Ngaro Alfred: Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is subject to correctionNgaro Alfred: Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 23 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14233. Text is subject to correction.]ALFRED NGARO (National): That last speech from the member Iain Lees-Galloway started off by celebrating peace in the House and then all of a sudden went on to the attack. It did not last very long did it? Those words of peace did not last. In fact he even challenged us that hopefully throughout the night peace would reign and then the very person who did that then started attacking. It actually went away from the intent of this bill.We are talking about the Social Security (Clothing Allowances for Orphans and Unsupported Children) Amendment Bill. I want to acknowledge Tracey Martin. Barbara Stewart did talk about luck and yes luck plays a part in it absolutely. All of us who are new first-term MPs would hope and wish that our member’s bill is drawn from the ballot. But I think it has to go further than that. I want to acknowledge the fact that luck plays a part in when your bill is drawn from the ballot but in actual fact what surrounds the support is the intent of the bill. I just want to acknowledge that.The intent of this bill is not only good but does good to those who most need it. I have been fortunate to be part of the Minister for Social Development’s ministerial reference group along with Tracey Martin. The thing that stood out for us was that the purpose of this bill is around allowance parity. I think that is quite critical and that is important. It is to increase financial support to kin carers who look after children such as grandparents raising grandchildren. One of the things I really enjoyed being in that group was the feistiness and the ability of some of our members to really give us a reality check.There was in that group a number of representatives who are part of the sector. I want to acknowledge Diane Vivian who talked about grandparents raising grandchildren. We know that there are over 8500 carers who are out there and what she said to us is that there is a growing number of grandparents raising grandchildren. It is important because they need to have a voice. She brought their voice. She talked about their concerns. She had done some surveying around them. Therefore we were not only informed but also had the aspect of shaping the options that would be submitted to the Minister with the intent of recognising the role of grandparents raising grandchildren.I also want to acknowledge Linda Surtees who is a representative for foster care. She too gave us a reality check of some of the concerns from foster carers who are there. Again she raised the areas of need that they have. That was important.Lastly I want also to acknowledge the iwi representative Katie Murray—the feisty Katie Murray from up in Kaitāia who often would give us that sense of the reality of what they were receiving. But what I appreciated from Katie was her saying that there were also times she was asking the hard questions to carers themselves about the allowances that were given: “Are you making the most use of the support that you are getting as well?”. That becomes important.This bill is a very good bill. I think that people will be pleased with the options that will come through. We have worked hard on that. One of the things that was important which was put forward to the ministerial reference group and which the Minister said was for us to think outside the box. That was important because we saw that there were not only needs about clothing—and I think we have talked a lot about that—but also a variety of other needs there as well. I suppose the intent now is to say with the support that was given how we could unbundle that and how we could prioritise where the needs were. But there were some interesting ideas. I will not go into those because thoseoptions papers are still there but needless to say I think that what will come forward in those options papers will be things that are really important to us.One other point that I want to raise which I think is a significant point is that we began to look around the geography of where some of these kin carers are. Firstly what was quite clear from the statistics around the carer ethnicity is that over 45 percent of kin carers are of Māori ethnicity. I think that is really important. Katie Murray acknowledged that and asked then whether we were targeted in our approach. I think that becomes important because one of the key things we talked about was whether to have the universal approach or a targeted approach. I think what we came to was having a combination of both those things coming together. I think that this is going to be important.I look forward to the submissions that will be heard in the select committee along with the options paper that has been delivered to the Minister. Again I want to acknowledge Tracey Martin for her integrity and for her passion in this whole process. It has really truly made a difference. Most important at the end of the day—and I finally finish my speech—we hear about children in poverty and we hear about their needs absolutely. In this case for this bill it is about children in the care of the kin carers who most need our support. I support this bill and I look forward to its first reading and its select committee. Thank you.