Brown Peter: Social Security (Working for Families) Amendment Bill Taxation (Working for Families) Bill — Third Readings 
Brown Peter: Social Security (Working for Families) Amendment Bill Taxation (Working for Families) Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:617;Page:13526] 
PETER BROWN (Deputy Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First will support this bill— 
Government Members 
: Good! 
PETER BROWN 
: Goodness me I have said only about four words! [ 
Interruption 
] I hear that I should sit down while I am ahead. 
This bill was delivered late to this House in our view and we read the aims on the very front page and thought they were exceedingly good aims and very commendable. How could we not support them? To oppose the Government on this bill would have put us in an impossible position. We had to support this bill. But I need to tell members that we have some real concerns about how things come and go through this House. 
We think that a bill of 50 pages which is quite complicated in parts should have gone through a more extensive process. We are fearful that there might well be some mistakes in this bill. Indeed from looking at our amendments the Minister has picked up a mistake in the bill which I am pleased to say he has recognised and given New Zealand First the credit for pursuing it. But we think there might well be other mistakes. We hope there are not but we think there might well be others. 
It saddens us that this bill will not take effect for quite some time. Indeed I think the first measure with any meaningful deliverance will not take effect until April next year so we think this bill could have been put under the scrutiny of a select committee. That way—and maybe Mr Baldock and United Future could listen to this because they go off on a tangent quite frequently—we could have challenged the statements the Hon Steve Maharey made that there is not the money to pursue this bill any quicker than that. I would have liked to cover that point in depth because I believe there would be a way around it. I believe that this bill could have been implemented a lot more quickly. I cannot categorically say that but I believe we should have had the ability to challenge and scrutinise that statement in the select committee. 
New Zealand First does not just roll over and accept everything that is put before it. We like to know that there are the nuts and bolts and we would have preferred that this bill go to the select committee. There is time enough—plenty of time—for it to be referred to a select committee be examined and if necessary come back as it is and be implemented in the time frame stipulated in the bill. But I have strong suspicion that had it gone to a select committee and had our members had a fair opportunity to examine it in detail we would have been able to tell the Government how to implement these measures more quickly. We would have been able to tell the Government how to pass on the gains in this bill to families in this country well before April next year which seems to be an alarmingly long time away. 
Too frequently quite extensive legislation and Supplementary Order Papers come through this House at the last minute and we do not get the chance to examine or scrutinise them in full. Nevertheless the bill is here. We hope and pray that the Government has got it right. I would like to say with confidence that it has got it right. I certainly think the direction is right and the aims are very worthwhile but I do not know whether the Government has got the nuts and bolts right. We have scrutinised this legislation as best we can in the time frame under urgency. There is a lot of pressure on MPs to examine a bill of some depth in a relatively short time and come up with the right answers. So we hope the background work has been done. We hope that it all sticks together not only for the Government’s sake—well I am not too worried about the Government to be honest—but for the people of New Zealand who will benefit from this. That is where our principal concern is. 
In summary the aims are worthwhile but the process is wrong and ill considered and I believe that to some degree this has treated Parliament with some contempt—particularly after last Monday when members all gathered in this House and told the nation on live television how important Parliament is and what it does for the people of this country. This bill should have gone through the proper process. 
However I am pleased to see some more money in the pockets of family people in this country as against sitting in Michael Cullen’s chest—not his physical chest but the little chest he sits on at night when he goes into his office counts all those gold coins and says: “Oh another billion here!”. We would prefer to see some of that money in the pockets of family members in New Zealand. We know there are people out there suffering. We know there are people out there who need a helping hand and we know that this bill will eventually help them quite some way—if the Government has done its homework correctly. 
As I said the legislation should have gone through the correct process. We would have been able to challenge the assertions of Steve Maharey when he said the Government could not deliver any more promptly because of money problems. We are not totally convinced by that argument; nevertheless we will support this bill and we hope that families and New Zealanders are better off in the long run for it.