Brash Don: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Brash Don: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:618;Page:13760] 
3.  
Dr DON BRASH (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does she stand by her statement in relation to the Working for Families Budget package that “there is no evidence whatsoever that high effective marginal tax rates would cause middle-income families not to want to go to work.”; if not why not? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes. 
Dr Don Brash 
: How does the Prime Minister explain the advice she received from the Department of Labour on 31 March this year that “those on middle-level incomes will now face higher effective marginal tax rates from family assistance thereby reducing incentives to increase employment”? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: That matter was addressed in the House last week by the Minister of Finance who pointed out that one consequence of providing assistance to families who previously did not qualify for it is that some of them in certain circumstances may face higher effective marginal tax rates. That of course has no bearing on the answer I gave last week that the member has quoted from which says that higher effective marginal tax rates would not cause middle-income families not to want to go to work. 
Dr Don Brash 
: Does the Prime Minister agree with figures provided by the Deputy Prime Minister that show that the number of families facing effective marginal tax rates of at least 80 percent will rise to 50000 following the full implementation of the Working for Families package—an increase of 50 percent on the situation when she became Prime Minister—and if so does she acknowledge that the package makes the problem of high effective marginal tax rates worse not better? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: No I do not. What I know is that more families are being assisted through these targeted tax measures. That has the effect of pushing the impact of effective marginal tax rates up the income ladder; it does not necessarily change the highest amount of them. 
Rodney Hide 
: Why does the Prime Minister think that working families work overtime if not for the money that they get in their pockets at the end of it? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: If the money is coming into their pockets through these targeted tax takes I suggest they are just as well off. 
Dr Don Brash 
: Why does Treasury’s modelling show that only 2 percent of sole parents will move off benefits into work and that there will be no net change in employment for two-parent families as a result of Working for Families if as she said last week “The key thrust of these measures is to get people off benefits and back to work.”? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: That most certainly is the key thrust at the lower end of the income scale. As Dr Cullen said in the Budget when comparing a sole parent family on $30000 that is on the domestic purposes benefit and a sole parent earner family on $30000 the earner family will as a result of these measures be $92 a week better off. 
Dr Don Brash 
: I seek leave to table three documents. The first is advice from the Department of Labour about reduced work incentives in a Cabinet committee paper dated 31 March. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Dr Don Brash 
: The second document establishes the sharp increase in the number of people facing an effective marginal tax rate. It is a written response from the Minister of Finance dated 21 June. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is. 
Dr Don Brash 
: The third document is again a written response from the Minister of Finance to a question on 18 June regarding the fact that there will be no significant impact on employment from the Working for Families package. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is.