Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSocial Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 03 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4312. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment BillThird ReadingDebate resumed from 6 May.JAN LOGIE (Green): I am very pleased to resume my call on the Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill which was unable to pass on the last members’ day because for some reason the Government members felt compelled to waste the time of this House on what seemed like endless meaningless repetitious speeches on bills that no one disagreed with. That is not uncommon given the behaviour we have seen again this evening. I was disappointed that the children and their families who are following the progress of this bill so closely were again left hanging. That to my mind was disrespectful.I would now like to acknowledge Tracey Martin from New Zealand First for bringing this bill to the House and for shepherding it through the select committee so effectively to get it to this point.Tracey Martin has had to swallow I would say some dead rats in the process but she prioritised the needs of children and getting a result over the intent that she originally came to the House with. I think that deserves to be acknowledged.The Green Party supported this bill at its first reading and supports it now but we are greatly disappointed by the Government’s warped priorities and meanness which has reduced this bill down to making children wait until 2018 to get the intent of the original bill for only an amount of money that is less than the flag referenda in practice. What this bill is about is fairness. It is about addressing a small but important inequity in the funding that goes to support some of the most vulnerable children in Aotearoa New Zealand those who through death or family breakdown have lost the support of their parents and are now in the care of other family members. Although the quantum of the funding discrepancy around this issue of the clothing allowance may seem small to us sitting here in the House—and it really does seem small to me I have got to say in the scope of all the things that this House considers—it means a lot and it counts for a lot for those families who are struggling to get by and are wanting to provide the very best for the children in their care.Basically to recap again what the heart of this bill is about it is that children who are in foster care in New Zealand because of family breakdown or death are entitled to a clothing allowance of just over $1100 a year to be able to buy whatever clothes they need. Usually they will be new clothes and that is really really important for kids—what you wear at school; I am sure we remember that. It counted when I was a kid way back when and it seems to count even more now. That $1100—plus a little bit—allowance is not available to children who are being cared for by their family members. Those family members many of whom are grandparents who are getting by on fixed incomes have no ability to provide for just that extra for those children to enable them to have those new clothes—they are not able to do it. They are looking at these other children and feeling that they are letting down the kids in their care. They are giving up so much of their life to care for these children and they feel as if somehow they are letting them down because they are not able to provide for them in the same way as children in foster care. There is just something so perverse about that to me.In some cases these grandparents or people in our community are so wonderful that they are caring for their own children and family and they are caring for foster children. Their foster children are entitled to this money and so there they are in this one household buying new clothes for these children and not able to buy those same clothes for their own kin in the same house at the same time. That is a perverse perverse thing and should be rectified by this House and I thank the member Tracey Martin for bringing this bill to the House to enable us to fix that injustice and inequity and to enable parity between children in foster care and those being cared for by kin carers.It is just a very very sad thing that the Government has said that it will not do it until 2018 despite getting entreaties from those children. I am sure members of the Government have been getting as we have letters with the picture of those children asking us not to make them wait until 2018.I do just before I close want to touch on some of the process around this and what I saw happen in this House. I had a Supplementary Order Paper in the Committee stage of this bill to bring that time forward so that it would be able to happen this year for those families. I had support from the Labour Party and support I think from other parties within this House. There was the intent for New Zealand First members Tracey Martin and her party also to be able to support that Supplementary Order Paper because that was the initial intent of this bill. They wanted to be able to vote for that Supplementary Order Paper and while we had that in front of the House the Minister came down and sat beside the member and told her that the Government would withdraw support for the bill entirely unless they voted against that Supplementary Order Paper. That degree of pettiness and politics disgusts me to be honest. To prevent a member from being able to deliver—or even vote symbolically for the intent of the bill to show that actually this is what she wanted for children and she wanted to be able to deliver it to them now as they are requesting—and to be able to bully a party into voting against their own intent and desire to me is a misuse of power and one that speaks to the heart of this Government and it is not a pretty sight.But I will finish on the positive note that this bill at least will deliver parity in 2018 and it has the hearts and the well-being of children at its centre and it is at least a great thing that the House gets the opportunity to put children first at any time in this House because it does not happen very often. Sadly it is still not happening with this Government but at least it is in there in the intent of this bill and the Green Party is very happy to support it and recommend it to the House.TODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): It gives me great pleasure to stand in support of the third and final reading of the Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill. Can I first make a comment on the previous speaker Jan Logie. I find it quite extraordinary that every time the Opposition gets up and bemoans the fact that the Government side is taking due consideration in terms of its responses to these bills in taking our full calls only to then spend the next 10 minutes stepping through in fairly woeful tones the various reasons why ultimately they think they may support the bill whereas if perhaps they were going to stand by their intent they would sit down after 10 seconds. That would have certainly pleased some of us on this side and perhaps the wider Chamber.But I will of course take my full call because this deserves to have an appropriate consideration. As I say it is great to be able to stand here for the third and final time and speak in support of this bill. It does feel actually like I have spoken more than three times on this bill. There are certain bills that when you speak to them they sort of go through—bang bang bang—and you feel like you have spoken a couple of times and it is done but this is a bill that I feel like I have spoken more than three times on. Perhaps that is true or perhaps it is just one of those bills that have got through to me and sort of impacted on me.It is a fair bill. Kin carers are entitled to assistance to help with the costs of raising orphaned or unsupported children. In 2009 as most of the House would know National ensured kin carers got the same weekly amount as foster carers and of course now with this bill we will match this with the closing of the clothing allowance inequity.Can I first acknowledge those who do provide care to our most vulnerable. A few months ago I spent a little bit of time up in a lovely place called Dargaville. When I was out there I met—Carmel Sepuloni: Talk about the bill Todd Muller.TODD MULLER: I will. I met some foster parents actually from Dargaville. The foster parents in Dargaville although not kin carers gave me for perhaps the first time a very close understanding of the commitment that it takes to open your family to those whom you know need help and are vulnerable—and so I think this is something that perhaps you would like to listen to on the other side. When you open your heart and your family to people who are in need of help and when you actually sit and speak with this family—I am talking about a husband and wife who live a number of miles out of Dargaville. They are involved in a dairy farm. They have got three kids of their own but they have got two whom they have brought into their family and are providing with support.Obviously I got the opportunity to be able to see firsthand the stress the impact the joy and the love that that environment does create particularly for those who are coming in and having that support but it also did give me an insight into some of the challenges that those families are under. Of course they shared with me about some of the allowances and support that they received as foster carers and it did—I will be honest—give me a sharper and more acute understanding of those who are involved in this caring and the support that is available for them. It also showed the importance of ensuring that this bill is supported and that the clothing allowance can be provided to kin carers because clearly it is currently an omission.There are a number of kin carers in the community whom I represent in Te Puna. It is a strongly Māori community. I have had a number of engagements with many many families from that area. Often as is the Māori tradition there are a number who are providing support for those of their wider whānau who for various reasons do not necessarily have the support of mum or dad or both. I have seen that in action and I have seen the power of it particularly when it is provided by an uncle or auntie or in some cases by grandparents. I am in awe of people who make this commitment for their whānau and family and of the impact that they provide on those children’s lives and I do want to acknowledge them here tonight.Of course we are talking big numbers of New Zealand children who are looked after by their wider New Zealand family—12000 New Zealand children. There are 8600 carers and half of those carers are grandparents. I want to particularly acknowledge tonight the grandparents who are looking after their grandchildren in this context. As I have mentioned before in this House as we have traversed this bill’s various readings when you are a grandparent you are at a particular stage in life when arguably you can perhaps finally focus on your own needs and yet there are many many families and grandparents in this country who actually give up their retirement and their needs to be able to provide support and love and care for their wider whānau.Look this is a huge personal sacrifice. You know I have never met a grandparent who would not put their hand up for babysitting but it takes a different type of person and a different type of commitment to be able to step in and take the role of a parent in a kin carer context particularly when you are older in years. Many would want to flop on to the sofa and say: “See you later.” to the grandkids after the visit but this is a particular cohort who stay engaged and provide that love and support full-time for their whānau. The Government acknowledges this effort and of course through this bill it is providing additional support. Through this bill we have heard about and discussed the Extraordinary Care Fund that is available which is assisting more than 300 children and young people who have benefited. That equates to about $2000 a child on average.What is this money spent on? Extra tuition for kids struggling in school orthodontic work that has not been funded by the Ministry of Health or maybe it is covering costs for the kids to be able to attend regional sports tournaments. These are examples of what this funding has actually been able to support in terms of the family environment. Maybe it is spent on music lessons for the children who are progressing ahead of their peers. These are all examples of the Extraordinary Care Fund in action. We are providing this extra support so that children in this environment can obviously have the opportunity—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I ask the member to address the bill for a while now thank you.TODD MULLER: So—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Can the member take his seat. I do not expect to have negative comments about my rulings or positive comments about my rulings. I think that the member knows that she should not comment on Speakers’ rulings and I do not want to hear it again.TODD MULLER: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. As discussed through the select committee process grandparents in particular who are kin carers have the opportunity to get access to Work and Income support in terms of having a case manager helping them to navigate their role as kin carers. I think that does need to be acknowledged. There is a particular course that has been put in place to enable kin carers particularly grandparents who are now having the opportunity to be able to step forward and provide this support and who perhaps have not been full-time parents for quite a while to receive support. This programme costs $600000 per year and is facilitated by the parenting course and I think that is very positive.In conclusion I do want to acknowledge Tracey Martin. This is a good bill. It has wide support across the House and I think it is important to acknowledge that when good policy arrives wherever it comes from it should be acknowledged and supported. Clearly this Government has seen the merits in this bill and is now supporting it which is acknowledgment of Tracy Martin’s tenacity and acknowledgment of her particular passion for this community within our wider country. So she does deserve that acknowledgment. She has been a fierce advocate for these children and for families that are in this position. Although we may not always agree on all aspects of the policy response and the priorities of that and the sequencing of it it is important to acknowledge courage when you see it good policy when you see it and good effort when you see it. So I acknowledge you Tracey Martin and put my support to this bill. Thank you.CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston): It is really difficult to even contemplate not supporting a bill with a title like this bill the Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill. I want to commend Tracey Martin for putting this bill forward. We will get to the point tonight where we will allow for another member’s ballot tomorrow and hopefully another bill will be pulled out of the ballot that will be a compassionate bill like this one where everyone in the House is forced to—whether they like it or not—support the bill.The previous speaker Todd Muller spoke about woeful contributions. I just want to say that it is disturbing that that member would spend 10 minutes talking about thisonly so that we could avoid having a member’s ballot tomorrow because of National members’ fear that we might pull another bill like this one out of the ballot. Let us be honest that is where it is at. I am not going to speak for long because it is important that we get to that process tomorrow and Tracey Martin and other speakers in the House have done this bill justice in terms of what they had to say about it.The only two things I want to touch on are two areas about which I am personally disappointed—and I know the rest of the Labour caucus and I think the rest of the House are also disappointed—in the Government members. They are in respect of firstly the fact that those members voted down Jacinda Ardern’s Supplementary Order Paper 72 which would have included weekly pocket money and annual birthday and Christmas allowances to align all of the allowances for unsupported children and orphans with those provided to foster children under the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989. How mean-spirited of the National members not to support that Supplementary Order Paper.The second thing I want to point out is that the Government members also voted down Jan Logie’s Supplementary Order Paper 70 which would have changed the commencement date of this bill bringing it forward from 1 July 2018 to 3 months after the date on which it receives the Royal assent. Children in respect of whom an orphans benefit or unsupported child’s benefit is paid should not have to wait until 2018 to potentially benefit from this bill. Again can I just point out how mean-spirited it is of the National members not to support that Supplementary Order Paper.So although it is good that we agree in general on this bill and that we will all be supporting this bill in the House I do need to just point out those two things. How mean-spirited of the Government members not to support Jacinda Ardern’s Supplementary Order Paper and Jan Logie’s Supplementary Order Paper. I commend this bill to the House and I thank Tracey Martin for putting it forward.JONO NAYLOR (National): I find it somewhat ironic that we have just had a Budget that for the first time in 43 years increases the benefit payments for families that have children in them and yet the member opposite Carmel Sepuloni calls the members on this side mean-spirited—I see some irony there that I just could not let pass—mean-spirited people who would want to put up benefits for people who have got children! It is bizarre.I want to talk about this bill though because this is an important bill. In doing so I particularly want to start off by acknowledging the important role that kin carers play within New Zealand society. In almost every circumstance I think it would be fair to say when somebody finds themselves being a kin carer when they are looking after children who are not their own they do not do so out of choice. They do so often in situations where there has been a high level of stress where there has been perhaps a death in the family where there has been for some reason—through abuse or neglect or otherwise—parents not being available to care for their own children. So these kin carers many of them grandparents find themselves at a stage of life when they were planning on doing something completely different from caring for children having to once again care for young children. I can only imagine how challenging that would be.I am fortunate enough now that my youngest child is 17 but on the weekend I had the privilege of looking after some friends’ younger children. We had a nice afternoon. It was OK. We went down to the park. We played and kicked a ball around and all that kind of stuff but the thought I have to say even at my stage of life in my late 40s not necessarily in my 70s or 80s as some of these people find themselves—Richard Prosser: You’re holding up very well.JONO NAYLOR: Thank you very much. I—Richard Prosser: You’re looking well for a man of your age.JONO NAYLOR: Well there you go.I think that at a certain stage of life it is going to be a stressful situation that these people find themselves in having to return to looking after small children. So this bill in fact actually seeks to lessen that stress. It seeks to lessen that burden. I want to just as I said acknowledge those people for the work that they are doing. There are over 6000 children being raised in New Zealand by their grandparents and that is pretty significant. There are another 6000 - plus children who are being raised by other family members. It is a pretty difficult situation as I said.You see when the State has custody of a child everything is taken care of. There are board payments that are made. There are all sorts of other payments that are made for the upkeep of those children. But when there is a payment made under the orphans benefit or the unsupported child’s benefit the payment is less.In a previous part of my life I had a very short stint as a Child Youth and Family social worker. It was part of our job to actually assess the position that foster carers were in and whether or not it would be appropriate for the State to take a step back in order for them to take on additional guardianship. What was a little bit disturbing at the time was that I had a manager who before he would sign off on other payments for shoes and uniforms and stuff used to ask us: “Have you asked them this question about additional guardianship?” and he used to put a little bit of pressure on us to reduce the number of children in care because I think it meant that there was less coming off his budget. But that is by the by. One of the key questions that we needed to address before a child was moved from being under the full care and custody of the State and perhaps then went into an additional guardian situation was the type of bond that they had with the family whether or not there was any need for additional social work input.One of the challenging things that I used to find as a social worker in going to those caregivers and asking them whether or not they would be prepared for the State to take a step back and whether they would be prepared to take on additional guardianship of this child—because on the surface of it it seemed like a very good idea because the bonds were there and it seemed like it would be the most stable thing for a child going forward—was saying to them: “Oh and by the way you won’t be getting as much money anymore.” It was a challenging thing to actually have to say to someone: “Thanks. You’ve done a great job. We really appreciate the fact that you’ve been looking after this child. We really appreciate the great investment that you have made in this child and we see that you have made such a great bond with this child that you could now take care of them on your own but we’re going to pay you less money.” I have got to say that I used to find that pretty challenging.This bill actually seeks to bring a level of redress to that because at the end of the day the last thing we want is for young people to remain in the custody of the State any longer than they need to. It is important that as much as possible young people who have suffered the trauma of either having their parents sort of taken from them through death or who perhaps have had to leave their parents’ care through abuse or neglect can somehow establish as normal a life as possible to establish the kind of life that I guess most children in our country get to have. So it is really critical that we do everything that we can to ensure that these kin carer placements stay in place provide stability for these young people and do not begin to fall over through financial hardship or otherwise. So as I said this is exactly what we are trying to do. It is an incredibly challenging thing for someone to take this on particularly if it is smaller children or sometimes I guess teenagers depending on where you are at that stage of life. They each provide their own challenge of course.Just in going through this bill and preparing to come and speak tonight I thought it was appropriate to go back and have a look at the submissions that were made to the Social Services Committee. I obviously was not around when this bill went through the select committee so I wanted to just get a bit of a feel for some of the things that submitters had said. In particular there was a very substantial submission from the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Trust. I just want to commend it because it does fantastic work in supporting these grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. It does incredible work in terms of providing networks for people in order to provide support and I think it is well worth listening to.If you will bear with me I just want to read a couple of the things that the trust said. There were about 9 pages of submission and I am not going to read the whole lot you will be pleased to hear although it would be probably just about as riveting as Mr Faafoi’s reading out of the entire list of National MPs the other night but—Kris Faafoi: Don’t make me do it again.JONO NAYLOR: Oh it would be so much fun if we could just hear that over and over again! In fact the thing I liked about that so much actually was that if we had returned the favour to the Labour Party it would have taken only half as long.But anyway here is what the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Trust had to say. It said: “A number of anomalies exist in our child welfare and social security system creating inequities between kin/whanau carers and foster carers. It is important to acknowledge these anomalies in the context of discussing this Bill because they highlight the substantial disparity that exists in the level of financial support available to the two types of caregivers who undertake the same role as principal caregiver to a child who cannot be cared for by his or her parents.” I think the trust made a very good point there.Also one of its last points was this: “We challenge the committee”—and I guess challenge this House—“to consider this Bill in the light of the anomalies in our system and consider the question: is it fair in our society for a child being raised by its grandparent to be denied access to the services and financial support it needs and would receive if it were in foster care only because it is being raised by a grandparent?”.There were a couple of other submitters and I will not name them but they made some really good points too. Briefly someone said: “My husband and I have been raising our twin grandchildren since they were 7 weeks old and they are now 9 years old. We feel that a clothing allowance would be an amazing help as it is a struggle to keep up with everything.” I will not go into the other one but I think it is a really important thing that we are doing here.Finally I just want to remind the House that this is in the context of a wider framework. This is in the context of a Government that is supporting this—it is obviously a member’s bill but we are supporting it—in the context of the extra $10 million that has been set aside through the White Paper for Vulnerable Children the extra $10 million set aside to help with kin carers. It is in the context of us wanting to work harder to address the needs of our vulnerable children in New Zealand. So it is with great pleasure that we support this bill because we think it will help those very children—not for the reasons referred to by the previous speaker. Thank you.DENISE ROCHE (Green): I rise to take a short call on this bill because I like many others on this side of the House would like to see this bill passed tonight rather than waiting for another long drawn-out process to ensue before carers and kin carers can actually get a little bit of assistance. We support this bill.I want to pay tribute to Tracey Martin for bringing this bill to the House. It is an example of an MP who has seen a need from constituents and where she has actually decided to address that need. This House is actually working towards doing something good for kin carers after all—it is not often it happens—and so Tracey Martin I do appreciate the fact that you have worked really hard to get it here.The reason we support this bill is that we too agree that the carers of children who are not their own orphans or family members who are not in foster care but are being cared for by their kin have been discriminated against. This bill will make the difference of over $1000 a year. We do have to wonder whether in the context of the benefit increases that the Government is trumpeting loud and wide these people are actually going to be any better off than what they would have been if they had been able to access that $25 a week increase. What I do have some concerns about and I am still not clear on is whether the $25 increase in the benefit allowances that the Government has introduced in the last Budget will actually go to those people who are caring for these children—kin carers who are on unsupported child benefits. I am not sure that that is the case. If these carers are not getting that benefit this addition of just over a thousand dollars a year—and it will not be introduced for a couple of years—they will be falling behind and they basically will be even with this in place.I have read through the submissions and I do have to congratulate the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Trust which certainly raised its voice about it. When I read through the submissions some of them were incredibly moving. They talked about the discrimination and the loss of income that they faced when they moved from being a foster carer of their grandchild potentially or other children to being a kin carer. As one person put it Mr Hunt “I support the bill because as a Grandfather raising a Grandson he has the same needs and level of support whether he is under CYFS control or WINZ control … In fact had I been fully aware of the huge inequity in financial support for my Grandson (from CYFS to WINZ) I would have ‘fought’ to stay under CYFS control. I strongly believe my Grandson is better off in ‘family care’ than foster … yet we are penalised because we are a caring loving family wanting to look after their own!”.If we accept that in the State support sector it is better for children to be raised by whānau family and grandparents than it is to be wards of the State and raised by strangers or in institutions God forbid if we accept that it is better for them to be looked after by their own kin then we should be acknowledging that and not exploiting those family members because we can. We have seen this time and time again in this House. We have seen it with the way this Government has treated family carers of adult children with disabilities and the enormous lengths this Government has gone to to prevent those family carers of adults with disabilities from getting any type of top-up in their support any type of equity.Although this is a very small improvement and it is an improvement that does not kick in for 2 years—and we acknowledge that that was a deal that Tracey Martin had to do to get this into place—we will be supporting this bill. We think it is a good thing that she has brought to the House and we commend it.JENNY SALESA (Labour—Manukau East): It is my pleasure to take a call on this bill. This bill is really close to my heart because I see so many of these families in my electorate office. Can you imagine four children who grow up in a loving family with both parents? The father is the only breadwinner in the house. This father passes away suddenly. These kids are all under the age of 5. Their mother unfortunately also passes away due to a car accident. However this bill is a great bill because what it will do is it will address the parity issue that these four children currently face. These four children who are looked after by whānau right now cannot have access to the clothing allowance that other foster children have access to. This is just not fair.Here in New Zealand there are so many grandparents who raise their grandchildren. A lot of these grandparents go to court to fight for the right to look after these grandchildren. Some of these grandchildren suffer abuse and trauma which is one of the reasons why these grandparents go to court to fight to look after them. What these grandparents are actually asking for all that these grandparents are asking for is parity with foster parents. These grandparents just want to be treated in the same fair way as foster parents.What this legislation will do—and I would like to commend and thank Tracey Martin for bringing this bill to the House—is ease the financial burden that these families face in raising these unsupported and orphaned children. What would have been a really good and caring thing for this Government to do is implement this bill this year in 2015 instead of in 3 years’ time in July 2018. Instead of say wasting Government taxes of $26 million on a flag referendum this would have been a better and more caring way of supporting our children our really vulnerable children. The Labour Party strongly supports this bill and thank you so much.STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): It is a pleasure to speak on the Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill. Often I think members read out the name of the bill the longer the better to take up a bit of time but I am not doing that tonight. It is a pleasure and I would like to pay due homage to Tracey Martin for bringing this bill forward. I note in the speech that she led off the third reading by saying that it was not her bill it was Diane Vivian’s bill andshe paid a lot of credit to her.I take on board what she was saying and I know the point that she was trying to make but one of the responsibilities that comes with being a member of Parliament is passing legislation and this is the only way that it can be done. So I know what you are saying but actually it is your bill. It is your name that is going to be on it Tracey and it is quite an achievement to get it this far. As has been alluded to you had to do a deal but that is politics. Politics is the art of the possible so well done for doing that.I also think there is quite a bit of irony tonight as it was only last week in the Budget debate we were given a hard time for not speaking for long enough; now we are being given a hard time for speaking for too long. I think it is a bit of an odd thing but that is politics. I guess being in Opposition is about opposing so that is fair enough I guess.I was not on the Social Services Committee which considered this bill because obviously the bill was considered prior to the election but it seems like a pretty good result that has come through from this committee. I think as has been said by Jenny Salesa the previous speaker that it is a pretty tough sort of a thing to have to deal with. I know that those families in that situation have got enough to deal with without having to worry about money but this is what this bill seeks to address.Under section 363 of the Children Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 the chief executive is responsible for the administration and has the discretion to determine rates of payment for foster children. At present that discretion has been used to determine a rate for clothing allowances for which orphans and unsupported children are not eligible so this bill seeks to address that. This bill seeks to insert new section 29B into the Social Security Act 1964 to establish a clothing allowance for children whose caregivers receive an orphans benefit or an unsupported child’s benefit and that will allow this mechanism to work. In the interim the Government as part of the Children’s Action Plan has committed an extra $10 million to provide further support for kin carers and a ministerial reference group was set up to organise the funding and how that might be applied.An unsupported child’s benefit is available only when a family breaks down as was mentioned in other cases but the orphans benefit applies when the children’s parents have died or cannot be found. Either of those situations is very traumatic for the family as a whole certainly for the children and when kin carers step in to deal with this they have enough to deal with without having to deal with the knowledge that they are not actually getting the same amount of money that they would if they were looking after a child who was not related to them. As I said this bill seeks to address that.I think one of the major things we need to realise is that under the current rules there is no income test or asset test for the people receiving these benefits. They can receive another benefit at the same time which obviously makes sense—they are going to have extra costs. The child automatically qualifies for a community services card which is a great financial benefit for them. We have to recognise as one of my colleagues said earlier that there are more than 12000 children in New Zealand who are being looked after by kin carers. That is a heck of a lot of children when you think about it.It must be pretty traumatic for those families but it is not that many generations ago that families were involved as a matter of course with the wider family in bringing up children. I know that in the Pacific Island community in particular in my electorate this is quite common today. It is not generally in the Pākehā community but if we go back only a few generations that was the case. I think we have lost something today when we no longer have that close connection with grandparents in that way because there is so much you can learn from previous generations. Lots of things were passed down through the families as in fact is the way with Māori and Pasifika. That is in fact how their whakapapa was passed down. I think that is an interesting thing and I hope it keeps up as it is going through a renaissance at the moment.Of course for grandparents who are bringing up children today the gap between the age of a grandparent and a grandchild is much greater than it was all those generations ago when families were involved. Couples are now choosing to have their families later in life than they were before—whereas they would quite often be in their early 20s they are now in their mid-30s often and late-30s. So that gap for the grandparents is much greater. In addition to that of course technology has come into play today and a whole lot of things have moved on. I am sure most people and members in the House are involved with social media in one form or another as I certainly am—and I see that my colleagues are busy indulging in it at the moment. I have teenage children and they are light years ahead of me in the way they utilise social media.Chris Bishop: That’s not—it’s rubbish.STUART SMITH: Yes but it is true.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Can the member at least attempt to relate that to the bill.STUART SMITH: I am Mr Assistant Speaker. There is a refresher course offered to grandparents and kin carers who are returning to the front line of parenting and it is absolutely a part of that. It is a very important part I believe.More than 300 children have benefited from the first round of the Extraordinary Care Fund grants that were put up and this is going back to the select committee decision which I will come to in a moment. The grants were available for up to $2000 per child. That covers extra tutoring for kids struggling at school orthodontic work that is not funded by the Ministry of Health the costs of attending national and regional sports tournaments and music lessons where a child is progressing ahead of their peers. I think when a child is in a situation where they are being brought up by their grandparent or kin carer and they have a talent or they need some extra help with their tutoring or with orthodontic work it is only right that they should have the funding to cover that. I think that is fantastic.There has been a lot of talk about the 2018 implementation date but I note that the select committee decided that the existing measures that are in place which I have just spoken about along with changes proposed to the bill which have been accepted would sufficiently address the issue of parity. The school and year start-up payment for carers is a new policy initiative and its funding is expected to fall back within baseline levels by 2018.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! For the last minute I am going to challenge the member to not just read out the select committee report. Thank you.STUART SMITH: I am not reading out the report.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Word for word.STUART SMITH: OK. The select committee made a decision to put the implementation date out to 2018 and I think that if we do not do that we are going to fix one inequity by creating another. I think it makes perfect sense to delay the start until 2018. They will not be any worse off although it will be under a different payment format. Therefore it is with great pleasure that I commend the bill to the House. Thank you.POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): Firstly I would like to acknowledge the work that Tracey Martin has done on behalf of grandparents everywhere and other kin carers. Thank you very much for that work. I am not going to take too long because I do not want to stand between you and the passing of this bill.I do want to acknowledge another person who spoke during the first reading of this bill Dr Rajen Prasad a colleague of mine who is not in the House any longer. He is a social worker extraordinaire a man who knew about the care of children and someone who was very passionate about this bill. He would be very happy to know that it is passing this evening.This bill is about the equitability of access to allowances for kin carers of children to bring them in line with the allowances for foster children. We traversed the complexity of family issues over the course of this bill but before we had Whānau Ora we had Puao-te-Ata-tu which really was the genesis of the work that went to support the original idea of kin carers some 20-odd years ago—perhaps more than that. I was talking with a colleague today; we were trying to figure out when that happened but it was some 20 years ago. It has become really what we would know as Whānau Ora today. Puao-te-Ata-tu talked about developing processes for families to take the primary role of care of their children when the parents were unable to do so when it became impossible for parents to continue with that care. Today what we are going to do is pass this legislation which will allow for those kin carers to have the same rights to allowances that other foster carers have.The only small but important blight on this is the commencement date. It is a shame that these children will not have access to these allowances before 2018. It has been well traversed throughout the House. It is the only thing wrong; it is otherwise a really fantastic bill. On that note my commendations to Tracey Martin; I commend the bill to the House.PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): Tēnā koe e te Mana Whakawā. Just to advise you Mr Assistant Speaker that this is a split call with my colleague and may I request a bell at 4 minutes?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): You will have a bell at 4 minutes.PAUL FOSTER-BELL: Thank you very much Mr Assistant Speaker. That is very kind of you. I am not on the Social Services Committee at Parliament but I specifically asked whether I might take a call on this bill and our very gracious whip granted me that privilege because of a personal interest that I have in this particular subject. I want to begin before getting on to that by congratulating the member Tracey Martin. She is a member whom I have enormous respect for and she has brought a matter before the House that is of great significance to the 12000 or so families who have a situation of kin carers caring for family members. We have heard from colleagues that 6000 or so of those particular families are grandparents caring for their own grandchildren and my family fits into that particular situation. My parents relatively late in their lives when they thought they had got beyond caring for children once we had grown up and left home found themselves in a situation where my little brother ended up having an accidental pregnancy situation with his girlfriend and they stepped up and took responsibility for that when my brother was not able to.So I have got a beautiful niece who is now nearly an adult herself who has succeeded in life and had the best possible opportunities because she was fortunate enough to have had grandparents who could step in when her parents were not able to take the sort of responsibility that is needed for a child. So can I congratulate the member Tracey Martin on bringing this measure forward because it is something that we on this side of the House do agree with. We agree with the intent and I am very grateful to the member for the constructive way she has worked with Government Ministers to actually enable this bill to be implemented.In terms of the implementation date we have heard some rather spurious arguments from some that we are somehow trying to hold this up. Whether this bill is passed today tomorrow in a week or in a month it actually takes effect on 1 July 2018 and that is to ensure parity and alignment with other measures including school and year start-up payments that may no longer be available at that stage. So well done Tracey Martin for taking the initiative and bringing this before us. In relation to the $10 million capped fund that we introduced via the White Paper for Vulnerable Children measures we believe that these changes are able to be made within a fiscally responsible cap. That is on top of all the other support that this Government is providing to vulnerable children including the $790 million extra benefit payments to those children who are the very most vulnerable.But something of particular relevance to grandparents that I would point to is the significant increases in superannuation that have been available to them over this term of the Government. In fact since 2008 we have had more than a 30 percent increase in the rate of national superannuation and just this week there will be an $11 per week increase in national superannuation for married couples and a $7.59 increase for individuals. There has been over the course of this Government a 30 percent increase which is way in advance of the 15 percent increase in the cost of living over the same time.This bill is one measure that actually adds to some of those other measures that we on this side of the House have been working on. It brings parity for kin carers in particular grandparents—I am delighted about that—and it does address some of those issues that children face when they already have the stigma attached of being an orphan. I and many members of this House I am sure do not attach a stigma to being an orphan. It is something beyond the control of any child whether their parents have passed away or have been imprisoned or simply have not been able to take the responsibility to care for their children as the vast majority of parents in New Zealand do. There are additional stigmas that can be attached: for instance if they have been brought up by grandparents who do not have the financial means to give them the fashionable clothes or the treats in their lunchbox that the other kids have at school or to allow them to go on the music or sports trips and to play the part that we want all young New Zealanders to play—to grow up to be strong productive and contributing citizens to our great country. For these reasons I think this is an excellent bill. Tracey Martin is to be congratulated once again and I commend the bill to the House.BRETT HUDSON (National): It is a delight to stand and speak in this third reading of the bill. As a first-term MP I would just like to note that I am beginning to experience some of the interesting and almost labyrinthine-type parts of the legislative process but within that also seeing the opportunity that affords itself through that process for parties that might start off with differing positions to find some common ground and some means to meet through a consultative process and through compromise. I would just like to congratulate Tracey Martin as colleagues across the House have done on her deep commitment to people in need and particularly to the children whose needs this bill will address. I also congratulate her on her perseverance in working constructively to find some common ground that can be built upon to lead to a solution that will see a very very practical bill come into effect soon one that will bring real assistance to those kin caring environments that are dealing with children in need and one that has leveraged the ability that the select committee process particularly affords to make some headway and reach some common ground.In reviewing the Social Services Committee’s recommendations and hearing colleagues talk about that process what I saw was an ability to reach across a divide and reach convergence. We on the Government side looked at the $10 million that had been earmarked through the White Paper for Vulnerable Children and looked at how we could apply that to the very real and positive changes that Mrs Martin was looking to achieve with her member’s bill. Instead of taking a position of complete confrontation or opposition we were both able to come together and say: “Well how about we take the fund that we have earmarked and set it to the purpose that you have set out? In doing that as we work through that we will work together at an even more targeted and more effective regime but we will be able to put into effect the intent at least Mrs Martin of what it is that you had in mind.”So we reach this point. We have this bill—this bill that will see the discretionary ability of the chief executive to make a ruling on clothing allowances for orphans and unsupported children extend to that situation we are talking about of kin carers and one common example of that as we have heard from both sides of the House is grandparents. So it is with great pleasure that I rise in support of the third reading of this bill.One of the members on this side raised a point about the assistance that the Government had brought in through the Extraordinary Care Fund. I do note that it is true that that fund was helping in making the job of grandparents and extended family members who were raising children easier. It was working in the areas of tutoring orthodontics and in music lessons but it is very true as Mrs Martin pointed out with her member’s bill that it was in fact missing some areas. Children in situations other than being cared for by kin carers were in fact receiving some assistance through the State in the area of clothing allowances in a discretionary move that the chief executive had made. And although we had this Extraordinary Care Fund in place and it was doing a lot of good it still was not necessarily covering every situation of assistance that other children in need were receiving. So it is an extraordinarily positive move to ensure that there is a real parity across the different sorts of caring arrangements.I would note that in the election campaign this Government did make the point that we wanted to open discussions around the whole range of caring for children and the different models of care for instance in parental care for young children and in paid parental care for young children in environments where it may not be either of the biological parents who could be caring for that child—those parents could be back at work. This reaching of consensus and agreement in this area is in fact an example of taking that thinking and putting it into implementation. So I am absolutely delighted that I can stand as a first-term MP in an example of a situation where we have been able to reach across the House and reach a point of agreement and I commend this bill to the House.Bill read a third time.