Turei Metiria: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turei Metiria: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 07 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6365. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 Later tonight my bill to almost halve child poverty the Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill will have its vote in the House. I want to thank all those community organisations Every Child Counts the Child Poverty Action Group Champions for Children and many other groups and individuals who have written and emailed tweeted and facebooked marched rallied and otherwise worked to have this bill pass its first reading tonight. 
It is with genuine sorrow that I report that we are still yet to find the one more vote we need to send this bill to the Social Services Committee. All those parties supporting the bill tonight have been given a pair of infant socks—baby socks—as a small gesture from me to acknowledge their commitment to finding a real solution to the poverty that is suffered by a quarter of a million children in New Zealand today. I have one pair of baby socks left because we need only one vote from one party to pass the bill. That one vote will bring the family income of an estimated 100000 New Zealand children above the poverty line. That one vote will ensure that these children have a warm dry home shoes on their feet and food in their bellies. 
Many organisations have expressed their distress at Peter Dunne’s decision to oppose my bill. During the 2011 election he signed a pledge with a group called Closer Together Whakatata Mai. That pledge says: “As a politician I choose to commit to building a fairer New Zealand and will actively support policy measures that reduce income inequality and bring people closer together.” At the time Peter Dunne wrote: “I very much support your call for more detailed debate around the possible ways to reduce poverty and income inequality.” I ask Peter Dunne to honour tonight that pledge he made. In a Facebook post in response to my bill Peter Dunne has said: “I believe there needs to be recognition of the hard-working efforts of low income families and the existing In-work Tax Credit is a way of achieving that.” It is a way but it is a way that discriminates against the poorest families. My bill will remove that injustice and reduce poverty and income inequality which he said he wants to achieve. 
I have offered Peter Dunne and the National Government two compromises on my bill in order to meet their concerns. The first offer was to retain the hours worked criteria so that all parents who work would receive the in-work tax credit. At the moment if you work and you receive a benefit superannuation or a student allowance that work goes unrecognised. Mr Dunne has said that he believes in recognising the hard-working efforts of low-income families but he has refused to recognise the hard-working efforts of this group of low-income families—some 40000 DPB recipients who work and another 20000 who will be expected to work at least 15 hours a week next year. They all go unrecognised by Peter Dunne. 
I have also offered an amendment to the Government and Peter Dunne that would allow a family to retain the in-work tax credit for 6 months after they lose a job or have insufficient paid hours. The working adults would then still be incentivised to find a job or more hours within the 6-month time frame but they and their children would not suffer such a severe financial disaster at the time they lose their job because families who lose their jobs also lose this tax credit. When the job loss has resulted from a factory closing like in Mataura or a workplace accident which affects thousands of New Zealanders every year or a natural disaster as we have seen in this country the personal and financial strain for those hard-working families is enormous. One vote is all that those families need. 
But I must confess that these compromises I offered to Peter Dunne to meet his—what I consider to be somewhat irrational—needs were hard to stomach in the offering because the Green Party believes that hard-working families are also those who care for their kids whether in paid work or not. Hard-working parents are those who are deserving of dignity and decent treatment because they care for their kids. One vote is all that these families need. One vote is all that their children need. Thank you.