Mahuta Nanaia: Budget Debate 
Mahuta Nanaia: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3391] 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Minister of Customs) 
: 
 In rising to speak to this Budget debate I want to iterate that this Budget is about investing in an Aotearoa New Zealand way of life. It is a Labour Budget and it reinvests back into health and education. If it were a National Budget in order to fund National’s proposed tax cuts it would have made cuts to health and education. It would not have done one thing at all to support low-income families in New Zealand. 
This is a Labour Budget and it reinvests where it matters most. It is a Budget that values families young and old a Budget that resolves to assist in the transforming of our economy to one that strives to add value to what we do and how we do it and a Budget that harnesses the strength and diversity that are the face of Aotearoa New Zealand today. 
There have been several contributions to this debate from the Opposition members. Those speeches may have stirred their blood but there was not one bit of imagination in them. Instead what did they do? They pointed to Australia. I will make a brief contribution on this matter of Australia. Many Maori go to Australia for work and for a new life and a new experience. But anyone who talked to those same whanau members who were over there and who returned about 2 or 5 years later would hear that their decision to come home was based on quality of life. Quality of life was the measure rather than money. We know that people in New Zealand value the way of life we have here. It is a great place to live and bring up kids. It is a pity the Opposition does not recognise that because here in New Zealand we are reinvesting back into what we think is a great country. 
On the one hand the Opposition members have spent quite a lot of time scoffing at the Government’s Working for Families package which provides tax relief to families in work; on the other hand they criticise the lack of assistance to families on a benefit. This is all under fake concern for the many Maori families who currently receive a benefit. Do National members ever say a benefit should be increased? No they do not. Do National members ever say that women on the domestic purposes benefit should get more money? No they do not. So National members criticise the Government’s Working for Families package but they have no solution and certainly not one iota of support for families on a benefit. If at any point a smidgeon more money were given to families on a benefit National members would be the first to cry foul. In my neck of the woods one calls a spade a spade; in this case it is a shovel and National just keeps digging. 
Now more than ever before Maori families are well aware that it is better to be in work than not. The Working for Families package provides support and assistance for that to be a reality. The biggest disincentive to families who have been receiving a benefit and who want to go into work is the difference in their take-home amount of money. If one gets more money in the pocket from being on a benefit than from being in work the maths is not hard and the choice is quite clear. 
With the child tax credit in-work payment accommodation supplement and assistance with childcare costs there is now a range of options for those people choosing to go into either part-time work or full-time employment. There are now more opportunities for families on a low-middle income who are currently in work. Working for Families sends the right message to Maori families who want to break the dependency mentality and get out and make a go of it. There are a lot of Maori families like that. For families who are still on a benefit the incentives and support should be the same. It is better to be in work than not. If we really are concerned about Maori in this country then we should make sure they succeed in education continue to take up Modern Apprenticeships if they want to aspire to tertiary education and are supported into business ventures. The potential of Maori is severely limited by doublespeak like that from the Opposition and I do not think it is a solution at all; it is a fake guise of concern. Do National members have a solution or any answers? No they do not. 
A number of areas that are signalled in this Budget will I believe make a difference to the lives of many families. Let us take the election platform on which this Government was elected. Talking to a number of young Maori I know that one thing they were excited about was the removal of interest on student loans. That is great for them especially if they are currently at university and thinking about how they will pay back the compounding interest. Another area that is beneficial to a number of students is the signal that Labour will raise the threshold of parental income for students to receive student allowances. That is fantastic. Student allowances have been extended to include PhD students and that will benefit a number of Maori who are now pushing through the ceiling—exceeding the expectations of Opposition members—so that they can get ahead in life not just for themselves but for their whanau. That is the kind of platform that Labour was elected to deliver on and it will do that. 
There are areas in the Budget that will be helpful to Maori. This Budget provides around $33.5 million over the next 4 years towards improving literacy numeracy and language skills within the workforce. Some 330000 New Zealanders have very low literacy and numeracy skills. Many of those are Maori and Pacific Island people. At the core of a successful workforce and economy are literacy and numeracy skills which are fundamental. Now more than ever before the Government is investing to make a difference to current and future workforce development. Many of those in the workforce will be Maori and Pacific Island people. Funding will go towards working with industry training organisations to improve the foundation skills of people who are employed at the low skills end of the workforce. This will make a great contribution to many employee circumstances. 
The funding will be available from 1 July this year and there is a number of areas in which it will help. It will help to improve workplace practices so that more employees and workers can access suitable training. About $7.5 million has been made available over the next few years for this. The number of professional development clusters for training providers and tutors in the Learning for Living exploratory projects will be expanded. A lot of those providers are Maori based. There will be funding for 200 additional study grants to increase the number of fully qualified adult literacy tutors. Again a number of those are Maori. There will be further integration of literacy numeracy and language training with industry training. There will be around $15 million available over 4 years for this. The quality of training will be increased by supporting about 220 providers to meet the foundation learning quality assurance requirements. Some of those providers are Maori. So there are ways in which the Government is contributing to improving skills within the workforce. These initiatives underline the Government’s commitment to building a skilled and productive workforce that includes Maori and that can contribute to the social and economic development of Aotearoa New Zealand. 
How else is the Government supporting families? We are lowering the cost of visiting doctors and one can see that this is really important when one gets out into the community. The Government Minister who spoke before me Maryan Street talked a lot about oral health. If members were to go to my electorate they would see a mobile bus unit that takes dental health services around the area. That is fantastic. In Pukekohe—where the mobile bus unit visits—many of the children using it are Maori and they benefit from access to oral health services. An additional $750 million health funding will be made available to families. In particular I am most excited about the child health package that will provide new tools for primary health care more well child checks and a new universal newborn hearing screening programme. It will also allow for major improvements in oral health services as I have already spoken about for those aged under 18. 
The Minister of Maori Affairs has already made his contribution to this debate and he highlighted that $23.9 million has been reallocated into three new investment areas. Simply put refocusing investment in areas with the potential to offer greater opportunity for Maori is really important. By doing that Maori can better utilise their existing human intellectual and resource capital to get ahead. Times are changing and the collective asset wealth of Maori can act as significant leverage to enhance and drive development aspirations. That is as it should be. Other ministries are best placed to deal with health education and welfare but Te Puni Kokiri should clearly work in the new Maori potential framework set out by the Minister. In time this emphasis will lead to measurable gains that are a far better indicator for Maori than the disparity analysis that the previous National Government seemed fixated on. Maori do not want to be like Pakeha; they want to continue to be Maori in a dynamic and changing world. The Maori potential framework is better placed to assist this objective and so is Budget 2006.