Parmar Parmjeet: Support for Children in Hardship Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParmar Parmjeet: Support for Children in Hardship Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 05 November 2015. Volume:709;Page:7785. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the second reading of the Support for Children in Hardship Bill. Our welfare system the way it works currently is one of the best in the world and I appreciate the system because I was born in one the many countries that does not have this kind of welfare system. I am really keen to see that families are doing well. I am really keen to see that children including in low-income families are able to get the best possible opportunities so they can do well in their lives. Among low-income families more generally if there is a slight increase in expense it creates a huge financial burden on those families. Similarly if there is a slight increase in income that can create a huge positive difference in those families. This bill is about creating that positive difference in low-income families.We all know that staying on benefit is not going to help families get out of poverty. Work is the only step that people need to take—getting into work—to get out of poverty and that is why this National Government has been actively working to get people off benefit and assisting families on benefit to get into work. Since this National Government came in in 2008 we have seen that the number of people on all main benefits is reducing and we are not shifting people from one category to another category like the previous Labour Government did. It just shifted people from the unemployment benefit to the sickness benefit. It just manipulated numbers to make it look good and to make it look like it was doing something for families on benefits. But the numbers we are seeing now—the numbers that are going down—are real numbers and these people are now proudly contributing to our economy and the children in these families are also feeling better because they can thrive in financially independent families. The progress that we are making now will pay off for generations because we are breaking the cycle of welfare dependency.Income is not the only factor for poor outcomes in children because there are several other factors too. I acknowledge that income can be an important factor in outcomes for children and that is why this National Government in Budget 2015 allocated $790 million to help children in low-income families. These changes once the bill goes through will come into effect from 1 April 2016. I hear the Opposition saying that it is not enough but we need to realise the fact that this is the first time since 1972 that beneficiaries are getting a real increment and this just shows that those members do not have any other worthy argument which is why all they have to say is that this is not enough.Finally I want to acknowledge the submitters—those who made submissions. There were 31 submissions during the select committee process and it was a great privilege for me to be part of the Social Services Committee which considered this bill because I know there are so many families out there eagerly looking forward for this bill to go through. It is a great bill and I commend this bill to the House.Bill read a second time.