Sabin Mike: Child Support Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sabin Mike: Child Support Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 26 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8180. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MIKE SABIN (National—Northland) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to take a call on the second reading of the Child Support Amendment Bill. I will just acknowledge the previous speaker Le’aufa’amulia Asenati Lole-Taylor and the select committee work that has gone on. It is fair to say that it has been a challenging bill to work on because of the complex and administrative nature of the bill. The Child Support Act itself commenced back in 1992. Is that right? 
Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga 
: Yes. 
MIKE SABIN 
: I am just correcting my facts there. 
There were some comments made by Opposition speakers about the disappointment they felt that this bill did not enshrine the notion of children being at the heart of this legislation and that that was not explicitly stated in the legislation. The reason for that—and it was well traversed—was because it is implicit in this legislation that children are at the heart of what is essentially an administrative tool to ensure that where separated parents cannot agree on childcare and payment arrangements this can be achieved by way of legislation. That will never be an easy undertaking. I would submit that although there are indeed many complexities to this legislation and getting the formula right it is first and foremost about administration and it is dealing with human complexities far more so than this formula could ever be. But at its heart it is about ensuring that parents can make arrangements that are in the best interests of their children. Sadly there are many families who cannot make those arrangements in an amicable manner and some 220000 children are subject to child support arrangements. 
This legislation really fundamentally drills down to some important changes that are occurring. I just want to briefly traverse those. Firstly in relation to the formula and a greater recognition of shared care in modern New Zealand we live in a dynamic environment now where it seems that more than 50 percent of couples are separated with children living in blended environments. Many of them succeed and do well in these environments but this legislation needs to reflect that complexity. Secondly we are updating the scheme to better recognise significant daytime care because it is the case now that mothers and fathers have different care and working arrangements and the involvement of fathers is increasing more as the years go on. I think that is a very positive thing and something that should be acknowledged: that fathers are playing a greater role in the upbringing of their children. The third thing is that it really looks at some improvements around payments penalties and debt. Two billion dollars worth of debt is accrued in the scheme some 60 percent by way of penalties. Although there were the best of intentions in this legislation when it was first drafted much time has moved on. Unfortunately as we see we often get anomalies that not only have a human cost but also a financial cost to them. That is also being addressed in this bill. 
I will briefly cover off and close on a point about the fact that this bill is setting about to be more equitable in terms of the thresholds of care and the shared-care arrangements and lowering that threshold to 28 percent as opposed to 40 percent. I myself—having personally been in a situation where I was affected by this—think this is a very very sound move. Also it takes into account the actual expenditure involved in raising a child although as has already been canvassed teenagers would have one spend considerable amounts of money on their—what do they call them—Androids and textbook-y Facebook things and all those devices where you swipe your finger across and strange things happen. I am sure the Minister to my left could elaborate further on that one. 
In closing I just want to say that what this bill is setting out to achieve—and make no mistake about it no one says that this is simple or that you will get the balance right for every single person. But it is about fairness it is about reflecting New Zealand society today and it is about better outcomes for parents who are ultimately struggling to reach amicable arrangements. First and foremost what we should be doing in communities is to try to support the sorts of values that ensure that when things go wrong in relationships those parents are working to make their own arrangements and to support the interests of their children. I am happy to commend this bill to the House. Thank you.