Lee DeniseDENISE LEE (National—Maungakiekie): Thank you very much Mr Chair. Hon Member: Oh good choice. DENISE LEE: Yes it is a good choice and thank you very much. I appreciate the time to speak here in the committee stage. TV ONE on One News said on the night of the Budget—which was obviously just this week; the days are quite long—that the Government is falling well short of the recommendations of its own Welfare Expert Advisory Group. That is a fact. They've picked it up we've picked it up and I'm going to link that fact in with a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) an amendment that I have in my name. So the first question which leads into the content that I have in my SOP 246 is quite simply why didn't the Government take up more than three out of 42 of those recommendations? They've received quite wide scorn for focusing on just three. Something that they commissioned had 42 recommendations—just three. So here we are now debating something that has come from—well actually it hasn't come from that report because as I just said only three of the 42 were picked up. The fiscal cost estimated of improving adequacy and design of the income support out of that working group report was $5.2 billion a year. Perhaps that's why we're only left with three out of the 42 recommendations. There's just no ambition in what the Government is presenting us with—a partial nod to beneficiaries while Winston gets the planes trains and definitely not the automobiles. CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): The Rt Hon Winston Peters.DENISE LEE: The Rt Hon Winston Peters—I guess I need to insert that. My Supplementary Order Paper inserts a new clause 6A. It inserts a new section 194A that inserts that the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) must report on key outcomes for children in benefit-dependent households. So it reads that the Ministry of Social Development must publish yearly as part of its Annual Report or Statement of Intent or as a standalone report"—so there are three options—"information on key outcomes for the number of children in benefit-dependent" households. Now where did this come from? That report the same report that only had three out of 42 recommendations picked up—well this is one of them that wasn't. So this is not something that we've come up with on this side of the House; it has been discussed debated and rejected by the Government. We're asking them to take another look at it here this afternoon.Now why would you report? Why would you want to know what's going on for children in benefit-dependent households—Simon O'Connor: Evidence.DENISE LEE: It's because we need to be evidence-based. Thank you that's exactly what I was going to say; thank you member O'Connor. We need to be honest with ourselves honest with the public and honest with those who are receiving benefits. We need to be accountable. This is our message to the Government: if you back your idea then back your ability to look at outcomes a year later—simple as that.So this Supplementary Order Paper introduces recommendation 5 of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group report. It's there and it's plain for all to see: recommendation 5. It provides for clear reporting on a number of outcomes related to Vote Social Development. This specific clause that I want to insert a new clause 6A requires MSD to report on the lives of children in benefit-dependent homes and how these changes in this bill affect them. We couldn't ask for anything more basic and more intrinsic for impact on young New Zealanders' lives.So the purpose of the bill as we understand it and as we're debating here this afternoon is to improve and increase the incomes for low-income individuals and families. This amendment my SOP creates measures and yearly reporting on the improved outcomes for benefit recipients. I'll just say one more time: why would we do that? It's because we want evidence-based we want honesty and we want accountability. Our message to the Government is: if you back your idea then back your ability to pick up one more recommendation—because you didn't pick up many in the first place—from that Welfare Expert Advisory Group report."