Henare Peeni: Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Peeni: Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 18 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2377. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā tātou katoa. Kia ora. In the 1980s our country got it right. We went on with a very hard long piece of work known as Pūao-te-ata-tū. From Pūao-te-ata-tū came Matua Whāngai. Matua Whāngai is for parent caregivers and it allows for tamariki or Māori children in particular in Pūao-te-ata-tū’s case to be cared for by their own families for whatever reason whether it is a family breakdown the stigma of teen pregnancy or other issues that were discussed when the Pūao-te-ata-tū consultation went around.It was a step in the right direction but it just did not quite go far enough in supporting our families and supporting our kaumātua and our kuia our grandparents in looking after and caring properly for their tamariki their mokopuna or children who come into their care. The House might be interested to know that at one point in time I was a case manager with Work and Income. We constantly heard sad cases of kuia and kaumātua who were unable to care properly for their grandchildren. It was not that they did not love them and it was not that they did not give them a beautiful home or a warm home where they felt loved and grew up in a great environment; it was just those extra little costs that come with caring for and looking after tamariki.We all know what those costs are—in particular clothes. We know that when you are sending your kids to school you want them to have the bare essentials of a nice outfit and nice clothes in particular if they are not going to a school that has a uniform. I know that most do have uniforms now and they are quite practical. Once upon a time it was a nasty grey buttoned-up shirt but now there are nice polo shirts. But with that comes a cost. We know that our kaumātua and kuia were unable to meet those costs so they put off other things and finally accumulated just enough money to knock their bills on the head.We support this bill. We support it for the very reason that a foster carer and those whom—just like with Matua Whāngai—are family members who look after young ones get some sort of parity get equal assistance under the eyes of the law. We support this particular bill. We support it for all of the reasons that have already been mentioned. I do not want to labour too many—but we talked about stigma. It was funny; I was having a chat with my son—and he had a lot to do with my parents his grandparents—and he always spoke about how bummed out he was that he was the child who tooka date loaf to his shared lunch. And nobody no 8-year-old or 9-year-old eats date loaf but all the MallowPuffs and all the Rashuns and all the Twistieswere taken. There was a stigma attached to it. Now my boy is quite a bit older and he is still known as the “date loaf kid”. So we support this particular bill so that those tamariki are not affected by those types of stigma which can live with them for a long time.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): My favourite food.PEENI HENARE: In that vein—food is food eh? That is what I try to say to him. We cannot have our children being disadvantaged. There is a lot of rhetoric around poverty in our country at the moment and what that means for our tamariki. We know that the bill that is being proposed here will go some way to alleviating some of that poverty and supporting our families to look after our tamariki and allow them to enjoy the carefree days that I am sure most of us in this House enjoyed. So we support it. Kia ora tātou.