12. JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) Link to this
to the Minister for Social Development and Employment
Is she confident that the Families Commission provides a voice for New Zealand families; if so, why?
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister for Social Development and Employment) Link to this
Yes; the Families Commission has consulted widely to ensure that it is identifying issues that are of concern to New Zealand families and has represented those issues strongly. It has provided contributions on matters such as the prevention of family violence, after-school childcare, paid parental leave, and caring for children after parental separation. Those issues are important to New Zealand families.
Does she think that the Families Commission should spend less time on vanity events, like its planned summit that will “raise the commission’s profile and provide a mandate for its ongoing work”, and more time on addressing the serious issues facing New Zealand families, like child poverty; if not, why not?
The main function set out in statute is for the Families Commission to act as an advocate for the interests of families generally. The commission has taken that statutory responsibility seriously, and is ensuring that as part of that function it is connected with New Zealand families and is able to represent their views properly. I do not know why the Families Commission would want to duplicate the work of the Children’s Commissioner, but if that is what the member has in store for it I am sure the commission would find that very interesting.
How much time does the Families Commission spend on analysing its own profile, as detailed in the recent communications review by a public relations firm, and how exactly does that help the 185,000 children who were recently identified as living in poverty and the beneficiary families that the Minister recently admitted are worse off now than they were in 1991?
Can I firstly address my comments in response to the end point that the member made, and say that I have never said what the member just referred to. I know that beneficiaries and their families are better off under a Labour-led Government and always will be. The member should not misrepresent either my words or the truth. The decade of the 1990s was the hardest for beneficiary families in New Zealand, and I hope that we and they never have the ill fortune to have that member’s party leading our country again.
How exactly does it help the 185,000 children who are living in poverty, and the beneficiary families that this Minister did admit, as shown in the Sunday Star-Times, are worse off now than they were in 1991, to have the Families Commission spend time and money on analysing its own profile?
I repeat, I have never said, and nor is it true, what the member has just referred to. Beneficiary families are better off under a Labour-led Government than they have been in the past and will ever be in the future under a National-led Government. That is a fact, and the member knows it. I have heard her welfare policies, and that certainly reinforces both the fact and the perception that beneficiaries are better off under a Labour-led Government. In my view, leadership in areas such as the prevention of family violence, looking at the needs of New Zealand families in regard to after-school childcare, looking at paid parental leave and its extension—which that member and her party voted against when it was introduced in New Zealand—and an increasing issue of how we should care for New Zealand children after their parents have separated are issues of concern, and clear and strong leadership on them are demonstrated by the Families Commission.
I seek the leave of the House to table an article written by senior journalist Ruth Laugesen of the Sunday Star-Times where the Minister is quoted as confirming that beneficiary families are worse off now than they were in 1991.
Madam SPEAKER