Labour to aid 30,000 more families
Party would scrap tax cuts, pay $60 weekly baby bonus, extend Working for Families
Labour’s newly announced “Families Package” would scrap tax cuts, boost Working for Families and introduce a universal $60-a-week “baby bonus”. Leader Andrew Little announced the package yesterday. He said 70 per cent of families would be better off than under National’s package.
This would be done through a further boost of Working for Families by increasing payments and extending it to 30,000 more families on middle incomes at a further cost of $370 million a year — meaning an overall increase for the scheme of $743m a year.
Little said Labour would use about $890m of the $1.5 billion saved from scrapping the tax cuts for a more generous Working for Families scheme and other help for lowincome families while putting the rest into public services and infrastructure.
Little said the package would honour the party’s commitment to reduce child poverty.
“Labour’s priority is about people, backing families and strengthening communities. In the end none of these things get fixed unless we change one thing — and that’s the Government.”
Labour deputy leader Jacinda Ardern explained the Best Start package was motivated by the one in four children living in poverty.
All parents would receive $60 a week for the first year of the child’s life. For parents receiving Paid Parental Leave the payments would start after it ends.
“This recognises how hard and just how important that first year of life is,” Ardern said. “I know this package will make a significant difference to those who need it most.”
Parents who earn less than $79,000 will get the $60 until their child turns 3.
Finance spokesman Grant Robert- son said every family that earned less than $62,000 would be better off. He gave an example of a family with one child earning $50,000 in Auckland. They would be up to $5000 a year better off than at present, he said.
Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust chief executive John Tamihere told the Herald any financial increase to low-income families would be good for everyone and grease the economy.
“That money is instantly invested weekly back into the economy. It’s not held in cash deposits. It goes immediately on better clothes for the kids.”
Tamihere believed that while employment was high, many Kiwis were just “treading water” despite working two or three jobs to cover the cost of housing.
Grey Power president Tom O’Connor said the Families Package was well overdue and a sign Labour was heading back to its roots of looking after the most vulnerable New Zealanders.
O’Connor supported the Winter Energy Payment of $700 for couples and parents with children at home and $450 for single people. But he wanted it to be implemented as a credit so desperate families wouldn’t use it for groceries, leaving them without money for heating.
Auckland Action Against Poverty co-ordinator Vanessa Cole said the policies were a step in the right direction but did not go far enough. She criticised the party for maintaining the fiscal responsibility policy that focused on reducing public spending.