Ardern Jacinda: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeArdern Jacinda: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 30 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5517. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]9.JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) to the Minister for Social Development: How much money has her Government spent developing and testing the ‘predictive risk model’ that was announced in 2012 to identify children at risk of harm and abuse and in what year will it be rolled out?Hon NICKY WAGNER (Minister of Customs) on behalf of theMinister for Social Development: Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. The Government’s 2012 White Paper for Vulnerable Children identified predictive modelling as a potential tool to identify children most at risk of abuse and neglect. As a result the Government has asked agencies to look at the feasibilities and the ethics of predictive modelling to identify children at risk of harm. I am advised that the cost of this work since the release of the 2012 white paper has been $342394 and this includes all feasibility studies ethics reports and the work of the Ministry of Social Development that has been contracted externally. As a result of this work a proposal was put forward with options to test predictive modelling. The Minister declined to proceed with the observational study but the work undertaken so far will be used to advance the study using historical data and it will start later this year.Jacinda Ardern: Was Paula Bennett as her predecessor briefed on the planned trials of the risk predictor model and was it her who gave officials the green light?Hon NICKY WAGNER: Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I am afraid I do not have that information with me here today but the Minister will be very happy to answer that question if you put it in writing.Jacinda Ardern: Who could have told officials to go ahead if it was not Paula Bennett when it clearly was not her given that her notes show that she asked officials to “stop phase 2 planning immediately and talk to me!”—with the exclamation mark?Hon NICKY WAGNER: Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Well the Government is absolutely committed and makes a strong effort and investment towards improving the lives of vulnerable children. We are doing everything we can to make sure that we can put that work forward—for example the Children’s Action Plan with 30 initiatives; the Vulnerable Children Act; the four Children’s Teams; stronger child protection with memorandums of understanding; tougher sentences for crimes against children; and extra payments for grandparents.Jacinda Ardern: Does she agree with Paula Bennett’s pursuing the risk predictor model when an Official Information Act inquiry shows in contrast that she rejected trialling it and handwrote on the policy papers: “Not on my watch. These are children not lab rats.”?Hon NICKY WAGNER: Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. The Minister obviously does not want to support the observation group. But the Minister is supporting predictive modelling because there is merit in identifying the future use of abuse. I do not think this undermines the value of the model and we will be trialling it using historical data.Jacinda Ardern: Who did then agree to the observational trials as part of the risk predictive model?Hon NICKY WAGNER: Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I am afraid I do not have that information but you could put that in writing to the Minister.