Hutchison Paul: Address in Reply 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hutchison Paul: Address in Reply 
[Sitting date: 16 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:499. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to speak in this Address in Reply debate because of the excellent record of the National Government over the last 3 years and because of the extremely well-crafted 120-point economic development plan which heralds such a bright future for all New Zealanders. But I must say I was somewhat concerned last Tuesday when I heard some somewhat vacuous huffing and puffing from the deputy leader of the Labour Party Grant Robertson the member for Wellington Central when he said after a 10-minute tirade that in his view all the National Government could do was sell cut and hope. That is why Mr Robertson has only 33 colleagues sitting on those benches over there and if he continues with the lack of insight he displayed last week there will be some fewer members left next time around.  
What was extraordinary about Mr Robertson’s lack of insight was that he failed to recognise that election 2011 was all about a National Government that was committed and determined to balance the books by 2014 committed and determined to achieve economic growth through a sustainable 120-point plan and committed and determined to follow prudential financial management versus a Labour Opposition which seemed hell-bent committed and determined to spend more borrow more get money from wherever it could and tax more at a time when this was clearly against the short- medium- and long-term interests of New Zealand.  
The other thing that was notable about the Opposition was that it accused both the Prime Minister and members from this side of failing to address the social issues. It is as though the Labour Opposition has this myopic feeling that it possesses the high ground on social justice and other such things. How wrong could it be! We have just seen a landmark initiative from the Hon Paula Bennett in initiating the extremely important Green Paper for Vulnerable Children. It is of extreme importance to all New Zealanders.  
Everyone in this House knows that child outcomes have deteriorated in New Zealand relative to OECD statistics over the last 30 years since the 1960s and everybody in this House knows that probably in the order of 15 to 20 percent of our children will not achieve their full potential or will not realise their dreams unless a huge amount of effort is put into solving what has gone on for decades. It is a particularly difficult situation and it will not be solved easily. However the Hon Paula Bennett is holding meetings throughout the country that are extremely well attended and she is giving ordinary Kiwis the opportunity to turn up and show what they believe is important in solving these fundamentally serious situations for New Zealand.  
I would say to all members of this House that they should take note of that. They should read the green paper and hopefully they too can contribute by a submission to the green paper. It is extremely politically neutral in the way it has been written and it does indeed give a great opportunity— 
Su’a William Sio 
: I want you to be the Minister. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: —for a contribution and I am sure Su’’a William Sio over there will be doing exactly that. He attended the meeting in Mangere and I very much hope he will be a major contributor.  
There is indeed a groundswell throughout New Zealand that improving outcomes for children is a major major issue in New Zealand and does require a far greater priority than successive Governments have put to it over the last few decades. That is why the National Government has demonstrated its willingness to improve child outcomes by forming a high-level ministerial group on poverty by agreeing to hold a Maori Affairs Committee inquiry into the determinants of well-being for Maori children by initiating the green paper and—only yesterday—by initiating a Health Committee inquiry into what practical health and social interventions can be made to prevent child abuse and promote child well-being from conception until 3 years of age which is the most vital time to prevent problems developing. 
 As a young house surgeon at Middlemore Hospital several decades ago I am afraid to say—I admit that—it was deeply impressed on me the predictability of cycles of disadvantages that were going to occur. In the antenatal clinics I would see these young women and their babies. They were clearly highly at risk. Sadly often they would be single they would have tattoos they would be smokers they would be addicted to drugs and they would often be in the lower socio-economic group. Again sadly a higher proportion of them would be Maori or Pacific Islanders.  
Those children having been born would often go to suboptimal housing. They would often go to homes where their ear infections were not treated where their sores were not treated where they did not get their immunisations or their Well Child checks. They went to school they did not learn well and they would finally leave school without appropriate qualifications. They could not get a job they turned to crime and they got caught because they could not even hear the policeman coming.  
It is worthwhile pointing out that a study by a fellow called Bowers in the 1980s of the muster at Mt Eden Prison showed that 90 percent of the muster had some sort of hearing defect and there were 15 to 20 of those prisoners wandering around with chronically suppurating ears. These are the very things that we have got to solve. All the literature—the scientific the psychological the educative the judicial—points to early intervention. That is why it is so important that the Government’s initiatives on vulnerable children must be carried through and hopefully the whole Parliament will get behind it. That is why the Maori Affairs Committee inquiry into improving Maori children’s outcomes is so important and that is why the Health Committee inquiry into practical evidence-based outcomes that can be taken from the earliest stage is of extreme importance and gives all members of this House an opportunity to contribute.  
Finally I just wanted to say that clearly the economic influences to resource excellent health education and social services are not everything; practical focus on the economy and on economic growth is absolutely vital. It is vital and fundamental that this National Government is determined to sustained economic growth through this very well-crafted economic development plan through prudential financial management and through balancing the books by 2014-15. This is particularly important in these very uncertain economic times and it is particularly important for us to ensure that there are practical resources behind making the outcomes for children in New Zealand better than they are at present.