Fox Marama: Social Security (Extension of Young Persons Services and Remedial Matters) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Social Security (Extension of Young Persons Services and Remedial Matters) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 01 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11588. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. Kai te pīrangi au ki te whāriki i ngā whakaaro o Te Pāti Māori e pā ana ki tēnei pire. Kāre e kore he āwangawanga kai roto i te pire nei heoi anō kai te tautoko i tēnei wā i runga i te whakaaetanga o Te Minita kai te hiahia ia ki te noho ki te tīni wētahi wāhanga kai roto.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I want to lay out the views of the Māori Party in regard to this bill. Without a doubt there are concerns in this bill and accordingly we support it at this point in time on the basis that the Minister has agreed that he wants to sit down and amend parts in it.]We in the Māori Party have grave concerns about a number of issues in this piece of legislation. Up until maybe a few hours ago we were prepared to not give support to this because we had tried to get some changes through and we were unable to do so. We have since then had some ongoing discussions and have had some guarantees from the Minister that we can continue to make some changes through the Committee stage to address the issues that we have. So with that we will be supporting this bill in the second reading and we look forward to those ongoing conversations around the issues that we have.I am just going to articulate some of those issues with a couple of little anecdotes if I might. I have five sons. No. 5 son struggled at school for a number of different reasons. At one school he went to they said: “This boy knows nothing about maths. In fact he’s so far behind we don’t think he is ever going to be able to catch up.” They identified issues of his language barrier because he had come from a Māori-medium school. So we changed schools because we thought: “We don’t want to be underserved by you any more thank you very much.” At the next school he came to he was in a maths class and I asked: “How’s he doing?”. I got told by the teacher who was long-term relieving: “Your son is a predator.” I was like: “Excuse me?”. The teacher said: “The young little boy who sits next to him in class is so scared of your son that he will not even look at him. I watched your son steal things from his bag and he did nothing about it.” I said: “Did you tell him off?”. The teacher said: “I’m telling you.”So I go: “Son what the heck?”. My son said to me: “Mum we were playing touch at lunchtime. I put my stuff in my mate’s bag. He’s on his way to class. That’s my good friend. I came in late from playing touch and got straight to work. Instead of disturbing the class that was already working I just grabbed my books out and sat down.”If we are going to be information sharing from school to State based on a whole lot of litany of underserving our tamariki in our schooling system by prejudices that are being held by people who do not deserve to be standing in front of those students—some of them because that is not all the teaching profession by any means. But this is an example and I could point to a hundred of them where prejudices against young people have inhibited their learning where they have fallen out of the system and have then gone on to be those people who would be targeted under this model. Why? Because of the risk profile that they are presented with. We do not think that that is the way to target young people. Yes we understand targeted services we ask for them all the time—we get that. But you cannot blanketly say to a group of people that just because you walk like a duck and talk like a duck you must be a duck.We also have some grave reservations about the three strikes and the sanctions to young people. Three strikes—you do not turn up you miss an appointment something does not happen and you are off the benefit. How does that then support that young person? The results of that are sleeping on Lambton Quay right now. That is what the results of that policy do.So we have had some discussions with the Minister. I am pleased the Minister has recognised that actually there are other ways that we can do this. So if you are removed off the benefit does your support stop or does the money stop? Is someone obligated to come and find you and see that you are OK? All of those questions we will continue to have discussions on. We will continue to come to this House and hopefully we will get those changes at the Committee stage.