Williams Poto: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Poto: General Debate[Sitting date: 09 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17065. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East):Kia orana Mr Assistant Speaker. Meitaki. Do you realise that this is my fifth month here and I have been listening to debates across the House on the drivers of inequality in our society and the commentary on the causes and measures of child poverty for example. Is it about choice is it poor decision-making or is it a lack of education? Possibly. A young mother of a 1-year-old boy came into my electorate office a few weeks ago. Having found a two-bedroom flat she paid a week’s rent as a deposit to hold it and was seeking support from Work and Income to pay the bond to move in. Her current housing situation was really unsafe. She along with her young son was in a boarding house. The bedroom that they rented did not have a lock on the door their landlord was starting to act inappropriately towards her and she was feeling unsafe.Work and Income was unable to support her with her bond so she was in a bit of a predicament. She could either try to find other people to help her put up the bond or remain unsafe and lose all the money that she had already paid. We regularly have families turning up desperate for accommodation and we have developed a pathway with local community housing providers and others to triage and support the most at risk and in need much like the case that I have just described. We regularly have requests through the colder months for support for power bills sometimes in excess of $300. Our local blanket bank has reported this week that it has run out of blankets and winter has not even started yet. Our food banks report an increase in the number of people accessing them on a regular basis. I read a report recently in context with the social sector trials discussing the hospital admissions for cellulitis pneumonia and other respiratory conditions—conditions of overcrowding and poorly heated damp homes.The Social Services Committee recently heard from the sexual violence prevention sector about the pressure that it is under to deliver services to more for less. Notifications to Child Youth and Family have increased exponentially and the community sector is being asked to plug the gap that the statutory agency can no longer manage. Back in the electorate office we have more people looking for accommodation who are unable to find it to afford it when they do find it to get into it or to afford to keep it.The Minister of Education believes that the way out of poverty is through education. Although I do not entirely disagree with that statement—I believe that education and particularly the level of education of our mothers is a key factor in the success of our children—I have a problem with the statement that is twofold. It fails to recognise and deal with the need that exists today. These fine words will not feed our kids; house them in decent warm dry homes; provide for their health; or help them to thrive—not the kids who are poor hungry and homeless.The other problem that I have with that statement is that it flies in the face of the exemplary results that Phillipstown School has achieved with its Māori and Pacific children. On a recent visit there I was really impressed with what the school had been doing with the achievements of these children and with what they had made based against the national standards targets. Māori and Pacific kids are bettering their targets under national standards yet the decision to merge that school with Woolston School goes ahead.I believe that our families are being put in an impossible situation where based on the resources they have there is no choice. It is not bad decision-making; there is no decision to be made. Our families do not want handouts; they want a Government that provides jobs that will pay them enough to care for their children. That is when they can have a choice not in a low-waged economy that means 60-hour to 80-hour working weeks to provide the basics and sometimes not providing that. They want a Government that recognises that families build communities. That occurs when you put down roots build relationships and actively engage in community life and are not constantly on the move to find work and cheaper and sometimes safer places to live in homes that are healthy and warm. They do not want a Government that refuses to intervene to house its people. They want a Government that will make sure that all people pay their fair share and that it is distributed with some equity across the spectrum of need. They want a Government that recognises how valuable the mother-child bond is in future success.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.