Kanongata'a-Suisuiki Anahila; Salesa JennyANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Thank you te Mana Whakawā. It's an honour and a privilege to stand here to make a contribution to the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill at its second reading. I'd like to acknowledge the Minister the Hon Kelvin Davis for his leadership in shepherding this bill in the House. I also would like to acknowledge the former Minister that people have acknowledged today the Hon Tracey Martin.As we've heard today from many speakers this bill seeks to improve financial assistance for caregivers of children who are unable to be cared for by their parents. I'd like to acknowledge all 31 submitters who submitted on this bill and as I have always done in my previous speeches I acknowledge all the submitters because it's important that they are acknowledged in this House. So I've acknowledged the Hon Tracey Martin Gaylene Rickard Gene' Cullen Helena Stirrup Karen Kilgour Leigh Carter Marie Sharpe Tracey Cobden Denise Cosmas John Asteriadis Margaret Wilson Ngatai Huata Sean Kirton Shelley Te Amo Terri Stevenson Age Concern New Zealand Auckland Action Against Poverty Barnardos Birthright New Zealand Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Trust NZ Michael Gibson Office of the Children's Commissioner Parents of Vision Impaired NZ Poverty Free Aoteroa Charitable Trust Ronelle Baker Tracey Wallace-Hutchins YouthLaw Aotearoa Eliza Perkinson and 250 Years of Colonisation the Aftermath and there were two anonymous submissions.I want to focus on the submission made by the Hon Tracey Martin where she referred to the matua whāngai principle. In my kōrero about children here in Aotearoa I always acknowledge Puao-Te-Ata-Tu—Day Break: The Report of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on a Māori Perspective for the Department of Social Welfare chaired by John Rangihau Emarina Manuel Donna Hall Hori Brennan Peter Boag Tamati Reedy and John Grant. I make mention of that because of the 13 recommendations. Recommendation No. 7 refers to the matua whāngai principle in respect of children. The matua whāngai principle in respect of children returns its original focus of nurturing children with family group.But particularly I want to make a point on Recommendation 7(c) which we were reminded about at select committee by the Hon Tracey Martin: that the funding mechanism be through the tribal authorities and governed by the principle that board payments should follow the child and be paid direct to the family of placement quickly and accurately …". But I want to go back to Recommendation 7(a) where it talks about its original focus being nurturing children within the family group. So I really want to make a point of that because it's 30 years down. We are 30 years down the track—35 actually—and we're finally correcting this fact. So speakers before me spoke about two changes to the bill which suggest righting the inequities within this bill. For children who are cared for by the State board payments are paid to caregivers. Also with that is the birthday and Christmas allowance. What we find with an unsupported child benefit and orphans benefit that that wasn't the case. What we found in comparing the benefits is that with the unsupported child's benefits and orphan' benefit a caregiver had to care for a child or young person for 12 months before they can be considered for the payment of the unsupported child benefit whereas for a child in State care the payments are paid as soon as they are placed with a caregiver.I want to acknowledge I was brought up by my grandfather from when I was under one until I was nine. I was brought up by my grandfather so I understand the importance of being raised by family within the family group. I also understand the responsibility of the State or those to provide support for certain children. My father paid maintenance so in that way I was cared for by the system in Tonga where I was from.But 22000 children are without their parents. Regardless of whatever we name it we have 22000 children who are unable to be with their mother and their father. In my working life working mainly in the Department of Social Welfare and all its many name changes the number one wish of children is that they are with their parents and if they can't that there is a home provided for them. Like I said before there is a disparity between State care and unsupported children and the orphans benefit. We decided to change the Christmas allowance to a holiday allowance acknowledging the many religions in Aotearoa now and bringing it forward and modernising it to reflect that the children regardless of whatever religious holiday we adhere to all need a holiday allowance.So I want to acknowledge the select committee in that work and of course the select committee chair Angie Warren-Clark. Thank you for your chairwomanship of this bill through the select committee and of course everyone in the select committee.Also we agreed that the 12-month time frame be removed because a person caring for a child needs—as I've said before in terms of the matua whāngai principle the money should follow the child and the focus is on nurturing. I remember the submission from Grandparents Raising Grandchildren where they said the majority of their members are Pākehā then Māori then Pacific and then the rest of the population but those members who were receiving the benefit—the unsupported child allowance and the orphans benefit—are Māori.I started my contribution by taking us back to Puao-Te-Ata-Tu because it's just—although yeah well. We tend to get tired always echoing those recommendations made to the Crown back in 1986. But when you're looking at this one that we could do better is that the State caregivers don't have to fill in forms to receive that allowance—the social worker helps them. But with the unsupported child benefit and the orphans benefit the applicant actually has to apply for it. So 60 percent of those receiving those unsupported child and orphans benefits are Māori.I know that the Hon Carmel Sepuloni has actually changed the culture of the Ministry of Social Development to be supportive to make sure that people are entitled to their entitlements. I just hope that those who work in that space understand the difficulty that caregivers are burdened by especially grandparents raising grandchildren. If I return to when I was a child I wasn't unsupported; I was supported by my family. And if we could just also remind ourselves going forward that it is about focusing on nurturing the child within the family group or in some cases with—they begin as strangers but they end as family.I really want to acknowledge the changes made to this bill in particular having caregivers on unsupported child's benefit and orphans benefit receive the birthday allowance and the holiday allowance because whether the child is in State care or in the care of those who are not their parents they are entitled to that. We should recognise again with the principle of the matua whāngai from Puao-Te-Ata-Tu that the money should follow the child and that it is about nurturing. On that note I would like to commend the Social Security (Financial Assistance for Caregivers) Amendment Bill to the House. Malo.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The next call is a split call. I call Christopher Luxon."