Sio William: Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sio William: Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5964. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Mangere) 
: 
 Talofa lava Mr Speaker. I found that last speech quite patronising and I believe that that speaker David Bennett is blind to the poverty that exists in his electorate in Hamilton. I want to welcome the introduction of this bill the Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill by Metiria Turei as an opportunity to debate and discuss the issue of poverty that many families—beneficiary families and working families including middle-income families—are now facing especially families that have young children. We need to really talk about what we do with the 270000 children who are living in abject poverty in New Zealand. We in Labour are totally committed to reducing child poverty and we are looking at a range of ways to achieve this. Extending the in-work tax credit in the way that this bill introduces is only one of those ways. That has been part of our policy in the last election and it is part of our goal to try to reduce child poverty. That is a goal that we remain absolutely committed to and as part of our policy process we are looking through a range of options including the options that the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty has thrown up. We are going to consider those because we know it is a real problem and we believe that if we do not tackle it now it will be dire for the future of Aotearoa New Zealand. 
David Shearer has also rolled out Labour’s commitment to ensure that children are not learning while hungry in decile 1 to 3 primary and intermediate schools. We have pledged to work with community groups to provide free food in every decile 1 to 3 primary and intermediate school that needs and wants it. Of course parents are responsible for looking after their kids but that will not change the reality that some children are turning up to school hungry turning up to school without shoes and their learning is affected and that should be unacceptable to all of us. Labour makes no apology for committing funding for the sake of our children. I think that we have got to commit ourselves for the sake of our children. 
There have been an additional 30000 children living in benefit-dependent households since this Government came into power. Again this is unacceptable. According to an OECD report New Zealand has one of the highest rates of child poverty and one of the lowest levels of investment in the first 5 years of life among the 34 OECD countries. Again this should be totally unacceptable to all of us. Research shows that poverty and income inadequacy are key drivers of poor outcomes for children. There is a need for more houses quality and warmer homes especially in Christchurch and they have to be affordable for all. We have got to be prepared to acknowledge that there is poverty and be prepared to measure progress of what we do about it. It is unacceptable for any Government—any Government—to allow significant numbers of people to live in persistent poverty. The number of children living in hardship has increased from 15 percent in 2007 to 21 percent last year. It is unacceptable I say for any Prime Minister—any Prime Minister—to promise incessantly during an election campaign a brighter future for all New Zealanders and then fail to deliver after he got everyone to buy into that promise. Every New Zealander I would say would be disappointed and has every right to be in the failure of this Government to keep that promise. 
Once upon a time there was no poverty—not the kind of poverty that we see today. People had jobs. People were well paid. Most families could generally have one person working. Everyone had a house that was affordable everyone had food on their table milk was delivered to people’s doorsteps everyone had a family doctor education was free and as a country we collectively looked after one another. We came together. Everybody pulled together did their bit and afterwards we celebrated over a barbecue. That was the New Zealand way. That was the Kiwi way and sadly we have lost that. I have to blame to a large extent this Government being in power and the kinds of policies that it is introducing. I want to say to National members that they have got to recognise that there is a real problem and unless they do that nothing is going to be done under this Government’s watch. Labour and Shearer will fight to ensure that we get rid of the poverty.