Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Actually if I'm really honest I rise with quite mixed feelings to speak to this bill. I support this bill in its entirety but I'm really conscious of the reason that it's required which is entrenched persistent poverty in our communities that has been going on and has just sky-rocketed from the 1980s and not been addressed since.There are kids dying every year in this country because of low-income related diseases. We know that the hospitalisation rates are huge and that kids are struggling at school or not being able to get to school because of that poverty; that they're stressed and worried because of the stress that they're seeing their parents under trying to cope with just putting food on the table; and that kids are coming home after school to nothing in the fridge and no heating in winter. We know that we can do better. And I know that for all of those people this bill is going to feel odd. It's going to feel like we're accepting a degree of poverty in this country. And that's uncomfortable but the political reality is that we clearly need a set of measures to focus our efforts to make sure that we are tracking in the right direction. I do want to particularly acknowledge the work that has been going on for a really long time calling this House to introduce legislation of this type. I think the work was started by Every Child Counts and then was picked up by the Office for the Commissioner for Children and the expert advisory group and then Tick for Kids in successive elections. All those advocates for our children have been asking us in this House to do this because they wanted some measure and some surety and some accountability around our commitment and our fine fine words about how much it means to all of us to end poverty.I do want to point to some of the debate that we've heard this afternoon. I don't want to make this political and I do want there to be unanimity in this House about moving forward based on what the experts have been telling us. But I do have to say that some of the stories I've heard from the Opposition today have really indicated to me the need for this bill and for having the four primary measures and the six supplementary measures. We've been hearing that the last National Government did really really well on addressing child poverty. I've heard the figure—around 85000 children lifted out of poverty under their time—and the suggestion that we're not being ambitious enough because goodness me they did so well! That is all in the face of the very real evidence of people queuing for food banks halfway down the street in Auckland our food banks being overwhelmed and overrun the continued hospitalisation rate and the other statistics.Looking at that one measure over a different time period tells us a very very different picture about the success of that last Government's approach to child poverty. When they chose that figure of 85000 it was taking the number of children in poverty from the peak of the global financial crisis to now. Of course there was a reduced number. You would've had to be doing something so much worse wrong than what you were for that number not to have gone down. Actually your measure should have been from when you came into Government–sorry Madam Deputy Speaker. That Opposition's measure should have been from when they came into Government to the end and they should have been looking across different measures like this bill will set up because if they had and were completely honest about what had happened then they would have admitted that the latest household income survey showed that the number of children living beneath 60 percent of the median wage after housing costs which is the relative income poverty line is now 290000—30000 more than in 2008. Most importantly between 2008 and 2016 the number of children experiencing the most severe poverty rose from 105000 to 140000. So the point of this bill is to have a suite of measures—a comprehensive look at how we are doing to stop Governments cherry-picking numbers that put rhetoric and their own political ambition ahead of the well-being of our children. Enough. We need to put our children first.We hear from that side that we need to be saying that actions are more important than the measures—absolutely. Absolutely—that is going be the test. But we need to make sure that we put in the measures around the political accountability and the measures to drive public service action and involve our community so that we are all part of the solution. That is another thing that this bill does. It provides for a legislative mandate for a strategy to focus on the well-being of our children. That will have focus areas around education and housing and more wider well-being measures so that we can get beyond just looking at what's wrong to looking at what is possible for our children. They deserve us as a country to be focusing on the best outcomes for them and that does go beyond even the targets that will be enabled by this bill of reducing poverty. Ultimately we don't want any poverty in this country; we want all of our children's families to have enough to sustain themselves and for their children and everyone in our society to thrive.I do again want to acknowledge all of those people who are impatient for change. I'm also impatient for change. It's not good enough and when I hear from other members about how things have improved I think about the conversations I have with people in my street about how they are doing just everything they can to be able to get work and juggle studying to be able to put food on the table and put the heat pump on in winter and they just can't manage it. They are going without food themselves struggling to pay attention in their courses to be able to give their kids just something to eat. That is not good enough and that is no measure of success and I am just embarrassed to have heard suggestions from previous speakers that we should be following in the footsteps of some system that produced that outcome. We want better for our kids. This bill in itself isn't going to do it but it's going to create the framework and the accountability to make sure we've got a chance of doing it. Finally I also do want to acknowledge my previous colleague Metiria Turei who a couple of years ago now introduced a bill very very similar to this. She was listening to those experts in our community and introduced a bill that had a range of different measures and indicators and a set-up for a target and a strategy and child impact assessments. This is not dissimilar to what we introduced we are pleased to see it and we will be pursuing the actions associated with it with vigour. Kia ora.