Ardern Jacinda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to MembersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeArdern Jacinda: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members[Sitting date: 12 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15832. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) to theMinister for Social Development: Do her measures of success for vulnerable children include lowering child poverty child abuse and child neglect rates; if not why not?Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development): Yes.Jacinda Ardern: Does she agree with the Salvation Army’s assessment that a D should be awarded for child poverty as “virtually no effort has been spent in actually addressing the underlying causes of this poverty.”; if not what evidence does she have to prove otherwise?Hon PAULA BENNETT: No I do not and I think the Minister of Finance has just given one of the best analyses that I have heard of the difference that we can make for those vulnerable children and their families. So it is about more jobs being on board and 17000 fewer people on benefits in the last 12 months. It is certainly seeing that acknowledgment of food in schools. It is an increase of those in early childhood education. It is the increase that we are seeing for those who are achieving National Certificate of Educational Achievement and education results. It is a very long list and not one I am sure you would want me to take the time of the House on.Jacinda Ardern: Can the Minister tell the House what percentage of working families are in poverty?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I do not have that figure with me.Jacinda Ardern: Does she agree with the Salvation Army’s assessment that a C minus should be awarded for lack of progress for children at risk when the number of substantiated child abuse or neglect cases rose 4 percent in the last year and by 41 percent in the last 5 years; if not what evidence does she have that things are getting better for these children?Hon PAULA BENNETT: No I do not and at the end of the day what we have is a higher public awareness. As the member would know in 2008 police changed how they notified to Child Youth and Family. We are now aware of those children who are not being harmed themselves but are perhaps in families where they are witnessing family violence. We take that far more seriously than we ever have. We report on it. It means there has been a dramatic increase in notifications but as a consequence of that—Jacinda Ardern: Substantiated—the question was substantiated.Hon PAULA BENNETT: We also have an increase of substantiated because we are getting into more of those families where we are seeing it. We share information with police more than we ever have. That is why we have the Children’s Action Plan which has more than 30 initiatives addressing the very heart of what is a very complex and intergenerational problem.Jacinda Ardern: Is she satisfied with the current delivery rate of her Children’s Action Plan when based on her answers to written questions at current rates it will take almost 190 years for her Children’s Teams to reach New Zealand’s vulnerable children?Hon PAULA BENNETT: The member has made that number up. There is no number like it. What I would say is no I am not satisfied. Five years ago when I came into this job I would have quite liked there to have been a plan for these vulnerable children but I had to start the work from scratch. There was nothing there for them. They were ignored. They were hidden. It was actually easier just to think that it was not happening. I have had to start from scratch and get it going. As I say it is complex and intergenerational and we will make a difference for them.