Lee DeniseDENISE LEE (National—Maungakiekie): Thank you Mr Speaker. He taonga ngā tamariki katoa. [Our children are our gift.]I want to knowledge all those who have spoken before me all those on the Social Services and Community Committee the Prime Minister and all sides of the House that joined hands here together this morning and increased the passage of this bill which is so incredibly important. It's one that we all feel very much deep in our hearts for the issue of child poverty is a persistent concern for our country and for our nation and one that we take seriously—we all take seriously.I would like to point out the work that my colleague the Hon Alfred Ngaro has done over the course of this year and how he has worked incredibly hard behind the scenes. That's part of what we see incorporated into this bill now but I know of the conversations that take place outside of select committee and outside of the debate here in the House in partnering with all parties here in the House this morning. The first Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that Sir Alfred—ha! Sir Alfred—the Hon Alfred Ngaro—SPEAKER: That's a bit premature.DENISE LEE: I just elevated you Alfred. Hon Member: It was the Bob Marley that did it.DENISE LEE: Yeah it was Bob Marley that did it. The singing of Bob Marley—that's pretty legendary.So back in March the Hon Alfred Ngaro lodged SOP 20 and it was related to a clause setting targets on a selected number of child poverty - related indicators—CPRIs as I will refer to them throughout my speech. They included conditions such as housing education and health. So several submitters during the course of the select committee process submitted in support of CPRIs. Failing that what existed in the bill was too narrow and they expressed concern that what existed in the bill didn't fully address issues in child poverty such as health and housing as I said earlier. They thought it would be beneficial to introduce CPRIs. Those proposed amendments clauses 36A through to 36J require the Minister to annually report on CPRIs—and the Minister of course would have the ability to choose which areas to monitor. I'm really happy to say and we all are that the select committee adopted those principles.The second improvement was in relation to SOP 22 back in the day which like the other was incorporated into the principles of this bill and that was the social investment approach. It's recognised that some of the principles of social investment such as early intervention and evidence-related information—evidence-informed policy—is useful when creating policy here in the House and of course for this country and when you're developing strategy.Now the reason why the Hon Alfred Ngaro and those of us on this side of the House really pushed so hard for these two principles—and this is for all of us; not just for those of us on this side of the House—is that when used together they represent the best way to not only reduce child poverty but more importantly more fundamentally to prevent it and that's where we need to lead to.The CPRIs make sure that we're not going in blind. We need to know that the interventions that we are looking at will actually be effective and change children's lives. So we need to know that what we're dealing with is a range of indicators that actually allow us to address the root causes of poverty. So it is not enough to know just the relative household incomes that a family or child has; we need to know whether the child is achieving at school whether they've got family issues or a broken home whether there are health complications that prevent the family or the child reaching their full potential. These indicators give us the depth of knowledge and personal context so we can truly understand the massive and the major issue that we have around child poverty. Meanwhile principles of that early investment or social investment just basically are making sure that we've got the right tools in the tool kit and there's been agreement on that. We want to make sure that we're getting the right levers pulled at the right time.During his valedictory speech the Rt Hon Sir Bill English pointed out that too much of our system is set up to simply service the misery. So where we find ourselves here now this morning is with an acknowledgement that it's not enough just enough to measure a percentage of the population but we need to make sure that we're intervening early and focusing on education and health and social well-being of these children empowering them to become productive and fulfilled in their young lives and on into their adult lives.Now being bipartisan on this issue just means that all the measures that we're talking about today will be sustainable and will last. Why do we do this? Why do we join hands? It's because we need to assure the public of New Zealand the residents of New Zealand and the families whānau of New Zealand that we want to do our best to get it right. It's a simple statement but that's exactly what we need to do and it is what we're doing here. Governments have a responsibility to act for those who are most vulnerable.So with that I do congratulate the select committee the Prime Minister all parties here involved for their political acumen and courage to get to this point. Our country Aotearoa is better for it. And finally to our tamariki to our children in the words of Sir Apirana Ngata who once graced these halls: E tipu e rea mō ngā rā o tō ao. Ko tō wairua ki te atua nāna nei ngā mea katoa. [Grow up and thrive for the days destined to you. Your soul to your God to whom all things belong.]