7. METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) Link to this
to the Minister for Social Development and Employment
Does she agree with the authors of the Children’s Social Health Monitor baseline report, launched today, that New Zealand’s current benefit provisions are unlikely “to protect a large proportion of our children from severe or significant hardship”?
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) Link to this
Yes, I agree with a lot of what the report says. What I do not agree with is where it states that the number of children in families on benefits is likely to rise. Work and Income is working very hard to help people into jobs so that they can build better futures for themselves and their families.
Does she think that $110 billion over the next 40 years will be enough for her department to make sure that no New Zealand child goes without fruit, veges, raincoats, shoes, or visits to the doctor, which this report shows many are doing today?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
What I will say is that it is not just about the money. Research by the Ministry of Social Development in 2002 showed that for two families on the same low income, one on a benefit and one in work, the one in work had better outcomes every time.
Catherine Delahunty Link to this
Tēnā koutou. Is she aware that many vulnerable families are not accessing the basic support that Work and Income should be providing now, such as the hundreds of people in Rotorua who are asking national beneficiary advocates for help this week because they have not been able to access basic support such as food grants?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
I can tell the member that the number of special-needs grants has gone up considerably this year, so more people are accessing them via the department. We certainly encourage anyone who is having problems to go to Work and Income. Emergency payments and supplementary money can be made available to them; it is there.
Catherine Delahunty Link to this
Is it acceptable that a solo parent raising five children in Rotorua is able to access only $70 from Work and Income to feed them for a week; and does that not show that the benefit system is failing to meet the needs of vulnerable children?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
It would be too hard to make an assumption based on what the member is saying is the level of support available to them.
How will her plans to force single parents out to work when their youngest child turns 6 relieve severe and significant hardship for those children, when the number of full-time jobs for women is declining; the market for part-time work is highly competitive; hours of existing jobs are being cut back, threatening in-work payments; and rental housing prices for our most vulnerable families continue to rise?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
It would be fair to say that we start from different assumptions. The Green Party assumes that people do not want to work, that those on the domestic purposes benefit are happy to stay on it, and that is how they want to survive. National believes that a lot of them want to work. If the incentives are right and the jobs are right, they will go out and take jobs, and that is what we are focused on.
Hon Annette KingIf she is serious about helping children in New Zealand, why did the National Government recently turn its back on a suggestion by the Every Child Counts organisation to establish a multiparty working group on children’s issues in Parliament? Instead of agreeing to work with other political parties, the Government refused, stating that Parliament already had enough processes in place to consider issues relating to children. And can she tell the House of the success of one of the processes?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
Because for 9 long years we had a lot of talk, and now this Government has decided that it is about action. We have seen already this year a number of initiatives that target the most abused and neglected children. The Never Ever Shake a Baby campaign starts on 6 December, and the First Response non-governmental organisation trial will be going out to those businesses, with an independent experts forum delivering actual responses on what we can do. This Government is focused on action, not on a whole bunch of chit-chat that gets nowhere.
Does she believe that her naming and shaming of two solo mothers earlier this year who had the audacity to speak out on the impacts of the cuts she had made to the training incentive allowance, which was helping them to get off the benefit, has made it harder to assist beneficiaries and their children, because of the venom and vitriol her comments generated out there in the public?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
That is another example of recycling old arguments. One of those women did not feel it was naming and shaming; she was quite happy with having the information, which was correct, put out there. I make no apologies for telling a true story of where our welfare state is.
I seek leave to table a letter to me from the Prime Minister, dated 3 November, in which he turns down the suggestion, not from me but from an organisation that does not just do chit-chat, asking—
Mr SPEAKERThe member should not make that kind of comment when seeking leave to table a document. Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection.