Prasad Rajen: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Prasad Rajen: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:673;Page:19346] 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour) 
: 
 I want to make my comments around children and families so I will speak about both the Families Commission and children. The Families Commission has taken quite a battering under this Government and this Minister for Social Development and Employment—so much so that it now cannot operate effectively to advocate for our families. It cannot really effectively meet the roles for which it was designed: to advocate for families through community consultation research and policy development and to provide families with information. 
This Minister has done something called a value-for-money review which really means cuts. Now its work at the forefront of addressing the needs of families and advocating against family violence is stalling. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I notice the member is actually addressing the Families Commission as well and that is a separate debate. But I am quite happy to ask the Committee whether there is any objection to the report on the Families Commission being taken together with the report on the Children’s Commissioner. There is no objection to that course of action? The member may proceed. 
Dr RAJEN PRASAD 
: The Minister says the commission would be much more effective if its work were based on evidence and focused less on advocacy. The major raison d’être for the Families Commission is really being frustrated by the focus of this Minister. It was interesting that when this Government and this Minister moved to close down the major programme in New Zealand that was evidence-based and provided services to children Te Hurihanga the commission was being asked to come up with evidence-based advice and programmes. The Minister has been playing a game with this commission. 
When the Government closed down Te Hurihanga it also focused on the boot camp programmes. I know that National does not like us to refer to them as boot camps but that is what they are. Now we have some evidence available to us. Last week we saw the Minister really struggling to defend that programme. The research last week was that there was 60 percent recidivism. She says now that the children are very very difficult. On the one hand the Minister is saying she wants evidence-based work from this commission but on the other hand the Government itself is not utilising evidence-based programmes. 
Then there was the review of the governance of this commission. That review and the model that is now being directed by this Minister is to really separate out classical-fashion operations and governance so much so that the commissioners simply become part-time board members. That is it. The very focus of this commission is being denuded. The Minister’s own hand-picked commissioners did not like this and one left. But it is quite interesting: 2 days after he left he got a $2.4 million contract to go around and do parenting programmes. There is no evidence base for that programme. It is fun yes and people support it yes and it is popular in the community without a doubt. But there is no evidence base. 
The very reason for having this commission is being frustrated by this Minister and this Government. Now we have to ask why have this commission at all. Why not do what we now need to do which is to really put children at the centre of our policies? We should give our children the best start possible have a real focus on the interests of children and put them at the centre of all policy development. In order to do that would it not be more reasonable more honest and more realistic to morph this commission into a Ministry for Children? That is exactly what our policy will be in the next Government. The very very competent people working in that commission would do an excellent job advocating for our children and our families in a Ministry for Children. They would not play games by pretending to be independent yet being directed by a Minister who has really confounded the work of this commission. So that will be the future of this commission. Thank you.