Tolley Anne: Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) — In Committee 
Tolley Anne: Child Support Amendment Bill (No 4) — In Committee 
[Volume:633;Page:5151] 
ANNE TOLLEY (National—East Coast) 
: 
 I thank the Minister in the chair David Cunliffe for explaining that point to us. In fact Part 2 is a very small part of the bill. It is very technical and quite specific. One of the submissions to the Social Services Committee raised the issue of sexual abuse. It states—and this backs up what the Minister has just said—“The Act is so fundamentally flawed that no amount of tinkering can fix its many anomalies. Having said that there are some positive improvements in this bill. Most notable is the exclusion of liability of young boys who have been sexually abused. The time it has taken for this change demonstrates how sexist this legislation is. Can anyone imagine a girl who is sexually abused having to pay money to her abuser?”. In fact the bill also makes provision for that second example when—as I understand from the Minister—the subsequent child is then placed in a foster home. 
Part 2 makes amendments to the Tax Administration Act and does things like requiring secrecy about the information that is shared making sure that the information is shared with the right people only and allowing for the transfer of information between the New Zealand Police and the Ministry of Justice in order to confirm the information regarding those sex offences and the victims. I think it would be fair to say that this permanent exemption in the bill for victims of sex offences was something all of us on the select committee agreed was timely and was something we wanted to see happen—notwithstanding that the National Party is opposing the majority of the bill. The concept of someone who had gone through the trauma of being abused sexually then having to take financial responsibility for the upkeep of the child resulting from the rape—whether or not the victim of the rape was male or female—is quite abhorrent and not one we would want to see continued in legislation. 
Mr Chairperson I am sorry you curtailed the debate on the earlier part because Part 1 is the substantial part of the bill and here we are left debating Part 2 which is very narrow in terms of what can be discussed. It relates entirely to provisions that make this exemption for victims of sexual offences not liable to financial contributions for ongoing child support. The new exemptions are included in a new Part 5A of the Child Support Act 1991 and that restructures those provisions that relate to the exemptions making some remedial changes to them. It also contains provisions that allow hospital patients a period of 3 months after discharge in which to apply for an exemption. 
Another provision in the legislation grants an exemption where a young person who is liable to pay child support attends school. The select committee agreed that the focus of that young person should be on attaining some educational achievements and qualifications rather than on having to leave school in order to provide an income to support the child. So there were exemptions for young people under the age of 16 in order that they could remain at school and attain some educational qualifications. In making that sort of decision we are balancing the needs of the child to have a reasonable amount of support from his or her parents with the responsibility I guess that falls upon the State to ensure that young people have the opportunity to create options in their lives. In that instance the State then accepts the responsibility of looking after the child.