Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I rise to first and foremost state that the Green Party supports an unconditional income support system that allows people to live with dignity. I'm quite appalled at the fact that members to the right have spoken lengthily about everything but what's actually in the bill. I'm surprised that the National Party members are opposing a piece of legislation that ultimately supports people who are in employment. But what the minimum family tax credit at its core fails to recognise is that our caregivers who are on the benefit who may not be in paid employment also deserve to have livable incomes also deserve to live with dignity. I do not believe that we should be pitting our unemployed whānau who are doing massively important labour in our communities who are doing caregiving who are doing volunteering—I do not think that we should be saying that they deserve less income than those who are in paid employment. Therein lies the fault of the minimum family tax credit. It puts this punitive narrative that people who are outside of paid employment deserve less income than those in paid employment when most of us have been raised by caregivers who devoted their time and their efforts to ensure that we thrive.So instead the Green Party supports replacing the minimum family tax credit with a family support credit that allows low and medium income families to live with dignity. It supports $190 a week for the first child payment and $120 a week for subsequent children with a higher abatement threshold and lower abatement rate which would also mean more money for low-income families. So while this bill may seem technical it actually continues to perpetuate a hurtful narrative that keeps many of our people on the benefit in poverty. The minimum family tax credit at its core tells our communities who are outside of paid employment many who did volunteer work that was critical to our response to the pandemic that they deserve to have less money in their pockets. The Green Party believes that our welfare system needs to be built so that it provides unconditional support which is why we've been campaigning not just to lift benefit levels—which is what led to this bill—but also remove punitive sanctions and ensure that we have adequate top-ups that mean that people don't have to queue up at Work and Income for a food grant just to survive.This is not to say that people in paid employment who are working part-time and are also looking after children don't deserve to be supported but we reject any narrative that says that our people on the benefit who are doing critical labour—and those living with disabilities who do not have enough money to live on currently because unfortunately the increases to the supported living payment are not going up at a fast enough rate to ensure that people have enough to survive. What we are saying is simply that instead of the minimum family tax credit we need to build an income support system that is fit for purpose. So while this bill will address the number of people that qualify for the minimum family tax credit we have not yet addressed the fact that we continue telling our people on the benefit that they deserve less income than those who are in paid employment. I hope that one day we move towards a society that recognises caregiving labour as worthy of livable incomes—that we honour our mums our caregivers who have done so much for our society. So the Green Party will continue advocating to overhaul our welfare system so that we eliminate hardship not just alleviate it.