Beaumont Carol: General Debate 
Beaumont Carol: General Debate 
[Volume:670;Page:17278] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 Like other members in this House my heart goes out to the people of Japan and also to our own people in Canterbury. I think that everybody in this House has done their bit to try to assist them and I particularly acknowledge the Christchurch MPs from all parties who have been working so hard. 
I do however find it somewhat distasteful that the last speaker thinks it is not OK for members of this House to comment on other important social matters that affect our country. We cannot have that. We are a House of Representatives. It does not mean that we do not care about those issues if we raise other issues of concern. 
I add my voice and say that I believe we are going backwards. New Zealand is becoming a more unfair society. Inequality is growing. It is becoming a worse place to bring up our children. That is not the New Zealand I want and I do not think it is the New Zealand that most New Zealanders want. The Government is out of touch with the reality facing most New Zealanders particularly low and middle income New Zealanders. That reality sees New Zealanders facing petrol price rises and rental increases. Especially in Auckland where I work the rental increases are just phenomenal. They are also facing power price increases increases in early childhood education fees significant increases in the cost of food increases in ACC levies—the list goes on and on. People are facing ever-rising costs and it is hurting them; it is hurting them very badly. I think members opposite are completely out of touch with that. They obviously are not talking to low and middle income New Zealanders who really are struggling. We can see it in people’s faces when they talk to us about what the latest petrol price rise means for them for example. The reality of the increasing cost of living is very serious. 
When we look at the other side of the ledger the income side we see that prices are rising far faster than wages. Real wages went backwards by 3.4 percent in the year to June 2010 and 100000 more people are now living on benefits which was not made as a lifestyle choice. The 25c per hour increase in the minimum wage is pathetic and insulting as my colleague Darien Fenton said. It will just not cut it for people who are reliant on the minimum wage. That is $10 gross per week for a worker who works 40 hours a week in terms of extra income. That is not enough to buy an extra litre of milk per day or a block of cheese per week for their families. For those who are interested the article by Michael Parker in today’s  
New Zealand Herald 
 headlined “Stop kowtowing to unfair prices” on the issue of milk prices is very interesting. 
But the issue is about more than figures; it is about people who are struggling. What we have seen in this country is more money for a very few people and a lot less money for many others. That puts pressure on families on women who are trying to balance the family budget and on children who are living in poverty in this country. For those members who have not bothered to read the Salvation Army report  
Stalled 
 one in five children in New Zealand is living in poverty. That is not the country I want to live in. Schools are having to provide lunches and they are having to provide breakfasts. More and more families low and middle income families have to seek food parcels. People do so with a sense of shame. They do not do it as a lifestyle choice like the Prime Minister suggested. By November 2010 the Salvation Army had encountered 19000 new households seeking help. In the Maungakiekie electorate that I work in my electorate office has seen an increasing number of cases where the cost of living is severely impacting on families and that is having a negative effect on children. This is an issue for the present and for the future. 
The significant issues are firstly the price of housing and secondly the constantly escalating food prices. I refer to the mother of three who lost her job and received no redundancy but she had a medium level of debt. She was reduced to seeking handouts of food in order to get by. She fed her children before she had anything to eat.