Q+A: Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei interviewed by Greg Boyed
The Green Party announces “budget for all mothers”
“Parents need more time and more money to be able to do a great job of taking care of their kids,” said Green Party
co-leader Metiria Turei.
Speaking to Greg Boyed on Q+A this morning Ms Turei announced her party’s new plan to extend the parental tax credit,
increase sick leave from five to 10 days per year, provide a waha kura baby pod for all newborns and extend the OSCAR
subsidies for after school and school holiday care.
“When we get to the Government in September of this year, then we will have more access to all of the information from
Treasury. We know it’s affordable. We know that it is necessary,” said Ms Turei.
“We can't keep having systems like the parental tax credit and the in-work tax credit which discriminate against the
families that have the greatest need, and especially for families who are bringing home a newborn baby. It can be very
difficult. They need as much support as possible. $2000 a family is not much for the government to be providing that
assistance,” she says.
END
Please find the full transcript attached and you can watch the interview here.
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Q + A
Episode 11
METIRIA TUREI
Interviewed by Greg Boyed
GREGGreen Party co-leader Metiria Turei. First of all, if I can just get your reaction to what Bill English had to say about
the TPP.
METIRIA First of all, he refused to give Corin the numbers of the value of the deal to New Zealand now that the US is
out. They must know what those numbers are. The last numbers that they made public was less than 1% of GDP. So now the
US is gone, it begs the question of — what is the value of the deal to the New Zealand economy now? And they should come
out with those numbers and be honest about it. And two, New Zealand will have to bear all of the costs of the US
demands, like the length in copyright protection, like their tax on Pharmac, but none of the potential benefits. And on
top of that, the investor-state dispute process will undermine any of the human rights or environmental protections in
the agreement. So it’s still a very bad deal for the country, and the New Zealand public do not want a bar of it.
GREGLet’s get to why you are here. You have an announcement. The Greens have an announcement. It’s going to benefit mothers.
Tell us what this is.
METIRIAYes, so, this is the budget for all mothers, and what it does is it provides support for both time and money. Parenting
is really difficult at times but an incredibly important job, and parents need more time and more money to be able to do
a great job of taking care of their kids. So this package has— the budget for all mothers has four parts to it —
extending the parental tax credit, increasing sick leave from five to 10 days a year, a waha kura baby pod for all
newborns where their families want it and extending the OSCAR subsidies to give parents more time during after-school
and during the school holidays.
GREGHow will the parental tax credit work? What are we talking numbers-wise?
METIRIA Right, so, all families are entitled to either the paid parental leave or the parental tax credit, but that
excludes all families who are on the benefit or who receive New Zealand superannuation or who are on ACC or who get a
student allowance. So there are about 20,000 newborn babies and their families who do not get access to any of that
support that other families do. That’s unfair. We want to have a fair system. So we will extend the parental tax credit
to those families who are currently excluded. Many of those families need as much help as possible when their babies are
very little. It means $220 a week for the first 10 weeks that they bring their babies home.
GREG$220 a week for 10 weeks, about 20,000 people affected, around 44 million is the bottom line. Where does that come from?
Where is that money from?
METIRIAIt’s going to come out of government budgets. When we get to the government in September of this year, then we will have
more access to all of the information from Treasury. We know it’s affordable. We know that it is necessary. We can't
keep having systems like the parental tax credit and the in-work tax credit which discriminate against the families that
have the greatest need, and especially for families who are bringing home a newborn baby. It can be very difficult. They
need as much support as possible. $2000 a family is not much for the government to be providing that assistance.
GREGThat said, $220 a week for some families – this is not means-tested. Some people are not going to need this, yet I
suspect they’re going to apply anyway. What do you do there?
METIRIAWe want this to have universal access.
GREGBecause it’s not means-tested, is that right?
METIRIA There is an abatement rate at the moment, but we want to get rid of that. And I understand it. But one, for
those high-income families, it doesn't always mean that because someone is earning a lot of money in that family that
the mother and the baby are getting what they need. And so then you have to decide — is it worse that some people who
don't need it as much will get it? Or is it worse that people who do need it don’t get it? I want all mothers and babies
to have access to the best possible financial support when they bring their babies home from the hospital. So I think
it’s much better if it’s universal. It’s less complicated, and we know then that no baby or their mum will miss out.
GREGWhat sort of difference is this—? $220 a week for 10 weeks – what sort of difference is this actually going to make?
METIRIAIt makes a huge difference. Even government papers are saying that when families bring their new babies home, they’re
the most financially constrained, they’re under a great deal of stress, often, that mothers and their families will
spend that money on things they need for the baby. They’re also often on better-quality food for the breastfeeding mum.
I mean, these are ways of making sure that mums and babies have the best chance of the great start of life for that
little baby. You know, good food, less parental stress – these are all really important for new families.
GREGThis is going to hit business owners, though.
METIRIAOh, the leave provision—
GREGAnd it’s going to cost them, isn’t it?
METIRIAWell, look, the sick leave provisions is essential. When we rung up mothers to talk about this, the one thing that they
say, ‘Oh my God, yes, please,’ is more leave – domestic leave.
GREGOf course they’d say it.
METIRIAYeah, well, that’s right, because, you know, not only do they need it for themselves when they’re sick, but they need it
to take care of their kids. You know, any parent who’s had a baby with a three-day vomiting bug knows that you need to
have more leave. We know that 80% of workers who are on collective agreements – so negotiated with their unions – get
more than the minimum five days anyway. So we’re saying, ‘Look, let’s bring it up to 10 days a year for a worker,’ and
that means that people have the chance to both have sick leave and have domestic leave to take care of their kids, but
also grandparents to take care of their grandchildren when they need to and people of our generation taking care of our
parents too when they need it.
GREGBut if you’re a small business owner, and all of a sudden, it goes from five days to 10 days sick leave a year, that’s
going to hurt you in the pocket.
METIRIAFor some small business owners, that might be true. It's also true that most of those people will have been parents
themselves or are now, and they know how important it is for parents to have the time that they need to take care of
their kids. We know, for low-income parents who are working in very insecure employment, that they are very nervous
about taking extra days off to take their kids to the doctor, because they’re worried that they’ll be fired if they take
extra days, unpaid days, and we also know that kids who don’t get to the doctor soon enough are the ones most likely to
end up in hospital with serious bronchial illnesses that will affect them for life. So if we want to make sure that our
babies are getting access to the best health support they need, then their parents need the time to be able to get them
to the doctor and take care of them.
GREGYou have an MOU with Labour, of course.
METIRIAYup.
GREGHave you spoken to them about this? Their thoughts are what?
METIRIAYup, they know about this policy. I know they know about this policy. I’m not sure what their response is. This is why
we need to be talking about the value of parenting to the New Zealand community, because if New Zealanders want
parenting to be valued in this new and progressive government that we intend to form with Labour, then we need the
greatest amount of support for the Greens to get these policies through.
GREGOkay, I wonder is this—? A lot of people see Greens; they’re environmental. Is this type of thing—? Social policy, is
this the sort of thing you should be pushing?
METIRIAOh—
GREG Particularly gave your memorandum of understanding with Labour?
METIRIAYes. Yes. Yes, absolutely. This election we’ll be talking a lot about families, the cost of living that families are
suffering and making sure that families have got what they need to do a great job of taking care of themselves and their
kids, and we’ll be talking a lot about the environment and particularly water, because we know clean water is so
critical both to our economy but also to our communities. So the Greens, we’ve always—
GREGIsn’t it tough to spin two plates three months—four months out from an election?
METIRIANo, this is an election campaign. This is when we get to talk about the great ideas that the Greens will put in place
when we are in government after September, and so the more we can talk about the breadth of policy that will take care
of families and take care of our environment, the better. We know that New Zealanders really value their own families
and really value their environment. That’s what the Green Party stands for.
GREG If there is a Greens-Labour government, your thoughts if asked about a Donald Trump administration – presuming
he’s still around then – would be what?
METIRIA Well, as you know the Green Party did not support the motion to congratulate Trump when he took the presidency,
and we maintain that critique. I think Bill English is the prime minister, and any prime minister should reflect the
concerns of the New Zealand public. I think the New Zealand public are very concerned about what Trump's election has
meant, and we’re seeing amazing disasters happen in America as a result of that election. So really, I think our
leaders, our political leaders should be reflecting the public concern more openly.
GREGAll right, Greens Party co-leader Metiria Turei, thanks for coming in.
METIRIAKia ora.