Hereora Dave: Budget Debate 
Hereora Dave: Budget Debate 
[Volume:618;Page:13578] 
DAVE HEREORA (Labour) 
:  
A kia ora Mr Speaker. E tu ahau ki te mihi nui ki a tatou o nga tangata kei runga i tenei Whare Paremata; no reira tena koutou a tena koutou tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
Thank you Mr Speaker. I stand to extend a huge greeting to us all in this House of Parliament; so greetings to you greetings to you and greetings to us all 
.] 
Firstly I want to acknowledge my caucus colleagues. I came in with the school of 2002. In my maiden speech I made reference to the fact that one of the main reasons for my coming into this House was to try to give effect to substantial change to support the family. The reason why I would like to acknowledge my caucus colleagues is that I know they did a lot of hard work in formulating the right policy so that I was able to enjoy with them the release of this Budget. It is my view that this Budget is good for families and good for the economy and therefore it must be good for New Zealand. I take the opportunity to thank my caucus colleagues for their hard work. 
The Budget is a balance between social and economic investments and most important a balance that delivers enhanced strands of supportive gains affecting our families today. I see the Budget in two parts. It addresses issues in relation to what is affecting families today. When the Budget is fully in place it will deliver an average increase of around $100 a week in direct income assistance to those families in the $25000 to $45000 band. That will certainly help a young family in my rohe that has eight children under the age of 16 years. An average of $100 a week to such a family adds a real difference of opportunity. Whether those extra dollars be used for health or education the run-on effect of them on that whanau is a brand that clearly separates Labour from National. Labour nurtures and cares for parents and children and the Budget focus is targeted to ensure that it helps low and middle income families. 
It does that by lifting family support and family tax credits by changing abatement levels for family income assistance and by replacing the child tax credit with a large in-work payment for working families. It is a Budget that provides fairness and security for low to middle income New Zealand families. That is where two-thirds of this Budget is targeted. It is a Budget for getting New Zealanders into work and making work pay. It is a Budget that Labour has been striving towards and has now achieved. Basically it is giving more back to families for support. 
The Working for Families package in the Budget beats tax cuts any day. The Government’s $2.75 billion Working for Families package boosts the incomes of working families more than any tax cuts package ever could. Slashing taxes would benefit single people and couples without children on high incomes and would make no real difference to the weekly earnings of low and middle income working families. A two-parent single-income family with four children earning $55000 will gain an extra $150 per week from the Working for Families package. Tax rates would have to reduce to a flat rate of 9.5c in the dollar to boost that family’s income by the same level. 
The Budget reduces barriers to work. It ensures that people are better off working and it ensures that families are able to give their children the best start in life. The majority of the expenditure will be on families who are in work because the purpose of the package is to alter the factors that make it hard for low-income New Zealand families to remain attached to the world of work. 
I had an opportunity to visit a couple of early childhood education providers in Clevedon and Karaka over the last week or so. The Budget makes significant improvements to early childhood education by investing another $365 million over 4 years. Both providers were experiencing full roll numbers and those roll numbers were growing. One in particular had a focus on special needs and I understand that 50 percent of its roll represented special-needs children. They both welcomed the new initiatives from the Budget: the move to 20 hours per week of free early childhood education inflating to 30 hours per week coupled with specific teacher-training programmes to ensure that the delivery of quality learning is achieved. Also kura kaupapa will benefit from a $347 million increase in funding for facility upgrades in schools. 
That raises the question of what is in the Budget for Maori. In akoranga mahi which is the workforce Maori unemployment is at 4.3 percent an all-time low down from 17 percent. That has been achieved partly through specific industry training. We are looking at the future of our economy. The 15000 Maori involved in industry training represent 17 percent of all industry trainees. Another 800 Maori are in the Modern Apprenticeships programme—14 percent of all apprentices. 
Maori participation in tertiary education has almost doubled since 1999. In matauranga which is education the Government is injecting a further $2 billion over 4 years. Kura kaupapa will receive a $347 million increase in funding for facility upgrades. The sum of $4 million will go towards strengthening the use of te reo in whanau and the community. The proportion of Maori participating in tertiary education has grown rapidly over the last 5 years. Maori exceed the proportion of the non-Maori population in tertiary education—that is 14 percent of Maori compared with 10 percent of non-Maori. So Maori are not failing in tertiary education; they are participating in greater numbers and they are doing a lot better than ever before. On 1 July last year there were 60000 Maori studying towards formal tertiary qualifications. Maori made up 20 percent of all formal tertiary students and about 43 percent of Maori students were enrolled in a mainstream university or polytech and about 42 percent at wananga which obviously are Maori universities. Also there were 13 percent at private training establishments. There were 15000 Maori studying towards degrees. I think that is healthy I think that is a good investment in our future and I think that is the best possible way one can use a Budget to inject help in those areas. 
In hauora or health there is the primary health care package which is really about patients not profit. It is already making health care more accessible and affordable. Over 33000 Maori are already enrolled in primary health organisations and that means that primary health care is more affordable. It also brings prescription fees down to $3 which is a lot cheaper. We launched the  
He Korowai Oranga: Maori Health Strategy 
 which has developed a permanent annual plan - provided development fund of $10 million to expand services for Maori by Maori. That is part of the Government’s commitment to Maori health providers. There are more opportunities for Maori health providers given the increase in funding for the health sector. The Maori health strategy along with the Maori health action plan  
Whakatataka 
 provide long-term frameworks for improvements in the delivery of health services to Maori. 
In finishing I would like to revisit my earlier comments: I extend my sincerest thanks to my caucus colleagues for giving me the opportunity to share with them in the presentation of this Budget which will have positive effects on family and whanau. Kia ora tatou.