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National’s childcare pledge ‘not well thought through’ – Sepuloni
The National Party leader has promised to give more families more money to cover the cost of childcare if elected in October.
Christopher Luxon unveiled Family Boost – National’s childcare tax rebate – during his state-of-the-nation speech in Auckland on Sunday.
The government has criticised the policy, describing National’s plan as “not very well thought through”.
Under National’s proposal, a family earning up to $180,000 could get a rebate. The exact amount would depend on how much is spent on childcare.
Families earning up to $140,000 and paying $400 a week could get a maximum of $75 a week, down to $25 a week if the weekly bill is $100.
The rate would reduce for family incomes over that, topping out at just under $19 a week for those on $180,000.
“Our plan will specifically target lower and middle-income families, to make their lives a bit easier,” Luxon told the crowd in Parnell.
Simeon Brown Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
The policy would cost just under $250 million a year and would be funded by reducing the number of consultants in the public sector.
National’s spokesperson for the public service Simeon Brown said the amount spent on contractors and consultants had significantly increased under Labour.
“We’re going to set clear directions to departments and agencies around how they need to reduce the reliance on consultants and contractors, we’re not going to do unnecessary restructures, we’re going to be making sure that there is quarterly reporting of all of the different consultants and contractors across the agencies and the departments,” Brown said.
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said it was “good to see National finally recognising the importance of childcare assistance.”
Carmel Sepuloni Photo: RNZ/ Samuel Rillstone
National’s policy was “not very well thought through and doesn’t target those who need the most help, particularly those on the lowest incomes”, Sepuloni said.
She accused National of not properly considering how they would pay for the policy.
“When we introduced 20 Hours ECE in 2007 there was an increase in average hours attended per week for three and four-year-olds of around 8 -10 percent,” Sepuloni said.
“If just a quarter of the 130,000 households increase the number of hours their child spends in childcare by five hours a week, their policy blows out by around $70 million a year – and that’s likely to be a conservative estimate.”
Luxon rejected that.
“We factored some of that – that there might be more growth,” Luxon said.
“I mean, the great thing here is it also just gives families more choices. So for partners, being able to get back into the workforce, and we have lots of job shortages and opportunities. That’s a good thing. If families choose to want to be able to work longer hours then they can, knowing that they’ve got some more support … So for us, it’s all about choice.
“But yes, certainly we’ve looked at … levels of growth, and we’re very comfortable with it,” he said.
The Labour government late last year announced its own measures to support families with the cost of childcare, which kick in from 1 April.
It increased the income threshold for the childcare subsidy, which had been frozen for 12 years.
Under the policy, a family with two parents both working 40 hours a week on $26 an hour with two children under 5 will be eligible for $252 a week.
But exactly how much each family saves on childcare will depend on how many hours they work, their income, how long their children spend in care and the cost of it.
Luxon said National’s policy would be in addition to the childcare subsidy.
“Everything else remains. It’s an ‘and’, not an ‘or’.”
The ‘Family Boost’ policy was about providing relief to parents, but National would deal with the early childhood education cost structure, Luxon said.
“We will have more to say about that in future.”
SOURCE RNZ
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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