Hughes Gareth: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading[Sitting date: 17 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1634. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. It is an honour to follow Todd Muller in his first contribution in the House. I want to say it loudly I want to say it clearly—because the member was confused where the Green Party stands—that the Green Party is opposed to this legislation. We are opposed because it is mean because it is unfair and because it ignores the real hardship that students are under. There are two big points. We see with the ACC changes that they are positive and we have talked about that. Jan Logie talked about that. When it comes to the student changes we cannot vote for a law that is targeting students in such a mean unfair way ignoring their hardship.When you look at this bill in a nutshell what it attempts to do is to clean up what the Government calls a loophole. This is not a loophole at all. What we are seeing is that at the moment in New Zealand there is a huge gap between what you can earn as an accommodation supplement depending on whether you are on a student allowance or you are on a benefit. What the Government is trying to do through this change which was first introduced into Parliament in 2010—all those years ago—is make sure that the loophole by which those students who are eligible for a student allowance but do not actually access it can get an accommodation supplement instead of an allowance is closed.I know that is a lot of bureaucratic jargon but the fact is that if you are a student in—let us say—Auckland there the rents have risen $50 a week for the average student over the time National has been in Government. That is 50 bucks a week extra. So if you are on a benefit you would be entitled to $125 a week in accommodation supplement. That is fair because we know how high the housing costs are. We think it is important that people have enough to live on and that kids are raised in appropriate housing. However if you are a student the cap for the accommodation supplement—the cap the maximum a student can earn for the accommodation supplement—was hit 13 years ago. The $40 cap was hit 13 years ago. So the students in let us say Nikki Kaye’s Auckland Central electorate hit their cap 13 years ago and can receive only $40 a week in a supplement yet the fact is that 50 bucks has been the average increase in rent over the last 5 years.That is why I say that it is mean. It is targeting those students on the accommodation allowance those students who do not hit the parental income thresholds. They are obviously not earning a significant amount because of the rules. These are the students who are suffering in real hardship according to the studies and the surveys yet these are the students who are not getting the help they need which other New Zealanders are receiving because of unfair rule change. The fact is—and I have not hear a single National member address this fact—that when this law was introduced in 2010 advice was received that two people—two people—in the country were taking advantage of it. But do you know what? The New Zealand University Students’ Association data shows that one in six students would be better off not getting the student allowance so they can get the maximum accommodation supplement—one in six students. The poorest students are better off not getting what they are entitled to because of the unfair way we treat students vis-à-vis other people receiving support.I know that I do not have much time but I want to share a story of a whole bunch of young mums I met in Palmerston North last year. These were young mums who were trying to get ahead. Some of them had got out of bad relationships. They were raising young kids. All of them were studying at university to get ahead. However because of the housing costs in Palmerston North and the limited financial support available these mothers were not on the accommodation allowance. They were on the benefit—the DPB—raising their kids. It was inspirational seeing how these mums pulled together but they feel ignored by the Government.All across the country in various cities the cap was reached many many years ago—13 years ago in Auckland which is many years ago. So I think New Zealanders are suffering real hardship and particularly students who are seeing their fees go up and their average student loan amount increase massively. They want to see real solutions not this mean unfair ignoring of the real hardship that they are in. They want to see equity. They want to see a fair accommodation supplement that actually reflects the costs of living not just an arbitrary cap that this Government has failed to raise and now is doing its darnedest to close this loophole for any other student. Kia ora.