Radhakrishnan PriyancaPRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Labour): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It is indeed with great excitement and a sense of honour that I rise to speak in support of the Child Poverty Reduction Bill and it is a privilege to be on the select committee that considered this bill as well. This is as many members in this House have acknowledged today an aspirational bill. It is transformational. The majority if not all of the submitters who came and presented to the Social Services and Community Committee expressed a strong sense of relief that such a bill is actually finally before us given that the sector has waited so long for this House to take sustainable action on reducing child poverty.At the heart of this bill is fairness. It's human rights. It's about lifting so many out of the abject poverty that they face day in day out so that they can thrive. At the heart of this bill as well is political accountability and the fact that it enables the public to hold us in this House and to hold the Government to account. The bill will also require the responsible Minister to adopt publish and review a child well-being strategy and that's where the action lies. That's where the detail is in terms of the lives that will ultimately be transformed as a result of this process today.I'll focus my speech on the submissions that came to the Social Services and Community Committee and the changes to the bill. This was an excellent bill that the process has made even stronger and I want to begin by thanking the 632 submitters many of whom came and presented to the committee as well. These are people who have been for so long passionate about the work that they do day in day out to ensure child well-being in New Zealand and I want to thank them not just for their submissions to this bill but for the work that they continue to do to the benefit of our society as well.Apart from the substantial changes to the bill one of the points that was made time and again by submitters was that they wanted this to be a cross-party piece of legislation—that they wanted both sides of the House to work constructively to make this bill better. That's what has been done and I thank my colleagues on the select committee for their contribution as well.There have been a few substantial changes to this bill and many that were tweaks to it as well. One of them of course was ensuring that we actually have an analysis of specific identified populations who are disproportionately affected by poverty and that includes Māori children. This is in recognition of the fact that if we are to get this right we have to get it right for those who are most affected by it.A quick point on the social investment model because it's been mentioned by members opposite: that was a model that was about limiting liability. That was a model about saving costs. This brings in some aspects of that model which were about early intervention and which were about evidence-based policy but not all of it for good reason.I want to touch quickly on the child-related principles that will be included in this when developing the strategy. It's about acknowledging children's intrinsic value and inherent dignity that children's rights in New Zealand law are respected and upheld and that children should be viewed in the context of their families whānau hapū and iwi and other culturally recognised family groups and communities and this stems from the recognition that children don't exist in isolation and neither does child poverty.There were many other changes as well that have been recommended by the select committee that strengthen this bill one of which also is about consultation and who is to be consulted and includes the fact that there is a requirement for the Children's Commissioner and the Minister of the Crown who's responsible for the Ministry of Māori Development to be included in consultation as well which recognises and demonstrates practical commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. I want to end by thanking again submitters select committee members officials who contributed to this and of course the right honourable Prime Minister whose bill it is. There's a Japanese proverb that says Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is nightmare." With vision and action together we can change the world. I thank the Prime Minister for her leadership action and vision. Thank you."