Sabin Mike: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sabin Mike: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 28 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6855. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
7. 
MIKE SABIN (National—Northland) 
 to the  
Minister for Social Development 
: How is the Government supporting communities to make a difference for New Zealand’s most vulnerable children? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development) 
: 
 The Government’s White Paper for Vulnerable Children addresses how all New Zealanders can play their part to better protect our most vulnerable children from abuse and neglect. Quite frankly the focus and resources that are going on to maltreated children are unprecedented in New Zealand. 
Mike Sabin 
: How will the children’s team pilot in Whangarei make changes to the way professionals work with one another? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: It will look different from the one that we have announced in Rotorua and I think that that is significant. So where the Government works towards the common assessment framework where it looks at the compliance that we put round it and how we put the right resources in it is actually not a franchise that we are putting out there. It looks different in different communities and they are actually— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Oh it’s a franchise now? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Well it is not one. Use your ears because I deal in the facts and the fact is that it will be quite different— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That Minister is so close to you that she cannot offend you by telling you to use your ears. That is not acceptable here. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member is correct that she should not ask the Speaker to use his ears. 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Thank you Mr Speaker; I am sorry about that. What we are doing in Whangarei is you will see a common assessment framework. However what you will not see is it looking exactly the same as other children’s teams that have been set up. What we have got to acknowledge is the strength that is on the ground the way we can get agencies working together and the resources and the attention that are going on to those children who are most at risk of abuse and neglect. 
Mike Sabin 
: How are local leaders responding to the Government’s white paper proposals? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: The Government has held more than 30 public meetings now over the last 6 weeks since we put out the white paper and I myself have headed about 10 of them. So we literally have got thousands of New Zealanders who are coming out to hear this work and to see what is happening and to question how they can play a part in that. Yesterday I met with iwi and community leaders in Kaikohe and to say that they were rather forward in what their opinions were on what we could be doing would be an understatement. But the bottom line is that it is the attention that is going on those children and then recognising that actually the biggest change will come from the ground up. 
Jacinda Ardern 
: Can the Minister assure the House that no community organisations that work to support vulnerable children have had their funding cut under her watch? 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: Oh absolutely not. We are going to put money where it matters most. We are going to hold people to account where they have been misusing money. We are going to take them to task when we know that it can be done better. So unlike the previous Government which liked to close its eyes pretend everything was OK and just throw more funding at it we are going to hold them to account and make sure the funding is getting to the kids who need it most.