GEORGINA BEYER (Labour-Wairarapa): I am glad to take a call. My remarks will mainly centre on the issue of low-income families in New Zealand. National neglected low-income families during the 1990s, creating a serious problem, which the current Government has been left to clean up. Raising children and making sure they get the best possible start in life was a key focus of the Government in its first term, and it was signalled in our social security policies as a key priority for this 3-year term.

During the 1990s families were forced to cope with high unemployment, benefit cuts, and the cancellation or withdrawal of basic health and social services. There is a big agenda for change, and a real ambition on the part of the current Government to address those issues as quickly as we can afford to. Considerable new spending has been invested over the last 3 years to improve the material position of low-income families. We have adopted a whole-of-Government approach to dealing with child poverty, which simultaneously attacks both its causes and symptoms. For example, within housing, the Government has reintroduced income-related rents for State houses, which has helped over 50,000 families. As well as leaving more money in a family’s budget, secure and affordable housing increases children’s chances of better health and better educational outcomes, giving them greater opportunities as they grow up.

Within health we have increased funding for free general practitioner care for children. We have introduced new primary health initiatives, such as the $200 million meningitis vaccine campaign and the introduction of primary health organisations, which provide subsidised care to low-income communities. Within education we have increased investment in terms of quality and access to early childhood education, ensuring that children have a good educational start in life, and we have improved funding for low-decile schools. Within employment we have increased the minimum wage each year. We focused on job-rich growth, which has seen 123,000 new jobs created since the change of Government in 1999. Within social services, which is dear to my heart as I am chair of the Social Services Committee, we have improved the abatement rate of part-time income earned by sole parent beneficiaries so that they can take more of what they earn. We have improved access to hardship assistance from Work and Income and we have changed the debt recovery regime to make it less of a burden on low-income families.

Within the community sector we have provided more funding for community-based social and support services, as well as supporting new and existing organisations to grow so that they can provide additional services. These investments stand beside significant policy developments, like the agenda for children and Te Rito programme, the New Zealand family violence strategy, which we also developed with a wide range of community organisations and ordinary New Zealanders during our first term. We have indicated that we will continue to invest in low-income families as resources become available.

The Minister of Finance has already signalled his intention, in the 2004 Budget, to invest the Government’s surplus on improvements to family income-assistance for low-income families. The policy pledges made during the election will also be honoured. Our vision is simple. We want New Zealand to regain its status as a great place in which to bring up children, and we will continue that ambition with the resources necessary to realise it.

Rodney Hide: Who wrote this?

GEORGINA BEYER: The member can read about it; it is in Mr Maharey’s media release today.