2. Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) Link to this
to the Minister for Social Development and Employment
Does she stand by all her statements?
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) Link to this
Yes, although when you love your job as much as I do, you can occasionally get a little overexcited.
Why does she consider the efforts of the Every Child Counts organisation to establish an all-party parliamentary group for children to build awareness of and a commitment to policies for children as “a whole bunch of chit-chat that gets nowhere”, as she claimed in Parliament yesterday, and has she told that organisation it is wasting its time even trying to get National to work with other political parties here in Parliament on policies that tackle issues like child poverty in New Zealand?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
I actually admire the organisation and think that it does a good job in what it is doing. There have been many discussions around this place for quite some time about a cross-party discussion on child abuse and neglect. I notice that the previous Government did not actually get one up and running. As I stated yesterday, and I will state it again, I think it is about the results and the things that are put in place. That is what will make a true difference.
Will she dismiss the plan of action developed by the Every Child Counts summit on children held in September, which brought together community leaders, Barnados, Plunket, Save the Children, Unicef, etc., representing about 6,500 supporters and organisations as “chit-chat”—a lot of talk and no action—or will she do what they have requested and work with all parties in this Parliament, who do care about kids, on something that Labour, when in Government, did not walk away from?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
I think it would be helpful to clarify that the words “chit-chat”—all talk and no action—were actually directed at the Opposition, and not at Every Child Counts.
Mr SPEAKERThe member knows that that is outside the ruling I have made. That is readily available to the House anyway.
Has she had any chit-chat with the Prime Minister about his claim that the number of New Zealanders now on the sickness benefit is only slightly higher than it was a year ago; did she point out to him that the number went up by almost 10,000 since he became the Prime Minister, and that the Government’s policies are only shifting people from one benefit to another?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
We have had many discussions with the Prime Minister on welfare reform, where we are going with it, and how we close some of those tunnels between benefits. We are not hiding the numbers like the previous Government, under which it really was a succession from the unemployment benefit, to the sickness benefit, to the invalids benefit, which we will simply not put up with.
Lynne PillayHas she had any conversation with the Prime Minister about the failure of her Restart package, given that it is now helping fewer than 1,000 New Zealanders, even though unemployment numbers are still increasing; if so, is the reason she has failed to make effective changes to the scheme a result of those conversations just being chit-chat that have clearly got her nowhere?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
Yet again, I want to clarify that it is the Opposition that is prone to chit-chat and no real action. The member does not understand that the number of people receiving the unemployment benefit has gone down for 7 weeks in a row; it has gone down. Those who were eligible for Restart needed to be eligible through the welfare system. That is how it was set up. It was successful. I am certainly not undermining the more than 5,500 people who received access to it.
Carmel SepuloniWhat justification can she give for her decision to make cuts to the training incentive allowance, barring domestic purposes beneficiaries from receiving the allowance to help with tertiary study, and her decision to prevent domestic purposes beneficiaries from being eligible for Community Max; and how can these decisions be reconciled with her statement regarding solo mothers that she “will back those women into work and meaningful employment every time.”?
Hon PAULA BENNETT Link to this
Just to clarify, there are women who are on the domestic purposes benefit who are on the Community Max programme. Any women on the domestic purposes benefit can move on to the unemployment benefit and be eligible to go on the Community Max project. It is as simple as that. They would get the same amount of money, and they can make that decision.