have news for that side of the House: 40 percent of the children living in poverty at the moment are in the homes of people who are working. They are the working poor. If you want to improve the lives of children in the homes of families who are already in work you could start by lifting the minimum wage. 
This bill the Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill is about poverty. That side of the House is ignoring that it is not just about those who are on Government support. Even in work families are struggling. And that side of the House has tried to claim that there is not any incentive in this country to be in work. Do you know what the best incentive that we currently have is? How much Mr McClay does a sole parent on the DPB receive? How much does a sole parent on the domestic purposes benefit receive? 
Todd McClay 
: How many kids? 
JACINDA ARDERN 
: With one child. With one child what is the main benefit rate—the main benefit rate—for the DPB? I hear silence. That Mr McClay is the best incentive we have to move into work. We pay $293 to a sole parent on the DPB. And what do we pay a 20-year-old on the unemployment benefit? Anyone? Anyone on that side of the House? I will take offers. It is $170. 
It is time we broke through the rhetoric. On that side of the House there is a constant implication that people are making a choice—a lifestyle choice—to be on Government support that they live in the lap of luxury and that they are making poor and irresponsible choices on behalf of their children. In most cases—in the vast majority of cases—that is simply not the case. They do not have the means to provide well for their children. And the longer that that Government spins rhetoric that it is solely about parental responsibility all it is trying to do is take responsibility off itself to provide an environment where there are opportunities; where families are able to move into decent sustainable well-paying jobs; and where sole parents who are primary carers are able to provide adequately for their children when they have no choice but to be the carer and in fact when that is the best place for them to be in that vulnerable stage of that child’s life. 
That Government is disowning responsibility for an issue that is affecting 270000 children. Let us not desensitise the issue. This is not just a number; these are kids who are as Metiria Turei has said going to school without food in their bellies and shoes on their feet. And this Government implies that this is simply a state of irresponsible parenting. It goes well beyond that and any attempt to detract from the issue in that way is an insult to the children who are affected by it. 
Let us look at this Government’s record when it comes to child poverty. It dismissed the Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty’s recommendations on increasing incomes for children in poverty. It called them “dopey”. It dismissed Labour’s policy of food in schools saying that fruit in schools was surely enough. It even dismissed my bill which was simply about setting measurements for poverty and subsequent targets. This is a Government that has no political will to address child poverty. 
This bill should be going to select committee. Labour when in Government lifted over 100000 children out of poverty through Working for Families. But we are quite honest; we left unfinished business. Last election one of the policies we put forward as an idea to address this was the extension of the in-work tax credit. We have not removed that policy from the table but we have been very open that we are looking at alternatives to see whether there is another and better way to increase the incomes of the households with children who are in desperate poverty and we will continue on that search. 
But until that point we will be supporting this bill. This Government should too if it wants to prove that it has any political will to address an issue that is costing all of us dearly not least children.