Moroney Sue: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Moroney Sue: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8929. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 The previous contribution to this debate—not the previous speaker Andrew Little who just sat down; that was a very good contribution indeed from Andrew Little—from Mike Sabin on the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill needs I think some revisiting. He talked about this side of the House not supporting bills that apparently his Government has brought into this Chamber that create jobs. Well Mr Sabin I cannot think of one bill that this Government has brought into this House in the time of a recession that has created any jobs. It does need to be put on the record that the National Government actually thinks that a bill that is attacking workers’ rights and attacking beneficiaries creates jobs. It is simply a nonsense but it is not the only nonsense that Mike Sabin spoke about—well actually this was not a nonsense. Something that he said that I agreed with was that one of the best ways out of poverty is work—paid employment I am guessing he meant because of course all people work; some of us get paid and some of us do not. 
But here is the difference: Labour actually delivered that vision to this country—actually delivered increased employment opportunities when in Government. Labour did not just bang on about how useless New Zealanders are put people down and take these sorts of punitive measures. Labour actually provided the stimulation in the economy because it is a stimulated economy that creates work and it is work that creates jobs. That is the scenario Mr Sabin not pieces of legislation like this bill which puts punitive measures on and actually threatens to cut the income going into low-income families. That is not the way for the brighter future. That is not the path to an improved economy and it simply will not do what he said. It will not provide the work that helps those families out of poverty. In fact it might do quite the opposite. 
Such is the impact of bad pieces of legislation like this that I just want to tell the Committee about a meeting that I went to in Hamilton just prior to the last election. It was a meeting of women on the domestic purposes benefit. They invited candidates for the election to come and meet them face to face hear their actual stories and put a face on people whom that side of the Chamber likes to bash continually: beneficiaries. 
David Bennett 
: Oh rubbish. 
SUE MORONEY 
: I think David Bennett was there. I know for certain— 
David Bennett 
: Yes I was and they lapped it up. 
SUE MORONEY 
: He says he was and he says that they lapped it up. I am about to tell you what he meant by that comment. Tim Macindoe was also there. I know that at the end of that discussion they said to these women: “Thank you for telling us your stories. Thank you for telling us your stories. We really appreciate much better the circumstances that you’re in.” Did they once come clean and tell those women that this is what they intended to do to beneficiaries that these are the punitive measures that they were going to land on DPB recipients? No they did not. They knew that coming back into Government this is exactly the nonsense that would be visited on those women but they did not dare tell them. 
The other sad part about that meeting was that when one of the women spoke said to us she said: “I’m not like those other DPB recipients. My husband left me with young children. This is the struggle of my life.” I went up to her afterwards and I said: “Actually you’re just like those other DPB recipients. Please do not fall into the trap of listening to what the National Party says because it would have us believe that every single one of those DPB recipients is a 16-year-old who deliberately goes out to make her life miserable by getting pregnant at the age of 16.” And this woman who was a recipient of the DPB herself had actually thought that that is what every other DPB recipient was like. She thought she was unusual. My message to her was that she was being a great mother and a wonderful role model to her children in difficult circumstances. She was like all of those other recipients.