Beyer Georgina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Beyer Georgina: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:627;Page:21899] 
2.  
GEORGINA BEYER (Labour—Wairarapa) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development and Employment 
: Is the Government committed to ending child poverty; if so what is it doing to achieve this? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 Yes. We have committed ourselves in the Agenda for Children in 2002 to ending child poverty and we are making excellent progress towards this goal. From a peak of 34 percent or one in three children living in poverty in the mid-1990s poverty levels have been reduced to 21 percent by 2004 largely thanks to key policies such as income-related rents and strong employment growth. Targeted tax relief through the Working for Families package will reduce child poverty rates by a further 30 percent by 2007 taking the level on this measure to around 14 percent or less than half what it was when the National Party was in Government. 
Georgina Beyer 
: Is there widespread community support for ending child poverty? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Yes there is. This cause is championed by both the Child Poverty Action Group and Every Child Counts which is a coalition including groups such as Barnardos and Plunket nearly 300 other organisations and thousands of individuals. Church leaders have acknowledged that real progress has been made in areas like housing affordability and levels of poverty amongst New Zealand’s children. But not everyone agrees with this scenario being a priority. One person when asked about his policies said he could not give any guarantee. He stated: “Look there is a cycle to these things. They go up and down. I can’t promise anything in this area.” That callous attitude has earned criticism from Every Child Counts which stated: “Dr Brash’s remarks about the impact of his proposed tax cuts on children are the sort of political attitude that Every Child Counts argues needs to change if we are to have a worthwhile future.” 
Judith Collins 
: Can the Minister provide an absolute guarantee today that child poverty will not rise while Labour is in Government and if it does will he then resign? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: This Government unlike the member’s party has committed itself to ending child poverty in the Agenda for Children. I say to that member we are all waiting—thousands of organisations are waiting—for that party to commit itself to ending child poverty. 
Judith Collins 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The Minister made absolutely no attempt to address the question of whether he could give an absolute guarantee to end child poverty or guarantee that it would not rise while Labour was in Government. He made no attempt to answer at all after having taken a cheap political point in his second answer. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The Minister did address the question in his approach to the guarantee. 
Sue Bradford 
: Is it not true that the abolition of the special benefit will actually cut the income of many families entering or re-entering the benefit system after 1 April 2006 and will the Government reconsider its decision to axe the last safety net available to the poorest families in this country? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: The answer is no. What we have done with the special benefit of course is to have increased it hugely over the last 5 years to compensate for the fact that the previous National Government had not given people access to that third tier of the system. As I have explained to the member on many occasions we have moved that money forward into the first and second tiers of the benefit system and we are now replacing it with temporary assistance so that people can still get assistance if they are in severe need. 
Georgina Beyer 
: Has there been a reduction in poverty levels for older New Zealanders given that they are another vulnerable part of the community? 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: Yes there has. The poverty rate for superannuitants fell by nearly 30 percent between 1998 and 2004 from 10.6 percent to 7.6 percent. This reflects— 
Gerry Brownlee 
: All National’s work. 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY 
: —firstly Labour’s decision to reverse the cuts National made to superannuation I say for Mr Brownlee’s information and restore the married rate to 65 percent of the average wage; and secondly our restoration of income-related rents. None of those policies was National policy and on these estimates we now have a falling rate of unemployment which is supported of course by all superannuitants across the country.