Collins Judith: Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) — In Committee 
[Volume:633;Page:5149] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 This is a particularly interesting part of the Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) because many people have wondered just how many people it was meant to assist. Part 2 is really about stopping people from having to pay the liable parent contribution if they have been the victims of sex abuse rape or things like that. It is also about getting information through about sex offenders for the purposes of those child support exemptions. So it is about providing exemptions. 
Many of us on the Social Services Committee wondered just how many people we were talking about here—how many people who had been the victims of sex abuse would end up being liable parents. If a woman who has been a rape victim is now a liable parent that implies to me that the rapist or the rapist’s family has custody of the child. For the life of me I could not quite understand why we in this country would be letting rapists and their families have custody of a child. 
Paula Bennett 
: The Minister could take a call on that. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: The Minister may be able to set us right because certainly in the select committee we did not seem to get any sensible argument on that issue or any indication as to why that would be the case. Some of us thought that maybe it was to address the situation of a young man being sexually abused by an older woman and that is a possibility. Perhaps that is the situation that the Minister is trying to deal with but many of us were quite puzzled because we did not hear any particular evidence of that happening. Given that this is quite technical legislation we could not quite understand how that measure fitted into the whole tenor of the bill and its writing-off of penalties. 
Certainly the Minister has taken some calls about how parents want to be good parents. I am sorry to tell him that although most parents are good parents and want to be good parents there are some ratbags out there. I see he is agreeing with me. Unfortunately just saying to those who wish to be ratbags who are ratbags and who think only of themselves—not of their children—that their penalties will be written off if they are good and pay the arranged amount will not bring about a change of heart. 
 I will go into a slightly personal matter here if I may. I had a grandfather who just before the Great Depression skipped off overseas back to England leaving my poor old grandmother with seven little children and without a scrap of maintenance during that time. He left her and ran off with another woman—as men do; and no doubt with a younger flasher version than my grandmother. Having seven kids to look after—in her case it would have been eight but one child died—does not do a hell of a lot for the figure frankly and neither is it likely to do much for one’s disposition particularly when one has a feckless husband. I do not think for a moment that anyone told my grandfather that he needed to pay any penalty and at no stage in his life did he ever front up with anything for poor old grandma and the children. So I do not quite understand why we are supposed to believe that feckless blokes and a few women as well will suddenly have a change of heart and become wonderful nice kind people who take their responsibilities seriously and look after their children when frankly they have never done so. 
This part also contains particularly important information about the information that the Ministry of Justice and the New Zealand Police are able to provide concerning sex offences for the purpose of child support exemptions. That is not particularly an area the National Party has any great problems with although we would want to make sure that persons who have been the victims of sex offences do not have their private information unduly displayed to the whole of the Inland Revenue Department. I would like to hear from the Minister about that because I think it would be very difficult for people who have been rape victims to come out anywhere and say to a stranger working in the Inland Revenue Department: “Hey look at me. I’m a rape victim.” I just wonder how those people will be protected and I think it is incredibly important that we understand what this part is supposed to deal with.