Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Thank you Madam Chair. I've been looking forward to taking this call on the Families Package (Income Tax and Benefits) Bill. I specifically want to talk to Part 1 and the Best Start package. I've got some genuine questions for the Minister that I would like the Minister in the chair the Hon Carmel Sepuloni to address.We understand that in the first year of a child's life a family will receive $60 a week—$3120 a year. This is a universal benefit. There's no abatement applied for the first 12 months as we understand it—except if you're receiving paid parental leave. Now in the last financial year 28400 people received paid parental leave and that's a lot of people in my electorate. What they need to understand is that actually they won't receive that full $60 a week for the whole year. They'll receive it only for the second half of the year effectively.So what I want to understand from the Minister is what the Government's thinking around that was especially because if you are on a sole parent benefit you will be entitled to receive the full Best Start payment. If you are a sole parent and you're receiving your benefit of approximately $330 a week plus a housing subsidy plus temporary additional support that all adds up to a number of hundred dollars probably approximately over $500; yet if you are a working mother and you are receiving the full paid parental leave rate you're receiving $538.55 before tax so when you take tax off it's approximately $400.As you can see my dilemma here and the dilemma for many working mothers is that they won't be receiving this universal benefit and in fact they're worse off than someone who is on a benefit. So working mothers in this situation are worse off. We've heard a lot from Mr Robertson about how this is universal but in reality it is actually not universal at all and I can only assume that the Labour Party are assuming in all of this that working mothers have more money have more savings have more income to be able to support themselves through that first year of life. Therefore it's not really universal at all. You are making assumptions that there are people who have more income.I want the Minister to explain to us why it is that working mothers under this policy are actually worse off. That's where I'm coming from because a lot of my constituents will come in and say to me Well look I'm so excited about receiving this money." I'll have to say to them "Well actually if you're one of the 28400 people in New Zealand over a year's period taking paid parental leave you won't actually be eligible for this." So the universality of it all is really undermined by that. It really is actually targeted in a way and if that's what the Labour Party are doing then I would like them to explain that and explain why it actually isn't universal. I'm genuinely interested to see why working mothers are being penalised in this instance.The second part of my question to the Minister—Mr Robertson got up yesterday and talked about the fact that this was universal even though it's not because of the fact that every family faces costs with a newborn. I would argue that working mothers on paid parental leave face those same costs. He also went on to say that there will be an abatement rate for years two and three so it is more targeted for years two and three. He then went on to say that the first three years of a child's life are the most important years and yet in this policy he is taking the first 12 months as the most important.But I would actually argue that the costs that you face—and I've been through this recently. I've got a five-year-old in fact so I've been through this recently. I have some recent experience in this. Your costs of having a child in years two and three are so much more than in the first 12 months because you've got more food more clothing more activities haircuts shoes and potentially childcare with having to go back to work. There are so many more expenses in those years than you do face in the first 12 months. We also have to remember that in that first 12 months if you're a working mother you're getting only half of the rate effectively. So you get half of the rate and then it gets abated when you get all of your big costs of having a two- and three-year-old. I'd like to hear from the Minister specifically around those questions please. Thank you.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Sorry just before I call can I just remind new members that when you're speaking in the Chamber you are speaking to the Chair. So when you're talking "you"—I mean I was a working mother so I do understand but actually I'm not a working mother at the moment; I am the Chair of the committee. So when you're making your speeches just leave out the "you" and rephrase it."