7 November 2012

One vote needed to help lift 100,000 Kiwi kids out of poverty

One more vote in Parliament this evening could help to lift 100,000 children out of poverty via the Income Tax (Universalisation of In-work Tax Credit) Amendment Bill, which would transform the In-work Tax Credit into a child payment for all children who need it, the Green Party said today.

“My Bill would help to ensure that all children in New Zealand get what they need to have a good life and a fair future,” said Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei.

“Peter Dunne’s single vote could send my Bill to the Select Committee where a real discussion on how to end child poverty could be held.

“We are literally one vote away from having a major impact on child poverty.

“Peter Dunne signed a pledge with Closer Together before the last election to ‘actively support policy measures that reduce income inequality’. My Bill is a chance for him to live up to that pledge.

“I have contacted Ministers Dunne, Bennett and English to offer potential compromises in the hope of getting them to agree to take action on child poverty, however Minister Dunne has declined and Ministers Bennett and English never even replied.

“The Green Party believes our children are a priority. The continual refusal of Peter Dunne and the National Party to even consider taking a step towards ending child poverty by supporting my Bill shows they do not.”

ends

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Public Address Link:
A (Sweary) Analysis Of Urgency Abuse And
The Consititution

Keith Ng: You’re looking at the Regulatory Impact Statement (RIS) for the Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill. Basically, the courts said that the Government had to pay family members who looked after people with disabilities (because not doing so was discriminatory), so the Government passed this law to say: “Yeah nah.”

The RIS isn’t just redacted for the public – it was redacted for MPs. *Parliament* voted on this, with all the relevant facts blacked out.

Sure, it’s understandable, right? If you’re passing a law that’s really dodgy, you don’t want advice from civil servants saying “uh, this is pretty illegal” to be public. But actually, that’s not really a problem here, because in the same piece of legislation, THEY SAID THEY CAN’T BE TAKEN TO COURT. More>>