Radhakrishnan PriyancaPRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Labour): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It is with a great sense of privilege and indeed honour that I rise to make a contribution to the third readings of the Child Poverty Reduction Bill and the Children's Amendment Bill. I want to begin my contribution by paying tribute to the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction—indeed the Rt Hon Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who has been the driving force behind this bill. She's said time and again in this House that one of the motivations for her entering Parliament has been to work towards reducing child poverty. And as this bill passes with near unanimous support this evening we are one step further a significant step further towards realising her vision this Government's vision to reduce child poverty. I also want to begin with a quote by—actually something that Associate Professor Susan St John who was a founding member of the Child Poverty Action Group said to the Social Services and Community Committee. She said that having a Prime Minister who has children at the heart of all that she does is a great thing. And that reminds me of I understand a Japanese proverb translated that I quite like which goes like this: Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare; vision and action can together change the world." And I absolutely pay tribute to the Prime Minister for her leadership vision and action to make Aotearoa fairer and the best place to be a child. We've talked in this House about the face of poverty in New Zealand. We've talked about the children and we've visited schools where principals have told us about children who go to school hungry and can't concentrate. We've heard and seen families who are forced to make choices like buying cheaper food or taking their children to the hospital to access healthcare. Children—too many children—have been hospitalised as a result of preventable respiratory illnesses. We've all seen the evidence the research that tells us about the links between poverty poor health and educational and social outcomes later in life. I just want to clarify something that the member Alfred Ngaro mentioned in his contribution earlier this evening. He cautioned us about making or placing a value judgment on poverty on families who are on low income and ensuring that we don't further stigmatise them. I just want to say in response really that this is about—I accept what he says absolutely we shouldn't do that but this legislation doesn't do that. This legislation is about addressing deprivation. It's about ensuring that all our families and all our children are supported to thrive.This is legislation that aims to build enduring political accountability consensus and action to reduce child poverty. And I'll just touch on the specifics of the legislation. I won't go into too much detail because we've heard that from previous speakers this evening. But this legislation will introduce a framework to measure and target child poverty. It sets into law a range of widely accepted measures that will require successive Governments to set short- and long-term targets to reduce child poverty. It requires annual reports relating to child poverty to be produced and published independent of Ministers and it requires our Minister of Finance to report on child poverty reduction at every Budget. It includes a strategy to improve the well-being of all children especially those with greater needs and there is a specific focus as well on children from specific population groups that are disproportionately represented in poverty statistics.An action plan that captures the perspectives of our tamariki—and yet the beauty of this legislation is that it's flexible enough to accommodate different Government approaches and priorities and that's why there was a huge amount of discussion amongst the select committee members about targets. But the reason that targets are not specifically included is for this very reason: to ensure that it's flexible enough to ensure that the legislation isn't too prescriptive to ensure that successive Governments commit to lifting the well-being of all our children.This is legislation that is ambitious. This is indeed a historic moment. It is the culmination of the advocacy and passion of so many over so long. It's the commitment or a reflection of the commitment of this Government to focus on lifting the collective well-being of Aotearoa and it aims to entrench this commitment to endure over time.It sits within the Government's wider work programme to ensure that the benefits of a strong growing economy are shared more fairly. It sits within a work programme that focuses on fixing critical problems in health housing education transport and so many other sectors. It fits within the programme of a Government that is tough on the causes of crime that focuses on addressing family violence supporting those with mental health needs and drug and alcohol addictions to get the help that they need improving incomes and employment conditions and it fits well as we work towards the well-being Budget that will take place next year. This is a Government that takes on these important challenges and I'm proud to play a supportive role to that Government.I want to thank in the time that I have remaining so many who have been part of this journey to get us to where we are at today: the researchers the advocates the NGOs and the individuals who have fought for this legislation for so long. There were over 600 submitters at select committee and overwhelmingly they supported the intent of this legislation. I thank the officials who've worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that the select committee had the tools that we needed to finesse the legislation. And the select committee—as the deputy chair of the Social Services and Community Committee I want to thank the chair Gareth Hughes and members from both sides who worked hard. We had some very robust discussions at the committee to suggest improvements to this legislation and I believe we have achieved that. The over 600 submitters as I mentioned have worked over so many years to ensure that we're here today.This is legislation that's powerful. It is legislation that has the power to lead to transformational change for so many families. And I too as the Prime Minister did want to end my contribution with a quote by Nelson Mandela—a different quote though. He said "There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children." I'm proud to support a Government that's getting our society's soul back on track and it is with great delight that I'd like to commend the Child Poverty Reduction Bill and the Children's Amendment Bill to the House. Thank you."