Hon Peter Dunne
MP for Ohariu
Leader of UnitedFuture
Monday, 7 November 2011

Dunne: make families as important as the economy

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne, the architect of Income Sharing, says New Zealand is paying lip service to families’ real needs as he called for an annual report card on whether families are being helped or hurt by government policy.

“And that needs to start by measuring the way policies impact on families with the same vigour that Treasury measures economic impacts of policy and law.

“It is just not happening for families in any meaningful way, and when it is done, it is given very little weight in government thinking.

“This needs to change,” Mr Dunne said.

“When was the last time you saw a policy dropped because it made life harder for families?” he asked.

“Families are too often an after-thought in New Zealand politics, and as a result they are constantly batted around.

“All the right sound bites are produced; all the buzz words are used, but in the end I do not think anyone can seriously say that New Zealand families are at the top of the economic agenda.

“Our accountability cannot be all for the economy and very little for the family.

“In the end, the economy is there to serve New Zealand, and that means to serve our families, and not the other way around,” he said.

In releasing the State of the Family Report Card today, Mr Dunne said there needs to be some “serious rethinking” of how New Zealand supports families.

The report card includes assessments of the cost of raising children, household income, housing affordability, access to healthcare, educational outcomes and work/life balance.

“There may well be others – but we need to move measures such as these to the top of the political agenda, and not leave them at the bottom,” Mr Dunne said.

The full Report Card on the State of the Family can be found at http://www.unitedfuture.org.nz/state-of-the-family-a-report-card-3/ and below.

The report card concept is based on a British initiative implemented as part of the current Conservatives / Liberal Democrat coalition deal.

Other key family-focused UnitedFuture policies include Income Sharing (which is now half-way through Parliament), and Flexi-Super (allowing eligibility to superannuation from 60 to 70, with compulsory KiwiSaver in place).

ENDS

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