Winners earning $98,000 a year

Shane and Teri Ta'ala with Teuila, 9, Tearai, 12, and Ahlia-Mei, 7 (left to right), and Khyber, 17 months. Picture / Dean Purcell

The Ta'ala family of Grafton feels that its decision to stay in New Zealand has been vindicated by a $4400 windfall from Labour's boost to family support.

Communications consultant Shane Ta'ala and his wife, Teri, a librarian, earned $98,000 between them last year, well above the $70,600 cut-off point for family support subsidies for a four-child family under last year's Working for Families package.

A few months ago Mr Ta'ala rang the Work and Income Department to check whether the family would benefit.

"We were told no, we missed out, we earned too much," he said.

"We were actually looking at moving to Melbourne. We typed our income into a website ... and it spat out the Government subsidies we would qualify for in Australia.

"We found that even on our present salaries we were on, we qualified for A$6250 [$6790] of family tax credits and on top of that A$9800 of family support benefit."

In the end they stayed and yesterday Labour announced an increase in the family support income limit for a four-child family to $109,880.

If Labour wins the election, based on their income last year, the Ta'alas will gain an extra $2376 a year ($46 a week) from next April, and a further $2080 ($40) from April 2007, making a total increase of $86 a week.

Mr Ta'ala said many might not realise the costs of a family with four.

"I live in central Auckland. My son goes to Kowhai Intermediate. They had a competition for the parents who had the most children, and we won it. We were shocked.

"You want your children to have piano lessons and have coaching for sport, and sport now is like business - it's people's careers.

"Those are sort of luxury items, especially if you live in town."

Tearai Ta'ala, aged 12, has just finished a school trip that cost $150 for five days, and has another one coming up costing at least $350. He likes to go snowboarding.

His sister Teuila, a 9-year-old at Newton Central School, plays rugby. She and another sister Ahlia-Mei, 7, both have school trips too.

It costs $100 a week for baby Khyber's childcare, as his mother works on Mondays and Fridays. She also works on Saturdays when Mr Ta'ala can look after the children.