Tolley Anne: Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
Tolley Anne: Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) — First Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:516] 
ANNE TOLLEY (National—East Coast) 
: 
 As this is the first time I speak in this House in this term of Parliament I firstly give the Speaker my congratulations on her re-election and I congratulate you Mr Deputy Speaker and our Assistant Speakers Ann Hartley and Ross Robertson on your appointments. I wish you a very successful time in the House. I have to say that it is great to be back and I thank the people of the East Coast from Wairoa through to Whakatane for having the faith and confidence to elect me as their representative to this House. 
 We are here tonight to speak to the first reading of the Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) and National stands opposed to this bill. The bill allows for more write-offs of penalty interest owing from liable parents. We know that more than 50 percent of liable parents are in arrears. That is an astonishing record. Let us look at the record of this lazy Labour Government. Over the last 6 years it has allowed that debt to grow from $300 million to over $1 billion. All sorts of heart-wrenching speeches in the House today have bemoaned the fate of those poor parents who are in arrears yet the members of this Government have sat on their hands for 6 years and done nothing to help those parents out of that debt. The Government now brings to the House a bill that wipes that debt in the name of helping those parents. 
This bill actually strikes at the fundamentals of our community and it makes a mark in the sand between the philosophies of Labour and United Future—and all the other ragtag parts of the Government—and the principles of the National Party. The National Party believes that the most fundamental responsibility of parents is to look after their children and to provide for their financial support. It is not the State’s responsibility to do so. The Labour Party says that the State will step in and look after them and that the State will take over the half a billion dollar debt that those parents owe. 
But the State is nothing more than other taxpayers; it is nothing more than some of those parents’ next-door neighbours who are working hard to support their own families. Labour is saying to those liable parents—and I have to say it is unfortunate that most of them are dads—“Don’t worry. You don’t have to take any responsibility for the children that you might father because if you don’t pay we are going to wipe that debt. Everyone else will pick up the tab for your responsibilities.” Labour members have the temerity to stand in this House and to suggest that that will make more people take responsibility for their own children but I have to say to the Labour Government that it just does not work that way. 
How do we encourage people to take responsibility and pay their bills if we simply write off their debt? There is the same fuzzy thinking around student loans. Labour does not understand that smart people out there click on to the fact that the Government does not enforce the payment of their bills and debts and that they can get away with not paying them. We see that in the courts with the write-off of millions of dollars worth of fines. Criminals know that if they do not pay their fines then no one will chase them. 
It is the same with this bill. We hear the Minister speak about the “burden of arrears”. The burden of arrears has been placed fairly and squarely under this bill back on to the parents who are working hard and supporting their children. I oppose those measures. I am in favour of getting tough on parents and making them understand that their greatest responsibility is to value their children and to support them financially through thick and thin.