Lotu-Iiga Sam: Families Commission Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lotu-Iiga Sam: Families Commission Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8880. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak; I thought that guy would be speaking until 7 tonight but I thank Su’a William Sio for his contribution. I just want to say that it is a pleasure to rise to speak on this second reading of the Families Commission Amendment Bill. I just want to first thank the Minister for Social Development the Hon Paula Bennett. Yesterday we acknowledged her role and her legacy in terms of the welfare reforms that she has brought to this Parliament which will have a huge positive impact on our country. Today we are going to acknowledge her contribution in terms of this legislation because the Families Commission is about to undergo a welcome transformation. 
 The reason it will be transformed is that this Government this National Government believes in better more effective public services. What does that mean? What are we going to do? Well the Associate Minister for Social Development Chester Borrows touched on it earlier. We are restructuring the commission because this will see its core activities streamlined into a leaner more focused structure. It will be headed by a single commissioner and the search for that single commissioner is going on as we speak. The number of commissioners will go down from the original number of seven. That is right—less bureaucracy in one fell swoop. It will be governed by a board and the board will include Professor Sir Peter Gluckman. It will also have public sector philanthropic and business representatives and it will give credible community input into—[ 
Interruption 
] Oh! Asenati Lole-Taylor knows this—the direction of an important entity in our Government. 
For the benefit of Parliament I say that yesterday we had the financial review of the Families Commission. We had some valuable contributions from the acting chairman and the acting chief executive officer as well as Sir Peter who turned up to elaborate on the future of this commission. 
The commission will also commission and contract social sector research on topics referred by the Government. I know my colleague Su’a William Sio referred to the lack of independence but it really is important that some of the research done actually becomes implemented and becomes part of the Budget-setting process for the Government so that those things can make a difference to people out in our communities. There is no point in having research sitting on a shelf in the Wellington office of some policy analyst in one of the Government departments. It is really important that we have this type of research out in the open read by many distributed across many sectors and implemented by those who are able to do the implementation which includes Government officials and politicians alike. So the commission will take on a new role providing independent monitoring evaluation and research to measure the effectiveness of initiatives across our social sector. 
 Labour doubts this but we were left in no doubt on this side of the House by the testimony of Sir Peter Gluckman yesterday at the financial review that it is about independence. It is about evidence-based research that will be implemented in our communities through policy. So funding will be reduced from $32 million over 4 years to $28 million and $14 million will be reprioritised for the social policy evaluation and research unit which some people call SuPERU. 
Before I finish my contribution tonight I just want to touch on the recommendations of the Social Services Committee which the Minister also alluded to. I want to thank all the members of the committee for their contributions Dr Prasad and those across the aisle and also my colleagues like Alfred Ngaro and Melissa Lee who is the deputy chair and the other members of our committee. Even though there were a small number of submitters—there were 11—we actually gleaned quite a bit of feedback and we made certain adjustments. Also I want to acknowledge our officials parliamentary counsel and our clerks who were also part of the team if you like that brought these recommendations back to the House. I want to acknowledge them and they are with us here tonight. 
Just very quickly we are amending clause 11 to ensure that the social science experts panel will comprise a minimum of four members—a minimum of four Su’a. I know he criticised the figure but it is a minimum of four members and we changed it to allow for a degree of flexibility to appoint additional members if required. So we have allowed for that degree of flexibility in our recommendations. It is also about amending clause 11 to ensure that the panel would come under appropriate provisions pertaining to the appointment and payment of members conflicts of interest indemnities and insurance. So that is another important addition to the bill as presented to the House at its first reading. 
 The Minister referred to amending clause 7. It is really about correcting the misconception that the commission will merely identify opportunities for evaluation and research. It will be actively identifying these opportunities. I think that is an important consideration when we move forward in terms of those subjects that will be identified. Yesterday the commission went through some of those. Some involved improving the achievement levels of Maori and Pasifika children. There is a whole host of these subjects that it is seeing as priorities going forward. If we are going to make a difference for the families in this country Aotearoa New Zealand who are struggling we need to be able to invest in interventions that we know will work. 
The body of evidence that will come out of this commission will allow policy makers service providers politicians and anyone wanting to invest in our social services to make better more informed decisions. It is about having an evidence base as Sir Peter Gluckman referred to at our financial review of the commission yesterday. It is about those evidence-based interventions that produce better long-term outcomes for our families our communities and ultimately our nation. That is why I support this bill.