Flavell Te Ururoa: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:672;Page:18916] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson. Talofa lava ki a tatou katoa i tenei po. Thank you for the opportunity to speak at the second reading of the Taxation (Annual Rates and Budget Measures) Bill. There has been a key word in this Budget: responsibility. The Maori Party is conscious of our responsibility to grow a country that takes us all with it by creating a positive future for every citizen in Aotearoa. We must protect our most vulnerable and no one must be left behind. Our role in Budget 2011 has been to call for a reasonable Budget that takes account of the sharp edges of recession but also invests in our mokopuna. 
Young Maori New Zealanders are particularly critical to the Maori Party as 54 percent of Maori are under 25 years of age. We know that when we get the best deal for Maori we get the best deal for New Zealand for Aotearoa because New Zealand’s future is in the hands of our future workforce. Our youth who increasingly are Maori Pacific and Asian need our support now because their education their success will be our support as we grow old. We need to embrace diversity as it will be through our combined talents and strengths that we can plan for the future. 
The Maori Party’s other key theme in shaping Budget 2011 has been the notion of investing in the future. Our focus in education in this round has been on addressing some fundamental challenges such as $60 million over 4 years to build new kura kaupapa Maori and upgrade existing school buildings. I refer to a speech given by the member who tomorrow will be the former member for Te Tai Tokerau Hone Harawira. He suggested that the Minister of Maori Affairs and Associate Minister of Education Dr Pita Sharples had sold out on kura kaupapa Maori. I do not think so. An extra $60 million over 4 years is pretty helpful. There is an investment of $3 million over 3 years to support Te Runanganui o nga Kura Kaupapa Maori o Aotearoa to develop a curriculum and associated resources based on the philosophy of Te Aho Matua and another $8 million—I say another $8 million—over 4 years to realign kura transport assistance which has been capped since 1995 with that of mainstream schools. And there is $6.5 million to expand family-based literacy programmes to all decile 1 2 and 3 schools building on the current Reading Together programme. That is awesome—that is awesome—and it could not have come about without the help and assistance of the Maori Party and indeed its promoting of this programme with the National Government. 
These are just a few of the new initiatives that the Maori Party has achieved in Budget 2011. We say it is about whaia te rangatiratanga—taking control of our destiny. If we look at Whanau Ora we see that that best embodies the concept of shaping our future taking responsibility for our own solutions and being successful by trusting in a collective model. This again is where the Maori Party comes in in terms of getting National to change the paradigm. That has been important. 
I want to return to the key planks in Budget 2011 of protecting the vulnerable and investing in the future in relation to this taxation bill. With KiwiSaver of course we are concerned about the impact that the proposed changes will have on the vulnerable. But also and in line with the concept of whaia te rangatiratanga—taking control of our destiny—we need to look at the wider issues around creating a savings culture. We accept that New Zealand has a poor savings culture and we need to address this. High levels of household spending have fuelled inflation pressures over recent years and New Zealanders have spent more than they earned. Consequently the pressure on promoting the concept of savings is paramount. We are conscious of the need to plan for what has been called the “silver tsunami”—caring for the baby boomer generation. While savers and employers will have to pay more in the move to make this scheme more affordable over the long term the Government is reducing its commitment and this may have a backlash effect in terms of discouraging savers and employers. Our other concern is whether the changes might prove unaffordable for lower and middle income constituents already struggling to cope with rising costs. We believe that those people on lower incomes should carry less of a burden proportionately than those who are on higher income levels and we would be concerned if any disincentive to save such as increasing their payments would cause them either not to enter the scheme or to take contribution holidays. But we are pleased that the changes will not happen overnight. This will give people and businesses more time to adjust. 
I come back to being responsible. We have heard that KiwiSaver currently costs the Government $1.1 billion. Halving the Government’s KiwiSaver contributions would save the Government around $600 million per annum we are told. That amount of savings has to be good for the nation. 
The other big focus in this taxation bill is related to changes to Working for Families. From this legislation it would appear that Working for Families will be better targeted at low-income families who have a much greater need for assistance and a little less generous to the families higher up the Working for Families scale. We support this change and we support the intention to do it gradually in a way that minimises the impact on families. 
Outside the scope of this bill but well within the ambit of our focus is the fact that the Working for Families package as such offers no poverty relief for benefit-dependent families. It does not sufficiently address poverty or more to the point child poverty in Aotearoa. Although we support the refocusing of Working for Families to support the most vulnerable participants in the scheme of course we cannot ignore the situation of so many of our families who are not even eligible for the scheme. We have a commitment to eliminate poverty. Poverty reflects worse on those who have but do not share than on the have-nots. We will continue to advocate for the protection of the vulnerable the elderly and the young and the disadvantaged and we will continue to focus on restoring whanau responsibility and on investing in the future. Education is not a cost but an investment in the future prosperity of the nation. But for the purposes of the second reading of this bill we are prepared to support this second reading.