Bennett GlenGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Kia ora Madam Speaker. I rise in support of the Social Security (Subsequent Child Policy Removal) Amendment Bill. I just have to say as someone who has been in the community sector my whole adult life who's lived a life walking alongside people who are struggling I'm here to rise and support this and also the Hon Carmel Sepuloni in the work that she is doing around welfare reform. Now the Hon Carmel Sepuloni comes from a part of my electorate. She comes from Waitara was raised there and I know that she's committed to our welfare system—not making it a handout but ensuring that it is a hand up for people which I haven't heard much about from the other side of the House tonight. But I really want to spend a little bit of time and bring up three points tonight around this piece of legislation. Firstly yes National the first thousand days—I don't think you invented them but that's OK. They've been around for a long time but we appreciate that you're at the table now. You've come to the party. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! The member will keep the Speaker out of the debate. GLEN BENNETT: Apologies. Secondly I want to talk about the possibilities not the problems and how the policy enables people and thirdly I want to speak about my own experience and what I've seen in the communities where I have spent many of my years living working serving and understanding what goes on. So this first thousand days: being a mere male it took me a little bit of time to discover that actually it was from conception not birth because obviously there's so much involved in that process. I know speakers have already mentioned it from both sides of the House tonight but these first thousand days are around loving relationships formed around healthy foods—kai fluids etc.—and safe and secure spaces for them. It's also about playtime. A huge part of the first thousand days is playtime and of course then there's the healthy environment. All of these things are around individuals around parents or a parent holding that space holding that loving relationship providing—even on a mere struggle of a Work and Income benefit—healthy decent food and safety and security that that parent is responsible for which obviously is also around housing; and also that playtime and the environment that that child lives their first thousand days in. Now this needs to be done by someone who has time and availability for their child and hence here is why I support—Simon Court: Where's the father? GLEN BENNETT: —this piece of work. Well I didn't say if it was the mother or the father so we don't know and we don't assume. For myself I don't and hopefully you don't assume either who is raising that child as long as those thousand days are loving and they are cared for. Now we look at this piece of legislation and the policy currently impacts eligibility for sole parent support and places obligations on parents to search for and move into work earlier if they have an additional child while receiving a main benefit. Now I've heard tonight conversations around removing the aspiration for a parent to get off a benefit around people being disempowered by this piece of legislation and for me—as I mentioned earlier the Hon Carmel Sepuloni—it's all about the hand up: how we encourage people to value the time spent. I want to come to the value of volunteering the value of unpaid work. This can be in charity work; this can be sports clubs. In earlier speeches this evening many of us talked about incorporated societies and talked about the value of volunteering and being members of different societies and groups and this is the same for a sole parent. Where he or where she is committed to those first thousand days they are committed to the whole life of that child and committed to the unpaid work of caring for their loved one. Of course this turns it into a possibility and not a problem. The value of unpaid work has been so undervalued and underpaid for so long and this is when I come to the space of a mother who often has been undervalued because of her role and the most important role in the life of a child—and for those single fathers out there as well. I really believe it is. So we need to look at the possibilities not the deficit model of this is going to ruin things" but actually the inspiration and aspiration for a solo parent to give back to support their child to support their community to be on a school board of trustees to be on the local playgroup or kindergarten association body—these are all part of it. Now the third thing I want to talk about is in my own community and what I've seen. For me working and living in a State housing part of New Plymouth for many many years it was a daily occurrence to walk alongside people alongside solo parents. For anyone who says they give up or for anyone who says that that solo parent absolutely and utterly chose to be pregnant and wanted to be there wanted to just be on the benefit for the sake of it so they didn't have to work I haven't seen that. I've never been a solo parent but I have been a foster parent and now I am a foster grandparent and I've done nights—many a night having a young under-three-year-old under-two-year-old stay under my roof. I struggled and it was not easy. So for anyone who says this is an easy option or that someone is being a solo parent just for the sake of it just to get a bit of cash I am offended by that because that's not what I see in my community. I see the young people that I've walked alongside who through whatever circumstances have had a child and are doing what they can to give their child the best start in life. So I support this piece of legislation. I know of a young mum who runs a free op shop out of her carport in her home. She is on the solo parent benefit and off the top of my head I know she's got one under two; her second may be just over two. But she's chosen as part of her service to her whānau her service to her community and her need because of her struggle to establish this free op shop where people give her clothing give her kitchenware bric-a-brac and small pieces of furniture that she then cleans sorts and deals with and distributes amongst the community as a service as a solo parent who is doing her best to empower her community to build our society. I believe that she is doing far more than people often in this House do or talk about when it comes to the narrative and the rhetoric when it comes to pieces of legislation like this. So in closing I just want to say that we as a Government we as the Labour Party want to enable individuals families and whānau to thrive. We want to recognise the value of unpaid work and that includes caring and being caregivers. We as a society need to value this need to own this and need to support this piece of legislation. I'm on the Social Services and Community Committee and I look forward to the submissions. I look forward to hearing the stories from sole parents themselves telling us about how they're achieving—not that it's a deficit model but it's an aspiration model for them to live their lives. So please I'd like to say the first thousand days are so important—we all agree on that. Secondly let's look at this from a possibility perspective not a problem perspective and how this piece of legislation will impact in a positive way on our community. Finally I've seen it and I know many of us here—and if you haven't experienced working and walking alongside whānau who may be sole parents please find someone in your community to learn and listen from. But I support this piece of legislation and I look forward to listening to the words in our select committee on it."