Tolley Anne: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTolley Anne: General Debate[Sitting date: 04 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10757. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Social Development): That was an interesting speech from the Leader of the Opposition who accuses this side of the House and the Government of being concerned about the people at the top and who then spends 4½ of his 5 minutes talking about people at the top. I say to that member: look in the mirror—look in the mirror.The Opposition members are the only ones who are talking about the people at the top. When you look at what this Government is doing you see that last month every beneficiary with a family with children got an extra $25 a week in their benefit. It is the first time in 43 years that that has happened but that is what this Government is delivering to New Zealanders because this Government understands what is actually happening on the ground. This Government is not involved in scandal and in relaying the time lines of who said what to whom among people whom actually the average New Zealander does not care about like Mr Whitney—absolutely. I want to talk about—and this Government is focused on—those children who continue to be abusedin this country whether it is physically or sexually who are neglected and who are in the worst circumstances as we have seen in the courts this week killed by the very people who should be the ones who love and nurture them.Last year I appointed an expert panel to lead a complete overhaul of the Child Youth and Family system so that we can get better results in the lives of those young people. The panel’s first report gave us some dire statistics that absolutely laid out why this Government needs to focus on the long-term outcomes for those children—because the statistics are horrendous. The panel looked at a group of children who were in a care placement and who were born in the year from June 1990 to June 1991 and the panel found that of those children who had come into care—that is the State became their parent—almost 90 percent were on a benefit by the age of 21. Around 25 percent were on a benefit with a child almost 80 percent did not have National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2 more than 30 percent had a youth justice referral by aged 18 almost 20 percent had a custodial sentence and almost 40 percent had a community sentence. That means the system is not working for the very people it was set up to keep safe and to lead successful lives.We are going to change that system. We are going to take it apart and put it back together in a different way—a way that is focused on meeting the needs of those young people a way that gives those young people a say and a way that focuses on five core services rather than just crisis management. We want to work with those children and their families from prevention through to the transition into independence. We want a system that recognises that the child’s needs for safety and love and stability have to come first. They have to come before the adult agendas and we have to ensure that it is a system that takes the voice of the child into account.The new model needs to have the ability to purchase services that that child needs when they need it. I have to say I have been amazed at people who use ideology to argue that those children should remain on waiting lists for State services rather than have a private provider provide the counselling or the therapy when that child needs it. Who would believe that people would be willing to see that happen for an ideological thought or belief and put children’s lives at risk? That will not happen in the new system. The new system will also be—Jacinda Ardern: Who said that?Hon ANNE TOLLEY: Yes there are people who have said that. The age of care will be raised initially to include 17-year-olds. What parent in their right mind expects a child to cope on their own at age 17? But we are also going to look at what care needs to be provided for these young people up to age 25. This system is going to change. It has to change. These children deserve nothing less.