Stewart Barbara: Families Commission Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Stewart Barbara: Families Commission Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:3844. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak to the Families Commission Amendment Bill. New Zealand First will be opposing this bill. We need to be consistent with the approach that we had in 2003 when we opposed the setting up of the Families Commission. We opposed it then because we could not see how it could provide the practical hands-on assistance that New Zealanders were actually looking for at that point in time—and National opposed it too—when we were told that research was going to be the prime focus of the Families Commission. Of course we were also concerned with the millions of dollars that were needed to set up this research unit. 
New Zealand First is a family-friendly party as are all the parties in this House and we recognise the strength of the family unit. As my former colleague the late Hon Brian Donnelly said so many times—and I have to quote this when it comes to the Families Commission—“The quality of the future that we will leave to our children will be determined by the quality of the children whom we leave to the future and the quality of those children will be determined by the quality of family relationships.” So we do recognise how important this family unit is. 
In 2003 we were told that the main focus of the Families Commission would be family-focused research much of which was already being undertaken by the Ministry for Social Development. So why would one want to try to duplicate this role and spend extra dollars to get the same result? At the very outset it was very easy for the Families Commission to become so nebulous that it could become all things to all people. We know that no organisation can survive if that is the path it has to follow. 
What we are seeing now is that the role of the Families Commission is being ramped back significantly. One must ask whether we really need this Families Commission. We have been told that hard economic times are upon us and research in hard economic times must be focused and must have a very tangible output. One wonders when one reads the Bills Digest whether or not the new family status report which is going to be developed to measure how families are getting on is really what we are looking for. 
Unfortunately it appears that the Hon Peter Dunne has sold out the Families Commission which he negotiated so hard for with the Labour Government. New Zealand First would have thought that once a Minister had established a commission such as this as part of a confidence and supply agreement carefully monitoring the result and ensuring that the output was the best possible would be a personal priority and would be carried out particularly when the Minister establishing it has always been a part of the Government—but apparently not. I found a quote from  
One News 
 from Minister Dunne stating: “I am on the record as saying the Families Commission lost its way early on under Labour administrations that milk-sopped it into a politically correct institution.” Where is Mr Dunne’s work in this particular area? Why has he not stood up for the Families Commission? 
What we are seeing here is that version No. 1 of the Families Commission did not work out so we have another version that is focused and leaner—so we have been told. We can only hope that this time round the Families Commission is carefully monitored on a regular basis to ensure that the output meets the needs. There is a definite limit as to how many versions of a Families Commission there can be before people lose their confidence in it absolutely and totally. 
One must wonder what the remaining staff of the Families Commission are actually going to do. What are they going to research? What are they going to advocate for? What sound evidence are they going to be able to produce? We believe that there is a limit on the amount of research that can be carried out. The select committee process around this is going to be very interesting. In New Zealand First we would like to see something that will be useful to New Zealand families for the money that is spent and we are going to be carefully monitoring the outputs.