Roche Denise: Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 03 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4318. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green): I rise to take a short call on this bill because I like many others on this side of the House would like to see this bill passed tonight rather than waiting for another long drawn-out process to ensue before carers and kin carers can actually get a little bit of assistance. We support this bill.I want to pay tribute to Tracey Martin for bringing this bill to the House. It is an example of an MP who has seen a need from constituents and where she has actually decided to address that need. This House is actually working towards doing something good for kin carers after all—it is not often it happens—and so Tracey Martin I do appreciate the fact that you have worked really hard to get it here.The reason we support this bill is that we too agree that the carers of children who are not their own orphans or family members who are not in foster care but are being cared for by their kin have been discriminated against. This bill will make the difference of over $1000 a year. We do have to wonder whether in the context of the benefit increases that the Government is trumpeting loud and wide these people are actually going to be any better off than what they would have been if they had been able to access that $25 a week increase. What I do have some concerns about and I am still not clear on is whether the $25 increase in the benefit allowances that the Government has introduced in the last Budget will actually go to those people who are caring for these children—kin carers who are on unsupported child benefits. I am not sure that that is the case. If these carers are not getting that benefit this addition of just over a thousand dollars a year—and it will not be introduced for a couple of years—they will be falling behind and they basically will be even with this in place.I have read through the submissions and I do have to congratulate the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Trust which certainly raised its voice about it. When I read through the submissions some of them were incredibly moving. They talked about the discrimination and the loss of income that they faced when they moved from being a foster carer of their grandchild potentially or other children to being a kin carer. As one person put it Mr Hunt “I support the bill because as a Grandfather raising a Grandson he has the same needs and level of support whether he is under CYFS control or WINZ control … In fact had I been fully aware of the huge inequity in financial support for my Grandson (from CYFS to WINZ) I would have ‘fought’ to stay under CYFS control. I strongly believe my Grandson is better off in ‘family care’ than foster … yet we are penalised because we are a caring loving family wanting to look after their own!”.If we accept that in the State support sector it is better for children to be raised by whānau family and grandparents than it is to be wards of the State and raised by strangers or in institutions God forbid if we accept that it is better for them to be looked after by their own kin then we should be acknowledging that and not exploiting those family members because we can. We have seen this time and time again in this House. We have seen it with the way this Government has treated family carers of adult children with disabilities and the enormous lengths this Government has gone to to prevent those family carers of adults with disabilities from getting any type of top-up in their support any type of equity.Although this is a very small improvement and it is an improvement that does not kick in for 2 years—and we acknowledge that that was a deal that Tracey Martin had to do to get this into place—we will be supporting this bill. We think it is a good thing that she has brought to the House and we commend it.