Hayes Jo; Williams PotoJO HAYES (National): Tēnā koe Madam Assistant Speaker. I rise to take a call at the third reading of the Child Poverty Reduction Bill and the Children's Amendment Bill. I'm really pleased to stand here today even though I'm not on the Social Services and Community Committee. They have heard this legislation and worked on it very hard and did a very good job of it and I am privileged and honoured to stand and speak on behalf of Māori whānau who struggle. They are going to be the majority population unfortunately affected by this bill and to do anything that we can to reduce their poverty is what this side of the House is all about as well. So I want to thank the Prime Minister the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern for shepherding this bill through the House.I say that about Māori whānau because it is really tough out there for whānau. I have three mokopuna myself. I spent the weekend with them and I saw first-hand some of the struggles of their friends and neighbours with some of their children and either the pressures that parents put themselves under or the peer pressure from other families outside of their family unit. I do feel for those parents because they want their children to have everything that all the other kids have got but they can't afford it. They can't afford it. Therefore priorities are mixed and it is the children who lose in this situation. I think that these bills are a really good step towards actually reducing child poverty for those children.I want to acknowledge the Hon Alfred Ngaro for his persistence in getting his two Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) included in this bill with the first SOP being indicators—which he spoke about today and other members in the House have also spoken about—that will specifically measure and report on child poverty in this country. It's always about the numbers. It's always about the research on how well our legislation is actually performing out there in the community and asking: is it hitting the right spots and are the people that it's aimed at actually benefiting from these pieces of legislation? That's what's going to be the telling part over the next few years as this bill gets embedded into legislation and is rolled out amongst the various departments and organisations.I do want to thank the people from the Whānau Ora community. That particular programme—Whānau Ora—was set up as a strengthening programme and it was about empowering families to do things for themselves because as a legislative group we should not be trying to throw money at these things; we should be putting in place certain aspects of our society that will actually help whānau to reach out to help themselves. At the end of the day that is actually the key and it's really really difficult to be able to do that. So I think that this select committee has done really well at trying through this legislation to put in some of those steps so that whānau can reach out and help themselves to actually improve themselves and that's what the whole crux of Whānau Ora is all about. So when I talk about that I think that this particular legislation is another addition to the kete of Whānau Ora to help out our tamariki and our pakeke ā matua.I really don't have a lot more to add to this. There's so much that this select committee has done and the people who have submitted to the select committee and who came and gave their ideas to the select committee who were very passionate about their submissions. So I just now look forward as I said to the next couple of years to watch this bill actually be embedded amongst the rest of the legislation that actually supports tamariki and supports whānau and that will actually grow this country into a better place for everybody.So without any further ado Madam Assistant Speaker I want to wish you a merry Christmas. I want to wish my parliamentary colleagues a merry Christmas. To all the whānau out there please do not let Christmas get you down. It is very simple: it is all about when Jesus was born and as long as you keep that in the forefront of your minds you will have a very merry Christmas. So without any further ado I commend these bills to the House. Kia ora.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I understand that this is a split call. You have five minutes—the Hon Peeni Henare.