Hayes JoJO HAYES (National): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I stand to take a call on the Child Poverty Reduction Bill. I agree with everything that this side has said about this particular bill.David Seymour: Including me?JO HAYES: It will go nowhere—including Mr Seymour over there. It will go nowhere because it is about Government working with Government agencies telling people what to do and trying to measure that. You won't actually get to measure anything because one of the things—when I've worked with whānau out there in their communities—is it is always policies and bills and pieces of legislation like this that come over the top of whānau and bash them over the head with it.They're saying this is an ambitious bill. I can tell you right now the Government wouldn't know ambition if it punched them in the face—I can tell you right now. They wouldn't know it because they have never listened to the people that are on the ground.Now let's take a look at Whānau Ora. I haven't heard anything from the Government about Whānau Ora yet this particular bill actually targets—the target population for child poverty is located within the Māori populations yet we have a number of really good initiatives that are actually making headway amongst whānau under the Whānau Ora framework.When I look at clause 45 in Part 3 of this particular bill replacement Part 1 of the Vulnerable Children Act I look at it and I think Government strategy for improving children's well-being and oranga tamariki action plan." So "oranga tamariki"—going to work with the chief executive going to work with ministries and Government agencies to make sure that they're achieving the measures that Government and the agencies are putting together. I look at it and I think "oranga tamariki"—"oranga tamariki"—where are the children in this bill? Where are the children advisers in this bill? The Minister's going to talk to the agencies but where is the voice of youth in this bill? There is no voice of youth in this bill.I am not going to repeat everything that everybody else has said that's wrong with this bill because at the end of the day this is a bill about children for children yet children aren't even in it. They're going to get dealt to. Agencies are going to go into communities—and I know; I've worked in communities where Government policy has stood over the top and bashed us around the head.Hon Kris Faafoi: Did you read the bill?JO HAYES: Yes I have read the bill. I have looked at the bill and I was thinking now what good things would come out of this bill for whānau—for whānau? What are the good things that are going to come out—what are the good things that are going to come out for children? I can see that there is going to be absolutely nothing.Just recently when the Government took away the Better Public Services targets—and I think why would you do that when you had no targets for this particular bill anyway? When we start to look at National's Better Public Services targets it is a big and multifaceted way of actually addressing poverty within communities. It is like reducing long-term welfare dependency. As David Seymour said in his speech it is about getting people into jobs. Why isn't this Government actually targeting to get people into jobs? Why isn't that one of the targets—reducing welfare dependency? We all know that welfare dependency actually gets families for generations and generations on welfare benefits and we've got to get them off welfare benefits. So what is wrong with that particular target?Supporting vulnerable children—OK so we change a name but where will this bill actually support vulnerable children through Oranga Tamariki? It's not going to because they're too busy measuring stuff. There is no one piece of policy or clause in this bill that actually does something for our children on the ground in whānau in communities. What on earth is going on with that Government? I can tell you right now—not a hell of a lot of thinking has gone into actually developing this bill. The other side is boosting skills and employment. Well you boost skills people get employed we reduce people off the benefits and what do we get? We get very strong whānau. The Government needs to go and take on board the work that Sir Mason Durie has done around Whānau Ora and the targets that they set within Whānau Ora around the framework. [Interruption] You can yell and you can shout and you can carry on—the Government can do all that—but at the end of the day this bill's going to go nowhere. It's not going to help anybody any family and it will not reduce child poverty. [Interruption] ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Members I'm having trouble hearing the member deliver her speech thank you.JO HAYES: Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. The fourth side of the targets that National had—these are all targets that can be picked up and put into this bill—was reducing crime and reoffending. We know that when people get jobs when people are well-educated or get an opportunity to be well-educated offending and crime actually drop in a community and these are key to actually growing whānau and the abilities of whānau. Why—why—is this Government not actually looking at that? Why again are they implementing measures that actually can't be measured? Why? Why—why? The last thing was around improving interaction with Government. Well actually there is nothing in that bill where it says it's improving interaction with Government. What it's doing is Government's talking to Government agencies and then Government agencies are going to be doing all of this work about people rather than with people—with families.This is a very bad bill but it can be improved. I'm not saying—I'm not saying to the Government—that your time this time can actually come forward and the bill can be made really really good. What I'm saying is look at the Better Public Services targets that National had put together in the last Government. Look at all of the things around the Families Package that National had put in place in the run-up to the election. Take some of those things. Don't be pigheaded or blindfolded or blinkered because all Government wants to do is just shut everything out. Cherry-pick the good stuff and we had many good things for improving and reducing—improving children's well-being and reducing child poverty.In one of the contributions I heard today just before I stood up from the Government I heard one of them talking a little bit about children not going to school with shoes and all of those things that they need. Now in Christchurch East I met up with some people that live in one of our low socio-economic areas. She works with a number of children and one of the things that she said is some of those things like giving children shoes clothing etc.—even some food—sometimes didn't actually help those children. Sometimes the parents wouldn't actually use all of the material they were given for their children. At times they would find them hidden in a wardrobe in the house. The money through benefits that this particular family got went on alcohol every fortnight. So really at the end of the day when you start to look at reducing child poverty you need to look at a broad spectrum of all of the great programmes that are out there on the ground that are actually working to improve the well-being of all whānau.Now Mason Durie once said if you improve the Māori nation you improve the whole nation. That's what he said and what he meant by that is that because Māori have got the highest statistics in this particular area that this bill is targeting one of the things that the Government needs to look at is how on earth they are going to be accountable to Māori whānau if they start tinkering around with things like Whānau Ora. Even Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill has been taken off the list. It has been taken off because the Government is saying they're going to have another look at it. Well get it back into the House and start to move it forward because that particular bill will actually help to advance the economy and well-being of iwi.Talking about iwi iwi are not in this bill. Consultation with iwi is not in this bill. I've looked in it and tried to find where iwi consultation is. There is no iwi consultation in this bill. There is no youth consultation in this bill. It is about Government talking to ministries—that's what it's about—and ministries reporting back to Government. Why would you do that? Why not bring in everybody that's working on the ground with our whānau?Hon Shane Jones: He waiata.JO HAYES: We can talk about trees—well actually we can't talk about trees because you're not going to hit your targets. The Government will not hit their targets even if they ask the forestry industry to keep growing and expanding. I want to see this bill go to first reading and let's have a look at it. Thank you."