Bennett Paula: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett Paula: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 30 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15712. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development): It is with great pleasure that I stand up to support the Prime Minister’s statement. I did not expect so early in the year to see the return of the yeah nah leader and the yeah nah party. I do not know about anyone else. I thought maybe David Cunliffe had learnt something over Christmas. Maybe he would have sort of thought about it but immediately we were back into: “Yeah baby bonus—59000 babies a year getting $60 a week for 52 weeks. Nah nah nah—not for those 26000 that are getting parental leave. They will not get actually that $60 a week.” So yeah but nah. It is not what he actually said they would get so he backtracks immediately. And yeah nah those who are earning over $60000 a year are probably not really going to get $60 a week in their hands. That one you might think about but actually if he is going to up the top tax rates—let us think about this—he is going to tax people more so take the money off them but then yeah nah if you are one of those and have a baby he will give a bit back to you so you are actually not better off by $60 a week because the top tax rate is going up. So Labour is going to tax you more and take more out of your pay packet but then yeah nah some of you will get it back.Then by the way the parental tax credit will not be there any more so you were taking that off people. Yes you are giving them the $60 a week but they are not really getting $60 a week when you add it all up; they are getting more like $23 a week for 52 weeks so yeah nah that does not quite add up. This is the great baby bonus.Do you know what I think? I think that Labour had a totally different announcement to make on Monday. It actually had a bit of it with the paid parental leave maybe but David Cunliffe was going to give a completely different speech. Then when John Key trumped it with his excellent education policy and when Labour members read what thecommentators all said the week before—which was that they were expecting Labour to come out with a great social speech that is going to tackle this so-called growth of inequality that we are seeing and that they had made up—they all of sudden rethought it and in big hurry had to bring forward an announcement that I think they had for a lot later in the year and had to try to run this one out. That is why we have seen the mistakes that is why we have seen the gaps and that is why we have seen them not know the detail to the level that they should and they have completely embarrassed themselves already in the first few weeks of this year.I will tell you the main reason I am standing here supporting this Prime Minister and this Government: I have seen—through the toughest times—a Government that has supported those who have needed it most. I have seen an increase in hardship grants given to those who needed it when we saw that recession hit. I have seen extra payments for those in Christchurch which went through employers to keep those people attached to jobs. I have seen subsidies for wages like we have never seen before and they are increasing rapidly.There are many good reasons and I am sure I could stand up here and try to take a bit of credit for that myself but it has been because of the leadership of John Key. John Key and this Government believe in aspiration and hope for every child in this country. We believe that they are not necessarily predetermined to be a product of where and how they are born. We believe that no matter what your income is who your parents are or which State house you may or may not live in there is hope there is aspiration and there is belief in you—that is those children and their abilities. We may disagree in this House on what we have to do to back those kids but no one—no one in this House and no one outside of it—should deny that this Government cares deeply for them and will make decisions that we passionately believe are in their best interests.I say to members in this House and I say to anyone who may be listening that there are far too many children in this country who are living daily lives of hell. We have more than 22000 substantiated cases of abuse and neglect. Do you know what? In my world and for all that I know my guess is—and it is a guess—that I reckon that is about a third of it as far as being at the level of where there should be State Child Youth and Family intervention.On top of that we have another 10 to 15 percent of truly vulnerable children whom we hope we get with programmes like Family Start and Strengthening Families but we have to say to our ourselves that with all of the investment and the money that we have been putting in for a long time—not just this Government but quite frankly Labour as well right through the 2000s—we have not got the right resources to the right children early enough to see them actually have a safe protected and loving environment that means that they can thrive.The Children’s Action Plan delivers that. It is not one magic bullet not one magic thing that I will do. It is not a programme that we will address. It is a concerted way of working with more than 30 initiatives that all unapologetically put those children at the centre of all of the policy work we are doing and the community work on the ground. We are working with iwi we are working withWhānau Ora we are working with police and education and we are working with health at such a level.Two Children’s Teams already exist and we are seeing children going through them. There is one plan for that child—one plan that everyone agrees to. There is a solid relationship with an expert who can get in alongside of them and their parents. We are not just working with the child because we know that to see the best outcomes for them you have to work with the adults around them as well. We are working on them making sure that those children have access to the right services and the right time that they need.There are the right staunch advocates. It is quite frankly being delivered by some outstanding NGOs around this country. The difference that the Children’s Team gives them is that it gives them accountability. It gives them direct access to the most senior members in their area and their region who can break down the barriers that mean that these children cannot get access to the services that they need quickly.Let us be honest some of these parents do not have the capability that you or I might have to staunchly advocate for what they and their children should get by right of being in this country by right of being New Zealanders or by being here and having direct access to the sorts of health treatments the kind of education and everything else that they can. This puts that person right next to them. It then gives them a lead professional from health education justice and the police.How can a child progress when their court case—perhaps for custody or some sort of allegations that are around them—has been put off three times? How can we actually see that child make the right connections with the people they need to move forward from something horrendous—what we are seeing for far too many thousands of kids in our country? The Children’s Teams can break that down and actually give direct access to the lead experts in justice in that region and make sure that because this child is particularly vulnerable they are fast-tracked and given priority.When we do gateway assessments which is when we do a full medical assessment on some of these children what we see are far too many unmet health needs. Let us be honest these are health needs that you and I might have identified in our own children. You know they are not seeing right or for some of them we are talking about club feet and not being able to walk properly—some pretty horrendous stuff. We are able to get them that sort of access.If we want to have a debate about children and babies this year for election year let us talk about our most vulnerable. Let us actually address the shame that we should have about how some of our children are treated by the very people who are supposed to love and protect them. Let us all carry that shame and turn it into action. Let us unashamedly say that we will put more resources into them. Let us put them at the front of the queue ahead of our own children because that is where they deserve to be because they actually need extra support and help.If we as this House want to actually address what needs to be done for those babies and for those children then we need to stand up together and actually recognise what it will take. It is going to take more than us. It is actually going to take the community and those NGOs. It is going to take each of those police officers out there. It is going to take our courts to actually address what needs to be done and our health departments to recognise that maybe if they have got two kids with the same needs but one is vulnerable and one is not they will prioritise that vulnerable child.I will be the Minister who will stand up and advocate and fight for that with everything we have. If you want a fight on your hands this election about vulnerable children let us do it but let us stand together on it.