Maharey Steve: General Debate 
Maharey Steve: General Debate 
[Volume:630;Page:2285] 
Hon STEVE MAHAREY (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. This coming Saturday 1 April 2006 will be yet another proud red-letter day for those members of this House who are members of the Labour-Progressive Government. I say to each and every one on the Government side of the House that we came here not for all the trivialities of the last few weeks that have been debated here; we came here to make a difference. And on 1 April 2006 we will make another huge difference to families in this country. Already because of Working for Families 200000-plus families in this country have gained more childcare more family support and more accommodation support. They live a much better life because of that package. Now on 1 April 2006 $900 million will be spread across people who need it for housing to support their children and to ensure that their children are in quality care while they go to work. 
I want to give some examples of the effect of Working for Families. Let us take Sale and Barbara. They have three children live on Auckland’s North Shore earn $52000 a year before tax and pay a mortgage of $385 a week. On 1 April this year they will get $116 more per week. When the whole programme is rolled out Sale and Barbara will get $245 per week. Let us take Kathryn who is a sole parent. On 1 April 2006 she will be better off by $200 a week. There is $60 coming from the new in-work payment. Her take-home wages by the time all of the package rolls out will be $634 versus being on a benefit of $434. She will be better off; it pays to go to work. On 1 April 2006 Tania and Andrew in Christchurch who have two children aged 4 and 11 and who work 60 hours a week and earn $37000 will get $103 from the in-work payment. When the whole programme is rolled out that family will be $211 better off every week. 
Why do we have the Working for Families programme? Let me skip through the reasons. Firstly the previous National Government left far too many New Zealanders in poverty. Thirty percent of all New Zealand children lived in poverty after 9 years of a National Government. The Working for Families programme alone will drive that figure down to 14 percent. Poverty lack of security and lack of opportunity—that was the legacy of that National Government. Why? Because National trapped too many people in welfare. Far too many people were dependent on welfare—415000 New Zealanders were dependent on welfare when National had finished with them. We have already driven down that number to 289000. 
Secondly we have driven unemployment down from 160000 to 48000 because we want people to have a chance. We are giving them an in-work payment now. We are making work pay. We are giving real opportunity and real security. 
Thirdly Labour supports families. The National Party thinks children are an individual lifestyle choice and parents should pay for them themselves. We believe that children are a shared responsibility. That is why there are public schools; National wants to privatise schools. That is why there is public health; National wants to privatise it. That is why we have family support; National would not give it to families. That is why we support new parents; National would not do that. 
The fourth reason is that under National the cost of housing became the single biggest contributor to poverty in this country. The cost of housing was the single biggest contributor to poverty. We have built State houses. We have had to replace 13000 of those lost under National and we pay an accommodation supplement for those living in private houses around this country. 
We have introduced the Working for Families package because we are here to assist hard-working New Zealand families. For decades they were told they would get nothing. The rich got richer and they got poorer. On 1 April they will get their fair share.