Mackey Moana: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Mackey Moana: Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:665;Page:13179] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 Like many members I was listening to this debate in my office and I felt compelled to come down and take a call after hearing National member after National member decry the fact that they have been misunderstood on the Social Assistance (New Work Tests Incentives and Obligations) Amendment Bill. Well I understood what the Hon Paula Bennett and the Rt Hon John Key meant when they said this bill was meant to give beneficiaries “a kick in the pants”. I understood them very well and what National members do not like is that we have called this bill what it is. We have called a dog whistle a dog whistle because that is all that this legislation is. This legislation will not do anything to create jobs or help beneficiaries to get back into work. 
The only reason that this legislation was introduced was that the Government was feeling the pressure and thought it would trot out the old favourite of beneficiary bashing. It has worked well for National in the past it has deflected attention in the past and the Government was sure it would work again so Government members came out and said they would give beneficiaries a kick up the backside. But do members know what? New Zealanders did not respond in the way that the Government had hoped they would because New Zealanders know that there are no jobs out there. They can see the unfairness of the Government’s saying to people who want to work and who are on a benefit that it will punish them for the fact that it has done nothing to stop the increasing trend in unemployment. 
In fact the issue goes further than that because if we are really serious about getting people off a benefit and back into work we would look at all the impediments that beneficiaries face. We all see those people coming through our offices all the time—people who desperately want to work but who cannot. Sure there will be a couple of bad apples; there have been a couple of bad apples in this place as well. Not every situation is perfect and not everyone will be perfect. But the overwhelming majority of people whom I see coming through my office are desperate and they want to work. Interestingly enough they cannot get in to see their own MP so maybe the reason that the National Government is so detached from reality on this issue is that it is not speaking to the people who are most affected by unemployment and who want to get into work the most. 
Instead of reducing the barriers to employment the National Government has thrown up many many more. It is hard for people to get back into work if they are solo parents and face childcare costs that they cannot afford. It is hard for them to get back into work if they cannot get their kids into early childhood education yet what did this Government do? It cut the funding for early childhood education. How will that help beneficiaries to get back into work? The Government also cut the training incentive allowance which was an allowance specifically designed to reduce the costs that stop beneficiaries from getting back into work. All the Government’s own reports told it that in terms of value for money that policy was one of the best policies that existed— 
Hon Annette King 
: Even Treasury. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Even Treasury said it was one of the best policies that existed to get people from welfare back into work. Paula Bennett knows that because she used the training incentive allowance herself when she was a solo mum to get back into work—and good on her. What did she do? She cut it. Adult and community education—night classes—was one of the biggest pathways back into skills training for beneficiaries and what happened? It disappeared; it has gone. A Kiwi institution was destroyed overnight by an education Minister. 
Why is the Government introducing legislation that when it was announced was about kicking beneficiaries in the pants but now that the Minister is speaking in the Chamber apparently does not do anything? All of this debate is just hype according to the Minister because the bill does not actually do anything at all. I say to the Minister that this legislation cannot be both. Either it is the “kick in the pants” that the Government said it would be for beneficiaries or it does nothing which is what the Minister and other National members are telling us in the Chamber tonight. That is what this Government does. The Prime Minister John Key leads by example on this. He goes around the country and tells people what they want to hear. When he needs to do the redneck dog-whistle thing he does that but when he is standing in front of a group of social service providers people who work with beneficiaries or people who are unemployed all of a sudden it is a softer face. We cannot have that from our Prime Minister and from our Government. The Government cannot be all things to all people. Either it is kicking beneficiaries in the pants which appeals to part of its voting bloc or it is not doing anything in this legislation other than apparently being “touchy-feely” and really really valuing beneficiaries.